KQED's Forum

Annalee Newitz’s new book “The Terraformers” is a multigenerational science fiction drama set thousands of years in a future where corporations own entire planets and moose can fly. But even in a time when humans have speciated and trains have gained sentience, the urgent ethical and societal issues, like gentrification and water rights, persist. We’ll talk with Newitz about “The Terraformers,” who or what counts as a person, and what it’ll actually take to manage ecosystems.Guests:Annalee Newitz, science journalist and author of the books "The Terraformers," "The Future of Another Timeline," "Autonomous" and "Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020 many Americans were at a breaking point, writes journalist and author Wesley Lowery, ready for a radical re-ordering – or at least a re-imagination – of policing. But as most painfully evident after the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police last month, there has been no great reckoning, and in fact in many cases backlash has outpaced reform. We talk to the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter about his new piece for the Atlantic “Why There Was No Racial Reckoning.”Guests:Wesley Lowery, journalist and author. His new piece for the Atlantic is "Why There Was No Racial Reckoning." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The humble copy machine was meant to revolutionize office work. But when the Xerox 6500 color copier was introduced in 1973, its ability to print in saturated colors on plain paper jump started an avant garde Bay Area art movement. Copy machines offered artists a chance to play with color, form and image as copies were made of copies and the piece changed form. The copier also democratized art by making prints cheap and easily available. We’ll talk with the curators and artists featured in “Positively Charged,” a new art exhibit that looks at the evolution of copy art and zines in the Bay Area. Have you ever created art on a copy machine?Guests:Maymanah Farhat, writer; editor; curator, "Positively Charged: Copier Art in the Bay Area Since the 1960s"Jennie Hinchcliff, curator, "Positively Charged: Copier Art in the Bay Area Since the 1960s"; exhibitions and events manager, San Francisco Center for the BookEnrique Chagoya, professor of art practice, Stanford University. Chagoya's work is featured in the exhibit "Positively Charged."Sally Wassink, artist. Wassink's work is featured in the exhibit "Positively Charged." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When New York Times Magazine staff writer Susan Dominus began reporting her cover story on menopause, she was surprised by the number of women she met who had resigned themselves to a life of hot flashes, poor sleep, brain fog and depression, all of which are common symptoms of menopause. There was a near universal acceptance that this was their new reality. But in fact, there are medically accepted therapies, like hormone treatment, to address these symptoms. Yet few women seem to be offered this relief. Why is menopause, a normal biological condition that over a million women in the U.S. will enter each year, so misunderstood? And are women conditioned to tolerate suffering such that they don’t seek help for menopausal symptoms? We’ll talk to Dominus and experts about menopause and hear from you: What have you been told about menopause that you have come to question?Guests:Susan Dominus, staff writer, New York Times Magazine - Dominus wrote the recent New York Times Magazine article "Women Have Been Misled About Menopause"Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director, North American Menopause Society; director of the Center for Women's Health, Mayo ClinicOmisade Burney-Scott, creator of the "Black Girls Guide to Surviving Menopause" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the United States, descendants of immigrants often lose their heritage languages. But now many of them, especially those with roots in Latin America, are working to reclaim Spanish, according to a recent report in the Los Angeles Times. The process can be fraught since many weren’t exposed to the language as children and struggle to learn it as adults. Some have been shamed for not being fluent in their heritage language while the American education system and society has historically pushed English fluency over multilingualism. We’ll discuss why more people are diving into their heritage languages and hear about your experiences with trying to learn your mother, or grandmother’s tongue.Guests:Karen Garcia, reporter on the Utility Journalism team, Los Angeles Times; author of the recent article, "How second- and third-generation Latinos are reclaiming the Spanish language"Veronica Benavides, founder and CEO, The Language Preservation Project - a movement to reverse the trend of language loss across the generations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than 7,000 people are dead and countless more injured after earthquakes devastated communities in southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday. Rescue workers are still trying to free people from the rubble as cold weather sweeps the region, which lacks electricity and adequate food, water and medical supplies. The earthquakes compound a years-long humanitarian crisis underway in Syria, wracked by a war waged on its people by Russia-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. We’ll talk about the latest developments.Related articles:How to Help Syria and Turkey Earthquake Relief EffortsGuests:Charles Lister, senior fellow, Middle East Institute - where he directs the Syria and Countering Terrorism programsPeri Holden, volunteer, Payda - an education charity serving families in southeast TurkeyNalan Güngör Özışık, president, Turkish American Association of California Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bay Area’s trees are starting to bloom and it’s beautiful. Magnificent magnolia, plum and even, in some areas, cherry blossoms. With global warming, some plants have been leafing and blooming earlier. We’ll talk to experts on seasonal change and the local flora about the whys, hows and whens of blooms and what it all means for pollination, insects and birds. And we’ll want to hear from you. What are you seeing on your walks and in your backyards?Guests:Ryan Guillou, director of collections and conservation, Gardens of Golden Gate Park, includes the botanical gardens, conservatory of flowers and Japanese tea gardenLibby Ellwood, ecologist and director of education, outreach, diversity, & inclusion and global collaborations, iDigBio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever been told that if you lower your voice or avoid vocal fry or stop saying “like” so much you’ll sound more authoritative? It’s that kind of advice, no matter how well-intentioned, that speech coach Samara Bay wants us to stop heeding. Generations of Americans have associated power with the slow, booming speech of male politicians and news anchors, writes Bay in her new book “Permission to Speak.” But in fact, if we stopped trying to approximate the traditional voice standards of powerful men we’d sound “richer, more relaxed, more expansive, expressive, unlimited by social norms and alive with possibility.” We’ll talk to Bay about why we should change our assumptions about what power and authority sound like.Guests:Samara Bay, speech coach and author, "Permission to Speak:" How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting with You" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The recent mass shootings in Half Moon Bay put a spotlight on the decades long plight of farmworkers in California who often earn low wages and live in substandard housing. The shootings are only the latest in a particularly hard year for farmworkers. Severe storms damaged crops and livelihoods up and down the state as climate change continues to worsen conditions such as wildfires, extreme heat and flooding that threaten California’s agricultural industry. Meanwhile, many laws aimed at protecting farmworkers are not enforced. We’ll talk about the various challenges farmworkers face and efforts to help them when disasters hit.Guests:Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research, Economic Policy Institute; former senior advisor on immigration and labor to the California Attorney GeneralVanessa Rancaño, housing reporter, KQED NewsMarisa Kendall, covers housing, the Bay Area News GroupMichael Méndez, assistant professor, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine; author, “Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement”Farida Jhabvala Romero, reporter, KQEDJavier Zamora, owner, JSM Organics farm in Royal Oaks, CA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Colorado River, which supplies water to much of the western United States, continues to diminish under historic drought conditions. And California is under pressure to reduce the amount of water it takes. The agricultural industry in California’s Imperial Valley alone gets more water than Arizona and Nevada combined – but that’s because under law, those farmers have some of the Colorado River’s oldest water rights. Citing those rights, California rejected a proposal last week from the six other Colorado River-dependent states on how to divide the water and instead put forward its own plan. We’ll take a closer look at the impasse and the impact of the shrinking Colorado River on the Imperial Valley and beyond.Guests:Sammy Roth, energy reporter, Los Angeles TimesJanet Wilson, senior environment reporter, The Desert Sun - and Stanford Western Media Fellow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices