Kqeds Forum

On Monday, Russian forces took aim at the city of Kharkiv, pounding the enclave with rockets on the fifth day of the Ukrainian invasion. Scheduled peace talks between Ukraine and Russia did nothing to stop the fighting; Belarus has entered the fray in support of Russia; Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed his nation on nuclear alert. Images of ferocious resistance by Ukrainian troops and civilians have captured the attention of Western governments which continue to pledge aid in the form of money, weapons and humanitarian assistance. Even Switzerland, a nation with a history of neutrality, has come out against Russian aggression. Meanwhile, the toll of war has been monumental. The UN reports that more than 500,000 Ukrainians, many of them families with children, have fled to western border nations as refugees, and aid agencies warn that the humanitarian crisis shows no sign of abating. As the siege continues, we’ll talk about the hardships Ukrainians are facing, and we’ll also look at the history of R

For author Jackie Higgins, the bizarre-looking star-nosed mole has a lot to tell us about how humans perceive the world. The fastest eater in the animal kingdom, its secret weapon is 22 tentacles that stick out of its nostril, giving it an uncanny sense of touch. In her new book “Sentient,” Higgins explores the different sensory powers found in the animal kingdom, like pheromone detection or the innate sense of time. A nature filmmaker who studied with Richard Dawkins, Higgins joins us to talk about the book, and about why everything we were taught about humans having only five senses is wrong.

Calling her "one of the nation's brightest legal minds," President Biden on Friday nominated federal appellate court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, she would be the first Black woman to serve on the high court and would replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who is set to retire in June. Judge Jackson, who clerked for Justice Breyer, is also a former trial court judge and federal public defender. We'll talk about the significance of her nomination and how she could shape Supreme Court doctrine.

Russian forces on Friday closed in on the outskirts of Ukraine's capital city Kyiv, and aerial assaults continued, forcing tens of thousands of Ukrainians from their homes. Rose Gottemoeller, who served as NATO Deputy Secretary General from 2016 to 2019, calls the invasion an "enormous tragedy" that threatens to destroy Ukraine and that could signal President Vladimir Putin's intent to turn Russia into a pariah state. We'll talk about what NATO and the U.S. need to do to de-escalate and deter further violence.

Rep. Ro Khanna is one of a handful of congress members who represent Silicon Valley. His district stretches from Fremont to Cupertino, and in his new book, “Dignity in a Digital Age,” Khanna argues that to achieve digital equity, tech needs to be less geographically concentrated. The book also addresses multiple legislative proposals to tighten federal regulation of consumer privacy, digital wealth inequality and the cognitive impacts of social media. We’ll talk with Rep. Khanna about the book, his proposed “Internet Bill of Rights,” and how to make tech work for all of us.

On Thursday morning, Russian forces unleashed an air and land assault on Ukraine, and by day’s end, troops were closing in on the country’s capital Kyiv and had taken control of Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. According to the Ukrainian government, at least 57 citizens have been killed and 169 wounded. Meanwhile, civilians attempted to flee cities under missile assault. In a televised statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky committed to the fight saying that “a new iron curtain” is closing around Eastern Europe and his job is to keep Ukraine in the west. President Joe Biden and leaders around the world condemned the Russian invasion, and Biden also announced sanctions against Russia and its leaders. We’ll talk about the latest developments and what lies ahead.

As a longtime family physician, John Abramson became alarmed by the growing influence of drug makers over how doctors do their jobs. Abramson, who also teaches at Harvard Medical School, later became an expert witness in pharmaceutical lawsuits, which gave him a front row seat to the industry’s abuses. In his new book “Sickening,” Abramson shares troubling cases of drug companies interfering in medical research – often at the expense of patients. Abramson joins Forum to talk about the book and how to reform the American healthcare system.

One day in the summer of 2019, Solomon Hughes, a former Cal basketball star then working in academia, got a message from a former college teammate-turned actor: an untitled TV series was searching for someone to play the great basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Based on the 2014 book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers” by Jeff Pearlman, the series now has a name, “Winning Time,” and premieres Mar. 6 on HBO. And Hughes, who landed the role, now has his first turn as an actor. We’ll talk to Hughes about the series, becoming an actor and the legacy of the Showtime Lakers dynasty that ruled the court in the 1980s.

Every year, thousands of bees are transported from other regions of the country to pollinate California’s highly profitable almond crops. But the valuable hives belonging to those migrant worker bees have now become targets for thieves: so far this year, beekeepers have reported more than 1,000 beehives stolen from orchards across the state. We discuss the growing problem of beehive thefts and the sophisticated tools and tactics beekeepers are using to protect their bees.

During the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, many remember the emotional testimony of Darnella Frazier, the Black teen who filmed the murder. Her testimony and that of other eyewitnesses, many of whom were Black, were a central part of the prosecution’s case. Black people didn’t always have the right to testify in court in the U.S., though – and not just in the Jim Crow South, but in California as well, which had a Black testimony exclusion law on the books from 1850 to 1863. That lesser known law, and the consequences of it, is the subject of a new episode of the podcast “Gold Chains,” produced by the ACLU of Northern California. We talk to the podcast’s creator, Tammerlin Drummond, about this history and why Black testimony mattered then – and still matters today.

State efforts to curtail reproductive rights are on the rise as Florida, Arizona and West Virginia all consider bills that would ban abortions after 15 weeks. Meanwhile, lawmakers in South Dakota, Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas have introduced bills that copy SB 8, the Texas law that bans all abortions, even in the case of rape and incest, after six weeks and lets private citizens enforce the ban by suing anyone who “aids and abets” in an abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute, in the last year 108 laws rolling back reproductive rights have been introduced in state legislatures across the country. As the Supreme Court weighs whether Roe v. Wade will stand, we’ll examine the politics behind these latest measures and where they will lead.

Few places in the Bay Area have seen more demographic change than Richmond, California. From the white and Black southern migrants who decamped to the shipyards to the Mexican, Central American, and Laotian immigrants who have come in successive waves, new arrivals to the city have for years brought a remarkable mix of food cultures. We’ll talk with KQED food editor Luke Tsai about Richmond’s rich and evolving culinary scene.

UC Berkeley is one of the world’s greatest public universities, and a prized piece of an American higher education system that remains the envy of the world. But it’s also beset by the larger problems of the Bay Area, namely ongoing and bitter disputes over housing development. The university says it may be forced to cut its incoming class by thousands of seats and freeze enrollment in the wake of a court ruling over its expansion plans. Neighborhood groups had sued to block the plans over environmental concerns, and in August a court ruled in their favor. On Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom weighed in on behalf of the university, asking the state supreme court to overturn the ruling. We’ll get the latest on the case.

On June 7, San Francisco voters will decide whether to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and in Los Angeles, the effort to recall District Attorney George Gascón is collecting signatures to meet a July deadline. Supporters of both recalls claim the DAs are responsible for an uptick in property and violent crime and too lenient on offenders. But have San Francisco and Los Angeles actually become less safe, and what impact have the district attorneys’ policies had on their respective cities? We’ll discuss the recall efforts and pandemic crime rates in both metropolises.

“Evictions do not affect everyone equally,” says housing affordability reporter Molly Solomon in the second episode of KQED's podcast "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America." Black renters are more likely to be evicted than white renters, with Black women being evicted at higher rates than others. These disparities, among other troubling eviction patterns that emerged during the pandemic, are examined in the second season of “SOLD OUT,” co-hosted by Solomon and fellow KQED housing affordability reporter Erin Baldassari. Solomon and Baldassari join us to talk about their reporting and the history behind the Bay Area’s ongoing eviction disparities.

“The pursuit of justice creates injustice,” writes CNN Senior Legal Analyst Laura Coates in her new book, “Just Pursuit.” Coates began her career as a federal prosecutor in Washington D.C. with optimism. She had come from the Department of Justice where she had worked for both the Bush and Obama Administrations enforcing voting rights. In that role, she found herself being welcomed in Black communities as a hero ensuring votes would be counted. But as a prosecutor, that same community viewed her as working for the wrong side. And, after witnessing justice in action, Coates herself became distrustful of the very system in which she was a decision maker. We’ll talk to Coates about her book, the state of voting rights, and the difficult balancing act of being a Black woman, wife, and mother seeking to uphold the law and retain her humanity. This episode originally aired on Feb. 8. 

As the world around us has become more chaotic, puzzles have provided a moment of respite. The 9 x 9 grid of a Sudoku, the verticals and horizontals of a crossword, the comforting circle of the New York Times’ Spelling Bee all offer solvers a beginning and an end; they are places where problems have solutions. We talk to puzzle constructors, puzzle solvers, and puzzle lovers about why puzzles of all kinds – from jigsaws to anagrams to Wordle – have been such a joy lately. And we’ll have a special puzzle for you to solve, too. This episode originally aired on Jan. 14. 

Next week marks the 50th anniversary of President Nixon’s historic visit to China, a multi-day diplomatic tour that kickstarted efforts to normalize relations between the two countries. That event animates Gish Jen’s latest work of fiction, “Thank You, Mr. Nixon,” a collection of chronological, interrelated stories about what Jen calls the “surreal” changes that China has undergone in the last half century. We’ll talk to Jen about her book and how she thinks about the relationship between the United States and China, both the personal and the political.

President Biden said on Thursday that he believes Russia will attack Ukraine "within the next several days," characterizing the risk of an invasion as "very high." His remarks came a day after U.S. officials reported that Russia has not withdrawn any of the more than 7000 troops it has amassed near the Ukraine border. We'll talk about the latest developments with former Ukraine Ambassador Steve Pifer.

The forced removal and imprisonment of substantially the entire West Coast Japanese population during World War II tore up the lives of more than a hundred thousand people. It also ripped holes in the urban fabric, at exactly the time when the West Coast began to experience an influx of Black Americans from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and other parts of the south. These shifts had a huge effect on San Francisco, the Bay Area as a whole, and the entire West Coast. We’ll talk with two historians about the lasting marks that internment left on our cities. But first, 102-year-old Yae Wada shares her story of being forced to relocate from her home in Berkeley to a prison camp in Utah. Guests: Yae Wada, 102-year-old Berkeley resident; imprisoned during WWII in the Tanforan Assembly Center and the Topaz concentration camp Meredith Oda, associate professor of history and associate chair of the department of gender, race, and identity, University of Nevada, Reno; author, "The Gateway to the Pacific: Japanese Americans