Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

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Patrick Kennedy and an Expert Panel: Mental Health, Youth and the Justice System Jan 17, 2020

Show notes

Part of The Commonwealth Club’s series on mental health, dedicated in memory of Nancy Friend Pritzker, with support from the John Pritzker Family Fund Critics argue that jails and prisons are the most visible evidence of the failing of America’s public mental health system and that the most heartbreaking failures are in the field of juvenile justice. Seventy percent of young people entering the juvenile justice system are said to have a diagnosable mental health need. Advocates argue that detention and correction facilities provide a unique opportunity to intervene and connect children to services and support systems before it is too late. Others argue that community-based, non-incarceration solutions are more effective. With facilities such as San Francisco’s juvenile hall closing by 2021, how can San Francisco and other communities address system-involved youth with mental health issues? What role should and must the justice system play? And how will their decisions impact society at large? Join us for an important panel discussion.

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Exclusion as the American Experience: The Chinese Exclusion Act Jan 17, 2020

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Watch the video referenced in the first half of this podcast at: https://vimeo.com/263167752/c555110813 For the 60 years, from 1882–1943, long before Muslim travel bans and family separations at the U.S.–Mexico border, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the United States and denied persons of Chinese descent a path to U.S. citizenship. The act grew out of political pressure from labor unions and U.S. cities to which large numbers of immigrants had moved in the decades following the California Gold Rush. The act’s effects on the Chinese immigrant communities across the United States were lasting and dramatic. Join us for a screening of a 49-minute version of The Chinese Exclusion Act, a feature-length documentary made by award-winning documentary filmmakers Ric Burns and Li-Shin Yu and co-produced by the Center for Asian American Media in association with the New-York Historical Society and shown on the acclaimed PBS series “American Experience.” Bay Area entrepreneur and cultural advocate David Lei, who provided much of the inspiration for the documentary, will be present to discuss his perspective and answer questions about the Exclusion Act’s relevance to the immigration debate today. MLF Organizer: Virginia Cheung MLF: Asia Pacific Affairs In association with the Center for Asian American Media

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Designing Babies: How Technology is Changing the Ways We Create Children Jan 17, 2020

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Since the first test-tube baby was born over 40 years ago, in vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies have advanced in extraordinary ways, producing millions of babies. An estimated 20 percent of American couples use infertility services to help them conceive, and that number is growing. Prospective parents routinely choose the sex of their future child, whether or not to have twins, or whether or not to pass on certain genes to the next generation, including those for chronic diseases, and probably soon, height and eye color. These rapidly developing technologies will require parents, doctors and policy makers to face critical questions about their use and possible misuse. MLF Organizer: Robert Kilpatrick MLF: Health & Medicine

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Former VA Secretary David Shulkin: It Shouldn’t Be This Hard to Serve Your Country Jan 16, 2020

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The Veterans Health Administration is the nation’s largest integrated health care system, yet almost 2 million veterans and 3.8 million of their family members are without health insurance today. David Shulkin was brought in by President Obama to clean up the Veterans Affairs’ (VA) troubled hospital network after a major scandal. His success led President Trump to name him VA secretary, making him the highest ranking official to serve both presidents and the only Trump cabinet secretary to earn unanimous Senate approval. Born on an Army base, Shulkin was the first nonveteran to hold the position. Shulkin introduced substantial changes to the VA system, with bold moves that dramatically reduced wait times, increased transparency, enhanced accountability and tackled veteran suicide rates. His efforts earned early praise from Republicans and Democrats alike. But Shulkin says he ran headlong into Trump associates intent on privatizing the VA and eventually was ousted. In his new book, Shulkin opens up about his time as VA secretary and the ruthless political appointees he says he encountered. Since leaving government in early 2018, Shulkin has continued to shed light on VA privatization and his concerns on how it will impact our ability to ensure health care for those who have fought to protect the nation.

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The Power of Critical Thinking Jan 15, 2020

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Monday Night Philosophy initiates the new decade by analyzing the worlds of Wall Street and investing, international relations, sports, and chess, and focuses on the power and the necessity of critical thinking skills in those worlds. Leland Faust and Richard Conn have been influential in those worlds and share an admiration for the ability of critical thinking to affect complex decision-making on the world stage. But they also share a lament about how rarely rational thinking dominates and how wishful thinking is so prevalent. Hear about Boris Yeltsin's transformation of the Soviet Union, Garry Kasparov's continuing influence on world chess, Wall Street's tricks on and treats for the world economy. Plus acquire a clear idea of why the 2020s don't have to repeat the 1920s, although they might be. MLF: Humanities

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Smart Cities, Smart Cars, Smart People: Hope or Hype? Jan 15, 2020

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Foresee the near future with panelists Shekar Ayyar, Joxel García, Paul Gupta and Mike Weber. The number of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices is expected to increase from 20 billion to 55 billion over the next five years. What will that mean, in terms of new opportunities and new risks, in our businesses and our personal lives? Communications service providers are starting to roll out integrated platforms for 5G and IoT uses. Our panel will discuss the technological, social and legal implications, including selected case studies in communications, health care, automotive, smart cities and infrastructure. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

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Imperfect Union: Jessie and John Frémont Jan 15, 2020

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John Frémont was born out of wedlock in 1813 in Charleston, South Carolina and went to work at 13 to help support his family. But, by the time he was 30, he had become a famous wilderness explorer, best-selling writer, gallant army officer and latter-day conquistador, who, in 1846, began the United States’ takeover of California from Mexico. He was a celebrity who personified the country’s westward expansion—mountains, towns, ships and streets were named after him. A vital factor in his success was his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, the daughter of a U.S. senator. Not allowed to compete directly in a male world, Jessie Frémont threw her skill and passion into promoting her husband. When John Frémont returned from mapping the Oregon Trail for the Army, Jessie Frémont helped him dramatize his adventures in newspapers and books. And in 1856, John Frémont was chosen, in spite of his southern origins, to be the first-ever presidential nominee of the newly established Republican Party, founded in opposition to slavery. Inskeep tells the surprisingly modern story of a couple whose joint ambitions and talents intertwined with those of the nascent United States, linking the Frémonts with not one but three great social movements of the time—westward settlement, women’s rights and the opposition to slavery. MLF Organizer: George Hammond This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

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Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State Jan 15, 2020

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Secretary Mike Pompeo was sworn in on April 26, 2018. He previously served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 to April 2018. Mr. Pompeo graduated first in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986 and served as a cavalry officer patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also served with the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the U.S. Army’s Fourth Infantry Division. After leaving active duty, Secretary Pompeo graduated from Harvard Law School, having been an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Here's a rare chance to hear from Secretary Pompeo about current foreign policy challenges and issues of economic security. In association with Silicon Valley Leadership Group

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CLIMATE ONE: Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have Jan 10, 2020

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Everyday choices – like deciding which shirt to buy or on which platform to binge-watch shows on – may impact the planet more than you think. Tatiana's Schlossberg's new book Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have, looks at how seemingly small choices can have a big impact on the climate. We sit down with experts in the fashion and energy sectors, two industries with a big carbon footprint, to see how far individual actions can take us – and when it's up to companies and producers to take the lead.

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Today’s Great Need: Radical Politics, Conservative Culture Jan 10, 2020

Show notes

How does one react, watching our current political crisis form fissures in our underlying culture, which, according to poet Peter Dale Scott, is undermining even our most valuable cultural strengths? These strengths include living with diversity, tolerating and listening to other viewpoints, and reaching a shared consensus. Unfortunately, at the same time, these cultural strengths are ebbing; righteousness on all sides combined with contempt for others are increasingly destructive forces. This is happening at an inopportune time. Climate change and potentially unsustainable migrations will likely require radical political changes, which are certain to be unpopular yet may only be achievable by restoring our traditional culture of consensus-building. Scott has spent a lifetime commenting on the Vietnam War, JFK's assassination and the deep state. If it is too much to ask us to love our enemies, he wonders whether it is possible to listen to them. Without this civilizing skill, American culture will not be strengthened by this political crisis, as it has by past crises, but wounded by it instead. MLF Organizer: George Hammond

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