KQED's Forum - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

Thousands Counted in Promising Start to Thanksgiving Monarch Butterfly Count Nov 17, 2021

Show notes

Western monarch butterflies all but disappeared from coastal California last fall but there are now promising signs of an uptick in numbers. The Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary, which didn’t see a single monarch last winter, recently counted over 13,000 butterflies. As citizen scientists begin this year’s Thanksgiving monarch butterfly count, we talk with experts about why we’re seeing an unexpected rebound in monarch butterflies, and what it might mean for their future.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco Commemorates Transgender Awareness Week Nov 17, 2021

Show notes

The Transgender community holds a particular place in San Francisco history; the city by the Bay is the first to have a cultural district dedicated to that history and community. Compton’s Transgender Cultural District was named after the cafeteria that was the site of a riot in 1966, a response to police harassment of transgender people, several years before the more well known Stonewall riots in New York. The six block district spans parts of the Tenderloin and SoMa. We talk about the district, and what the city can do to support its transgender community during and beyond Transgender Awareness Week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FAA Institutes Zero Tolerance Policy and Steep Fines for Unruly Passenger Behavior Nov 16, 2021

Show notes

Punching flight attendants, hurling racial slurs at the crew, throwing luggage at staff. These are just a few of the over 5,000 complaints of unruly passenger behavior that the FAA has received this year. Airlines have banned some passengers for life, flight attendants have demanded more protection, and the FAA has announced a zero tolerance policy for this behavior and levied over $1 million in fines this year. As the holiday travel season picks up, we look at why there’s been an uptick in bad behavior, what can be done about it and what you can expect when you travel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Flu Infections On the Rise After Hitting Historic Low Last Winter Nov 16, 2021

Show notes

Last winter, flu infections in the United States plummeted by more than 99 percent to about 2,000 from about 38 million the year before. The dramatic drop in flu cases led to far fewer deaths as well -- in most years, flu ranks in the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. Experts say that last year’s steep decline stems from behaviors meant to suppress the spread of the coronavirus: social distancing, social isolation and masking, as well as vaccinations. Cases of the flu are beginning to increase and more are expected now that the economy has mostly reopened after the pandemic shutdowns. We discuss how the coronavirus changed the game for the spread of influenza and how Americans can keep flu numbers down in the future.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bay Area Bridge Toll Penalties are Pushing Low Income Residents Into Debt Nov 16, 2021

Show notes

The Bay Area’s harsh system of penalties for late payments on bridge tolls disproportionately hurts low income residents, people of color and non English speakers, according to a new report by the Bay Area public policy group, SPUR. The report found residents struggling to pay tens of thousands of dollars in late fees, as high as 12 times the original toll, leading to deepening debt and a block on vehicle registration. We’ll discuss equity issues in late fee penalties, calls for system reform and the new steps taken by the Bay Area Toll Authority to address the issue.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

'Simple As Water' Brings Intimate Portrait of Syrian Refugee Experience to the Screen Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

Megan Mylan's new documentary "Simple As Water" begins dreamily, as four small children laugh, jump rope and chase balloons while their mother looks on. Then tents and clotheslines come into view, and we understand that the family lives in a makeshift encampment in Greece, home to thousands of migrants fleeing the Syrian civil war. Mylan follows groups of Syrian refugees as they try to carve out lives in different parts of the world, creating a film she calls a "love story celebrating the elemental bonds between parent and child." We'll talk to the Academy Award-winning director about the film and the families she features.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cleaning Up Lake Tahoe Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

Beer bottles, reading glasses, tires, and fishing line. What do these things have in common? All of them have been found by divers who are dedicated to cleaning up Lake Tahoe. Since it was founded three years ago, the nonprofit Clean Up the Lake and volunteer divers have pulled out over 18,000 pounds of trash from the lake. The trash that is pulled isn’t just carted away; it is catalogued and weighed before disposal so the data can be used to understand how it ended up there and what might be done to curtail the problem. We’ll talk to the organization’s founder Colin West and Darcie Goodman Collins from the League to Save Lake Tahoe about efforts to keep Tahoe blue and trash free.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Legacy of the Occupy Movement 10 Years Later Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

Ten years ago the Occupy Movement dominated local and national news as encampments of protesters nationwide brought conversations about income inequality and the gross disparities between the top 1% of wealth holders and the bottom 99% into the mainstream. We’ll look back at two of the nation’s most visible and active occupy movements, in Oakland and in New York, and assess their legacy in politics, policies, activism and on the cities they took place in, after the tents came down.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jude Stewart Celebrates Our 'Latent Superpower:' Our Noses Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

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."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A History of Comics and How They Reflect American Culture Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

From Thomas Nast’s cartoons exposing corruption in late 19th century New York City politics, to the Peanuts comic strip in the 1950’s, to graphic memoirs like Persepolis, Columbia University American studies professor Jeremy Dauber traces the evolution of the art form in his new book “American Comics: A History”. Dauber joins us to discuss why cartoons, comic strips, and graphic novels have captured the American imagination and what they can reveal about the changing politics and culture of the country. And we’ll talk with a contemporary Bay Area cartoonist about what is gained from using illustrations to tell stories.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices