KQED's Forum

Actor Ke Huy Quan’s family fled post-war Vietnam and lived in a Hong Kong refugee camp before his unlikely turn as an iconic 1980s child star. He stumbled into a casting call for “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” at 12 years old, then rolled right into “The Goonies.” But as he transitioned into adulthood, roles started drying up. After decades of rejection, Quan made an Oscar-winning comeback in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” In his new memoir, “Never Say Die,” Quan shares his forty-year journey of perseverance and self-discovery.

Guests:

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Authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor say that not only is fascism here, but this 21st century version wants apocalyptic collapse. In their new book “End Times Fascism,” Klein and Taylor examine how politicians, religious prophets and Silicon Valley billionaires are trying to wipe out flora and fauna, undermine human solidarity and block our ability to imagine a future on Earth. But they also say that it’s not too late for us to fight this “end times fascism” — for the sake of our world. Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor join us on Forum.

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When animal advocates in Humboldt County unearthed dog carcasses on the property of Miranda’s Rescue, they exposed an alleged cruelty and fraud operation that has shocked animal welfare groups across the state. A sprawling multi-agency investigation has since revealed mass graves, dozens of canine skulls and records for hundreds of unaccounted-for dogs transferred from municipal shelters to a sanctuary that marketed itself as a “no-kill” refuge. We’ll look at the latest findings in the investigation, explore why prior warnings were overlooked and discuss what it will take to reform California’s strained animal rescue system.

Guests:

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In Tomas Moniz’s new novel “The King of Aloe Vera,” seventy-five-year-old Rey has one month left in his longtime Mission District home when he befriends Q, a young woman on probation who is about to lose her housing. The novel unspools as a love letter to the Mission District of San Francisco and its longtime residents—housed and unhoused alike— as they find themselves in a neighborhood that’s changing in so many ways. We’ll talk with Moniz about the Mission and Latinos, housing activism, and intergenerational friendship.

Guest:

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In the Massachusetts trial of Lindsay Clancy, one detail was not disputed in court: Clancy admitted to killing her three young children before attempting suicide in January 2023. But over the multi-week trial, Clancy’s defense argued she could not be held criminally responsible by reason of insanity, attributing her actions to postpartum psychosis. This case left a jury split and the public divided as it highlights major questions about insanity pleas, mental health care and similar cases involving postpartum psychosis. We’ll explore the complicated issue, and look at how it plays out here in California.

Guests:

April Dembosky, health correspondent, KQED News

Dr. Nirmaljit Dhami, perinatal psychiatrist, El Camino Hospital, medical director of the Inpatient Perinatal Psychiatry Unit

Michelle Oberman, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, Author of Mothers Who Kill Their Children

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Last month, Ethel Caterham turned 117 in England making her the world’s oldest person. In his new documentary “The Oldest Person In the World,” director Sam Green takes viewers through his decade-long journey across the globe to meet people like Caterham as they were bestowed with the “oldest living person” title. As humans are living longer and longer, the film explores our fascination with the “oldest person” and what it means to keep living well beyond the average lifespan. We’ll talk with Green about the people he met, the celebrity surrounding them, and his own personal journey that forced him to grapple with aging and longevity.

Guests:

Sam Green, filmmaker of “The Oldest Person in the World”, directed “32 Sounds,” The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller,” and “The Weather Underground,” among other documentaries

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Since returning to office, President Trump has moved to restrict gender-affirming care, bar transgender and nonbinary people from the military and roll back other LGBTQ nondiscrimination policies. It’s a sweeping attack that pioneering transgender historian Susan Stryker says the trans rights movement was not prepared for. We talk to Stryker about what this moment means for transgender people and for everyone’s freedom to define themselves. Her new book is “Changing Gender: The History and Future of a Concept”.

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What if you could create a color, one that no one had ever seen before? That’s what a team of UC Berkeley scientists set out to do, and in the process they found a new green — one so intense a camera could not capture it and a printer could not replicate it. How they did it and how their discovery may change what we know about color science and how the eye works are the subjects of a New Yorker article by Rivka Galchen, “What Would It Mean to See a New Color?” We talk to Austin Roorda and Ren Ng, the scientists behind the work, and Galchen.

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Tech leaders, including the CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, are calling for a slowdown of the development of generative artificial intelligence. This comes after an Anthropic researcher resigned over concerns that AI’s rapid development threatened human existence, and nearly 1,400 AI workers signed an open letter calling for government oversight of their industry. We’ll talk about where this tech — and its regulation — stands, and unpack the latest AI developments shaking up Silicon Valley.

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A 16-year-old boy from San Francisco died in April from the city’s first confirmed overdose involving cychlorphine . The synthetic opioid is considered much more potent than fentanyl, which is already more potent than heroin and other opiates. It has killed dozens of people across the country since 2024. This week, San Francisco police announced they had arrested four suspects accused of supplying the deadly pills in the overdose case. We’ll talk about San Francisco’s  response so far, -and what the arrival of this deadly drug means for a city that has struggled with more than 4,000 drug overdose deaths since 2020.

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