KQED's Forum

Hundreds of truckers in Canada who are protesting vaccine mandates have shut down bridges and borders and brought the nation’s capital Ottawa to a near standstill. The protest began in late January when a convoy of trucks began traveling from western Canada to Ottawa. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has demanded that the protesters go home, but the truckers and their supporters show no signs of leaving. Meanwhile, copycat protests have emerged in France, New Zealand and Australia and there are talks about organizing a similar demonstration in the U.S. We’ll talk about the protest and its implications.Guests:Emma Jacobs, reporter, NPR; has covered the Ottawa protests on the groundSteve Reilly, investigative reporter, Grid NewsAndrew Cohen, journalist and associate professor of journalism and communications at Carleton University, Ottawa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden said this week that American citizens should leave Ukraine amid uncertainty over a possible Russian invasion. Russia says it has no such plans. But the country has over 100,000 troops massed near the Ukrainian border and is set to start ten days of military drills on Thursday in Belarus, Ukraine’s neighbor to the north.  We’ll talk to former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul about how the Biden administration should handle the conflict. Then, Politico’s Maggie Miller on why a clash between those two countries could “give the world its first experience of a true cyber war”-- and a glimpse into the future of modern warfare.Guests:Michael McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; former U.S ambassador to RussiaMaggie Miller, cybersecurity reporter, Politico Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Modern life conspires against friendship,” says Atlantic staff writer Jennifer Senior, "even as it requires the bonds of friendship all the more." That’s one of the paradoxes at the center of Senior’s new piece “It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart” — a meditation on why friendships fade and collapse and why in midlife those losses sting particularly hard. We’ll talk to Senior about how at 52 she’s navigating what she calls a “Great Pandemic Friendship Reckoning” and what it means to overcome the heartbreak of a lost friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vegan food has come a long way from sad side salads. Judging from the lines winding far down the block at Oakland’s Vegan Mob restaurant, vegan restaurants are surging in popularity. Some of the Bay Area’s busiest restaurants are owned and operated by people of color serving vegan versions of the food they grew up eating, like burgers, barbeque and pork-heavy burritos. We’ll talk about the new wave of vegan restaurants as part of our series on the food cultures of the Bay Area with KQED Food Editor Luke Tsai. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Textiles and yarn did not have enough structure and volume, but clay I found was and is just right,” Edith Heath once said. The co-founder of Heath Ceramics is the focus of an exhibition at Oakland Museum of California, which looks at how Heath’s relocation to San Francisco informed and inspired her iconic mid-century ceramic designs. In Sausalito, Heath Ceramics revolutionized ceramic houseware, designing and manufacturing accessible, stylish dinnerware that could be used for Sunday best or on the patio. We’ll talk about how Heath fits within the larger history of ceramics in Northern California, what makes California clay so special and why Heath Ceramics remains relevant, nearly 75 years after its founding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The pursuit of justice creates injustice,” writes CNN Senior Legal Analyst Laura Coates in her new book, “Just Pursuit.” Coates began her career as a federal prosecutor in Washington D.C. with optimism. She had come from the Department of Justice where she had worked for both the Bush and Obama Administrations enforcing voting rights. In that role, she found herself being welcomed in Black communities as a hero ensuring votes would be counted. But as a prosecutor, that same community viewed her as working for the wrong side. And, after witnessing justice in action, Coates herself became distrustful of the very system in which she was a decision maker. We’ll talk to Coates about her book, the state of voting rights, and the difficult balancing act of being a Black woman, wife, and mother seeking to uphold the law and retain her humanity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The San Francisco Art Institute and the University of San Francisco announced this month that they’re planning to merge. Under the agreement, USF will acquire the cash-strapped 151-year old arts college and offer a program called SFAI@USF in the fall. The move is reminiscent of Northeastern University’s acquisition of Mills College in September 2021 as small colleges and arts schools deal with financial pressures compounded by Covid. We’ll talk about the implications for SFAI’s students and adjunct faculty, as well as for the broader arts community of the Bay Area, and look ahead at a new era for the irreverent contemporary arts school. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oakland’s school board is set to vote Tuesday on a highly controversial plan to permanently close or merge up to 15 schools over the next two years due to declining enrollment and lack of funding. “OUSD simply has too many schools and ... keeping these schools open negatively impacts all students and staff within OUSD,” district officials wrote in a statement. Students, staff, and parents have been protesting the move, and two teachers are waging a hunger strike in response. They say they were blindsided by the proposal and point to the fact that the move would disproportionately affect students of color and less affluent communities. We’ll preview the vote and discuss the future of Oakland’s schools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russia is planning to release a video of a fake Ukrainian attack that it would use to justify an invasion, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The Kremlin has denied the charge. But according to Stanford intelligence expert Amy Zegart, so-called deepfake videos and photographs are among the biggest challenges facing U.S. spy agencies. We are living in an era when bad actors can cause “massive disruption, destruction, and deception with the click of a mouse,” she writes in her new book, “Spies, Lies, and Algorithms.” Zegart joins us to talk about the book and the future of espionage in an era of artificial intelligence and cyberwarfare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a victory for the extreme right, Shasta voters have apparently chosen to recall Leonard Moty, a longtime Republican county supervisor and former Redding police chief. Moty and other moderate board members had faced a backlash from militia groups over COVID-19 and gun policies. We’ll talk to KQED’s Scott Shafer about the vote and what it means for right-wing movements, the GOP and politics in the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices