KQED's Forum

This month, the Biden Administration began allowing migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to seek “parole” to enter the United States and stay temporarily. The move is seen as a way to alleviate the numbers of people showing up at the nation’s southern border hoping to seek asylum. Immigration rights advocates have been disappointed by Biden’s lack of sweeping reforms or policy changes, and for leaving policies from the Trump administration in place. We check in on the situation along the border and Biden’s efforts on immigration policy.Guests:Hamed Aleaziz, immigration policy reporter, L.A. TimesTyche Hendricks, senior editor covering immigration, KQEDSalvador Rivera, correspondent based in San Diego, BorderReport.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gabrielle Zevin’s most recent novel “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” draws its title from what Zevin calls one of the bleakest speeches in all of Shakespeare, as Macbeth contemplates life’s monotony and meaninglessness. But to one of her characters, the soliloquy is hopeful, and it expresses the essence of a video game: “the idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.” We talk to Zevin about the video games, art and friendships that animate the novel, and why California occupies a special place in it.Guests:Gabrielle Zevin, author, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedy duo Cheech & Chong started doing improv theater together about 55 years ago, in an act they’ve called “hippie burlesque,” at a Vancouver strip club. Ten years later they invented the stoner buddy movie genre with Up In Smoke, introducing mainstream America to a lot of weed jokes and also a friendlier 70’s Chicano culture than had been portrayed on screen. We talk with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, who are part of the comedy festival SF Sketchfest, about their long careers, art, activism and whether legalization has made marijuana any less funny.Guests:Tommy Chong, comedian, actor and musicianCheech Marin, comedian, actor and musician and founding donor, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veteran journalist Judy Woodruff stepped down as the anchor of PBS NewsHour at the end of last month. Widely considered one of the most trusted figures in the media, Woodruff’s laureled career includes an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award and the inaugural Peabody Award for Journalistic Integrity. Though no longer anchor, she plans to next report on America’s political divides — how we got here, how we heal and where we go next — in a series called "America at a Crossroads.” Woodruff joins us to share how she’s seen the country and its politics change over her 50-year career and what trust in the media really means.Guests:Judy Woodruff, former anchor, PBS Newshour; reporter, upcoming PBS project, "Judy Woodruff Presents: America at a Crossroads" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco has just 815,000 residents. But its annual budget is nearly $14 billion. The budget covers the operations of both the city and county of San Francisco, and half of that is money earmarked for the airport, port, Muni, and public utilities, among other enterprise agencies. But that leaves nearly $7 billion in General Fund money for a city with less than a million people. And, the city is projecting a $728 million deficit over the next two years. Where does the money go and does San Francisco’s budget reflect the values of its citizens? We’ll talk about the budget, the looming deficit, and the financial state of San Francisco, which has had one of the slowest economic recoveries from the pandemic in the nation.Guests:Jim Wunderman, President and CEO, Bay Area Council - A regional business-sponsored public policy groupJD Morris, City Hall reporter, SF ChronicleMichelle Allersma, director, San Francisco Controller's Office Budget and Analysis Division Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“[T]o Kevin McCarthy, the Intelligence Committee is just a political plaything.” That was how Los Angeles Congressman Adam Schiff last week characterized McCarthy’s stated intention to remove him from the committee he chaired in order to please MAGA Republicans. We talk to Rep. Schiff about how House Democrats will operate under McCarthy’s leadership, how he sees lawmakers resolve an upcoming debt ceiling fight and how he plans to keep momentum behind the work of the committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection.Guest:Congressman Adam Schiff, Democratic Congressman, representing California's 28th District, in Los Angeles County; former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and member of the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection; author, "Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California has experienced extreme weather whiplash during the past year from bone dry summer days to a flooding wet January. This is our state’s new climate system fueled by global warming. The state is also going through one of the most severe droughts in history. We’ll talk about how the weather we’ve experienced in the past year has factored into our wildfire, drought and flooding issues as part of “Climate Fix: Rethinking Solutions for California,” a collaboration between KQED’s Forum and Science teams. This new, regular series on Forum will explore how climate change is affecting the golden state and the ways Californians are trying to reverse global warming.Guests:Danielle Venton, science reporter, KQED NewsLaura Feinstein, sustainability and resilience policy director, SPUR, a San Francisco policy and research organizationPatrick Gonzalez, climate change scientist and forest ecologist Organization: University of California, Berkeley - Patrick is also executive director of the Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In January 2020, Atlantic senior editor John Hendrickson wrote an article about Joe Biden’s stutter. Like Biden, Hendrickson has a stutter. And while stuttering wasn’t something that Hendrickson hid, it wasn’t something he liked to talk about either. But the viral response to his piece led Hendrickson to reconsider how to talk and think about his stutter. His relationship with stuttering and its impacts, both good and bad, on his life, are the focus of his new book, “Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter.” We talk to Hendrickson, and hear from you: Has your life been affected by a stutter, yours or someone else’s?Guests:John Hendrickson , Author, "Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter" - Hendrickson is a senior editor with Atlantic magazine.Courtney Byrd, Professor, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Texas at Austin - Byrd is also the founder and executive director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. continues to grapple with poverty, economic inequality, and racial inequity more than 50 years after the death of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. In some lesser known speeches, King advocated for revolutionary ideas to eradicate poverty and provide economic justice such as a guaranteed basic income. We’ll look at King’s proposals for combating inequality, the evolution of those ideas over the decades, and current campaigns for economic justice in the Bay Area and nationally.Guests:Michael Honey, Professor of Labor and Ethnic Studies and American History, University of Washington, TacomaDorian Warren, Co-President, Community ChangeTinisch Hollins, executive director, Californians for Safety and Justice - co-founder of SF Black Wall Street, Vice Chair of SF African-Americans Reparations Advisory Committee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2022 MacArthur fellow Martha Gonzalez describes herself as an ‘artivista’ – at once an artist and an activist. The frontwoman of the East Los Angeles band Quetzal, Gonzalez focuses on the ways communities of color use music and creative expression as political tools toward social justice. From community fandango workshops to recording projects between women in L.A. and Veracruz, Mexico, Gonzalez makes music a conduit for conversation centering communities and their challenges. We’ll talk with Gonzalez about how her music practice and her activism influence each other.This segment originally aired Oct. 25, 2022Guests:Martha Gonzalez, Associate Professor in the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies, Scripps/Claremont College Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices