KQED's Forum

Old jeans. Worn shirts. Scraps from flour sacks and homemade dresses. Nothing is too humble for a quilt. In BAMPFA’s new exhibit “Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California,” quilts tell the story of resilience, family, and cultural continuity. The exhibit highlights the quiltmaking skills that many migrants brought with them in the Second Great Migration from 1940-1970—and passed on to their children and other kin, spurring the creation of a new wave of African American quiltmaking. We’ll talk to the curator and a contemporary quiltmaker in Oakland about the exhibit.

Guests:

Ora Clay, member, African American Quilt Guild of Oakland

Elaine Yau, associate curator and academic liaison, BAMPFA – Yau curated the exhibit "Routed West: Twentieth Century African American Quilts in California"

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The South Bay in San Diego County is the site of one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons of untreated sewage and industrial chemicals flow daily into the Tijuana River and out of Imperial Beach. New research connects the waste to worsening air quality, which has been linked with headaches, skin infections and gastrointestinal problems in the local population. We’ll talk about why solutions could be years away.

Guests:

Soumya Karlamangla, national correspondent, The New York Times

Paula Stigler Granados, associate professor in the School of Public Health and head of the Environmental Health Division, San Diego State University

Paloma Aguirre, mayor, Imperial Beach

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National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday as part of the Trump administration’s response to clashes between federal immigration officials and protesters following ICE raids of local businesses. Governor Gavin Newsom opposed the deployment, posting on social media Sunday that “Trump is trying to manufacture a crisis in LA County — deploying troops not for order, but to create chaos.” We’ll check in with local reporters and a legal expert about what’s happening on the ground in LA and how ICE sweeps are affecting immigrant communities in California.

Guests:

Saul Gonzalez, co-host, The California Report, KQED

Ahilan Arulanantham, faculty co-director, Center for Immigration Law and Policy, UCLA School of Law - former Legal Director ACLU of Southern California

Gustavo Solis, investigative border reporter, KPBS

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California has been a leader in rooftop solar adoption for years thanks to incentives and compensation programs. But  policies from utilities and state lawmakers are removing incentives and making it more expensive for residents to have  solar on their homes. Supporters of the changes say the new policies will reduce everyone’s electric bills, but solar advocates say cutting back on rooftop solar will make it harder for California to meet its renewable energy goals. We talk with experts about the future of rooftop solar in California and what this moment means for renewable energy.

Guests:

Sammy Roth, climate columnist, LA Times

Mohit Chha, senior analyst, NRDC

Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president for California, Environmental Working Group

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Oakland based art-pop band Tune-Yards is widely loved for their complex and funky rhythms, layers of sound, thrillingly dynamic vocals, and thought provoking lyrics. The duo, Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner, have just released a new album, “Better Dreaming,” praised by critics as highly danceable and jubilant while, as always, grappling with the state of the world. Merrill Garbus joins us in the studio for a new album listening party and to demonstrate how she creates her powerhouse sound.

Guests:

Merrill Garbus, singer, musician, Tune-Yards - newest album is "Better Dreaming"

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The prevailing narrative about Apple in China over the last two decades is that the Cupertino company took advantage of low wages and weak labor laws to ship out close to half a billion devices per year. Journalist Patrick McGee says that narrative isn’t wrong, but it misses “the biggest piece of the puzzle: that Beijing allowed Apple’s activities so that China could exploit Apple and become a tech powerhouse in its own right.” We talk to McGee about his new book “Apple in China” and the threats the company faces from AI and the Trump administration.

Guests:

Patrick McGee, San Francisco correspondent, Financial Times - author, "Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company"

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NPR’s Rhaina Cohen has taken a close look at friend-powered parenting, joining shared households to see how neighbor-and-friend alliances can break the isolation of modern parenthood. We’ll talk about the challenges of communal living and what parents gain—emotionally, practically, even financially—when they raise their kids with their friends. Cohen’s recent piece for the Atlantic is “A Grand Experiment in Parenthood and Friendship.” Would you raise your kids with your best pals?

Guests:

Rhaina Cohen, producer and editor for the NPR Documentary podcast Embedded; author of the Atlantic piece, "A Grand Experiment in Parenthood and Friendship"

Phil Levin, founder, Live Near Friends

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When the first AIDS LifeCycle ride rolled down the California coastline in 1994, AIDS was the leading cause of death for people aged 25 to 44. Today, HIV is no longer a death sentence and can be treated, though not cured. This weekend, the ride, which has raised $300 million for research, crosses the finish line for the last time. We take this moment to look back on the strides made in AIDS/HIV research and advocacy and explore the impact federal funding cuts to healthcare will have on stopping the spread of AIDS in the U.S. and around the world.

Guests:

Jeff Sheehy, long-time AIDS activist and first openly HIV+ member of SF Board of Supervisors; former board member, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine

Monica Gandhi, infectious disease expert; professor of medicine, UCSF

Jennifer Kates, senior vice president and director of Global Health & HIV Policy, KFF

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“We’re in a protein craze, and it’s hard to ignore,” writes New York Times health reporter Alice Callahan. Social media feeds are inundated with claims about protein – encouraging protein-maxxing diets that contain many times the federal recommendations, and pushing supplements, artificial protein sources and lots of red meat. We’ll talk with Callahan and nutritionists about how to evaluate your own protein needs — and the risks of the online protein obsession.

Guests:

Alice Callahan, nutrition reporter, The New York Times

Christopher Gardner, nutrition scientist and professor of medicine, Stanford Prevention Research Center

Stuart Phillips, professor of kinesiology and nutrition researcher, McMaster University in Ontario, Canada

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Celebrated nature writer Robert Macfarlane has written about mountains, trails, and the old ways of humans on Earth. His new book lays out its premise in the title: “Is a River Alive?” He seeks answers to the question in a cloud forest in Ecuador, a dying ecosystem in Chennai, and a powerful river in Canada. We talk to Macfarlane about what rights nature should have and we hear from you. Do you feel a living presence in wild spaces?

Guests:

Robert Macfarlane, nature writer; author, "Is a River Alive?"; Previous books include "Underland: A Deep Time Journey"

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