Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

COVID-19: Emerging Tests, Vaccines and Cures Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

As the coronavirus spreads rapidly through the population, the United States is racing to provide test kits, develop a vaccine and find treatments. Meanwhile, we’re running dangerously low on supplies, ranging from ventilators and test reagents to gowns and N95 masks. When will we have the test kits we need? Can we develop a vaccine and identify treatments in time to contain the pandemic? Will we have enough ventilators to save patients and sufficient equipment to protect our providers? Three leading experts will share where we are today, where we are headed, and what it will take to get us there. In association with The Zetema Project This program is free, though please consider making a donation during registration This program will be online only, and you must pre-register for a link to the program This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors; we are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times.

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Robert Hirst: Editing Mark Twain’s Papers Apr 12, 2020

Show notes

Join us virtually for a conversation with Robert Hirst about the millions of words Mark Twain wrote but left behind for Hirst and his team to organize. The Mark Twain Project at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library started with a core collection transferred in 1949 to UC Berkeley by Clara, Mark Twain’s sole surviving daughter. For the last four decades, the ever-growing archive of original and photocopied documents, unpublished manuscripts and thousands of letters, as well as the editorial project to create a digital record of everything Mark Twain wrote, have both been under Hirst’s direction. That project included publishing Mark Twain’s complete autobiography in 2010, 100 years after he died—a century’s wait required by Twain’s desire to save his heirs from being lynched. Hear a great storyteller tell great stories about one of America’s greatest authors. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities ** This Podcast Contains Explicit Language **

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CLIMATE ONE: What’s the Future of Nuclear Power? Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Nuclear power - revive it or allow a slow death? Today, about a hundred nuclear plants provide 20 percent of America’s electricity. Once touted as a modern power source, nuclear fell out of favor after a series of major accidents – most notably those at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. A handful of the plants that once dotted the landscape have been shuttered because they can’t compete with cheaper sources of power. By the end of the century, the industry was languishing. But the urgency of climate change causes some to advocate giving nuclear a new lease on life. A discussion about the health of the nuclear power industry today, and the 21 st century innovations that could point to a new path forward.

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Relieving Social Isolation Among Seniors Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Through the adept facilitation of journalist Katie Hafner, the audience will hear directly from four expert panelists from four key service organizations that are helping to connect older adults at risk of social isolation. Village organizations, assisted living communities, phone line support services and senior centers are facing new challenges to support and connect at-risk older adults and disabled people in this time of social distancing and self-quarantine. Each of the four types of organizations is different. Learning how all four are working from different angles to meet the challenge of social isolation posed by this epidemic will give a sense of what is possible—and hopefully will generate ideas to open even more avenues for socialization. To bring it all together, Commonwealth Club president and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy will give us her family's firsthand perspective of living with her aging mother who suddenly finds herself separated from the groups and activities that would routinely bring connection and variety to her life. MLF Organizer: John Milford MLF: Grownups

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Prime TV Time: What to Watch While Sheltering in Place Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Thanks to the general shut-down and shelter-in-place orders, you're home—now what? We're talking with three TV and media critics about the television shows and movies that are worth your time. What classic movies should you watch? Where can you find them? Which TV series are worth binge viewing? What programs have you overlooked but now have the time to discover and enjoy? Join us for a fun and informative program to help us all get through these tough times. Notes This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration

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COVID-19 and the LGBTQI Community Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

The vulnerability of certain populations to the coronavirus COVID-19 has been well publicized—everyone knows seniors and people with asthma, diabetes and certain other conditions are in the most danger from the virus. But less well-known is the virus' impact on LGBTQI communities. Join us for a discussion with experts about how this virulent disease impacts this community, and submit your questions for our speakers on our YouTube livestream. This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors. We are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times.

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Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg: Solutions to the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Few individuals are as uniquely qualified to provide insight about the coronavirus pandemic as physician Dr. Margaret Hamburg. She is the past commissioner of Public Health for the city of New York, and also the past commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, having served as the chief U.S. official responsible for approving new drugs. She also sits on the board of the organization Ending Pandemics. Dr. Hamburg will be in conversation from Washington, D.C. with Dr. Gloria Duffy, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Club. They will cover the prospects and timing for drug treatments for the coronavirus, how the virus and policies to stop its spread will affect New York, who predicted a pandemic and what advice they gave, and how the coronavirus spread and lessons to learn to prevent future pandemics. Dr. Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine, and currently serves as foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine and chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative Bio Advisory Group. She previously served as assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. As foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Hamburg serves as senior adviser on international matters and is the liaison with other Academies of Medicine around the world. She is president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), as well as an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Hamburg earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Notes This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors. We are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times.

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Kitty Ferguson: Stephen Hawking’s Biographer Hears the Music of the Spheres Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Join us virtually for a Monday Night Philosophy conversation with Kitty Ferguson about the life and scientific theories of Stephen Hawking, whom she first met in 1988. That encounter began her mid-life transition from being a professional singer, music teacher and Juilliard graduate to an explainer of difficult scientific concepts and Hawking’s biographer. We will also discuss her nine other books, which she wrote in the clearest possible manner, translating from the “language” of mathematicians, scientists, and other experts into the language of the rest of us, without dumbing down the ideas. There is nothing more Pythagorean than that combination of clarity, theoretical science and music, and Ferguson’s childhood and family life, even more than her formal education, prepared her well for merging all three talents. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

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Tamim Ansary: Separate Histories with a Common Future Apr 05, 2020

Show notes

Join us virtually for a conversation with Tamim Ansary about the patterns he sees in ancient civilizations and in current cultures derived from those historical developments. The four major rivers along which large-scale human civilizations began—the Nile, the Tigris–Euphrates, the Indus and the Huang He—each had characteristic traits that contributed to the underlying cultural assumptions our ancestors made about the nature of reality. Being who we are, mainly concerned with the world as seen through our own culture's eyes, for most of recorded history each major civilization has seen the other civilizations as peripheral players on this planet. Ansary shows how we have always been interconnected but that the speed at which that takes place in the 21st century has made many issues worldwide concerns requiring consensus on solutions, including climate change and the spread of deadly viruses. Ansary wants us to understand, in time, that each human civilization we have created mostly has points of similarity with every other civilization in our pursuit of happiness and that it is the points of cultural divergence that are truly peripheral. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

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CLIMATE ONE: COVID-19 and Climate: Human Response Apr 03, 2020

Show notes

Why does an invisible, life-threatening virus prompt a nationwide emergency, but invisible, life-threatening gases don’t? Experts have been emphasizing the dangers of unchecked climate change for years, underscoring the need for rapid, bold action early-on to avoid the worst impacts. Now health experts are pushing the same level of global mobilization to quell the spread of the novel coronavirus. Why are humans wired to respond to some fears and emergencies more than others? Can the reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic teach us anything about how humans respond to other invisible, global threats?

Guests:

Peter Atwater, Adjunct Professor of Economics, College of William & Mary

Susan Clayton, Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology, College of Wooster

Robert H. Frank, Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

Additional interviews: Shannon Osaka, Climate Reporter, Grist

This program was recorded at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on March 24, 2020.

For full show notes, visit our website.

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