Listen to Forum

Forum tells remarkable and true stories about who we are and where we live. In the first hour, Alexis Madrigal convenes the diverse voices of the Bay Area, before turning to Mina Kim for the second hour to chronicle and center Californians’ experience. In an increasingly divided world, Mina and Alexis host conversations that inform, challenge and unify listeners with big ideas and different viewpoints.

Want to call/submit your comments during our live Forum program Mon-Fri, 9am-11am? We’d love to hear from you! Please dial 866.SF.FORUM or (866) 733-6786, email forum@kqed.org, tweet, post on Facebook, or join KQED’s Discord community.

We're excited to announce a new way for listeners to join the conversation! KQED is now on Discord, a social media platform focused on community (not clicks). Check out our guide to joining Forum discussions on Discord.

This online gathering space is a first-of-its-kind experiment for KQED and we’re excited to build it with you. KQED's digital community is a lively, fun space for civic engagement, conversation, and interaction between KQED listeners and the journalists behind our radio and podcast programs.

Forum EpisodesForum Episodes

Nov 18 10:00 AM

‘Power Metal’ Examines the Cost of Our Battery-Powered Lives

Nov 18 9:00 AM

SETI Scientists on 40 years of Asking the Universe 'Are We Alone?'

Nov 15 10:00 AM

Forum from the Archives: Daveed Diggs Live at KQED Fest

Download

The Team

Mina Kim

Co-Host, Forum

Mina Kim is host of the statewide hour of KQED Forum; a live, daily, call-in talk show. Through intimate and informative conversations, Mina connects the state’s many residents, and illuminates the issues affecting California and the nation. Before joining Forum, Mina was KQED’s evening news anchor, and health reporter for The California Report. Her award-winning work has included natural disasters in Napa and gun violence in Oakland. At the University of Michigan she studied the intersection of gender, race and class. She was a first grade teacher through Teach For America, and ran a mentorship program for students aspiring to be the first in their families to go to college. She grew up in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Alexis Madrigal

Co-Host, Forum

Alexis Madrigal is the co-host of Forum. He is also a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the co-founder of the COVID Tracking Project. He's the creator of the podcast, Containers, and has been a staff writer at Wired. He was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Information School, and is working on a book about Oakland and the Bay Area's revolutionary ideas.

Danny Bringer

Engineer, Forum

Danny Bringer has worked in Radio since 1987 and has been with KQED SINCE 1994. He has been the Forum Engineer since 2001. Danny grew up in the Bay Area and currently lives in San Ramon. He loves working with the Forum team and delivering the Forum sound to our listeners. When he isn't mixing sound he loves to run Ultra Marathons.

Susan Britton

Lead Producer, Forum

Susan Britton is the lead producer of Forum with Mina Kim. She's been with Forum since 2012, beginning as an on-call producer, and she was a longtime contributor to KALW. She's a graduate of Columbia Law School and Yale College.

Judy Campbell

Lead Producer, Forum

Judy Campbell is the lead producer of Forum with host Alexis Madrigal. She hosted and produced the KQED podcast The Leap, about people making dramatic, risky changes. Previously, Judy was a KQED reporter, focusing on criminal justice and prison issues.

Marlena Jackson-Retondo

Engagement Producer, Forum

Marlena Jackson-Retondo is the engagement producer for KQED's Forum and Mindshift. Prior to joining the team in 2022, Marlena was an intern with KQED's Digital News Engagement team. She grew up in the Bay Area.

Jennifer Ng

On-call Producer, Forum

Jennifer Ng joined Forum in 2021 as an intern and became an on-call producer in 2022. She returned to San Francisco after finishing her bachelor's degree in environmental science at the University of Portland.

Mark Nieto

Producer, Forum

Mark Nieto is a producer for Forum with Mina Kim. He joined KQED in 2023. A native of California, Mark received his M.A. in research architecture from Goldsmiths University of London in 2021 and his B.A. in film from Loyola Marymount University. Before coming to KQED, Mark worked on the podcasts The Times and Plot of Land and was previously an on-air host at KXLU.

Caroline Smith

Producer, Forum

Caroline Smith is a producer for Forum. Smith joined the team in 2019 as an intern and became an on-call producer later that year. From the Bay Area, Smith graduated with a B.A. in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley and is an alumnus of The Daily Californian.

Blanca Torres

Producer, Forum

Blanca Torres joined KQED in January of 2020 after 16 years of working as a newspaper reporter mostly covering business. She is also a member and former board member for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Blanca earned her bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville and a master's in fine arts in creative writing at Mills College. She lives in the East Bay with her family.

Grace Won

Producer, Forum

Grace Won has been a Forum producer since 2019. Prior to joining KQED, Grace was a litigator, and worked on a variety of pro bono prisoner cases, including one that resulted in overturning a client's death penalty sentence on constitutional grounds. She holds a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, an M.A. in English from University College London and a B.A. in American history and East Asian studies from Harvard University.