Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

CLIMATE ONE: Scorching Premiums: Climate Costs Hit Insurance Market Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

Climate disruptions and growing risk are upending insurance markets, leading many insurers to abandon parts of the country all together. Due to fires, floods and other extreme events, more and more homeowners are facing rapidly rising premiums or being dropped from their insurance plans altogether. Increasing numbers of homeowners are taking refuge in the state insurance plans of last resort, straining the program resources. For homeowners, whose house is often their biggest financial asset, this creates a huge financial risk.

So what should people do to evaluate climate risks and insurance availability during their housing search? And how can governments help insurers weather the increasing frequency of climate-induced disasters so they can continue to underwrite our homes?

Guests:

Rachel Cleetus, Senior Policy Director, Union of Concerned Scientists

Claire O’Connor, Los Angeles real estate agent and homeowner

Dave Jones, Director, Climate Risk Initiative at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley

This episode also includes a news feature produced by Camryn Sanchez of KJZZ in Phoenix.

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.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Vali Nasr: Iran's Grand Strategy Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

Iran has for decades been one of the most significant—and tricky—foreign policy challenges facing America and the West. Unfortunately, most people do not know much about the country’s true goals. Join us as Vali Nasr examines Iran’s political history to explain the actions and ambitions of the country’s leaders. He says behind the veneer of theocracy and Islamic ideology, modern Iran pursues a grand strategy with the twin goals of internal security and international activism.

Nasr, author of Iran’s Grand Strategy, draws on memoirs, oral histories, and original in-depth interviews with leading Iranians to uncover facts and events that have been previously overlooked. He examines the impact of its war with Iraq, the subsequent American actions against Iran and its invasion of Iraq in 2003, and ensuing events. He says these events have shaped the outlook in Tehran, creating a pervasive fear of the United States and its ambitions for the Middle East.

Want to understand Iran and how best to engage with it? Don’t miss this program.

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“The Playbook of a Dictator”: UC Berkeley’s Erwin Chemerinsky on Trump and the Rule of Law Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s 2024 book No Democracy Lasts Forever examined how democracies collapse and give way to authoritarian regimes.

Trump’s second term, Chemerinsky says, is following the playbook.

”If one were to design a path to authoritarian rule, it would be what we have seen in the first weeks of the Trump administration,” he wrote earlier this year. One of the country’s most prominent legal scholars, Chemerinsky has been speaking out on the need to protect due process and the rule of law and to defend against attacks on academia and the media.

Don't miss him as he returns to Commonwealth Club Word Affairs to talk about the most pressing threats to democracy—and the possible solutions.

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Raising AI: An Essential Guide to Its Use Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

In a world in which artificial intelligence will change everything, we need a leader to illuminate the impact of “the automation of thought” on our way of life. How is the widespread use of AI impacting our world, our minds, and our future—not just as a technical innovation but as a mode of culture? Should we be afraid?

De Kai has been a trailblazer in the world of AI. He invented and built the world’s first global-scale online language translator that spawned Google Translate, Yahoo Translate, and Microsoft Bing Translator. He brings decades of his paradigm-shifting work at the nexus of artificial intelligence and society to help people make sense of their interactions with AI at both personal and collective levels—ethically and responsibly. While Hollywood narratives of AI destroying humanity might be overblown, the age of AI is reshaping the future of civilization.

What should each of us do as the responsible adults in the room? De Kai asks critical, overlooked questions requiring urgent attention.

Dr. De Kai is professor of computer science and engineering at HKUST and distinguished research scholar at the International Computer Science Institute. He was honored by the Association for Computational Linguistics as one of only 17 Founding Fellows. De Kai is an independent director of the AI ethics think tank The Future Society and was one of eight inaugural members of Google’s AI ethics council.

His book Raising AI provides an accessible framework to navigate the enormous impact of AI upon human culture, our values, and the flow of information. De Kai demonstrates that society can not only survive the AI revolution but also flourish in a new world where we all play our part in a more humane, compassionate, and understanding society—alongside our artificial children.

Our moderator, Camille Crittenden, Ph.D., is the executive director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute and co-founder of the CITRIS Policy Lab and EDGE (Expanding Diversity and Gender Equity) in Tech at UC. She served as chair of the California Blockchain Working Group in 2019–20 and co-chaired the Student Experience subcommittee of the University of California’s Presidential Working Group on Artificial Intelligence. She continues to serve on the UC AI Council.

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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CLIMATE ONE ENCORE: AI’s Power Demands: Do We Really Have the Energy for This? Jul 25, 2025

Show notes

In a previous Climate One episode, we discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly impacts of artificial intelligence. But AI isn’t going away. Humans rarely give up a nifty new tool unless something better comes along. AI’s share of energy consumption is enormous, and the Department of Energy estimates that data center energy demands will double or even triple in just the next three years. Demand on fresh water is at least as big and isn’t talked about nearly enough. So, what can we do to reduce AI’s impact?

Plenty of researchers have ideas — from site selection to energy efficiency to using zero-carbon sources of energy. But what will incentivize the AI corporations to take any of those actions?

This episode was supported by Climate One Steward Noel Perry and Next 10. This episode was recorded in March and originally aired April 4, 2025.

Episode Guests:

KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director, Memphis Community Against Pollution

Kate Brandt, Chief Sustainability Officer, Google

Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

On July 31, Climate One is hosting Premal Shah and Kinari Webb for a live episode recording! With years of experience navigating the global climate movement, the two are sure to offer unparalleled insights during their conversation with Co-Host Greg Dalton. Tickets for the show, which will be held at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, are available now through our website.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Crystal Haryanto on Taylor Swift: An Icon in the Music and Business Worlds Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

Taylor Swift is world-famous as a singer and cultural icon, even as a political influencer. But as a business leader? Absolutely, says Crystal Haryanto, a Bay Area economic consultant who has created the UC Berkeley course “Artistry, Policy, & Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version” and explores these ideas in depth in her new book The Glory of Giving Everything: The Taylor Swift Business Model.

In 2023, Swift became the first billionaire to make her fortune primarily from music. She has revolutionized the music industry and is deeply in touch with her fan base. Haryanto says we can look at Swift’s methods to learn how to adapt personal branding to different markets, treat customers as stakeholders in a business, and maximize viral marketing and merchandising.

Entrepreneurs, creatives, and fans are all welcome to hear Haryanto share her insights from one of the leading icons in the modern entertainment world.

Read more at thegloryofgivingeverything.com.

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.

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Gil Duran on Trump, Tech, and the Nerd Reich Jul 21, 2025

Show notes

The Bay Area is typically known as an incubator of left-of-center ideas. But in recent years, it has become known as the source of an ideology influencing the Trump administration, a belief system journalist Gil Duran describes as “tech fascism.” In his newsletter “The Nerd Reich,” Duran looks at how controversial writers such as Curtis Yarvin—who has argued that the United States should be a “monarchy” run by a “CEO”—have shaped the views of some of Trump’s top advisors, like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, as well as vice-president J.D. Vance.

Duran, who formerly served as spokesman and political strategist for Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, joins us to talk about his reporting on this distinctive strain of Silicon Valley conservatism and its influence on local and national politics.

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Midsummer Political Roundtable: A Week to Week Special Jul 20, 2025

Show notes

There are no midsummer doldrums in politics, so get ready for a lively and timely look at the people, topics and trends driving the political conversation in 2025.

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

See other upcoming ⁠Week to Week political roundtables⁠, as well as audio and video of past Week to Week programs.

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.

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CLIMATE ONE: Trump’s Megabill Comes for the Clean Energy Transition Jul 18, 2025

Show notes

Three years ago, Congress passed President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in climate action in U.S. history. The IRA set in motion a sweeping set of investments in nearly every aspect of energy and climate, mostly in the form of subsidies and tax credits, to boost domestic production of electric vehicles, batteries and carbon-free energy. Those investments have flowed to every state, but the majority have landed in Republican-held districts.

In spite of that, Congressional Republicans nearly unanimously passed President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” which the president signed on July 4. The megabill guts nearly all the program funds allocated under the IRA and slashes incentives and credits for solar, wind, energy efficiency and electric vehicles — precisely at a time when we need to dramatically scale up those sectors to address climate change. Why did Republicans let this bill move ahead? And how much will it exacerbate the climate crisis in the coming decades?

Guests:

Katherine Hamilton, Chair, 38 North Solutions

Clayton Aldern, Senior Data Reporter, Grist

Lisa Jacobson, President, Business Council for Sustainable Energy

John Szoka, CEO, Conservative Energy Network

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Dr. Monica Gandhi: The Impact on American Science and Medicine of the Current Administration Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

Research funded by the federal government has been crucial in many of the defining technologies of our time: the internet, A.I., crispr, Ozempic, and the mRNA vaccines first used widely in the COVID pandemic. Between 2010 and 2019, more than 350 drugs were approved in the United States, and virtually all of them could trace their roots to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Now this administration is endangering our health by cutting funds to academic medical centers. Moreover, there are threats to Medicaid, as well as ongoing cuts to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Many universities have paused hiring due to the uncertainty at the NIH and are curtailing graduate programs. Biotech investors are warning of a contraction in medical innovation. NIH grants have been terminated on ideological grounds, which have resulted in clinical trials shutting down. Global health programs worldwide have been cut. A discussion on these destructive policies on medicine in our country is needed.

About the Speaker

Monica Gandhi M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of medicine and associate chief in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is also the director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the medical director of the HIV Clinic ("Ward 86") at San Francisco General Hospital. She serves as the associate program director of the ID fellowship at UCSF. Her research focuses on HIV treatment and prevention optimization, HIV and women, adherence measurement in HIV and TB, adherence interventions, and on optimizing the use of long-acting antiretroviral therapy (ART). She is a long-standing NIH-funded researcher.

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 Health & Medicine Member-led Forum program. Forums and Chapters 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.

OrganizerMichael Baker

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