Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

By Commonwealth Club of CaliforniaNews Government Politics

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Commonwealth Club of California Podcast episodes

January 13, 2021 Ashes to Ashes: Two Artists Addressing Racial Injustice in America
In a time of racial reckoning, a new film looks at a very personal attempt to address racial injustices in this country. Ashes to Ashes is an endearing portrait of Winfred Rembert, an avid Star Wars fan and master leather-work artist who survived an attempted lynching in 1967. This moving short documentary showcases the incredible friendship he has forged with Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker, as she creates and establishes an interactive art exhibit to memorialize the more than 4,000 African Americans who were lynched during the Jim Crow era. Join us for a discussion with Dr. Whitaker, Winifred Rembert, and the film's director, Taylor Rees.

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50 min
January 12, 2021 QAnon: What Happens Now?
To many observers, QAnon is, for lack of a better word, dangerous. They say it is dangerous to our political life, because it spreads disinformation which makes it more difficult for citizens to make informed decisions about who to vote for and what policies to support; it is also dangerous to the mental health of people who buy into the conspiracy theories, because it creates a cult-like environment, one in which people stop thinking for themselves and instead hero-worship President Donald Trump; finally, it is dangerous to the physical welfare of non-QAnon followers, because members of QAnon have been linked to violence. Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon, where he has covered everything from politics and economics to science and culture. Prior to his career at Salon, Mr. Rozsa worked for a number of media outlets, including Mic, Quartz, The Daily Dot, The Good Men Project and MSNBC. He graduated from Bard College with a B.A. in history and from Rutgers University-Newark with an M.A. in history. He is currently studying for a Ph.D. in history at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. MLF ORGANIZER Patrick O'Reilly NOTES MLF: Psychology

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45 min
January 07, 2021 Chef Marcus Samuelsson
Summers for the Tsegie-Samuelsson family were spent in Smögen, Sweden catching crayfish, lobsters and mackerel to serve with local and fresh ingredients at the dinner table. These meals were influenced by Ethiopian cuisine, creating an East African culinary experience with Swedish ingredients. These artistic and cultural influences continue to play a pivotal role in Marcus Samuelsson's cooking. Chef Marcus Samuelsson, author of the new book The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food, takes us into a deeper journey of food, culture, and origin to appreciate the complexity of Black culinary arts. The deliciousness of modern Black cooking is only enhanced by chefs’ reclamation of Black culinary traditions, a collective desire to fight implicit bias, and an ability to energize young, creative cooks. Black meals are often categorized under the monolithic label of “soul food,” but Samuelsson reminds us that soul food flavors have influences tracing back to the African continent, the Caribbean, all over the United States, and beyond. The Rise is more than a cookbook, and has been called a stunning work of breadth and beauty. It’s the celebration of a culinary movement. NOTES Part of our Food Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. Co-presented by INFORUM. Our thanks to Marcus Bookstore in Oakland for fulfilling book orders.

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53 min
January 07, 2021 The Future of American History Education: What Now?
As the Trump presidency comes to an end, many questions have been raised about its impact and legacy on a range of policy issues and priorities for the country. The future of American history education, particularly for K–12 students, is one area where the impact could be felt for years. Responding to recent controversies such as The New York Times’s "1619 Project" and widespread calls to remove Confederate monuments, President Trump issued an executive order establishing a new “1776 Commission” to promote “patriotic education” in schools. Whether or not the Biden administration continues the commission, the focus on what should be taught about America’s founding and heritage, how constitutional issues and historical topics such as slavery should be conveyed to students, and how to teach the full and complex story of our constitutional democracy will remain a significant educational debate for years to come. This program will look at the state of this debate from a range of perspectives and discuss the future of American history education. The program will be held on January 6, the historic constitutional day when the U.S. Congress officially counts the electoral votes from the presidential election.

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1 hr 3 min
January 06, 2021 Once More Unto the Breach: The Week to Week Political Roundtable Kicks Off 2021
Join us for the first Week to Week political roundtable of 2021, as we gather online for a program on the same day that Georgia holds its runoff election for two crucial U.S. Senate seats. We'll discuss the Georgia race, plus the incoming administration, the outgoing administration, the latest from Sacramento and elsewhere with our usual mix of expert insight and a dose of good-natured humor.

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1 hr 9 min
January 06, 2021 Dr. Jessica Zitter: Film Screening and Discussion, ""Caregiver: A Love Story""
Dr. Jessica Zitter is a national advocate for transforming the way people die in America. She is Harvard- and UCSF-trained to practice the unusual combination of critical and palliative care medicine and works as an attending physician at a public hospital in Oakland. Join us for a special one-hour program featuring "Caregiver: A Love Story," Dr. Zitter's new short documentary about the family caregiver burden. More than one in five Americans care for a loved one in need, and are facing serious physical, financial, and emotional consequences. The COVID-19 pandemic has given us all a window into this rising public health crisis, as increasing numbers of people suddenly became caregivers and those who were already doing this work become increasingly isolated and overwhelmed. After the 24-minute film, we will be joined by Dr. Zitter, co-director and producer of the film, for a discussion and Q&A facilitated by Mark Zitter. We will learn more about the issue of family caregiver burden, and get taken "behind-the-scenes” to learn how this unlikely film was made. About the Film When Bambi Fass was dying from metastatic melanoma, she realized that being at home with her husband Rick was her biggest priority. Once hospice services came on board, Bambi's quality of life dramatically improved. But as the viewer watches the rising stresses placed on her husband Rick, another story emerged—the burden placed on the family caregiver. Filmed in Oakland, "Caregiver: A Love Story," follows the last 9 weeks of Bambi’s life at home, focusing on the challenges Rick faces as he leaves his job to become her primary caregiver, a role for which he has no experience and little support. He juggles the day-to-day demands of providing care for Bambi and his two-year-old granddaughter, suffers financial losses, and becomes fatigued, sick and lonely, all while losing the woman he loves. The film won best documentary short at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

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40 min
January 05, 2021 CLIMATE ONE: Biden’s Climate Opportunity (Part 1)
President-elect Joe Biden says he will infuse climate change into every corner of his agenda. That’s becoming evident looking at his emerging team. "You're already seeing signs from the nominees and the people they’re choosing that climate is going to be a part of every single agency," says Christy Goldfuss, Senior Vice President for Energy and Environment Policy at the Center for American Progress. But it will take more than staff buy-in to get the country to net-zero emissions. When he’s sworn in on January 20th, Biden will likely be facing a Republican-led Senate that opposes his climate goals. He’s announced an ambitious plan designed to achieve a one-hundred-percent clean economy and net-zero emissions by 2050, and is assembling a team of heavy hitters to get the job done. But he faces criticism from both sides. Republicans claim his plan is too expensive. Sunrise Movement and other progressives accuse him of not being ambitious enough. Join us for a discussion about the Biden climate agenda -- what he hopes to accomplish and what he can get done, with or without congressional support.

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53 min
January 05, 2021 CLIMATE ONE: Mary Nichols: A Climate Champion’s Legacy
Mary Nichols is not a household name, but she arguably has done more than any other public official to reduce America's carbon pollution. As she puts it, “I took on the one topic that everybody agreed was really important, but they didn't know what to do about, and that was air pollution,” Nichols first served as chair of California's Air Resources Board, or the Air Board, from 1979 to 1983 in Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's first term. When she returned to the job, almost 25 years later under a Republican governor, the board had evolved into a much more powerful and important player, in what had become an urgent struggle against climate change. The Board played a crucial role, for example, in exposing the Volkswagen “Dieselgate” scandal. “The Air Resources Board and our engineers are the ones who uncovered the fraud and figured out how it actually worked,” she recalls, “and we immediately brought in the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and in turn, the Department of Justice.” More recently, Nichols has been busy battling the Trump administration’s attempt to water down California’s fuel economy rules -- which often become national standards because of that state’s big car market. “It's about the merits, it’s about getting the results and the environmental benefits,” Nichols says, “but it's also about protecting California's right to set standards because that has been time and time again the one tool that we the people as a whole have had to really force progress on the part of the industry.”

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53 min
December 23, 2020 The Virtual View from Tokyo: Shin Ushijima
Join us virtually to discuss with Shin Ushijima, Japan’s best-selling legal thriller author and influential corporate counselor, the nuances of cultural shifts in Japan, the political ramifications of Japan’s response to COVID-19, the effects of China’s rising influence in Asia, the threat to Japan of North Korea’s military misadventurousness, and the institutional changes he would like to see in corporate governance in order to strengthen Japan’s international businesses. Ushijima will also share how he managed to write several novels, and non-fiction corporate advice books, while running one of Tokyo’s premier law firms.

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1 hr 4 min
December 22, 2020 Sadhguru: Mark Twain and Vedanta at The Commonwealth Club
Join us virtually for the kind of philosophical conversation Shankara would have enjoyed, the kind captured in the best of the Upanishads, as we explore with Sadhguru the ideas that have intrigued the yogis of India for millennia, and which have seeped into Western culture in bits and pieces through the curiosity of authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Maugham and Hesse, and from a stream of famous Indian teachers who traveled to the West to share these ideas. We will start our conversation with Mark Twain, because in Hannibal, MO, during Sadhguru’s recent motorcycle tour of America, he said that when he was growing up “Moby Dick and Huck Finn kind of lived in my head for some time. Nobody else really occupied my mind much.” So we will discuss the ancient two-way literary and intellectual highway between India and the West, and then see how much more transcendental the conversation gets after that. MLF ORGANIZER George Hammond NOTES MLF: Humanities

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1 hr 12 min

About Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

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The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's largest public affairs forum. The nonpartisan and nonprofit Club produces and distributes programs featuring diverse viewpoints from thought leaders…