As the 2026 midterms approach, voters are contending with concerns around affordability, the AI boom, and climate disruption in their daily lives. AI data centers have become the wild card in energy politics, driving up energy demand and utility bills, and playing a large role in a battleground House primary. A year after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act rolled back key parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, many climate advocates assumed the energy transition was stalled out, but new research suggests otherwise. 

How will climate and energy shape the ballot box this year? And what's it like to campaign on those issues in a swing state?

William Lawrence, Candidate, US Congress MI-07; Co-founder, Sunrise Movement

Leah Stokes, Associate Professor, UC Santa Barbara; Author, “The Carbon Wave”

Lily Bermel, Visiting Fellow, Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy.

For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit our ⁠⁠episode page⁠⁠ at ClimateOne.org

Highlights:

00:00:00 Intro

00:03:25 William Lawrence on campaign messaging

00:05:48 William Lawrence on climate and data centers 

00:08:05 William Lawrence on giving people more agency 

00:13:21 William Lawrence on addressing decarbonization and affordability 

00:16:41 Leah Stokes on rewriting narratives about having children in a climate crisis

00:18:55 Leah Stokes on what's driving climate hushing 

00:26:36 Leah Stokes on working on climate policy and a high risk pregnancy 

00:31:30 Leah Stokes on the trials and joys of working with others 

00:36:17 Leah Stokes on what the future could hold after the midterms

00:39:42 Lily Bermel on the methodology of “Glass Half Full” 

00:46:01 Lily Bermel on the other factors affecting solar and wind deployment 

00:48:55 Lily Bermel on how energy could play into the midterm elections 

***

Join Climate One for a town hall event on September 28 at 6 p.m. on navigating AI, climate, and the future of democracy. How do we ensure that AI and data centers serve the public good? How does a democracy function when AI is distorting our sense of shared truths? Tickets available at ⁠⁠climateone.org/events⁠⁠ 

***

Also: We’ll be having an electric conversation on October 14 at 6 p.m. between PG&E CEO Patti Poppe and California State Senator Scott Wiener about energy affordability, outages, and whether cities like San Francisco are ready to break up with the investor-owned utility model. Tickets available at ⁠⁠climateone.org/events⁠⁠ 

***

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. ⁠⁠Sign up today⁠⁠.

***

Ad sales by ⁠⁠Multitude⁠⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠

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

Join us on Thursday, September 10 at the Commonwealth Club for “Reading the Signals: Predictions, Polls & the 2026 Midterms,” featuring renowned nonpartisan election analyst Nathan Gonzales, editor & publisher of Inside Elections and election analyst for CQ Roll Call.

At Inside Elections, Nathan he analyzes every competitive race in the country. With more than two decades covering presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races, Nathan is widely recognized for delivering clear, objective, data-driven analysis that cuts through speculation and partisan spin. A frequent political analyst for CNN, NPR, CBS News, and other major national media, he is known for providing clear, objective insights that cut through the noise and identify the trends that truly matter.

During this interactive session, Nathan will explore:

We’ll conclude with an extended Q&A, giving members the opportunity to ask Nathan their own questions about the midterm elections and what comes next. Whether you follow politics closely or simply want to separate signal from noise, this promises to be one of our most timely and thought-provoking events of the year.

This program is presented in partnership with "YPO Gold."

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

When families have support, children and youth do better at home, in school and in their communities. Yet many conversations about “student success” focus narrowly on classrooms and test scores, overlooking the pregnancy, early childhood, housing, mental health, special‑needs and basic‑needs supports that shape whether children can show up ready to learn in the first place.

This program will explore how family resource centers and other family support services operate in San Francisco, drawing on the experiences of community leaders and parents who know these systems firsthand. Through stories from their work and lives, the panel will highlight how family support helps families navigate complex systems, build stability, and prevent crises before they escalate. The conversation will also consider what we can all do to support cradle‑to‑career supports for families, so that all San Francisco children and youth can thrive.
About the Speakers

Our moderator will be Kula Koenig, the chief policy officer at Safe & Sound, where she leads policy, advocacy and strategic partnerships to strengthen child abuse prevention through upstream investment, cross-sector collaboration, and systems change that centers families most impacted by inequities. She directly oversees Safe & Sound's role as the backbone organization of the Family Services Alliance, working to make San Francisco a place where all children, youth, and families can thrive. Kula grounds her leadership in the belief that prevention and civic engagement must be inclusive, accessible and healing. She brings more than 15 years of leadership experience at the intersection of public health, early childhood, and racial equity, including senior roles at Public Health Advocates, United Way, and the American Heart Association. She is also the founder and executive director of Social Justice PolitiCorps. Kula holds a B.A. from UCLA and an MBA from The George Washington University.

Gloria Tan has been the executive director of the San Francisco nonprofit Gum Moon since 1986. Gum Moon operates a residence hall in Chinatown for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. In addition, Gum Moon has 3 family resource centers in the Chinatown, Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods. The FRC's are all funded through the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood’s Family Resource Center Initiative. Originally from Singapore, Gloria came to the United States for college and earned a Business Administration degree from the University of San Francisco. In 2020, the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award in Community Building for her decades-long community leadership. In May 2026, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission recognized her contributions on behalf of women, children, immigrant families and underserved communities across the city. She is also an active member of the Family Services Alliance.

Vicente Milan is a proud San Franciscan, born and raised. A former U.S. Army Specialist who deployed to Iraq, Vicente later worked in landscaping before stepping into his most important role: primary caregiver to three young boys in a blended family. Vicente and his family have turned to Compass Family Services’ Family Resource Center for parenting support, help with one of his children's special needs, and housing stability services.  He now serves as a parent leader in Compass's “Repeat and Repair” group and brings to this panel the perspective of a father who has seen how family resource centers can strengthen families and improve children’s outcomes. He loves taking his kids to museums and connecting with other parents. 

A Social Impact Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

ORGANIZER Virginia Cheung

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

Note: This podcast contains explicit language.

Is American democracy doomed? Robert Reich doesn’t think so, even though he is more than capable of pointing out how it has fallen short and is being challenged by powerful anti-democratic forces. He says we can reclaim a sense of community and a democratic capitalism based on American ideals we still have the power to salvage.

To know where to go next, it helps to know how we got here, and in his new book Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, Reich tells us how he got here. Born just 9 months after World War II, Reich came into a united America with a bright future—which went unrealized for so many as, he says, big money took over our democracy. His encounter with school bullies on account of his height—4’11" as an adult—made him determined to spend his life fighting American bullies of every sort. He recounts the death of a friend in the Civil Rights Movement; his political coming of age witnessing the Berkeley free speech movement; working for Bobby Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy; experiencing a country torn apart by the Vietnam War; meeting Hillary Rodham in college, Bill Clinton at Oxford, and Clarence Thomas at Yale Law. He details his friendship with John Kenneth Galbraith during his time teaching at Harvard, and subsequent friendships with Bernie Sanders and Ted Kennedy; and his efforts as labor secretary for Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama. 

He reflects on all that he has witnessed and asks: What did his generation accomplish? Did they make America better, more inclusive, more tolerant? Did they strengthen democracy? Or did they come up short?

Join us as Robert Reich returns to the Commonwealth Club World Affairs stage to hear him discuss the culture, politics, and economic choices that have landed us where we are today—with immensely rich and immensely powerful economic leaders and corporations, demagogues on the rise, and increasing inequality fueling anger and hatred across the country.

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

Skye Perryman—a Time 100 honoree and CEO of Democracy Forward—offers an urgent, inspiring blueprint for how ordinary people can fight for freedom in extraordinary times.

She says the future of our country lies in all of our hands. From protecting voting rights and public schools to finding courage in the face of fear, Skye Perryman makes the case that defending democracy isn’t the job of lawyers or politicians alone—it’s a role for every one of us, seasoned and brand-new activists alike.

Drawing on her frontline experience challenging threats to democracy in courtrooms across the nation, Perryman combines gripping personal stories with practical “how-to” guides that empower readers to take action in their own communities.

Accessible, hopeful, and deeply practical, this inspiring book shows that the path forward begins not in the halls of power but at our kitchen tables, in our neighborhoods, and through the everyday choices we make to speak up, build community, and protect our future.

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

Note: This podcast contains explicit language.

Dating and relationships can be messy. The apps, the expectations, the endless options—it’s a lot. But there’s real science behind how people connect, commit and build a relationship with someone who will “be there when you need them the most.”

So how to find such a person, especially in such a world?

Fortunately we have a guide! Dr. Justin Garcia is the executive director of the Kinsey Institute, the premier research center on human sexuality and relationships, where he leads a team that has been delving into precisely those questions for almost 80 years. He’ll discuss how people have evolved to need relationships, what we need in a relationship (sometimes not what we think we need!), and how people are negotiating the desires for intimacy and committed relationship in a landscape characterized by casual sex, casual dating and rapidly changing technologies.

In addition, Dr. Garcia will discuss what science has found about the realities of modern relationships, including why some last while others end, the shifting patterns of dating and marriage, and maybe even the discovery that one in three Gen Z single adults said they have used AI as a romantic partner.

Join us September 8 for this fascinating discussion, and ask your questions about how the world of dating and relationships has changed. This will also be a great opportunity to get out of the house, meet some people in real life, and maybe even have dinner afterward at a nearby restaurant.

About the Speaker

Dr. Justin Garcia, an evolutionary biologist, is executive director of the renowned Kinsey Institute and chief scientific advisor to dating app Match, where he provides expertise for the annual Singles in America study. He has co-authored more than 100 academic articles and the book Evolution and Human Sexual Behavior. His latest book is The Intimate Animal, which explores the science behind how we date, mate and navigate our love lives.

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

Growing power demands – coupled with increasingly frequent climate-driven disasters – have led even staunch environmentalists like NRDC head Manish Bapna to rethink their past opposition to nuclear power. 

Three Mile Island didn't kill anyone or cause major public harm, but it fundamentally changed U.S. nuclear policy for 40 years. Why did an accident with a relatively contained consequence have such a chilling effect – and what’s really different today? With dozens of new, purportedly safer designs at various stages of development and construction around the world, is it time for all of us to give nuclear energy a fresh look?

Guests:

Manish Bapna, President and CEO, NRDC 

Denia Djokić, Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan

Josh Freed, Senior Vice President for Climate and Energy, Third Way

Edwin Lyman, Director of Nuclear Power Safety, Union of Concerned Scientists 

Highlights:

00:00 – Introduction 

02:30 – Manish Bapna explains shift in posture on nuclear power

07:45 – Why permitting and transmission reforms are necessary

12:00 – Ed Lyman and Josh Freed share concerns about climate change but differ on the role of nuclear energy

16:15 – Ongoing risks of nuclear energy

20:30 – Supply chain concerns

25:00 – Discussion of radioactive waste handling

31:30 – Role of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its independence under the current administration

40:00 – Where nuclear fits into carbon-free future

43:00 – Denia Djokić on how new advanced designs differ from older reactor designs

49:30 – SMRs are not plug-and-play 

53:30 – New nuclear can’t meet the speed demands of AI 

55:30 – Additional considerations around nuclear energy

57:30 – Climate One More Thing

For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit our ⁠episode page⁠ at ClimateOne.org

***

Join Climate One for a town hall event on September 28 at 6 p.m. on navigating AI, climate, and the future of democracy. How do we ensure that AI and data centers serve the public good? How does a democracy function when AI is distorting our sense of shared truths? Tickets available at ⁠climateone.org/events⁠ 

***

Also: We’ll be having an electric conversation on October 14 at 6 p.m. between PG&E CEO Patti Poppe and California State Senator Scott Wiener about energy affordability, outages, and whether cities like San Francisco are ready to break up with the investor owned utility model. Tickets available at ⁠climateone.org/events⁠ 

***

Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠Patreon⁠, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. ⁠Sign up today⁠.

***

Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠

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

Amidst a backdrop of unprecedented attacks on trans athletes, Schuyler, Chella, and Cal teamed up to take on the Ironman 70.3 relay in Oceanside, California, together on March 28, 2026—placing third in the men’s relay category. Schuyler in the water, Chella on wheels, and Cal hitting the pavement, these trans masculine athletes defy the erasure so commonly perpetuated against them, leaning into movement as essential empowerment, teamwork as vital community, and self-love as fuel. 

On June 29, Schuyler, Chella, and Cal invite us into their Ironman journey for a special event at the Commonwealth Club, with a panel discussion of their experience followed by a group run and reception.

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

For decades, scholar and journalist Orville Schell has been one of the nation’s leading experts on China. The author of numerous books on China, Schell runs the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. 

In his new book, Inside China’s Secret Prisons, Schell recounts the extraordinary investigation that uncovered China’s prison labor network, and the personal cost of reporting the truth. 

Schell delivers the first behind-the-scenes account of the landmark 1991 “60 Minutes” investigation that revealed China’s vast “reform through labor” prison system and documented how prison-made goods were illegally entering the United States disguised as legitimate exports.

The investigation took Schell and his colleagues deep inside China’s hidden penal colonies, where they worked alongside a former political prisoner and used hidden cameras to document forced labor inside prison factories. In one of the investigation’s most startling moments, Chinese prison officials openly attempted to sell prison-made products to CBS journalists posing as American buyers.

For the first time, Schell explains why he chose not to publish his original account of the investigation for The New Yorker. Concerned that the Chinese government could retaliate against his Chinese-born wife, her family, their friends, and even jeopardize his own ability to continue reporting from China, Schell made the painful decision to remain silent—offering a rare and deeply personal examination of how authoritarian governments can foster self-censorship far beyond their own borders. 

Join us to hear Schell discuss the book as well as the latest political developments in China and U.S.-China relations.

This content has EXPLICIT language.

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

Gladstone’s Steven Finkbeiner shares how Gladstone’s AI-powered microscope is racing to cure neurodegenerative disease.

Imagine a scientist that never sleeps, runs thousands of experiments at once, and learns from every success and failure in real-time. It’s not a person—it’s a microscope. Scientist Steven Finkbeiner, M.D., Ph.D., of San Francisco’s Gladstone Institutes, introduces us to a mind-boggling new reality: a “thinking microscope” powered by autonomous AI. By looking beyond the limits of human imagination, this machine is mapping out how diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ALS unfold, and discovering how to reverse them. 

Join us to learn how this revolutionary leap in technology is radically accelerating the timeline for curing the world’s most devastating diseases. Come witness how going beyond human imagination might be the key to unlocking the world’s most anticipated medical breakthroughs.

A Health & Medicine Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

Organizer: Robert Lee Kilpatrick 

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