KQED's Forum KQED

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 filmmaker
Brandon David Wilson, writer; educator; filmmaker
Maurice Emmanuel Parent, actor, director and professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, Tufts University

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 Times
Sara Hossaini, reporter, KQED Radio
Bianca Quilantan, higher education reporter, Politico

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

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 Journalism
Tamsin McMahon, managing editor, Lookout Santa Cruz
Christopher Neely, correspondent, Lookout Santa Cruz

Amor Towles says the title of his new book “Table for Two” arose from a subconscious conviction “that our lives can often change materially due to a single conversation.” And it’s the power of a conversation – or a chance encounter or a sudden decision – to force a personal or historical reckoning that animate the characters in his latest work, a collection of six stories and a novella set in in New York and Los Angeles. We talk to Towles, who’s also the bestselling author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway,” about finding inspiration for his stories, how history informs his work and what it’s like to see his novels adapted for the screen.

Guests:

Amor Towles, author, "Table for Two." His other books include "The Lincoln Highway," "A Gentleman in Moscow" and "Rules of Civility."

If you go to the SFMOMA right now, it’ll be hard to miss the massive, 32-foot wide mural depicting a utopian, fantastical and hopeful version of San Francisco. The mural is the opening to a historic exhibition, “The House that Art Built,” which showcases eleven artists with developmental disabilities who are associated with Oakland-based nonprofit Creative Growth. In addition to the exhibition, SFMOMA has also permanently acquired more than 100 works created by artists with developmental disabilities. We’ll talk about the stunning exhibition, the acquisition and the future for artists with disabilities in the Bay Area.

Guests:

Joseph Alef, artist, Creative Growth; Alef has a painting in the SFMOMA

Susan Janow, artist, Creative Growth; Janow has a video piece in the SFMOMA; her work was previously acquired by the SFMOMA in 2018

William Scott, artist, Creative Growth; Scott has a mural in the SFMOMA; his work was previously acquired by the SFMOMA in 2017

Chris Bedford, director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

Tom Di Maria, executive director, Creative Growth Art Center