KQED's Forum

Immigrants to any country learn to adapt. So it was the case for food writer and cookbook author Khushbu Shah’s family who came to the States from India. Hoping to recreate dishes from home, but not finding the ingredients they needed, Shah’s family like other members of the Indian diaspora, used the ingredients on hand — Bisquick for khoya an ingredient in the dessert Galub Jamun, peanut butter in chutneys, or Cream of Wheat to take the place Upma, a polenta-like dish. What emerged was a distinctly Indian-American cuisine, which is the focus of Shah’s cookbook, “Amrikan.” We talk to Shah about her favorite recipes and her tips for turning pantry staples into Indian comfort meals.

Guests:

Khushbu Shah, author, "Amrikan"; food writer and journalist; She was most recently the restaurant editor at Food and Wine magazine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meteorologists are predicting this summer will be one of the hottest on record, and they’re warning we’re likely in for a big wildfire season. Heavy rains in recent years enabled a couple of mild years of fire. But this year’s heat and drier conditions are already fueling blazes. So far, major fires have forced evacuations and singed homes in Sonoma County and Southern California. We’ll talk about the weather, what we can expect the rest of the year and what you can do to prepare for an active fire season.

Guests:

Brian Garcia, warning coordination meteorologist, National Weather Service SF Bay Area/Monterey

Isaac Sanchez, deputy chief of communications, Cal Fire

Daniel Swain, climate scientist, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA

Danielle Venton, science reporter, KQED News

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new Biden Administration policy announced this week will allow undocumented people who are married to American citizens to remain in the U.S. while pursuing citizenship, as long as they have no criminal record and have lived in the country for at least 10 years. The policy, which could protect a half-million people from deportation, comes two weeks after an executive order banning asylum for unauthorized migrants at the southern border — the most restrictive action on asylum by a Democratic president. We’ll talk about Biden’s election-year approach toward immigration, the Trump campaign’s rhetoric and how both are using the border to court voters.

Guests:

Hamed Aleaziz, covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy, The New York Times

Molly O'Toole, fellow, Wilson Center - Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter currently working on a book on immigration for Penguin Random House

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Oscar-winning animated movie “Inside Out,” emotions like joy, anger and sadness populate the brain of 11-year-old Riley, the film’s heroine. In the sequel, “Inside Out 2,” Riley is now a teen, and the emotions running headquarters have to make room for new feelings…. Hello, anxiety! Pixar’s Pete Docter joins us to talk about the movie.

Guests:

Pete Docter, Chief Creative Officer, Pixar - He directed "Inside Out," which won the 2016 Oscar for Best Animated Feature. He also directed "Monsters, Inc." and Oscar winners "Soul" and Up." He was the third animator to be brought on board at Pixar.

Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley - He served as a consultant on the Pixar film, "Inside Out 2". Keltner is the author of "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life."

Riya Richardson, member of "Riley's Crew," the group of teen girls who served as consultants to the movie "Inside Out 2"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are two new laws in California set to eliminate hidden fees, taking effect next month. In a statement released by the attorney general’s office, the purpose of the “Honest Pricing Law” is to ensure that “the price a Californian sees should be the price they pay.” While the laws are aimed at protecting consumers from unexpected charges on purchases like concert tickets and hotel reservations, many restaurant owners are concerned. They fear they may be forced to raise prices, potentially driving away customers. A third bill is swiftly moving through the Capitol with hopes of exempting restaurants from these regulations. We look into the details of these laws and their potential impact on you. Have hidden fees affected you?

Guests:

Lauren Saria, deputy food editor; The San Francisco Standard

Dan Walters, columnist; CalMatters

Bill Dodd, California state senator, district 3; which includes Napa County and parts of Sonoma county

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her new book, “The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy,” author Natalie Foster argues for an American economy that guarantees governmental support for seven core areas: housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor. Foster is president and co-founder of the Economic Security Project, a nonprofit that advocates for economic stability. She joins to talk about her vision to improve individual lives and society as a whole. 

Guests:

Natalie Foster, president and co-founder, Economic Security Project, a research center focused on guaranteed income programs, and senior fellow, The Aspen Institute Future of Work Initiative

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthony Fauci was the face of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, guiding the public through the upheavals of school closures and stay-at-home orders and unprecedented loss of life. He implored people to get vaccinated and weathered near constant partisan attacks. The COVID-19 pandemic was one of a number of global public health crises – including AIDS, bird flu, Ebola and Zika – that Fauci handled during his nearly six-decade career. We’ll talk to Fauci about what we’ve learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, how we should prepare for the next infectious disease crisis and what he values most about his life in public service. His new autobiography is “On Call.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As part of our “Doing Democracy” series, we look at state courts and constitutions. Each state has its own constitution, and they generally offer more rights than the U.S. Constitution. For example, the California constitution guarantees the right to happiness, reproductive freedom, and the ability to fish on public land, among other enumerated rights. With a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, activists are increasingly looking at states to protect – and even expand – rights. But will this strategy work? We’ll talk to legal experts about how state courts and constitutions are increasingly becoming battle grounds for preserving or expanding civil rights, and what the impact in California and neighboring states might be.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“If you make it trend, you make it true,” argues online propaganda expert Renée DiResta. Her new book examines what she calls the “invisible rulers” of today — influencers, algorithms and crowds. While some influencers have made good on social media’s promises of media democratization, others saturate our feeds with propaganda, disinformation and rumors that cause IRL harm. These influencers’ motivations, DiResta argues, are rooted in profit as much as — if not more than — ideology. We’ll talk to DiResta about how content moderation, systems design and policy can prevent and blunt the reach of online propaganda — and how we can strive for consensus in a fractured society. Her new book is “Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality.”

Guests:

Renée DiResta, former technical research manager, Stanford Internet Observatory

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hundreds of bicycles stolen in the Bay Area and other places have ended up for sale in a small town in Jalisco, Mexico. A recent article in Wired follows the efforts of a co-founder of Bike Index, a site where people can report bike thefts, to track down a reseller who set up a supply chain of stolen bikes resold via social media. Meanwhile, bike thieves in the Bay Area have become even more sophisticated in their methods leaving cyclists feeling hopeless and vulnerable. We’ll talk about the local and global black market for stolen bikes and what – if anything – can be done about it.

Guests:

Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli, community engagement reporter, KQED

Bryan Hance, co-founder, Bike Index

Christopher Solomon, freelance journalist; author, the recent Wired article “The West Coast’s Fanciest Stolen Bikes Are Getting Trafficked by One Mastermind in Jalisco, Mexico"

Nancy Hernandez, education program co-manager, Bike East Bay

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices