KQED's Forum

For more than a decade, Americans have been having fewer children. Now, the coronavirus pandemic has intensified the decline. Researchers expect births in the United States to drop by 3.6 percent this year bringing them to their lowest point since 1969. Many people who were considering becoming pregnant last year changed their minds and unplanned pregnancies also likely fell. Mina Kim discuss what is driving down birth rates and what we can expect after the pandemic recedes with senior reporter at Vox, Anna North, associate professor of economics and gender studies Eliana Dockterman, and author of the article, "Women Are Deciding Not to Have Babies Because of the Pandemic. That’s Bad for All of Us" Samhita Mukhopadhyay.

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One year ago Tuesday, the sun rose, people were out and about, but because of the coronavirus --then still called the “novel coronavirus” ­--the Bay Area was on the cusp of the first stay-at-home order in the nation. Public health officers from 6 counties and the City of Berkeley held a press conference, telling millions of people they would need to stay mostly at home for three weeks to stop the spread of COVID-19, then with fewer than 300 known cases across the 7 jurisdictions. Most people probably had no idea that they were in for a year of lockdowns, restrictions, uncertainty and deaths. Alexis Madrigal reflects with Dr. Seema Yasmin and KQED’s Lesley McClurg back on the day it started a year ago, and the seismic changes that followed.

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It's sometimes hard to know whether to laugh or cry when we think of our pre-pandemic selves, completely oblivious to the public health crisis that would claim more than 2.6 million lives globally and rain down chaos everywhere. We've asked listeners to share the advice they'd give to their blissfully ignorant past selves, and responses have ranged from the philosophical ("things are going to get stranger") to the practical ("get ready for some picnics! Lots and lots of picnics!"). Mina Kim talks to comedian and actor Adrienne Bankert and national correspondent Teresa Puente about what pandemic life has taught us about ourselves.

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The coronavirus pandemic magnified many existing issues facing seniors in society, including loneliness and isolation. Social distancing meant our parents and grandparents could no longer go to places of worship, senior centers, restaurants, or visit with family. Many seniors faced lockdowns in assisted living facilities or nursing homes, or were isolated in their own homes. Looking back at this past year, Rachael Myrow talks about the difficulties seniors faced and lessons to be learned from them.

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In the early aughts, when singer-songwriter Miko Marks was looking to launch her music career in Nashville, the mecca of country music, she was told by one of the major labels that she was too “innovative” and that she wouldn’t sell records as a Black woman artist. Today, following last year’s protests for racial justice, and after one of country’s biggest stars was captured on camera using a racial slur, the country music industry is having a reckoning. We’ll talk to the Bay Area-based Marks about how she’s forged her art and identity as a Black woman in the white- and male-dominated country music industry. We’ll also talk about and hear some songs from her new album “Our Country.”

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President Biden formed a task force last month to speed the reunification of migrant children separated from their parents under the last administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. Advocates for the children have been pressing officials to act with urgency and offer the families a path to citizenship and other resources. Roughly 1,000 children are thought to remain separated, and the parents of about 500 have yet to be located. We’ll talk about the status of reunification efforts, and we’ll also talk about how the Biden Administration is responding to a dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border.

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The just approved American Rescue Plan includes $1.7 billion for struggling public Bay Area transit agencies. The pandemic has forced agencies such as BART and Muni to cut service. The new funds help avoid further service cuts and massive layoffs. We’ll hear how the agencies are likely to use the funds, and whether they’ll be enough to reverse a massive ridership and budgetary crisis in the region's public transit.

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Since the pandemic began a year ago, we've checked in with a number of public health officials throughout the region. Now we head to the North Bay to talk with Napa and Sonoma County officials about current coronavirus restrictions, reopening, the rate of infection and the pace of vaccinations. We'll hear what makes the North Bay's experience of the pandemic unique – from bedroom communities to farm workers – plus managing the pandemic amid the pressures of a tourism-oriented economy and the threat of wildfire.

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The House of Representatives passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-relief bill Wednesday and now billions of dollars are set to flow to California in direct payments to individuals, and for things like housing aid and child care assistance. President Biden will sign the bill, called the American Rescue Plan Act, into law on Friday. The plan’s much awaited $1,400 stimulus checks, for a segment of the population, could start hitting bank accounts within one to two weeks. The package also extends the existing $300 weekly unemployment benefit until September. We’ll talk about how the plan will impact Californians and how it might boost the state’s own $7.6 billion stimulus package that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law last month.

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New CDC guidelines allow fully vaccinated people to gather indoors without masks or social distancing. But what if not everyone in that group is vaccinated? As more Californians get vaccines, and as Covid rates decline, we’ll discuss how social distancing protocols and the necessity for wearing masks should change. And we’ll talk about the latest best practices for personal protective equipment and hear from you. Have you changed your mask-wearing habits lately?

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