Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Mark Shaw: How Mafia Don Carlos Marcello Used “Patsies” to Mastermind the Deaths of JFK, Dorothy Kilgallen and RFK Dec 14, 2025

Show notes

Bestselling author and noted historian Mark Shaw returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to discuss his latest research and his newest book. They strengthen his conclusion that New Orleans mafia don Carlos Marcello was the point person pulling the strings behind the murders of JFK and famed journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. And, for the first time, he also links Marcello to the murder of Robert Kennedy. In his previous books, Shaw established the connections between Marcello, Oswald, Ruby and Kilgallen and Marcello’s use of Kilgallen’s lover to silence her before she could expose Marcello’s involvement in the JFK assassination. In his latest book, Abuse of Power, Shaw lays out compelling evidence that Marcello’s pattern of using patsies to exact his revenge culminated in his setting Sirhan Sirhan up to take the fall for the assassination of RFK on June 6, 1968.

Shaw’s new research includes his examination of the JFK assassination records recently released by the federal government. In those files is a December 1985 FBI transcript in which Carlos Marcello was taped “confessing” to his role in JFK’s death: “Yeah, I had the son of a b---h killed. I’m glad I did. I wish I could have done it myself.”

Shaw investigates whether Marcello decided on a similar approach when it became clear in early 1968 that RFK could become president. Shaw says that since Robert Kennedy, as attorney general, had ordered Marcello deported in April 1961, charging him with racketeering, Marcello had no intention of allowing RFK to get in his way again and so had Bobby killed.

Shaw alleges that Marcello used his “associate,” mobster Mickey Cohen, who controlled the Southern California racetracks, including Santa Anita, and knew the layout of the Ambassador Hotel where RFK was killed, to “recruit” 24-year-old Sirhan just as the mafia don had recruited Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate JFK. Evidence for Shaw’s allegation is a never-before-published, eyewitness, video-taped account from John Shear, a celebrated paddock captain at Santa Anita Racetrack. He had hired Sirhan to work as a “hot walker” at the racetrack and considered him “easily manipulated.”

Shortly before RFK was killed, Shear noticed that Sirhan was all dressed up, had money and was hanging around nearby Hollywood Park Racetrack with “two hoodlums” despite being poorly paid and having gambling debts. Shaw says that shortly after RFK’s murder, it was Shear who first identified Sirhan for the LAPD and the FBI from the photo of Sirhan being shown on TV—but Shear was never contacted by either the LAPD or the FBI about Sirhan, pointing to a cover up.

Then, just as twice before regarding JFK’s and Kilgallen’s deaths, the trail of evidence quickly and suspiciously went cold. Join us as Shaw makes sense of the newfound evidence and heats up his call for justice in the murders of JFK, Dorothy Kilgallen and Robert Kennedy.

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.

OrganizerGeorge Hammond

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Youth Mental Health Summit: Sparking Solutions Together Dec 13, 2025

Show notes

On November 7, Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum, will host The Asian American Foundation’s (TAAF) first-ever AAPI Youth Mental Health Summit. Under the theme “Sparking Solutions Together,” the summit will convene hundreds of experts, advocates, funders, and business executives to address the urgent and often overlooked mental health challenges facing Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth.

From 2018 through 2022, suicide was the leading cause of death among Asian Americans aged 15–24, and the second leading cause of death among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Yet despite being deeply impacted by the nation’s mental health crisis, AAPI youth remain largely invisible in the national mental health conversation, and the data needed to understand their mental health is scarce at best. To fill the gap, TAAF released "Beyond the Surface" in December 2024, the most comprehensive study to date on AAPI youth mental health, which revealed:

Nearly 1 in 2 AAPI youth screen positive for moderate depression;
1 in 3 have planned or attempted suicide;
Stigma, family pressure, and silence keep many from seeking help;
Only 53 percent feel comfortable talking with their parents;
Just 1 in 4 have accessed formal care; and
46 percent have never seen a mental health provider.

Building on these findings, the November 7 summit will bring together leading experts to spark dialogue on breaking stigma, closing gaps in care, and exploring how community partners and technology are reshaping the ways young people seek and receive support.

Join us online to hear from:

Midori Francis, Actor, "Grey’s Anatomy"
Ryan Alexander Holmes
Owin Pierson, Creator and Mental Health Advocate
Lisa Ling, Journalist
Noopur Agarwal, VP of Social Impact, MTV
Norman Chen, CEO, The Asian American Foundation (TAAF)
Philip Yun, Co-President and Co-CEO, Commonwealth Club World Affairs
Rushika Fernandopulle, MD, Practicing Physician; Co-Founder and Former CEO, Iora Health; TAAF Board Member
Juliana Chen, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Cartwheel
Perry Chen,Director of Programs and Partnerships, Behavioral Health at Blue Shield of California
Rachel Miller, Founder & CEO, Closegap
Meena Srinivasan, Founding Executive Director, Transformative Educational Leadership
Ayesha Meer, Executive Director, Asian Mental Health Collective
Henry Ha, Program Director, Community Youth Center of San Francisco
Anne Saw, PhD, HOPE Program
Reid Bowman, MPH, CHES, Outreach & Program Manager, UCA Waves
Rupesh Shah, COO of Crisis Text Line
Tone Va’i, LCSW, Clinician, Samoan Community Development Center
Amy Grace Lam, PhD, Chief Program Strategist, Korean Community Center of East Bay
Christine Yang, ASW, Korean Community Center of East Bay
Christina Yu, LCSW, Clinical Supervisor, Korean Community Center of East Bay
William Tsai, PhD, Associate Professor, New York University
Cindy H. Liu, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, BOBA Project, Harvard Medical School
Tiffany Yip, Professor of Psychology, Fordham University
Quynh Nguyen, TALA (Thriving AANHPI Leadership Accelerator) Fellow

This program is presented by The Asian American Foundation and Commonwealth Club World Affairs.

For full program, please visit: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/video/youth-mental-health-summit-sparking-solutions-together

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Alexander Vindman on Values, Realism, and U.S. National Security (San Francisco) Dec 12, 2025

Show notes

How can the United States advance its interests without abandoning its core values? Alexander Vindman, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former director for European Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council, presents a discussion on the critical interplay between morality, values and power in the practice of geopolitics and national security.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, six U.S. presidential administrations across both parties crafted policies for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia that unintentionally emboldened Russia and played into its imperialist, centuries-long mythos of regional hegemony, by pursuing short-term transactional policies. The result: military aggression and full-scale invasion. It was all too foreseeable.

Vindman will discuss the shifting U.S. foreign policy landscape, what a just peace and lasting end to the war in Ukraine might look like, the administration's increasingly transactional approach to international relations, and Trump's heavy-handed approach to national security and domestic politics.

About the Speaker

Dr. Alexander Vindman, a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, was the director for European Affairs on the National Security Council. Before that, he served as the political-military affairs officer for Russia for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an attaché at the U.S. Embassies in Moscow and Kyiv. While on the Joint Staff, he authored the National Military Strategy for Russia. He earned a Master's from Harvard University, where he served as a Hauser Leader, and a Master's and Doctorate from Johns Hopkins, where he is a senior fellow. Dr. Vindman leads the national security think tank Institute for Informed American Leadership, is the president of the nonprofit Here Right Matters Foundation, an executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative, a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation, and a senior advisor to VoteVets. Dr. Vindman is the author of the "Why It Matters" Substack and the New York Times bestselling books Here, Right Matters and The Folly of Realism.

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CLIMATE ONE: Jonathan Foley: 2025 Schneider Award Winner Dec 12, 2025

Show notes

Project Drawdown is the world’s leading science-based guide to climate solutions. According to Jonathan Foley, Project Drawdown’s Executive Director, they aim to be the Consumer Reports for climate change. “We synthesize every paper ever written in science, engineering, technical, economic literature, all the data, and bring it together and say, ‘Hey, does this actually work? And if so, how much would it cost? And how long would we have to wait for it?’”

Foley is not just an expert on the intricacies of hundreds of potential climate solutions; he’s also the winner of the 2025 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Science Communication, and an expert at explaining complex ideas in easily digestible terms. As he said on a past Climate One episode, “The great news about addressing climate change is we also build a better world in the process. Imagine going to the doctor and they're like, ‘Wow, you're really sick and I'm gonna give you this medicine, and its side effects are, you're gonna feel better.’ Climate solutions are like that.”

Episode Guests:

Jonathan Foley, Executive Director, Project Drawdown

Eliza Nemser, Executive Director, Climate Changemakers

Highlights:

00:00 Intro

02:11 Jonathan Foley on Stephen Schneider

06:33 Jonathan Foley on balancing science and communication

13:09 Jonathan Foley on Project Drawdown

20:08 Jonathan Foley on less effective climate solutions

23:27 Jonathan Foley on the food industries effect on climate

26:22 Jonathan Foley on being attacked for speaking out about beef

34:20 Jonathan Foley on the need to stop doing “stupid” stuff

40:31 Greg Dalton on meeting Stephen Schneider

41:25 Greg Dalton on creating the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Science Communication

45:52 Greg Dalton on Stephen Schneider’s legacy

47:14 Eliza Nemser on her journey to climate activism

49:12 Eliza Nemser on effective volunteerism

53:23 Eliza Nemser on finding your place in climate action

*******

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CNN's Abby Phillip: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power Dec 11, 2025

Show notes

At the age of 83, Jesse Jackson has a long career behind him as one of the most influential Black activists of the past century. As a civil rights leader, activist, shadow senator, presidential candidate, and ordained Baptist minister, he has been at the center of the public eye and a thorn in his opponents’ sides. Now CNN anchor and author Abby Phillip comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to share the story of Jackson, focusing on his presidential campaigns of 1984 and 1988. In both campaigns, he was initially viewed as a fringe candidate yet went on to surprisingly strong finishes—third place in 1984 and runner-up to nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988.

How did he do it? How did he build a coalition that appealed to urban working-class people, college students, and Southern Blacks? That coalition would go on to become a core part of many Democratic presidential campaigns in the decades following the 1980s. Drawing on his time working with Martin Luther King, Jr., his organization of the SLCC’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago and elsewhere, and his deep southern roots, Jackson mounted campaigns that gave hope to many people who had been overlooked by the major parties.

Join us in-person or online to learn more about the man Phillip explores in her new book Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power.

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The State of Affairs Through the Eyes of LGBTQ+ Youth Dec 10, 2025

Show notes

Join us for a December program and celebration featuring youth speakers from San Francisco's LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ+ Youth. These young people will speak about today's important social issues affecting their lives.

After the program, stick around for an appreciation reception with food and beverages.

The Commonwealth Club thanks Gilead Sciences, Inc. for its generous support of The Michelle Meow Show.

See more Michelle Meow Show programs at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California.

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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Youth Talk: Systems and Solidarity—Reimagining Civic Infrastructure for Our Generation Dec 09, 2025

Show notes

Civic engagement is being redefined by members of a generation that is both deeply critical of the systems around them and deeply committed to shaping something better. Rather than relying solely on traditional channels such as electoral politics or government-backed programs, students and young leaders are turning to alternative forms of participation—mutual aid networks, campus resource-sharing, community coalitions, and peer-led initiatives—that center care, solidarity and local action.

How can civic life can be sustained and strengthened even when public institutions appear stagnant or unresponsive? What does it mean to be civically engaged when government channels feel inaccessible? How can young people build community and foster accountability when the structures designed to support them fall short? And how can higher education remain a space for meaningful participation amid growing tensions around inclusion, access and speech?

Through a conversation rooted in practice and reflection, this event highlights how civic engagement today is as much about relationships and shared responsibility as it is about politics or policy. It invites us to think expansively about how community, on campus and beyond, can serve as a foundation for democratic life, particularly when formal institutions struggle to meet the moment.

At a time when many are asking where their voice fits into the broader civic landscape, this event offers space to consider new answers and new paths forward.

This event is part of the Creating Citizens Speaker Series at UC Berkeley, an ongoing student-led series that provides opportunities for Berkeley students, faculty, and staff, and the surrounding community to interact with leading minds in politics, media and education as they learn how to become better, more involved citizens. We welcome community members and students from around the Bay Area to participate in this riveting conversation and to join us for future programs in the series.

This program is part of The Commonwealth Club’s civics education initiative, Creating Citizens.

Produced in partnership with the UC Berkeley Vote Coalition and co-sponsored by the Mario Savio Social Justice Program at the UC Berkeley Public Service Center.

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A Conversation on Writing and AI: Once Upon an Algorithm Dec 09, 2025

Show notes

Leading writers and researchers will discuss and explain the issues that arise in writing with the entrance of large language models into this space. Are they useful for fiction and nonfiction writers, and in what ways? Can their use be considered ethical?

About the Speakers

Nina Beguš is a researcher at UC Berkeley working in artificial humanities, an interdisciplinary approach she designed to understand the cultural, ethical and philosophical dimensions of AI. Focusing on language and literature, her work foregrounds our imaginary around AI. She lives in the West Coast's only residential college, Bowles Hall, with her husband, three sons, and 188 students.

James Yu is a speculative fiction writer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Sudowrite, the AI assistant for creative writers. His writing explores how technology mediates our everyday experiences. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, two kids, and a growing number of AIs (none sentient yet.).

Ted Chiang is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, six Locus awards, and the PEN Malamud Award. His novella “Story of Your Life” was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). His most recent short story collection, Exhalation (Knopf, 2019), was listed as one of the Top Ten Books of 2019 by The New York Times and was included in former President Barack Obama’s 2019 reading list. In 2023, he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI.

A Technology & Society 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.

OrganizerGerald Anthony Harris

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‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’: Screening with Director Mstyslav Chernov Dec 08, 2025

Show notes

Join us for a special screening of the new documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka, followed by a conversation with acclaimed Ukrainian filmmaker and war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov. From the Oscar-winning team behind 20 Days In Mariupol, 2000 Meters to Andriivka documents the toll of the Russia-Ukraine war from a personal and devastating vantage point. Following his historic account of the civilian toll in Mariupol, Chernov turns his lens toward Ukrainian soldiers—who they are, where they came from, and the impossible decisions they face in the trenches as they fight for every inch of their land.

Amid a failing counteroffensive in 2023, Chernov and his AP colleague Alex Babenko follow a Ukrainian brigade battling through approximately one mile of a heavily fortified forest on their mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka. Weaving together original footage, intensive Ukrainian Army bodycam video and powerful moments of reflection, 2000 Meters to Andriivka reveals, with haunting intimacy, the farther the soldiers advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that, for them, this might never end.

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CLIMATE ONE: Faith in Climate Progress Dec 05, 2025

Show notes

It’s been ten years since Pope Francis issued his landmark encyclical on climate and caring for our common home, Laudato Si’. With the election of the new Pope Leo XIV, many are hopeful he will follow in Francis' path.

Three-quarters of the global population follow a major religion. And the Catholic Church is far from alone among religious institutions in its directives to care for creation. A few years after Laudato Si, Muslim leaders issued Al-Mizan, which restates principles from the Quran on protecting nature in terms of meeting current challenges. Organizations like Interfaith Power and Light, the Jewish group Dayenu, the Hindu Bhumi Project, and the Buddhist Climate Action Network demonstrate the universality of creation care as central to religions worldwide.

Especially at a time when governments are failing to take meaningful action on climate progress, can faith traditions provide new paths forward?

Guests:

Celia Deane-Drummond, Director, Laudato Si' Research Institute; Senior Research Fellow in Theology at Campion Hall, University of Oxford

Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Founder & CEO, Dayenu

Iyad Abumoghli, Founder, Former Director, Faith for Earth Coalition, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Founder and Chair, Al-Mizan

For show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org⁠.

Highlights:

00:00 – Intro

00:10 – Quick update on COP30 conclusions

03:40 – Celia Deane-Drummond explains importance of Laudato Si’

08:15 – Will Pope Leo continue Pope Leo’s environmental legacy?

11:00 – Role of religion and ethics in climate conversations