KQED's Forum

After following the notoriously bad relationship between baseball icons Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent as well as the meteoric path of the Giants, Bay Area based sports writer Joan Ryan grew curious about team chemistry and how it affects performance. She spent ten years probing sociology, neuroscience and psychology to answer questions about whether team chemistry was real. And if so, what is it exactly? And how do you measure it? Ryan joins us to talk about the importance of sports during the pandemic, how our relationships with friends, colleagues, and family are affected by team dynamics, and her new book, “Intangibles: Unlocking the Science and Soul of Team Chemistry”. (originally aired Aug. 14, 2020) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the pandemic is in the rear window and we can go out safely and breathe within 6 feet of friends and strangers, what are the first things you’re going to do? We want to hear your post-pandemic fantasy. Is it a crowded dance floor? A trip around the globe? Or just simply dropping your kid off at school? And, what will you miss from this time? Is there anything from your pandemic lifestyle that you hope to hold on to, even after the world opens up again? We’ll open the phones to hear from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We'll listen back to Michael Krasny's 2002 conversation with famed poet, author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, who died in 2014. They talked about "A Song Flung Up to Heaven", the sixth book in her series of autobiographies which started with "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” (originally aired May 8, 2002) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Krasny talks with author Louise Erdrich about her National Book Award-winning novel “The Round House.” Set on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota, the book deals with the aftermath of a brutal rape and a son’s quest for justice. It is part of a trilogy which includes “The Plague of Doves” and “LaRose.” (originally aired Oct. 18., 2012) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new book “Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America," sociologist and cultural critic Michael Eric Dyson looks at the history of systemic racism in the U.S. and how it led to this year’s unrest and protests for racial justice. Written as letters to Black victims of systemic racism and police brutality, including Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor, Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from slavery to the present. We’ll talk to Dyson about the book and why he remains hopeful in the fight for racial and social justice. (originally broadcast on 12/8/20.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Against the backdrop of 6,000 licensed childcare facilities closing during the pandemic and a projected loss of up to 85,000 childcare spaces, Governor Newsom earlier this month unveiled a sweeping masterplan to improve early childhood care and learning. The 107-page document presents a 10-year blueprint for expanding access to child care and improving the quality of California’s early childhood programs for low income students under the age of 6. Advocates say Covid has made the need for childhood care and learning even more urgent. We'll hear about the plan and check in with a childcare provider about how it's going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kaiser Permanente announced this week that it will postpone elective procedures into January over concerns that COVID-19 hospitalizations may continue to grow over the holidays. The news comes as San Mateo County’s ICU beds fill and the county works to secure more beds for the sick. We get an update on Bay Area hospital capacity and hear why reported numbers can be confusing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether it was streaming our favorite songs, tuning into a live DJ set online or picking up an instrument, music helped many of us navigate this difficult year. In August, we asked listeners to share the songs getting you through 2020 and we've been playing some of them on air each week. This hour, as the year comes to a close, we'll play more of the songs you said kept you going in 2020 and talk with NPR's music correspondent Ann Powers about the meaning of music in a year like this one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The power of the president is typically kept in check by other branches of government and historical political norms, but the past four years have revealed alarming fissures in the system. In the book, "After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency," law professors Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith argue that the presidency of Donald Trump has revealed the executive branch's vulnerability to abuse by a president and a lack of accountability that necessitate further reform of presidential powers. In this hour, we'll hear from Bauer and Goldsmith about how Trump and previous presidents have overstepped their powers and what reforms could be viable during the next administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been a tumultuous year for parents. Some of us wrestle with remote learning, others with how to spend all day, every day, with their kids. Some scramble to find childcare while away at work, others hustle to keep kids fed after losing jobs to the pandemic. Through it all are the everyday challenges, and joys, of raising kids. What has parenting during the pandemic looked like for you? We want to hear your parenting wins and flops and how you've coped through it all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices