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From KQED. Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. As 2025 nears its end, we look back at the people who died and celebrate what they gave us before they left us, like Belva Davis's mantra, as she sought to become the first black woman television reporter.

Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you dream it, you can make it so. And there's also director David Lynch's

favorite donut metaphor. There's the donut and there's the hole. And you should keep your

eye on the donut. Listeners, whose death affected you this year, whether a celebrity or a neighbor,

one that hit you unexpectedly hard? And what message or lesson will you take from the way they lived? You can tell

us by calling 866-736-7-86 by emailing forum at KQED.org. We're posting on our social

channels, Discord, Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, or threads at KQED forum. Joining me for the hour, Chloe Veltman, correspondent on the culture desk at NPR. Chloe, welcome to forum. Hi, Mina. Thanks for having me. Glad to have you. Megan Mitchell is also with us, arts and culture journalist. Her piece for KQED arts is Belva Davis showed me I belong in journalism. Megan, to Forum. It's an honor to be here. Thank you. It's an honor to have you. Dave Schilling, it's an honor to have you back as well, contributing writer for the L.A. Times image and also author of a book, Horrors New Wave, 15 years of Blumhouse. Dave, welcome back to Forum.

Always a pleasure.

So, Chloe, start us off.

Who do you want to highlight that we lost this year?

Well, I think I'd like to start by talking about the great Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Mina.

I was assigned this obituary a little bit before the great man died and at the time I was beach boys Brian Wilson not my thing I grew up with a brother who's a huge fan but the thing

about about doing this process of thinking about this man's life is I realized what an

incredible person he was,

what an amazing musician. I mean, this is somebody who revolutionized pop music production.

He treated the recording studio as if it were a musical instrument. And that voice, right,

the way he could create these really beautiful harmonies with other singers and he was on the top there.

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