KQED's Forum

Dr. Tom Frieden, who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Obama, is sounding new alarms about the direction the agency is heading. Frieden says that since taking office, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has “followed a consistent playbook: deny, distract, and destroy” by promoting vaccine misinformation, linking Tylenol use to autism and firing some of the CDC’s most competent professionals. We’ll talk to Frieden about how he thinks science can prevail over falsehood. His new book is “The Formula For Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives, Including Your Own.”

Guests:

Dr. Tom Frieden, former director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - author, "The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives-Including Your Own"

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Forum is continuing our series, “In Search of Home: Solutions for the Homelessness Crisis” with a look into what happens when people lose their housing. Each year in the Bay Area, an estimated 44,000 people will become homeless, according to All Home, a Bay Area nonprofit. Some find a new place to live quickly, while others shuffle through couch-surfing, sleeping outside, staying at shelters, living in cars or a tent. We’ll talk about the early stages of losing housing and the interventions that can help keep homelessness “brief and rare” as policy experts say, and head off chronic homelessness.

Guests:

Vanessa Rancaño, housing affordability reporter, NPR

Sharon Cornu, executive director, St. Mary's Center - a provider of transitional housing and other services for seniors and families in Oakland

Markos Gonzalez, associate director of programs community outreach, Bay Area Community Services (BACS) - a provider of behavioral health and homelessness services

Keanna Ward, Bay Area resident, is formerly homeless

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Federal spending talks ground to a halt this week, with Democrats wanting healthcare subsidies to be included in any approved funding bills. Republicans are opposed and refusing to negotiate. President Trump does not appear interested in working out a compromise. He canceled a meeting last week with Democratic party leaders, and the White House says that it will order federal agencies to fire employees permanently if Democrats do not vote to approve a stopgap spending measure now. We talk about the stakes and what a government shutdown could mean for California.

Guests:

Adhiti Bandlamudi, housing reporter, KQED

Russell Berman, staff writer, The Atlantic

Sarah Wire, senior national political correspondent, USA Today

Nicholas Wu, congressional reporter, Politico

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Sonoma native and former U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón’s collection of new and selected poetry contemplates her relationship to nature, the role of art in an unruly world, and our connection to one another. Her hope is to create “some strange idiosyncratic song, an imperfect echo, to nature and humanity so they will know how much they are loved.” We talk to Limón about her new collection, “Startlement.”

Guests:

Ada Limón, poet

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Breaking into Hollywood isn’t what it used to be. Two former LA Times editors who have covered the entertainment industry for years offer a road map on how to make it in a business being reshaped by AI, streaming and social media. Ada Tseng and Jon Healey spoke with hundreds of showbiz professionals – from actors and producers, to agents and gaffers – getting honest advice about how to get started (hint: think twice before becoming a personal assistant). Their book is “Breaking Into New Hollywood: A Career Guide to a Changing Industry.” If you’re in the entertainment industry, what’s the most valuable advice you received?

Guests:

Ada Tseng, writer and editor; co-host, "Saturday School" - an Asian American pop culture history podcast

Jon Healey, former reporter and editor for The Los Angeles Times

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Marin County is known as the birthplace of modern mountain biking and it has long had a robust cycling culture. But lately, motorized e-bikes – some that go over 50 miles per hour – surged in popularity, especially with young people. A rise in serious bike accidents involving children and teens prompted county officials to ban anyone under 16 from riding the fastest e-bikes – the first ban of its kind in the state. We’ll talk about the prevalence of e-bikes, Marin’s attempt to regulate them –  and why some Bay Area riders need to slow down.

Guests:

Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, news editor, KQED

Asha Weinstein Agrawal, professor and researcher, Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University

Talia Smith, legislative director, Marin County

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Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law one of the biggest environmental policy overhauls in decades, a package of six bills aimed at meeting California’s ambitious climate goals — while making housing and electricity more affordable. The new legislation lays out a plan to reduce consumer electricity costs and harden the state’s energy grid; it also insulates utility providers from wildfire liability and incentivizes oil and gas companies to remain in the state. We take a closer look at the changes and trade-offs and what they mean for you.

Guests:

Guy Marzorati, correspondent, KQED's California Politics and Government Desk

Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law; host of the podcast, "Climate Break"

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In her new book, “The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History,” historian and designer Maggie Gram traces the evolution of the field of design from a focus on decoration and the way things look, to a much grander idea — that we can design ourselves into a better world. From furniture and iPhone design to helping revamp city government, “good design” has been touted as the answer to a better life. We talk with Gram about her skepticism about tech’s confidence in being able to design solutions to enormous problems and the peril, and promise, of design thinking.

Guests:

Maggie Gram, historian and designer; author, "The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History"

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Tens of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets over the weekend to protest an amnesty bill for former President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces 27 years in prison for attempting to overturn the 2022 election. Trump, who has likened himself to Bolsonaro, called the trial a “witch hunt” and punished the country with 50% tariffs and sanctions on government officials. We look at the parallels between the two men, and what the U.S. can learn from Brazil’s effort to hold its leaders accountable and defend its democracy.

Guests:

Julia Vargas Jones, correspondent, CNN

Juliana Dal Piva, investigative reporter, ICL Noticias and Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística

Jack Nicas, Brazil bureau chief, The New York Times

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President Trump’s announcement Friday of a $100,000 dollar fee for H-1B visas has thrown the tech world – and communities of immigrants – into states of confusion and concern. Many employers, working with the scant information from the president, warned traveling workers to scramble back to the US immediately, before the administration later clarified that the fees wouldn’t apply to existing visa holders. But it’s still far from clear what the new rules mean for foreign workers and companies. We’ll talk about the new changes to H-1B visas, how communities and companies are responding and what it means for the future of tech hiring.

Guests:

Tanay Gokhale, independent journalist based in Oakland; formerly the community reporter at India Currents and continues to write for them on a freelance basis

Pranav Dixit, Meta correspondent covering Trump's H-1B visa fee, Business Insider

Emily Neumann, immigration attorney, Reddy Neumann Brown PC

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