Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Dave Iverson was a 59-year-old KQED broadcast journalist and filmmaker when he decided to do something he’d never imagined. He moved back into his childhood home when his 95-year-old mom could no longer care for herself. Dave’s new memoir Winter Stars: An Elderly Mother, An Aging Son and Life’s Final Journey is the story of their 10-year caregiving journey, lasting until his mother’s passing at the age of 105. It’s a book Michael J. Fox calls “A gift—a modern classic of frontier literature documenting the uncertain journey into the country of caregiving.”In this special Commonwealth Club presentation, KQED’s Scott Shafer will interview Dave about his new book and our growing eldercare crisis. Someone turns 65 every eight seconds in this country, and the pandemic’s ongoing toll on nursing home residents has prompted more people to consider caring for an aging parent at home. Yet what lies ahead when someone makes that choice?Join Scott Shafer and Dave Iverson for an intimate, unvarnished conversation about the challenges, choices and unexpected rewards of caring for someone during life’s final journey.Our moderator will be award-winning journalist Scott Shafer. Shafer is senior editor of the California Politics and Government Desk at KQED, where he leads the politics team’s coverage of the state. He is also co-host of the weekly radio program and podcast series "Political Breakdown." Shafer has covered stories for National Public Radio programs, including "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition Saturday" and "Weekend Edition Sunday." He collaborated on and hosted "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown," an eight-part series about the life and political career of the former California governor. He previously hosted "The California Report."MLF ORGANIZERDenise MichaudNOTESMLF: GrownupsThis program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.SPEAKERSDave IversonWriter; Documentary Film Producer and Director; Retired Broadcast Journalist; Author, Winter Stars: An Elderly Mother, An Aging Son and Life’s Final JourneyIn Conversation with Scott ShaferSenior Editor, Politics and Government Desk, KQED; Co-Host, "Political Breakdown" PodcastThis program was recorded live in San Francisco on March 31st, 2022 at the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can small nonprofit art organizations afford the cost of living in the Bay Area? Innovators in the field have been working for nearly a decade to solve this problem.Join CounterPulse’s Julie Phelps and CAST’s Moy Eng at The Commonwealth Club for a conversation moderated by Michelle Meow. As CounterPulse poises itself to buy its building in the Tenderloin from CAST later this year, learn how they’ve worked together in piloting a new real estate model that could be applied throughout the city and around the world to keep artists and creatives rooted in their communities amidst economic upheaval.SPEAKERSMoy EngCEO, Community Arts Stabilization TrustJulie PhelpsArtistic and Executive Director, CounterPulseMichelle MeowProducer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show" on KBCW/KPIX TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow—HostIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded Live in San Francisco on March 31st, 2022 at the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the fickle age of COVID-19, it is harder than ever to have assuredness, and confidence. A solution? "Radical imagination"—and with it the power to transform our present and see our future. Game-designer turned author Jane McGonical, wants to give people the key to unlock their imagination potential and in doing so design their own futures with limitless possibilities and creative certainty.In her newest book, Imaginable, McGonigal coaxes audiences to dive into the unimaginable as a way to problem solve, future-plan, and find transformative fulfillment. She uses psychological research to embolden readers and make real the possibilities that are unfathomable—but not for long.At INFORUM, the renowned future forecaster will invite audiences into her mind and lay out the daring vision necessary to give life to a book about imagination. McGonigal answers the age-old question, “How do we learn to feel at peace with the unknown?” and teaches how mental, imagination training can reduce anxiety and boost tenacity.SPEAKERSJane McGonigalFuture Forecaster; Game Designer; Author, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything—Even Things that Seem Impossible Today; Twitter Twitter @avantgameIn Conversation with Roy BahatHead, Bloomberg Beta; Twitter @roybahatIn 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 March 30th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Global sales of electric vehicles more than doubled in 2021. Projections for this year are for another huge gain as more automakers introduce more models with increasing range. This is all good news for transitioning to a clean energy economy. But sourcing the materials needed for clean energy might not be so clean. Mining is the leading industrial polluter in the U.S., but the climate crisis demands a transition to technologies that require raw materials to be extracted. How can the world get the minerals it needs to mitigate the climate crisis without creating other ecological disasters in the process? Guests:Morgan Bazilian, Director, Payne Institute, Colorado School of MinesPayal Sampat, Mining Program Director, EarthworksMaureen Penjueli, Coordinator, Pacific Network on Globalisation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and small signs of progress here and there, artists with disabilities still face discrimination and prejudice in the arts arena. Disability culture is still marginalized, and access features are not always offered as standard practice in exhibitions.Join us as we tease out some of these issues and why they matter, with an accessible introduction to disability culture and a dynamic conversation between photographers Nolan Trowe and Anthony Tusler. We’ll consider how representation and visibility is integral to their work, and how their work also advocates for a more radically inclusive and accessible arts and culture landscape.MLF ORGANIZERRobert MeltonNOTESMLF: ArtsSPEAKERSNolan Ryan TrowePhotographer; Writer, Focuses on Stories Around DisabilityAnthony TuslerWriter; Photographer; Consultant; Trainer; Advocate on Disability IssuesFran OsborneMuseum Consultant; Specialist in Accessible Exhibitions; Independent Curator and Lecturer, Museum Studies Program at San Francisco State University—ModeratorRobert MeltonFreelance Curator; Community Events Arts Organizer; Co-Chair, Arts Member-Led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—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 March 29th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Health justice is one of the most important yet complicated issues facing American society. Environmental factors, policies and even systems create societal disparities that affect a person's ability to achieve their best possible health.To ensure justice and equity in health, advocates say the country needs to address community-specific disparities, dismantle systems, and end policies that drive poor health outcomes. One way to start this important justice work is to dramatically increase access to education and overall literacy. Efforts such as addressing the increasing economic fragmentation of education, divisions of income along racial lines, and providing pathways to financial literacy serve as a foundational element in the overall health justice work ahead. Failure to address this separation and fragmentation could make health justice for our nation an elusive goal.To address this often-overlooked connection between financial literacy and health justice, The Commonwealth Club of California and CommonSpirit Health are pleased to bring together Mellody Hobson, a highly prominent financial executive who is president and co-CEO of Ariel Investments and chair of the board of directors of Starbucks Corporation, and Lloyd Dean, CommonSpirit Health CEO and a nationally recognized leader in health care and and recognized voice for health justice.Please join us for this rare conversation between two leading voices in health care and business about addressing health justice.NOTESThis program is part of the Humankindness & Health Justice series, generously underwritten by CommonSpirit Health Foundation.SPEAKERSMellody HobsonPresident and co-CEO, Ariel Investments; Chair of the Board of Directors, Starbucks CorporationLloyd DeanCEO, CommonSpirit Health—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 March 30th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ukrainian people are paying a high price for the massive and costly resistance they are putting up to Russian aggression. Refugees fleeing Ukraine already number in excess of 2 million and counting. Many are Ukrainian Jews. Those who are unable to leave or are engaged in the fight to slow the advance of Russian forces are subject to increasingly indiscriminate bombing and the threat of using more extreme military weaponry. Reports of targeting and killing civilians, including the bombing of hospitals and schools, raise serious questions about human rights violations and war crimes.We invite acclaimed attorney, civil liberties defender and constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz to discuss the actions of Russian forces in Ukraine and the potential case against Russia’s military leaders and in particular President Vladimir Putin. Are there legal avenues to pursue in the International Criminal Court or other international bodies, and how might such cases be brought?What other avenues might we explore to tackle this human rights tragedy unfolding on multiple fronts? At this critical moment, Ukraine’s President Zelensky is standing up and defending his country and his people. Professor Dershowitz recently has made the case that Zelensky should be recognized immediately on the international stage for his commitment. As an emeritus professor of public law, Dershowitz will be nominating President Zelensky for this year's Nobel Peace Prize and urging the Committee to award it now. As Rabbi Hillel once said: "If not now, when?”Please join Alan Dershowitz, New York Times bestselling author and Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School, in conversation with Dan Ashley, news anchor at ABC7 KGO Bay Area, about Ukraine as well as other key civil liberties and human rights issues.SPEAKERSAlan DershowitzFelix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus, Harvard Law SchoolIn Conversation with Dan AshleyNews Anchor/Reporter, ABC7 News, KGO-TV Bay AreaIn 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 March 25th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is hard for most of us to even imagine the confidence Socrates had. Or that Alexander or Mozart had. Much less live it. It is much easier, though, for us to imagine a top saleswoman’s confidence, even if we are inclined to blame it all on her over-praising mother. But there are patterns in the emotion we call confidence that make it clear this is not an unsolvable mystery—patterns that explain both the ephemeral confidence that leads to sales success and the seemingly unshakeable confidence that leads to political, military, artistic, scientific and intellectual high-end achievements.But even when the elements of this emotion are parsed (it is caused by perceiving oneself as virtuous), it is still not immediately obvious how to achieve it in daily life, due to the subtleties of both the process of perceiving oneself and the definition of virtue (using the ancient understanding of virtue as strength or skillfulness). George Hammond will clarify those subtleties so that you can shift how you perceive yourself sufficiently to immediately feel more confident. And to understand how to keep that trend going by shedding the habitual thinking patterns that usually undermine confidence—until you have developed more confidence than you can currently imagine.MLF ORGANIZERGeorge HammondSPEAKERSGeorge 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 March 30th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Misinformation and disinformation, both domestic and international, have become global issues that are impacting elections and other aspects of geopolitics. These issues have become tremendously important in the United States, and as the country enters another election year, understanding the impact of these issues, and the role of technology and social media, is critical to a functioning democracy.In this election year, with control of Congress at stake, what can be done consistent with the First Amendment to ensure that American voters can make informed election decisions and hold free elections amid a flood of virally spread disinformation and the collapse of local news reporting? How should American society counter the actions of people who use social media to undermine U.S. elections? What can we do to minimize disinformation campaigns aimed at suppressing voter turnout?Elections expert Richard Hasen has some answers. In his new book Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics—and How to Cure It, Hasen provides a practical road map for controlling disinformation, embracing free speech, saving American elections, and protecting democracy. He provides insight into the current debates over free speech, censorship and Big Tech’s responsibilities.Please join us for a discussion about ways to ensure Americans have access to the reliable information on which democracy depends.SPEAKERSRick HasenChancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science, University of California-Irvine; Author, Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics—and How to Cure ItIn Conversation with Erwin ChemerinskyDean, University of California Berkeley Law SchoolIn 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 March 29th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the fall of Nazi Germany and the onset of the Cold War, gay men in the now-divided Germany underwent a historic change in their status and visibility and influence.George Mason University history professor Samuel Clowes Huneke joins us to talk about this time of momentous transition. It's the subject of his first book, States of Liberation, which traces the paths of gay men in East and West Germany from the violent aftermath of the Second World War to the thundering nightclubs of present-day Berlin. Following a captivating cast of characters, from gay spies and Nazi scientists to queer politicians and secret police bureaucrats, Dr. Huneke tells the remarkable story of how the two German states persecuted gay men—and how those men slowly, over the course of decades, won new rights and created new opportunities for themselves in the heart of Cold War Europe. Relying on untapped archives in Germany and the United States as well as oral histories with witnesses and survivors, Huneke reveals that communist East Germany was in many ways far more progressive on queer issues than democratic West Germany.Join us for an online discussion about the history of gender, sexual history, the law, and politics.SPEAKERSSamuel Clowes HunekePh.D., Assistant Professor of Modern German History, George Mason University; Author, States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War GermanyMichelle MeowProducer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show" on KBCW/KPIX TV 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 March 24th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices