KQED's Forum

In a recent piece for medical journal The Lancet, professor of medicine Dr. Kimberly Manning shares her experience of being a Black enrollee in a COVID-19 vaccine trial. A graduate of Tuskegee University, Manning also writes about the historical roots of mistrust between African Americans and the U.S. healthcare system, in part due to the horrific Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment on Black men from 1932 to 1972. While the majority of Americans now say they would get the vaccine, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center, Black Americans are the least inclined to get vaccinated compared to other racial groups. As the COVID-19 vaccine nears FDA approval in the U.S., we talk to Manning about the challenges of building trust with different communities. We'll also learn more about the findings of the Pew report on whether people intend to get the vaccine and what factors inform their thinking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The West Wing. The Social Network. A Few Good Men. Those are just a few of the iconic series and films created and/or written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, producer and playwright Aaron Sorkin. His latest film is The Trial of the Chicago 7 which is now available on Netflix. And he is being honored this week by SFFILM, presenter of the San Francisco International Film Festival, with its Kanbar Award, which acknowledges "the critical importance that storytelling plays in the creation of outstanding films." We talk to Sorkin about his career. But first, we check in with SFFILM executive director Anne Lai about its annual awards, and the state of cinema.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus-induced recession has exacerbated income inequality in California and will only worsen unless political leaders take action, according to a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California. The pandemic is essentially pushing millions of Californians who were already living in poverty or paycheck to paycheck to the brink of financial disaster. After months of shutdowns and stay-at-home orders, many Californians face the end of unemployment benefits, about one in eight households are behind on rent or mortgage payments and any federal stimulus or economic relief remains uncertain. Public policy professor and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich joins us to talk about this growing problem and how to address it. We’ll also hear more about the PPIC report and the economic consequences of the pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California launches a new coronavirus notification app on Thursday in a bid to help slow the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the state. The CA Notify app will send smartphone notifications to users who have been exposed to someone who tested positive to the coronavirus. Officials say it will help curb the spread of COVID-19, but only if a large number of people opt in. We’ll hear how the app works, and how it deals with data collection and privacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President-elect Joe Biden announced an ambitious plan Tuesday to vaccinate 50 million Americans against the coronavirus in his first 100 days of office. The announcement came as the FDA reported that Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective, paving the way for U.S. approval as soon as this week. Meanwhile, British citizens began receiving their first doses. We'll talk about the latest COVID-19 vaccine developments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former San Francisco Chronicle and Santa Rosa Press Democrat sportswriter Lowell Cohn’s career spans four decades. In his new memoir “Gloves Off” he revisits some of the most memorable moments, from his relationship with legendary 49ers coach Bill Walsh to the rise of Warriors phenomenon Steph Curry. We talk with Cohn about his career, the book, and how sportswriting has changed in the last 40 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new book “Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America," sociologist and cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson looks at the history of systemic racism in the U.S. and how it led to this year’s unrest and protests for racial justice. Written as letters to Black victims of systemic racism and police brutality, including Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor, Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from slavery to the present. We’ll talk to Dyson about the book and why he remains hopeful in the fight for racial and social justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Bay Area heads again into shutdown and Covid-19 cases surge, essential workers continue to struggle with the mental health toll of being on the front line. This is where the Frontline Workers Counseling Project comes in. Founded at the start of the pandemic, the project offers free mental health counseling to essential workers, from doctors and nurses to firefighters and postal delivery workers. We’ll talk with the project's co-founder and one of its therapists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As of Friday, more than 9000 Californians are hospitalized with a confirmed case of COVID-19 -- a state record more than 90 percent higher than two weeks ago, according to state public health data. The surge comes as California grapples with a third wave of infections, and for healthcare workers who treat very sick COVID patients, it's taking a particularly hard toll. We'll hear from a panel of medical professionals about their experiences and reflections on the frontlines of COVID care in California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Friday, five Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley announced that they would impose stay-at-home orders immediately, and would not wait for the state to enact its own order. As of Monday morning, residents of San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Alameda counties and Berkeley will be under the stay-at-home order, and Marin County's restrictions will go into place Tuesday at noon. The orders stay in effect until January 4th, 2021. We'll talk about what these orders will and won't allow, what it means for the holidays, and the public response. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices