Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Join us to explore the history of how, where and why we bury our dead. Melville will take us on a lively, wide-ranging tour of the history of famous American cemeteries—places that have mirrored passing eras but have also shaped them. Cemeteries gave birth to landscape architecture and famous parks, as well as influenced architectural styles. They’ve inspired and motivated some of our greatest poets and authors—Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson. They’ve also been used as political tools to shift the country’s discourse and as important symbols of the United States's ambition and geographical reach. But cemeteries are changing and starting to fade away in the 21st century. Burying embalmed bodies is incredibly toxic, and although cremations are now even more popular than burials, they’re not great for the environment either. A summer job cutting grass at his hometown cemetery inspired Melville to explore every issue surrounding cemeteries—history, sustainability, land use, and more—but above all to think about what it really means to memorialize the lives of those we love.SPEAKERSGreg MelvilleJournalist; Magazine Editor; Navy Veteran; English and Writing Teacher, United States Naval Academy; Author, Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America's CemeteriesIn 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 November 2nd, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 27th UN convention on climate change, known as COP27, is now underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. When Climate One spoke with Egyptian Ambassador Wael Aboulmagd in October, he argued that progress at this year’s summit would be more rapid than in past years, because this year, the focus is on implementation rather than negotiation. And for the first time, loss and damage — what richer nations owe poorer ones for the climate impacts their emissions have caused — is on the agenda. How will these issues play out during the conference? Are countries increasing their ambition as promised, and keeping the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees alive? Climate One brings us interviews with those on the ground pushing for meaningful change in Egypt.Guests:Preety Bhandari, Senior Advisor, Global Climate Program and the Finance Center, World Resources InstituteClaire Stockwell, Senior Climate Policy Analyst, Climate AnalyticsDavid Munene, Programs Manager, Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in AfricaFor show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the depths of the pandemic, one of the most important companies in America was Grubhub. The online food delivery service was a lifesaver for residents sheltering in place and for restaurants struggling to make revenue. But where did this company come from? The story of how Grubhub was founded and what its founder, Mike Evans, learned along the way is a story important for anyone who cares about our new tech economy, particularly in the Bay Area, and what it is doing to those who start these companies.In his new memoir, Hangry: A Startup Journey, Evans reveals the inside story of how a pizza craving turned into a hobby, and then became a business that ultimately grew into a multi-billion dollar behemoth that changed the way we eat across the country. Evans story is an interesting one with lessons for entrepreneurs of all kinds. He learned on the fly as he grew a massive business from his apartment. Along the way, he worked 80-hour weeks, almost lost his marriage, raised hundreds of millions of dollars, and even merged with another company.Then Evans surprised everyone by walking away from it all to bike across the country in search of life balance.Please join us as Evans takes us on a funny journey about starting and growing a company that changed the fabric of our lives and what he learned about business, himself and the world along the way. NOTESThis program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.SPEAKERSMike EvansFounder, Grubhub; Author, Hangry: A Startup JourneyVikrum AiyerMember, Inforum Advisory Board; Former Vice President of Public Policy, Postmates—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 November 2nd, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After two and a half years of struggle, San Francisco's downtown stands at a crossroads. Employees have increasingly returned to offices—with overall attendance at offices reaching 50 percent on some days—streets are busier, tourism is increasing, and corporations have returned to hosting major events and attending conventions in and around the Moscone Center. Yet is it enough to return San Francisco's financial center to the heights of the activity it experienced pre-pandemic? This program will seek to answer these questions and explore what city leaders are doing to enliven and boost activity in San Francisco's downtown core.In its first program on this important topic, The Commonwealth Club has invited key San Francisco stakeholders with a direct stake in addressing the problems to discuss practical and tangible solutions to continue to bring downtown San Francisco back to life. The program will look at the Downtown SF Partnership's new public realm plan, the efforts of San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development on the issue, and possible local and state legislative responses to the crisis.Will these efforts be enough to help return people to downtown, and boost large and small businesses that continue to struggle? Please join us for an important conversation on the future of downtown San Francisco.The moderator, Kevin Truong, is a reporter at the San Francisco Standard covering small business policy and the economic recovery.SPEAKERSLaura CrescimanoCo-Founder and Principal, SitelabWade RosePresident, Advance SFRobbie SilverExecutive Director, San Francisco Downtown Community Benefit District (Downtown SF Partnership)Kate SofisExecutive Director, Office of Economic and Workforce DevelopmentKevin TruongReporter, San Francisco StandardIn 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 November 1st, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long a fringe part of the American political landscape, conspiracy theories are now mainstream: 147 members of Congress voted in favor of objections to the 2020 presidential election based on an unproven theory about a rigged electoral process promoted, in part, by followers of the mysterious QAnon community, itself a network of believers of a wide-ranging conspiracy involving pedophilia among elected officials and other civic and business leaders. But these are only the latest examples of a long history of conspiracies that have gained adherents in society. In his timely new book, Conspiracy, Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, discusses what makes conspiracies so appealing to segments of the population.Shermer finds that conspiracy theories cut across gender, age, race, income, education level, occupational status―and even political affiliation. One reason that people believe these conspiracies, Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be constructively conspiratorial: elections have been rigged, medical professionals have intentionally harmed patients in their care, your government does lie to you, and, tragically, some adults do conspire to sexually abuse children. But Shermer reveals that other factors are also in play: anxiety and a sense of loss of control play a role in conspiratorial cognition patterns, as do certain personality traits.Join us for Dr. Shermer's discussion in our continuing series on false narratives. It is for anyone concerned about the future direction of American politics, as well as anyone who has watched friends or family fall into patterns of conspiratorial thinking.MLF ORGANIZEREric SiegelSPEAKERSMichael ShermerPublisher, Skeptic Magazine; Executive Director, The Skeptics Society; Author, Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the IrrationalEric SiegelChair, Personal Growth Member-led Forum, The 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 November 1st, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial Times columnist and CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar offers a deep look at the vulnerabilities of globalization. She makes the case that the reign of globalization as we’ve known it is over and the rise of local, regional and homegrown business is now at hand.She says that for decades, the neoliberal economic philosophy of prioritizing efficiency over resilience and profits over local prosperity has produced massive inequality, persistent economic insecurity, and distrust in our institutions. Place-based economics and a wave of technological innovations now make it possible to keep operations, investment and wealth closer to home, wherever that may be.With the pendulum of history swinging back, Foroohar explores both the challenges and the possibilities of this new era, and how she says it can usher in a more equitable and prosperous future.NOTESThis program is generously supported by the Jackson Square Partners Foundation.SPEAKERSRana ForooharGlobal Business Columnist and Associate Editor, Financial Times; Global Economic Analyst, CNN; Author, Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World; Twitter @RanaForooharIn Conversation with Kirk HansonSenior Fellow and Former Executive Director, The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University; Member, The Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley Advisory CouncilIn 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 October 24th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1970s, the United States faced stagflation: high rates of inflation combined with stagnant employment and growth. Global economist Nouriel Roubini predicts we are heading toward another Great Stagflation that will be difficult to recover from.Is it too late to avoid this economic catastrophe? Financial and geopolitical certainties that we once took for granted have disappeared, and Roubini says we are now facing a period of severe instability, conflict and chaos. He offers a sobering analysis of 10 "megathreats" that are interconnected, immense in scale, and bearing down on us.Hear more as Roubini predicts what is likely to unfold if we don’t reverse course and act now.SPEAKERSNouriel RoubiniProfessor of Economics, New York University’s Stern School of Business; Author, MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them; Twitter @NourielIn Conversation with Barry EichengreenGeorge C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, BerkeleyIn 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 October 18th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been a big year for U.S. climate policy. Three major pieces of legislation: the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act have all become law, ushering in the largest commitment of federal money toward the climate crisis to date. In a bipartisan vote, the Senate also finally ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which will help phase out some of the most potent greenhouse gasses. Gina McCarthy has helped shepherd these achievements in her former role as White House Climate Advisor, and joins us to discuss her time leading climate action under President Biden. We also feature a special interview about the Biden administration’s climate priorities between Vice President Kamala Harris and the hosts of the podcast A Matter of Degrees, Katharine Wilkinson and Leah Stokes.Guests: Kamala Harris, Vice President, United StatesGina McCarthy, former U.S. White House National Climate Advisor, former U.S. EPA AdministratorGuest Hosts:Katharine Wilkinson, Co-host, A Matter of Degrees, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The All We Can Save Project Leah Stokes, Co-host, A Matter of Degrees, Associate Professor of Environmental Politics, UC Santa BarbaraFor show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This November, San Francisco voters are being asked to vote on a number of ballot measures, local and statewide. One of those local measures is Proposition D, which aims to spur the development of affordable housing in a city that was recognized by the state government as having "the longest timelines in the state for advancing housing projects, . . . among the highest housing and construction costs, and [the state] has received more complaints about San Francisco than any other local jurisdiction."To discuss Proposition D and its plan for removing bureaucratic roadblocks, we'll hear from Maureen Sedonaen, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, and State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).Join us in-person or online for a timely program to help you decide what choices you want to make when you fill out your ballot.NOTESSee more  Michelle Meow Show programs at The Commonwealth Club of California.SPEAKERSMaureen SedonaenCEO, Habitat for Humanity Greater San FranciscoScott WienerState Senator (D-San Francisco)John ZippererProducer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club of California; Former Senior Editor, Affordable Housing Finance and Apartment Finance Today Magazines—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 October 18th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new book Bridge to the Sun coming out on September 27, 2022, Bruce Henderson, master storyteller, historian and New York Times best-selling author, tells a gripping true tale of the courage of the Japanese-American U.S. Army soldiers who fought in the Pacific theater, while many of their families back home in America were incarcerated behind barbed wire in camps by the U.S. government. Their contribution is one of the last, great untold stories of World War II, kept hidden for decades. The story of the larger, all-Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team soldiers who were sent to fight in Europe has been covered in many books and media.After Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military was desperate to find Americans who spoke Japanese to serve in the secret Military Intelligence Service (MIS) in the Pacific war. They soon turned to the Nisei—first-generation U.S. citizens whose parents were immigrants from Japan. Eager to prove their loyalty to America, several thousand Nisei—many volunteering from the camps in which they were incarcerated—were selected by the Army for top-secret training, then were rushed to the Pacific theater. Highly valued as expert translators and interrogators, these Japanese American soldiers operated in elite intelligence teams alongside Army infantrymen and Marines on the front lines of the Pacific war, from Iwo Jima to Burma, from the Solomons to Okinawa.Henderson reveals, in riveting detail, the harrowing untold story of the Nisei and their major contributions in the war of the Pacific, through six Japanese American soldiers. After the war, these soldiers became translators and interrogators for war crime trials, and later helped to rebuild Japan as a modern democracy and a pivotal U.S. ally.SPEAKERSBruce HendersonAuthor, Bridge to the SunIn conversation with Garrett HongoPoet; WriterIn 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 October 17th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices