Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Julia Morgan was a lifelong trailblazer. She was the first woman admitted to study architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first licensed to practice architecture in California. Born in San Francisco and trained in Paris, she developed a distinctive aesthetic that now defines certain regions of California. But only in the last 20 years has her contribution to architecture been fu...

When the United States was founded in 1776, its citizens didn’t think of themselves as “Americans.” They were New Yorkers or Virginians or Pennsylvanians. It was decades later that the seeds of American nationalism—identifying with one’s own nation and supporting its broader interests—began to take root. But what kind of nationalism should Americans embrace? The state-focused and racist nationalis...

Dr. Mehrdad Ayati has identified eight critical challenges that currently face the aging population. Join Us at the Club for a discussion on healthy aging and Dr. Ayati’s proposed solutions to these critical challenges. Topics will include global aging trends and demographics, over medications, inappropriate use of vitamins and supplements to stay young, promoting healthy aging rather than just a...

Was 2019 the last great year for the world economy? For generations, everything has been getting faster, better and cheaper. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy consumers, but are we at the brink of not being able to sustain ongoing demand? Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan asserts it is only a matter of time before major changes will start to unfold that will affect how we m...

Five centuries after his death, Leonardo Da Vinci is attracting more attention for his art, his science and his mechanical inventiveness than ever. Humanities West celebrates his continuing cultural contributions with an encore presentation of "Leonardo’s Legacy," our February 2019 program, again featuring Martin Kemp, a world-renowned Leonardo scholar, who will treat us this time to his latest re...

Over the last two decades, a fringe plan to call a convention under the Constitution's amendment mechanism—the nation's first ever—has inched through statehouses. Delegates, like those in Philadelphia two centuries ago, would exercise nearly unlimited authority to draft changes to our fundamental law, potentially altering anything from voting and free speech to regulatory and foreign policy powers...

Best-selling author Mark Shaw, who has become a magnet for crowdsourced information about Marilyn Monroe, JFK and prominent journalist Dorothy Kilgallen ever since his lectures went viral on YouTube, returns to The Commonwealth Club to share new research about the cover-ups that followed those three celebrities’ deaths. Revealed for the first time in his latest book, Fighting for Justice, is evide...

In 2015, Misty Copeland made history and changed the dance world forever when she became the first African-American female principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre. But as she will tell you, achievements like this never happen in a void. Behind her and supporting her rise was her mentor, Raven Wilkinson. A trailblazer in the world of ballet, Wilkinson fought to be taken seriously as a Black...

In 2012, Regina Martínez, a prominent journalist reporting on political corruption and abuse in Mexico, was found brutally murdered in her bathroom. This tragic act of violence sent a clear message: No journalist in Mexico was safe. Troubled by this news, Katherine Corcoran, then leading the Associated Press coverage of Mexico, traveled to Veracruz to uncover the truth about Martínez’s death. Now...

Over a 20-year period, methane is 80 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Yet those responsible for releasing methane into the atmosphere often don’t even know how much they themselves are emitting. And methane is only one of many harmful air pollutants that result from our dependence on burning fossil fuels.  Now, research coalitions, citizen scientists and activists are using...

Sara Holtz, a former Fortune 500 vice president, is the author of Advice to My Younger Me: Career Lessons from 100 Successful Women and the host of the highly rated podcast "Advice to My Younger Me." She has interviewed hundreds of successful women about what they wish they had known earlier in their careers, has coached thousands, and has received the American Bar Association’s prestigious Margar...

Does mass incarceration make our communities safer? How can we better protect victim rights? What happens inside of prisons? Those are important questions that Lenore Anderson and Bill Keller address in their new books In Their Names and What's Prison For? Anderson argues that the powerful myth that mass incarceration benefits victims obscures recognition of what most victims actually need to addr...

From the beginning of the nation to today, Black women have transformed their pain into progress and have been at the frontlines of many of the nation’s political, social and economic struggles. In her new book Black Women Will Save the World, April Ryan celebrates the tenacity, power and impact that Black women have had across America. She highlights trailblazing “sheroes” ranging from political...

After 25 years of service, U.S. Marine Mac McKinney returned home to Indiana filled with an all-consuming rage and hatred toward the people he had been fighting against overseas. Still fueled by his desire to fight for his country, McKinney makes a violent plan to bomb the local mosque. But when he comes face to face with the community of Afghan refugees and others of Muslim faith, his plan and li...

Overwhelmed by racial injustice? Outraged by the news? Shocked by ugly events in American history? If you find yourself asking “what can I do?”—W. Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz have an answer: Do the Work! Bell and Schatz confront urgent issues on race and identity in America with sharp humor and interactive activities. They challenge us to have hard conversations, think critically, and act effective...

When federal employees start working for the U.S. Government, each person takes an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.” During the Trump administration, some employees surprisingly found themselves fighting their own commander-in-chief, creating a resistance movement within the government that created tensions throughout the e...

How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive? Journalist Bradley Hope chronicles the heart-pounding tale of Adrian Hong, a self-taught operative who tried to bring down the North Korean regime. In addition to helping asylum-seeking North Koreans escape across the border, Hong and his secret organization Cheollima Civil Defense (later named Free Joseon), began tracking the North Korean g...

We are living through a transformative time in mental health research. There is overwhelming demand for new and safe ways of addressing various states of depression. Dr. Nolan Williams and Stanford University are leaders in cutting-edge research that is generating worldwide attention. Attend this fascinating program to learn what is currently being done in research settings as well as the breakthr...

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, against a backdrop of massive cultural shifts, violence and political upheaval, Natasha Lance Rogoff took on the challenge of creating a program that had never existed before, Ulitsa Sezam, a Russian version of Sesame Street.  This new children’s television program, produced by a Russian-American team, was designed to introduce children into the world of lea...

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard made headlines recently when he announced that he and his family had transferred their $3 billion stake in the storied outdoor gear company to a special purpose trust and nonprofit that would give away $100 million a year, specifically to environmental causes. Patagonia has a long history of donating at least one percent of its profits – and 100% of profits made on...

We all need sleep to survive. It is essential to our physical and mental wellbeing and just as important as food, water and oxygen. So why do so many of us struggle to get a good night’s rest? Dr. Aric Prather runs one of the world’s most successful sleep clinics and shares effective techniques that he uses to help his own patients achieve healing and restorative sleep. Hear more about this powerf...

Ramses the Great ruled Egypt more than 3,200 years ago, but he made sure we would still be talking about him today. He ruled for 67 years, probably starting on May 31st (III Season of the Harvest, day 27 to ancient Egyptians) in 1279 BC. He soon set about creating a new capital city in the Nile delta, where he had chariot, weapon and shield factories built. Not long thereafter he defeated the Sher...

For decades, China’s ascension to power was promised to be peaceful, with the nation’s leaders adopting a restrained approach to foreign policy and reassuring the outside world of their non-combative intentions. What changed? Susan L. Shirk provides a sobering, behind-the-scenes account of China’s transformation from fragile superpower to global heavyweight—threatening Taiwan, tightening its grip...

As a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse reveals how special interest groups are using “dark money” to influence and control our courts. In 2020, Sen. Whitehouse raised these alarming concerns during the Amy Coney Barrett hearing. He asserts that a group consisting of billionaires and corporations are using their wealth and power to back appointees and nominees...

Climate One has been at this year's UN climate summit, COP27, where one of the issues at the forefront of the conversation has been “loss and damage” – the idea that rich countries who have historically emitted the vast majority of climate-disrupting pollution should have to pay for the resulting suffering borne by those least responsible for the problem. At the same time, the whole world needs to...