Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

‘Epicenter: The Struggle for Black Studies in the Bay Area’: Screening and Discussion Feb 05, 2026

Show notes

Please join us for a special film documentary screening of Epicenter:The Struggle for Black Studies in the Bay Area, followed by an intimate conversation with filmmaker Doug Harris, Douglas Harris Jr. and cast members.

The film examines the early student activism of the 1960s and 1970s, which brought the first Black studies departments to higher education in the entire country. The film is very timely, as African American studies programs at institutions of higher education are currently being targeted for closure around the country.

In chronological order, the documentary will feature segments about Merritt College (1966), San Francisco State (1968) and UC Berkeley (1970), as told by cast members of the film who were on the ground floor of the Bay Area struggles through protests, strikes and riots. The Bay Area stood at the forefront, taking the leap toward introducing the study of Black and other minority cultures that would eventually spread throughout the country.

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

An Arts 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.

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.

Organizer: Robert Melton

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Kitty Stryker on Sustaining Your Activism: Standing Up Without Falling Down Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

Balancing activism with personal life and relationships can be difficult. At this crucial time in our history, activists are burning out when we need them the most. That’s why this event with Kitty Stryker, who has spent two decades as a direct activist and a street medic during radical actions, is so timely.

Stryker, author of Love Rebels: How I Learned to Burn It Down Without Burning Out, has both burned it down and burned herself out. Trying to "show up bravely" as a leader despite exhaustion, she almost destroyed herself.

But now she says, "Activism does not demand martyrdom to be effective ... it’s important to have some fun together!" She’ll show us how to build effective teams composed of people with different backgrounds, interests, and abilities, while managing the inevitable internal conflicts. She will discuss how to inspire powerful action while keeping the team safe, how to nurture yourself and others while staying in the fight, how to make your most effective contribution, and how to decide when you truly need to take a break.

About the Speaker

Kitty Stryker is the author of Love Rebels: How I Learned to Burn It Down Without Burning Out, three books on consent, and articles about activism and politics. She founded the Ladies High Tea and Pornography Society in London and has been a radical activist since she was ten.

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

A Personal Growth 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.

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.

Organizer: Eric Siegel

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Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: Eat Your Ice Cream Feb 03, 2026

Show notes

Americans are confronted with a wealth of sources of often questionable information about how to live better and longer. From the “Wellness Industrial Complex” to weak health reporting to faddish influencers, there is a lot of information and misinformation confusing people about some of the most important things about their bodies. How do we know what really matters the most to our health and longevity? What is the most robust and actionable evidence? And what is the junk you can just skip?

Join us for a return visit to the Club from Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D.

Emanuel, a bioethicist, health policy expert, advisor to presidents, oncologist, professor, writer, cyclist and chocolatier, has assembled simple but high-impact and evidence-based guidelines for issues people ask about: Alcohol consumption, food and nutrition, sleep, mental acuity, exercise, and social engagement. That is the subject of his latest book, Eat Your Ice Cream, in which he guides people to what really matters for well-being.

Emanuel says that life isn’t a competition to live the longest; he also says that “wellness” should not be difficult. Come learn this doctor’s prescription for a healthy, balanced life.

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Bruce Henderson: Midnight Flyboys Feb 02, 2026

Show notes

Join us as Bruce Henderson shares the previously untold history of a top-secret operation in the run-up to D-Day in which American flyers and Allied spies carried out some of the most daring cloak-and-dagger operations of the Second World War.

In 1943, the OSS—precursor to the CIA—came up with a plan to support the French resistance forces that were fighting the Nazis. The OSS brought some of the best American bomber pilots and crews to a secret airfield 20 miles west of London and briefed them on the intended mission. Given a choice to stay or leave, every airman volunteered for what became known as Operation Carpetbagger.

Their dangerous plan called for a new kind of flying: taking their B-24 Liberator bombers in the middle of the night across the English Channel and down to extremely low altitudes in Nazi-occupied France to find drop zones in dark fields. On the ground, resistance members waited to receive steel containers filled with everything from rifles and hand grenades to medicine and bicycle tires. Some nights, the flyers also dropped Allied secret agents by parachute to assist the French partisans.

Though their story remained classified for half a century, the Carpetbaggers ultimately received a Presidential Unit Citation from the U.S. military, which declared “it is safe to say that no group of this size has made a greater contribution to the war effort.” Along with other members of the wartime OSS, they were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

It's a story Henderson tells in his new book Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II. Based on exclusive research and interviews, Henderson relates the story of the patriotism, courage and sacrifice of these heroic flyers—and of the brave secret agents and French resistance leaders they aided.

A Humanities 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.

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.

Organizer: George Hammond

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Wajahat Ali: How to Fight Fascism with Humor, Heart ... and Hummus Jan 31, 2026

Show notes

Join Wajahat Ali for a timely conversation on his insights into the fragility of democratic institutions, his work fighting racism and extremism, and how ordinary citizens can resist authoritarianism.

In his weekly podcast, Wajahat Ali, acclaimed writer and public speaker, urgently chronicles an American democracy “under assault from the forces of fascism and authoritarianism.” One way he copes is by building Star Wars Lego sets with his kids, “to instill in them a need for rebellion and hope against the Empire,” he recently joked with guest Heather Cox Richardson. It’s Wajahat Ali’s combination of insightful analysis, social critique . . . and humor . . . that has made him a leading public intellectual and frequent commentator on national television.

He’ll also talk about his experiences growing up in Fremont as the child of Pakistani immigrants as told in his acclaimed memoir, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, which NPR called “biting and funny and full of heart.”

“We are all fortunate to be on the receiving end of not only his intellect, but his humanity and heart." —Katie Couric

Presented in partnership with Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation.

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CLIMATE ONE: Under the Weather: The Climate Crisis is a Health Crisis Jan 30, 2026

Show notes

As the planet warms, the story of climate change is increasingly becoming a story about human health. Rising temperatures, wildfire smoke, flooding, and shifting disease patterns are no longer distant threats; they are everyday realities. The climate crisis is reshaping health care systems, exposing inequalities, and forcing doctors and policymakers to rethink some of their practices. Medical schools are beginning to adopt climate as part of their curricula, yet such education is widely variable across the country. So what policy and system changes might help address both the climate and health crises at the same time?

Episode Guests:

Jeni Miller, Executive Director, Global Climate and Health Alliance

Cecilia Sorensen, Director, Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, Columbia University

Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, President and CEO, PAI

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

Highlights:

00:00 – Intro

03:30 – Cecilia Sorensen on consulting for a Grey’s Anatomy episode on heat

07:00 – Climate impact she’s seen in the ER

10:00 – Medical education is variable across the country, including climate awareness

16:00 – Importance of public health and the role of preventive medicine

21:00 – Jeni Miller on interconnections between climate and human health

29:30 – Climate crisis puts pressure on global health systems

34:30 – Ways health care systems can better prepare for climate impacts

44:30 – Connection between climate change and reproductive/sexual health

51:30 – Climate change exacerbates existing inequalities for women and girls around the world

56:00 – Navigating efforts by the Trump administration to increase fertility and birth rate while cutting social services

58:30 – Climate One More Thing

*****

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

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Silicon Valley Reads 2026: Bridges to Belonging Jan 29, 2026

Show notes

At a time when some may feel divisiveness and isolation is pervasive, this year’s Silicon Valley Reads theme explores the concept of belonging in unique ways.

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with featured authors Keeonna Harris (Mainline Mama: A Memoir), Annie Harnett (Unlikely Animals: A Novel), and John Powell (The Power of Bridging: How to Build a World Where We All Belong).

Hear more about how people find and build community in different ways.

In-person attendees are encouraged to visit the Euphrat Museum of Art to enjoy the show A Sense of Belonging.

Hosted with Santa Clara County Library District, Santa Clara County Office of Education, San José Public Library, and DeAnza College

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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Iran in Crisis: What’s Behind the Protests, and Will the U.S. Attack? Jan 28, 2026

Show notes

Iran’s authoritarian government has faced widespread protests in recent weeks, marking the most extensive unrest the country has seen in decades. The demonstrations, which began at the end of 2025, were triggered by an economic crisis and plummeting currency values. Tehran has responded with a violent crackdown leading to thousands of deaths. President Donald Trump initially responded by threatening military action. Will he follow through?

Join us for a conversation between Iran expert Banafsheh Keynoush and UCLA professor and fellow Iran scholar Dalia Dassa Kaye about the latest developments in the crisis, possible U.S. responses, and what it all means for the region.

They’ll also discuss Dassa Kaye’s new book Enduring Hostility, which explores how America's Iran policy is made, the people who make it, and the underlying ideas and perceptions that inform it. The book looks back at U.S. policy toward Iran over the past four decades to help us look ahead, offering wider lessons for understanding American foreign policymaking and providing critical insights at a pivotal time of heightened military tensions in and around the Middle East.

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

A Middle East 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.

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.

Organizer: Banafsheh Keynoush

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The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education Jan 27, 2026

Show notes

Can a university ever truly be neutral in today’s social and political climate? Pushing against the tide of universities increasingly pledging to stay neutral about contentious issues, law professor Brian Soucek argues that their promises are doomed to fail—universities can’t help being opinionated.

Soucek says that neutrality is a myth, and he takes a deep dive into several prominent campus controversies of the day, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and restrictions on campus speech and protest. Each issue requires universities to choose a side in what they do, if not also in what they say. In everything from curricular and admissions decisions to their response to outside rankings and their evaluation of faculty, universities express the values at the heart of their mission. Soucek argues that those pushing for neutrality are only preventing universities from standing up for their values, whether in today’s current moment of crisis or in periods of political calm.

Join us to discuss Soucek’s timely and deeply engaging call for universities to dispense with neutrality as a governing principle and to focus instead on what their mission should be, and who should determine it.

In association with the American Constitution Society.

OrganizerGeorge Hammond

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Immigration & the Future of the United States Jan 27, 2026

Show notes

Join us on January 21, 2026, in San Francisco for a fact-based exploration of immigration and the future of the United States. Moderated by the Population Reference Bureau's Jennifer Sciubba, this conversation will cut through opinion and politics to reveal the real data shaping America’s demographics, economy, and competitiveness. Hear from leading experts Dr. Giovanni Peri, Daniel Costa, and Dr. Russell Hancock on what’s working—and what needs fixing—in U.S. immigration policy. Gain clear insights into how these forces will shape our businesses and communities for years to come.

This core learning event offers an intentionally apolitical and fact-based perspective on a politically, emotionally and culturally charged topic. Credible, fact-based information on immigration can be hard to discern from opinion and rhetoric. Amplifying the stakes for the United States, at a time of intense rivalry for leadership of large global industries of the future, the full scope and impact of federal policy actions is unknowable. Some are immediate, obvious and reported in mass media. Others will take years to be known, understood and reported. All businesses, communities and individuals will be affected.

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

Program support provided by YPO Gold NorCal.

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