Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

What's the secret to a long, healthy life? Join us for a live conversation with longevity expert Ken Stern, who will discuss the research that went into his new book Healthy to 100. Contrary to popular belief, the secret to living longer is not just about eating well, exercising, or getting regular checkups. Instead, successful aging depends on the nature of your relationships and your social connections. If you want to live a healthy and rewarding life, Stern says, you need to start with social health.  In Healthy to 100, Stern goes on a journey to some of the longest-lived countries in the world—Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Spain—places that have achieved great advances in longevity by intentionally strengthening social connections. Science shows that physical and mental health outcomes are all improved by the intergenerational connectedness, sense of purpose, and respect enjoyed by older people in these countries.  Their example offers a personal and societal guide for how people can improv

The international order in which most of us grew up is over, and a new cold war is setting in. That’s the growing consensus of people adjusting to the aggressive rise of China, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the reelection of President Donald Trump amid the growth of right-wing populist movements around the world. Michael McFaul says America’s future depends on how successfully it deals with this new global order.  McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and an international affairs analyst for NBC News, says new thinking is required. The new cold war isn’t the same as the old U.S.–Soviet Cold War. He argues in his new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, that we should not underestimate the disruptive ambitions of Russia, nor should we overestimate China’s capabilities, and that the shift here at home toward isolationism and autocracy weaken America’s position in the world.  Join us to hear McFaul draw from historical analysis and a forward-looking pe

Join Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the ACLU, to hear the latest on the organization’s legal strategy to defend civil rights and civil liberties, including the ACLU’s cases against the Trump administration. Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, the ACLU has filed more than 77 lawsuits on issues ranging from birthright citizenship, ideologically targeted immigration arrests and detentions, racial profiling by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, discrimination against transgender Americans, and termination of federal scientific research grants on disfavored topics such as COVID vaccines or gender and racial disparities in health outcomes. "Win or lose, it matters when we stand up in court to fight for freedom, due process, and the basic notion that the president is not above the law," Wang has said. The first woman and the first woman of color to serve as the ACLU’s top lawyer, Wang was formerly director of the ACLU’s Center for Democracy and its Immigrant Rights Project. This on

The shutdown is over, more Epstein news has dropped, Nancy Pelosi has given notice, and the November election is still reverberating. As the year winds down and we head into the holiday season, let's take stock of the state of politics in the Bay Area, California, and nationally. Join us for the Week to Week political roundtable. Learn more about the people, trends and topics driving the political news of the day. Enjoy and learn as our panel of political experts explains what happened and what to expect, and answers your questions. See other upcoming Week to Week political roundtables, as well as audio and video of past Week to Week programs.   This program contains EXPLICIT language.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Manchin grew up in the coal fields of West Virginia, the grandson of a miner and the son of a small-town grocer. His worldview was shaped by a place where energy isn’t an abstract policy debate; it’s the identity of the community and vital for economic survival. Manchin was portrayed as a bit of a villain in liberal circles for his role in blocking or slowing down Biden-era policy goals, including climate policy. Yet he was also the architect of the biggest climate legislation the country has ever enacted: the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, in the midst of the Trump administration dismantling climate policy and basic political norms, Manchin is calling for a return to compromise and “common sense.”  Episode Guests:  Joe Manchin, Former US Senator, West Virginia  Thomas Ramey, Commercial and Nonprofit Solar Evaluator, Solar Holler For show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org⁠ Highlights:  00:00 - Intro 05:27 - Joe Manchin on his first senate run  10:42 - Joe Manchin on Build Back B

The UN climate convention known as COP30 is now underway in Brazil. As the nations of the world gather to discuss their efforts to rein in climate disruption, the facts are clear: we’re not doing enough, fast enough, to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Climate-fueled disasters are increasingly impacting nearly every part of the world. And in Belém, Brazil, near the heart of the Amazon rainforest where the conference is being held, organizers have promised that Indigenous voices will play a bigger role than in the past. They’ve also billed this as an “implementation COP” where past promises will be turned into action. What practical steps can we hope countries achieve in this year’s negotiations? Episode Guests: Ilana Seid, Permanent Representative of Palau to the United Nations; Chair, Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) Davi Neustein, Sustainability Consultant; Advisor to Marcelo Behar, COP30 Special Envoy  Deborah Sanchez, Direct

When President Reagan nominated Anthony Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, few could have expected that he would not only serve for 30 years but would also author landmark opinions on such contested issues in American society as abortion, gay rights, and free speech. At the ideological center of an increasingly divided court, Kennedy became the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court’s 5–4 decisions following the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor. He said his principles never wavered; “The cases swing, I don’t.”  That role earned him the monicker “The Decider” by Time magazine. He is the 15th longest-serving Supreme Court justice in American history. But what judicial philosophy guided his time on the bench? How did he keep his judgments separate from his political and religious beliefs? He says it is all owed to a fundamental conviction that neutral principles must drive the decision and an unyielding commitment to the rule of law.  Join us for a live discussion in San Francisco with retired Suprem

How was the history of Russia made by its women through the cataclysms of revolution, war, idealism, and defeat? Join us for an engaging tour of Russia through the lives of its women. Journalist Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union in 1990. She wouldn’t return for nearly two decades, and when she did, she found a country significantly changed. The Soviet Union had tried to portray itself as being on the vanguard of world feminism; today, Russia presents itself as the last bastion of conservative Christian values. How did that happen? What happened to the women of the Soviet era, who served as doctors, engineers and scientists? How, she asks, did they get replaced with women who are just desperate to marry rich and become stay-at-home mothers? It's a topic she explores in her new book Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy. From her own great grandmothers, who were physicians, to Lenin’s lover, who was a feminist revolutionary, to the hundreds of thousands o

Join us for a special program that goes inside Washington’s murky foreign lobbying industry and reveals the world of the politically connected and powerful Americans who get rich working on behalf of brutal dictators, corrupt oligarchs, and global arms dealers. New York Times investigative reporter Kenneth P. Vogel has used exclusive sources, thousands of documents, and on-the-ground reporting to reveal the people, places, and deals involved in this usually unseen billion-dollar industry. It's a world of big money, fast cars, pricey cigars and flashy watches. The business of currying favor and influencing U.S. foreign policy on behalf of foreign powers is nothing new, though lately it has attracted more controversy and attention due to some of the outsized characters who rose to prominence during Donald Trump's first term in the White House. Among them is Robert Stryk, who dresses like a cowboy, failed at several businesses before bluffing his way into relationships in Washington and around the world, amass

In an age defined by disinformation, division, and deepening suspicion, one question looms large: How do we rebuild fundamental trust in one another? Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales offers an answer in his new book, The Seven Rules of Trust—a sweeping and deeply reflective look at how one of the internet’s most improbable success stories came to be. What began as a scrappy experiment built by strangers is now one of the most utilized sources of information, viewed 11 billion times in just the English language edition alone. Wales says one of the first challenges the site faced was getting internet strangers to trust one another. There had to be an expectation of civility and fairness—and that others would be acting with good intentions. There had to be trust, and that’s something that needed to be cultivated, maintained, and scaled in communities across the globe. How did Wikipedia do it? And how did Wikipedia leverage that trust to help it become an authority globally at the same time the public’s trust in

Fossil-fueled climate disruption is driving political instability around the world. The relationship between climate disasters and conflict are well-established — and also complicated. Even in war-torn regions like Israel and Palestine, people work across political and ethnic divides to address humanitarian and climate crises. The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has helped bring together Israelis, Palestinians, Moroccans, and Jordanians to study and tackle shared environmental challenges. How does climate disruption reshape cross-border relations? And can climate cooperation become a force for peace? Episode Guests:  Peter Schwartzstein, Environmental Journalist; Climate Security Researcher Fareed Mahameed, Assistant Director, Center for Transboundary Water Management, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies Liana Berlin-Fischler, Associate Director, Center for Applied Environmental Diplomacy, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies For show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org⁠

Is this the beginning of a countermovement to Project 2025?Join us as legal expert Joyce Vance diagnoses our country’s democratic ills and offers a prescription of citizen action as a cure. Vance’s message is a call to action, based on placing our current crisis in historical context and coming up with a vision for what to do next. Despite what she says has been a continued erosion of democratic norms, she remains optimistic and hopeful, even acknowledging the daunting challenges ahead. She’ll explain the legal context, the political history, and the practical reasons behind the rule of law and why it still matters. And she’ll share things you can do—big and small—to right the balance. Because, as she writes in her Substack columns, we’re all in this together.Vance is a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama; she is an MSNBC legal analyst, a distinguished visiting lecturer in law at the University of Alabama School of Law, and the co-host of the “#SistersInLaw” and “Café’s Insider” podcasts

Robert S. McNamara was widely considered to be one of the most brilliant men of his generation. He was an invaluable ally of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as their secretary of defense, and he had a deeply moving relationship with Jackie Kennedy. But to the country, McNamara was the leading advocate for American escalation in Vietnam. He strongly advised Johnson to deploy hundreds of thousands of American ground troops, just weeks before concluding that the war was unwinnable, and for the next two and a half years McNamara failed to urge Johnson to cut his losses and withdraw. Join us to hear Philip and William Taubman examine McNamara’s life of intense personal contradictions—from his childhood, his career as a young faculty member at Harvard Business School, and his World War II service, to his leadership of the Ford Motor Company and the World Bank. They had access to materials previously unavailable to McNamara biographers, including Jacqueline Kennedy’s warm letters to McNamara; famil

Human-caused climate change is fueling extreme floods, wildfires, rising seas, and record-breaking heat all around the world. At the same time, some of the most senior U.S. government officials and other powerful actors are actively defunding climate programs, dismantling research institutions, erasing decades of environmental data, and launching direct attacks on climate professionals. This week’s episode is about what it’s like to be a climate scientist, researcher, or environmental professional trying to do meaningful work in a country with a government that increasingly doesn’t want it. Many have faced harassment, threats, or dismissal — or live in fear that their funding will be frozen or cut. How does it feel to do climate work not just in an era of climate denial, but of deliberate climate erasure?  Episode Guests: Rachel Rothschild,  Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Law School Brent Efron, Senior Manager for Permitting Innovation, Environmental Policy Innovation Center J. Timmons Rob

This year marked the steepest retreat to foreign assistance in recent memory, and the human cost is staggering. Global needs are growing more complex under the weight of today’s crises, while the aid system—built for a different era—is facing unprecedented disruption.  Yet, this moment of upheaval may be the catalyst needed for meaningful humanitarian reform. Innovation is no longer optional; it’s the driving force behind resilience, adaptability, mobilizing new funding and creating pathways to progress. From reimagining delivery models to forging unconventional philanthropic partnerships, the future of aid demands transformation we cannot afford to miss and one that brings glimmers of hope.  Named to the 2025 Forbes 50 Over 50, Save the Children U.S. President & CEO Janti Soeripto is navigating the funding crisis with a bold philosophy: respond, rebound, reform. In this exclusive Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California discussion, Janti joins fellow leaders tackling this urgent question: Where do we

Steve Nygren is the founder and CEO of Serenbe, a wellness community created as a model to demonstrate that preserving green space interlaced with agriculture, housing and retail is not only economically viable, but the future of community wellbeing. Nygren, a visionary placemaker—someone who specializes in transforming public spaces into areas that foster community, connection and well-being—has pulled together his expertise in Start in Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where We Live with Radical Common Sense, a blueprint for developing sustainable communities where citizens of all generations can thrive, "and awe is found in everyday moments." He says this requires understanding the following: The unintended consequences of sprawl, and why clustered development supports more green space, more housing and lower costs Why being disconnected from nature and each other is at the root of many environmental, societal and health-related woes Tactics to encourage a local food-based economy (and why that ma

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The human body is invincible—at least from the perspective of modern medicinal innovation. Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff and Fuzz, follows the astonishing evolution of body part replacement, from sculpting noses from brass to crafting body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3-D printing. While these advancements are miraculous lifesavers, it begs difficult bioethical questions: When and how does a person decide they’d be better off with a prosthetic than their existing limb? Can a donated heart be made to beat forever? Roach offers an insightful discussion and potential answers to these questions with her uniquely characteristic verve and infectious wit. Join us for a fascinating conversation with Mary Roach as she investigates the moral, medical and metaphysical implications of remaking ourselves from the inside out. Are we on the verge of replacing the irreplaceable? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So much of the conversation about the climate crisis focuses on prevention. But no matter how well we succeed on that front, climate-induced disasters are already causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage worldwide every year — not to mention destroying livelihoods and causing deaths. We're seeing those impacts today, and we need to be ready. Adaptation does not mean giving up on trying to rein in heat-trapping pollution; it’s facing reality. The way we adapt can be creative and empowering. But what does that kind of adaptation look like?  Episode Guests:   Susannah Fisher, Principal Research Fellow, University College London; Author of "Sink or Swim" Nick Mott, Multimedia Journalist; Author of “This Is Wildfire”  Tanya Gulliver-Garcia, Director of Educational Impact, Center for Disaster Philanthropy This episode features a field piece by David Condos, who originally reported the ⁠story⁠ for KUER in Salt Lake City, Utah.For show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org⁠. Highlights:

What’s common about common knowledge, and how does it become common? Common knowledge—the awareness of how others think and even how others think others think—is needed for social coordination, things as basic as driving on the same side of the road or using paper currency. And it has a hidden logic that makes it all work. Cognitive psychologist and author Steven Pinker returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs in Silicon Valley to explore some of the paradoxes of human behavior. It’s the subject of his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. Pinker addresses issues as seemingly disparate as why people hoard toilet paper when an emergency breaks, why crypto ads clog up Super Bowl advertising, why Russian officials arrested a protester carrying a blank sign, or even why everyone seems to agree that life would be unbearable if everyone was completely honest at all times. Tying it all together, he says, is our ability t