Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

There are climate heroes everywhere among us, but few get the public attention they deserve. Matt Scott, director of storytelling and engagement at Project Drawdown, has been shining a light on the work of such people in cities across the country in his documentary short series “Drawdown’s Neighborhood.” In Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, the San Francisco Bay Area and more, Scott lifts up underrepresented voices of those working directly in their communities on climate issues. This week, we feature some of those voices.Guests:Matt Scott, Director of Storytelling & Engagement, Project DrawdownGrace Anderson, Founder, The Lupine CollaborativeAshia Ajani, Storyteller, Climate Justice Educator, Mycelium Youth Network📞 Do you work outside, in a kitchen, in a warehouse, or at other place where you’re feeling the heat? How have rising temperatures impacted the way you work? We want to hear your story. Leave us a voicemail at ‪(650) 382-3869‬ and let us know how climate change is affecting you on the job, and we may use it in an upcoming episode. Thanks for sharing!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 for just $5/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth—we are Earth! Life and its environment have coevolved for billions of years, transforming a lump of orbiting rock into a cosmic oasis that supports and is shaped by life.. . .Join acclaimed science writer Ferris Jabr as he reveals a radical new vision of Earth where lush forests spew water, pollen and bacteria to summon rain; giant animals engineer the very landscapes they roam; microscopic plankton, some as glittering as carved jewels, remake the air and sea; and humans alter more layers of the planet in less time than any other species, pushing Earth into a crisis.Jabr will draw on the work in his new book Becoming Earth, which delves into the hidden workings of our planet and its many lifeforms and invites us to reexamine our place in it. What we do next will determine what kind of Earth our descendants inherit for millennia to come . . .  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some San Francisco nonprofits with city contracts have recently come under fire for their business practices and outcomes. With the city's $1.7 billion portfolio of nonprofit services, a lot is at stake in efforts to maximize return on investment, and produce durable outcomes. Come listen to an informed dialog between Laura Marshall, citywide nonprofit policy manager at the independent San Francisco Controller’s Office, and Kevin Fagan, seasoned reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, as we seek to better understand how nonprofit oversight in San Francisco actually works. About the SpeakersLaura Marshall is the citywide nonprofit policy manager at the San Francisco Controller’s Office, After early work in San Francisco’s nonprofit sector and gaining a Masters in social work at San Francisco State University, Laura quickly identified local government as her preferred venue for helping to improve the lives of the city’s most vulnerable residents. She has worked for the City and County of San Francisco since 2007. Laura’s current role with the San Francisco Controller’s Office allows her to manage a portfolio of projects and initiatives designed to increase the effectiveness of government with a focus on social service programs and the City’s $1.7 billion portfolio of nonprofit services. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Smith College.Kevin Fagan is a longtime, award-winning reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, specializing in homelessness, enterprise news-feature writing, breaking news and crime. He has ridden the rails with modern-day hobos, witnessed seven prison executions, and covered disasters ranging from the Sept. 11 terror attacks at Ground Zero to California’s devastating wildfires. Homelessness remains a core focus of his, close to his heart as a journalist who cares passionately about the human condition.MLF ORGANIZERIan McCuaig 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. This program contains explicit language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the most common questions people ask about climate is: what can I do? Since time is one of our most valuable resources — and we spend so much of our time at work — changing jobs may be the most effective individual climate action a person can take. Those changes could be big or small: Leaving the oil and gas industry for geothermal, or helping to bring down the emissions where you already work. The truth is, almost any job can be a climate job. But how do people actually make the transition from dirty jobs to clean? What do climate positive job transitions really entail? Guests:Caroline Dennett, Director, CLOUT LtdArvind Ravikumar, Co-Director, Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Lab, University of Texas, AustinJennifer Anderson, Carbon Removal Geologist, Charm IndustrialEmma McConville, Development Geoscience Lead at Fervo EnergyNathanael Johnson, Electrician📞 Do you work outside, or in a kitchen, a warehouse, or other place where you’re feeling the heat? How have rising temperatures impacted the way you work? We want to hear your story. Please leave us a voicemail at ‪(650) 382-3869‬ and let us know how climate change is affecting you on the job. We may use it in an upcoming episode. Thanks for sharing! 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 for just $5/month.For complete show notes, visit our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us ahead of the San José Earthquakes' epic alumni player-attended California Classico game at Stanford University for an in-depth discussion with Gary Singh, a lifelong fan of the team, as he celebrates the legendary history of the Quakes in his new book, The Unforgettable San Jose Earthquakes: Momentous Stories On & Off the Field.When the San José Earthquakes first started playing soccer in 1974, no one imagined how their efforts would reverberate 50 years later. The Quakes and their fans have overcome a multitude of issues in the last five decades, including leagues collapsing, attempted rebrandings, local apathy, political indifference and even a franchise relocation, yet they never gave up. While players like Johnny Moore, Chris Wondolowski and Landon Donovan have come and gone—along with coaches, general managers and owners—the multigenerational family this San José team created over the last half century stands as strong as ever. This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary C. Daly leads the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and will deliver remarks on monetary policy and the economy followed by Q&A. In 2024, Dr. Daly became a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the monetary policymaking body of the Federal Reserve System.Dr. Daly assumed leadership of the San Francisco Fed in October 2018, building on a distinguished career at the Bank that began in 1996. Starting as an economist specializing in labor market dynamics and economic inequality, she has since served as research advisor, vice president and head of macroeconomics, senior vice president and assistant director of research, and executive vice president and director of research.In Partnership with The San Francisco Press Club.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eighty has been the new 60 for about 20 years now. In fact, there have always been late-in-life achievers, those who declined to go into decline just because they were eligible for Social Security. Journalist, humorist, and history buff Mo Rocca teamed up with Jonathan Greenberg to introduce us to the people past and present who peaked when they could have been puttering—breaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, attempting to set land-speed records—and in the case of one 90-year-old tortoise, becoming a first-time father. (Take that, Al Pacino!)Popular “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent and frequent “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” panelist Rocca, author of the bestselling Mobituaries, comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs in San Francisco to share inspiring stories that celebrate the triumphs of people who made their biggest marks late in life.His new book, Roctogenarians, is a collection of entertaining and unexpected profiles of these unretired titans—some long gone (a cancer-stricken Henri Matisse, who began work on his celebrated cut-outs when he could no longer paint), some very much still living (Rita Moreno, the EGOT who’s still got it). The amazing cast of characters also includes Mary Church Terrell, who at 86 helped lead sit-ins at segregated Washington, D.C., lunch counters in the 1950s, and Carol Channing, who married the love of her life at 82. Then there’s Peter Mark Roget, who began working on his thesaurus in his twenties and completed it at 73 (because sometimes finding the right word takes time.)With all due respect to the Golden Girls, some people will never be content sitting out on the lanai. (P.S., actor Estelle Getty was 62 when she got her big break. And yes, she’s in the book.)Don’t miss this inspiring and entertaining evening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nicholas Kristof has worked almost nonstop for The New York Times as a reporter, foreign correspondent, bureau chief, and now columnist. Join us as he returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs and recounts the event-filled path from a small-town farm in Oregon to every corner of the world.Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author, has reported from Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, as well as India, Africa and Europe. In the process, he has witnessed and written about century-defining events such as the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the Yemeni civil war, the Darfur genocide in Sudan, and the wave of addiction and despair that swept through his hometown and a broad swath of working-class America.Kristof will introduce us to some of the extraordinary people he has met, such as the dissident whom he helped escape from China and a Catholic nun who browbeat a warlord into releasing schoolgirls he had kidnapped. These are the people, the heroes, who have allowed Kristof to remain optimistic even as he witnesses the worst of humanity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Small acts of courage matter—and sometimes they change the world. Our history books are filled with the stories of those who fought for democracy and freedom against all odds, from Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. These iconic struggles for social change illustrate the importance of engagement and activism and offer a template for the battles we are fighting today. But using the right words is often easier than taking action; action can be hard, and costly.More than a century ago, MSNBC host Ali Velshi’s great-grandfather sent his seven-year-old son to live at Tolstoy Farm, Gandhi’s ashram in South Africa. This difficult decision would change the trajectory of his family history forever. From childhood, Velshi’s grandfather was imbued with an ethos of public service and social justice, and a belief in absolute equality among all people―ideals that his children carried forward as they escaped apartheid, emigrating to Kenya and ultimately Canada and the United States.In Small Acts of Courage, Velshi taps into 125 years of family history to advocate for social justice as a living, breathing experience―a way of life more than an ideology. Join us in-person or online to hear him relate the stories of regular people who made a lasting commitment to fight for change, even when success seemed impossible. Learn how we can breathe new life into the principles of pluralistic democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As countries around the world become more serious about reducing carbon emissions to meet international targets, many are still approving new oil and gas projects, committing us to increased global warming. Yet an increasing number of countries are taking a stand to leave those future emissions in the ground, even at the expense of their own profits. Last year, Ecuadorians voted to halt the development of new oil wells in the Yasuní National Park in the Amazon, keeping around 726 million barrels of oil underground. Meanwhile, Costa Rica and Denmark have created the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance to facilitate the managed phase-out of oil and gas production. And a group of at least 13 countries — including many island nations — but also notable oil and gas-rich countries like Colombia — are calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty as a complement to the Paris Agreement. Can more nations set aside valuable profits from fossil fuel resources in favor of our collective desire for a livable climate?This episode also features a story on Yasuní National Park produced by Mateo Schimpf and reported by Kimberley Brown.Guests:Tzeporah Berman, Chair, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation TreatyKevin Koenig, Climate, Energy, and Extractive Industry Director, Amazon WatchSupport 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 for just $5/month.For show notes and related links, visit our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices