KQED's Forum

Figuring out what to eat can feel more complicated than ever. Are eggs healthy, or not? Is everything labeled ultra-processed bad for us? How much protein is enough protein? Stanford nutrition scientist Christopher Gardner says eating well is easier than you might think and that there’s more agreement among researchers than the latest viral diet fads suggest. We talk to Gardner about what the evidence shows. His new book is “Food Sense.”

Guests:

• Dr. Christopher Gardner, professor and director of nutrition studies, Stanford University; author, “Food Sense: What to Eat and Why”

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San Jose has the most expensive water in the country, according to a new report from Food & Water Watch. The report finds that, nationwide, household water bills have increased by an average of 62% over the last decade, and California is home to more than half of the 25 most expensive water systems in the country. So what’s driving up the cost of our household drinking water and is there a better way to pay for this essential service? We’ll hear from water policy experts about the hidden costs behind your water bill, how everything from climate change to agricultural policy is shaping rates, and what it would take to make water more affordable for Californians.

Guests:

• Max Gomberg, senior policy advisor on water equity and affordability; formerly Climate and Conservation manager, State Water Resources Control Board
• Mary Grant, water policy director, Food & Water Watch
• Karla Nemeth, executive director, Association of California Water Agencies

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In the past month, President Trump has cut a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel fuel to the US, lifted sanctions on Russia’s energy industry and pressured Ukraine to halt drone strikes on Russian refineries. Critics say it’s an attempt to lower U.S. gas prices ahead of the midterm elections and a betrayal of Ukraine, as the embattled country prepares for a difficult winter. We’ll talk about what Washington’s pivot toward Russia means for Ukraine’s future.

Guests:

• Illia Ponomarenko, journalist and author, “The Land of Tears and Hope: The Ukrainian Story” – Former defense and security reporter, The Kyiv Post; co-founder, The Kyiv Independent. He has covered the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict’s beginning, as well as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022
• Simon Shuster, staff writer, Atlantic Magazine – author, “The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky”
• Michael McFaul, professor of political science; Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; former U.S. Ambassador to Russia

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Democrats are poised to take the House of Representatives and maybe even the Senate on Tuesday – at least that’s what recent polls tell us. But as we learned in the 2016 election, polls can be wrong. We’ll talk to pollsters about how they gather their data, how their methods have changed over the years, and the key races they’re looking at this midterm election.

Guests:

• Michael Dimock, president, Pew Research Center
• Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, Marquette Law School
• Mike Madrid, political strategist; author, “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy”; co-founder, The Lincoln Project

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California voters this election will usher in new representatives, vote on 14 statewide ballot measures and weigh in on many other local races and propositions. With just days to go until the midterms, we want to hear your last-minute voting questions. Are you wondering what you should do if you haven’t received your ballot? How can you find your polling place? How soon can you expect election results? Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, and KQED’s Scott Shafer and Guy Marzorati join us to take all of your voting questions ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Guests:

Kim Alexander, president and founder, California Voter Foundation

Scott Shafer, senior politics correspondent and co-host, political breakdown, KQED

Guy Marzorati, correspondent, KQED’s California politics and government desk

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As Día de los Muertos approaches, we take time to remember loved ones and notable people who have passed away this year. Just this week, influential labor activist Dolores Huerta died at age 96 months after the deaths of other icons including musician Dolly Parton, feminist Gloria Steinem and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. The ancient Mexican tradition of honoring the deceased offers an opportunity to process personal and collective grief along with celebrating life. We welcome listeners to share remembrances and we’ll reflect on what it means to memorialize someone.

Guests:

Farida Jhabvala Romero, labor correspondent, KQED

Ani Rivera, vice president, San Francisco’s commission of the department on the status of women

Lidia Ruelo-Salazar, healer, culture keeper and founder of Tierra Rituals

Sam Roberts, obituary writer, The New York Times; author, “Are They Dead Yet? The Art of the Obit”

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Author Priya Parker, whose 2018 book “The Art of Gathering” was about bringing people together, is out with a new book called “The Art of Fighting.” It may seem like an entirely different topic, but Parker says forming and growing successful relationships is not possible being able to navigate disagreement. We’ll talk to Parker about how to handle all kinds of fights, and hear from you: How has conflict strengthened your own relationships?

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As a kid, Melissa King rushed home from school to grab her meat cleaver and cook dinner for her family. In her new memoir, “The Girl Who Became King,” the Top Chef winner traces her path from her immigrant parents’ expectations to a career in Michelin kitchens. “I didn’t think my life was interesting,” she notes, but in talking with fans and writing this book, King started “owning who I am and being proud of all of those things that I used to tuck away and hide about being gay and even being Asian in America.”

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In an era marked by deep political polarization, runaway technology and everyday absurdities, our current reality often feels like an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” In his new book, “Serling: A Journey Into the Twilight Zone With TV’s First Visionary,” acclaimed television critic Alan Sepinwall, explores how writer and creator Rod Serling transformed television by weaving social issues and national anxieties in his storytelling. Sepinwall traces Serling’s enduring footprint across modern popular culture, from “Twin Peaks” to “Black Mirror.”

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Anthropic has filed to go public in what could become the largest IPO in history. The San Francisco-based AI company’s 335-page filing offers the first detailed look at its finances, growth ambitions and stated risk factors, including the possibility of catastrophic incidents. We’ll talk with San Francisco-based tech and business reporters about what Anthropic’s filing can tell us about the future of the AI economy and what the expected huge influx of money could mean for the Bay Area.

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Next week’s midterm election will decide which party controls Congress for the second half of President Trump’s term. And in the wake of California’s redistricting in favor of Democratic candidates, the state could play an outsized role in shaping the outcome of the midterms. We’ll dig into key races here in California and across the nation, and how issues like inflation and Trump’s approval rating could influence the outcome.

Guests:

• Erin Covey, editor covering the U.S. House of Representatives, The Cook Political Report
• Guy Marzorati, correspondent, KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk

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Voters across the Bay Area will weigh in on more than 100 school board races in next Tuesday’s election. As many school districts face declining enrollment, tight budgets and difficult decisions about the role of technology in classrooms, the make-up of school boards is critical. But voters often have very little information about the candidates, what they stand for or who supports them. This year, to address that void, KQED sent questionnaires to close to 400 school board candidates to better understand their positions. We’ll talk about the issues facing school boards, how to make an informed vote and the key races in San Francisco, Oakland and beyond.

Guest:

• Jill Tucker, K-12 Education Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle
• Molly Gibbs, education reporter, The Mercury News and East Bay Times
• Katie DeBenedetti, reporter, KQED
• Ashley McBride, education equity reporter, The Oaklandside

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Would you want to know if you carried a gene that would cause dementia, even if there was no cure? And how would that knowledge change the way you lived? These are questions facing one family in which a rare brain disease known as frontotemporal dementia (FTD) has passed from one generation to the next. Journalist Robert Kolker, who spent years following their story, exposes the hard choices families face, what dementia reveals about personality and identity, and what FTD research is uncovering about how our brains work. We talk to Kolker about his new book “The Vanishing Family.” How has dementia affected your family?

Guest:

• Robert Kolker, author of “The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate and the Quest to End Dementia” and a contributor to the New York Times Magazine.

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Artificial intelligence has long entered the classroom and is rapidly changing how students learn and teachers teach. Some schools are embracing AI and personalized learning tools, while others are pulling back on technology in the classroom. Meanwhile, students are increasingly turning to chatbots to help with assignments, raising concerns about what happens to critical thinking, reading, and writing skills when AI does the work for them. Can schools harness the benefits of AI without compromising students’ learning? We’ll talk with educators and researchers about how AI is reshaping the classroom, what it means for students’ development, and how schools and parents are navigating this new era of education.

Guests:

• Daniel Herman, humanities teacher, Maybeck High School; wrote about teaching English in the age of ChatGPT for The Atlantic
• Jeremy Roschelle, executive director of learning sciences research, Digital Promise
• Kip Glazer, principal, Mountain View High School
• MacKenzie Price, co-founder, Alpha Schools
• Tom Wadbrook, director of technology, Prospect Sierra School

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Soaring energy prices are the leading factor behind rising inflation across the United States, where consumer prices are up 3.7 percent over last year. In California, where energy costs have become an issue in the governor’s race, electricity prices are surging to a rate of about double the national average. We’ll look at what’s driving the rise here in California and across the U.S., and hear about how policy solutions could help bring prices under control.

Guests:

• Mike O'Boyle, senior director of policy and strategy, Energy Innovation
• Meredith Fowlie, professor, UC Berkeley, faculty director, Energy Institute at Haas, co-director, Environment and Energy Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research

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Fresh off its Broadway run, “Liberation,” which won this year’s Tony Award for best play and
Pulitzer Prize for drama, opens its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep. The play features a
modern-day narrator trying to imagine her mother’s 1970s consciousness-raising group. For
playwright Bess Wohl, her research involved asking a question to her mother: “Do you regret
having me?” Wohl and director, Whitney White, join us to discuss the play and its depiction of
feminism across generational lines.

Guests:

• Bess Wohl, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright of “Liberation”
• Whitney White, Tony Award-nominated director of “Liberation”

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Last week, a man on the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia died when he was ejected from the ride — a death that follows a pattern of apparent safety incidents on Six Flags roller coasters nationwide. A recent CNN investigation into Six Flags Magic Mountain, located just north of Los Angeles in Valencia, exposed serious safety concerns surrounding X2, one of the park’s most popular roller coasters. Over its nearly two-decade run, the ride has been linked to more than a dozen severe hospitalizations and two deaths, including riders who suffered severe brain hemorrhages. Six Flags officials have since closed the coaster — plus 10 others related to the subsequent Goliath incident. We’ll speak with a CNN reporter who broke the X2 story, and look at why apparently dangerous rides weren’t shut down sooner.

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Twelve days from the midterms, election officials and teams of lawyers are preparing for what has become a depressingly familiar American tradition: challenges to voting. The Trump administration has been focused on voter integrity, including filing suits to take purported noncitizens off voter rolls, and attempting to collect sensitive voter data from states. Meanwhile, legal teams are gearing up for challenges to election results. We’ll talk to experts and hear your concerns.

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Southern California is facing a potential economic crisis as film and television productions increasingly migrate to rival states and international cities. More favorable tax incentives, expanding soundstage infrastructure and industry-friendly policies are pulling billions in production away from Hollywood. With New York poised to become the nation’s biggest production hub, local crews and lawmakers are worried about the exodus of talent and dollars. We talk with entertainment journalists about new tax incentives to keep productions in-state, and the long-term future of Hollywood.

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Communities up and down California are bracing for what experts are calling a “Super El Niño” that could bring an unusually wet winter. El Niño is a cyclical climate pattern during which a huge swath of Pacific Ocean waters heat up. The warmer water has long-ranging effects such as higher sea levels and a robust storm season. Some low-lying areas of the state are expecting heavy flooding and some coastal areas are concerned about erosion and mudslides. We’ll talk with experts on what would make this El Niño climate pattern “super” and what you need to know to prepare.

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