KQED's Forum

Few places in the Bay Area have seen more demographic change than Richmond, California. From the white and Black southern migrants who decamped to the shipyards to the Mexican, Central American, and Laotian immigrants who have come in successive waves, new arrivals to the city have for years brought a remarkable mix of food cultures. We’ll talk with KQED food editor Luke Tsai about Richmond’s rich and evolving culinary scene.

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UC Berkeley is one of the world’s greatest public universities, and a prized piece of an American higher education system that remains the envy of the world. But it’s also beset by the larger problems of the Bay Area, namely ongoing and bitter disputes over housing development. The university says it may be forced to cut its incoming class by thousands of seats and freeze enrollment in the wake of a court ruling over its expansion plans. Neighborhood groups had sued to block the plans over environmental concerns, and in August a court ruled in their favor. On Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom weighed in on behalf of the university, asking the state supreme court to overturn the ruling. We’ll get the latest on the case.

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On June 7, San Francisco voters will decide whether to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and in Los Angeles, the effort to recall District Attorney George Gascón is collecting signatures to meet a July deadline. Supporters of both recalls claim the DAs are responsible for an uptick in property and violent crime and too lenient on offenders. But have San Francisco and Los Angeles actually become less safe, and what impact have the district attorneys’ policies had on their respective cities? We’ll discuss the recall efforts and pandemic crime rates in both metropolises.

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“Evictions do not affect everyone equally,” says housing affordability reporter Molly Solomon in the second episode of KQED's podcast "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America." Black renters are more likely to be evicted than white renters, with Black women being evicted at higher rates than others. These disparities, among other troubling eviction patterns that emerged during the pandemic, are examined in the second season of “SOLD OUT,” co-hosted by Solomon and fellow KQED housing affordability reporter Erin Baldassari. Solomon and Baldassari join us to talk about their reporting and the history behind the Bay Area’s ongoing eviction disparities.

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“The pursuit of justice creates injustice,” writes CNN Senior Legal Analyst Laura Coates in her new book, “Just Pursuit.” Coates began her career as a federal prosecutor in Washington D.C. with optimism. She had come from the Department of Justice where she had worked for both the Bush and Obama Administrations enforcing voting rights. In that role, she found herself being welcomed in Black communities as a hero ensuring votes would be counted. But as a prosecutor, that same community viewed her as working for the wrong side. And, after witnessing justice in action, Coates herself became distrustful of the very system in which she was a decision maker. We’ll talk to Coates about her book, the state of voting rights, and the difficult balancing act of being a Black woman, wife, and mother seeking to uphold the law and retain her humanity.

This episode originally aired on Feb. 8. 

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As the world around us has become more chaotic, puzzles have provided a moment of respite. The 9 x 9 grid of a Sudoku, the verticals and horizontals of a crossword, the comforting circle of the New York Times’ Spelling Bee all offer solvers a beginning and an end; they are places where problems have solutions. We talk to puzzle constructors, puzzle solvers, and puzzle lovers about why puzzles of all kinds – from jigsaws to anagrams to Wordle – have been such a joy lately. And we’ll have a special puzzle for you to solve, too.

This episode originally aired on Jan. 14. 

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Next week marks the 50th anniversary of President Nixon’s historic visit to China, a multi-day diplomatic tour that kickstarted efforts to normalize relations between the two countries. That event animates Gish Jen’s latest work of fiction, “Thank You, Mr. Nixon,” a collection of chronological, interrelated stories about what Jen calls the “surreal” changes that China has undergone in the last half century. We’ll talk to Jen about her book and how she thinks about the relationship between the United States and China, both the personal and the political.

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President Biden said on Thursday that he believes Russia will attack Ukraine "within the next several days," characterizing the risk of an invasion as "very high." His remarks came a day after U.S. officials reported that Russia has not withdrawn any of the more than 7000 troops it has amassed near the Ukraine border. We'll talk about the latest developments with former Ukraine Ambassador Steve Pifer.

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The forced removal and imprisonment of substantially the entire West Coast Japanese population during World War II tore up the lives of more than a hundred thousand people. It also ripped holes in the urban fabric, at exactly the time when the West Coast began to experience an influx of Black Americans from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and other parts of the south. These shifts had a huge effect on San Francisco, the Bay Area as a whole, and the entire West Coast. We’ll talk with two historians about the lasting marks that internment left on our cities. But first, 102-year-old Yae Wada shares her story of being forced to relocate from her home in Berkeley to a prison camp in Utah.

Guests:

Yae Wada, 102-year-old Berkeley resident; imprisoned during WWII in the Tanforan Assembly Center and the Topaz concentration camp

Meredith Oda, associate professor of history and associate chair of the department of gender, race, and identity, University of Nevada, Reno; author, "The Gateway to the Pacific: Japanese Americans and the Remaking of San Francisco"

Charlotte Brooks, professor of history, Baruch College, City University of New York; author, "Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California"

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COVID-19 has taken an enormous toll on not just students but on the educators who’ve been struggling to deliver lessons — and moral support — to kids throughout the pandemic. More than 90% of teachers say pandemic-related stress and burnout are serious problems, and 55% of teachers say they’re considering leaving their jobs sooner than planned, according to a recent National Education Association poll. We’ll hear from a panel of California teachers about how they’ve been coping with staffing shortages and other stressors, all while educating and nurturing their students in a third pandemic school year.

Guests:

Haydee Rodriguez, History and English teacher, Central Union High School in Imperial County

Lauren Brown, early literacy coach, Oakland Unified School District

Dr. Drew Ishii, math teacher, Sage Hill School in Orange County

Arienne Adamcikova, Spanish teacher, Capuchino High School in San Bruno

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