California voters finish casting their ballots on Tuesday to choose their top two candidates for U.S. Senate and decide the fate of Proposition 1, the mental health services measure supported by Gov. Gavin Newsom. We’ll take stock of those results, check in on key congressional races around the state and look at the outcome of the presidential nominating contests nationwide.

Guests:
Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED; co-host, KQED's Political Breakdown
Faith E. Pinho, reporter, Los Angeles Times
Scott Shafer, senior editor, KQED’s California Politics and Government desk; co-host, KQED's Political Breakdown

Election 2024: California Super Tuesday Results

With a predicted anemic turnout, what lessons can be gleaned from voters in this March primary? Issues that crowd the headlines like public safety and homelessness appear in various state and regional ballot measures. Will these concerns tilt the otherwise progressive-leaning Bay Area towards a more conservative path? With the help of the KQED Politics team, we’ll analyze the election results and trends in this primary, and we’ll hear from you: What brought you to or kept you from the polls?

Guests:
Guy Marzorati, correspondent, KQED's California Politics and Government Desk
Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED; co-host, KQED's Political Breakdown
Annelise Finney, reporter, KQED
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, reporter and producer covering politics, KQED News

Election 2024: Bay Area Super Tuesday Results

The 96th Academy Awards are in less than a week, and a lot of ink has been spilled comparing contenders for best actor, best director and best picture. But what about less-discussed “craft categories” that reward creativity behind the scenes — like editing, costume design, cinematography and production design? We’ll talk to artists in each of those fields about what their work entails and how to recognize and appreciate a bold edit or a brilliant visual aesthetic. And we’ll hear from you: what’s an Oscars category you’d love to know more about?

Guests:

Sam Restivo, editor; credits include "Napoleon," "House of Gucci," and "The Last Duel"

Allison Pearce, costume designer; credits include "Paint," "Black Bear," and "Clerks 3"

Olivia Peebles, production designer and set decorator; credits include “Miss Juneteenth,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “Oppenheimer”

Elisha Christian, cinematographer; credits include "The Night House" and "The Voyeurs"

Everything You Wanted to Know About The Oscars Craft Categories

Caroline Paul is 60 years old and she rides a one-wheel, paddle boards wherever she pleases, and as the endurance swimmer Diana Nyad put it, is “the toughest broad I know.” But in her new book, Tough Broad, Paul sets out to show that all kinds of outdoor adventure from BASE jumping to bird watching can enrich the lives of women as they get older in a society that tells them to simply fade to irrelevance. We’ll be talking awe and novelty, accepting loss and challenging norms. As she writes, “This is not a book about adrenaline, it is a book about exhilaration. It is not about bravado, it is about bravery.”

Guests:

Caroline Paul, author, "Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking-How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age" and "The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure

‘Tough Broad’ Caroline Paul on the Importance of Outdoor Adventures While We Age

More than a year after a very bad breakup, LA Times journalist Todd Martens struggled to understand why he was still so stuck on his ex. He doodled her name whenever he held pen and paper; he couldn’t sleep and couldn’t stop stewing. So he turned to science to understand why his mind and body continued to hurt so much and shared what he learned in his recent article “Science can explain a broken heart. Could science help heal mine?” We’ll talk to Martens and turn to experts in neuroscience and psychology for strategies to heal broken hearts. And we’ll hear from you: what’s helped you get through a bad breakup?

Guests:

Todd Martens, columnist, Los Angeles Times - Martens covers theme parks, games and interactive entertainment for the LA Times. He is a self-professed Disneyland addict who wrote the piece, "This Is Your Brain on Disneyland"

Mary-Frances O’Connor, neuroscientist; psychologist; author, 2022 book “The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn From Love and Loss"

David Sbarra, professor of psychology, University of Arizona

Can Science Explain a Broken Heart?

Tuesday is the final day to cast ballots in this year’s primary election. Voters across the Bay Area will decide on key races for county supervisor seats, state offices, and a slew of measures aimed at addressing mental health, public safety and the region’s homelessness crisis. Some of the races garnering attention include a rare recall election for two San Francisco judges who have been portrayed as soft on crime. In the East Bay, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín is competing with five other candidates for a seat in the state senate. In Napa, voters will decide on three of five supervisor seats. We’ll talk about the races you’re watching and what you need to know going into the primary.

Guests:

Guy Marzorati, correspondent, KQED's California Politics and Government Desk

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, reporter and producer covering politics, KQED News

Kim Alexander, president and founder, California Voter Foundation

Annelise Finney, reporter, KQED

Election 2024: Key Races and Ballot Measures in the March Primary

By early January 2021, 61 courts and the U.S. Justice Department under Donald Trump had rejected the former president’s claims that he’d lost the 2020 election because of fraud. Nevertheless, fed by Trump and those who believed the election disinformation he spread, the Stop the Steal movement flourished and culminated in the January 6 Capitol insurrection. University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade has dissected the manipulative messaging tactics disinformers use to promulgate conspiracies like Stop the Steal. We learn how to identify those tactics and what we can do to combat them legally and politically. McQuade’s new book is “Attack from Within.”

Guests:

Barbara McQuade, professor, University of Michigan Law School - former U.S attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan; author, "Attack From Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America"

Barbara McQuade on the Disinformation That's 'Sabotaging America'

Macy’s announced this week it would be closing its flagship Union Square store, among 150 other underperforming stores across the country. The news is just the latest blow to the city’s beleaguered shopping district. We’ll talk about the store’s iconic history and imagine other futures for downtown and Union Square. And we want to hear from you. What are your Macy’s memories? And what would you like to see happen in that building and in Union Square?

Guests:

Amy Campbell, building transformation and adaptive reuse leader, Gensler

Peter Hartlaub, culture critic, San Francisco Chronicle

Annie Appleby, her parents met while working at Macy's

After Closure Announcement, a Look at Macy’s Heyday…and Union Square’s Future

Lawmakers in Alabama this week are scrambling to limit the effects of a Feb. 16 state Supreme Court decision holding that frozen embryos are human and that anyone who destroys them can be held liable for wrongful death. Since the decision, major IVF providers across the state have suspended their services, leaving an industry in chaos and families going through IVF in limbo. Meanwhile, Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked a bill Wednesday that would have created national protections for fertility treatment. We’ll talk about the ongoing fallout in Alabama and where the broader movement for fetal personhood stands nationally.

Guests:

Mary Ziegler, professor of law, UC Davis

Amy Yurkanin, senior reporter, AL.com

Political and Legal Fallout Continues After Alabama IVF Ruling

San Francisco is in the midst of a devastating drug crisis with a record number of overdose deaths last year. In an attempt to address the problem, Mayor London Breed has put a measure on the March 5th ballot that would deny cash assistance benefits to people who use drugs and refuse treatment. Breed has said Proposition F would usher more people into getting help as well as stopping taxpayer dollars from contributing to overdose deaths. Opponents say the measure would do more harm than good by penalizing vulnerable residents who need public assistance to survive. We’ll examine Prop F and hear from voters.

Guests:

London Breed, mayor, City and County of San Francisco

Trent Rhorer, executive director, San Francisco Human Services Agency

Aaron Peskin, president, San Francisco Board of Supervisors

SF’s Prop F Would Cut Cash Aid for People Who Use Drugs and Refuse Treatment

In the summer of 2020, Lebanon was trying to contain both a global pandemic and an internal economic crisis when, on August 4th, a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate at the port of Beirut caught fire and exploded in one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history. The blast killed at least 220 people, injured more than 6000 residents and caused $8 billion in damages. Journalist Dalal Mawad was living in Beirut at the time, and her new book “All She Lost,” examines the event, told through stories of women who lost children, husbands and family members in the explosion and struggled through the financial and political collapse in Lebanon that ensued. We talk to Mawad about what their stories reveal about the treatment of women in Lebanon and how the blast’s survivors are seeking justice for those they lost.

Guests:
Dalal Mawad, journalist

The Explosion of Beirut’s Port Told Through the Lives of Women in “All She Lost”

As some Democrats become increasingly frantic about the chances of 81-year old President Joe Biden winning reelection, there have been high-profile calls for Biden to step down and allow another Democratic candidate to emerge in a brokered convention. Many names, including Governor Gavin Newsom, have been floated as possible alternatives. But the natural successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, is often dismissed due to her own low approval ratings. We’ll talk about Kamala Harris’ record as Vice President and why she struggles to be thought of as a viable option if Biden needs to step down during the campaign or his presidency.

Guests:
Aimee Allison, founder and president, She the People - a national organization dedicated to building the political power of women of color
Errin Haines, editor at large, The 19th - a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy
Shira Stein, Washington correspondent, San Francisco Chronicle

Concerns about Joe Biden Focus Spotlight on Kamala Harris

For years, observers of workplace culture have predicted the death of the annual performance review, calling it ineffective, unpopular and often biased. But some companies are trying to make it better. Does more frequent, real-time feedback sound good to you… or the use of AI to monitor your productivity? We’ll talk with workplace experts about the future of performance reviews and hear from you. What do you think are the best ways to evaluate employees in today’s changing workplace?

Guests:

Lori Nishiura Mackenzie, co-founder, Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab

Josh Bersin, corporate talent, human resources and technology analyst; author, "Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World's Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations"

Performance Reviews are Underperforming. What Should Replace Them?

In his latest novel “Wandering Stars,” Oakland writer Tommy Orange traces the stories of the Native Americans who populated his celebrated debut, “There There.” The book, which is both prequel and sequel, begins with the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and the opening of the first Native American residential school in the U.S whose mission, according to its founder, was to “Kill the Indian to save the man.” Orange examines how you can create identity and connection when your family inheritance embeds thick seams of generational trauma, cultural erasure, and violence. We’ll talk to Orange about his novel.

Guests:

Tommy Orange, author, "Wandering Stars," "There There," and "Normal Ain't Normal"

Tommy Orange’s ‘Wandering Stars’ Examines the Legacy and Consequences of Cultural Erasure

We like to think of adoption as an unmitigated social good – a practice that UCSF sociologist Gretchen Sisson says “makes possible the maintenance of both the heteronormative family ideal beloved by the right and the nontraditional, chosen family ideals embraced by the left.” But Sisson says that framing ignores the experiences of birth mothers, who tend to have far less socioeconomic power than adoptive parents and who bear the complicated and even traumatic consequences of relinquishing an infant. Sisson conducted more than 100 interviews with birth mothers who relinquished their children to learn how they came to decide on adoption and the impact that decision has had on them and their families. Her new book is “Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood.”

Guests:

Gretchen Sisson, qualitative sociologist studying abortion and adoption at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, UCSF; author, "Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood” - her research was cited in the Supreme Court’s dissent in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Serina Chacon, birth mother based in Northern California

UCSF’s Gretchen Sisson Spotlights Experiences of Birth Mothers in ‘Relinquished’

Have you ever encountered someone you felt like you could share your life story with, even if you just met? In his latest book, “Supercommunicators,” journalist Charles Duhigg details just how some people have come to master the art of conversation. To learn the secrets of effective communication, Duhigg interviewed a CIA agent tasked with recruiting spies, a NASA psychiatrist who screened astronauts for intense missions, and the creators of the hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” who duke out ideas in the writer’s room. Duhigg joins us to talk about how to listen better, how to make yourself understood and how to connect on a much deeper level.

Guests:

Charles Duhigg, reporter, New York Times; author, "Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection" and "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business"

Charles Duhigg's “Supercommunicators” Breaks Down How to Talk Better and Forge Connections

Global outrage persists after high-profile Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died last week in an Arctic penal colony. His death — and the two-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine — have prompted the Biden Administration to impose new sanctions against Russia that will be announced on Friday. We’ll talk about the deep rift between the Biden Administration and Russia and the ongoing congressional stalemate over aid for Ukraine and the national security issues it implicates.

Guests:

Kathryn Stoner, senior fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; author, "Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order"

Max Boot, senior fellow for national security studies, Council on Foreign Relations; columnist, Washington

U.S. to Impose Major New Sanctions on Russia After Death of Alexei Navalny

Oprah and Gayle. Bert and Ernie. All four of the Golden Girls. For many people (and puppets), their soulmate is often their friend. We don’t have a good word to describe that kind of friendship – one that involves intimacy without sex, constancy without marriage, and a belief that you cannot live without the other person. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate friendships that you build your life around, argues author Rhaina Cohen in her new book “The Other Significant Others.” We’ll talk to Cohen about the breadth and depth of these friendships and how we can center them in our lives. And we’ll hear from you: Tell us about that friend who is your person.

Guests:

Rhaina Cohen, author, "The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center" - Cohen is a producer and editor for the NPR documentary podcast "Embedded"

When a Friendship, Not a Romantic Partner, is the Center of Your World

If you were watching TV in the 1980s you’re probably familiar with the sounds of electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani, whose synthesizer compositions became the sonic logos for Coca-Cola, Atari, GE, PBS and dozens of other brands. Ciani has gone on to cultivate new audiences through her quadraphonic concerts that she produces using an updated version of the same synthesizer that she played as a student at UC Berkeley in the late-1960s, the Buchla 200E. We’ll talk with Ciani about her career, how California inspires her and hear excerpts from her upcoming concert series that celebrates the 40th anniversary of her breakthrough album “Seven Waves.”

Guests:

Suzanne Ciani, music composer, performer

Electronic Music Composer Suzanne Ciani Celebrates Groundbreaking Career

With the soaring cost of college tuition, which at some private universities can hit over $80,000 a year, it’s not surprising that over 85% of American families apply for financial aid. A critical step in that process is completing the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. But this year, the Education Department’s rollout of a new form has been bedeviled by delays and technical problems that are affecting the admissions process for colleges, students and their families. Some universities are rolling back enrollment deadlines while others are waiting in hope that the issues will resolve. We’ll talk with financial aid experts and hear from you: Are you applying for financial aid? How has that process been for you?

Guests:

Eric Hoover, senior writer, Chronicle of Higher Education

Anna Takahashi, director of college counseling, Eastside College Preparatory School, East Palo Alto

Sonia Jethani, associate vice president, financial aid, Cal State East Bay

Jake Brymner, deputy director of policy & public affairs, California Student Aid Commission

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