Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Sabine Hossenfelder: Lost in Math Apr 22, 2021

Show notes

Join us for a virtual discussion with Sabine Hossenfelder, live-streamed direct from Frankfurt, Germany, about her concern that theoretical physicists have failed to make any major breakthroughs for more than four decades because they are obsessed with the goal that an accurate theory must be beautiful—at least to mathematicians.

Hossenfelder argues that when this belief in beauty becomes too dogmatic, it conflicts with scientific objectivity, and so may be interfering with our ability to understand black holes or why relativity theory and quantum mechanics have issues with each other. It may also be encouraging the pursuit of untestable string theory and supersymmetry explanations beyond what is scientifically useful (but which is still mathematically intriguing).

Hear why Hossenfelder is insisting, to the generation of theoreticians that preceded her, that progress will probably not be made until they conclude that physics isn’t math. It’s choosing the right math.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

SPEAKERS

Sabine Hossenfelder

Research Fellow, Superfluid Dark Matter Group, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies; Blogger, "Backreaction"; Author, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray

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 April 20th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Dr. John Torres: Guide to Surviving Everything Apr 22, 2021

Show notes

Dr. John Torres has spent his career fielding medical emergencies at home in the ER and abroad on humanitarian trips to Central and South America. As a U.S. Air Force veteran, he has been on the front lines of varying medical crises. As NBC News’ senior medical correspondent, he has spent the last year covering the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dubbed “Dr. Disaster,” Torres has all the knowledge of best practices in an emergency, and his new book Dr. Disaster’s Guide to Surviving Everything provides a need-to-know guide on disaster preparedness.

From avalanches and blackouts to pandemics and wildfires, Dr. Torres shares hacks and tips that could save your life or the life of someone around you. He tells you must-know practices such as the best place to sit on an airplane, how to start a fire with household items, and the first thing you should do every time you enter a shopping mall.

SPEAKERS

Dr. John Torres

Senior Medical Correspondent, NBC News/MSNBC; Author, Dr. Disaster’s Guide to Surviving Everything: Essential Advice for Any Situation Life Throws Your Way

In Conversation with Lenny Mendonca

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 April 14th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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CLIMATE ONE: Living with Climate Disruption Apr 22, 2021

Show notes

The impacts of climate change may come fast or slow. A wildfire amplified by drought may rip through a town in a matter of hours, or rising seas may take years to destroy a neighborhood. Health impacts may show up in months, or take the form of devastating cancer rates that rise over a decade. Regardless of speed or intensity, the climate emergency will impact us all. How do we live alongside climate disruption?

This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.

We have been nominated for a Webby!

Please give us your vote as the Best Science and Education Limited Series in the 25th Annual People's Voice Award below:

https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2021/podcasts/limited-series-specials/science-education

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Dr. Michio Kaku: The God Equation Apr 21, 2021

Show notes

When Isaac Newton established the laws of motion in 1687, he created a foundation of understanding that still guides physicists to scientific discoveries today. As studies evolve, scientists get closer to understanding the deepest mysteries of space and time. Once physicists can successfully combine theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, all forces in the universe will be recognized and tied into one. Physicist Michio Kaku seeks to document this epic journey of uniting theories of space in his new book The God Equation.

Dr. Kaku, once mentored by theoretical physicist Edward Teller, graduated summa cum laude and first in his physics class from Harvard University. Now, Dr. Kaku strives to continue Einstein’s search for a “theory of everything,” seeking to popularize science and unify the four fundamental forces of the universe—the strong force, the weak force, gravity and electromagnetism.

Join us as Michio Kaku talks about physics pioneers looking to understand the complexity of the universe.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Michio Kaku

Professor of Theoretical Physics, City College of New York; Author The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything; Twitter @michiokaku

Kara Platoni

Science Editor, Science, Wired.com—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 April 16th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Alice Gu: The Rags to Riches Story of the Donut King Apr 21, 2021

Show notes

The real-life tale of Ted Ngoy, "the Donut King," is one of fate, love, survival, hard knocks, and redemption. It's the rags to riches story of a refugee escaping Cambodia, arriving in America in 1975 and building an unlikely multi-million-dollar empire baking America's favorite pastry, the donut. He sponsored hundreds of visas for incoming refugees and helped them get on their feet teaching them the ways of the donut business.

His life has been turned into the documentary The Donut King by award-winning filmmaker Alice Gu. A Los Angeles native, Gu began her career as a director of photography, working with renowned directors Werner Herzog, Stacy Peralta, and Rory Kennedy, among others. Her commercial clients for print and live action include TBWA/ Chiat Day, Media Arts Lab, Deutsche, Edelman, Berlin Cameron, Cole & Weber, Pereira & O’Dell, Doremus, Publicis, Beats by Dre, Laird Hamilton, ESPN, FIFA, NFL, NHL, NBA, the WSL, Apple, Peta, and the American Humane Association. Take Every Wave: the Life of Laird Hamilton made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, a documentary film directed by Academy Award nominated director, Rory Kennedy, and lensed by Alice Gu.

The Donut King is Alice’s feature directorial debut; it was slated to premiere in the canceled 2020 SXSW film festival. Despite the cancellation, the film won the Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling, as well as the One in a Million Award at the canceled 2020 Sun Valley Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the Bentonville Film Festival. A feature-length documentary about the rise and fall of a Cambodian refugee turned donut tycoon, The Donut King is executive produced by Academy Award-winners Ridley Scott and Freida Lee Mock.

Join us for a discussion with Alice Gu.

SPEAKERS

Alice Gu

Filmmaker, The Donut King and Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW/KPIX 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 April 8th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Islam's Diverse History of Ideas Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

Join us for a virtual discussion with Mustafa Akyol, who takes us on a fascinating journey into Islam's diverse history of ideas, and argues that the next "Islamic Enlightenment" may be on the horizon.

Akyol diagnoses “the crisis of Islam” in the modern world and offers a way forward. Diving deeply into Islamic theology, and also sharing lessons from his own life story, he says Muslims lost the universalism that made them a great civilization in their earlier centuries. He demonstrates how values often associated with the Western Enlightenment―freedom, reason, tolerance and an appreciation of science―had Islamic ancestors that were cast aside, for political reasons, in favor of more dogmatic views. Akyol borrows lost visions from medieval Muslim thinkers, such as Ibn Rushd (aka Averroes), to show how they shared a strikingly modern worldview on a range of sensitive issues: human rights, equality for women, freedom of religion, or freedom from religion.

While frankly acknowledging the problems in the world of Islam today, Akyol offers a clear and hopeful vision for its future.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

SPEAKERS

Mustafa Akyol

Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; Contributing Opinion Writer, The New York Times; Author, Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom and Tolerance

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

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Amanda Tyler with Soledad O'Brien: The Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Apr 19, 2021

Show notes

Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her decades in public service advocating for guaranteed rights and protections of all people. She transformed the legislative landscape by pioneering conversations on American freedom with a particular focus on gender equality. In the new book Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue, UC Berkeley law school professor Amanda Tyler celebrates the life work of RBG to tell the story of Justice Ginsburg's unwavering commitment to the achievement of "a more perfect Union." With a research focus in the Supreme Court, legal history and civil procedure, Tyler encapsulates the life of RBG and what we can learn from her experiences in politics.

Drawing from personal conversations and additional materials on Justice Ginsburg’s life, Tyler dives into her notable briefs and oral arguments, last speeches and favorite opinions, along with the statements that she read from the bench in her most important cases. She emphasizes Ginsburg’s pursuit for constitutional interpretation that defends all people based on humanity rather than status—a mission she said all politicians should strive to follow. Dubbed “The Notorious RBG,” her tireless work in the government will have a lasting impact on our nation’s political culture.

Join us as professor Amanda Tyler and award winning journalist Soledad O’Brien commemorate the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and tell us what we can learn from the late justice’s life work.

SPEAKERS

Amanda Tyler

Shannon Cecil Turner Professor of Law, University of California Berkeley School of Law; Author, Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union

In Conversation with Soledad O’Brien

Journalist

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 April 15th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: The Disordered Cosmos Apr 16, 2021

Show notes

Theoretical physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein wants to share the wonders of the universe with people who might think they are inaccessible. As a professor at the University of New Hampshire in theoretical physics and women’s studies, Prescod-Weinstein teaches and studies the outer reaches of scientific understanding and seeks to make complex concepts understandable. In her new book The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, Prescod-Weinstein provides a unique chronicle of the physics of our cosmos through the lens of the Star Trek universe.

Join Prescod-Weinstein at INFORUM to learn about the universe from her perspective, formed by Black feminism and a view of our cosmos as, despite its intricacies, accessible to all.

SPEAKERS

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Physics and Core Faculty Member in Women’s Studies, University of New Hampshire; Author, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

Raja GuhaThakurta

Ph.D., Professor/Astronomer & Department Chair, Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz

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 April 6th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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I Hear You: Talking and Listening to People with Alzheimer’s Apr 16, 2021

Show notes

Join us for a far-reaching conversation with co-authors Dr. Jane Mahakian and Alyson Kuhn about their practical guide for caregivers and the rest of us. Learning to communicate with someone with dementia is an enormous first step toward making that person’s life easier and richer in the moment. The more of us who want to talk and listen to people with dementia, the less “socially disappeared” they will be.

Dr. Mahakian and Kuhn will share several of the book’s vignettes, giving us glimpses into the realm of forgetfulness and demonstrating ways to connect with someone with dementia. They will also share reader responses to I Hear You, which are diverse, touching and thoughtful.

The co-authors met in 2003, when it became prudent to move Caroline, Kuhn’s mother, from her home of 50 years—before her dementia posed serious risks to her physical and social well-being. Dr. Mahakian masterminded the successful move, and Kuhn’s extensive email exchanges with Dr. Mahakian over several years formed the basis for the I Hear You writing partnership.

MLF ORGANIZER

Denise Michaud

NOTES

MLF: Grownups

SPEAKERS

Jane Mahakian

Gerontologist; Author, I Hear You

Alyson Kuhn

Freelance Writer and Editor; Co-author, I Hear You

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 April th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CLIMATE ONE REWIND: Billionaire Wilderness Apr 16, 2021

Show notes

For many of us, the story of the American wilderness begins when Europeans arrived on these shores and began conquering it. The wide open spaces of the American West loom large in our country’s mythology. But what often gets written out is the history and culture of those native societies who were here to begin with - and whose relationship to this land is very different. And while one-percenters have contributed generously to preserve and protect the pristine wilderness they love, the people who work for them are often struggling, working two or three jobs. How are public and private land interests competing in the American West? Can conservation and recreation coalesce in a way that is inclusive of all communities?

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