KQED's Forum

The Bay Area’s trees are starting to bloom and it’s beautiful. Magnificent magnolia, plum and even, in some areas, cherry blossoms. With global warming, some plants have been leafing and blooming earlier. We’ll talk to experts on seasonal change and the local flora about the whys, hows and whens of blooms and what it all means for pollination, insects and birds. And we’ll want to hear from you. What are you seeing on your walks and in your backyards?

Guests:

Ryan Guillou, director of collections and conservation, Gardens of Golden Gate Park, includes the botanical gardens, conservatory of flowers and Japanese tea garden

Libby Ellwood, ecologist and director of education, outreach, diversity, & inclusion and global collaborations, iDigBio

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Have you ever been told that if you lower your voice or avoid vocal fry or stop saying “like” so much you’ll sound more authoritative? It’s that kind of advice, no matter how well-intentioned, that speech coach Samara Bay wants us to stop heeding. Generations of Americans have associated power with the slow, booming speech of male politicians and news anchors, writes Bay in her new book “Permission to Speak.” But in fact, if we stopped trying to approximate the traditional voice standards of powerful men we’d sound “richer, more relaxed, more expansive, expressive, unlimited by social norms and alive with possibility.” We’ll talk to Bay about why we should change our assumptions about what power and authority sound like.

Guests:

Samara Bay, speech coach and author, "Permission to Speak:" How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting with You"

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The recent mass shootings in Half Moon Bay put a spotlight on the decades long plight of farmworkers in California who often earn low wages and live in substandard housing. The shootings are only the latest in a particularly hard year for farmworkers. Severe storms damaged crops and livelihoods up and down the state as climate change continues to worsen conditions such as wildfires, extreme heat and flooding that threaten California’s agricultural industry. Meanwhile, many laws aimed at protecting farmworkers are not enforced. We’ll talk about the various challenges farmworkers face and efforts to help them when disasters hit.

Guests:

Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research, Economic Policy Institute; former senior advisor on immigration and labor to the California Attorney General

Vanessa Rancaño, housing reporter, KQED News

Marisa Kendall, covers housing, the Bay Area News Group

Michael Méndez, assistant professor, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine; author, “Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement”

Farida Jhabvala Romero, reporter, KQED

Javier Zamora, owner, JSM Organics farm in Royal Oaks, CA

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The Colorado River, which supplies water to much of the western United States, continues to diminish under historic drought conditions. And California is under pressure to reduce the amount of water it takes. The agricultural industry in California’s Imperial Valley alone gets more water than Arizona and Nevada combined – but that’s because under law, those farmers have some of the Colorado River’s oldest water rights. Citing those rights, California rejected a proposal last week from the six other Colorado River-dependent states on how to divide the water and instead put forward its own plan. We’ll take a closer look at the impasse and the impact of the shrinking Colorado River on the Imperial Valley and beyond.

Guests:

Sammy Roth, energy reporter, Los Angeles Times

Janet Wilson, senior environment reporter, The Desert Sun - and Stanford Western Media Fellow

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Recently elected San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is now at the helm of the largest city in the Bay Area and the 10th largest city in the United States. San Jose faces a lack of affordable housing, struggling local businesses and resident concerns over public safety. Mahan said he plans to use a results-oriented and data-driven approach focused on getting back to basics. But time is not on the mayor’s side: a recent change to San Jose’s election calendar means the mayoral seat will be up for grabs again in 2024. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan joins us to answer our questions and yours.

Guests:

Matt Mahan, mayor, San Jose

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In 1954, the Comics Code Authority was formed to censor newsstand comic books by banning depictions of violence, negative portrayals of law enforcement and any mention of homosexuality. The ban created the flourishing world of so-called ‘underground comix,’ which approached banned items as a checklist and inspired a generation of LGBTQ cartoonists to draw themselves and their community on the page. A new PBS documentary, “No Straight Lines,” maps the history of LGBTQ comics frame by frame, from Rupert Kinnard’s “Brown Bomber,” to Alison Bechdel’s “Dykes to Watch Out For,” to their influence on the next generation of queer comic artists today. We’ll talk about that history and hear from next generation artists Lawrence Lindell and Maia Kobabe, whose graphic memoir “Gender Queer” is now one of the most-banned books in the U.S.

Guests:

Maia Kobabe, cartoonist; author, “Gender Queer”

Lawrence Lindell, cartoonist; author, “Blackward” and “From Truth with Truth”

Vivian Kleiman, director, “No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics”

Rupert Kinnard, activist; cartoonist; author, “B.B. and the Diva,” and “Cathartic Comics”

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The Bay Area’s outsized contribution to hip-hop has often been overlooked. But this week KQED launched a yearlong project called That’s My Word, an exploration into the history and influence of Bay Area hip-hop. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the genre that started in New York and moved west. The Bay has played a crucial role as a haven for artists including Mac Dre, Keak Da Sneak, Kamaiyah, Digital Underground, MC Hammer, Too Short and E-40 among many others. We’ll listen to some notable tracks and talk with the project creators about how the Bay Area’s music, vibe and culture gave rise to a distinct blend of hip-hop.

Guests:

Nastia Voynovskaya, associate editor, KQED Arts

Pendarvis Harshaw, columnist, KQED Arts; host, KQED's "Rightnowish" podcast

Gabe Meline, senior editor, KQED Arts & Culture

Eric Arnold, veteran hip-hop journalist; contributor editor for KQED’s That’s My Word series

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California is set to end its Covid-19 state of emergency on February 28. But the virus is still very much a part of our lives, driving ongoing concerns about emerging variants, long covid and the vulnerabilities of the immunocompromised. That’s what KQED’s Digital News team discovered when it asked its online audiences to share what they most wanted to know about Covid in 2023. We’ll answer those questions and take yours.

Guests:

Carly Severn, senior engagement editor, KQED News

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong M.D., infectious disease specialist, UCSF Medical Center

Dr. Erica Pan, California State Epidemiologist and deputy director for the Center for Infectious Diseases, California Department of Public Health

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Nothing seems to unite people more than their hate for TicketMaster. At a recent Senate Judiciary committee hearing convened in response to the ticket selling debacle around Taylor Swift’s latest stadium tour, Republicans and Democrats alike castigated the company for its practices. Fans and artists complain that Live Nation Entertainment, the conglomerate created when Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010, keeps ticket prices sky high by tacking on fees that it keeps for itself. Some legal scholars contend that the company is a monopoly which must be broken up. But is the company all to blame? We’ll talk about why concerts are so expensive and hear from you: Are you finding yourself priced out of attending live concerts?

Guests:

August Brown, staff writer, Los Angeles Times - Brown covers pop music, the music industry, and nightlife policy. He wrote the recent article, "Everyone Hates Ticketmaster. Is Everyone Wrong?"

Diana Moss, President, American Antitrust Institute

Greg Saunier, musician, producer and composer; drummer, Deerhoof

Clyde Lawrence, film score composer and songwriter; co-founder, the band Lawrence - He recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Ticketmaster.

Jordan Cohen, tenor saxophonist and tour manager, the band Lawrence

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Internet culture has spawned a new offspring: “Nepo babies”... the children of celebrities who have joined the family business whether that be movies, modeling, music, or sports. But nepotism isn’t limited to celebrities. We see it in small businesses, in college admissions, and political families like the Kennedys, Bushes, and Trumps. Nepotism has been around forever, but lately it seems to be bugging everyone. We’ll talk about why, and hear from you: how has nepotism affected your life?

Guests:

Nate Jones, Senior writer, Vulture - Jones wrote the anchor story "How a Nepo Baby Is Born" for New York Magazine's issue on nepotism in celebrity culture

Alison Schrager, economist and senior fellow, Manhattan Institute - Schrager is also an opinion columnist for Bloomberg and wrote the recent piece "Open Your Mind to the Benefits of Nepotism"

Professor Keith Harrison, professor, DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program, University of Central Florida - Harrison is the research leader of the NFL's annual diversity and inclusion report.

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