Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

In the Bay Area, as elsewhere, the coronavirus and its economic fallout have hit hardest the very same people who were on the economic margins before the pandemic, including Black, Latinx, low-wage workers, and immigrant communities (especially undocumented workers). For our region to recover, and thrive, racial equity must be at the forefront of our recovery efforts. In this program, San Francisco Foundation CEO Fred Blackwell will lead a conversation on the central role that racial equity must play in the Bay Area's recovery from COVID-19 for our region to recover and thrive. We'll review key data findings from the Bay Area Equity Atlas on how COVID-19 has impacted different racial and ethnic communities in our region, presented by Senior Associate Jamila Henderson of PolicyLink. Experts and advocates Chris Iglesias of Unity Council and Tomiquia Moss of All Home will help us make meaning of the data and share their perspectives on what is needed to ensure an equitable recovery for all people in the Bay Area

Over the past several years, questions about the stability of America's democratic system have been raised by experts in many fields, from across the political spectrum. After years of polarization, the United States has become highly divided, and there is a widespread loss of confidence in our very form of government and civic order. A movement for a renewed focus on civics and history education has arisen to address these concerns. Earlier this year, with the launch of the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) initiative, the country has its first significant comprehensive roadmap that states, local school districts, educators and organizations such as the Club can use to transform the teaching of history and civics to meet the needs of America in the 21st century. One of EAD's most significant features is that it recognizes that powerful and effective civics education is everyone's responsibility, not just civics and social studies teachers, and not just schools themselves. It asserts that we need all sec

The stories are horrifying and heart-breaking. An 84-year-old Thai immigrant in San Francisco died after being violently shoved to the ground during his morning walk. In Oakland, a 91-year-old senior was shoved to the pavement from behind. An 89-year-old Chinese woman was slapped and set on fire by two people in Brooklyn, New York. A stranger on the New York subway slashed a 61-year-old Filipino American passenger's face with a box cutter. The only Asian American lawmaker in the Kansas legislature says he was physically threatened in a bar by a patron who accused him of carrying the coronavirus. The advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate says it has received more than 2,800 nationwide reports of hate incidents directed at Asian Americans since the pandemic began. More than 6 million Asian Americans live in California, by far the most in any U.S. state. Of those reports, 1,226 incidents took place in California, and 708 in the Bay Area alone. The majority of incidents in the Bay Area—292—took place in San Francisco, fo

Join us for an exploration of a side of the Vietnam War that is little known in the United States. Learn about the unexploded ordnances left behind after the United States withdrew from the war, and hear about the "Secret War" in which people from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam fought alongside American troops. Meet the Speakers Sera Koulabdara serves as executive director of Legacies of War, the only international educational and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. Legacies of War is working to address the impact of conflict in Laos during the Vietnam War-era, including removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and survivor assistance. Prior to this role, Sera was a long-time volunteer and served on Legacies’ board for four years in multiple leadership positions, including vice chair. Under Sera’s leadership, U.S. funding for UXO clearance in Laos reached $40 million for 2021—the highest level in history—and the Legacies of War Recognition and UXO Removal Act was introduced by Senator Tammy Baldwin. If ap

We'll begin our program sharing war stories from Lao veterans who fought in the secret war. We'll also discuss AB1393, an effort to include Lao history and cultural studies in CA's K-12 curriculum, starting a fish sauce business, and "nung pee"—Lao horror films with the only female film director in Laos. The evening will end with a special performance by Lookthung/Morlam Esan singer Tookta.  Meet the Speakers Lao Secret War Veterans: David Phommavong is a father, husband and the son of a Secret War veteran, the late Keoson Phommavong of SGU Scorpion Unit. Co Founder of Laotian American National Voice (LAN-V), Co Chair of LAN-V Secret War Veteran’s Benefit, and Lao Global Heritage Alliance Board of Director. David is an advocate and a community activist. David and his wife have a private charity Nourish Lao Children where they provide financial / educational support to impoverished children in Lao PDR. Chantho Vorasarn, former Royal LAO Armed Forces Major (1972), 11 year POW (1975-1986) after US pull out from

Dr. Ralph Moss details the origin of cancer immunotherapy and how it disappeared for almost 100 years. Recently, it has been rediscovered and has become one of the most widely used cancer treatments. Inducing fever with compounds of killed viruses, immunotherapy triggers the human immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. Immunotherapy generally provides a higher quality of life during treatment, while being less harmful than most conventional cancer treatments available today. Ralph Moss, Ph.D., has been writing about alternative and complementary cancer treatments since the 1970s. At the National Institutes of Health, he co-founded what became the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. He has produced 4 films, 12 books, a podcast, and 38 diagnosis-based "Moss Reports" for cancer. MLF ORGANIZER Adrea Brier NOTES MLF: Health & Medicine SPEAKERS Ralph Moss Ph.D., Co-founder, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health; Author; Filmmaker Adrea Brier CHNP, CLC, Vice Chai

One of the final things Abraham Lincoln did on the day of his death was approve legislation that created what would become the Secret Service. Originally created to suppress counterfeit currency, the Secret Service has since become the primary agency to protect prominent politicians and their families. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the Secret Service was whipped into shape. The agency transformed into a proud, elite unit that would redeem themselves again two decades later by successfully thwarting an assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan. Now, in the 21st century, the Secret Service is better defined by its failure to avert break-ins at the White House, armed gunmen firing at government buildings, a massive prostitution scandal in Cartagena, and many other instances of negligence. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carol Leonnig has been covering the Secret Service since 2000, and her new book, Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, exposes the

If corporations can be legal persons, why can’t Mother Earth?  In 2017, New Zealand granted the Whanganui River the full legal rights of a person. India also recently granted full legal rights to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, and recognized that the Himalayan Glaciers have a right to exist. In 2019, the city of Toledo passed the Lake Erie Bill of Rights with 61 percent of the vote, but then a year later, a federal judge struck it down. As Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, an attorney who represented Lake Erie, explains, the problem stems from a 500-year history of Western property law. Our legal system grants rights to property owners, but not to property itself.  “If we’re treating ecosystems as property, then ultimately, we as property owners have the right to destroy our property and that fundamentally has to change,” Schromen-Wawrin says. Rebecca Tsosie, a law professor focused on Federal Indian law and Indigenous peoples’ human rights, says there are other rights frameworks to consider. “If we go into Indigenous

Join us for a virtual discussion with the three co-authors of Framers, which focuses on the essential tool that can enable humanity to find its way through the challenges of pandemics, populism, AI, ISIS, wealth inequity, climate change, and other worldwide problems that threaten our current civilizations. To frame is to make a mental model that enables us to see patterns, predict how things will unfold, and make sense of new situations. Frames guide the decisions we make and the results we obtain. Science has long focused on traits like memory and reasoning, but has often ignored framing. But with computers becoming better and better at those cognitive tasks, framing stands out as a critical function—and one only humans can do. Illustrating their case with compelling examples and the latest research, Cukier, Mayer-Schönberger and de Véricourt examine: why advice to “think outside the box” is useless; why the Wright brothers, with no formal physics training, were the first to fly; what enabled the 1976 Israel

The East Bay Sanctuary was organized in 1982 to assist refugees fleeing the terrible violence in the Northern Triangle of Central America. While refugees from El Salvador and Honduras were fleeing, mainly political persecution, the vast majority of Guatemalan refugees were Maya, fleeing persecution on account of their race. More than 200,000 Maya fled into Mexico at the height of the violence, and many eventually made their way to the United States, crossing the southern border without papers. Currently there are around 5,000 Mam Maya living in the East Bay, and thousands more working in the fields of the Central Valley of California, the forests in Washington, the meat packing plants in Iowa and Nebraska, the blueberry fields in Michigan, and the fields in many states in the Deep South. Through the years the sanctuary has assisted thousands of indigenous Guatemalans and currently has 5 attorneys and 9 paralegals on staff, as well as numerous volunteer attorneys, law students and undergrads. This summer, sanc

Many critics and patients agree: The American health-care system is broken. They say the quality is poor, the cost is high and the system has a dominant disease-care orientation. "I would like to tell you that 21st century medicine should be about wellness and how we can get there," says Dr. Leroy Hood. "I have a vision of a data-driven health-care system where we can follow the health trajectory of each individual throughout their lifetime to optimize their wellness and healthy aging, while avoiding transitions to chronic diseases. Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., is a recipient of the National Medal of Science, co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), and senior vice president and and chief science officer at Providence St. Joseph Health. Dr. Hood has played a role in founding 15 biotech companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Arrivale and Nanostring. In addition to having received 18 honorary degrees from prestigious universities in the United States and abroad, Dr. Hood has published more th

Two new mothers, a murder, and a question about crime: in her new thrilling debut novel A Good Mother, law professor Lara Bazelon examines the intricacies of motherhood, the legal system, and moral obligation. As a writer, attorney and mother herself, Lara Bazelon writes about crime, love, work and family with a voice that wonders what is right and fair for all. When a soldier is found dead at a U.S. Army base, there is no doubt that his wife, Luz, is to blame. But was it an act of self-defense? An attempt to save her infant daughter? Or the cold-blooded murder of an innocent man? Public defender and new mother Abby strives to keep Luz out of prison, sympathizing with the struggles of parenthood. When new evidence emerges and the trial turns toward an outcome no one expects, Abby and Luz must answer the riveting question: What does it mean to be a good mother? Join us as Lara Bazelon illustrates the answers to motherhood through a discussion of A Good Mother. She'll be joined in conversation by Piper Kerman,

This is a condensed Commonwealth Club week in review. Hear what you missed this week, and what we’ve got lined up for you next week. We’re always adding new programs - check out commonwealthclub.org/online for all of our upcoming events. If you haven’t already - please consider becoming a member of the Club. Enjoy exclusive discounts and access to special programs all while knowing your contributions directly support our many public programs and civic initiatives. Visit commonwealthclub.org/special, for special rates on memberships. Thanks for your support and as always - thanks for listening! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Distinguished political analyst John Judis returns to The Commonwealth Club for a timely discussion on the major political issues that have shaped America's tumultuous last decade and can be seen around the world. Over the past five years, Judis has written three books—The Populist Explosion in 2016, The Nationalist Revival in 2018, and The Socialist Awakening in 2020—that have charted the rise of unexpected political movements in the United States and Europe that have grown in impact in the wake of the Great Recession, the conflict with al-Qaeda and ISIS, and encroaching climate change. These three books have all been updated and combined into a new volume that expands Judis's focus to include the Trump presidency and the response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. This new book, The Politics of Our Times, is an important guide to understanding the significant currents and emotions that have transformed the world and influenced political parties and politicians on both the Right and Left. As the United States 

Scott Foglesong says this program will be coverage of a potpourri (talk and music) of "pieces that have a particular gift of providing comfort and making us happy. Of course that’s quite subjective, and I’ll be selecting stuff that makes me happy. But my tastes aren’t particularly esoteric, and with any luck there will be something in here for everybody. What can make a piece of music a source of comfort? And maybe a bit about what doesn’t do that as a rule." Foglesong is a pianist, musician, teacher, writer, cat-lover, music history devotée, occasional computer geek and sometime programmer. He is the chair of the Department of Musicianship and Music Theory at San Francisco Conservatory of Music; a member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, and The Fromm Institute of the University of San Francisco; a contributing writer and lecturer at the San Francisco Symphony. Professor Foglesong was formally educated at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the San Francisco Conservatory, but he

Mapping has emerged as a powerful tool for helping humans combat climate disruption. Technology for measuring the totality of global carbon emissions, for example, is highly refined: we know that half of all the carbon pollution humans have dumped into the sky has happened in just the last three decades. But understanding the specific sources of those emissions at the scale of factories or communities has been more elusive.  Riley Duren, CEO of Carbon Mapper, has said, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Carbon Mapper, a public-private partnership that includes universities and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and is backed by philanthropists, uses satellites to pinpoint super emitters of both CO2 and methane in real time with the goal of reducing emissions. But this isn’t the only technology that may point the way toward a better understanding of climate threats and potential solutions. The Catholic Church, for example, holds vast tracts of land across the globe. But until Molly Burhans came on the scene, th

After the rollercoaster eyes-glued-to-Twitter ride of the Trump years, the nation is now in the Biden-Harris era. Joe Biden came to office promising a return to normalcy as he tackled the country's problems, even as he offered up something in dramatic contrast to his predecessor: He would make policy while being boring.  Has he delivered? Is it an improvement, or does the job of the presidency require a bigger-than-normal personality? Join us for a five-month check-in on the Biden presidency, as well as a look at other big political issues, such as the reopening of cities and states from the pandemic, the recall effort against Governor Gavin Newsom, and more. SPEAKERS Larry Gerston Ph.D., Political Analyst, NBC Bay Area; Professor Emeritus of Political Science, San Jose State University; Twitter @lgerston Debra J. Saunders Fellow, Discovery Institute; Weekly Columnist, Distributed by Creators Syndicate; Twitter @debrajsaunders Dan Schnur Professor, University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Commu

In a special program co-presented with the Climate Reality Project Bay Area Chapter, join us for an up-close and personal talk with Jim Warne of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Nation about the history of Native Americans and the work of building relationships with native communities to produce effective climate progress. The multitalented Warne is a motivational speaker, president of Warrior Society Development, WSD Productions; the community engagement & diversity director for the USD Center for Disabilities Oyata' Circle; and creator of the award-winning documentary "7th Generation" and the NFL Social Justice Series' "Oyate' un Ito'wapi–Pictures of My People," which was featured on Fox.  In Warne's own words: "In talking to people from other countries, I have found that Asians and Europeans know more about our Indian history than Americans do. . . . In America, we get one narrow and uniform tribal perspective when there are over 550 tribes here that are recognized and 200 languages still today. "It's important t

Join us for this special program in The Commonwealth Club's series recognizing recipients of The Club's Distinguished Citizen Award. Tonight's honorees are committed to the improvement of mental health in the Bay Area and the nation. This program will particularly honor the work of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), for its innovation in mental health, and will salute UCSF Health Executive Council Member John Pritzker; Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department Chair Dr. Matthew State; Neurological Surgery Chair Dr. Edward Chang; and Dr. Lisa Fortuna, chief of psychiatry and vice-chair at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF. John Pritzker is chairman of the John Pritzker Family Fund and is well known for his commitment to mental health, serving on the Executive Council of UCSF Health and supporting The Commonwealth Club’s speaker series on mental health, dedicated in memory of his sister, Nancy Friend Pritzker. Mr. Pritzker is also a significant supporter of UCSF's Department of

Irregular sleep schedules, smoking cigarettes, skipping meals, procrastination: common bad habits and vices can seem nearly impossible to break. “Quick fixes” to ending unhealthy cycles are rarely backed by scientific evidence, making the process of retraining your brain more difficult and frustrating. Neuroscientist Russell Poldrack, however, conjectures that the brain is a habit-building machine, and to curb unwanted behaviors, we must use evidence-based strategies to build healthy habits. In his new book Hard to Break, Poldrack offers an explanation of how habits are built in the brain, why they are so hard to break, and how evidence-based strategies might help us curb bad behaviors. Russell Poldrack is a professor of psychology at Stanford University whose research has focused on learning and memory, neuroinformatics and data sharing, and decision-making processes. He has gained recognition from the American Psychological Association and the Organization for Human Brain Mapping for his stellar research in