Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Dr. Paula Stone Williams: As a Woman Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

Christian. Pastor. Transgender. Join us to hear from Dr. Paula Stone Williams about her experience journeying from male to female and from despair to joy.

As a father of three, married to a wonderful woman and holding several prominent jobs within the Christian community, Dr. Paula Stone Williams made the life-changing decision to physically transition from male to female at the age of sixty. Almost instantly, her power and influence in the evangelical world disappeared and her family had to grapple with intense feelings of loss and confusion.

Feeling utterly alone and at a loss after being expelled from the evangelical churches she had once spearheaded, Paula struggled to create a new safe space for herself where she could reconcile her faith, her identity, and her desire to be a leader. Much to her surprise, the key to her new career as a woman came with a deeper awareness of the inequities she had overlooked before her transition. Where her opinions were once celebrated and amplified, now she found herself sidelined and ignored. New questions emerged. Why are women’s opinions devalued in favor of men’s? Why does love and intimacy feel so different? And was it possible to find a new spirituality in her own image?

In her book As a Woman, Paula pulled back the curtain on her transition journey and shed light on the gendered landscape that impacts many in the LGBTQ+ community. Williams shares her lived experience of both genders and offers a truly unique perspective on the universal struggle to understand what it means to be male, female, and simply, human.

SPEAKERS

Paula Stone Williams

Pastor, Left Hand Church (Longmont, CO); Author, As a Woman

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow—Co-Host

John Zipperer

Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host

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 August 12th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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CLIMATE ONE: Which Way Are Swing Voters Swinging on Climate? Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

In early August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report unequivocally connecting global warming and extreme weather to human-driven greenhouse gas emissions, and warning of much more dramatic climate futures if we don’t change course soon.

Since the 2020 election, Rich Thau’s Swing Voter Project has been querying those who shifted from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020 about a range of issues. How will their views affect the 2022 midterms and the 2024 election? Where does climate rate on their list of issues? And does the accelerating climate crisis matter enough to affect their votes?

Guests:

Rich Thau, Moderator, The Swing Voter Project; Co-founder and President, Engagious

Andrew Freedman, Climate and Energy Reporter, Axios

Venkatachalam “Ram” Ramaswamy, Director of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

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The Cult of We: The WeWork Story Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

WeWork revolutionized working spaces. By investing in commercial real estate and converting property into flexible shared workspaces, WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann was set to transform the way people get work done. The company offered more than shared space, investing in education and housing initiatives through its WeGrow schools and WeLive residences. Israeli businessman Adam Neumann was on track to become the world’s first trillionaire, but the company soon found itself burning through money with a last hope attempt through a Hail Mary IPO.

From the minds of Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, The Cult of We uncovers the wins, hiccups, and turmoil of tech startups. Eliot Brown has spent his career covering startups, venture capital, commercial real estate and economic development. Similarly, Maureen Farrell focuses on the role of initial public offerings and capital markets in creating a successful business. Together, Brown and Farrell delve into the case of WeWork founder Adam Neumann to better understand how startups can revolutionize the world and what happens when they fail to do so.

Join us as Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, along with program moderator Charles Duhigg, uncover the gripping reality of tech startup culture.

SPEAKERS

Eliot Brown

Reporter, The Wall Street Journal; Co-author, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion; Twitter @eliotwb

Maureen Farrell

Reporter, The Wall Street Journal; Co-author, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion; Twitter @maureenmfarrell

In Conversation with Charles Duhigg

Contributor, The New Yorker; Author, Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity

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 August 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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90th Annual California Book Awards Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement. Over its 90 years, the California Book Awards have honored the writers who have come to define California to the world. Among them are John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, MFK Fisher, Thom Gunn, Richard Rodriquez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joan Didion, Ishmael Reed, and Amy Tan. Recent award winners include Hector Tobar, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Susan Orlean, Rachel Kushner, Rachel Khong, Tommy Orange, Morgan Parker and Steph Cha.

This year’s winners include:

GOLD MEDALS

FICTION

A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel Mason, Little, Brown and Company

FIRST FICTION

How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang, Riverhead Books

NONFICTION

South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, Alice L. Baumgartner, Basic Books

JUVENILE

Efrén Divided, Ernesto Cisneros, Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

YOUNG ADULT

Private Lessons, Cynthia Salaysay, Candlewick Press

POETRY

Quiet Orient Riot, Nathalie Khankan, Omnidawn

CALIFORNIANA

California Exposures: Envisioning Myth and History, Richard White, with photos by Jesse Amble White, W.W. Norton & Company

CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING

A Natural History of the Anza-Borrego Region, Marie Simovich and Mike Wells, Sunbelt Publications

SILVER MEDALS

FICTION

Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu, Pantheon/Vintage

NONFICTION

Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream, Conor Dougherty, Penguin Press

YOUNG ADULT

The Black Kids, Christina Hammonds Reed, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

SPEAKERS

Julia Flynn Siler

Juror, California Book Awards—Moderator

Peter Fish

Jury Chair, California Book Awards—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 August 16th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Courtney Martin: Learning In Public Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

Courtney E. Martin is an author, organizer and entrepreneur known for provocative writing and for helping found important content-based organizations that help tell the story of America's diverse future. She is the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers Bureau, and often works with organizations—TED, the Aspen Institute, The Obama Foundation, and The Sundance Institute—on how to make impactful, story-rich social change.

Her newest book, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School, explores her own story about finding the right school for her daughter in Oakland. While many of the white families in her gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school near her home, she chose differently. Moving beyond hashtags and yard signs as a way to make a difference, Courtney discovered that her local public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, was a powerful place to dig deeper to change the country, herself and her family.

Martin examines her own fears, assumptions and conversations with other parents as they navigate choosing what school is right for their child. The book provides a vivid portrait of integration’s virtues and complexities, and yes, the palpable joy of trying to live differently in a country re-making itself around racial issues.

Please join us for an important conversation on education, integration and how the schools we choose for our kids can shape the world we live in and the world we want.

** Note: This Podcast Contains Explicit Language **

SPEAKERS

Courtney Martin

Co-founder, Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers Bureau; Editor, "Examined Family" Newsletter; Author, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School

Ashley McBride

Education Equity Reporter, The Oaklandside--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 live stream video conference on August 3rd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Alexander Vindman: Here, Right Matters Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

On Thursday morning, July 25, 2019, then-President Donald Trump made a congratulatory phone call to Ukraine’s newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the months that followed, the true nature of that conversation would be revealed to the American public due to the moral stance of one man: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Faced with a moment of truth for his nation, Vindman felt duty-bound to report it up the chain of command that the president of the United States had extorted a foreign ally to damage a political challenger at home. Now, for the first time, Alexander Vindman is telling his story of how he ended up at the center of a firestorm for his decision to report the infamous phone call that led to the presidential impeachment.

As an immigrant raised by a father who fled the Soviet Union in pursuit of a better life for his children, Vindman had to learn how to build a life from scratch and take big risks to achieve important goals. In his new book, Here, Right Matters, he discusses how, in the face of sure-fire career derailment and intense public scrutiny, he put it all on the line to protect American democracy.

Join us for Alexander Vindman’s passionate and candid account of his family, his career and his exposure of what he considered a grave abuse of power.

SPEAKERS

Alexander Vindman

Former Director for European Affairs, United States National Security Council; Author, Here, Right Matters: An American Story

In Conversation with Tim Miller

Writer-at-Large, The Bulwark; Political Analyst, MSNBC; Twitter @Timodc

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A Conversation with Congresswoman Liz Cheney Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

Liz Cheney serves as Wyoming’s lone member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was first elected in 2016, on a platform of restoring America’s strength and power in the world, and pursuing conservative solutions to create jobs, cut taxes and regulation as well as expand America’s energy, mining and agriculture industries.

She made national headlines earlier this year when she voted to impeach President Trump, saying he "provoked" the January 6 Capitol attack. She has also vowed to fight to keep President Trump out of office if he runs again and has challenged all assertions by Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was fraudulent and stolen. This led to her removal as chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. She was also recently appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. In a Washington Postopinion column published this past May, Rep. Cheney wrote, “the Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution. . . .History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be."

Join us for a rare in-person and online conversation with congresswoman Cheney about the outlook for American democracy.

This program is part of The Commonwealth Club’s Future of Democracy Series, supported by Betsy and Roy Eisenhardt.

SPEAKERS

Liz Cheney

U.S. Congressional Representative (R-Wyoming)

In Conversation with Dan Ashley

Anchor, ABC 7 News, San Francisco Bay Area; Member, Commonwealth Club 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 via video conference on August 17th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Anne Nelson: Inside the Radical Right's Shadow Network Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

Established in 1981, the Council for National Policy has been the leading organization for wealthy, conservative decision makers to consolidate their power. This little-known coalition of elites is the strategic nerve center for fundraising money and mobilizing voters behind the scenes. Critics say that with its membership private and meetings held at an undisclosed location, the Council for National Policy has successfully made game plans and decisions steering the Republican Party in a process virtually unknown to the public. Award-winning author and media analyst Anne Nelson, however, is looking to demystify the elaborate organization.

In her new book Shadow Network, Nelson uncovers the key fundamentalists, oligarchs and allies that comprise the powerhouse of the Council for National Policy. She reveals stories about the Koch brothers, radical right-wing organizations, the decline of local journalism, the race for digital engagement, and the fight over the information war. As a research scholar at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, Nelson has focused her work on the role of digital media in aiding underserved populations through health, education and culture. Now, in a time of stark and growing threats to our most valued institutions and democratic freedoms, Nelson looks to illuminate the clouded history behind the political coalition.

Join us as Anne Nelson uncovers the conservative process that plays a significant role in shaping political outcomes today.

SPEAKERS

Anne Nelson

Journalist, Author, Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right

In Conversation with Kirk Hanson

Senior Fellow and Former Executive Director, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

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 May 26th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Jeffrey Kluger: Holdout Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

Join us for a conversation between Jeffrey Kluger and astronaut Nicole Stott about Kluger's new novel Holdout, which tells the story of a principled astronaut who has to make a spilt-second decision to try to seek justice in the only place she knows how—the International Space Station. Watch life meet art, as Stott brings her experience to bear on Kluger's imagination.

Kluger's plot centers around Walli Beckwith, a model astronaut who graduated at the top of her class from the Naval Academy, had a successful career flying fighter jets, and has spent more than 300 days in space. So when she refuses to leave her post aboard the International Space Station following an accident that forces her fellow astronauts to evacuate, her American and Russian colleagues are mystified. For Walli, her decision is all too clear and terrifying to worry about ruining her career. She is stuck in a race against time to save a part of the world that has been forgotten, plus the life of the person she loves most. She will go to any length necessary, using the only tool she has, to accomplish what she knows is right.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

SPEAKERS

Jeffrey Kluger

Editor at Large, Time Magazine; Emmy Award-Winner, "A Year in Space" Web Series; Film Consultant and Actor, Apollo 13; Author, Holdout

In Conversation with Nicole Stott

NASA Astronaut, Including more than 100 days Aboard the International Space Station; Aquanaut; Founder, Space for Art Foundation

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 August 5th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Jeremy Lent: The Web of Meaning Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

Jeremy Lent returns to The Commonwealth Club to discuss the ideas in his new book, which weaves together the latest scientific findings with age-old philosophical insights to show how some of our most ingrained beliefs about human nature and the world are mistaken.

Who am I? Why am I? How should I live? These are some of the oldest questions humans have grappled with. Our modern, high-tech society, having grown up in Darwins' shadow, assumes that humans are hardwired for selfishness, that we are separate from nature and so can exploit it, that we do best when left alone to pursue our own individual goals.

Lent argues that the latest scientific research begs to differ, and that those ingrained but faulty beliefs—which got started in the 17th century and have since been updated with ideas like the “selfish gene”—underlie the environmental and social unraveling now threatening our very survival. Lent not only challenges outmoded beliefs, he also invites us to consider a new way of thinking about ourselves and the world that is both intellectually sound and spiritually vibrant. He weaves together the latest research in neuroscience and evolutionary biology with Buddhist, Taoist, and Indigenous wisdom, and shows how these seemingly disparate streams of thought are not only eminently compatible, but are the key to facing the existential problems of the 21st century.

SPEAKERS

Jeremy Lent

Founder and President, The Liology Institute; Author, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

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, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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