KQED's Forum

California legalized recreational cannabis in 2016 promising to create the “largest legal weed market in the world,” according to a recent story in the Los Angeles Times. Legalization promised to generate millions of new tax dollars and lure marijuana farmers and sellers away from the black market. That didn’t happen as planned. Instead, illegal cannabis farming has exploded. We’ll dig into the L.A. Times investigation that examines the violence, deaths, and environmental damage from the illegal grows and why the law legalizing pot has fallen so short.Guests:Paige St. John, investigative reporter, Los Angeles Times; author of the recent article, "The reality of legal weed in California: Huge illegal grows, violence, worker exploitation and deaths" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the election of President Obama in 2008, “the world looked and felt different,” writes University of Texas historian Peniel Joseph. That moment also marked the beginning of what Joseph calls America’s Third Reconstruction, a period of racial progress marked by the Black Lives Matter protests and the social justice movements they inspired. But the Third Reconstruction, like the 19th and 20th century versions that preceded it, has also been beset by white backlash and violent retrenchment. We’ll talk to Joseph about what he thinks we’ve achieved in this period and how far we need to go to achieve racial justice.Guests:Peniel Joseph, professor of history and founding director, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy - University of Texas at Austin; author, "The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When he was 9, poet Javier Zamora traveled 3,000 miles by bus, boat and on foot, without family or friends, from El Salvador to the United States. The trip was supposed to take two weeks. It tooknine. Along the way, Zamora was embraced by fellow migrants and folded into a makeshift family. With them, Zamora encountered corrupt police officers and was robbed of the little money he had. He scrambled over mountains and under barbed wire fences that laced the desert border, all so he could be reunited with his parents who lived in Marin and who he had not seen in years. Thousandsof immigrants, including children, have experienced similar journeys, but few have described them as eloquently as Zamora. We’ll talk to Zamora about those nine weeks to the border, which he recounts in his new memoir “Solito,” and his experience as an immigrant growing up in San Rafael.Guests:Javier Zamora, Author of the memoir "Solito," Zamora has been a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His debut poetry collection, which focuses on the impact of war and immigration on his family, is titled "Unaccompanied." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dressing for extreme heat is not as simple as wearing as little as possible. That’s especially true when you have to go to work, court, or a wedding: and especially if gender norms dictate that you need to wear pants or a suit. And many of the new fabrics optimized for cooling aren’t climate — or cost — friendly, as New York Times climate adaptation reporter Christopher Flavelle found when hetried out two dozen shirts, pants and suits designed for heat. We’ll talk about why choosing an outfit in our warming climate is surprisingly complicated.Guests:Christopher Flavelle, climate adaptation reporter, New York Times.Konrad Rykaczewski, associate professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, and Senior Global Futures Scientist, Arizona State University.Sarah Everts, associate professor and chair in digital science journalism, Carleton University - author, “The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After pandemic closures and slowdowns the Bay Area is facing a fall packed with exciting events. From Lear at CalShakes to the Bernice Bing collection at the Asian Art Museum to the return of Oakland hometown hero Kehlani, we’ll talk with KQED’s art reporters about their best picks for the coming season and their new Fall Arts Preview.Guests:Gabe Meline, senior editor, KQED Arts & CultureSarah Hotchkiss, Senior Associate Editor, KQED Arts & CultureDavid John Chávez, theatre critic, author of the theater portion of KQED’s fall arts previewKristie Song, KQED Arts Intern, author of the fall book guide Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The Constitution is too fundamentally antidemocratic a document to serve democratic purposes reliably,” argues legal scholar and cultural critic Jedediah Purdy. In his new book, “Two Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy Is Flawed, Frightening, and Our Best Hope,” Purdy argues that the Constitution is standing in the way of democracy and suggests that we need to amend it. Purdy also urges us to not give up on politics, which he views as “not optional,” if we are to keep working on the experiment of democracy. We’ll talk about the Constitution, reforming politics, and other ways Purdy believes we can create a more perfect union.Guests:Jedediah Purdy, professor, Duke Law School; author, "Two Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy is Flawed, Frightening and Our Best Hope" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As private equity companies have increasingly bought up nursing homes across the country, many are experiencing an alarming trend: higher death rates for patients. Stanford medical student turned journalist Yasmine Rafiei dug deep into what happened at one such facility, St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged in Richmond, Virginia, in a recent article in The New Yorker. Her article details how the experience and quality of life changed for residents as the new owners cut costs. She joins us to talk about her investigation.Guests:Charlene Harrington, professor emerita, School of Nursing at UCSF Medical SchoolYasmin Rafiei, reporter in residence, the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley; medical student, Stanford University on leave; author, recent New Yorker article, “When Private Equity Takes Over a Nursing Home”Sponsored Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California’s new Secretary for Environmental Protection, Yana Garcia, is no stranger to community-based and indigenous-led environmental justice. As CalEPA’s Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice, Tribal Affairs and Border Relations, Garcia centered collaborations with Mexican community and environmental justice organizations, informed by her own experiences growing up in Oakland, California, and Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. The first Latina Secretary of CalEPA, Garcia joins us to share how she plans to steer the agency on climate change, air and water quality and environmental justice.Guests:Yana Garcia, Secretary for Environmental Protection, CalEPA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For centuries, America has lured millions of immigrants here with dreams of rising from rags to riches in a short amount of time. But the authors of “Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success,” say that story is mostly a myth. The authors, Stanford professor Ran Abramitzky and Princeton professor Leah Boustan bust other popular opinions about immigration, such as the idea that immigrants “take all the jobs,” “refuse to assimilate,” and pose all kinds of threats to the “American way of life.” Abramitzky and Boustan spent years combing through data that painted different narratives than most Americans are used to hearing. They will join us to bust myths about immigrants and share what the research really says about immigration, past and present.Guests:Leah Boustan, professor of economics and director of the Industrial Relations Section, Princeton UniversityRan Abramitzky, professor of economics and Senior Associate Dean for the Social Sciences, Stanford University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved last week the use of reformulated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for people ages 12 years and older and from Moderna for those 18 and older. The boosters are bivalent, meaning that they’re designed to protect against both the original virus strain as well as the more transmissible and immune-evading Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5. In a statement Saturday, the California Department of Public Health said that the state is preparing to offer doses “as supplies arrive within the next few days.” We’ll talk about the new booster, explore the science of immune response and take your questions.Guests:Dr. Grace Lee, associate chief medical officer for practice innovation and pediatric infectious diseases physician, Stanford Children’s Health; member, U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP); member, COVID-19 Vaccines WorkgroupMehul Suthar, associate professor of pediatrics and member of the Vaccine Center, Emory University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices