Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

CLIMATE ONE: Patti Poppe: Reinventing Utilities During a Climate Emergency Jul 29, 2022

Show notes

As the CEO of the California utility giant PG&E, Patti Poppe is charged with navigating the company through massive wildfires, disrupted energy markets, and lingering public distrust of the utility. The company is undergrounding 10,000 miles of electric lines, working with GM and Ford on incorporating power from electric vehicles into homes and the grid, deploying batteries at large power plants, and pushing to change net metering rates that pay homeowners for electricity generated on their roofs. How can utilities like PG&E reinvent themselves and modernize the electric grid to deliver renewable power when their own systems are threatened by catastrophic climate change?

Guests:

Patricia Poppe, CEO, PG&E

Katherine Blunt, Reporter, Wall Street Journal

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Katie Hafner, Author of ""The Boys"" Jul 28, 2022

Show notes

Katie Hafner is a technology, health care, and society journalist who wrote on staff for The New York Times for 10 years and remains a frequent contributor. She has also worked at Newsweek and BusinessWeek and has written for many major publications, including The Washington Post and Oprah Magazine. She is the author of five previous works of nonfiction covering a range of topics, including the origins of the Internet, computer hackers, German reunification, and the pianist Glenn Gould.

Hafner’s first novel, The Boys, writes a charming narrative about love and the yearning for connection. The story follows Ethan Fawcett, an introvert who marries the vivacious Barb. One day Barb brings home two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, for them to foster, and when the pandemic hits, Ethan becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for the boys. The introduction of the boys into their household drives a wedge between Ethan and Barb. Ethan decides to take the boys on a biking trip in Italy on a misguided quest for love and connection, and expectedly discovers what it will take to repair his marriage.

Join us to as Katie Hafner takes us through her reflections on loneliness and community.

NOTES

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

SPEAKERS

Katie Hafner

Journalist; Host and Co-Executive Producer, "Lost Women of Science" Podcast; Author, The Boys

Carol Edgarian

Co Founder, Narrative; Author, Vera—Moderator

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on July 18th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Mark Leibovich: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

The Republican Party used to stand for individualism, and according to journalist and author Mark Leibovich, it now largely answers to the whims of one man: former president Donald Trump. Tracing Trump’s ascent to the top of a party that in the early months of his candidacy viewed him with contempt, Leibovich brings answers to the massive question of “what happened?”

Mark Leibovich is an award-winning journalist and writer for The Atlantic. Called the “reigning master of the political profile” by Washingtonian magazine and named one of “Washington's 25 Most Powerful, Least Famous People” by The New Republic, Leibovich has decades of journalistic experience, including previously writing for The New York Times for 15 years.

In his latest book Thank You For Your Servitude, Leibovich retells how figures like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham went from vocal Trump critics to loyal soldiers. With shocking honesty from some of Trump’s biggest supporters admitting they are “in on the joke,” Leibovich uses interviews, news media and an incisive, brutally honest investigation to tell how Trump remade the GOP in his own image—and how far his politicians are willing to go to stay relevant.

Join us, as Leibovich recounts the transformation of the American political right, and how it gave hints of the events we see unfold today.

SPEAKERS

Mark Leibovich

Staff Writer, The Atlantic; Former Chief National Correspondent, The New York Times Magazine; Author, Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission; Twitter @MarkLeibovich

In Conversation with Tim Miller

Writer-at-large, The Bulwark; Political Analyst, MSNBC; Host, "Not My Party" on Snapchat; Communications Director, Jeb Bush 2016; Author, Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell; Twitter @timodc

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on July 20th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Malcolm Nance: Behind the Ideology of the Trump Insurgency Jul 25, 2022

Show notes

In the post-2020 world, Americans, having faced the controversies of the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection, may be tempted to do their best to forget these events and move on — yet to bestselling author Malcolm Nance, this is the worst thing they can do. As the country is experiencing a sharp rise in radicalism and hostility toward democracy, Nance argues that it is more important than ever to be actively confronting the rise of a new threat to democracy from within.

Malcolm Nance is a leading expert in counter-terrorism studies, as well as an intelligence analyst, cryptologist, former senior chief petty officer in the United States Navy and founding executive director of the New York-based think tank Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideologies. Nance has written at length on the dangers posed by major terrorist groups, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.

In his latest book, They Want to Kill Americans, Nance explains how conspiracy theories, white privilege and increasing hostility toward democracy has contributed to the rise of what he calls a “Trump Insurgency in the U.S.,” or TITUS. Having forewarned of divisions in America turning into fractures in our country months before the January 6 insurrection, Nance warns that the rising generational threat may rival the Islamic State or al-Qaeda, and that immediate action is necessary to address this growing unrest before it is too late.

Join us as Nance explains how such a destructive force has sprung up in our own backyard, and what can be done to quell its growth.

SPEAKERS

Malcolm Nance

Retired Intelligence Officer; Author, They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency

In Conversation with Pat Thurston

Host, “The Pat Thurston Show,” KGO-AM

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on July 19th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Craig McNamara: Because Our Fathers Lied Jul 23, 2022

Show notes

The Greatest Generation, having faced the Great Depression and fought World War II with a clear goal and responsible leadership, ended up enduring a generational divide with their Baby Boom children, because their continuing trust in American political leadership did not erode as quickly as their children’s did during the 1960s. The Vietnam War’s lies, deaths, destruction and deteriorated goals, arriving at the same time as political assassinations and the ongoing cultural violence in reaction to a seemingly simple plea for racial equality, undermined many a family’s intergenerational communications.

Prior to serving as secretary of defense in JFK’s cabinet of “the best and the brightest,” Robert McNamara was a skilled executive who had helped turn around the Ford Motor Company. Craig, his youngest child and only son, came of age in the political tumult and upheaval of the late 1960s and took part in anti-war demonstrations in direct conflict with his father’s policies. Then he traveled by motorcycle across Central and South America to learn the art of agriculture so that he could make “an honest living”.

Because Our Fathers Lied tells the story of a father and son at a pivotal period in American history. Join us to discuss the issues of the 1960s all over again with someone who lived the generational conflict more intimately than almost anyone else.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

SPEAKERS

Craig McNamara

Founder and President, Center for Land-Based Learning; Owner, Sierra Orchards; Author, Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on July 14th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Ian Morris: Geography Is Destiny Jul 22, 2022

Show notes

Ian Morris returns to The Commonwealth Club for an online discussion of his latest research into the deep history of the human race. In the wake of Brexit, Morris now tackles the 8 millennia history of Britain's relationship to Europe as that relationship keeps changing in the context of a continually globalizing world.

When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the 48 percent who wanted to stay and the 52 percent who wanted to go each accused the other of stupidity, fraud and treason. But the Brexit debate merely reran a script written 8,000 years earlier, when rising seas physically separated the British Isles from the European continent.

Morris describes how technology and organization have steadily enlarged Britain's arena, and how its people have turned this to their advantage. For the first 7,500 years, the British were never more than bit players at the western edge of a European stage, struggling to find a role among bigger, richer and more sophisticated continental rivals. By A.D. 1500, however, new kinds of ships and governments had turned the European stage into an Atlantic one. With the English Channel now functioning as a barrier, England transformed the British Isles into a United Kingdom that created a worldwide empire. Since 1900, however, Britain has been overshadowed by American, European and Chinese actors. But Morris says that in trying to find its new place in a global economy, Britain has been looking in all the wrong places. The great question for the 21st century is not what to do about Brussels, but what to do about Beijing.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

SPEAKERS

Ian Morris

The Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics and Professor in History, Stanford University; Author, Geography is Destiny—Britain's Place in the World: A 10,000 Year History

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

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CLIMATE ONE: Turning Down the Heat: Decarbonizing Cement and Steel Jul 22, 2022

Show notes

Along with aviation, the construction industry is one of the hardest to decarbonize sectors in the global economy. Cement and steel production together are responsible for about 15% of global CO2 emissions. But look around our modern world and it’s hard to imagine doing without these materials. Carbon-negative cement has been talked about for years, and innovations in steel production show promise as well, but is either technology ready for primetime? And what about replacing these materials with engineered wood, which could also store carbon for decades?

Guests:

John Fernández, Professor of Architecture, MIT

Chathurika Gamage, Manager, Climate Aligned Industries, RMI

Radhika Lalit, Chief Strategy Officer, RMI

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Mary Ziegler: How the Anti-Abortion Movement Remade America Jul 20, 2022

Show notes

UC Davis Professor of Law Mary Ziegler is one of the world’s leading authorities on the U.S. abortion wars and the history of reproductive rights in this country. Since the leak of a draft of a Supreme Court majority opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade and the guaranteed right to an abortion, Ziegler has been one of the most sought-after experts on this issue.

Ziegler's timely new book Dollars for Life: the Antiabortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment, explores how the antiabortion movement remade the Republican Party and led to this current historic moment. She traces how the anti-abortion movement helped to revolutionize the rules of money in U.S. politics and persuaded conservative voters to focus on the federal courts. Ziegler offers a surprising new view of the slow drift to extremes in American politics and says it had everything to do with the strange intersection of right-to-life politics and campaign spending. Her previous books have explored the legal history of Roe v. Wade and the role of privacy rights in the abortion debate.

At a historic time that might mark a turnaround in abortion rights, The Commonwealth Club is pleased to host a true expert on the topic and this historic moment. You won't want to miss this important conversation.

SPEAKERS

Mary Ziegler

Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law; Author, Dollars for Life: the Antiabortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment

Vikrum Aiyer

Member, Inforum Advisory Board—Moderator

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on July 13th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Daniel Byman: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

The recent white supremacist shooting in Buffalo that targeted African-Americans renewed attention to the global rise in white nationalistic terrorism. The shooting in Buffalo, which has brought domestic terrorism charges to the alleged assailant, included a digital manifesto that copied and mirrored previous manifestos—infused with racism and anti-Semitism—that accompanied previous terrorist shootings in New Zealand, Norway and the United States. The increasing numbers of these incidents and their similarities are signs of a growing but diffuse white power movement that is alarming terrorism experts globally. One of those most concerned is Dr. Daniel Byman, an author, professor and leading global counter-terrorism expert.

Byman's new book Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism draws upon vast amounts of research and years of experiencing analyzing the spread of the global phenomenon of white supremacy and white power. Explaining that after 9/11 pushed white supremacist terrorism to a secondary category of concern of security authorities, Bymam says this allowed the movement to spread, grow and influence followers around the world. He warns that in addition to undermining faith in Western democracy, worsening political tensions and wildly spreading conspiracies across social media, this movement will continue to grow and metastasize without authoritative action to stop it. He calls for a new era of international intelligence cooperation, crackdowns on technology companies and aggressive global law enforcement to reduce the urgent threat from this decentralized and often poorly understood movement.

Join us as Dr. Byman explains the historical rise of the white power movement, and what steps can be taken to reducing this increasingly lethal global threat.

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Alice Waters: We Are What We Eat Jul 15, 2022

Show notes

Alice Waters is a true Bay Area icon and one of the most influential chefs of her generation.

A long-time food activist, Waters first opened Bay Area local restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971 with the intention of feeding people good food during a time of political turmoil. Customers responded positively to the restaurant and its focus on locally sourced organic ingredients, delectable hand-made dishes, and wonderfully mastered hospitality.

In pioneering a revolutionary approach to food preparation and service, Waters determined that the rise of fast food, frozen meals, and prepackaged ingredients were increasingly overshadowing the human qualities of eating and cooking. In her recent book We Are What We Eat, Waters urges us to take up the mantle of slow food culture. She writes this book as a declaration of action against fast food values and a working theory about what we can do to change the course.

From years of working with regional farmers, Waters learned about the dangers of pesticides; the plight of fieldworkers; and the social, economic and environmental threats posed by industrial farming and food distribution. Thus she says every decision we make about what we put in our mouths affects our bodies and the world at large. By eating in a “slow way,” the philosophy at the core of her life’s work, Waters says we can be empowered to prioritize and nurture a different kind of culture, one that champions values such as biodiversity, seasonality, stewardship and pleasure in work.

Join us as Alice Waters teaches us how to change our relationship with food to unlock a radical reconsideration of how each of us cooks and eats.

SPEAKERS

Alice Waters

Chef; Founder and Owner, Chez Panisse; Author, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto; Twitter@AliceWaters

In Conversation with William Rosenzweig

Faculty Co-Chair, Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business

Program Chair: Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez

CEO, La Cocina; Member, The Commonwealth Club of California Board of Governors

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded on July 12th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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