Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

On August 10, 2018, veteran FBI agent Peter Strzok was fired after personal text messages from 2016 disparaging then-candidate Donald Trump were released. President Trump celebrated, writing on Twitter “Fired FBI Agent Peter Strzok is a fraud, as is the rigged investigation he started. There was no Collusion or Obstruction with Russia, and everybody, including the Democrats, know it.” But Strzok’s story is anything but straightforward. He led the FBI’s investigation into both Hillary Clinton’s private email server and Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, drawing the ire of conservative allies of the president. When his text messages were released, they provided ammunition for the conspiracy theory of a “deep state” out to undermine Trump’s presidency. Join Strzok as he tells his side of one of the 21st century’s most explosive stories. He’ll draw on lessons from a long career in law enforcement and explain why he’s convinced that the commander in chief has fallen under the sway of America’s adversary in the Kremlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary-Frances Winters will discuss the ideas in her new book, Black Fatigue, How Racism Erodes Mind, Body and Spirit, which will be published by BK Publishing this fall. The book describes a phenomenon Black people know well: the multifaceted physical and psychological damage wrought by simply living, day by day in a racist society. This is a vital resource for Black and non-Black people looking for ways to heal, learn and have productive and supportive conversations about racial injustice and trauma. NOTES MLF: Technology & Society Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us virtually for a conversation with Tamim Ansary about his latest book, The Invention of Yesterday. Ansary boldly looks for patterns in the last 50,000 years of human history. He argues that, since humans are basically narcissistic, for most of recorded history each successful civilization has seen the other civilizations on this planet as merely peripheral players. He also argues that 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, and so gave rise to the main points of cultural divergence. Ansary's conclusion is clear: we cannot continue to consider other cultures as peripheral if we are going to have any hope of managing those worldwide concerns that require a consensus to solve, like climate change, nuclear weapons and the spread of deadly viruses. As historians often understand, but too many politicians conveniently overlook, each human civilization has many points of similarity with every other civilization in our pursuit of happiness. The points of cultural divergence are the ones that are truly peripheral. MLF ORGANIZER George Hammond NOTES MLF: Humanities Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One nation under . . . guns? Is America destined to always be a violent nation? Why are Americans uniquely attached to themes of aggression and firearms that permeate our culture and policies? These are the questions Senator Chris Murphy explores in his new book, The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy. Searching for answers about why America continues to fall short on issues of safety, Murphy has dedicated his political career to the cause of gun violence and ensuring that all Americans feel safe. Murphy’s state of Connecticut was forever changed by the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, and he believes that in order to change something as horrific as gun violence, we must first understand it. which is why his book investigates our country’s violence-filled history in order to forge a comprehensive plan for our future. In The Violence Inside Us, he explains why the nation is still stuck fighting this battle and how we can forge a comprehensive plan for change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since its founding in 1997, Netflix has revolutionized the way we discover and enjoy entertainment. Originally founded as a DVD-by-mail rental service in the United States, Netflix has reinvented itself from DVD rentals to internet streaming, from licensing old shows and films to self-producing them, and from U.S.-based to global—amassing more than 193 million subscribers in more than 190 countries. As the co-founder and co-CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings led the effort to make Netflix the top player in internet entertainment. To achieve this, he developed a corporate philosophy and a set of management principles that rejected conventional wisdom, leading to a business culture that would make Netflix one of the most inventive companies in the world. Hastings’ new book, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, chronicles how he built this radical management philosophy through decades of trial and error. His story is designed to be a useful resource for company leaders, entrepreneurs, founders and anyone looking to create a faster, more nimble and innovative workplace. Join Hastings to learn more about what might be the most inventive company of its time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Huckabee Sanders served as White House press secretary for President Donald J. Trump from 2017 to 2019. Her briefings with the press and her battles with the media made her one of the most visible people in Washington and earned her the trust of the president, who called her “irreplaceable,” a “warrior” and “very special person with extraordinary talents, who has done an incredible job.” During her two and a half years at the White House, she advised the president on everything from press and communication strategy to personnel and policy. In her new book, Speaking for Myself, Sanders takes us behind the scenes and offers her unique perspective on what it was like working alongside the president inside the White House. Join us as she reflects on some of the professional challenges she faced, her relationship with the press and lessons she learned during that time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You've heard of an October surprise—when a political campaign drops an unexpected bit of news highlighting (or making up) a scandal about the opponent? This entire campaign has been a surprise, so we certainly expect an early surprise or two or three in September. Join us for a special Election 2020 edition of Week to Week, the political roundtable from The Commonwealth Club. Our panelists will discuss the latest political developments with intelligence, civility and probably quite a bit of humor. We're all in this together—the pandemic, economic crisis, racial justice, campaign 2020, and murder hornets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a world of “fake news,” President Donald Trump has labeled one network as telling his “truth”—Fox News. The president has developed a symbiotic relationship with Fox. Since the day Trump announced his candidacy, its pundits have consistently slandered Trump’s enemies and promoted his vision of America. The president himself has also admitted to watching 6 hours of Fox News a day, even in the face of a disastrous pandemic and national economic crisis. He gets his brash personal and political actions legitimized by the network, and the network makes money off Trump-supporting viewers who willfully follow the network. In Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, CNN anchor and Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter tells the twisted story of the mutually beneficial relationship between President Trump and Fox News and dives into a relationship that he argues comes at the expense of the American people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wildfires are nothing new – they’ve been part of the west’s ecology for millennia. But burning fossil fuels and suppressing the burning of forests over the past century have led to larger, more frequent and ever-more catastrophic wildfires. And burning trees release carbon dioxide. California’s fires now are so big and fierce that they threaten to erase the state’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And even for those miles from the flames, the smoke from raging wildfires presents an extra danger in the age of coronavirus. How and when exposure to wildfire smoke increases the likelihood of infection with COVID-19, we’re still trying to figure that out, says Vin Gupta of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. But there is a clear symmetry between exposure and the likelihood of infection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the lead-up to former Vice President Joe Biden selecting California Senator Kamala Harris as his 2020 running mate, there was a lot of armchair prognostication and claims about Harris' past and future. Much was made of her time as San Francisco's district attorney; some used it to defend her as a tough-on-crime prosecutor; others used it to portray her as a far-left DA who was weak on crime. Niki Solis knows what Kamala Harris was really like as a DA, and she made her case for Harris in a recent op ed article in USA Today, "I worked with Kamala Harris. She was the most progressive DA in California." For nearly a quarter century, Solis has worked as a public defender. She is currently a deputy public defender in San Francisco; she was a manager in the public defender's office when Harris was the city's district attorney. Join us for a timely conversation about crime and punishment, mercy and justice, and big-stakes politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices