Kqeds Forum

To live deliberately as a swimmer means you are a seeker; a chaser of the oceans blue corduroy, a follower of river veins, journalist Bonnie Tsui writes in her book, Why We Swim. A lifelong swimmer whose parents met at a pool, Tsui interweaves her personal love of the sport with scientific research on the psychology and physicality of swimming. She shares stories of long-distance swimmers and breaks down the reasons we swim: for survival, well-being, community, competition and flow. We want to hear from you: why do you swim?

Last week, Amazon workers at an Alabama warehouse voted down a call to unionize, and that decision has organized labor scrambling. Though a majority of Americans say they are in favor of unions, creating new ones is not easy. Key to the movement’s future is a sweeping piece of pro-union legislation, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which passed the House and faces uncertain prospects in the Senate.We’ll examine the future of organized labor and discuss how rising inequality is shifting the conversation around unions.   

President Biden on Friday ordered a 36-member bipartisan commission to study proposals to expand the size of the U.S. Supreme Court and set term limits for justices. Biden first proposed establishing the commission on the 2020 campaign trail, as the Court's rightward shift during the Trump Administration became a rallying cry for Democrats. We'll talk about the potential ramifications of a Supreme Court overhaul.

Research has found that we crave and consume more M&M’s when they’re multi-colored than when they’re just one color. In his new book “Hooked,” Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Michael Moss explains how multinational food companies use illusions of variety and fancy packaging to manipulate our predisposed preferences. Moss argues that we should think and talk about our relationship with processed foods the way we do with tobacco, drugs and other addictions. He joins us to talk about food addiction and the extent “Big Food” is culpable in the 40% rate of obesity among American adults.

In his new book, “Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America,” journalist Alec MacGillis tracks how the labor and business practices of Amazon, the nation’s second-largest private employer, can damage communities and workers. MacGillis utilizes Amazon as an example of much broader problems in American society including income inequality, geographic wealth concentrations and consumer expectations for low prices. The book’s release comes ahead of a closely watched effort in Alabama to establish the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the United States. We talk with MacGillis about how Amazon reshapes — and exemplifies — America.

After a decade as a lawyer, Julie DiCaro thought she had landed a dream job as a sports radio host. But the work environment quickly turned toxic, one where she felt she constantly had to prove herself as a woman. In her book, Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America, DiCaro lays bare the treatment of women on and off the sports field from sexism to internet trolls to pervasive misogyny. We talk with DiCaro about the enduring inequality for women in sports and the actions the industry can take to change it.

As students prepare to return to classrooms, schools are looking to tutoring, extended school days and reimagined standards to address gaps caused by distance learning. Students from low-income families and English learners were among those least able to consistently log in to virtual school over the past year. President Biden’s latest Covid relief bill includes funds set aside for learning loss, and in March, California Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $4.6 billion for summer school and additional instruction time. Yet some are critical of the concept of “learning loss,” claiming deficit mindsets negate all that students did learn over the past year and fail to prioritize students’ socio-emotional well-being. We’ll talk about the best approaches for schools, teachers, parents and students moving back to in-person education after a year online.

Many young women depend on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system as their primary mode of transportation... But young women and girls riding BART say they have experienced harassment from catcalling to stalking and unwelcome sexual advances… forcing many to spend large amounts of money on ridesharing options like Uber and Lyft. In 2018, the violent murder of Nia Wilson on the MacArthur station in Oakland brought awareness to racially charged attacks on public transit. We hear about a new community led partnership to combat gender-based violence and harassment on BART.

Americans are the least worried about contracting COVID-19 than they have ever been since the start of the pandemic, according to a new Gallup poll. Factors contributing to the optimism include the drop in cases in most states and improvements in vaccine rollout. Now, California Governor Newsom has promised a full reopening by mid-June if the state can keep hospitalizations low. We want to hear from listeners:  How are you adjusting mentally or changing your behavior as re-opening becomes imminent?   How has your vaccination status affected your outlook?  

In her book of essays, “White Space,” writer Jennifer De Leon explores how she became a writer — a journey inextricably linked to her parents’ migration from Guatemala to the United States. Throughout her life, De Leon carved a place for herself in spaces that felt unfamiliar: in the private college where she didn’t feel wealthy or white enough; in Guatemala where she immersed herself in a culture and language locals expected her to already know. This is De Leon’s second book release during the pandemic — her young adult novel, “Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From,” came out last May. De Leon joins to talk about her Central American roots, her parents’ reservations about her career and writing in mostly white spaces. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that almost all businesses in the state may reopen on June 15 at or near full capacity, provided vaccine supplies are stable, hospitalization rates remain low and certain large-scale indoor events implement vaccine or testing requirements. The statewide mask mandate will also stay in place. We'll discuss the public health implications of the reopening plan, and we'll also talk about the status of vaccine rollout efforts globally as new coronavirus variants raise alarms among public health officials worldwide.

A century ago, nearly one million Black farmers worked the land across the United States. Today, there are around 45,000 Black farmers. Investigations into the United States Department of Agriculture found that starting in the 1950s, illegal and discriminatory loan programs resulted in enormous wealth transfers from Black to white farmers, and are at the root of this decline. In her new book "We Are Each Other's Harvest," Natalie Baszile, author of novel "Queen Sugar," looks at what happened. Through essays, poems, photographs and personal stories, she documents the rich agricultural history of African Americans. We'll talk with Bay Area based Baszile about the book, some of the farmers she's met and what's in the American Rescue Plan to help reverse the trend.

During the pandemic, California home buyers gobbled up single-family homes in exurbs and suburbs while low-income earners struggled to make rent. The median home price in California rose roughly 20 percent during the past year to about $700,000, according to the California Association of Realtors. At the same time, rents plummeted in many of the state’s biggest cities — especially in high-end luxury towers. But those drops do little to help millions of renters in California barely managing to keep roofs over their heads. Part of the problem is that, based on some estimates, California faces a shortage of roughly 3 million homes. We examine how these trends could make California’s long-time housing shortage worse and what policies are on the horizon to address the problem. 

Therapists have been in high demand during the pandemic, after shifting services online. But with no licensed psychologists in 33 percent of counties nationwide, the demand can be bigger than the supply.   That has set the stage for growing interest in services offering mental-health care on a smartphone. Startups offering digital behavioral health were able to raise $1.8 billion in funding in 2020, compared to $609 million the year before.  We’ll hear about therapy apps, and whether they can live up to their promises.

Can self-deception be beneficial? That’s one of the questions animating Shankar Vedantam’s new book “Useful Delusions,” which argues that holding false beliefs is not necessarily a sign of pathology or ignorance. We’ll talk to the Hidden Brain podcast host about the lies we tell ourselves — and each other — and the role some forms of deception play in sustaining relationships and advancing mental well-being.

Recording artists protested outside Spotify offices around the world last month as part of an ongoing movement to demand better pay. The streaming site’s payout rates have been decreasing over time, with artists today making approximately .0038 cents per stream. The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) wants the Swedish streaming company to pay one cent per stream. We break down how artists can make money today using online platforms and hear from some artists about why they say it’s not a living wage.

Under pressure from lawmakers and public health officials, Facebook has recently ramped up efforts to combat Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on its site by banning anti-vaxxers and marking misleading posts as false. But according to Bloomberg tech reporter Sarah Frier, those measures are doomed to fall short because the company's platform by design favors sensationalism over scientific nuance. We'll talk about the impact of covid vaccine misinformation on social media sites and what more can be done to control it.

At least 5,796 people presently detained in California county jails have waited more than one year for a conviction or sentence. At least 1,300 of these inmates have been incarcerated for three or more years, with more than 300 waiting for more than five years. And the backlog has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 44,241 people in total mostly people of color currently awaiting convictions or sentences in California county jails. That's all according to a new report from CalMatters, which spoke with incarcerated persons, crime victims and impacted family members. We'll speak with CalMatters' Robert Lewis about his report.

As the pandemic creeps into its second year and as fires, droughts and floods continually remind us that the climate is changing, writer Anne Lamott notes that existential exhaustion is everywhere we look these days. In her new book, Dusk, Night, Dawn Lamott asks, where on earth do we start to get our world and joy and hope and our faith in life itself back? Lamott's approach is both spiritual and funny, embracing darkness and light and our worst flaws to move toward human connection, kindness. And we'll want to hear from you: What has been bringing you hope and joy?

President Joe Biden unveiled his $2 trillion infrastructure plan on Wednesday. Called the “American Jobs Plan,” the massive measure would rebuild aging roads, bridges and airports, while addressing climate change and racial inequities. It also includes funds to expand high-speed broadband internet across the country. California is poised to receive the biggest portion of federal funds if passed. Scott Shafer discusses what’s in the plan, how California would benefit and its prospects for passage in Congress with Vox reporter Ella Nilsen and Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at UC Berkeley.