KQED's Forum

Beyoncé’s new album, “Cowboy Carter,” pays tribute to country music’s greats while reflecting on her own connection to the genre. As she sings on the opening track, “Used to say I spoke ‘too country’ / And the rejection came, said I wasn’t country ‘nough.” That rejection reflects the gatekeeping that’s long plagued country music – gatekeeping that determines who gets to be American and whose ‘country’ it is, says Alice Randall, a songwriter, author and Vanderbilt professor. Randall was the first Black woman to write a No. 1 country hit, and her new book “My Black Country” weaves memoir with the history and impact of Black artists in the genre. We’ll learn that history and Randall’s place in it — and listen to country music from DeFord Bailey, Linda Martell and, of course, Beyoncé.Guests:Alice Randall, Country songwriter and professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and writer-in-residence, Vanderbilt University - author, “My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the performing arts world, comedian Kristina Wong found herself adrift. But dozens of frantic calls and one Facebook group later, she was overseeing a network of volunteers – the Auntie Sewing Squad – that churned out hundreds of thousands of homemade masks for those in need. The acts of service and communal care she guided and found are the inspiration for her one woman play “Kristina Wong: Sweatshop Overlord.” We’ll talk with Wong about crafting, community, social justice and the comedy show that brings them all together.Guests:Kristina Wong, comedian and performance artist - she's a Doris Duke Artist Award winner, Guggenheim Fellow and a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Drama. Her one woman show "Kristina Wong: Sweatshop Overlord" is playing now through May 5th at The Strand in San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can you think of a seven-letter word for “complex character?” If your mind flows to “Oedipus,” you’re probably comfortable among the wonderful, nerdy world of crossword puzzle fanatics. Anna Shechtman has been making crosswords since she was 15, drawn to the idea that through riddles and puns a puzzle constructor can access “something foundational about language — a quasi mathematical code that could be rearranged and manipulated through brain power alone.” We talk to Shechtman, who now creates puzzles for the New Yorker, about the art, politics and history of crossword making. Her new book is “The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle.”Guests:Anna Shechtman, author, "The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle"; assistant professor, Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Traveling across one of the bay’s many bridges, it’s normal to see a massive container ship heading to port or back out to sea. The recent crash of a cargo vessel into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge, an accident which killed six people and spilled thousands of gallons of oil, might lead you to ask: could that happen here? For example, in 2007, a container ship hit a Bay Bridge tower, which spurred the adaptation of improved safety systems. We’ll talk to maritime experts about our waterways and the safety protocols we have in place to prevent and react to disasters.Guests:Scott Humphrey, executive director of the Marine Exchange San Francisco Bay Area Region; chairman of the San Francisco Harbor Safety CommitteeCaptain Taylor Lam, captain of the Port for Northern California, US Coast GuardTony Munoz, publisher and editor in chief of The Maritime Executive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The specter of the opioid epidemic has shadowed life in California for nearly three decades, and opioid deaths in the state are rising precipitously. Physicians have long advocated the use of life-saving opioid medications methadone and buprenorphine to treat addiction. Despite methadone’s proven effectiveness, access to the drug has been blocked across the health care system – and California is among the most restrictive states in the nation. This week, new federal regulations take effect that could expand access to methadone treatment. STAT addiction reporter Lev Facher examined access to these medications in a recent investigation titled “The War on Recovery.” We’ll talk about what this shift at the national level means for addiction treatment in California. And we’ll hear from you: Has access to methadone had an impact on your life or recovery?Guests:Lev Facher, addiction reporter, STAT NewsLeslie Suen, physician and researcher, University of California San FranciscoJordan Scott, disabled drug user in recovery; organizing coordinator, Pennsylvania Harm Reduction network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do monkeys belly flop, elephants mud-slide and rats play-fight? In his new book, “Kingdom of Play,” science writer and professor David Toomey set out to answer these questions. It’s an area of study that hasn’t gotten much attention, and Toomey dives into animal behavioral research looking at the neuroscience, and even dream study, behind it all. We’ll talk to Toomey and learn about what animal play can tell us about our own human behavior. And we hear from you: What animal play have you observed and have had questions about?Guests:David Toomey, author, “Kingdom of Play: What Ball-bouncing Octopuses, Belly-flopping Monkeys, and Mud-sliding Elephants Reveal about Life Itself"; english professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst - his other books include “Weird Life” and “The New Time Travelers.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California State Prison, Sacramento – also known as New Folsom Prison – is considered one of the state’s most dangerous. It’s one of several facilities in California that house the most violent offenders, and corrections officers there use force at a rate that’s nearly 40% higher than in other prisons. It’s also a notoriously difficult environment for prison workers, who face high rates of work-related mental health issues, as well as hazing and abuse if they report official misconduct. A new season of KQED’s award- winning podcast “On Our Watch” looks at the pattern of abuse, cover-up and corruption at New Folsom and traces the stories of whistleblowers who tried to bring it to light. We learn more from the KQED reporters behind the investigation.Guests:Julie Small, criminal justice reporter, KQED; reporter, "On Our Watch"Sukey Lewis, criminal justice reporter, KQED; host/reporter, “On Our Watch”; co-founder, the California Reporting ProjectValentino Rodriguez Sr., father of Valentino Rodriguez Jr. - a whistleblower who worked at New Folsom Prison Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, California implements a minimum wage of $20 per hour for fast food workers. Proponents of the measure believe that it will not only allow workers to meet essential needs, but potentially move them up the economic ladder to greater financial security. Restaurant owners and operators contend that they may need to cut back on employee hours, eliminate jobs, and increase their prices. We’ll look at how this measure will impact the Bay Area.Guests:Saru Jayaraman, director, Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley; president, One Fair Wage; co-founder, Restaurant Opportunities Centers UnitedJeanne Kuang, reporter, CalMattersScott Rodrick, founder, Rodrick Group; McDonald's franchisee in San Francisco Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our current growth-based economic systems do not take into account their human cost, argues journalist Nick Romeo. And while there are economic initiatives and programs around the world that have been shown to improve local citizens’ lives, these are few and far between. Yet they provide models, like “true price” initiatives — price tags that account for human labor costs and environmental impacts. Or job guarantee programs, which ensure every member of a community has access to employment. In Romeo’s new book, “The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy,” he calls for the return of ethics into economics and offers examples around the world — as well as some in California. We’ll talk to him about what works, what doesn’t and what we have to gain if economists take an alternative approach to structuring, teaching and thinking about our economy.Guests:Nick Romeo, journalist, The New Yorker; lecturer, UC Berkeley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As fighting between Israel and Hamas continues, what will happen after the war ends? The so-called two state solution has long been one of the most prominent ideas, where independent states of Israel and Palestine exist side-by-side, but previous attempts to solidify an agreement have fallen short. We’ll talk with members of A Land For All, a group of Palestinian and Israeli leaders, activists and scholars who have a new political vision of how to live together with “pragmatic and viable solutions to the obstacles that have stymied prior negotiations, moving us from a paradigm of separation towards a future based on power sharing and shared interests.” We’ll talk about their vision for a road to peace and an intertwined future.Guests:Omar Dajani, professor of law, University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law; board member, "A Land For All"; former senior legal advisor, Palestine Liberation Organization's Negotiations Support UnitMay Pundak, co-leader and executive director, the Israeli branch of “A Land for All”Rula Hardal, lecturer, Arab-American University; research fellow, the Shalom Hartman Institute; co-leader, "A Land For All" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices