Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

CLIMATE ONE: Is This a Joke? Comedy and Climate Communication Oct 27, 2023

Show notes

Laughter can be good medicine, but when is it okay to laugh at something as deadly serious as the climate crisis? Jokes help us remember information that otherwise might not be retained. A snappy punchline can be a powerful way to get a message through to an audience. Comedy can also be a way for performers and audiences alike to cope with a shared societal problem, like climate or social justice. Humor has a way of slipping through our perceived biases and giving us a new way of looking at challenges. How can we all learn to use humor both as a coping tool and a tool for change?

Guests:

Rollie Williams, Comedian, Host, Climate Town

Caty Borum, Provost Assoc. Professor, American University

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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

Jim Al-Khalili: The Joy of Science Oct 25, 2023

Show notes

It's a challenge to make the best decisions in a world that is unpredictable and full of contradictions. Help is now available in the form of advice from quantum physicist Jim Al-Khalili, who shares 8 lessons from the heart of science that he says can help people get the most out of life.

As he writes in The Joy of Science, Al-Khalili invites people to engage with the world as scientists have been trained to do. The scientific method has served mankind well in its quest to see things as they really are. Underpinning the scientific method are core principles that can be deployed outside of the laboratory too, in our own lives. Knowing the nature of truth and uncertainty, the role of doubt, the pros and cons of simplification, the value of guarding against bias, the importance of evidence-based thinking and more—Al-Khalili says these are all deeply relevant to everyday lives.

Jim Al-Khalili is distinguished professor of theoretical physics at the University of Surrey and is one of Britain’s best-known science communicators. His other books include The World According to Physics, Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed, and Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology.

MLF ORGANIZER: Gerald Harris

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.

In Association with Wonderfest.

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

CNN's Jake Tapper: All the Demons Are Here Oct 25, 2023

Show notes

As CNN’s anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper is one of the most respected journalists in news today. He is also a best-selling author, and his heart-pounding new thriller All the Demons Are Here takes us back to the 1970s, with two unforgettable characters encountering many of the real-life figures and events that defined one of the wildest and most dangerous decades in American history.

Hear more about his latest work and his take on the current political landscape.

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

Matthew Davenport: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 Oct 21, 2023

Show notes

At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep. For approximately one minute, shockwaves buckled streets, shattered water mains, collapsed buildings, crushed hundreds of residents to death and trapped many alive. For the next three days, fires ignited and nearly destroyed what was then the largest city in the American West.

Join us in-person as Matthew Davenport describes the massive devastation and combines history and science to tell the dramatic true story of one of the greatest disasters in American history.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

NOTES

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.

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

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

CLIMATE ONE: Community Resilience: Knowing Your Neighbor Could Save Your Life Oct 20, 2023

Show notes

Disasters caused by burning fossil fuels are becoming more frequent, and in the aftermath of hurricanes, floods and wildfires, federal and state responses are often slow or insufficient. There is a growing body of research showing that neighborhood ties can be the difference between life and death: Socially connected neighbors are less likely to die from excessive heat or other extreme weather events. Community-based action, like mutual aid, can bring resources to people overlooked by overburdened governments. What tools can a community use to prepare for fossil fueled disasters?

Guests:

Tanya Gulliver Garcia, Director of learning and partnerships, Center for Disaster Philanthropy

Chenier “Klie” Kliebert, Executive Director, Imagine Water Works

Amee Raval, Research and Policy Director, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Justin Hollander, Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy Planning, Tufts University

Reverend Vernon K. Walker, Climate Justice Program Director, Clean Water Action

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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

It’s Not Just the Genome—AI Can Transform Primary Care Oct 16, 2023

Show notes

Join us for the 13th annual Lundberg Institute Lecture, featuring Bob Matthews of MediSync discussing the advances artificial intelligence is making in health care.

AI’s advances into various health-care fields have recently burst into public consciousness—generating excitement, concern and confusion among lay and professional observers. AI has already been relied upon in genomic medicine and in the automated analysis of diagnostic studies, but ChatGPT and Bard have liberated imaginations to consider many more potential applications. The task at hand, though, is determining whether those liberated imaginations are being realistic or unrealistic.

Medical news tends to focus on the newest and most technically glitzy innovations. even though they sometimes perform less well than advertised. Matthews will explore the immediate opportunities AI has for affecting the care of the most prevalent and important medical conditions, like chronic diseases, as that could quickly influence both the quality and the total cost of such care for the largest number of patients.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

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

Suneel Gupta: Everyday Dharma Oct 14, 2023

Show notes

Bestselling author and popular speaker Suneel Gupta knows what it's like to fail and to succeed. He's done both, and he says the key to creating a balanced, joyous life that integrates ambition, work and well-being is to find your dharma—your inner calling.

He says we’ve been conditioned, from an early age, to believe that one day we’ll reach a moment of “arrival.” But no matter how much we achieve or acquire we still don’t feel as satisfied or as fulfilled as we thought we would be. Exhausted, we become burned out and cynical, questioning the purpose of it all.

An expert on happiness and work, Gupta argues that for too long we have compartmentalized work and well-being and ignored the fact that both are essential for sustained success. We’ve assumed that outer success leads to inner well-being, despite history showing us otherwise.

In his latest book, Everyday Dharma, Gupta weaves personal stories, history, science, Eastern philosophy, and Western modalities in this prescriptive book.

Gupta, a visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School, will share his ideas for empowering people to let go of anxiety, follow their ambitions, produce their life’s work, and experience true joy.

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

CLIMATE ONE: Ken Burns, Rosalyn LaPier and The American Buffalo Oct 13, 2023

Show notes

For thousands of years, the American buffalo evolved alongside Indigenous people who relied on them for food and shelter, and, in exchange for killing them, revered the animal. For millennia, this totemic animal lived in symbiotic relationship with grasslands throughout North America, then – in less than 100 years – new settlers and hunters brought their numbers from 30 million to the mere hundreds, while in the same era glorifying them as our iconic national animal. It’s a classic and cautionary tale of our ability to destroy the natural world – and potentially, to bring it back.

Guests:

Ken Burns, Director, The American Buffalo

Rosalyn LaPier, Indigenous environmental historian and ethnobotanist

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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

Empty Spaces and Hybrid Places: The Pandemic's Lasting Impact on Real Estate Oct 11, 2023

Show notes

The past three years of the pandemic and the widespread practice of working from home have had a huge impact on our cities, businesses, individuals, and real estate of all types around the world. What will the future look like when considering long-term trends in population, employment, office attendance, housing prices, and other factors?

Join us for a special presentation featuring the results of a new McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) report, "Empty spaces and hybrid places: The pandemic’s lasting impact on real estate." MGI Director Jonathan Woetzel will take the lead in a discussion of the report's findings and implications, such as the ripple effects of hybrid work on the way we live, work, and shop; the resulting impact on demand for office, residential, and retail space in cities; and how urban stakeholders can adapt to the new reality. He will be joined by Peter Calthorpe, urban design and planning principal at HDR.

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

Franklin Foer: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future Oct 09, 2023

Show notes

When Joe Biden took his oath of office, the trajectory of his presidency—and the fate of our nation—remained unknown. Thousands of Americans were still sick with COVID, former presidents and first ladies sat masked on the balcony of the Capitol building—while Biden’s predecessor was notably absent. Just two weeks prior, the same building was under siege by a group of insurrectionists who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election. On top of it all, suffering from the many unforeseen consequences of the pandemic, the American economy faced a looming economic crisis.

As a staff writer for The Atlantic, Franklin Foer had exclusive access to Biden and his inner circle. Foer revisits the challenging and consequential formative years of the Biden presidency from an insider’s perspective in his forthcoming book, The Last Politician.

Join us for a conversation with one of our nation’s leading political journalists as we cover topics ranging from the withdrawal of the last troops from Afghanistan, to the war in Ukraine, to covering politics at a time when the stability of American democracy remains imperiled.

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