The Forum with Jim Falk

Forum Plus: What Do Billions Of Google Searches Reveal Abou Who We Are?

In this episode of The Forum Plus, I speak with Simon Rogers, data editor at Google and author of What We Ask Google. Drawing on search data from around the world, Rogers shows how our questions about grief, cooking, relationships, and countless everyday concerns reveal that people everywhere share remarkably similar hopes, fears, and curiosities. Simon also explains how anyone can use Google Trends to see what is capturing public attention in real time and discusses how artificial intelligence is changing the way we search, making our queries longer, more conversational, and increasingly interactive. Host:               Jim Falk Guests:            Simon Rogers [https://simonrogers.net/], Google’s data editor; author, What We Ask Google: A Surprisingly Hopeful History of Humankind

Secrets in the Sky: The Hidden Story Behind Globemaster Down

Host:                Jim Falk Guest:              Tod Robberson, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author Tod Robberson recently joined me to discuss his new book, Globemaster Down, the story of a U.S. military plane that crashed on March 23, 1951, all 53 people on board were unaccounted for. What makes this tragedy especially haunting is that the wreckage was reportedly spotted soon after the crash by American search pilots…yet no rescue was ever made. At the height of the Cold War, U.S. leaders feared a Soviet move into Western Europe, and secretly positioning an atomic bomb in the United Kingdom was seen as a possible deterrent. But the mission was highly classified. Robberson tells me about many uncovered new details that had never been made public and why he thinks there is much more to the tragedy than previously reported. More than 75 years later, the question still lingers: why has the U.S. government never fully declassified the records surrounding Globemaster 49-244? Show Notes Globemaster Down: Soviet Espionage and the Doomed American Attempt to Sneak Nukes into Europe [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/804744/globemaster-down-by-tod-robberson/]

Who Gets the Water? The Future of the Colorado River Compact

To better understand the high-stakes negotiations over the future of the Colorado River, you’ll want to listen to this episode featuring three leading water experts. They trace the history and significance of the Colorado River Compact, the landmark 1922 agreement that governs how water is shared among seven Western states. With the current operating rules set to expire in October, negotiators face mounting pressure to reach a new agreement on how to allocate an increasingly scarce resource. The stakes could hardly be higher: this year’s snowpack and runoff are among the lowest on record. Our guests also discuss how ongoing shortages may affect the San Juan–Chama Project, which supplies water to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, noting that drought conditions on the Rio Grande are even more severe than those in the Colorado River basin. Host:               Jim Falk Guests:            Jesse Roach [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-roach-13a25520/], Ph.D., Interim Director of Santa Fe’s Pubic Utilities Department                         Rolf Schmidt-Petersen [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rolf-schmidt-petersen-75237391/], Consultant, Water Resource Management                         Tanya Trujillo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-trujillo/], Senior Policy Advisor and Deputy State Engineer, State of New Mexico

Immigration, Healthcare, and the New Rules for New Mexico

Several significant laws passed during New Mexico’s recent legislative session are scheduled to take effect on May 20. On this episode of The Forum, we examine two of the most consequential: the Immigrant Safety Act and a series of measures aimed at improving access to healthcare in a state that continues to face severe shortages of physicians and other healthcare professionals.  The program proved especially timely. Just last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against the State of New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque, arguing that the Immigrant Safety Act “unlawfully interferes with federal immigration enforcement.” Representative Romero also updates listeners on the ongoing work of the Epstein Truth Commission and the investigation into allegations connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch. Guests discuss what these new laws are intended to accomplish, the legal and political challenges they now face, and what they could mean for New Mexicans across the state.  Host:               Jim Falk Co-host:          Patrick Jackson, KSFR News Reporter Guests:            Andrea Romero [https://www.andrearomero.com/], New Mexico State Representative (House District 46)                         Marcela Diaz, Founding executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido [https://somosunpueblounido.org/] and producer/host of  KSFR’s Nuestra America                         Robert Underwood [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertmunderwood], Chief Medical Officer, San Juan Regional Medical Center & President, New Mexico Medical Society

The Battle Over Project Jupiter: Power, Water and AI

Project Jupiter, the massive data center under construction in southern New Mexico’s Doña Ana County, is becoming a flashpoint in the national debate over artificial intelligence infrastructure. At issue: water use, energy demand, and whether the promised economic benefits truly materialize for local communities. Opposition to large-scale data centers is growing, cutting across political lines. A recent poll by Quinnipiac University found that 65% of Americans oppose data centers being built in their own communities. This program begins with an interview recorded on April 30 with two attorneys from the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, who are leading legal challenges to Project Jupiter. We then hear from energy journalist Robert Bryce, whose recent short documentary, The Data Center Backlash, examines the real-world impact of a large facility built near a residential neighborhood outside Austin, Texas. The program concludes with insights from Kirk Teske, recently retired executive vice president at the global architecture firm HKS. Teske outlines practical approaches to building data centers more responsibly: reducing water consumption, lowering power demands, and addressing the concerns of the communities they affect. Program Note: Representatives of Project Jupiter and Doña Ana County were invited to participate in the program but they either declined or did not respond.   Host:               Jim Falk Co-host:          Peter Smith Guests:            Kacey Hovden, Staff Attorney, New Mexico Environmental Law Center [https://nmelc.org/about-nmelc/] Maslyn Locke, Senior Staff Attorney, New Mexico Environmental Law Center [https://nmelc.org/about-nmelc/] Robert Bryce [https://www.robertbryce.com/], Energy journalist, author & film producer, Substack [https://substack.com/@robertbryce]  Kirk Teske [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkteske/], Retired EVP, HKS, Inc. & Board Member, Protect the Paluxy Valley [https://www.protectpaluxy.com/]