Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Charles Blow: A Black Power Manifesto Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

Violence against Black people—both physical and psychological—has seemed only to increase in recent years, culminating in the historic pandemic and protests in the summer of 2020. “After centuries of waiting for white majorities to overturn white supremacy,” Charles Blow writes, “ it seems to me that it has fallen to Black people to do it themselves.”

A New York Times op-ed columnist, Blow felt compelled to write a new story for Black Americans, one that involves a succinct, counterintuitive and impassioned correction to the myths that have for too long governed our thinking about race and geography in America. The Devil You Know is a grand exhortation to generations of a people, proposing nothing short of the most audacious power play by Black people in the history of this country.

Join us as Charles Blow offers a road map to true and lasting freedom.

SPEAKERS

Charles Blow

Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times; Author, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto; Twitter @CharlesMBlow

In Conversation with Melissa Murray

Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; Co-host, "Strict Scrutiny" Podcast; Twitter @ProfMMurray

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 October 19th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Destination Health: The Private Sector’s Role in Ending the COVID-19 Pandemic Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

As the devastating effects and tragic loss of life from COVID-19 persist 18 months after the global pandemic began, the world is desperate to end this public health crisis.

As businesses across industries are rolling out varying degrees of vaccine, testing, and masking mandates, President Biden announced the requirement for federal workers, medium and large employers, and health-care staff to be vaccinated. Working together and partnering with government and community leaders, the private sector plays a role in helping to close the vaccination gap in our workforce and communities.

What can the business community do to stop this pandemic? What is the private sector’s role in helping keep our communities safe? How are organizations responding to local, state and federal mandates? What processes are working and not working? What will it take to return to a strong and stable economy? Join a panel of business leaders across industries discussing opportunities to address this public health crisis and how we can work together to end it.

NOTES

This program is generously supported by our partner Kaiser Permanente.

SPEAKERS

Greg A. Adams

Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Kaiser Permanente

Brett Hart

President, United Airlines

Molly Moon Neitzel

CEO, Molly Moon Homemade Ice Cream

Stephen Parodi

Executive Vice President, The Permanente Federation; National Infectious Disease Leader, Kaiser Permanente

Jim Wunderman

President and CEO, Bay Area Council

Raj Mathai

News Anchor, NBC Bay Area—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 October 18th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Joe Weisberg: Do We Have Russia Upside Down? Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

Join us for a conversation with Joe Weisberg, who makes the case in his new book, Russia Upside Down, that America's foreign policy toward Russia is failing, and we'll never fix it unless we rethink our entire relationship. Weisberg came of age in America in the 1970s and '80s as a Cold Warrior. He studied Russian in Leningrad, and then joined the CIA—just in time to watch the Soviet Union collapse.

Less than a decade later, though, a new Cold War broke out. Russia had changed in many of the ways that America hoped it might. It had become more capitalist, more religious, more open to Western ideas. But U.S. sanctions crippled Russia's economy, and Russia's internet-based retaliations have exacerbated our own political problems. Weisberg says the old paradigm—America, the free capitalist good guys, fighting Russia, the repressive communist bad guys—simply doesn't apply anymore. But we've continued to act as if it does.

Weisberg asks hard questions about our foreign policy and attempts to understand what Russia truly wants. He concludes that we are fighting an enemy with whom we have few if any serious conflicts of interest, we are fighting this unnecessary war with ineffective and dangerous tools, and our approach is not working anyway. With our own political system in peril, and continually being buffeted by Russian attacks, he argues that we need a new framework. Urgently. Weisberg makes it clear what the stakes are and lays out the foundation for a new American foreign policy for dealing with Russia.

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

SPEAKERS

Joe Weisberg

Television Writer; Creator, "The Americans"; Former CIA Officer; Author, Russia Upside Down

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

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 October 21st, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Bitcoin in the Middle East Oct 22, 2021

Show notes

Today's speakers, who are human rights activists as well as being business-oriented, will discuss why Bitcoin matters, especially in the Middle East region.

Alex Gladstein, vice president of strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum, has connected many dissidents and civil society groups with business leaders, philanthropists, policymakers and artists, to promote free and open societies. He has shared his views at MIT, Stanford, BBC, the European Parliament, the U.S. State Department, and other venues. He is the singularity expert at Singularity University and advises Blockchain Capital.

Fadi Elsalameen, who was born in Hebron, is a critic of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and has received death threats for his pro-democracy and anti-corruption work. He is a graduate of Seeds of Peace, a successful businessperson, and has also shared his views at many leading institutions, including The Commonwealth Club of California.

SPEAKERS

Fadi Elsalameen

M.S., International Relations and Economics; Adjunct Senior Fellow, American Security Project

Alex Gladstein

Chief Strategy Officer, Human Rights Foundation; Co-Author, The Little Bitcoin Book

Jonathan Curiel

Author—Moderator

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Susan Orlean: On Animals Oct 22, 2021

Show notes

Celebrated writer Susan Orlean visits The Commonwealth Club for the first time to discuss her new book, On Animals, a collection from her lifetime of musings, mediations and in-depth profiles about animals.

Orlean, a staff writer for The New Yorker, is fresh off her last best-selling book, The Library Book, about the Los Angeles Public Library, which won numerous awards. Her new collection focuses on a range of creatures—the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, and the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with that are central to human life. Since the age of six, Orlean has been fascinated by stories about animals, and her new book brings forward a lifetime of writing about cross-species connections.

How humans interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets and naturalists for ages. Come hear one of America's most gifted writers discuss why she is so passionate and curious about the subject.

SPEAKERS

Susan Orlean

Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, On Animals

Julia Flynn Siler

Journalist; Author, The White Devil's Daughters

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 October 14th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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CLIMATE ONE: What’s on Tap at COP26 in Glasgow Oct 22, 2021

Show notes

People around the world have been experiencing unprecedented extreme weather events – raging wildfires, killer heatwaves and catastrophic floods. In August, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new Assessment Report, which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called “code red for humanity,” adding that alarm bells are deafening and the evidence is irrefutable.

Against this backdrop, delegates from across the globe are set to convene for the international climate summit known as COP26, where they’re expected to hammer out commitments to reduce carbon emissions in hopes of avoiding the worst impacts of climate disruption. Six years on from the Paris agreement, is there finally enough urgency to turn ambition and promises into action?

For transcripts and other information, visit: https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts

Guests:

Kate Larsen, Director, International Energy & Climate, Rhodium Group

Albert Cheung, Head of Global Analysis, Bloomberg NEF

Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Climate Justice Activist, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines

Carlon Zackhras, Marshall Islands youth climate activist

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The 'Pronoun Provision' and LGBTQ Seniors Oct 21, 2021

Show notes

Is intentional misgendering a crime? Should it be? How does it affect the person who is the subject of the treatment? In July 2021, a California district court struck down a provision of the LGBTQ Long-term Care Facility Residents' Bill of Rights that banned nursing home staff from "willfully and repeatedly" misgendering or using the wrong name to refer to a resident when they've been clearly informed of the preferred name or pronoun.

That provision, known as the "pronoun provision," was ruled to be an infringement on free speech, with one of the judges writing that "misgendering may be disrespectful, discourteous and insulting, and used in an inartful way to express an ideological disagreement with another person's expressed gender identity," but the First Amendment "does not protect only speech that inoffensively and artfully articulates a person's point of view."

Advocates for LGBTQ seniors, and especially for transgender and gender nonconforming seniors, have called the decision alarming. Openhouse, a San Francisco-based LGBT senior housing, community and services organization, states "Misgendering can be harmful to a resident, particularly as it relates to feelings of safety, acceptance and isolation."

California State Senator Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) said "It’s never OK to intentionally and repeatedly misgender a transgender person. This isn’t a matter of political opinion; it’s straight-up harassment."

Join us for a live-stream discussion among advocates and professionals working with transgender and nonconforming seniors about the impact of the ruling and proposals for what to do next.

SPEAKERS

Eric Carlson

Directing Attorney, Justice in Aging; Author, Long-Term Care Advocacy and 25 Common Nursing Home Problems — and How to Resolve Them

Richelle Slota

Author, Stray Son and Captive Market: Commercial Kidnapping Stories from Nigeria

Dr. Kathleen Sullivan

Ph.D.; Executive Director, Openhouse

Michelle Meow

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

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Andrew Yang: Forward Oct 21, 2021

Show notes

Dubbed the “most surprising” candidate, Andrew Yang made waves with a rousing 2020 presidential campaign. With his newfound platform, he advanced the prevalence of progressive concepts such as the Universal Basic Income (UBI), bringing them into mainstream discussion. A year later, Yang is more adamant than ever that the need for change is urgent and that we can rely on no one else other than ourselves to bring it to fruition.

In his upcoming book Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, Yang emphasizes once more the cumulative and mounting pressures like job automation that already threaten what he argues is an antiquated system. He says that only daring measures can bring us back from the brink of becoming a failed democracy.

At INFORUM, Andrew Yang will once more lay out his vision for an American future that is modern, sustainable and serves its constituents. Hoping to defy creeping stagnation, he extends a call to action to every American citizen. The message? "Now or never."

Note: This program contains EXPLICIT language.

SPEAKERS

Andrew Yang

Entrepreneur; Political candidate; Author, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy

Vikrum Aiyer

Deputy Director, ACLU National Political Advocacy Department; Member, INFORUM Advisory Board—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 October 13th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Fiona Hill: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century Oct 21, 2021

Show notes

Before Fiona Hill became a celebrated foreign policy expert and key witness in the 2019 impeachment trial of then-President Donald Trump, she was a coal-miner's daughter from northern England in a town where the last of the coal mines had closed. Her father urged her to get out, saying “There is nothing for you here, pet.”

Hill went on to study in Moscow and at Harvard and served under three United States presidents. But in both Russia and the United States, she saw troubling reflections of her hometown and similar populist impulses. Her new book, There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century, draws on her own journey out of poverty and her unique perspective as a policymaker to warn that America is on the brink of socioeconomic collapse and an authoritarian swing that could rival modern Russia.

In her powerful and deeply personal account, Hill reveals why expanding opportunity for desperate and forgotten Americans is the only long-term hope for our democracy. Join us as she reflects on her own experience and expertise to analyze the future of American democracy.

NOTES

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

SPEAKERS

Fiona Hill

Former Senior Director for Europe and Russia, National Security Council; Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Author, There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century

In Conversation with Ellen Nakashima

National Security Reporter, The Washington Post

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 October 12th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Rationality, with Steven Pinker Oct 20, 2021

Show notes

In his new book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, popular psychologist and author Steven Pinker explores the concept of collective rationality in society. Today, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding, yet we continue to produce fake news, medical quackery and conspiracy theories. Pinker explains this by rejecting the cynical cliché that humans are simply irrational, arguing instead that the rational pursuit of self-interest, sectarian solidarity, and uplifting mythology can add up to crippling irrationality in a society.

Over time, humans have discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives, and set out the benchmarks for rationality itself. But despite our sensible thinking in the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, he says we often fail to take advantage of the reasoning we’ve discovered over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and optimal ways to update beliefs and commit to choices individually and with others.

Pinker asserts that a society that is collectively rational depends on objectivity and truth—and that this kind of thinking leads to better individual choices and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress.

Join Steven Pinker and Lara Bazelon as they delve into his new book and reveal how today’s society, in all its complexity, is formed by our collective human nature.

The Commonwealth Club thanks the Ken & Jackie Broad Family Fund for its partnership.

SPEAKERS

Steven Pinker

Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; Author, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters; Twitter @sapinker

In Conversation with Lara Bazelon

Professor of Law and Director of Criminal Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinical Programs, University of San Francisco

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