KQED's Forum

There are only eight bear species remaining on the planet — six of which are endangered. Environmental journalist Gloria Dickie, author of the new book “Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future,” set out to profile all eight while questioning how humans’ complex relationship with bears has and continues to inform our interactions with them. “Charismatic and unloved alike, these eight bears are all that remain of a family that has been our steadfast companion since time immemorial, shaping our cultures, our geographies, and our stories,” she writes. We’ll talk about how humans can learn to better co-exist with bears and why she says we need to do more to protect them.

Guests:

Gloria Dickie, environmental journalist; author, "Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future”

Sarinah Simons, human-bear management specialist, California State Parks; host, the “Earth to Humans” podcast

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In July, members of the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin purchased 26 acres of land, part of what was once the tribe’s territory. The fundraising effort to buy the plot, priced at $1.3 million, is just the latest successful Land Back campaign in California, a movement to return stolen land to indigenous control. The deal signaled a momentous return for a community displaced from their land over a century ago but it also evoked conflicted feelings about having to buy back land that was never willingly relinquished. We’ll talk to members of California tribes about recent Land Back successes and the growing momentum around this movement.

Guests:

Joe Sanchez, elder, Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin

Katie Keliiaa, assistant professor of History, University of California Santa Cruz

Michelle Vassel, tribal administrator, Wiyot Tribe

Inés Ixierda, creative director, Sogorea Te' Land Trust

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The deep sea is nature’s motherboard, according to author and aquatic explorer Susan Casey. It absorbs heat, buffers excess carbon, drives our climate and regulates the earth’s geochemistry. It’s also home to mountains taller than the Swiss Alps and populated by a cast of “marvelous weirdos:” creatures that have two mouths or three hearts, or transparent heads or eyes in the middle of their backs. And it’s almost completely unknown to us: 80% of the sea floor has never been mapped in any detail. Casey joins us to talk about some of the wonders of the deep sea – and the ecological threats it faces. Her book is “The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean.”

Guests:

Susan Casey, author, "The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean." Her previous books include “The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean,” and “The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks.”

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Antioch and Pittsburg police officers were arrested Thursday morning in a series of FBI raids, after an 18-month investigation into an alleged criminal network. 10 law enforcement personnel were named across four indictments on charges including civil rights violations, falsification of records and wire fraud. The Antioch Police department has also been the subject of a civil rights investigation launched by California Attorney General Rob Bonta after dozens of officers were caught sending and receiving racist, homophobic, and violent text messages bragging about using force against the city’s residents. We’ll check in on the latest news.

Guests:

Nate Gartrell, East Bay Courts Reporter, Bay Area News Group

Hash browns as toast. Baking a block of feta with tomatoes and pasta in one dish. Putting cottage cheese in everything. These are just some ideas from cooking videos that have proliferated over social media. But has their popularity made us better cooks? We’ll meet food content creators who have millions of followers and viral videos, and talk to a food journalist about learning to cook with TikTok. Plus, we’ll hear from you: what’s a dish you learned about on social media and tried with success…or failure?

Guests:

Alicia Kennedy, food and culture writer; Kennedy wrote the Vox piece "The Biggest Names in Food Are Just Regular People on TikTok." She is also the author of "No Meat Required" and has a popular food newsletter on Substack.

Joanne Molinaro, food content creator and author of "The Korean Vegan Kitchen." Molinaro has created multiple viral videos on TikTok as "The Korean Vegan," where she has three million followers

Darlene Schrijver, food content creator. Schrijver, who is based in Rohnert Park, is the creator behind "Salad Lab" which has 2.7 million followers on TikTok

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You wouldn’t think that the month in which you’re born has much to do with your medical outcomes. In fact, kids who have summer birthdays are more likely to get the flu than kids born later in the year, and kids diagnosed with ADHD and born in August are prescribed an average of 120 more days of medication than kids born in September. These anomalies are just some of the many hidden forces that “can send two otherwise-similar people down very different paths of care, by chance alone,” according to Harvard Medical School doctors Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham. We learn why chance events influence how we experience the healthcare system and how we can begin to correct for them. Jena and Worsham’s new book is “Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health.”

Guests:

Anupam B. Jena, professor, Harvard Medical School; co-author, "Random Acts of Medicine"; host, Freakonomics, M.D. podcast

Christopher Worsham, pulmonary and critical care physician, Massachusetts General Hospital; researcher, Harvard Medical School; co-author, "Random Acts of Medicine"

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Public schools across California are rolling out new state math guidelines after years of development, revision, and controversy. State education leaders approved the guidelines this summer and say the framework focuses on instilling “big ideas” in students beyond basic math skills. The new framework aims to improve math test scores at a time when only about a third of students meet state proficiency standards and help more Black and Latinx students excel in math. Critics say the guidelines could hold back more advanced high school students and put too much emphasis on bringing social justice into math lessons among other critiques. As kids head back to classrooms, we’ll talk about what’s in the new framework and take your questions.

Guests:

Linda Darling-Hammond, president, California State Board of Education; president, Learning Policy Institute

Kyndall Brown, PhD, executive director, California Mathematics Project Statewide Office at UCLA

Brian Conrad, professor of mathematics; director of undergraduate studies in math, Stanford University

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California has not been spared from the national teacher shortage. The state Department of Education reported more than 10,000 teacher vacancies during the 2021-2022 school year, and Los Angeles Unified School District has 450 teacher openings for this new school year. But shortages are particularly acute in rural communities: Alturas Elementary School, in northern California’s Modoc County, is missing a quarter of its necessary teaching staff. From retention to credentialing requirements to logistically impossible state mandates, the problems plaguing Modoc are common among rural districts. We’ll talk about the problems California’s rural school districts are facing in the new school year and hear potential solutions.

Related link(s):

Guests:

Hailey Branson-Potts, staff writer, Los Angeles Times - who reported the piece, "‘No one is coming to our rescue’: Inside rural California’s alarming teacher shortage"

Lisa Pruitt, professor, UC Davis School of Law - whose work focuses on rural communities

Tom O'Malley, superintendent, Modoc Joint Unified School District in Alturas, CA

Laurel Rulison, kindergarten teacher, Alturas Elementary in Modoc County

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Artificial intelligence is being put to work across various fields in the hopes that it can solve some of our most pressing problems. Among them: a growing demand for mental health services and a shortage of providers. Researchers say the technology has the potential to vastly improve patient access, lighten therapist workloads and combat disparities in quality of care but warn of the risks of deploying AI too soon, with vulnerable patients left to bear the brunt of early mistakes. Others question whether AI belongs anywhere near a therapist’s couch. We’ll talk to psychologists and researchers about how AI might transform the mental health industry and how to avoid the worst imagined outcomes.

Guests:

Jodi Halpern, professor of bioethics and chancellor's chair, University of California, Berkeley

Lloyd Minor, dean, Stanford University School of Medicine

Mainul Mondal, founder and CEO, Ellipsis Health

Betsy Stade, clinical psychologist and postdoctoral researcher, Stanford

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To ease crushing urban traffic, London, Stockholm and Singapore all use congestion pricing, charging drivers to use busy roads in city centers or in certain zones at particular times of day. Congestion pricing has yet to be adopted in any U.S. city, but Los Angeles is taking a hard look at the concept. LA Metro will soon release a study examining which parts of the city could benefit most from congestion pricing, the environmental and public health benefits it could bring and who could qualify for carve-outs. We’ll talk with LA Metro about their study, which will be open for public comment once released. And we’ll hear from Ethan Elkind, our partner for our recurring series “In Transit,” about what LA’s proposal could mean for the rest of the state.

Guests:

Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law; podcast host, Climate Break

Mark Vallianatos, executive officer in the Office of Strategic Innovation, LA Metro

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Women start roughly two out of five businesses in America, but have mostly been shut out of the venture capital ecosphere. Companies funded solely by women snapped up just 2.1 percent of venture capital funding in the United States in 2022. According to research firm Pitchbook, the percentage hasn’t budged much in the past 15 years despite women creating more startups, incubators and venture funds. Women founders say there are still major disparities in how venture capitalists evaluate companies based on gender. We’ll talk about what this trend means for entrepreneurs and the economy.

Guests:

Lata Setty, first founding limited partner and limited partner advisory committee, How Women Invest

Catherine Berman, Co-Founder & CEO, CNote, a fintech company that helps corporations and foundations invest capital into underserved communities at scale

Jeremy Owens, technology editor and San Francisco bureau chief, MarketWatch

Maura O'Neill, distinguished teaching fellow, entrepreneurship and innovation, Haas School of Business, University Of California, Berkeley, founder, The Decade Project, an organization dedicated to making business ownership reflect the race, gender and ethnicity of the United States

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