KQED's Forum

By KQED

Society & Culture

What's KQED's Forum about?

KQED's live two-hour call-in program presents wide-ranging discussions of local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.

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Remembering PBS NewsHour’s ...

01.24.2020

PBS NewsHour co-founder Jim Lehrer, who championed delivering unbiased news to the nation for more than three decades, died on Thursday. We look back at the career of the broadcaster, prolific author, and presidential debate moderator.

KQED's Forum episodes:

01.24.2020 Remembering PBS NewsHour’s Jim Lehrer PBS NewsHour co-founder Jim Lehrer, who championed delivering unbiased news to the nation for more than three decades, died on Thursday. We look back at the career of the broadcaster, prolific author, and presidential debate moderator.
01.24.2020 Your Questions Answered About the Coronavirus At least 26 people were dead Friday, as China stepped up its response to the spread of a new strain of coronavirus, which causes respiratory illness. Authorities halted air and rail transportation in and out of thirteen cities around the ...
01.23.2020 Understanding Community Land Trusts The West Oakland home at the center of the Moms 4 Housing protest is set to be purchased from owner Wedgewood Properties by the Oakland Community Land Trust, an affordable housing nonprofit. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced the agreement Monday, ...
01.23.2020 House Leaders Deliver Opening Arguments in Support of Impeachment The Senate impeachment trial of President Trump commenced on Wednesday, as Democratic House managers presented their case that Trump abused his power and obstructed Congress in his dealings with Ukraine. In his opening statement, Rep. Adam Schiff accused Trump of ...
01.22.2020 ‘Moms 4 Housing’ Activists to Purchase West Oakland Home They Occupied Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced on Monday a "good faith" agreement that will allow the homeless mothers of activist group Moms 4 Housing — who had occupied and been evicted from a vacant West Oakland home earlier this month — ...
01.22.2020 Rep. Anna Eshoo on Impeachment, Cannabis and Robocalls South Bay Congresswoman Anna Eshoo joins Forum to provide insight into the ongoing Senate impeachment trial. She'll also talk about her work as Chairwoman of the Health Subcommittee, where she held the committee's first hearing on federal cannabis policy last ...
01.20.2020 Civil Rights Leader Eva Paterson on Fighting for Equality in 2020 Pushing back on voter suppression efforts ahead of the 2020 election. Considering a repeal of Proposition 209 — which banned affirmative action in state institutions —for California's November ballot. Taking time for self-care. These are only a few of the ...
01.20.2020 Republican Strategist Rick Wilson’s ‘Plot to Save America from Trump’ Republican political strategist Rick Wilson has spent his career working to defeat Democrats in elections across the country. Now, the self-described "old school conservative" says he has the formula for a successful Democratic campaign against President Trump. His new book ...
01.17.2020 “The Bechdel Cast” Podcast Explores Women’s Representation in Film A now widely used metric for women's representation in film, the Bechdel Test was first proposed in a 1985 comic by cartoonist Alison Bechdel. To pass, a movie must have at least two women on screen who talk to each ...
01.17.2020 First Person: San Francisco-based Riya Collective Co-Founders Bring Indian Wedding Clothing Online After repeatedly digging through friends and family's closets for traditional attire for the elaborate multiple-day festivities of Indian American weddings, Arian Agrawal and Sarina Siddhanti decided it was time to create an online rental company of their own. The co-founders ...
01.17.2020 Former Russia Ambassador Warns of Kremlin Misinformation Tactics As Senate Trial Begins In a recent opinion piece, Stanford professor and former Russia ambassador Michael McFaul warns that the Senate impeachment trial could be distorted by a new flood of disinformation. We'll talk to him about how the public and politicians can guard ...
01.16.2020 49ers Head to the NFC Championship The San Francisco 49ers will take on the Green Bay Packers for the NFC Championship on Sunday, a remarkable turnaround from their only four-win season last year. We’ll hear how this year's team was able to pull off one of ...
01.16.2020 NPR’s Steve Inskeep on a 19th Century Power Couple Fremont, California, is only the largest U.S. city of many named after 19th century political figure John Frémont. An explorer known as " The Pathfinder," Frémont is credited with coining the name "Golden Gate" for the port of the San ...
01.16.2020 Federal Judge Douglas Ginsburg Explores US History Through Constitutional Debates Judge Douglas Ginsburg has spent his career analyzing, teaching and ruling on constitutional law. Known for a short-lived nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Ginsburg is now the host of a new PBS series. "A More or Less Perfect ...
01.16.2020 New Data Reveals 2010s Were the Hottest Decade Ever The 2010s were the warmest decade on record and 2019 was the second-warmest year, according to new studies from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The records, which go back to ...
01.14.2020 Gov. Newsom Calls for California to Eliminate Animal Euthanasia Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday his goal of ending the euthanasia of adoptable or treatable animals in California shelters. The announcement came during the governor's overview of the proposed $220-billion state budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, which calls ...
01.14.2020 Former EPA Chief Gina McCarthy on Environmental Policy’s Future This month, former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy became the president and chief executive officer of Natural Resources Defense Council. Serving as the 13th Administrator of the EPA under President Barack Obama, McCarthy led initiatives focused on limiting air ...
01.13.2020 As Fires Continue to Burn in Australia, Californians Reflect The bushfires raging in Australia have burned more than 25 million acres of land, taken the lives of at least 29 people and killed an estimated 1 billion animals. On Friday, the Australian government urged nearly a quarter of a ...
01.13.2020 After 50 Years, Local TV Journalist Vic Lee Retires After nearly 50 years reporting for television news outlets in the Bay Area, veteran journalist Vic Lee is retiring. Lee covered some of the most critical stories of an evolving Bay Area, from the 1978 assassinations of Mayor George Moscone ...
01.13.2020 Governor Newsom Proposes Record-Breaking $220 Billion Budget Governor Newsom's $222-billion California budget proposal includes an $80.5-million coverage expansion of Medi-Cal and the creation of a state-owned generic drug label. It also directs more than $1.4 billion to shelter and healthcare for the state's homeless population. We'll talk ...
01.10.2020 Uncertainties Remain as California’s Contract Worker Law Rolls Out There has been lots of related news in the nine days since California Assembly Bill 5, which reclassifies many independent contractors as employees, went into effect. A state judge ruled that AB 5 does not apply to independent truck drivers. ...
01.10.2020 Tensions Mount as Sonoma County Begins Addressing Homeless Encampment Sonoma County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved nearly $12 million in emergency funding late last month. The funds aim to locate housing alternatives for the roughly 200 members of a mile-long homeless encampment along Santa Rosa's Joe Rodota Trail. County ...
01.09.2020 Kate Pickert Reports ‘Radical’ Truths of Breast Cancer Ninety percent of U.S. women do not know their risk of developing breast cancer, according to a study published in the journal "Cancer," and men are more likely to die of breast cancer than testicular cancer. And according to journalist ...
01.09.2020 UCSF Study Examines E-Scooter Injuries Approximately 3,200 electric scooters can be found puttering around San Francisco at any given time. As the city continues to grow its fleet of zero-emission scooters, we'll get an update on their convenience, safety and regulation. We'll also talk with ...
01.08.2020 New Chief Robert Powers on the Future of BART Recently appointed BART general manager Robert Powers' duties go beyond the 400,000 Bay Area commuters BART transports each day. His priorities include the new train cars that are supposed to replace the agency's "legacy" fleet, reducing fare evasions and increasing ...
01.08.2020 Iran Attacks Air Bases in Iraq Iran fired rockets at two air bases in Iraq on Wednesday. Iran has said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of General Qasem Soleimani. No casualties have yet been reported at the bases, which house Iraqi and U.S. ...
01.07.2020 San Jose-Founded Lowrider Magazine, Icon of Chicano Car Culture, Goes out of Print Lowrider magazine, known for its coverage of ground-hugging vintage cars and the Mexican American community, issued its last print copy in December. First published in 1977 by three San Jose State University students, the magazine grew popular for highlighting not ...
01.07.2020 First Person: San Francisco Attorney John Keker on Criminal Defense and Veteran Advocacy San Francisco criminal defense attorney John Keker was recently named by the Daily Journal as one of the top 100 lawyers in California. Keker, who has four decades of experience with jury trials, is considered an unrelenting and passionate defender ...
01.07.2020 Sen. Wiener Revives Controversial California Housing Bill The clock is ticking on California State Senator Scott Wiener’s ambitious and controversial housing bill, SB 50. The bill, which aims to spur housing construction by relaxing zoning requirements near transit and job centers in major cities, stalled out in ...
01.07.2020 Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna on Iran and Impeachment Silicon Valley Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna said on Monday that should President Trump order further military action against Iran without approval from Congress, the president would violate the Constitution and commit another impeachable offense. Khanna joins us to talk about ...
01.06.2020 New KQED Series Goes Inside “The Political Mind of Jerry Brown” For almost 50 years, Jerry Brown was a fixture of California politics. The scion of a political family, Brown is the longest-serving governor in the state's history, a former mayor of Oakland and a former presidential candidate. KQED's Scott Shafer ...
01.06.2020 Latest on the U.S. Killing Top Iranian Military Commander The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that it will send an additional 3,000 troops to the Middle East. This news follows the Friday morning U.S. drone killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, Iraq, in response to which ...
01.03.2020 Tips for a Dry January With the decadence of holiday festivities over, many New Year’s resolutions may revolve around health in 2020. For some, that can mean taking a dry January. Taking a break from alcohol for the first month of the year may facilitate ...
01.03.2020 Top Iran General Killed by US Early Friday morning, a drone strike authorized by President Trump killed top Iranian intelligence commander Qassem Soleimani in Bagdhad. Iran responded by vowing "harsh vengeance" on the U.S., which claims the strike was carried out in order to disrupt an ...
01.03.2020 How California’s New Data Privacy Law Will Affect Consumers California's new data privacy law went into effect on January 1. California consumers now have the right to know how their data is used, the right to get their data deleted and the right to opt out of data sale. ...
01.02.2020 Christine Pelosi on Doing Things “The Nancy Pelosi Way” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been called "the most effective congressional leader of modern times" by the Atlantic. The San Francisco Democrat is also a frequent target of President Trump and his Republican Party allies, most recently for her decision ...
01.02.2020 Richard Haass Discusses a ‘Post-American’ Middle East Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, recently described what he calls the "post-American Middle East." Citing the U.S.' withdrawal from Syria and tepid response to Iran's attack on Saudi Arabian oil installations, Haass sees a clear pivot ...
01.01.2020 Rebroadcast: San Francisco Geriatrician Louise Aronson on a New Vision for Aging With people today living decades past the age of 60, UCSF geriatrician Louise Aronson says that we need to stop looking at aging as if it’s a disease or a chronic deterioration. Elderhood, according to Aronson, should be viewed as ...
01.01.2020 Rebroadcast: Journalist Adam Minter Tracks the Afterlife of Our Unwanted Stuff in ‘Secondhand’ According to journalist Adam Minter, we're experiencing a global "crisis of stuff." Americans discard more than 100 billion pounds of unwanted items annually, from electronics to textiles to furniture. Meanwhile, demand for our castoffs is shrinking: Twenty years ago, China ...
12.31.2019 Rebroadcast: Bills Attempt to Reach California Housing Goals Through Accessory Dwelling Units California leaders want the state to build half a million new homes each year until 2025 — a rate of housing construction that has never happened before. Some legislators think we could help reach this goal by easing the path ...
12.31.2019 Rebroadcast: Ibram X. Kendi Explains ‘How to Be an Antiracist’ It's not enough to be against racism, or to not consider ourselves racists, argues American University professor Ibram X. Kendi. Instead, we must actively be "antiracist" and fight for racial equality. Kendi's new book, "How to Be an Antiracist," examines ...
12.30.2019 ‘Moms 4 Housing’ Activists Seek Right of Possession in Housing Case The homeless mothers who have been occupying a West Oakland house are set to attend a hearing on Monday regarding their right of possession claim. Dominique Walker and Sameerah Karim, part of the collective "Moms 4 Housing," entered the house ...
12.30.2019 “Black Software” Explores Racial Justice’s Online History When NYU vice provost Charlton McIlwain set out to understand how the Black Lives Matter movement energized broad national support, he found a long tradition of black activists connecting their communities through the internet. McIlwain’s new book “Black Software” tells ...
12.30.2019 Dave Eggers’ “The Captain and the Glory” Satirizes the Trump Era In Dave Eggers' latest book "The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment," an inexperienced and dishonest man becomes the captain of a storied ship. Hired to "shake things up," the captain discards all of the ship's books and terrorizes its ...
12.30.2019 New Year, New California Laws Tough new tenant protections. Revamped rules for gig workers. And a boost in the minimum wage. These are among the hundreds of new California laws set to go into effect in 2020. We'll talk about some of the most noteworthy ...
12.28.2019 Forum Presents: The Bay’s Audio Journey Through Our Turbulent Decade Earlier this month, Mina Kim interviewed Nastia Voynovskaya about the KQED Arts series “Our Turbulent Decade,” which looked back at some of the biggest Bay Area stories over the last 10 years. Today, we want to share an episode of ...
12.27.2019 The Decade in Dating In the past decade, we've gone from relying on meet-cutes and set-ups to "swiping right" in hopes of making a connection. The 2010s provided a renaissance in dating and opened up new opportunities for finding a mate — for better ...
12.27.2019 Cirque du Soleil’s “Amaluna” Swings Through Northern California Cirque du Soleil, the renowned Quebec-based circus, has returned to San Francisco with its production of "Amaluna," a women-centered narrative about renewal and rebirth. A collaboration with theater director Diane Paulus and loosely based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," "Amaluna" features ...
12.27.2019 For Chronic Medical Conditions, Sometimes It’s Best to ‘Deprescribe’ More than 40 percent of U.S. adults aged 65 and older take five or more prescription drugs. That's according to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which found that so-called "polypharmacy" is on the ...
12.26.2019 What’s the Future of the Internet? The internet — which turned 50 this year — has revolutionized the way we live, work and connect with each other. It's also put our security at risk and left our personal data vulnerable to exploitation. Forum looks at where ...

Older episodes

KQED's Forum

What's KQED's Forum about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

KQED's Forum episodes:

Remembering PBS NewsHour’s Jim Lehrer

Your Questions Answered About the Coronavirus

Understanding Community Land Trusts

House Leaders Deliver Opening Arguments in Support of Impeachment

‘Moms 4 Housing’ Activists to Purchase West Oakland Home They Occupied

Rep. Anna Eshoo on Impeachment, Cannabis and Robocalls

Civil Rights Leader Eva Paterson on Fighting for Equality in 2020

Republican Strategist Rick Wilson’s ‘Plot to Save America from Trump’

“The Bechdel Cast” Podcast Explores Women’s Representation in Film

First Person: San Francisco-based Riya Collective Co-Founders Bring Indian Wedding Clothing Online

Former Russia Ambassador Warns of Kremlin Misinformation Tactics As Senate Trial Begins

49ers Head to the NFC Championship

NPR’s Steve Inskeep on a 19th Century Power Couple

Federal Judge Douglas Ginsburg Explores US History Through Constitutional Debates

New Data Reveals 2010s Were the Hottest Decade Ever

Gov. Newsom Calls for California to Eliminate Animal Euthanasia

Former EPA Chief Gina McCarthy on Environmental Policy’s Future

As Fires Continue to Burn in Australia, Californians Reflect

After 50 Years, Local TV Journalist Vic Lee Retires

Governor Newsom Proposes Record-Breaking $220 Billion Budget

Uncertainties Remain as California’s Contract Worker Law Rolls Out

Tensions Mount as Sonoma County Begins Addressing Homeless Encampment

Kate Pickert Reports ‘Radical’ Truths of Breast Cancer

UCSF Study Examines E-Scooter Injuries

New Chief Robert Powers on the Future of BART

Iran Attacks Air Bases in Iraq

San Jose-Founded Lowrider Magazine, Icon of Chicano Car Culture, Goes out of Print

First Person: San Francisco Attorney John Keker on Criminal Defense and Veteran Advocacy

Sen. Wiener Revives Controversial California Housing Bill

Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna on Iran and Impeachment

New KQED Series Goes Inside “The Political Mind of Jerry Brown”

Latest on the U.S. Killing Top Iranian Military Commander

Tips for a Dry January

Top Iran General Killed by US

How California’s New Data Privacy Law Will Affect Consumers

Christine Pelosi on Doing Things “The Nancy Pelosi Way”

Richard Haass Discusses a ‘Post-American’ Middle East

Rebroadcast: San Francisco Geriatrician Louise Aronson on a New Vision for Aging

Rebroadcast: Journalist Adam Minter Tracks the Afterlife of Our Unwanted Stuff in ‘Secondhand’

Rebroadcast: Bills Attempt to Reach California Housing Goals Through Accessory Dwelling Units

Rebroadcast: Ibram X. Kendi Explains ‘How to Be an Antiracist’

‘Moms 4 Housing’ Activists Seek Right of Possession in Housing Case

“Black Software” Explores Racial Justice’s Online History

Dave Eggers’ “The Captain and the Glory” Satirizes the Trump Era

New Year, New California Laws

Forum Presents: The Bay’s Audio Journey Through Our Turbulent Decade

The Decade in Dating

Cirque du Soleil’s “Amaluna” Swings Through Northern California

For Chronic Medical Conditions, Sometimes It’s Best to ‘Deprescribe’

What’s the Future of the Internet?

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