marisa lagos,and joining from san francisco's kqed politics and government reporter, guy maserati. thank you for joining us tonight. guy, president trump proved last night that he can display restraint and offemore of a coherent policy message. is it likely to increase votes in his favor late in the game with a week left until electi day? i think the answer to that is entirely incumbent on his mp gn' ability to take that slightly more coherent policy message we heard in

specific areas. and thinking about the energy policy, differences that emerged in the debate between biden and trump. trump pouncing on the biden taing away from fossil fuels. also, but issues that are more on voters' mines like coronavirus response and health cayo. >> marissa, arexpecting the unexpected to occur in the next few days, especially with president trump behind in the polls, do you think the two campaigns will be relatively quiet now? voting is underway and in record nu wers. have some 15 million americans that cast their ballots. but priya, i think like never say never. 2016 taught us that, but the bott line is this has been a static race despite the unprecedented year. a global pandemic, something we havea ot seen in century, and econic meltdown. really, the bases have stayed with both men, anthey are

fighting for the scraps in the middle. to i think trump will try to continue to shake up this race? probably. to stay steady? n is going totr that has been histology all along. think one thing to watch is this meddling we are hearing from iran, russia, other foreign actors, how the trump administration handles that and mpwhether it does up, or whether it's just the disinformation we are seeing domestically. i think those are some challenging issues for th sides in the final daysof the campaign. >> marissa, let's turn to the senate judiciary committee this week. the democrats to an unusual step of boycotting the vote to bring amy coney barrett's e nomination to ll senate. what were they saying with that gesture? oh i mean, the point was we're not going into participat something we do not see as legitimate. >> but you ow, this habeen on the fast track since the beginning of democrats have very little power here. i think quite friendly, they made a moresort of potent political point during the hearings when they just over and over again really hammered

on this case by the trump administration seeking to overturn the affordable care ac and the ct they feel like her past shows he's very open to that argument know, where most people paying attention to the fact that democrats did not show up to this judiciary hearing i don't think so. >> guy, to come to the senate judiciary committee, the committee, dianne fein has taken some criticism for thanking and hugging the ranking republican on the committee, lindsey gram, and there have been stat progressives hearing in california who have said they feel betrayed by her, and i want to read this grote . said finds and represents the past of san francisco in california. it's not the present at the time we are facing a crisis when we have a right-bewing supremacisg rushed through the supreme court. she is not up to the task. it's not because of her age. ca it's just e of who she is. now, campos was not speaking on behalf of the san francisco

democratic p, but was expressing opinions and sentiments being echoed by other progressive leaders throughout the state. do u see feinstein servin out her full-term? >> look, i think it's a lot more likely that we would see perhaps senator feinstein stepping away from her leading role on the senate judiciary committee, but frankly, i think democrats should be thinking diannefeinstein for th subdued way in which the supreme court hearings played out. i think republicans initially thought this was anopportunity to take the convertion away from the pandemic. we have seen the pre-court hearings the past really ive people into their ies, corners. raises an issue like the coronavirus i'm aware there is a widespread agreement and the president's failure to contain dispute because suof the ued way this played out, it really never emerged as a top issue in last night's debate in cent weeks. i think in this case, progressive' complaints about dianne feinstein arnot going anywhere regardless of the result of the election.

in this case, i think her moderation helped her party. >> and marissa, if we do see wibiden and harris the white house and if feinstein does choose retire, it puts gavin newsom and an unusual inpositio of able to appoint two senators kept us that offer him some advantages? >> yeah.gets to sentially anoint two ambitious california politicians to a very poweul post with no term limits. i think it's a double-edged sword to that too. you're probably going to make em some friends, s to appear there's a long line of people who have been eyeing the seats. kamala harris jumped into the race sofast, that it did not leave an opportunity for anybody within the establishment to get a toehold. so i think yes, this is so thing. it might a little weird for new some to a book you might one of those seats himself. but to i guy's point, think

there has long been a feeling that dianne feinstein may not actually want to serve out beis full-teruse of her age, where things are at. i think ultimately, she's going to want to go on heterms whether from a judiciary commission or senate entirely. >> geico joe biden that he would create a panel to study the possibility of adding supreme court justices if hewi the election. talk us through how republicans are responding to this possibility. >> look, republicans are still unified in opposition to any kind of judicial reform li this, anpriya, as you know, on the political ladder of avoidance, forng a blue ribbon panel to discuss something that's only a couple rings above, and addressing the issue at all, which has n'been biprevious strategy when he came to court packing, ultimately i don't think this is an issue driving people poto the s on either side. is not a lot of evidence this is emerging as a top issue. event'in last nidebate, it did not really break there. this is something democrats will continue to debate about into the next administration,

but i don't think it will play a huge erle in nove3. let's turn to the public policy institution in california which put out a new survey about ate propositions. >> prompted wh16 h is the one that would reinstate affirmative action currently does not have enough support to pass. % and has about of likely voters saying they would support it marissa, what you think this proposition has not garnered more support? >> it is such an interesting i do think someof it is that everything is getting so overshadowed by the presidential race and our t national politics i think this is fairly complicated. you know, if you are not a voting age when prop 20past which banned affirmative action and this would rebaal that ot measure, you may not have a very strong opinion on it, and i think it is a real failure in some ways of supporters that they have nodo a better job connecting this to the bigger racial justice conversation we're having. i talk to the pers ran that poll. he says support has ticked up you are still a large group of voters that are undecide

the campaign es have funding, so they pohave an unity hearing. i don't know if they are going to get over the finish line, but it is e e of ththings where i think they need to really make a clearer , sort of conection between blmak lives er and the bigger conversation we're having around race, and make the case for why this is going to help in that sort of broader push for civil rights. >> guy, let's talk about a race you have been covering ann the . south is between dave cortez and and ravel. what can you tell us about these two candidates ann the th state of right because it's being very closely watched? >> this is a fascinating race, and i'm sure and ifyou are in san jose tes with the torrents of ads and mailers, this has become an incredibly in pensive campaign, the mo expensive state legislative campaign in california. we're nearing $10 million in spending when you look at independent spenng and the campaign. are a lot of key differences between these two democrats on issues like using, heis in favor of zoning reforms i would legalize housing in more areas

in the state as oprased to l, and on some hotly contested propositions, prop this team to raise property taxes to fund local schools and support and ravel in him opposition. prop 22 on uber and lyft and gig worker classifications, you have cortese he opposing that and ravel in favor. i think is the latest example daylight betweencrats in ot of the same party on the state and local runs. >> is it a similar race for a race comingfor state senator and form san francisco supervisor, scott weiner and a progressive challenger who thinks that scott weiner is not progressive enough?

>> exit 4 i woulsay this is one more personality plays a role too. scott weiner is being attacked by jackie fielder who veis a young rising star. she is amazing. i think if she does not win for something else, but she's been going after him from the left, talking a lot about clime change, ying to ti him to developers and sort of big business but the truth is scott weiner is one of the prmo ressive senators in the state senate. he comes from san francisco. he has always been part of the mo moderate, sort of sector of our democratic, you knowin w of politicians hearing in california, but he is a gay man, he has pushed hard for a lot of very ogressive issues, and i think this is one of those cases where there is only so many seats, ofand sort a combination of certain communal, segments of the politicaworld do not like scott weiner pers ally, and theateening on issues like climate change that are of course very voter important. talk you have to takea look at prop 22 is the most expensive ballot measure in california history. of course, this ballot measure is the one that will decide whether uber and lyft and mpoth ies can classify their employees as gig workers or if they are full-time employees. >> what the latest on this?

where does this stand? does it seem like it's going to pass? w guy, i will thto you first. >> this is going to be a very close contest in this proposition.this an incredible spending. i think voters are looking for gnals on where drivers stand, that's a hard question to ask becausa lot of drivers do want the flexibility is kind in pendent contractor will provide. at the same time, a lot of drivers who use these apps as more full-time employment want the kind of benefits and ha securitythey are not getting. i would encourage our viewers to check out the great reporting our colleagues have done on thand really do interesting, controversial campaign tactics we've seen fromber, lyft, and doordash when it comes to kind of using these workers in the campaign. >> marissa, final 20 seconds y hearing. st thoughts on prop 22? >> just that the last poll at september did showa wide number of voters still undecided . the yes side, even though th this campaign have not reached that 50% threshold in that poll. i will be watching next week to

see if there's any new public opinion polling, but i think this'll be a typo despite how spending. the companies are thank you both. >> thanks, pri >> thanks so much. visit kqed.com . pandemic of high school and college students have been faced with additional challenges , leadleg to higher ls of stress and anxiety. a survey of thousands of students at nine campuses earlier this year found a prevalence odepression that is twice as high compared to last year. in addition, many college students are experiencing unprecedented loneliness and anxiety, which is leading to an increase in cases of depression. social distancing restrictns due to the ronavirus have halted many traditional types of therapy, so researchers are testing new ways to help college studentsfeel connected

and less stressed. joining me now by sky from san francisco niel raymo, the senior director of research at hope lab, a nonprofit that creates digital tools such as vi apps ando games to improve the health and well-being of young people. joining me by sky from chicago is will coleman, senior columbia college and intern at hope lab. thank you ford both joining. will, can you share with us some of the mental health chald nges you have experien this year, especially compared to pre-covid days? >> yes, so i'm currently a senior at columbia college chicago, and with vi this, i understand the challenges that come with school, the depression can be involved. anxiety on a regular basis, but adding a global pandemic on top of all of that can really raise the bar dramically within all those, so way more anxious, i'm behind the screen for eight hours throughout the day and

having minimum interaction of real-life students, and that's one of the major parts about college, is the fact that you can work with stents from all around the country and working in a field that is passionate to you personally, so when things arshifted er to a computer screen, those feelings are just increased by so, so ch, being that you can feel isolated and by yourself anno one is really there with you because that's what it really are held over zoom instead of being in person. >> danielle, will has had at least the opportunity to have several years in college, of more of a normal college experience. freshmen are having a very different experience this year. what are your concerns about t the cognitive developm generation z due to these restrictions? >> it is y fair to that this year is unlike any previous year frankly in history, and gen z is really experiencing something unprecedented for themselvesas well.

as a clinical psychologist, i like to come with a frame of ce hope and resiliwhen i think about generation z are those born after 1996. they carry with them an incredle amount of hope an resilience. members of gen z are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation, and theyare on tracto be the most well-educated generation yet. they are also digital naves who have no memory of a world before smart phones, and this makes technology a uniq part of their developmental experience. both their brain and social developmental experience. and there see of coperils and promises that come along that being said, there are a lot of vulnerabilitiez that gen x experiencing, some of which you reviewed in your intro, and the toll of covid-19 is taking an adverse effe on gen z. while americans overall on average are not more lonely as a result of the pandemic for example, generation z or young adults today are indeed saying they are more lonely, more

isolated, and experiencing more depression and anxiety. >> will, what are you hearing from your peers, your w iends about they are getting through this time? & it's a very rough time because as you stated, this is such a different time of year. everybody dealing with it all at the same time. this is new for everybody, so just having somewhat of a mmunity built weather on social media or platform online is a great way to get through this because you are being coab to unicate with other folks and students who are going you, so keeping an open dialogue and keeping the conversation going and expressing and sharing our feelings with eachother is a great way we're able to get through these hard times. >> danielle, you created an app called not nod through hope lab. can you tell us what it does and how it is meant to help college students? >> se. build resilience and gy to skills among young people, adolescents and young adults. with nod, we wanted to reduce

the burden of the impact of loneliness on young people's well-being. create a sense of community, like will was describing p outside of the experience. nod has three main features. first, it gives students ideas, which are prompts based on the science of social connecting, that help students take small, achiev le steps toward meeting new friends, going eper with people they start to have connections with in college. the second feature of nod's reflections but these are short, and apt exercises that help students process the feelings that come with taking a ance in meeting new people and reflecting that sometimes that goes well and wanting those feelings er sit lo and sometimes it doesn't go so well and wanting to help students reflect on the with the lens of self compassion. third, everything we do at hope lab is co-created directly with young people themselves, so we have sourced ofa number testimonials directly from college students about the experience of meeting new people, making new friends, and

connecting in college. the idea here to help other students realize making new friends in college is noeasy. it takes work, and it can be done with effort. >> will, i see you nodding there. tell usabout your experience in finding nod and how it has worked for you. >> yes , my process of finding nod was through the hope lab's platform. i've been connected with hope lab the past two ars, so when i saw they were developing a platform to help college of dailymotion of life, i was trigued, so i gave it a try, and as danielle expressed, there are so many elements to it that are crafted and developed to help college ts studavigate these issues in their lives, so whether it's reflections or whether picking up a prompt that helps you get through your day just a bit better or incrnsse those emotyou are feeling, it's just overlaying in such a beautiful experience to go through and share with othe friends. my personal experience, i found whenever i was feeling a certain way, i wa able to

navigate that feeling to the platform, that i was given a bunch of different problems prompts so i can go throughout my day and you know, reduce ose feelings of xiety or neliness. i was kind of skeptical at first about the app because i did not think ne-- i've r used a self-help platform before. after giving it a try, i can say you see those prompts, rpd you inate them into everyday life. it helps you so, so much. >> i want to mention you found out about nod and were using it before you became a hope lab intern, actually. >> yes, correct. >> can you talk onus through of those exercises? what does it look like? what does a prompt to do? >> yeah, so u for example, know, with everything being so different in school being 100% online for me, you can definitely feel lonely. on the app you can select the mood you are feeling. i'm feeling lonely for example, i would click feeling lonely, then i'm given a bunch of different promd s designed crafted to help reduce that loneliness that i'm feeling in that certain time, so for

example one of cathe prompts say set up meeting with one of your college professors, so that was one of the first prompts i had ever did off the platform, so i upset a meeting with my professor through a time i was feeling very lonely, and you know, i was excited have him as a professor. i was very happy i did find that prompt, after my meeting with him i s given a ton of resources our school had to offer for students also feeling lonely. also, ton of tips, personal tips from him such as camino, ach out to your classmates who have similar interest to you. i was given bunch of different emails to classmates i could talk to who shared so much as me, that noted i would be good friends with, so follow that prompt of reducing the loneliness really did he, and it helped me discover a prompt i probably would've never done without, you know, reviewing the app. >> it sounds relike it ly motivates you to take action, which is different, danielle, that what we're seeing in other

social media platforms. this is definitely a use of technology than, you r,ow, facebook or twit instagram, or snapshot, or tiktok, or many of the other platforms that young people may be on. items like there is sort of this paradox here that you are working through a technology that so samany people can lead to feelings of social isolation, can lead to feelings of loneliness, can lead to screen fatigue, frankly. but thu are using in a new way. can you talk to us about that paradox and how you have balanced that feeling and that n sense of technology? >> certainly. there are a lot of challenges around screen cedependand some risks that gen z face around bullying, screens social isolation killed but at hope lab, we think about ways that technology can also build communeay and also in resilience through building coping skills to help us do what we need to do to be happy, thrive, and live well.

that's what we really tried to do with the nod app. one of the things you mentioned is social media, and latino community foundation is different from socidia in multiple ways. we encourage students first to build social connections and communities outside the app itself. so it's not students talking to each other or engaging in some of the ideas that will talked about throh the app. they are just getting these ideas to the app, then they are coming back to the app to es prhow that goes outside of the app. but frankly with nod, we were hoping students would come whene theyd strategies , we would be able to get them strategies that would feel achievable possible, and may interesting. hopefully interesting to them. they would go out and try them, then come back to the p ju briefly, reflect on it, then eventually not ed the app anymore. where as tools like social media are designed to be addictive, we had the opposite in mind with developing nod. we hope students who use , need kqed they will use it a little while and edwill not to use

it anymore. >> danielle, how can people access the app what is it free? where can students get this? ca >> studentget it on their campuses. nod is being offered as an enterprise solution, were colleges and universirces can se a license to offer nod to their students on campus for free. >> okay. will, you are in your last semestersef college and to graduate in december, just a couple months away. how has the pandemic impacted your vision tur your and your anxieties about it as well? >> yeah, i think this pandemic could have ally destroyed a lot of college students when it comes to their mind-set and their pursuit to continue to chase their dreams. k though, i ththe pandemic really created such a resilient effect upon all of gen z folks. the fact we're not giving up and we're still pushing, we're still attending school, still chasing our dreams, still owtalking in internships how resilient the generation of gen z is, just continue to pursue those things that we truly do love.

it could've been very, easy to drop out of school, take a break into the pandemic rolled around, but instead kept going, and i think that's what really makes gen z so, so special. >> danielle, is will's experience common to what you are hearing, the sense of resilience, or are more people eling drowned by the anxiety? >> will reflected some vulnerabilities and also some resilience we are indeedhearing from our gen z users and in a reseatch study we conducted hope lab. the vulnerability is that more gen z students are dropping out of college after the ngrst year, cimental health reasons being the main reason they are leaving. that is more than any generation prior, this was reallyoncerning, one of th reasons we wanted to create nod. in a trial we just conducted at the university of oron with 221 first-year college students, we found that the we

students who most vulnerable to experiencing these mental health problems, with heighte depression ssd lonelidid, indeed, benefit if they used nod. they were less lonely, less depressed, slept better, and they were mo likely tosay that they would stay in collegef r the first year if they use nod comparwh to those o didn't, and we saw this as some real hope. >> danielle wei moe and will you. n with hope lab, >> it's been a pleasure, thank you. and you can find more of our coverage at omkqed tran21newsroom. now, for an elevated look at something beautiful. after months of anticipation, the aties are obsen wheel took its first spin in san francisco's golden gate park. the wheel was set for the parker pulse 150th annive aries elevation earlier this ye

opening was delayed due to covid-19. 86 and close gondthat give ds riders sweeping views from the city's financial district to ocean beach. from all of us here at "kqed newsroom" thanks for joining us. good night . ♪

robert: the contenders make their case. president trump: we're learning to live with it. we have no choice. >> learning to live with it, come on. we're ingith it. robert: a final showdown as case numbers spike nationwide. >> donald trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us. he can't even take the basic steps toct proimself. robert: and president obama rallies in philadelphia with turnout in pennsylvania a new battlegrounds critical. >> we will be voting to confirm justice barrett next monday. robert: and senate republicans move ahead with their majority on the line. next. announcer: this is "washington week." corporate funding is