Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Journalists Terry Greene Sterling and Jude Joffe-Block spent years chronicling the human consequences of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s relentless immigration enforcement in Maricopa County, Arizona. In Driving While Brown, they tell the tale of two opposing movements that redefined Arizona’s political landscape—the restrictionist cause embraced by Arpaio and the Latino-led resistance that rose up against it.

Sterling and Joffe-Block reported on Arpaio, his supporters, and his adversaries, including Lydia Guzman, who gathered evidence for a racial-profiling lawsuit that took surprising turns. Guzman joined a coalition determined to stop Arpaio, reform unconstitutional policing, and fight for Latino civil rights. In the process, Arpaio transformed from "America’s Toughest Sheriff," who forced inmates to wear pink underwear, into the nation’s most feared immigration enforcer who ended up receiving President Donald Trump’s first pardon.

Join us for an online discussion with the two authors and their investigative reporting, which provided critical insights into the planning and community organizing that helped transform Arizona from a conservative stronghold into a battleground state.

SPEAKERS

Terry Greene Sterling

Affiliated Faculty and Writer-in-Residence, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Arizona State University; Author, Illegal; Co-Author, Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Versus the Latino Resistance

Jude Joffe-Block

Reporter; Co-Author, Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Versus the Latino Resistance

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show" on KBCW/KPIX TV 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 July 29th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Every two seconds a girl is married against her will. 

COVID-19 exacerbated this already massive problem, reversing many gains that had been made in the past decade as schools closed and millions of girls lost their one chance at freedom—an education.

Join us for a conversation with three women working to end child marriage. Through their stories, you will hear more about the critical importance of girls’ freedom for families and communities worldwide, and what you can do to help end this unjust and inequitable practice. 

About the Speakers

Sangeeta Lama is an independent Nepali journalist with more than 20 years’ experience in the field. Sangeeta has provided invaluable support to international publications such as National Geographic and The New York Times and has collaborated with Stephanie Sinclair / Too Young to Wed to support families in Kagati village since 2006. She is a board member of Working Women Journalists, an organization committed to strengthening the capacity of female journalists and the role of women in Nepali media. She is the senior vice chair of Sankalpa-Women’s Alliance for Peace Justice and Democracy, an organization committed to strengthening women's rights in Nepal.

Stephanie Sinclair is the founding executive director of Too Young to Wed, a nonprofit dedicated to abolishing child marriage. Stephanie is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for gaining unique access to the most sensitive gender and human rights issues around the world; she regularly publishes in esteemed outlets, including National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine.

Olga Murray is the founder and honorary president of the Nepal Youth Foundation. Born in 1925 in Transylvania, Murray immigrated with her parents and in 1954, became one of the first women to graduate with a law degree from George Washington University. During her 37-year tenure at the California Supreme Court, Murray helped write important decisions in the areas of civil rights, women’s rights and environmental policy. In 1990, she founded the Nepal Youth Foundation to help provide health, shelter, education, and freedom to children and families in Nepal.

Lori Barra is the executive director of The Isabel Allende Foundation, a private family foundation, whose mission is to invest in the power of women and girls to secure reproductive rights, economic independence and freedom from violence. Prior to leading the foundation, Lori designed books and magazines in New York and Tokyo and worked for Apple as an art director.

Renee Saedi has a deep-rooted passion for social justice, especially human rights and equity for women and girls. She currently serves as the Champions for Equality program manager at Global Fund for Women, where she has worked for more than 9 years. As a feminist fund, Global Fund for Women strengthens gender justice movements to shift power, privilege, and perception and create meaningful change by offering flexible support to a diverse group of partners—more than 5,000 groups across 175 countries so far.

MLF ORGANIZER: Ian McCuaig

SPEAKERS

Lori Barra

Executive Director, Isabel Allende Foundation

Sangeeta Lama

Journalist; Board Member, Working Women Journalists; Senior Vice Chair, Sankalpa-Women’s Alliance for Peace Justice and Democracy

Olga Murray

Founder and Honorary President, Nepal Youth Foundation

Stephanie Sinclair

Founding Director, Too Young to Wed

Renee Saedi

Champions for Equality Program Manager, Global Fund for Women—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 July 28th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Elon Musk is one of the most influential and controversial tech icons in Silicon Valley. He has talked about forward-thinking projects like mind-uploading and space travel, but by far his most bold and effective vision led to Tesla and the creation of a widely available and affordable electric vehicle. Before Tesla was founded in the early 2000s, electric cars were considered novelties. But as many cars were gas guzzlers, there was a great need for a more sustainable mode of transportation.

Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century explores the Tesla phenomenon. Tim Higgins traces its history of a hellish first 15 years, attacks by rivals, pressure from investors and surprises by whistleblowers. As a Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter, Higgins had a front-row seat for all the drama. He spent almost a decade reporting on the car business from Detroit before he moved to San Francisco and focused his writing more on Apple, Tesla and other tech companies.

Power Play is Tesla’s story of power, recklessness, struggle and triumph coming together to change the future. Join us as Tim Higgins discusses Tesla’s rise and what it means for a tech-driven future.

SPEAKERS

Tim Higgins

Automotive and Technology Reporter, The Wall Street Journal; Author Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century

In Conversation with Joanna Stern

Senior Personal Technology Columnist, The Wall Street Journal

Note: This program contains EXPLICIT language

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 August 4th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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You might not realize it, but we’re already living through the beginnings of climate chaos. In Arizona, laborers now start their day at 3 a.m., because it’s too hot to work past noon. Chinese investors are snapping up real estate in Canada. Millennials have evacuation plans. Moguls are building bunkers. Retirees in Miami are moving inland.

In How to Prepare for Climate Change, bestselling self-help author David Pogue offers deeply researched advice for how the rest of us should start to ready ourselves for the years ahead. Pogue will walk you through what to grow, what to eat, how to build, how to insure, where to invest, how to prepare your children and pets, and even where to consider relocating when the time comes. (He says two areas of the country, in particular, have the requisite cool temperatures, good hospitals, reliable access to water, and resilient infrastructure to serve as climate havens in the years ahead.) He also provides wise tips for managing your anxiety, as well as action plans for riding out every climate catastrophe, from superstorms and wildfires to ticks and epidemics.

Join Pogue and renewable energy expert Wei-Tai Kwok for a look at their practical ways to make smart choices for the upheaval ahead.

SPEAKERS

David Pogue

Correspondent, "CBS Sunday Morning"; Author, How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos

Wei-Tai Kwok

Climate Leader, The Climate Reality Project

Ahmad Thomas

President & CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group—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 August 3rd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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If “caught in the middle” was a tightrope, Savala Nolan would be a well-seasoned expert at walking it. The lawyer, speaker, and author has learned to navigate the tedious limbo that is being mixed-race, changing economic status, and a fluctuating body painfully affected by diet culture. In her debut book, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body, Nolan shares nostalgic, sometimes painful anecdotes from her life that illustrate the resilience and lessons learned from a life lived not in black nor white but in that somewhere in-between. Twelve poignant reflections unravel how injustice lurks around every corner and has done so for generations. But, with such wrong-doing, so too grows defiance, justice, and people like Savala Nolan who relentlessly resist by living with authenticity.

Now in her fifth year at the Henderson Center for Social Justice, Nolan holds the title of executive director. She teaches law students and activists about the paramount topics of implicit bias and systemic racism—guiding the minds of tomorrow on how to mend the cracks in our system. At INFORUM, we will become Savala Nolan’s students, learning what authenticity looks like when existing between two distant opposites—many times over.

SPEAKERS

Savala Nolan

Writer; Executive Director, Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, University of California, Berkeley; Author, Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body

Christy Harrison

MPH, RD, CEDRD, Host, "Food Psych" Podcast; Author, Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating—Moderator

Note: This program contains EXPLICIT language

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 July 29th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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If there is one thing people have learned over the past 16 months, it is the importance and power of community. Join us for a special conversation with AAPI leaders and elders about anti-Asian racism, homophobia, transphobia, and their life-long activism and advocacy.

And come early before the program to enjoy a lunch courtesy of What the Cluck Thai Chicken and Rice.

Meet the Speakers

Gil Mangaoang was born in San Francisco, California on March 22, 1947. He is the fourth of seven generations in his family to be born in the United States. Through more than four decades he has been active in the fight for social justice and equality in the United States and the Philippines. His memoirs also include his coming out story as a Filipino American gay man.

Jasmine Gee has volunteered at film festivals (International, Frameline), music venues (Davies Symphony, Herbst Theater), and street fairs (Folsom, Castro); has worked as an advocate and activist for LGBTQ organizations; served in leadership positions in on the GAPA AdvisoryBoard and the Trans March; is a musician (a clarinetist and a singer in 3 choral groups); contributing author of Transascestors, Volume 1; and is an elder, with Felicia Elizondo, Tamara Ching. 

Crystal Jang loves being considered a QTAPI “Auntie.” Jang is a third generation San Franciscan and fourth generation Chinese American,. Having discovered she was attracted to girls at the age of 13, Jang has spend the last 6 decades dedicated to pushing the boundaries of API-queer visibility and activism. As a QTAPI elder, Crystal’s current focus is on fostering intergenerational relationships to sustain and strengthen the QTAPI community. She is a co-founder of OASIS (Older Sisters in Solidarity), APIQWTC (Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women & Trans Community, and the RED Envelope Giving Circle. Jang is happiest when she is causing “good trouble.”

Randy Kikukawa has been active in the LGBTQ+ community for more than 40 years and is currently music director of the GAPA (GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance) Men’s Chorus and managing director of the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus. Both choruses are members of the Gay & Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA Choruses).

Kitty Tsui is a writer and an activist, a multi-hyphenate lesbian elder. Her groundbreaking book, Words of a Woman Who Breathes Fire, is the first book by a Chinese American lesbian. Her second, Breathless: Erotica, won the Firecracker Alternative Book Award. She has been included in more than 80 anthologies worldwide. Her work has been translated into German, Japanese and Italian. In 2018, her alma mater, San Francisco State University, inducted her into the Alumni Hall of Fame. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center commissioned her as one of 12 API queer poets to be honored for a poem/video for the digital exhibition, “A Day in the Life of Queer Asian Pacific American.” She is the subject of Nice Chinese Don’t: Kitty Tsui, directed by award-winning filmmaker, Jennifer Abod.

Note: This program contains EXPLICIT language

SPEAKERS

Jasmine Gee

Advocate; Activist; Musician

Crystal Jang

Co-Founder, OASIS (Older Sisters in Solidarity), RED Envelope Giving Circle, and APQWTC (Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women & Trans Community)

Randy Kikukawa

Music Director, GAPA (GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance) Men’s Chorus; Managing Director, Golden Gate Men’s Chorus

Gil Mangaoang

Social Justice and Equality Activist; Author

Kitty Tsui

Writer; Activist; Author, Words of a Woman Who Breathes Fire

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow—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 July 30th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the leader of Belarusian democratic forces, who numerous independent observers say beat the autocratic president Alexander Lukashenko in a presidential election on August 9, 2020. She stepped into the race after her husband was arrested for his presidential aspirations. Mr. Lukashenko has publicly dismissed her as a “housewife,” сlaiming that a woman can't become president.

After her forced exile, Ms. Tsikhanouskaya inspired unprecedented peaceful protests around Belarus, some of which numbered hundreds of thousands of people. She has visited more than 20 countries gathering support for a democratic Belarus and continues to advocate for the release of more than 500 political prisoners and peaceful changes through a free and fair election. In the past year, more than 35,000 people have been detained in Belarus, according to the United Nations. Tens of thousands of Belarusians have fled abroad.

Ms.Tsikhanouskaya has become a symbol of peaceful struggle for democracy and female leadership. On July 27, President Joe Biden met with Tsihanouskaya, and he issued a statement that "The United States stands with the people of Belarus in their quest for democracy and universal human rights." In 2020, Lithuanian President Nauseda and Norwegian MPs nominated her for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is included in Bloomberg's TOP-50 Most Influential People, Financial Times' Top 12 Most Influential Women, and Politico's Top 28 Most Influential Europeans.

In meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Emmanuel Macron, President Ursula von der Leyen, President Charles Michel, and other world leaders, she has emphasized the need for a braver response to the actions of the Belarusian dictatorship.This week, she has been in the United States, where she met with Secretary of State Tony Blinken as well as others in the U.S. government. Given the level of repressions against citizens and with Moscow supporting Lukashenko, Tsikhanouskaya is using the primary tool available to her in exile: Western support. She has sought more comprehensive sanctions on Belarus’s elites and businesses, to show them that it is “becoming more costly for them to support Lukashenko.”

Join a rare conversation with this outspoken advocate for democratic reforms and hear her thoughts on parallels between her struggles and challenges currently facing Americans.

SPEAKERS

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Leader, Belarus Pro-Democracy Movement

In Conversation with Dr. Gloria Duffy

President and CEO, The Commonwealth Club; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Clinton

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 July 29th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Aging—not cancer or heart disease—is the world’s leading cause of death and suffering. In spite of this, we accept the aging process as inevitable. We come to terms with the fact that our bodies and minds will begin to deteriorate and our risk of disease will rise as we get older.

Aging is so deeply ingrained in the human experience that we never stop to ask: is it necessary?

Scientists, on the other hand, know that aging is not a biological inevitability. Dr. Andrew Steele's new book Ageless introduces us to the cutting-edge research that is paving the way for a revolution in medicine. It takes us inside the laboratories where scientists are studying every aspect of the body: DNA, mitochondria, stem cells, the immune system, even ‘aging genes’ that have helped animals enjoy a tenfold increase in lifespan—and which could, in the not too distant future, lead to treatments that could forestall our own bodies’ decline.

Steele will explain how understanding the scientific implications of aging could lead to the greatest revolution in the history of medicine—one that has the potential to improve billions of lives, save trillions of dollars, and transform the human condition.

MLF ORGANIZER: Robert Lee Kilpatrick

SPEAKERS

Dr. Andrew Steele

Ph.D.; Author, Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old

Dr. Robert Lee Kilpatrick

Ph.D., Chair, Health & Medicine Member-Led Forum—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 July 15th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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In Washington State, voters defeated initiatives to put a price on carbon ― twice. Governor Jay Inslee himself then lost his personal bid for the White House. Yet his bold ideas have proven staying power. The state legislature recently passed a carbon cap and invest bill that will reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions 95 percent by 2050. 

“We’ve got to wake up every morning figuring out ‘how can I disrupt the status quo.’ Because the status quo is deadly, it’s fatal, it will destroy economies and the biology that we exist on,” Inlsee says. 

Even big oil, which spent tens of missions to defeat the 2018 carbon pricing proposal, seems to be changing its tune, with BP now supporting a price on carbon. 

How might Washington State be a bellwether for Washington DC?

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The year 2020 brought with it a nation riddled with grief as the United States descended into a raging pandemic, steep economic downfall, and unsettling political instability. As half a million perished and millions were left jobless from coronavirus, what was really going on inside the White House? And who was influencing Donald Trump as he refused to concede power after an election he had clearly lost?

Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker answer these questions for the American people in I Alone Can Fix It, a gripping exposé of an administration sabotaging its own country. Their sources were in the room as Trump and the key players around him—doctors, generals, senior advisors and family members—continued to prioritize the interests of the president over that of the country. These witnesses saw firsthand Trump’s desire to deploy military force against protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death. They saw his refusal to take coronavirus seriously, even to the point of allowing himself and those around him to be infected. They, along with the rest of the world, saw him spur on what would become the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol building.

With unparalleled access, Rucker and Leonnig delve into exactly who they say enabled—and who foiled—the president as he desperately held onto his fleeting presidency in his final year in office. Join us as Leonnig and Rucker reveal the inner workings of the 2020 Trump White House.

SPEAKERS

Carol Leonnig

Investigative Reporter, The Washington Post; Co-author, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year; Twitter @CarolLeonnig (Participating Virtually)

Philip Rucker

White House Bureau Chief, The Washington Post; Co-author, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year; Twitter @PhilipRucker (Participating Virtually)

In Conversation with Yamiche Alcindor

Host, "Washington Week," PBS; Twitter @Yamiche (Participating Virtually)

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 July 26th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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