Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

School's out for the summer, but come fall, most students will be returning to in-person classrooms across the country. For some students, every day in school is another day of possible bullying by their peers. Join us for a discussion with a young award-winning filmmaker and actor on the impacts of peer bullying through the lens of LGBTQIA+ high school students. Kabir McNeely is an award-winning American actor who grew up in San Francisco. He has drawn international interest through his uniquely expressive and direct acting style. He began his acting career in 2015 when he played a supporting role in Ruth, a student short film. Since then, he has trained extensively with the American Conservatory Theater, where he also performed in their annual main stage production of A Christmas Carol in 2016 and in Urinetown: The Musical. In 2020, he wrote and directed the award-winning short film Blue Girl, in which he also appeared in. Throughout 2021, McNeely has had a steady stream of supporting roles in short films such as Family Story, Blue Girl 2025 and Pink Purple and Blue. He also gave an award-nominated lead performance in the short film Keith.SPEAKERSKabir McNeelyActor; Writer; Director; Twitter @kabirmcnMichelle 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 July 21st, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Constitution clearly states that Americans have the right to keep and bear arms, an argument often used to dispute proposed gun control legislation. However, historian Carol Anderson says that deeper analysis of the formation of the Second Amendment reveals ulterior, racialized motives to keep Black people powerless and oppressed. In her new book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America, Anderson uncovers the history behind the Second Amendment and argues that it was designed to keep African Americans vulnerable and subdued.As a professor of African American Studies at Atlanta's Emory University, Anderson’s research primarily focuses on how racial inequality affects the processes and outcomes of policymaking. In early America, slaves were prohibited from owning, carrying or using a firearm. She says this sentiment remains today as measures to expand and curtail gun ownership are aimed to keep the Black community neutralized and punished. In an era when many are reexamining government policy through a racial lens, Anderson sheds new light on another mysterious dimension of anti-Blackness in the United States.Join us in conversation with Carol Anderson to understand the connection between Blackness, gun ownership and racial equality.SPEAKERSDr. Carol AndersonPh.D., Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, Emory University; Author, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal AmericaIn Conversation with Melissa MurrayFrederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; Co-host, "Strict Scrutiny" PodcastIn 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

From clearing land for pasture to building dams, humans have long changed the face of the Earth. But Indian eco-feminist Vandana Shiva is highly critical of how we’ve changed our relationship with the land through industrial monocrop agriculture. She firmly opposes genetically modified crops, and has called seed patents “bio-piracy.” But it’s not just the technology she’s critical of. “I’m critical of the world view of arrogance. The worldview that came with colonialism, the mechanistic mindset of the conquering man being the creator of the earth and creator of the wealth,” Shiva says. Shiva argues for a renewed focus on biodiversity and regenerative agriculture to help solve the climate crisis.Guests:Vandana Shiva, director of the Foundation for Science, Technology & Ecology Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frankly, We Did Win This Election, authored by The Wall Street Journal’s senior White House reporter Michael Bender, reveals a deeply reported account of Donald J. Trump’s final year as president of the United States—from his first impeachment in January 2020 to his second almost exactly a year later.Bender chronicles Trump and his campaign team as they struggle through an epic convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ensuing economic collapse, and the civil rights upheaval that unraveled their reelection strategy. Bender’s refined sourcing brings readers within the walls of the White House for the inside story of how Trump lost, drawing a straight line from his presidency to his defeat and ultimately to the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol building.Bender joined The Wall Street Journal in 2016 and has since published more than 1,100 stories about Trump. He has been recognized for his coverage, receiving both the Gerald R. Ford Foundation Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency in 2019 as well as the National Press Club award for political analysis in 2020.Join Bender and moderator Maggie Haberman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from The New York Times, as they go into the exclusive details of how Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election.Note: This Program contains EXPLICIT languageSPEAKERSMichael BenderSenior White House Reporter, The Wall Street Journal; Author, Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost; Twitter @MichaelCBenderIn Conversation with Maggie HabermanWhite House Correspondent, The New York Times; Twitter @maggieNYTIn 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

The depths of the Jeffrey Epstein story may never have been known without the work of Florida investigative reporter Julie K. Brown. A reporter for the Miami Herald, Brown and her explosive reporting for the Herald helped bring Epstein to justice (before his death) while exposing the powerful people and broken system that protected him.For many years, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's penchant for teenage girls was an open secret in the high society of Palm Beach, Florida and Manhattan. Charged in 2008 with soliciting prostitution from minors, Epstein was treated with what critics called unheard-of leniency at the time. The media virtually ignored the failures of the criminal justice system, and Epstein's friends and business partners brushed the allegations aside. But when in 2017 the U.S. attorney who approved Epstein's plea deal, Alexander Acosta, was chosen by President Trump as labor secretary, Brown was compelled to ask questions that other journalists weren't.Despite her editor's skepticism that she could add a new dimension to a known story, Brown determined that her goal would be to track down the victims themselves. Poring over thousands of redacted court documents, traveling across the country and chasing down information in difficult and sometimes dangerous circumstances, Brown tracked down dozens of Epstein's victims, now young women struggling to reclaim their lives after the trauma and shame they had endured.Brown's resulting three-part series in the Miami Herald was one of the most explosive news stories of the decade, revealing how Epstein ran a global sex trafficking pyramid scheme with impunity for years, targeting vulnerable teens, often from fractured homes, and then turning them into recruiters. The outrage led to Epstein's arrest, the disappearance and eventual arrest of his closest accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and the resignation of Acosta. The financier's mysterious suicide in a New York City jail cell prompted wild speculation about the secrets he took to the grave—and whether his death was intentional or the result of foul play.Brown's new book, Perversion of Justice, builds on her original award-winning series, showing the power of truth, the value of local journalism and the tenacity of one woman in the face of the deep-seated corruption of powerful men. Julie Brown joins us virtually to discuss her role in the Epstein story and what it means for the media and the country.SPEAKERSJulie K. BrownInvestigative Reporter, Miami Herald; Author, Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story; (Participating Virtually)Robert RosenthalBoard Member, Center for Investigative Reporting—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 July 22nd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor William Drummond has had an impressive career as an educator and award-winning journalist. This includes stints at The (Louisville) Courier-Journal, where he covered the civil rights movement, and the Los Angeles Times, where he was a local reporter, then bureau chief in New Delhi and Jerusalem and later a Washington correspondent. Drummond was appointed a White House Fellow in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, worked briefly for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and eventually became associate press secretary to President Jimmy Carter. In 1977 he joined National Public Radio and became the founding editor of "Morning Edition."In 1983, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where in addition to teaching students, Drummond twice taught an introductory journalism course pro bono under auspices of the Prison University Project for dozens of inmates at San Quentin Prison.He and moderator Robert Rosenthal, who has visited inmates at San Quentin many times with a program called Guiding Rage into Power and also has had a remarkable career in journalism, will discuss how the prisoner-run newspaper San Quentin News was recalled to life under an enlightened warden and newspaper veterans, including Drummond. They will also discuss how the COVID crisis affected prisoners and prison staff.Drummond told the story of the San Quentin News in his book Prison Truth, revealing how the project helped transform the prison from a "living hell" into an environment to foster positive change in the inmates' lives. One reviewer wrote, "Prison Truth illustrates the power of prison media to eventually humanize the experiences of people inside penitentiary walls and to forge alliances with social justice networks seeking reform."Join us for this important discussion.MLF ORGANIZERCelia MenczelNOTESMLF: Middle EastSPEAKERSWilliam DrummondProfessor of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley; Author, Prison TruthRobert RosenthalBoard Member: Center for Investigative ReportingIn 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 