Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Now making appearances on the film festival circuit, "Boy Culture: The Series" is a follow-up to the 2006's Boy Culture—the movie of the novel by the same name first published in the mid-1990s. In six brand-new 15-minute episodes, the series tells the story of X, portrayed by Derek Magyar, his roommate Andrew (Darryl Stephens), and their struggles. Join us for an exclusive conversation with Matthew Rettenmund, author of the book and the series, for a look at tackling controversial topics, filmmaking during a pandemic, his career as an LGBTQ author, crowdfunding a budget, and much more.Besides Boy Culture, Rettenmund is the author of Encyclopedia Madonnica, Blind Items: A (Love) Story and MLVC 60. He has forgotten more information about Madonna than most of us will ever know. He was also the founder and longtime editor of Popstar! magazine, and he blogs regularly at boyculture.com.Note: This program contains EXPLICIT language.SPEAKERSMatthew RettenmundAuthor, Boy Culture, Blind Items & Encyclopedia Madonnica 20; Blogger, Boyculture.com; Twitter @mattrettJohn ZippererProducer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club of California—Co-hostMichelle MeowProducer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show" on KBCW/KPIX TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow—Co-HostIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 16th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulitzer Prize-winner George F. Will has been one of this country’s leading columnists since 1974 and, as The Wall Street Journal once called him, “perhaps the most powerful journalist in America.” In his new collection titled American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008–2020, Will offers an in-depth account of a remarkably chaotic 13 years in our nation’s experience through his analysis of an impressively vast array of topics.In this stirring examination, George Will reveals the ways in which expertise, reason and manners are continually under attack in our institutions, courts, political arenas and social venues. Will covers topics including his perspective on American socialists, anti-capitalist conservatives, drug policy, the criminal justice system, climatology and the coronavirus.Join us as we delve into this stunning account of American politics and culture from one of the preeminent columnists and intellectuals of our time.SPEAKERSGeorge F. WillColumnist, The Washington Post; Author, American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020In Conversation with Jonathan V. LastEditor, The BulwarkIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 17th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Film and television director Barry Sonnenfeld has outrageous and hilarious stories to tell—from his idiosyncratic upbringing in New York City to his breaking into film as a cinematographer with the Coen brothers to his unexpected career as the director behind such huge film franchises as The Addams Family and Men in Black and beloved work such as Get Shorty, Pushing Daises and A Series of Unfortunate Events.Barry Sonnenfeld's philosophy is, "Regret the Past. Fear the Present. Dread the Future." Will Smith once joked that he wanted to take Sonnenfeld to Philadelphia public schools and say, "If this guy could end up as a successful film director on big budget films, anyone can." Come for an engaging conversation that will inspire anyone who thinks they can't succeed in life because of a rough beginning.SPEAKERSBarry SonnenfeldDirector, Men in Black, Addams Family, Get Shorty; Author, Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic FilmmakerIn Conversation with John BolandPresident Emeritus, KQED; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of GovernorsIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on July 21st, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new book Say It Loud, acclaimed Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy chronicles his reactions over the past quarter-century to arguments, events and people that have compelled him to put pen to paper.Three beliefs that are sometimes in tension with one another infuse these pages. First, Professor Kennedy says a massive amount of cruel racial injustice continues to beset the United States, an ugly reality that Kennedy says has become alarmingly obvious with the ascendancy of Donald J. Trump and the various political, cultural and social pathologies that he and many of his followers display and reinforce. Second, Kennedy observes there is much about which to be inspired when surveying the African American journey from slavery to freedom to engagement in practically every aspect of life in the United States. Third, he says an openness to complexity, paradox and irony should attend any serious investigation of human affairs.Join a compelling conversation with this acclaimed legal scholar and public intellectual about what the past 25 years tell us about the future of race relations in America.SPEAKERSRandall KennedyMichael R. Klein Professor, Harvard Law School; Author, Say It LoudIn Conversation with Sheryl DavisExecutive Director, San Francisco Human Rights CommissionIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 15th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prior to the COVID–19 pandemic, many cities, particularly in the United States, were experiencing somewhat of a renaissance. Population was increasing, abandoned areas were being redeveloped into walkable neighborhoods, crime was dropping, and public spaces were engaging both a new generation of citizens and an older cohort who had moved to cities for the first time. In many ways, cities were fulfilling the vision of renowned urban economist Edward Glaeser as places that were the healthiest, greenest and richest (in both cultural and economic terms) places to live, and as areas that were rich in creativity and innovation.The 18 months since March 2020 have tremendously challenged this rosy view of cities, and today cities like San Francisco stand at an unexpected crossroads. During the global coronavirus crisis, cities grew silent as many office workers worked from home—if they could work at all. The normal forms of socializing ground to a halt. Theaters and restaurants were quiet, and cultural arts organizations scaled back public programming. Things were supposed to return to normal for cities this fall, but the delta variant of the coronavirus has raised new questions about urban life: How permanent are these changes? Advances in digital technology mean that many people can opt out of city life as never before. Will they? Are we on the brink of an unexpected, post-urban world?In their new book, Glaeser and his Harvard colleague David Cutler explore the future of cities. Though they believe city life will survive overall, individual cities face terrible risks, and a wave of urban failure could pose a threat not only to urban residents of particular cities but to all of those who rely on them. Glaeser and Cutler examine the evolution that is under way and describe the possible urban futures that lie before us: What will distinguish the cities that will flourish once again from the ones that won’t? The authors discuss San Francisco in the book and how COVID-19 allowed for wealthy citizens to flee the city in search of more space to do remote work.Please join us for an important conversation on the future of cities, and what it means for the future of the country.SPEAKERSEdward GlaeserFred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Co-author, Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of IsolationDavid CutlerOtto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics, Harvard University. Co-author, Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of IsolationAlicia John-BaptistePresident and CEO, SPUR—ModeratorIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 14th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transforming your life can be easier than you think. In his New York Times best selling book, Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything, a world-renowned expert on habit formation shares his groundbreaking methods for the first time in print.A behavior scientist at Stanford University, BJ Fogg combines his academic research with his massive real-world experience (he has personally coached more than 40,000 people) to create a book full of new insights about how he says behavior really works. With true stories and concise examples, Fogg shares his systematic approach to design for lasting change using his simple and effective methods, including his trademarked Tiny Habits Method. No willpower required. You might be pleasantly surprised to learn about a major theme in this book: People change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad.In this talk, Fogg will explain how to tap into the precise emotion that will build new habits and ultimately transform your life. A lively speaker and an award-winning teacher, Fogg’s playful approach will surprise you—in the best way. You’ll discover why this landmark book is on so many reading lists.MLF ORGANIZERPatty JamesNOTESMLF: Health & MedicineSPEAKERSDr. BJ FoggPh.D., Behavior Scientist; Director of Research and innovation, Behavior Design Lab, Stanford UniversityPatty JamesChair, Health & Medicine Member-Led Forum, The Commonwealth Club—ModeratorIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 14th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On August 27, 2010, three CIA officers met with then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. Their secret session revealed a courier with deep Al Qaeda ties who had been tracked to a three-story, heavily protected fortress at the end of a dead end street in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Without ever having to say the name bin Laden, there exists a mutual understanding that finally, after nearly a decade, they may have just found the world’s most wanted man.In Countdown bin Laden, celebrated journalist and anchor of "Fox News Sunday" Chris Wallace delivers a thrilling account of the final 8 months of intelligence gathering, national security strategizing, and meticulous military planning that leads to the climactic mission when SEAL Team Six closes in on its target. Wallace reveals new information collected from in-depth interviews with more than a dozen central figures—including Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the special operator who killed bin Laden. Personal accounts from families who fell victim to 9/11 and relatives of SEAL Team Six are brought to life in Wallace’s narrative, published on the 20th anniversary of the most consequential terrorist attack in American history.Join us as Chris Wallace brings us fresh reporting about the race to apprehend and bring to justice the architect of 9/11.SPEAKERSChris WallaceAnchor, "Fox News Sunday"; Author, Countdown bin Laden: The Untold Story of the 247-Day Hunt to Bring the Mastermind of 9/11 to JusticeIn Conversation with Kirk HansonSenior Fellow and Former Executive Director, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara UniversityIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 14th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed millions, infected hundreds of millions, and laid bare the deep vulnerabilities and inequalities of our interconnected world. The ensuing economic collapse was the worst since the Great Depression, undoing more than two decades of progress in reducing extreme poverty. Tensions between the United States and China boiled over, and the worldwide contest between democracy and authoritarianism deepened. At a time when this global crisis required a truly collective response, international cooperation had almost entirely broken down, with key world leaders hardly on speaking terms.In Thomas Wright and Colin Kahl’s Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order, the two national security experts offer a definitive account of the global impact of COVID-19, the political shock waves it will have on the United States, and myriad ways in which the crisis exposed the limitations of the old world order. This comprehensive account of the year 2020 draws on interviews with officials around the world and extensive research to tell the story of how nationalism and major power rivalries constrained the response to the worst pandemic in a century.Co-author Thomas Wright is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He has written several extensively researched pieces analyzing Donald Trump’s foreign policy.Join us as Thomas Wright delves into his latest analysis of one of the strangest and most consequential years on record.SPEAKERSThomas WrightSenior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Co-author, Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International OrderIn Conversation with Edward LuceAssociate Editor, Financial TimesIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 13th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a revolutionary new vision of human biology and the scientific breakthroughs that will transform our lives. Professor Daniel M. Davis shows how radical new possibilities are becoming realities thanks to the visionary efforts of scientists who are revealing the invisible and secret universe within each of us.Focusing on six important frontiers, Davis describes what we are learning about cells, the development of the fetus, the body's immune system, the brain, the microbiome, and the genome — areas of human biology that are usually understood in isolation. Bringing them together, Davis offers a new vision of the human body as a biological wonder of dizzying complexity and possibility.SPEAKERSDaniel M. DavisPh.D., Professor of Immunology, University of Manchester (UK); Author, The Secret Body. How the New Science of The Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live; The Beautiful Cure and The Compatibility GeneRobert Lee KilpatrickPh.D., Chair, Health & Medicine Member-Led Forum, Commonwealth Club of California—ModeratorIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 17th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This September marks the 50th anniversary of the seminal work Diet for a Small Planet, in which Frances Moore Lappé argued that cattle constitute “a protein factory in reverse.” Lappé’s book inspired countless people to adopt vegetarian diets for environmental reasons. But in the last 50 years the industrial food systems in America have only grown bigger and more concentrated, and – as the Lappés would argue – more powerful. Together with her daughter Anna Lappé, author of Diet for a Hot Planet, the two now focus on the intersections between democracy, environment, food, and justice. “It's really important that we understand that in order to change our food environment, we need to really work to get money out of politics, and we really need to work on how to take on that kind of consolidated power in the industry,” Anna Lappé says.  Guests:Frances Moore Lappé, author, Diet for a Small Planet Anna Lappé, author, Diet for a Hot PlanetAnalena Hope Hassberg, Associate Professor, Ethnic and Women's Studies Department, California State Polytechnic University, PomonaRuth Richardson, Executive Director, Global Alliance for the Future of Food Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices