KQED's Forum

As Sam Quinones was researching America's opiate epidemic for his award-winning 2015 book "Dreamland," he watched a troubling phenomenon emerge. As pain-pill prescribing fell, drug traffickers with unfettered access to the world's chemical markets began to fill the void with dangerous synthetic drugs. Opiate addicts began to switch to fentanyl and particularly potent forms of methamphetamine, ultimately driving overdose deaths to record levels in 2020. Quinones joins us to talk about the devastating impact of the synthetic drug era, as told in his new book "The Least of Us," and how communities are trying to recover.

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Bay Area-based chef and food justice activist Bryant Terry is back with another cookbook -- but this time it’s not just his recipes. He’s created “a communal shrine to the shared culinary histories of the African diaspora,” as he writes in the introduction to “Black Food.” Bringing together a number of contributors who share recipes, stories and artwork -- plus Terry’s signature playlists to go with the recipes -- “Black Food” aims to be a feast not just for your taste buds, but your eyes, ears and spirit, too. Terry, who’s also the chef-in-residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora, says this is his last cookbook, but just the beginning of a bigger vision to publish more writers of color under his new publishing imprint 4 Color Books. Terry joins us to talk about “Black Food” and what else he’s got cooking -- both in and out of the kitchen.

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In her recent story for The Atlantic, health reporter Sarah Zhang writes that we all know how the COVID-19 pandemic ends: the virus becomes endemic, and we'll have to live with it forever. But what's unknown is how we'll manage the transition to endemicity, a path ahead that right now she says is nonexistent. We'll talk to Zhang about how the country finds its "off-ramp to normal."

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Antonio Lopez is many things. He’s an East Palo Alto native and, at 27, he’s its youngest serving city council member. He’s a doctoral student in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford. And he’s an award winning poet, with a recently published book titled “Gentefication” an invented word he defines in part as, “when gentrification becomes personal, and the poet as native subject must invade language itself, when mobility just isn’t enough, and the poet must populate the canon itself from within”.  We talk with Lopez about politics, poetry and advocating for residents of a city that is simultaneously in the middle of, and outside of, Silicon Valley. It’s part of Forum's First Person series, which profiles local leaders and change-makers who make the Bay Area unique.

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Across the country, an alarming and disproportionate number of black girls and teenagers were involved in police use of force cases, according to a recent analysis by The Marshall Project. The nonprofit news organization, which focuses on criminal justice in America, found that thousands of minors each year are subjected to what police consider “low level” use of force ranging from being tackled to the ground to having guns pointed at them. Reporters analyzed about 4,000 records of incidents from six major cities and found that Black girls made up 20 percent of the youth involved compared with white girls at 3 percent. We’ll talk with the Marshall Project reporters about police use of force against young people and the significant psychological trauma that it can cause.

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Wilma Chan, an Alameda County Supervisor and former member of the California State Assembly, died on Wednesday after being struck by a car as she walked her dog. Described by her colleagues as fearless, compassionate, and tenacious, Chan was known for her advocacy for women, children, and immigrants, and for promoting criminal justice and health care reform. She was the first Asian American to serve as Assembly majority leader and the first Asian American to be elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. We'll remember her legacy.

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Public lands have become a refuge for many people who can’t afford housing in the west and who are rejecting certain societal norms that no longer serve them well. For some, becoming vehicle-dwellers and nomads is a way to take back control of their lives. This way of life was portrayed in Chloe Zhao’s award-winning film “Nomadland” which starred Frances McDormand and featured a number of real-life nomads. While vehicle-dwelling and nomadism are not new, the pandemic has exacerbated the existing housing crisis and “push” factors that have made more people choose nomadism. It’s also given rise to community tensions for those who use public lands solely for recreation. We’ll learn more about nomad living experiences and how they’re pushing the bounds of how we’ve traditionally thought about the use of public lands.

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Oakland is one of the most diverse cities in the country. It’s also one of the most unequal. Architectural and Urban Historian Mitchell Schwarzer dives into the politics and decisions that helped make it that way in his new book, Hella Town: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption.  Schwarzer traces how decades-old decisions about where to put a park or a parking lot, a building or a bungalow, a highway or a BART rail shaped the economics and inequities of Oakland. Forum talks to Schwarzer about the history of the city’s booms and busts and the complexities of today’s Oakland.

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PG&E announced this week that it's the subject of a federal investigation for its possible role in causing the Dixie Fire, the second largest in California history. The utility also said it's likely to amass at least $1.15 billion in losses associated with the fire, which burned one million acres and destroyed the Northern California town of Greenville. We'll hear what’s next for PG&E. We’ll also talk about the high cost of fighting wildfire in the state, and the lessons that can be drawn from California’s battles with recent mega-fires, which are expected to become more frequent as the climate gets hotter and drier.

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For 46 years, the San Francisco-based American Indian Film Festival has showcased features, documentaries and animated works from Native filmmakers. This year’s festival kicks off Friday with more than a hundred films at a time when filmmakers and audiences are clamoring for more representation of Native communities. Although, Native creators are seeing more interest in their stories and projects in recent years, films made by and about Native Americans rarely, if ever, reach mainstream success. The Hollywood Diversity Report found that Native Americans account for less than 1 percent of on-screen and behind the scenes talent in the U.S. entertainment industry. We talk about Native representation in film and the challenges of making and distributing Native American-centered films.

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