KQED's Forum

In a historic move on Sunday, President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race. In a tweet, he offered his “full support and endorsement” to Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. We’ll spend both hours of Forum talking with KQED’s politics team and checking in with others about what’s next for the democratic party and the presidential race.

Guests:

Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco

Aimee Allison, founder and president, She the People

Mark Buell, major Democratic party donor and philanthropist

Scott Shafer, senior editor, KQED’s California Politics and Government; co-host, Political Breakdown

Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED; co-host of KQED's Political Breakdown

Guy Marzorati, correspondent, KQED's California Politics and Government Desk

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Avocados, a favorite in many dishes, have grown into a $3 billion industry for Mexico. Michoacán, one of the few places in the world where avocados can grow year round, produces over 70% of the country’s exports. But as the global appetite for this green fruit expands, the industry has attracted cartels vying for control. This surge in demand has led to violence against local farmers, who also face environmental challenges like deforestation and shrinking water supplies. We learn more.

Guests:

Stephania Corpi Arnaud, journalist; podcast host, Caliber 60

David Shortell, reporter

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Potato juice instead of antibiotics. Using beer in lieu of sunscreen. Shoving a garlic clove up your nose for sinus trouble. These are some of the remedies you might find on TikTok. The internet and quackery are not new concepts, but health advice – both good and bad – is a hot ticket item on social media platforms, especially for Gen Z. In fact, according to a recent study, a third of Gen Z-aged TikTok users trust that app more than their doctors. We look at what happens when TikTok is your doctor, and hear from you: have you used social media to diagnose an ailment or get medical advice? How did it go?

Guests:

Keren Landman, senior reporter covering public health, emerging infectious diseases, the health workforce, and health justice, Vox

Jessica Malaty Rivera, science communicator and infectious disease epidemiologist; science communication lead, The COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic; her social media feed came to prominence during the pandemic

Dr. Jen Gunter, OB/GYN and pain medicine physician; author, "The Vagina Bible"

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80 years ago, 320 men, mostly African American, died at Port Chicago, an ammunition depot in what is now Concord. It was the deadliest incident on U.S. soil during World War II. After the explosion the Navy charged more than 250 Black sailors with mutiny for refusing to return to work in dangerous conditions. On Wednesday, the 80th anniversary of the explosion, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro exonerated the sailors, calling the charges, “an enormous wrong.” We’ll talk about the Port Chicago explosion and how the subsequent legal proceedings laid the foundation for the civil rights movement and the desegregation of the navy.

Guests:

Yulie Padmore, executive director, Port Chicago Alliance

Rev. Diana McDaniel, president, Friends of Port Chicago National Memorial

Daryl Meeks, His father, Freddie Meeks, was imprisoned for 18 months for refusing to work under dangerous conditions after the Port Chicago explosion. He was pardoned by President Clinton.

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The GOP is expressing confidence that the presidential election will break in its favor as the Republican National Convention draws to a close on Thursday. The event has been organized around MAGA themes, including “Make America Safe Again” and “Make America Strong Again,” with speakers taking aim at familiar targets like President Biden, crime and border security. Meanwhile, Democrats remain deeply divided over whether President Biden should end his candidacy, after Los Angeles Rep. Adam Schiff on Wednesday publicly called on Biden to leave the race. We’ll get the latest with KQED’s politics team, which is on the scene in Milwaukee.

Guests:

Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED; co-host, KQED's Political Breakdown

Guy Marzorati, correspondent, KQED's California Politics and Government Desk

Scott Shafer, senior editor, KQED’s California Politics and Government; co-host, Political Breakdown

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Jonathan Rosen’s memoir “The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions” was a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist and named a Top 10 Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic and Slate. It tells the story of Rosen’s childhood friendship with Michael Laudor, their teenage competition and years spent together at Yale, where Laudor stands out as a genius and academic superstar. After Laudor is diagnosed with schizophrenia, he seems poised to be “exceptional” in this way as well — successfully navigating his illness while transitioning from a locked psychiatric ward to Yale Law School. But his path with schizophrenia isn’t linear, and a violent crime he commits thrusts dominant narratives about mental health and the gaps in our healthcare system into the limelight. We’ll talk with Rosen about those gaps, how “good intentions” failed to provide a meaningful replacement for deinstitutionalization and the evolution of how we talk about schizophrenia.

Guests:

Jonathan Rosen, author, "The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions" - which was a 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Memoir or Autobiography and named a Top 10 Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic and Slate

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In calling for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, President Joe Biden said political violence is “un-American and abhorrent.” But that’s more aspiration than historical reality. Political violence has been part of American history since our founding and has been on the rise since Trump was elected in 2016, according to experts. Elected officials and average citizens have been victims of politically motivated shooting sprees. We’ll talk about what constitutes political violence, why it keeps occurring, and what to make of the recent news.

Guests:

Gary LaFree, professor of criminology and criminal justice, University of Maryland

Matthew Dallek, professor of political management, The George Washington University; author, "Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right"

Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; studies democracy, the rule of law, and political violence

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Florida federal judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Donald Trump on Monday, finding that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith violated the constitution. The case — in which Trump stands accused of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate — had been considered the most straightforward of the criminal matters Trump faces. We look at the legal and political implications of the ruling

Former president Donald Trump has chosen 39-year old Ohio Senator JD Vance to be his running mate. Vance, once a fierce Trump critic who gained visibility during the 2016 election for explaining Trump’s appeal to white working class voters, has in recent years come to embrace core MAGA principles. We learn more about Vance and hear your reactions.

Guests:

David Graham, staff writer, The Atlantic; his new piece is "An Astonishing Ruling in Trump's Classified Documents Case"

Grace Panetta, political reporter, The 19th

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The Bay Area has a long tradition of producing Olympians and this year continues that legacy as athletes from the region prepare for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We check in with a few members of Team USA who will be heading to Paris and we’ll discuss how world events are going to impact the games, what lessons the committee has learned since Tokyo, and the most compelling storylines to follow at this summer’s games.

Guests:

Ann Killion, sports columnist, San Francisco Chronicle

Hans Henken, USA Olympic Team, Sailing

Alexander Massialas, USA Olympic Team, Fencing

Christella Garcia, USA Paralympic Team, Judo

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Following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, far-right Republicans pointed fingers at President Joe Biden, blaming his warnings about Trump’s threats to democracy for instigating the violence. For Vox reporter Zack Beauchamp, this “should cause us to reflect more broadly on how our political leaders should respond to political violence in our country.” For the last decade Beauchamp has been covering global challenges to democracy — and why democratic countries with deep political divisions can become vulnerable to violence and autocracy. We reflect on the assassination attempt and where it leaves us as a nation. Beauchamp’s new book is “The Reactionary Spirit: How America’s Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World.”

Guests:

Zack Beauchamp, senior correspondent, Vox

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