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How the Bay Area Commemorates Juneteenth Jun 20, 2022

Show notes

As the United States observes its second Juneteenth as a federal holiday, we’ll look to its history here in California and the role the Bay Area played in the movement that led to its federal recognition. We’ll talk about what this recognition means in the push for Black American reparations and policy changes and hear about the growth of Bay Area Juneteenth festivals and celebrations in recent years.

Guests:

James Taylor, professor of Political Science, University of San Francisco; member, Reparations Task Force, San Francisco

Orlando Williams, board member, Berkeley Juneteenth Festival

Barbara Krauthamer, dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Fans React to the Golden State Warriors' 'Unlikely' Championship Jun 17, 2022

Show notes

Unlikely. That’s what Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr called this championship. After two years of battling injuries and tough losses, the Dubs won their fourth NBA title in eight years Thursday, beating the Celtics in Boston. We hear your reactions to Golden State’s victory.

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'We the Users' Proposes Fixes for the Tech That's Failing Us Jun 17, 2022

Show notes

Geoffrey Fowler recalls that when he first began reporting on consumer tech innovations two decades ago, the worst you might say about a product was that it was too expensive or too hard to use. But today, the tech we've come to depend on can steal our data, spy on our kids, send us down rabbit holes and feed us misinformation. Fowler joins us to talk about his new Washington Post series "We the Users," which identifies the tech products and services that fail us and how to fix them.

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Forum From the Archives: Reem Assil’s Cookbook 'Arabiyya' Weaves 'Recipes for Resilience' With Reflections on the Arab Diaspora Jun 17, 2022

Show notes

Reem Assil, owner of San Francisco and Oakland’s Reem’s Kitchen, began her career as a chef with a thirst for activism, often advocating for social justice and sustainability at work. As the opening chef of Dyafa, an Arab fine-dining restaurant in Oakland, Assil began to reimagine power dynamics in the kitchen which she boldly reflected on in her Eater article, “Don’t Call Me Chef.” Assil joins Forum to talk about her new book, “Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora,” in which she weaves personal essays on food, family, identity, hospitality, activism and political struggles amid recipes influenced by Arab flavors.

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Racism's Insidious Toll on the Health of the Nation Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

For decades, award-winning health journalist Linda Villarosa says she “long understood that something about being Black has led to the documented poor health of Black Americans.” And that “something” was not race per se or poverty or lack of access to education, information, or healthcare. According to Villarosa, poor health outcomes are directly tied to racism itself. In her latest book, “Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation,” Villarosa draws a direct line from centuries of discrimination and ongoing bias to the the health of the Black community. She debunks myths that continue to persist and offers a path forward to addressing racism that exists in our healthcare system. We talk to Villarosa about her book and answer your questions.

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Honoring Norman Mineta’s Legacy as He’s Laid to Rest in San Jose Jun 15, 2022

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Norman Mineta, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Transportation, Congressmember and San Jose mayor, will be laid to rest in San Jose on Wednesday. Mineta was born in San Jose in 1931. During the Second World War, at the age of 10, he was imprisoned with his family in a Japanese internment camp in Wyoming. As a U.S. Representative, Mineta worked to provide reparations for interned Japanese Americans, co-sponsoring the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. As the Secretary of Transportation on Sept. 11, 2001, Mineta fought against appeals to intern Muslim Americans and later founded the Transportation Security Administration. We'll discuss Mineta’s legacy and celebrate his life.

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Looking for Solutions to Drought and Deluge by Asking 'What Does Water Want?' Jun 15, 2022

Show notes

Water has agency. It wants to go where it wants to go. Humans, particularly in recent centuries, have fought against the desires of water with almost unimaginable amounts of concrete, pumps the size of houses, and enormous canals. We’ve usually been able to make the water go where we want it to, and keep it from where we don’t. But, journalist Erica Gies argues in her new book, "Water Always Wins," that our water system here in the state and around the world is not going to hold for much longer. What comes after, she says, will require us to live and work with water’s desires, not against them.

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Trump’s “Big Lie” Was A “Big Rip-Off” and Other Revelations from the January 6th Hearings Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

In blunt testimony to the January 6th committee, former Attorney General William Barr testified he thought Donald Trump was “detached from reality” as the former President continued to tout the lie of a stolen election, a lie that had been repeatedly been debunked by Trump’s own advisors and campaign. Interweaving recorded interviews with live witnesses, on day two of the hearings, the committee focused on Trump’s knowledge that there was no credible basis for claims the 2020 election had been stolen and heard that there were two camps among Trump’s advisors: Team Normal and Team Rudy, which urged Trump to claim victory and pushed lies about voting fraud. We’ll talk to Select Committee member Representative Zoe Lofgren and a panel of experts about other revelations.

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Plant Intelligence, AI and Non-Human Personhood: James Bridle Explores our Planet’s Countless ‘Ways of Being’ Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

“What would it mean to build artificial intelligence and other machines that were more like octopuses, more like fungi, or more like forests?” asks James Bridle in their new book, “Ways of Being.” From computers made of crabs, to theories of plant memory, to the legal push for an elephant’s personhood, “Ways of Being” looks beyond human intelligence to examine how our technology could better encompass the Earth’s complexity. Exploring different forms of intelligence — and all we don’t know about our world — Bridle argues that we can develop partnerships with non-threatening AI, rethink our computers, reform our politics and even save our shared planet.

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The Anus — and Other Body Parts We Shouldn't Have a Hard Time Talking About Jun 10, 2022

Show notes

“The appearance of the anus was momentous in animal evolution, turning a one-hole digestive sac into an open-ended tunnel,” writes Katherine J. Wu in her Atlantic piece, “The Body’s Most Embarrassing Organ Is an Evolutionary Marvel,” set to appear in this year’s Best American Science and Nature Writing. Yet societal taboos can keep us from talking about this evolutionary marvel, and that “creates a bit of a blind spot—one that keeps us from understanding a fundamental aspect of our own biology.” Wu joins us to celebrate the anus and its biology, and to hear how you talk about – or avoid talking about – the anus and other underappreciated body parts.

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