Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Latest Episodes:

CLIMATE ONE: Adaptation: When Prevention Isn’t Enough Oct 24, 2025

Show notes

So much of the conversation about the climate crisis focuses on prevention. But no matter how well we succeed on that front, climate-induced disasters are already causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage worldwide every year — not to mention destroying livelihoods and causing deaths. We're seeing those impacts today, and we need to be ready.

Adaptation does not mean giving up on trying to rein in heat-trapping pollution; it’s facing reality. The way we adapt can be creative and empowering. But what does that kind of adaptation look like?

Episode Guests:

Susannah Fisher, Principal Research Fellow, University College London; Author of "Sink or Swim"

Nick Mott, Multimedia Journalist; Author of “This Is Wildfire”

Tanya Gulliver-Garcia, Director of Educational Impact, Center for Disaster Philanthropy

This episode features a field piece by David Condos, who originally reported the ⁠story⁠ for KUER in Salt Lake City, Utah.For show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org⁠.

Highlights:

00:00 Intro

4:06 Susannah Fisher on her findings as a research student

7:43 Susannah Fisher on transformational changes

11:52 Susannah Fisher on the realities of climate migration

17:41 Susannah Fisher on the future of adaptation

22:47 Susannah Fisher on international cooperation

27:01 Susannah Fisher on surprising connections

30:35 Nick Mott on who is responsible for protecting your house

33:09 Nick Mott on the next level steps for protecting from wildfire

39:58 Field piece by David Condos on reusing sewage water

44:38 Tanya Gulliver-Garcia on what mutual aid is

48:20 Tanya Gulliver-Garcia on a mutual aid response to climate disasters

53:35 Climate One More Thing

***

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Steven Pinker: When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows Oct 24, 2025

Show notes

What’s common about common knowledge, and how does it become common? Common knowledge—the awareness of how others think and even how others think others think—is needed for social coordination, things as basic as driving on the same side of the road or using paper currency. And it has a hidden logic that makes it all work.

Cognitive psychologist and author Steven Pinker returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs in Silicon Valley to explore some of the paradoxes of human behavior. It’s the subject of his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.

Pinker addresses issues as seemingly disparate as why people hoard toilet paper when an emergency breaks, why crypto ads clog up Super Bowl advertising, why Russian officials arrested a protester carrying a blank sign, or even why everyone seems to agree that life would be unbearable if everyone was completely honest at all times. Tying it all together, he says, is our ability to know what others think and what others think about what others think . . . on and on, ad infinitum.

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Edward Frenkel—Back to the Roots: How Do We Revive Pythagorean Tradition in the Age of AI? Oct 22, 2025

Show notes

Historian Charles H. Kahn wrote that Pythagorean contributions to Western thought were "on the one hand, a mathematical understanding of the world of nature; and, on the other hand, a conception of human destiny that points beyond the visible world and beyond the mortal body to a higher form of life." Unfortunately, for the following 2,500 years, we took the first part: logic and reason, and largely discarded the other: intuition and imagination. Or, as Nietzsche put it in The Birth of Tragedy, we chose to rely heavily on our Apollonian side (yang) while neglecting our Dionysian side (yin).

And here we are, in a world of contradictions which are becoming ever more acute with the astounding recent advancements of Artificial Intelligence, which is of course based on numbers (in fact, it was Pythagoras who said, "everything known is a number").

How do we go back to the Pythagorean tradition? How do we restore balance between Apollo and Dionysus?

On this special evening, we will attempt to do just that. We will start with a talk by Edward Frenkel, mathematician, Berkeley professor, and author of Love and Math (currently out in 20 languages) who considers himself a Pythagorean. He will provide the context and the background. His talk will be followed by a ceremony, administered not by a priest or shaman but, as is more common these days, by DJs.

During the dance party following Edward Frenkel's talk, DJ Wilder (Anna Fedorova) will dazzle us with music sourced from different genres and epochs, followed by Edward Frenkel himself (as DJ Moonstein) playing back-to-back with Cihat Fitzgerald (DJ Chi) taking us further into the unknown. Magic awaits.

A Humanities 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.

Frenkel photo courtesy the speaker; public domain painting is "Pythagoreans Celebrate the Sunrise" by Fyodor Bronnikov.

Organizer: George Hammond

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Film Screening: On Healing Land, Birds Perch Oct 21, 2025

Show notes

Film screening and Q&A with director Naja Pham Lockwood and panelists; building community and healing through food with Bay Area Vietnamese chefs and restaurateurs.

Join us for a film screening of On Healing Land, Birds Perch, a documentary by Naja Pham Lockwood, a Vietnamese-born filmmaker, which explores the continuing aftershocks of the Vietnam War from the perspectives of both sides of the war: North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese, including Vietnamese Americans alive today. The story is told through the iconic Pulitzer-Prize-winning photo by Associated Press photojournalist Eddie Adams of South Vietnamese General Loan executing Viet Cong Captain Lem two days after the 1968 Tet Offensive.

Interviewees include the daughter of General Loan, the children of Captain Lem, and the son of the family who was allegedly killed by Captain Lem and his men. All share the intense emotions this photo continues to elicit and the impact it has had on their lives. The interviewees hold widely differing views, but the film poignantly portrays what they all have in common: the lasting trauma from the war.

The Commonwealth Club 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.

Organizer: George Hammond

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Prop. 50 Explained: What’s at Stake for California . . . and Congress Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

In August, after Texas acceded to President Donald Trump’s demand that it adopt a redistricting plan favoring Republicans, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would fight back. He signed legislation creating Prop. 50, which asks voters to suspend California’s independent redistricting maps and allow the legislature to draw new districts. "Today, we gave every Californian the opportunity to stop Trump by saying yes to our people, to our state, and to American democracy," Newsom said at the time.

Supporters say the plan is a temporary but critical defense against partisan mapmaking in other states. They argue that California must step in to protect democracy nationwide and pledge that the state will restore its independent redistricting process after 2030.

Critics, who include former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, contend the proposal undermines the state’s voter-approved redistricting reforms, restoring the same partisan gerrymandering that California has banned.

“We know American democracy is on fire, but accelerating gerrymandering only adds fuel!,” a No-on-50 ballot argument states. “[Prop. 50] claims to protect democracy, yet diminishes our communities’ voices and is ineffective against any overreach of presidential power.”

With voting already underway, join us to learn more about Prop. 50 and what’s at stake for California and control of Congress.

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October Week to Week Political Roundtable and Social Hour Oct 19, 2025

Show notes

After nearly 14 years, the Club’s Week to Week Political Roundtable and Social Hour is drawing to a close. The next two Week to Week programs—on Wednesday, October 15 and Monday, November 17—will be the final two programs in the series. That means it’s your last chance to join us in-person for our lively political conversations, preceded by a social hour when you can mix with other attendees and have some wine and light bites.

During times of political upheaval and great stress, it can be a great help to gather with others who are also interested in learning the latest about the people, topics, and trends moving the political world. Join us for the Week to Week political roundtable. Learn more about the people, trends and topics driving the political news of the day.

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

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

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.

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Building and Preserving the Web: A Conversation with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Brewster Kahle Oct 18, 2025

Show notes

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Brewster Kahle will be in conversation about the rise of the internet, its continuing and explosive impact on society, the importance of the Internet Archive and other developing issues in the growth and use of the internet.

Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web, HTML, the URL system and HTTP. Berners-Lee proposed an information management system on 12 March 1989 and implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in mid-November of that year. He devised and implemented the first web browser and web server and helped foster the web's subsequent development. He is the founder and emeritus director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the continued development of the web. With Rosemary Leith he co-founded the World Wide Web Foundation. In April 2009, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, is a passionate advocate for public internet access. He has spent his career intent on a singular focus: providing universal access to all knowledge. Soon after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kahle helped found the company Thinking Machines, a parallel supercomputer maker. In 1989, Kahle created the internet's first publishing system, called the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS). In 1996, Kahle founded the Internet Archive, and he co-founded Alexa Internet, which helped catalog the Web.

A Technology & Society 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.

OrganizerGerald Anthony Harris

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San Francisco Opera: The Monkey King Oct 17, 2025

Show notes

This program features a unique public affairs arts conversation between Chinese-born composer Huang Ruo and Matthew Shilvock, who is in his tenth season as San Francisco Opera’s general director.

The Monkey King (猴王悟空), by Huang Ruo and American librettist/playwright David Henry Hwang, conducted by Carolyn Kuan, is of topical interest as an action hero story with moments of peace and reflection. The Monkey King centers around the mythic hero from China’s classic novel Journey to the West. A monkey born from a stone becomes the ruler of the monkeys and challenges the gods of the seas and heavens in a bid for immortality. SF Opera is producing the world premiere, performed in English and Chinese, uniting the disciplines of opera, dance and puppetry.

The Monkey King's blended production is not your grandmothers’ traditional opera! It’s also a 2024 blockbuster video game Black Myth: Wukong.

Musical theatre audiences are familiar with Broadway’s acclaimed Tony award winning M. Butterfly team, which was also led by Ruo and American librettist/playwright David Henry Whang and conductor Carolyn Kuan.

Describing a technique he calls "dimensionalism," Ruo uses a “musical voice which draws equal inspiration from Chinese folk, Western avant-garde, rock and jazz (Mimakos, 2011)." Of Monkey King, he says, "In our new opera, which blends cultural traditions with a spectacular multidisciplinary production, I hope to bring this Eastern superhero to life and shine a hopeful light that will always appear in any turbulent time.”

Shilvock announced that The Monkey King, opening November 14 at War Memorial Opera House, reflects SF Opera’s commitment to global storytelling that makes a difference. He notes that “It's indicative of artistry that affirms the Bay Area as one of the great cultural centers of the world.”

Our moderator will be Cole Thomason-Redus, vice chair of the Arts Member-led Forum, and educational content curator for San Francisco Opera.

An Arts 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.

In Association with San Francisco Opera and Chinese Heritage Foundation of Minnesota.

Organizer: Anne W Smith & Cole Thomas-Redus

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CLIMATE ONE: Ani Dasgupta on Moving From Promises to Progress Oct 17, 2025

Show notes

We know what needs to be done to ward off the worst impacts of global climate disruption: rein in heat-trapping pollution, reverse deforestation, build resilient systems. But how we do those things is the trick. Every second counts. The sooner we act, the more lives saved, the more jobs protected and the more futures secured.

So how do we orchestrate the vast change we need in a short amount of time? World Resources Institute President Ani Dasgupta gives his honest take on the lack of progress since the Paris Agreement was signed 10 years ago — and maps a path forward.

Guests:

Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO, World Resources Institute (WRI); Author, “The New Global Possible”

Jonathan Foley, Executive Director, Project Drawdown

Nikhil Swaminathan, CEO, Grist

Highlights:

00:00 – Intro

01:46 – Importance of the Paris Accords in terms of multilateralism

04:00 – Backlash to climate action

07:00 – The market is producing the technology we need, but we also need to deploy them at scale

12:00 – How do we get companies producing the bulk of emissions to change course?

16:00 – Addressing climate disruption is a societal choice about what we value

20:40 – Why COP is essential and also disappointing and maddening

23:30 – Unpacking climate finance and why it’s so important

27:30 – Addressing justice isn’t a choice but an imperative when it comes to climate

31:00 – How to keep focused and remain optimistic in this current moment

37:00 – We have everything we need right now to solve climate change

41:00 – Project Drawdown’s analysis of what climate tools do and don’t work

45:00 – So many missed climate opportunities

52:00 – Tradeoffs of tools like batteries

58:00 – Climate One More Thing

*****

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Joe Manchin: Dead Center Oct 16, 2025

Show notes

oin former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin for a timely and candid online-only conversation about his maverick career in government, crossing party lines, and addressing the dysfunction at the heart of our politics—centered around his new memoir, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense. At a time when our country feels more divided than ever, Senator Manchin is inviting Americans back to the center—where solutions are possible, principles still matter, and leadership starts with listening.

From the coal fields of Farmington, West Virginia, to some of the highest-stakes decisions in the U.S. Senate, Manchin has never wavered from his core beliefs: fiscal responsibility, social compassion, and putting country before party. In Dead Center—part memoir, part manifesto—he makes a passionate case for a new, solutions-oriented politics rooted in common sense. Reflecting on the decisions that shaped him as a leader and public servant, he shares never-before-told stories from inside the Senate and the White House, along with fresh insight into how government can deliver real results for the American people.

It’s a reminder that leadership still matters, character still counts, and common sense should never go out of style.

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