KQED's Forum

The Oakland Police Commission voted unanimously Thursday to fire Chief Anne Kirkpatrick without cause. The vote followed months of strained relations between the citizen-led Commission and the police department. We'll discuss what led to the firing and what's next for the department.

In an homage to his hometown, multiple Grammy Award-winning musician Sting's musical, "The Last Ship," tells the story of an English industrial town in decline. Sting stars as shipyard foreman “Jackie White” and also composed the original music and lyrics for the Tony-nominated show, which has a limited run at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre. Completely retooled since its Broadway debut in 2014, "The Last Ship" now centers more women characters and delivers a more pointed political message about fighting corporate domination. Sting and his co-star Frances McNamee join us in studio to talk about "The Last Ship," music and more.

Six Democratic presidential candidates face off on Thursday in Las Vegas, three days before the Nevada caucuses. Coming off a win in the New Hampshire primary, Senator Bernie Sanders enters the debate leading the pack with 32 percent support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. This is also the first debate to include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been increasing in the polls and also facing increased criticism from his fellow candidates. We recap the debate and discuss what it means for the election moving forward.

San Francisco-based Academy of Art University bills itself as a launching pad for a variety of creative careers. Many former students, however, are left with mountains of debt and little career success to show for it, according to a recent report in the San Francisco Chronicle. Less than a third of the school's students graduate within eight years. We talk with reporter Nanette Asimov about the school's lackluster results and what's at stake.

On Tuesday President Trump pardoned Edward DeBartolo Jr., a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers. In a major sports history scandal of the time, DeBartolo was convicted in 1998 of gambling fraud. We discuss the DeBartolo pardon, how the recent spate of presidential pardons fits into the history of pardons, and why the pardon exists.

Discussions about gender neutral pronouns may seem new, but according to linguistics scholar Dennis Baron, they started at least 200 years ago. In his book "What's Your Pronoun: Beyond He & She," Baron documents this history, including a number of terms such as "xe," zie," and "hir," coined by various amateurs and experts looking to solve the pronoun problem. He also notes that Shakespeare, Chaucer and Jane Austen were all known to liberally use the singular pronoun "they" in their time. Baron joins us in studio to break down the debate over nonbinary pronouns and why we shouldn't fear the prospect of change.

For decades, people dubbed “homevoters” have ruled California’s housing market with a tight fist. Years of zoning and tax policies that favored single-family housing created a market that rewards the rich who can afford homes and punishes renters and young people. The Bay Area is the epicenter of the crisis, according to New York Times reporter Conor Dougherty, author of the new book “Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America." We'll talk with him about the book and about the Bay Area innovators battling to reverse the trends.

In her latest novel, “The Resisters,” Gish Jen creates a futuristic world where machines use artificial intelligence to control, track, and predict human behavior. In it, a baseball prodigy navigates a society that puts people in strict categories and functions. Machines do most of the jobs, which turns employment into a luxury. Those with jobs live on high ground that has not been flooded while the jobless live on 3-D printed houseboats. Jen joins us to discuss how she crafted a distant -- or perhaps not too distant -- future where humans automated humanity for convenience but which becomes a nightmare.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg now ranks third in the Democratic presidential primary race, with 15% support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. Bloomberg’s candidacy already faced challenges with his late entrance to the race. Now he faces more scrutiny due to recent audio recordings of him defending his past stop-and-frisk policy and asserting that ending redlining, a racist housing practice, caused the 2008 financial crisis. We’ll discuss Michael Bloomberg’s campaign and the surrounding controversies.

Every day, millions of people across the country commute to work by public transit. In California, we have more than 100 public transit and bus districts across the state helping us get around -- and helping us have chance encounters with a potential new mate. This Valentine's Day, we'll hear how couples found love while riding on the bus, BART, CalTrain and more. And we still want to hear from you: Listen for the cue to call us at 866-733-678 during the live show or email us at [email protected] with your transit love story.