Have you ever felt so creatively connected to someone that it’s like you share the same brain? That’s how acclaimed writers Tommy Orange and Kaveh Akbar describe their relationship. They’re best friends who wrote their recent novels “Wandering Stars” and “Martyr” by sending each other “cheernotes” in which they “waved [their] pom poms with genuine excitement at what the other’d just wrought from the ether,” as Akbar puts it. The two are embarking on a Bay Area driving tour to celebrate their friendship and art, and they join us on Forum.

Guests:

Tommy Orange, novelist, his books include "Wandering Stars" and "There There," which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize.

Kaveh Akbar, poet and novelist, his books include "Martyr!," a National Book Award finalist

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Hercules native August Lee Stevens dropped her debut album “Better Places” last year earning her a following and praise for her indie soul sound. The 25-year-old singer and songwriter started classical piano when she was in elementary school and continued her study at the Oakland School of the Arts. In her senior year, she picked up singing – a decision that changed her life. She is now part of a wave of emerging musicians from the East Bay. Stevens joins us for a special live performance, and to talk about her musical roots and journey.

Guests:

August Lee Stevens, Bay Area-based musician and singer-songwriter; her debut album “Better Places” came out in 2024

Frankie Maston, vocalist

Ash Stallard, vocalist

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NPR’s Rhaina Cohen has taken a close look at friend-powered parenting, joining shared households to see how neighbor-and-friend alliances can break the isolation of modern parenthood. We’ll talk about the challenges of communal living and what parents gain—emotionally, practically, even financially—when they raise their kids with their friends. Cohen’s recent piece for the Atlantic is “A Grand Experiment in Parenthood and Friendship.” Would you raise your kids with your best pals?

Guests:

Rhaina Cohen, producer and editor for the NPR Documentary podcast Embedded; author of "The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center" and the Atlantic piece, "A Grand Experiment in Parenthood and Friendship"

Phil Levin, founder, Live Near Friends - helps people live right next door to friends and family

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Singer Sid Sriram was born in southern India, but his family moved to Fremont when he was just a year old. His voice and his sound are the product of his family’s legacy as carnatic traditional signers and of  a childhood in the Bay Area suburbs, listening to jazz and hip hop. Sriram has already achieved fame in India, his career expanded globally after singing for Grammy-Award winning composer A.R. Rahman, and he was recently featured in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. He joins us in our studio to sing from his new album and talk about growing up Indian-American in the Fremont and what it’s like to be more famous halfway across the world than where you went to high school.

Guests:

Sid Sriram, musician, his forthcoming album is Sidharth

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We remember George Floyd, five years after his murder by a Minneapolis police officer. In the days and months after Floyd’s death, millions of Americans took to the streets to protest racism and police violence, ushering in a new era of racial reckoning. Robert Samuels, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “His Name is George Floyd,” wonders however if “the backlash feels more enduring than the reckoning itself.”  We’ll talk about who George Floyd was and where the struggle for racial justice is headed.

Guests:

Robert Samuels, national political enterprise reporter, The Washington Post - co-author, "His Name is George Floyd: One Man's Life and them Struggle for Racial Justice"

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Bay Area Latin jazz legend John Santos joins us with a full band for a live in-studio performance. The San Francisco native is a Grammy nominated percussionist and composer influenced by classic rhythms and traditions of the Caribbean. He founded his own label, Machete Records, 40 years ago to avoid mainstream platforms and maintain his creative freedom. Santos joins us to talk about his San Francisco roots, the rhythms of his Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean heritage, and his latest album, Horizontes.

Guests:

Saul Sierra, musician, bass, vocals

John Santos, Latin Jazz percussionist, leader of the John Santos Sextet

Marco Diaz, musician, keyboard, trumpet, vocals

John Calloway, musician, flute, keyboard

Charlie Gurke, musician, saxes

Anthony Blea, musician, violin

Javier Navarrette, musician, congas

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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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A warm summer day sitting beneath the shade of a tree or a beach umbrella with a tall cold drink at the ready and a juicy book waiting to be read — what could be better? We’ll talk to booksellers from Booksmith and Green Apple Books as well as Oakland-based novelist Jasmine Guillory about what they are reading this summer, and we’ll hear from you: When you’re not doom scrolling, what’s on your must read list for this summer? Any recommendations for a romance novel for the newly divorced? Or a beach read for someone who doesn’t like the beach? We’ll talk about new releases, old favorites and classics that have earned their place on your bookshelf.

Guests:

Jasmine Guillory, novelist and writer, her latest book is "Flirting Lessons" - her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and Time

Camden Avery, co-owner and book buyer, Booksmith, an independent bookstore in the Haight

Kar Johnson, event and marketing manager, Green Apple Books

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So far this term the Supreme Court has allowed states to ban gender transition care for youth, made it easier for white people and other “majority” group members to prove workplace discrimination and temporarily cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport people to countries they’re not from. We talk about the impact of these rulings and other cases still to be decided.

Guests:

Rory Little, professor of constitutional law, emeritus, UC School of Law, San Francisco

Melissa Murray, professor of law, NYU School of Law - co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast

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Author and veteran journalist Sara Kehaulani Goo grew up in Southern California making frequent visits to Hawaii, where her extended family owned a vast and rugged stretch of Maui. The land was granted to an ancestor by King Kamehameha III in 1848 before the U.S.overthrew the island nation’s monarchy. Goo’s family held on to a small section for more than a century, but when their property taxes skyrocketed a decade ago, they had to confront what the land meant to them and whether to sell. Goo joins us to talk about her memoir, “Kuleana,” which explores her family’s relationship to those ancestral lands and their Hawaiian culture amid the pressures of capitalism and displacement.

Guests:

Sara Kehaulani Goo, journalist and author of "Kuleana"

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