Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

Join us, as we remember the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, to hear the novelist and poet Quế Mai in conversation with Craig McNamara, whose father was Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense under both JFK and LBJ during the Vietnam war. Quế Mai will discuss her poetry, the long-lasting impact of war on the Vietnamese, and how Vietnam has continued to change politically after the war. She will also focus on Vietnamese literary culture, its poetry and proverbs, and the various Vietnamese “ways of life” that have survived the violent chaos of several decades of war. Having experienced the hardships of rural life first-hand in the 1970s and 1980s, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai has used her literary skills to travel the world with her stories. The Color of Peace, her new book of poetry, can be read as a travelogue of the route one can take to forgiveness, appreciation and extending one’s love for one’s own people and homelands to all of humanity. Vietnam, with its more than 4,000 years of history and

Bestselling author, popular commentator, and former litigator Elie Mystal has long been critical of the U.S. Constitution. Now he focuses his ire on 10 laws that he says are causing way too much misery to millions. In Bad Law, Mystal brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to a takedown of 10 of what he considers the most egregiously awful laws on the books today. These are pieces of legislation that are making life worse rather than better for Americans and should be repealed completely. On topics ranging from abortion and immigration to voting rights and religious freedom, he says Americans have chosen rules to live by that do not reflect the will of most of the people. With respect to the decision to make a law that effectively grants immunity to gun manufacturers, for example, Mystal writes, “We live in the most violent, wealthy country on earth not in spite of the law; we live in a first-person-shooter video game because of the law.” But, as the man Samantha Bee calls “irrepressible and

Summer is coming soon, and for many that means vacation. While traveling far and wide can be an amazing experience, the carbon cost of traveling is significant. But what if we could rekindle a sense of awe in our own neighborhoods?  After years of extreme expeditions all over the world, adventurer Alastair Humphreys spent a year exploring the detailed local map around his home. His new book “Local” is an ode to slowing down, as well as a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep. Guest:  Alastair Humphreys, Author; Adventurer This episode also features field reporting from producers Austin Colón and Megan Biscieglia. Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. For show notes and related links, visit our website. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.prod

Can a new class-based approach to college admissions produce economic and racial diversity alike—and greater fairness? For decades America’s colleges and universities have been working to increase racial diversity. But Richard Kahlenberg argues that they have been using the wrong approach. He makes the case that class disadvantage, rather than race, should be the determining factor for how a broader array of people “get in.” While elite universities claim to be on the side of social justice, the dirty secret of higher education is that the perennial focus on racial diversity has provided cover for an admissions system that mostly benefits the wealthy and shuts out talented working-class students. Kahlenberg says that by fixing the class bias in college admissions we can begin to rectify America’s skyrocketing economic inequality and class antagonism, giving more people a better place at the table as they move through life and more opportunity to “swim in the river of power.” Kahlenberg, author of the new b

Secretary of State Shirley Weber had been a lifelong educator. For 40 years she had been a professor at San Diego State University, having been named a professor emerita of Africana studies and served as the president of the National Council for Black Studies. And then, in the fall of 2011, Weber decided to run for office. Secretary Weber served first in the California State Assembly for nearly a decade, before Governor Gavin Newsom appointed her to the position of secretary of state of California. So, why did a career educator decide to run for office? Secretary Weber, in conversation with Creating Citizens’ Griffith Swidler, talks to an audience of Sacramento high school students about her path into politics. Weber details her upbringing, the people who influenced her, and how young people can lead us toward a less polarized America. This program is part of  Commonwealth Club World Affairs’ civics education initiative, Creating Citizens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the essential role of educators in sustaining our society and economy. As families navigated the challenges of work and caregiving, teachers emerged as critical support systems, ensuring students continued learning amid unprecedented disruptions. From maintaining safe classrooms to addressing academic and emotional needs, educators have been at the forefront of our collective recovery. Join us for an engaging panel discussion at Commonwealth Club World Affairs, featuring education and policy experts who will examine the urgent need for universal access to quality education and its broader economic and democratic implications. The conversation will explore key lessons from the pandemic and outline a path toward a more equitable and resilient education system. About the Panelists Jenny Lam: Former San Francisco Board of Education commissioner and director of policy, communications, and strategic partnerships at the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood. Lam has led cit

In researching her new book World Eaters, Catherine Bracy interviewed founders, fund managers, contract and temp workers in the gig economy, and limited partners across the landscape. She says she learned that the current VC model is not a good fit for the majority of start-ups—and yet, there are too few options for early stage funding outside of VC dollars. While there are some alternative paths for sustainable, responsible growth, without the help of regulators, there is not much motivation to drive investors from the roulette table that is venture capital. Join us as Bracy takes our stage and offers her urgent and illuminating perspective into how the most pernicious aspects of the venture capital ethos reaches all areas of our lives, into everything from health care to food to entertainment to the labor market, and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Certain to be controversial, Bracy’s tale is an eye-opening account of the ways that the values of contemporary venture capital hurt founders, cons

Since its creation under President Richard Nixon in 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has worked to reduce pollution and toxic exposures to ensure that Americans have clean air, clean water and clean soil. The EPA has also sought to reduce emissions to address climate change. Now that the Trump administration is in power, the EPA is being threatened with a 65% reduction in their budget.  In addition to EPA cuts, the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is making cuts left and right in an effort to trim $1 trillion from the federal budget. The combination of DOGE and Trump’s executive orders — plus the threatened cuts to the EPA and the federal spending freezes — have put thousands of jobs, and clean energy and climate related projects, in limbo. This could have a devastating impact on the national public health and safety standards we now take for granted, and will undermine our ability to address the climate crisis. How far do these cuts go? What is real and what is bluste

Songkran is a festival from Southeast Asia marking the new year and celebrating making a fresh start. This special program includes a program discussion hosted by Michelle Meow featuring conversations on cultural heritage, community impact, and empowerment initiatives; cultural performances, including traditional dances, live music, and storytelling sessions; a traditional water blessing ceremony; and delicious authentic Southeast Asian cuisine prepared by local chefs. About the Speakers Kesinee Angkustsiri Yip has been helping companies, organizations, and executives manage their reputations for more than two decades. An award-winning communications strategist recognized by the International Association of Business Communications, she co- founded Creative Catalyst (www.creativecatalystworks.com) to address culture and connection challenges—the things AI does not—by bringing improv into the workplace. While improv can be funny, it’s not just for the theater. Improv techniques can help entrepreneurs and lead

Join us to celebrate National Poetry Month with Red Hen Press’s poetic publisher, Kate Gale, and Red Hen Press poets Kim Dower, Francisco Aragón and Kim Addonizio, who will each be reading their poems that have electrified the literary world. Francisco Aragón, the director of Letras Latinas, is a gay Latino poet, the author of After Ruben. Kim Dower’s new book What She Wants explores obsession and desire. And Library Journal has written that “if Kim Addonizio were an opera, the audience would never stop throwing flowers at her feet.” Michelle Meow will delve into this “living poets society” to demonstrate the talent that makes independent publisher Red Hen Press and its poets so successful. Organizer: George Hammond   A Humanities Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. See more Michelle Meow Show programs at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of

While opening day fever is still in the air, join us at noon to hear the inside story of pitching in the big leagues from Jeremy Affeldt, who pitched seven of his 14 major league seasons for the San Francisco Giants (2009–2015). How do major league pitchers prepare for their jobs? How do all the pieces (physical, mental, strategic, managerial, team chemistry, coaching and more) fit together? Affeldt will be in conversation with Leland Faust and will explore the realities and dispel the myths of the sport. Organizer: George Hammond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NBC News anchor and correspondent Vicky Nguyen has a story to tell of her family’s daring escape from communist Vietnam and her unlikely journey from refugee to reporter—a story told with laughter and fierce love. Starting in 1975, Vietnam’s “boat people”—desperate families seeking freedom—fled the Communist government and violence in their country any way they could, usually by boat across the South China Sea. Vicky Nguyen and her family were among them. Attacked at sea by pirates before reaching a refugee camp in Malaysia, the Nguyen family survived on rations and waited months until they were sponsored to go to America. But deciding to leave and start a new life in a new country is half the story; figuring out how to be American is the other. Join us as Nguyen recounts the story from her memoir Boat Baby of growing up in America with unconventional Vietnamese parents who didn’t always know how to bridge the cultural gaps. It’s a childhood filled with misadventures and misunderstandings, from almost stabbi

Despite spending billions of dollars to combat homelessness, California has the largest and fastest-growing homeless population in the United States. To explain this result, some have blamed wasteful collusion between government and nonprofits to enrich themselves without ever intending to end homelessness. However, Carrie Sager says this over-simplistic conspiracy not only ignores the very real problems in the government and nonprofit sectors, but actively sabotages efforts to resolve them. Carrie Sager is the chief operating officer of Homeward Bound of Marin, the primary provider of emergency shelter and one of the largest providers of permanent supportive housing in Marin County. In her previous role as senior homelessness program coordinator for Marin County Health and Human Services, she worked with local nonprofits and city and county governments to create a coordinated system of care to house the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness in Marin. She is one of the chief architects of Marin's

More than 3 billion people rely on seafood as a primary source of animal protein. But waters are warming, and fish are moving. Are those fish, and the communities that have relied on them for centuries, in trouble? We go around the world, from the rocky shores of New England to the picturesque island of Niue, to investigate how three popular fish are doing. Along the way, we meet people who are protecting and regrowing these fish populations in different ways and learn about their challenges and successes. This episode features reporting by Barbara Moran at WBUR, which was produced as part of the Pulitzer Center's StoryReach U.S. Fellowship. Columbia University’s Duy Linh Tu contributed to the reporting.   Guests:  Tessa M. Hill, Oceanographer and Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences, UC Davis Mona Ainu’u, Minister for the Ministry of Natural Resources, Niue Jenn Caselle, Research Biologist, Marine Science Institute, UC Santa Barbara Climate One is hosting a series of live conversations as part of SF Clim

It is one thing to study the fall of democracy, another to have it hit your homeland—and yet another to raise children as it happens. Join Sarah Kendzior as she shares one family’s journey to the most beautiful, fascinating, and bizarre places in the United States during one of its most tumultuous eras. As Kendzior worked as a journalist chronicling political turmoil, she became determined that her young children see America before it’s too late. So Kendzior, her husband, and the kids hit the road—again and again. Starting from Missouri, the family drove across America in every direction as cataclysmic events—the rise of autocracy, political and technological chaos, and the pandemic—reshaped American life. They explore Route 66, national parks, historical sites, and Americana icons as Kendzior contemplated love for country in a broken heartland. Together, the family watches the landscape of the United States—physical, environmental, social, political—transform through the car window. She told the tale of he

On October 28, 2015, Jeanne Carstensen was reporting as a foreign correspondent covering the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe when she witnessed a devastating boat accident. After nearly a decade of research and investigation, Carstensen recounts the events of that day, with firsthand accounts from not only the desperate refugees, but also the heroic islanders who did their best to help.  Of her book A Greek Tragedy: One Day, A Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis, she says, “I wrote this book because I believe we need to pay attention to the human impacts of our migration policies. Increasingly, we are militarizing boarders, building more fences, and criminalizing those who try to help. I hope A Greek Tragedy will serve to wake us up; my hope is that we will not turn away.” Organizer: Frank Price   An International Relations Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse rang

Join us for a richly informative exploration of the central role of muscle in human life and health. Michael Joseph Gross, author of the new book Stronger, will share his urgent call for each of us to recognize muscle as “the vital, inextricable and effective partner of the soul.” Gross draws on everything from the battlefields of the Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad, where muscles enter the scene of world literature; to the all-but-forgotten Victorian-era gyms on both sides of the Atlantic, where women build strength and muscle by lifting heavy weights; to a retirement home in Boston, where a young doctor makes the astonishing discovery that frail 90-year-olds can experience the same relative gains of strength and muscle as 30-year-olds if they lift weights. These surprising tales play out against a background of clashing worldviews, an age-old competition between athletic trainers and medical doctors to define our understanding and experience of muscle. In this conflict, muscle got typecast: Simplistic binaries

In a previous Climate One episode, we discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly impacts of artificial intelligence. But AI isn’t going away. Humans rarely give up a nifty new tool unless something better comes along. AI’s share of energy consumption is enormous, and the Department of Energy estimates that data center energy demands will double or even triple in just the next three years. Demand on fresh water is at least as big and isn’t talked about nearly enough. So, what can we do to reduce AI’s impact?  Plenty of researchers have ideas — from site selection to energy efficiency to using zero-carbon sources of energy. But what will incentivize the AI corporations to take any of those actions? This episode is supported by Climate One Steward Noel Perry and Next 10. Episode Guests: KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director, Memphis Community Against Pollution Kate Brandt, Chief Sustainability Officer, Google Irina Raicu, Director of the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara

The energy transition is a monumental task, still in its early stages, with only about 10 percent of the necessary low-emissions technologies deployed to meet 2050 targets, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. As the world strives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while meeting growing global energy demand, significant challenges lie ahead. Join us as we explore the complexities of transforming the global energy infrastructure, and also the opportunities for innovation that lie ahead. Industry leaders will share insights on the progress being made and the critical steps needed to scale low-emission technologies while ensuring energy access and equity worldwide. Don’t miss this forward-looking discussion on the physical, technical and financial hurdles that must be overcome to achieve a sustainable energy future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Peter Som, nothing is quite as satisfying as the moment when everyone is gathered around the table and platters of food are set down for everyone to dig into together. Now culinary creator and lifestyle expert Som releases Family Style, a cookbook of 100 recipes with unique and creative flavor combinations, paying homage to his identity, heritage and family. He’s got powerfully flavorful recipes for breakfasts, dinners, desserts and more—all unfussy, comforting and creative. Perfect, he says, for an everyday meal at home, yet sophisticated, elegant and visually stunning to impress any guest. At the heart of each of the 100 recipes in Family Style are imaginative and personally unique flavor combinations. There are beloved nods to his grandma’s Cantonese flavor profiles, his mom’s deep love of French food, his Bay Area upbringing, and desserts that are “not too sweet”—the highest compliment in his family—and more, with recipes including: Burnt Miso Cinnamon Toast, Crispy Deviled Tea Eggs, Radicchio and F