KQED's Forum

Ridesharing has long been a part of farmworker communities, before companies like Uber and Lyft came along. So when faced with a lack of transportation options in his small town of Huron in the Central Valley, Mayor Rey Leon took inspiration from farmworkers to launch the Green Raiteros -- a ridesharing program that provides free transportation to residents using a fleet of all electric vehicles. Most community members use the service for necessary medical appointments that are miles away. In addition to filling a community need, LA Times reporter Evan Halper – who covered Leon and Green Raiteros in a recent story – says the program "has put Huron on the map as perhaps the greenest migrant farmworker community in the country." Leon and Halper join us to talk about the program and the example it sets for greater state and federal efforts to go electric. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Modern prenatal blood tests that screen for a range of fetal abnormalities are billed by their Silicon Valley creators as reliable and accurate, designed to bring peace of mind to anxious parents. But a New York Times investigation has found that positive results on those tests are inaccurate roughly 85 percent of the time. We'll talk to Times investigative journalist Sarah Kliff about what she uncovered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clue: She’s an Oakland engineer, the first woman to win a million dollars on Jeopardy, the first transgender contestant to qualify for the show’s Tournament of Champions, and she’s currently on a 30-game winning streak. Answer: Who is Amy Schneider? Schneider joins Forum to talk about her run on Jeopardy, the key to her success, and how going down the rabbit hole of curiosity can make you a Jeopardy champion and a better person.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Expect a lot of construction in the coming year around the Bay Area as developers move forward on various massive real estate projects - the kind of developments that take years to plan and construct and can transform a pocket of a city with new housing, office space, retail and outdoor areas. In San Francisco alone, work could start on about 3,000 units. On Treasure Island, the first few hundred homes of 8,000 planned housing units will come to the market this year, roughly two decades after the project started. In San Francisco’s Dogpatch, the Potrero Power Station is one of a handful of large-scale developments redefining the formerly isolated neighborhood. In Oakland, hundreds of new residents have already moved into Brooklyn Basin, a revamped former industrial area turned waterfront community that will include parks and retail along with housing. We take a look at some of the megaprojects in progress in the Bay Area, why they are so hard to build and what they mean for the region’s housing crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A growing number of Americans say they do not have a religious affiliation, according to a recent Pew survey. Today, roughly 30% of American adults are religiously unaffiliated, up from 19% in 2011. The study also found that while Christians are still in the majority, their share of the adult population declined by 12 percentage points over the same time period. We’ll talk with a Pew researcher and religion experts about the survey's findings and what they mean for organized religion and the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the smaller cruelties among the many tragedies of the COVID pandemic is that the virus’ attack on the sense of smell and taste has robbed us of one of the few pleasures of being sick: delicious comfort food. It’s a symptom that doctors say seems to be less common with omicron. So as the new variant stampedes through the Bay Area, we’ll talk with KQED food editor Luke Tsai about our favorite foods to eat when we’re sick or in need of comfort. This is the first installation of a new regular segment with Tsai: he’ll join us every other week to dig into the many food cultures of the Bay Area. We want to hear from you: Whether from your kitchen or ordered as takeout, what do you eat when you’re sick? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent months, headlines about the so-called “Great Resignation” have abounded: Americans, the story goes, are reevaluating their work lives and leaving their jobs in droves. But although quitting is at historic levels, many economists say the trend is widely misunderstood. We’ll talk with experts about what the data really say, and look at how the rest of the world sees what's wrong with the American labor market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, both President Biden and Vice President Harris plan to give remarks in Atlanta about the importance of passing voting rights legislation and combatting a slew of states’ efforts to restrict the franchise. If Republicans defeat the federal legislation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has signaled he will push for the elimination of the filibuster in hopes of sending it to Biden’s desk without bipartisan support. Critics say that the Biden Administration is offering words, not deeds, and that time is running out as states gear up for the 2022 midterm elections. What is the state of voting rights and what can be done? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five years ago, Nigel Poor, an artist, and Earlonne Woods, an inmate in San Quentin, created a podcast chronicling the stories and daily life of prison. “Ear Hustle” smashed prison stereotypes with humor and candor even as it revealed the human toll of mass incarceration. The podcast became an enormous hit, surpassing 40 million downloads, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and was nominated for a Peabody Award. Poor and Woods’ new book “This is Ear Hustle” fills in the details about their remarkable project, and they join us to discuss what it means to tell stories about life in prison, from the inside. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In June 2018, a dozen young soccer players and their coach became trapped more than two miles inside the Tham Luang Cave in northern Thailand, as a sudden monsoon swept into the region and inundated the underground passages. The world watched transfixed for weeks as rescuers located the boys, brought them supplies and engineered a way to bring them to safety. Cave diver Rick Stanton was among those leading the effort and he joins us to talk about the rescue, the rarefied world of underwater cave diving and his new book "Aquanaut." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices