KQED's Forum

Many California lawmakers agree that the lack of unaffordable housing is a huge challenge, but for years they have not agreed on how to fix the problem. This year, the Legislature passed more than 40 laws that promise to boost housing construction. One law allows developers to turn empty strip malls and office buildings into housing. Other laws reduce parking requirements for new housing developments and make it easier for school districts to build teacher housing. Advocates say that though the laws are mostly incremental tweaks to existing policies, they could add up to big changes in the long run. We’ll take a look at this year’s new housing laws and what they could mean for you.

Guests:

David Garcia, policy director, Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley

Buffy Wicks, member, California State Assembly - She represents California’s 15th Assembly District, which includes all or portions of the cities of Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, San Pablo, Pinole, El Sobrante, Hercules, Kensington, and Piedmont.

Alfred Twu, architect; housing activist; commissioner, Berkeley Planning and Landmarks commissions

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Stretching 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada, the Pacific Crest Trail winds through the Mojave Desert, up to the Sierras and along the Cascades. Backpackers who have hit the trail rave about its beauty and many include “thru hiking” the entirety of the trail on their bucket lists. But what has always been a difficult journey is now getting even harder due to climate change. We’ll talk about how extreme weather, drought and wildfires have impacted the trail, known as the PCT, from beginning to end. Have you hiked the PCT? What was your journey like?

Guests:

Rowan Moore Gerety, Reporter, Gerety's recent piece for the New York Times is titled "Heat, Water, Fire: How Climate Change Is Transforming the Pacific Crest Trail."

Jazmin Ortega, Pacific Crest Trail Thru Hiker, Ortega thru hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2019. Her trail name is Flamethrower.

Scott Wilkinson, Content Development Director, Pacific Crest Trail Association, a nonprofit focused on protecting and preserving the

Pacific Crest National Scenic.

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Many of the Bay Area’s industrial sites are situated on the waterfront, right next to communities of color. As climate change causes groundwater levels to rise, toxic chemicals buried there threaten to release into the neighborhoods, exacerbating a decades-long pattern of environmental and economic injustice. Now some community advocates are calling for reparations in the form of climate justice, asking for money and services to repair the harms caused by the decision to allow toxic industries in their communities. Forum talks about the threat of toxic flooding and what can be done to prevent it.

Guests:

Kristina Hill, director, Institute for Urban and Regional Development, College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley.

Ezra David Romero, climate reporter, KQED

Margaret Gordon, co-director, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project

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Most everyone recognizes Prince's masterpiece "Purple Rain," the Grammy Award-winning album engineered by Susan Rogers. But do you know why you love this record? In her new book "This is What It Sounds Like," Rogers explains that we all have a unique "listener profile," determined by how we respond to seven musical elements, such as lyrics, melody and timbre. Rogers joins us to explain what the music we love says about us.

Guests:

Susan Rogers, cognitive neuroscientist and a professor, Berklee College of Music; multiplatinum record producer; sound engineer for Prince’s; recipient of the Music Producer’s Guild Outstanding Contribution to U.K. Music award.

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Two Berkeley High School students were shot and killed at an Oakland birthday party on Saturday. On Wednesday six adults were shot at an Oakland school. The week before, two men were killed near their mosque after attending services, and in a shooting outside of city hall during a city council meeting, one man was killed, one injured. Forum talks with Oakland’s mayor, chief of police, and the city’s chief of violence prevention about what explains the surge in violent crime and what can be done about it.

Guests:

Libby Schaaf, Oakland mayor

LeRonne Armstrong, police chief, Oakland Police Department

Guillermo Cespedes, chief of Violence Prevention, City of Oakland

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Many small California towns that were devastated by recent wildfires are determined to rebuild, such as Greenville, which is the community at the focus of the Los Angeles Times series "Rebuild,Reburn." But as climate change intensifies wildfires -- and political extremism -- the state is facing a dilemma as resources dwindle. How long will it be sustainable to send aid to rebuild towns that face continual danger from wildfires? We'll talk with journalists who investigated the unrest growing in rural towns and what people on both sides have to say.

Guests:

Erika D. Smith, columnist, Los Angeles Times.

Anita Chabria, columnist, Los Angeles Times.

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Julia Morgan is best known as the architect of opulent, eccentric Hearst Castle, but she designed roughly 700 buildings in her 50-year career. From her first commission, the El Campanil bell tower at Mill’s college, to the Arts and Crafts Asilomar and the Gothic and Moorish Berkeley City Club, the Oakland-raised architect created many of California’s most distinctive and disparate buildings in a time when architecture was an almost exclusively male field. We’ll talk with Victoria Kastner, author of “Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect” and we’ll hear from listeners: What’s your favorite Julia Morgan building?

Guests:

Victoria Kastner, author, "Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect."

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Getting a good night’s sleep is important for restoring our bodies and minds after a long day. But sometimes the stress of the world follows us into dreamland. Getting lost, missing a final exam, losing teeth - these are among the many common iterations of stress dreams. We’ll talk with dream and sleep experts about why we have stressful dreams and how to deal with them.

Guests:

Kelly Bulkeley, dream researcher and director, Sleep and Dream Database.

Aric Prather, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF.

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Jonathan Escoffery’s debut book, “If I Survive You,” presents a series of connected stories about an immigrant family from Jamaica trying to acclimate to life in America. The characters tackle racism, belonging, natural disasters and generational divides. A native of Miami now based in Oakland, Escoffery joins us to talk about storytelling and his decades-long journey to publishing a book.

Guests:

Jonathan Escoffery, author, his debut short story collection, "If I Survive You," was released in September of 2022.

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Chief Justice of California Tani Cantil-Sakauye is stepping down in January after serving a 12-year term on the state's high court. Nominated by former republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, she was the first non-white person and the second woman to lead the court. She joins us to reflect on her time on the bench, the future of the California judiciary and her newly announced next role as president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California.

Guests:

Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of California

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