The negotiations to free the hostages seized by Hamas on October 7, 2023, were among the most complex and consequential diplomatic efforts in recent history. Few Americans had a better vantage point than Brett McGurk, who served as President Biden's top Middle East adviser and played a central role in the negotiations. He is currently a CNN global affairs analyst and distinguished fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center an Atlantic Council.

Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, what has America accomplished in its war on terror? And what lessons have we learned from more than two decades of costly military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere?

When it comes to ethics, transparency, and accountability in state government, New Mexico lags much of the country. A recent survey found that only 19% of New Mexicans trust their state government.On this week's The Forum, Think New Mexico Executive Director Fred Nathan discusses these proposals, along with Amendment 4 on November's ballot, which would allow New Mexico legislators to receive a salary for the first time. A link to the report is included in the show notes.

Beginning more than a decade ago, thousands of Uyghurs fled repression in Xinjiang, the region of western China many consider their homeland and call East Turkestan. Many eventually made their way to Syria, where they became fighters in the civil war and helped the rebel forces that overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.It is a remarkable story, and one that remains surprisingly little known.

This week's Forum features Heather Lamboy, Director of the Santa Fe Land Use Department and Daniel Strongwater, a developer and member of the Board of Friends of Architecture, discussing Santa Fe Forward and the city's current project to update and improve our General Plan and Land Use Code.

This week on the Forum, KSFR News Reporter Patrick Davis and Rev. Talitha Arnold continue the discussion on homelessness in Santa Fe, this time with Nick Svetnicka and Carrie Wilbur from the St. Elizabeth Shelter, and Kent Grubbs of Interfaith Community Services.

In the days following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, President Joe Biden made clear his steadfast support for Israel. But as Israel’s military campaign continued and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza deepened, concern and opposition grew within his own administration over Israel’s conduct of the war and America’s continuing support.My guest, journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed, interviewed more than 150 people for his important new book, Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel’s War in Gaza. During our conversation, Akbar described how Biden relied on a small coterie of advisers, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s Middle East coordinator, leaving much of the State Department largely on the sidelines.

What does it mean for a city to respond to homelessness—and what does that response look like from the perspective of someone who has experienced being unhoused?This week on THE FORUM, we turn to Santa Fe’s unhoused community and the complex challenges facing the city as it works to respond. Our guests bring two very different, but complementary, perspectives to the conversation.Carina Julig, city reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican, helps us understand the issue from the perspective of city policy, management, and the decisions being made about how Santa Fe responds to homelessness. John Bacon, peer support manager at The Life Link and a former member of the unhoused community, brings the perspective of lived experience and his work supporting others who are navigating homelessness.

Just a few weeks before the publication of Ben Macintyre’s latest book, Redwood, I had the pleasure of talking with him about what he considers one of the most intriguing and least-known espionage stories of the Cold War. That’s quite a statement, given Ben’s long list of bestsellers, including The Spy and the Traitor, A Spy Among Friends, and Operation Mincemeat.In this show, Ben shares with me the remarkable story of how KGB officer Vladimir Kuzichkin came to the decision to become a double agent at a critical moment in history. At the height of the Cold War, there was considerable concern that Iran, like neighboring Afghanistan, might fall within the Soviet orbit. The intelligence provided by Kuzichkin gave Britain and the United States an extraordinary window into Soviet intentions and operations in the region.

Music is often described as a universal language, but American music may be something even more interesting. It is the product of different cultures, different traditions, different voices - of people borrowing from one another, occasionally argumentatively, and sometimes creating something entirely new.Our guests are American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck and Colin Jacobsen, artistic director of Santa Fe Pro Musica. Their conversation begins with a discussion of Fleck’s interesting arrangement of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which will open Santa Fe Pro Musica's 2026-2027 season and launch its new series, Democratic Vistas. From there, the conversation broadens as Jacobsen explores how music can reflect democratic ideals including different voices in dialogue, disagreement and collaboration and, ultimately, the creation of something more inclusive than one voice.