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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Closing the ‘Knowledge Gap’...

08.22.2019

According to education writer Natalie Wexler, American elementary schools are failing to train better readers, especially when it comes to poor students. In her book "The Knowledge Gap," Wexler argues that schools in the U.S. are largely ignoring the research ...

KQED’s Forum episodes:

08.22.2019 Closing the ‘Knowledge Gap’ Through Content-Rich Primary Education According to education writer Natalie Wexler, American elementary schools are failing to train better readers, especially when it comes to poor students. In her book "The Knowledge Gap," Wexler argues that schools in the U.S. are largely ignoring the research ...
08.22.2019 Suburban Communities Are Blocking Apartment Construction, Report Finds Earlier this month, the state threatened the city of Cupertino with a lawsuit for not meeting its mandated housing goals. Cupertino responded assuring all is on track, however a number of other small California cities in metropolitan areas are successfully ...
08.22.2019 Tensions Continue to Rise After India Revokes Kashmir’s Autonomous Status Earlier this month, India revoked Article 370, which had granted the state of Jammu and Kashmir a special autonomous status for the past 70 years, further escalating long-standing tensions in the region. Claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, ...
08.21.2019 California’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum to Be Revised After Draft Critiqued as ‘Too P.C.’ and Anti-Semitic State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced last week that a draft version of the California high school ethnic studies curriculum, created in accordance with a 2016 state law, will be revised. The announcement came at the end of ...
08.21.2019 New California Law Places Limits on Police Use of Deadly Force California police officers will have new restrictions on when they are able to use deadly force under a law signed by Governor Newsom this week. The legislation, which has been called one of the toughest standards in the country for ...
08.21.2019 Trump Administration Moves to Hold Migrant Families Longer Today the Trump administration announced that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services will withdraw from the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement and replace it with a new rule on Friday. Until now, the Flores ...
08.20.2019 Amidst Ebola Crisis, Dr. Paul Farmer Calls for ‘Care Along With Containment’ The world's second-deadliest Ebola outbreak has claimed the lives of at least 1,900 people to date in war-torn Congo. Last month, the World Health Organization declared the nearly yearlong outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern." Dr. Paul Farmer, ...
08.20.2019 Back-To-School Tips for Parents When your child comes home from school, don't ask her how she did on her math test, rather ask if she learned anything interesting that day. Or if she got to spend time with her friends. That's one of the ...
08.19.2019 ‘Bottle of Lies’ Exposes Hazards of Generic Drugs Generic drug companies in India and China have been cutting corners in their manufacturing and sending faulty drugs into the marketplace for years. That's according to investigative journalist Katherine Eban in her new book "Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story ...
08.19.2019 Are We Heading for a Global Recession? Financial analysts believe markets could be heading into a recession due to the emergence of a key recession indicator in the U.S. bond market last Wednesday. While consumer confidence remains high, turbulent stock markets and the U.S.'s protracted tariff war ...
08.16.2019 Workplace Advice For Women of Color Beyond ‘Lean In’ Women of color experience higher gender pay gaps than white women, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Minda Harts, founder of the career education site The Memo, says advice books aimed at working women, such as Sheryl Sandberg’s ...
08.16.2019 Waking up Before 5:30 A.M. May Be More Common Than You Think Extreme early risers — people who naturally and willingly wake up before 5:30 a.m. — may be more common than popularly imagined. That's according to a new study in the journal "Sleep," which found one in every 300 people surveyed ...
08.16.2019 Tensions Between Google Management and Employees Exposed There has been a rising distrust between Google management and employees in the aftermath of the 2016 election according to Wired Magazine's cover story, “Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech.” Reporter Nitasha Tiku interviewed 47 ...
08.16.2019 Israel Draws Criticism for Denying Entry to 2 American Congresswomen Israel denied entry to U.S. Democratic Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar on Thursday after President Trump urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to block them. Tlaib and Omar, both outspoken supporters of Palestinian rights, planned to visit the Israeli-occupied West Bank. ...
08.15.2019 ‘Don’t Read Poetry’ Examines the Joys and Challenges of…Reading Poetry Poet and literary critic Stephanie Burt likes to imagine a world where discovering an enticing new poem would happen as readily as, say, enjoying a new song from a band. In her book "Don't Read Poetry," Burt introduces readers to ...
08.15.2019 Ask the Mayor: San Jose’s Sam Liccardo On Monday, two weeks after the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting claimed the lives of two children from his city, San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo proposed requiring gun owners to buy liability insurance. If approved, the law would be the first ...
