Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Service is fundamental to who we are as Americans and how we meet our local and national challenges. For nearly 30 years, AmeriCorps has connected people of all ages and backgrounds together to tackle the country's most pressing problems. Today, from fighting the pandemic and responding to disasters, to boosting student success and tackling climate change, national service is seen as a proven solu...

Since Darwin, evolutionary biology has been “all about the boys,” with the males of the species being the drivers of change and females simply passively devoted to them, zoologist Lucy Cooke argues. Rather than conforming with this male-dominated view of a male-dominated field, Cooke instead seeks to humorously reinvent the narrative—and show just how fierce, dangerous and hilarious the queens of...

In February 2022, Chantale Wong was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in an overwhelming and bipartisan vote to serve as U.S. director of the Asian Development Bank, making her the first openly lesbian Senate-confirmed ambassador in U.S. history. The Asian Development Bank was founded in the mid-1960s as a financial institution focused on fostering economic growth and cooperation in one of the poorest...

Africa is responsible for only less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet its people are already suffering some of the world’s most devastating climate impacts. For Wanjira Mathai, Regional Director for Africa and Vice President at the World Resources Institute, and the daughter of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, this raises a central moral question: When those most affected...

On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on abortion rights (in Dobbs v. Mississippi) that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that has provided federal protections and defined a woman’s right to abortion since 1973. After decades of whittling away at Roe's protections, a majority of the court's justices have upended it, letting individual states decide their own approaches to re...

A career in television journalism can be fraught with burnout, impostor syndrome and publicly aired stumbles. Especially in one of the craziest news eras America has ever seen, it is almost impossible to remain calm among the fury of stories to follow and the demanding and roles and responsibilities of the news industry. MSNBC anchor and New York Times bestselling author Katy Tur knows precisely w...

Anne W. Smith, the Commonwealth Club's Arts Member-led Forum chair, will moderate a discussion relative to restorative performing arts ideas and values, lingering pandemic issues and new implications for artist and audiences.  Sean Fenton, the “new kid on the block”, is executive director for the arts community service organization Theatre Bay Area. He will spotlight new approaches and thinking id...

The Ronald Reagan Institute Shultz Lecture Series was originally conceived to honor Secretary Shultz on the anniversary of his 100th birthday; to celebrate and introduce more people to his incredible achievements and leadership in service to the United States and the world. This inaugural Shultz Lecture brings together three leading scholars to discuss the legacy of Secretary George P. Shultz: the...

Penetrating the fog of the coverup surrounding the murder of Stanford University's cofounder, historian Richard White deftly sifts through the evidence and reconstructs the full story. In 1885 Jane Stanford and her husband, Leland Stanford, co-founded Stanford University in memory of their deceased son. After Leland's death in 1893, Jane steered the university and its policies into eccentricity an...

As we mark World Refugee Day, an international day to honor refugees, we invite you to celebrate the strength and courage of all those forced to flee their homes in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February . Multiple organizations and individuals are lending their support to the estimated 6.8 million refugees from Ukraine who have fled to Poland, Romania and throughout the Europ...

83% of people in the United States live in urban areas. And these days that’s where important climate progress is happening. Cities all over the country and globe are experimenting with climate resilience projects specific to their local environments and challenges. In many cases, these projects also look to address historic injustices and provide more equitable models for transportation, housing,...

Linda Yvette Chávez is a self-proclaimed “wholesome chola next door making chilaquiles out of chaos” and moreover, a Xicana woman making history. In the world of entertainment, she is an unrivaled powerhouse who is the co-creator, co-showrunner and executive producer of Netflix’s hit series "Gentefied" (now in its second season). Through her creative ventures, Chávez has made it her mission to tel...

This program will give background on how technology research, innovation and transformation occurs from discoveries and research supported by the National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundations supports deep, early and foundational research across a wide range of fields and is funded by the American taxpayer. However, bringing those discoveries and technologies into use in the market...

"Pod Save America" co-host Dan Pfeiffer argues that democracy relies on a shared understanding of reality—and with misinformation and fake news saturating the American political right, this shared understanding is in peril. Hobbling America’s ability to rationally deal with threats like the COVID pandemic and climate change, Pfeiffer argues that something must be done about right wing media—and fa...

For decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed reputations, ended careers and ruined lives. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexuality became intertwined with the growing threat of international communism, leading to a purge of gay men and lesbians from the federal government. In the fevered atmosphere of political W...

Climate change science isn’t taught accurately — or equally — across the country. Investigative reporter Katie Worth dug into textbooks and talked with dozens of children and teachers to find out why. In her book, Miseducation: How Climate is Taught in America, Worth unpacks the influence of the fossil fuel industry, state legislatures and school boards on school curricula in their effort to sprea...

The past couple years has brought to the forefront discrimination and violence against America's Black and Asian communities. The George Floyd killing ignited a social and political upheaval that is still working through the country; and the COVID-19 pandemic spawned numerous violent attacks on Asian Americans. How can these two communities support themselves and each other? How can they deal with...

The accelerating transition to electric vehicles brings new urgency to discussions about how to replace fuel taxes with other broad-based, reliable sources of transportation revenue. From Wyoming to Delaware to California, more and more state legislatures are considering mileage fees, regions like the San Francisco Bay Area are considering expanded tolling, and New York City is within reach of ado...

After the events that took place over the course of 2020, America remains more divided than ever. When faced with a global health crisis and widespread cries for racial justice, leadership crumbled and the Republican Party suffered defeat in the 2020 election. According to Keith Boykin, Republican leaders have responded with inciting white Americans in a last-ditch race against time to stop the ri...

Join us for a celebration of the winners of the 91st annual California Book Awards! Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement. Over its 90 years, the California Book Awards have honored the writer...

The CIA beginning in the early 1980s made a series of stunning arrests—three high-profile Russian spies, Aldrich Ames, Edward Lee Howard, and Robert Hanssen, were uncovered as some of the most damaging leaks the agency had ever seen. Yet, as told by former CIA officer Robert Baer, the investigation for a “fourth man” ensued shortly after, and now relates the never-before-told story about the hunt...

Roughly every five years, the U.S. designs and implements a new farm bill, which sets federal policy on agriculture across a huge swath of programs, including subsidies, food assistance, land practices and more. As the discussion around what to include in the 2023 farm bill intensifies, many are pushing for climate mitigation and adaptation measures to be a primary focus of the legislation. Then t...

Angela Garbes, the acclaimed author of Like a Mother, reflects on the state of caregiving in America. In her new book Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, Garbes explores assumptions about care, work and deservedness, offering a deeply personal and rigorously reported look at what mothering is and can be. She places mothering in a global context to critically examine her perspectives of th...

An APA Heritage Month special: Join us for an online panel discussion with two AAPI women touching on the lived experiences of being an AAPI woman today. They'll cover a wide range of issues, including the mental health impact of issues such as racism, gender violence, and oppression. Show editorially warning About the SpeakersOakland City Council President Pro Tem Sheng Thao grew up in poverty, t...

America faces a mental health crisis. Problems with mental health care preceded the pandemic, but over the past two years we've seen these problems grow into a crisis as young people were more likely to die from deaths of despair than from COVID-19. This presentation describes the path to solve this mental health crisis. Dr. Tom Insel says part of the solution involves fixing the care system—movin...