Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

CLIMATE ONE: ENCORE - Small Dollar, Big Impact Nov 28, 2025

Show notes

The climate doesn’t care where emissions cuts come from; what matters is that the world transitions to renewable energy quickly and cheaply. If it’s significantly cheaper to install solar panels in India than on a rooftop in California, then isn’t that where they should be built? Similarly, transferring money directly to local people with the greatest stake in preserving their land can have outsized impact in conservation. Where does a climate dollar go furthest?

Guests:

Kinari Webb, Founder, Health in Harmony

Premal Shah, Founder, kiva.org, renewables.org

Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder and Executive Director, Environmental Voter Project

For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org

Highlights:

00:00 – Intro

04:30 – Origins of Kinari Webb’s nonprofit Health in Harmony

09:00 – Rainforests as lungs and heart of the planet

12:00 – Radical listening to communities about what they need

15:00 – Positive outcomes from responding to community needs directly

18:00 – Webb’s near-death experience from a jellyfish sting

22:00 – Rainforest conservation as a giant climate lever

29:00 – Premal Shah describes how he came to create Kiva.org

32:00 – How ⁠Kiva.org⁠ works

35:30 – Thought experiment from moral philosopher Peter Singer

38:40 – Kiva tries to reframe stories of poverty as stories of entrepreneurship

41:00 – Applying crowdfunded microfinance model to renewable energy

46:00 – Idea of “effective altruism”

49:30 – Nathaniel Stinnett: we’ve been taught to blame ourselves for the climate crisis

53:00 – How to shift public actions to make climate more political

*****

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'All the Empty Rooms' Film Screening with Q&A Nov 27, 2025

Show notes

Veteran reporter Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp embark on a cross country journey to memorialize the bedrooms of children lost to school shootings, highlighting their urgent call for action against the rising epidemic of gun violence. Their story is told in the new documentary All the Empty Rooms, which follows Hartman and Bopp on their seven-year-long project. Hartman, known for his heartwarming human-interest stories on CBS News, takes a more serious turn in this exploration of absence, memory, and the unseen ripples of America’s gun violence.

Join us for a screening of All the Empty Rooms, followed by a Q&A with director Joshua Seftel. The directory says “We traveled from Steve’s home in upstate New York to Nashville to Uvalde to Santa Clarita and back to the CBS News studios to document Steve’s final news report. And we get to know the children through the rooms they left behind. They came to life for us and the weight of their absence was crushing."

All the Empty Rooms is a Netflix release by Smartypants Pictures, in association with Hyperobject Industries and Artemis Rising Foundation.

Photos courtesy Netflix and Smartypants Pictures; used with permission.

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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Ken Stern: The Secret to an Enduring and Thriving Life Nov 26, 2025

Show notes

What's the secret to a long, healthy life? Join us for a live conversation with longevity expert Ken Stern, who will discuss the research that went into his new book Healthy to 100.

Contrary to popular belief, the secret to living longer is not just about eating well, exercising, or getting regular checkups. Instead, successful aging depends on the nature of your relationships and your social connections. If you want to live a healthy and rewarding life, Stern says, you need to start with social health.

In Healthy to 100, Stern goes on a journey to some of the longest-lived countries in the world—Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Spain—places that have achieved great advances in longevity by intentionally strengthening social connections. Science shows that physical and mental health outcomes are all improved by the intergenerational connectedness, sense of purpose, and respect enjoyed by older people in these countries.

Their example offers a personal and societal guide for how people can improve the second half of their lives. Stern will weave in surprising, colorful stories from around the world, arguing that the key to healthy longevity involves a mindset shift and purposeful building of social connections.

About the Speakers

Ken Stern is a nationally recognized expert on longevity and aging. He is the founder of the Longevity Project and hosts the popular “Century Lives” podcast from the Stanford Center on Longevity. Stern is a best-selling author and has been a frequent contributor to a wide variety of publications, including Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and Slate. He is also the former CEO of NPR. He lives in Washington, D.C.

A Grownups Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

OrganizerDenise Michaud

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Michael McFaul: Autocrats vs Democrats and the New Global Order Nov 24, 2025

Show notes

The international order in which most of us grew up is over, and a new cold war is setting in. That’s the growing consensus of people adjusting to the aggressive rise of China, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the reelection of President Donald Trump amid the growth of right-wing populist movements around the world. Michael McFaul says America’s future depends on how successfully it deals with this new global order.

McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and an international affairs analyst for NBC News, says new thinking is required. The new cold war isn’t the same as the old U.S.–Soviet Cold War. He argues in his new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, that we should not underestimate the disruptive ambitions of Russia, nor should we overestimate China’s capabilities, and that the shift here at home toward isolationism and autocracy weaken America’s position in the world.

Join us to hear McFaul draw from historical analysis and a forward-looking perspective to craft a new grand strategy for the United States in the challenging new age of global disorder.

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ACLU’s Cecillia Wang: Defending Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in Hostile Times Nov 23, 2025

Show notes

Join Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the ACLU, to hear the latest on the organization’s legal strategy to defend civil rights and civil liberties, including the ACLU’s cases against the Trump administration.

Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, the ACLU has filed more than 77 lawsuits on issues ranging from birthright citizenship, ideologically targeted immigration arrests and detentions, racial profiling by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, discrimination against transgender Americans, and termination of federal scientific research grants on disfavored topics such as COVID vaccines or gender and racial disparities in health outcomes.

"Win or lose, it matters when we stand up in court to fight for freedom, due process, and the basic notion that the president is not above the law," Wang has said.

The first woman and the first woman of color to serve as the ACLU’s top lawyer, Wang was formerly director of the ACLU’s Center for Democracy and its Immigrant Rights Project.

This on-stage conversation will explore:

Current controversies in constitutional law, civil rights and civil liberties, and where our country—and the Bay Area—stand in historical context
How the upcoming Supreme Court term could impact civil rights
What ordinary citizens can do to help protect our rights and freedoms and U.S. democracy

Join us for this compelling conversation with one of the leaders on the national front lines of fights over immigration, abortion, voting rights, transgender rights and more.

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Week to Week Politics Roundtable and Social Hour: November 17, 2025 Nov 21, 2025

Show notes

The shutdown is over, more Epstein news has dropped, Nancy Pelosi has given notice, and the November election is still reverberating. As the year winds down and we head into the holiday season, let's take stock of the state of politics in the Bay Area, California, and nationally.

Join us for the Week to Week political roundtable. Learn more about the people, trends and topics driving the political news of the day.

Enjoy and learn as our panel of political experts explains what happened and what to expect, and answers your questions.

See other upcoming Week to Week political roundtables, as well as audio and video of past Week to Week programs.

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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CLIMATE ONE: Joe Manchin: Coal, Climate, and ‘Common Sense’ Nov 21, 2025

Show notes

Joe Manchin grew up in the coal fields of West Virginia, the grandson of a miner and the son of a small-town grocer. His worldview was shaped by a place where energy isn’t an abstract policy debate; it’s the identity of the community and vital for economic survival. Manchin was portrayed as a bit of a villain in liberal circles for his role in blocking or slowing down Biden-era policy goals, including climate policy. Yet he was also the architect of the biggest climate legislation the country has ever enacted: the Inflation Reduction Act.

Now, in the midst of the Trump administration dismantling climate policy and basic political norms, Manchin is calling for a return to compromise and “common sense.”

Episode Guests:

Joe Manchin, Former US Senator, West Virginia

Thomas Ramey, Commercial and Nonprofit Solar Evaluator, Solar Holler

For show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org⁠

Highlights:

00:00 - Intro

05:27 - Joe Manchin on his first senate run

10:42 - Joe Manchin on Build Back Better

19:26 - Joe Manchin on how the Inflation Reduction Act was written

22:51 - Joe Manchin on the dismantling of the IRA

27:21 - Joe Manchin on the effects of climate

31:02 - Joe Manchin on West Virginia’s transition to clean energy

37:10 - Joe Manchin on the state of the country

38:10 - Joe Manchin on how to make the country better

42:56 - Joe Manchin on working together

44:20 - Thomas Ramey on growing up in West Virginia

50:08 - Thomas Ramey on how he talks about solar energy

*******

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CLIMATE ONE: Reports from COP30: Climate Talks in the Amazon Nov 14, 2025

Show notes

The UN climate convention known as COP30 is now underway in Brazil. As the nations of the world gather to discuss their efforts to rein in climate disruption, the facts are clear: we’re not doing enough, fast enough, to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Climate-fueled disasters are increasingly impacting nearly every part of the world.

And in Belém, Brazil, near the heart of the Amazon rainforest where the conference is being held, organizers have promised that Indigenous voices will play a bigger role than in the past. They’ve also billed this as an “implementation COP” where past promises will be turned into action. What practical steps can we hope countries achieve in this year’s negotiations?

Episode Guests:

Ilana Seid, Permanent Representative of Palau to the United Nations; Chair, Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)

Davi Neustein, Sustainability Consultant; Advisor to Marcelo Behar, COP30 Special Envoy

Deborah Sanchez, Director, CLARIFI (Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative), Rights and Resources InitiativeFor show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org⁠.

Highlights:

00:00 - Intro

00:30 – Voters responding to energy and affordability in most recent election

02:00 – COP30 is happening in Brazil, opening remarks by UN leaders

07:00 – Major items on the COP30 agenda

10:30 – Davi Neustein on deliberate choice to hold COP30 in Belém

14:00 – Brazil can speak to Global South and Global North

19:00 – Neustein’s hopes for the COP30 action agenda

21:30 – Weeks before COP, Brazil approved new oil drilling in Amazon

27:00 – Ilana Seid shares climate impacts to her home nation of Palau

29:30 – What an “implementation” COP means

35:30 – Is there a need for a new narrative around climate change?

42:00 – Deborah Sanchez shares story of securing land rights for her community

47:00 – Example of a project funded through CLARIFI (Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative)

51:00 – How COP goal of elevating Indigenous voices is working out in reality

55:00 – What can we learn from the Amazon and how its managed

56:30 – Climate One More Thing

*****

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Justice Anthony Kennedy: Life, Law, and Liberty Nov 11, 2025

Show notes

When President Reagan nominated Anthony Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, few could have expected that he would not only serve for 30 years but would also author landmark opinions on such contested issues in American society as abortion, gay rights, and free speech. At the ideological center of an increasingly divided court, Kennedy became the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court’s 5–4 decisions following the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor. He said his principles never wavered; “The cases swing, I don’t.”

That role earned him the monicker “The Decider” by Time magazine. He is the 15th longest-serving Supreme Court justice in American history. But what judicial philosophy guided his time on the bench? How did he keep his judgments separate from his political and religious beliefs? He says it is all owed to a fundamental conviction that neutral principles must drive the decision and an unyielding commitment to the rule of law.

Join us for a live discussion in San Francisco with retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy to learn about his life—beginning in Sacramento, California, and taking him to the center of power in Washington, D.C.—and his approach to the rule of law. These are topics he explores in his new book Life, Law, and Liberty, and you can hear firsthand at Commonwealth Club World Affairs.

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Julia Ioffe: A Feminist History of Modern Russia Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

How was the history of Russia made by its women through the cataclysms of revolution, war, idealism, and defeat? Join us for an engaging tour of Russia through the lives of its women.

Journalist Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union in 1990. She wouldn’t return for nearly two decades, and when she did, she found a country significantly changed. The Soviet Union had tried to portray itself as being on the vanguard of world feminism; today, Russia presents itself as the last bastion of conservative Christian values. How did that happen? What happened to the women of the Soviet era, who served as doctors, engineers and scientists? How, she asks, did they get replaced with women who are just desperate to marry rich and become stay-at-home mothers?

It's a topic she explores in her new book Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy. From her own great grandmothers, who were physicians, to Lenin’s lover, who was a feminist revolutionary, to the hundreds of thousands of young Soviet women to fought in the Second World War to the millions of single mothers who repopulated the devastated country—and onward to Pussy Riot and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Ioffe reveals the failure of the social experimentation of the Soviet era and how it paved the way for the revanchist policies of Vladimir Putin.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs.

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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