22nd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why don’t we talk to strangers? What happens when we do? Joe Keohane argues that, if we do, it affects everything from our own health and well-being to the rise and fall of nations. In our cities, even before the pandemic, we stood on silent buses and subway cars, barely acknowledging one another, even as rates of loneliness skyrocketed. Online, we retreat into ideological silos reinforced by algorithms designed to serve us only familiar ideas. In our politics, we are increasingly consumed by the fear of people we’ve never met. But what if strangers—so often blamed for our most pressing political, social, and personal problems—are actually the solution?Keohane takes us on a journey to discover what happens when we bridge the distance between us and people we don’t know. And he finds that, while we are wired to sometimes fear, distrust and even hate strangers, people and societies that have learned to connect with strangers benefit immensely. Digging into a growing body of cutting-edge research on the surprising social and psychological benefits that come from talking to strangers, Keohane shows that even passing interactions can enhance empathy, happiness and cognitive development; ease loneliness and isolation; and root us in the world, deepening our sense of belonging and revealing that talking to strangers isn’t just a way to live. It’s a way to thrive.MLF ORGANIZERGeorge HammondNOTESMLF: HumanitiesSPEAKERSJoe KeohaneJournalist; Author, The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious WorldIn Conversation with George HammondAuthor, Conversations With SocratesIn 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

Trauma-informed care understands and considers the pervasive nature of trauma and promotes environments of healing and recovery rather than practices and services that may inadvertently re-traumatize. Dr. Darla Dixon is a licensed psychologist currently working as a trauma-informed care coordinator for the California Department of State Hospitals. She has also had the privilege of being socialized by the wraparound program early in her career where she learned and experienced the impact of being trauma-informed.MLF ORGANIZERPatrick O'ReillyNOTESMLF: PsychologySPEAKERSDr. Darla DixonPsychologist; Trauma-Informed Care Coordinator, California Department of State HospitalsPatrick O'ReillyClinical Psychologist; Chair Commonwealth Club Psychology Member-Led Forum—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 June 16th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Composer Benjamin Britten, a central figure of 20th-century British music (Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, Ceremony of Carols) and renowned tenor Peter Pears were together from 1939 until Britten’s death in 1976. During Britten’s lifetime, neither spoke publicly about their relationship or sexuality—homosexuality in England was illegal until its partial decriminalization in 1967.San Francisco-born and -based arts educator, performer, composer and conductor Cole Thomason-Redus presents an illuminating 21st century perspective on their musical partnership and private life. Cole is educational content curator in the Department of Diversity, Equity & Community at San Francisco Opera, where he is host of the weekly online series "Opera Aficionado." Cole has also been director of education for Chanticleer, curator of classical music at Apple, Inc., and classical music analyst for the Music Genome Project at Pandora Media, Inc.MLF ORGANIZERDr. Anne W. SmithNOTESMLF: ArtsSPEAKERSCole Thomason-RedusEducational Content Curator, Department of Diversity, Equity & Community, San Francisco Opera; Host, "Opera Aficionado"; Upper DivisioDirector, Marin Girls Chorus; Associate Conductor, National Children's ChorusIn 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 June 29th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States is famous for its car culture. But a hundred years ago, pedestrians didn’t want cars to take over the streets — and it took decades of pressure and lobbying by car companies to make them feel otherwise. Today, traffic jams, maintenance and pollution make cars more like the cigarette no one wants to quit. Urban areas have grown up and spread out along ever widening highways with parking spaces required for each new building, further entrenching the car into our lives and choking cities with smog.Public transit holds tremendous possibilities for reducing our transportation emissions while better moving people through cities. But there’s a lot to overcome when trying to change the mobility model in most American cities, starting with the lack of good public transit and the high costs of construction. How can we make good public transportation work in America?Guests:Peter Norton, associate professor of history at the University of Virginia;author of Fighting Traffic and AutonoramaEric Goldwyn, assistant professor at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management; co-founder of the Transit Costs ProjectAmanda Eaken, director of transportation for the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge at the Natural Resources Defense Council Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices