KQED's Forum

Singer and songwriter Valerie June defies genre – she can be a little country and a little rock and roll and there’s also folk, blues, soul, Appalachian and a sound that’s downright ethereal. But her music is all her own, she’s called it, "organic moonshine roots music," and it’s beautiful. She joins us to play a few songs on her banjolele and to talk about her latest album "The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers," her West Tennessee roots, her poems and her new children’s book, "Somebody to Love."This segment originally aired Dec. 7, 2022.Guests:Valerie June, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist; author of the new children's book "Somebody to Love" - and a recent book of poetry, "Maps for the Modern World" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every Californian knows that the Big One, that catastrophic magnitude earthquake, is coming. Earthquakes like those in Turkey and Syria, and Mexico City before that, and Haiti even before that, have all offered experts lessons in how to build better. But have we taken those lessons to heart? What more could we be doing in California to strengthen our infrastructure, and if we haven’t done it yet, why not? We’ll talk to experts and a member of the Los Angeles County fire department search and rescue team on the ground in Turkey, and we’ll hear from you: What have you done to prepare your home and yourself for earthquakes?Guests:Dr. Lucy Jones, author, "The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them);" founder, the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society; research associate, the Seismological Laboratory of CaltechFrank Infante, Battalion Chief, Los Angeles County Fire Department. Infante is stationed with the USAID Search & Rescue team in Adiyaman, Turkey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many of life’s very biggest decisions – should I quit my job? Should we move in together? Is it time to get pregnant? Divorce? Retire? – are at the crossroads of money and love. We don’t learn how to navigate either in school. Unless you happened to take labor economist Myra Strober’s class on work and family at Stanford. Now she and one of her former students, Abby Davisson, have written a book about how to approach life’s biggest quandaries. We talk with Strober and Davisson about “Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life’s Biggest Decisions”.Guests:Myra Strober, coauthor, "Money and Love;" labor economist and Professor Emerita at the School of Education and Professor Emerita of Economics, the Graduate School of Business at Stanford UniversityAbby Davisson, coauthor, "Money and Love;" a social innovation leader and career development expert Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Black history,” writes award-winning artist and graphic designer George McCalman, “tends to mean the ten people who are lauded every Black History Month of every Black History Year.” McCalman upends that constricted notion in his most recent book, “Illustrated Black History,” a tribute to 140 pioneering – but sometimes unseen – Black artists, advocates and thinkers who have “sacrificed their lives and livelihoods or forfeited their homes and sanctuaries” in the course of defining American history. We talk to McCalman about those he chose to profile, paint and celebrate.Guests:George McCalman, artist, graphic designer and creative director; His most recent book is "Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Empty storefronts have peppered neighborhoods across San Francisco and the Bay for decades. One stretch of Mission Street, from 19th to 30th streets, has more than 70 commercial vacancies. In the last few years, the pandemic exacerbated the problem as hundreds of small businesses have closed up shop for good. Cities and business owners are grappling with how to bring back foot traffic to support small businesses, but they face a multitude of challenges. We’ll talk about why so many retail spaces remain vacant and whether blight has seeped into your neighborhood.Guests:Heather Knight, columnist, San Francisco ChronicleSharky Laguana, former president, San Francisco Small Business Commission; founder and CEO, Bandago; founder and CEO, CampagoIlana Preuss, founder and CEO, Recast City LLC; author, "Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing"Alice Kim, owner, Joe’s Ice CreamRyen Motzek, president, Mission Merchants AssociationMichael Gaines, membership secretary, Lower Haight Merchants and Neighbors Association Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is one of only 10 states that don’t require public elementary schools to screen for dyslexia. But research shows that detection of dylexia's early warning signs can lessen reading challenges for kids down the line. We’ll hear why California has been an outlier and about the renewed push for legislation to mandate early screening. And, with a collective $28.7 million of the past two annual state budgets allocated to UCSF’s Dyslexia Center for research on dyslexia and the development of a new, multilingual and free screening tool, we’ll hear about how the tool works and the latest neuroscientific research.Guests:Joe Hong, reporter covering the students, teachers and lawmakers who shape California's public schools, CalMatters - recent article is "Why California still doesn’t mandate dyslexia screening"Dr. Marilu Gorno Tempini, professor of neurology and psychiatry, UCSF - and co-director of the UCSF Dyslexia Center and the UCSF-UCB Schwab Dyslexia and Cognitive Diversity Center.https://albalab.ucsf.edu; https://dyslexia.ucsf.edu/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Soleil Ho started at the San Francisco Chronicle as restaurant critic in 2019, they were widely hailed as exemplifying the “next generation” of criticism. Ho 86'd the star system, shifted away from breathless coverage of the glitziest restaurants and brought a social justice lens to their reviews. But a year into Ho’s ambitious overhaul, the COVID pandemic hit and the future of the entire restaurant industry was in question. “The moment marked an abrupt transition in what I thought, to be honest, was going to be a pretty straightforward job of eating stuff and writing fun things about it,” Ho wrote last week in an article announcing that they were stepping away from the position. "All of sudden, dining out became literally a matter of life and death.” As part of our All You Can Eat series with KQED food editor Luke Tsai, we talk with Soleil Ho about food criticism, the changing role of the critic and the state of the Bay Area’s pandemic shaken food scene.Guests:Soleil Ho, opinion columnist, The San Francisco ChronicleLuke Tsai , food editor, KQED Arts and Culture Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China's foreign ministry accused the U.S. on Monday of flying at least 10 high-altitude surveillance balloons in its airspace during the past year. The charge, which the White House denies, comes a little more than a week after the U.S. shot down a large balloon it says China was using to spy on American military sites. We'll look at what the mutual reprisals say about the state of U.S.-China relations and whether and to what extent ties between the nations can be stabilized.Guests:Neysun Mahboubi, research scholar at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, University of Pennsylvania, where he also hosts a podcast on Chinese politics, economics, law and societyEdward Wong, diplomatic correspondent, The New York TimesMary Gallagher, professor of political science and director of the International Institute, University of Michigan - Her most recent book is "Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers and the State" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new class of weight loss drugs is changing the way doctors, researchers and patients think about obesity. Medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro dampen appetite and their effectiveness has challenged the perception that people who are obese simply lack willpower to make better choices. It’s also raising questions among those who have worked hard to embrace their bodies at any weight. In a recent piece in Vox, journalist Julia Belluz writes, “the medicines have become a lightning rod in an obesity conversation that is increasingly binary — swinging between fat acceptance and fatphobia.” We discuss what these recent drugs reveal about weight gain, willpower and the science behind eating habits.Guests:Julia Belluz, freelance health reporter, author of the recent New York Times guest essay: "What New Weight Loss Drugs Teach Us About Fat and Free Will."Peminda Cabandugama, endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist, Cleveland Clinic - He is also spokesperson for The Obesity Society and vice president of the Midwest Obesity SocietyDiana Thiara, medical director, UCSF Weight Loss Management Program - She specializes in caring for patients who are overweight or obese, and has a particular interest in helping them focus on nutrition and lifestyle adjustments to optimize their health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With its still-vibrant animation and unforgettable earworms, “SchoolHouse Rock!” turned 50 this year, having taught Generation X and subsequent youth math, history and grammar. Today, the series’ 1973 debut also serves as a lesson in nostalgia, “a reminder of a time when network TV gave us a common culture, language and lyrics,” writes The New York Times’ chief television critic James Poniewozik. Poniewozik joins us to talk about the groundbreaking TV show’s role in a shared civic education. And we’re inviting you to join us on our train ride to conjunction junction: Sing a few bars of your favorite “SchoolHouse Rock!” song and tell us what the show means to you on our voicemail line: 415-553-3300.Guests:James Poniewozik, chief television critic, The New York TimesHaydee Rodriguez , History and English teacher at Central Union High School, Imperial County Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices