It's time to finalize summer plans and for many of us that means deciding what books to read as much as it means deciding where to go. So tell us: What is the best book you've read so far this year? What should fellow listeners pack in their carry-on? We'll also hear from Bay Area booksellers about what's popular at their stores and what new releases they're excited about.

Listeners Weigh In on What to Read This Summer

Forum tells remarkable and true stories about who we are and where we live. In the first hour, Alexis Madrigal convenes the diverse voices of the Bay Area, before turning to Mina Kim for the second hour to chronicle and center Californians’ experience. In an increasingly divided world, Mina and Alexis host conversations that inform, challenge and unify listeners with big ideas and different viewpoints.

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Alua Arthur is a death doula — someone who helps people prepare logistically, mentally and emotionally for the end of life. There are practical considerations, like memorial planning and medical directives. And then there’s the act of thinking how we’d ideally want to die — outdoors or indoors, surrounded by loved ones, arguments resolved — that shows what’s most important to us and can help us live in alignment with those priorities. Arthur’s new memoir, “Briefly Perfectly Human,” is an account of the relationships she formed with her dying clients and the reflections they shared with her — including regrets in romance and work, their vulnerabilities in a failing body and what brought them authentic joy. We’ll talk to Arthur about how to ease our transitions to death and hear how tending to the dying has shaped her own life and outlook.

Guests:

Alua Arthur, death doula, attorney, and adjunct professor; author, “Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End"; founder, Going with Grace — a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization

Death Doula Alua Arthur on How and Why to Prepare for the End

Have you ever walked by a lush, green space filled with pollinators and thought, “How can I create one of those?” Your answer might be found in the new book, “Garden Wonderland,” by Bay Area landscape and garden expert Leslie Bennett and her co-author Julie Chai. Their new book offers advice on how to create landscapes that include flowers, fruits and vegetables, healing plants, and gathering spaces that honor a gardener’s personal culture. In time for spring, we talk to Bennet and Chai as well as nursery owner Flora Grubb about your garden wonderlands.

Guests:

Flora Grubb, co-owner, Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Grubb and Nadler Nurseries

Leslie Bennett, owner and creative director, Pine House Edible Gardens; co-author, "Garden Wonderland: Create Life-Changing Outdoor Spaces for Beauty, Harvest, Meaning and Joy"

Julie Chai, co-author, "Garden Wonderland: Create Life-Changing Outdoor Spaces for Beauty, Harvest, Meaning and Joy"

How to Create Your Own ‘Garden Wonderland’

Opening arguments could take place as soon as next week in Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, where he stands accused of covering up hush money payments he made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. The trial, which is expected to last for more than a month, is one of four criminal prosecutions the former president faces. Delay has beset some of those cases, as courts consider a host of pre-trial motions and interim appeals filed by Trump’s defense team. We’ll take stock of where the criminal cases against the former president stand and their impact on November’s election.

Guests:

Alan Feuer, reporter covering extremism and political violence, New York Times

First Trump Criminal Trial Underway in New York

About ten years ago, two of journalist Lissa Soep’s closest friends died around the same time. In her grieving, she found consolation in the philosophy of a 20th century Russian literary theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin, and his theory of “double voicing” – the idea that our speech is “filled to overflowing with other people’s words”. Her friends had not disappeared, instead, they’d slipped into her own language, and that of the people around her. We talk to Soep about great friendships, the mysterious power of language to sustain conversations even with those who have died and her book, “Other People’s Words.”

Guests:

Lissa Soep, author, "Other People's Words: Friendship, Loss and the Conversations that Never End." She is also senior editor for audio at Vox Media

The Beauty in Finding ‘Other People’s Words’ in Your Own

Dollar stores – the bargain chains prevalent in rural areas that sell miscellaneous merchandise at steeply discounted prices – have been blamed for contributing to food deserts and pushing out smaller mom and pop grocers. But the 99 Cents Only chain stood for something different to its fans, according to LA Times reporter Andrea Chang, who says that people relied on the bright and well-organized spaces for good quality merchandise. The California-based company announced that it will be closing all 371 of its stores just as another prominent chain, Family Dollar, plans to shutter 1000 stores. We’ll talk about the history of dollar stores, the impact they have on communities across the country and what happens to the people reliant on them when they leave.

Guests:
Eliza Ronalds-Hannon, senior reporter, Bloomberg
Andrea Chang, wealth reporter, Los Angeles Times
Sara Portnoy, professor of Latinx food studies and food justice, USC; creator and executive producer of "Abuelitas on the Borderlands" film series

Listeners Weigh In on What to Read This Summer

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