KQED's Forum KQED

Before there was a MAGA republicanism, there was the Tea Party. Founded in 2009, the movement organized around fiscal conservatism and opposition to the Affordable Care Act and government bailouts of the banking industry. But the Tea Party’s influence has waned. Only half of congressional Republicans voted for a limited government position on tax and fiscal issues in 2023, according to a study by the Institute for Legislative Analysis. And the movement has lost financial support following the recent closure of the conservative political group Freedom Works. We look at the history of the Tea Party movement and how it shaped today’s GOP.

Guests:

Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow, Brookings Institute - co-author of "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism"

Fred McGrath, president, Institute for Legislative Analysis - an organization that collects data for advocates of Limited Government

Duncan Braid, coalition director, American Compass - a conservative economic policy advocacy organization

The highly-anticipated opera “Innocence” has made its American premiere in San Francisco. At the heart of the story is a mass shooting at an international school, and the grief and trauma of the event that lingers a decade later. We’ll talk about the San Francisco Opera production and discuss a new mapping project showing a dramatic increase in the number of Americans living in close proximity to fatal gun violence and what it means for our communities.

Guests:

Tinisch Hollins, executive director, Californians for Safety and Justice; co-founder, SF Black Wall Street; vice chair, SF African-Americans Reparations Advisory Committee

Matthew Shilvock, general director, San Francisco Opera

Shaila Dewan, National Criminal Justice Correspondent, New York Times

Ryan Marchand, director, San Francisco Opera's Department of Diversity, Equity and Community

Gabe Meline, senior editor, KQED Arts and Culture

Ruth Whippman is a feminist writer. She’s also the mother of three sons. Her new book, “Boymom,” reflects on the difficulties facing parents tasked with raising good men in an age where people on the right weaponize male concerns and people on the left dismiss them. She asks: What does it mean to raise men who feel validated in their gender identity but not entitled to more because of it? Whippman advocates for an empathetic version of feminism, one where men are held to a high standard but where the loneliness and suicide epidemics plaguing young American men are meaningfully addressed. We’ll hear about her reporting, cultural analysis and own experiences as a “boymom.”

Guests:

Ruth Whippman, essayist, cultural critic and author of "BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity"

It’s been almost a year since robotaxi companies Waymo and Cruise expanded their operations to offer fully driverless ride services in San Francisco. Testing human-free vehicles in urban environments has proven challenging, with incidents ranging from gaffs like a driverless car stumped by parade traffic to deep safety concerns that led GM to suspend Cruise’s autonomous operations last fall. After a wave of driverless hype, and criticism – where does the industry stand today? We’ll speak with a research engineer who has been studying the promise of autonomous vehicles for half a century, and an investigative reporter tracking the data and the blindspots of these robots on our roads.

Guests:

Bigad Shaban, senior investigative reporter, NBC Bay Area

Steven Shladover, research engineer, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California-Berkeley

Philip Reinckens, senior vice president of commercialization and operations, Gatik

In a speech written for the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music.” King considered jazz music “triumphant” — and this belief is rooted in the widespread popularity of three men: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, according to author Larry Tye. Respectively known as Satchmo, Duke and the Count, the three men were, Tye writes, “symbols of American culture on par with Coca-Cola and Mickey Mouse.” He profiles the trio in his new book, “The Jazzmen.” In it, he pieces together over 250 interviews, including family members and former bandmates, to illustrate how their appeal among both Black and white audiences paved the way for the Civil Rights Movement. Tye joins us to share more.

Guests:

Larry Tye, journalist; author, "The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America"

lower waypoint

To date, Miriam Adelson has donated over $200 million to various political campaigns. “She is effectively a queen,” reporter Elizabeth Weil writes in her New York Magazine article about the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the richest Israeli and eighth richest woman in the world. As Trump’s top patron in 2020, Adelson has recently announced her intention to channel more than $100 million to this year’s Trump reelection efforts. But what will she want in return? Some speculate Adelson will begin with insistence on complete support for Israel and a continuation of Trump’s Israel agenda from last term, including backing Israel annexing the West Bank. We’ll talk with Weil about Adelson’s 30 billion dollar worth, and what it could mean for this campaign season and our foreign policy.

Guests:

Elizabeth Weil, feature writer, New York Magazine; author of the New York Magazine article "Miriam Adelson’s Unfinished Business: What does the eighth richest woman in the world want?"