KQED's Forum

It's summer in the Bay Area, which means it’s time to cozy up by the fire and read some books about tropical islands, deserts and other warm places. We’ll gather a panel of Bay Area booksellers and bookworms to discuss summer reading trends and the best books coming out this summer. They’ll take your questions on what to stick in your bag for that campervan trip, whether you’re looking to dive into a weighty historical biography or plow through a pile of pulpy fun. And we’ll want to hear your picks: what book are you recommending to all your friends this summer? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blindspotting was one of 2018’s critically acclaimed films. Penned by old friends, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, it took on race and gentrification in Oakland. Now, they’re back with a new television show based on the movie that’s a wild love letter to the Bay Area. We’ll talk with them both about the show and honoring the place that made them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ransomware group REvil’s sites on the dark web went down Tuesday, weeks after the group attacked meat processing company JBS and information technology firm Kaseya in a breach that compromised up to 1,500 clients. And those attacks came on the heels of DarkSide’s major strike in May against the Colonial Pipeline, forcing it to temporarily cease operations. Ransomware attacks — which encrypt online systems and hold their data for ransom — more than doubled from 2019 to 2020 in the US, according to a Washington Post analysis. We’ll look at how and why these attacks occur and the national security threat they pose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Los Angeles County has over the last several days recorded more than 3000 new covid cases, 99 percent of which occurred among the unvaccinated, according to the county health department. The spike in cases, fueled by the rapidly spreading delta variant, mirrors that of other regions in the state and country beset by low vaccination rates. The increase also comes as California tries to adopt a cautious approach to school reopening this fall, requiring even vaccinated students and teachers to wear masks. We’ll talk about the effort to vaccinate more Americans as the delta variant takes hold and take your vaccine questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of America’s premier thinkers on racism and systemic inequality, has taken on many roles: Atlantic staff writer, best-selling author, novelist and comic book writer. Last week, Coates made headlines for his latest move: teaching journalism at his alma mater Howard University along with Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times “1619 Project” writer Nikole Hannah-Jones. The announcement came after Hannah-Jones rejected an offer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after a contentious and drawn-out tenure process, which Coates publicly criticized. We talk with Coates about disinformation, police brutality and the role of journalism in American democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The class of 2021 has graduated and millions of young people are now looking to start their first “real world” jobs. Some experts say the current economy is among the best for young workers in decades, now that post-shutdown hiring is ramping up and some industries confront persistent labor shortages. Still, for some workers, finding the best opportunity can be both daunting and time-consuming. We’ll hear stories of starting out in the workplace and get guidance from experts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Ifeoma Ozoma detailed the racism and sexism she faced as a Pinterest employee in a Twitter thread back in June 2020, she did so knowing she was in violation of her nondisclosure agreement. Now, Ozoma is co-sponsoring a California bill to protect workers under NDAs who say they’ve been discriminated against on the basis of race, sexual orientation, religion, disability or age. The bill would expand protections passed several years ago for workers who come forward about sex-based discrimination despite having signed an NDA. With no companies formally against the new bill, it could signal a shift in big tech, which has long been protected by NDA practices. We’ll talk about the fight over NDAs and what it could mean for workers in the tech industry and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Twenty years ago, California went dark. Without enough electricity to power the state, rolling blackouts shut down businesses, PG&E filed for bankruptcy, the state’s economy contracted and then-Governor Gray Davis’ administration spiraled into crisis. Part of the blame rested with Enron Corporation, an energy company whose brokers created an artificial electricity shortage by taking power plants offline — thereby raising prices by 800% or more. Enron ultimately unravelled when whistleblowers revealed its books were cooked, but not before the company severely damaged energy markets. Two decades later, Forum asks what we’ve learned from that calamity— and whether our electricity supply is safe from market manipulation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent KQED report found that Kaiser Permanente, the largest health insurer in California, impeded some patients from accessing brexanolone, the first and only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat postpartum depression. The condition, affecting one in eight new mothers in California, can harm parents and children if left untreated. KQED reporter April Dembosky joins us to discuss her reporting and the challenges parents face in receiving treatment for postpartum depression. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By law, trucks weighing more than 4.5 tons are barred from driving through a portion of Interstate 580 in Oakland and San Leandro near the East Bay Hills. This 10-mile ban means most commercial trucks use Interstate 880, which runs through Black and Latinx neighborhoods and is a historically working class region. Research from the Environmental Defense Fund found that concentrations of black carbon along I-880 were approximately 80% higher than average concentrations along I-580. Why are trucks banned from this stretch of I-580, and should residents along I-880 exclusively bear the burden of truck pollution? We’ll discuss the pushback to I-580’s truck ban. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Decades ago, when forest ecologist Suzanne Simard set out to understand why forests tended to heal themselves when left to their own devices, she uncovered early evidence that trees communicate with each other, lending mutual aid during times of duress. Over the years her research deepened and expanded, marked by discoveries that trees relay information through cryptic underground fungal networks and that old trees, known as mother trees, can discern which seedlings are their own and transmit food and water to them. We’ll talk to Simard about her work, and the intertwined story of her family, all chronicled in her new book “Finding the Mother Tree.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is San Francisco over? Its a question that has dominated conversations in the city for years, maybe even decades. Has its maverick soul been lost to the tech industry, outrageous rents and the sadness of the suffering in the streets? For a city proud of its reputation as the glittering, devil-may-care zone of misrule at the end of the continent, the question of how its changed touches on San Franciscans deepest sense of who they are, who they were, and who they want to be, writer Gary Kamiya says in the introduction to a new essay collection, The End of The Golden Gate: Writers on Loving and (Sometimes) Leaving San Francisco. Well talk with some of the books contributors and we want to hear from you: Why do you stay? Why have you left? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From celebrities like Harry Styles and the members of boy band BTS to social media beauty influencers like Patrick Starrr and Kenneth Senegal, more and more men and nonbinary folk are publicly embracing makeup in their daily lives. And as author and journalist David Yi argues in their new book, the male beauty influencers of today have ancient cultural precedents. “Pretty Boys” traces male beauty figures throughout history, from Ramses the Great to ‘80s glam rockers to drag culture newly entering the mainstream. We’ll hear about how beauty influencers, both past and present, have explored gender through makeup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week temperatures hit 116 degrees in Portland, 108 in Seattle, and 121 degrees in western Canada. According to news reports, nearly one billion sea animals may have cooked to death in British Columbia. San Francisco, a similarly temperate climate, has had its own moments of extreme heat. It reached 106 degrees during the 2017 heat wave, breaking all previous records. But what would happen if San Francisco’s temperatures reached as high as Portland's did last week? How would roads, bridges and the health system respond to 116 degree temperatures? Could the electrical grid manage to stay on line? Forum talks to a panel of experts about what a future with extreme heat looks like and what we should be doing to prepare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a seashell museum on Sanibel, an island off southwest Florida, environmental journalist Cynthia Barnett discovered that 90% of the museum’s visitors didn’t know shells were made from living animals. In her new book “The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans,” Barnett explains the science of how shells are made and their role in the ecosystem of the oceans. And she delves into the long cultural history of seashells which have been used as money, jewelry, tools, instruments, building materials and more. Barnett joins us to discuss the mysteries of seashells and their mollusk makers and what they can teach us about the health of our oceans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The social media app TikTok has grown exponentially since its release in 2016, with over 689 million active users worldwide. Famous for its short, looping videos that feature a range of content including lip syncs, dance routines, personal storytelling and documentary-style footage, it’s become a popular place to spend hours online, especially among Gen Z. Particularly in the past year, when in-person interaction was limited due to the pandemic, many people found community on TikTok and used it as a way to de-stress or express their creativity. We’ll talk about TikTok’s appeal and hear from popular creators Nick Cho and Taylor Cassidy about the communities they’ve found and built on the app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can self-deception be beneficial? That’s one of the questions animating Shankar Vedantam’s new book “Useful Delusions,” which argues that holding false beliefs is not necessarily a sign of pathology or ignorance. We’ll talk to theHidden Brain podcast host about the lies we tell ourselves — and each other — and the role some forms of deception play in sustaining relationships and advancing mental well-being. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sebastian Junger walked 400 miles from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh, using railroad lines to follow the footsteps of America’s first colonizers. Analyzing what freedom meant to the settlers and indigenous people of this land centuries ago and what it means to its inhabitants today, Junger describes his trek in his new book, “Freedom.” “We failed to come up with a single moral or legal justification for what we were doing other than the dilute principle that we weren't causing harm so we should be able to keep doing it,” he writes. Junger joins us to talk about his journey, “Freedom” and the tension between doing whatever you want and the bonds of community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you watched a throwback TV show or movie recently that — upon viewing now — made you cringe because of scenes or jokes that are so obviously, well, cringeworthy? The expansive library of old TV shows and films made available for nostalgia viewing on streaming services prompted some rude awakenings about content we thought we loved. We’ll reflect on the ways our awareness as viewers may have shifted and consider the TV shows and films that don’t quite stack up to today’s social norms. We’ll also discuss the movies and shows that have stood the test of time and why. Is there an old TV show or film that lost its charm for you upon re-watching? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special holiday edition of Forum, we've gone back into our archives to two interviews that Michael Krasny, our recently retired host, did in 2011. They showcase his depth and love of literature as he speaks with the winners of that year's National Book Critics Circle Award, Jennifer Egan and Isabel Wilkerson. Egan's novel "A Visit From the Goon Squad," traipses through San Francisco and beyond. Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of America's Great Migration" reframed the origins of modern America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Paul Brammer, the self-described “Chicano Carrie Bradshaw,” writes the popular column, ¡Hola Papi!, which he started in 2017 when dating app Grindr launched LGBTQ site INTO and needed steady content. He soon realized he had tapped into a trove of unmet demand for gay dating advice. Brammer, who grew up in rural Oklahoma, has written for various publications including The Guardian, Teen Vogue, The Trevor Project, Condé Nast, and Netflix and now publishes ¡Hola Papi! on Substack. He joins us to talk about his new memoir, “¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons,” which explores coming of age, coming out and finding love through essays based on his column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prosecutors charged the Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg on Thursday with running a 15-year scheme to defraud the government of income tax payments. The charges arose from an ongoing multi-year investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney and the New York Attorney General into off-the-books payments made to Weisselberg and other Trump Organization employees. We’ll talk about the latest developments and what’s at stake for the former president and his businesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When film director, poet and playwright Kathleen Collins passed away in 1988, her work had yet to fully receive its due. Following the efforts of her daughter Nina Lorez Collins, her 1982 film “Losing Ground,” one of the first feature films directed by a Black American woman, received a theatrical release in 2015 — and is presently streaming for free on Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s website through July 6. Her books “Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?” and “Notes From a Black Woman’s Diary” were published in the past five years, and her collection of four one-act plays, entitled “Begin the Beguine,” is being performed by Oakland Theater Project via livestream and drive-in through July 3. We’ll talk with Oakland Theater Project co-directors Michael Socrates Moran and Dawn L. Troupe, who also stars in each of the four plays, about “Begin the Beguine” and Collins’ artistic legacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bolinas, writes English Professor Lytle Shaw, is “the only instance I could think of where a town was essentially governed by poets.” Shaw’s thoughts are part of a new anniversary edition of “On the Mesa: An Anthology of Bolinas Writing” originally published in 1971, featuring the work of a remarkable group of poets living in or near Bolinas in the late 60s and 70s, including Diane Di Prima, Phillip Whalen, Robert Creeley, JoAnne Kyger, Anne Waldman and other icons of the period. We’ll talk about the Bolinas scene, the new edition of the anthology and capturing Bolinas counterculture through its poetry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California bars insurance companies from cancelling residential property insurance policies for homes in places that burned in the 2020 wildfires. But after years of catastrophic fires, insurance companies are refusing to renew policies for a growing number of the 3 million Californians who have homes in high wildfire risk zones. Finding replacement coverage can cost many times more than an original policy. Now, the insurance industry is talking about raising rates based on a home’s exposure to climate change induced catastrophe. We’ll hear about a growing crisis in the state’s insurance market, and what the industry, consumer advocates, and legislators are trying to do about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In three weeks, the Oakland City Council will vote whether to approve the A’s proposal to build a new baseball stadium at Howard Terminal. The A’s say their waterfront proposal, which includes housing, a performance space and hotels, will revitalize West Oakland, an area of the city that has historically suffered from gentrification and displacement by infrastructure like BART and freeways. Opponents say it will cost jobs at the port and argue that the stadium should be built at the Coliseum where ample transportation infrastructure exists. Ratcheting up the tension is the A’s ultimatum that if they can’t build on the waterfront, they will move away entirely, leaving Oakland without a major league sports team following the loss of the Raiders and the Warriors. We’ll hear about the plan and what it means for Oakland and Bay Area sports fans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poet, teacher and Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith joins us to talk about his new book, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America. Smith takes readers on a tour of eight sites to examine the history of slavery in America and how that history lives on through stories -- who tells them, how and where. Along his journey, he discovers buried facts, false narratives and often willful ignorance of a dark time in our nation’s history that still has implications. We’ll talk about how Americans’ understanding of slavery -- or lack of it -- plays out today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Public transit ridership is slowly rising after the pandemic forced transit agencies to cut services. But few other agencies across the nation decreased service as much as Muni and BART, and San Francisco ridership was at 39 percent of pre-pandemic levels in May, according to a recent San Francisco Chronicle analysis. San Francisco is also experiencing tension between the Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed over a proposal to eliminate Muni fares for this summer. We’ll check in with SFMTA, BART, AC Transit and VTA about their announced service increases, capacity requirements and plans to entice riders back. And we want to hear from you: What should these agencies prioritize as they re-expand services? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Supreme Court's term nears a close, we analyze some of the significant opinions released so far, which span religious liberty and free speech questions, the rights of union organizers and the Affordable Care Act. We'll also look at what's at stake in two Arizona voting rights cases awaiting a decision, and how the Court's 6-3 conservative majority is influencing its jurisprudence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than a quarter of Americans are estranged from a close family member, new research from Cornell University finds. The reasons for breaking off contact are familiar: divides over money, values and parental divorce, along with tension from parenting choices or in-law relationships. We’ll talk about the nuances of the phenomenon, including U.S. cultural individualism, the nuclear family’s decline, and the traditions of chosen family within LGBTQ+ communities. And, of course, we want to hear your stories about navigating deep rifts within your own family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“It should puzzle us more than it does that one of the greatest foci of human ingenuity and concentrated effort over the past millennia has been the problem of how to get drunk,” writes Edward Slingerland in his new book “Drunk.” Alcohol might not only enable personal creativity and social ease — it may have aided the cohesion and innovation necessary to create civilizations themselves. Slingerland does not dismiss the gravity of addiction and its endangering behaviors, but in appealing to history, neuroscience and art, he makes the case that drinking, socially and in moderation, can advance social goods. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Californian’s famously love their cars, but around the Bay Area a lot of people are more passionate about other ways to roll, like bikes, roller skates or skateboards. KQED’s podcast, Rightnowish, is celebrating our love of wheels and the role they play in community and culture with a series called “Roll With Us”. We’ll talk with host Pendarvis Harshaw about the San Franciscan who’s been dancing on his roller skates for half a century, “chair skating” with the extreme wheelchair sports league, the South Bay’s lowrider car culture and more. And we want to hear from you. Are you part of a community on wheels? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the approval of two major cannabis growing and distribution projects, Antioch has put itself on the map as a significant player in the marijuana industry. “I don’t mind being known as the cannabis capital of Northern California,” declared Antioch mayor Lamar Thorpe, citing the jobs that it would bring to the eastern Contra Costa County town. Meanwhile, Sonoma County has set aside a proposal to ease restrictions around growing cannabis and entered into a study phase to analyze the environmental impacts of that ordinance. We’ll talk to a panel of experts about the changing geography of cannabis cultivation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 13 years, pop star Britney Spears has been subject to a conservatorship that controlled many of her life decisions, and on Wednesday, Spears testified damningly about the damage done to her by that arrangement. According to the star, her conservators have forcibly placed her on lithium, pushed her into unnecessary rehab, and prevented from having children by refusing to let her remove her IUD. “I deserve to have a life. I've worked my whole life. . . I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does,” declared Spears. We’ll talk about the hearing and what happens next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Brandon Taylor’s new collection of short stories, “Filthy Animals,” characters either hide their teeth or give in to their animalistic impulses. They thirst: for success, belonging and emotional connection. Taylor, whose debut novel “Real Life” met widespread critical acclaim, is also known for his newsletter and Twitter account, which both combine anecdotes with broader cultural analyses on topics ranging from contemporary “internet novels” to literary classics to the art of writing itself. We’ll talk with Taylor about his craft, the underrepresentation and tokenization of Black, queer identities in literature and his goal to attain truth through fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we learned that engineers are frantically working to get rid of the annoyingly loud hum that started projecting from the Golden Gate Bridge last summer, it got us wondering about other iconic sounds of the Bay Area. We’ll talk with KQED’s Bay Curious host Olivia Allen-Price about the stories behind some of the sounds of the area, like the sometimes deafening cawing of crows and the rattle of a cable car chains underfoot. And we’ll want to hear, really hear, from you. Call us with your imitation of the sounds that say “Bay Area” to you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alzheimer's disease affects more than 6 million people in the U.S., and there have been no good existing treatment options. That seemed to change earlier this month when the FDA approved a new drug called Aduhelm that claims to slow the progression of the disease. But while some patients are celebrating the news, many scientists say the drug will deliver marginal, or even no, benefits and that it could have risky side effects. And at a cost of $56,000 annually per patient, some members of the U.S. Senate are calling for an investigation into how the drug will affect the Medicare program. We discuss the controversy around the FDA’s approval of Aduhelm and we’ll get an update on Alzheimer’s research. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Celebrated writer and podcaster Ashley C. Ford grew up knowing that her father was in prison, but she never knew the reason why. As she writes in her new memoir “Somebody’s Daughter,” she found herself confronting the truth about her father’s crime while coping with her own devastating trauma. The book chronicles Ford’s upbringing in a tight-knit, Black family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a place she eventually had to leave to find herself and create a career out of writing. We’ll talk to Ford about her memoir and journey as a writer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than a half-century after the Fair Housing Act made housing discrimination illegal, segregation in residential communities is not only prevalent, but on the rise. More than 80% of metropolitan regions in the U.S. have become more segregated since 1990, and many Bay Area cities are among them, according to a report released this week from UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute. Housing segregation can affect income, health and educational opportunities, particularly for people of color. We’ll talk about the impacts of segregation in the Bay Area and which cities have become more or less segregated in the past few decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carl Nassib, a defensive lineman for the Las Vegas Raiders, made history this week as the first active NFL player to publicly identify as gay. We'll talk about the significance of his announcement with Rick Welts, president and chief operating officer of the Golden State Warriors. Welts himself came out while he was an executive with the Phoenix Suns, and we'll hear his reflections on the pressures faced by LGBTQ professional athletes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As people resume pre-pandemic activities and a number of workers return to offices, some are dealing with pandemic hangovers in the form of burnout.The term “burnout” gained prevalence in recent years to describe when someone feels exhausted, ineffective and unmotivated to do activities they once enjoyed. Experts say this state, often caused by chronic stress, can affect workers at all levels and occupations and won’t be fixed by time off or even outright quitting. We’ll talk about burnout and how to heal from it, and we want to hear your experiences. Email us at [email protected] or leave a voicememo at 415-553-3300. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Often called a “regional Chinese cuisine,” Taiwanese food is making its own distinctive mark on the Bay Area food landscape. Taiwanese restaurants and pop-ups are serving up dishes like lu rou fan, a pork belly rice, and gua bao, an open pork bun, and cooking up dishes for an immigrant diaspora nostalgic for the night markets of Taipei. We take a deep dive into Taiwanese food with KQED food editor Luke Tsai and a local restaurateur who explain what makes Taiwanese food Taiwanese. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Western monarch butterfly population has fallen by 99% since the 1980’s largely due to pesticide use and habitat loss. And the butterflies that have survived are changing their behavior in unexpected ways, remaining in the Bay Area over the winter instead of heading to the California coast from October to March. In response, conservation groups like Oakland’s Pollinator Posse are working to restore habitats by planting native milkweed. We’ll discuss why important pollinators are disappearing and what can be done about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Critical race theory has come under fire from some conservatives, elected leaders, parents and educators. The concept evolved decades ago from legal scholarship seeking to understand how racial bias plays a role in U.S. laws and institutions. Efforts to dismantle critical race theory are now gaining traction more than a year into what many people consider a national reckoning with racism. More than twenty states have introduced or passed legislation that would ban schools from teaching about racism or “divisive concepts.” We talk about what critical race theory is and why it is stirring backlash now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sacramento-based poet Alexandra Huynh says that poetry is a way both to acknowledge our reality and imagine a better world. Huynh, who was appointed the 2021 National Youth Poet Laureate last month, interweaves stories and images of fire in California, floods in Vietnam and the global impact of a single footprint. We’ll talk about her work, which addresses social injustice, the global effects of climate change and her Vietnamese American identity, and the importance of youth voices in poetry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Confronting the reality of climate change is often a terrifying and paralyzing activity. But, in the right hands, the story of our warming planet can be a tale of human ingenuity, resilience, and adaptability. Humans, for better or worse, find ways to adapt to almost anything, even the collapse of civilizations. Forum brings together two legendary local science fiction writers, Kim Stanley Robinson and Annalee Newitz, to get their incisive perspectives on the question of the long-term fate of humanity. We’ll talk about the future of the climate, past civilizations of the earth and the audacity of imagining that human beings might find ways to thrive later this century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Decades ago, when forest ecologist Suzanne Simard set out to understand why forests tended to heal themselves when left to their own devices, she uncovered early evidence that trees communicate with each other, lending mutual aid during times of duress. Over the years her research deepened and expanded, marked by discoveries that trees relay information through cryptic underground fungal networks and that old trees, known as mother trees, can discern which seedlings are their own and transmit food and water to them. We’ll talk to Simard about her work, and the intertwined story of her family, all chronicled in her new book “Finding the Mother Tree.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bay Area has recently been presented more as a bundle of problems than the generative, fascinating place that it’s been for decades. What are creators in the Bay Area thinking about the future of our cities? How might it change to be a better place for more of our residents? And what could Forum’s role be in building this community? These are some of the questions that Alexis Madrigal, Forum’s new host for the show’s first hour, will be asking of his guests. Spotlighting figures whose work on issues of economic justice, climate, design, and culture are driving innovation in the region, we’ll also be hearing from our Bay Area audience about what you want to hear. To begin, Forum co-host Mina Kim will turn the tables and interview Alexis about how he sees the Bay. What are your questions for Forum’s newest moderator? How should we cover the Bay Area? Who — or what — makes the it special to you? And what are the questions that intrigue and confound you about this region we call home? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Of the 1,300 top Hollywood films of 2007 to 2019, just 44 featured Asian American and Pacific Islander lead actors, and of those only six were women. That’s according to a new USC Annenberg study that found a dearth of AAPI representation both behind and in front of the camera — as well as abundant on-screen stereotypical depictions that exoticize, hypersexualize or emasculate Asian characters. We’ll talk about the study and hear from actors, writers, directors and producers about their experiences of anti-Asian bias and stereotyping in Hollywood and what needs to change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Calling it “one of the greatest honors” he would have as president, on Thursday, Joe Biden signed new legislation to make June 19 a federal holiday. Known as Juneteenth, the holiday commemorates June 19th, 1865, the day when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas first learned that the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been signed two years earlier, had ended slavery. We talk about Juneteenth and the significance of it being recognized as a federal holiday. How do you plan to celebrate? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices