Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

CLIMATE ONE: Playing With Fire: Russia, Ukraine and the Geopolitics of Energy Mar 18, 2022

Show notes

The IPCC released its latest report the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court heard the most environmentally significant case in a decade, all while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has rattled global energy markets. It’s a lot to take in all at once.

Will the disruption of methane gas supplies to Europe give it the extra push it needs to decarbonize, or will some countries always be beholden to untrustworthy partners for the resources they need? What other options exist to power our economies more sustainably in the short and long term?

Guests:

Amy Myers Jaffe, Managing Director, Climate Policy Lab, Tufts University

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Berkeley Law

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Chocolate and the Future Mar 17, 2022

Show notes

The distinguished panel of expert participants represent many of the different facets of the chocolate industry. They will discuss where the industry is today and how it can move into the future as a more ecological, labor friendly, and equitable industry.

NOTES

MLF: International Relations

SPEAKERS

Bill Guyton

Founder and CEO, World Cocoa Foundation; Senior Advisor, Fine Chocolate Industry Association (FCIA)

Sam Mawutor

Senior Advisor on the Cocoa Campaign, Mighty Earth

Tim McCollum

Founder and CEO of Beyond Good

Frank Price

Vice Present, Northern California Peace Corps Association; Shriver Circle Member, National Peace Corps Association; Vice Chair, International Relations Member-Led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California

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 March 15th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Rep. Jamie Raskin: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy Mar 16, 2022

Show notes

The January 6 attack on Congress as it met to certify Joe Biden's presidential victory is a day that will live on in infamy, yet for Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, this was just the next in a sequence of tragic events that changed his life forever. Having lost his son to suicide only days before, and days later leading the ensuing impeachment effort against Trump, Rep. Raskin’s 45-day journey at the start of 2021 is an inspiring epic of strength, tragedy and determination.

In his new memoir, Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy, Raskin recounts that after the tragic loss of his son Tommy, it was Tommy’s values and vision for the country that provided him inspiration to not only weather the challenges of January 6 but to lead the ensuing impeachment trial of Donald Trump for inciting insurrection. Facing division and the tremors of a nation rocked to its core, Rep. Raskin and his nine-member team were able to lead the most bipartisan impeachment trial ever conducted.

Rep. Raskin has served as an elected official in Maryland since 2007 and represented its 8th Congressional District since 2017. A professor of constitutional law at American University Washington College of Law, chair of the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, Raskin has been a leading voice in Congress for executive accountability and electoral integrity.

Please join us as congressman Raskin recounts his moving story of balancing tragic personal loss and appalling political violence simultaneously, and how he found hope to press on in his darkest moment to continue fighting for American democracy.

NOTES

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

SPEAKERS

Jamie Raskin

U.S. Representative (D-MD, 8th District); Author, Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trails of American Democracy; Twitter @RepRaskin

Welcome by: Jim Steyer

Founder, Common Sense Media

Marisa Lagos

Correspondent for California Politics and Government, KQED; Twitter @mlagos—Moderator

This program was recorded live in San Francisco on March 13th, 2022 at the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Dr. Albert Bourla: Pfizer Chairman and CEO Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, one truth continues to be proven time and time again: the vaccine is saving lives, and to Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla, it was the product of one of the most incredible private sector achievements in history. Mobilizing the corporation amid some of the most strenuous conditions experienced in modern times, he had a front row seat to see the years-long process of developing a vaccine played out in nine months in a riveting story of innovation, determination and ingenuity.

Dr. Albert Bourla is chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc., and was named the top pharmaceutical CEO in America by Institutional Investor in 2020. A Greek immigrant, former veterinarian and child of Holocaust survivors, Dr. Bourla became the head of Pfizer in 2019 and transformed the corporation just before it was put to the test by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his book Moonshot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible, Dr. Bourla describes how the corporation met the unimaginable challenges and pressures to rapidly develop a vaccine using the core values of courage, excellence, equity and joy. Detailing the leadership strategies and innovations he used to guide Pfizer in making unprecedentedly rapid scientific breakthroughs, Dr. Bourla describes the epic journey of their “moonshot.” Facing political, economic and social crises, he explains it wasn’t luck but methodical preparation, strong leadership and a clear vision that brought the vaccine forward, and shares the lessons in management and leadership that he learned.

Join us as Dr. Bourla recounts the unimaginable adversity facing the developers of one of the most impactful medical inventions in recent history, and the ingenuity and wisdom that led them to success.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Albert Bourla

Chairman and CEO, Pfizer; Author, Moonshoot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible; Twitter @AlbertBourla

In Conversation with Raj Mathai

Anchor, NBC Bay Area; Twitter@rajmathai

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 March 9th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Jimmy Soni: The Inside Story of PayPal Mar 11, 2022

Show notes

How much do we know about the apps that we use daily? In the case of PayPal, relatively few know the early story of the now-behemoth. Its precarious origins—coming about in the limitless, tumultuous late 1990s and early 2000s meant it was far from a shoo-in. It faced staunch competition, never-before-seen levels of internet fraud, and internal friction that could’ve ruined its path to success.

Nowadays, PayPal is a household name. Its founders are among the best-known names in the tech industry: Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Max Levchin, among others. Jimmy Soni’s book The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley, details not only the meteoric rise of the company and its founders, but all that came before and made it possible. With privileged access to the internal materials of the company’s early days, Soni paints a picture of what brought together these tech giants and how they dared to dream of cashless currency when few others dared.

Jimmy Soni holds the answer to why this idea, out of the many it rivaled, won against the odds. Soni will bring to life the story of PayPal, highlighting not just the prominent founders but the unsung heroes that built the brick-by-brick success the company now touts.

NOTES

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

SPEAKERS

Jimmy Soni

Author, The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley

In Conversation with Katherine Boyle

General Partner, a16z

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CLIMATE ONE: Turning Air into Stone: Tech-Based Carbon Removal Mar 11, 2022

Show notes

It has been 3 million years since there’s been this much CO2 in the atmosphere. Even if we stop all burning of fossil fuels today, humans have already emitted enough CO2 that we’ll continue experiencing extreme weather events for years to come. Not only do we need to stop emitting greenhouse gasses, but according to the IPCC, we also need to accelerate the removal of CO2. With forests burning faster than we can grow them, nature-based solutions may not be enough. What role might tech-based solutions play? Can they be implemented in a just, equitable way that does not give license for fossil fuel interests to continue business as usual?

Guests:

Marcius Extavour, VP, Energy & Climate, XPRIZE

Angela Anderson, Director of Industrial Innovation and Carbon Removal at World Resources Institute

Rachel Glennerster, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Chicago

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Laura Shin: Inside the First Cryptocurrency Craze Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

Today, most people are familiar with the fascinating world of cryptocurrency, though some of us are more familiar than others. Many people only hear about it in the news and across social media platforms, while some individuals stake their livelihoods on investments in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. According to crypto journalist Laura Shin, the total value of crypto assets today is just shy of $2 trillion. But that’s far from the most interesting aspect of an increasingly prevalent crypto fever.

Shin—"Unchained Podcast" host — will do more than explore the backgrounds of these uniquely decentralized currencies. She’ll hone in on Ethereum, the crypto network whose success has ignited the fire surrounding today’s cryptocurrencies, and the figures who made Ethereum’s success possible. From a child prodigy to a Goldman Sachs exec, the story of Ethereum’s rise is unlike that of any other—and Laura Shin, who previously served as Forbes’ first mainstream reporter of crypto assets, is just the person you’ll want to hear tell it.

SPEAKERS

Laura Shin

Host, "Unchained" Podcast; Author, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Cryptocurrency Craze; Twitter @laurashin

In Conversation with Kate Clark

Reporter, The Information

This program was recorded live inn San Francisco on March 8th, 2022 at the Commonwealth Club of California.

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California's Inconvenient Truths Mar 09, 2022

Show notes

Join us in-person and online for a thought-provoking program with author and activist David Crane, as he walks through the surprising statistics and lesser-known history behind California’s state government and how the public can help to elevate the quality of that government.

California’s state government spends more than $300 billion of state and federal funds every year on public education, health, safety, courts, employment security, homelessness and other services that Crane contends rarely produces satisfactory outcomes for residents. He says thatspending per pupil more than doubled over the last decade, yet pupil performance barely changed; spending on Medi-Cal doubled, yet hospital profit margins improved more than public health; and millions of desperate residents were kept waiting for unemployment checks during the pandemic. Crane also argues that the state occasionally enacts policies that favor political cronies at the expense of employment, and as such, the state’s current unemployment rate exceeds the national unemployment rate by more than 60 percent.

David Crane is an author, activist, professor and president of Govern for California, a network of political action committees that supports California lawmakers who serve the general interest. Formerly a special advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and member of the University of California Board of Regents, Crane has written extensively about state governments, political reform, resistance to special interests and recovering the excellence with which California was once governed.

NOTES

This program is supported by the Ken & Jaclyn Broad Family Fund.

David Crane

President, Govern for California; Lecturer in Public Policy, Stanford University

Bill Whalen

Virginia Hobbs Carpenter Distinguished Policy Fellow in Journalism, and Research Fellow; Hoover Institution, Stanford University—Moderator

This program was recorded live in San Francisco on February 7th, 2021 at the Commonwealth Club of California.

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San Francisco Opera: Reemergence to Centennial Mar 08, 2022

Show notes

For Matthew Shilvock, general director of San Francisco Opera, being a part of last year's reemergence of the Opera onstage at the War Memorial Building, was to "experience the world in hyperreality" and reclaim the magic of nightly "emotional synergy with 3,000 strangers."

He will present the newly announced centennial roster; 2022 is "a celebratory season full of bold possibility, of new productions, new operas"—including Asian artists' reimagining of Madam Butterfly's notorious stereotypes that "honors the culture it represents and challenges its shortcomings."

We will be, Shilvock believes, "part of something quite extraordinary" as we turn the page on a second century and reclaim the bold ideals on which San Francisco Opera was founded.'"

MLF ORGANIZER

Dr. Anne W. Smith

NOTES

MLF: Arts

SPEAKERS

Matthew Shilvock

General Director, San Francisco Opera

Anne W. Smith

Co-Chair, Arts Member-Led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—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 March 2nd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Ray Dalio: Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order Mar 08, 2022

Show notes

Today’s economy is painted by headlines as hectic, turbulent and uncertain—reports of massive debt, fluctuating interest rates, and widespread money printing abound. Yet to legendary investor and acclaimed financial innovator Ray Dalio, this is all part of a pattern—one that has been occurring repeatedly throughout the past 500 years of global economic history.

Ray Dalio is the founder, co-chief investment officer, and chairman for Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund by assets, as well as a leading expert in investment philosophy, corporate management and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Principles.

In his latest book, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, Dalio provides insights from more than half a century of studying the history of the world economy and its ties to the rising and falling of great powers—and how they fit into a “Big Cycle” that has persisted and is at work in the present day. His findings are that the times ahead will be unlike any we've faced in our lifetime, and he gives practical advice on how to prepare for what’s next.

Join us as Dalio walks through 5 centuries of economic conditions, political shifts and major shifts in the wealth and power of nations, highlighting hidden patterns and providing insight to safely navigate the times to come.

NOTES

This program is generously supported by the Jackson Square Partners Foundation.

SPEAKERS

Ray Dalio

Founder, Co-Chief Investment Officer and Chairman, Bridgewater Associates; Author, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail; Twitter @RayDalio

In Conversation with Michael Moritz

Partner, Sequoia Capital

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 March 1st, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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