Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

NBA’s Kevin Love: Championing Mental Health for Everyone Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

On the surface, it would appear that the Cleveland Cavaliers' star forward Kevin Love has much success in his life. He is a five-time All-Star and won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016.He was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. But Kevin Love has also suffered from depression and anxiety for years. He was one of the first NBA players to openly discuss mental health challenges. He first made headlines in March 2018, when he admitted that he had suffered a panic attack during a game that year. He subsequently said that he had always viewed talking about mental health as a “form of weakness that could derail my success in sports.” Yet he has gone on to talk about how he has changed his attitude toward mental health, believing that sharing helps others. In 2018, he established the Kevin Love Fund to provide tools and help for people to improve their physical and emotional well-being, with the goal of assisting more than a billion people over the next 5 years. Come for a candid and heartfelt conversation with Kevin Love about how depression impacts not only high performers but a wide range of people across age groups and professions, especially during the COVID-era, and what can be done to create more support for those in need.

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After the Capitol Siege: The Need for Civics Education Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

Just two weeks after the Capitol attack that resulted in five deaths, delayed the official counting of the Electoral College votes, and led to the second impeachment of a president of the United States for the first time in American history, a new president has been inaugurated in a Washington, D.C. that was on near lockdown due to the threat of domestic terrorism. Education leaders, civic advocates and public officials recognize that one of the most important ways the country can respond to this challenging moment is through an embrace of civics education, along with a significant boost in efforts that enable all U.S. citizens to understand the civic structures of the country, as well as the roles and responsibilities of its citizens and its elected officials. Just days after the Capitol attack, the Washington, D.C.-based The Hill published a powerful editorial about the urgent need for a renewed push for civics education. In it, Lauren Leader and Mark K. Updegrove noted, . . . Like the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that pulled the U.S. directly into World War II, the siege on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by a violent mob will be remembered as a “day which will live in infamy.” Much will be written about the circumstances that led to the desecration of the Capitol….but as we move forward, it’s just as urgent to consider how we can build the foundations of a more unified nation with a deeper common understanding of what it really means to be American. . . . Part of the answer lies in civics education." Please join us for a special program as Leader and Updegrove are joined by the heads of iCivics, Louise Dube, and Generation Citizen, Elizabeth Clay Roy, to discuss why an urgent call to action for civics education is so important for the country. NOTES The program is part of The Commonwealth Club's "Creating Citizens" initiative, created with generous support from the Koret Foundation and others.

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A Healthy Society Series: Communicating Science (in a Science-Skeptical World) Jan 26, 2021

Show notes

As a driver of global health, prosperity and planetary sustainability, science pervades all realms of human activity. The COVID pandemic of the past year and the prospect of its eventual resolution have put science (and scientists) at the forefront of an international cultural conversation. Yet communicating facts and credible research is a tricky task in a world awash in social media, anti-scientific agendas, political forces and biases of every kind. MLF ORGANIZER Robert Lee Kilpatrick NOTES MLF: Health & Medicine

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Making the Case: A Unique Portrait of a Supreme Court Justice Jan 26, 2021

Show notes

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told filmmaker Jennifer Callahan, "If I left the house without a bag, I’d go right back inside to get it." In "Making the Case," the late justice shares her thoughts—not on the law, but on daily objects from her own life, on some of her handbags. The film enables the viewer to get to know the great RBG in a most relatable way. Join us for an unexpected look into the thinking of a legal legend. Please note: This is not a screening of the short film "Making the Case."

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Rep. Eric Swalwell: The Siege on Capitol Hill Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

Since the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill, Representative Eric Swalwell has been outspoken about the action he believes Congress should take to curb further assaults on our democracy, emphasizing the need for the president’s resignation or impeachment. The representative from California’s 15th district does not shy away from voicing his opinion on the important issues, and in this time of great uncertainty, Rep. Swalwell maintains his support for direct action against those who perpetrated the attack on himself and fellow members of Congress. As the House of Representative introduces articles of impeachment against President Trump, join Rep. Swalwell at INFORUM to hear about what it was like inside Capitol Hill on January 6, his hopes for the Biden administration, and what he expects for a post-Trump political landscape.

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Journalist Annie Jacobsen: Biometrics and the Surveillance State Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

Journalist Annie Jacobsen is well known for her best sellers The Pentagon's Brain, Area 51 and Operation Paperclip. In her latest book, First Platoon, she investigates "warfare, good and evil in the age of biometrics, the technology that would allow the government to identify anyone, anywhere, at any time." Come for a discussion about the Pentagon's abilities to utilize iris scans, fingerprint scans, voice patterning, detection by odor, gait, and more to track human patterns, as well as the ethical questions raised by what Ms. Jacobsen calls "a burgeoning surveillance state." This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: It is about a platoon of mostly 19-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: Inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the U.S. Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the power to identify, monitor, catalogue, and police people all over the world. Based on hundreds of formerly classified documents, FOIA requests, and exclusive interviews, First Platoon is an investigative exposé by a master chronicler of government secrets. Jacobsen reveals a post–9/11 Pentagon whose identification machines have grown more capable than the humans who must make sense of them. She says it's a Pentagon so powerful it can cover up its own internal mistakes in pursuit of endless wars; and people are at its mercy, in the last moments before a fundamental change so complete it might be impossible to take back. Annie Jacobsen is the author of the Pulitzer Prize–finalist in history The Pentagon’s Brain, the New York Times bestsellers Area 51 and Operation Paperclip, and other books. She was a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.

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The New Corporation: Creating an Economic System That Works for All Jan 22, 2021

Show notes

How do we find our way to a society focused on the common good instead of greed and selfishness? Does our “socially responsible” corporation structure allow us to have other values besides profit? Our panel—Joel Bakan, Jennifer Abbot, Elizabeth Davis and Kevin McGarry—will guide us to examine these issues. Joel Bakan’s book “the New Corporation” and Jennifer Abbot and Joel’s film by the same name, calls out what they call the corporate takeover of society. From gatherings of corporate elites in Davos, to climate change and spiraling inequality, the rise of authoritarian leaders to COVID and racial injustice, our panel of media activists and academics looks at corporations’ devastating power and the systemic changes required. Countering this is a groundswell of resistance worldwide as people take to the streets in pursuit of justice and the planet’s future. The members of our panel examine how a “just recovery” means addressing the three crises: climate, COVID and capitalism. The panel will look beyond the old corporate mentality and guide people toward a reimagining of democracy, collective action, structural equality and how people can get involved. MLF ORGANIZER Elizabeth Carney NOTES MLF: Business & Leadership

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CLIMATE ONE: Fast, Fair and Clean: The New Energy Transition Jan 22, 2021

Show notes

Hopes and expectations are high for President Biden’s first weeks in office. His recovery plans promise to take on COVID-19, a battered economy, and a rapid clean energy transition in a way that doesn’t leave communities behind. But Navajo Nation, which until recently was home to the largest coal-fired power plant in the U.S., has been left out of economic and energy plans for a long time. “The community that has been the provider is the one that has the most homes that don't have access to electricity,” notes Wahleah Johns, Co-Founder and Director of Native Renewables. Can the incoming administration improve energy access for all Americans while phasing out fossil fuels?

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Operation Moonglow Jan 20, 2021

Show notes

Discover the political history behind the Apollo program. Ever since July 1969, Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon has represented the pinnacle of American space exploration and a grand scientific achievement. Yet Teasel Muir-Harmony argues its primary purpose wasn't advancing science. Rather, it was part of a political strategy to build a global coalition of "freedom" against "tyranny." Starting with JFK's 1961 decision to send astronauts to the Moon, Project Apollo was central to American foreign policy. From that perspective, the critical event did not just take place on the lunar surface; it took place in homes, public squares, palaces, and schools around the world, as Apollo captured global attention like never before. In the Moon landing's afterglow, the Apollo astronauts and President Richard Nixon traveled the world to amplify the sense of participation and global unity shared by the billions who had followed the flight. Drawing on a rich array of untapped archives and firsthand interviews with Apollo astronauts, Muir-Harmony paints a riveting picture of the intersection of spaceflight, geopolitics, propaganda, and diplomacy during the Cold War. NOTES MLF: Humanities

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Run to Win: EMILY's List President Stephanie Schriock Jan 19, 2021

Show notes

As the president of the Democratic political action committee EMILY’s List since 2010, Stephanie Schriock has led the charge to elect female Democratic candidates across America. In the 2018 midterm elections, under Schriock’s leadership, EMILY’s List ran female candidates who flipped enough seats to win a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. In her new book with Christina Reynolds, Run to Win: Lessons in Leadership for Women Changing the World, Schriock provides guidance for women looking to break into male-dominated spaces, whether that be in politics or otherwise. Join Schriock at INFORUM to learn more about how women can become changemakers in their communities, whether it's at the local, state or federal level.

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