Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Alexis Madrigal: Racial Disparities During COVID-19 May 09, 2020

Show notes

As COVID-19 cases top 1 million in America, the emerging data is clear: African Americans are being disproportionately affected by the crisis. Infection rates, hospitalizations and even number of deaths have revealed distinct gaps across lines of race and class. Why do these glaring disparities exist, and how can we use this data to combat systemic racism in the face of a global pandemic? American University’s Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and COVID Tracking Project co-founder Alexis Madrigal have joined forces to try to answer these important questions. Join INFORUM for this virtual event, where Kendi and Madrigal will walk us through their findings and reveal how this growing data can be used to provide a safer future for the African American community.

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Managing Anxiety in the Time of COVID-19 May 09, 2020

Show notes

It's a stressful time. We’re understandably anxious as we face a dangerous and unprecedented situation, and an uncertain future. Ordinarily, we would reach out to family, friends and co-workers for a supportive hug or gather together to talk things through. These are the natural ways we manage stressful situations. Yet during this time of the coronavirus, we have to be physically distancing from others. We want to make sure that our loved ones are safe, yet our mere presence can endanger them. We need to handle complex, unprecedented situations quickly and competently, yet our impulse may be toward panic, anxiety and therefore avoidance. Dr. Michael Tompkins, co-director of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy and assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Berkeley, specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders. He’ll spend an hour with us and share a few strategies that may help us to manage our anxieties more effectively. He'll lead us in a few exercises and answer questions we may have. MLF Organizer: Brad Berman MLF: Personal Growth

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CLIMATE ONE: Zero-Emission Cities May 08, 2020

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With COVID-19 shutting down urban areas, city dwellers from Los Angeles to New Delhi are getting a rare taste of clean air and blue skies. It is a glimpse of what net-zero cities might look like with transformed energy and transportation systems, minus the society-splintering pandemic. However, with a global recession on the horizon, critical programs to improve urban mobility and reduce emissions are on the sidelines. How are major cities like L.A., New York and Amsterdam implementing innovative sustainability projects to become net-zero? Will the recession impact funding for clean energy, infrastructure and bold action to address climate change? Join us with Lauren Faber O’Connor, chief sustainability officer for the city of Los Angeles, and Eva Gladek, founder and CEO of Metabolic, for a conversation on cities reaching for zero in a post-pandemic world.

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Catastrophe: Dialogues on Storytelling and the Present Moment—Part 2, Climate Change and Sacred Groves May 08, 2020

Show notes

Please join The Commonwealth Club of California and UC Berkeley’s Townsend Center for the Humanities for the second in a series of dialogues on catastrophe, storytelling and the present moment. In “Climate Change and Sacred Groves,” Townsend Center scholar Sugata Ray will meet with visual artist Ranu Mukherjee to investigate the relationship between the natural world and the sacred realm, especially as it has developed in India over the last several centuries of civilization and the rise of the Anthropocene era. In his most recent book, Climate Change and the Art of Devotion, Sugata shows how a site-specific and ecologically grounded theology emerged in northern India in the wake of the Little Ice Age (ca. 1550–1850), an epoch marked by climatic catastrophes across the globe. His interests dovetail in unexpected and compelling ways with Ranu’s visionary and captivating recent work, which positions the banyan tree as a meeting point between ecology and culture. Their conversation will be an opportunity for viewers to contemplate and rethink the role of art as it relates to contemporary concerns around climate, disease, human flourishing and the sacred. Sugata Ray is associate professor of South and Southeast Asian art in the History of Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley. His research and writing focus on climate change and the visual arts from the 1500s onward. Ray is the author of Climate Change and the Art of Devotion: Geoaesthetics in the Land of Krishna, 1550–1850 (2019); Water Histories of South Asia: The Materiality of Liquescence (2019; coedited); and Ecologies, Aesthetics, and Histories of Art (forthcoming; coedited). Ranu Mukherjee is a visual artist who makes paintings, animations and large-scale installations. Her current work focuses on shifting senses of ecology, non-human agency, diaspora, migration and transnational feminist experience. Her most recent installation was presented at the ecologically focused 2019 Karachi Biennale; she has exhibited solo at the San Jose Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Asian Art Museum, and the de Young Museum. She is an associate professor in graduate fine art at the California College of the Arts. Mukherjee is represented by Gallery Wendi Norris.

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H.P. Mendoza: Going Viral in the Age of the Coronavirus May 07, 2020

Show notes

Filmmaker H.P Mendoza found himself living in Japan when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He and his partner were given less than a day to uproot themselves and be evacuated to the United States. But Mendoza found himself on "Good Morning America" and on countless social media feeds when a video he made lampooning video conferences went viral. Once he was sheltering-in-place in San Francisco, he made another video, this time a birthday sing-a-long with dozens of his distant sheltering-in-place friends. Join us for this talk with a young filmmaker to learn more about his work, going viral in a good way, and coping with a pandemic.

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The Half of It: Director Alice Wu and Star Leah Lewis May 07, 2020

Show notes

Alice Wu's new film The Half of It tells the coming-of-age story of smart but cash-strapped teen Ellie Chu, who agrees to write a love letter for a jock to his crush. Chu doesn't expect to become his friend—or fall for his crush. The film, scheduled for a May 1 release on Netflix, is the second film from writer/producer/director Wu. Join us for a conversation with Alice Wu and the film's star, Leah Lewis.

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The Instagram Story with Bloomberg’s Sarah Frier May 06, 2020

Show notes

In a short 10 years, Instagram has grown from a simple idea for sharing photos to an application with over 1 billion monthly users and company growth that has surpassed many other tech giants. At the same time, this exponential success has been accompanied by a dramatic acquisition by Facebook in 2012 and the Instagram co-founders stepping down in 2018. Award-winning technology reporter Sarah Frier helps bring some clarity to the mysteries surrounding the tech giant in her book No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram. The Bloomberg reporter delivers stories taken from the Instagram influencers and celebrities that have helped drive the app to such rapid growth, the employees and executives who have watched from behind the scenes, and the founders of Instagram themselves who give insight into the growth and change of the service. Join INFORUM as Frier draws from her expertise in technology to navigate through this diverse cast of sources to paint a picture of how Instagram evolved to shape the online experience and fundamentally change how we engage with society.

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The Science of Happiness During COVID-19 May 05, 2020

Show notes

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost every facet of human life. Schools, businesses and entire industries have effectively shut down overnight, citizens have been asked to stay at home and limit social interaction as long as they can, and essential workers are risking their health every day on the frontlines of this global crisis. Negative emotions like fear, stress, anxiety and depression are inevitable and can overwhelm even the most optimistic of people. What can we do to nurture our happiness during these unprecedented times? Dr. Dacher Keltner joins INFORUM to answer that question. Dr. Keltner is the professor behind the popular course "The Science of Happiness" at UC Berkeley and is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center where he blends scientific research with human empathy to create a healthier society. Kelter will share stories, tips and resources to help listeners cope with issues like talking to your children about COVID-19, finding connection while social distancing, managing financial stress and much more. We will learn not only how to survive during this time of unrest, but how, together, we can thrive in it.

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California Health Care's Response to the Pandemic May 05, 2020

Show notes

California was the first state to shelter in place, and the Bay Area began sheltering even earlier. While this appears to have reduced the rate of growth in COVID-19 cases, the nation’s largest state still is severely challenged by the global pandemic. Many hospitals are overcrowded, the numbers of patients in rural areas are increasing, hundreds of Californians have died, and many have lost both their jobs and their health-care coverage. How is the health-care system in the state responding? What are the health and financial implications for individual Californians? Three California health-care leaders whose organizations collectively impact millions of citizens will share what their organizations are doing to tackle the crisis.

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Linda Sarsour and Alicia Garza: We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders May 05, 2020

Show notes

One day after the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump, the worldwide Women’s March gathered people from all seven continents to send a bold message that women’s rights are human rights. It was one of the largest single-day protests in U.S. history, advocating for women’s rights, immigration reform, racial equality and more. In her new book, We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders, award-winning activist Linda Sarsour chronicles her intersectional experiences growing up as the daughter of immigrant parents, as a Muslim woman unshaken in her faith in a post 9/11 world, as a co-organizer of the Women’s March, and as a leader in the decades-long fight for justice. Join her, in conversation with internationally recognized organizer Alicia Garza, to learn about the power of mobilization and community when fighting for lasting change.

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