KQED's Forum

A Tennessee school board last week voted to remove the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel Maus from an 8th grade course on the Holocaust. And that’s just one of many examples of recent bans instituted by parents, activists, school boards and lawmakers. According to the American Library Association, it has seen an “unprecedented” number of book bans in the last year. But unlike previous waves of book bannings, this latest wave has a different tone and tenor; bans are often targeted at books that center on the experience of diverse characters or are written by authors of color. Politicians like Texas Governor Greg Abbott are also using bans as campaign platforms to galvanize right wing voters. And while many bans are advocated by conservatives, there are also efforts by parents, like those in a Burbank, California school district, to remove books like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Of Mice and Men” from the curriculum because of the racist depictions in those books. We’ll look at why book banning is spreading across the country and what might be done to reverse the trend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three years after placing a moratorium on executions in California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the closure of death row at San Quentin on Monday. More than 500 inmates will merge with the general prison population at other maximum security facilities over the next two years, but will maintain their current sentences. California hasn’t performed an execution since 2006. While critics of capital punishment cheered the move, one advocate for crime victims said Newsom was “pouring more salt on the wounds of victims” We’ll talk with San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan about the changes at San Quentin and the future of the death penalty in California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early results of an ongoing clinical trial found that cash aid to low-income mothers increases brain activity in babies – a finding that could help shape social policy. Called "Baby's First Years," it's the first study in the U.S. to look at the impact of poverty reduction on early childhood development. "We don't need brain science to tell us that no child should live in poverty, " asserts Dr. Kimberly Noble, one of the neuroscientists who led the study. But while many have assumed other factors, not poverty, impact childhood development, "evidence here suggests that reducing poverty may in and of itself affect child development." We'll discuss the study and what it could mean for public policy, like President Biden’s proposed child tax credit, going forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A bill seeking to cover every Californian with state-financed health insurance faced a Monday deadline to make it out of the state assembly. But just before it was set for a vote, Assembly Bill 1400 was withdrawn by its author, Democrat Ash Kalra. The bill would have made California the only state in the nation with a single-payer health care system if enacted. But some legislators balked at the cost of the system, known as CalCare, which had been estimated at between $314 billion and $391 billion per year. We’ll discuss the bill’s fate— and the future of single-payer healthcare in the state – with KQED’s April Dembosky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the film “The Lost Daughter” directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, actor Olivia Colman plays Leda, a middle-aged college professor who encounters a young mother and her daughter while on vacation, prompting memories from Leda’s past, when she left her husband and two young daughters for three years. This story, adapted from Elena Ferrante’s 2006 novel of the same name, conjured feelings of relief for Los Angeles-based author Amina Cain – not because the main character once abandoned her children, but because a different kind of story about motherhood was being told. In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Cain, who has never wanted children, writes: “It’s rare to see a film or read a novel that depicts ambivalence around motherhood, even rarer one that rejects that life completely, which I deeply appreciate about ‘The Lost Daughter.’ I’m hungry for these stories.” We talk to Cain about why ambivalence towards motherhood still feels socially taboo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An increasing portion of human life is structured by powerful and opaque technological systems. Getting a loan, parole hearings, resume sorting, the political ads that appear on your device: Across fields, machine learning systems are trying to sort you into statistical buckets. Worse, NBC technology correspondent Jacob Ward argues, the data that artificial intelligence systems use to predict what we’ll do next mostly show “the ancient instincts… the tribalism, the anthropomorphism, the gut feelings,” because targeting those parts of us is the most profitable way for companies to use AI. Ward joins us to talk about his new book, “The Loop: How Technology is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new study from researchers at Stanford University finds that on an annual basis, the methane leaking from residential gas ovens in the U.S. has the same negative effect on the climate as 500,000 gas-powered cars. These findings come as climate activists and legislators nationwide increase efforts to ban natural gas hookups in new building construction. In California, although 60 percent of homes use gas stoves, compared to the national average of one-third, dozens of cities and counties have implemented or promoted legislation to phase out the use of natural gas in new builds. We’ll talk with the study’s lead researcher and discuss what this means for consumers and the industry. Guests:Rob Jackson, professor of Earth System Science, Stanford University; senior fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for EnergyKatherine Blunt , energy reporter, Wall Street Journal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Voters in Shasta County will decide on Tuesday whether to recall Leonard Moty, a Republican county supervisor and former police chief from Redding. The recall effort in this heavily Republican region, where Donald Trump won 65% of the vote in 2020, is led not by Democrats, but by a far right militia group who say Moty doesn't support their pro-gun and anti-mask values aggressively enough. We'll talk to KQED's Scott Shafer about his look into the political fight in Shasta County and what it could signal about the future of the Republican party in California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Private equity investment in healthcare has exploded in recent years, with companies trying to squeeze maximum profits out of doctor’s offices, hospitals and more. A recent U.C. Berkeley study found the value of private equity healthcare deals nearly tripled in the last decade. Some industry experts say it has hampered the ability of providers to respond to the pandemic. We’ll look at how private investors are reshaping healthcare, and why critics say it is putting patients at risk.Guests:Richard Scheffler, professor of health economics, UC Berkeley; member, Healthy California for All CommissionGretchen Morgenson, senior financial reporter, NBC News InvestigationsMitchell Li, practicing emergency physician; co-founder, Take Medicine Back, an advocacy group which seeks to remove private equity from healthcare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rejection is normal and happens to all of us, but it still never feels good to get that email or call from an admissions officer or potential employer saying you weren’t “the one.” In a recent article for The Atlantic titled “A Toast to All the Rejects,” NPR producer Rhaina Cohen writes about the power of turning one’s rejections into a celebration with friends or colleagues. Cohen’s article was inspired by a graduate student lab at UC Irvine led by social sciences professor Barbara Sarnecka where they created a group spreadsheet to collect everyone’s rejections from jobs, academic journals or grants. When they reached 100 rejections as a group, they threw a party. “Instead of shying away from rejection, they’re asking us to run straight toward it—and to do so together,” writes Cohen. We explore the idea of reframing – and even celebrating – rejection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices