KQED's Forum

We discuss the Ukraine military’s long-awaited counter-offensive, signaling a new phase in its war with Russia. The push comes as the country reels from the catastrophic Nova Kakhovka dam collapse. We’ll get the latest from Ukraine and talk with the director of a new documentary on the war, “20 Days in Mariupol”.

Guests:

Steven Pifer, affiliate, Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University; former ambassador to Ukraine; senior director, the National Security Council in the Clinton administration

Igor Markov, member of the Board of Directors, Nova Ukraine; research scientist, Meta

Mstyslav Chernov, video journalist, Associated Press; director, the documentary, "20 Days in Mariupol"

Melinda Haring, nonresident senior fellow, Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center

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Diet culture permeates our society. And that’s impacting our kids. Children as young as 3 learn to associate being fat with negative traits, and anti-fat bias can be found in the doctor’s office, in the classroom and on the sports field. In her new book “Fat Talk,” author Virginia Sole-Smith argues we need to take a new approach to how we navigate and discuss fatness and anti-fat bias with our children. Because the current stigmatization isn’t making our kids any healthier. We talk with Sole-Smith about why the word “fat” is OK to use, how to talk about body size and why diets — even those masked as lifestyle changes — can backfire with children and adults.

Guests:

Virginia Sole-Smith, journalist and author, "Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture," and "Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America;" she also publishes the newsletter "Burnt Toast"

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Singer Sid Sriram was born in southern India, but his family moved to Fremont when he was just a year old. His voice and his sound are the product of his family’s legacy as carnatic traditional signers and of a childhood in the Bay Area suburbs, listening to jazz and hip hop. Sriram has already achieved fame in India, his career expanded globally after singing for Grammy-Award winning composer A.R. Rahm, and he was recently featured in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. He joins us in our studio to sing from his new album and talk about growing up Indian-American in the Fremont and what it’s like to be more famous halfway across the world than where you went to high school.

Guests:

Sid Sriram, musician, his forthcoming album is Sidharth

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Humorist Samantha Irby is known for her all-too-relatable essay collections, including 2020’s bestseller “Wow, No Thank You,” and she’s written some of the knockout punch lines on shows like “Shrill” and “And Just Like That.” Her new essay collection, “Quietly Hostile,” explores how success and Hollywood aren’t as glamorous as her hate mail assumes. And with a light touch, she gives toilet etiquette, describes her love for Dave Matthews in playlist form and celebrates thinking about whales when high. Irby joins us to share how she writes about — and finds funny in — the grossness and anxieties of everyday life.

Guests:

Samantha Irby, comedian, essayist, blogger, and television writer, author of the new essay collection, "Quietly Hostile." Previous books include "We Are Never Meeting in Real Life" and "Wow, No Thank You"

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Every city sits where it does for geological reasons, be that suitable terrain, availability of water or other natural resources, good climate or beautiful scenery. In the case of Oakland, it was all of these things. Since the original inhabitants, the Ohlones, Oakland has attracted settlers for its landscape, beauty and resources, each of which has a connection with its distinctive geology. But as much as the physical terrain shaped Oakland’s development into a bustling city, the people who resided in the East Bay have molded the land right back. As geologist Andrew Alden explores in his book “Deep Oakland: How Geology Shaped a City,” geologic history is a dramatic entanglement of people and place. We’ll talk with Alden about his new book and how the Bay Area’s geology forms the blueprint for our society.

Guests:

Andrew Alden, geologist, writer, photographer, and geological tour guide. His latest book is “Deep Oakland: How Geology Shaped a City.”

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Allergies have intensified over the last few decades. An estimated 30 to 40 percent of the global population has some form of allergy, and experts say that number could rise to 50 percent by the year 2030. So what’s behind this? Research shows it’s a complicated picture, with climate change, our stress levels and genetics all playing roles. We talk to medical anthropologist Theresa McPhail, author of the new book “Allergic,” about what the latest research shows on diagnostics, treatment and what we can do to cope with our allergies in a “changing world.”

Guests:

Theresa MacPhail, medical anthropologist and associate professor of Science and Technology Studies, Stevens Institute of Technology; author, "Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World"

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San Francisco has long been a favorite target of conservative news outlets. But a recent CNN special on the city’s drug and homelessness crises posed the question, “What Happened to San Francisco?” and a New York magazine piece asks: “What is it like to live in a city that no longer believes its problems can be fixed?” For Mayor London Breed, talk of a San Francisco “doom loop” is premature. Her newly released 14.6 billion budget proposal seeks to tackle many of the city’s thorniest problems. We’ll talk to her about her spending plan, her proposal to revive downtown and burnish the city’s image and she’ll take your questions.

Guests:

London Breed, mayor, City and County of San Francisco

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Few drugs in history have generated as much controversy, or held as much promise as MDMA, writes science journalist Rachel Nuwer. Health officials once said the psychedelic drug known as Ecstasy or Molly would eat holes in the brains of the people who took it. Decades later, researchers are on the verge of applying for federal authorization to use the drug to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a move which Nuwer says could revolutionize its place in society. Nuwer traces the little known history of the drug – from its first confirmed human use in the San Francisco Bay Area during the counterculture era, to the cutting edge of therapeutic research – in her new book “I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World.”

Guests:

Rachel Nuwer, author and freelance science journalist. She's written for outlets like The New York Times and National Geographic. Her new book is “I Feel Love: M-D-M-A and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World.”

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Some people may think palm trees are native to California, but they’re not. In fact, non-native flora abound throughout our state. A bill moving through the California Legislature aims to boost the proliferation of native plants by requiring landscaping on some public and commercial areas to use at least 75 percent low-water, native plants by 2035. The idea is to promote cultivation of California’s native plants, increase biodiversity, and respond better to climate change. Native plants play an important role in supporting wildlife and insects that have evolved together over thousands of years. We’ll talk about efforts to grow more native plants in California, how they benefit the environment and how to incorporate them into your garden.

Guests:

Andrea Williams, director of Biodiversity Initiatives for the California Native Plant Society

Michael Wilcox, senior lecturer of Native American Studies and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University

Kathy Crane, owner of Yerba Buena Nursery at Pastorino Farms

Nina House, museum scientist at the University and Jepson Herbaria, at University of California Berkeley

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Citing an increased risk of natural disasters, two of California’s largest property insurers, State Farm and Allstate, are no longer selling new homeowners insurance in the state. Insurers have been shrinking their coverage areas in California for the last few years, especially in wildfire-prone regions, but the latest moves signal just how much insurers are accounting for the increasing costs of climate change. We’ll talk about the impact on homeowners, homebuilders and would-be home buyers and how the state is responding.

Guests:

Ivan Penn , Los Angeles-based reporter covering alternative energy, The New York Times.

Michael Wara, policy director for the Sustainability Accelerator at the Doerr School of Sustainability and director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and senior research scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University

Kimiko Barrett, research and policy analyst, Headwater Economics

Ricardo Lara, Insurance Commissioner of California

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