KQED's Forum

Rejection is normal and happens to all of us, but it still never feels good to get that email or call from an admissions officer or potential employer saying you weren’t “the one.” In a recent article for The Atlantic titled “A Toast to All the Rejects,” NPR producer Rhaina Cohen writes about the power of turning one’s rejections into a celebration with friends or colleagues. Cohen’s article was inspired by a graduate student lab at UC Irvine led by social sciences professor Barbara Sarnecka where they created a group spreadsheet to collect everyone’s rejections from jobs, academic journals or grants. When they reached 100 rejections as a group, they threw a party. “Instead of shying away from rejection, they’re asking us to run straight toward it—and to do so together,” writes Cohen. We explore the idea of reframing – and even celebrating – rejection.

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Northern and Southern California are going to battle on Sunday when the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams face off for this year’s National Football Conference championship and a bid for the Super Bowl. We'll talk about the all-California matchup and hear your fan predictions.

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Isabel Allende’s new novel, “Violeta,” opens in the midst of a pandemic, under quarantine conditions. Only it’s 1920 and the Spanish flu. Violeta has just been born; she spends her early life in the virus-induced social bubble that we’ve all come to know. Inspired by Allende’s own mother, Violeta is born into elite, but falls into a rural social stratum after the Great Depression. It’s a saga about family secrets, exiles and resilience, as well as a reflection on the century when the world became technologically modern and socially fractured. We’ll talk with Allende about the novel, her mother and writing through — and about — a pandemic.

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After nearly three decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer said on Tuesday that he will retire by the end of the current term. Justice Breyer, one of the Court's three liberal members, will step down as the Court considers major cases involving abortion and gun rights. Breyer’s retirement offers President Biden, who vowed during the campaign to nominate a Black woman justice, his first opportunity to shape the Court. It also comes at a time when the non-partisan nature of the Court has come under question. We'll talk about Breyer’s legacy, who might succeed him and the future direction of the Court.

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A new report released this week details the experiences of Silicon Valley’s “shadow workforce” -- the temporary contract workers tech companies hire through third parties. These contractors, who are disproportionately women and people of color, receive different pay, benefits and protections than employees. While tech companies have fared well during the pandemic, according to the report authored by TechEquity Collaborative, “the temporary, contract, and contingent workers who are classified differently from their directly-employed counterparts despite performing critical roles for the companies—have been locked out of tech’s prosperity.” We’ll discuss the yearlong investigation’s findings about this “two-tier system” of employment and why some are pushing to change it.

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Port of Oakland commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to approve an open air rock and gravel storage facility at the port. The port says the Eagle Rock Aggregates facility will bring much needed construction materials to the Bay Area. The proposal is strongly opposed by some West Oakland residents who say the dust from the facility will further pollute the already dirty air in the neighborhood from the port. Pollution has contributed to higher rates of respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease, and cancer in West Oakland compared to other areas of the city. We’ll discuss the proposal, its environmental impacts and the port’s relationship with its neighbors.

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“I believe America is simultaneously a riotous comedy and a heartbreaking tragedy,” writes Wajahat Ali in his new memoir “Go Back to Where You Came From.” With humor, Ali recounts a Bay Area childhood growing up as the shy, pop culture-loving, Husky jeans-wearing only son of Pakistani immigrants. Although the community around him made clear the only acceptable careers for him were doctor, engineer, or successful businessman (the only other option was being “a failure”), Ali found a career as a writer, and it was art that saved Ali when his family’s lives were blown apart by scandal. In this book, part autobiography and part social criticism, Ali takes apart the myth of the “moderate Muslim,” and describes what life in America is like post-9/11 and post-Trump for a Muslim who once felt free enough to pray publicly at a Cirque du Soleil concert and the stalls of the Gap, but who no longer feels he can. We’ll talk to Ali about his book and what it means to be American when your fellow citizens question your right to be there.

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Lunar New Year is only a week away, on February 1st, which means some of you could already be running behind in getting the spread ready. As part of our new series on the food cultures of the Bay Area with KQED Food Editor Luke Tsai, we’ll talk about the traditional, and not so traditional, foods of the New Year. Whether you’re planning an elaborate feast or just picking up take-out, we want to hear your favorite lunar New Year’s dish or tradition. If you stick with the Gregorian calendar and celebrated weeks ago, we still want to hear from you. What do you eat to mark the New Year and to bring you luck or abundance?

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More than 120 restaurants closed in San Francisco in 2021 — and many still-open places feel like they’re on their last legs. Dining simply has not come back, and though some businesses have prospered by making lemons into take-out, others are tapping out. And it’s not just restaurants: the iconic Castro Theater is planning a switch to live events to survive. We open the phone lines to commemorate the beloved Bay Area restaurants and small businesses we’ve lost in recent years.

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Beset by a climate crisis that's creating ever more devastating wildfires, Californians may find it "easy, even comforting, to sit in despair," writes reporter Liz Weil. But, she continues, "nihilism is a failure of the imagination, the bleak, easy way out. We need to face the lives before us." That includes recognizing that we're in what climate futurists call the "trans-apocalypse:" a reality defined by the imperative that humans engage constantly with ecological threats. We'll talk to Weil about the origins of California's wildfire problem and how we can reframe and address it.

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