KQED's Forum

In today’s intensely polarized climate, political conversations can quickly devolve into heated arguments. But a process called deliberative democracy has found success convening people from across the political spectrum for informed, reasoned dialogue on contentious issues. As part of KQED’s Youth Takeover week, high school students Ryan Heshmati and Anaya Ertz bring together the head of Stanford’s Deliberative Democracy Lab with people who have brought deliberative techniques to local government to discuss how we can put dialogue and reason at the center of decision-making.

Guests:

Ryan Heshmati, senior, Saratoga High School

Anaya Ertz, junior, Marin Academy

James Fishkin, professor of international communication, Stanford University; director, Deliberative Democracy Lab

Claudia Chwalisz, founder and CEO, DemocracyNext

Rahmin Sarabi, founder and director, American Public Trust

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We often take our muscles for granted, rarely stopping to consider just how complex and essential they are. From the powerful beat of our hearts to the tiny fibers that raise goosebumps, our muscles do far more than we realize. They don’t just follow instructions from the brain — they send signals back and even hold their own kind of memory. In her new book “On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters,” journalist and author Bonnie Tsui offers a new way of looking at muscles, in terms of both their physicality and cultural significance. She joins us to discuss how reconsidering muscles can allow us to find deeper meaning in our understanding of strength, beauty and what it means to be human.

Guests:

Bonnie Tsui, author and journalist, her latest book is "On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters"

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Many of President Trump’s first policies in office — including removing Temporary Protected Status for migrants, walking back climate protections and denying trans personhood — were laid out and published back in April 2023, in the Heritage Foundation’s playbook Project 2025. “Project 2025 envisions an America where abortion is strictly illegal, sex is closely policed, public schools don’t exist, and justice is harsh,” writes Atlantic staff writer David A. Graham in his new book, “The Project.” In it, he analyzes the nearly thousand-page blueprint to make sense of what we’ve seen from Trump – and what could be ahead. He joins us to share what it all could mean for our democracy.

Guests:

David Graham, staff writer, The Atlantic

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As part of our series looking back on how the pandemic changed us, 5 years on, we examine the way we work. From working remotely to handling childcare needs to coping with being an essential worker, Covid forced innovations and exposed fault lines in the nation’s employment structure. We’ll talk about what we learned and we hear from you: How did the pandemic change how you do your job and think about work?

Guests:

Nicholas A Bloom, professor of economics, Stanford University — senior fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Joan Williams, former professor of law, UC Law School San Francisco, and the founding director of the Center for WorkLife Law; UC Hastings College of the Law - author of White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America and the forthcoming title, "Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class"

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A new documentary, “The Chaplain and the Doctor,” offers an intimate glimpse into the palliative care unit of an Oakland hospital, where two women — an 80-year-old African American chaplain and a white Jewish physician — navigate the complexities of end-of-life care from profoundly different perspectives. As their paths intertwine, what begins as a professional encounter deepens into a friendship grounded in empathy, spiritual reflection and shared commitment to healing. The film will soon make its world premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival. We’re joined by the film’s subjects, chaplain Betty Clark and Dr. Jessica Zitter, who is also its director.

Guests:

Dr. Jessica Zitter, physician, Highland Hospital in Oakland - director, "The Chaplain and the Doctor"

Betty Clark, chaplain, Highland Hospital in Oakland

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California and Florida have been the epicenter of the home insurance crisis, with insurers jacking up prices, refusing coverage or fleeing the states entirely because of the massive costs from wildfire and hurricane damage. We team up with Florida public radio station WLRN to examine how our two states, with different politics and similar problems, are approaching the crisis.

Guests:

Danielle Venton, science reporter, KQED News

Tom Hudson, Vice President of News, WLRN, anchor of the Florida Roundup

David Brancaccio, host and senior editor, Marketplace Morning Report, he lost his home to fire in Altadena

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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Rivlin spent more than a year in the Bay Area shadowing the founders and venture capitalists vying to make big money off of generative AI. And in his new book “AI Valley,” Rivlin takes readers inside both the AI startups and the tech giants like Microsoft, Meta and Google trying to keep up. He chronicles the figures and breakthroughs of generative AI’s recent history – in order to better predict and understand its future. Rivlin’s new book is “AI Valley: Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash In on Artificial Intelligence.”

Guests:

Gary Rivlin, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and author, “AI Valley: Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash In on Artificial Intelligence"

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Votes are still being tallied for Oakland’s Special Election that will determine who will finish out the term left vacant after former mayor Sheng Thao was recalled last fall. As of Wednesday, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor held a narrow lead over former U.S. representative Barbara Lee. Taylor campaigned as someone who knows the local issues and politics and can move the city forward. Lee represented Oakland in Congress for nearly 27 years and promised to bring more funding to address the city’s pressing needs. Final results could take several weeks using Oakland’s ranked-choice voting system. We’ll look at the latest results and talk about this unusual race and the future of Oakland.

Guests:

Darwin BondGraham, news editor, Oaklandside

Alex Hall, enterprise and accountability reporter, KQED

Shomik Mukherjee, Oakland reporter, Bay Area News Group

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President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs caused chaos in financial markets and left investors scrambling. But who’s profiting from the turmoil? Democrats are calling for investigations into whether the President, his family or members of Congress used insider information to benefit from the stock market’s swings. We delve into allegations that some lawmakers are making money off Trump’s trade war and discuss the calls for accountability.

Guests:

Representative Mike Levin, representing California's 49th district, including southern Orange County and north San Diego County

Maria Aspan, finance correspondent, NPR

Erin Mansfield, democracy reporter, USA Today

Robert Faturechi, reporter, ProPublica

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In a sweeping executive order, Donald Trump has taken aim at efforts by states, including California, to set their own environmental policies. At risk are key components of California’s fight against climate change including its cap and trade program to control carbon emissions and efforts to promote electrical vehicles. Trump’s order is just the latest in his moves to reverse climate change policies, including halting government research funding and gutting environmental agencies. As his head of the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin has said, the administration is “driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.” We’ll talk about the impact of Trump’s approach to the environment and how California could respond.

Guests:

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

Sonia Aggarwal, CEO, Energy Innovation - a non partisan think tank based in San Francisco that provides research and analysis on energy and climate policy; special assistant, to the President for Climate Policy, Innovation, and Deployment in the Biden administration.

Lisa Friedman, reporter on the climate desk, New York Times

Abigail Dillen, president, Earthjustice - a public interest law group focused on the environment

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