KQED's Forum

Tens of thousands of immigrants received notices last week from the Department of Homeland Security that their temporary legal statuses would be terminated in seven days. But many immigration experts say the migrants have legal grounds to remain. This comes after a New York Times investigation found that the Social Security Administration listed more than 6,300 migrants as dead to effectively cancel their access to financial services. We’ll talk about the latest developments in the Trump administration’s approach to immigration — one that’s been more reliant on revoking legal statuses and encouraging self-deportation than on the mass deportations promised on the campaign trail.

Guests:

Hamed Aleaziz, covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy, The New York Times

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When tech writer Vauhini Vara was struggling to process her sister’s death in 2021, she asked an early version of ChatGPT to write about it through an increasingly complex series of prompts. The essays in her collection, “Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age” build on her conversations with AI, enlisting its help to grapple with what it means to be human when our thoughts, our words — and with them, our very humanity — are filtered through machines. We talk to Vara about how technological capitalism is redefining what it means to be human.

Guests:

Vauhini Vara, tech journalist and novelist; her new collection of essays is “Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age”

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Off the coast of Sausalito lies one of the nation’s oldest unhoused communities. Known as “anchor-outs,” residents live aboard makeshift boats moored in the bay, carving out a precarious existence. For nearly a decade, author Joe Kloc immersed himself in their world, documenting their struggles and growing tensions with shoreline residents determined to push them out. We talk to Kloc about his new book “Lost At Sea: Poverty and Paradise Collide at the Edge of America.”

Guests:

Joe Kloc, senior editor, Harper's Magazine - author of “Lost At Sea: Poverty and Paradise Collide at the Edge of America”

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The U.S. economy has been rattled by back-and-forth tariff policies, a seesawing stock market, and concerns about inflation continuing to rise. Americans are worried about their job security, retirement funds, and the rising costs of goods from groceries to SUVs. We talk with financial experts to help us make sense of the economic uncertainty and how it should affect our financial choices. Are you doing anything differently in response to tariffs, inflation or market fluctuations?

Guests:

Jessica Roy, personal finance and utility columnist, San Francisco Chronicle

Ramit Sethi, personal finance expert; author, "I Will Teach You To Be Rich"; host, "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" podcast and the Netflix series "How to Get Rich"

Susannah Snider, managing editor for money, U.S. News

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National Book Award-winning author Colum McCann says he chooses what to write about based on what he most wants to know. His latest novel “Twist” springs from his fascination with the underwater cables, no thicker than a garden hose, that carry some 95% of the world’s telecommunications. McCann’s protagonist is a journalist who goes asea to investigate a cable break off the coast of Africa after the Congo River floods. We talk to McCann about themes of sabotage and repair – both in the abyssal zone he writes about and in our lives.

Guest:

Colum McCann, author, “Twist”; His other novels include “Apeirogon,” “Transatlantic” and “Let the Great World Spin,” which won a National Book Award.

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“An artist is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special,” said San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa. From her studio in her home in Noe Valley, Asawa created crocheted wire sculptures whose shadows are just as evocative as the art itself. But as the mother of six, Asawa was also passionate about arts education and teaching. As a new retrospective of her work and life opens at SF MOMA, we talk about Asawa’s legacy as an artist, teacher, and community member as part of our Bay Area Legends series.

Guests:

Janet Bishop, Thomas Weisel Family chief curator, SFMOMA; She co-curated the exhibition Ruth Asawa: Retrospective

Terry Kochanski, executive director, SCRAP - a nonprofit education and creative reuse center based in the Bayview and founded in 1976

Andrea Jepson, close friend of Ruth Asawa; Jepson served as the model for the fountain "Andrea" in Ghiradelli Square, and also worked with Asawa on her public school education projects

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Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday when President Trump backtracked and announced a 90-day pause on the sweeping tariffs he unveiled last week, dropping the duty rate to 10% for most countries. But it’s little reprieve for California farmers who export crops like almonds and pistachios to China. Trump has raised the taxes on imports from China to 125%, and further retaliatory tariffs from China are expected to follow. The California almond industry alone lost nearly $900 million from the trade war with China in Trump’s first term. We’ll check in with farmers and an economist on the ongoing turmoil’s effects on the agriculture industry, nationwide and here in California. And we’ll hear what it all could mean for your grocery prices.

Guests:

Marcia Brown, food and agriculture reporter, POLITICO

Colin Carter, distinguished professor of agricultural and resource economics, UC Davis

Joe Del Bosque, CEO, Del Bosque family Farms in the San Joaquin Valley

Zach Pelka, co-founder and COO, Une Femme wines based out of Sonoma

Josh Harder, U.S. representative for California's 9th Congressional District, covering San Joaquin County as well as parts of Stanislaus and Contra Costa counties

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Viet Thanh Nguyen came to the United States as a 4-year-old refugee after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. His family eventually settled in San Jose. Nguyen went on to become a Pulitzer Prize-Winning novelist and memoirist whose books center the experience of Vietnamese people. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, we’ll reflect on the war’s lasting impact and what we have – and have not – learned from it. And we’ll talk about his new book of essays, “To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other,” which explores the role of artists in political discourse.

Guests:

Viet Thanh Nguyen, author and professor at USC. His latest book is a collection of essays, "To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other." His previous books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Sympathizer," "The Committed," and the memoir, “A Man of Two Faces."

Bryan Vo, Forum intern

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Four of California’s largest home insurers are knowingly using faulty data to set coverage limits, according to a new San Francisco Chronicle investigation. It means that wildfire survivors who thought they’d be made whole after losing their homes are discovering they can’t afford to rebuild. We talk to the reporters behind the investigation and hear how you can find out if your California home is underinsured. And we want to hear from you: Do you have a story about being underinsured?

Guests:

Megan Fan Munce, reporter covering California’s home insurance crisis, The San Francisco Chronicle

Susie Neilson, investigative reporter, The San Francisco Chronicle

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San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is scaling back a key part of the city’s harm reduction strategy: the free distribution of clean foil pipes and plastic straws in public settings. These supplies are typically used to smoke fentanyl or methamphetamines. We talk to addiction specialists about how this policy change might impact drug use in the city.

Guests:

Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford School of Medicine

Tyler TerMeer, CEO, San Francisco AIDS Foundation

Sydney Johnson, reporter, KQED News

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