KQED's Forum

Roe v. Wade is overturned. Just short of 50 years after the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion, the Court ruled Friday in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that states may ban the procedure as early as conception. The ruling is expected to set in motion a cascade of highly restrictive abortion laws in half of the states. We analyze the decision, look at its impact and hear your reactions.Guests:Michele Goodwin, Chancellor's professor and director, Center for Biotechnology & Global Health Policy, UC Irvine School of Law; author, "Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood"Susan Matthews, news director, Slate - host of season 7 of the Slow Burn podcast, about Roe v. Wade Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Painful" is how many reproductive rights advocates are describing their reactions to the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe vs. Wade that was officially released Friday. A leaked draft decision in May warned of the impending opinion's ruling. In dissent, the Court's three liberal justices warned that the opinion's approach  "places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage." In this hour, we hear and react to listeners as they process the Supreme Court's decision.Guests:Jessica Pinckney, executive director, Access Reproductive Justice, a nonprofit that helps patients access abortions by providing information, financial and logistical assistanceLauren Rankin, writer, speaker, and activist; author, "Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California allocated a record $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and forest health in 2021. Yet Cal Fire, the agency largely in charge of prevention efforts, is struggling to track and implement projects and took years to authorize to establish a prescribed-burn workforce certification program, as required by state law. At the same time, its firefighting staff has increased substantially — demonstrating what experts have characterized as an internal prioritization of suppression over mitigation. That’s all according to a monthslong investigation by California Newsroom reporters, who join us to talk about their findings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I really wanted to depict the ways that young Black girls are made adults by a culture that sees us that way,” says Leila Mottley of her debut novel “Nightcrawling." The 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate started writing the book when she was 17 and three years later, has received glowing reviews and a spot in the Oprah Book Club. Set in Oakland, “Nightcrawling” tells the story of Kiara, a character who offers an unflinching and lyrical portrayal of what it is to be poor, Black and a young woman. We talk to Mottley about her book.Guests:Leila Mottley, author, "Nightcrawling" --Mottley was the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bumblebees can’t see red, but they can detect the ultraviolet hue, invisible to humans, at the center of a sunflower. A fly can taste an apple just by landing on it, and a rattlesnake can perceive the infrared radiation emanating from warm-blooded prey. Those are just some of the extraordinary animal senses that science journalist Ed Yong celebrates in his new book “An Immense World.” We’ll talk to Yong about what he learned and hear how humans can limit behaviors that endanger the sensory environments of other species.Guests:Ed Yong, science writer, The Atlantic; author, "An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s the family that you’re born with, and then there’s the family that you choose. The concept of chosen family took hold several decades ago in the LGBTQ+ community often out of necessity when people were rejected by their biological families and developed familial relationships with new loved ones. Experts define chosen family as people who you are not tied to by blood or law, but who you treat as family. Your chosen family is there for you not because they’re related, but because you relate to them. We discuss chosen families, how they are formed and what they mean to people.Guests:Nayeema Raza, documentary filmmaker and senior editor, New York Times Opinion. She's also the author of the article "My Father’s Last Gift to Me Came After His Death."Dawn O. Braithwaite, professor emeritus of communication, Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska–LincolnBaruch Porras-Hernandez, writer, performer, organizer, host, curator, stand up comedian, and author of the chapbooks “I Miss You, Delicate” and “Lovers of the Deep Fried Circle” and co-organizar of KQED's ¿Dónde Esta Mi Gente? Literary Series Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learning a new language is easier said than done, and English in particular is a tricky one to master. It is a language that has absorbed influences from other languages and is still constantly evolving, with rules that seem like they’re never followed. On the internet, resources abound, but English language learners, particularly those who immigrate as adults, still face barriers to fluency. We talk with experts about the process of learning English, the social stigma that comes with not speaking fluently, and how technology is changing the way we learn. And we want to hear from you - have you had to learn English as a second language? What was your experience like? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thursday’s hearing on the Jan. 6 insurrection highlighted the effort to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop the certification of the 2020 election. The committee presented evidence of the potential criminal liability of lawyer John Eastman, the architect of that plan, who asked Rudy Giuliani for a presidential pardon following the insurrection. We’ll analyze that and other takeaways from the hearing and talk to California Congressman Adam Schiff, who will lead Tuesday’s hearing.Guests:Ron Elving, senior editor and correspondent on the Washington Desk, NPR NewsAnkush Khardori, former federal prosecutor based in Washington, D.C.; contributing writer, New York magazine's Intelligencer; contributing editor, Politico magazineRep. Adam Schiff, Democratic Congressman representing California's 28th District in Los Angeles County; chair, House Intelligence Committee; member, Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the United States observes its second Juneteenth as a federal holiday, we’ll look to its history here in California and the role the Bay Area played in the movement that led to its federal recognition. We’ll talk about what this recognition means in the push for Black American reparations and policy changes and hear about the growth of Bay Area Juneteenth festivals and celebrations in recent years.Guests:James Taylor, professor of Political Science, University of San Francisco; member, Reparations Task Force, San FranciscoOrlando Williams, board member, Berkeley Juneteenth FestivalBarbara Krauthamer, dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unlikely. That’s what Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr called this championship. After two years of battling injuries and tough losses, the Dubs won their fourth NBA title in eight years Thursday, beating the Celtics in Boston. We hear your reactions to Golden State’s victory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices