KQED's Forum

After seven farm workers were killed Monday in a mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, the city’s vice-mayor Joaquin Jimenez said in a press conference, “Many of you come to our community for the pumpkins, and ignore the farm workers. Not today.” Forum discusses the work, lives and struggles of farmworkers on California's central coast, and we get the latest on the investigation and fallout from the massacre.

Related article:

• ALAS: Ayudando Latinos a Soñar

Guests:

Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent and co-host of Political Breakdown show, KQED

Madi Bolanos, co-host of The California Report, KQED

Antonio De Loera-Brus, Director of Communications, United Farm Workers

Belinda Hernandez Arriaga, executive director and founder, ALAS, a community group in Half Ayudando Latinos A Soñar in Half Moon Bay and licensed clinical social worker

Ximena Bustillo, politics reporter, NPR; former food and agriculture policy reporter, Politico covering immigration, labor and equity issues

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

On Saturday night it was Monterey Park, where 11 people died and nine more were injured after a gunman opened fire in a popular ballroom, on the eve of the Lunar New Year. On Monday it was Half Moon Bay, where a gunman claimed the lives of at least seven in the vicinity of a mushroom farm. We'll talk about how the impacts of the shootings are being felt in communities across California.

Guests:

Cynthia Choi, co-executive director, Chinese for Affirmative Action; co-founder, Stop AAPI Hate

Josie Huang, Asian American communities correspondent, KPCC

Rep. Judy Chu, U.S. congresswoman representing Monterey Park

Sherry Wang, associate professor of counseling psychology, Santa Clara University

Guy Marzorati, reporter and producer, KQED's politics and government desk

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

The Bay Area’s fascination with technology didn’t start with Silicon Valley. In the late 19th century, San Franciscan Eadweard Muybridge, an eccentric, misanthropic murderer became the first person to capture motion on film. At the time, Muybridge was a well-known photographer whose moody images of Yosemite Valley stood out from the conventional landscape photographs of the time. Because Muybridge was known as an inventor and innovator, Leland Stanford approached him about trying to photograph his horse in motion. Those images of a horse galloping at speed revolutionized photography. We’ll talk about Muybridge and how his inventiveness with camera and film laid the groundwork for how we see and record the world today.

Guests:

Rebecca Solnit, author & essayist - Solnit is the author of "River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West" as well as "Orwell's Roses," "Recollection of My Nonexistence," "Whose Story is This: Old Conflicts, New Chapters," and "Drowned River: The Death and Rebirth of Glen Canyon on the Colorado," among other works.

Marc A. Shaffer, Director, "Exposing Muybridge"

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

After enjoying a few booze-infused holiday weeks last month, many of us are drying out in January, reducing or completely eliminating alcohol from our diets. Have you been cutting back? Or maybe you’ve developed a mindful practice with alcohol or a casual way of telling friends you’re opting out when going out? We’ll hear how your dry January is going and learn about emerging research finding that — buzzkill — even moderate amounts of alcohol are not good for our health.

Guests:

Dana G. Smith, reporter on the Well Desk, New York Times

Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford School of Medicine; author of the forthcoming book, “Addiction: A Very Short Introduction"

Dr. Tauheed Zaman, associate professor of psychiatry and leads the addiction psychiatry training program, UCSF; director of Addiction Consult and Opioid Safety, San Francisco VA Medical Center

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

This month, the Biden Administration began allowing migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to seek “parole” to enter the United States and stay temporarily. The move is seen as a way to alleviate the numbers of people showing up at the nation’s southern border hoping to seek asylum. Immigration rights advocates have been disappointed by Biden’s lack of sweeping reforms or policy changes, and for leaving policies from the Trump administration in place. We check in on the situation along the border and Biden’s efforts on immigration policy.

Guests:

Hamed Aleaziz, immigration policy reporter, L.A. Times

Tyche Hendricks, senior editor covering immigration, KQED

Salvador Rivera, correspondent based in San Diego, BorderReport.com

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

Gabrielle Zevin’s most recent novel “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” draws its title from what Zevin calls one of the bleakest speeches in all of Shakespeare, as Macbeth contemplates life’s monotony and meaninglessness. But to one of her characters, the soliloquy is hopeful, and it expresses the essence of a video game: “the idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.” We talk to Zevin about the video games, art and friendships that animate the novel, and why California occupies a special place in it.

Guests:

Gabrielle Zevin, author, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"

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

Comedy duo Cheech & Chong started doing improv theater together about 55 years ago, in an act they’ve called “hippie burlesque,” at a Vancouver strip club. Ten years later they invented the stoner buddy movie genre with Up In Smoke, introducing mainstream America to a lot of weed jokes and also a friendlier 70’s Chicano culture than had been portrayed on screen. We talk with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, who are part of the comedy festival SF Sketchfest, about their long careers, art, activism and whether legalization has made marijuana any less funny.

Guests:

Tommy Chong, comedian, actor and musician

Cheech Marin, comedian, actor and musician and founding donor, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture

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

Veteran journalist Judy Woodruff stepped down as the anchor of PBS NewsHour at the end of last month. Widely considered one of the most trusted figures in the media, Woodruff’s laureled career includes an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award and the inaugural Peabody Award for Journalistic Integrity. Though no longer anchor, she plans to next report on America’s political divides — how we got here, how we heal and where we go next — in a series called "America at a Crossroads.” Woodruff joins us to share how she’s seen the country and its politics change over her 50-year career and what trust in the media really means.

Guests:

Judy Woodruff, former anchor, PBS Newshour; reporter, upcoming PBS project, "Judy Woodruff Presents: America at a Crossroads"

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

San Francisco has just 815,000 residents. But its annual budget is nearly $14 billion. The budget covers the operations of both the city and county of San Francisco, and half of that is money earmarked for the airport, port, Muni, and public utilities, among other enterprise agencies. But that leaves nearly $7 billion in General Fund money for a city with less than a million people. And, the city is projecting a $728 million deficit over the next two years. Where does the money go and does San Francisco’s budget reflect the values of its citizens? We’ll talk about the budget, the looming deficit, and the financial state of San Francisco, which has had one of the slowest economic recoveries from the pandemic in the nation.

Guests:

Jim Wunderman, President and CEO, Bay Area Council - A regional business-sponsored public policy group

JD Morris, City Hall reporter, SF Chronicle

Michelle Allersma, director, San Francisco Controller's Office Budget and Analysis Division

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

“[T]o Kevin McCarthy, the Intelligence Committee is just a political plaything.” That was how Los Angeles Congressman Adam Schiff last week characterized McCarthy’s stated intention to remove him from the committee he chaired in order to please MAGA Republicans. We talk to Rep. Schiff about how House Democrats will operate under McCarthy’s leadership, how he sees lawmakers resolve an upcoming debt ceiling fight and how he plans to keep momentum behind the work of the committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection.

Guest:

Congressman Adam Schiff, Democratic Congressman, representing California's 28th District, in Los Angeles County; former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and member of the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection; author, "Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could"

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