Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Legendary primatologist Jane Goodall died on October 1. In a 2024 conversation on the Climate One stage with Co-Host Greg Dalton, the indefatigable Goodall was focused on three intertwined crises: biodiversity loss, climate change and environmental inequity. Her message from that night still resonates: Vote like your children’s lives depend on it — because they do.  Guests: Jane Goodall, Ethologist, conservationist For show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org⁠. **** 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 connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. ⁠Sign up today⁠. Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we move from punishment to possibility? From cycles of incarceration to lasting opportunity? Join us for an urgent and inspiring evening as part of Commonwealth Club World Affairs’ Social Impact Forum. "The Art of Second Chances" will highlight community-driven interventions—rooted in healing, education, and economic empowerment—that create real second chances and pave the way for collective liberation and greater public safety. Too often, people who fall into the justice system were overlooked in their youth, denied the opportunities, connection, and support they needed to thrive. The cost of that neglect shows up in families torn apart, communities destabilized, and lives lost to a system that punishes more than it heals. But there is another way. Our panel brings together changemakers from law, philanthropy, faith, and advocacy—alongside voices with lived experience—who are transforming systems through bold, community-rooted solutions. Together, they will explore how investing in people, not prisons can create safer, stronger, and more just communities. About the Speakers Mano Raju is the elected public defender of San Francisco. He completed his undergraduate work at Columbia University, earned a Master’s degree in South Asian studies from UC Berkeley, and received his law degree at UC Berkeley Law. New Breath Foundation President and Founder Eddy Zheng has been bridging communities for decades, particularly among Black, Asian American, formerly incarcerated, immigrant, and refugee groups. He is the subject of the award-winning documentary Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story and has been featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, The New Yorker, PBS, NPR, The Guardian, SXSW, and other national media outlets. Reverend Sonya Y. Brunswick, affectionately known as “Pastor Sonya,” is senior pastor of Greater Life Foursquare Church in San Francisco and visionary leader of Brunswick Leadership Group. Moderator Virginia Cheung is co-chair of the Social Impact Member-Led Forum at the Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California and co-founder and vice president of the Give a Beat Foundation, a nonprofit that uses music and the arts to reduce recidivism and create opportunities for incarcerated and justice-impacted individuals. A Social Impact 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. Organizer: Virginia Cheung  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finding one's voice in climate action can come in many forms. Author and activist Taylor Brorby grew up in Center, North Dakota as a fourth-generation member of a fossil-fuel family. He struggled to find his place as a young gay kid who loved art, music, nature and poetry. Over time, he turned that tension into writing that challenges the fossil fuel industry, makes space for others stuck in a broken system, and inspires a more just future.  Suzie Hicks felt the weight of climate concerns but after college, didn’t know what to do with those feelings. After doing an internship at the New England Aquarium, they realized they could merge their love of performing with a career focused on climate. With the help of a sunflower puppet named Sprout, Suzie created a children’s show that teaches kids about climate change through a frame of possibility and hope, not doom and gloom.  Guests: Taylor Brorby, Activist, Author, “Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land” Suzie Hicks, Climate Media Maker and Educator Episode Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 00:30 – New York Climate Week recap 02:20 – Taylor Brorby describes the N.D. town where he grew up 05:00 – What he learned from the prairie landscape 07:30 – Other queer writers from the Great Plains 13:30 – Influential environmental writers 17:00 – Writing optimistically rather than dystopian narratives 20:00 – Getting arrested protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline 25:30 – Why we need to be supporting rural writers 30:00 – Project Tundra, a carbon capture project near Center, N.D. 34:00 – Origins of Suzie Hicks, the Climate Chick 36:30 – It’s okay to have complicated feelings about climate change 40:00 – Working with kid’s existing love for nature in educating them about climate change 42:00 – Why introduce kids to climate change? Because it’s already happening. 47:00 – How Hicks sees her role as a positive storyteller around climate change 52:00 – Climate One More Thing For show notes and related links, visit ⁠⁠ClimateOne.org⁠⁠. *** 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 connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. ⁠Sign up today⁠. Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for Dan Wang’s talk about the issues raised in his new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, which has been called a riveting, firsthand investigation of China’s seismic progress, its human costs, and what it means for America. For close to a decade, technology analyst Wang―“a gifted observer of contemporary China” (Ross Douthat)―has been living through the country’s astonishing, messy progress. China’s towering bridges, gleaming railways, and sprawling factories have improved economic outcomes in record time. But rapid change has also sent ripples of pain throughout the society. This reality―political repression and astonishing growth―is not a paradox, but rather a feature of China’s engineering mindset. Wang blends political, economic, and philosophical analysis with reportage to reveal a provocative new framework for understanding China―one that can help us see America more clearly, too. While China is an engineering state, relentlessly pursuing megaprojects, the United States has stalled. America has transformed into a lawyerly society, reflexively blocking everything, good and bad. Mixing analysis with storytelling, Wang offers a gripping portrait of a nation in flux. He traverses metropolises like Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, where the engineering state has created not only dazzling infrastructure but also a sense of optimism. The book also exposes the downsides of social engineering, including the surveillance of ethnic minorities, political suppression, and the traumas of the one-child policy and zero-COVID. In an era of animosity and mistrust, Wang unmasks the shocking similarities between the United States and China. He reveals how each country points toward a better path for the other: Chinese citizens would be better off if their government could learn to value individual liberties, while Americans would be better off if their government could learn to embrace engineering―and to produce better outcomes for the many, not just the few. About the Speaker Dan Wang is a research fellow at the Hoover History Lab at Stanford University. He was previously a fellow at the Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center and the technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics. Wang is the author of an annual letter from China and has published essays in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, New York magazine and The Atlantic. Organizer: Lillian Nakagawa  This program is supported by the Ken & Jaclyn Broad Family Fund. An Asia-Pacific Affairs 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 can be difficult to figure out where to start or what needs to change when we seek to increase the happiness in our lives. There are lots of people with ideas and plans, but what does science have to say?The UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center has drawn on its popular “The Science of Happiness” course and podcast to produce a book called The Science of Happiness Workbook. It includes short, step-by-step practices people can incorporate into their lives—many that can take only 5 or 10 minutes to do. It’s about cultivating the skills and traits that research demonstrates could help people feel happier and more connected to others, from self-compassion to awe to empathy to purpose. It also includes quizzes, tips for overcoming obstacles, and inspiring stories.Join us at Commonwealth World Affairs to hear from Workbook authors Kira M. Newman, Jill Suttie and Shuka Kalantari about cultivating greater well-being and stronger relationships.About the Speakers Shuka Kalantari is the executive producer of the award-winning podcast "The Science of Happiness," which shares narrative stories and research-backed practices to support personal growth, stronger communities, and a healthier environment. Before this, Kalantari worked as a journalist reporting on health disparities in marginalized communities around the world. Her work has appeared on NPR, "The World" from PRX, WNYC’s "The Takeaway," KQED Public Radio, HuffPost, Vice, and more. Kira M. Newman is the managing editor of Greater Good magazine at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. Her work has been published in a variety of outlets, including The Washington Post, HuffPost, Mindful magazine, and TED Ideas, and she is co-editor of The Gratitude Project(New Harbinger, 2020). She has created large communities around the science of happiness, including the online course "The Year of Happy" and the CaféHappy meetup in Toronto, Canada. Newman is also a personal trainer at New Element Training and was previously a technology journalist and editor for Tech.Co. Jill Suttie, Psy.D., is a staff writer and contributing editor for Greater Good magazine, where she translates scientific findings on compassion, altruism, forgiveness, mindfulness, awe, and more, providing tips for personal and social well-being. She also writes about the impacts of bias, technology, nature, music, and social policy on individual mental health, relationships, and society. Outside of Greater Good, her writing has appeared in the Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Mindful, and Yes! magazine, among others, and she’s been a featured podcast speaker. A musician in her spare time, she has two CDs of original songs that can be found at jillsuttie.com. Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. Photos courtesy the speakers. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Daniel Lurie was sworn in as San Francisco’s 46th mayor in January, he called for "the beginning of a new era of accountability and change at City Hall." Born and raised in the city, Lurie made his name as founder of the Tipping Point Community, a grant-making, anti-poverty nonprofit. During the campaign, Lurie pledged to fix homelessness, improve public safety, and revitalize downtown, among other promises.  In July, after six months in office, the mayor said that he had restructured city government to better provide services, and pointed to progress on crime and a reduction in street encampments. But many challenges remain, including a drug overdose epidemic, an affordability crisis, and a retail vacancy problem. Mayor Lurie joins Commonwealth Club World Affairs to talk about his experience in office so far, and to share his vision for the future of the city. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you tap into your hidden intelligence and transform your life? The Army might be able to show you how. If you’ve ever wondered where such visionary creatives and decision-makers such as Steve Jobs, Vincent van Gogh, Abraham Lincoln, Maya Angelou, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Warren Buffett, and William Shakespeare get their extraordinary mental abilities, join us for an intriguing talk with Angus Fletcher, professor at The Ohio State University. Researchers at Ohio State’s Project Narrative in 2021 said they have an answer: primal intelligence—something that cannot be found in computers but is in humans and can be strengthened. In response, U.S. Army Special Operations incorporated primal training for its most classified units; according to Fletcher, they saw the future faster, healed more quickly from trauma, and chose more wisely in life-and-death situations. The Army then authorized trials on civilians—entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, managers, coaches, teachers, investors, and NFL players. Their leadership and innovation reportedly improved significantly; they coped better with change and uncertainty, and they experienced less anger and anxiety. Then the Army provided primal training to college and K–12 classrooms, where it is said to have produced substantial effects in students as young as eight. Fletcher has brought this training to a wider audience in his new book Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know. Join us as he shares what he learned about this approach to using your brain—you just might end up thinking more like Jobs, Lincoln and Shakespeare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For about a millennium and a half, between 250 BC and A.D. 1200, India was a confident exporter of its own diverse civilizations, creating an empire of ideas, to a world that was a willing and eager recipient of a startlingly comprehensive mass transfer of Indian soft power. From religion such as Buddhism to mathematics that introduced the idea of zero, infinity, algebra, trigonometry to astronomy that proposed a spherical earth rotating on its own axis and trade, that Pliny the Elder complained drained the wealth of Rome into Indian pockets, Indian ideas infected the world.  In The Golden Road, William Dalrymple, draws on a lifetime of scholarship to give a name to the spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire, to the creation of the numerals we use today, Dalrymple shares the soaring history of how India transformed the culture and technology of the ancient world, and in doing so, the world today as we know it. About the Speaker William Benedict Hamilton-Dalrymple CBE, is a noted historian and best-selling author of nine books; the most recent, The Anarchy, was a finalist for the Cundill History Prize and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2019. He is also one of the co-founders and co-directors of the world's largest writers' festival, the annual Jaipur Literature Festival. Dalrymple's books have won numerous awards and prizes, including the Wolfson Prize for History, the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, the Hemingway, the Kapuściński, the Arthur Ross Medal of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. He writes regularly for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books and The Guardian. The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. An Asia-Pacific Affairs Member-led Forum program. Forums and chapters 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. Dalrymple photo by Debbie Mitra Singh; courtesy the publisher. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. Organizer: Kalidip Choudhury  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On 9/11, the United States suffered the deadliest terrorist attack in its history, an event that reshaped American foreign policy for generations to come. In the years that followed, the Global War on Terror consumed national focus, leaving little room to craft a broader grand strategy that addressed rising global powers, shifting alliances, and emerging challenges across the Transatlantic region, the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific, the African continent, and the Western Hemisphere. As a result, U.S. statesmen, scholars, and policymakers now find themselves in search of a strategic framework on par with Cold War-era containment. Others argue there is no coherent “Trump Doctrine” at all—just a series of reactive shocks. In this timely and thought-provoking address, Dr. Kiron Skinner will offer a clear-eyed assessment of the current state of U.S. foreign policy. Attendees can expect a rigorous, nonpartisan exploration of the facts and frameworks shaping America's role on the world stage today. This program is part of our American Values Series, underwritten by Taube Philanthropies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Within the federal government, science — especially climate science — has taken a beating. The Trump administration has moved from climate denial to climate erasure, firing thousands of career scientists across departments, rolling back established landmark protections, and undermining its own authority to regulate pollutants like carbon emissions. Even at the UN General Assembly, Trump referred to green energy as a “scam” and said climate science came from “stupid people.”  But climate scientists aren’t all taking it lying down. From former EPA researchers to independent academics, many are heroically maintaining open-access databases and continuing fundamental research like the National Climate Assessment without the administration’s blessing. Guests:  Brandon Jones, President, American Geophysical Union Wes Ingwersen, Lead, Cornerstone Sustainability Data Initiative Rachel Cleetus, Senior Policy Director, Climate and Energy, Union of Concerned Scientists For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org. Episode Highlights: 00:00 - Introduction 3:23 - Brandon Jones on how the Trump administration has treated science 6:35 - Brandon Jones on what’s next for scientists who were laid off 10:58 - Brandon Jones on continuing to collect climate data   13:18 - Wes Ingwersen on the creation of USEEIO 22:24 - Wes Ingwersen on how EPA changed when Lee Zeldin took over 31:24 - Wes Ingwersen on when EPA employees decided to speak out 37:31 - Wes Ingwersen on taking his work to Stanford  42:28 - Rachel Cleetus on DOE climate report  51:27 - Rachel Cleetus on agency staff cuts 60:40 - Rachel Cleetus on how the scientific community is responding  *** 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 connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices