Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

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Prime TV Time: What to Watch While Sheltering in Place Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Thanks to the general shut-down and shelter-in-place orders, you're home—now what? We're talking with three TV and media critics about the television shows and movies that are worth your time. What classic movies should you watch? Where can you find them? Which TV series are worth binge viewing? What programs have you overlooked but now have the time to discover and enjoy? Join us for a fun and informative program to help us all get through these tough times. Notes This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration

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COVID-19 and the LGBTQI Community Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

The vulnerability of certain populations to the coronavirus COVID-19 has been well publicized—everyone knows seniors and people with asthma, diabetes and certain other conditions are in the most danger from the virus. But less well-known is the virus' impact on LGBTQI communities. Join us for a discussion with experts about how this virulent disease impacts this community, and submit your questions for our speakers on our YouTube livestream. This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors. We are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times.

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Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg: Solutions to the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Few individuals are as uniquely qualified to provide insight about the coronavirus pandemic as physician Dr. Margaret Hamburg. She is the past commissioner of Public Health for the city of New York, and also the past commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, having served as the chief U.S. official responsible for approving new drugs. She also sits on the board of the organization Ending Pandemics. Dr. Hamburg will be in conversation from Washington, D.C. with Dr. Gloria Duffy, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Club. They will cover the prospects and timing for drug treatments for the coronavirus, how the virus and policies to stop its spread will affect New York, who predicted a pandemic and what advice they gave, and how the coronavirus spread and lessons to learn to prevent future pandemics. Dr. Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine, and currently serves as foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine and chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative Bio Advisory Group. She previously served as assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. As foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Hamburg serves as senior adviser on international matters and is the liaison with other Academies of Medicine around the world. She is president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), as well as an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Hamburg earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Notes This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors. We are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times.

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Kitty Ferguson: Stephen Hawking’s Biographer Hears the Music of the Spheres Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Join us virtually for a Monday Night Philosophy conversation with Kitty Ferguson about the life and scientific theories of Stephen Hawking, whom she first met in 1988. That encounter began her mid-life transition from being a professional singer, music teacher and Juilliard graduate to an explainer of difficult scientific concepts and Hawking’s biographer. We will also discuss her nine other books, which she wrote in the clearest possible manner, translating from the “language” of mathematicians, scientists, and other experts into the language of the rest of us, without dumbing down the ideas. There is nothing more Pythagorean than that combination of clarity, theoretical science and music, and Ferguson’s childhood and family life, even more than her formal education, prepared her well for merging all three talents. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

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Tamim Ansary: Separate Histories with a Common Future Apr 05, 2020

Show notes

Join us virtually for a conversation with Tamim Ansary about the patterns he sees in ancient civilizations and in current cultures derived from those historical developments. The four major rivers along which large-scale human civilizations began—the Nile, the Tigris–Euphrates, the Indus and the Huang He—each had characteristic traits that contributed to the underlying cultural assumptions our ancestors made about the nature of reality. Being who we are, mainly concerned with the world as seen through our own culture's eyes, for most of recorded history each major civilization has seen the other civilizations as peripheral players on this planet. Ansary shows how we have always been interconnected but that the speed at which that takes place in the 21st century has made many issues worldwide concerns requiring consensus on solutions, including climate change and the spread of deadly viruses. Ansary wants us to understand, in time, that each human civilization we have created mostly has points of similarity with every other civilization in our pursuit of happiness and that it is the points of cultural divergence that are truly peripheral. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

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CLIMATE ONE: COVID-19 and Climate: Human Response Apr 03, 2020

Show notes

Why does an invisible, life-threatening virus prompt a nationwide emergency, but invisible, life-threatening gases don’t? Experts have been emphasizing the dangers of unchecked climate change for years, underscoring the need for rapid, bold action early-on to avoid the worst impacts. Now health experts are pushing the same level of global mobilization to quell the spread of the novel coronavirus. Why are humans wired to respond to some fears and emergencies more than others? Can the reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic teach us anything about how humans respond to other invisible, global threats?

Guests:

Peter Atwater, Adjunct Professor of Economics, College of William & Mary

Susan Clayton, Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology, College of Wooster

Robert H. Frank, Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

Additional interviews: Shannon Osaka, Climate Reporter, Grist

This program was recorded at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on March 24, 2020.

For full show notes, visit our website.

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Spring Rain: Author and Comics Artist Andy Warner Apr 03, 2020

Show notes

In 2005, Andy Warner went to Beirut, Lebanon, for a semester studying literature. Just 21 years old and having recently broken up with his girlfriend, Warner immersed himself in the vibrant and diverse city, quickly befriending a group of LGBT students. Amid their friendships, studying and partying, they also witnessed political assassinations and bombings once again erupting in Beirut. As the city descended into violence, Warner felt his grasp on reality slowly beginning to slip as he dealt with past traumas and anxiety over his future. He recounts his experiences in the new graphic memoir Spring Rain, his third book. He is also author of the New York Times best seller Brief Histories of Everyday Objects and is co-creator of This Land Is My Land. His comics have been published by Slate, Fusion, American Public Media, KQED, UNICEF, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Buzzfeed and other media outlets. He was the recipient of the 2018 Berkeley Civic Arts Grant and the 2019 Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park artist in residency. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and two children. Join us for a conversation with Warner about his experiences in Beirut and his creative life since.

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The Global Humanitarian Picture: Challenges and Opportunities for Humanitarian Action Apr 02, 2020

Show notes

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) presents a discussion on the most pressing challenges to humanitarian assistance in the 21st century. Globally, 70.8 million people are considered forcibly displaced by armed conflict, and over 160 million people need emergency humanitarian assistance. Conflict has replaced natural disasters as the driver of humanitarian need—aid organizations are faced with navigating complicated security and political environments while meeting growing demand on the ground. In addition, new actors and increasingly urbanized conflict have strained the global acceptance and adherence to international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. The Humanitarian Agenda is an initiative that leverages the expertise of CSIS programs to explore complex humanitarian challenges. Jacob Kurtzer’s primary focus is the Task Force on Humanitarian Access, which will look at challenges in access to aid in complex man-made emergencies. Prior to joining CSIS, Kurtzer spent seven years with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), most recently as head of communications for the ICRC Delegation in Israel and the occupied territories. Previously, he served as head of public and congressional affairs for the Washington delegation of the ICRC, representing the ICRC to a broad spectrum of audiences in the United States and Canada. In addition, he has conducted field missions in South Sudan and Rakhine State, Myanmar and spent nearly three years as a consultant with the ICRC delegation in Pretoria, South Africa. From 2007–2009, he served as the congressional advocate at Refugees International (RI), a humanitarian advocacy organization based in Washington D.C. Kurtzer began his career as a legislative assistant to Representative Robert Wexler (D–FL), covering domestic and foreign policy issues, including managing the Congressional Indonesia Caucus. Kurtzer earned a master’s in peace and conflict studies from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, where he studied as a Rotary Foundation World Peace Fellow. He also holds a bachelor’s in philosophy from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a citation in religious studies, and is an alumnus of the College Park Scholars Public Leadership program. MLF Organizer: Linda J. Calhoun MLF: International Relations

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MIinimizing Fear Apr 02, 2020

Show notes

Monday Night Philosophy understands that we have explained life to ourselves in ways that have scared us silly for so long that it has become an engrained habit. Ironically, it's a habit we rather enjoy because fear often keeps us more alert than we'd otherwise be. But there are other ways to remain intellectually alert to the nuances of life that are not so debilitating. So tonight, join us via live stream, and we'll sort through those fears with the goal of understanding how unlikely it is that these fears are justified, eliminating those that are highly irrational and minimizing those that are merely ridiculous. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

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Caroline Winterer: Historian of America's Ideas Apr 01, 2020

Show notes

Join us virtually for a conversation about the pervasive impact Enlightenment ideas had on early American culture and how that changed the ways Americans pursued happiness in their New World. Caroline Winterer specializes in early American reactions to scientific ideas and Enlightenment attitudes, which raised new questions about plants, animals and rocks but also about politics and religion. It is hard to overestimate the influence of Americans' newly conceived relationship between the present and the past as it spurred far-flung conversations about a better future for all of humanity. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

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