KQED's Forum

There’s about to be a new sheriff in Santa Clara county, for the first time in about a quarter century. Oakland and San Jose are getting new mayors, San Francisco is deciding whether the interim District Attorney should stay in the job. Voters are deciding on housing, crime, abortion, kidneys and a whole lot more. We’ll pore over those Bay Area and State election results with the help of KQED’s politics team.

Guests:

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

Guy Marzorati, reporter and producer, KQED's California Politics and Government Desk

Darwin BondGraham, newseditor, Oaklandside

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This midterm election is a nail-biter. Very tight congressional races across California could determine which party takes control of the House and Senate. California voters are also choosing a governor and an attorney general as well as other statewide officers, and deciding whether to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution. As the results come in, we review the outcomes of key races across the state and hear your reactions.

Guests:

Joshua Yeager, reporter, KVPR

Nicole Nixon, politics reporter, Cap Radio

Scott Shafer, senior editor for KQED’s California Politics and Government desk and co-host of Political Breakdown

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Scientists have yet to discover evidence of life beyond earth, but according to NASA researchers that doesn't mean the universe is lifeless. Where does the scientific search for life beyond our planet stand? From the possibility of extraterrestrial microbial life to the radiowave search for “intelligent” life, we’ll talk about what modern science tells us about whether we’re alone in the universe.

Guests:

Marina Koren, staff writer, The Atlantic - she covers space for the magazine

G. Scott Hubbard, former director, NASA Ames Research Center; author, “Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery”

Dan Werthimer, SETI Chief Scientist, UC Berkeley Department of Astronomy

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In the past week, reports of major layoffs at tech employers including Twitter, Meta and online payments company Stripe are fueling fears of a tech bust 2.0. Earlier this year, electric vehicle makers Tesla and Rivian, software maker Autodesk and fintech company Robinhood also cut hundreds of workers. The news is sending jolts through the Bay Area, which has enjoyed historically low unemployment for several years with high demand for tech workers. We talk about what these layoffs mean for the Bay Area’s economy and how to gauge the threat of an impending recession.

Guests:

Jeff Bellisario, executive director, Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Sheera Frenkel, technology reporter based in San Francisco, The New York Times; co-author, "An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination"

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Federal tax law prohibits churches and other nonprofit religious organizations from endorsing candidates and otherwise engaging in political campaigns. But a new ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigation finds violations by churches across multiple states, including California. We'll learn more about the report, and we'll hear how your places of worship handle political matters.

Guests:

Jeremy Schwartz , reporter, ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative.

Jessica Priest, engagement reporter, ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative Initiative.

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“Not everyone should get a say” seems counterintuitive to the idea of democracy. But according to Atlantic writer Jerusalem Demsas, when it comes to new housing or infrastructure projects, sometimes community input can be undemocratic. Often a vocal and persistent minority is able to stymie much-needed proposals. We’ll talk with Demsas and experts about how participatory democracy can get in the way of progress and whether it can be fixed.

Guests:

Jerusalem Demsas, staff writer, Atlantic Magazine

Katherine Levine Einstein, associate professor, political science and director of Undergraduate Studies, Boston University; co-author, "Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America's Housing Crisis"

Paul Sabin, Randolph W. Townsend, Jr. Professor of History and Professor of American Studies, Yale University; author, "Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism;"

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When last week’s 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit near San Jose, more than two million people received an alert — up to 19 seconds before they felt shaking. But how do earthquake early warning systems work, exactly? And what should we do when we get an alert? From how to “drop, cover, and hold on” to how to evaluate your home’s seismic resiliency, we’ll answer your earthquake questions with seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones. And we’ll hear about how California has been — and should be — prepared for earthquakes big and small.

Resource(s) mentioned on air:

"Brace + Bolt" grant program for California homeowners

Guests:

Dr. Lucy Jones, research associate Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; author, "The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)"; founder, Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society

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Next week San Francisco voters will decide whether to approve a new parcel tax to fund City College, which has faced severe financial struggles for the past decade. City College, and almost all of California’s community colleges, have seen enrollment dip since 2020 despite an infusion of state money systemwide aimed at bringing students back. Forum talks about the future of community colleges in a changing education landscape.

Guests:

Jessie Ryan, executive vice president, The Campaign for College Opportunity Organization: a non-profit policy and research organization that advocates for Californians to attend and succeed in college.

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, reporter/producer covering politics, KQED News.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, author, "Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream."

Vick Chung, former city college student trustee and candidate for city college board of trustees.

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Nearly a third of Americans -- and nearly 60% of MAGA Republicans -- say that resorting to violence to achieve political objectives is usually or always justified, according to new research from U.C. Davis. The findings come as prosecutors charge the man who last week violently attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and as threats against members of Congress continue to surge, having increased by nearly tenfold since 2016. We’ll talk about the growing threat of political violence in the United States and what’s driving it.

Guests:

Garen Wintemute M.D., director, Violence Prevention Research Program at UC-Davis - He also practices and teaches emergency medicine at the UC-Davis School of Medicine.

Catie Edmondson, congressional reporter, The New York Times.

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When New Yorker writer Hua Hsu was growing up in Cupertino in the 1990s as the only child of Taiwanese immigrants, he created mixtapes and zines – homemade Xerox pastiches of writing, photos and collages – as a “way to find a tribe.” Hsu’s search for his people eventually led him to UC Berkeley where he, a lover of esoteric and undiscovered bands, forged an unlikely friendship with Ken, a Japanese-American frat boy whose love of the Dave Matthews Band, initially repelled Hsu. That friendship and Ken’s murder are at the heart of Hsu’s new memoir “Stay True,” which documents the profound and the mundane moments of a 90s kid seeking to forge his identity.

Guests:

Hua Hsu, author, "Stay True;" staff writer, the New Yorker; professor of Literature, Bard College

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