KQED's Forum

With Rare Candor, FBI Employees Sound Alarms about Kash Patel’s Leadership

It’s been nearly a year since Kash Patel took the helm of the FBI, a period New York Times reporter Emily Bazelon says has been “marred by vendettas, mismanagement and meltdowns.” The New York Times spoke to 45 current and former FBI officials, who describe a traditionally independent agency now captured and weaponized by the White House. The officials say the FBI’s new emphasis on immigration, over counterterrorism and cybersecurity, is making America less safe. We’ll talk to a former Los Angeles field officer and to Bazelon, whose new piece is “A Year Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.” Guests: Emily Bazelon, staff writer, The New York Times Magazine; Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law, Yale Law School; co-host, Slate's “Political Gabfest” Jill Fields, former supervisory intelligence analyst for violent crime in the Los Angeles field office, FBI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heather Cox Richardson on Trump's Impact on Democracy

Calling out ICE and the National Guard to police Los Angeles, Portland and Minneapolis. DOGE and the evisceration of government institutions. Invading Venezuela. The insults, the rambling, the grift. The Epstein files. It’s hard to keep up with how Trump 2.0 is impacting our country. But in her popular newsletter,  “Letters from an American” political historian Heather Cox Richardson helps readers keep their eyes on what matters.  Guests: Heather Cox Richardson, author of "Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America", Richardson is professor of political history at Boston College. Her previous books include "How the South Won the Civil War." Her newsletter, “Letters from an American” reaches over 5 million readers on Substack and Facebook.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meklit Hadero Reimagines Ethiopian Folk Songs: Live in Studio

San Francisco-based, Ethiopian-born singer-songwriter Meklit Hadero and her band join us live in the studio to play from her new album, “A Piece of Infinity.” The album reimagines folk songs from across Ethiopia, blending her signature Ethio-jazz style with R&B, synth and other genres. We’ll talk about the stories the album tells and bask in her rich, expressive vocals. Guests: Meklit Hadero, Ethio-Jazz singer and composer Sam Bevan, upright bass Colin Douglas, drums Howard Wiley, tenor saxophone Kibrom Berhane, keyboard and krar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen on Freeing Ourselves from Metrics

Have you ever achieved a high GPA, crushed your Duolingo streak, or seen a surge of likes on social media… only to feel weirdly empty? Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen attributes that joylessness to what he calls “value capture,” where rankings and metrics can replace our own values and start dictating goals for us. We talk to Nguyen about the difference between playful score keeping… and soul-sucking metrics. And we want to hear from you: Have you ever found yourself playing a game you didn’t choose? Guests: C. Thi Nguyen, philosopher; author, “The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Orphaned Ukrainian Children Navigate Loss and Recovery Amid War

Russia’s war in Ukraine has orphaned some 2000 Ukrainian children, leaving them with physical and psychological wounds and adult responsibilities beyond their years. Journalist Anna Nemtsova interviewed orphaned children across Ukraine, many of whom witnessed a parent being killed by Russian forces. She also looked at the impacts felt by Russian youth growing up surrounded by violence. We talk to Nemtsova about the harms she says could last a generation. We also talk about the trajectory of the nearly four-year war with former Ukraine ambassador Steve Pifer, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Trump prepare to meet Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Guests: Anna Nemtsova, Eastern Europe correspondent, The Daily Beast; contributing writer, The Atlantic; her new piece for KQED is “A Generation Orphaned by War: Ukrainian Children Grow Up Amid Loss and Recovery" Steven Pifer, affiliate, Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University; former ambassador to Ukraine and senior director at the National Security Council in the Clinton administration Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices