KQED's Forum

Two of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies, Anthropic and OpenAI, are based in San Francisco — and both are preparing public stock offerings that will bestow a huge financial windfall on their employees. In a region where even many affluent residents are already priced out of the housing market,  the expected influx of wealth could make it even harder for many to find an affordable home. We look at the likely impact of the coming IPOs and how they’ll affect housing affordability and other aspects of life in the Bay Area.

Guests:

Enrico Moretti, professor of economics, UC Berkeley; author, "The New Geography of Jobs"

Gerrit De Vynck, technology reporter, The Washington Post

Kami Rieck, contributing writer, The New York Times

Mike Simonsen, chief economist, Compass real estate

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it mean to be American? That’s the question that animates Ben Rhodes’s new book “All We Say: The Battle for American Identity.” Drawing on 15 speeches spanning more than two centuries, the former Obama speechwriter and national security adviser looks at how they shaped and reflected competing visions over race, democracy, belonging and power. We talk to Rhodes about the speeches he chose and what they say about American identity today.

Guests:

Ben Rhodes, author, "All We Say: The Battle for American Identity;" deputy national security advisor and speechwriter under President Obama

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trump administration said it will allocate $75 million dollars to fund a new coal terminal on the waterfront in West Oakland. Developer Phil Tagami has been working on building a shipping terminal on city-owned land for more than a decade. The coal export plan has faced major community opposition and a slew of lawsuits, which have since been resolved. With the legal challenges out of the way and federal funding, the developers now plan to start construction next year. We talk about the Trump administration’s larger strategy to boost the coal industry, community opposition to the project and what a coal terminal means for the environment and climate change.

Guests:

Darwin BondGraham, news editor, Oaklandside

Maxine Joselow, climate reporter, The New York Times

Jill Tauber, vice president of litigation for climate and energy, Earthjustice

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the American workplace, and virtually every week brings a new report that entry-level white-collar jobs could be replaced by chatbots. Facing an uncertain future, 1 in 4 college students no longer believe their degree is worth the time and money. The New Yorker’s Jay Caspian Kang has been reporting on how A.I. is reshaping higher education, and he joins us to talk about whether the four-year college can survive A.I.

Guests:

Jay Caspian Kang, staff writer, The New Yorker; author, "The Loneliest Americans"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Andrew Sean Greer won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for his novel “Less,” he was the executive director for a writer’s foundation based in Italy and sponsored by a baronessa. It was a job he has compared to “running a bed-and-breakfast for maniacs.” That experience informs his latest comic novel “Villa Coco,” which centers a young man adrift and yes, a baronessa. We talk to Greer, who lives half the year in San Francisco and the other half in Italy.

Guests:

Andrew Sean Greer, author, "Villa Coco"; Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, "Less"; author, "Less is Lost," "The Story of a Marriage," "The Confessions of Max Tivoli"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann spent years inside some of the country’s most consequential investigations, from the Justice Department’s fraud unit to Robert Mueller’s election interference investigation. In his new book “Liar’s Kingdom,” Weissman argues the U.S. needs new laws to stem the corrosive effects of political deception. We talk with Weissmann about his case for reform and how we can make our democratic institutions more resilient. We’ll also talk to him about efforts to stop the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and recent upheavals at the Department of Justice.

Guests:

Andrew Weissmann, professor, NYU Law School; former federal prosecutor and general counsel to the FBI; author, "Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her new essay collection, “Freedom,” novelist and UC Davis creative writing director Zinzi Clemmons examines what freedom means in “a world buckling from the consequences of centuries of interlocking injustices.” She grapples with the complicated legacies of Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and the #MeToo Movement — and explains why she’s no longer an Afropessimist. Clemmons joins us to talk about what it means to consider freedom today for Black Americans, women and oppressed people around the world.

Guests:

Zinzi Clemmons, director of creative writing, UC Davis; author of the novel “What We Lose” and the new essay collection “Freedom"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Self-driving car companies like Waymo say their autonomous vehicles are dramatically safer than human drivers. But a new CNN investigation found that when things do go wrong, they tend to go wrong in decidedly un-human ways: being incapable of responding to instructions from first responders, driving through crime scenes, and even attempting to traverse entirely flooded streets. As Waymo expands into new markets nationwide, we’ll examine these safety issues  — and hear why a lot of passengers love self-driving cars anyway.

Guests:

Yahya Abou-Ghazala, reporter and producer, CNN's investigative unit

Rya Jetha, senior reporter covering physical AI and robotics, Business Insider

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new book “Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music 1969-2000” music critic Barry Walters looks at how music produced and performed by gay and straight musicians has been embraced, celebrated, and defined by queer culture. As he notes, queer musicians “have made an art of saying what can’t be overtly said” and their LGBTQ listeners “have learned to hear what others can’t.” Walters traces the influence of rockers, pop stars, country crooners, R&B artists and disco queens from David Bowie to Sylvster, the Village People to the Petshop Boys, Grace Jones to k.d. lang. We talk to Walters and hear from you: What’s a song that helped define queer culture for you?

Guests:

Barry Walters, author, "Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969–2000"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California’s End of Life Option Act, which allows people with certain terminal illnesses and a life expectancy of less than six months to receive medication that ends their life, turns 10 this month. Yet despite polling showing the policy is popular, access remains complicated and controversial, and few eligible patients actually pursue the option. We’ll discuss how the program has worked in California and examine the shifting national support for medical aid-in-dying policies.

Guests:

Paula Span, adjunct professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; writes the New Old Age column, a co-production of The New York Times and KFF Health News

Dr. Lonny Shavelson, physician and director of education, Academy of Aid-in-Dying Medicine; medical doctor who's provided aid-in-dying care for 7 years

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices