Kqeds Forum

Kathy Ryan was the longtime director of photography at the New York Times Magazine. For nearly four decades, Ryan shaped the way we witnessed history: January 6th, wars abroad and the impacts of COVID-19 and 9/11 We’ll talk with Ryan about storytelling through images. And we’ll discuss what makes a good photograph when we’re inundated by them, now that so many of us carry a camera in our pockets. We want to hear from you: What’s a photograph that stands out in your mind? Guests: Kathy Ryan, former director of photography, The New York Times Magazine; keynote speaker and co-curator of the 2025 Catchlight Visual Storytelling Summit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” President Trump targeted the Smithsonian, demanding that “improper ideology” be removed from exhibits. Under the order,  exhibits that “divide” Americans will be defunded, including  portrayals of race and its history at the National Museum of  African American History and Culture. We talk to Clint Smith, Atlantic staff writer and author of “How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America,” about the battle over how American history is told. Guests: Clint Smith, poet; author; staff writer, The Atlantic. His books are "Above Ground" and "How the Word is Passed." Key Jo Lee, chief of curatorial affairs and public program, Museum of the African Diaspora Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Funeral rites are underway for Pope Francis, who died this week at age 88 after leading the Roman Catholic Church for 12 years. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are expected to attend the papal funeral in Vatican City on Saturday, including cardinals from around the world. Many of these cardinals will then begin the process of electing the next pope. Before the white smoke is released, we’ll look at the conclave process and examine who might succeed Pope Francis — and whether he’ll continue Francis’s legacy of environmentalism, openness and compassion. Guests: Father Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam, chair of philosophy of science and director, the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome; former coordinator of Ecology and Creation at the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development Jeffrey Guhin, associate professor of sociology, UCLA Bry Jensen, Host of the long-running Pontifacts podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

Caregiving is the most universal of human acts. But also one of the most invisible. While caring for a child, parent or loved one can be meaningful, and life defining, it can also be exhausting and life breaking. Drawing on her groundbreaking research on baby’s brains, UC Berkeley psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik is leading a multidisciplinary project to better understand the social science of caregiving with hopes of translating those insights into practical policies. Gopnik and policymaker Anne-Marie Slaughter join us to talk about how rethinking our approach to caregiving and how we support care providers, could lead to a better, more functional society. Guests: Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy, UC Berkeley; author, "The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children" Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America, a non-profit think tank; author of "Unfinished Business: Wome

Is the United States in the talked-about and feared constitutional crisis? President Trump and his administration are increasingly ignoring federal court rulings on issues like immigration and funding. Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer calls the president’s defiance “a new step into presidential lawlessness.” We talk with Serwer and Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern about what this means for the balance of power in Washington and for democracy. Guests: Adam Serwer, staff writer, The Atlantic Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, president, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; previously a justice on the California Supreme Court Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer, Slate Magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ellis Island might have been a welcoming place for many immigrants to the United States, but Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay tells a more troubling history of immigrant detention. Starting next month, the Oakland Ballet will premiere “Angel Island Project,” a dance production highlighting the stories of immigrants, primarily from China, who were detained there in the early 20th century. As part of KQED’s annual Youth Takeover, high school students Nico and Maite bring together choreographers and a local historian to talk about the project and the lessons that histories of immigration can teach us today. Guests: Graham Lustig, artistic director, Angel Island Project and Oakland Ballet Company Phil Chan, choreographer, Angel Island Project - co-founder, Final Bow for Yellowface Ye Feng, dancer and choreographer, Angel Island Project Ed Tepporn, executive director, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation Nico Fischer, Youth Advisory Board member; senior, Santa Clara High School Maite del Real, Youth A

Overturning Roe v. Wade was never the end goal of the anti-abortion movement, says UC Davis law professor and leading abortion historian Mary Ziegler. It was always to establish personhood for a fertilized egg, subject to equal protection under the Constitution. Should the “fetal personhood” movement succeed, then providing, assisting and even obtaining an abortion could be criminal acts. Ziegler joins us to break down the fetal personhood movement’s legal strategy — and what it could mean for abortion access, contraception and in vitro fertilization. Ziegler’s new book is “Personhood: The New Civil War Over Reproduction.” Guests: Mary Ziegler, professor of law, UC Davis School of Law Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than a thousand international college students – scores of them in California – have had their visas terminated without explanation under new Trump administration policies. We’ll talk about what the administration’s targeting of international students and threatened withdrawals of federal funding mean for California students and schools, and how Universities and colleges are responding. Guests: Molly Gibbs, Bay Area News Group education reporter, East Bay Times Doug Belkins, higher education and national news reporter, The Wall Street Journal Aarya Mukherjee, deputy news editor, The Daily Californian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices