Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

"Year-End Michelle Meow Special, Featuring 'The Golden Screen' Dec 18, 2023

Show notes

It's that time of year again when we gather together to remember the year that was, share expectations for the year ahead, and celebrate. We'll start our evening with Michelle Meow interviewing the two Jeffs—Jeff Yang, author of the new book The Golden Screen: The Movies That Made Asian America (which features a foreword by Michelle Yeoh and an afterword by Jon M. Chu), and Jeff Chang, author and editor of numerous books, including the forthcoming Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. After that, we'll head to our beautiful second-floor lounge for some food, drink, music and togetherness.

Reserve your ticket early and join us in-person for our once-a-year tradition at The Commonwealth Club's bayfront home!

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

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CLIMATE ONE: This Year in Climate: 2023 Dec 15, 2023

Show notes

It’s been a year of weather extremes — again. But there’s also been cause for renewed hope about our climate future. On the heels of this year’s international climate conference held in the oil-rich Middle East, Climate One hosts Greg Dalton and Ariana Brocious review major climate stories of the year, both lows and highs.

This special episode features excerpts from some of Climate One’s most surprising, moving and compelling interviews of 2023, including conversations with luminaries Rev. Lennox Yearwood and Rebecca Solnit, White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi, climate activist Nalleli Cobo and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

A previous version of this episode incorrectly stated that the COP28 agreement includes a transition from fossil fuels this decade. While the deal calls for the transition to happen in “a just, orderly and equitable manner,” it does not include a timeframe. We regret the error.

Guests:

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., CEO, Hip Hop Caucus

Kathy Baughman-McLeod, Director, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center; Senior VP, Atlantic Council

Ali Zaidi, White House Climate Advisor

Jane Fonda, Activist, Actor

Nalleli Cobo, Cofounder, People Not Pozos

Ralph Chami, Assistant Director, Western Hemisphere Division, Institute for Capacity Development, IMF

Bernie Krause, Soundscape Ecologist

Paolo Bacigalupi, author

John Curtis, U.S. Representative (R-UT)

Cory Booker, United States Senator, New Jersey

Rebecca Solnit, Writer, Historian, Activist

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

📞 Call us at (650) 382-3869 to share your clothing story for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode!

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Thailand and LGBTQ Rights: Michelle Meow Interviews Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin Dec 14, 2023

Show notes

The new government of Thailand's prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, has pledged to be a leader on LGBTQ rights. What are their plans? To find out, "Michelle Meow Show" producer and host Michelle Meow met with Prime Minister Thavisin when he was in San Francisco for meetings this fall of APEC.

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

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Dr. Joy Buolamwini and Sam Altman: Unmasking the Future of AI Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

To many of us, it might seem like recent developments in artificial intelligence emerged out of nowhere to pose unprecedented threats to humanity. But to Dr. Joy Buolamwini, a trailblazer in AI research, this moment has been a long time in the making. Dr. Buolamwini has spent decades pondering the many implications of an AI-powered world—all the potential benefits, detriments, and injustices.

But Dr. Buolamwini hasn’t simply explored the potential for harm by AI; she has researched and identified real-world AI harm that has already been done by some of the world’s largest tech companies. In graduate school, she led groundbreaking research at MIT’s Future Factory that exposed widespread racial and gender bias in AI services from tech giants like Microsoft, IBM, and Apple. In her upcoming book, Unmasking AI, Dr. Buolamwini takes readers through the remarkable journey of how she uncovered what she calls “the coded gaze”—the evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products—and how she galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League.

Dr. Buolamwini has educated President Biden's administration and international leaders at the World Economic Forum and the United Nations on the importance of rectifying algorithmic harms. Her work has been featured in Time, The New York Times, and the Netflix documentary Coded Bias. Now, she shares her story with us.

Join us to hear from a pioneer of algorithmic justice as talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Wall Street Journal technology journalist Deepa Seetharaman, explaining Buolamwini's belief that computers are reflections of both the aspirations and the limitations of the people who create them.

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Ethan Scheiner: Freedom to Win Dec 12, 2023

Show notes

During the height of the Cold War, a group of small-town young men would lead their underdog hockey team from the little country of Czechoslovakia against the mighty Soviet Union, the juggernaut in their sport and the superpower in their neighborhood. As they battled on the ice, the young players would keep their people’s quest for freedom alive, and forge a way to fight back against the authoritarian forces that sought to crush them.

Join us as University of California, Davis, political science professor Ethan Scheiner, whose research focused on the intersection of politics and sports, discusses what he found out while researching and writing his new book Freedom to Win: A Cold War Story of the Courageous Hockey Team That Fought the Soviets for the Soul of Its People—and Olympic Gold.

From the sudden invasion of Czechoslovakia by an armada of tanks and 500,000 Warsaw Pact soldiers, to a hockey victory over the Soviets that inspired half a million furious citizens to take to the streets in an attempt to destroy all representations that they could find of their occupiers, Scheiner tells a story that ranges from iconic moments in history to courageous individual stories. At the heart of the tale is the Holíks, a Czechoslovak family whose resistance to the Communists embodied the deepest desires of the people of their country. Faced with life under the cruel and arbitrary regime that had stolen their family butcher shop, the Holík boys became national hockey icons and inspirations to their people.

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

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He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters With Schuyler Bailar Dec 11, 2023

Show notes

One of the most controversial topics today is the issue of gender and the related matters of identity, language and law.

Schuyler Bailar's story of becoming the first openly transgender athlete to compete on an NCAA Division 1 team in any sport appeared everywhere from "60 Minutes" to "The Ellen Show" to The Washington Post. In an effort to explain the issues surrounding gender identity and how it's discussed, Bailar has written He/She/They. His approach is to use storytelling and the art of conversation to give us the fundamental language and context of gender so that we can meet people where they are and pave the way to understanding, acceptance, and inclusion.

Join us for an in-depth talk about the issues driving laws in dozens of states and being discussed across the country.

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

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Jennifer Burns: Milton Friedman’s Life and Legacy Dec 08, 2023

Show notes

Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes were the most influential economists of the 20th century in capitalist countries. But it was Friedman’s work that was instrumental in the definitive turn toward free markets that defined the 1980s, as his defenses of freedom and capitalism resonated with audiences around the world. So it’s no wonder that the final decades of the last century have sometimes been called “the Age of Friedman”—or that some analysts have sought to hold him responsible for both the rising prosperity and the social ills of recent decades.

Jennifer Burns, in Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, the first full biography to employ archival sources, tells Friedman’s extraordinary story with the nuance it deserves. She provides lucid and lively context for his groundbreaking work on everything from why dentists earn less than doctors, to the vital importance of the money supply, to inflation and the limits of government planning and stimulus.

She traces Friedman’s longstanding collaborations with women, including the economist Anna Schwartz, as well as his complex relationships with political and economic leaders, such as Federal Reserve Chair Arthur Burns and Treasury Secretary George Shultz. Burns also details Friedman’s direct interventions in policymaking at the highest levels. But most important, Burns explores his key role in creating a new economic vision and a modern American conservatism.

Join us for an important discussion with Jennifer Burns about America’s first neoliberal—and perhaps its last big conservative.

MLF ORGANIZER: George Hammond

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.

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CLIMATE ONE: Reporting from COP28: The People at the Heart of It All Dec 08, 2023

Show notes

This week, we’re reporting from Dubai, where the 28th UN climate change conference (COP28) is now underway. Ever since the Paris Agreement was signed at COP21, the central issue has remained the same: How do the nations of the world keep global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels? This year marks the first “global stocktake,” where the data on how well we’re collectively doing on meeting the Paris targets are front and center. Across the board, countries are failing. How much will this harsh dose of reality affect the negotiations? Perhaps more importantly, how does what happens at these international summits affect the people most at risk for flooding and extreme heat? Guests: Claire Stockwell, Senior Climate Policy Analyst, Climate Analytics Nisreen Elsaim, Sudanese Climate Activist; Former Chair, UN Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group Abigael Kima, Host and Producer, Hali Hewa Podcast Chautuileo Tranamil, Co-Founder, Indigenous Liberation and Aralez Myrna Cunningham, Chair, Guiding Committee, Pawanka Fund For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Fei-Fei Li: Exploring the AI Revolution Dec 07, 2023

Show notes

Where did AI come from? Who created it, why, and where can it lead?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly developing into a world-changer, affecting every industry and being used by hundreds of millions of people—even when they're unaware they're interacting with an artificial intelligence. And we're only at the early stages of AI's growth.

Join us for an in-depth talk with Dr. Fei-Fei Li, whom Wired called "one of a tiny group of scientists―a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table―who are responsible for AI’s recent remarkable advances.” Dr. Li came to America as an immigrant, enduring a shift from Chinese middle class to American poverty. But a tough upbringing did not stop her from becoming a leading mind in the next big technological development.

Fei-Fei’s adolescent knack for physics endured and positioned her to make a crucial contribution to the breakthrough we now call AI, placing her at the center of a global transformation. Over the last decades, her work has brought her face-to-face with the extraordinary possibilities―and the extraordinary dangers―of the technology she loves. Known as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence, Dr. Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field.

Her work has brought her face-to-face with the extraordinary possibilities―and the extraordinary dangers―of the technology she loves.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about a breakthrough science and one of the breakthrough scientists who is making it happen.

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

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Kevin Adler: Ending Homelessness in America Dec 06, 2023

Show notes

As cities across the country grapple with a persistent homelessness crisis, a leading advocate offers a compassionate look at the problem, the people, and the possible solutions—including what you can do to help.

Kevin Adler returns to The Commonwealth Club to provide an urgent look at homelessness in America, showing us what we lose—in ourselves and as a society—when we choose to walk past and ignore our neighbors in shelters, insecure housing, or on the streets.

Adler is the co-author of When We Walk By, which argues that we have sacrificed our humanity by ignoring, downplaying, and refusing to address the homelessness problem. The authors offer an evidence-based people-first approach and community-driven solutions, and they lay out some practical steps that individuals can take to address homelessness.

Kevin Adler is an award-winning social entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, and author. Since 2014, he has served as the founder and CEO of Miracle Messages, a nonprofit organization that helps people experiencing homelessness rebuild their social support systems and financial security, primarily through family reunifications, a phone buddy program, and basic income pilots.

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