Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

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Renée DiResta: The Invisible Rulers Turning Lies Into Reality Jun 23, 2024

Show notes

Just what is the machinery that powers hugely influential propaganda? How does it work? Who’s behind it? And what can people do about it?

Renée DiResta, a writer and former researcher with Stanford’s Internet Observatory, comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to share her research into the way power and influence have been profoundly transformed, how a virtual rumor mill of niche propagandists increasingly shapes public opinion. She says that while propagandists position themselves as trustworthy Davids, their reach, influence, and economics make them classic Goliaths—invisible rulers who create bespoke realities to revolutionize politics, culture, and society. Their work is driven by a simple maxim: if you make it trend, you make it true.

By revealing the machinery and dynamics of the interplay between influencers, algorithms, and online crowds, DiResta vividly illustrates the way propagandists deliberately undermine belief in the fundamental legitimacy of institutions that make society work. This alternate system for shaping public opinion, unexamined until now, is rewriting the relationship between the people and their government in profound ways. It has become a force so shockingly effective that its destructive power can seem limitless. Scientific proof is often powerless in front of it. Democratic validity is bulldozed by it. Leaders are humiliated by it.

But they need not be. Join us as DiResta not only predicts the consequences of these online propagandists but offers ways for leaders to rapidly adapt and fight back.

NOTE: This Podcast contains Explicit content.

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CLIMATE ONE: Climate Policy Wonk Turned Indie Pop Star: AJR’s Adam Met Jun 21, 2024

Show notes

Adam Met is a behind-the-scenes climate policy powerhouse. He also happens to be the bass player in the award winning indie pop group AJR. During Met’s time away from touring the world and rocking the bass in front of thousands of fans, he and the team at Planet Reimagined, the thought and action tank Met founded, set out on a cross country listening tour in order to better understand how to create bipartisan climate policy.

What they came up with is a plan to help renewable energy projects get built on land that has already been approved for fossil fuel projects, thus cutting down on the time and red tape required to get the projects up and running. Met also works with organizations like REVERB to help decarbonize the concert experience.

Guests:

Adam Met, Founder, Planet Reimagined, Bass Player, AJR

Lara Seaver, Director of Projects, REVERB

For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org.

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India’s Search for Major Power Status Jun 20, 2024

Show notes

In 2022, India surpassed the United Kingdom as the fifth largest economy in the world. Since the 1990s, a series of U.S. presidents and secretaries of state have acclaimed India as a rising major power that deserves to be recognized as a lead actor in the international arena.

T.V. Paul, an international relations professor at McGill University, explores in his new book The Unfinished Quest the key motivations driving Indian leaders to enhance India's global status and power, but also on the many constraints that have hindered its progress. Paul's analysis of India's quest for status also sheds important light for understanding the China-India rivalry, as well as India's relative position in the broader Indo-Pacific theater.

Join us for a special online-only program to hear Paul’s sweeping account of India's uneven rise in the global system. Whether India can be a "swing power" able to mitigate China's aggressive rise depends on its relative power position in that theater and its own evolution as an inclusive, tolerant democracy that can develop and utilize its most priced asset, the demographic dividend, says Paul.

MLF ORGANIZER

Dr. Kalidip Choudhury, Ph.D.

An Asia-Pacific Affairs 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.

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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Burned Out? This Is The Way Out! Jun 19, 2024

Show notes

Is hustling and grinding to “do it all” doing you in? Are you feeling fried and frayed, with a short fuse, low energy, and troubled sleep? Can't remember what you used to enjoy? But quitting your job doesn't feel like an option, and who has the energy and time to learn new coping skills or plan an escape? You’re not alone. Burnout is the modern epidemic, with an estimated 82 percent of American employees at risk in 2024.

That's why the Club chose Cara Houser, who was a high-performing executive running major real estate development projects while raising two kids, to talk about real burnout solutions for real people. In her first career, Houser spent 20 years learning how to thrive in the 24/7, always-on real estate development business. Her teams produced more than 3,000 homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, creating over $1.5 billion in value. Trying to be everything to everyone (except herself), she hit the wall and burned out, badly.

Houser has now spent years focusing on what can be done to help people in burnout. She constructed a practical and inspiring guidebook that works for people who are so burned out that they don't have the emotional, physical, or financial resilience to follow the usual Internet tips of "relax, learn yoga, go for a run, brainstorm your ideal job."

That's what makes her approach so refreshing and useful. It meets you where you are: with barely enough energy to get through the day and zero interest in adding more expensive "self-care" to your overflowing to-do list. Houser says her realistic, no-fluff roadmap guides you step by step out of burnout and into creating a vibrant, joyful, fulfilling life.

Did you know that one of the ingredients for healing from burnout is enlivening experiences and supportive connections? Join us for an engaging, interactive program, with Cara Houser. You’ll leave feeling energized, inspired, resourced, and ready to chart a new course that lights you up. The world needs your spark, and your time to shine is now.

MLF ORGANIZER: Eric Siegel

A Personal Growth 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.

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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Autonomous Vehicles and the City 2024 Jun 15, 2024

Show notes

Join us for an afternoon focused on automation and innovation for public good.

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to revolutionize transportation in our cities, offering increased accessibility and efficiency in our urban transport systems. The 8th Autonomous Vehicles and the City symposium at The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California will feature global discussions from senior executives and experts across the AV industry and the public sector. From integrating automation and AI within public transit systems to optimizing resources like curbs and city rights-of-way for autonomous vehicle operations to reduce vehicle miles traveled, the conference will touch on the variety of ways AV platforms are being used to serve diverse populations and help global cities meet climate goals.

Speakers and Moderators

Dr. William (Billy) Riggs, Professor, University of San Francisco; Director, Autonomous Vehicles & the City Initiative

Dr. Otgontsetseg Erhemjamts, Dean, School of Management, University of San Francisco

Sharon Giovinazzo, CEO, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired San Francisco

Mollie Cohen D'Agostino, Executive Director, Mobility Science, Automation and Inclusion Center (MoSAIC) at UC Davis

Arielle Fleisher, Policy Development and Research Manager at Waymo

Brook Dubose, Associate Principal and Cities, Planning & Design Leader at Arup

Dr. Henriette Cornet, Professor, University of San Francisco; Strategic Mobility Consultant

Tim Haile, Executive Director, Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA)

Dr. James Fishelson, Executive Director, PATH at UC Berkeley

Dr. Sven Beiker, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Mobility; Lecturer, Stanford University

Ron Thaniel, Senior Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Zoox

Dr. Michael Goldman, Professor, University of San Francisco; Associate Dean of Graduate Programs

Hosted by the University of San Francisco School of Management. In partnership with The Commonwealth Club of California

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CLIMATE ONE: Adulting in Turbulent Times Jun 14, 2024

Show notes

Acting like a responsible adult can be challenging at the best of times. Add dealing with climate chaos to the mix, and keeping it all together can feel like an outright miracle.

Let’s start by acknowledging that all does not feel fine in the world at the present moment. But living through extreme intensity isn’t a completely unique experience. Generations before us have endured existential crises of unimaginable magnitudes.

So how do we navigate this period of uncertainty — regardless of our age? And what tools can we use to build resilience in the midst of what feels like a lot?

Guests:

Emily Raboteau, Author, “Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against ‘The Apocalypse’”

Ana Alanis, Founder, Hungry for Climate Action

Andrew Bryant, Co-Director, North Seattle Therapy & Counseling

Join Climate One and Project Drawdown's Matt Scott live in San Francisco on June 25!

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today for just $5/month.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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Alcatraz: The Last Escape Jun 11, 2024

Show notes

It is an enduring mystery whether Frank Morris, and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, escaped from Alcatraz prison on June 11, 1962. It is widely believed that they succumbed to the waters of San Francisco Bay, though no trace of the men has ever been found―only their makeshift raft. In this reexamination of the escape and its aftermath, Ken Widner presents compelling evidence that his two Anglin uncles did in fact survive and eventually made their way to Brazil, where they married and had children―evidence which corroborates the stories he heard about his uncles while growing up.

Widner and Mike Lynch make a strong case for the Anglin brothers’ survival using official government documents showing how mobster Mickey Cohen may have been involved in their escape, revealing letters from fellow inmate Whitey Bulger, and recorded testimony from the person who facilitated their escape to Brazil. In addition, there is a 1975 photograph of the brothers in Brazil which has overcome all challenges to its authenticity by skeptics.

Join us for a fascinating deep-dive into Bay Area history.

MLF ORGANIZER: George Hammond

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.

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

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The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story Jun 09, 2024

Show notes

Francis Ford Coppola is one of American films’ most dramatic director-dreamers, and his most transformative dream has been American Zoetrope, the production company he founded in San Francisco when he was only 30 years old―years before his gargantuan successes. Through Zoetrope’s experimental, communal utopia, Coppola attempted to reimagine the entire pursuit of moviemaking. Now, more than 50 years later, despite myriad setbacks, Coppola’s dream persists, as demonstrated by the culmination of his utopian ideals: the anticipated release in 2024 of his decades-in-the-making film Megalopolis.

As Sam Wasson makes clear, the story of Zoetrope includes the story of Coppola’s wife Eleanor, and of their children, whose personal lives are as inseparable from their artistic passions as Coppola's is. Wasson also charts the divergent paths of Coppola and his cofounder and onetime apprentice, George Lucas, and of their very different visions of art and commerce. And of course Wasson weighs in on the making of one of the greatest quixotic masterpieces ever attempted, Apocalypse Now, and on what Coppola found in the jungles of the Philippines when he walked the razor’s edge.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

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Kenneth Walsh: The Architects of Toxic Politics in America Jun 08, 2024

Show notes

How did politics become so poisonous in America? Journalist Kenneth Walsh articulates the unique character of the current political moment, and the forces that have created it, by comparing and contrasting the Trump and Biden presidencies with administrations of the past.

Walsh also profiles some of the key political “attack dogs” who have shaped the modern landscape: the campaign strategists, activists, and media figures who have played outsized roles in political campaigns. Drawing on his long career as a journalist specializing in presidential coverage, Walsh argues that due to the complex, often conflicting nature of American government, the angriest, most decisive voices can command media, voter, and legislative attention and thereby maintain and consolidate their power. This results in frustration, alienation, and cynicism, and ultimately a diminishment of voter participation that can reinforce this vicious cycle and lead to electoral disaster.

MLF ORGANIZER: George Hammond

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CLIMATE ONE: Rekindling Our Relationship With Wildfire Jun 07, 2024

Show notes

Summer means peak wildfire season. And recently, we’ve seen some of the most destructive wildfires in recorded history. For years the message around fire has been: no fire is good.

But increasingly, we’re starting to fight fire with fire. Prescribed burns may help prevent large, catastrophic wildfires. While using fire as a tool to manage the forest may be a relatively new concept to some, Indigenous communities have used fire to manage their environment for thousands of years. Is it time to rethink our relationship with wildfire?

Guests:

Susan Prichard, Fire Ecologist, University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences

Ana Alanis, Founder, Hungry for Climate Action

Nick Mott, Multimedia journalist

Frank Kanawha Lake, Research Ecologist and Tribal Liaison, USDA Forest Service

This episode was supported by the Resources Legacy Fund.

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today for just $5/month.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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