KQED's Forum

For people who lived through the AIDS pandemic, Covid-19 felt familiar: a little understood virus was causing a public health crisis, just as HIV had done forty years earlier. In fact, leading HIV researchers like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx ended up on the frontlines of Covid. What other lessons did AIDS teach us, and what can we learn from survivors of the AIDS generation about living with Covid-19 for the long term? Alexis Madrigal talks to a panel of experts and HIV survivors, Dr. Diane Havlir and Jeff Sheehy, to get their thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, many people looked to the film “Contagion” as a manual for what lay ahead. The movie became a touchstone, and its stars were even enlisted to do a public service announcement about Covid. Now, a year later, the screenwriter of that movie, Scott Burns, along with UCLA epidemiologist Anne Rimoin, join us to talk about what the film got right and what unfolded in real life that they could never have predicted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For more than a decade, Americans have been having fewer children. Now, the coronavirus pandemic has intensified the decline. Researchers expect births in the United States to drop by 3.6 percent this year bringing them to their lowest point since 1969. Many people who were considering becoming pregnant last year changed their minds and unplanned pregnancies also likely fell. Mina Kim discuss what is driving down birth rates and what we can expect after the pandemic recedes with senior reporter at Vox, Anna North, associate professor of economics and gender studies Eliana Dockterman, and author of the article, "Women Are Deciding Not to Have Babies Because of the Pandemic. That’s Bad for All of Us" Samhita Mukhopadhyay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One year ago Tuesday, the sun rose, people were out and about, but because of the coronavirus --then still called the “novel coronavirus” ­--the Bay Area was on the cusp of the first stay-at-home order in the nation. Public health officers from 6 counties and the City of Berkeley held a press conference, telling millions of people they would need to stay mostly at home for three weeks to stop the spread of COVID-19, then with fewer than 300 known cases across the 7 jurisdictions. Most people probably had no idea that they were in for a year of lockdowns, restrictions, uncertainty and deaths. Alexis Madrigal reflects with Dr. Seema Yasmin and KQED’s Lesley McClurg back on the day it started a year ago, and the seismic changes that followed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's sometimes hard to know whether to laugh or cry when we think of our pre-pandemic selves, completely oblivious to the public health crisis that would claim more than 2.6 million lives globally and rain down chaos everywhere. We've asked listeners to share the advice they'd give to their blissfully ignorant past selves, and responses have ranged from the philosophical ("things are going to get stranger") to the practical ("get ready for some picnics! Lots and lots of picnics!"). Mina Kim talks to comedian and actor Adrienne Bankert and national correspondent Teresa Puente about what pandemic life has taught us about ourselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus pandemic magnified many existing issues facing seniors in society, including loneliness and isolation. Social distancing meant our parents and grandparents could no longer go to places of worship, senior centers, restaurants, or visit with family. Many seniors faced lockdowns in assisted living facilities or nursing homes, or were isolated in their own homes. Looking back at this past year, Rachael Myrow talks about the difficulties seniors faced and lessons to be learned from them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early aughts, when singer-songwriter Miko Marks was looking to launch her music career in Nashville, the mecca of country music, she was told by one of the major labels that she was too “innovative” and that she wouldn’t sell records as a Black woman artist. Today, following last year’s protests for racial justice, and after one of country’s biggest stars was captured on camera using a racial slur, the country music industry is having a reckoning. We’ll talk to the Bay Area-based Marks about how she’s forged her art and identity as a Black woman in the white- and male-dominated country music industry. We’ll also talk about and hear some songs from her new album “Our Country.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden formed a task force last month to speed the reunification of migrant children separated from their parents under the last administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. Advocates for the children have been pressing officials to act with urgency and offer the families a path to citizenship and other resources. Roughly 1,000 children are thought to remain separated, and the parents of about 500 have yet to be located. We’ll talk about the status of reunification efforts, and we’ll also talk about how the Biden Administration is responding to a dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The just approved American Rescue Plan includes $1.7 billion for struggling public Bay Area transit agencies. The pandemic has forced agencies such as BART and Muni to cut service. The new funds help avoid further service cuts and massive layoffs. We’ll hear how the agencies are likely to use the funds, and whether they’ll be enough to reverse a massive ridership and budgetary crisis in the region's public transit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the pandemic began a year ago, we've checked in with a number of public health officials throughout the region. Now we head to the North Bay to talk with Napa and Sonoma County officials about current coronavirus restrictions, reopening, the rate of infection and the pace of vaccinations. We'll hear what makes the North Bay's experience of the pandemic unique – from bedroom communities to farm workers – plus managing the pandemic amid the pressures of a tourism-oriented economy and the threat of wildfire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices