Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Balancing activism with personal life and relationships can be difficult. At this crucial time in our history, activists are burning out when we need them the most. That’s why this event with Kitty Stryker, who has spent two decades as a direct activist and a street medic during radical actions, is so timely.  Stryker, author of Love Rebels: How I Learned to Burn It Down Without Burning Out, has b...

Americans are confronted with a wealth of sources of often questionable information about how to live better and longer. From the “Wellness Industrial Complex” to weak health reporting to faddish influencers, there is a lot of information and misinformation confusing people about some of the most important things about their bodies. How do we know what really matters the most to our health and lon...

Join us as Bruce Henderson shares the previously untold history of a top-secret operation in the run-up to D-Day in which American flyers and Allied spies carried out some of the most daring cloak-and-dagger operations of the Second World War.  In 1943, the OSS—precursor to the CIA—came up with a plan to support the French resistance forces that were fighting the Nazis. The OSS brought some of the...

Join Wajahat Ali for a timely conversation on his insights into the fragility of democratic institutions, his work fighting racism and extremism, and how ordinary citizens can resist authoritarianism.  In his weekly podcast, Wajahat Ali, acclaimed writer and public speaker, urgently chronicles an American democracy “under assault from the forces of fascism and authoritarianism.” One way he copes i...

As the planet warms, the story of climate change is increasingly becoming a story about human health. Rising temperatures, wildfire smoke, flooding, and shifting disease patterns are no longer distant threats; they are everyday realities. The climate crisis is reshaping health care systems, exposing inequalities, and forcing doctors and policymakers to rethink some of their practices. Medical scho...

At a time when some may feel divisiveness and isolation is pervasive, this year’s Silicon Valley Reads theme explores the concept of belonging in unique ways.  Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with featured authors Keeonna Harris (Mainline Mama: A Memoir), Annie Harnett (Unlikely Animals: A Novel), and John Powell (The Power of Bridging: How to Build a World Where We All Belong).  Hear...

Iran’s authoritarian government has faced widespread protests in recent weeks, marking the most extensive unrest the country has seen in decades. The demonstrations, which began at the end of 2025, were triggered by an economic crisis and plummeting currency values. Tehran has responded with a violent crackdown leading to thousands of deaths. President Donald Trump initially responded by threateni...

Can a university ever truly be neutral in today’s social and political climate? Pushing against the tide of universities increasingly pledging to stay neutral about contentious issues, law professor Brian Soucek argues that their promises are doomed to fail—universities can’t help being opinionated.  Soucek says that neutrality is a myth, and he takes a deep dive into several prominent campus cont...

Join us on January 21, 2026, in San Francisco for a fact-based exploration of immigration and the future of the United States. Moderated by the Population Reference Bureau's Jennifer Sciubba, this conversation will cut through opinion and politics to reveal the real data shaping America’s demographics, economy, and competitiveness. Hear from leading experts Dr. Giovanni Peri, Daniel Costa, and Dr....

Many of us did not know about USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) until it came under scrutiny by the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in its recent cost-cutting efforts. USAID is—or was—the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.  While the constitutionalit...

Nearly every headline seems to warn of new crises, deepening divides or threats to the planet. Yet a very different story emerges when you widen the lens.  A new book, A Century of Plenty, takes a longer, historical and more hopeful view. Over the past 100 years, humans have made unprecedented progress, from longer lifespans to dramatically reduced poverty: “On average, people now live 40 years lo...

We have entered the second quarter of this century, and the general public’s concern in regard to past, present and future relationships and alliances looms large on the horizon. Established practices, agreements, and alliances seem to be under review.  Are the accepted patterns of diplomatic, political and economic institutions wobbling and leaving the future uncertain? Our panel will have an ope...

Author, entrepreneur, and Fox News contributor Steve Hilton says he’s running for California governor to address the housing crisis, high taxes and the “staggering incompetence of Democrat one-party rule." He’s not embracing the Republican label, instead calling his campaign nonpartisan.  Born in the United Kingdom to Hungarian parents who fled communism, Hilton worked in politics, advertising, an...

We’re only about a month into 2026, and already so much has happened — from the Trump administration’s forcible removal of Venezuela’s president to the US pulling out of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change… It’s easy to get caught up in the headlines of the moment and lose sight of the big picture.  But important developments are happening in sectors like agriculture and renewable techno...

Over the past 20 years, one state after another has shuttered its youth prisons and stopped trying kids as adults, slashing the number of incarcerated children by a stunning 75 percent. How did this change come about? In the sequel to her 2014 award-winning book Burning Down the House, journalist Nell Bernstein dissects the forces that converged to move us from what she calls a moral panic about “...

San Francisco politics is rarely dull, but 2026 is shaping up to be particularly eventful. Nancy Pelosi, the first and only woman elected U.S. House speaker, has announced her retirement after nearly four decades serving San Francisco in Congress. The race to succeed her is wide-open, though State Senator Scott Wiener and Supervisor Connie Chan have already thrown their hats in.  Meanwhile, Mayor...

In 1861, abolitionist Wendell Phillips said, “I think the first duty of society is justice.” What, then, would he think about the current state of America’s Department of Justice?  Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporters Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis say that throughout his first administration, President Donald Trump did more than any other president to politicize the nation’s top law enforcement age...

Political polarization has become a top concern for Americans, surpassing issues such as immigration, inflation or crime, according to an October 2025 poll by The New York Times and Siena University. This is a major shift from before the 2024 election, when it "barely registered" as an issue. Most voters now doubt the country's divisions can be overcome.  Still, Americans also say they want leader...

Agriculture is directly responsible for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and farmers and ranchers face growing climate impacts every day, from more severe storms to intense droughts, making it harder to grow food.  The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office ⁠estimates⁠ emissions from the agriculture sector will modestly increase over the next 30 years. Yet the Trump administration is...

Political resistance is as old as injustice itself, fighting with tools that span from civil disobedience (boycotts, strikes, sit-ins) to armed struggle, challenging tyranny, colonialism, racism, and inequality through both nonviolent or violent means.  Historically it has evolved from ancient community defiance to modern national movements like Black Lives Matter, utilizing culture, direct action...

It’s been a year since catastrophic fires tore through Los Angeles. For those who lived through them, the impacts are still being felt. Rebuilding in the aftermath of more frequent and severe fossil-fueled disasters is becoming a big business. Enter the disaster economy, powered by a grab bag of dedicated people helping communities rebuild, and by contractors who may overpromise, underdeliver, and...

It’s not just governors and presidents who have to confront and overcome huge challenges; we all do at every stage of our life. Now Gretchen Whitmer shares advice and stories from her life, from her childhood to her current role as governor of the state of Michigan. When Gretchen Whitmer was growing up, her grandmother Nino taught her that you can always find something good in other people. “Even...

Those standing up to climate and environmental injustice face challenges they weren’t seeing a year ago. But Gloria Walton, head of The Solutions Project, sees a bigger picture: “ The reality is that the same systems that created the climate crisis, whether that's colonialism, white supremacy, racism, and the patriarchy, those are the same ones that have harmed communities of color for generations...

At this moment, the cheapest way to create electricity is by pointing a solar panel at the sun. That’s good news for the climate. It’s also good news for communities who want to take control of their own electricity generation. In the heart of Brooklyn, UPROSE is helping to build a solar project that will be owned by the community, provide jobs, and help residents bring down their energy costs. In...

Election Day in the November 2024 presidential election was a pivotal moment in American history, and in his second term, President Trump has moved quickly to imprint his vision on the country and its policies. But before November 5, there was a whole campaign that was wild, unpredictable, fiery and violent. Jonathan Karl, ABC News chief Washington correspondent, calls it “the campaign that change...