KQED's Forum

Extreme academic workloads and relentless achievement culture are driving a youth mental health crisis in classrooms nationwide — especially among students trying to get into top colleges. That’s according to Stuart Slavin, a pediatrician who researches how to improve student mental health and the author of “The Success Trap.” We’ll hear from Slavin, a former school administrator and a high school journalist about how to escape “The Success Trap” and how parents can help their kids navigate this pressure.

Guests:

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Oakland-based comedian, filmmaker, author and activist W. Kamau Bell is best known for his award-winning series “United Shades of America,” “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed,” and “We Need To Talk About Cosby.” His touring stand-up set — coming to Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium on Oct. 1 — as well as his Substack and new podcast are all titled with the same question: “Who’s with Me?” Bell says the question “is an invitation to connect, a call to action, and a reassuring pat on the shoulder in these increasingly hectic times.” As part of our Bay Area Legends series, we’ll talk with Bell about forming community and celebrating Oakland.

Guest:

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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked tens of thousands of pages of internal documents that were published in a 2021 Wall Street Journal exposé, now the basis of the forthcoming film “The Social Reckoning.” The documents revealed that the tech giant knew its engagement-driven algorithms accelerated political polarization, increased teenage mental health issues and incited ethnic violence abroad, and Haugen argued that Mark Zuckerberg routinely prioritized user growth and corporate profits over public safety. In her memoir “The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook,” Haugen details the personal and professional cost of exposing Meta and going public.

Guest:

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Diesel prices are now well above $8 a gallon in California –  higher than they’ve ever been and 63 percent more than a year ago. While most consumers don’t purchase diesel, most of the goods we buy rely on it for transportation.  Diesel powers tractors that work farms, trucks that transport the food to a manufacturing facility and trains that distribute products across the country.  The steep rise in diesel prices is already putting pressure on businesses and the economy as a whole. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is talking about banning diesel exports as a way to increase domestic supply and lower prices. We’ll talk about why diesel prices have skyrocketed, how that will affect consumers and what could happen next.

Guests:

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Why did President Biden stay the course in Gaza even as some of his own advisers pushed for change? In his new book, “Crossing the Red Line,” journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed reconstructs the decisions behind U.S. support for Israel’s war in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. We talk to him about President Biden’s reluctance to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his abandoned “red line” over Israel’s invasion of Rafah and the legacy of those decisions today.

Guest:

Akbar Shahid Ahmed, diplomatic correspondent, The Washington Sun, author, “Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel’s War in Gaza”

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Tasha Malan describes herself as a “chill bay area guy.” The musician and content creator posts hyper-niche San Francisco TikToks and Instagram reels: showing off her Mission district lifestyle, impersonating Mayor Lurie and reading poetry dedicated to Redwood City. Malan soundtracks many of these videos with her own songs, which recall early aughts pop and R&B. She joins us to perform acoustic versions of her forthcoming debut album and to talk about why she says the Bay Area not only has an unparalleled local music scene, it’s “leading the pop renaissance.”

Guests:

Tasha Malan, musician and content creator, their new single, “Sagitaria,” drops next month

Christian Tumalan, Pianist & Co-Founder & Co-Director, Pacific Mambo Orchestra

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From the White House ballroom to the Kennedy Center to a proposed triumphal arch along the Potomac, President Trump has taken a special interest in creating physical markers of his legacy. We’ll look at how he’s largely escaped oversight, including by designating these projects as central to national security. Why are monuments such a priority for Trump, and what does this tell us about the growing reach of executive power?

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Years after the pandemic emptied trains and buses, Bay Area transit agencies still face anemic ridership and rising costs. A new regional transit measure that voters put on the November ballot aims to shift the tides. It would add a 0.5% sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties and 1% in San Francisco, to raise an estimated $14 billion over 14 years. Supporters hope it will fund BART, Muni, Caltrain, SamTrans, VTA and AC Transit and better connect the systems, while critics call it a regressive tax that hits lower-income residents hardest. We’ll talk about how we got here and the future of public transit with – or without – these funds.

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Rep. Nancy Pelosi will retire following the 2026 midterm elections, bringing to end her almost 40-year career in Congress. In a new five-part podcast series, “The Speaker,” KQED’s Scott Shafer embarked on an ambitious reporting project to capture the story of the first woman Speaker of the House. Shafer traces how Pelosi rose from unlikely Congressional candidate to one of the most powerful women in American politics. Shafer and Pelosi biographer Susan Page joins us to talk about Pelosi’s political legacy and where the Democratic Party goes from here.

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When the San Francisco Chronicle last published its list of the Bay Area’s 200 largest public companies 17 years ago, oil behemoth Chevron ranked no. 1. The company has since left for Houston and now Apple Inc. has seized the top spot. Tech companies now make up 21 of the top 25 companies, with AI and social media companies like Nvidia and Meta joining veterans like Intel and Hewlett Packard in the top 10. This concentration of heavy hitters helped make the Bay Area the largest regional economy in the country, but experts warn our reliance on tech could be a disadvantage in the long term. We’ll dig into how the Bay Area’s business landscape has shifted and what it could mean for jobs and our regional economy.

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