Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Monday, October 11 is 2021 National Coming Out Day. Join us for a screening of the Pixar short film Out plus fascinating conversation with a talented Pixar animator who directed Out and the filmmaker who produced Out.

About the Speakers

Steven Clay Hunter joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1997 and has worked as an animator on a number of Pixar’s most beloved films, including A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo. He was an animation supervisor on The Incredibles, WALL•E and Brave. Recently, he helped bring to life the characters Hank from Finding Dory (for which he won the 2013 VES award) and Duke Caboom from Toy Story 4.

Most recently, Hunter made his directorial debut with the SparkShort Out on Disney+, which was shortlisted for an Oscar Nomination this past year. In addition, Out is nominated for a GLADD award. Prior to coming to Pixar, Hunter worked for Walt Disney Animation on many projects, including Fantasia 2000 and Hercules. He first learned computer animation at Industrial Light & Magic on Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Max Sachar is a San Francisco-based filmmaker and film producer, and for the past 15 years he has worked at Pixar Animation Studios on critically acclaimed short & feature films, including Coco, Incredibles 2, Wall-E, Toy Story 3, and Lou. Most recently, Sachar produced Pixar’s 2020 Academy Award Shortlisted film Out (written and directed by Steven Clay Hunter). As producer, he worked creatively with the director to help navigate the story and visual development, while also focusing on casting, staffing all art and technical teams, and making strategic decisions around the schedule and budget.

In addition to his work at Pixar, Max is a co-director and cinematographer for Concept o4 films, where he has helped created several award winning dance films. During what’s left of his free time, Max spends as much time in the outdoors with his fiancé and 2 pups, and roaming the streets of his hometown, San Francisco, camera in hand.

SPEAKERS

Steven Clay Hunter

Director, Out, Pixar; Animator, Pixar Animation Studios; Twitter @BubbleOfThunder

Max Sachar

Filmmaker, Pixar Animation Studios; Producer, Out; Co-Director and Cinematographer, Concept o4 Films

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow—Co-Host

John Zipperer

Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host

In 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 October 11th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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From the congressman who led the first impeachment of President Trump, Adam Schiff’s Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could delivers a vital inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour.

Prior to the 2016 election, congressman Schiff had been sounding the alarm over the threat posed by a global resurgence of autocracy. As he led the probe into Trump’s Russia- and Ukraine-related abuses of presidential power, he came to the conclusion that the biggest threat to American democracy came from within—arguing that Trump’s presidency has so weakened our institutions and compromised the Republican Party that the danger will remain for years to come. From being a prosecutor to a congressman known for bipartisanship to a liberal lighting rod and archenemy of the president, Adam Schiff tracks his own path to meeting the crisis he argues is severely imperiling America: the dangerous appeal of authoritarianism.

Join us as congressman Adam Schiff deepens our understanding of authoritarianism in the Trump administration and warns that, even after his defeat, the unleashed forces of autocracy remain as potent as ever.

SPEAKERS

Adam Schiff

U.S. Representative (D-CA); Author, Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could

In Conversation with Marisa Lagos

Correspondent for California Politics and Government, KQED; Twitter @mlagos

In 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 October 14th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Making sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs our brains must do. Our hearing is always on. We can't close our ears the way we close our eyes. And yet we are quite adept at ignoring sounds that are unimportant. Nina Kraus explores what is going on in our brains when we hear a word, a chord, a meow, or a screech, and examines the partnership of sound and brain, showing how the processing of sound drives many of the brain's core functions. Our hearing brain interacts with what we know, with our emotions, with how we think, with our movements, and with all our other senses. Auditory neurons make calculations at one-thousandth of a second. Hearing is the fastest of our senses.

Sound also plays an unrecognized role in both healthy and hurting brains. Kraus explores the power of music for healing as well as the destructive power of noise on the nervous system. She traces what happens in the brain when we speak another language, have a language disorder, experience rhythm, listen to birdsong, or suffer a concussion.

Join us as Kraus explores how our deep engagement with sound leaves a fundamental imprint on who we are.

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

SPEAKERS

Nina Kraus

Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Communication Sciences, and Otolaryngology, Northwestern University; Author, Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

In 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 October 7th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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John Lithgow’s acclaimed acting career has seen him star in shows like “3rd Rock from the Sun” and “The Crown” and films such as Bombshell and The World According to Garp.

In his newest collection of satirical poems and illustrations, Lithgow expertly tracks the dark and lyrical stories of 25 “American Scoundrels.”

Join us as award-winning actor, author and illustrator John Lithgow presents the stories of both long-forgotten figures and the bad actors of today.

SPEAKERS

John Lithgow

Actor; Author and Illustrator, A Confederacy of Dumptys: Portraits of American Scoundrels in Verse

Melissa Caen

Attorney; Political Analyst—Moderator

In 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 October 7th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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In September 2019, Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy to protect itself from 2,600 lawsuits for its role in fueling the U.S. overdose crisis. Author and activist Ryan Hampton served as the co-chair of the official creditors committee that acted as a watchdog during the process—one of only four victims to act as representatives of big insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmacies.

Though Hampton originally believed that holding Purdue to account would be enough to right the scales of justice, he soon came to learn that, no matter what the media said, Purdue did not do this alone. Hampton argues they were in fact aided and abetted by the very systems that were supposed to protect Americans.

Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis is Ryan Hampton’s look into what happened behind closed doors—the story of a broken system that failed to protect people over profits, and let millions of lives be destroyed by the opioid crisis. From Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings to the company’s eventual restructuring and the evasion of true accountability, Unsettled is also the untold story of how a group of determined ordinary people tried to see justice done against the odds and in the face of brutal opposition from powerful institutions.

Join us for Ryan Hampton’s inside account of Purdue Pharma’s role in the overdose crisis—and for a chilling exposé of those who circumvented justice.

SPEAKERS

Ryan Hampton

Addiction Recovery Advocate; Author, Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis; Twitter @RyanForRecovery

In Conversation with Beth Macy

Journalist; Author

In 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 October 6th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Join us for an important intergenerational conversation with LGBTQ Asians and Pacific Islanders and their allies. Our panelists will share QTAPI stories and experiences of the dual pandemics of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19; their histories as Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States; their past and current roles in community organizing and the political process; as well as other issues that are part of the current cultural and political shifts and relevant to the experiences of QTAPI individuals.

Meet the Speakers

Ignatius Bau was the HIV prevention program coordinator at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum in the mid-1990s, and served as a member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and advisory groups about HIV/AIDS for the federal Office of Minority Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes for Health. He also has served on the board of directors for the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance Community HIV Project, Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, National Minority AIDS Project, and Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

Cecilia Chung is the senior director of strategic initiatives and evaluation at Transgender Law Center, a health commissioner of San Francisco and an internationally recognized civil rights leader in the LGBT and HIV community. Chung has served as the co-chair of GNP+ and is currently a member of the WHO Advisory Council of Women Living with HIV.

Vince Crisostomo is a gay Chamorro (Pacific Islander) long-term HIV/AIDS survivor who believes in the healing power of community and has dedicated more than 30 years to HIV/AIDS activism and LGBTQ communities. He is passionate about bringing health care to all and social justice equity to people of every sexual identity, HIV status, gender, race and age. Crisostomo is SFAF’s director of aging services and previously managed the Elizabeth Taylor 50 Plus Network for long-term HIV survivors. He co-chaired the HIV & Aging Work Group and was an active member of the Mayor’s Long-Term Care Coordinating Council. Crisostomo has led a number of grassroots HIV advocacy and LGBTQ organizations in the United States and overseas. He was executive director of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Regional Networks on HIV/AIDS, founded the Pacific Island Jurisdiction AIDS Action Group, and served as a United Nations NGO delegate for the Asia Pacific. In 2019, having won the popular vote, he was community grand marshall for San Francisco Pride. In July 2021, he was appointed to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s LGBTQI+ Advisory Committee.

NOTES

This is a free program; any voluntary donations made during registration will support the production of our online programs.

A complimentary lunch will be provided before the program for in-person attendees.

The Commonwealth Club thanks Gilead Sciences, Inc. for its generous support of The Michelle Meow Show. 

Program presented in partnership with GAPA Theatre, The Connection at the San Francisco Community Health Center, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and The Commonwealth Club of California.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

SPEAKERS

Ignatius Bau

Former HIV Prevention Program Coordinator, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum; Former Member, President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS

Cecilia Chung

Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Evaluation, Transgender Law Center; Health Commissioner, San Francisco

Vince Crisostomo

Director of Aging Services, San Francisco AIDS Foundation

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Host and Moderator

In 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 October 6th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The great creatives throughout history have been those who can ignite their own fire of innovation and ambition, but what is the flint that brings these sparks of creativity to life? And in a time of great uncertainty, why does creativity matter more than ever? As executive director of Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (commonly referred to as the d.school), Sarah Stein Greenberg is an accomplice to dazzling ingenuity. In her debut book, Creative Acts for Curious People, Stein Greenberg taps into her close ties with bold thinkers and confident doers, providing readers with the ultimate mechanisms to get creative juices flowing. Straight from the cognitive toolkits of Google’s chief evangelist or renowned choreographers, Stein Greenberg lays out practices for mindful observation, intuitive connecting and much much more. The more than 80 exercises, while lighthearted, require a thoughtfulness and intentionality meant to give readers their very own eureka moment.

At INFORUM, Sarah Stein Greenberg will piece together the puzzle that is design. She shares not only tools but anecdotes and personal experiences in which she illustrates the roadmap that shows how to revitalize curiosity and in turn putting that curiosity into action. This conversation will be moderated by Laura Holson of The New York Times.

SPEAKERS

Sarah Stein Greenberg

Executive Director, Stanford d.school; Author, Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Way

Laura Holson

Writer, The New York Times

In 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 October 6th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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How do we manage our own anxiety around an uncertain climate future – let alone help our children work through their feelings and fears? In his latest book, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet, internationally renowned Zen Master and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hahn argues that addressing the intersection of ecological destruction, rising inequality, racial injustice, and the lasting impacts of a devastating pandemic requires us to strengthen our clarity, compassion, and courage to act. 

“The power of zen and the power of mindfulness is that it roots us in the present moment so we can be alert to what is going on, we can be responsive, we can be the master of our mind and awareness in any given situation,” including climate disruption, says Sister True Dedication, contributor and editor of Thich Nhat Hahn’s book.

Psychotherapist Leslie Davenport, author of All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal With Climate Change, provides thoughtful, practical exercises to help young readers process their feelings about climate change. 

For transcripts and other information, visit: https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts 

Guests:

Sister True Dedication, Zen Buddhist nun, editor of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Zen and the Art of Saving The Planet 

Leslie Davenport, author, Emotional Resiliency in the Era of Climate Change; All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal With Climate Change

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After One Hundred Winters confronts the harsh truth that the United States has thrived on land violently taken away from Indigenous people. Settler historian Margaret Jacobs asks what reconciliation might mean in light of this haunted history. She argues that we have much to gain by learning from our history instead of denying it, even as she lays out the brutal legacy of systemic racial injustice to Indigenous people.

Jacobs also explains how early attempts at reconciliation were only successful in further robbing tribal nations of their already reduced land holdings and forcing their children into abusive boarding schools. True reconciliation, she insists, can only emerge through Indigenous leadership and sustained relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people rooted in specific places and histories. In the absence of an official apology and a federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a movement for transformative reconciliation is unofficially underway that puts Indigenous land rights, sovereignty, and values at the forefront. With historical sensitivity and an eye to the future, Jacobs urges people to face the past and learn from it, and once they have done so, to redress past abuses.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

SPEAKERS

Margaret Jacobs

Professor of History and Director, The Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Author, After One Hundred Winters: In Search of Reconciliation on America's Stolen Lands

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

In 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 October 6th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., has been one of the most visible commentators on the public health crisis. His insights and writings have helped shaped some of the country's understanding of the public health impacts of the pandemic since early in 2020. As the country continues to battle the pandemic—especially the emergent delta variant of the coronavirus—Gottlieb will visit the Club for the first time to discuss his new book, Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic.

Gottlieb's new book outlines how the United States must prepare for future pandemics by learning from the mistakes made handling the COVID-19 outbreak, which has caused one of the greatest public health tragedies in American history. Gottlieb outlines his efforts in the early 2000s to develop a “Pandemic Influenza Plan” to ready the United States for the threat of a global pandemic, and how short the country came up when it was time to mount an effective response to the novel coronavirus. Further, Gottlieb identifies the early reasons why the United States was so underprepared for the pandemic, from failing to enlist the private sector in large-scale manufacturing of testing supplies and medical equipment to resolutely sticking to the narrative that COVID would go away on its own.

As the United States heads into a critically important fall and winter that will determine whether we will finally end the pandemic, Gottlieb's book comes at a critical time. Please join us for a timely talk with a true expert on the pandemic about what we have learned so far, and what we must do to succeed in the months and years ahead.

SPEAKERS

Scott Gottlieb

M.D., Former Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration; Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Author, Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic

Mark Zitter

Chair, The Zetema Project; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Moderator

In 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 October 5th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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