KQED's Forum

A couple of years ago, penned in by the pandemic, writer Peggy Orenstein “felt an inexplicable, unquenchable urge to confront a large animal while wielding a razor-sharp, juddering clipper; shear off its fleece; and figure out how to make it into a sweater.” Her new memoir, “Unraveling,” tells the story of that journey – from shearing a sheep named Martha and spinning and dyeing her wool, to designing and knitting that sweater. Woven through, Orenstein reckons with the environmental and cultural toll of the textile industry, the history of women’s work, the evolution of fairy tales and her own midlife change and loss.

Guests:

Peggy Orenstein, author, "Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater," "Boys and Sex," "Girls and Sex" and "Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture"

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California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation: it bans assault-type weapons and high-capacity magazines, mandates background checks and waiting periods for firearm purchases and empowers citizens to ask a court to temporarily remove a gun from someone likely to harm themselves or others. Its firearm violence death rate is also significantly lower than the rest of the country's. Still, laws alone were not enough to prevent the deadly mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay. We'll learn why and hear about the obstacles California agencies face as they try to enforce the state's gun laws and contend with lax rules in neighboring states.

Guests:

Garen Wintemute , director, violence prevention research program at UC Davis - He also practices and teaches emergency medicine at the UC-Davis School of Medicine.

Steve Lindley, program manager, Brady Campaign - former chief of the Bureau of Firearms, California Department of Justice

Alana Mathews, assistant district attorney, Contra Costa County

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Dungeness crab season is a big deal in the bay area. Whether caught from a boat or off a pier, served with crusty bread and butter or over garlic noodles, it seems like everyone has a favorite dungeness crab dish and story. As part of our regular All You Can Eat series, featuring food cultures of the Bay Area, we’ll talk with people who catch, cook and love crabs about the grip the iconic crustacean has on the bay.

Guests:

Luke Tsai, food editor, KQED Arts & Culture

Rocky Rivera, emcee and writer, part of KQED's "Frisco Foodies" series

Edward Wooley, chef and owner, Chef Smelly's

Charlie Chang, chef and owner, PPQ Dungeness Island

Matt Juanes, commercial fisherman

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Los Angeles Congressmember Adam Schiff announced Thursday that he’s running to be California’s next Senator in 2024, joining Orange County Representative Katie Porter and setting up a rare battle for Dianne Feinstein’s seat. Feinstein, who has served as Senator since 1992, has yet to announce whether she’ll run for re-election. We’ll talk about what the race signals for the Democratic party, who else is likely to run and the downstream effects on elections for the House of Representatives and local positions. We want to hear from you: Who do you want to be California’s next senator? What kind of senator do you think our state needs?

Guests:

Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED; co-host, KQED's Political Breakdown show

Jeremy White, covers California politics, Politico

Melanie Mason, national political correspondent, Los Angeles Times

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Major Bay Area employers including Salesforce, Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet and Facebook parent company Meta have all cut thousands of workers in the last few months. The headlines are startling, but economists say the job market remains in relatively good shape. Unemployment in California hovers near 4 percent down from 16 percent in April 2020, and many industries are still experiencing a worker shortage. Forum talks about layoffs, the job market and what could happen next.

Guests:

Jennie Brand, professor of sociology and statistics, director of the California Center for Population Research and co-director of the Center for Social Statistics, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

Kathryn Minshew, CEO and founder, The Muse, a career platform, and Fairygodboss, a career community for women

Sinem Buber, lead economist, ZipRecruiter - online employment marketplace

Parul Koul, software engineer, Google; executive chair, Alphabet Workers Union

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As a girl growing up in Canyon Country, California, Lauren Fleshman could run fast. Really fast. As a high school student and recruited athlete at Stanford, Fleshman won races, set records, and her talent allowed her to go pro. But throughout her career, Fleshman saw many teammates leave the sport or develop physical or mental health problems. So little was known then, and even now, about how young female athletes develop physically and often training regimens were made for men with women being afterthoughts. Today, as a coach, she’s bringing a new eye to how to build a successful career as a woman runner. We’ll talk about her new book, 'Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World,' which challenges the way the sports world treats its female athletes.

Guests:

Lauren Fleshman, author, "Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World;" distance runner, won five NCAA championships and two national championships as a professional runner

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The buoyant protagonist of San Francisco writer Kathryn Ma’s new novel, The Chinese Groove, migrates from China, where he’s part of the outcast branch of his family, to San Francisco, where he is sure his distant relatives will welcome and nurture him and shepherd him along his path. Forum talks to Ma about the comedy of errors that follow, San Francisco through a new immigrant’s eyes and her character’s faith in the “groove,” the kindness and generosity expected from fellow countrymen.

Guests:

Kathryn Ma, author, "The Chinese Groove," "The Year She Left Us" and "All That Work and Still No Boys"

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Aviation is responsible for over two percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and for technological reasons it’s one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize. But California – an early adopter of sustainable aviation fuel and home to 12 international airports – is positioned to guide the nation toward greener air travel, according to UC Berkeley climate and energy expert Ethan Elkind. As part of Forum's new series "In Transit," we’ll talk about the hope and limitations of green aviation technology and how we can reduce our carbon footprint when we fly.

Guests:

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

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In her first weeks in office, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has placed the police chief on administrative leave, dealt with a mass shooting and coped with the departure of the city’s homelessness czar. The problems facing Oakland, like other cities in the state, are not for the faint-hearted. Thao, the youngest person to serve as mayor of Oakland, ran on her credentials and her compelling life story as a daughter of Hmong refugees and a formerly unhoused single mother who went from community college to Cal. We’ll talk to Thao about what she hopes to accomplish and take your questions for the mayor.

Guests:

Sheng Thao, Mayor, Oakland

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Described as “a love letter to Korean pop sensation BTS and an ode to fandom,” the new book "On BTS” by Atlantic senior editor Lenika Cruz compiles and expands upon Cruz’s coverage of the band for the Atlantic since 2019. “To cover BTS seriously over time is to engage with many complex issues and phenomena,” she writes, “fandom, authenticity, social media, and taste, as well as artistic ownership, South Korean society, mainstream music’s institutional biases, tensions between commercialism and creativity, and so much more.” We’ll talk with Cruz about the surprising depth of the group’s work and the joys of being a fan, and we’ll play some of your favorite songs by BTS.

Guests:

Lenika Cruz, senior editor covering culture, The Atlantic - and author, "On BTS: Pop Music, Fandom, Sincerity"

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