08.14.2019 Planned Alta Bates Closure Has East Bay Residents Worried Over “Healthcare Desert” Sutter Health, the owner of Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, is planning to close the facility, including the emergency room, by 2030. The nonprofit hospital operator says that it is not able to make the seismic upgrades required by the ...
08.14.2019 Tensions High as Protests Continue in Hong Kong Protests continued for a second day at Hong Kong International Airport, with riot police clashing with demonstrators. Tensions have been high since early June in response to a law, which has since been suspended, that would have extradited alleged criminals ...
08.14.2019 Controversial George Washington High School Mural Revisited The San Francisco school board is revisiting the issue of a controversial mural at George Washington High School that depicts slavery and a dead Native American man. The school board planned to discuss preserving the mural behind a covering, instead ...
08.13.2019 Beth Gardiner Spotlights the Serious Health Effects of Air Pollution in “Choked” Air pollution prematurely kills seven million people around the world and more than 100,000 Americans a year, according to environmental journalist Beth Gardiner. In her new book, "Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution," Gardiner travels the ...
08.13.2019 Changes to Endangered Species Act Weaken Wildlife Protections The Trump administration is moving forward with changes to the Endangered Species Act that will weaken protections for "threatened" species and make room for greater corporate input. Credited with saving the bald eagle and grizzly bear, the 1973 Endangered Species ...
08.13.2019 Ask the Mayor: Oakland’s Libby Schaaf Since being sworn in to her second term in January, Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf has faced a teachers' strike, a conflict with President Trump over ICE immigration raids, and a report showing a dramatic rise in homelessness. In this hour ...
08.12.2019 What Greenland’s Melting Ice Tells Us About Climate Change Greenland may be the world's least-populated country, but its vast and dwindling ice sheet can predict the global effects of climate, according to New York Times magazine contributing science writer Jon Gertner. In his new book, "The Ice at the ...
08.12.2019 Jeffrey Epstein Dies in Federal Detention Financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found hanging in his New York cell on Saturday. In July, Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and was denied bail shortly after. He was first indicted in 2007 after ...
08.12.2019 Under Fiscal Pressure, Oakland Unified School District Grapples With Closures, Mergers As students head back to school Monday, the cash-strapped Oakland Unified School District is weighing a second round of school closures and consolidations, in order to regain fiscal stability after years of budget struggles and a state bailout. Among the ...
08.09.2019 How the English Language Is Changing ‘Because Internet’ Ever had a joke or sarcastic comment go awry when sending a text message? According to author and linguist Gretchen McCulloch, the challenge of conveying subtle differences in tone over short, written messages is driving rapid change in the English ...
08.09.2019 Gilroy Mourns Victims in Weeks After Mass Shooting, Vows to Stay Strong Nearly two weeks ago, on July 28, a 19-year-old opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, killing three people and himself and wounding 15. The incident is now being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism. Forum checks in with ...
08.09.2019 Bus Service Returns to the SF Transbay Transit Center For the first time since September 2018 when cracked steel beams halted transit, buses will once again run in and out of San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center starting Sunday. This follows the reopening of the center's rooftop park and retail ...
08.08.2019 Climate Change May Shrink Northern California Oyster Habitat A UC Davis study published this week found that human-caused climate change will likely shrink the habitats of oysters in Northern California. Focusing on native Olympia oysters and commercially grown Pacific oysters, the study monitored the growth and health of ...
08.08.2019 Pink Seesaws Promote Play and Goodwill Along US-Mexico Border Wall Images and videos of children bouncing on pink seesaws on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border went viral across social media in late July. The seesaws, installed by Bay Area professors and architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, spanned ...
08.08.2019 Congresswoman Jackie Speier on Gun Laws, Immigration This week Congresswoman Jackie Speier joined fellow Democrats in reiterating the call for stricter gun laws, including an assault weapons ban, in the wake of last weekend's mass shootings. She also took part in a recent congressional visit to a ...
08.07.2019 Steven Greenhouse on Why Workers Feel ‘Beaten Down, Worked Up’ Faced with income inequality, gender pay inequity and declining social mobility, American workers have been experiencing a decades-long depletion of their power, according to long-time labor reporter, Steven Greenhouse. Drawing from his 19-year tenure at the New York Times, Greenhouse's ...
08.07.2019 Reflecting on the Literature and Legacy of Toni Morrison Toni Morrison, acclaimed author of "Beloved," "Song of Solomon" and "The Bluest Eye," died on Monday at the age of 88. The first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Morrison's work brought center-stage black identity and ...
