KQED's Forum

Last week, California struggled under one of the worst heat waves in written history. Several cities across the state, including San Jose and Redwood City, shot through record-breaking temperatures. With the heat and demand for air conditioning, the state's energy grid almost couldn’t hold. But thanks to a text telling us: “Power interruptions may occur unless you take action,” residents and businesses turned off lights, unplugged devices and kept the power humming. But as heat waves are projected to become more frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting under climate change, can California’s power grid handle it? We’ll be talking about how California’s power grid works, how it's adapting and how it performed during the heat wave.

Guests:

Alexandra (Sascha) von Meier, independent consultant, she was Director of Electric Grid Research at the California Institute for Energy and Environment for a decade retired professor UC Berkeley electrical engineering.

Duncan Callaway, associate professor of Energy and Resources, UC Berkeley; faculty scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Ivan Penn, energy correspondent, New York Times

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CNN is a cable news network in flux. Earlier this month, John Harwood, its White House correspondent, announced his departure one day after he stated on air that, “The Republican Party right now is led by a dishonest demagogue. Many, many Republicans are rallying behind his lies about the 2020 election.” The network also recently fired Brian Stelter, a frequent critic of Trump and Fox News. The changes at CNN have caused speculation that these moves may be influenced by cable mogul, John Malone, one of its major investors, who has praised Fox News and openly expressed a hope that CNN would “evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.” But where is the middle ground when some politicians routinely attack the truth as lies and push misinformation as truth? We’ll talk to media critic Jay Rosen about the future of journalism in a post-Trump era.

Guests:

Jay Rosen, press critic and editor, PressThink.org; professor of journalism, New York University

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When Americans hear about surveillance in China, it is usually through a dystopian lens. There is good reason for that—in the west of the country, the Uighur minority has been persecuted with unprecedented technological force. In a new book, “Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control” veteran Wall Street Journal reporters Josh Chin and Liza Lin aim to expand that lens, to “help people grasp state surveillance in its totality.” They ask how the Chinese government’s deployment of AI-powered tools of social control can actually be alluring and useful to everyday people, even as it is nightmarish to those caught in its algorithmic teeth.

Guests:

Josh Chin, deputy bureau chief in China, The Wall Street Journal

Liza Lin, data use and privacy journalist, The Wall Street Journal

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Did beavers get a publicist? Mother Jones magazine asked that question last week after a spate of national news stories appeared celebrating the rodents’ role in protecting the environment. Long considered a nuisance, the furry dam-builders are finally being recognized for improving stream quality, mitigating wildfire and floods and fighting climate change, among other contributions. The state of California is even hiring a team of environmental scientists to work on “nature-based restoration solutions involving beavers.” We’ll talk about efforts to restore habitat for the beaver, which Governor Newsom has called an “untapped, creative climate-solving hero.”

Guests:

Emily Fairfax, assistant professor of environmental science and resource management, California State University Channel Islands

Ben Goldfarb, journalist and author, "Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter"

Chad Dibble, deputy director, California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Frankie Myers, vice-chair, Yurok Tribe

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California legalized recreational cannabis in 2016 promising to create the “largest legal weed market in the world,” according to a recent story in the Los Angeles Times. Legalization promised to generate millions of new tax dollars and lure marijuana farmers and sellers away from the black market. That didn’t happen as planned. Instead, illegal cannabis farming has exploded. We’ll dig into the L.A. Times investigation that examines the violence, deaths, and environmental damage from the illegal grows and why the law legalizing pot has fallen so short.

Guests:

Paige St. John, investigative reporter, Los Angeles Times; author of the recent article, "The reality of legal weed in California: Huge illegal grows, violence, worker exploitation and deaths"

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After the election of President Obama in 2008, “the world looked and felt different,” writes University of Texas historian Peniel Joseph. That moment also marked the beginning of what Joseph calls America’s Third Reconstruction, a period of racial progress marked by the Black Lives Matter protests and the social justice movements they inspired. But the Third Reconstruction, like the 19th and 20th century versions that preceded it, has also been beset by white backlash and violent retrenchment. We’ll talk to Joseph about what he thinks we’ve achieved in this period and how far we need to go to achieve racial justice.

Guests:

Peniel Joseph, professor of history and founding director, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy - University of Texas at Austin; author, "The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century"

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When he was 9, poet Javier Zamora traveled 3,000 miles by bus, boat and on foot, without family or friends, from El Salvador to the United States. The trip was supposed to take two weeks. It tooknine. Along the way, Zamora was embraced by fellow migrants and folded into a makeshift family. With them, Zamora encountered corrupt police officers and was robbed of the little money he had. He scrambled over mountains and under barbed wire fences that laced the desert border, all so he could be reunited with his parents who lived in Marin and who he had not seen in years. Thousandsof immigrants, including children, have experienced similar journeys, but few have described them as eloquently as Zamora. We’ll talk to Zamora about those nine weeks to the border, which he recounts in his new memoir “Solito,” and his experience as an immigrant growing up in San Rafael.

Guests:

Javier Zamora, Author of the memoir "Solito," Zamora has been a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His debut poetry collection, which focuses on the impact of war and immigration on his family, is titled "Unaccompanied."

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Dressing for extreme heat is not as simple as wearing as little as possible. That’s especially true when you have to go to work, court, or a wedding: and especially if gender norms dictate that you need to wear pants or a suit. And many of the new fabrics optimized for cooling aren’t climate — or cost — friendly, as New York Times climate adaptation reporter Christopher Flavelle found when hetried out two dozen shirts, pants and suits designed for heat. We’ll talk about why choosing an outfit in our warming climate is surprisingly complicated.

Guests:

Christopher Flavelle, climate adaptation reporter, New York Times.

Konrad Rykaczewski, associate professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, and Senior Global Futures Scientist, Arizona State University.

Sarah Everts, associate professor and chair in digital science journalism, Carleton University - author, “The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration.”

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After pandemic closures and slowdowns the Bay Area is facing a fall packed with exciting events. From Lear at CalShakes to the Bernice Bing collection at the Asian Art Museum to the return of Oakland hometown hero Kehlani, we’ll talk with KQED’s art reporters about their best picks for the coming season and their new Fall Arts Preview.

Guests:

Gabe Meline, senior editor, KQED Arts & Culture

Sarah Hotchkiss, Senior Associate Editor, KQED Arts & Culture

David John Chávez, theatre critic, author of the theater portion of KQED’s fall arts preview

Kristie Song, KQED Arts Intern, author of the fall book guide

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“The Constitution is too fundamentally antidemocratic a document to serve democratic purposes reliably,” argues legal scholar and cultural critic Jedediah Purdy. In his new book, “Two Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy Is Flawed, Frightening, and Our Best Hope,” Purdy argues that the Constitution is standing in the way of democracy and suggests that we need to amend it. Purdy also urges us to not give up on politics, which he views as “not optional,” if we are to keep working on the experiment of democracy. We’ll talk about the Constitution, reforming politics, and other ways Purdy believes we can create a more perfect union.

Guests:

Jedediah Purdy, professor, Duke Law School; author, "Two Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy is Flawed, Frightening and Our Best Hope"

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