Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

In 2020, The Peace Corps recalled every volunteer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since that moment, the National Peace Corps Association, a 501(c)(3) enterprise, has held many town hall meetings, advocacy meetings, consultations with congressional representatives and senators, and more to help bring back into the field a Peace Corps that is stronger, more responsive to social needs, more diverse and more robust. While NPCA is not a government agency, it has worked tirelessly with the Peace Corps, a government agency, to help launch a new vision. NPCA President Glenn Blumhorst will discuss the future of this important agency and how it will be better and more important than before.Blumhorst is the president and CEO of the National Peace Corps Association, an enterprise at the center of a community of more than 180 grassroots affiliate groups and 235,000 individuals who share the Peace Corps experience. Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., NPCA’s mission is “to champion lifelong commitment to Peace Corps ideals.” During his tenure, Blumhorst has led NPCA’s historic transformation from a dues-based alumni association to a community-driven social impact organization.He also served as country representative and chief of party on several major USAID-funded projects throughout Central and South America.Blumhorst launched his career by serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1988 to 1991. He holds a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious University of Missouri Faculty-Alumni Award.SPEAKERSGlenn BlumhorstPresident and CEO, National Peace Corps AssociationFrank Price Moderator, International Relations MLF Co-Chair In 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 August 4th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Americans owe more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, almost $700 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt. Student loans have proved to be one of the most pressing problems young Americans face, and critics say the college industry is in part to blame. Originally, well-intentioned government reforms for college access quickly turned into reckless lending and runaway tuition. Easy access to loans allowed colleges to raise tuition to soaring levels. Even the private banks that fronted the money made huge profits on interest. Together, everyone in this business formed an exploitative system that relies on students failing to pay back their debt.In his new book The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe, Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Mitchell uncovers the broken student loan system that was created, and then exploited, by loan company Sallie Mae and the United States Congress. He explains what he says are the ill-advised decisions made that drove Americans into massive debt and continue to wreak havoc today.SPEAKERSJosh MitchellEconomy and Higher Education Reporter, The Wall Street Journal; Author, The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National CatastropheIn Conversation with Bethany McLeanContributing Editor, Vanity FairIn 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 August 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christian. Pastor. Transgender. Join us to hear from Dr. Paula Stone Williams about her experience journeying from male to female and from despair to joy.As a father of three, married to a wonderful woman and holding several prominent jobs within the Christian community, Dr. Paula Stone Williams made the life-changing decision to physically transition from male to female at the age of sixty. Almost instantly, her power and influence in the evangelical world disappeared and her family had to grapple with intense feelings of loss and confusion.Feeling utterly alone and at a loss after being expelled from the evangelical churches she had once spearheaded, Paula struggled to create a new safe space for herself where she could reconcile her faith, her identity, and her desire to be a leader. Much to her surprise, the key to her new career as a woman came with a deeper awareness of the inequities she had overlooked before her transition. Where her opinions were once celebrated and amplified, now she found herself sidelined and ignored. New questions emerged. Why are women’s opinions devalued in favor of men’s? Why does love and intimacy feel so different? And was it possible to find a new spirituality in her own image?In her book As a Woman, Paula pulled back the curtain on her transition journey and shed light on the gendered landscape that impacts many in the LGBTQ+ community. Williams shares her lived experience of both genders and offers a truly unique perspective on the universal struggle to understand what it means to be male, female, and simply, human.SPEAKERSPaula Stone WilliamsPastor, Left Hand Church (Longmont, CO); Author, As a WomanMichelle MeowProducer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow—Co-HostJohn ZippererProducer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—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 August 12th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In early August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report unequivocally connecting global warming and extreme weather to human-driven greenhouse gas emissions, and warning of much more dramatic climate futures if we don’t change course soon.Since the 2020 election, Rich Thau’s Swing Voter Project has been querying those who shifted from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020 about a range of issues. How will their views affect the 2022 midterms and the 2024 election? Where does climate rate on their list of issues? And does the accelerating climate crisis matter enough to affect their votes?Guests:Rich Thau, Moderator, The Swing Voter Project; Co-founder and President, Engagious Andrew Freedman, Climate and Energy Reporter, AxiosVenkatachalam “Ram” Ramaswamy, Director of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WeWork revolutionized working spaces. By investing in commercial real estate and converting property into flexible shared workspaces, WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann was set to transform the way people get work done. The company offered more than shared space, investing in education and housing initiatives through its WeGrow schools and WeLive residences. Israeli businessman Adam Neumann was on track to become the world’s first trillionaire, but the company soon found itself burning through money with a last hope attempt through a Hail Mary IPO.From the minds of Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, The Cult of We uncovers the wins, hiccups, and turmoil of tech startups. Eliot Brown has spent his career covering startups, venture capital, commercial real estate and economic development. Similarly, Maureen Farrell focuses on the role of initial public offerings and capital markets in creating a successful business. Together, Brown and Farrell delve into the case of WeWork founder Adam Neumann to better understand how startups can revolutionize the world and what happens when they fail to do so.Join us as Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, along with program moderator Charles Duhigg, uncover the gripping reality of tech startup culture.SPEAKERSEliot BrownReporter, The Wall Street Journal; Co-author, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion; Twitter @eliotwbMaureen FarrellReporter, The Wall Street Journal; Co-author, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion; Twitter @maureenmfarrellIn Conversation with Charles DuhiggContributor, The New Yorker; Author, Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real ProductivityIn 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 August 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement. Over its 90 years, the California Book Awards have honored the writers who have come to define California to the world. Among them are John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, MFK Fisher, Thom Gunn, Richard Rodriquez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joan Didion, Ishmael Reed, and Amy Tan. Recent award winners include Hector Tobar, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Susan Orlean, Rachel Kushner, Rachel Khong, Tommy Orange, Morgan Parker and Steph Cha.This year’s winners include:GOLD MEDALSFICTIONA Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel Mason, Little, Brown and Company FIRST FICTIONHow Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang, Riverhead BooksNONFICTIONSouth to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, Alice L. Baumgartner, Basic BooksJUVENILEEfrén Divided, Ernesto Cisneros, Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins PublishersYOUNG ADULTPrivate Lessons, Cynthia Salaysay, Candlewick PressPOETRYQuiet Orient Riot, Nathalie Khankan, Omnidawn CALIFORNIANACalifornia Exposures: Envisioning Myth and History, Richard White, with photos by Jesse Amble White, W.W. Norton & Company CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHINGA Natural History of the Anza-Borrego Region, Marie Simovich and Mike Wells, Sunbelt PublicationsSILVER MEDALSFICTIONInterior Chinatown, Charles Yu, Pantheon/VintageNONFICTIONGolden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream, Conor Dougherty, Penguin PressYOUNG ADULTThe Black Kids, Christina Hammonds Reed, Simon & Schuster Books for Young ReadersSPEAKERSJulia Flynn SilerJuror, California Book Awards—ModeratorPeter FishJury Chair, California Book Awards—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 August 16th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Courtney E. Martin is an author, organizer and entrepreneur known for provocative writing and for helping found important content-based organizations that help tell the story of America's diverse future. She is the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers Bureau, and often works with organizations—TED, the Aspen Institute, The Obama Foundation, and The Sundance Institute—on how to make impactful, story-rich social change.Her newest book, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School, explores her own story about finding the right school for her daughter in Oakland. While many of the white families in her gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school near her home, she chose differently. Moving beyond hashtags and yard signs as a way to make a difference, Courtney discovered that her local public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, was a powerful place to dig deeper to change the country, herself and her family.Martin examines her own fears, assumptions and conversations with other parents as they navigate choosing what school is right for their child. The book provides a vivid portrait of integration’s virtues and complexities, and yes, the palpable joy of trying to live differently in a country re-making itself around racial issues.Please join us for an important conversation on education, integration and how the schools we choose for our kids can shape the world we live in and the world we want.