KQED's Forum

The 980 freeway, a two-mile span that bisects Oakland, has been called a “freeway without a future.” Its critics want to see the highway replaced and turned into a multi-lane boulevard with open spaces so that historically black West Oakland can be reconnected to downtown. With an infrastructure bill on the table in Washington, advocates say now is the time for this project. We’ll talk about the plan, its cost and what it will take to make a reality.

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Following the murder of her father George Floyd at the hands of police, Floyd's youngest daughter, Gianna, then six, observed, "My daddy changed the world." On this one-year anniversary of Floyd's death, we hear reflections from historian Elizabeth Hinton, whose new book "America on Fire" traces the brutal police practices that engendered Black community protests from the 1960s to the present. We also talk to writer Zak Cheney-Rice, who observes that as major police reforms stall, the nation is "reckoning with a reckoning."

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Climate change is here. From stifling heat to that eerie day last September when our skies were painted orange, the symptoms of the Bay Area’s changing climate are hard to escape. We’ll look at three of the major ways climate change is affecting the Bay Area -- heat, wildfire smoke and rising seas -- and what we can expect in the near future. We’ll take your questions on the Bay Area’s changing environment, and what policy makers, and individuals, can do to address the crisis.

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Tens of thousands of people who contracted COVID-19 report ongoing symptoms of chronic coughing, lung damage and cognitive decline. Researchers are in the early stages of analyzing these conditions known as “long haul COVID” or “long COVID.” Still, many people have struggled to receive treatment for their symptoms or even recognition of their illness from their doctors. We talk with doctors and patients who are now organizing to seek more research, medical care, and support.

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Facial recognition software has become a common part of American life. It’s used by government employment agencies to verify an applicant’s identity, by landlords to monitor tenants, and by police in their investigations, which has resulted in some wrongful arrests. Indeed, studies show that facial recognition algorithms are often inaccurate when it comes to identifying women and people with dark skin tones. Privacy advocates concerned by how law enforcement has used surveillance technology cheered Amazon’s recent decision to extend a moratorium on police use of its facial recognition software, though Amazon gave no reason why it was doing so. We’ll talk to Bay Area experts about how facial recognition technology is being used, why it needs to be closely monitored, and what cities, states and the federal government are doing, or not doing, to regulate its use.

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“Familects help us feel like family. Private in-group language fosters intimacy and establishes identity,” writes linguist Kathryn Hymes in her recent Atlantic piece, "Why We Speak More Weirdly at Home.” The in-group language of a ‘familect’ — comprising terms, phrases, inside jokes, gaffes and gestures — binds a family together. During the pandemic, with so many people spending extended time together in close quarters, these private lexicons took off as people innovated and riffed on language. We’ll talk with Hymes about the phenomenon and we’ll create a listener dictionary of the terms from your ‘familect.’

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New York Attorney General Letitia James announced this week that her office has opened a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization, in a joint effort with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. The investigation centers on whether the Trump Organization illegally overstated the values of its properties to secure favorable loans and tax benefits. We'll talk about what's at stake for the former president and his business associates.

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Cuing off the difficult times we are living in, authors Rachel Levin and Tara Duggan have a new, and hilarious, cookbook that encourages readers to put their feelings into making food. Whether you want to pound out your anger on a pork loin to make their “Hammered Schnitzel” or cry over sliced onions for some “Sad French Onion Soup,” “Steamed: A Catharsis Cookbook” has a recipe for you. What’s the dish that you make when you’re “anxiety cooking” -- which, according to the authors, is “stress-eating's more productive cousin”?

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Some members of the Bay Area’s indigenous community say their history is being erased, and are calling for ancestral land of the Coast Miwok, including parts of the Point Reyes National Seashore, to revert to the communities that first roamed there. It’s a conversation that is beginning to take hold nationally. The cover story in this month’s "The Atlantic" argues that more than 60 national parks should be returned to the stewardship of Native tribes. We’ll explore the untold history and legacy of local public lands.

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The Los Angeles Times published an article titled “The man who didn’t invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos” on Sunday that ignited backlash from fans of both the snack and self-proclaimed inventor, Richard Montañez. Some consider the article an unjustified attack on Montañez, who created a brand of his own with his story of rising from factory floor worker to executive at snack maker Frito-Lay. The exposé asserts that the spicy chips were developed by a separate division at Frito-Lay and that a central part of Montañez’s claim to fame simply isn’t true. The story comes on the heels of Montañez releasing his second memoir in June and the production of a biopic on him directed by Eva Longoria. We talk about the fallout from the article and the broader question of how Latinos are portrayed and represented in the media and corporate world.

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