08.06.2019 Empathy as a Radical Act Are we born with a certain level of empathy? Stanford psychology professor Jamil Zaki explores that question in his new book, "The War for Kindness," which looks at the declining level of empathy in society. He argues that, like a ...
08.06.2019 Will US Reconsider Gun Laws After Spate of Mass Shootings? Increased calls for action on gun violence are coming in the wake of the two mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH last weekend. On Monday, Democratic leaders called for the Senate to come back from recess to ...
08.05.2019 CalEPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld on California’s Environmental Priorities Under the Trump Administration California's Secretary of Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld oversees the state's efforts to combat climate change, ensure clean air and water, regulate pesticides and manage waste and recycling goals. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed the former Obama administration official and director of ...
08.05.2019 Latest Mass Shootings Underscore Growing Threat of Home-Grown Terrorism The mass shooting at Wal-Mart in El Paso Saturday morning took the lives of 21 people, leaving 26 injured. That horrific attack came less than a week after the massacre at the Gilroy Garlic Festival and was followed less than ...
08.02.2019 What’s for Lunch? Tell Us the Best Cheap Local Eats KQED just moved its offices to downtown San Francisco and we're looking for the best places to get a quick, affordable and delicious lunch. We talk with Eater SF editor, Ellen Fort about her top picks and we hear from ...
08.02.2019 San Francisco Changes Feral Cat and Kitten Policy San Francisco's SPCA and Animal Care & Control recently changed the trap, neuter and return policy for feral cats and kittens. This policy encouraged volunteers to trap feral mothers with new kittens, bring them to an animal shelter to be ...
08.02.2019 For Students With Disabilities, Access to Testing Accommodations Depends on Income and Race High school students in the wealthiest one percent of school districts are more than twice as likely to receive testing accommodations than the national average. That's according to a recent New York Times investigation which found a "glaring wealth gap" ...
08.01.2019 What’s Medicare for All (And Who Would Pay for It)? At Tuesday night’s primary debate, Senator Bernie Sanders made the case for his Medicare for All plan, which would create a single-payer health system for all Americans and replace most private insurance. Sanders said the plan would stabilize the health ...
08.01.2019 Second Democratic Primary Debate Continues Wednesday Ten more Democratic presidential hopefuls take the stage in Detroit Wednesday evening in the second round of primary debates. We'll review the highlights and hear your reactions.
08.01.2019 Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf on Homelessness and Housing Affordability The number of homeless people in Oakland jumped 47 percent over the past two years, according to a new survey. That's despite the city's $9 million initiative, Keep Oakland Housed, which provides emergency financial assistance and free legal help to ...
08.01.2019 Oakland Homelessness Increases 47% in Two Years Alameda County spent more than $100 million last fiscal year to prevent housing displacement via shelters, permanent supportive housing and other solutions. Despite that investment, the number of homeless in the county increased by 43 percent, according to the latest ...
07.31.2019 Presidential Candidates Face Off in Part One of Second Democratic Debate Twenty Democratic presidential hopefuls are set to meet in Detroit Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for the second round of primary debates. We'll review Tuesday's debate, which will feature half of the candidates, including progressive front runners Sen. Elizabeth Warren and ...
07.31.2019 Solutions for Housing Vulnerable Seniors A recent UCSF study shows that nearly half of homeless seniors became homeless for the first time above the age of 50. And that number is expected to grow. In collaboration with the San Francisco Chronicle and other media outlets, ...
07.30.2019 How to Navigate Your Marriage’s ‘Rough Patch’ Hitting a "rough patch" in a long-term relationship doesn't mean the end is near, nor inevitable. According to psychologist Daphne de Marneffe, "rough patches" can make a marriage stronger when partners work through it together. Her book, "The Rough Patch: ...
07.30.2019 Community Grieves for Gilroy, California Gun Laws in the Spotlight The city of Gilroy continues to grieve the deadly shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival that injured 12 people and left four dead on Sunday, including two children and the gunman. Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee identified Santino William Legan, ...
07.29.2019 Sea Foraging Along the Bay Area Coastline Traversing the San Francisco Bay in his kayak, Kirk Lombard, also known as the "Sea Forager," scavenges unusual seafood from our local shores, bays and estuaries. A commercial fisherman, a sea foraging tour guide, and a sustainability advocate, Lombard works ...
07.29.2019 Exploratorium’s ‘Middle Ground’ Prompts Introspection on Biases, Stereotypes While some may be familiar with the Exploratorium's distorted room or toilet water fountain, its upcoming installation “Middle Ground” analyzes perception in a whole new way. A free, public exhibition at Civic Center Plaza that opens August 13, “Middle Ground” ...

Older episodes

KQED’s Forum

What's KQED’s Forum about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

KQED’s Forum episodes:

Closing the ‘Knowledge Gap’ Through Content-Rich Primary Education

Suburban Communities Are Blocking Apartment Construction, Report Finds

Tensions Continue to Rise After India Revokes Kashmir’s Autonomous Status

California’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum to Be Revised After Draft Critiqued as ‘Too P.C.’ and Anti-Semitic

New California Law Places Limits on Police Use of Deadly Force

Trump Administration Moves to Hold Migrant Families Longer

Amidst Ebola Crisis, Dr. Paul Farmer Calls for ‘Care Along With Containment’

Back-To-School Tips for Parents

‘Bottle of Lies’ Exposes Hazards of Generic Drugs

Are We Heading for a Global Recession?

Workplace Advice For Women of Color Beyond ‘Lean In’

Waking up Before 5:30 A.M. May Be More Common Than You Think

Tensions Between Google Management and Employees Exposed

Israel Draws Criticism for Denying Entry to 2 American Congresswomen

‘Don’t Read Poetry’ Examines the Joys and Challenges of…Reading Poetry

Ask the Mayor: San Jose’s Sam Liccardo

Planned Alta Bates Closure Has East Bay Residents Worried Over “Healthcare Desert”

Tensions High as Protests Continue in Hong Kong

Controversial George Washington High School Mural Revisited

Beth Gardiner Spotlights the Serious Health Effects of Air Pollution in “Choked”

Changes to Endangered Species Act Weaken Wildlife Protections

Ask the Mayor: Oakland’s Libby Schaaf

What Greenland’s Melting Ice Tells Us About Climate Change

Jeffrey Epstein Dies in Federal Detention

Under Fiscal Pressure, Oakland Unified School District Grapples With Closures, Mergers

How the English Language Is Changing ‘Because Internet’

Gilroy Mourns Victims in Weeks After Mass Shooting, Vows to Stay Strong

Bus Service Returns to the SF Transbay Transit Center

Climate Change May Shrink Northern California Oyster Habitat

Pink Seesaws Promote Play and Goodwill Along US-Mexico Border Wall

Congresswoman Jackie Speier on Gun Laws, Immigration

Steven Greenhouse on Why Workers Feel ‘Beaten Down, Worked Up’

Reflecting on the Literature and Legacy of Toni Morrison

Empathy as a Radical Act

Will US Reconsider Gun Laws After Spate of Mass Shootings?

CalEPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld on California’s Environmental Priorities Under the Trump Administration

Latest Mass Shootings Underscore Growing Threat of Home-Grown Terrorism

What’s for Lunch? Tell Us the Best Cheap Local Eats

San Francisco Changes Feral Cat and Kitten Policy

For Students With Disabilities, Access to Testing Accommodations Depends on Income and Race

What’s Medicare for All (And Who Would Pay for It)?

Second Democratic Primary Debate Continues Wednesday

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf on Homelessness and Housing Affordability

Oakland Homelessness Increases 47% in Two Years

Presidential Candidates Face Off in Part One of Second Democratic Debate

Solutions for Housing Vulnerable Seniors

How to Navigate Your Marriage’s ‘Rough Patch’

Community Grieves for Gilroy, California Gun Laws in the Spotlight

Sea Foraging Along the Bay Area Coastline

Exploratorium’s ‘Middle Ground’ Prompts Introspection on Biases, Stereotypes

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