Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

In these increasingly divisive and unstable times, it is more apparent than ever that the health of our democracy depends on educating and empowering young people to participate. But the barriers to their involvement can seem insurmountable: from the lack of civics in schools, indifferent local legislators, and partisan efforts to suppress voting and spark social unrest. Combined, these numerous f...

Foreign policy experts Rebecca Lissner and Mira Rapp-Hooper paint a provocative picture of the United States’ future. As the country prepares for a presidential election of historic significance and charts its course in a post-pandemic world, they say the United States must reject the temptation to embrace nationalistic calls for closure, global disengagement or self-sufficiency, and instead redou...

COVID-19 has been a startling wake-up call and exposed the medical and economic challenges of dealing with a pandemic. As the death toll continues to rise, what can be done to keep people safe? And why are some countries handling the crisis better than others? Economic journalists Micklethwait and Wooldridge identify the problems that global leaders face and outline a detailed plan to ensure we ar...

The early 1970s were a tumultuous time for the Republican Party—not unlike today. The party was battling national security risks, wrestling with the expansion of civil rights, and dealing with the political fallout of an embattled president. In order to survive, the Republican Party needed someone to guide them. That someone was James A. Baker III. Baker was the right-hand man of presidents Ronald...

Join us for a virtual conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Fredrik Logevall, who has written a revealing biography about our iconic, yet still elusive, 35th president. At the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation that he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic stan...

At the recent Global Training in July 2020, former Vice President Al Gore and the Climate Reality Project continued their call to prioritize and center the environmental justice work of communities of color and indigenous communities. In this spirit, we invite you to learn about and engage with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice's "We Can't Breathe" campaign in San Francisco's Bayvie...

Ken Follett is one of the world's best-loved authors, selling more than 170 million copies of his 31 books. Follett's first bestseller was Eye of the Needle, a spy story set in the Second World War. In 1989, The Pillars of the Earth was published and has since become Follett's most popular novel. It reached number one on bestseller lists around the world and was an Oprah's Book Club pick. Its sequ...

John Lithgow’s acclaimed acting career has seen him star in shows like "3rd Rock from the Sun" and "The Crown" and films such as Bombshell and The World According to Garp. Now, he’s following up last year’s best-selling book, Dumpty, with a brand-new collection of satirical poems chronicling the age of President Donald Trump. Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown is darker and more hard-hitting than ever....

Stoicism has found a new audience among those who seek greatness, from athletes to politicians and everyone in between. Its embrace of self-mastery, virtue and indifference to that which we cannot control is as urgent today as it was in the chaos of the Roman Empire. Join Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, for a conversation with number 1 bestselling author Ryan Holiday to learn more about the fascinati...

Join us for a virtual medical panel discussion about whether the COVID-19 crisis will end up trimming some of the waste out of America's health-care system or changing it more fundamentally. For this 10th Annual Lundberg Institute Lecture, previous TLI lecturers will join Dr. George Lundberg in a reprise of some of the health-care topics covered in the last 10 years, including medical treatment of...

The United States is steeped in guns, gun violence―and gun debates. As arguments rage on, one issue has largely been overlooked―Americans who support gun control turn to the police as enforcers of their preferred policies, but the police themselves disproportionately support gun rights over gun control. Who do the police believe should get gun access? When do they pursue aggressive enforcement of...

Humorist P.J. O’Rourke says Americans have worked ourselves into a state of anger and perplexity, and it’s no surprise, because perplexed and angry is what America has always been about. In his new book, A Cry from the Far Middle, O'Rourke touches on the frustrations of an internet-controlled world in which our refrigerators talk and our phones freeze. He debates the merits of sympathy versus empa...

“What are you?” That’s a question that has followed Sunny Hostin throughout her life as a half Puerto Rican and half African-American woman. "The View" co-host chronicles her journey from growing up in a South Bronx housing project to becoming an assistant U.S. attorney and Emmy Award-winning legal journalist. Hostin was one of the first national reporters to cover Trayvon Martin’s death. Hostin c...

In a political system more divided than ever, people like Senator Jon Tester can be the bridge. Jon Tester is a U.S. senator from Montana, a farmer, and . . . a Democrat. Tester was born and raised in Montana and grew up on his grandfather’s homestead—the same land he and his wife farm today. As he grew up he learned the value of hard work, a connection to the place you live, and honesty. The valu...

Lynne Cheney knows the office of the presidency in a way very few do. As the wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, she had a front row seat to the stresses, successes and sorrows shouldered by our nation’s top leaders. With her knowledge of the office and passion for American history, she has written a new book, The Virginia Dynasty, about the first four Virginian presidents and the legacy th...

Join us for a virtual conversation with award-winning author Adam Hochschild about Rebel Cinderella, his new book that draws on Rose Pastor Stokes’s diary, dueling memoirs, letters, newspaper accounts and government surveillance reports to unearth the rich, overlooked life of a social justice campaigner. Stokes played a dramatic role in the struggle for labor equality and women’s rights, but is no...

Join us for the latest in the Lavender Talks series, presented with San Francisco Pride and exploring a wide range of topics of interest to the LGBTQ world. In this program, we explore the role the "kink" subculture plays in the larger LGBTQ community. Join us for a discussion with some local kink community leaders about body positivity, inclusion and exclusion, and different attitudes toward desi...

H.R. McMaster is one of the most celebrated modern military leaders in America. His achievements include serving as a captain during the Gulf War, being responsible for fighting the Iraqi insurgency during the war in Iraq, writing the widely-read book Dereliction of Duty, and most recently serving as national security advisor under President Donald Trump. In his new book, Battlegrounds: The Fight...

In his new book A Better Man: A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son, comedian and actor Michael Ian Black shares his personal reflections on what it means to be a man. Equal parts memoir and advice book, A Better Man is a tender letter to Black’s college-bound son, Elijah. In it, he hopes to teach him and other young men what a healthy relationship to masculinity looks like as they enter the many co...

Erin Brockovich was vaulted into national recognition in 2000, after the eponymous movie starring Julia Roberts made her a water activism icon. Famous for her focus on contamination, Brockovich says there is a larger threat facing water’s very existence: climate change, and the impact it has on dwindling freshwater supplies, longer droughts and hotter weather. Superman isn’t coming to protect our...

Discussions of immigration can feel not just deeply impersonal, particularly at the national level, but even negligent of the human cost of harsh immigration policies. In her new book, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in America, journalist Maria Hinojosa shares a personal account of America’s greater immigration crisis. Hinojosa discusses her perspective through her upbringing on Chicago...

Join us for a virtual conversation with Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman, two of America's leading constitutional scholars, about the issues surrounding the freedom of religion clauses in the Bill of Rights. Views on the proper relationship between the state and religion have been deeply divided throughout American history. But with the recent changes in the composition of the United States Su...

Few have dominated the podcast arena like Guy Raz. Raz co-created National Public Radio’s "How I Built This," "Wow in the World" and "TED Radio Hour." From program intern to podcast virtuoso, Raz has worked in many capacities at the broadcast media organization with highly successful results—his podcasts garner more than 19 million downloads per month. It’s no surprise why, as his programs welcome...

The global pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in all industries and made lasting business and human impact. Silicon Valley and Bay Area companies have, in many ways, been ahead of the curve and the center of attention for continued innovation. Hear from business leaders from leading Bay Area companies, large and small, on how they are building the business resiliency to outmaneuver un...

In mid-March California became the first state to mandate sheltering in place to fight the coronavirus. Since then we’ve been bombarded with information about masks, social distancing, quarantining and infection risks. Some of that information has changed over time, some has stayed constant, and much of what we didn’t understand in March remains a mystery. How much do you know about how to protect...