KPFA - UpFront

00:08 Robert Reich, political economist who worked in the administrations of three presidents (most prominently as Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton) now emeritus Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. His latest book is Coming Up Short: a memoir of my America. This is a rebroadcast of our original interview in summer of 2025. The post Robert Reich on Robert Reich: Former labor secretary talks new memoir appeared first on KPFA.

00:08 From Bruce Lee’s San Francisco origins during the segregationist era of the Chinese Exclusion Act and family’s immigration story, to his role in the lives and minds of young Asian Americans, a new book traces Lee’s story. We talk with Jeff Chang, cultural historian, about Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. “He was a marker of culture, a sign, a signifier that put us in the pop culture conversation,” Chang says. “Folks want to whitewash his story… as if to separate him from other immigrants. No. Bruce was part of a class of people that was completely shunned and looked down upon… He’s dealing with racism every day. Part of the story here is to recover that, so people really understand what that means.” Jeff Chang won the American Book Award for Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, his history of the early years of hip hop. The post Cultural Historian Jeff Chang on the Life of Bruce Lee appeared first on KPFA.

0:08 – A rebroadcast of our powerful October 2025 interview with Rebecca Solnit, author of two dozen books, and a profound storyteller of grassroots movements and the climate and environmental crisis on this planet. Most recently, she published No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain. The post No Straight Road Takes You There: Extended Interview with Rebecca Solnit appeared first on KPFA.

00:08 – Betty Reid Soskin has been a homefront warriors worker, a singer-songwriter and a performer, co-founder of the legendary Reid’s Records in South Berkeley, a writer and legislative aid and, until she turned 100, the oldest working National Park Service ranger. She died last weekend at the age of 104. This interview is from 2018, when she came to KPFA’s studios to discuss her book, Sign My Name to Freedom: A Memoir of a Pioneering Life The post Betty Reid Soskin, in her own voice appeared first on KPFA.

0:08 – Ukraine negotiations wrap up in Miami without a major announcement. John Feffer, Director of Foreign Policy in Focus, joins us. 0:34 – The Trump administration has fixed its eye on dismantling a major climate science research center in Colorado, called NCAR. We talk about the consequences with Eugene Cordero, professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University. 0:46 – Bay Area parents are organizing to protect gender-affirming healthcare for trans kids. Here in the East Bay, Rainbow Families Action is speaking out to defend gender-related healthcare at Sutter Health. Sutter Health announced it would end care for trans kids, but then reportedly backtracked. Parents say the struggle is not over — and the Trump administration has just issued two new proposed CMS rules to force hospitals which rely on federal funding to end gender-affirming care for trans young people. We speak with Nikki, a parent of a child who receives care at Sutter and a member of Rainbow Families Action. The post Ukraine news, Trump admin to dismantle NCAR, Parents organize to protect healthcare for trans kids appeared first on KPFA.

On today’s show: Doctors in Jail? Hospitals Stripped of Fed Funding? The Criminalization of Trans Youth Healthcare Kilmar Ábrego García Reunites with Family, But Trump Admin Threatens to Jail & Deport Him Again “Terror & Fear”: Trump Moves to Denaturalize Citizens, End Birthright Citizenship, Halt Visa Lottery   UpFront delivers a mix of local, state, and international coverage through challenging interviews, civil debates, breaking updates, and in-depth discussions with authors. The post UpFront – December 19, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

0:10 – We start today’s coverage in Venezuela. President Trump has announced a blockade on “sanctioned” Venezuelan oil vessels. Miguel R. Tinker Salas is professor emeritus of History at Pomona College and joins us to talk about Venezuela’s oil industry and this development, and parse the “absurdity” of Trump’s comments. He is the author of The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture and Society in Venezuela. “This was not about drugs,” Tinker Salas says. “This was about oil, this was about Western Hemisphere control, this was about geopolitics, this was about an effort to control the Caribbean and Central America, and U.S. hegemony.” 0:35 – Reviewing President Trump’s Oval Office address and recent revelations in interviews by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, we are joined by John Nichols, executive editor of The Nation. To make a gift to KPFA and help us meet our fundraising goal, give at support.kpfa.org. The post U.S. to blockade “sanctioned” Venezuela oil tankers with military; John Nichols responds to Trump’s Oval Office address appeared first on KPFA.

0:09 – Why do we fight for our Bay Area neighborhoods and advocate for change with our neighbors? And what local history informs our struggles? This fund drive special takes us on a journey from Oakland across the Bay Area with A People’s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area by Rachel Brahinsky, professor at the University of San Francisco in Urban Studies, and Alexander Tarr, assistant professor of Geography at Worcester State University. Click here to support KPFA during our winter fund drive. The post Fund drive special: A People’s Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area appeared first on KPFA.

UpFront delivers a mix of local, state, and international coverage through challenging interviews, civil debates, breaking updates, and in-depth discussions with authors. The post UpFront – December 16, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

00:08 — John Feffer is Director of Foreign Policy in Focus. 00:33 — Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. The post Russia’s War in Ukraine; Plus, Corona Call appeared first on KPFA.