Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin pioneered equality through their common virtues of faith and resilience. They changed the minds of many Americans through their ability to assess community knowledge and make it accessible to the masses. These men were not born with this innate ability to lead; they were shaped by their surroundings and upbringing to fight for social justice. M...

Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin pioneered equality through their common virtues of faith and resilience. They changed the minds of many Americans through their ability to assess community knowledge and make it accessible to the masses. These men were not born with this innate ability to lead; they were shaped by their surroundings and upbringing to fight for social justice. M...

To discourage the inclusion of Ida B. Wells in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the FBI wrote that she “has addressed meetings of colored people and endeavored to impress upon them that they are a downtrodden race and that now is the time for them to demand and secure their proper position in the world. She is a very effective speaker and her influence among the colored race is well recognized...

Virtuoso Afro-Cuban-born brothers—American violinist Ilmar and Cuban pianist Aldo— live on opposite sides of a geopolitical chasm half a century wide. Los Hermanos/The Brothers tracks their parallel lives, poignant reunion, and electrifying first performances across the United States, in a nuanced, often startling view of estranged nations through the lens of music and family. In Cuba art is centr...

As a special agent in the FBI, Frank Figliuzzi spent his 25-year career working in populous areas such as San Francisco, Miami, Cleveland and Washington, D.C., investigating crime and protecting American rights. In 2011, Figliuzzi was appointed assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division by then-director Robert Mueller. His years of experience—both in agent and executive positions...

A decade ago, a nationwide survey showed that only around twelve percent of Americans were seriously concerned about climate change. Today, public perceptions have changed. “The alarmed are between a quarter and 30% of the public,” says Edward Maibach. “That makes them the largest single segment of Americans…as their name implies, they’re alarmed about climate change.” How does understanding the p...

COVID-19 upended the world at the beginning of 2020, and life as we know it was forever altered. As we adjust to the changes, many of us are valuing, more than ever, our relationships. Our connections with each other and with things that provide comfort help give us a sense of security in a world that sometimes feels out of control. This year, Silicon Valley Reads will be centered on the theme of...

After 28 years, renowned KQED radio host Michael Krasny, host of the popular "Forum" program, has announced that he will retire following his "Forum" broadcast on February 12, 2021, marking the exact anniversary of his first program in 1993. Krasny has interviewed some of the most prominent newsmakers and political and cultural figures of the past half century, including Maya Angelou, William F. B...

The world watched in horror as members of the alt-right stormed Capitol Hill in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. What we also witnessed was a stark and irrefutable difference between the way law enforcement reacted to the siege in comparison to the violent force often used at Black Lives Matter marches and other peaceful protests involving marginalized communities. What is t...

Best-selling authors Charles Yu and Jess Walter will talk about writing fiction that manages to be both poignant and funny at a time of great change. They will also share the inspiration behind their new stories, published exclusively by Scribd Originals. Yu’s The Only Living Girl on Earth is an unexpected and delightfully absurd vision of life on Earth a thousand years in the future. In this stor...

She's been called Vietnam's Lady Gaga—a talented, outspoken artist promoting freedom of expression. Join us for an online discussion with an artist who has crafted creative ways to promote freedom. Mai Khoi is a Vietnamese artist and activist. At the age of 12 she wrote her first song and joined her father's wedding band the same year. She rose to stardom in 2010 after winning the Vietnam Televisi...

Gershom Gorenberg joins us live from Jerusalem to discuss the topic of his latest book, War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East, with Robert Rosenthal, a former Middle East/Africa journalist and former editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. At the center of Gorenberg's exciting intrigue—wh...

Dr. Tyler Stovall's White Freedom explores the intertwined histories of racism and freedom in France and the United States, the two leading nations that have claimed liberty as the heart of their national identities. Stovall examines how French and American thinkers defined freedom in racial terms and conceived of liberty as an aspect and privilege of whiteness. He also discusses how the Statue of...

With the Biden administration taking office, COVID rampant, vaccine disbursement beginning, and businesses and individual Americans reeling from financial burdens, what is the outlook for the economy in 2021? Join us for a lively and important discussion on where the U.S. and global economies are headed and what should be done to keep them on track. Michael J. Boskin is T. M. Friedman Professor of...

On the surface, it would appear that the Cleveland Cavaliers' star forward Kevin Love has much success in his life. He is a five-time All-Star and won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016.He was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. But Kevin Love has also suffered from depression and anxiety for years. He was one of the first NBA players to o...

Just two weeks after the Capitol attack that resulted in five deaths, delayed the official counting of the Electoral College votes, and led to the second impeachment of a president of the United States for the first time in American history, a new president has been inaugurated in a Washington, D.C. that was on near lockdown due to the threat of domestic terrorism. Education leaders, civic advocat...

As a driver of global health, prosperity and planetary sustainability, science pervades all realms of human activity. The COVID pandemic of the past year and the prospect of its eventual resolution have put science (and scientists) at the forefront of an international cultural conversation. Yet communicating facts and credible research is a tricky task in a world awash in social media, anti-scient...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told filmmaker Jennifer Callahan, "If I left the house without a bag, I’d go right back inside to get it." In "Making the Case," the late justice shares her thoughts—not on the law, but on daily objects from her own life, on some of her handbags. The film enables the viewer to get to know the great RBG in a most relatable way. Join us for an unexpected loo...

Since the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill, Representative Eric Swalwell has been outspoken about the action he believes Congress should take to curb further assaults on our democracy, emphasizing the need for the president’s resignation or impeachment. The representative from California’s 15th district does not shy away from voicing his opinion on the important issues, and in this time of great u...

Journalist Annie Jacobsen is well known for her best sellers The Pentagon's Brain, Area 51 and Operation Paperclip. In her latest book, First Platoon, she investigates "warfare, good and evil in the age of biometrics, the technology that would allow the government to identify anyone, anywhere, at any time." Come for a discussion about the Pentagon's abilities to utilize iris scans, fingerprint sca...

How do we find our way to a society focused on the common good instead of greed and selfishness? Does our “socially responsible” corporation structure allow us to have other values besides profit? Our panel—Joel Bakan, Jennifer Abbot, Elizabeth Davis and Kevin McGarry—will guide us to examine these issues. Joel Bakan’s book “the New Corporation” and Jennifer Abbot and Joel’s film by the same name,...

Hopes and expectations are high for President Biden’s first weeks in office. His recovery plans promise to take on COVID-19, a battered economy, and a rapid clean energy transition in a way that doesn’t leave communities behind. But Navajo Nation, which until recently was home to the largest coal-fired power plant in the U.S., has been left out of economic and energy plans for a long time. “The co...

Discover the political history behind the Apollo program. Ever since July 1969, Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon has represented the pinnacle of American space exploration and a grand scientific achievement. Yet Teasel Muir-Harmony argues its primary purpose wasn't advancing science. Rather, it was part of a political strategy to build a global coalition of "freedom" against "tyranny." Star...

As the president of the Democratic political action committee EMILY’s List since 2010, Stephanie Schriock has led the charge to elect female Democratic candidates across America. In the 2018 midterm elections, under Schriock’s leadership, EMILY’s List ran female candidates who flipped enough seats to win a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. In her new book with Christina Reynolds...

Learn about the making of a timely new documentary that reveals a side of the coronavirus pandemic often unseen by most people. Pandemic19 is a short documentary film that captures the story of three doctors in the United States fighting COVID-19 from pre-to-post surge, told through their own reflective, humanizing voices, while the chaos of the pandemic spreads outside the frame of their video co...