Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Iuliia Mendel: President Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the Rest of the World Sep 27, 2022

Show notes

When Iuliia Mendel got the call telling her she had been hired to work for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she had no idea what was to come.

Mendel had a front row seat to many of the key events and meetings between President Zelenskyy, Vladimir Putin, and other European leaders preceding the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. She saw firsthand President Zelenskyy’s efforts to transform Ukraine into a vibrant and prosperous European democracy.

As the war in Ukraine continues, Mendel shares what’s at stake not only for her homeland but the rest of the world.

NOTES

This is an online-only program; pre-register to receive a link to the live-stream event.

Copies of The Fight of Our Lives are available for purchase at checkout (U.S. domestic shipping only).

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

SPEAKERS

Iuliia Mendel

Former Press Secretary and Spokesperson for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (2019-2021); Author, The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World; Twitter @IuliiaMendel

In Conversation with Steven Pifer

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine; Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

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 17th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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

Monkeypox: The Response and What's Next Sep 26, 2022

Show notes

In May 2022, an outbreak of monkeypox, a viral disease, was confirmed. It quickly spread from the United Kingdom to many countries around the world. Everyone is able to contract monkeypox, but its most rapid spread so far has been through men who have sex with men with new or multiple partners.

How has the LGBTQ community responded? What is the current state of the disease's spread? What treatments are available? What medical or behavioral measures can be taken for prevention of infection? What might happen next—and what's being done to prepare for it?

Join us for an important discussion with experts to break down the truth about the community response to monkeypox, as well as preparation for the future.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Erica Pan

M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P., California State Epidemiologist, Deputy Director, Center for Infectious Diseases; Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of California, San Francisco

Dr. David Rodriguez

M.D., Professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Chair of Research, Department of Emergency Medicine, UCSF School of Medicine

Craig Rouskey

MSc., Co-founder and CEO, Renegade.bio

Tyler TerMeer

CEO, San Francisco AIDS Foundation

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 14th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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

Josh Chin and Liza Lin: China and the Era of Digital Surveillance Sep 25, 2022

Show notes

An alarming new reality is emerging in China, where a new kind of political control is being waged through the optimization of technology. Journalists Josh Chin and Liza Lin describe the journey through the new world China is building within its borders, and beyond. They reveal a future that is already underway―a new society engineered around the power of data and digital surveillance.

Hear more about what could be at stake for the rest of the world.

SPEAKERS

Josh Chin

Deputy Bureau Chief in China, The Wall Street Journal; Co-Author, Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control; Twitter @joshchin

Liza Lin

China Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal; Co-Author, Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control; Twitter @lizalinwsj

In Conversation with Jiayang Fan

Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, Motherland (forthcoming); Twitter @JiayangFan

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

California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid Sep 24, 2022

Show notes

Author Katherine Blunt provides what is being called a "revelatory, urgent narrative with national implications," exploring the decline of California’s largest utility company that led to countless wildfires—including the one that destroyed the town of Paradise—and the human cost of infrastructure failure

Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apart—unraveling a long history of deadly failures in which PG&E endangered millions of Northern Californians, through criminal neglect of its infrastructure. She says that as PG&E prioritized profits and politics, power lines went unchecked—until a rusted hook purchased for 56 cents in 1921 split in two, sparking the deadliest wildfire in California history.

Beginning with PG&E’s public reckoning after the Paradise fire, Blunt chronicles the evolution of PG&E’s shareholder base, from innovators who built some of California's first long-distance power lines to aggressive investors keen on reaping dividends. Following key players through pivotal decisions and legal battles, California Burning reveals the forces Blunt says shaped the plight of PG&E: deregulation and market-gaming led by Enron Corp., an unyielding push for renewable energy, and a swift increase in wildfire risk throughout the West, while regulators and lawmakers pushed their own agendas.

MLF ORGANIZER

Andrew Dudley

NOTES

SPEAKERS

Katherine Blunt

Reporter, The Wall Street Journal; Finalist, 2020 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting; Recipient, Gerald Loeb Award

Andrew Dudley

Co-Host and Producer, Earth Live; Chair, People & Nature Member-Led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—Moderator

We are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded live on September 12th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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

Senator Patrick Leahy: My Life in Politics Sep 23, 2022

Show notes

From post-Watergate reforms, to the fall of the Soviet Union, the impeachment of Bill Clinton, 9/11 and the Iraq War, the Great Recession, the two Trump impeachment trials, and the January 6 insurrection, Senator Patrick Leahy has been at the heart of the discussion of the country's politics and direction for nearly half a century. In his memoir, The Road Taken, Senator Leahy gives a first-hand reflection of the historic events during his tenure.

Senator Leahy is the longest-serving U.S. senator and was first elected in 1974. He has held numerous committee appointments, including some of the most powerful in the Senate, including chair of Appropriations and a member of the Judiciary and Rules Committees. In the second Trump impeachment, Leahy became the first U.S. senator to preside over an impeachment trial.

Leahy gives the full narrative of his historic political career—from meeting Presidents Obama and Biden while they were still freshman legislators, to leading the way on Supreme Court nominations, to his cameos in five Batman movies. He also reflects on his time in Vermont and his passion for photography

Please join us for an intimate discussion with one of the country's most tenured lawmakers.

NOTES

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

SPEAKERS

Senator Patrick Leahy

(D-VT), President Pro Tempore, U.S. Senate; Author, The Road Taken: A Memoir; Twitter @SenatorLeahy

In Conversation with Melissa Caen

Political Analyst; Attorney

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

CLIMATE ONE: The Inflation Reduction Act Passed. Now What? Sep 23, 2022

Show notes

In August, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. The IRA allocates around $370 billion over ten years to invest in renewable energy, make EVs more affordable, address climate inequities, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help mitigate the climate crisis.

But like any law, the way the money is doled out matters, and the law’s implementation will ultimately determine its success. Some of the IRA money moves through state governments, including some that are outright hostile to the law. Consumers will have access to a suite of rebates and credits designed to electrify their lives, if they can get the necessary support to take advantage of them. How can government agencies, companies, investors and individuals take the law from words on a page to real functioning programs?

Guests:

Carla Frisch, Principal Deputy Director, Office of Policy for the U.S. Department of Energy

Ryan Panchadsaram, Advisor to the Chairman at Kleiner Perkins

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Berkeley Law

Dan Bowerson, Senior Director, Energy & Environment, Alliance for Automotive Innovation

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

How to Decide Which Medical and Health Information You Should Trust Sep 21, 2022

Show notes

Fake news? Alternative facts? Overly hyped "breakthroughs"? Irreproducible scientific research results? Preprints? Gaslighting the medical literature? What to do?

Finding and trusting the best published primary medical literature is the answer. Our speakers for the 12th Annual Lundberg Institute Lecture at The Commonwealth Club, JAMA Editor in Chief Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo and BMJ Editor in Chief Kamran Abbasi, are among the premier guardians of that literature. Hear their advice, and then ask them your own questions about whom and what to trust—especially now when deciding which medical information is trustworthy has become so crucial and so confusing.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

SPEAKERS

Kamran Abbasi

M.D., Editor in Chief, BMJ (the British Medical Journal); Honorary Visiting Professor, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College, London; Fellow, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and Royal College of Physicians of London

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo

M.D., Editor in Chief, JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association); the Lee Goldman, M.D., Endowed Professor of Medicine, and Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCSF School of Medicine

George Lundberg

M.D., Editor in Chief, Cancer Commons; Editor at Large, Medscape; Executive Adviser, Cureus; Clinical Professor of Pathology, Northwestern University; President and Chair, The Lundberg Institute

George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates—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 12th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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

That Is Not Your Mind! Sep 21, 2022

Show notes

Author of That Is Not Your Mind: Zen Reflections on the Surangama Sutra, Robert Rosenbaum explores that question by taking forum participants on a magical journey through the Surangama Sutra based in a context of Zen practice.

Like the arts world, Surangama sutra is a springboard for exploring sensory experiences—sight, sound ,taste, smell, touch and the Buddhist “sixth sense” of mind or cognition. Rosenbaum presents witty, authentic and refreshing contemporary insights from neuroscience and psychology and anecdotes from his decades of teaching experience. Among arts-related insights shared is an appreciation for “musics of the mind" to intersect with ancient/perennial Buddhist wisdom and everyday human yearning.

MLF ORGANIZER

Anne W. Smith

SPEAKERS

Robert Rosenbaum

Ph.D., American Zen Teacher; Author, That Is Not Your Mind

Anne W. Smith

Ph.D., Co-Chair, Arts Member-led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—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 8th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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

Valerie Biden Owens: Family, Faith and Responsibility Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

Join us for a conversation about family, faith and responsibility, with Valerie Biden Owens and Dr. Gloria Duffy. Valerie Biden Owens is Biden Institute chair at the University of Delaware, campaign manager, political strategist, and New York Times best-selling author of Growing Up Biden.

Welcome remarks will be delivered by Paul J. Fitzgerald, S. J., president of the University of San Francisco, with introductions by Charles M. Collins, president emeritus of YMCA of San Francisco.

NOTES

This program is presented in partnership with the University of San Francisco.

SPEAKERS

Valerie Biden Owens

Chair, Biden Institute, University of Delaware

Welcome by Paul J. Fitzgerald

S. J., President, University of San Francisco

Introductions by Charles M. Collins

President Emeritus, YMCA of San Francisco

Dr. Gloria Duffy

President and CEO, The Commonwealth Club of California—Moderator

We are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded on September 12th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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

Kermit Roosevelt III: The Nation That Never Was Sep 17, 2022

Show notes

Is today’s America really the one the Founding Fathers envisioned? That is the question constitutional scholar Kermit Roosevelt asks, tracing the majority of American political sentiments from the modern day not back as far as the Revolution, but to the Reconstruction era.

Kermit Roosevelt is a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the great-great grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt. He is an expert in constitutional law, national security, conflicts of law and civil liberties. His work has been published in the Virginia Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the Columbia Law Review and he is the author of two historical novels examining themes of equality and civil liberty.

In his latest book, The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story, Roosevelt argues that America in the modern day is not the ideological descendant of the era of the Founding Fathers but that of Reconstruction and Abraham Lincoln. Examining the writings, history and political thought of America’s first century, he explains that many of the country’s core political beliefs, especially equality, originated in the Reconstruction era not as a return to the Founder’s vision but as a rejection of it.

Join us as Roosevelt rethinks how American history is viewed, and how the ideas underpinning the country have shifted in the past two centuries—and along with it, what it means to be American itself.

SPEAKERS

Kermit Roosevelt III

David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; Author, The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story

In Conversation with David Spencer

Founder, SenSpa; Member, Commonwealth Club of California Board of Governors

We are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded Live on September 8th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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