KQED's Forum

“War remains a large part of who we are as Americans,” writes Phil Klay, who notes that almost a sixth of our federal budget goes to defense, supporting a military that now wages counterterrorism campaigns in 85 countries. But those overseas wars are invisible to most Americans because they’re fought by so few and because of political and strategic choices that shield them from public view. We’ll talk to Klay, an award-winning fiction writer and veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, about the chasm between the military and civilian experience and what our wars say about us as Americans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s deadly shooting rampage at a Texas elementary school didn’t stop the National Rifle Association from holding its annual meeting this weekend in Houston. The latest massacre ignited another round of demands for tighter gun regulations and more criticism of the NRA and politicians who take donations from the group. But some experts say the NRA is mired in dysfunction and is no longer the force it once was. At the same time, activists and pro-gun-control lobbies are gaining more traction in the political arena. We’ll talk about the NRA’s role in gun violence and efforts to counter their influence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The nation is mourning the 19 children and two teachers gunned down on Tuesday at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX, the deadliest school massacre since a gunman murdered 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT nearly a decade ago. And the horror of the shooting -- and the unspeakable grief experienced by family members, classmates and all those who loved the victims -- is agonizingly commonplace. More than 311,000 students in K-12 schools in the United States have experienced gun violence on their campuses since 1999, and tens of millions of Americans have been touched by gun violence in their communities, according to data collected by the Washington Post. We’ll talk about the profound toll borne by survivors of mass shootings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist and journalist Vanessa Hua’s new book “Forbidden City” is a historical fiction set in 1960s China. It’s the story of a 16-year-old girl who was plucked from a rural village to join a troupe of dancers formed to satisfy an aging Chairman Mao’s – historically accurate – love of ballroom dance and teenage girls. Hua writes in the author’s notes, “I believe that fiction flourishes where the official record ends”; the novel leaves the impression that even if the woman at the center of the book were real, she would have been erased from history. We’ll talk about the dynamics of gender, power and manipulation that resonate across time and geography. “The past,” Hua writes, “is never as distant as it seems.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 26, 2021, a Valley Transportation Authority employee in San Jose shot and killed nine coworkers in what became the Bay Area's most deadly mass shooting. As the nation mourns the deaths of 19 students and two teachers killed in a Texas elementary school this week, we remember the victims and the tragedy in San Jose on the first anniversary of the shooting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden is weighing proposals to cancel some student loan debt, which in the aggregate totals more than $1.7 trillion – a record high figure that outpaces the nation’s collective credit card debt. We’ll talk about who’s most likely to shoulder student loans and hear from those who’ve been grappling with them. And we’ll hear from you: How have student loans affected your life? Would you be doing something different if you didn't have education debt? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For better or worse, Twitter is a crucial part of our public sphere now. That’s one reason that Elon Musk may end up buying the social media platform. The move is prompting experts and scholars to reconsider the future of digital communities. Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit have been criticized for overt censorship and for algorithms and guidelines that encourage the spread of misinformation. People in both camps have been asking: who should own and run these platforms and what should an online public sphere look like? We’ll talk about the future of digital communities in the social media landscape and we’ll want to hear from you. What do you want in an online commons? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Mooallem became a magazine writer after realizing that “instead of thumping my head against the biggest questions of my own life” he could train his insights and inquiry on the world. “I’d been puzzling over myself, torturously trying to unlock the truth of who I was. The truth is, I am the puzzling,” he writes in the prologue to his collection of essays, “Serious Face.” In his wide ranging collection, Mooallem brings his "puzzling" to, among other things, our relationship to nature and disaster, our concepts of evolution, a pigeon pyramid scheme and his own face. Jon Mooallem joins Forum to talk about his new book and the question that he says binds the essays together: Why are we not better than we are? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When they came to power in August, the Taliban assured the international community that the status of Afghan women would be secure. The opposite has been true: women are being erased from public life. They are restricted from working outside the home. If they travel more than 45 miles from their house, they must be accompanied by a male relative. Girls no longer have access to secondary education. More recently, the Taliban has decreed that women should be covered from head to toe when in public. We’ll look at the latest in Afghanistan, the status of its women and girls, and answer your questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked, some abortion advocates recommended that people delete apps that track menstrual cycles for fear that this information could be used against them in a post-Roe America. Given the draft opinion’s conclusions questioning the right to privacy, digital privacy experts warned that private search queries and health data could be weaponized — against everyone. With all the personal information our phones contain, we’ll talk about the implications of a post-Roe America for personal data, community surveillance and the constitutional right to privacy itself. And we want to hear from you: What are your questions about data and privacy post-Roe? What actions are you taking to protect your personal data? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices