Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

‘The Alabama Solution’ Film Screening Feb 23, 2026

Show notes

Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up.
In 2019, filmmakers visit an Alabama prison to film a revival meeting. Off camera, incarcerated men whisper a message: terrible things are going on here that are being kept secret from the public. This sparks an immersive 6-year investigation to discover the reality behind the walls of what the film calls “the nation’s deadliest prison system.”
With unprecedented direct access, the filmmakers learn from incarcerated men about a suspicious and violent death. The story unfolds in real time, revealing it isn’t an isolated incident, and that the official version appears far from the truth. What follows is a shocking story of brutality, corruption, and a system in collapse. As the men fight for their own survival, they embark on a campaign of resistance, against all odds.
Join us for a screening of the Oscar-nominated new documentary Alabama Solution, followed by a Q&A with director and producer Andrew Jarecki

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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

Looking Back—Pushing Forward: A Briefing on the State of Elder Justice in a Changing America Feb 23, 2026

Show notes

Join two 25-year veterans representing the elder justice profession as they provide an overview of the troubling trends they have seen with the burgeoning problem of elder abuse. Their focus will be on financial exploitation—perpetrated by a broad spectrum of offenders, including strangers and people known to their older targets.

The presenters will also address key challenges and threats to the physical and financial safety of older people, including the proposed dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its Office for Older Americans, along with other concerning issues at the federal, state and local level that are leaving thousands of older people at the mercy of financial predators. Topics will include financial grooming (a.k.a. “pig-butchering”), crypto scams, romance scams, and the growth of transnational crime rings that are targeting American seniors to the tune of billions in losses.

About the Speakers

Jenefer Duane is an elder justice advocate and consultant. Duane is a former senior program analyst in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Office for Older Americans. With 40 years in aging services and consumer protection, she specializes in prevention, response, investigation, prosecution and resolution of cases of elder financial exploitation. At the CFPB, she led the development of the national Elder Financial Protection and Response Network program. She was the agency lead for the award-winning Money Smart for Older Adults program with the FDIC. She also led several CFPB-FinCin initiatives to strengthen the suspicious-activity reporting and investigation of elder financial exploitation.

Paul Greenwood is a former deputy district attorney and an AARP consultant. Greenwood headed up the Elder Abuse Prosecution Unit at the San Diego DA’s Office for 22 years. In 1999 California Lawyer magazine named Paul as one of their top 20 lawyers of the year in recognition of his pioneering efforts to pursue justice on behalf of senior citizens. He has prosecuted more than 750 felony cases of physical, sexual, emotional and financial elder abuse. He has also prosecuted 10 murder cases, including one death penalty case. In March 2018 Greenwood retired from the San Diego DA’s office to concentrate on sharing lessons learned from his elder abuse prosecutions with a wider audience. In October 2018 he was given a lifetime achievement award by his former office. Greenwood now spends much of his post retirement time speaking on behalf of AARP nationally, consulting on elder abuse cases, testifying as an expert witness and providing trainings to law enforcement and Adult Protective Services agencies across the country and internationally. He is also involved as the criminal justice board member of the National Adult Protective Services Association.

A Grownups Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

Organizer: Denise Michaud

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

Paul Eastwick: The New Science of Love and Connection Feb 22, 2026

Show notes

Join us at Commonwealth Club World Affairs on February 13 to prepare scientifically for Valentine’s Day.

Paul Eastwick has taken a groundbreaking look at the science of attraction and compatibility, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about how human mating has evolved. Eastwick takes exception to evolutionary psychology’s claim, cloaked in incontrovertible Darwinian terms, that our minds have been shaped by primal drives that pit the genders against each other—from the myth that men are wired to be promiscuous to the notion that wealth, status and beauty are the ultimate aphrodisiacs.

Drawing on pathbreaking research—including original experiments from his own UC Davis lab—Eastwick reveals that these stories bear little resemblance to how pair-bonding really works. While beauty and charisma factor into first impressions, their influence fades fast. Lasting attraction is built through gradual, often mundane moments that forge strong attachment bonds.

Eastwick’s liberating new paradigm for finding meaningful, exciting relationships includes: that personality, lifestyle, values and humor are poor predictors of compatibility; that a person’s tendency to “date around” has little bearing on their long-term relationship potential; and that the most secure relationships offer a “safe haven” and “secure base” for each partner.

By excavating the hidden history of human mating, Eastwick paints a radical new picture of the roots of enduring chemistry. Distilling evolutionary biology, anthropology and psychology into accessible insights, Eastwick explains a more evolved approach to dating which makes it far more effective.

Eastwick will be in conversation with Kathryn Paige Harden, who directs the Developmental Behavior Genetics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is a professor of psychology. Harden has published two books and more than 150 scientific papers on the nature and nurture of human behavior.

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

Celebrating Black History Month: Excellence in Leadership, Innovation and Community Feb 20, 2026

Show notes

In honor of Black History Month, Commonwealth Club World Affairs invites you to a special evening celebrating Black excellence, civic leadership, and the innovations shaping stronger, more liberated communities.

Moderator Chantel Walker, managing director of the Black Funders Network and vice mayor of San Anselmo, whose work bridges civic leadership with philanthropic systems change, will lead an engaging conversation on contemporary Black leadership across public service, philanthropy, youth empowerment, and community power-building.

Guest speaker Solano County Supervisor Cassandra James will share insights from her perspective as a public leader working at the intersection of governance, equity and community investment. Dr. Brandon Nicholson has a track record of growing a local nonprofit in Oakland to seven cities nationally, securing and managing a $15 million annual budget, by leveraging public grants, individual donations, and private sector partnerships, as well as having a global presence in the UK and Africa. As CEO of The Hidden Genius Project, he and his team of innovators, operations, training, and curriculum experts have spearheaded initiatives that have positively impacted thousands of youth of color, particularly young Black males in enhancing college graduation rates and opening doors to rewarding career pathways.

Together, Supervisor James and Dr. Nicholson will explore what excellence in leadership looks like today, the role of innovation in expanding collective opportunity, and how communities are building power and possibility for future generations.

Key themes include:

Black leadership and public service in the Bay Area and beyond
Investing in youth, creativity and innovation as engines of change
Philanthropy and community-centered systems transformation
Honoring history through action, vision and liberation

Join us for an inspiring Black History Month conversation and a call toward a future grounded in equity, dignity and community strength.

A Social Impact Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

OrganizerIan McCuaig & Virginia Cheung

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

CLIMATE ONE: EPA Cancels Billions in Grants. Recipients Won’t Back Down Feb 20, 2026

Show notes

Congress approved billions for federal grants and programs through the EPA during the Biden administration. Those dollars were meant to help disadvantaged communities and fund community resilience projects, public health programs, and initiatives to reduce energy insecurity on tribal lands. But just as these projects were getting underway, the Trump administration froze many of the grants, put others under indefinite review, or canceled them outright.

Now, some of the groups that were awarded federal funds have banded together and are suing the federal government for the money they’re owed. Others are seeking alternative funding streams. In this episode, we speak with people whose projects are on hold, but who continue to serve their communities.

Episode Guests:

Ben Grillot, Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center

Wahleah Johns, Former Director, U.S. DOE Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs

Ilyssa Manspeizer, CEO, Landforce

Bryan Cordell, Executive Director, Sustainability Institute

For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit ⁠climateone.org/podcasts.⁠

Skill Up for Earth: https://skillup.earth

Highlights:

00:00 Intro

03:01 Ilyssa Manspeizer on what her organization, Landforce

06:29 Ilyssa Manspeizer on the impact of federal grant funds

08:58 Ilyssa Manspeizer on losing the grant funding

11:38 Ilyssa Manspeizer on Landforce joining the lawsuit against the EPA

14:08 Ben Grillot on the original EPA grantees

19:08 Ben Grillot on the politicization of the grants

24:54 Ben Grillot on the loss of trust with the federal government

26:42 Bryan Cordell on the work of the Sustainability Institute

30:38 Bryan Cordell on the status of their work after federal grants were pulled

33:51 Wahleah Johns on growing up on a Navajo reservation

45:59 Wahleah Johns on the community response to IRA rollbacks

48:20 Wahleah Johns on working toward the future

**********

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠Patreon⁠, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at ⁠patreon.com/ClimateOne⁠.

Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/ads

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

California Insurance Commissioner Candidate Forum Feb 19, 2026

Show notes

The California Department of Insurance regulates the insurance industry, with consumer protection as its core tenet. The insurance commissioner heads the Department of Insurance, managing more than 1,400 employees and overseeing 1,600 insurance companies.

Ricardo Lara, the current commissioner, has faced increasingly challenging circumstances. Devastating wildfires in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2025 have burned tens of thousands of homes; 7 of California’s 12 top insurers have pulled back from the California market since Lara took office in 2019. Meanwhile, the California FAIR Plan—the state-run public home insurance program designed to be the “insurer of last resort”—has more than doubled its policyholders between 2019 and 2023, due to the difficulty faced by homeowners of finding suitable coverage on the private market. As a result of the dramatic increase in policyholders, the FAIR Plan faced financial insolvency in 2023 and 2025, resulting in a $1 billion bailout from private insurers to cover claims.

Additionally, critics say major insurance companies have continuously underestimated the payouts for homeowners in the case of total loss. In recent years, most people who have experienced a major fire have found out that their insurance will not pay them enough to rebuild. For consumers, these growing problems mean higher premiums where coverage is available, fewer insurer choices, stricter underwriting standards, and, in some cases, an inability to obtain comprehensive coverage at all. Homeowners in high-risk areas are increasingly pushed into bare-bones policies or layered coverage solutions.

In March 2025, for the first time in California history, the California insurance commissioner approved emergency, interim rate hikes designed to stabilize State Farm after immense financial strain from the LA wildfires. These hikes averaged 17 percent for homeowners, 15 percent for renters/condos, and up to 38 percent for rental dwellings. Experts say that the next insurance commissioner will inherit a growing crisis in which nearly all the proposed solutions are likely to cost consumers.

This public forum will provide voters with an opportunity to hear directly from candidates for insurance commissioner on key issues affecting Californians, including consumer protection, climate risk, insurance affordability, and regulatory oversight.

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

The Race for Governor 2026: Antonio Villaraigosa Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

Former Los Angeles Mayor and California Assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa says he’s running for California governor because the state needs an experienced “problem-solver” who can work across the aisle.
Born and raised in L.A., Villaraigosa was expelled from one high school and dropped out of another before getting back on track with the help of an English teacher, eventually graduating from UCLA. A longtime union organizer, he also served as president of the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Villaraigosa, who previously ran for governor in 2018, says he would focus on public safety, housing and homelessness, and affordability if elected. He points to accomplishments such as a decrease in violent crime and increase in graduation rates during his tenure as Los Angeles mayor. In Sacramento, he says, he “worked with both parties to balance the state budget, with record investments in education and public safety, while holding the line on taxes.”
Villaraigosa joins Commonwealth Club World Affairs as part of our “Race for Governor 2026” series of candidate forums. Hear his vision for California, and ask your questions before you cast your vote for California’s next governor.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs.

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

Unleashed Potential: A Conversation Between Fred Blackwell and Regina Jackson Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

Across the Bay Area, young people—especially youth of color from historically underinvested communities—are coming of age in a moment defined by deep inequities, rapid economic change, and profound social challenges. While the region boasts immense wealth and innovation, it also holds some of the nation’s starkest disparities in housing, education, health and opportunity. Our young people are growing up in the shadow of systems that too often overlook their brilliance. Yet we know the truth: these young people are not problems to be solved, they are leaders waiting to be unleashed.

This conversation with Regina Jackson is not just about a book—it’s about a blueprint for closing that gap, for building a region where every young person can rise, lead, and thrive. And she says the urgency is real: The choices we make in this decade will shape our youths’ opportunities for a lifetime.
Youth in communities like East Oakland, Bayview-Hunters Point, and Richmond often face:

Displacement and loss of cultural anchors due to gentrification
Limited access to mentorship and leadership pathways that reflect their identities and lived experiences
Systemic inequities in education, economic mobility, and civic influence

At the same time, these youth carry extraordinary resilience, creativity and leadership potential. But potential alone is not enough—it must be recognized, nurtured and resourced to thrive. Without intentional investment and support, do we risk losing a generation’s capacity to lead us toward a more equitable future?

About the Speakers

Regina Jackson’s work at the East Oakland Youth Development Center has transformed thousands of lives by combining mentorship, cultural pride, academic readiness, and civic engagement. She is the author of the new book Unleashed Potential: How Youth Lead the Way to a Stronger Future, which distills decades of wisdom into actionable guidance for leaders, educators, parents and policymakers.

Fred Blackwell and the San Francisco Foundation have made advancing racial equity and economic inclusion core to their mission, championing systemic change that aligns directly with Jackson’s vision.

A Psychology Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

ORGANIZERPatrick O'Reilly & Veronica OrtegaNOTES

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

Dr. Bob Wachter: How AI is Transforming Health Care and What That Means for Our Future Feb 17, 2026

Show notes

Artificial intelligence can now match and sometimes surpass physicians in areas such as diagnosis to empathy. What does that mean for doctors, patients, and the future of our health care? Join us for a look at AI in medicine from the physician who has more than a dozen times ranked as one of the 50 most influential physician-executives in the United States by Modern Healthcare magazine, Robert Wachter, M.D.

Wachter will sift out the facts from the hype and make a compelling argument for AI’s power to transform health care. He says that the system is currently buckling under the weight of bureaucratic pressures, soaring costs, and clinician burnout; in that environment, AI doesn’t have to be perfect, just better.

Wachter conducted extensive research and more than 100 interviews with leaders in medicine, technology, policy and business; he presented the results in his new book A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future. In it, he also considers challenges such as AI hallucinations, biases and misinformation. Yet AI is already in hospitals and clinics drafting notes, answering patient questions, recommending treatments, interpreting images, and guiding surgeries.

Will this collaboration of humans and technology be successful in the long term? Will it become the savior of health care or just another source of harm and frustration?

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

After Minneapolis: A Bay Area Town Hall on Immigration Enforcement Feb 16, 2026

Show notes

On January 7, 2026, Renee Good, a Minneapolis resident, was fatally shot by an ICE officer, drawing widespread public concern and scrutiny over the federal government’s immigration enforcement tactics. Just weeks later, Alex Pretti—a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who worked at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis—was shot and killed by border patrol agents during another immigration enforcement action in the city.

The deaths of Good and Pretti prompted protests across the Bay Area and condemnation from local Democratic political leaders. The incidents also raised the question: could Northern California be next?

In this special Commonwealth Club World Affairs town hall, moderated by KQED’s Guy Marzorati, we’ll get local reactions to the events in Minneapolis. Join us to hear from an elected official, a faith leader, a legal expert, and an investigative journalist about the political and human rights implications of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign and what to expect in the weeks and months ahead.

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

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected