KQED's Forum - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

Critic Kelefa Sanneh Charts Music History in ‘Major Labels’ Dec 31, 2021

Show notes

In his new book “Major Labels,” journalist and music critic Kelefa Sanneh takes on the history of popular music through seven genres that have defined it: rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance and pop. The book not only highlights key artists and events in music’s evolution over the last 50 years, but reveals how music is a tool to build and mold identity. In his chapter on punk music, Sanneh shares reflections of the genre’s pivotal role in his own coming of age. And while music is often celebrated for bringing people together, Sanneh is pointed in the ways people’s cherished music tastes and tensions between “mainstream” vs. “outsider” styles can be more antagonistic than unifying. Sanneh joins us to talk about “Major Labels.”

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Looking Back at 2021 with Rightnowish Podcast Host Pendarvis Harshaw Dec 31, 2021

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Pendarvis Harshaw, host of the KQED Arts podcast Rightnowish, joins us to talk about some of his favorite episodes of the year. We'll also hear about his editorial philosophy and get his insider take on the history of the hyphy movement in hip hop.

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Forum From the Archives: Jude Stewart Celebrates Our 'Latent Superpower:' Our Noses Dec 30, 2021

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You can't actually revisit your elementary school years. But, writes Jude Stewart, your nose can transport you there with a mere whiff of dry chalk, wet wool or the stale waft of cafeteria lunch. We'll talk to Stewart about why we smell, how we smell and the power of our olfactory sense to shape our perceptions of the people and world around us. Her new book is "Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell."

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Forum From the Archives: Forum Book Club: Octavia E. Butler's 'Parable of the Sower' Dec 30, 2021

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“I write about people who do extraordinary things,” observed the pioneering science fiction writer Octavia Butler, “it just turned out that it was called science fiction.” This month, Forum’s book club discusses Butler’s 1993 novel “Parable of the Sower." In it, 15-year-old Lauren Olamina navigates a California in the early 2020s that has been beset by climate change, grotesque income inequality, and violence. Sound familiar? Butler has been lauded as prescient and prophetic, but she called herself merely observant and able to imagine what the world could be like if no one bothered to change. We’ll talk about the book, Octavia Butler’s legacy and what speculative fiction can teach us about our own current reality.

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Forum From the Archives: In 'Stereo(TYPE),' poet Jonah Mixon-Webster Analyzes Identity and His Hometown Flint, Michigan Dec 29, 2021

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"It is 2020 and the City of Flint Says, / 'Don't boil the water' / And I refuse to drink a single drop / from any tap or bottle now. I've stopped / bathing completely, waiting for rain to slick / my skin back on. So begins Jonah Mixon-Webster's poem "Incubation," featured in his debut poetry collection, Stereo(TYPE). Initially published by Ahsahta Press in 2018 and re-published by Knopf Doubleday this month, "Stereo(TYPE)" describes Mixon-Webster's experiences and traumas endured as a Black queer man and criticizes the governmental neglect and treatment of his hometown, Flint, Michigan. In poems that vary in form and use words that overlap and span pages, balancing harshness with tenderness, Mixon-Webster's poetry collection explores what it means to tell one's story - and the story of one's community - through experiments in language.

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Forum From the Archives: Poet Rita Dove Offers a ‘Playlist for the Apocalypse’ Dec 29, 2021

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Rita Dove, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the nation’s first Black poet laureate, has returned with a new volume of poems titled “Playlist for the Apocalypse.” It’s Dove’s first book in 12 years -- in part due to a health battle with multiple sclerosis that she reveals and poignantly reflects on in a sequence called “Little Book of Woe.” Both personal and political, Dove’s poems also meditate on American life today, in all its strife, uncertainty, complexity and beauty. Dove joins us to talk about the book and her return to writing.

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Forum From the Archives: Why Garlic Noodles Are So Bay Area Dec 29, 2021

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When asked to name some of the Bay Area’s signature foods, many would jump to name Mission burritos, It’s-It ice cream sandwiches or — especially for tourists visiting San Francisco piers — clam chowder. KQED food editor Luke Tsai is adding another food to that list: garlic noodles. “Here in the Bay Area, Asian Americans love garlic noodles. Black and Latino folks love garlic noodles. Indeed, once you start looking for garlic noodles, it seems, you find them everywhere,” Tsai writes in his recent article. So what’s behind the love for this dish born in San Francisco’s Vietnamese community? We’ll talk to Tsai about how garlic noodles became one of the Bay Area’s most iconic foods.

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Forum From the Archives: Two Californians win Nobel Prize for Research on How We Sense Touch, Temperature and Pain Dec 29, 2021

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Two California scientists, David Julius from UCSF and Ardem Patapoutian from San Diego's Scripps Research, have won the 2021 Nobel Prize for medicine. In their work, which focuses on the biology of our senses, Julius and Patapoutian identified receptors that allow the cells in your body to sense touch and temperature. Their findings hold potential medical applications for better treatment of chronic pain. We talk with the prize-winning researchers about their work.

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Forum From the Archives: Sam Quinones Investigates Dangerous Rise of Synthetic Drugs in 'The Least of Us' Dec 28, 2021

Show notes

As Sam Quinones was researching America's opiate epidemic for his award-winning 2015 book "Dreamland," he watched a troubling phenomenon emerge. As pain-pill prescribing fell, drug traffickers with unfettered access to the world's chemical markets began to fill the void with dangerous synthetic drugs. Opiate addicts began to switch to fentanyl and particularly potent forms of methamphetamine, ultimately driving overdose deaths to record levels in 2020. Quinones joins us to talk about the devastating impact of the synthetic drug era, as told in his new book "The Least of Us," and how communities are trying to recover.

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Changing the Face of Gaming Culture Dec 28, 2021

Show notes

Nearly 227 million Americans across all ages play video games, according to an Entertainment Software Association report. And the world of video games is more than just franchise titles and big-name companies like Sony and Nintendo -- there’s a diverse and growing cohort of gamers, designers, developers and executives driving innovation in the art, tech, and narrative of a changing industry. We take an interactive look at the gaming world and the next generation of gamers and game design.

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