KQED's Forum

Countless hurdles throughout the pandemic. A legal fight. Now an uncertain end date. If you’re as confused as we are about the status of the 2020 Census, NPR’s census expert Hansi Lo Wang is here to help make sense of what is going on.

California State University system’s new chancellor, Joseph Castro, will take over an organization beset with challenges from the pandemic, including a nearly 300 million dollar budget cut and mostly no in person instruction for the entire school year.  Despite that, Castro says “I think we’re going to be stronger after COVID than we were before.”  Castro will be the first Californian and the first Mexican-American to head up the CSU system in which 43% of the nearly half a million students are Latino.  When Castro starts on the job  in January,  for the first time in state history, all three of California’s public higher education systems will be led by people of color. 

We'll get the latest on the Glass Fire in Napa and Sonoma counties which burned more than 48,000 acres on Wednesday. Firefighters have slowed the growth rate of the wildfire but they are expecting to face higher  temperatures and windy conditions in the coming days. More than 80 homes have been destroyed and over 20,000 structures are threatened by the fire which is just 2 percent contained. 

Young voters have a track record of low turnout in elections, but according to a recent Harvard Youth Poll, 63% of Americans age 18-29 say they will “definitely be voting” this year. We'll talk to young voters and those voting for the first time this year about the election, the candidates and the state of U.S. politics. And you don’t have to be of voting age to care about the key issues facing this country -- we'll also hear from middle school and high school students who shared what issues matter most to them in KQED Education's "Let's Talk About Election 2020" youth media challenge.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump take the stage Tuesday evening for the first of three presidential debates ahead of the November election. Moderated by Fox News's Chris Wallace, Tuesday's debate will focus on six topics: the candidates' records, the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, race and violence in U.S. cities and the integrity of the election. We'll review the candidates’ performances and hear your reactions.

After several months of protests across the country demanding racial justice and police reform, longtime civil rights leader Al Sharpton has released a new book, Rise Up: Confronting a Country at the Crossroads. The book is a call to action at a time when Sharpton says America is ready for true change. Sharpton  calls on Americans to go beyond addressing racial justice and also make strides for the LGBTQ community, women, immigrants, poor people, and the environment. We talk with Sharpton about his decades fighting injustice and what work still needs to be done.

Thousands of Northern California residents awoke to flames on Monday, as dry conditions and high winds caused multiple fires to explode in size overnight. The Glass Fire - after merging with the Boysen Fire in St. Helena and Shady Fire near Santa Rosa - scorched an estimated 11,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma wine country. Tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate as of Monday afternoon. We'll get an update on the wildfires and evacuations and we want to hear from you: if you live in the affected regions or you've been evacuated, share your experiences.

Many of us take money for granted as a certainty, but what exactly is money? Jacob Goldstein, co-host of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, explores that question in his book, “Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing.” Goldstein argues that monetary systems depend on a collective belief that an object, such as a piece of metal or paper, is worth a given amount. The history of money stretches back centuries and continues to evolve in surprising ways. We’ll talk with Goldstein about the origin of money as a fictional concept that nonetheless shapes our lives.

President Trump nominated federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday. The conservative jurist is known for her skepticism of the Affordable Care Act, abortion rights and deference to pre-existing legal precedents. One day before the first presidential debate, we'll look at what her nomination could mean for the November election. We'll also discuss the political implications of Sunday's revelations by the New York Times that the president paid just $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017 — and nothing in 10 of the past 15 years.

We'll get an update on the wildfires in Napa and Sonoma County and check in on Bay Area air quality with KQED's Dan Brekke and Alice Woelfle.

President Donald Trump said he will name his nominee to succeed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday -- a little more than a week after the death of the trailblazing feminist jurist. One of the top contenders is Amy Coney Barrett, whose conservative jurisprudence calls into question the future of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that affirmed a woman's right to choose an abortion. We'll talk about the likelihood that a conservative majority would overturn Roe and what that would mean for women across the country, particularly those who live in states that already limit abortion access.

In an effort to wean California off carbon emissions, Governor Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order to ban sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The state's Air Resources Board will work out the details. It's a big move, but environmentalists say it's not big enough to slow climate change. We'll hear from energy experts about what else will have to change to accommodate all those electric and battery powered cars on the road. And how the market might be different next time you head out to kick some tires.

Journalist and author Maria Hinojosa was, as she put, “the first Latina in every newsroom I ever worked in." In her new memoir, “Once I Was You,” the longtime host of NPR’s Latino USA tells the story of her life as an immigrant, storyteller and advocate, as well as her challenging rise in broadcast journalism. Hinojosa details her struggles with anxiety, managing family and career, and becoming a media entrepreneur. She also provides a window into the historical events that shaped her life and stories she reported on such as the Salvadoran refugees she befriended in college who were displaced by U.S. interventions in Central America. For decades, she has covered immigrants, the immigration system and the policies behind how America treats its most vulnerable residents. We’ll talk to Hinojosa about the book and the latest news.

This week, the United States marked a grim milestone: more than 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic. Against this backdrop, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar moved to bar the national health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, from signing off on any new rules without his consent. Azar's sweeping declaration, called by some as a "power grab," would affect regulation of the nation’s foods, medicines, medical devices and other products, including vaccines. That’s according to a September 15th memo, obtained by the New York Times. We'll talk about the federal response to the pandemic and how the nation is faring in its fight against COVID-19.

Protesters across the Bay Area and nationwide continue to hold rallies today after a Kentucky grand jury declined yesterday to charge Louisville police in the murder of Breonna Taylor, who was shot in her home six months ago during a botched drug raid on a neighboring apartment. The grand jury brought criminal charges against only one of the three police officers involved in the raid for recklessing firing into the other apartment. We’ll talk about why the police avoided homicide charges and what’s next as advocates continue to fight for justice for Breonna Taylor.