** Note: This Podcast Contains Explicit Language **SPEAKERSCourtney MartinCo-founder, Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers Bureau; Editor, "Examined Family" Newsletter; Author, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's SchoolAshley McBrideEducation Equity Reporter, The Oaklandside--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 live stream video conference on August 3rd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Thursday morning, July 25, 2019, then-President Donald Trump made a congratulatory phone call to Ukraine’s newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the months that followed, the true nature of that conversation would be revealed to the American public due to the moral stance of one man: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Faced with a moment of truth for his nation, Vindman felt duty-bound to report it up the chain of command that the president of the United States had extorted a foreign ally to damage a political challenger at home. Now, for the first time, Alexander Vindman is telling his story of how he ended up at the center of a firestorm for his decision to report the infamous phone call that led to the presidential impeachment.As an immigrant raised by a father who fled the Soviet Union in pursuit of a better life for his children, Vindman had to learn how to build a life from scratch and take big risks to achieve important goals. In his new book, Here, Right Matters, he discusses how, in the face of sure-fire career derailment and intense public scrutiny, he put it all on the line to protect American democracy.Join us for Alexander Vindman’s passionate and candid account of his family, his career and his exposure of what he considered a grave abuse of power.SPEAKERSAlexander VindmanFormer Director for European Affairs, United States National Security Council; Author, Here, Right Matters: An American StoryIn Conversation with Tim MillerWriter-at-Large, The Bulwark; Political Analyst, MSNBC; Twitter @TimodcIn 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 August 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Liz Cheney serves as Wyoming’s lone member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was first elected in 2016, on a platform of restoring America’s strength and power in the world, and pursuing conservative solutions to create jobs, cut taxes and regulation as well as expand America’s energy, mining and agriculture industries.She made national headlines earlier this year when she voted to impeach President Trump, saying he "provoked" the January 6 Capitol attack. She has also vowed to fight to keep President Trump out of office if he runs again and has challenged all assertions by Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was fraudulent and stolen. This led to her removal as chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. She was also recently appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. In a Washington Postopinion column published this past May, Rep. Cheney wrote, “the Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution. . . .History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be."Join us for a rare in-person and online conversation with congresswoman Cheney about the outlook for American democracy.This program is part of The Commonwealth Club’s Future of Democracy Series, supported by Betsy and Roy Eisenhardt. SPEAKERSLiz CheneyU.S. Congressional Representative (R-Wyoming)In Conversation with Dan AshleyAnchor, ABC 7 News, San Francisco Bay Area; 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 August 17th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Established in 1981, the Council for National Policy has been the leading organization for wealthy, conservative decision makers to consolidate their power. This little-known coalition of elites is the strategic nerve center for fundraising money and mobilizing voters behind the scenes. Critics say that with its membership private and meetings held at an undisclosed location, the Council for National Policy has successfully made game plans and decisions steering the Republican Party in a process virtually unknown to the public. Award-winning author and media analyst Anne Nelson, however, is looking to demystify the elaborate organization.In her new book Shadow Network, Nelson uncovers the key fundamentalists, oligarchs and allies that comprise the powerhouse of the Council for National Policy. She reveals stories about the Koch brothers, radical right-wing organizations, the decline of local journalism, the race for digital engagement, and the fight over the information war. As a research scholar at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, Nelson has focused her work on the role of digital media in aiding underserved populations through health, education and culture. Now, in a time of stark and growing threats to our most valued institutions and democratic freedoms, Nelson looks to illuminate the clouded history behind the political coalition.Join us as Anne Nelson uncovers the conservative process that plays a significant role in shaping political outcomes today.SPEAKERSAnne NelsonJournalist, Author, Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical RightIn 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 May 26th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices