PodcastDirectory.com's listings of the KQED's Forum Podcasts

Haiti Update

Some half a million people are streaming from the countryside back into the shattered Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, and some local officials say that's complicating efforts to rebuild the city. We talk about the human cost of the disaster with rescue workers, doctors and others who've just returned from Haiti.

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Stewart Brand helped define the 1960s counterculture with his "Whole Earth Catalog." Now he's angered some on the left with a new book, "Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto," which endorses nuclear power and genetic engineering. Brand joins host Michael Krasny in the studio.

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As the first National Tea Party Convention gets underway in Nashville featuring keynote speaker Sarah Palin, we discuss the movement and speak with some Bay Area attendees about why they got involved.

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The colorful public art of San Francisco's Mission District reflects the vibrance, diversity and political activism of the neighborhood. We talk to the editor of a new book of photos and essays which traces the history of the Mission's street art movement -- and we check in with some of the artists featured in the book.

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An unpublished state-sponsored study indicates that the rate of women in California who die from causes related to pregnancy has tripled in the last decade. However, doctors are divided over the reasons for the apparent increase. In this hour, the program discusses the study and its potential impact.

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In his new book, "Awakening to Awe," psychologist Kirk Schneider chronicles the stories of people who have transformed their lives by making themselves open to humility and wonder. The program talks with Schneider about what he describes as a self-help meditation on an alternative and underground spiritual movement.

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Former Mexico City mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas joins us in the studio. Cardenas, who is also a former presidential candidate and a founder of Mexico's Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD) Party, will join us to discuss U.S.-Mexico relations, border violence and the legacy of the Mexican revolution, which began 100 years ago. Cardenas is teaching a semester-long course, "The Promise & Legacy of the Mexican Revolution: 1910 - 2010," at U.C. Berkeley this Spring.

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"Oedipus el Rey," the new play at San Francisco's Magic Theater, is a Chicano take on Sophocle's ancient tale. Complete with a chorus of prison inmates, Oedipus' journey takes him down California Highway 99. Also, we talk about the Marin Theater Company's new play, "Sunlight," which pits a liberal university president against the conservative dean of the law school. The play tackles loyalty, power and torture memos. We talk with the playwright and the artistic director of the company.

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President Obama's $3.8 trillion budget for the fiscal year starting October 1st includes cutting spending on federal programs and raising $2 trillion in taxes. And it still foresees a major healthcare overhaul. We look at how the proposed budget might affect California.

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Tony Award-winning actor and gay-rights advocate Harvey Fierstein may be best known for writing and starring in the Broadway hit "Torch Song Trilogy." He has also appeared in films including "Mrs. Doubtfire" and TV shows like "Cheers" and "The Simpsons." He is currently starring in "Fiddler on the Roof" in San Francisco.

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American writer J.D. Salinger, perhaps best known for his work "Catcher in the Rye," died last week. We examine Salinger's life and literary legacy.

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Bonny Doon winery founder Randall Grahm has been called "the Willy Wonka of the wine world." We talk pinot and poetry with the eccentric Santa Cruz winemaker, whose new book is "Been Doon So Long."

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Officials in Washington have granted nearly $2.5 billion to California for a high-speed rail system that proponents say will speed passengers along at more than 200 miles per hour over 800 miles of track. Advocates say a trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles on high-speed trains would take just two and a half hours.

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The Sierra Club's new executive director Michael Brune joins us in the studio. Brune is currently executive director at Rainforest Action Network. He's also the author of "Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal."

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Yoga in California is no longer a fringe activity -- classes are widely found in gyms, workplaces and even in some California prisons. In San Francisco this weekend, more than 40 of the world's most well-known yoga teachers and nearly 2,000 yoga practitioners will attend the annual Yoga Journal Conference. We talk with local yogis about the conference and the state of yoga in the West.

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The morning after President Obama's first State of the Union address, we talk with experts and observers, including the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, about the speech. We're also joined by Joseph Tuman, professor of political and legal communication at San Francisco State University and author of the recent book, "Political Communication in American Campaigns."

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Poet, visual artist and singer-songwriter Patti Smith shook the music world in the 1970s with her gritty songs -- a mix of poetry and punk -- and she's had a profound influence on generations of musicians and artists ever since. Smith joins us to reflect on her art and discuss her new memoir "Just Kids," about her friendship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

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California voters gave themselves the power to redraw legislative lines in the state when they passed Proposition 11 in 2008. Citizens can apply, through February 12, to serve on a commission whose job it will be to redistrict California. But there's growing concern that the commission isn't attracting ethnically diverse applicants.

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Almost 800,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with a stroke each year, and now some experts say hospitals need to be far more aggressive in detecting and treating strokes in children. We talk with health professionals about risk factors for stroke, how to recognize symptoms and the best new treatments.

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Americans have a harder time balancing the demands of work and family than workers in other industrialized countries, according to a report released Monday by UC Hastings and the Center for American Progress. Meanwhile, the authors argue, there are fewer laws to support and protect working families.

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