KQED's Forum

The demand for no and low-alcohol wine, beer and spirits skyrocketed during the pandemic, with brands seeing a 315% surge in sales over the last year alone, according to Nielsen data. It's no longer just a market for those abstaining from alcohol, either -- 78% of people buying these offerings also buy alcohol. Experts point to wellness trends, particularly among younger demographics, and those looking to moderate their drinking habits. And suppliers are keeping up, with numerous new brands emerging and big legacy brands like Budweiser and Heineken adding non-alcoholic drinks to their slates. We'll talk to wine and spirits writer Kate Dingwall about this booming market and where it's headed. Have you hopped on the non-alcoholic spirits train? Tell us what you're drinking and enjoying! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“How did conservative values that Republicans claimed to cherish, like small government, fiscal responsibility, and morality in public service, get completely eroded as an unshakable faith in Donald Trump grew to define the party?” That’s the question driving New York Times national politics reporter Jeremy W. Peters’s new book "Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted.” In it, Peters outlines key points and events in recent history that fueled conservatives’ “revolution from within,” like the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy that bolstered Trump’s image as a politician and an overlooked New Hampshire senate race in 2014 that would inform the playbook for GOP anti-immigration policy. He also interviewed former President Donald Trump for the book. We’ll talk to Peters about “Insurgency” and about his reporting on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s loss Tuesday in the defamation lawsuit she brought against the New York Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1942, at age three, John Tateishi was imprisoned with his family at Manzanar, one of ten U.S. government camps used to incarcerate Japanese Americans during World War II. Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that year, gave the U.S. military the ability to designate areas "from which any or all persons may be excluded." Tateishi later went on to lead the fight for reparations for Japanese Americans forced into the camps. As part of our ongoing coverage of the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, we’ll talk with Tateishi about his family’s experience and his book “Redress: The Inside Story of the Successful Campaign for Japanese American Reparations”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Franciscans voted Tuesday in the contentious recall election of three members of the San Francisco Board of Education — Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga — with more than 70% of votes in favor of ousting all three. Outraged parents called for the election in the midst of the pandemic saying the board failed to prioritize a return to in-person classes. This expensive recall, funded by some of San Francisco's wealthiest venture capitalists, could reshape the future of the San Francisco Unified School District. We’ll talk with KQED education reporter Vanessa Rancaño and politics reporter Guy Marzorati about the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remote work is hard on everyone, but imagine starting your career on Zoom. For two pandemic years, Gen Z has been entering the workforce with limited opportunities for in-person training, mentorship or workplace community. But some young workers say they like the informality and flexibility associated with remote work. We’ll hear from young employees about what it’s like to onboard in a pandemic and get tips on how to make that transition easier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Ruth Sasaki was asked in 2018 to edit and contribute to the "Topaz Stories" that remember Japanese-American experiences during internment, she was so happy to apply her skills as a short story writer to help document and preserve a piece of history that impacted her own family. A third-generation San Franciscan, Sasaki's mother's family, the Takahashis, were interned at Topaz and Tanforan camps. Sasaki joins us as part of Forum's First Person Series to talk about "Topaz Stories" and reflect on the 80th anniversary of Japanese internment in the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wild pigs have been marauding through 56 out of California’s 58 counties leaving destruction in their wake. Pigs in the Bay Area have trampled vineyards, gouged out golf courses, rototilled baseball fields and wreaked havoc on farms. A new bill introduced by a Napa state senator would allow property owners to kill the pigs without getting a permit first. It’s a baby step compared to Texas where you can rent a gunner seat in a chopper to shoot the hogs from the air, but it’s a sign of growing frustration in a normally animal tolerant state. We’ll talk about the trouble these pigs are causing, why they’re here and what can be done about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On February 16, California’s indoor mask mandate is set to expire. After that date, the state will no longer require vaccinated individuals to wear masks indoors; masks will still be required in K-12 schools, healthcare facilities and congregate settings like nursing homes. Most California counties have stated that they will follow this guidance, but in Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties, officials are still requiring masks indoors. This rollback in mask mandates comes as Omicron case numbers and hospitalizations are receding in most parts of the state. We’ll hear how public health experts are assessing COVID-19 risk and answer your questions about the changing rules. Guests: Yvonne Maldonaldo, professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology and population health; chief, division of pediatric infectious diseases, Stanford University School of Medicine Lesley McClurg, health reporter, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I’ve never really liked my personality, and other people don’t like it either,” writes Atlantic writer Olga Khazan. In her latest article, “I Gave Myself Three Months to Change My Personality,” Khazan tries out meditation, a gratitude journal and improv classes among other exercises to achieve her goal of becoming more agreeable. We’ll talk to Khazan about how it went and what social science says about just how malleable our personalities are. Guests: Olga Khazan, staff writer, The Atlantic, author of Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The role of the comedian has been hotly debated in recent years with what seems like a new flashpoint every few months. Last fall, Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix comedy special and continued inclusion of jokes at the expense of trans people led to protests and polarizing arguments online about “punching down” and what is and isn’t considered funny. In the last few weeks, comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan has been called out not just for spreading misinformation but also for his past use of racial slurs. Vox culture writer Aja Romano says this latest debate around Rogan “underscores comedy’s evolving conversation about morality, cancel culture, and how to be funny” and speaks to a larger “existential crisis” for comedy. We’ll unpack the ongoing debate over what makes good comedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When journalist Florence William’s 25 year marriage ended she found herself not just emotionally shattered but physically ill. She couldn’t sleep, she lost weight and her immune system was shot, she kept getting sick. She wasn’t sure why. “Much has been written about the science of falling in love but very little about what happens on the other side,” Williams writes in her new book, “Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey”. Williams joins Forum to talk about her wide ranging quest to understand the connection between emotional and physical pain and to find ways to heal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A draft plan issued Tuesday by the California High Speed Rail Authority puts the cost of the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles bullet train at $105 billion, about $5 billion more than previous estimates. The plan, which is open for a 60-day public comment period, cites "significant progress" on the Central Valley portion of the rail system and advances in obtaining necessary right-of-way parcels, long a sticking point for planners. We'll talk to rail authority CEO Brian Kelly about what's next for California's massive rail project. Guests: Brian Kelly, CEO, California High Speed Rail Authority Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hundreds of truckers in Canada who are protesting vaccine mandates have shut down bridges and borders and brought the nation’s capital Ottawa to a near standstill. The protest began in late January when a convoy of trucks began traveling from western Canada to Ottawa. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has demanded that the protesters go home, but the truckers and their supporters show no signs of leaving. Meanwhile, copycat protests have emerged in France, New Zealand and Australia and there are talks about organizing a similar demonstration in the U.S. We’ll talk about the protest and its implications. Guests: Emma Jacobs, reporter, NPR; has covered the Ottawa protests on the ground Steve Reilly, investigative reporter, Grid News Andrew Cohen, journalist and associate professor of journalism and communications at Carleton University, Ottawa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden said this week that American citizens should leave Ukraine amid uncertainty over a possible Russian invasion. Russia says it has no such plans. But the country has over 100,000 troops massed near the Ukrainian border and is set to start ten days of military drills on Thursday in Belarus, Ukraine’s neighbor to the north. We’ll talk to former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul about how the Biden administration should handle the conflict. Then, Politico’s Maggie Miller on why a clash between those two countries could “give the world its first experience of a true cyber war”-- and a glimpse into the future of modern warfare. Guests: Michael McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; former U.S ambassador to Russia Maggie Miller, cybersecurity reporter, Politico Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Modern life conspires against friendship,” says Atlantic staff writer Jennifer Senior, "even as it requires the bonds of friendship all the more." That’s one of the paradoxes at the center of Senior’s new piece “It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart” — a meditation on why friendships fade and collapse and why in midlife those losses sting particularly hard. We’ll talk to Senior about how at 52 she’s navigating what she calls a “Great Pandemic Friendship Reckoning” and what it means to overcome the heartbreak of a lost friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vegan food has come a long way from sad side salads. Judging from the lines winding far down the block at Oakland’s Vegan Mob restaurant, vegan restaurants are surging in popularity. Some of the Bay Area’s busiest restaurants are owned and operated by people of color serving vegan versions of the food they grew up eating, like burgers, barbeque and pork-heavy burritos. We’ll talk about the new wave of vegan restaurants as part of our series on the food cultures of the Bay Area with KQED Food Editor Luke Tsai. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Textiles and yarn did not have enough structure and volume, but clay I found was and is just right,” Edith Heath once said. The co-founder of Heath Ceramics is the focus of an exhibition at Oakland Museum of California, which looks at how Heath’s relocation to San Francisco informed and inspired her iconic mid-century ceramic designs. In Sausalito, Heath Ceramics revolutionized ceramic houseware, designing and manufacturing accessible, stylish dinnerware that could be used for Sunday best or on the patio. We’ll talk about how Heath fits within the larger history of ceramics in Northern California, what makes California clay so special and why Heath Ceramics remains relevant, nearly 75 years after its founding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

The San Francisco Art Institute and the University of San Francisco announced this month that they’re planning to merge. Under the agreement, USF will acquire the cash-strapped 151-year old arts college and offer a program called SFAI@USF in the fall. The move is reminiscent of Northeastern University’s acquisition of Mills College in September 2021 as small colleges and arts schools deal with financial pressures compounded by Covid. We’ll talk about the implications for SFAI’s students and adjunct faculty, as well as for the broader arts community of the Bay Area, and look ahead at a new era for the irreverent contemporary arts school. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oakland’s school board is set to vote Tuesday on a highly controversial plan to permanently close or merge up to 15 schools over the next two years due to declining enrollment and lack of funding. “OUSD simply has too many schools and ... keeping these schools open negatively impacts all students and staff within OUSD,” district officials wrote in a statement. Students, staff, and parents have been protesting the move, and two teachers are waging a hunger strike in response. They say they were blindsided by the proposal and point to the fact that the move would disproportionately affect students of color and less affluent communities. We’ll preview the vote and discuss the future of Oakland’s schools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russia is planning to release a video of a fake Ukrainian attack that it would use to justify an invasion, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The Kremlin has denied the charge. But according to Stanford intelligence expert Amy Zegart, so-called deepfake videos and photographs are among the biggest challenges facing U.S. spy agencies. We are living in an era when bad actors can cause “massive disruption, destruction, and deception with the click of a mouse,” she writes in her new book, “Spies, Lies, and Algorithms.” Zegart joins us to talk about the book and the future of espionage in an era of artificial intelligence and cyberwarfare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a victory for the extreme right, Shasta voters have apparently chosen to recall Leonard Moty, a longtime Republican county supervisor and former Redding police chief. Moty and other moderate board members had faced a backlash from militia groups over COVID-19 and gun policies. We’ll talk to KQED’s Scott Shafer about the vote and what it means for right-wing movements, the GOP and politics in the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Liccardo is in his final year as San Jose’s mayor and he has passed a first-in-the-country ordinance on an issue he cares fervently about – gun control. The ordinance, which requires gun owners to carry liability insurance, comes a year after nine people were killed in a mass shooting at a Valley Transportation Authority rail yard in San Jose. Mayor Liccardo joins Forum to talk about the new ordinance and other issues important to San Jose residents such as how the city is addressing its homeless and housing crises, a new spike in traffic fatalities, a proposal to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections and San Jose’s status as tofu capital of America. And we’ll take your questions for the mayor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“We are all weird about money,” writes Paco de Leon in her new book, “Finance for the People.” Getting a grip on your finances often means learning how to deal with an unequal system, she writes. And, according to her, having money means having power — and that means it’s vital for all people to understand how to save, pay off loans and invest. This all begins with asserting your worth — something people of marginalized communities are systematically disincentivized from doing, in part because they’ve long been hurt by wage and revenue gaps. De Leon is the founder of The Hell Yeah Group, a financial firm designed to assist creatives with their finances, and is a creative herself. She joins us to talk about all things financial, and to hear from you: What’s affected your ability to get the money you deserve? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The city of Santa Rosa is saying farewell to its bard. Santa Rosa Press Democrat columnist Gaye Lebaron has retired after a 65-year career at the paper and an estimated 8,500 columns. “Few newspaper columnists have ever been so closely associated with one city for so long,” writes the Press Democrat’s editorial board, “Herb Caen and San Francisco, Mike Royko and Chicago, Gaye LeBaron and Santa Rosa.” In addition to writing a daily newspaper column for more than 40 years Lebaron has also written several books about Santa Rosa and Sonoma County history. She joins us to talk about the county’s past and present and what it means to spend more than six decades writing about the place she lives and loves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jay Dee, J Dilla, Dilla — Detroit-born hip-hop producer James Dewitt Yancey went by many names, but his rhythmic brilliance was always the same, whether he was producing for artists like The Pharcyde, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest or his own group Slum Village, to name a few. Today, 16 years after his untimely death at age 32 from a rare blood disease, the impact of his industry-changing sound is still heard throughout music. That impact, and the story behind it, is the subject of the new book “Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm” by Dan Charnas. Equal parts biography, musicology and cultural history, Charnas tells the story of Yancey’s genius, and how he took music’s rhythm standards of “straight time” and “swing time” and created a whole new standard: Dilla Time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, set to kick off on Friday, have been called “the most complex Games ever” by the Wall Street Journal. The Los Angeles Times dubs them “the feel guilty Games.” The event is opening amid intense Covid-19 restrictions and concerns over Chinese human rights violations, like the persecution of the Uyghur Muslims and jailing of activists. Those have prompted President Biden to boycott the Games, though U.S. athletes are still competing. The head of the International Olympic Committee said last month that the Games “must be beyond all political disputes.” But as Georgetown University professor Victor Cha points out, the Olympics have always been political. He joins us to talk about the history of bans and boycotts surrounding the Games, and how China and the US are navigating this year’s event. Guests: Victor Cha , Vice Dean and Professor of Government, Georgetown University, former Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. Author of "Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early on in the award-winning documentary "Writing with Fire," a reporter named Meera Devi sits patiently before a police officer, demanding to know why he hasn't acted on a local villager's multiple reports of rape. Similar scenes follow, as Devi and her colleagues, journalists with India's only all-female, Dalit-run news network, seek to hold officials to account for caste and gender-based violence, corruption and other abuses. We talk to the directors of "Writing with Fire," now shortlisted for an Academy Award, about the growing influence of the newspaper Khabar Lahariya and the women who run it. Guests: Sushmit Ghosh, producer and director, "Writing With Fire" Rintu Thomas, producer and director, "Writing with Fire" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Kitchen Sisters, the audio project of Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, has been collecting stories from “the B-side of history” since 1979. These stories dive into worlds hidden from the headlines, immersing listeners into the music, sounds and atmospheres of American culture, populated by famous and underrecognized figures alike. The Library of Congress announced in January that it will acquire the archive of the Kitchen Sisters, comprising photos, journals and more than 7,000 hours of audio. We’ll play some of the audio from the Kitchen Sisters’ most iconic episodes, set in the Bay Area and beyond, and we want to hear from you: What’s one story from your family that shouldn’t be lost to history? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Tennessee school board last week voted to remove the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel Maus from an 8th grade course on the Holocaust. And that’s just one of many examples of recent bans instituted by parents, activists, school boards and lawmakers. According to the American Library Association, it has seen an “unprecedented” number of book bans in the last year. But unlike previous waves of book bannings, this latest wave has a different tone and tenor; bans are often targeted at books that center on the experience of diverse characters or are written by authors of color. Politicians like Texas Governor Greg Abbott are also using bans as campaign platforms to galvanize right wing voters. And while many bans are advocated by conservatives, there are also efforts by parents, like those in a Burbank, California school district, to remove books like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Of Mice and Men” from the curriculum because of the racist depictions in those books. We’ll look at why book banning is spreading across the country and what might be done to reverse the trend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three years after placing a moratorium on executions in California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the closure of death row at San Quentin on Monday. More than 500 inmates will merge with the general prison population at other maximum security facilities over the next two years, but will maintain their current sentences. California hasn’t performed an execution since 2006. While critics of capital punishment cheered the move, one advocate for crime victims said Newsom was “pouring more salt on the wounds of victims” We’ll talk with San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan about the changes at San Quentin and the future of the death penalty in California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early results of an ongoing clinical trial found that cash aid to low-income mothers increases brain activity in babies – a finding that could help shape social policy. Called "Baby's First Years," it's the first study in the U.S. to look at the impact of poverty reduction on early childhood development. "We don't need brain science to tell us that no child should live in poverty, " asserts Dr. Kimberly Noble, one of the neuroscientists who led the study. But while many have assumed other factors, not poverty, impact childhood development, "evidence here suggests that reducing poverty may in and of itself affect child development." We'll discuss the study and what it could mean for public policy, like President Biden’s proposed child tax credit, going forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A bill seeking to cover every Californian with state-financed health insurance faced a Monday deadline to make it out of the state assembly. But just before it was set for a vote, Assembly Bill 1400 was withdrawn by its author, Democrat Ash Kalra. The bill would have made California the only state in the nation with a single-payer health care system if enacted. But some legislators balked at the cost of the system, known as CalCare, which had been estimated at between $314 billion and $391 billion per year. We’ll discuss the bill’s fate— and the future of single-payer healthcare in the state – with KQED’s April Dembosky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the film “The Lost Daughter” directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, actor Olivia Colman plays Leda, a middle-aged college professor who encounters a young mother and her daughter while on vacation, prompting memories from Leda’s past, when she left her husband and two young daughters for three years. This story, adapted from Elena Ferrante’s 2006 novel of the same name, conjured feelings of relief for Los Angeles-based author Amina Cain – not because the main character once abandoned her children, but because a different kind of story about motherhood was being told. In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Cain, who has never wanted children, writes: “It’s rare to see a film or read a novel that depicts ambivalence around motherhood, even rarer one that rejects that life completely, which I deeply appreciate about ‘The Lost Daughter.’ I’m hungry for these stories.” We talk to Cain about why ambivalence towards motherhood still feels socially taboo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An increasing portion of human life is structured by powerful and opaque technological systems. Getting a loan, parole hearings, resume sorting, the political ads that appear on your device: Across fields, machine learning systems are trying to sort you into statistical buckets. Worse, NBC technology correspondent Jacob Ward argues, the data that artificial intelligence systems use to predict what we’ll do next mostly show “the ancient instincts… the tribalism, the anthropomorphism, the gut feelings,” because targeting those parts of us is the most profitable way for companies to use AI. Ward joins us to talk about his new book, “The Loop: How Technology is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new study from researchers at Stanford University finds that on an annual basis, the methane leaking from residential gas ovens in the U.S. has the same negative effect on the climate as 500,000 gas-powered cars. These findings come as climate activists and legislators nationwide increase efforts to ban natural gas hookups in new building construction. In California, although 60 percent of homes use gas stoves, compared to the national average of one-third, dozens of cities and counties have implemented or promoted legislation to phase out the use of natural gas in new builds. We’ll talk with the study’s lead researcher and discuss what this means for consumers and the industry. Guests: Rob Jackson, professor of Earth System Science, Stanford University; senior fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy Katherine Blunt , energy reporter, Wall Street Journal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Voters in Shasta County will decide on Tuesday whether to recall Leonard Moty, a Republican county supervisor and former police chief from Redding. The recall effort in this heavily Republican region, where Donald Trump won 65% of the vote in 2020, is led not by Democrats, but by a far right militia group who say Moty doesn't support their pro-gun and anti-mask values aggressively enough. We'll talk to KQED's Scott Shafer about his look into the political fight in Shasta County and what it could signal about the future of the Republican party in California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Private equity investment in healthcare has exploded in recent years, with companies trying to squeeze maximum profits out of doctor’s offices, hospitals and more. A recent U.C. Berkeley study found the value of private equity healthcare deals nearly tripled in the last decade. Some industry experts say it has hampered the ability of providers to respond to the pandemic. We’ll look at how private investors are reshaping healthcare, and why critics say it is putting patients at risk. Guests: Richard Scheffler, professor of health economics, UC Berkeley; member, Healthy California for All Commission Gretchen Morgenson, senior financial reporter, NBC News Investigations Mitchell Li, practicing emergency physician; co-founder, Take Medicine Back, an advocacy group which seeks to remove private equity from healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rejection is normal and happens to all of us, but it still never feels good to get that email or call from an admissions officer or potential employer saying you weren’t “the one.” In a recent article for The Atlantic titled “A Toast to All the Rejects,” NPR producer Rhaina Cohen writes about the power of turning one’s rejections into a celebration with friends or colleagues. Cohen’s article was inspired by a graduate student lab at UC Irvine led by social sciences professor Barbara Sarnecka where they created a group spreadsheet to collect everyone’s rejections from jobs, academic journals or grants. When they reached 100 rejections as a group, they threw a party. “Instead of shying away from rejection, they’re asking us to run straight toward it—and to do so together,” writes Cohen. We explore the idea of reframing – and even celebrating – rejection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Northern and Southern California are going to battle on Sunday when the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams face off for this year’s National Football Conference championship and a bid for the Super Bowl. We'll talk about the all-California matchup and hear your fan predictions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Isabel Allende’s new novel, “Violeta,” opens in the midst of a pandemic, under quarantine conditions. Only it’s 1920 and the Spanish flu. Violeta has just been born; she spends her early life in the virus-induced social bubble that we’ve all come to know. Inspired by Allende’s own mother, Violeta is born into elite, but falls into a rural social stratum after the Great Depression. It’s a saga about family secrets, exiles and resilience, as well as a reflection on the century when the world became technologically modern and socially fractured. We’ll talk with Allende about the novel, her mother and writing through — and about — a pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After nearly three decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer said on Tuesday that he will retire by the end of the current term. Justice Breyer, one of the Court's three liberal members, will step down as the Court considers major cases involving abortion and gun rights. Breyer’s retirement offers President Biden, who vowed during the campaign to nominate a Black woman justice, his first opportunity to shape the Court. It also comes at a time when the non-partisan nature of the Court has come under question. We'll talk about Breyer’s legacy, who might succeed him and the future direction of the Court. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new report released this week details the experiences of Silicon Valley’s “shadow workforce” -- the temporary contract workers tech companies hire through third parties. These contractors, who are disproportionately women and people of color, receive different pay, benefits and protections than employees. While tech companies have fared well during the pandemic, according to the report authored by TechEquity Collaborative, “the temporary, contract, and contingent workers who are classified differently from their directly-employed counterparts despite performing critical roles for the companies—have been locked out of tech’s prosperity.” We’ll discuss the yearlong investigation’s findings about this “two-tier system” of employment and why some are pushing to change it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Port of Oakland commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to approve an open air rock and gravel storage facility at the port. The port says the Eagle Rock Aggregates facility will bring much needed construction materials to the Bay Area. The proposal is strongly opposed by some West Oakland residents who say the dust from the facility will further pollute the already dirty air in the neighborhood from the port. Pollution has contributed to higher rates of respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease, and cancer in West Oakland compared to other areas of the city. We’ll discuss the proposal, its environmental impacts and the port’s relationship with its neighbors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I believe America is simultaneously a riotous comedy and a heartbreaking tragedy,” writes Wajahat Ali in his new memoir “Go Back to Where You Came From.” With humor, Ali recounts a Bay Area childhood growing up as the shy, pop culture-loving, Husky jeans-wearing only son of Pakistani immigrants. Although the community around him made clear the only acceptable careers for him were doctor, engineer, or successful businessman (the only other option was being “a failure”), Ali found a career as a writer, and it was art that saved Ali when his family’s lives were blown apart by scandal. In this book, part autobiography and part social criticism, Ali takes apart the myth of the “moderate Muslim,” and describes what life in America is like post-9/11 and post-Trump for a Muslim who once felt free enough to pray publicly at a Cirque du Soleil concert and the stalls of the Gap, but who no longer feels he can. We’ll talk to Ali about his book and what it means to be American when your fellow citizens question your right to be there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lunar New Year is only a week away, on February 1st, which means some of you could already be running behind in getting the spread ready. As part of our new series on the food cultures of the Bay Area with KQED Food Editor Luke Tsai, we’ll talk about the traditional, and not so traditional, foods of the New Year. Whether you’re planning an elaborate feast or just picking up take-out, we want to hear your favorite lunar New Year’s dish or tradition. If you stick with the Gregorian calendar and celebrated weeks ago, we still want to hear from you. What do you eat to mark the New Year and to bring you luck or abundance? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than 120 restaurants closed in San Francisco in 2021 — and many still-open places feel like they’re on their last legs. Dining simply has not come back, and though some businesses have prospered by making lemons into take-out, others are tapping out. And it’s not just restaurants: the iconic Castro Theater is planning a switch to live events to survive. We open the phone lines to commemorate the beloved Bay Area restaurants and small businesses we’ve lost in recent years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beset by a climate crisis that's creating ever more devastating wildfires, Californians may find it "easy, even comforting, to sit in despair," writes reporter Liz Weil. But, she continues, "nihilism is a failure of the imagination, the bleak, easy way out. We need to face the lives before us." That includes recognizing that we're in what climate futurists call the "trans-apocalypse:" a reality defined by the imperative that humans engage constantly with ecological threats. We'll talk to Weil about the origins of California's wildfire problem and how we can reframe and address it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last Thursday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the latest Covid surge in San Francisco, which was fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, was on a downward trend, having peaked in early January. This welcome news comes as San Francisco shifts its thinking on Covid. According to the city’s Department of Public Health, the goal is not to stop Covid infections, but rather to focus on preventing worse outcomes like severe illness, hospitalization and death. We’ll get an update from Dr. Naveena Bobba, the department’s deputy director, about how the city is handling Covid and how San Francisco’s approach could influence state policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new book "Davos Man," New York Times Global Economics Correspondent Peter S. Goodman exposes the role of elite billionaires in deepening global inequality, often while burnishing a do-gooder image. Goodman joins us to talk about how gatherings like the annual World Economic Forum in Davos help the mega-rich divert attention from their efforts to dodge taxes and fight regulation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices