Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Was the Grand Alliance simply a partnership born of necessity? Or was it also a missed opportunity for post-war civilizational cooperation among the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union? Once it became clear that the Allies would eventually defeat Hitler’s Germany, the varying post-war ambitions and political goals of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt quickly brought cooperation to...

Students are heading back to school, and in addition to all of the usual challenges of the school year, some children are carrying an extra weight: climate anxiety. Teachers are also swimming in tricky waters as conversations around the climate crisis — and renewable energy — become more polarized. Yet there are educators who have worked to create resources for students and teachers, to help bring...

Join Lillian Samuel, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area, at Commonwealth Club World Affairs for an inspiring talk: “When Kids Have Mentors, Cities Get Stronger.” Backed by powerful national economic data, Lillian will discuss how mentoring doesn’t just change one life—it uplifts entire communities. Youth with mentors are more likely to graduate high school, attend college, and earn si...

According to one recent survey, Americans think about climate change more than abortion, immigration, or gun violence. And yet, while they care deeply about the issue, they don’t see it as a political issue. When asked by the Environmental Voter Project what actions should be taken to rein in climate disruption, those surveyed suggest taking small, personal steps, like recycling, over broader, pol...

Join us for an inspiring look at how culture leads the comeback—and why San Francisco’s creative heartbeat might be its greatest miracle.  "Jesus, San Francisco: The City’s Resurrection from Perceived Ashes" asks: What if the soul of the city was never dead, just hidden in plain sight? Community cultural/arts leaders shed light on the arts "resurrection from perceived ashes." An Arts Member-led Fo...

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 outsiz...

Charles Sumner is mainly known as the abolitionist statesman who suffered a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the proslavery congressman Preston Brooks in 1856. This violent episode has obscured Sumner’s status as the most passionate champion of equal rights and multiracial democracy of his time. A friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, an ally of Frederick Douglass, and an adviser to Abraham Lincoln...

The Trump administration has taken aim at green energy, but one technology has largely been left untouched: batteries to store wind and solar electricity. California alone surpassed 13GW of battery storage last year, and Texas has become the fastest growing market for the technology. But producing batteries isn’t without its downsides, especially when it comes to mining the necessary raw materials...

In the wake of the Parkland shooting in 2018, David Hogg and his classmates' rallying cry, #NeverAgain, echoed across the nation. Unfortunately, since that tragic event, countless other locations—the Tree of Life Synagogue, El Paso, Uvalde, Half Moon Bay and many more—have joined the heartbreaking list of mass shootings. For each of the past five years, the number of mass shootings in the United S...

It's time for an end-of-summer discussion of politics and politicians.  Join us in-person or online 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 programmi...

Are we living in the Matrix? Rizwan Virk—an MIT computer scientist, leading video game pioneer, entrepreneur, film producer, venture capitalist, professor, and a founder of Play Labs @ MIT—is a leading authority on simulation theory. Now he comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to discuss the issues raised in his new book The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantu...

In 2013, 9-year-old Ella Roberta died from a severe asthma attack. She became the first person in the United Kingdom (and possibly the world) to have “air pollution” listed as the cause of death on her death certificate. Her mother, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, founded the Ella Roberta Foundation and has become a global voice for clean air. Globally, the World Health Organization says that air poll...

Join us for an unforgettable evening of insight, rhythm and discussion. Hip-Hop Meditative Mindfulness blends two worlds that would seem to be at odds—the stillness of meditation and the vitality of hip-hop. Together, they invite you into a fascinating new space for powerful spiritual practice. Coupled with a discussion of how these practices can reach people immersed in popular culture and help t...

We’re all feeling the effects of the fossil-fueled climate crisis, but young people will not let this threat to their future go unchallenged. They’re taking it to the courts. In the last year, youth plaintiffs have had notable legal successes in Montana and Hawaiʻi, challenging that those states were violating their constitutional rights in continuing to burn fossil fuels. In Hawaiʻi, the ruling c...

While much of the focus in Washington is on fiscal debates, there’s another growing challenge with far-reaching implications for the United States and the global economy: the “youth deficit.”  A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that declining birth rates and aging populations could undermine productivity and living standards around the world. Unless leaders take action, “...

Join us for a lively discussion of Christina Hillsberg's book Agents of Change: The Women Who Transformed the CIA. Hillsberg is a former intelligence operative who has written a narrative exploration of the agency’s history, told through exclusive interviews with current and former female CIA officers, many of whom have never spoken publicly until now. The book fills a necessary gap in the agency’...

Due to major cuts to Medicare, wildfire season, looming earthquakes, public health needs, and the increasing number of Californians without health insurance, now is the time to strengthen local health ecosystems statewide.  Join us to hear from leaders of social impact organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area about how they are building partnerships to address these challenges by working togeth...

Why are activists in Thailand, Hong Kong and Burma willing to court danger to help one another? Historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom met dozens of dissidents, including Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, known for his protests against compulsory Thai military service; Agnes Chow, co-founder of a political party now banned in Hong Kong; and Ye Myint Win (aka Nickey Diamond), who fled to Germany from Burma in the e...

On a 90-degree day in Los Angeles, bus riders across the city line up behind the shadows cast by street signs and telephone poles, looking for a little relief from the sun’s glaring heat. Every summer such scenes play out in cities across the United States, and as Sam Bloch argues, we ignore the benefits of shade at our own peril. Heatwaves are now the country’s deadliest natural disasters with vi...

Climate disruptions and growing risk are upending insurance markets, leading many insurers to abandon parts of the country all together. Due to fires, floods and other extreme events, more and more homeowners are facing rapidly rising premiums or being dropped from their insurance plans altogether. Increasing numbers of homeowners are taking refuge in the state insurance plans of last resort, stra...

Iran has for decades been one of the most significant—and tricky—foreign policy challenges facing America and the West. Unfortunately, most people do not know much about the country’s true goals. Join us as Vali Nasr examines Iran’s political history to explain the actions and ambitions of the country’s leaders. He says behind the veneer of theocracy and Islamic ideology, modern Iran pursues a gra...

UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s 2024 book No Democracy Lasts Forever examined how democracies collapse and give way to authoritarian regimes.  Trump’s second term, Chemerinsky says, is following the playbook.  ”If one were to design a path to authoritarian rule, it would be what we have seen in the first weeks of the Trump administration,” he wrote earlier this year. One of the cou...

In a world in which artificial intelligence will change everything, we need a leader to illuminate the impact of “the automation of thought” on our way of life. How is the widespread use of AI impacting our world, our minds, and our future—not just as a technical innovation but as a mode of culture? Should we be afraid? De Kai has been a trailblazer in the world of AI. He invented and built the wo...

In a previous Climate One episode, we discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly impacts of artificial intelligence. But AI isn’t going away. Humans rarely give up a nifty new tool unless something better comes along. AI’s share of energy consumption is enormous, and the Department of Energy estimates that data center energy demands will double or even triple in just the next three years. Demand on...

Taylor Swift is world-famous as a singer and cultural icon, even as a political influencer. But as a business leader? Absolutely, says Crystal Haryanto, a Bay Area economic consultant who has created the UC Berkeley course “Artistry, Policy, & Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version” and explores these ideas in depth in her new book The Glory of Giving Everything: The Taylor Swift Business Model. In 20...