Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

As we approach the 20th anniversary of 9/11, what is the lasting influence of Osama bin Laden? CNN national security analyst and New America Vice President for Global Studies Peter Bergen has been called the world's leading expert on bin Laden. In his new book, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, Bergen provides the first reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America’s long wars...

Worldwide attention turned to India recently following widespread reports about the devastating toll the COVID-19 pandemic was taking there. Join us for a discussion of India, COVID-19, and how the transgender community mobilized globally to save lives.  Our special guest are with Parivar: Celebrating 3 years of ParivarBayArea, the only trans-led South Asian queer trans organization in America. Le...

Flawed. Furtive. Facebook. In the nearly two decades of the social media platform’s existence, it has both soared into worldwide popularity and plummeted into the depths of conspiracy peddling and hate-mongering. Is this the fate of any globally devoured site, or is it due to miscalculations in programming, or is it the consequence of decisions made at the top by the site’s infamous leaders? Sheer...

The pixel, the smallest element of a picture, has, with little fanfare, helped push forward the digital revolution to new heights over the past 2 decades. Today, nearly every picture in the world is composed of pixels—cell phone pictures, app interfaces, Mars Rover transmissions, book illustrations, video games—and these digital images drive our understanding of the world around us. But where did...

Join an important discussion with this veteran congresswoman about her role on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack and its potential impact, as well as the state of the country and our democracy, the possibilities for bipartisan legislation, and how to handle such crucial issues as the pandemic variants, the economy, gun violence and immigration. Zoe Lofgren has been a...

In October 2020, California Gov. Newsom announced a plan to protect 30% of his state by 2030. In 2021, the Biden Administration announced its own 30x30 plan, later dubbed America the Beautiful. With 12% of the U.S. already under some form of protection, where will the other 18% come from? In states like Nebraska, nearly all the land is in private hands — and the owners are worried. With increased...

Journalists Terry Greene Sterling and Jude Joffe-Block spent years chronicling the human consequences of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s relentless immigration enforcement in Maricopa County, Arizona. In Driving While Brown, they tell the tale of two opposing movements that redefined Arizona’s political landscape—the restrictionist cause embraced by Arpaio and the Latino-led resistance that rose up against i...

Every two seconds a girl is married against her will.  COVID-19 exacerbated this already massive problem, reversing many gains that had been made in the past decade as schools closed and millions of girls lost their one chance at freedom—an education. Join us for a conversation with three women working to end child marriage. Through their stories, you will hear more about the critical importance o...

Elon Musk is one of the most influential and controversial tech icons in Silicon Valley. He has talked about forward-thinking projects like mind-uploading and space travel, but by far his most bold and effective vision led to Tesla and the creation of a widely available and affordable electric vehicle. Before Tesla was founded in the early 2000s, electric cars were considered novelties. But as man...

You might not realize it, but we’re already living through the beginnings of climate chaos. In Arizona, laborers now start their day at 3 a.m., because it’s too hot to work past noon. Chinese investors are snapping up real estate in Canada. Millennials have evacuation plans. Moguls are building bunkers. Retirees in Miami are moving inland. In How to Prepare for Climate Change, bestselling self-hel...

If “caught in the middle” was a tightrope, Savala Nolan would be a well-seasoned expert at walking it. The lawyer, speaker, and author has learned to navigate the tedious limbo that is being mixed-race, changing economic status, and a fluctuating body painfully affected by diet culture. In her debut book, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body, Nolan shares nostalgic, some...

If there is one thing people have learned over the past 16 months, it is the importance and power of community. Join us for a special conversation with AAPI leaders and elders about anti-Asian racism, homophobia, transphobia, and their life-long activism and advocacy. And come early before the program to enjoy a lunch courtesy of What the Cluck Thai Chicken and Rice. Meet the Speakers Gil Mangaoan...

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the leader of Belarusian democratic forces, who numerous independent observers say beat the autocratic president Alexander Lukashenko in a presidential election on August 9, 2020. She stepped into the race after her husband was arrested for his presidential aspirations. Mr. Lukashenko has publicly dismissed her as a “housewife,” сlaiming that a woman can't become presid...

Aging—not cancer or heart disease—is the world’s leading cause of death and suffering. In spite of this, we accept the aging process as inevitable. We come to terms with the fact that our bodies and minds will begin to deteriorate and our risk of disease will rise as we get older. Aging is so deeply ingrained in the human experience that we never stop to ask: is it necessary? Scientists, on the ot...

In Washington State, voters defeated initiatives to put a price on carbon ― twice. Governor Jay Inslee himself then lost his personal bid for the White House. Yet his bold ideas have proven staying power. The state legislature recently passed a carbon cap and invest bill that will reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions 95 percent by 2050.  “We’ve got to wake up every morning figuring out ‘ho...

The year 2020 brought with it a nation riddled with grief as the United States descended into a raging pandemic, steep economic downfall, and unsettling political instability. As half a million perished and millions were left jobless from coronavirus, what was really going on inside the White House? And who was influencing Donald Trump as he refused to concede power after an election he had clearl...

July 1 marks 50 years since the ratification of the 26th Amendment. The lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 had lasting impacts on the political and cultural landscapes of the 1970s, but even now youth organizing and social activism have a massive influence on American elections, policies and progress. In honor of this historic anniversary, join our panel of youth organizers leading the fight...

School's out for the summer, but come fall, most students will be returning to in-person classrooms across the country. For some students, every day in school is another day of possible bullying by their peers.  Join us for a discussion with a young award-winning filmmaker and actor on the impacts of peer bullying through the lens of LGBTQIA+ high school students.  Kabir McNeely is an award-winnin...

The Constitution clearly states that Americans have the right to keep and bear arms, an argument often used to dispute proposed gun control legislation. However, historian Carol Anderson says that deeper analysis of the formation of the Second Amendment reveals ulterior, racialized motives to keep Black people powerless and oppressed. In her new book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal...

From clearing land for pasture to building dams, humans have long changed the face of the Earth. But Indian eco-feminist Vandana Shiva is highly critical of how we’ve changed our relationship with the land through industrial monocrop agriculture. She firmly opposes genetically modified crops, and has called seed patents “bio-piracy.” But it’s not just the technology she’s critical of.  “I’m critic...

Frankly, We Did Win This Election, authored by The Wall Street Journal’s senior White House reporter Michael Bender, reveals a deeply reported account of Donald J. Trump’s final year as president of the United States—from his first impeachment in January 2020 to his second almost exactly a year later. Bender chronicles Trump and his campaign team as they struggle through an epic convergence of the...

The depths of the Jeffrey Epstein story may never have been known without the work of Florida investigative reporter Julie K. Brown. A reporter for the Miami Herald, Brown and her explosive reporting for the Herald helped bring Epstein to justice (before his death) while exposing the powerful people and broken system that protected him. For many years, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's penchant for te...

Professor William Drummond has had an impressive career as an educator and award-winning journalist. This includes stints at The (Louisville) Courier-Journal, where he covered the civil rights movement, and the Los Angeles Times, where he was a local reporter, then bureau chief in New Delhi and Jerusalem and later a Washington correspondent. Drummond was appointed a White House Fellow in 1976 by P...

Why don’t we talk to strangers? What happens when we do? Joe Keohane argues that, if we do, it affects everything from our own health and well-being to the rise and fall of nations. In our cities, even before the pandemic, we stood on silent buses and subway cars, barely acknowledging one another, even as rates of loneliness skyrocketed. Online, we retreat into ideological silos reinforced by algo...

Trauma-informed care understands and considers the pervasive nature of trauma and promotes environments of healing and recovery rather than practices and services that may inadvertently re-traumatize.  Dr. Darla Dixon is a licensed psychologist currently working as a trauma-informed care coordinator for the California Department of State Hospitals. She has also had the privilege of being socialize...