Kqeds Forum

For New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, they’re cardboard cutouts that decorated his parents’ wedding, “each the size of a 45-r.p.m. single: an orange Snoopy and two Woodstocks, one white and one light blue.” For artist Ari Bird, it’s a tree pompom that her grandfather painted gold and gave to her as a child. Whether it's a portrait, a wedding dress, an album or a Snoopy cutout, the objects we inherit speak to who our families are, who we were, and what we value. We want to hear from you: what’s a family heirloom passed down to you — or that you hope to pass down to future generations? What makes it valuable? Guests: Hua Hsu, staff writer, New Yorker magazine; professor of Literature, Bard College; author, forthcoming memoir "Stay True" Ari Bird, visual artist based in Oakland and San Diego

After seeing yet another ‘30 under 30’ and ‘40 under 40’ list celebrating the achievements of young people, San Francisco geriatric doctor Anna Chodos decided it was time people started hearing about the remarkable achievement of living into old age. She started the 80 over 80 project to share the stories and experiences of San Franciscans over the age of 80. Forum talks with Chodos and participants about their rich and rewarding lives, their experiences during the pandemic, and aging in a society that fears getting old. Guests: Margaret Graf, founder, Senior Power - for seniors in the Sunset Judy Goddess, founder and reporter, sfseniorbeat.com Annie White, facilitator, Network for Elders - an organization in the Bayview supporting older adults Anna Chodos, geriatrician and medical director of outpatient geriatrics services, San Francisco Health Network; associate professor, UCSF in Geriatrics

A study published in the journal Nature this week documented yet more symptoms – including hair loss and sexual dysfunction – associated with long covid, a syndrome the CDC reports afflicts roughly a fifth of people who contract Covid-19. The Nature study also found that long covid sufferers are more likely to be young, members of ethnic minority groups, and economically disadvantaged. We’ll talk about the latest long covid science and hear from long haulers about how they have adjusted to life with a chronic illness. Guests: Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine and executive vice president, Scripps Research Institute Angela Meriquez Vázquez, long COVID patient and President of Body Politic Paige Morrisey, 25-year-old COVID long-hauler

The sizzler, a popular dish in Mumbai, is an over-the-top melange of pasta, paneer, grilled onions and peppers, samosas, cabbage and shredded Mexican cheese – all piled on a sizzling hot platter. It was inspired, so the story goes, by a visit to a Sizzler chain restaurant in California in the 1960s, and it has returned to California in some South Bay restaurants. But as any child of immigrants knows, cultural food mashups don’t have to be flashy. For KQED reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi, whose article tracked down the history of the Sizzler, it was grilled paneer tacos. For San Francisco Chronicle food critic Soliel Ho, it was Ho’s grandmother’s jasmine rice with maggi seasoning, topped with turkey cold cuts. Ho calls it “assimilation food”: “food that’s made to close the gap between homes: a critical need when one lives in exile.” As part of our ongoing segment on Bay Area food cultures, we’ll talk about all kinds of food mashups, from that Indian Sizzler to hot cheetos in a burrito to putting a splash of fish sa

“Pregnant people,” a phrase to include those who can bear children, but don’t identify as women, has been used more often in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade. Some feminists have pushed back against the term and other gender-inclusive language like “birthing people” and “people who menstruate,” saying that these terms obfuscate gender-specific violence against women and reduce people to their body parts. Others have pushed back to that pushback, saying that the explicit inclusion of trans and nonbinary people only strengthens the fight for gender equity. We’ll talk about why the term evokes such strong emotions, and hear your thoughts, with powerhouse feminist thinkers Judith Butler and Roxane Gay. Guests: Susan Davis, senior editor, Forum Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley Roxane Gay, author, "Difficult Women," "Hunger," and "Bad Feminist;" editor, the new anthology "The Selected Works of Audre Lorde"

Millions of renters could face evictions now that rental relief programs and bans on evictions have expired, or will soon. Those government programs targeted people who lost income during the pandemic, but many Californians have yet to recover financially and owe thousands in back rent. Even under existing programs, more than 135,000 households in California, nearly a third of the total, had their rent relief applications rejected, according to CalMatters. All of that along with rents creeping back up to pre-pandemic levels, could make way for a wave of new evictions. We’ll talk about vulnerable tenants and what local, state and federal agencies could do to help. Guests: Erin Baldassari, housing affordability reporter, KQED; co-host, "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America" podcast Manuela Tobias, housing reporter, CalMatters Bonnie Bertram, producer and writer, Retro Report; partnered with Frontline, documentary "Facing Eviction" debuts on July 26.

By his own account, journalist and author Alec Wilkinson was a terrible math student -- and passed his high school math classes only by cheating. But at age 65, he decided he’d try again to learn the subject that had left him feeling abused and aggrieved. His joyful and humbling quest is the subject of his new memoir "A Divine Language.” We'll talk to him about what he learned and we'll hear from you: have you tried to master a subject later in life? Guests: Alec Wilkinson, author, "A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age" - He's also a contributing writer for the New Yorker; his previous books include "The Ice Balloon," "The Protest Singer" and "The Happiest Man in the World."

Thanks to a series of recalls, resignations and re-shuffles, San Francisco has a new district attorney, new school board members, and a new city attorney, all of whom were appointed by Mayor London Breed. Now that the mayor has a team in place that is mostly of her choosing, what will she do to confront the city’s considerable challenges? Is the city in for a major course change? We’ll talk about San Francisco’s post-recall politics with a roundtable of reporters. Guests: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Reporter/Producer, KQED News. Scott Shafer, senior editor for KQED’s California Politics and Government desk and co-host of Political Breakdown. Annie Gaus, editor, SF Standard

Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” has topped the Billboard albums chart for five weeks this summer, with his Latin trap and reggaetón beats on heavy rotation at beach days and house parties alike. The latest releases of Drake and Beyoncé are signaling for some a revival of house music, its uptempo beats symbolizing joy amidst struggle. And after 27 years, Netflix and TikTok returned Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” to the charts —winning fans not yet born at its release. This summer’s most popular music is eclectic, but there just may be a unifying energy to it all. We’ll discuss the sounds of Summer 2022 and hear your song of the summer. Guests: Pendarvis "Pen" Harshaw, columnist, KQED Arts - host, KQED's "Rightnowish" podcast. Kelefa Sanneh, author, Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres - staff writer, The New Yorker; former music critic, The New York Times. Reanna Cruz, producer, Switched on Pop.

The Jan. 6 House Committee is wrapping up its summer hearings this week with testimony from two former Trump staffers who both resigned the day of the insurrection: Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, a former White House deputy press secretary. The focus of recent hearings has been to detail former President Donald Trump’s role in inciting the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol and his repeated attempts to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. We’ll talk about the latest revelations from the committee hearing, what could happen next and the political implications of the hearings so far. Guests: Shanlon Wu, criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor who also served as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno. Grace Panetta, Senior Politics reporter, Business Insider. Clara Jeffery, editor in chief, Mother Jones - San Francisco-based national magazine specializing in investigative, political, and social justice reporti

Kids aged 14 to 17 should get a minimum of eight hours of sleep a night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. But more than three-quarters of U.S. high school students report sleeping less than that on school nights, CDC surveys show. To help teens sleep better, California became the first state in the nation to set new start times for public schools: as of July 1, high schools cannot start earlier than 8:30, and middle schools no earlier than 8:00. We'll hear what you think of the new schedules and take your teen and adolescent sleep questions. Guests: Dr. Rafael Pelayo, clinical professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Division of Sleep Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center; author, “How to Sleep: The New Science-Based Solutions for Sleeping Through the Night” Lisa L. Lewis, author, "The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, and How Parents and Schools Can Help Them Thrive"

In life, friends come in many buckets: school friends, teammates, neighbors. And then there is the work friend: the co-worker who understands how you spend eight hours of your day, the person who you seek out for coffee breaks to commiserate and who shares the workplace lingo. Work friends often remain just friends at work, but sometimes you start hanging out away from work and introduce them to your other friends and family. The importance of the work friend cannot be underestimated: a recent survey found that 70% of workers cited having friends at work as a critical component of a satisfying work place, and workers who report having a work friend are more likely to stay with their company. We’ll talk about friendships at work, the thrill of making your first work friend, and how to form work friendships in this pandemic-inflected world. Guests: Julie Beck, senior editor, The Atlantic - Beck has written extensively about friendships as part of The Atlantic's "Friendship Files." Her most recent piece is tit

If you overheard someone shout, “nice dink in the kitchen!” you probably just walked by a pickleball court. Pickleball, the fastest growing sport in the United States, is taking over park and rec centers all over California as players clamor for more court time. Invented in 1965 by a Washington state congressman and his friend to entertain their bored kids, pickleball’s popularity took off during the pandemic, with an almost 40% increase in players. Across the country over four million people are playing pickleball, and its enthusiasts have formed a variety of professional organizations, leagues and tournaments with an eye to getting certified as an Olympic sport. We’ll look at how and why pickleball has become an American obsession. Have you picked up a paddle? Guests: John Walters, sportswriter, Sports Illustrated; adjunct professor of Sports Media, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Walters wrote the Sports Illustrated cover story about pickleball "Barbarians in the Kitchen" Rache

Many Bay Area residents are scrambling and traveling long distances to get a monkeypox vaccine. Public health officials are warning of the serious shortage of vaccines needed to combat the growing outbreaks of monkeypox across the country. Since it was detected in the U.S. in May, the CDC has reported over 1,800 cases of the painful, but very rarely fatal, viral disease. About a quarter of the cases are in California, which expected to receive 15,000 doses of the vaccine this week but logistical, bureaucratic and technical errors on a federal level have slowed the distribution of nearly 7 million doses nationwide. Although anyone can get the disease, U.S. monkeypox cases have disproportionately affected men who have sex with men. LGBTQ activists protested federal offices in San Francisco this week out of concern we’re seeing a repeat of the public health failures of the early days of the HIV epidemic. We’ll discuss concerns about monkeypox and what local public health officials are doing to respond. Guests: A

In 1973, not long after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, Congress amended the Public Health Service Act to allow medical professionals to refuse to provide abortion care on the basis of their moral or religious beliefs. But if healthcare workers can be “conscientious objectors” to abortion care, couldn’t “conscientious providers” of abortion be legally protected, too? That’s the question University of San Diego law professor and bioethicist Dov Fox asks in his recent New York Times op-ed “What Will Happen if Doctors Defy the Law to Provide Abortions?” We’ll talk to Fox and other experts about the medical and moral dilemmas abortion providers face in the post-Roe world.  Guests: Dov Fox, professor of law and director, Center for Health Law Policy and Bioethics, University of San Diego School of Law Dr. Jennifer Conti, adjunct clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Stanford University Sonja Sharp, metro reporter, LA Times Dr. David Eisenberg , associate director, Division of Family Pla

Acclaimed poet and novelist Erika L. Sanchez’s memoir, “Crying in the Bathroom,” presents a series of poignant essays about growing up in Chicago in a working-class Mexican neighborhood, her rise to literary fame and her struggles with mental illness. Her book details many moments when she was successfully achieving her dreams and, simultaneously, considering ending her life. Sanchez is also author of the poetry collection, “Lessons on Expulsion,” and the young adult novel, “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” that is being adapted into a movie. She joins us to talk about making it as a Mexican-American writer, sex and shame, Buddhism, and crying in the bathroom.  Guests: Erika L. Sanchez, poet, novelist, essayist and professor at DePaul University. Her new memoir is "Crying the Bathroom." Her other books include the poetry collection, "Lessons on Expulsion," the young adult novel, "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter."

By the end of the summer of 2020 -- after a violent militia group plotted to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and after Proud Boys members attacked Black Lives Matters protesters in cities around the country -- it was clear to intelligence professionals that these groups "were planning for war." That's according to counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance, whose new book "They Want to Kill Americans" traces the rise of what he calls TITUS, or the Trump Insurgency in the United States. We'll talk to Nance about who the insurgents are and how we can counteract the threat they pose to our democracy. Guests: Malcolm Nance, former United States naval intelligence officer, specializing in cryptology & counterterrorism. His new book is "They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency."

Laguna Honda Hospital opened up in 1866 to care for the city’s poor and indigent. Now over 150 years later, federal officials have threatened to shut the hospital, which operates as a skilled nursing facility, because of failed inspections prompted by two nonfatal drug overdoses that occurred onsite. In order to be recertified to operate, Laguna Honda must move out over 600 of its residents and has until September 13 to make that happen. So far, they have only moved 48 patients. What happened to the hospital and how will these patients be taken care of? We’ll discuss the ongoing situation at Laguna Honda and talk about what this situation says about how we care for our most vulnerable friends and neighbors. Guests: Sydney Johnson, public health reporter, San Francisco Examiner. Tony Chicotel, Staff Attorney, California Advocates For Nursing Home Reform. Jessica Lehman, executive director, Senior & Disability Action. Roland Pickens, director of the San Francisco Health Network, a network of 13 clinics in SF, i

President Biden’s approval rating is below 40%, and a poll this week from the New York Times and Siena College found 64% of Democratic voters would prefer a new presidential candidate in 2024. We’ll talk about what’s fueling voter dissatisfaction with the president, and we want to hear from you: should Biden run again? If not, do you have ideas of who should pick up the mantle? Guests: Tamara Keith, NPR White House correspondent, Co-host of the @NPRPolitics podcast. Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED - Co-host of KQED's Political Breakdown show.

When E.T. walked across the screen and into the hearts of moviegoers everywhere, that lovable space alien who wanted to “phone home” needed a sound for its walk. Foley artists, the sound magicians who add special effects to movies, decided to use a bag of jello in a damp T-shirt. Indeed, a Foley artist is nothing but ingenious. Snappers, clackers, ka-chunkers, sha-shonkers and things that go “ronk” are just a few things you might find in their toolbox, along with celery — good for broken bones — or paperclips on gloves to imitate a cat walking down the hall. We’ll learn about these tricks of the trade from some of the world’s best Foley artists at Skywalker Sound in Marin. Guests: Anna Wiener, contributing writer, The New Yorker - She is the author of the memoir "Uncanny Valley." Her most recent piece for the New Yorker is titled "Noisemakers." Shelley Roden, Foley artist, Skywalker Sound - Roden has worked as a Foley artist for over 25 years, and has worked on "Black Panther," "Top Gun: Maverick," "Soul," "