Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Steve Kettmann, editor of the new book Now What? The Voters Have Spoken—Essays on Life After Trump, asks in the book's forward, "How do we try to rebuild a society that helps people think for themselves a little more often? How do we encourage each other—and ourselves—to understand our neighbors a little better?"

The book features essays from a variety of voices including noted African American journalist Cynthia Tucker and Trump ally turned critic Anthony Scaramucci, who along with Mr. Kettman, join us for this discussion.

What's next for America and what are the possibilities for the country moving forward? Join us for a compelling conversation.

SPEAKERS

Steve Kettmann

Co Founder, Wellstone Center in the Redwoods; Former Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle and Wired; Editor, Now What? The Voters Have Spoken—Essays on Life After Trump

Anthony Scaramucci

Former Trump White House Communications Director; Founder, SkyBridge Capital; Contributor, Now What? The Voters Have Spoken—Essays on Life After Trump

Cynthia Tucker

Pulitzer Prize Winning Syndicated Columnist; Journalist-in-Residence, University of South Alabama; Contributor, Now What? The Voters Have Spoken—Essays on Life After Trump

In Conversation with Roy Eisenhardt

Lecturer, U.C. Berkeley Law School

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 February 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Hoover Institution Senior Fellow and Stanford University Political Science Professor Larry Diamond is a renowned expert on democracy around the world. In late November of last year, he penned a New York Times essay that said, "The vulnerability of our democracy today doesn’t come in the form that many feared when Donald Trump was elected in 2016. The good news is that two of the three pillars of American democracy—liberty and the rule of law—endure, even if they have been battered. But the third pillar—free and fair elections—is under far more direct threat than my fellow democracy experts predicted."

Dr. Diamond went on to predict that President Trump "might pressure the Republican legislatures in battleground states, like Pennsylvania and Florida, to award him their state’s electors, even if the formal vote-counting machinery ultimately declares a Biden victory in the state. . . . [S]uch a scenario would be far more dire and polarizing than even the Bush v. Gore nightmare of 2000, with an incumbent president threatening fire and brimstone if the election were not handed to him, while signaling violent right-wing extremists to 'stand by' but perhaps no longer 'stand down.' "

Dr. Diamond says our democratic electoral system, unlike others in the world, "has no comparable standing authority to investigate national-level corruption, and Congress largely investigates and punishes itself." He says that newer democracies have also taken measures to depoliticize their equivalent of a supreme court, including term limits and a broader consensus on court nominees. But, says Dr. Diamond, none of this occurred to America's founders, and while "throughout most of our history, America’s democratic norms have been strong enough and the outcomes have been clear enough to avoid catastrophic conflict over a national election," that might not be true anymore.

Come for an important discussion on what changes may be needed in America's institutions in order to preserve our Democracy.

This program is part of The Commonwealth Club’s Future of Democracy Series, supported by Betsy and Roy Eisenhardt.

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 February 9th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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The American Dream is the notion that every person is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of their circumstances at birth. But the reality is that for many Americans, social and economic opportunity are unattainable due to societal structures that block access to resources.

The Great American Lie examines the roots of systemic inequality through a unique gender lens. With America facing widening economic disparities, political polarization, and stagnant social mobility, the film takes audiences on an empathy journey, inspiring a path forward. Presented in collaboration with The Representation Project, this program brings filmmaker, advocate and thought leader Jennifer Siebel Newsom into conversation with a panel of student filmmakers whose work shines a youth lens on social justice and gender equity issues.

SPEAKERS

Angelica Rubio

Student, 12th grade, Merced, CA

Samira Barragan

Student, 11th grade, Santa Fe Springs, CA

TreNisha Shearer

Student, 12th grade, Portland, OR

Jennifer Siebel Newsom

Filmmaker—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 February 3rd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Experts have warned us that COVID-19 is just one example of climate change-related diseases on the rise. And while climate disruption, environmental health and the current pandemic may seem like three distinct problems, to those in the health and environmental justice field, that’s not the case.

"All of them are connected," says Adrienne Hollis of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "And the underlying cause is systemic racism."

"If you want to address pandemics, and you want to address climate change, you’ve got to focus on equity," agrees Aaron Bernstein of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. "And the solution, and the great news in some ways, is that these actions you need to take are one and the same."

How are heat, lack of sanitation, and other environmental issues killing Americans in underserved communities? A conversation on what happens when climate, health, and poverty converge.

Guests:

Catherine Coleman Flowers, Founder, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice; Author, Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret  (The New Press, 2020)

Adrienne Hollis, Senior Climate Justice and Health Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists

Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director, Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health 

For complete show notes, visit our website.

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We enjoy comedy as entertainment—but would we appreciate a zinger during a company meeting? In their new book Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life, Dr. Jennifer Aaker, a professor at Stanford Business School, and Naomi Bagdonas, a lecturer in management at Stanford, argue that using humor in supposedly serious situations can cultivate creativity, forge stronger relationships and strengthen one’s confidence. Jennifer and Naomi provide a theoretical overview of the benefits of comedy, consulting business leaders, comedians and behavioral scientists to learn more about how being funny “is money.”

Join Jennifer and Naomi at INFORUM to learn more about the benefits of humor in and out of the workplace. This conversation is moderated by comedian and artist Dhaya Lakshminarayanan.

SPEAKERS

Jennifer Aaker

Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Co-Author, Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life

Naomi Bagdonas

Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Co-Author, Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life

Dhaya Lakshminarayanan

Comedian—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 February 2nd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Walter Mosley, the author of more than 60 critically acclaimed books, is one of the most admired writers in America. The Commonwealth Club is pleased to welcome Mosley for the first time for a discussion on this new book, Blood Grove, and his long career in writing and the arts. just as America continues its reckoning on race relations.

Last year marked the 30th anniversary of Mosley's legendary Easy Rawlins series, as well as Mosley’s three decade-long exploration of racial inequality, political corruption and the pursuit of justice. In early February, Mosley's infamous detective, Rawlins, is back in Blood Grove, the 15th entry in the mystery series. Readers around the world have followed Easy Rawlins, an unlicensed private investigator turned detective always willing to do what it takes to get things done, in books translated into more than 25 different languages. Mosley's1990 debut novel, Devil in a Blue Dress, was the first in the bestselling mystery series featuring Rawlins and launched Mosley into literary prominence.

Mosley, who was just awarded the National Book Foundation's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, and the first Black man to win the honor in its 32-year history, has been astutely and profoundly engaging with the politics of race, the realities of being Black in America, and elegantly pushing the boundaries of genre fiction throughout his storied career. Mosley’s books have won numerous awards, including, but not limited to, an Edgar Award for Down the River Unto the Sea, an O. Henry Award, The Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, a Grammy, several NAACP Image awards, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, he was named the recipient of the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

This program contains EXPLICIT language

SPEAKERS

Walter Mosley

Author, Blood Grove

Brian Watt

News Anchor, KQED—Moderator

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Join us for a virtual conversation with Jonathan Alter, author of the first full-length biography of Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and Nobel Prize–winning humanitarian. Alter paints an intimate and surprising portrait of a complex figure with a piercing intelligence, prickly intensity, and biting wit beneath the patented smile.

Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Carter essentially lived in three centuries: his early life on the farm without electricity or running water might as well have been in the 19th; his presidency put him at the center of the 20th; and his efforts on conflict resolution and global health set him on the cutting edge of the 21st.

Drawing on fresh archives and five years of extensive access to Carter and his family, Alter traces how he evolved from a timid, bookish child—raised mostly by a black woman farmhand—into an ambitious naval nuclear engineer writing passionate, never-before-published love letters from sea to his wife and full partner, Rosalynn; a peanut farmer and civic leader whose guilt over staying silent during the Civil Rights Movement helped power his quest for racial justice; an obscure, born-again governor whose brilliant 1976 presidential campaign demolished the racist wing of the Democratic Party; a stubborn outsider who failed politically amid a bad economy and the seizure of American hostages in Iran, but succeeded in engineering peace between Israel and Egypt, advancing environmentalism, moving the government from tokenism to diversity, internationalizing human rights, and normalizing relations with China. After leaving office, Carter worked to eradicate diseases, taught Sunday school, and built houses for the poor into his mid-90s.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

SPEAKERS

Jonathan Alter

Historian; Columnist; Documentary Filmmaker; Political Analyst, MSNBC; Former Senior Editor, Newsweek; Author, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

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Dr. John Ghazvinian, executive director of the University of Pennsylvania's Middle East Center, was born in Iran, raised in London and Los Angeles, and earned his doctorate from Oxford University. Dr. Banafsheh Keynoush earned her doctorate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, is a renowned Middle East expert and is a frequent contributor to Middle East Forum events. They will discuss his fascinating new book, which traces the complex relations between America and Iran since the 18th Century, when the Persian Empire greatly admired Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and an America seen, by Iranians, as an ideal to emulate for their own government. They will also discuss how the two countries that once had heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies.

Ghazvinian will also lead us "through the 4 seasons of U.S./Iran relations: the spring of mutual fascination; the summer of early interactions, the autumn of close strategic ties, the long dark winter of mutual hatred "and why "it didn't have to turn out this way."

SPEAKERS

John Ghazvinian

Ph.D., Author, America and Iran: A History 1720 to the Present

Banafsheh Keynoush

Ph.D., Editor, Interregional Dynamics in the Middle East—Moderator

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"I remember the day I realized I couldn’t play a white guy as well as a white guy. It felt like a death sentence for my career.”—Chad Sanders

When Chad Sanders landed his first job in lily-white Silicon Valley, he quickly realized that to be successful at work meant playing a certain social game. Each meeting was drenched in white slang and the privileged talk of international travel or a folk concert in San Francisco, which led Chad to realize that he could only be successful if he emulated whiteness.

So Sanders changed. He changed his wardrobe, his behavior, his speech—everything that connected him with his Black identity. And while he finally felt included, he felt awful. Carrying the unbearable weight of his imposter syndrome—the constant burden of not being true to himself—left Sanders exhausted and ashamed. Instead, he decided to give up the charade. He reverted back to methods he learned at the dinner table, or at the Black Baptist church where he’d been raised, or the concrete basketball courts. And it paid off. Sanders began to land more exciting projects and eventually got promoted. He earned the respect of his colleagues and clients. Accounting for this turnaround, Sanders believes, was something he calls Black Magic, namely: resilience, creativity, and perseverance, forged in his experience navigating America as a Black man. Black Magic has emboldened his every step since. Leading him to wonder: was he alone in this discovery? Were there others who felt the same?

In Black Magic, Sanders tells his own story while also interviewing other Black leaders, scientists, artists, business people, parents, innovators, and champions, to get their take on Black magic. This revelatory book uncovers Black experiences in predominantly white environments while demonstrating the importance of staying true to yourself.

Chad Sanders is a New York City-based writer. His screenwriting career began when he wrote for ABC Freeform’s Grownish in 2018. Previously, Chad worked at Google in the YouTube and People Operations divisions and as a tech entrepreneur. He has since written and cowritten forthcoming TV series and feature films with collaborators Spike Lee, Morgan Freeman and Will Packer. Chad’s op-ed pieces have appeared in The New York Times and Teen Vogue.

NOTES

Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Our thanks to Marcus Bookstore in Oakland for fulfilling book orders.

SPEAKERS

Chad Sanders

Author, Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph; Writer, The New York Times; Twitter @Chad_Sand

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Co-Host

John Zipperer

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

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With a new pro-science, pro-climate action administration in the White House, there are more pathways — and far greater political will — than ever before for the clean energy transition. The question is now less about what can be done to act on climate, and more about how soon. 

“We have the best opportunity in more than a decade now to see federal climate action through legislation,” says Leah Stokes from UC Santa Barbara. So how quickly can a new administration turn around a gutted EPA, myriad environmental law rollbacks, and a legacy of climate denial from fossil fuel companies?

Guests:

Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, Penn State University

Leah Stokes, Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Santa Barbara

Related Links:

Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad

The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet

Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States

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