KQED's Forum

Remember the Jordan Peele deepfake of President Obama from 2018? Since then, deepfake technology and other forms of AI-generated text, photos, voices and videos have become far more sophisticated and realistic — and more accessible to the general public. With political organizations and pranksters alike using these tools, we’ll discuss what has experts in AI and misinformation most worried. And we’ll hear what’s being proposed in terms of reform and oversight — from the private sector and in legislation — to decrease disinformation, confusion and conundrums ahead of the 2024 election.

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Watch Jordan Peele use AI to make Barack Obama deliver a PSA about fake news

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

Scott Wiener, California state senator, representing San Francisco

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Millions of families in the U.S. depend on welfare to get by, but it’s far from an efficient system. The bureaucratic mechanisms designed to help people find jobs, a requirement for receiving aid, often don’t work, even as they funnel millions of dollars into private companies with government contracts. In the latest season of Marketplace’s “The Uncertain Hour” podcast, host and producer Krissy Clark investigates the welfare-to-work industrial complex and how businesses profit off of people living paycheck to paycheck. As Washington debates work requirements as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, we talk with Clark about how welfare eligibility works and whether the current system is helping people escape poverty or keeping them trapped.

Guests:

Krissy Clark, host and producer, The Uncertain Hour podcast, and senior correspondent at Marketplace

Jeanne Kuang, reporter, CalMatters

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Governor Newsom released on Friday his May revision of the state budget, which shows a $31.5 billion deficit, nearly $10 billion higher than forecast in January. Newsom has declined to raise taxes or meaningfully dip into rainy day funds to address the deficit, opting instead to limit funding increases for transportation, climate and social service programs. At the same time, the revised budget would increase funding for flood protection, especially in the Central Valley and Tulare Lake basin ahead of the ‘Big Melt.’ We’ll talk about how it all might play out in the legislature before the budget approval deadline of June 15.

Guests:

Jeremy White, covers California politics, Politico

Chris Hoene, executive director, California Budget & Policy Center

Julie Rentner, president, River Partners - a nonprofit based in Chico, CA, that works to restore healthy watersheds and create wildlife habitat in the Central Valley and Southern California

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Dorothy Lazard has held the history of Oakland in her hands for years as the legendary historian and archivist at the Oakland public library. She’s now retired and telling her own story of growing up in Oakland and San Francisco in the late 60’s and early 70’s, which she writes was “the first best time to be a Black kid in America.” We talk to her about coming of age in the 1970’s Bay Area, the books and the libraries that fed her eager young mind, and her memoir, What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World.

Guests:

Dorothy Lazard, author, What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World; former head librarian, the Oakland History Center

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Eurovision, the song contest that brought the world ABBA’s “Waterloo,” concludes with its big finale this Saturday. It’s been dismissed as kitschy and camp. But it’s also considered the Olympics of pop music, and last year, 161 million viewers turned in to watch the finale. This year’s competition includes an Austrian homage to Edgar Allen Poe, Finland’s metal rap entry, “Cha Cha Cha,” and bookie favorite, Sweden’s “Tattoo.” And for the first time, voting is not limited to the Eurozone; viewers from the U.S. can join the musical fray by voting online. We’ll talk about the contest, its history, and predict what song will enter into the Eurovision canon. What’s your favorite?

Guests:

William Lee Adams, founder of Wiwibloggs, a Eurovision blog; author, "Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision;" senior journalist, BBC World Service

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Are we destined to parent the way our parents parented even if we strongly object to some of the things they did? Sure, we can probably keep ourselves from dropping cigarette ashes in our toddler’s cereal, but when things get chaotic do we snap the same way our parents did? In her article “The Parent Prophecy” in The Atlantic, Faith Hill says there are elements of Greek tragedy in it all, “parents run away from their parents and sometimes end up right back in the same spot.” What do you do, for better or worse, that your parents did? And are things your parents did with you that you wish you were able to do with your kids?

Guests:

Faith Hill, senior associate editor of Family, The Atlantic - She wrote the article, "The Parenting Prophecy"

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Australia, Chile and China are the top three sources of the world’s lithium – the element essential to build the batteries that power electric vehicles. But that could change as mining operations progress in California’s Imperial Valley. “Lithium Valley,” a vast underground reserve near the Salton Sea, contains enough lithium to meet all of U.S. future demand and more than one-third of global demand, according to the Governor’s office. We learn more about the project and its impacts as part of Forum’s “In Transit” series.

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

Eduardo Garcia, Assemblymember, representing California's 36th State Assembly District in eastern Riverside County and Imperial County

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a civil rights investigation Wednesday into the Antioch Police Department after dozens of officers were caught sending and receiving racist, homophobic, and violent text messages in which they brag about using force against the city’s residents. Bonta also cited longstanding complaints about the Antioch police department, saying data shows spikes of excessive force especially against communities of color. The police department has already been under investigation for misconduct since 2022, by the FBI and the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office. We’ll talk about police wrongdoing in Antioch and its impact on the city’s residents.

Guests:

Sandhya Dirks, national correspondent covering race and identity, NPR

Nate Gartrell, Contra Costa County Courts reporter, Bay Area News Group

Shagoofa Khan, community organizer in Antioch

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This Thursday, the federal Covid Public Health Emergency expires, and with its end comes the cessation of federal benefits like additional hospital reimbursements for Covid patient care and free at-home tests. It also marks a moment in which doctors, scientists, politicians and experts are asking themselves: What did we get right during this pandemic? While Covid has fallen out of the headlines, it continues to infect the population, and in 2022 it was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. But the death toll could have been even worse. The science could have been bogged down. Vaccinations could have been delayed. But they were not. What lessons have we learned and what should we do to prepare for the next pandemic?

Guests:

Jennifer Nuzzo , Professor Epidemiology, and Director, Pandemic Center, Brown University School of Public Health

Dhruv Khullar, Physician and assistant professor of Health Policy and Economics, Weill Cornell Medical College - Khullar is also a contributor at The New Yorker. His most recent New Yorker article is titled "Ending the Covid Public Health Emergency Isn't All Good News"

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Did you know that Rocky Road ice cream originated in Oakland? Or that Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera were once married in San Francisco City Hall? Or that a disaster in Concord helped desegregate our nation’s military? Our region is full of fascinating history that even some lifelong residents don’t know about. Uncovering forgotten history and solving local mysteries is what KQED’s Bay Curious podcast is all about. And now, the show’s reporting is in a book, “Bay Curious: Exploring the Hidden True Stories of the San Francisco Bay Area.” KQED’s Olivia Allen-Price, host of Bay Curious joins us to talk about investigating forgotten histories, legendary locals, and the many quirks and oddities that make the Bay Area unique.

Guests:

Olivia Allen-Price, Host, KQED's Bay Curious - a podcast that investigates questions asked by local residents about things both profound and peculiar that make the Bay Area unique.

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