Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

In her new book, A Hole in the Clouds, Maryles Casto shares how, as part of the dramatic economic growth of Silicon Valley, she built her travel business from a $1,500 startup to a $200 million company, serving the needs of the tech industry. She describes how advice from key industry pioneers—such as Intel’s Andy Grove and Robert Noyce and V.C.s William Bowes and Irwin Federman—contributed to her perspective on business, and offers invaluable lessons on her strategies that helped the business to thrive despite being in an industry threatened by extinction. She describes how her business success then led her to champion community and cultural organizations.When Maryles Casto left her family’s sugar plantation in the Philippines in 1959 and moved to the United States as a new bride, she brought with her a love for travel and the stellar customer-service experience she’d gained as a flight attendant for Philippine Airlines. She never imagined she’d be building a business from scratch in an unfamiliar country. But when her husband went back to school, she needed to find a job. She founded Casto Travel soon after, a company she ran for more than four decades.Join us as Maryles Casto discusses the true story of how she transformed her life from unemployed flight attendant into the CEO of one of the most successful travel companies in the country, and of the many interesting characters she has met along the way!NOTESThis program is part of The Commonwealth Club's Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.SPEAKERSMaryles CastoChairman and CEO, MVC Solutions; Author, A Hole in the Clouds: From Flight Attendant to Silicon Valley CEOIn Conversation with Dr. Gloria DuffyPresident and CEO, The Commonwealth Club of CaliforniaIn 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 15th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2015, delegates from 196 nations entered into the legally binding treaty on climate change known as the Paris Agreement, which set a goal of limiting global warming to “well below 2 and preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.” Yet in August of this year, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new assessment report that starkly illustrated the world’s collective failure to meet that target. Delegates from across the globe have just met in Glasgow for the international climate summit known as COP26, with the hope of strengthening commitments to keep emissions targets at that 1.5 degree level. After two weeks of negotiations, presentations and protests in Glasgow, COP26 is a wrap. This week we discuss what was achieved - and what wasn’t - at the summit. For transcripts and other information, visit: https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts Guests:Vanessa Nakate, Ugandan climate activistJiang Lin, Adjunct Professor, University of California BerkeleyAlbert Cheung, Head of Global Analysis, Bloomberg New Energy FinanceSupport our work: climateone.org/donate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our distinguished, diverse panel will discuss the Abraham Accords, which began a new era of cooperation between the broader Middle East region and Israel, and inspired the development of entities such as the Sharaka Project. (Sharaka means "partnership" in Arabic.).The project was founded by young leaders in order to turn the vision of people-to-people peace into a reality and encourage citizen diplomacy. Sharaka is currently located in Bahrain, Israel, The UAE, the United States and soon will open in Morocco. The panelists will also share their personal stories and cultures that inspire them.MLF ORGANIZERCelia MenczelNOTESMLF: Middle EastSPEAKERSOmar Al BusaidiCEO, Sharaka USA, Fulbright ScholarHayvi BouzoJournalist; Washington, D.C., Bureau chief, The Orient NewsDan FefermanDirector of Communications and Global Affairs, Sharaka; Fellow, The Jewish People Policy InstituteChama MechtalyArtist; Founder and CEO, Moors and SaintsBanafsheh KeynoushPh.D., Vice-Chair, Commonwealth Club Middle East Member-Led Forum—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 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For more than 25 years, Heidi Kuhn, at the helm of Roots of Peace, has been dedicated to cultivating peace and to helping rebuild war-torn countries by turning the scourge of land-mined areas into profitable agricultural land.For example, in Afghanistan, a country 80-percent dependent on an agricultural economy, her esteemed charity has removed millions of landmines and planted millions of trees and vines, which greatly benefits countless Afghan farmers and their families.Kuhn will also discuss her recent efforts to help her female employees emigrate and how after the ending of America's "forever" war and despite the unexpected, rapid Taliban takeover, Roots of Peace continues in Afghanistan.MLF ORGANIZERCelia MenczelNOTESMLF: Middle East, International RelationsSPEAKERSHeidi KuhnHumanitarian; Founder and CEO, Roots of PeaceAtta ArghandiwalFormer Refugee; Author Lost Decency: The Untold Afghan StoryIn 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

Black communities have a long and complicated relationship with American soil. The ongoing call to address systemic racism, patterns of abuse, violence and dispossession have brought back to the mainstream the conversation of BIPOC communities' historical connections to land.What are the connections between this history and current "food apartheid" (food deserts)? How is the Black farming movement connected to changes in larger food systems and the growth of worker cooperatives? How are people incorporating environmental sustainability into their work? And what can we learn from both the rich history of resistance and current strategies to inform how we resource a world where all people have access to healthy, fresh and locally sourced food?Join the San Francisco Foundation and The Commonwealth Club of California as Doria Robinson, executive director of Urban Tilth, and Andrea Talley, worker-owner of the Mandela Grocery Cooperative, explore multiple issues and interconnections that surround farming and food access for BIPOC communities. In conversation with Natalie Baszile, noted author of Queen Sugar and We Are Each Other’s Harvest.SPEAKERSDoria RobinsonExecutive Director, Urban TilthAndrea TalleyWorker-Owner, Mandela Grocery CooperativeNatalie BaszileAuthor, Queen Sugar and We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and LegacyIn 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 8th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Corporate America and our government both hold the power to shape our daily lives. However, Alex Ross says recently there seems to be a blur between big business and Congress in the “new Gilded Age”. Private companies have become as powerful as countries, leading many to wonder about the implications for everyday people.In the face of unprecedented global change, New York Times bestselling author Alec Ross proposes a new social contract to restore the balance of power between government, citizens and business in The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People—and the Fight for Our Future.Through interviews with the world’s most influential thinkers and stories of corporate activism and malfeasance, government failure and renewal, and innovative economic and political models, Ross proposes a new social contract―one that resets the equilibrium between corporations, the governing, and the governed.Join us as Alec Ross takes us through the changing landscape of the relationship between big business, government and people.SPEAKERSAlec RossDistinguished Visiting Professor, The University of Bologna Business School; Former Senior Advisor for Innovation to the U.S. Secretary of State; Author, The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People—and the Fight for Our FutureIn Conversation with DJ PatilFormer U.S. Chief Data Scientist; Member, 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 November 8th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, Americans have been engaged in a vast discussion on the state of race in America. Like many topics in the country, the issue has become a divisive, tense debate about how the country faces its racist past, the meaning of systemic racism, the role of critical race theory in K–12 schools and universities, and what it means to be "anti-racist" during this challenging moment in American civic life.Renowned linguist and award-winning writer John McWhorter feels this debate and discussion has been dominated by a "woke mob" that subscribes to theories that are illogical, unreachable and, ultimately, racist in their impact, however unintentional those effects may be. In his book Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America, McWhorter argues that an "illiberal neoracism," disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.In Woke Racism, McWhorter reveals the workings of this new progressive approach toward race, from the original sin of “white privilege” to the weaponization of cancel culture to ban heretics. His book sets out to show how efforts that claim to “dismantle racist structures” are actually harming his fellow Black Americans by infantilizing Black people, setting Black students up for failure, and passing policies that disproportionately damage Black communities. Some may call it “antiracism,” but to McWhorter, it features a racial essentialism that’s barely distinguishable from racist arguments of the past.Please join us for an important discussion on the limits of antiracism with an increasingly visible writer who has a different roadmap to justice that he believes will help, not hurt, Black America.SPEAKERSJohn McWhorterAssociate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; Author, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black AmericaDebra J. SaundersFellow, Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership; Columnist, Creators Syndicate—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, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2015, renowned writer Sam Quinones woke up many Americans to the dangers of the opioid epidemic with his award-winning book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. In his new book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, Quinones follows up Dreamland with an exploration of the terrifying next stages of the opioid epidemic, and the stories of individuals and communities that have fought back.Quinones was among the first journalists to capture the true danger presented by synthetic drugs. In fentanyl, traffickers landed a painkiller a hundred times more powerful than morphine, and laced it into cocaine, meth, and counterfeit pills, causing tens of thousands of deaths—at the same time as Mexican traffickers made methamphetamine cheaper and more potent than ever. Combined, these new synthetic drugs wrecked communities across the country, particularly rural areas, led to a surge of mental illness concerns, and fed a growing homelessness problem throughout the United States. Quinones explores these issues and more.At a time of great despair because of multiple drug epidemics, Quinones also finds sources of hope, in communities fighting back against rampant synthetic drug issues and helping individuals repair their lives. Quinones concludes that the nation has forsaken “what has made America great” and that “when drug traffickers act like corporations and corporations like drug traffickers, our best defense, perhaps our only defense, lies in bolstering community.”Please join us for an important conversation on one of the country's most challenging problems, and what we all can do to rise to the challenge.SPEAKERSSam QuinonesJournalist; Author, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and MethApril DemboskyHealth Correspondent, KQED—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 4th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for a conversation with Jay Caspian Kang, who draws on a combination of family history and original reporting to explore—and reimagine—Asian American identity in a Black and white world.In 1965, a new immigration law lifted a century of restrictions against Asian immigrants to the United States. Nobody, including the lawmakers who passed the bill, expected it to transform the country’s demographics. But over the next four decades, millions arrived, including Jay Caspian Kang’s parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. The Loneliest Americans is the unforgettable story of Kang and his family as they move from a housing project in Cambridge to an idyllic college town in the South and eventually to the West Coast. Their story unfolds against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding Asian America, as millions more immigrants, many of them working-class or undocumented, stream into the country. At the same time, upwardly mobile urban professionals have struggled to reconcile their parents’ assimilationist goals with membership in a multicultural elite—all while trying to carve out a new kind of belonging for their own children.Kang recognizes this existential loneliness in himself and in other Asian Americans who try to locate themselves in what he calls the country’s racial binary. There are the businessmen turning Flushing into a center of immigrant wealth; the casualties of the Los Angeles riots; the impoverished parents in New York City who believe that admission to the city’s exam schools is the only way out; the men’s right’s activists on Reddit ranting about intermarriage; and the handful of protesters who show up at Black Lives Matter rallies holding “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” signs. Kang ties these various strands together amid a wave of anti-Asian violence and he adds his call for a new form of immigrant solidarity—one rooted not in bubble tea and elite college admissions but in the struggles of refugees and the working class.About the SpeakerJay Caspian Kang is a writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine. His other work has appeared in The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker, and on "This American Life" and "Vice," where he worked as an Emmy-nominated correspondent. He is the author of the novel The Dead Do Not Improve, which The Boston Globe called “an extremely smart, funny debut, with moments of haunting beauty.”NOTESThis program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.SPEAKERSJay Caspian KangWriter-at-Large, The New York Times Magazine; Author, The Loneliest AmericansMichelle MeowProducer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW 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 November 4th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Within months of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, public health systems in the United States (and around the world) were stretched to the brink of destruction. The virus infected millions, killed hundreds of thousands, and effectively made the country stand still. Nineteen months later, the pandemic continues. Yet America was already in poor health before COVID-19 appeared. The country's failure to address many issues—marginalization and socioeconomic inequality among them—left the United States vulnerable to COVID-19 and the ensuing global health crisis it became.Sandro Galea's new book, The Contagion Next Time, describes the foundational forces shaping health in our society and how we can strengthen them to prevent the next outbreak from becoming a pandemic. Had the country tackled these challenges 20 years ago, after the outbreak of SARS, perhaps COVID-19 could have been quickly contained. Instead, we allowed our systems to deteriorate. Galea, as he did in his previous book, Well, challenges all of us to tackle the deep-rooted obstacles preventing us from becoming a truly vibrant and equitable nation, and reminds us at this critical time that a country's health is a public good worth protecting as much as the country's physical infrastructure.Please join us for this important public health conversation.SPEAKERSDr. Sandro GaleaDean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public HealthMark ZitterChair, The Zetema Project—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 4th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices