Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

California has long reigned as the land of plenty, a place where the sun always shines and opportunity always beckons. Even prior to its statehood in 1850, it captured the world’s imagination. We think of bearded prospectors lured by the promise of gold. We imagine its early embrace of immigrant labor during the railroad boom as prologue to its diverse social fabric today. But what lies underneath the myths is far more complicated. Thanks to his extensive research, Michael Hiltzik uncovers the unvarnished truth about the state we think we know well. From the Spanish incursions into what became known as Alta California to the rise of Big Tech, the history of California is one of stark contradictions. In rich, previously overlooked detail, we see its earliest statesmen wreaking havoc among native peoples while racing to draft their own constitution prior to statehood. And gold-hungry settlers venturing into the Sierra foothills only to leave with little, while a handful of their suppliers turn themselves into

As artificial intelligence becomes an ever-present force in our lives, it’s clear that this technology is not going away. And as it continues to transform education, governance and civic engagement, one crucial aspect remains largely unexplored: how to develop informed, engaged citizens for a democracy shaped by artificial intelligence. This event brings together experts in artificial intelligence, democracy building, and civic education to explore how AI intersects with the ways people learn about democracy, government and civic responsibility. They will examine the potential benefits and risks of AI in shaping how citizens understand and interact with democratic processes in the digital age, as well as the shared responsibilities of all stakeholders—including AI developers, educators, and subject matter experts—in the vital work of cultivating informed and active citizens. Please join us as our panel explores these critical issues and offers insights and practical strategies for preparing future citizens i

Against a backdrop of political chaos in South Korea and more nuclear tests by North Korea, what might be in store for the divided peninsula in 2025? Could Donald Trump reconcile with "Little Rocketman," Kim Jong Un? Will proposed tariffs hurt South Korea or will there be carveouts for a U.S. ally and regional rival to China? Caught among the world’s largest powers—including China, Japan, Russia, and the United States—Korea’s fate has always been closely connected to its geography and the strength of its leadership and society. Join us for a captivating discussion with Dr. Victor Cha and Prof. Ramon Pacheco Pardo, authors of Korea: A New History of South and North, a groundbreaking book that offers fresh insights into one of the world’s most dynamic and complex regions. As Korea continues to shape global dynamics—from pop culture to North Korea’s support of Russia’s war in Ukraine—understanding the latest developments and the history of the Korean peninsula has never been more essential. A timely, can’t-mis

On January 20, 2025, and within hours of returning to power, the Trump administration issued an executive order that the U.S. government would recognize only two genders, male and female, defined at birth. In contrast, in 2014, the Supreme Court of India ruled that transgender people have the right to self-identify as male, female, or a “third gender.” The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019 in India allows transgender people to have a self-declared gender identity and receive a certificate of identity. It is currently estimated that there are more than 3 million third-gender people living in India alone. Similar rulings and laws have been passed in neighboring Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.  What are the implications and impacts on the transgender people of the rest of Asia and the United States? At a time when the current U.S. administration has issued an executive order recognizing only two genders, we will discuss this and other issues with Amrita Sarkar, one of the leading transgende

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, is suing Greenpeace for $300 million. The pipeline company accuses Greenpeace of criminal behavior — trespassing, vandalism, and assault of construction workers — and inciting riotous behavior by protesters at Standing Rock in 2016. Greenpeace considers this legal action to be a “SLAPP suit” — a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — aimed at silencing not just Greenpeace, but civil protests everywhere. The trial is just getting underway in Morton County, North Dakota. In this episode we unpack not just this case, but the broader implications of such suits. Guests:  Rolf Skar, National Campaigns Director, Greenpeace Montgomery Brown, Member, Standing Rock Grassroots Laura Prather, Chair of First Amendment Practice, Haynes Boone On March 24, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt and Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center, will speak with Climate One about the development of sustai

Join us in-person for a discussion with performance, as we delve into music and the technology revolution, hearing Black voices on how technology is impacting our music. African Americans have played an outsized and pivotal role in American and global music. At most of the shifts and transitions in music driven by technology and culture, Black Americans have been in the forefront. Join us for a discussion of the past, present and future of the mix of technology and music with a focus on African American innovation.  In addition to the panel discussion, we will end with a short suite of performances by the presenters. About the Speakers Award winning recording artist Nicolas Bearde is a singer-songwriter, actor and educator whose career has spanned more than 35 years. Born and raised in Nashville, TN, the second of 7 children, he has toured the globe with many of today’s jazz legends, such as Bobby McFerrin, Nat Adderley, Jr., Bernard Purdie, Vincent Herring and more. His style is likened to Lou Rawls, Nat Ki

Every day, 10,000 people in the United States turn 65—a statistic that underscores one of the most significant demographic shifts in history. But the story of longevity is not just about aging, it's about learning new ways of living, working, and thriving across all life stages. From doctor's offices to government policies to popular culture, far too many of us erroneously associate aging with decline. How can we redefine aging to prioritize quality of life? Research shows that individuals have far more control over how they age than anyone imagined. We are shifting from a paradigm of decline to one that more accurately embraces the full spectrum of human flourishing while acknowledging biological realities. In this timely discussion, Barbara Waxman, renowned gerontologist and creator of The Longevity Roadmap, joins award-winning broadcaster Michael Krasny to explore the fascinating journey that brought us to this critical juncture in human history. They'll examine our current challenges, unveil cutting-edg

Join us for a new perspective that could rewrite our understanding of where moral judgments come from, and may reveal how we can overcome the feelings of outrage that so often divide us. It’s easy to assume that liberals and conservatives have radically different moral foundations. Kurt Gray, author of Outraged, showcases the latest science to demonstrate that we all have the same moral mind—that everyone’s moral judgments stem from feeling threatened or vulnerable to harm. Although we almost all care about protecting ourselves and the vulnerable, conflict arises when we have different perceptions of harm. We get outraged when we disagree about who the “real” victim is, whether we’re talking about political issues, fights with our in-laws, or arguments on the playground. In laying out a new vision of our moral minds, Gray tackles three common myths that he says prevent people from understanding themselves and those around them. For a long time, it was commonly believed that our ancestors were apex predator

How has consumer and business banking changed in 2025? What can we expect in the future? Tim Myers, president and chief executive officer at Bank of Marin, will take us through the challenges that financial institutions, businesses and consumers will face in 2025. Join us for this important discussion. Organizer: Frank Price   An International Relations Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is hard to believe that February 12, 2025, marks the 21-year anniversary of when then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom sparked a ground-breaking civil rights movement by legalizing same-sex marriage. In doing so, he not only changed our nation’s views on life, love and marriage, but demonstrated the power of how a community can change discriminatory laws in its pursuit for equality.  Join us for a timely anniversary celebration and special screening of the award-winning film "Pursuit of Equality." We will take a look back at the pivotal case as many members of the LGBTQ community enter 2025 questioning if their rights are protected under a new administration. Some are asking what it will take to continue the fight for equality. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From hurricanes on the East Coast to wildfires in LA, to floods in Vermont and storms in Texas, communities across the U.S. are facing a growing number of intense and devastating disasters. There are significant disparities in who has the means to evacuate during a disaster and who has the resources to rebuild once the storm has passed. Long after the immediate impact, the challenges continue, with many left to navigate a slow, complex, and often confusing recovery process.  As the harsh reality of climate chaos sets in, how can we better integrate community mental health into the disaster recovery process to ensure that emotional and psychological needs are addressed alongside physical rebuilding? Guests: Adrienne Heinz, Clinical Research Psychologist, Stanford University School of Medicine Samantha Montano, Assistant Professor of Emergency Management, Massachusetts Maritime Academy; Author, “Disasterology: Dispatches from The Frontlines of the Climate Crisis” Ralph Hamlett, Alderman, Canton, North Carolina;

It's our anniversary! In February 2012, Week to Week debuted, starting an ongoing community with civil discussions about sometimes heated topics. Join us in-person or online for the latest edition of our Week to Week political roundtable, and get set to talk about new leadership in San Francisco, DOGE and executive orders in Washington, and much more.  Come early for a pre-program social hour with wine and light bites, then 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Award-winning investigative journalist Charles Piller joins us in San Francisco for an in-depth look at what he says is a world of fraud, corruption, deceit, and greed that have set back important work on treating Alzheimer’s disease. Nearly seven million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, a tragedy that is projected to grow into a $1 trillion crisis by 2050. While families suffer and promises of pharmaceutical breakthroughs keep coming up short, investigative journalist Piller says that we’ve quite likely been walking the wrong path to finding a cure all along—led astray by a cabal of self-interested researchers, government accomplices, and corporate greed. Drawing on the work in his new book Doctored, Piller highlights a whistleblower—Vanderbilt professor Matthew Schrag—whose work exposed a massive scandal. Schrag alleged that a university lab led by a precocious young scientist and a Nobel Prize–rumored director delivered apparently falsified data at the heart of the leading hypothesis about the disease.

We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as MSNBC host and bestselling author Chris Hayes writes in The Siren’s Call, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.” Hayes says “attention capitalism” has assaulted our minds and our hearts, and has reordered our politics and the very fabric of our society. He argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the 19th century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. As Hayes writes, “Now o

The crisis of American Christianity has become a crisis for democracy, says award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch. A lifelong atheist, he is warning that the waning of the church in this country is tied to the waning of our democracy. What happens to American democracy if Christianity is no longer able, or no longer willing, to perform the functions on which our constitutional order depends? In his provocative new book Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy, Rauch reckons candidly with both the shortcomings of secularism and the corrosion of Christianity. Rauch says the mainline church—which he calls “thin Christianity”—isn’t able to inspire and retain believers. Worse, he says a “Church of Fear” has distorted white evangelicalism in ways that violate the tenets of both Jesus and James Madison. What to do? For answers, Rauch looks to a new generation of religious thinkers, as well as to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has placed the Constitution at the heart of

Reject the default path, define your priorities, and achieve lasting happiness with this transformative guide to your dream life—that’s Sahil Bloom’s recipe for a life centered around five types of wealth. Bloom says that throughout your life, you’ve been slowly indoctrinated to believe that money is the only type of wealth; in reality, your wealthy life may involve money, but in the end, it will be defined by everything else. After three years of research, personal experimentation, and thousands of interviews across the globe, Bloom has created a groundbreaking blueprint to build your life around five types of wealth: time wealth, social wealth, mental wealth, physical wealth, and financial wealth. A life of true fulfillment engages all five types—working dynamically, in concert across the seasons of your journey. Through powerful storytelling, science-backed practices, and actionable insights, Bloom explores all of this in his book The 5 Types of Wealth. No matter where you are on your path—a recent grad

Tension is high this time of year, personally and politically, and award-winning University of Michigan Professor Ethan Kross is in town for a special evening to help explore how emotions work and how we can manage them. An international speaker and bestselling author, his first book, Chatter, helped readers understand how to change the "voice" in our head. And now he returns with his new book, Shift, to help readers understand how emotions form, where they come from, and how we can regulate and master them.  From our dinner tables at home to workplace conversations, emotional mastery can feel like a distant goal, but Kross says it's something we should all strive for. How can we learn to harness emotions as sources of powerful information? The term "emotional regulation" has now joined popular terminology, but what does it mean and how can we implement it at any age?  Kross is joined by local celebrated psychology reporter Jenara Nerenberg, author of Divergent Mind and the forthcoming Trust Your Mind: Embra

The Phoenicians were the most civilized people of the Near East and the greatest businessmen and conduits of culture of the ancient world (e.g., they gave us all the alphabet). Their expansion westward across the Mediterranean, driven by the trade in metal ore, is told in myth, archaeology, and the accounts of the people they impacted (including the Berbers, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans). The Phoenician settlement at Carthage (modern Tunisia) soon became the most powerful and cultured city of the western Mediterranean, their ships dominating trade routes. Conflict thus became inevitable with the Etruscans, Greeks and Romans, which culminated in the three Punic Wars. In the Second Punic War, Hannibal terrorized the Romans like no other enemy they had ever encountered, but in the end the Romans erased Carthage entirely.  Yet Carthage remains eternal: in myth, painting, literature and grand opera. Hannibal, Rome’s Nightmare Patrick Hunt will describe how Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general, weaponized na

At this moment, the cheapest way to create electricity is by pointing a solar panel at the sun. That’s good news for the climate. It’s also good news for communities who want to take control of their own electricity generation. In the heart of Brooklyn, UPROSE is helping to build a solar project that will be owned by the community, provide jobs, and help residents bring down their energy costs. In Puerto Rico, where hurricanes have devastated the power grid, community members are building solar microgrids to provide reliable electricity as the utility has proven they cannot. Meanwhile in conservative rural Virginia, Energy Right is helping farmers and rural communities adopt solar projects, touting a free market message about energy independence and security.  Guests:  Elizabeth Yeampierre, Attorney; Executive Director, UPROSE  Skyler Zunk, CEO and Founder, Energy Right  Arturo Massol-Deyá, Executive Director, Casa Pueblo de Adjuntas We’re excited to share two upcoming opportunities to see Climate One Live! O

Joan Baez returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs nearly 45 years after she came here to discuss “Human Rights in the Eighties.” She's coming back not for a performance but for an in-depth talk about her personal thoughts and life experiences—the person behind the stardom. Baez has been writing poetry for decades, but she’s never before shared it publicly. Now in her book of poems When You See My Mother: Ask Her to Dance Baez shares poems about her contemporaries (such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Jimi Hendrix), reflections from her childhood, personal thoughts, and cherished memories of her family, including pieces about her younger sister, singer-songwriter Mimi Fariña. Speaking to the people, places, and moments that have had the greatest impact on her art, this collection is an inspiring personal diary in the form of poetry. Join us in-person to hear her discuss how, for the first time ever, she has shared revealing pivotal life experiences that shaped an icon, offering a never-before-seen look in