By Commonwealth Club of California
The podcast currently has 3,347 episodes available.
Climate advocacy is a dangerous business. According to Global Witness, every week, somewhere in the world, between three and four environmental activists are killed. And even when they don’t suffer bodily harm, they are routinely arrested and jailed for speaking out. They are also sued in civil cases, bogging them down for years or even bankrupting them and their families.
Each personal story in this episode is unique, but the physical threats and legal weapons fossil fuel companies and governments wield against them are eerily similar. And yet, the voices of climate defenders will not be silenced.
Guests:
Alfred Brownell, Founding President, Global Climate Legal Defense (CliDef)
Laura Furones, Senior Advisor, Land and Environmental Defenders Campaign, Global Witness
Nicole Figueiredo de Oliveira, Executive Director, Arayara
Sarah Benn, Medical Doctor and Climate Activist
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Through its direct contact with the public and its protection by the First Amendment, news media has long been considered the “fourth branch of government.” As the media landscape continues to change and partisan news becomes increasingly popular, many journalists are examining their own profession and responsibilities. Investigative reporter Bigad Shaban, himself the son of immigrants and educators, wants folks to understand the importance of media in a civil society.
Bigad, in conversation with San Francisco State’s Dr. Laura Moorhead, talks to an audience of high school journalism students about the belief he has in his profession. Bigad discusses his beginnings as a journalist, what he’s learned over an 18-year career, and why a healthy democracy relies on a news media to hold it responsible.
This program is part of the Commonwealth Club World Affairs’ civics education initiative, Creating Citizens.
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“Ethnic studies” is an ideological battleground in higher education, and now California is bringing its 1.6 million high school students into the fray. Every one of them must take an ethnic studies course to graduate, starting in the fall of 2025.
But what will the course teach them? The State Department of Education’s original model curriculum—now candidly dubbed the “Liberated Ethnic Studies Curriculum”—was criticized for its anti-capitalist agenda, embrace of critical-race themes, and alleged antisemitism. Reaction was so intense that Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the original curricular mandate legislation. A second State Model Curriculum toned down some of the original emphases. The final legislation signed by the governor had a local-option twist: school districts are free to determine the ethnic studies curriculum used in their schools. As a result, the skirmish over ethnic studies can now be replayed district by district.
Independent Institute has created what it calls a balanced curriculum for the consideration of districts throughout the state. The “Comparative Cultures Ethnic Studies Curriculum” portrays the full tableau of American ethnic history, dark moments as well as instances of triumph and personal success. It explores contending schools of thought. Animated not by ideology but by balance, this curriculum builds on years of research and pedagogical insight.
This panel will include a survey of California’s ethnic studies controversy, and presentation of the "Comparative Cultures Ethnic Studies Curriculum" by its project leader Williamson M. Evers, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.
This program is part of our American Values Series, underwritten by Taube Philanthropies.
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Join us for a heart-to-heart talk with Jeanine Nicholson, the first out LGBTQ chief of the San Francisco Fire Department, who retired in August. We'll hear about her pathbreaking career, her thoughts on the current political scene, and learn about breaking barriers while in the public eye. After our talk, stick around for a wine reception.
Jeanine Nicholson retired in 2024 after 30 years in the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD), five of which she spent as chief. She began her career in 1994 as a firefighter EMT and over the years became a firefighter paramedic, lieutenant, captain, battalion chief and deputy chief prior to her appointment as chief by Mayor London Breed in May 2019. Chief Nicholson was the first out LGBTQ Chief in SFFD history.
Chief Nicholson led the department through the COVID pandemic and economic downturn. She established a safety, health and wellness office for her members, emphasized the importance of mental and physical wellbeing and expanded resources in the Behavioral Health Unit. She also led the department’s campaign to remove PFAS from firefighter gear while a deputy chief and continued her advocacy while chief. She is a breast cancer survivor and spent time teaching cancer prevention across the country to the fire service.
She oversaw the procurement of land and development of plans for a new SFFD training facility. She took on the autonomous vehicle companies that were operating in San Francisco without regulations or limitations and successfully advocated for public safety as a priority in their deployment. Under Chief Nicholson’s leadership, community paramedicine expanded to meet the social and behavioral needs on the street. This programming became a model for agencies across the country, as an alternative to policing and emergency room overcrowding.
During her tenure, she established a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office. She emphasized equity in department processes and hired more than 640 new SFFD members. Nicholson established a program and partnership with community called City EMT for at-risk youth. The program includes an EMT class and wrap-around services and culminates with an opportunity to apply for a paid internship on an ambulance in the SFFD. The SFFD has offered approximately 25 percent of graduates a full time career.
Those are a lot of accomplishments during her career. Come find out how and why she did it.
See more Michelle Meow Show programs at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California.
This program contains EXPLICIT language.
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For the third year in a row, the world’s most important climate conference is taking place in a country whose largest source of export revenue is fossil fuel. This year, over 190 countries are assembling in Baku, Azerbaijan. And despite nearly 30 years of pledges and promises, the UN’s recent Emissions Gap Report shows virtually every country failing to deliver on its promises.
Ever since the Paris Agreement was signed at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP), the focus of this annual meeting has been implementation: How can the nations of the world possibly deliver on their promises to cut emissions when the economic interests in doing so aren’t aligned? In the meantime, the poorest countries, who contributed least to the problem, are getting hit hardest by devastating climate impacts, like droughts, floods, and the resulting poverty and civil unrest. COP29 is being billed as “the finance COP.” So, what do the richest owe the poorest?
Guests:
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Climate Justice Activist
Todd Stern, Former United States Special Envoy for Climate Change
🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.
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For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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Pulitzer Prize finalist Louise Aronson returns to the Commonwealth Club World Affairs stage to discuss the enduring themes of her New York Times bestselling book, Elderhood, and what to expect in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election. What are the practical and existential implications of aging in a political era defined by polarization and increasing instability? How can individuals look out for their health and families regardless of the election outcome? Aronson is joined by fellow writer Jenara Nerenberg, in a follow-up conversation from their first lively event together five years ago. Nerenberg is the celebrated author of Divergent Mind and a forthcoming book on the psychology of groupthink.
About the Speakers
Louise Aronson, MD MFA, is a leading geriatrician, writer, educator, professor of medicine at UCSF and the author Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining Life. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Aronson currently runs the integrative aging practice and age self-care integrative medical group visit program at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health. She has received the Gold Professorship in Humanism in Medicine, the California Homecare Physician of the Year award, and the American Geriatrics Society Clinician-Teacher of the Year award. Her writing credits include The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, JAMA, Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine, and her work in aging has been featured on NPR, NBC, CBS, and The New Yorker.
Jenara Nerenberg is the bestselling author of Divergent Mind, hailed as "extraordinary, jaw-dropping" by Library Journal; she is an Aspen Ideas Brave New Idea speaker and the author of a second forthcoming book on the psychology of groupthink. A celebrated writer covering the intersection of psychology and society, Jenara's work has been featured in the UC Berkeley Science Center's Greater Good magazine, Fast Company magazine, CNN, NPR, BBC and elsewhere. Nerenberg speaks widely on social science topics, including at universities, libraries, companies and organizations around the world. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Harvard School of Public Health; she grew up in San Francisco and, as a millennial, can now be found on Instagram.
Organizer: Denise Michaud
A Grownups 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.
This program contains EXPLICIT language.
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When it comes to communicating climate science, weathercasters are uniquely positioned to connect the facts to viewers’ experiences. TV meteorologists are trusted members of their communities, and they’re often the only scientists the general public hears from regularly. How they communicate can shape public understanding and depoliticize a topic that has become disturbingly divisive.
But in some parts of the country, politics continues to get in the way of the facts. So how do weathercasters effectively communicate weather and climate information in a way that resonates across political lines?
Guests:
John Morales, Hurricane Specialist, WTVJ NBC6 Miami
Bernadette Woods Placky, Climate Central Chief Meteorologist, Climate Matters Director; VP of Engagement
Chris Gloninger, Senior Climate Scientist, Woods Hole Group, Inc.
Amber Sullins, Chief Meteorologist, ABC15 Phoenix
🎟️ Join Climate One live in San Francisco on December 9 for our celebration of 2024 Schneider Award Winner Leah Stokes! Tickets are on sale now.
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For show notes and related links, visit our website.
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Commonwealth Club World Affairs is pleased to host a special evening with SF Pride Board President Nguyen Pham. Nguyen finishes his last term with SF Pride this year, after serving for a total of 8 years on the board of SF Pride.
As president emeritus of San Francisco Pride, a nonprofit that produces the SF Pride Celebration and Parade, Nguyen Pham has proudly led the iconic organization through pivotal moments in the modern LGBTQ+ equity movement. Prior to his election as president, he served as vice president and secretary of the organization, comprising a record eight consecutive years of board service. In 2019, he helped to produce the inaugural SF Pride Golf Tournament, SF Pride’s most lucrative board-led annual fundraiser to date. He continued that tradition with the tournament's sixth annual convening in 2024, which was a resounding success.
Nguyen is also director of philanthropy at Frameline, a San Francisco-based arts organization aimed at changing the world through the power of LGBTQ+ cinema. In 2024, Nguyen became the first person of color as well as the first openly LGBTQ+ president of the Mensa Foundation, a charitable organization working to unleash intelligence for the benefit of humanity. Additionally, he is in his 23rd consecutive year as a performer with CHEER San Francisco, the Official Cheer Team of the City and County of San Francisco, and an all-volunteer nonprofit performance group that raises charitable funds globally for community members facing life-challenging conditions. Adding to his overloaded plate, Nguyen produces and emcees local and national events on a pro bono basis to raise charitable funds for numerous nonprofits. A proud Bay Area native, Nguyen earned his BA from UC Berkeley and his MBA from San Francisco State University.
Join us for a fun and informative talk with Nguyen Pham.
See more Michelle Meow Show programs at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California.
THIS PROGRAM CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT.
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In this post-print age, does the written word still hold power?
During his decades-long career in publishing, Steve Wasserman has worn nearly every possible hat in the industry—editor, agent, reviewer, literary festival co-founder, publisher—serving as a midwife to the art and ideas of some of the most influential cultural juggernauts of recent decades, from Linda Ronstadt to the late Christopher Hitchens. This fall, this literary tastemaker joins us in his new role as an author to discuss the provocative people and events in his new memoir, Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It’s a Lie.
Hear Wasserman’s hot takes, ranging from the frontlines of progressive politics to the higher gossip of the literati. The intellectual terrain within his orbit is as capacious as its geography—with deep-dives into the readerly culture of Los Angeles to the art of the Russian avant-garde and featuring cameos from a constellation of extraordinary cultural figures—Susan Sontag, Orson Welles, Barbra Streisand, and Gore Vidal among them.
With his trademark wit, Wasserman reflects on the vitality of activism, journalism, and the world of books. As a man of letters presiding over the twilight of the Age of Print, he interrogates the hegemony of Amazon, the collapse of newspapers, and the consequences of both for our civic discourse. Learn about his life lived on the crest of major cultural turning points for both medium and message. See why, throughout all of the highlights and lowlights, Wasserman has maintained a stalwart conviction of the transformative potential of the written word.
Organizer: George Hammon
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.
This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
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In a world in which elections are shaping the future of more than half the planet’s population, 2024 stands out as a pivotal year for global democracy. But how do international journalists see America’s electoral landscape, and why does it matter so deeply to their home countries?
Join an insightful conversation, hosted by Commonwealth Club World Affairs and the World Press Institute, featuring journalists from Brazil, Bulgaria, Finland, India, Italy, Kosovo, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa and Ukraine. They’ll draw on their experiences covering their own national elections to offer fresh perspectives on U.S. politics.
This discussion will explore common themes in election reporting across borders, highlighting the lessons learned from home that shape their views of American democracy. These journalists will also shed light on how U.S. elections reverberate globally, influencing political trends and media coverage in their own countries. At a time when democracy is at a crossroads, join us for an international look at how the world views America’s most defining political event.
World Press Institute was founded in 1961. WPI has been the premier organization in the United States providing international journalists with the opportunity to broadly investigate the country—its values, traditions of a free press, institutions, customs, regions, and peoples. WPI now has more than 600 alumni from 100 different countries around the globe.
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 range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.
Presented by Commonwealth Club World Affairs and the World Press Institute.
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The podcast currently has 3,347 episodes available.