KQED's Forum

“Learn to live with the cringe,” advised Taylor Swift at NYU’s recent commencement ceremony for the Class of 2022. Across the nation, graduates are being peppered with all kinds of advice from commencement speakers who range from politicians, scientists, CEOs, celebrities, and their own classmates. So what makes a good graduation speech? Is it pearls of wisdom like “Oh the places you’ll go” or “Today is the first day of the rest of your life” or the practical advice: “Wear sunscreen”? Or is it the humor or gravitas of the speaker? Next on Forum, we’ll talk about graduation speeches and hear from you: What is a piece of advice you’ve heard in a commencement speech that has stayed with you? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been known as the “happiest place on earth,” and if you’re a Californian, chances are you have been to Disneyland at least once. Indeed, when he opened the park in 1955, Walt Disney declared that “Disneyland is your land.” In 2019, over 18 million people visited Disneyland, and since its opening, the company estimates that 750 million visitors have come to the park, taking a spin on the Mad Hatter’s tea cups, zooming through Space Mountain, or sampling its refreshments and snacks, which include roasted turkey legs, churros and a simple box of popcorn. Nearly 70 years after it was founded, Disneyland has managed to stay both relevant and a bucket list destination. But how has a private park owned by a corporate behemoth managed to lodge itself into the California imagination? We’ll talk to two Disneyland experts to learn more, and we’ll hear from you about what feelings or memories Disneyland evokes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer travel is on the rebound after a steep decline in 2020. But, as more people indulge the urge to travel this year, prices for gas, hotels and plane tickets have soared. That, along with ongoing concerns about the pandemic are forcing some travelers to rethink how and where they travel. Many people are hunting for new experiences like discovering a lesser-known state park or small town on the coast. We’ll talk about how summer travel has changed and what’s on your itinerary this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California’s seven-day COVID positive test rate is at five percent, the California Department of Public Health reported on Tuesday — the highest rate since February. The news comes as COVID cases have more than tripled in the U.S. since April 1, owing in large part to the highly transmissible BA.2 omicron subvariant. With many pandemic mandates lifted but masking still “strongly recommended” in much of the state, we’ll hear how you’re thinking about COVID risk and discuss the latest on prevention and treatment with UCSF’s Dr. Bob Wachter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a career spanning over two decades, five albums, numerous musical features in film and television and now a lifestyle brand, R&B singer-songwriter Goapele continues to make a mark in music with her soulful sound and introspective lyrics. Her iconic song “Closer,” which was first released independently in 2001, remains influential in R&B music today, inspiring artists like fellow Bay Area musician H.E.R. Raised in a social justice-driven household in Oakland, Goapele has been a voice for prison reform, HIV/AIDS awareness and other causes throughout her career. This week Goapele, who now resides in Los Angeles, returns to Oakland for a four-night stint at Yoshi’s from May 19 to 22. We’ll talk to Goapele about her upcoming shows, her childhood in the Bay, her music and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who was George Floyd, and what was it like to live in his America? Those are the questions that Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Tolu Olorunippa set out to answer in their new biography “His Name is George Floyd." Based on public and private records and hundreds of interviews with those close to him, the book examines Floyd's life in its complexity and the institutions stacked against him, from his birth to his murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin two years ago this month. We talk to Samuels and Olorunippa about Floyd's journey and how his story encapsulates "the compounding and relentless traumas" of the Black experience in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent DNA analysis has found that the federally unrecognized Muwekma Ohlone Tribe has been in the Bay Area for at least 2,000 years. The evidence bolsters the tribe’s decades-long case to reinstate their federal recognition which they lost, along with dozens of other California Indian tribes, in the 1920s. Tribal leaders say recognition is a necessary first step for the Muwekma Ohlone to establish a reservation. But tribal law experts say the process for gaining federal recognition is complicated and political. We’ll talk about why some tribes are– or are not – recognized, what federal recognition means for them, and the current efforts from tribes such as the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe to gain recognition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next month, Berkeley’s Cafe Ohlone will reopen in a new space in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. The restaurant, which serves traditional dishes of the Bay Area’s original inhabitants, closed during the pandemic. Cafe Ohlone’s owners say they hope to repair the fraught relationship the Ohlone people have with the Hearst Museum, which contains a large collection of Ohlone artifacts. We’ll talk about the next iteration of Cafe Ohlone and their goal of affirming Ohlone culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dating, for everyone, is full of tricky social conventions. How long should you wait to call someone after getting their number? Who should cover the dinner bill? And navigating some of these situations can be extra difficult for autistic people. Netflix’s new season of “Love on the Spectrum,” an American version of the Australian docuseries, produced by Northern Pictures, premieres on Wednesday and explores the unique hurdles – and joys – that autistic people face when entering the dating pool. We’ll talk about love, heartbreak, and how autism plays into the beautiful messiness of it all with some of the people who made the show possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jane Stanford and her robber baron husband Leland founded what would become Stanford University in 1885. 20 years later Jane Stanford was murdered, poisoned by strychnine. Historian Richard White dives into the corruption and coverups shrouding the unsolved murder in his new book, “Who Killed Jane Stanford?” His book is both a true crime mystery and a history of the corruption, inequality, yellow journalism, pseudo-science and racism of California’s Gilded Age. Forum talks with White about reviving a cold case more than a century old and the present day resonance of examining “the rich people who created monuments to themselves, and whose lives are reminders that the problem with philanthropy is very often philanthropists.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices