KQED's Forum

Major Bay Area employers including Salesforce, Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet and Facebook parent company Meta have all cut thousands of workers in the last few months. The headlines are startling, but economists say the job market remains in relatively good shape. Unemployment in California hovers near 4 percent down from 16 percent in April 2020, and many industries are still experiencing a worker shortage. Forum talks about layoffs, the job market and what could happen next.Guests:Jennie Brand, professor of sociology and statistics, director of the California Center for Population Research and co-director of the Center for Social Statistics, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los AngelesKathryn Minshew, CEO and founder, The Muse, a career platform, and Fairygodboss, a career community for womenSinem Buber, lead economist, ZipRecruiter - online employment marketplaceParul Koul, software engineer, Google; executive chair, Alphabet Workers Union Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a girl growing up in Canyon Country, California, Lauren Fleshman could run fast. Really fast. As a high school student and recruited athlete at Stanford, Fleshman won races, set records, and her talent allowed her to go pro. But throughout her career, Fleshman saw many teammates leave the sport or develop physical or mental health problems. So little was known then, and even now, about how young female athletes develop physically and often training regimens were made for men with women being afterthoughts. Today, as a coach, she’s bringing a new eye to how to build a successful career as a woman runner. We’ll talk about her new book, 'Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World,' which challenges the way the sports world treats its female athletes.Guests:Lauren Fleshman, author, "Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World;" distance runner, won five NCAA championships and two national championships as a professional runner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The buoyant protagonist of San Francisco writer Kathryn Ma’s new novel, The Chinese Groove, migrates from China, where he’s part of the outcast branch of his family, to San Francisco, where he is sure his distant relatives will welcome and nurture him and shepherd him along his path. Forum talks to Ma about the comedy of errors that follow, San Francisco through a new immigrant’s eyes and her character’s faith in the “groove,” the kindness and generosity expected from fellow countrymen.Guests:Kathryn Ma, author, "The Chinese Groove," "The Year She Left Us" and "All That Work and Still No Boys" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aviation is responsible for over two percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and for technological reasons it’s one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize. But California – an early adopter of sustainable aviation fuel and home to 12 international airports – is positioned to guide the nation toward greener air travel, according to UC Berkeley climate and energy expert Ethan Elkind. As part of Forum's new series "In Transit," we’ll talk about the hope and limitations of green aviation technology and how we can reduce our carbon footprint when we fly.Guests:Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law; host of the podcast, Climate Break Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her first weeks in office, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has placed the police chief on administrative leave, dealt with a mass shooting and coped with the departure of the city’s homelessness czar. The problems facing Oakland, like other cities in the state, are not for the faint-hearted. Thao, the youngest person to serve as mayor of Oakland, ran on her credentials and her compelling life story as a daughter of Hmong refugees and a formerly unhoused single mother who went from community college to Cal. We’ll talk to Thao about what she hopes to accomplish and take your questions for the mayor.Guests:Sheng Thao, Mayor, Oakland Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Described as “a love letter to Korean pop sensation BTS and an ode to fandom,” the new book "On BTS” by Atlantic senior editor Lenika Cruz compiles and expands upon Cruz’s coverage of the band for the Atlantic since 2019. “To cover BTS seriously over time is to engage with many complex issues and phenomena,” she writes, “fandom, authenticity, social media, and taste, as well as artistic ownership, South Korean society, mainstream music’s institutional biases, tensions between commercialism and creativity, and so much more.” We’ll talk with Cruz about the surprising depth of the group’s work and the joys of being a fan, and we’ll play some of your favorite songs by BTS.Guests:Lenika Cruz, senior editor covering culture, The Atlantic - and author, "On BTS: Pop Music, Fandom, Sincerity" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After seven farm workers were killed Monday in a mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, the city’s vice-mayor Joaquin Jimenez said in a press conference, “Many of you come to our community for the pumpkins, and ignore the farm workers. Not today.” Forum discusses the work, lives and struggles of farmworkers on California's central coast, and we get the latest on the investigation and fallout from the massacre.Related article:ALAS: Ayudando Latinos a SoñarGuests:Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent and co-host of Political Breakdown show, KQEDMadi Bolanos, co-host of The California Report, KQEDAntonio De Loera-Brus, Director of Communications, United Farm WorkersBelinda Hernandez Arriaga, executive director and founder, ALAS, a community group in Half Ayudando Latinos A Soñar in Half Moon Bay and licensed clinical social workerXimena Bustillo, politics reporter, NPR; former food and agriculture policy reporter, Politico covering immigration, labor and equity issues Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Saturday night it was Monterey Park, where 11 people died and nine more were injured after a gunman opened fire in a popular ballroom, on the eve of the Lunar New Year. On Monday it was Half Moon Bay, where a gunman claimed the lives of at least seven in the vicinity of a mushroom farm. We'll talk about how the impacts of the shootings are being felt in communities across California.Guests:Cynthia Choi, co-executive director, Chinese for Affirmative Action; co-founder, Stop AAPI HateJosie Huang, Asian American communities correspondent, KPCCRep. Judy Chu, U.S. congresswoman representing Monterey ParkSherry Wang, associate professor of counseling psychology, Santa Clara UniversityGuy Marzorati, reporter and producer, KQED's politics and government desk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bay Area’s fascination with technology didn’t start with Silicon Valley. In the late 19th century, San Franciscan Eadweard Muybridge, an eccentric, misanthropic murderer became the first person to capture motion on film. At the time, Muybridge was a well-known photographer whose moody images of Yosemite Valley stood out from the conventional landscape photographs of the time. Because Muybridge was known as an inventor and innovator, Leland Stanford approached him about trying to photograph his horse in motion. Those images of a horse galloping at speed revolutionized photography. We’ll talk about Muybridge and how his inventiveness with camera and film laid the groundwork for how we see and record the world today.Guests:Rebecca Solnit, author & essayist - Solnit is the author of "River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West" as well as "Orwell's Roses," "Recollection of My Nonexistence," "Whose Story is This: Old Conflicts, New Chapters," and "Drowned River: The Death and Rebirth of Glen Canyon on the Colorado," among other works.Marc A. Shaffer, Director, "Exposing Muybridge" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After enjoying a few booze-infused holiday weeks last month, many of us are drying out in January, reducing or completely eliminating alcohol from our diets. Have you been cutting back? Or maybe you’ve developed a mindful practice with alcohol or a casual way of telling friends you’re opting out when going out? We’ll hear how your dry January is going and learn about emerging research finding that — buzzkill — even moderate amounts of alcohol are not good for our health.Guests:Dana G. Smith, reporter on the Well Desk, New York TimesKeith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford School of Medicine; author of the forthcoming book, “Addiction: A Very Short Introduction"Dr. Tauheed Zaman, associate professor of psychiatry and leads the addiction psychiatry training program, UCSF; director of Addiction Consult and Opioid Safety, San Francisco VA Medical Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices