KQED's Forum

Rabia Chaudry's struggles with weight and body image started when she was just a toddler: she was less than a year old when her family moved to the United States from Pakistan and adopted American penchants for snacking and junk food. As she gained weight throughout her childhood, family members teased her, questioned whether she’d ever marry and gave her the nickname “Fatty Fatty Boom Boom.” We’ll talk to Chaudry about her new memoir and how food and family have shaped her, both metaphorically and literally.Guests:Rabia Chaudry, author, "Fatty Fatty Boom Boom." Her first book was "Adnan's Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial" - Chaudry is also an attorney, advocate and host of the podcast "Undisclosed." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Practicing gratitude seems straight forward: think of the good things about your life and be thankful for them. Studies show this simple practice can have major mental, emotional and physical health benefits. But gratitude is complicated in a consumer-driven society that encourages people to want more and more. In this week of giving thanks, we dive into what gratitude is and how to nurture it in a healthy way.Guests:Carvell Wallace, writer, formerly Slate's parenting advice columnist and host of Slate's podcast, Mom and Dad are Fighting - he's working on a book on childhood trauma.Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director of the Greater Good Science Center, University of California, Berkeley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Passports promise adventure. They verify who you are and where you've been. Sometimes they can protect you. Sometimes they cannot. The first passport dates back to Biblical times, and the modern passport as we know it is an invention of the early 20th century. At its core the passport is a request for safe passage, and as author Patrick Bixby notes, “these little books have the capacity to tell stories like few other documents.” In his new book, “License to Travel,” Bixby explores the cultural history of passports and how they have helped define the boundaries of the modern world. We’ll talk to Bixby and other travel writers about passports, what they represent, and the talismanic-like power they hold. What does your passport mean to you?Guests:Patrick Bixby, author, "License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport;" associate professor of English, the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State UniversityPeachanan "Pete" Rojwongsuriya, founder and blogger, "Bucketlistly Blog," Rojwongsuriya has visited 85 countries; author, "Traveling the World on a Third World Passport- What It Is Like and How to Overcome It"Lale Arikoglu, articles editor, Conde Nast Traveler; podcast host, Conde Nast Traveler podcast "Women Who Travel" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when an outspoken critic of the technology industry finds herself at the helm of one of the largest messaging apps in the world? Meredith Whittaker made her name as one of the tech industry’s strongest internal critics, helping lead the worker uprising at Google, founding an institute to rethink the ethics of AI, and promoting a platform for a real progressive politics in technology. Now, she’s the president of non-profit organization Signal, which builds a messaging app of the same name known for its serious dedication to privacy. This episode, we talk with Whittaker about the current moment in tech, if privacy still matters, and what she can do to help Signal prosper, despite its Big Tech competition.Guests:Meredith Whittaker, president, the Signal Foundation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly 48,000 University of California graduate students, post-docs and researchers stayed off their jobs for a third day on Wednesday, in what labor leaders are calling the largest higher ed strike in U.S. history. The majority of UC graduate students spend more than a third of their income on rent, according to a union survey, and their average income is around $24,000 a year. Graduate students are striking across all 10 UC campuses, picketing and pausing their roles as graders, advisers and classroom teachers. We’ll talk about where negotiations with the university stand and hear your reactions.Guests:Holly Rusch, lead news editor, The Daily Nexus, UCSB's independent, student-run newspaperBlake Jones, California education reporter, PoliticoJohn Logan, director of Labor Studies, San Francisco State UniversityNeal Sweeney, president, UAW5810; postdoctoral scholar in molecular biology, UC Santa CruzLetitia Silas, executive director of systemwide labor relations, University of California Office of the President Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, poet and writer Clint Smith wrote the book, “How the World is Passed,” exploring how the US has failed to come to terms with the reality and legacy of slavery. Now, for an Atlantic cover story, “Monuments to the Unthinkable” he’s traveled to Germany to see how that country has grappled with memorializing its own ugly history. We talk with Smith about history, memory, and the stories a nation tells itself.Guests:Clint Smith, poet, "How the Word is Passed;" staff writer, The Atlantic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you heard the conventional narrative that parents who adopt are “saviors,” and kids who are adopted should feel unfettered gratitude? What impact does this narrative have when it comes to the complications many adoptees experience? In her recent conversation in the Atlantic with fellow adoptee Tony Hynes, writer Nicole Chung and Hynes dig into the nuances of trans-racial adoption, birth family connection and what it means to grow up hearing you were “saved.” They join us to rethink adoption narratives.Guests:Nicole Chung, author of "All You Can Ever Know" and the forthcoming "A Living Remedy;" writer of the column "I Have Notes" for The AtlanticTony Hynes, Ph.D. candidate and training specialist in adoption; author of "The Son With Two Moms" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A shelf of clear glass jars filled with spices can be so beautiful – think vibrant turmeric cozying up next to a dark red chili powder – and also so intimidating. How to joyfully indulge in new spices without creating a global mish mash of tastes? And what exactly is a spice anyway? As part of our All You Can Eat series on Bay Area food cultures with KQED food editor Luke Tsai, we’ll talk with local spice connoisseurs about how to use spices, how to find them and how to support equity in the spice trade.Guests:Luke Tsai, food editor, KQED Arts & CultureSana Javeri Kadri, founder and CEO, Diaspora Co.John Beaver, co-founder, Oaktown Spice Shop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What in our lives sets us up to experience joy? And how does joy make us act and feel? Those are the the central questions poet and essayist Ross Gay explores in his new book, “Inciting Joy,” an ode to skateboarding, gardening, pick-up basketball and other practices and rituals that can make joy more available to us. We talk to Gay about the connections between joy and sorrow -- and joy and solidarity -- and why he says that joy, which gets us to love, is a practice of survival.Guests:Ross Gay, poet and essayist, "Inciting Joy," "Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude" and "The Book of Delights" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wildfires and recording-breaking heat waves continue to pose huge challenges for Pacific Gas and Electric, the state’s largest investor-owned utility. The company has undergone years of turmoil and legal trouble after its equipment sparked multiple wildfires including the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people in Paradise. PG&E emerged from bankruptcy in 2020 and is now under new leadership, but how well the company can navigate safety concerns, corporate responsibility, and cost control after years of mismanagement remains uncertain. We take stock of PG&E and how the utility can move forward.Guests:Michael Wara, policy director for the Sustainability Accelerator at the Doerr School of Sustainability; director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and senior research scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford UniversityDavid Roberts, author and host of Volts, a newsletter and podcast about clean energy and politicsLily Jamali, senior reporter, Marketplace Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices