Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Guests:

Sandra Kwak, CEO and Founder, 10Power

Donnel Baird, CEO, BlocPower

Andreas Karelas, Author, Climate Courage: How Tackling Climate Change Can Build Community, Transform the Economy, and Bridge the Political Divide in America 

Summary: As the spring of 2021 arrives, it would be hard to design a more challenging — or more promising — moment for implementing climate solutions. Americans are reeling from an economic shutdown that’s pushed many out of the workforce, and widened the gap between the wealthy and the poor. In this brave new post-Covid world, can President Biden step up where Obama couldn’t? 

“I'm delighted about what I'm seeing from the Biden-Harris team,” notes Donnel Baird, CEO of BlocPower. “Climate justice and racial equality are wedded together alongside employment, alongside public health and working our way out of these kinds of four simultaneous crises we’re dealing with.” From big tech to clean energy, what are the opportunities for scaling new solutions — and where do inequity and politics continue to set us back?

Related links:

10Power

BlocPower

Climate Courage

Re-volv

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Nipsey Hussle lived a life full of passion for his craft and compassion for his community. As a prolific rapper and artist, Nipsey strove for excellence in his work without forgetting Crenshaw, Los Angeles, the neighborhood he grew up in and sought to lift out of poverty. In his new book The Marathon Don’t Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle, music journalist Rob Kenner studies Nipsey’s life in exacting detail, sharing interviews from friends and family that reveal unknown information about Nipsey’s goals and mission. While Nipsey’s tragic passing deprived the world of his future success, Kenner emphasizes the influence Nipsey already held at his young age.

Join Rob Kenner at INFORUM to learn more about Nipsey’s life and his legacy, which will have an impact long beyond his lifetime. This conversation is moderated by Dave “Davey D” Cook, a hip hop historian and professor at San Francisco State University.

Note: This program contains EXPLICIT language.

SPEAKERS

Rob Kenner

Founding editor, Vibe Magazine; Author, The Marathon Don't Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle

Davey D

Hip-hop historian; Professor, Department of Africana Studies, San Francisco State University

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 March 25th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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The National Rifle Association is widely considered to be one of the most influential—and arguably most controversial—interest groups in America. In its infancy, the NRA operated as a nonpartisan organization for gun owners to learn firearm safety, practice marksmanship and shoot for recreation. The organization has expanded into a political powerhouse since then. Despite existing in an era where mass shootings and other gun-related deaths provoke public outcry, the NRA still manages to exert its power and consistently defeat proposals for gun restrictions.

In his new book Firepower, political researcher Matthew Lacombe seeks to understand how the NRA came to be this powerful. Drawing on nearly a century of archives and records, Lacombe discovers that the NRA has fashioned a distinct pro-gun worldview among its supporters to influence their political actions and mobilize them when necessary. He says the NRA has used its large, unified and active base to secure an alliance with the Republican Party and ensure its political objectives are advanced. Lacombe sheds new light on how the NRA has grown powerful by mobilizing average Americans, and how it uses its GOP alliance to shape the national agenda and maintain political power.

Join us as Matthew Lacombe discusses Firepower and reveals how the NRA has turned its once-nonpartisan membership into modern political pawns.

SPEAKERS

Matthew Lacombe

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Columbia University; Author, Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners into a Political Force

In Conversation with John Boland

President Emeritus, KQED Public Media; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors

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 March 25th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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In February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic changed life as we know it in the United States, journalists Alexis Madrigal and Erin Kissane of The Atlantic started the COVID Tracking Project. The project was an effort to provide comprehensive data and to pressure public health agencies to publish better metrics regarding the spread of COVID-19. While the founders only anticipated that the project would last a few weeks until the government began to keep more accurate numbers, the project will officially cease collecting data on March 7, exactly one year after it started.

Join Alexis Madrigal at INFORUM to learn more about how the project has functioned in the past year, the staff’s experiences working with government officials, and what lessons Madrigal has to impart as our society begins to envision a post-pandemic world.

SPEAKERS

Alexis Madrigal

Staff Writer, The Atlantic; Founder, The COVID Tracking Project

In Conversation with DJ Patil

Ph.D., Former U.S. Chief Data Scientist; Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors

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 March 24th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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The U.S. population is aging. The number of Americans aged 65 and older will more than double over the next 40 years, reaching 80 million in 2040. The group most often needing help with basic personal care, adults ages 85 and older, will nearly quadruple between 2000 and 2040.

Aging in place will be an option for many people, which means staying in the comfort of your own home, rather than moving into a retirement or long-term care facility. Most of the care provided to older adults in this country comes from families, friends and neighbors. In fact, by 2030, it is projected that half of the families in the United States will be involved in caring for an older adult.

While home-based care is less expensive than institutional care, few of the 45 million family caregivers in the United States are trained or paid to provide this complex care. In California, the economic value of family care was put at $63 trillion in 2017. This vast labor force could be tapped for future success, including better health outcomes, less demand on the health-care system, and reduced costs. But optimizing the home-based caregiver system requires a systematic approach, which will be discussed by our panel of experts.

MLF ORGANIZER

Robert Lee Kilpatrick

NOTES

MLF: Health & Medicine

SPEAKERS

Theresa (Terri) Harvath

Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FGSA, Professor and Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives, Family Caregiving Institute, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, University of California, Davis

Susan C. Reinhard

Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Senior Vice President and Director, AARP Public Policy Institute; Chief Strategist, Center to Champion Nursing in America and Family Caregiving Initiatives

Jonathan Davis

Founder and CEO, Trualta

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 March 25th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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When Ifeoma Ozoma and a colleague resigned from the policy team at Pinterest last year and went public with their claims of discrimination, racism and retaliation at the social media giant, they helped fuel an ongoing examination of the corporate cultures in Silicon Valley and elsewhere that often reveal racial disparities that belie companies' public statements of gender and racial equity. Ozoma found herself being "doxed" — her personal information shared online by her opponents — and unsupported by the company's executives. Now she is working on an initiative that could help employees reporting discrimination get around often-stifling NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) they have signed.

Join us for a conversation with Ozoma about her initiative and the experience of herself and many others in the corporate world.

Ozoma is the founder and principal of Earthseed, a consulting firm advising individuals, organizations and companies on the issues of tech accountability, public policy, health misinformation and related communications. She is a tech policy expert with experience leading global public policy partnerships, public policy related content safety development, and U.S. federal, state and international policymaker engagement at Pinterest, Facebook, and Google.

Ozoma's health misinformation initiatives have been lauded by the World Health Organization, The Washington Post’s editorial board, and The New York Times. Ozoma is on the First Draft, Inc., board of directors. She is also a member of the Brookings Institution’s Transatlantic Working Group on Disinformation and The Washington Post's Technology 202 Network.

Projects Ozoma has taken on include: leading legislation with California State Senator Connie Leyva to allow every individual in California to share information about discrimination they have faced on the job, even after signing an NDA; leading research and an initiative funded by Omidyar Network that will provide tech whistleblowers with needed resources; serving as a juror on the Google News Initiative COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund; advising a UN agency on coronavirus vaccine messaging and vaccine misinformation management; serving on the Selection Committee of the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public’s Award for Excellence; and advising large nonprofit organizations on addressing misinformation and engagement with large tech platforms.

NOTES

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See more upcoming and past Michelle Meow Shows at The Commonwealth Club.

SPEAKERS

Ifeoma Ozoma

Founder and Principal, Earthseed

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW/KPIX 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 March 18th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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This is your Commonwealth Club week in review. Hear what you missed this week, and what we’ve got lined up for you next week.

We’re always adding new programs - check out commonwealthclub.org/online for all of our upcoming events.

If you haven’t already - please consider becoming a member of the Club. Enjoy exclusive discounts and access to special programs all while knowing your contributions directly support our many public programs and civic initiatives.

Visit commonwealthclub.org/special, for special rates on memberships.

Thanks for your support and as always - thanks for listening!

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Too often, people are told to be professional and maintain traditional order in workplace settings, but this often leaves employees abandoning their humanity as soon as they step into the company building. As workplaces diversify, leaders are challenged to create a safe, justice-oriented working environment that simultaneously promotes creative individuality and traditional business models.

Enter Kim Scott, author of the new book Just Work, looking to transform the modern workplace. She seeks to encourage leaders to create more just workplaces and establish new norms of collaboration and respect. With experience advising at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter and other tech companies, Scott shares her knowledge and power for confronting modern workplace challenges, and offers a new solution.

Join us as Kim Scott reimagines workplace settings to create more just and humane company environments

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 March 23rd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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For too long, Americans have treated racism as a disease of the past. Now, it’s more than obvious that symptoms of intolerance and discrimination still linger today. Many are fatigued fighting for racial equality and attempting to solve a centuries-old problem, begging the urgent question: How can we end American racism in our lifetimes?

CNN anchor Don Lemon seeks an answer. In his new book This Is the Fire, Lemon examines America’s systemic flaws that prevent equality for all. As America’s only Black prime-time anchor, Lemon has achieved mass popularity from his thoughtful and nuanced takes on modern racism. In his book, he shares his vulnerable experiences growing up in the shadows of segregation and his adult confrontations with scholars and politicians alike. In doing so, Lemon offers a searing and poetic plea to America: we must resist racism every day, and we must resist it with love.

Join us as Don Lemon and Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama’s most trusted friend and advisor, imagine a better, more equal future for all Americans.

SPEAKERS

Don Lemon

Anchor, "CNN Tonight with Don Lemon"; Author, This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism; Twitter @donlemon

In Conversation with Valerie Jarrett

Former Senior Adviser to President Barack Obama; Twitter@ValerieJarrett

n 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 March 19th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Warmer, shorter winters may sound like an impact of climate change that would inspire more joy than despair. But rising temperatures and decreasing snowpack won’t just transform water supplies and species ranges. It will also disrupt a multi-billion dollar winter sport industry, including the jobs and local economies associated with them. 

“If we're not able to ski or snowboard anymore,” says Mario Molina, CEO of Protect Our Winters, “the least of our concerns will be the activities that we participate in.” So how are winter sports enthusiasts and others preparing to weather the storm?

Speakers:

Elizabeth Burakowski, Assistant Professor, Earth Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire

Kit DesLauriers, National Geographic Explorer; Skimountaineer 

Geraldine Link, Director of Public Policy, National Ski Areas Association 

Mario Molina, CEO, Protect our Winters

Related Links:

Protect Our Winters

Higher Love: Climbing and Skiing the Seven Summits

National Ski Areas Association

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