KQED's Forum

Heart disease is by far the leading cause of death for women in the United States. Yet, women with heart conditions are less likely than men to receive aggressive treatment and preventive medication and more likely to have their symptoms dismissed by doctors. It’s one of the many gender inequities that oncologist Elizabeth Comen explores in her new book “All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today.” We talk to Comen about how gender bias is expressed in medicine and the barriers to treating women equitably in a field she describes as created for men, by men. And we’ll hear from you: have you felt dismissed or unfairly treated in the doctor’s office?

Guests:

Elizabeth Comen M.D., oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; author, "All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today"

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The warden of the troubled federal women’s prison in Dublin was ousted last Monday amid an FBI raid of the facility. Art Dulgov was removed just months into his tenure in the wake of allegations of retaliation against an inmate who spoke out about abuse at the prison. Despite prior leadership changes and promises to fix problems, the prison – which has been known as the “rape club” – has remained plagued by abuse cases, with at least eight employees charged since 2021, when an Associated Press investigation exposed the abuse scandal. We’ll talk with one of the Associated Press reporters and get the latest on the FBI raid, the leadership shakeup and conditions at the prison.

Guests:

Alex Hall, enterprise and accountability reporter, KQED

Michael Balsamo, U.S. law enforcement news editor, Associated Press

Amaris Montes, director of west coast litigation and advocacy, Rights Behind Bars - which is representing Dublin prisoners in their class action lawsuit

Ashley Rolanda, she was incarcerated at FCI Dublin, and has been speaking out about conditions at the prison, where she says she was sexually assaulted

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Deepfakes are already affecting the 2024 election, and the technology is only becoming more convincing. UC Berkeley computer scientist Hany Farid shared the stage with Mina Kim on March 2 at the Night of Ideas, held at the San Francisco Public Library before a live audience. We listen back to their conversation about how easy it to make fake digital content with generative A.I. and the impact that’s having on our democracy.

Guests:

Hany Farid, professor, UC Berkeley - with a joint appointment in electrical engineering & computer sciences and the School of Information. He is also a member of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Lab and is a senior faculty advisor for the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity.

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Earlier this month we brought some of our favorite Forum guests – a poet, a novelist, a sociologist and a musician – who all work with themes of cross-cultural identity for a conversation, and live music and readings, before an audience. We discussed the complexities of racial and ethnic identity and how the hyphens we sometimes use to bridge our identities – Mexican-American, Chinese-American etc – can serve to both connect and divide us. It was all part of Night of Ideas, an annual public event bringing together artists and thinkers at the San Francisco Public Library.

Guests:

Mimi Tempestt, poet and multidisciplinary artist - Tempestt's latest book of poetry is titled "the delicacy of embracing spirals"

G. Cristina Mora, associate professor of sociology and Chicano/Latino Studies and the co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley - and author of the book, "Making Hispanics"

Jonathan Escoffery, author - his debut short story collection, "If I Survive You," was released in September of 2022

Kishi Bashi, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist - Bashi's latest LP "Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari" is a companion to his documentary film that explores his identity and the WWII experience of Japanese incarceration. The album comes out on November 17. Bashi is based in Santa Cruz

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For many of us, conflict is something to be avoided, but according to longtime negotiation and mediation expert William Ury, we actually need more conflict in our lives. In a new memoir called Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict, Ury says conflict can “produce better ideas and, ultimately, better relationships.” We talk to Ury, who’s also the author of the bestselling book Getting to Yes, about his nearly 50-year career as a negotiator in conflicts around the globe. And we’ll learn how to apply his conflict resolution strategies to our everyday lives.

Guests:

William Ury, negotiator and mediator; co-founder, Harvard Program on Negotiation

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Laurence Ralph is a Princeton professor who studies gangs and youth violence. Five years ago it all became very personal when a family member, 19-year old Luis Alberto Quiñonez, was killed in San Francisco in retaliation for a gang-related murder he didn’t commit. That tragic story is the subject of his new book, Sito: An American Teenager and the City That Failed Him. We’ll talk with him about the book and his work on juvenile justice reform and how to break the cycles of youth violence.

Guests:

Laurence Ralph, professor of anthropology, Princeton University; author, "SITO: An American Teenager and the City That Failed Him." He will appear on Thursday March 14 at 7PM at Mrs. Dalloway's bookstore in Berkeley.

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After a yearlong wait, the San Francisco Chronicle has a new lead restaurant critic, MacKenzie Chung Fegan. She grew up in San Francisco, has deep roots in its restaurant scene and knows the power of the written word: 50 years ago her grandparents opened Henry’s Hunan, which exploded in popularity after the New Yorker deemed it “the best Chinese restaurant in the world”. We’ll talk with Fegan about her approach to restaurant criticism, what’s on her culinary to-do list and we’ll hear from you: What are you craving from a local restaurant critic?

Guests:

MacKenzie Chung Fegan, lead restaurant critic, The San Francisco Chronicle

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For the first time in over a century, the 250-mile Klamath River will soon flow freely as the nation’s largest dam removal project in history nears completion. Indigenous tribes, fishermen and environmentalists had been fighting to dismantle four hydroelectric dams along the river for more than two decades, owing to the dams’ devastating effects on salmon populations among other environmental impacts. The next phase of the dam removal project is to restore the natural habitat along the river. We learn about the project’s history and future.

Guests:

Barry McCovey Jr., director, Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department

Mark Bransom, chief executive officer, Klamath River Renewal Corporation

Kurtis Alexander, enterprise reporter, The San Francisco Chronicle

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Every year a ceremony is held at Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles for the county’s unclaimed deceased; the most recent ceremony, held in December, honored nearly 1500 people. In a new book sociologists Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans tell the stories of four of the deceased and how they came to be laid to rest in a common grave after their ashes were left behind. We’ll talk about what makes people vulnerable to going unclaimed after they die, and hear about the people who are working to ensure they all receive a dignified burial. Their book is “The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels.”

Guests:

Pamela Prickett, associate professor of sociology, University of Amsterdam

Stefan Timmermans, professor of sociology, UCLA

Arnoldo Casillas, attorney

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Americans famously hang on to false ideas about politics, even after being presented with the facts. Part of the problem, of course, is misinformation. But according to political scientist Emily Thorson, people also tend to assume that they already know how existing policies work…and they are often wrong. In her new book, “The Invented State,” Thorson argues that providing facts and context in the right way can correct common policy misconceptions. She’ll join us as part of our Doing Democracy series, which examines what democracy means and how it is practiced, to talk about the book, and the latest research on misinformation.

Guests:

Emily Thorson, assistant professor of political science, Syracuse University; author, "The Invented State: Policy Misperceptions in the American Public"

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