Kqeds Forum

The Coronavirus pandemic continues to shake up the housing market in California. While thousands of renters have been able to stay in their homes thanks to statewide eviction moratoriums, many are accumulating crushing debt. And, despite the moratorium, landlords continue to evict tenants. Meanwhile, apartment rents fell in many cities as home sales boomed in 2020. The part of the market catering to more affluent renters and buyers remains strong, but low-income workers continue to struggle to afford or find housing. We talk about the forces shaping the housing market and how to help those hit hardest by the pandemic.

Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas teach a popular class at Stanford Business School entitled, “Humor: Serious Business”. Their mission, they say, is to make sure that the next generation of leaders don’t launch into the world “without a healthy dose of humanity, humility and intellectual perspective that only humor can bring.” They argue we need more human connection in the workplace, not just “professionalism”, especially in a time when in-person meetings have been replaced by Zoom. Aaker and Bagdonas join us to talk about how to bring more laughs to work and life, and their new book, Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And How Anyone Can Harness It. Even You.)

Early on in the pandemic, Southern California drew praise for its aggressive social distancing policies that helped contain the spread of the coronavirus. But now the region is the American epicenter for COVID-19 and what Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano calls a cautionary tale for the dangers of lifting restrictions too quickly. He says the reasons for the backslide are in large part structural: the disease is "tailor-made" for Latino and other tight-knit communities who tend to work on the front lines and live in multigenerational households. But Arellano also blames those he calls "pandejos" -- who, like "covidiots," willfully ignore public health advice. We'll talk to Arellano about his recent story for The Atlantic, called "The Pandejo Movement Destroyed California’s Pandemic Progress."

The Republican-led effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom is gaining traction as some members of Newsom's base are starting to question his leadership. Newsom was the first governor to issue a statewide stay-at-home order at the start of the pandemic, but the progress from that head start was lost following the state's summer reopening, which many say happened too fast. Now as California's vaccine distribution lags -- 5.8% of Californians have received the first dose of a vaccine compared to 6.8% nationally -- the spotlight on Newsom is intensifying. We'll discuss the latest developments in the effort to recall Gov. Newsom.

The pandemic has been tough on Oakland. Just one month into the new year the city has seen 13 homicides and a recent spate of car-jackings and robberies. The city has also made deep budget cuts to offset a $62 million shortfall from declines in tax revenue and police overtime pay. We'll talk with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf about housing, homelessness, the economy, and what the city can do to help its citizens in these hard times. 

The California Department of Public Health announced an updated COVID-19 vaccine delivery plan this week as the state faces growing criticism over a slow coronavirus vaccine rollout. But the plan, which prioritizes age over risk of infection, is receiving backlash from people with disabilities who may be immunocompromised and don’t yet meet the current age requirement. Currently, those 65 and older are eligible to be vaccinated, in addition to select groups of essential workers. Even eligible seniors, though, report long waits in the cold and trouble navigating appointment systems. Meanwhile, another coronavirus variant, different from the one originating in the U.K., is spreading across California. We'll talk about the latest coronavirus news impacting Californians.

In a report released Thursday, the California state auditor finds the Employment Development Department (EDD) has failed to fix a fraud problem that the agency itself admitted could reach $30 billion. And another audit earlier this week found that inefficiency at the EDD continues to result in delays to benefits, and that the department has failed to correct the ongoing issues. We talk with EDD spokesperson Loree Levy about the agency’s fraud problem and its delays and missteps in processing legitimate claims. And we’ll take your unemployment benefits questions.

After the deadly insurrection of January 6, Twitter and other social media companies permanently banned Donald Trump from their platforms for inciting the violent mob that overran the U.S. Capitol. Facebook indefinitely suspended the ex-President’s account, and its oversight board is considering whether to make that suspension permanent. But the bans raise complicated questions about whether powerful tech companies should have the unchecked ability to remove people from their platforms, and under what circumstances. We’ll talk about the law and politics of deplatforming.

Songwriter Michael Koppy says we’ve all been happily singing along to abysmal lyrics without noticing. In his book “Words and Music Into the Future” -- which he calls a treatise and a manifesto -- he excoriates the lyrics of even our most beloved songwriters, like Bob Dylan and John Lennon. How much attention do you pay to the lyrics of your favorite songs? We want to hear from you. What are the worst -- and the best -- song lyrics in popular music?

On Wednesday, a Californian died from COVID-19 every two minutes. The level of loss is taking a toll on families and larger communities collectively grieving the more than 38,000 deaths -- many of which were preventable. The numbers don’t tell the whole story, however, of families waiting weeks to bury or cremate loved ones. Or households in which multiple family members died from COVID-19. Or communities afraid of losing their culture when elders pass away. We talk about how some are coping with the grief and trauma of losing loved ones to the coronavirus pandemic.  

President Joe Biden on Wednesday is set to sign a group of executive actions to fight climate change, on issues ranging from fracking to green jobs. But will they go far enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Jared Blumenfeld and Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot join us to share their reaction to Biden’s plan.  They’ll also discuss how California--as it struggles with wildfire, drought and other challenges-- can serve as a model for national action on climate change.  And we’ll hear what California itself is doing to meet clean energy targets.

What happens to a society that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? That's the question author Ijeoma Oluo poses in her new book, "Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America." A follow-up to her bestselling book "So You Want to Talk About Race," Oluo continues her examination of race in America with a wide-ranging cultural history of white male identity and power that she argues has devastating consequences on women, people of color and white men themselves. We talk to Oluo about the book and what’s needed to dismantle the constructs that perpetuate white male supremacy.

With Governor Newsom easing lockdown orders Monday, many parents and students are hoping that school reopenings may soon follow. Last month, Newsom offered $2 billion in grants to schools that begin to open to in- person instruction by mid-February, but some school districts say the plan doesn’t give them the support and guidance they need to safely open. And teacher’s unions say they want to see lower COVID rates before going back to the classroom. Meanwhile, many private schools and public schools in wealthy districts have been operating in person for months, continuing to widen disparities exacerbated by the pandemic. Forum talks about how and when Bay Area public schools could reopen.

Santa Cruz County ordered the evacuation of nearly 5000 residents Monday ahead of torrential storms predicted to unleash flooding and mudslides beginning on Tuesday. Forecasters say that the weather system, known as an atmospheric river, could bring up to ten feet of snow to the Sierra Nevada by the end of the week and extreme winds and rain throughout the state. We'll talk about the dangers the weather system poses, especially to areas affected by recent wildfires, and we'll look at the impact it may have on the state's water supply.

According to climate reports released this month, the hottest years on record all occurred in the last seven years with 2020 becoming another record-making year for global temperatures. From historic wildfires in California, Australia and the Amazonian rainforest to a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season last year, the impacts of this warming are being felt across the globe. Slowing temperature rise in coming years will require radical action, according to the United Nations, with one goal calling for decreasing fossil fuel production by six percent per year through 2030. Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather says an upside is that energy producers have succeeded in making clean alternatives cheaper, which could boost more ambitious climate policy to mitigate the ongoing climate crisis. We'll talk with Hausfather about the latest climate news and its impact on Californians.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to deliver an article of impeachment against former president Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday. This clears the way for a Senate trial, which will decide whether or not to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection at the Capitol. We get the latest on impeachment proceedings and catch up with President Biden’s most recent executive orders.

The California Department of Public Health announced Monday that the state will lift the stay at home order, allowing reopening of outdoor dining and other services. The news comes as Governor Newsom faces criticism over its lack of transparency on key coronavirus data, including how it calculates the ICU projections that had been used as benchmarks for shutting down. We get the latest.

Millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. would have a path to citizenship in eight years or less, under the sweeping reform bill President Biden submitted to Congress this week. Biden also issued orders preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, halting border wall construction and ending the travel ban that targeted Muslim countries. We'll review the Biden Administration's immigration plan and talk about its potential effects on California.

The ban on outdoor dining is “arbitrary, irrational, and unfair” according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a coalition of Bay Area restaurants and wineries. The suit says that there is no scientific evidence to support the spread of COVID-19 in outdoor settings, and it warns that businesses will continue to close unless the ban is reversed. The state says the ban is necessary to save lives and prevent hospitals from reaching capacity. We’ll hear from the coalition, and check in on the latest science on outdoor transmission of the virus.

George Saunders is one of the most celebrated fiction writers today but his new book looks back to examine great stories of the past. "A Swim in the Pond in the Rain" is a close look at seven classic 19th century Russian short stories that grew out of a class he's long taught on Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol as a creative writing teacher. Saunders approaches the work with a writer's curiosity. "The focus of my artistic life has been trying to learn to write emotionally moving stories that a reader feels compelled to finish," he writes. If a story drew us in, kept us reading, made us feel respected, how did it do that? We talk to Saunders about reading, writing and great literature.