Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Why slow down as you get older? Caroline Paul has always filled her life with adventure: From mountain biking in the Bolivian Andes to pitching a tent, mid-blizzard, on Denali, she has never been a stranger to the exhilaration the outdoors can hold. Yet through it all, she has long wondered, Why aren’t women, like men, encouraged to keep adventuring into old age? Now she is sharing her quest to un...

Is it time for a vision of a better internet with a playbook to build the future? The internet of today is a far cry from its early promise of a decentralized, democratic network of innovation, connection and freedom. In the past decade, it has fallen almost entirely under the control of a very small group of companies like Apple, Google and Facebook. In Read Write Own, tech visionary Chris Dixon...

Climate change means extreme weather, shifting landscapes, and generally more instability. More and more, you can feel the impacts of climate disruption in your wallets. Drought is pushing up the cost of candy and leading to shipping delays in the Panama Canal.  Globally, researchers say climate could add one percent to inflation every year until 2035. The costs of car insurance, health insurance...

When Jonna Hiestand Mendez first joined the CIA, she still needed her husband’s permission to open a bank account or shut off the gas to their apartment. Hired as a convenience to her CIA officer husband’s career, she began by performing secretarial duties for the agency. But she didn’t stay in the secretarial pool. Mendez's talent for espionage was clear, and she soon took on bigger and more sign...

Prepare to be inspired and empowered by the one and only Guy Kawasaki! Former chief evangelist for Apple, rejuvenator of the Macintosh cult, and executive fellow of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Guy is truly revered for his wisdom—and he's also one of the friendliest people in Silicon Valley. Based on hundreds of interviews, Guy's new book, Think Remarkable: 9 Paths to Transform Your...

Fraught relations between neighbors are not unique. But with the stakes elevated on the international stage, and separated by just 90 miles, the United States and Cuba showcase one of the most strained and enduring neighborhood disputes. In the region where the Cold War almost turned nuclear-hot, is there any way to contend with a complicated history and still make nice? Join Commonwealth Club Wor...

“That evening, I was given a glimpse inside a hidden world. . . . An entirely new kind of surveillance program—one designed to track everyone.” Hear a tale of strange bedfellows—the U.S. government, data brokers, tech companies and advertisers—involved in shaping the surveillance state and privacy. For the past five years—ever since a chance encounter at a dinner party—journalist Byron Tau has bee...

Neuroscience professor Tali Sharot and Harvard law professor (and presidential advisor) Cass R. Sunstein have investigated why people stop noticing both the great and not-so-great things around them and how to “dishabituate” at the office, in the bedroom, at the store, on social media, and in the voting booth. Have you ever noticed that what is thrilling on Monday tends to become boring on Friday?...

A new global competition is taking place, and CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto draws on his reporting from the front lines of political hotspots and warzones across the globe to explain history unfolding in front of us. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was the beginning of the beginning. Three decades later, Jim Sciutto said on CNN’s air as the Ukraine war began, that we ar...

The places that most people call home are coming under increasing threat from climate change. From rising seas and more frequent floods to stronger hurricanes and cyclones, to more devastating droughts and wildfires, the most habitable parts of our world are becoming far less so. Over time, our cities will be forced to transform — and hundreds of millions will have to move. People who have the mea...

Neuroscientist, writer and stage director Indre Viskontas will be joined by world-renowned photographer Jo-Anne McArthur and co-founder of the BigPicture photography competition and exhibit curator Rhonda Rubinstein for a conversation about the power of images to change how we see the world, raise awareness about the most urgent environmental issues, and spark action. This event will also feature...

Throughout history, many Americans have been disenfranchised or faced needless barriers to voting. Part of the blame falls on the Constitution, which does not contain an affirmative right to vote. The U.S. Supreme Court failed to protect voting rights and limited Congress’s ability to do so. That’s why some are saying that the time has come for voters to take action and push for an amendment to th...

Have we finally discovered the holy grail of artificial intelligence (AI)—machines that match or exceed human intelligence? Advances in generative AI (GAI) have created a new class of computer systems that exhibit astonishing proficiency on a wide variety of tasks with superhuman performance, producing novel text, images, music, and software by analyzing enormous collections of digitized informati...

As heat waves, storms, droughts and wildfires continue to worsen, talking can seem like a seriously insufficient climate solution. It’s fair to ask: Are we just engaged in blah, blah, blah? Too often, talking is one sided – more of a lecture aimed at conveying information or solely stating one's own point of view. And yet, when done right, real conversations and true listening can help us find com...

In the wake of the release of author and activist Raquel Willis's debut memoir, The Risk it Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation, join us for a live discussion of what collective liberation means with Bia Vieira, CEO of the Women's Foundation California. About the Speakers Raquel Willis is an award-winning author, activist, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation. She has...

Who are we? Good question. But difficult to answer definitively. Still, it is a question that is philosophically fruitful to ask, because the flip side of the question (who aren’t we?) has several clear answers that narrow the search for an answer to the main question. One example: It might be emotionally hard to accept, but it seems highly unlikely that we are the center of the universe, even tho...

Local historian Richard Schwartz returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to captivate you once again with his characteristic blend of serious history, fascinating images, and “telling details” stories. Schwartz shares eyewitness accounts and unique views of Berkeley from more than 120 years ago, which show how profoundly the landscape, culture, economy and social values of modern Berkeley have...

The epidemic of disinformation and misinformation sweeping through our society is like the weather: Everyone complains about it, but no one does anything about it. Now Barbara McQuade is changing that, offering solutions for countering disinformation and maintaining the rule of law. MSNBC's legal expert breaks down the ways disinformation has become a tool to drive voters to extremes, disempower o...

Kumi Naidoo is a world renowned activist and climate leader. Before going on to lead Greenpeace International then Amnesty International, Naidoo was a 15 year old anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. The boycotts he organized led to him being a target of the Security Police. He fled South Africa and lived in exile in the UK.  As a climate activist, Naidoo has been arrested for scaling oil rigs...

President Joe Biden is being threatened with impeachment by the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives. His predecessor, Donald Trump, was twice impeached by a Democratic-led House. Three presidents earlier, Bill Clinton was impeached. No president has ever been removed from office as the result of an impeachment, but it continues to be a high-profile way to go after the president of the Uni...

Come inside a jury room as one juror leads a starkly divided room to consensus. Join a young CIA officer as he recruits a reluctant foreign agent. And sit with an accomplished surgeon as he tries, and fails, to convince yet another cancer patient to opt for the less risky course of treatment. In his new book Supercommunicators, Charles Duhigg blends deep research and storytelling skills to show ho...

San Francisco Mayor London Breed returns to The Commonwealth Club World Affairs for a state-of-the-city program, taking stock of the city’s present and looking forward to its future. What can the city do to spur downtown revival? How can it reduce the problems of fentanyl, homelessness, and crime? She’ll also share her thoughts on ballot measures facing voters in the March elections, including Pro...

The rural Taiwanese outer islands of Kinmen sit merely 2 miles off the coast of China. Kinmen attracts tourists for its remains from the 1949 Chinese Civil War. It also marks the frontline for Taiwan in its escalating tension with China. Filmmaker S. Leo Chiang weaves lyrical vignettes of tourist visits and local life with his own narrative as someone negotiating ambivalent personal bonds to Taiwa...

Join us for a new Commonwealth Club experience as we launch the first of our new series of Oakland Forums, taking place at Fluid 510 in downtown Oakland. In our inaugural program, we're featuring Oakland leaders discussing building community in this time of serious challenges facing Oakland and other big cities. About the Speakers Darin Balaban is a self-taught visual artist with a focus on painti...

Join Club Travel and Cinnamongirl, Inc. to hear a fresh and vibrant conversation between three amazing young people—two scholars and their mentor—who traveled on the Club’s trip “On the Road to Freedom: Understanding the Civil Rights Movement” in October 2023. The group spent time in Jackson, Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery. Hear about key events and people involved in the...