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Covid Cases on the Rise Among California's Unvaccinated Jul 14, 2021

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Los Angeles County has over the last several days recorded more than 3000 new covid cases, 99 percent of which occurred among the unvaccinated, according to the county health department. The spike in cases, fueled by the rapidly spreading delta variant, mirrors that of other regions in the state and country beset by low vaccination rates. The increase also comes as California tries to adopt a cautious approach to school reopening this fall, requiring even vaccinated students and teachers to wear masks. We’ll talk about the effort to vaccinate more Americans as the delta variant takes hold and take your vaccine questions.

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Ta-Nehisi Coates Talks Journalism, Democracy and His Next Role Jul 14, 2021

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Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of America’s premier thinkers on racism and systemic inequality, has taken on many roles: Atlantic staff writer, best-selling author, novelist and comic book writer. Last week, Coates made headlines for his latest move: teaching journalism at his alma mater Howard University along with Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times “1619 Project” writer Nikole Hannah-Jones. The announcement came after Hannah-Jones rejected an offer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after a contentious and drawn-out tenure process, which Coates publicly criticized. We talk with Coates about disinformation, police brutality and the role of journalism in American democracy.

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What It's Like Entering the Job Market in 2021 Jul 13, 2021

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The class of 2021 has graduated and millions of young people are now looking to start their first “real world” jobs. Some experts say the current economy is among the best for young workers in decades, now that post-shutdown hiring is ramping up and some industries confront persistent labor shortages. Still, for some workers, finding the best opportunity can be both daunting and time-consuming. We’ll hear stories of starting out in the workplace and get guidance from experts.

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California Considers New Law to Protect Workers Who Break NDAs to Speak Out Against Discrimination Jul 13, 2021

Show notes

When Ifeoma Ozoma detailed the racism and sexism she faced as a Pinterest employee in a Twitter thread back in June 2020, she did so knowing she was in violation of her nondisclosure agreement. Now, Ozoma is co-sponsoring a California bill to protect workers under NDAs who say they’ve been discriminated against on the basis of race, sexual orientation, religion, disability or age. The bill would expand protections passed several years ago for workers who come forward about sex-based discrimination despite having signed an NDA. With no companies formally against the new bill, it could signal a shift in big tech, which has long been protected by NDA practices. We’ll talk about the fight over NDAs and what it could mean for workers in the tech industry and beyond.

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20 Years After Enron and Rolling Blackouts, What Have We Learned? Jul 12, 2021

Show notes

Twenty years ago, California went dark. Without enough electricity to power the state, rolling blackouts shut down businesses, PG&E filed for bankruptcy, the state’s economy contracted and then-Governor Gray Davis’ administration spiraled into crisis. Part of the blame rested with Enron Corporation, an energy company whose brokers created an artificial electricity shortage by taking power plants offline — thereby raising prices by 800% or more. Enron ultimately unravelled when whistleblowers revealed its books were cooked, but not before the company severely damaged energy markets. Two decades later, Forum asks what we’ve learned from that calamity— and whether our electricity supply is safe from market manipulation.

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Kaiser Permanente Withheld Postpartum Treatment From Some Patients Jul 12, 2021

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A recent KQED report found that Kaiser Permanente, the largest health insurer in California, impeded some patients from accessing brexanolone, the first and only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat postpartum depression. The condition, affecting one in eight new mothers in California, can harm parents and children if left untreated. KQED reporter April Dembosky joins us to discuss her reporting and the challenges parents face in receiving treatment for postpartum depression.

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Oakland’s I-580 Bans Trucks. I-880 Doesn’t. Residents Feel the Difference. Jul 12, 2021

Show notes

By law, trucks weighing more than 4.5 tons are barred from driving through a portion of Interstate 580 in Oakland and San Leandro near the East Bay Hills. This 10-mile ban means most commercial trucks use Interstate 880, which runs through Black and Latinx neighborhoods and is a historically working class region. Research from the Environmental Defense Fund found that concentrations of black carbon along I-880 were approximately 80% higher than average concentrations along I-580. Why are trucks banned from this stretch of I-580, and should residents along I-880 exclusively bear the burden of truck pollution? We’ll discuss the pushback to I-580’s truck ban.

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Forum From the Archives: Suzanne Simard on the Intelligence of the Forest Jul 09, 2021

Show notes

Decades ago, when forest ecologist Suzanne Simard set out to understand why forests tended to heal themselves when left to their own devices, she uncovered early evidence that trees communicate with each other, lending mutual aid during times of duress. Over the years her research deepened and expanded, marked by discoveries that trees relay information through cryptic underground fungal networks and that old trees, known as mother trees, can discern which seedlings are their own and transmit food and water to them. We’ll talk to Simard about her work, and the intertwined story of her family, all chronicled in her new book “Finding the Mother Tree.”

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Loving It Or Leaving It: Contemplating the Soul of a Changing San Francisco Jul 09, 2021

Show notes

Is San Francisco over? Its a question that has dominated conversations in the city for years, maybe even decades. Has its maverick soul been lost to the tech industry, outrageous rents and the sadness of the suffering in the streets? For a city proud of its reputation as the glittering, devil-may-care zone of misrule at the end of the continent, the question of how its changed touches on San Franciscans deepest sense of who they are, who they were, and who they want to be, writer Gary Kamiya says in the introduction to a new essay collection, The End of The Golden Gate: Writers on Loving and (Sometimes) Leaving San Francisco. Well talk with some of the books contributors and we want to hear from you: Why do you stay? Why have you left?

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Forum From the Archives: Celebrating Beauty Beyond the Gender Binary Jul 08, 2021

Show notes

From celebrities like Harry Styles and the members of boy band BTS to social media beauty influencers like Patrick Starrr and Kenneth Senegal, more and more men and nonbinary folk are publicly embracing makeup in their daily lives. And as author and journalist David Yi argues in their new book, the male beauty influencers of today have ancient cultural precedents. “Pretty Boys” traces male beauty figures throughout history, from Ramses the Great to ‘80s glam rockers to drag culture newly entering the mainstream. We’ll hear about how beauty influencers, both past and present, have explored gender through makeup.

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