KQED's Forum

Amtrak reports that overall demand for passenger rail is soaring as yearly ridership totals approach pre-pandemic levels. But in California, the story is different. Popular west coast lines are losing riders and remain challenged by underinvestment and rules that give track priority to freight trains. In addition, increasingly powerful storms and rising seas threaten Amtrak’s infrastructure: Southern California’s Pacific Surfliner has repeatedly suspended service for emergency repairs. As part of Forum’s In Transit series, we look at the future of Amtrak in California.Guests:Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law; host, the Climate Break podcastTom Zoellner, English professor, Chapman University; editor-at-large, LA Review of Books; author, "Train: Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World -from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fashion is self-expression. It’s art. It’s also responsible for between 8 and 9 percent of planet-warming emissions. But it doesn’t have to be. We’ll talk about the fashion industry’s troubled relationship to labor, climate, and human rights issues – and spotlight companies creating sustainable alternatives. Plus, our panel of mending, thrifting and styling experts will share practical tips so that you can be chic… and climate-conscious!Guests:Ayesha Barenblat, founder and CEO, RemakeKara Fabella, stylist and founder, The Flipp SideHayley Colette, educator, WorkshopSFJames Reinhart, cofounder and CEO, ThredUp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new memoir “Small Acts of Courage,” MSNBC host Ali Velshi recounts his family’s migration across continents –– beginning in India under British rule, intersecting with Gandhi’s “satyagraha” movement in South Africa, and eventually settling in Canada during a refugee crisis for the global Indian diaspora. Ali himself immigrated to the United States two days after September 11, 2001 and writes: “Cynicism about politics is actually a luxury of those who have never had to experience life without it, and if those people every truly lost their ability to participate in the system, they’d never take it for granted again.” And we want to hear from you: Are there “small acts of courage” that define your life and values? What are they?Guests:Ali Velshi, MSNBC host; author, "Small Acts of Courage" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yet another stretch of Highway 1 near Big Sur remains closed after a chunk of the roadway fell into the ocean in March. The latest closure raises questions about the future of the iconic highway amid threats from extreme weather and coastal erosion. “Everything is working against Highway 1,” Gary Griggs, an oceanography professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz told the Washington Post. We’ll look at what it could take to save Highway 1 and what it all means for local residents and the state’s economy.Guests:Jonathan Warrick, research geologist, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, United States Geological SurveyRosanna Xia, environmental reporter, Los Angeles Times; Xia specializes in coastal and ocean issues. Her latest book is "California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline."Brianna Sacks, extreme weather & disasters reporter, Washington PostBen Perlmutter, managing partner, Big Sur River Inn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When most people think of a burrito, the “mission-style” burrito probably comes to mind. Rice, beans, meat – and maybe guacamole or salsa – wrapped in a giant flour tortilla and served in foil. Popularized across the country by the Chipotle chain, the mission-style burrito has its roots in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. But just because it’s the most popular, is it the best? Los Angeles and San Diego each provide their own unique offerings and in a state as diverse as California, burritos are always evolving. We’ll revisit the legends around some popular burrito varieties, learn about your favorites and try to settle if there’s one style that deserves to be called California’s burrito.Guests:Bill Esparza, writer, Eater LA; author, "L.A. Mexicano: Recipes, People and Places"Cesar Hernandez, associate restaurant critic, San Francisco ChronicleLuke Winkie, staff writer, Slate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author and seasoned travel writer Gary Shteyngart had never been on a ship larger than the Staten Island Ferry before he embarked on the inaugural voyage of the “Icon of the Seas,” the world’s largest cruise ship. Proudly sporting a “Daddy’s Little Meatball” t-shirt that he hoped would be a conversation starter and aiming to make new friends, Shteyngart instead experienced loneliness and despair. He chronicles his experience in the Atlantic Magazine piece “Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever.” Shteyngart joins us to talk about this journey, his life as a travel writer and the vacations that can make you feel part of — or alienated from — the rest of the world.Guest:Gary Shteyngart, writer. His latest piece for the Atlantic is titled "Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever"; author, "Our Country Friends, "Little Failure: A Memoir," and "Super Sad True Love Story." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recent Hollywood films and TV shows have taken to presenting a “Magical Multiracial Past,” according to filmmaker Kabir Chibber in a recent New York Times Magazine article. It’s a past where “every race exists, cheerfully and seemingly as equals, in the same place at the same time. History becomes an emoji, its flesh tone changing as needed.” Some of the backlash to so-called colorblind casting has been outright racist. But some of the pushback has come from artists of color who feel uncomfortable with utopic depictions that erase the racism of past eras. As Chibber argues, “the problem, for viewers, isn’t wokeness run amok; it’s the incoherence of the world we are watching.” We’ll talk about the benefits and drawbacks of colorblind and color-conscious casting — and the uncomfortable truths it forces us to address.Guests:Kabir Chibber, writer and filmmakerBrandon David Wilson, writer; educator; filmmakerMaurice Emmanuel Parent, actor, director and professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, Tufts University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Berkeley Unified School District superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel testified before Congress on Wednesday as part of hearings examining how K-12 school districts are handling anti-semitism in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Republicans say the education leaders invited to testify – from Berkeley, New York City, and Montgomery County, Maryland – have failed to respond to antisemitic incidents in their schools. But Ford Morthel rejected allegations that antisemitism is “pervasive” in Berkeley, and said that the district is indeed addressing issues as they come up. We’ll discuss the hearings, the politics behind them, and how they fit into Republicans’ broader efforts to reform education in the U.S.Guests:Dana Goldstein, reporter covering education and families, New York TimesSara Hossaini, reporter, KQED RadioBianca Quilantan, higher education reporter, Politico Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Illia Ponomarenko was a 29-year-old journalist for the newspaper he co-founded, The Kyiv Independent. His daily, on-the-ground reporting quickly captured an international audience: by 2023 the German media organization Der Spiegel called him “likely the best-known Ukrainian after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.” Ponomarenko’s new book, “I Will Show You How It Was,” provides a first-person account of the Battle of Kyiv and its impact on civilians. “Life during the Battle of Kyiv,” he writes, “was a bizarre mixture of inconceivable inspiration, unity, and pride—and at the same time, of dark grief and mourning.” We talk to Ponomarenko about what he’s witnessed over the past two years and his plea for America to “do the right thing.”Guest:Illia Ponomarenko, journalist and author, “I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv”; former defense and security reporter, The Kyiv Post; co-founder, The Kyiv Independent. He has covered the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict's beginning, as well as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting was awarded to the staff of Lookout Santa Cruz on Monday. The prize committee praised the tiny, digital-only media outlet for its “detailed and nimble community-focused coverage” of the catastrophic flooding and mudslides last year that did great damage to the Santa Cruz area. We’ll talk to the staff about the media outlet, which was founded in 2020, its coverage, and the future of local journalism.Guests:Ken Doctor, CEO and founder, Lookout Santa Cruz. Doctor writes regularly for Harvard's Nieman JournalismTamsin McMahon, managing editor, Lookout Santa CruzChristopher Neely, correspondent, Lookout Santa Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices