KQED's Forum - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

How Does San Francisco Spend $14 Billion Annually? Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

San Francisco has just 815,000 residents. But its annual budget is nearly $14 billion. The budget covers the operations of both the city and county of San Francisco, and half of that is money earmarked for the airport, port, Muni, and public utilities, among other enterprise agencies. But that leaves nearly $7 billion in General Fund money for a city with less than a million people. And, the city is projecting a $728 million deficit over the next two years. Where does the money go and does San Francisco’s budget reflect the values of its citizens? We’ll talk about the budget, the looming deficit, and the financial state of San Francisco, which has had one of the slowest economic recoveries from the pandemic in the nation.

Guests:

Jim Wunderman, President and CEO, Bay Area Council - A regional business-sponsored public policy group

JD Morris, City Hall reporter, SF Chronicle

Michelle Allersma, director, San Francisco Controller's Office Budget and Analysis Division

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Rep. Adam Schiff on Serving in a GOP-Controlled House Jan 18, 2023

Show notes

“[T]o Kevin McCarthy, the Intelligence Committee is just a political plaything.” That was how Los Angeles Congressman Adam Schiff last week characterized McCarthy’s stated intention to remove him from the committee he chaired in order to please MAGA Republicans. We talk to Rep. Schiff about how House Democrats will operate under McCarthy’s leadership, how he sees lawmakers resolve an upcoming debt ceiling fight and how he plans to keep momentum behind the work of the committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection.

Guest:

Congressman Adam Schiff, Democratic Congressman, representing California's 28th District, in Los Angeles County; former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and member of the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection; author, "Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could"

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Climate Fix: What Does Climate Change Mean for California’s Extreme Weather? Jan 18, 2023

Show notes

California has experienced extreme weather whiplash during the past year from bone dry summer days to a flooding wet January. This is our state’s new climate system fueled by global warming. The state is also going through one of the most severe droughts in history. We’ll talk about how the weather we’ve experienced in the past year has factored into our wildfire, drought and flooding issues as part of “Climate Fix: Rethinking Solutions for California,” a collaboration between KQED’s Forum and Science teams. This new, regular series on Forum will explore how climate change is affecting the golden state and the ways Californians are trying to reverse global warming.

Guests:

Danielle Venton, science reporter, KQED News

Laura Feinstein, sustainability and resilience policy director, SPUR, a San Francisco policy and research organization

Patrick Gonzalez, climate change scientist and forest ecologist Organization: University of California, Berkeley - Patrick is also executive director of the Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity

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‘Life on Delay’ Examines Life with a Stutter Jan 17, 2023

Show notes

In January 2020, Atlantic senior editor John Hendrickson wrote an article about Joe Biden’s stutter. Like Biden, Hendrickson has a stutter. And while stuttering wasn’t something that Hendrickson hid, it wasn’t something he liked to talk about either. But the viral response to his piece led Hendrickson to reconsider how to talk and think about his stutter. His relationship with stuttering and its impacts, both good and bad, on his life, are the focus of his new book, “Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter.” We talk to Hendrickson, and hear from you: Has your life been affected by a stutter, yours or someone else’s?

Guests:

John Hendrickson , Author, "Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter" - Hendrickson is a senior editor with Atlantic magazine.

Courtney Byrd, Professor, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Texas at Austin - Byrd is also the founder and executive director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research

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How America Has Failed to Achieve MLK’s Vision for Economic Justice Jan 17, 2023

Show notes

The U.S. continues to grapple with poverty, economic inequality, and racial inequity more than 50 years after the death of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. In some lesser known speeches, King advocated for revolutionary ideas to eradicate poverty and provide economic justice such as a guaranteed basic income. We’ll look at King’s proposals for combating inequality, the evolution of those ideas over the decades, and current campaigns for economic justice in the Bay Area and nationally.

Guests:

Michael Honey, Professor of Labor and Ethnic Studies and American History, University of Washington, Tacoma

Dorian Warren, Co-President, Community Change

Tinisch Hollins, executive director, Californians for Safety and Justice - co-founder of SF Black Wall Street, Vice Chair of SF African-Americans Reparations Advisory Committee

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Forum from the Archives: ‘Artivista’ Martha Gonzalez on Achieving Social Justice Through Music Jan 16, 2023

Show notes

2022 MacArthur fellow Martha Gonzalez describes herself as an ‘artivista’ – at once an artist and an activist. The frontwoman of the East Los Angeles band Quetzal, Gonzalez focuses on the ways communities of color use music and creative expression as political tools toward social justice. From community fandango workshops to recording projects between women in L.A. and Veracruz, Mexico, Gonzalez makes music a conduit for conversation centering communities and their challenges. We’ll talk with Gonzalez about how her music practice and her activism influence each other.

This segment originally aired Oct. 25, 2022

Guests:

Martha Gonzalez, Associate Professor in the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies, Scripps/Claremont College

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Forum from the Archives: Germany Has Created Monuments to Remember the Sins of its History. Could America? Jan 16, 2023

Show notes

Last year, poet and writer Clint Smith wrote the book, “How the World is Passed,” exploring how the US has failed to come to terms with the reality and legacy of slavery. Now, for an Atlantic cover story, “Monuments to the Unthinkable” he’s traveled to Germany to see how that country has grappled with memorializing its own ugly history. On this Martin Luther King Jr day, we talk with Smith about history, memory, and the stories a nation tells itself.

This segment originally aired Nov. 17, 2022

Guests:

Clint Smith, poet, "How the Word is Passed;" staff writer, The Atlantic

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The Psychologically Taxing Work of Content Moderators Jan 13, 2023

Show notes

Former content moderators for Reddit and TikTok filed class action lawsuits against the sites last month alleging they suffered trauma from the graphic and violent content they reviewed. Content moderators review everything from innocuous misreports to horrifying videos of abuse — and experts say that vacillating between the two can create an anxiety of its own. We’ll talk about what content moderators face both domestically and abroad, why the work can’t be automated and the moral questions raised by the industry’s current structure.

Guests:

Sarah T. Roberts, faculty director, UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry; author, "Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media"

Niamh McIntyre, reporter on the Big Tech team, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

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Why Products Break More Than They Used To And What You Can Do About It Jan 13, 2023

Show notes

The useful lifespan of items all over your home from clothes to kitchen gadgets to cell phones has been shrinking, according to a recent article in Vox. At the same time, manufacturers increasingly design products, especially tech devices and electronics, so that they are not easy or cost-effective to repair. “We buy, buy, buy, and we’ve been tricked — for far longer than the last decade — into believing that buying more stuff, new stuff is the way,” writes Izzie Ramirez of Vox. We’ll talk about the modern version of planned obsolescence and the “fix-it” movement that’s trying to combat it.

Guests:

Izzie Ramirez, deputy editor of Future Perfect, Vox Media; author of the recent article, "Your stuff is actually worse now"

Kyle Wiens, co-founder and CEO, iFixit

Matthew Bird, teaches industrial design, Rhode Island School of Design

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The Toll of Fallen Trees From California’s Storms Jan 12, 2023

Show notes

“If the storm had a theme, it was in the uprooted and broken trees that seemed to blanket the rain-soaked landscape,” writes California correspondent for the New York Times Shawn Hubler. All across the state, one of the most visible signs of destruction by California’s storms are uprooted trees, their curling roots violently airborne. They’ve smashed through roofs, toppled power lines and taken lives, affecting Californians across the state as we weather a series of Pineapple Express storms. We’ll hear why the state’s trees – already stressed by drought – are particularly vulnerable to storms and how the destruction they’ve caused has affected you.

Guests:

Shawn Hubler, California correspondent, The New York Times

Karla Nemeth, director, California Department of Water Resources

Paula Peper, retired U.S. Forest Service urban ecologist in Sacramento

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