Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

More than a century of civil rights activism reached a mountaintop with the arrival of a Black man in the Oval Office. But hopes for a unified, post-racial America were deflated when Barack Obama’s presidency met with furious opposition. A white, right-wing backlash was brewing, and a volcanic new movement—a second civil rights movement—began to erupt.  In the highly anticipated follow-up to his Eyes on the Prize, bestselling author Juan Williams turns his attention to the rise of a new 21st-century civil rights movement. In New Prize for These Eyes, Williams shines a light on this historic, new movement. Who are its heroes? Where is it headed? What fires, furies, and frustrations distinguish it from its predecessor?  In the 20th century, Black activists and their white allies called for equal rights and an end to segregation. They appealed to the Declaration of Independence’s defiant assertion that “all men are created equal.” They prioritized legal battles in the courtroom and legislative victories in Con

The advent of artificial intelligence has spawned numerous nightmare scenarios of a runaway technology negatively affecting everything from jobs to national security to individual rights. Now Reid Hoffman shares his unique insider’s perspective on an AI-powered future, making the case for its potential to unlock a world of possibilities. Imagine AI tutors personalizing education for each child, researchers rapidly discovering cures for diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer, and AI advisors empowering people to navigate complex systems and achieve their goals.  In his new book Superagency, Hoffman and co-author Greg Beato envision a world where these possibilities, and many more, become a reality. They offer a roadmap for using AI inclusively and adaptively to improve our lives and create positive change. While acknowledging challenges like disinformation and potential job changes, the book focuses on AI’s immense potential to increase individual agency and create better outcomes for society as a whole.  Join

“Ukraine is like porcelain, easy to break yet impossible to destroy.” —Slava Leontyev Join us for a Q&A with the co-director and the producer. Under roaring fighting jets as war ravages their homeland, three artists—Slava, Anya and Andrey—stay behind in their native Ukraine, defiantly finding beauty amid destruction. Armed with art, cameras and—for the first time in their lives—guns, they show that while it’s easy to frighten people, it’s harder to destroy their passion for living. Nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature, Porcelain War has already won the 2024 Sundance Grand Jury Prize. The film is a stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, embodying the enduring hope and passion of ordinary people living through extraordinary circumstances. From the Academy Award-winning producer of The Cove and the Emmy Award-winning producer of Chasing Ice, and the team behind the Grammy Award-winning Quincy, Porcelain War is one of the most decorated documentary features of 2024. We

Join us to learn about scientific achievements that might give you and your loved ones access to transformational treatment options today or in the near future.  Maybe you've heard about CRISPR gene editing or stem cell therapy in the headlines—now you can find out what these and other technologies really mean for you. Can you imagine if your cells could be taken from a simple blood draw, reprogrammed in a lab dish, then infused back into your body to cure heart disease, treat Alzheimer’s, or shrink a cancer tumor? Or if a simple infusion could rewrite your genetic code to cure a DNA-driven disease? These scenarios may sound like science fiction, but such advances are happening now—forever changing our perspective of disease. No longer must we accept a dire health condition; we have the tools and technology to actually solve it for good. We encourage you to attend in-person so you can join us for a post-event wine and cheese reception, where you’ll have the chance to mingle with Dr. Deepak Srivastava and ot

When individuals want to take action on climate, it’s often in the form of electrifying a home, voting, or maybe even traditional activism. Those are very important, but we often overlook how individual skills and talents can also make a difference.  This week we’re highlighting creative forms of climate action. Pattie Gonia is a drag queen, environmentalist and advocate for inclusivity and diversity in the outdoors who struts their message through national parks, in Pride events, and through the halls of Congress. Mike Roberts and Will Hammond Jr. wrote a sultry R&B song that will change the way you think about heat pumps… and an equally stimulating song about the power of geothermal energy. Together, they remind us that we don’t always have to take ourselves too seriously in order for our work to be meaningful and have impact. Guests: Pattie Gonia, Drag queen; Environmentalist Mike Roberts, Musician; Climate advocate Will Hammond Jr., Educator; Musician On February 25, internationally recognized environment

The Walter E. Hoadley Annual Economic Forecast, presented by Bank of America. Major changes are coming to tax, tariff, and regulatory policy in the wake of the November 2024 election. What impact will the new administration and Congress have on the economy in 2025? Will inflation be a big factor? How will our international trade fare? And will unemployment and consumer spending continue on their current paths? Our expert panel—including John H. Cochrane, the Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; Mary Daly, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; Susan Hyde, Robson Professor in the Travers Department of Political Science and co-director of the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley; Baie Netzer, senior investment strategist for Bank of America Private Bank; Adam Lashinsky, editor-at-large for The San Francisco Standard and contributing columnist for The Washington Post (moderator)—will give you insight to help you better understand the tr

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation about technology and humanity with Silicon Valley Read’s featured authors Charlee Dyroff (Loneliness & Company), Dr. Fei-Fei Li (The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI), and Ray Nayler (The Mountain in the Sea). Attendees are invited to come early to see two robot dogs and visit the Euphrat Museum of Art, for their special exhibit where artists will be showcased around the theme "Encoding Empathy." Hosted by Santa Clara County Library District, Santa Clara County Office of Education, San José Public Library, and DeAnza College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second Trump administration has hit the ground running. The president has signed a flurry of executive orders targeting everything from birthright citizenship to pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords. This is a far different moment from the first Trump term. The president is more focused, his team is more focused, and energy policy is at the top of their action list. However, the renewable energy market is also much more mature, and the transition away from fossil fuels has been accelerated by three major climate-related bills passed during the Biden years. In this new political and economic landscape, how do climate advocates need to think and act differently to sustain progress?  Guests:  Dana R. Fisher, Director of the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity & Professor, School of International Service, American University Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder and Executive Director, Environmental Voter Project Arnab Datta, Director of Infrastructure Policy, Institute for Progress On February 25, inte

The Chinese have a saying, or perhaps a curse: "May you live in interesting times." From Taiwan to Ukraine, the Middle East and now Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and the Gulf of Mexico—from existing conflicts and perhaps soon-to-be conflicts, these are interesting times we find ourselves living in. Who better to help us understand and navigate through the swirling news and events in the dawning of the new Trumpian Age than Professor Casimir Yost from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.  We hope you can join us on Thursday, January 23, at 5.30 p.m. at Commonwealth Club World Affairs in San Francisco as our chair Dr. Kalidip Choudhury engages with Professor Yost to shed light on the conflicts we can and cannot expect in the age of Trump. About the Speaker Casimir Yost is a senior fellow in the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and teaches in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. From 2009

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, from predictive analytics to advanced data systems, has emerged as a catalyst for innovation. Yet, the criminal justice system lags decades behind, as more than 3,000 counties in the United States continue to rely on outdated and manual case management systems, making the path to justice far from linear. This technological gap means that while other sectors move forward, many parts of the criminal justice system continue to struggle with inefficiencies and disparities that hinder true progress. Imagine a world where communities have access to the reliable data they need to create change and drive informed, fair decision-making; a world where AI bridges gaps and promotes transparency. But there’s a crucial question: How can we ensure this powerful tool closes the equity gap instead of widening it? The stakes are high, and ethical implementation is key. Despite the United States investing billions annually in policing, courts and corrections, outdated technologies and l

The wildfires ravaging Los Angeles have caused incredible destruction — loss of life, thousands of homes and businesses gone or damaged and hundreds of thousands of people displaced. While the scale and speed of these fires may feel unprecedented, the dry, fire-prone foothills around LA burn often. Yet increasingly we see wildfires spurred by climate factors including warmer temperatures and weather whiplash — cycles of heavy precipitation followed by extreme drought.  This week we hear what climate science says about current and future wildfire risk and about ways to support an equitable recovery from such destructive urban disasters. Guests: Moira Morel, Cinematographer; Altadena resident Hugh Safford, Research faculty, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, UC Davis Andrew Rumbach, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute  Nick Mott, Multimedia journalist; Author of “This Is Wildfire” On February 25, internationally recognized environmental and civil rights activist Catherine Coleman Flowers will join Clima

How did the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai become one of Hong Kong’s leading activists for democracy—and China’s most famous political prisoner today? Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was 12 years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he hustled; no work was beneath him, and he often slept on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At 21, he was running a factory. By his mid-twenties, he owned one and was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the United States, from Polo to The Limited. His ideas about retail led him to create Giordano in 1981, and with it “fast fashion.” A restless entrepreneur, as Giordano prepared to go public, he was thinking about a dining concept that would disrupt Hong Kong’s fast-food industry. But then came the Tiananmen Square democracy protest and the massacre of 1989. His reaction to the violence was to enter the media business to push China toward more freedoms. He started a magazine, Next, to

California faces an urgent housing crisis: Median home prices are double the national average and while in 2016 it was projected that the state needed to build 3.5 million new homes by 2025 to meet demand, just one quarter of those have even been permitted. Is building new cities from scratch the solution—or is it just a Silicon Valley pipe dream? Join us for an eye-opening fireside chat with Gabe Metcalf, head of planning at California Forever, exploring why he sees greenfield development, rather than infill alone, as our best shot at addressing the housing crisis. Drawing upon years in his previous role as CEO of SPUR and now leading urban planning for California Forever’s controversial East Solano Plan—a proposed, VC-backed new city in Solano County—Metcalf will discuss why he believes that cities are humankind’s greatest invention and why building walkable, compact communities must become a normal form of development. Is it time to rethink our approach to building mass housing or will hurdles mean new c

If we include personal cars, along with appliances like water heaters, stoves and furnaces, more than 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from individuals at the home level. The good news: no matter where you live, there are steps you can take to make your home cleaner, healthier and more comfortable.  And thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, there’s now a raft of federal incentives to help homeowners electrify their lives. Electrification has even become a theme on long running home improvement programs like “This Old House.” But with all the new technology and the federal tax credits, where to start?  Guests:  Ross Trethewey, Home Technology Expert, “This Old House” Ari Matusiak, Co-founder, President and CEO, Rewiring America Edith Buhs, Electrification Coach, Rewiring America; Decarbonization Advisor, Abode Energy Management Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to con

How do we live with fire? Join us for a talk about stewardship, resilience and hope. Fire is an essential part of California's ecology. Humans have been using it to shape the California landscape for thousands of years. But today many Californians' relationship to fire is one of fear. Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, now asks: How do we live with fire? What makes fire essential to a healthy and biodiverse Golden State, and how do we benefit from its teachings? With the same solution-minded ethic as his much-admired The State of Water: Understanding California's Most Precious Resource, Kaufmann presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. He considers the long history of ecological burns, the varied ways fire behaves across the state, and the lessons we can learn from California's largest fires of recent decades. Organizer Andrew Dudley   A People & Nature Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are mem

How interdependent were the Northern industrial economy and Southern slave labor in pre-Civil War America? Historian and Brown University history professor Seth Rockman says the traditional way of thinking about the United States in the early 19th century—that of a nation with an industrializing North and agricultural South—overlooks the economic ties that held together the nation before the Civil War. He says it misses slavery’s long reach into small New England communities, and it fails to recognize the role of Northern manufacturing in shaping the terrain of human bondage in the South. Rockman, in his new book Plantation Goods, looks at the shirts, hats, hoes, shovels, shoes, axes, and whips made in the North for use in the South. By following the stories of material objects, such as shoes made by Massachusetts farm women that found their way to the feet of a Mississippi slave, Rockman says it was a national economy organized by slavery—a slavery that outsourced the production of its supplies to the Nort

Lessons learned from former community-oriented department heads, a civil rights attorney and a former controller who has ideas about making the city more flexible and responsive. About the Speakers Margaret Brodkin is one of the nation’s leading children’s advocates. She was the executive director of Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth for 26 years, leading systems change work in juvenile justice and social welfare, budget advocacy, and parent and youth organizing. In 2004, she was appointed by Mayor Newsom as the director of the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), where she developed innovative models for coordination, partnerships, service delivery, policy and civic engagement.  Sheryl Davis is a passionate advocate for equity, and educational opportunity. Davis is the creator of Everybody Reads, a summer learning, family literacy and reading development initiative centering BIPOC youth. Throughout her career and many roles, she has continued to design programs and

Every year we highlight the work of a scientist who excels in communicating their work to the world. Climate One is delighted to present the 2024 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication to political scientist and energy expert Leah Stokes. Her rare ability to communicate complex information to both academic audiences and the general public has established her as one of the most influential voices in climate action and clean energy policy.  “What I've started to think about is not how can I make my impact as small as possible, like a carbon footprint, trying to shrink, but actually how can I make my impact as big as possible by joining with others in campaigns to try to change policies and laws so that we're not just trying to make marginal, incremental improvements on a fossil fuel-based energy system, but actually change the system towards clean electricity,” she says. Guests: Leah Stokes, Anton Vonk Associate Professor at UC Santa Barbara; Senior Policy Advisor, Rewiring Ame

When most people hear the phrase renewable energy, they imagine fields full of solar panels or giant spinning wind turbines. But another source may be heating up: geothermal.  Twenty years ago, it was thought that geothermal could provide at most 10% of any given area’s electricity, and only in very limited regions. There were also environmental concerns about depleting groundwater. But new technological advances may have unlocked the potential for scalable geothermal energy just about anywhere. And in a bit of irony, those technological advances came from the oil and gas industry.  This episode originally aired February 23, 2024, and features content from contributing producer David Condos. Guests:  Amanda Kolker, Laboratory Program Manager for Geoscience and Geothermal Technologies, NREL Jamie Beard, Founder of Project InnerSpace Lauren McLean, Mayor of Boise Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, op

Plastics are everywhere. And while we’ve known for a long time that plastics and our environment aren’t a good mix, it's becoming apparent that they’re massive climate polluters too. The production of plastics alone produces about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. After what is often a single use, the resulting waste continues releasing the greenhouse gasses ethylene and methane as it breaks apart.  Yet, as petrochemical companies pay lip service ending fuel production, they are pouring resources into plastics production. How do we wrap up our reliance on plastics?  This episode originally aired on May 10, 2024, following the fourth negotiating session of the Global Plastics Treaty. This update includes a new interview with David Azoulay on the latest treaty negotiations. Guests:  Diane Wilson, Founder and Director, San Antonio Bay Waterkeeper Jane Patton, U.S. Fossil Economy Campaign Manager, Center for International Environmental Law  Susannah Scott, Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Sa