KQED's Forum

In June 2018, a dozen young soccer players and their coach became trapped more than two miles inside the Tham Luang Cave in northern Thailand, as a sudden monsoon swept into the region and inundated the underground passages. The world watched transfixed for weeks as rescuers located the boys, brought them supplies and engineered a way to bring them to safety. Cave diver Rick Stanton was among those leading the effort and he joins us to talk about the rescue, the rarefied world of underwater cave diving and his new book "Aquanaut."

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As the surge of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to intensify, some Bay Area schools have been closing or shifting to remote learning. In San Francisco and Oakland, hundreds of teachers and aides called in sick for in-person classes last week to protest what they say are unsafe work conditions. Meanwhile, many parents are stumped about how best to protect their children from being infected – especially those of kids too young to be vaccinated – as hospitalizations of young people rise across the state. We’ll talk about how schools and families are coping with the omicron crisis.

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Los Angeles and Oakland take starring roles in the television shows “Insecure,” “Gentefied” and “Blindspotting,” which bring audiences new takes on those cities and the people who live there. The shows follow Black and Latino characters trying to navigate adulthood, life choices, relationships– all amid rapidly changing neighborhoods. We talk about how those shows broke Hollywood norms, celebrate predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, and resonate with California viewers.

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The violent attack on the capitol a year ago was a jolt to the American consciousness that our revered democracy had broken. Now, with the anniversary of the attacks behind us, we look ahead and consider paths to strengthen democracy and governance with journalist James Fallows. We’ll consider: What is working in our democracy? How do we nurture it? And how can we reverse the streams of disinformation that have corrupted our politics?

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One year ago today, as the nation watched in disbelief, Trump supporters trampled barricades and stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of President Biden’s election. Insurrectionists scaled walls, occupied Congressional offices, and took over the Senate floor. Meanwhile as police officers battled to bring order, some suffering grievous injuries as a result, staffers and lawmakers sheltered in place, some fearing for their lives. January 6 was a day of violence. It was also a moment of reckoning, and on this anniversary, co-hosts Alexis Madrigal and Ariana Proehl ask where our country is headed. What are your memories of that day? How does our nation heal and bridge its many divides? 

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We’ll bring you live NPR coverage of the Jan. 6 anniversary events at the White House and in Congress, followed by expert analysis co-hosted by Alexis Madrigal and Ariana Proehl.

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The day after the January 6 insurrection, pundits and politicians predicted that this unprecedented breach of the Capitol would be the pivot point that brought American democracy back from the brink. But has it? With a country consumed by a pandemic, chronic inequality, and polarized political parties, nothing much seems to have changed in the last year. As the nation begins to reflect on the one year anniversary of the insurrection, we’ll talk to Representative Adam Schiff, journalist Zack Beauchamp and Professor Kellie Carter Jackson about where the American experiment is headed.

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This holiday season, many of us gave and received houseplants as gifts. But what do you do if you aren’t quite sure how to take care of those plants… or even what they are, exactly? Bay Area plant sellers join to provide advice on how to care for your new snake plant, or bring your early-pandemic philodendron back to life. We’ll answer your questions on watering, repotting and how to optimize sunlight in the Bay Area’s microclimates. Call in with your houseplant situation, and for listeners with green thumbs, tell us: what’s your go-to houseplant care tip?

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A year ago this week, far-right extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol, an insurrection spurred by the false accusations from President Trump that the “election was stolen.” The events of Jan. 6 led to multiple deaths and wounded more than 100. Frontline, in partnership with ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program, has been tracking the rise of far right extremist groups and their role in the capitol attacks. A new, updated version of their April 2021 documentary “American Insurrection,” digs into the continued aftermath of the insurrection and former President Trump’s role in encouraging it. We’ll speak with correspondent A.C. Thompson about what we know one year later, the decades-long rise of far-right extremist groups, and the threats they pose.

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Yard waste and food scraps take up half of California’s landfills and produce one fifth of methane emissions in the state. That’s according to CalRecycle, the state agency that oversees waste management. A new state law seeks to lower those greenhouse gas emissions, requiring businesses and residents to separate green waste from other trash. We’ll get the details on the new law and how it will be rolled out. 

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