Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

When COVID-19 besieged the United States, New York State emerged as the global “ground zero” for a deadly contagion that threatened the lives and livelihoods of millions. Quickly, Governor Andrew Cuomo provided the leadership to address the threat, becoming a standard-bearer of the organized response the country desperately needed. With infection rates spiking and more people dying every day, the...

Over the past few decades, U.S. corporations have increased their economic and political power. Yet critics say Americans are only now awakening to the grave domestic threat this concentrated private sector power presents to our country. Open Market Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn says that monopolies today control almost every corner of the American economy with a concentration of wealth...

Vote by Design is an award-winning voter literacy project incubated at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) that reimagines civic education and voter literacy through the lens of design. Vote by Design’s free workshop is nonpartisan, issue-agnostic and designed to provide first-time voters with what one teacher called “the driver’s test of voting” and another said it...

SPEAKERS Theodore Voorhees, Jr. Senior Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP; Author, The Silent Guns of Two Octobers: Kennedy and Khrushchev Play the Double Game In Conversation With George Hammond Author, Conversations With Socrates In response to the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, this program took place and was recorded live via video conference, for an online audience only, and was live-streamed b...

As the Latino population grows in every region of the United States, Latinos are increasingly playing an influential role not only in presidential politics, but throughout American culture. Yet the unique racial identity of Latinos is not a new story for the country. Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture‚ yet many people instinctively regard them as rec...

No one ever could have predicted the global impact of COVID-19. The pandemic is speeding up history, but how? CNN host Fareed Zakaria will help us understand what our post-pandemic world will look like. Beyond the immediate effects, we must be prepared for political, social, technological and economic consequences that might take years to unfold. Hear more as Zakaria offers his insights on how to...

Going into a pivotal national election, voter suppression threatens to tilt election results in states across the country and drown out the rising influence of both minority and young voters in America. After the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, voting restrictions, predominantly engineered by Republicans, have proliferated in size and scale. Using tactics such as voter ID...

Growth in the economic prosperity of the average family in America has slowed to a crawl, especially since the deep economic pain of the COVID-19 pandemic. As corporations wake up to the urgent need for change—as evidenced by the Business Roundtable’s updated purpose of the corporation last year—business executives need tools for contributing positively to society rather than operating in a way th...

Time and time again we have created artificial intelligence (AI) systems to help solve our problems, but what happens when the AI systems become the problem? Artificial Intelligence systems have been created to help humans work faster, respond more justly, manage more and make fewer mistakes, but now the solution has become the issue. As these systems progress and become more prevalent, ethical an...

How are the leaders of some of the nation's biggest environmental organizations responding to a year of race and health crises? Groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 350.org and Greenpeace helped move climate onto the presidential agenda last year, pushing Joe Biden and other Democrats’ stances on bold action. Now, organizers and advocates are backing recovery plans that bol...

In the aftermath the 2007–08 financial collapse, the increasing inequality seen in countries around the world, and the fallout from the global pandemic, there has been an increase in global citizen interest in exploring alternative economic systems.. In the United States, whether it is the presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders, the popularity on the Left of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or proteste...

If you're going through a transition (and who isn’t?)—whether it's an empty nest; a career shift; dealing with ageism, divorce, the loss of a spouse or parents; not to mention hot flashes in the conference room—this event will support you with many survival tips and tricks as well as the power that comes from information. Barbara Mark, Ph. D. has a deeply held passion for working with women in mid...

Twenty years ago, eminent Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam wrote the nonfiction book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. In it, he lamented the decline of in-person social discourse, which Americans used to enrich the fabric of our lives. He further went on to say that this decline undermined the civic engagement required in a strong democracy. Professor Putnam'...

Award-winning NPR journalist and author Aarti Shahani and America's First Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil point out that the immigrant has become an object of distrust, scorn and even hatred. Yet they also say that for many immigrants, including both of them, this identity is a source of profound pride. They further say that immigrants are proud to have crossed borders and built homes (even in place...

Donald Trump began his campaign for president by making immigration restrictions a centerpiece of his platform. He is ending his (first?) term with his administration dealing with the biggest public health crisis in decades. But there are a lot of connections between public health and our country's immigration policies and practices. Join us for a conversation with New Orleans-based Giuli Alvareng...

Pathways for reducing carbon emissions include electrifying transportation, replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar power. But in this time of national reckoning on racial and economic disparities there is growing support for a more holistic approach. This view holds that the climate crisis won’t be resolved until we first address the systemic imbalances that have fueled it - racism, capitalism...

Ibram X. Kendi is one of America’s foremost authorities on anti-racism, authoring books such as the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning and the number-one New York Times bestseller How to Be an Antiracist. Kendi’s new book, Be Antiracist: A Journal for Awareness, Reflection, and Action, gives the reader a space to reflect on their personal journey in becoming an anti-racist. At I...

Technology has helped the world survive, thrive and stay connected through the COVID-19 lockdown. As countries look toward re-opening in a post-pandemic world, does tech hold the same promise in the fight to solve climate change? From mapping weather patterns with pinpoint accuracy using artificial intelligence, to engineering algae that gobbles up carbon dioxide, climate tech is ripe with breakth...

Curious minds seeking more information on the untold secrets (literally) surrounding them should look no further than "99% Invisible," the podcast hosted by Roman Mars that reports on how our lives are impacted by the architecture, transportation and infrastructure of our cities. "99% Invisible" episodes address a wide variety of issues, from the effects of American car culture on policing to the...

Our distinguished panel will discuss the U.S.-mediated deal (which President Trump calls "The Abraham Accord") between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and its impact on the Arab world, Iran and Turkey, and neighboring states. Some observers consider that this tentative public declaration of peace was a historic shift legitimizing Israel in the Arab world, which fears Iran and opposes Israeli...

Master Chef Jacques Pépin has been influencing American tastes and cooking techniques for generations. The winner of 16 James Beard Awards, Chef Pépin has written 29 cookbooks and spent 4 decades on television. In this era when so many of us are confined at home, Chef Pepin says you don’t need a state of the art kitchen or pantry full of expensive ingredients to create a delicious meal. More impor...

It's October, which means some people in California will have already voted early and others are planning to do it soon. Regardless of where your political sympathies lie, Election 2020 is a watershed election, and the decisions voters make on their November ballots will have far-reaching effects locally, statewide, and nationally. Join us for the latest edition of our Week to Week political round...

Reading the self-help literature could leave you with the impression that the goal in life is to maximize your confidence. On the other hand, research on overconfidence highlights all the ways in which people can get themselves into trouble by being too confident. Expert Don Moore will explore this tension by examining the psychology of confidence. Evidence underscores risks on both sides. Overcon...

Over the last several years, and especially since the 2016 election, the extraordinary impact of technology, particularly social media, on our privacy, democracy, economy, kids and families, race and gender roles, climate change and mental health, among other topics, has become an issue of urgent national concern. These are all issues that James P. Steyer, founder & CEO of Common Sense Media, know...

In an America that seems increasingly divided, how can we regain trust in our government and in each other? Pete Buttigieg gained a comprehensive view of American democracy during his time as a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Now, in his new book Trust: America’s Best Chance, Buttigieg argues that re-building trust as an American ideal is the key to tackling our country’...