Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Will COVID-19 change our food system for good? Increased coronavirus outbreaks in food markets, food plants and farmworker communities have impacted food access and put a spotlight on food insecurity. Farmers are hurting as supply chains for fresh, perishable foods shrivel. Meanwhile, food banks have seen a surge in demand that has required distribution support from the National Guard. What does C...

The cost and health burdens of electricity production have long been higher for low-income communities of color than for wealthy white ones. But when it comes to public engagement and trust, the oil and gas industry is often ahead of its clean energy competitors, presenting a friendly face to the same areas it supplies with jobs, tax dollars, and cheap energy. Is the industry an example of communi...

Join San Francisco Pride and The Commonwealth Club for the latest edition of Lavender Talks, a moderated panel discussion emceed by Michelle Meow (host of "The Michelle Meow Show" and a former president of the SF Pride Board of Directors). In this program, we'll look at racism and discrimination in the Castro, San Francisco's world-famous LGBTQ district. In association with San Francisco Pride Mad...

George Bernard Shaw once said that there is no love more sincere than the love of food. Pipo, the main character in the new children's book Every Night Is Pizza Night, holds the sincerest love of all… for pizza. Pipo is determined to prove that pizza is, in every aspect, the best food out there. However, by cooking and tasting foods with six new friends, Pipo discovers that what makes a food “the...

Whether you’re pushing for something big like social change or something as small as getting your family to agree on a restaurant choice, success often relies on the ability to communicate and persuade. Trey Gowdy believes the secret to persuasion lies in asking the right questions to the right people. In his new book, Doesn't Hurt to Ask: Using the Power of Questions to Communicate, Connect, and...

Join us virtually for a conversation with Professors Mettler and Lieberman about the social trends that have often threatened our democracy. They have identified four major threats: political polarization, racism and nativism, economic inequality, and excessive executive power. And they have drawn lessons from five serious crises: the 1790s, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Depression, and Water...

Miami might be the poster child of rising waters in the United States, but further inland, states are grappling with torrential flooding that is becoming the new norm. Last year, flooding in the southeast killed 12 people and caused $20 billion in damages. This year’s rains have already driven Mississippi into a state emergency, and Missouri is bracing itself with a levee system still in disrepair...

Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement. This year, we will be saluting the winners virtually. The California Book Awards have often been on the vanguard, honoring previously unknown authors who...

Death—it is the most human experience and yet the topic humans run away from at every opportunity. Why is this? What if we reimagined what death means to each of us personally and collectively as a society? Columbia University physician Dr. L.S. Dugdale sets out to answer these questions and change the approach to death in her new book, The Lost Art of Dying. Dr. Dugdale’s long career in medicine...

Today we are on the brink of a much-needed transformative moment for health care. The U.S. health care system is designed to be reactive instead of preventive. The result can be diagnoses that are too late and outcomes that are far worse than our level of spending should deliver. In recent years, U.S. life expectancy has been declining. Fundamental to realizing better health, and a more effective...

Join artist and journalist Dana King as she interviews two scholars who traveled on the Club’s trip, “On the Road to Freedom: Understanding the Civil Rights Movement” in March of 2020. The group spent time in Jackson, Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery. Hear about key events and people involved in the movement, and what it means for these young women in terms of what is happeni...

Long before the coronavirus began disrupting America’s trillion-dollar meat industry, lab-grown proteins were upending the way we consume chicken, pork and beef. With an environmental footprint far smaller than traditional animal agriculture, are cell-cultured and plant-based meat products—now on the menus of major chains like Burger King—still the future of food? Will food science and tech help u...

Join us to learn about individuality, finding your voice amidst a sea of homogeneity, and the triumph of intellect over the ideologue. Local filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine explore these themes in their new film Boys State, airing on Apple TV+ beginning August 14. Boys State is a political coming-of-age story, examining the health of American democracy through an unusual experiment: a tho...

BlueSky initiative supports mental health for middle- and high school students in California by providing additional mental health clinicians in schools, training teachers on the signs of mental health issues, and empowering students with in-person and online mental health support resources. With schools now shuttered and distance learning part of the norm because of COVID-19, educators, mental he...

Join us for a rare visit with one of America's most trusted medical figures and leading experts on infectious disease, and take advantage of this unique opportunity to ask your questions directly. Dr. Fauci was appointed director of NIAID in 1984. He oversees an extensive portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat established infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, res...

Images of dancers or sculptures don’t leap to mind with the mention of climate change. But artists are increasingly using the carbon conundrum as a creative lens, using their mediums to design cultural moments that bring people together. Storytellers and artists are reaching people on a deeper and more emotional level than the cerebral facts and charts often used to shape the climate narrative. Ca...

Science has given us a realistic picture of what Earth will look like with uninhibited levels of climate change: increased extreme weather events, crippled economies and a world where those with the least are the hardest hit. What would a radically re-envisioned future look like? What solutions do we need to replace tomorrow’s doom-and-gloom projections with thriving cities, renewed political cons...

Haven't had the opportunity for adventurous travel recently? Then join us for a virtual conversation with remote travel writer Sophy Roberts, direct from London, about her first book: The Lost Pianos of Siberia. Although Siberia’s story is usually one of exile, penal colonies and unmarked graves, there is another tale to tell about one of our planet's harshest landscapes. Dotted throughout this re...

Few people can reflect as deeply on the politics of political life like Katie Hill, a former U.S. representative for California’s 25th congressional district. She ran for Congress before turning 30 and won her seat in November 2018 as a Democrat, beating a 26-year Republican incumbent. Her win, along with many others that year, was part of a larger turning of the tides in American politics — one c...

It's a stressful time, and it's difficult even for those with a naturally sunny personality to maintain the mood they want. So what about those of us who are coping with unwanted sadness, depression or irritability? And why does stigma still make it difficult to openly discuss these experiences? We have therefore asked Dr. Stephen Hinshaw, Ph. D., professor of psychology at the University of Calif...

No one doubts that there is some corruption in America, as there is in every other country. But in her latest book, Sarah Chayes contends that the United States is showing symptoms distressingly similar to those of the most corrupt countries in the world. Corruption, as Chayes defines it, is an operating system of sophisticated networks in which government officials, key private-sector interests,...

In late 1976, Ronald Reagan was dismissed as a man without a political future: defeated in his nomination bid against a sitting president of his own party, blamed for President Gerald Ford’s defeat, too old to make another run. Four years later, the former California governor would win the White House and expand a conservative revolution begun with Barry Goldwater that continues to impact the coun...

Join us for a virtual conversation between Alan Mikhail and Adam Hochschild about Mikhail's new book, God's Shadow. Although long neglected in European-centric world histories, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of intellectual fervor, geopolitical power and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the height of their authority in the 16th century, the Ottomans, with military dominance and monopolies over trade...

What happens when wilderness meets wealth in the most iconic parts of the country? Teton County, Wyoming, is famous for pristine outdoors, recreation, ranching and land stewardship. It also leads the country in per capita income, with residents averaging a quarter of a million dollars annually. This massive accrual of wealth comes with far-reaching consequences for income inequality and the enviro...

As 2020 continues to challenge our way of life, young people are facing the brunt of this unrest. COVID-19 is quickly defining this era, but issues such as racial inequity, economic disparity, historic unemployment rates and the fast-approaching presidential election are also informing Generation Z’s worldview. How are young people processing the government’s role in this crisis? What is the curre...