Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

The gap between the rich and the poor has grown dramatically, stock prices are trading far above what many consider justified by actual corporate profits, corporate debt in America is at an all-time high, and this debt is being traded by big banks on Wall Street, leaving them vulnerable—just as they were during the mortgage boom. Middle-class wages have barely budged in a decade, and consumers are buried under credit card debt, car loan debt, and student debt. If you asked most people what forces led to today’s unprecedented income inequality and financial crashes, no one would say the Federal Reserve. However, Christopher Leonard is here to tell you otherwise.In his new book, The Lords of Easy Money, Leonard goes into shocking detail about how quantitative easing is imperiling the American economy through the story of the one man who tried to warn us. He says this will be the first inside story of how we really got here—and why we face a frightening future.Join us as Christopher Leonard takes us through the world of the Federal Reserve, and why you should be alarmed.SPEAKERSChristopher LeonardBusiness Reporter; Author, The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American EconomyIn Conversation with Lenny MendoncaFormer Chief Economic and Business Advisor, State of California; Director Emeritus, McKinsey & CompanyIn 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 January 18th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to a very recent report from the U.S. Surgeon General, "the challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate. And the effect these challenges have had on their mental health is devastating." The Surgeon General suggests that, as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and start recovering and rebuilding, we have an opportunity to approach the mental health of our children and youth with a more comprehensive, more fulfilling and more inclusive vision.NOTESThis program is part of our series on mental health, dedicated in memory of Nancy Friend Pritzker, with support from the John Pritzker Family Fund.SPEAKERSSaun Toy TrotterDirector, School-Based Services, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital OaklandNicole BushAssociate Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences; Lisa and John Pritzker Distinguished Professor of Developmental and Behavioral HealthWilliam MartinezAssistant Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF Weill Institute for NeurosciencesPetra SteinbuchelDirector, Psychiatry, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital OaklandRani Sindledecker8th-Grade studentKatie AlbrightCEO, Safe & SoundIn 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 January 13th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us to hear David Bodanis make a fresh, detail-rich argument that the most productive way to lead is to be fair to others. Conventional wisdom is that "nice guys finish last," but maybe that just means that too many nice guys are too conventional. And it probably does not mean that one has to be a bully, schooled in Machiavellian tactics, to succeed.The Art of Fairness reveals how it was fairness, applied with skill, that led the Empire State Building to be constructed in barely a year. And how the same techniques transformed a quiet English debutante into an acclaimed guerrilla fighter. In 10 vivid profiles featuring pilots, presidents, and even the producer of "Game of Thrones," Bodanis demonstrates that the path to greatness doesn't require crushing displays of power or a tyrannical ego. With surprising insights from across history, including the downfall of the very man who popularized the phrase “nice guys finish last,” Bodanis charts a refreshing and sustainable approach to cultivating integrity and influence.MLF ORGANIZERGeorge HammondNOTESMLF: HumanitiesSPEAKERSDavid BodanisAuthor, The Art of Fairness: The Power of Decency in a World Gone MeanIn Conversation with George HammondAuthor, Conversations With Socrates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us to discuss with James Porter our ongoing fascination with Homer—the man and the myth. The poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey was revered as a cultural icon in antiquity and remains millennia later a figure of lasting influence. But his identity is shrouded in questions about who he was, when he lived and whether he was an actual person, a myth or merely a shared idea. Whatever his source, Homer is a cultural invention nearly as distinctive and important as the poems attributed to him.Porter follows the cultural history of the idea of the great poet and of the obsession that is reborn every time Homer is reimagined. Offering novel readings of texts and objects, the idea of Homer is elucidated from its origins to its most recent imaginings in literature, criticism, philosophy, visual art and classical archaeology. Porter explores the many sources of Homer’s mystique and their cultural impact, starting with the first recorded mentions of his name in ancient Greece.NOTESMLF: HumanitiesThis program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.SPEAKERSJames PorterIrving Stone Professor of Literature, University of California, Berkeley; Author, Homer: The Very IdeaIn 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 January 13th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The conflict between Israelis and the Palestinians is one of the most complex and controversial disputes in the world today. It is a complicated conflict that plays a role in the foreign affairs of many countries around the world, including the United States. Yet many issues related to the conflict are misunderstood by people and groups across the political spectrum, sometimes intentionally, sometimes from just a lack of knowledge.Daniel Sokatch, the head of the New Israel Fund—an organization dedicated to equality and democracy for all Israelis, not just Jews—is often asked to explain these issues as part of his job. In his new book, Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted, Sokatch offers his own primer on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The book provides the long story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and gives basic explanations for the centuries-long conflict. Sokatch also attempts to explain why Israel (and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) inspires such extreme feelings—why it seems as if Israel is the answer to "what is wrong with the world" for half the people in it, and "what is right with the world" for the other half.As Sokatch asks in his book, is there any other topic about which so many intelligent, educated and sophisticated people express such strongly and passionately held convictions, and about which they actually know so little? This program will offer some background on this often misunderstood and complicated topic.SPEAKERSDaniel SokatchCEO, New Israel Fund; Author, Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and ConflictedDaniel HandlerWriter; Musician; a.k.a. Lemony Snicket—Moderator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kal Penn and Huma Abedin had vastly different journeys into the world of American politics. As a collegiate-level White House intern during Hillary Clinton’s time as the first lady, Abedin never predicted she’d go on to witness some of the most crucial moments in America’s modern political history; including Clinton’s watershed nomination as the first female candidate for president. Penn, too, has both witnessed and shaped political history as a liaison for the Obama administration—something that he, a prominent Hollywood actor who’d experienced countless discriminations in the entertainment industry, never saw coming.While their foray into politics were poles apart, Abedin and Penn do share a similar vision of the American Dream molded by their immigrant families. In their own professional endeavors—from Penn’s shift to politics to Abedin’s powerful tenure as Hillary Clinton’s right-hand woman—they’ve done more than just manifest this dream. Instead, they’ve disrupted it’s very core.Together at INFORUM, Huma Abedin and Kal Penn will bring to life the remarkable experiences they’ve detailed in their new memoirs, Both/And and You Can’t Be Serious, respectively. In doing so, they will provide the audience with more than just powerful insights toward the meaning of the American Dream—instead, they’ll challenge its “one size fits all” narrative in order to reconstruct its meaning for a more inclusive future.SPEAKERSHuma AbedinFormer Vice Chairperson, Hillary Clinton 2016 Presidential Campaign; Author, Both/And: A Life in Many WorldsKal PennActor; Former Principal Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Author, You Can’t Be SeriousIn 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 9th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of January 6, 2021 is one that will go down in the history books. In the 64 days between November 3 and January 6, President Donald Trump and his allies fought to reverse the outcome of the vote. Focusing on six states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—Trump’s supporters claimed widespread voter fraud. In The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It, veteran journalists Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague offer a week-by-week, state-by-state account of the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.Working with a team of researchers and reporters, Bowden and Teague uncover never-before-told accounts from the election officials fighting to do their jobs amid outlandish claims and threats to themselves, their colleagues and their families. They provide an engaging, in-depth report on what happened during those crucial nine weeks and a portrait of the heroic individuals who did their duty and stood firm against the unprecedented, sustained attack on our election system to ensure that every legal vote was counted and the will of the people prevailed.Join us as Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague discuss their research and offer their thoughts and commentary on the events leading up to January 6.SPEAKERSMark BowdenContributing Writer, The Atlantic; Co-author, The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped ItMatthew TeagueContributor, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and Esquire; Executive Producer, "Our Friend"; Co-author, The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped ItIn Conversation with John BolandPresident Emeritus, KQED Public Media; Vice Chair, Commonwealth Club Board of GovernorsIn 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 January 12th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If corporations can be legal persons, why can’t Mother Earth? In 2017, New Zealand granted the Whanganui River the full legal rights of a person. India granted full legal rights to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, and recognized that the Himalayan Glaciers have a right to exist. In 2019, the city of Toledo passed the Lake Erie Bill of Rights with 61 percent of the vote, but then a year later, a federal judge struck it down.As Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, an attorney who represented Lake Erie, explains, the problem stems from a 500-year history of Western property law. Our legal system grants rights to property owners, but not to property itself. “If we’re treating ecosystems as property, then ultimately, we as property owners have the right to destroy our property and that fundamentally has to change,” Schromen-Wawrin says.Rebecca Tsosie, a law professor focused on Federal Indian law and Indigenous peoples’ human rights, says there are other rights frameworks to consider. “If we go into Indigenous epistemology, many times it’s a relational universe that comes with mutual responsibility.”Guests:Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, attorney, formerly with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Rebecca Tsosie, Regents Professor of Law at the University of Arizona; Co-Chair, Indigenous Peoples’ Law and Policy ProgramCarol Van Strum, author of A Bitter Fog, activist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The February 2019 New York Times Magazine reported on Susan Gerbic and her team's successful work exposing psychic medium Thomas John in a sting called Operation Pizza Roll. Throughout the pandemic Gerbic's team (Guerilla Skeptics) researched and exposed multiple mediums operating on Zoom using hot and cold reading to appear to be in communication with the dead; this series of reports was called Operation Lemon Meringue.In April 2021, medium Thomas John scheduled an 8-person Spirit Circle for children ages 5–12, charging $400 per reading. After trying unsuccessfully to get the Spirit Circle cancelled, the Guerilla Skeptics decided to attend and report back on the event. Susan will be discussing what happened in Operation Onion Ring and how they say they once again caught "grief vampire" Thomas John.  For more information on the work the Guerilla Skeptics have done concerning various "grief vampires," visit their website. About the SpeakerAffectionately called the Wikipediatrician, Susan Gerbic is the founder of Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) and the Monterey County Skeptics, and is a self-proclaimed skeptical junkie. A Skeptical Inquirer contributor Gerbic is a fellow of CSI and winner of the James Randi Foundation award for 2017. In 2018, Susan founded and manages About Time, a nonprofit organization focusing on scientific skepticism and activism. While her particular focus has been “Grief Vampires” (psychics), her activism encompasses all areas of skepticism. You can find out more at AboutTimeProject.org.MLF ORGANIZERPatrick O'ReillyNOTESMLF: PsychologySPEAKERSSusan GerbicFounder, Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW); Founder, Monterey County Skeptics; Founder and Manager, About TimePatrick O'ReillyPh.D., Clinical Psychologist; Chair, Psychology 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 January 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a significant increase in hate crimes on the streets of America's cities as well as a rise in online hate, America finds itself on a terrifying path, one that could hardly be imagined just several years ago. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt's current mission is making sure that what has happened in our lifetimes in Europe, the Middle East and Asia does not happen here.In his new book, It Could Happen Here: Why America Is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable—And How We Can Stop It, Greenblatt demonstrates how antisemitism, racism, and other insidious forms of intolerance can destroy a society, taking root as quiet prejudices but mutating over time into horrific acts of brutality. His book sounds an alarm, warning that this age-old trend is gathering momentum in the United States—and that violence on an even larger, more catastrophic scale could be around the corner if we don't change our direction.Greenblatt believes a more positive future can awaits us and that society doesn't have to succumb to hatred. Drawing on ADL’s decades of experience in fighting hate through investigative research, education programs, and legislative victories, as well as his own personal story and his background in business and government, Greenblatt offers a bracing primer on how we—as individuals, as organizations, and as a society—can strike back against hate.Please join us for an important conversation with a national leader on the frontlines of fighting prejudice.SPEAKERSJonathan GreenblattCEO, Anti-Defamation League; Author, It Could Happen Here: Why America Is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable—And How We Can Stop ItRoger McNameeSilicon Valley Investor, Author, Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe—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 January 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices