Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

Join us for an online conversation with one of the biggest names in science fiction—bestselling author John Scalzi. He has entertained millions of fans with his hugely popular Old Man's War series of books and other novels, earned himself two Hugo awards, and regularly engages and occasionally enrages the science fiction world with his lively blog on whatever.scalzi.com. Scalzi's newest novel, The Last Emperox, caps off his Interdependency trilogy that began with The Collapsing Empire and The Consuming Fire. In this final volume, Emperox Grayland must pull out all of the stops to save as much of humanity as possible from the collapsing network that ties together the human worlds; she is opposed by forces who want to destroy her and could end up destroying human civilization in the process. Don't miss this discussion with the witty, outspoken and talented John Scalzi. This is an online program, presented free; donations are welcome and may be made during the registration process Purchase a signed copy of The L

We all face difficulty and pain in life, and whether we are the perpetrators or the victims, we must all inevitably learn how to forgive and open up to healing. New York Times best-selling author Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt has experienced the often slow and thorny journey toward forgiveness, and she knows how the power of personal insight can illuminate the path of forgiveness. In her new book, The Gift of Forgiveness, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt helps people navigate the difficult path toward healing with first-hand accounts and experiences from her own life. Join her, in conversation with New York Times best-selling author Kelly Corrigan, to learn the power of forgiveness in finding peace and acceptance. This program is free, though we invite you to make a donation during registration ** This Podcast Contains Explicit Language ** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The catastrophic, overwhelming challenges we are facing globally are manifesting locally—week by week, day by day, hour by hour. Cities are besieged. Economies are failing. Friends are dying. As the human toll creeps ever higher, it begins to feel as though our very humanity lies in the balance. How can we preserve it? Although the scale of the COVID-19 disaster is unprecedented, it is worth recalling that this is not the first time that human societies have faced catastrophic collapse. What can we learn from those who have come before us? The Commonwealth Club and UC Berkeley's Townsend Center for the Humanities invite you to take part in Catastrophe: Dialogues on Storytelling and the Present Moment, a series of conversations that will examine catastrophe and the essential role that stories play in helping us to face and survive catastrophe. Bringing together (remotely, of course) internationally known humanities scholars from UC Berkeley and prominent figures from the Bay Area arts community, this series is

As the coronavirus spreads rapidly through the population, the United States is racing to provide test kits, develop a vaccine and find treatments. Meanwhile, we’re running dangerously low on supplies, ranging from ventilators and test reagents to gowns and N95 masks. When will we have the test kits we need? Can we develop a vaccine and identify treatments in time to contain the pandemic? Will we have enough ventilators to save patients and sufficient equipment to protect our providers? Three leading experts will share where we are today, where we are headed, and what it will take to get us there. In association with The Zetema Project This program is free, though please consider making a donation during registration This program will be online only, and you must pre-register for a link to the program This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors; we are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the

Join us virtually for a conversation with Robert Hirst about the millions of words Mark Twain wrote but left behind for Hirst and his team to organize. The Mark Twain Project at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library started with a core collection transferred in 1949 to UC Berkeley by Clara, Mark Twain’s sole surviving daughter. For the last four decades, the ever-growing archive of original and photocopied documents, unpublished manuscripts and thousands of letters, as well as the editorial project to create a digital record of everything Mark Twain wrote, have both been under Hirst’s direction. That project included publishing Mark Twain’s complete autobiography in 2010, 100 years after he died—a century’s wait required by Twain’s desire to save his heirs from being lynched. Hear a great storyteller tell great stories about one of America’s greatest authors. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities ** This Podcast Contains Explicit Language ** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nuclear power - revive it or allow a slow death? Today, about a hundred nuclear plants provide 20 percent of America’s electricity. Once touted as a modern power source, nuclear fell out of favor after a series of major accidents – most notably those at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. A handful of the plants that once dotted the landscape have been shuttered because they can’t compete with cheaper sources of power. By the end of the century, the industry was languishing. But the urgency of climate change causes some to advocate giving nuclear a new lease on life. A discussion about the health of the nuclear power industry today, and the 21 st century innovations that could point to a new path forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Through the adept facilitation of journalist Katie Hafner, the audience will hear directly from four expert panelists from four key service organizations that are helping to connect older adults at risk of social isolation. Village organizations, assisted living communities, phone line support services and senior centers are facing new challenges to support and connect at-risk older adults and disabled people in this time of social distancing and self-quarantine. Each of the four types of organizations is different. Learning how all four are working from different angles to meet the challenge of social isolation posed by this epidemic will give a sense of what is possible—and hopefully will generate ideas to open even more avenues for socialization. To bring it all together, Commonwealth Club president and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy will give us her family's firsthand perspective of living with her aging mother who suddenly finds herself separated from the groups and activities that would routinely bring connection

Thanks to the general shut-down and shelter-in-place orders, you're home—now what? We're talking with three TV and media critics about the television shows and movies that are worth your time. What classic movies should you watch? Where can you find them? Which TV series are worth binge viewing? What programs have you overlooked but now have the time to discover and enjoy? Join us for a fun and informative program to help us all get through these tough times. Notes This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The vulnerability of certain populations to the coronavirus COVID-19 has been well publicized—everyone knows seniors and people with asthma, diabetes and certain other conditions are in the most danger from the virus. But less well-known is the virus' impact on LGBTQI communities. Join us for a discussion with experts about how this virulent disease impacts this community, and submit your questions for our speakers on our YouTube livestream. This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors. We are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few individuals are as uniquely qualified to provide insight about the coronavirus pandemic as physician Dr. Margaret Hamburg. She is the past commissioner of Public Health for the city of New York, and also the past commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, having served as the chief U.S. official responsible for approving new drugs. She also sits on the board of the organization Ending Pandemics. Dr. Hamburg will be in conversation from Washington, D.C. with Dr. Gloria Duffy, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Club. They will cover the prospects and timing for drug treatments for the coronavirus, how the virus and policies to stop its spread will affect New York, who predicted a pandemic and what advice they gave, and how the coronavirus spread and lessons to learn to prevent future pandemics. Dr. Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine, and currently serves as foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine and chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative Bi

Join us virtually for a Monday Night Philosophy conversation with Kitty Ferguson about the life and scientific theories of Stephen Hawking, whom she first met in 1988. That encounter began her mid-life transition from being a professional singer, music teacher and Juilliard graduate to an explainer of difficult scientific concepts and Hawking’s biographer. We will also discuss her nine other books, which she wrote in the clearest possible manner, translating from the “language” of mathematicians, scientists, and other experts into the language of the rest of us, without dumbing down the ideas. There is nothing more Pythagorean than that combination of clarity, theoretical science and music, and Ferguson’s childhood and family life, even more than her formal education, prepared her well for merging all three talents. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us virtually for a conversation with Tamim Ansary about the patterns he sees in ancient civilizations and in current cultures derived from those historical developments. The four major rivers along which large-scale human civilizations began—the Nile, the Tigris–Euphrates, the Indus and the Huang He—each had characteristic traits that contributed to the underlying cultural assumptions our ancestors made about the nature of reality. Being who we are, mainly concerned with the world as seen through our own culture's eyes, for most of recorded history each major civilization has seen the other civilizations as peripheral players on this planet. Ansary shows how we have always been interconnected but that the speed at which that takes place in the 21st century has made many issues worldwide concerns requiring consensus on solutions, including climate change and the spread of deadly viruses. Ansary wants us to understand, in time, that each human civilization we have created mostly has points of similarity wi

Why does an invisible, life-threatening virus prompt a nationwide emergency, but invisible, life-threatening gases don’t? Experts have been emphasizing the dangers of unchecked climate change for years, underscoring the need for rapid, bold action early-on to avoid the worst impacts. Now health experts are pushing the same level of global mobilization to quell the spread of the novel coronavirus. Why are humans wired to respond to some fears and emergencies more than others? Can the reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic teach us anything about how humans respond to other invisible, global threats? Guests: Peter Atwater, Adjunct Professor of Economics, College of William & Mary Susan Clayton, Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology, College of Wooster Robert H. Frank, Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Additional interviews: Shannon Osaka, Climate Reporter, Grist This program was recorded at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on March 24, 2020. For full sh

In 2005, Andy Warner went to Beirut, Lebanon, for a semester studying literature. Just 21 years old and having recently broken up with his girlfriend, Warner immersed himself in the vibrant and diverse city, quickly befriending a group of LGBT students. Amid their friendships, studying and partying, they also witnessed political assassinations and bombings once again erupting in Beirut. As the city descended into violence, Warner felt his grasp on reality slowly beginning to slip as he dealt with past traumas and anxiety over his future. He recounts his experiences in the new graphic memoir Spring Rain, his third book. He is also author of the New York Times best seller Brief Histories of Everyday Objects and is co-creator of This Land Is My Land. His comics have been published by Slate, Fusion, American Public Media, KQED, UNICEF, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Buzzfeed and other media outlets. He was the recipient of the 2018 Berkeley Civic Arts Grant and the 2019 Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park arti

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) presents a discussion on the most pressing challenges to humanitarian assistance in the 21st century. Globally, 70.8 million people are considered forcibly displaced by armed conflict, and over 160 million people need emergency humanitarian assistance. Conflict has replaced natural disasters as the driver of humanitarian need—aid organizations are faced with navigating complicated security and political environments while meeting growing demand on the ground. In addition, new actors and increasingly urbanized conflict have strained the global acceptance and adherence to international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. The Humanitarian Agenda is an initiative that leverages the expertise of CSIS programs to explore complex humanitarian challenges. Jacob Kurtzer’s primary focus is the Task Force on Humanitarian Access, which will look at challenges in access to aid in complex man-made emergencies. Prior to joining CSIS, Kurtzer spent seven year

Monday Night Philosophy understands that we have explained life to ourselves in ways that have scared us silly for so long that it has become an engrained habit. Ironically, it's a habit we rather enjoy because fear often keeps us more alert than we'd otherwise be. But there are other ways to remain intellectually alert to the nuances of life that are not so debilitating. So tonight, join us via live stream, and we'll sort through those fears with the goal of understanding how unlikely it is that these fears are justified, eliminating those that are highly irrational and minimizing those that are merely ridiculous. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us virtually for a conversation about the pervasive impact Enlightenment ideas had on early American culture and how that changed the ways Americans pursued happiness in their New World. Caroline Winterer specializes in early American reactions to scientific ideas and Enlightenment attitudes, which raised new questions about plants, animals and rocks but also about politics and religion. It is hard to overestimate the influence of Americans' newly conceived relationship between the present and the past as it spurred far-flung conversations about a better future for all of humanity. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

American health care has seen dramatic changes over the past decade. Obamacare reduced the number of uninsured citizens, but rising prices and deductibles have made care unaffordable for many. Medicaid has become the nation’s largest payer and now pays for half of all long-term care. Now the coronavirus pandemic is challenging the health care system in unprecedented ways. All this is happening within the context of a presidential election within a highly polarized country. How will the health care system—and American voters—respond? Kaiser Family Foundation Senior Vice President Dr. Jennifer Kates will be joined by Dr. Josh Michaud, KFF’s associate director of global health policy. A former infectious disease epidemiologist with both the U.S. Department of Defense and the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Michaud is an expert on the types of models being used to forecast the arc of COVID-19 cases.They will discuss the current and probable future states of the pandemic and the responses by the government, health-c

Join us for a special edition of our Week to Week political roundtable as we talk with Debra J. Saunders, the White House correspondent for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and a syndicated columnist. For the past several years, Saunders has been reporting from the center of the political world, covering some of the biggest news stories and controversies in politics. Before that, of course, she was a long-time conservative columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle—and one of the first panelists to appear on the Week to Week political roundtable. Don't miss this in-depth talk with Saunders about her career, the current political scene and being a White House correspondent who comes down with symptoms of coronavirus. Because this is a virtual program, we won't have our usual member social hour beforehand, so feel free to pour yourself a glass of wine, put your feet up and enjoy watching the program—unless you're at the office, in which case that might be frowned upon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho

Addressing the climate challenge requires incremental and transformational change on both personal and systemic levels. That means altering our personal habits as citizens, consumers, employees and parents. At the same time, society needs to fundamentally modernize the food, transportation, building and energy systems. That mind-blowing amount of change is so daunting, it’s no wonder people want to skip away into the happy land of denial. How should we think about change — and how do our words shape our behavior? Where does change really begin? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices