KQED's Forum

Contemporary efforts to undermine democracy, spread disinformation and subvert elections are not without precedent in American politics, according to Rachel Maddow, the longtime MSNBC host, author and podcast creator. Rather, they’ve got a “prequel,” a period of American history before and during World War II when an “ultra-right authoritarian movement, weirdly infatuated with foreign dictatorships” planned to attack government targets to sow chaos and ultimately overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt. We’ll talk to Maddow about what we can learn from the Americans who beat back the domestic authoritarians of the 1930s and 1940s. Her new book is “Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism.”The U.S. Supreme Court’s latest term is underway with another round of big cases to watch. The future of an entire federal agency – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – is expected to be decided, along with cases about whether someone under a domestic violence restraining order can possess a gun, and the legality of the abortion medication mifepristone. We’ll look at the Court’s docket and what’s at stake with Ian Millhiser, senior correspondent at Vox who covers the Supreme Court.Guests:Rachel Maddow, author, "Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism"; host, "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC. Maddow's other books include “DRIFT: The Unmooring of American Military Power” and “Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth”Ian Millhiser, senior correspondent, Vox - His books include "Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted" and "The Agenda: How a Republican Supreme Court is Reshaping America." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests on this episode discuss the impact of chatbots and AI on higher education, covering topics such as personalized education, disinformation, cheating, and the importance of critical thinking. They explore regulating AI in assignments, the potential loss of critical thinking skills, and the need for AI literacy in students.

Literary translators are why we can read poems, novels and essays written in languages we don’t speak, exposing us to otherwise inaccessible ideas and worlds. But even though translators wrestle page by page, paragraph by paragraph, line by line, to convey meaning,humor and pathos, their names don’t always appear on book covers. And translators say their industry is mired in problems of inequitable pay, a lack of diversity and an undervaluing of heritage speakers. We’ll talk with a panel of literary translators about the joys and challenges of their work. Tell us: Have you ever attempted to translate a literary text? What did you notice? What’s your favorite work in translation?Guests:Bruna Dantas Lobato, translates from Portuguese; advocate for translators not working into their first language; novelist and author of the forthcoming novel, "Blue Light Hours" - she has just been longlisted for the National Book Award;Jennifer Croft, author, the forthcoming novel "The Extinction of Irena Rey"; translator for Polish Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk; advocate for translatorsSoje, translates from Korean; poet; creator of Chogwa - which presents multiple translations of the same poem in each issue Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slamming a bedroom door is one of the first signs a young person is entering puberty. Then come the physical changes, first periods, wet dreams, acne, mood swings and many other shifts. But, today’s young people are experiencing puberty in different ways than their parents’ generation. It starts sooner and lasts longer, making a complex stage of life even more challenging. The authors of a new book, “This is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained,” will join us to lay out how puberty has changed and how families can navigate this tricky time in kids’ lives.Guests:Cara Natterson, co-author, "This Is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained" - Natterson, a pediatrician and podcaster, is the author of ten books including the New York Times bestselling series "The Care and Keeping of You" and “Guy Stuff”Vanessa Kroll Bennett, co-author, "This is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained" - Bennett is co-host of the "Puberty Podcast" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we smash the patriarchy with interviews with multidisciplinary artist, poet, and author Mimi Tempestt on her new collection of poetry, "The Delicacy of Embracing Spirals" and writer and researcher Cat Bohannon on her book “Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution.” Catch up on the week's most compelling interviews in 30 minutes or less. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glynn Washington hosts the podcast Spooked, which features stories about the supernatural – told by the people who experienced them first-hand. We talk with Glynn about spirits, ghosts, and the stories that make us question what we know. Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, we invite you to join us as we discuss stories from the Spooked archive, contemplate our relationship with spirits and the afterlife, and explore the cultural roots and value of ghostly tales.Guests:Glynn Washington, host and executive producer, Snap Judgment and Spooked podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Solar eclipses happen roughly every six months, but they are rarely visible. This weekend, however, Bay Area residents will be able to see the moon pass in front of the sun in an annular eclipse. Another one, a total eclipse, is expected to cross our skies in April 2024. The celestial spectacles will be the last events to appear over the continental U.S. until 2045. We’ll dig into the science of solar eclipses, how to safely view an eclipse and hear the latest in space exploration.Guests:Andrew Fraknoi, astronomer and professor, Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco and the OLLI Program at SF State; author of many textbooks and popular books about astronomyMarina Koren, staff writer, The Atlantic. Koren covers space for the magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leonard Leo, the powerful and well-funded leader of the Federalist Society who prevailed on the Trump Administration to nominate a slate of conservative, anti-abortion jurists to the Supreme Court, is now the subject of “We Don’t Talk About Leonard,” a new Pro Publica investigation and podcast. Now that he has created a right wing supermajority on the Supreme Court, “Leo has grander ambitions,” according to Pro Publica, “which include fighting against ‘wokism’ in education, ‘one-sided’ journalism, and ideas like environmental, social and governance policies” in corporate America. We learn what Pro Publica’s reporters have uncovered.Guests:Andrea Bernstein, creator of "We Don't Talk About Leonard," a podcast from On the Media and ProPublica; author of "American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Political corruption. Government shutdown battles. Legislative gridlock. Sometimes, it seems like ordinary citizens picked at random might do a better job governing than elected officials. In fact, that’s exactly the kind of lottery-like political system that is now gaining traction in academia. As part of Forum’s “Doing Democracy” series, we’ll talk about “lottocracy” and other ideas that seek to improve democracy and put ordinary citizens at the center of political power.Guests:Alexander Guerrero, professor of philosophy, Rutgers University - New Brunswick; author of the forthcoming book, "Lottocracy: Democracy Without Elections"Hélène Landemore, professor of political science, Yale University; author, "Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Communities across California with connections to Israel and Gaza are bracing for more violence, death and devastation after President Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday officially declared war on Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. On Saturday Hamas unleashed a deadly attack that Israel characterized as the “worst massacre of Israeli civilians” in history. Now almost 2,000 people are dead and thousands more wounded after Israel in turn launched unrelenting retaliatory strikes in the Gaza strip. We’ll learn more about what’s happening and how Jewish and Arab communities in California are responding to and processing the conflict.Guests:Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny’s in San Francisco; currently in Israel visiting his familyJanine Zacharia, visiting lecturer, Stanford University; former Jerusalem Bureau Chief and Middle East correspondent for the Washington PostSteven Erlanger, chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe, New York Times; reporting from IsraelWael Buhaissy, Palestinian American who lives in San Ramon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices