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Forum from the Archives: Jahari Stampley Family Trio Performs Live Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

We’re joined in studio for a live performance by the Jahari Stampley Family Trio. Stampley, an award-winning jazz pianist who is known for melding genres like funk, gospel and rock, calls his forthcoming album “What A Time” a sonic reflection of “the quiet stillness of late-night thoughts, the joy of a spontaneous jam, the fire of resistance, and the calm of resolution.” We talk to Stampley about his work, his influences and what it’s like to be in musical conversation with his mom.

Guests:

Ofri Nahemya, drums

Jahari Stampley, piano

D-Erania Stampley, bass, saxophone, synthesizer

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Grateful Dead Keeps on Truckin’ for Its 60th Anniversary Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

The Grateful Dead is showing a touch of grey as the band turns 60, and San Francisco is pulling out the stops to celebrate: tie-dye buses, banners across the city and the revival of Shakedown Street, the pop-up market that appears at Dead shows. The party culminates with three-nights of Dead & Company concerts from August 1-3 at Golden Gate Park’s Polo Field featuring band originals Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, along with other artists including John Mayer. We’ll talk about the long, strange history of the Dead, and hear about what the band has meant to you.

Guests:

David Gans, musician and author, "This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead"

Hollie Rose, author, "When Push Comes to Shove: Real Life on Dead Tour"

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Forum from the Archives: Have You Lost Something That Once Defined You? Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

Musician Greta Morgan began performing professionally when she was 16, singing for groups like The Hush Sound and Gold Motel before touring with Vampire Weekend and charting her own path as a singer-songwriter. But in 2020, a severe case of Covid led to a neurological disorder that reduced her voice to a hush. We talk to Morgan about what a drastic change to her singing voice taught her about her inner voice and how her listening became so powerful that when she watched a meteor shower, she thought she could hear the stars. Morgan’s new memoir is “The Lost Voice.”

Guests:

Greta Morgan, musician, songwriter and author, "The Lost Voice: A Memoir"

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Kaiser Bans Gender-Affirming Surgery For Minors. What's Next for Transgender Healthcare? Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

Kaiser Permanente will stop providing gender-affirming surgeries for patients under the age of 19, as a result of President Trump’s executive order targeting health centers that provide care for transgender youth. Providers across the nation have been scaling back on gender-affirming care, including Stanford Medicine and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, but Kaiser’s decision has shocked many providers and patients in the Bay Area. We talk with nurses, advocates, patients and specialists about what it means for them and the future of healthcare for gender-nonconforming minors.

Guests:

Michelle Jurkiewicz, licensed clinical psychologist and gender specialist

Sydney Simpson, nurse, Kaiser Permanente

S. Baum, correspondent, "Erin in the Morning" newsletter by Erin Reed

Rhaetia Hanscum, teacher and member of the Bay Area Rainbow Families Action Group

Will Lohf, San Francisco public high school student and activist

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Why Your Energy Bill Has Gotten So Expensive (and What Can Be Done About It) Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

In almost every part of the country, the amount people pay for electricity has gone up faster than the rate of inflation and it will likely continue to rise, according to the Energy Information Administration. So what’s ballooning your utility bill? We’ll talk with energy and policy experts about the increasing demands posed by data centers, the aging electricity infrastructure, and the new barriers to expanding renewable power plants. But the picture isn’t all grim; we’ll explore the steps we can take to make California’s electrical grid more sustainable.

Guests:

Costa Samaras, director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, trustee professor of civil and environmental engineering and an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Michael Wara, policy director for the Sustainability Accelerator at the Doerr School of Sustainability, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and senior research scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University

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Forum from the Archives: Tijuana River Pollution Reaches Crisis Point in San Diego County, Scientists Warn Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

The South Bay in San Diego County is the site of one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons of untreated sewage and industrial chemicals flow daily into the Tijuana River and out of Imperial Beach. New research connects the waste to worsening air quality, which has been linked with headaches, skin infections and gastrointestinal problems in the local population. We’ll talk about why solutions could be years away.

Guests:

Soumya Karlamangla, national correspondent, based in the Bay Area, The New York Times

Paula Stigler Granados, associate professor at the School of Public Health and head of the Environmental Health Division, San Diego State University

Paloma Aguirre, mayor, Imperial Beach

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Forum from the Archives: ‘Twist’ Explores Sabotage, Repair and the Hidden Cables Connecting Us Jul 29, 2025

Show notes

National Book Award-winning author Colum McCann says he chooses what to write about based on what he most wants to know. His latest novel “Twist” springs from his fascination with the underwater cables, no thicker than a garden hose, that carry some 95% of the world’s telecommunications. McCann’s protagonist is a journalist who goes asea to investigate a cable break off the coast of Africa after the Congo River floods. We talk to McCann about themes of sabotage and repair – both in the abyssal zone he writes about and in our lives.

Guests:

Colum McCann, author, “Twist” - his other novels include “Apeirogon,” “Transatlantic” and “Let the Great World Spin,” which won a National Book Award

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Where Mainstream Immigration Reporting Falls Short, Ethnic Media Outlets Step Up Jul 29, 2025

Show notes

As ICE raids sweep across the country as a part of President Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, ethnic media outlets in California are playing an invaluable role keeping the communities they serve informed. We talk with media organizations that serve immigrant and diaspora audiences about how their communities are dealing with the impacts of the administration’s enforcement actions, how their approaches to news coverage has had to change, and what they think is coming next.

Guests:

Madeleine Bair, journalist and founder, El Tímpano

Memo Torres, writer and director of engagement, L.A. Taco, a Southern California source of news and information covering food, culture and community

Tanay Gokhale, community reporter, India Currents

Julian Do, co-director, American Community Media

Dzung Do, editor, Nguoi Viet Daily News

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Forum from the Archives: Is It Time to Rethink Pediatric ADHD? Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

A record high 7 million U.S. children have received an ADHD diagnosis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But journalist Paul Tough wonders if we’re thinking about pediatric ADHD all wrong. For a recent New York Times Magazine feature, Tough spent a year talking to leading researchers who now say that standard treatments like Ritalin only help children behave better, not learn better – and even that effect wears off completely over time. We talk to Tough about why he says we need to reconceptualize diagnosis and treatment of ADHD.

Guests:

Paul Tough, contributing writer, New York Times Magazine

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In Gary Shteyngart’s “Vera, or Faith,” A Child Navigates Family, American Dystopia Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

In Gary Shteyngart’s new novel, “Vera, or Faith,” a precocious 10-year old Korean-American girl, with a curious mind and exceptional vocabulary, navigates her way through a dystopian nearfuture. The politics of this America, in which a constitutional amendment to give “exceptional” white Americans more voting rights is being considered, are confusing. But even more so is Vera’s complicated family life that includes a dead mother, a scattered and self-involved father, and a stepmother who Vera is not sure loves her. Reviewers have called the book a “brilliant fable.” We talk to Shteyngart about the future and families.

Guests:

Gary Shteyngart, writer, Shteyngart's latest novel is "Vera, or Faith" - he is also the author of "Our Country Friends," "Little Failure: A Memoir" and "Super Sad True Love Story"

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