Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

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

The Commonwealth Club is pleased to welcome Asa Hutchinson, Republican governor of the state of Arkansas, and the current chair of the National Governors Association (NGA).Governor Hutchinson will discuss the critical role he has played in workforce training, infrastructure and new economy jobs not only in his state, but also across the country, leading the bipartisan National Governors Association. The NGA works alongside governors in their efforts to restore public health and continue a robust, sustainable economic recovery. When he became chairman of the NGA last year, Hutchinson pledged “to build on the areas where Republicans and Democrats agree and work to remove the obstacles in Washington where we can.” As chairman, Hutchinson has focused on K–12 computer science education, promoting his state’s best practices, in addition to engaging other governors on their strategies for success, to help increase computer science literacy needed for the jobs of the future.A dedicated public servant, Governor Hutchinson was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. In 1996, he won the first of three successive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his third term in Congress, President George W. Bush appointed him director of the Drug Enforcement Administration and later as an undersecretary in the newly created Department of Homeland Security.His experience has established him as a national resource for his expertise on trade, energy, national security, and education. The governor has been invited to the White House several times to join discussions about health care, Medicaid and education issues.The governor is the former co-chair of the Council of Governors and the former chairman of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, Southern States Energy Board, and the Southern Regional Education Board.SPEAKERSAsa HutchinsonGovernor of Arkansas; Chairman, National Governors AssociationScott McGrewNews Anchor, NBC 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 Live In San Francisco March 28th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this year, California regulators were set to propose significant changes to the incentives that drive rooftop solar installations. After widespread opposition from industry and climate advocates, the California Public Utilities Commission paused the effort. The issue centers on how much rooftop solar customers pay to use the grid and what rewards they get for selling their excess power. But California is far from the only state where net metering is a hotly contested issue. While utility-scale projects may offer more bang for the buck in some contexts, rooftop solar offers distributed generation and a tool for resilience. This week, we explore the debate between rooftop and utility-scale solar. Guests:Adam Browning, Co-Founder and Executive Director Emeritus, Vote Solar Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director, California Solar and Storage Association Tom Beach, Principal Consultant, Crossborder EnergyEmily Sanford Fisher, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Sr. Vice President, Clean Energy, Edison Electric Institute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling author AJ Baime returns to The Commonwealth Club to discuss his biography of Walter F. White, a civil rights leader who often passed for white in order to investigate racist murders. White led a double life: one as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and the NAACP in the early 20th century, the other as a white newspaperman who covered lynching crimes in the Deep South at the height of racial violence.Born mixed race, with very fair skin and straight hair, White was able to “pass” for white. He leveraged this ambiguity as a reporter, bringing to light the darkest crimes in America and helping to plant the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement. He was simultaneously a second-class citizen subject to Jim Crow laws at home and a widely respected professional with full access to the white world at work. His life was fraught with internal and external conflict—much like the story of race in America. Starting out as an obscure activist, White became a prominent civil rights leader, but until now a character study of White’s life and career in all its complexity has never been told.MLF ORGANIZERGeorge HammondSPEAKERSA.J. BaimeAuthor, White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America’s Darkest SecretIn Conversation with Sheryl DavisExecutive Director, San Francisco Human Rights CommissionIn 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 28th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us to discuss with economist Oded Galor his grand unifying theory to explain human flourishing and economic inequality. In a captivating journey from the dawn of human existence to the present, Galor offers an intriguing solution to two of humanity’s great mysteries. Why are humans the only species to have escaped (quite recently) the subsistence trap, allowing us to enjoy a standard of living that vastly exceeds all others? And why have we progressed so unequally around the world, resulting in the great disparities between nations that exist today?Immense in scope and packed with interesting connections, Galor explains how technology, population size, and adaptation led to a stunning “phase change” in human history a mere 200 years ago. But by tracing that same journey back in time and peeling away the layers of influence—colonialism, political institutions, societal structure, culture—he also arrives at an explanation of inequality's ultimate cause: those ancestral populations that enjoyed fruitful geographical characteristics and rich diversity were set on the path to prosperity, while those that lacked it were disadvantaged in ways still influential today.As we face ecological crises across the globe, Galor concludes that gender equality, investment in education, and balancing diversity with social cohesion are the keys not only to our species’ thriving, but to its survival.NOTESMLF: HumanitiesSPEAKERSOded GalorHerbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics, Brown University; Founder, Unified Growth Theory; Author, The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and InequalityIn 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 March 24th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iconic counterculture icon Stewart Brand has been at the center of many of the social and cultural movements launched and nurtured in the Bay Area. Whether it be early computing, the Merry Pranksters and the hippies, the generation-defining Whole Earth Catalog, or the environmental movement, Brand has been at the center of them all. Yet many outside these movements only know him because Apple founder Steve Jobs quoted Brand's famous mantra—stay hungry, stay foolish—in a famous Stanford University commencement speech. Legendary science and technology writer John Markoff hopes to elevate an understanding of Brand's impact on our world.In his new book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand, Markoff provides the first serious biography of Brand, his impact and his many contradictions. A blond-haired WASP with a modest family inheritance, Brand went to Exeter and Stanford and was an army veteran, but in California in the 1960s he became an artist and a photographer in the thick of the LSD revolution. While tripping on acid on the roof of his building, he envisioned how valuable it would be for humans to see a photograph of the planet they shared from space, an image that in the end landed on the cover of his Whole Earth Catalog, the defining publication of the counterculture. He married a Native American woman and was committed to protecting indigenous culture, which connected to a broader environmentalist mission that has been a through line of his life. He also was early to the promise of the computer revolution—nurtured in the pages and community of the Whole Earth Catalog—and helped define it for the wider world.Please join us as Markoff discusses Brand's influential and remarkable California life and the impact he has had on millions of people.NOTESThis program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.SPEAKERSJohn MarkoffWriter-in-Residence, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence; Author, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart BrandPaul SaffoFuturist; Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford UniversityIn 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