KQED's Forum

California’s ongoing drought and predicted heatwave is causing overly warm and low level waters and threatening to kill off the entire populations of already endangered species like the chinook salmon. Negotiations between the State Water Resources Control Board and the federal Bureau of Reclamation approved a plan for managing water levels. However, experts predict that releasing water into the irrigation system this early will disrupt salmon spawning season and could kill as many as 88% of the salmon in the river. These complications coincide with the increase in a parasite that’s also killing off the fish. We discuss the impact of poor water conditions and increasing heat and hear what creative options are on the table to save the salmon.

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Fuel breaks and prescribed burns are some of the tools used by firefighters to help reduce the severity of wildfires. California Governor Gavin Newsom was recently criticized for misrepresenting his track record when it comes to wildfire prevention, clearing just a fraction of the acreage claimed. The state has now set aside an additional $500 million for wildfire prevention, but will it be enough? As we head toward peak fire season this fall, we’ll get the latest science around wildfire prevention and hear what the state is doing to try to prevent out of control wildfires.

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Hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. are in limbo, after a Texas judge ruled on Friday that former President Barack Obama illegally launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012. The ruling does not end legal protections for the roughly 650,000 current DACA participants who came to the United States as children and who are not residents or citizens. However the legal decision does suspend approvals of new applications and leaves open the door for DACA to end in the future. President Biden has already pledged to appeal the ruling and called on Congress to protect so-called Dreamers and create a path to citizenship for millions of people who lack legal status in the United States. In this hour, we get an overview of the legal decision and what happens next and also hear from immigrants and families who could be hurt by this decision, now and in the future.

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California has almost 3 million children 5 years old and under. Hundreds of thousands of these kids lack affordable childcare because of backlogs in the state’s subsidized childcare program. The pandemic --which led to the closure of 8,500 childcare facilities--only worsened the bottleneck. And lack of childcare means that in many households one--or both parents--won’t be able to work. In this hour, we examine the long term access and affordability problems in early childhood care and how it affects the state’s persistent achievement gap. We’ll also hear about a state plan to phase in universal transitional kindergarten.

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Many of us spent the better part of the last pandemic year taking pains to minimize interactions with people outside our households or pods. With social venues now reopened, many vaccinated adults have the chance to meet new people and chat at length again — but do we remember how to talk to strangers? Journalist Joe Keohane joins us to remind us how and to explain why even small talk and passing interactions with those we don’t know can enhance happiness, cognitive functioning and our sense of belonging. We want to hear from you: Tell us about a memorable time that you connected with a stranger.

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In a major breakthrough, scientists at UC San Francisco developed technology to decode words from the brain activity of a paralyzed man who is unable to speak and translate them to text that appears on a screen. The technology, known as a “speech neuroprosthesis,” may hold promise for the thousands of people each year who lose speech owing to a stroke, accident or disease. We’ll talk to the researchers about their achievement.

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It's summer in the Bay Area, which means it’s time to cozy up by the fire and read some books about tropical islands, deserts and other warm places. We’ll gather a panel of Bay Area booksellers and bookworms to discuss summer reading trends and the best books coming out this summer. They’ll take your questions on what to stick in your bag for that campervan trip, whether you’re looking to dive into a weighty historical biography or plow through a pile of pulpy fun. And we’ll want to hear your picks: what book are you recommending to all your friends this summer?

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Blindspotting was one of 2018’s critically acclaimed films. Penned by old friends, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, it took on race and gentrification in Oakland. Now, they’re back with a new television show based on the movie that’s a wild love letter to the Bay Area. We’ll talk with them both about the show and honoring the place that made them.

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Ransomware group REvil’s sites on the dark web went down Tuesday, weeks after the group attacked meat processing company JBS and information technology firm Kaseya in a breach that compromised up to 1,500 clients. And those attacks came on the heels of DarkSide’s major strike in May against the Colonial Pipeline, forcing it to temporarily cease operations. Ransomware attacks — which encrypt online systems and hold their data for ransom — more than doubled from 2019 to 2020 in the US, according to a Washington Post analysis. We’ll look at how and why these attacks occur and the national security threat they pose.

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Los Angeles County has over the last several days recorded more than 3000 new covid cases, 99 percent of which occurred among the unvaccinated, according to the county health department. The spike in cases, fueled by the rapidly spreading delta variant, mirrors that of other regions in the state and country beset by low vaccination rates. The increase also comes as California tries to adopt a cautious approach to school reopening this fall, requiring even vaccinated students and teachers to wear masks. We’ll talk about the effort to vaccinate more Americans as the delta variant takes hold and take your vaccine questions.

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