Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

The Chinese Historical Society of America collects, preserves and illuminates the history of Chinese in America by serving as a center for research, scholarship and learning to inspire a greater appreciation for, and knowledge of, their collective experience through exhibitions, public programs and any other means for reaching the widest audience.CHSA promotes the contributions and legacy of the Chinese in America through its exhibitions, publications, and educational and public programs in the museum and learning center. It is housed in the landmark Julia Morgan-designed Chinatown YWCA building at 965 Clay Street in San Francisco.Since February of last year, CHSA has been led by Justin Charles Hoover, a visionary Chinese American museum professional who is breathing new life into the old museum building—and outside its walls, too.In this multi-media presentation, Justin Hoover will provide in-person and virtual attendees with a virtual tour of the museum and its traditional exhibits, as well as a virtual tour of its upcoming exhibit, “We Are Bruce Lee,” celebrating the life and many contributions of film legend Bruce Lee. This exciting exhibit will occupy the entire museum space.Join us and get a taste of what a 21st century museum can look like!SPEAKERSJustin HooverExecutive Director, Chinese Historical Society of AmericaBetty YuReporter, KPIX—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 April 29th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Débora Souza Silva is a Black Afro-Brazilian journalist and filmmaker. Her work has been featured on PBS, BBC, and elsewhere, and she is the recipient of the Les Payne Founder's Award from the National Association of Black Journalists, the 2021 Creative Capital Award, and a New York Times Institute fellowship. Her work examines systemic racism and inequality.Don't miss this online discussion of her feature-length film Black Mothers Love and Resist. It examines the Mothers of the Movement, a growing national network of Black mothers whose children have been attacked by police. The film follows two mothers—Angela Williams and Wanda Johnson—and the cycle of courage and care that Black mothers have cultivated to protect themselves and their families.Also joining us will be Wanda Johnson, a mother, activist and speaker, with a long history of community organizing and speaking to equity. When her son Oscar Grant III was killed by an Oakland BART transit officer on January 1, 2009, she embarked on a journey to turn that pain into purpose. Since then, Wanda has become an amplified voice for mothers and organizers. Wanda is also CEO of the Oscar Grant Foundation and licensed and ordained as a minister.Note: This program is an interview about the film and its subjects; it is not a film screening.NOTESSee more  Michelle Meow Show programs at The Commonwealth Club of California.SPEAKERSWanda JohnsonCEO, The Oscar Grant Foundation; Activist; Ordained MinisterDébora Souza SilvaDirector and Producer, Black Mothers Love and ResistMichelle MeowProducer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Co-hostJohn ZippererProducer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club of California—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 April 21st, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chef Matt Horn has quickly become one of the most noted chefs in the Bay Area and, increasingly, the country.Since opening his namesake restaurant, Horn Barbecue, in West Oakland in late 2020 the California native has been named a Food and Wine Best New Chef in 2021, won a coveted spot in the Michelin food guide, had his unique "California-style" barbeque featured in major newspapers around the country, and currently is a finalist for a James Beard Foundation award for Best New Restaurant in America, one of only two California restaurants to make this coveted cut. On top of that, Horn just opened his second restaurant (a fried chicken restaurant), with much more planned for his growing food empire.In his new cookbook, Horn Barbecue: Recipes and Techniques from a Master of the Art of BBQ, Matt Horn tells his own inspiring story of how he learned to make BBQ and open a restaurant, and about how his journey echoes and continues the historic lineage of African American barbecue in the United States—an engaging yet often unknown history. His cookbook also has recipes and tips for those who want to try his recipes and classic "low and slow" method at home.After the talk, guests will enjoy some of Horn's famous BBQ in a fun, post-program reception. Food included in ticket price.Please join us for a special evening with one of the Bay Area's rising chefs.Horn will be interviewed by Bay Area food scene veteran, Cecilia Phillips. Phillips has worked under several celebrity chefs and has served as a food tour guide for many years in San Francisco. She began her journalism career as a reporter at KIEM in Eureka, California, and upon relocating to the Bay Area joined KQED as an intern. She then moved into the role of coordinating producer and on-camera reporter for the flagship KQED broadcast show, Check, Please! Bay Area. Within the program, she produces a special series called "Cecilia Tries It," where she scours the Bay Area in search of off-the-beaten-path spots for exciting, culturally diverse culinary experiences that fans can’t miss. NOTESThis program is part of The Commonwealth Club's Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. SPEAKERSMatt HornFounder & CEO, Horn Hospitality Group; Author, Horn Barbecue: Recipes and Techniques from a Master of the Art of BBQCecilia PhillipsCoordinating Producer and On-Camera Reporter, Check, Please! Bay Area—ModeratorIn 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 April 21st, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly 60 years after his death, John F. Kennedy still holds an outsize place in the American imagination. Baby Boomers certainly remember his dazzling presence as president, but his brief time in office was marked by more than just style and elegance. His presidency is a story of a fledgling leader forced to meet severe challenges, and to rise above his early missteps to lead his nation into a new and more hopeful era.Kennedy entered office inexperienced but alluring, his reputation more given by an enamored public than earned through achievement. Presidential historian Mark Updegrove details the setbacks of JFK’s first months: the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, his disastrous summit with Soviet Premier Khrushchev, and his mismanaged approach to the Civil Rights Movement. But soon the young president proved that behind the glamour was a leader of uncommon fortitude and vision. A humbled Kennedy conceded his mistakes and—important for our times—drew lessons from his failures that he used to right wrongs and move forward, radiating greater possibility as he coolly faced a steady stream of crises before his tragic end.Join us as Updegrove reexamines the dramatic, consequential White House years of a flawed but gifted leader, whose brief but transformative tenure has too often been obscured by the Camelot myth that engulfed JFK after his assassination.MLF ORGANIZERGeorge HammondThis program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.SPEAKERSMark UpdegrovePresident and CEO, Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation; Presidential Historian, ABC News; Author, Incomparable Grace: JFK in the PresidencyIn Conversation with Dan AshleyCo Anchor, ABC 7 News; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @DanAshleyABC7In 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 April 20th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Women widely perceive aging as a change worthy of fear and resistance. But what if approaching the second half of life is actually more of a celebration?Researcher, clinician and UCSF professor Dr. Louann Brizendine dives deep into the workings of the brain and finds that women can discover their best selves in their later stages of life with the right prescriptive advice. Since she published her studies centered on women’s brain function in 2006, she has received an overwhelming response from the scientific community.Her latest research contains a profound understanding of the nature of the female brain and unlocks new potential for women to understand and optimize the powerful changes their brain undergoes in midlife.MLF ORGANIZERDenise MichaudSPEAKERSDr. Louann BrizendineM.D., Lynne and Marc Benioff Endowed Chair in Clinical Psychiatry. University of California San Francisco; Founder, Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic, UCSF; Author, The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in MidlifeIn Conversation with Katie HafnerJournalist; Host and Co-Executive Producer, "Lost Women of Science" Podcast; Author, The Boys (forthcoming); Twitter@katiehafnerIn 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 April 20th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Benjamin Franklin was not exactly a gambling man. But he wagered 2,000 pounds, at the end of his illustrious life, on the survival of the United States. Franklin's bet was that, if the trustees of his legacy funds lent it out over the next 200 years to Boston and Philadelphia tradesmen to jump-start their careers, the U.S. economy would flourish. Each loan was to be repaid with interest over 10 years, and if all went according to Franklin’s inventive scheme, the accrued final payout in 1991 would prove to be a windfall.Meyer traces the evolution of these twin funds as they age alongside America itself, bankrolling woodworkers and silversmiths, trade schools and space races. Franklin’s wager on this early version of microfinancing was misused, neglected, and contested—but never wholly extinguished. With charm and inquisitive flair, Meyer shows how Franklin’s stake in the “leather-apron” class remains in play to this day, and offers an inspiring blueprint for prosperity in our modern era of growing wealth disparity and social divisions.MLF ORGANIZERGeorge HammondSPEAKERSMichael MeyerProfessor of English, University of Pittsburgh; Author, Benjamin Franklin's Last BetIn 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 April 19th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a day and age where politics can take any form from protesting to posting, it can be hard for students to navigate the many, often divisive political situations they find themselves in. Though politics are certainly an important part of our curriculums, learning how to discuss politics civilly has not been. Now, many organizations are stepping up to fill this gap. In doing so, they are providing students and future generations alike with the tools necessary to navigate a polarized political scene while also paving a path to minimize the partisan division altogether.This student-led program will empower students to face political conversations head on, with both confidence and courtesy. Coming from diverse perspectives, the speakers will model the very conversations they seek to instigate and will guide students in how to build the bridges we so desperately need.Program lead Raquel Kunugi is a graduating senior in political science at the University of California Berkeley and an Education intern at The Commonwealth Club. Hailing from a rural, conservative town and a politically purple family, and now attending a famously liberal school, she has experienced the range of political beliefs and has made friends all along the political spectrum. She hopes this program will empower her fellow students to challenge themselves by challenging the growing norm of polarization.NOTESCreating Citizens, The Commonwealth Club’s K-12 civics education initiative, is supported by the Koret Foundation.SPEAKERSJustine LeeExecutive Director, Living Room ConversationsJohn Wood, Jr.National Ambassador, Braver AngelsAlice SiuAssociate Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University—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 April 19th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A fundamental injustice of the climate crisis is that those who have contributed to it least are already bearing the brunt of the impacts, and that will continue as global temperatures rise. Like many other environmental and societal challenges, we can’t make real progress if certain groups are left behind. How might a new model for working together to solve interconnected crises, by tracing the origins of ecofeminism, environmental justice and other movements that center the voices and experiences of Black, Indigenous and people of color, work?Guests:Leah Thomas, author, Founder, The Intersectional Environmentalist Hop Hopkins, Director of Organizational Transformation, The Sierra Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Information technology has fundamentally changed the daily lives of Americans - crunching years of data in seconds and automating seemingly infinitely complex tasks. Yet, as congressman Ro Khanna warns, technological progress has great power to either hurt or heal the country—creating division and furthering inequality if left unchecked, or creating opportunity and healing fractures if carefully directed. It is by keeping an eye on the least fortunate while channeling digital innovation, he argues, that we can create positive change.In his latest book, Dignity in the Digital Age, congressman Khanna explains how democratic access to technology can strengthen every sector of the economy, create more inclusive communities and mend a fractured country. Using “progressive capitalism” to create jobs and opportunities for all Americans, especially the least fortunate, he gives a blueprint of how to direct the future of the tech industry to be a powerful agent for positive change.Congressman Ro Khanna has represented California's Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2016 and serves as chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment. Before his time in Congress, he served as the deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Commerce in the Obama administration and has taught economics and law at Stanford University. In the House of Representatives, Rep. Khanna has been a leading voice for tech equality, climate change accountability and the social responsibility of corporations.Join us, as Rep. Khanna explains how the digital revolution got us to where we are now—and explains where it can take us from here at this critical time in American history.SPEAKERSRo KhannaU.S. Representative (D-CA, District 17); Author, Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us; Twitter @RepRoKhannaAhmad ThomasPresident & CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group—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 April 20th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Demographic changes at both the national and local levels continue to have tremendous impacts on America's political system. As diversity in the United States continues to flourish, the United States is evolving into a true multi-racial society. Yet the country remains deeply divided. What roles are demographic changes and a backlash to those shifts playing in shaping America's civic life? Leading demographer and political commentator Justin Gest believes he has some answers to these questions as the country 's citizens continue to grapple with what happens to the country when there is no longer a majority demographic group.In his new pathbreaking book Majority Minority, Dr. Gest uses the case studies of six societies that have undergone the majority-minority transition to reveal insights as to the role of government in tempering nationalist sentiment and allowing diversity to flourish. He argues that the state and politicians can be powerful actors to help groups integrate and form a common identity for the benefit of all, while still respecting and celebrating the differences between them. Supplementing his analysis with surveys, studies and careful analysis of trends in the United States, Gest explains that the coming years will be formative in how diversity lives on in America, and how our society can gracefully transition into a majority-minority country.The 2022 elections and, of course, the 2024 presidential election will be shaped by the impact of America's demographic changes. To help put these issues into context, Gest has invited former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and political journalist Molly Ball to discuss his new book and the critical moment in which the United States finds itself as its future as a cohesive multiracial democracy is regularly called into question.Please join us for an important discussion on how we got here, what it means, and where we can go to remain an inclusive society for all Americans, regardless of origin.SPEAKERSJustin GestAssociate Professor of Policy and Government, George Mason University’s Schar School; Author, Majority MinorityAntonio VillaraigosaFormer Mayor, City of Los AngelesMolly BallNational Political Correspondent, TimeIn 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 April 19th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices