Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Part of The Commonwealth Club’s series on mental health, dedicated in memory of Nancy Friend Pritzker, with support from the John Pritzker Family Fund Critics argue that jails and prisons are the most visible evidence of the failing of America’s public mental health system and that the most heartbreaking failures are in the field of juvenile justice. Seventy percent of young people entering the ju...

Watch the video referenced in the first half of this podcast at: https://vimeo.com/263167752/c555110813 For the 60 years, from 1882–1943, long before Muslim travel bans and family separations at the U.S.–Mexico border, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the United States and denied persons of Chinese descent a path to U.S. citizenship. The act grew out of political...

Since the first test-tube baby was born over 40 years ago, in vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies have advanced in extraordinary ways, producing millions of babies. An estimated 20 percent of American couples use infertility services to help them conceive, and that number is growing. Prospective parents routinely choose the sex of their future child, whether or not to...

The Veterans Health Administration is the nation’s largest integrated health care system, yet almost 2 million veterans and 3.8 million of their family members are without health insurance today. David Shulkin was brought in by President Obama to clean up the Veterans Affairs’ (VA) troubled hospital network after a major scandal. His success led President Trump to name him VA secretary, making him...

Monday Night Philosophy initiates the new decade by analyzing the worlds of Wall Street and investing, international relations, sports, and chess, and focuses on the power and the necessity of critical thinking skills in those worlds. Leland Faust and Richard Conn have been influential in those worlds and share an admiration for the ability of critical thinking to affect complex decision-making on...

Foresee the near future with panelists Shekar Ayyar, Joxel García, Paul Gupta and Mike Weber. The number of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices is expected to increase from 20 billion to 55 billion over the next five years. What will that mean, in terms of new opportunities and new risks, in our businesses and our personal lives? Communications service providers are starting to roll out int...

John Frémont was born out of wedlock in 1813 in Charleston, South Carolina and went to work at 13 to help support his family. But, by the time he was 30, he had become a famous wilderness explorer, best-selling writer, gallant army officer and latter-day conquistador, who, in 1846, began the United States’ takeover of California from Mexico. He was a celebrity who personified the country’s westwar...

Secretary Mike Pompeo was sworn in on April 26, 2018. He previously served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 to April 2018. Mr. Pompeo graduated first in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986 and served as a cavalry officer patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also served with the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry...

Everyday choices – like deciding which shirt to buy or on which platform to binge-watch shows on – may impact the planet more than you think. Tatiana's Schlossberg's new book Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have, looks at how seemingly small choices can have a big impact on the climate. We sit down with experts in the fashion and energy sectors, two industrie...

How does one react, watching our current political crisis form fissures in our underlying culture, which, according to poet Peter Dale Scott, is undermining even our most valuable cultural strengths? These strengths include living with diversity, tolerating and listening to other viewpoints, and reaching a shared consensus. Unfortunately, at the same time, these cultural strengths are ebbing; righ...

The Cook Islands is a 15-island nation in the South Pacific, with political links to New Zealand. The islands were first settled around A.D. 1000 by Polynesian people who are thought to have migrated from Tahiti. Prime Minister Henry Puna assumed office in 2010 and previously served as secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Transport. Prime Minister Puna has led the establishment of the world's...

Do you ever sense that authentic connections have gone missing in your life? Do you feel sometimes as though your unique identity has been swept away by the tides of work and family? Do you hear the call to effect positive change in the world but can’t find a place to start? You are not alone. Just shy of her 50th birthday, former advertising agency CEO Anne Devereux-Mills lost her health to cance...

Whether we are actively working toward change or we just want to chat with our family and friends, we all need tools to stay centered and calm during these stressful times. How can we be effective, compassionate changemakers—and even find joy and meaning—as we deal with our stress and the negativity in our environment? Our speaker, James Baraz, is a co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, has...

Often described as the father of environmental justice, Dr. Robert Bullard has written several seminal books on the subject and is known for his work highlighting pollution on minority communities and speaking up against environmental racism in the 1970-1980s. Climate One is pleased to honor Robert Bullard with the ninth annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communicati...

The renewing energy of art helps to manage the stress of negative events. There is overwhelming research that contemplation, observing and taking in beauty stimulate the brain and create a sense of well-being. In these turbulent times, art can be a vehicle not only for fulfillment but to encourage and expand consciousness through conversation and connection. The panel participants represent a spec...

From the Trump Administration’s rollback of the country’s strongest environmental regulations, California’s frenzied response to wildfires and subsequent blackouts, and the emergence of climate as a top-tier presidential campaign issue, climate broke headlines in new ways in 2019. Vox energy writer David Roberts and New York Times climate reporter Coral Davenport take us through the biggest climat...

The 2018 Camp Fire was one of the most destructive in California’s history, resulting in over eighty deaths and destroying the town of Paradise. Dry weather and hot winds fanned the flames - but the spark that started it came from a faulty transmission line. That and other wildfires have been found to be the result of negligence on the part of California’s biggest utility, PG&E. Their solution? Pu...

It's our second annual year-end program and party, celebrating the completion of another year of Michelle Meow and LGBTQ programming at the Club. We'll have food and drink, a short program, and lots of good cheer. Joining us as our special guest is Robyn Crawford. In her New York Times bestselling book, A Song for You, Crawford opens up for the first time about her close friendship with superstar...

Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig is a celebrated academic and activist for constitutional theory and reform. A longtime advocate for campaign finance reform, Lessig founded political funding tracker MapLight, Creative Commons and the anti-corruption nonprofit Rootstrikers. With partisan gridlock in Congress, the Supreme Court has emerged in recent times as a new power center in Washington, D....

It is often said that "reentry begins on the first day of incarceration," but how can we ensure that people leave prison prepared to succeed in the free world? This conversation between Marc Morjé Howard and Stephanie McGencey will highlight recommendations from the Reentry Ready Project, which focuses on the tremendous benefits of education and positive programming for incarcerated people so that...

Our distinguished panelists will discuss Afghanistan and the longest war in U.S. history. They will present their personal views about prewar Afghanistan, the present tragedy and what policies and reforms might be pursued to find peace and prevent further tragedy. Sandra Miller Ross traveled to Afghanistan in 1970 and will show stunning images of that visit. Atta Arghandiwal is a humanitarian and...

More than seven decades after the founding of Israel, the momentum to establish a Jewish state has led to remarkable achievements: stable structures in government, the military and the economy. At the same time, as the country faces a range of issues in how it deals with coexistence, it also faces significant challenges to its democratic processes. Particularly, Israel lacks a constitution to bind...

Michael Eric Dyson is known for his many talents. He is an outspoken academic and sociologist, social critic, best-selling author, a popular figure in political news media, an ordained Baptist minister and, in his own words, one of the country’s leading “hip-hop intellectuals.” Often in Dyson’s work, these concepts all intersect to reflect a well-rounded picture of black life in America. Now Dyson...

According to leading venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, the crucial question for every organization is: How do you create and sustain the culture you want? To Horowitz, culture is how a company makes decisions. It’s not the values listed on the wall or what’s said in a company-wide meeting. It is who you are and what you do to get you through both good and bad times. Horowitz reflects on some of his...

It's our annual year-end Week to Week, keeping you up to date with the most recent political events and news. And from 5:30-6:30, we'll have our annual members holiday party (open to all attendees). Come join us for lively conversation and good cheer! We will discuss the biggest, most controversial and sometimes the surprising political issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are...