Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Incoming President Biden faces an unimaginable set of challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a gutted economy and a nation reeling from the recent capital attack. With all of that and more on his plate, what of Biden’s plans to fight climate change? “This President-elect has shown that he is absolutely committed to addressing the issue of climate,” says former EPA Administrator Christine Tod...

Rep. Jackie Speier has survived violence twice. Once in 1978, when she was a young aide to Rep. Leo Ryan and was shot and left for dead on the tarmac of an airport in Guyana after her boss was murdered trying to help members of the People’s Temple cult escape. And again last week, when she was in the House chamber in the U.S. Capitol when it was attacked. Join Rep. Speier and retired Santa Clara C...

Questioning science, funding vocal climate denial groups, and encouraging the focus on personal carbon footprints are corporate America’s preferred tools for shifting the responsibility for action on climate from industry to the individual. “Companies that are very much pro-climate action, that are acting in their own operations, are mostly silent on public policy,” says Bill Weihl, former Sustain...

Join us for a virtual conversation about the art of conversation with Fred Dust. Conversations are one of our most fundamental means of communicating with each other. At their best, they are unconstrained, authentic and open—two or more people sharing thoughts and ideas in ways that bridge our individual experiences to achieve a common goal. At their worst, they foster misunderstanding and frustra...

In a time of racial reckoning, a new film looks at a very personal attempt to address racial injustices in this country. Ashes to Ashes is an endearing portrait of Winfred Rembert, an avid Star Wars fan and master leather-work artist who survived an attempted lynching in 1967. This moving short documentary showcases the incredible friendship he has forged with Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker, as she...

To many observers, QAnon is, for lack of a better word, dangerous. They say it is dangerous to our political life, because it spreads disinformation which makes it more difficult for citizens to make informed decisions about who to vote for and what policies to support; it is also dangerous to the mental health of people who buy into the conspiracy theories, because it creates a cult-like environm...

Summers for the Tsegie-Samuelsson family were spent in Smögen, Sweden catching crayfish, lobsters and mackerel to serve with local and fresh ingredients at the dinner table. These meals were influenced by Ethiopian cuisine, creating an East African culinary experience with Swedish ingredients. These artistic and cultural influences continue to play a pivotal role in Marcus Samuelsson's cooking. Ch...

As the Trump presidency comes to an end, many questions have been raised about its impact and legacy on a range of policy issues and priorities for the country. The future of American history education, particularly for K–12 students, is one area where the impact could be felt for years. Responding to recent controversies such as The New York Times’s "1619 Project" and widespread calls to remove C...

Join us for the first Week to Week political roundtable of 2021, as we gather online for a program on the same day that Georgia holds its runoff election for two crucial U.S. Senate seats. We'll discuss the Georgia race, plus the incoming administration, the outgoing administration, the latest from Sacramento and elsewhere with our usual mix of expert insight and a dose of good-natured humor. Lear...

Dr. Jessica Zitter is a national advocate for transforming the way people die in America. She is Harvard- and UCSF-trained to practice the unusual combination of critical and palliative care medicine and works as an attending physician at a public hospital in Oakland. Join us for a special one-hour program featuring "Caregiver: A Love Story," Dr. Zitter's new short documentary about the family car...

President-elect Joe Biden says he will infuse climate change into every corner of his agenda. That’s becoming evident looking at his emerging team. "You're already seeing signs from the nominees and the people they’re choosing that climate is going to be a part of every single agency," says Christy Goldfuss, Senior Vice President for Energy and Environment Policy at the Center for American Progres...

Mary Nichols is not a household name, but she arguably has done more than any other public official to reduce America's carbon pollution. As she puts it, “I took on the one topic that everybody agreed was really important, but they didn't know what to do about, and that was air pollution,” Nichols first served as chair of California's Air Resources Board, or the Air Board, from 1979 to 1983 in Dem...

Join us virtually to discuss with Shin Ushijima, Japan’s best-selling legal thriller author and influential corporate counselor, the nuances of cultural shifts in Japan, the political ramifications of Japan’s response to COVID-19, the effects of China’s rising influence in Asia, the threat to Japan of North Korea’s military misadventurousness, and the institutional changes he would like to see in...

Join us virtually for the kind of philosophical conversation Shankara would have enjoyed, the kind captured in the best of the Upanishads, as we explore with Sadhguru the ideas that have intrigued the yogis of India for millennia, and which have seeped into Western culture in bits and pieces through the curiosity of authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Maugham and Hesse, and from a stream of famous I...

“Here is the great paradox of Cosmic Comic Consciousness: The world is in serious condition, and yet there is definitely something funny going on.” Swami Beyondananda, whose favorite yoga pose is tongue-in-cheek (and occasionally foot-in-mouth) is bringing his comedy disguised as wisdom—or is it wisdom disguised as comedy—to The Commonwealth Club. If you’ve never been to The Commonwealth Club, thi...

When Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris assumes her new office in January, she will leave a safe Democratic U.S. Senate seat in one of the bluest states in the country. The parlor game has begun of trying to figure out who Governor Gavin Newsom will appoint to replace Harris in the Senate. Should he choose a woman? Man? Asian-American? African-American? Latinx? European-American? LGBTQ? Rich? Poor...

It’s been in a challenging year, so we want to end the year on a high note (literally) with a very special virtual holiday party! We are thrilled to join with our friends at the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) to celebrate a Bay Area tradition: "A Christmas Carol." This year, for the first time in its 44-year history, the Bay Area’s favorite holiday theater performance comes to life as a fa...

This presentation will introduce what light medicine is, how it works, and review the medical literature as well as their extensive clinical experience in treating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injuries, strokes, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, peripheral neuropathies, as well as nearly all painful conditions. Proponents say that...

As our country faces the worst economic downturn in a century due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans are experiencing financial strain, leading to food insecurity and rising homelessness. Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by both the coronavirus and the resulting economic crisis, creating multiple barriers to health. The health-care industry has long recognized the awful t...

Amid dire news of increasing COVID-19 deaths and strict lockdowns this winter, we see vaccines being approved in record time. How and when will these vaccines be rolled out to hundreds of millions of Americans? Who will be offered them first, and when will the rest of us gain access? Will we take them when offered—and if not, will they be mandated? As these vaccines are dosed in unprecedented volu...

At times it seemed that 2020 would never end, but here comes December, right on schedule, and we're holding our annual "Michelle Meow Show" year-end special. We'll relive a bit of the past year, we'll have some celebrity video cameos, and our featured speaker for the night is Sarah McBride, whom Delaware voters elected in November as the nation's first transgender state senator. McBride's career i...

Years before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Colonel Patsy Thompson was forced to expel Army hero Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer for being a lesbian. What no one knew was that Thompson was as well. The way Thompson handled the military trial, however, led to Cammermeyer’s re-instatement via federal court and eventual change in military policy. While Cammermeyer’s memoir was adapted as a 1995 television mov...

Join us for a conversation with the director and the stars of the new indie drama Take Out Girl. Writer, director, actor, cinematographer and creator Hisonni Mustafa Johnson is a rising star in the film world, garnering accolades and nominations for his television pilots (Fight Night Legacy, Olympia and Grayson: Earth One). Hedy Wong is an actress and writer known for Laff Mobb's Laff Tracks, Chin...

David Kennedy is one of America’s preeminent historians, having been awarded both the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes, among others. His scholarship is notable for its integration of economic and cultural analysis with social and political history, and for its attention to the concept of the American national character. Professor Kennedy is the inaugural speaker in the Club’s new series, The Future o...

Our distinguished panel will discuss how beleaguered nonprofits are struggling to deal with the increased challenges for desperate refugees and aid workers in the Middle East and elsewhere during the COVID-19 crisis. Dr. Niveen Rizkalla will present findings from her timely research with an emphasis on Syrian refugees and aid workers in Lebanon. Amanda Lane will share the importance of small grass...