Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

CLIMATE ONE: Political Climate: The Midterm Forecast Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

With the US midterm elections looming, the window for enacting meaningful climate policy may be closing. November’s elections will determine which party controls Congress, and that will have far reaching implications for the planet. Historically, the midterms have been bad news for the party in control of the White House, but the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act may have changed that calculus. Where do voters stand going into the midterms, and how does climate factor into their decisions?

Guests:

Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder & Executive Director, Environmental Voter Project

Chelsea Henderson, Director of Editorial Content, RepublicEN

Jean Chemnick, Climate Reporter, E&E News

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

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Director James Burrows: Man of a Thousand Stories Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

It would be difficult to overstate the influence on American television of director James Burrows. Co-creator of Cheers, he also directed 237 of the long-running show's 275 episodes. He directed every episode of Will & Grace, the groundbreaking show that turned gay characters and storylines into must-see TV. He also directed 75 episodes of Taxi, 32 episodes of Frasier, 15 episodes of Friends, and multiple episodes of Phyllis, The Bob Newhart Show, NewsRadio, and many others.

His sitcom work all began with an episode of another pathbreaking series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the early 1970s. Altogether, he has directed more than 1,000 episodes of American comedy television. In his new memoir, Directed by James Burrows, he's sharing stories from his legendary career working on the most successful and influential sitcoms of the past half century.

Join us for this online program to hear how James Burrows shaped popular, high-quality comedy TV in America.

NOTES

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

SPEAKERS

James Burrows

Director; Co-creator, Cheers; Author, Directed by James Burrows

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Co-host

John Zipperer

Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club of California—Co-host

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 27th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Max Fisher: Social Media and the Havoc on Our Minds Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

Do we really understand the reach and impact that social media has on our lives? We all have a vague sense that social media can be bad for our minds, for our children, and for our democracies. Yet that doesn't stop us from constantly using it.

New York Times investigative reporter Max Fisher looks at how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions.

Fisher tracks the evolution of free speech to hate speech and its spillover into violence—that first festered in far-off locales to their dark culmination in America during the pandemic, the 2020 election, and the Capitol insurrection. He also addresses the cultural shift in which people are polarized not by beliefs based on facts, but by misinformation, outrage and fear.

Hear more about the influence that social media has and how it isn’t just changing our lives, but the world.

SPEAKERS

Max Fisher

International Reporter and Columnist, The New York Times; Author, The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World; Twitter @Max_Fisher

In conversation with DJ Patil

Former U.S. Chief Data Scientist; Member, The Commonwealth Club of California Board of Governors; Twitter @dpatil

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 22nd, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Jann Wenner: The Rolling Stone Generation Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

Jann Wenner has had an outsized impact on Bay Area history, music, popular culture and the world of magazines.

In 1967, with the founding of Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco, Wenner not only created the "bible of the counterculture," he helped catalyze a generation of young people into a force that would go on to transform the politics and lifestyles of much of the country. In his deeply personal new memoir, Like a Rolling Stone, Wenner vividly describes an epoch of cultural change that swept America and beyond, and the role his magazine played in it. His book goes on to explore not only his own work, but the lives of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bono and Bruce Springsteen. He also discusses the role he played in the careers of Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe and Annie Leibovitz.

After leaving San Francisco for New York, Wenner's journey took him to the Oval Office with groundbreaking interviews with Bill Clinton and Barak Obama, leaders to whom Wenner's publication gave its historic, full-throated backing. Wenner also had his magazine focus on the Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg, and others he felt should be seen and heard in the pages of Rolling Stone, because of their potential impact on American culture. It is not surprising that many have called him "the greatest magazine editor of his generation."

Please join us as Wenner makes a rare visit to The Commonwealth Club to discuss his life and the impact he has made on America.

NOTES

This program is generously supported by Relevant Wealth.

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

SPEAKERS

Jann Wenner

Founder, Rolling Stone Magazine; Member, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Paul Liberatore

Music Columnist, Marin Independent Journal

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded on September 21st, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Michelle Wilde Anderson: Reimagining Wealth Equity in America Oct 02, 2022

Show notes

Decades of cuts to local government amidst rising concentrations of poverty have wreaked havoc on communities left behind by the modern economy. Some of these discarded places are rural. Others are big cities, small cities, or historic suburbs. Some vote blue, others red. Mostly, their governments are just broke. Stanford Law School Professor Michelle Wilde Anderson says that 40 years after the anti-tax revolution began protecting wealthy taxpayers and their cities, high-poverty cities and counties have run out of services to cut, properties to sell, bills to defer, and risky loans to take.

In The Fight to Save the Town, Anderson traveled to four blue-collar communities that are poor, broke, and progressing—Stockton, California; Josephine County, Oregon; Lawrence, Massachusetts; and Detroit, Michigan. She shares how networks of local leaders and residents are coming together to face this crisis head on and working toward innovative solutions to deal with pressing issues, including gun violence, housing and unemployment.

Hear more about the fight to save our communities at the local level and create wealth equity for all.

SPEAKERS

Michelle Wilde Anderson

Professor of Property, Local Government, and Environment Justice, Stanford Law School; Author, The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America

In Conversation with Pamela Karlan

Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and a Founder and Co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, Stanford Law School.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 19th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Peter Baker and Susan Glasser: The Donald Trump White House Years Oct 01, 2022

Show notes

From its chaotic beginning to the violent finale, the Trump presidency was filled with moments ranging from the unthinkable to the deadly serious. That has continued until these past several weeks, and the man at the center of all of this could announce he is running for president again. That makes understanding his presidency even more important today.

Veteran journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser chart the ambitious and lasting history of the Trump presidency, drawing on unprecedented access to key players from President Trump himself to cabinet officers, military generals, and more. Based on these exclusive interviews, Baker and Glasser reveal moments both tense and comical, from how close the United States got to nuclear war with North Korea to whether Trump asked Japan’s prime minister to nominate him for a Nobel Prize. They also explore the moral choices confronting those around Trump—how they justified working for him and where they drew their lines.

Join us as Peter Baker and Susan Glasser return to the Club to discuss Donald Trump's presidency and what a second term could mean for the country.

SPEAKERS

Peter Baker

Chief White House Correspondent, The New York Times; Co-author, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021; Twitter @peterbakernyt

Susan Glasser

Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Co-author, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021; Twitter @sbg1

In Conversation with Adam Lashinsky

Journalist; Author; Twitter @adamlashinsky

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded Live on September 20th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Who Is Cleopatra? Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

From 41BC to September 2022,the persona of Cleopatra has been modeled as an archetype of female power and beauty. Yet—as with most tellings of history—her story has been mostly written by men who never knew her.

Providing another context, in concurrence with John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra premiere, San Francisco Opera’s Diversity, Equity and Community department presents a panel of women arts leaders to ask and answer: In the struggle for equal rights, who is Cleopatra? [mis]judged, [mis]treated and [mis]portrayed?

Join us as our Women in Arts panel forcefully addresses these questions. Moderated by singer and stage director Erin Neff, the panel includes Antony and Cleopatra’s Director Elkhanah Pulitzer, and African-American Shakespeare Company Founder and Executive Director Sherri Young, along with other noted Bay Area female art makers and historians.

MLF ORGANIZER

Anne W. Smith

SPEAKERS

Rita Lucarelli

Associate Professor of Egyptology, University of California, Berkeley

Elkhanah Pulitzer

Director, Antony and Cleopatra 2022, San Francisco Opera

Sherri Young

Founder and Executive Director, African-American Shakespeare Company

Erin Neff

Speaker; Singer; Stage Director; Voice Instructor—Moderator

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 20th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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CLIMATE ONE: Risky Business: Underinsured Against Climate Disaster Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people in high-risk disaster areas across the US have been dropped from their insurance policies, leaving them both physically and financially vulnerable. At the same time, premiums have sky-rocketed, making insuring homes and businesses out of reach for many. And federal insurance and relief programs have come under scrutiny for payouts that contribute to inequality.

The insurance industry wasn’t set up to account for climate change, which is increasing the frequency, scale and severity of disaster claims. From flooding in Appalachia to fires in the Pacific Northwest to hurricanes wreaking havoc from Puerto Rico to Nova Scotia, we’ve seen frequent and fierce weather take lives and devastate communities. As more people and property face loss due to extreme weather events, who will pay to protect and rebuild communities? And what policies are being constructed to help the insurance industry stay afloat?

Guests:

Junia Howell, Urban Sociologist, University of Illinois Chicago

Simon Young, Senior Director, Climate and Resilience Hub, Willis Towers Watson

Carolyn Kousky, Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy, Environmental Defense Fund; author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future

Umair Irfan, Climate and Covid Reporter, VOX

Eric Letvin, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Mitigation, FEMA

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Sean Carroll: Understanding Space, Time and Motion Sep 29, 2022

Show notes

Physics offers deep insights into the workings of the universe that many find mysterious, complex and confusing.

Theoretical physicist and "Mindscape" podcast host Sean Carroll breaks down some of the most mind-boggling concepts in his newest book The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion.

Join us for an online discussion to learn more about the wonders of modern physics and the multidimensional landscape it covers—from black holes to quantum mechanics and more.

NOTES

In association with Wonderfest.

SPEAKERS

Sean Carroll

Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy, John Hopkins University; Fractal Faculty and External Professor, Santa Fe Institute; Host, "Mindscape" Podcast; Author, The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion; Twitter @seanmcarroll

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Mark Bergen with Shishir Mehrotra and Emily Chang: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

What’s the last video you watched on YouTube? Across the world, people view more than a billion hours of video on YouTube every day. This digital platform created the attention economy that forever changed how we consume information and entertainment.

Everyone knows YouTube. And yet virtually no one knows how it really works.

Mark Bergen’s Like, Comment, Subscribe reveals the inside story of YouTube’s revolutionary technology and business model. Bergen offers a deep account of how the company upended media, culture, industry and democracy and unleashed an addiction machine that forever changed the world.

SPEAKERS

Mark Bergen

Technology Journalist; Author, Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube's Chaotic Rise to World Domination; Twitter @mhbergen

Emily Chang

Host, Bloomberg Technology and Studio 1.0; Twitter @emilychangtv

Shishir Mehrotra

Co-founder and CEO, Coda

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