KQED's Forum

Manuel Muñoz is the son of immigrant farm laborers from California’s Central Valley whose four works of fiction center the lives of Mexican-American communities in the region. Patrick Makuakane is a native Hawaiian and San Francisco-based kumu hula, or master teacher, who created a unique form of hula that blends traditional movements with contemporary music. They’re among five Californians who have been awarded the MacArthur Fellowship this year. We talk to them about what the award means to them and their communities and how themes of love, class, sexuality and identity suffuse their art.Guests:Patrick Makuakane, A kumu hula, or master hula teacher; director of Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wakiu, a San Francisco-based dance company blending modern music and themes with traditional Hula Movements.Manuel Munoz, fiction writer and creative writing professor, University of Arizona. He writes about California's Central Valley where he was born and raised. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Pahlka, a technology expert, discusses the failures of government technology, focusing on examples like healthcare.gov and unemployment benefits during the pandemic. She highlights the need for better utilization of technology in government, the challenges of implementation, and the importance of joining organizations like US Digital Service and Code for America. The podcast also covers the difficulties faced in integrating technology into government processes, comparing it with the private sector and acknowledging listener feedback on government inefficiencies.

More than 21 million Americans are breathing air that’s dirtier than official records indicate. That’s according to a new investigation from the California Newsroom, MuckRock and the Guardian. An obscure rule in the Clean Air Act allows regions to strike so-called “natural” and “exceptional events,” like wildfires, from their pollution data on grounds that they are beyond the control of local air regulators. Since 2016, counties in California have had 166 days of pollution forgiven. And this past summer during the Canadian wildfires, more than 20 other states invoked it. As wildfires become more frequent amid worsening climate change, air regulators are expecting to use the “exceptional events” rule more often, and some lawmakers are even trying to make filing easier. We’ll hear more about the investigation’s findings and answer your questions.Related link(s):Smoke, Screened — The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret: An Investigation From the California Newsroom, Muckrock and the GuardianGuests:Molly Peterson, editor, The California Newsroom; has covered science with a focus on climate change for KQED News; co-author, “Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret"Emily Zentner, data journalist, The California Newsroom; co-author, “Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California’s use of forced sterilizations represents a dark chapter in the state’s history. Up until the 1970s, state hospitals and institutions implemented a eugenics program as a way to decrease specific demographic groups including Latinos, Blacks and Native Americans. In more recent decades, California prisons performed procedures—without patient consent — that left hundreds of women unable to have children. Now, the clock is ticking for survivors to apply for compensation from a $4.5 million fund the state established in 2021. As the Dec. 31 deadline looms, relatively few survivors have applied and the state has rejected most of them. We’ll talk about survivors’ experiences, why they aren’t receiving compensation, and hear from advocates on what should happen next.More information on how to apply for compensation for involuntary sterilization can be found at the California Victim Compensation Board website. Applications are available in English and Spanish.Anyone needing assistance with the application can call the compensation board’s toll-free helpline at 1-800-777-9229 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.Guests:Jennifer James, PhD, MSW, MSSP, associate professor of Institute for Health & Aging, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, and UCSF Bioethics, University of California, San Francisco; member, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners - She has assisted forced sterilization survivors with their applications for reparationsCayla Mihalovich, student, UC Berkeley School of Journalism Investigative Reporting Program - Wrote an article about California's reparations program for forced sterilizations for KQEDMoonlight Pulido, recipient, the California Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation ProgramSydney Johnson, reporter, KQED NewsSharon Fennix, her application for the California Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program was rejected Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this year Sonya Christian became the first woman chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the largest higher education system in the country serving 1.9 million students across 116 colleges. We’ll talk to Christian about her plans to address declining enrollment, ease transfers from community college to the UC and Cal State systems and create more community college baccalaureate degree programs. And we’ll hear from you: what did you gain from your community college education? What would you change about California’s system?Guests:Sonya Christian, chancellor, California Community Colleges - Website URL: https://sonyachristianblog.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kishi Bashi is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, filmmaker and Japanese-American. That identity and the liminal space between being Japanese and being American animates his documentary “Omoiyari” in which he traveled to WWII Japanese internment camps and Japan itself to better understand his own identity. Bashi improvises music on site in the film, and his taut melodic phrases, inflected with a bit of Laurel Canyon pop, build and expand to tell a story in a way you have not yet heard. His new double LP – “A Songfilm” – is a companion piece to the documentary and comes out on November 17. Bashi joins us in studio.Guests:Kishi Bashi, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist - Bashi's latest LP "Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari" is a companion to his documentary film that explores his identity and the WWII experience of Japanese incarceration. The album comes out on November 17. Bashi is based in Santa Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every day in hospitals around the country, while one family is grieving the loss of a family member, another family is given news that will offer them hope: that a possible organ donor match has been made. In California alone, more than 20,000 people remain on the waitlist for a kidney, liver, or other organ. We’ll talk about how organ donation works and hear about a new law that aims to modernize the current system. And we’ll hear from you: have you or a family member received – or donated – an organ?Guests:Lenny Bernstein, health and medicine reporter, The Washington PostMichael Pasco, liver transplant recipientKris Netherton, heart and kidney transplant recipientDr. Harish Mahanty M.D., surgical director of kidney transplantation, Sutter Health Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Court cases like the Dred Scott decision and Brown v. Board of Education are among the legal milestones that mark the arduous journey towards civil rights. But throughout the 19th century, ordinary Black Americans, freed and enslaved, sought to enforce their rights under the law. It’s a hidden and largely untold story of how Blacks both relied on, trusted in, and tried to leverage the legal system to establish and protect their rights, and it’s the subject of UC Berkeley historian Dylan Penningroth’s new book, “Before the Movement.” We’ll talk to Penningroth about his work.Guests:Dylan Penningroth, author, "Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights" - Penningroth is a professor of law and history at U.C. Berkeley and associate dean of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program. He is the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship and lives in Kensington, California Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's Forum in Focus takes on rethinking infrastructure with engineering professor Debbie Chachra and the true toll of vehicular homelessness with New York Times Reporter Rukmini Callimachi and KQED callers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Make one mistake each day.” “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying.” These adages might feel cliché. But mistakes, though often embarrassing, really are essential for learning, and how you handle them depends on your upbringing, education and even your neurology, according to USC professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. We’ll talk about what happens in our brains when we make mistakes, and we’ll hear how you react to a cringe-worthy blunder. Do you tend to shut down and deflect blame? Is it easy for you to regroup and figure out what went wrong? What has a mistake taught you?Guests:Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, professor of education, psychology and neuroscience, University of Southern California; director, USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (CANDLE) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices