KQED's Forum

Beneath the surface of a coffee bean or a red pepper flake or a nutmeg seed — or any of the plants we rely on for medicine, food and drink — lie a “bevy of poisons,” writes UC Berkeley evolutionary biologist Noah Whiteman. But the chemical compounds that treat our infections, spice up our meals and calm our nerves didn’t evolve for our benefit. Instead, plants, fungi and even some small animals produce toxins to defend themselves against predators, attract pollinators and engage in battles of chemical warfare. We’ll talk about the biology and influence of “nature’s pharmacopeia” with Whiteman, whose new book is “Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature’s Toxins — From Spices to Vices.” Guests: Noah Whiteman, professor of Integrative Biology and Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley; director, Essig Museum of Entomology; author, “Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature's Toxins — from Spices to Vices”

In the last several years, a cult industrial complex has emerged to capitalize on Americans’ fascination with groups such as Jonestown, the Manson Family, the Branch Davidians, and the Rajneeshpuram community in Wasco County, Ore., argues UC Berkeley professor Poulomi Saha. But in her highly sought-after class called Cults in Popular Culture, they emphasize that it’s important to look beyond the sensational examples and recognize how cult-like behavior shows up in many facets of our lives and society. We’ll talk with Saha about why some groups are labeled as cults, why people are drawn to them, and what cults reveal about spirituality and culture in America. Guests: Poulomi Saha, associate professor of English and co-director of the Program in Critical Theory, UC Berkeley. Saha teaches a course called Cults in Popular Culture.

California’s stray animals face a slew of challenges that might sound familiar to human residents of the state: a lack of affordable housing, prohibitive health care costs, and a shortage of service providers. Animal shelters that emptied during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic have since refilled, and placing those animals in homes can be a struggle. We speak with a veterinarian and two shelter administrators about how they’re adapting to the volume of animals – and people – in need of their services, and how community supporters can help. We’ll also hear from a journalist covering animal welfare at the national level, and from you: Have you tried to adopt, or rehome, a pet? What was your experience? Guests: Ann Dunn, director, Oakland Animal Services Cynthia Karsten, director of outreach and shelter medicine, University of California-Davis Kenny Torrella, staff writer, Vox Sarah Aguilar, director, Santa Barbara County Animal Services

Thirty years ago, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands on the White House lawn and pledged to work together for peace. At that historic meeting, they signed what became known as the first Oslo Accord, ushering in an era of renewed optimism that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be resolved. Was its failure inevitable? Amid the tragedy of the current Israel-Hamas war, The New York Times magazine recently assembled a panel of experts — three Palestinian, three Israeli and one American – to discuss the Oslo peace process and why it broke down. Two of the participants in that discussion and journalist Emily Bazelon, who moderated it, join us to look back at what happened before and after the handshake and what it can tell us about the possibilities for negotiating peace. Guests: Emily Bazelon, staff writer, The New York Times Magazine; author, "Was Peace Ever Possible?" in the New York Times; co-host, Slate's political gabfest Efraim Inbar, professor of political studies, Bar-Ilan University; president, Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security Omar Dajani, former senior legal advisor, Palestine Liberation Organization's Negotiations Support Unit; professor of law, University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law

Proposition 8 passed 15 years ago this month, banning same-gender marriage in California. Two couples — one lesbian, one gay — sued to overturn the proposition and succeeded, with gay marriage made legal in California in 2013. The trial was videotaped, but those tapes didn’t become public until last year. That inspired KQED reporters Scott Shafer and Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli to invite those two couples to watch their testimony and reflect on how much LGBTQ rights have changed — and how far we’ve yet to go. We’ll talk with them and with plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, and we’ll hear from you: What do you remember from Prop 8? Related link(s): Inside the Trial That Overturned California’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban | KQED Guests: Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli, community engagement reporter, KQED Scott Shafer, senior editor, KQED’s California Politics and Government desk; co-host, Political Breakdown Kristin (Kris) Perry, plaintiff, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger Sandy Stier, plaintiff, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger Vaughn Walker, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1989 to 2011; presided over Perry v. Schwarzenegger

With $1.6 billion in assets, the San Francisco Foundation is one of the largest community foundations in the country. The organization is now in its 75th year of using philanthropy to try to improve the lives of residents across the Bay Area by funding nonprofit programs, pushing for policy change, and training leaders. Some of the foundation’s efforts include helping hotel workers win fair wages and benefits, advocating for mixed-income public housing in San Francisco to prevent displacement, and implementing a volunteer-based policing program in Oakland’s Chinatown to combat anti-Asian hate crimes. We talk with the foundation’s CEO Fred Blackwell about their biggest successes, challenges, and goals as well as the changing role of philanthropy in a time of vast economic inequality. Guests: Fred Blackwell, CEO, San Francisco Foundation

University of Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy loves games. He’s spent much of his career popularizing math — and for him, games are a way to “play mathematics.” But playing math might not be the first reason your nephew gives when you ask him why he loves video games, or your friend when she describes her undying love for “Risk”. There are elements of social psychology, from competition to collaboration, that also draw us toward getting the “Scrabble” board out of the closet and onto the dining room table. For many of us, games not only inform our identities — they build our sense of selves and community. “Tell me the game you play and I will tell you who you are,” writes du Sautoy in his new book, “Around the World in 80 Games”— and we want to hear from you: What’s your game? Du Sautoy joins us to hear your answers, as well as share the history and power our favorite games hold over us. Guests: Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi professor for the public understanding of science and professor of mathematics, the University of Oxford

The New York Times has called Rick Prelinger “one of the great, undersung historians of 20th century cinema.” But the Bay Area-based archivist isn’t known for books on Chaplin or Bergman. Instead, Rick and partner Megan Prelinger collect the film history of everyday life: home movies, industrial films, studio outtakes and other works that would otherwise be lost or forgotten. The duo may be best known for the free movies they make available through the Internet Archive digital library. And locally, they’ve gained a following for their “Lost Landscapes” film project, a compilation of historic Bay Area footage from their archives. We’ll talk to Rick and Megan about the 18th and latest installment of “Lost Landscapes”, entitled “City and Bay in Motion: Transportation and Communication.” Guests: Rick Prelinger, founder, Prelinger Archives, whose moving image holdings may be found online at archive.org; co-founder, Prelinger Library, a publicly-available collection of historical periodicals, books, print ephemera, maps and government documents Megan Prelinger, co-founder, Prelinger Library; co-director, Prelinger Archives film digitization project. Prelinger is also the author of the books Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957–1962 and Inside the Machine: Art and Invention in the Electronic Age

Americans are doing a lot more of their shopping online, and thanks to generous return policies we’re also sending back more of the stuff that doesn’t fit, doesn’t work or just doesn’t look like its JPG. Many of us even regularly buy clothes in multiple sizes and colors and simply send back anything that we don’t like the look of. But very little of what we return, from bathing suits to defective barbeque grills, is repaired or resold as new. Returned inventory created 9.5 billion pounds of landfill waste last year, according to one estimate. And the shipping of returned inventory in the US, to retailers, resellers and repairers, emitted over 24 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2022. We’ll talk about the logistics of the reverse supply chain and the environmental consequences of all the stuff we buy and don’t want. Guests: Amanda Mull, staff writer, The Atlantic. She writes the column “Material World” on American consumerism Tobin Moore, co-founder and principal, Optoro, a returns technology company

What do you notice out the window from your seat on BART, or Muni, or the Golden Gate Ferry? When you ride public transit, you’re free to look around, and looking around can tell you a lot about where you live. We talk about the breathtaking vistas and hidden histories revealed to us through the windows of public transit and how what we see – or don’t see – shapes our connection to the Bay Area. Guests: Vincent Woo, filmmaker. Woo is the creator and director of "Tunnel Vision: An Unauthorized BART Ride" Liam O'Donoghue, host and producer, East Bay Yesterday Mey Lee, co-curator, Muni Raised Me exhibit - at SOMA Arts earlier this year. Sarah Katz-Hyman, editor, Muni Diaries

Brown v Board of Education, the landmark civil rights decision banning racial segregation in public schools, was supposed to give Black children greater educational opportunities. But instead, according to Columbia Teachers College professor Bettina Love, it marked the beginning of an anti-Black educational agenda, characterized by low academic expectations, excessive suspensions, surveillance and physical violence. Love grew up in the 1980s and 90s, a period when the Reagan and Bush administrations pushed ideas of “school accountability” and “school safety” that she says were used to justify punishment of Black children and that have harmed a generation. We talk to Love about her and her peers’ experiences in school as “eighties babies” and why she thinks reparations are essential to repair public education. Guests: Bettina Love, professor at Teachers College, Columbia University; author, "Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal"

In 2017 students at Albany High School in the East Bay became aware of a private instagram account created by a student, and followed by just over a dozen more, containing viciously racist posts about fellow classmates. The disputes about why it happened, how to hold the creator and the followers accountable, and what to do about the anger, shame and fear caused by the posts tore through the school and the town. “Whatever you believed about Albany, about America, about teenagers, racism, sexism, social media, punishment and the public discourse on each of these topics, the story of the Instagram account could be marshaled as evidence. It was the incident that explained everything and yet also the incident that couldn’t be explained,” writes Dashka Slater. We talk to her about her five years of reporting on the story and her book, “Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed”. Guests: Dashka Slater, author, "Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed." - Her previous books include "The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives"

Whether you’re a seasoned chef or first-time cook preparing a casual dinner with friends, Thanksgiving can be a stressful time in the kitchen. Many of us are frantically checking the internet for recipes, tips, and fresh ideas on what to eat on Thursday. New York Times Cooking is aware of the stakes — they know their recipes will end up on dinner tables across the country in a few days and have been preparing for this moment since last spring. Not limited to just recipe offerings, their deep-dive videos on green beans, stuffing, and turkey also help us understand why these dishes have become mainstays over the years. They join us to give tips on how to prepare the ultimate feast and answer your last-minute questions. Guests: Eric Kim, chef and food columnist, New York Times Cooking and Food; author of cookbook, "Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home." Website URL: https://erickim.net/ Emily Weinstein, editor in chief, New York Times Cooking and Food. She also writes the popular New York Times newsletter "Five Weeknight Dishes."

San Francisco is a city of survivors. For all the talk of doom loops, the city has reinvented itself many times, and if it had an architectural mascot, it would be Ferry Building, argues San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic John King. In his new book “Portal,” King tells the story of the building that once saw 50 million ferry travelers annually and now serves as a popular destination for the food-obsessed and folks who want to take in the spectacular view. We talk to King about his book and how good urban design can revitalize a city. Guests: John King, author, "Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Revinvention of American Cities"; urban design critic, San Francisco Chronicle

People of all genders have rimmed their eyes with pigment for thousands of years. But as Zahra Hankir explains in her new book on the history of eyeliner, its use goes far beyond aesthetics. Eyeliner has also served as a vehicle for identity, self-expression, empowerment and protest. Bedouin men in the deserts of Arabia have worn it to repel the sun – and attract potential mates. Egyptian Queen Nefertiti’s celebrated beauty centered on her perfectly winged lines. In modern-day Iran, women wear eyeliner as a form of resistance against an oppressive regime. Hankir joins us to discuss “Eyeliner: A Cultural History.” Guests: Zahra Hankir, author, "Eyeliner: A Cultural History," and "Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World" - Hankir is a Lebanese-British journalist

The astronomical price of housing is the root source of so many of the Bay Area’s most pressing problems and bitter battles. A problem so big begs for big ideas. In this show we explore a couple of novel approaches to spur the creation of affordable housing by fundamentally changing the way we think of land and property ownership. We’ll talk about the new popularity of an old idea – taxing the value of land instead of the property on it – and about the growing community land trust movement. Guests: Noni Session, co-founder and executive director, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative Lars Doucet, author, "Land Is a Big Deal: Why Rent Is Too High, Wages Too Low, and What We Can Do about It"

Explore your inner Goth with Mina's interview with co-founder of The Cure Lol Tolhurst and dive into the Hyphy movement with Pendarvis Harshaw, host of KQED's podcast series Rightnowish Presents: Hyphy Kids Got Trauma.

Last week, Ohio voters approved Issue 1, a ballot measure to amend the state constitution to protect abortion access. The vote was the latest in a string of state-level victories for abortion rights supporters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. But in many states, women are now living with bans and restrictions that make abortions much harder to get since the Dobbs decision. We’ll look at what the Ohio outcome could mean for the future of abortion rights around the country, and how the issue is playing out in the 2024 presidential election. Guests: Michele Goodwin, professor of constitutional law and global health policy, Georgetown Law. Her books include "Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood" Rebecca Traister, writer-at-large for New York magazine and The Cut. Her cover story “Abortion Wins Elections” appeared in the March 2023 edition of New York magazine. Her books include, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger

By the late 1980s, there were more than 200 lesbian bars in the U.S. Today, only a few dozen are still operating. In San Francisco, lesbians, queer women and nonbinary people are still mourning the Lexington Club — and some can remember a time when nearly every neighborhood in the city had a lesbian bar of its own. But can the decline of these places simply be chalked up to rising rents, dating apps and the LGBTQ+ community’s embrace of queer — rather than specifically lesbian — spaces? We’ll hear from three lesbian bar aficionados about what the Bay Area’s lesbian spaces, from the historic Wild Side West to the newest bar, Mother, mean to them. And we’ll hear how the history of lesbian bars and the challenges they’ve faced in trying to keep their doors open can inform their future. Guests: Alex U. Inn, Bay Area drag king; creator of the dance party Unleash! for women over 40; co-founder of the Pride Parade counterpoint known as the People’s March Carol Hill, executive director, San Francisco Beacon Initiative; “stewards” El Rio’s queer party Mango once a month Krista Burton, author, "MOBY DYKE: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America”; creator of the popular blog Effing Dykes

Roman emperors have long provided a template for autocrats and a warning for politicians, according to acclaimed historian Mary Beard. But not all emperors were cruel, bloodthirsty and decadent. Beard’s new book “Emperor of Rome” looks at the daily practicalities of their lives, as they managed budgets and troop deployments, headed public banquets and responded to petitions from their subjects. It also examines the ordinary Romans who made the imperial system function, including soldiers, aristocrats and the enslaved. We talk to Beard about what life was like in the corridors of power of ancient Rome and take your questions. Guests: Mary Beard, classicist; scholar of Ancient Rome; author, "Emperor of Rome"