KQED's Forum

“Girls had rich lives outdoors, but history has largely overlooked them,” writes Harvard professor and National Book award winner Tiya Miles. In her latest book, “Wild Girls,” Miles sets out to unearth those stories. There’s Harriet Tubman, an “outdoorswoman” who used her knowledge of the natural world and the night skies to lead people escaping slavery to freedom. And “Little Women” author Louisa May Alcott, a runner, who thought of herself as part deer. For renegade women like these, Miles says nature was a training ground for their ambitions. We’ll talk to Miles about how the wild girls of her book reclaimed nature for themselves and we hear from you: How has the outdoors shaped your own narrative and those of generations before you?

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The California Department of Public Health issued new COVID-19 guidance last week, advising that people may return to school and work even if they test positive for the virus. We’ll talk about California’s recommendations, the new COVID variant known as JN.1 and the latest developments in treatment and prevention. And we’ll hear from you: How are you living with COVID in 2024?

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San Francisco and Oakland were some of the first cities in the country to adopt ranked choice voting. It’s now a popular election reform that is being adopted across the country. Advocates say allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference on their ballots – instead of just picking one – gives them more say over who ends up in office and more freedom to vote for a longshot candidate without the feeling that they are wasting their vote. But the system can be complicated and confusing for many voters and has drawn ire from those unhappy with the election results. As part of Forum’s Doing Democracy series examining what democracy means and how it is practiced, we’ll talk about how experiments in ranked choice voting have changed our elections, voting behaviors and the candidates we bring into office.

Guests:

Eric Jaye, founder and president, Storefront Political Media

Miles Parks, reporter covering voting and elections, NPR's Washington Desk

Lisa Bryant, chair and associate professor, Department of Political Science, California State University Fresno

Aaron Tiedemann, Albany city councilmember

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Central Texas resident Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick became pregnant in December 2021, three months after Texas banned virtually all abortions past six weeks of pregnancy and imposed criminal penalties on doctors carrying them out. Yeni had diabetes, severe hypertension and other medical conditions that made her pregnancy dangerous, and as the months wore on, she became sicker and sicker. In July 2022, Yeni and her 31-week-old fetus died. “Yeni’s death was preventable… a therapeutic abortion, if offered and accepted, would probably have saved her life,” writes Stephania Taladrid in her new piece for the New Yorker called “The Life of The Mother.” We talk to Taladrid about Yeni and a new abortion landscape that puts more women’s lives at risk.

Guest:

Stephania Taladrid, contributing writer, The New Yorker; author, the article "The Life of the Mother" - She was a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist for her reporting on the fall of Roe v. Wade.

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53 million Americans provide care for a family member or friend with health or disability issues. While there can be joy and satisfaction found in helping a loved one age or cope with an illness, the work can also be hard and emotionally draining: Research shows that caregivers are at greater risk for anxiety, depression, chronic health problems, and financial strain. With little to no government support, how can we support caregivers? We’ll talk to experts and hear from you: How are you handling the responsibilities of caregiving?

Guests:

Christina Irving, client services director, Family Caregiver Alliance

Oanh Meyer, associate professor, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in UC Davis School of Medicine

Kelly Dearman, executive director of the department of disability and aging services, San Francisco Human Services Agency

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Ever since our moon formed roughly 4.6 billion years ago, it has “conduct(ed) the symphony of life on Earth.” That’s according to lifelong moon enthusiast and science journalist Rebecca Boyle, who says that the moon has influenced modern science, reproduction, migration, religious rituals and even possibly the blood in our veins. Boyle’s new book is “Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are,” and she joins us to talk about how the moon has inspired and guided human history and to share the pleasure of looking up at the night sky.

Guests:

Rebecca Boyle, author, "Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are." Boyle is also a science writer for The Atlantic, the New York Times, New Scientist, Popular Science, Smithsonian Air & Space and many other publications.

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San Jose mayor Matt Mahan has only been in office about a year but he’s already up for re-election in March. We talk to mayor Mahan in our San Jose studio about what he’s learned in the past year that informs his plans to address San Jose’s most pressing issues including homelessness, housing and policing. Then we check in with Santa Clara Board of Supervisors president Susan Ellenberg about the county’s priorities for the San Jose area. And we’ll take your questions and suggestions for the elected leaders about what you hope to see for the South Bay in the coming year.

Guests:

Matt Mahan, mayor, San Jose

Susan Ellenberg, president, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors

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“Our national mythos,” writes historian Blair LM Kelley, “leaves little room for Black workers, or to glean any lessons from their history.” Kelley’s latest book “Black Folk” offers a corrective, focusing on the lives of Black working people after the Southern Emancipation, the challenges they faced bringing their skills to bear and the networks of resistance they formed. Kelley’s book is also personal, grounded in the stories of her own ancestors, including her great, great grandfather, a highly skilled blacksmith who was enslaved. We’ll talk to Kelley about the origins of the Black working class and about the people who animate it, then and now.

Guests:

Blair LM Kelley, author, "Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class." She is the director of the Center for the Study of the American South and co-director of the Southern Futures initiative at the University of North Carolina.

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Court cases like the Dred Scott decision and Brown v. Board of Education are among the legal milestones that mark the arduous journey towards civil rights. But throughout the 19th century, ordinary Black Americans, freed and enslaved, sought to enforce their rights under the law. It’s a hidden and largely untold story of how Blacks both relied on, trusted in, and tried to leverage the legal system to establish and protect their rights, and it’s the subject of UC Berkeley historian Dylan Penningroth’s new book, “Before the Movement.” We’ll talk to Penningroth about his work.

Guests:

Dylan Penningroth, author, "Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights;" professor of law and history at U.C. Berkeley and associate dean of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program.

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How soon will Californians be able to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco by high-speed rail? In welcome news, the California High-Speed Rail Authority received nearly $3.1 billion in federal funding last month to advance work on the project. Environmental reviews are largely complete for the 500-mile route, and construction has begun on bridges and tunnels in the Central Valley. But the cost for the entire project is now expected to reach $128 billion, four times higher than was estimated when voters first approved it in 2008. In this installment of our In Transit series, we speak to the CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority to get updates and take your questions.

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