KQED's Forum

Geoffrey Fowler recalls that when he first began reporting on consumer tech innovations two decades ago, the worst you might say about a product was that it was too expensive or too hard to use. But today, the tech we've come to depend on can steal our data, spy on our kids, send us down rabbit holes and feed us misinformation. Fowler joins us to talk about his new Washington Post series "We the Users," which identifies the tech products and services that fail us and how to fix them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reem Assil, owner of San Francisco and Oakland’s Reem’s Kitchen, began her career as a chef with a thirst for activism, often advocating for social justice and sustainability at work. As the opening chef of Dyafa, an Arab fine-dining restaurant in Oakland, Assil began to reimagine power dynamics in the kitchen which she boldly reflected on in her Eater article, “Don’t Call Me Chef.”  Assil joins Forum to talk about her new book, “Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora,” in which she weaves personal essays on food, family, identity, hospitality, activism and political struggles amid recipes influenced by Arab flavors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, award-winning health journalist Linda Villarosa says she “long understood that something about being Black has led to the documented poor health of Black Americans.” And that “something” was not race per se or poverty or lack of access to education, information, or healthcare. According to Villarosa, poor health outcomes are directly tied to racism itself. In her latest book, “Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation,” Villarosa draws a direct line from centuries of discrimination and ongoing bias to the the health of the Black community. She debunks myths that continue to persist and offers a path forward to addressing racism that exists in our healthcare system. We talk to Villarosa about her book and answer your questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Norman Mineta, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Transportation, Congressmember and San Jose mayor, will be laid to rest in San Jose on Wednesday. Mineta was born in San Jose in 1931. During the Second World War, at the age of 10, he was imprisoned with his family in a Japanese internment camp in Wyoming. As a U.S. Representative, Mineta worked to provide reparations for interned Japanese Americans, co-sponsoring the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. As the Secretary of Transportation on Sept. 11, 2001, Mineta fought against appeals to intern Muslim Americans and later founded the Transportation Security Administration. We'll discuss Mineta’s legacy and celebrate his life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Water has agency. It wants to go where it wants to go. Humans, particularly in recent centuries, have fought against the desires of water with almost unimaginable amounts of concrete, pumps the size of houses, and enormous canals. We’ve usually been able to make the water go where we want it to, and keep it from where we don’t. But, journalist Erica Gies argues in her new book, "Water Always Wins," that our water system here in the state and around the world is not going to hold for much longer. What comes after, she says, will require us to live and work with water’s desires, not against them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In blunt testimony to the January 6th committee, former Attorney General William Barr testified he thought Donald Trump was “detached from reality” as the former President continued to tout the lie of a stolen election, a lie that had been repeatedly been debunked by Trump’s own advisors and campaign. Interweaving recorded interviews with live witnesses, on day two of the hearings, the committee focused on Trump’s knowledge that there was no credible basis for claims the 2020 election had been stolen and heard that there were two camps among Trump’s advisors: Team Normal and Team Rudy, which urged Trump to claim victory and pushed lies about voting fraud. We’ll talk to Select Committee member Representative Zoe Lofgren and a panel of experts about other revelations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“What would it mean to build artificial intelligence and other machines that were more like octopuses, more like fungi, or more like forests?” asks James Bridle in their new book, “Ways of Being.” From computers made of crabs, to theories of plant memory, to the legal push for an elephant’s personhood, “Ways of Being” looks beyond human intelligence to examine how our technology could better encompass the Earth’s complexity. Exploring different forms of intelligence — and all we don’t know about our world — Bridle argues that we can develop partnerships with non-threatening AI, rethink our computers, reform our politics and even save our shared planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The appearance of the anus was momentous in animal evolution, turning a one-hole digestive sac into an open-ended tunnel,” writes Katherine J. Wu in her Atlantic piece, “The Body’s Most Embarrassing Organ Is an Evolutionary Marvel,” set to appear in this year’s Best American Science and Nature Writing. Yet societal taboos can keep us from talking about this evolutionary marvel, and that “creates a bit of a blind spot—one that keeps us from understanding a fundamental aspect of our own biology.” Wu joins us to celebrate the anus and its biology, and to hear how you talk about – or avoid talking about – the anus and other underappreciated body parts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new series from KQED Arts & Culture takes stock of how Bay Area artists have weathered the pandemic and what they are doing now to lift up themselves and their communities. "Our Creative Futures" profiles artists and programs that support them, highlighting voguers in Oakland tackling LGBTQ+ health issues, a guaranteed income pilot program for artists and a new collective in San Francisco that uplifts Filipino voices. We’ll talk about the challenges for local artists and the ways that many have found to thrive during the pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Residents of California's South Coast -- the hydrologic region that includes Los Angeles -- used about 25% more water in April than a year ago, according to state data released this week. Statewide, urban dwellers used about 17% more. That's sounding alarms about Californians’ ability and willingness to conserve water in the third year of what's shaping up to be the worst drought in state history. We’ll hear how Las Vegas's water agency has pushed its residents and businesses to conserve and talk about the practices that might work in California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices