KQED's Forum

The word freedom can be used in so many ways, sometimes at cross purposes. There are those who defend the freedom to remain unvaccinated, others the freedom to move in the world without excess risk. “Can you think of a more depleted, imprecise, or weaponized word?” writes author and Bay Area native Maggie Nelson in her new essay collection, “On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint”. Nelson probes the idea of freedom in the context of some of the most charged disagreements of our age, including around climate change, sexuality, addiction and more. She joins us to share what freedom means to her and why she sees it as “an unending present practice, something already going on.”

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"Life is something we need to stop correcting." That's what Theo, the single astrobiologist father who narrates Richard Powers's latest novel, thinks when doctors try to prescribe medication for Robin, his passionately curious and emotionally volatile young son. But as Robin continues to lash out, Theo enrolls him in an experimental brain therapy that expands his empathic abilities and sharpens his scientific gifts. The novel, informed in part by the classic story "Flowers for Algernon," explores what Powers calls the bafflement of empathy -- whether we would have to give up being ourselves in order to understand someone who isn't us." We talk with Powers about "Bewilderment."

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When the KNP Complex fire, which has burned about 40 square miles in the Western Sierra, began spreading through Sequoia National Park, firefighters mobilized to preserve the park's groves of ancient sequoia trees. Among the trees imperiled by the still uncontained fire, was General Sherman, the world's largest tree. We’ll hear about firefighters’ extraordinary efforts to save the giants, including wrapping them in aluminum blankets. And we’ll also talk about what a future of climate-intensified fires means for the iconic sequoias.

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In the 2020 Census, the number of Latinos who selected “white” as their race dropped to 20% from 53% in 2010, at the same time more Latinos selected “two or more races” or “other” as their racial category. Experts say this indicates an evolution in Latinos' complicated relationship with race. The terms Latino and Hispanic emerged as categories in the U.S. Census decades ago, but the way the categories are presented on forms has been a source of controversy and confusion for just as long. Latinos come from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds, so the concept of a diverse group under one umbrella can be just as problematic as it can be empowering. We dive into the nuances of racial identity and how perceptions of race are shifting among Latinx people.

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For years, top officials at Facebook have been aware of the platform's adverse impacts on users, and they've turned a blind eye to company employees who've tried to push for change. That's according to a new Wall Street Journal investigation that uncovered internal documents suggesting the company willfully disregarded reports that it's harming teens' mental health and failing to stop the spread of misinformation. In a blog post, Facebook said the investigation deliberately mischaracterized the company's actions and "conferred egregiously false motives" on its leadership. We'll talk to the reporters behind the investigation about what they learned.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a set of housing bills last week that aim to increase the state’s housing inventory and return attention to his ambitious goals to build more housing. In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, Newsom called for California to build roughly 500,000 new homes per year to reach a goal of 3.5 million new housing units by 2025. Meanwhile, California has on average added less than 100,000 units of housing per year for the past decade, according to CalMatters. Experts say some of the new housing laws, SB 8, SB 9, SB 10 could usher in hundreds of thousands of new homes over time by making it easier to build more units on lots previously designated solely for single-family homes. We talk about whether these laws will increase housing supply, how they could influence housing prices, and how they could change the look and feel of neighborhoods across the state.

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In a new cover story for The Atlantic, writer Hannah Giorgis looks critically at Hollywood’s writers’ rooms and how most of them look nothing like America. Documenting the history of Black writers who have navigated predominantly white writers’ rooms -- often confronting implicit and explicit biases -- Giorgis reveals the renaissance of onscreen representation they helped bring to television. Still, Hollywood remains an industry dominated by white men, and that continues to impact the hiring of offscreen Black talent and who’s at the table. We’ll talk to Giorgis about whether the tide is really turning in Hollywood when it comes to diverse representation -- not only in the stories we tell, but who’s telling them.   

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It may come as a surprise to some of the region’s urban dwellers that more than 1000 miles of trails outline the San Francisco Bay. Running along the water’s edge through nine counties, the Bay trail passes by museums, bars, and parks ready for kite flying. And the Ridge trail circumnavigates the Bay at a higher elevation, offering 365 degree views across the region. We’ll hear about the provenance and evolution of these two different but precious hiking and biking resources, and what they mean to the region.

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President Joe Biden stopped construction on Trump’s signature wall along the southern border, but he’s asking for more than a billion dollars in his proposed budget for border infrastructure including modern security technology to bolster a “smart wall” increasingly reliant on surveillance tech that backers in Congress have called an effective and humane approach. But critics say the use of facial recognition software, license plate readers, ground sensors and mobile surveillance towers that send alerts to border agents are part of an increasingly militarized border that drives migrants to deadlier paths and imperils the privacy rights of residents near the border. We’ll talk about the new approach to border security and the private defense surveillance tech industry that benefits from it.

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One of the key action scenes in the new Marvel Studios film, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” involves a city bus losing control on California Street in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood. Other scenes are filmed in the city’s Richmond District -- not a typical locale for a major Hollywood production. The film, released Sept. 3, celebrates San Francisco and Asian Americans in other ways as well. We’ll talk about San Francisco’s role in the movie, which is already one of the year’s biggest hits.

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