KQED's Forum

Traveling on BART allows riders to move between Oakland to San Francisco in seven minutes – a modern convenience some people take for granted. The iconic light-rail system that makes it possible turns 50 this year. BART has grown from a dozen stations in 1972 to 50 connected by 131 miles of tracks. The milestone comes at a time when ridership hovers around 40 percent of pre-pandemic levels bringing major financial challenges. And, the current system still falls short of the original vision drawn up in the late 50s. We talk about how BART arrived at its current station and where the system plans to take us in the decades to come.  Guests:Dan Brekke, editor and reporter, KQED NewsRobert Powers, general manager, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)Lateefah Simon, BART Board member; president of Akonadi Foundation; co-chair of Governor Newsom's police reform task force Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The tech startup Sanas transforms accented English to a white, midwestern American voice. Sanas contends that this technology can help overseas call center workers who are dealing with racist harassment. But those who have studied call centers and the "white voice" say this only puts a filter over the very problems the technology aims to remedy. We'll talk with experts about intolerance for accented speech, the challenges facing international call center workers and what it means to “sound white.Related link(s):- Sanas, the buzzy Bay Area startup that wants to make the world sound whiterGuests:Sharath Keshava Narayana, Co-Founder & COO, SanasJoshua Bote, assistant news editor, SFGATEWinifred Poster, adjunct faculty in International Affairs, Washington University St. Louis; author, “Borders in Service: Enactments of Nationhood in Transnational Call Centres”Tom McEnaney, associate professor of Comparative Literature and of Spanish and Portuguese, UC Berkeley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Workers across the country keep talking about “quiet quitting” – the idea that employees should fulfill their job duties in the time they are paid to work – nothing more or less. It sounds logical, but quiet quitting has stirred a lot of feelings and debate this summer. Workplace experts can’t seem to agree on what it is or if it’s even real. In a recent article, Derek Thompson of The Atlantic argues that quiet quitting is not new or novel. Meanwhile, Boston Globe writer Beth Teitell says quiet quitting should extend to other facets of life beyond jobs. We’ll dive into the concept of quiet quitting and what it means to you.Guests:Mr. Derek Thompson, staff writer and the author of the Work in Progress newsletter, The Atlantic Magazine; author of the recent article, "Quiet Quitting Is a Fake Trend"Beth Teitell, staff writer, The Boston Globe; author of the recent article, "Our obsession with ‘quiet quitting’ doesn’t seem to be going away" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fog is an indelible part of the magic and culture of San Francisco, providing inspiration for poets and artists and a sometimes-welcome buffer against summer heat. But a new New York Times story by John Branch warns that fog’s future is uncertain, imperiled by a changing climate. Branch joins us to talk about his reporting on the city's famous fog and its elusive future.Guests:John Branch, reporter, the New York Times.Diane Frank, author, editor, "Fog and Light: San Francisco Through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1950s, San Francisco’s Fillmore district was known as the Harlem of the West. It was famous for its jazz music, its artists and its writers and it served as a cultural hot spot for San Francisco. Writer Margaret Wilkerson Sexton captures the neighborhood’s zeitgeist in her new novel “On the Rooftop,” which tells the story of a single mother and her three daughters trying to make it in music. The Fillmore that Sexton’s characters occupy is a vibrant Black community in danger of being erased by an encroaching displacement campaign. We’ll talk to Sexton about her book and what made the Fillmore “Bop City.”Guests:Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author, "On the Rooftop" - also author of "A Kind of Freedom" and "The Revisioners." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California’s FAST Recovery Act on Labor Day, authorizing the creation of a council aimed to set minimum labor standards in fast food franchises. The council, composed of workers, franchise owners, corporate representatives and state officials, would also have the power to raise the minimum wage for fast food employees to $22. Of the 550,000 fast food workers in the state, most earn near minimum wage: $15 statewide for businesses with 26 or more employees, and higher in certain cities like San Francisco, where it’s $16.32. Advocates of the legislation say it would also create better redress for wage theft and health and safety hazards. Critics have filed a referendum to block the law and turn it into a ballot measure. We’ll talk about how the FAST Recovery Act could affect California’s economy and its fast food workers.Guests:Ken Jacobs, chair, Center for Labor Research and Education at UC Berkeley.Farida Jhabvala Romero, labor correspondent, KQED.Christopher Thornberg, director, Center for Economic Forecasting and Development, UC Riverside School of Business; founding partner, Beacon Economics.Crystal Orozco, worker, McDonald’s in Sacramento. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, California struggled under one of the worst heat waves in written history. Several cities across the state, including San Jose and Redwood City, shot through record-breaking temperatures. With the heat and demand for air conditioning, the state's energy grid almost couldn’t hold. But thanks to a text telling us: “Power interruptions may occur unless you take action,” residents and businesses turned off lights, unplugged devices and kept the power humming. But as heat waves are projected to become more frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting under climate change, can California’s power grid handle it? We’ll be talking about how California’s power grid works, how it's adapting and how it performed during the heat wave.Guests:Alexandra (Sascha) von Meier, independent consultant, she was Director of Electric Grid Research at the California Institute for Energy and Environment for a decade retired professor UC Berkeley electrical engineering.Duncan Callaway, associate professor of Energy and Resources, UC Berkeley; faculty scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryIvan Penn, energy correspondent, New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CNN is a cable news network in flux. Earlier this month, John Harwood, its White House correspondent, announced his departure one day after he stated on air that, “The Republican Party right now is led by a dishonest demagogue. Many, many Republicans are rallying behind his lies about the 2020 election.” The network also recently fired Brian Stelter, a frequent critic of Trump and Fox News. The changes at CNN have caused speculation that these moves may be influenced by cable mogul, John Malone, one of its major investors, who has praised Fox News and openly expressed a hope that CNN would “evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.” But where is the middle ground when some politicians routinely attack the truth as lies and push misinformation as truth? We’ll talk to media critic Jay Rosen about the future of journalism in a post-Trump era.Guests:Jay Rosen, press critic and editor, PressThink.org; professor of journalism, New York University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Americans hear about surveillance in China, it is usually through a dystopian lens. There is good reason for that—in the west of the country, the Uighur minority has been persecuted with unprecedented technological force. In a new book, “Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control” veteran Wall Street Journal reporters Josh Chin and Liza Lin aim to expand that lens, to “help people grasp state surveillance in its totality.” They ask how the Chinese government’s deployment of AI-powered tools of social control can actually be alluring and useful to everyday people, even as it is nightmarish to those caught in its algorithmic teeth.Guests:Josh Chin, deputy bureau chief in China, The Wall Street JournalLiza Lin, data use and privacy journalist, The Wall Street Journal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did beavers get a publicist? Mother Jones magazine asked that question last week after a spate of national news stories appeared celebrating the rodents’ role in protecting the environment. Long considered a nuisance, the furry dam-builders are finally being recognized for improving stream quality, mitigating wildfire and floods and fighting climate change, among other contributions. The state of California is even hiring a team of environmental scientists to work on “nature-based restoration solutions involving beavers.” We’ll talk about efforts to restore habitat for the beaver, which Governor Newsom has called an “untapped, creative climate-solving hero.”Guests:Emily Fairfax, assistant professor of environmental science and resource management, California State University Channel IslandsBen Goldfarb, journalist and author, "Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter"Chad Dibble, deputy director, California Department of Fish and WildlifeFrankie Myers, vice-chair, Yurok Tribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices