Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

The Cook Islands is a 15-island nation in the South Pacific, with political links to New Zealand. The islands were first settled around A.D. 1000 by Polynesian people who are thought to have migrated from Tahiti. Prime Minister Henry Puna assumed office in 2010 and previously served as secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Transport. Prime Minister Puna has led the establishment of the world's largest multipurpose marine reserve, Marae Moana, hailed as a major step forward for marine conservation. Additionally, on January 1, the Cook Islands will become the first South Pacific island nation to officially achieve developed nation status. It was under Prime Minister Puna's premiership that the Cook Islands became, in November 2011, a founding member of the Polynesian Leaders Group, a regional grouping intended to cooperate on a variety of issues, including culture and language, education, responses to climate change, and trade and investment. Come for a rare behind-the-scenes look at this island nation. * In association with World Affairs

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Do you ever sense that authentic connections have gone missing in your life? Do you feel sometimes as though your unique identity has been swept away by the tides of work and family? Do you hear the call to effect positive change in the world but can’t find a place to start? You are not alone. Just shy of her 50th birthday, former advertising agency CEO Anne Devereux-Mills lost her health to cancer, her last child to college and her job to the recession. Stripped of everything that had comprised her self worth, she set out on a path to rediscover her identity and recreate her life. Realizing that she was missing relationships that were based on what she cared about as a person rather than what she did for a living, Devereux-Mills started a series of salons in 2012 that would gather together diverse groups of women based on topics they all cared about. She called the series Parlay House, and as the gatherings grew and expanded in cities across the world, she saw that they triggered a series of micro-actions among the participants. The result was a cascading wave of connection, support and strength that flowed out from the gatherings and into the wider world. She dubbed that cascade “the Parlay effect.” In her forthcoming book, The Parlay Effect: How Female Connection Can Change the World, Devereux-Mills tells the story of Parlay House and uses her insights as its founder to show how small actions can result in a meaningful boost in self-awareness, confidence and vision. Woven through the book are the findings of research that Devereux-Mills conducted in collaboration with Dr. Serena Chen, a tenured professor of social psychology at UC Berkeley who investigated the social science behind the Parlay effect. The result is a book that offers a vision and a method for anyone who is going through a life transition and who wants to find and create communities that have positive and multiplying effects. Please join Anne Devereux-Mills and The Commonwealth Club at the start of a new year to learn about and experience the Parlay effect for yourself. Devereux-Mills will be joined in conversation by comedian and storyteller Dhaya Lakshminarayanan. ** This Podcast Contains Explicit Language **

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Whether we are actively working toward change or we just want to chat with our family and friends, we all need tools to stay centered and calm during these stressful times. How can we be effective, compassionate changemakers—and even find joy and meaning—as we deal with our stress and the negativity in our environment? Our speaker, James Baraz, is a co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, has taught Bill Gates, and was himself taught by Joseph Goldstein and Ram Dass. For decades, he's been showing people how to lead change through the "joyful responsibility" of commitment, love and effective action. He is coming to the Club to teach us how to reawaken our joy and avoid becoming overwhelmed and rendered ineffective by outrage, anxiety or despair. "Action absorbs anxiety," so come to the Club to learn how to lead change effectively, from the heart. MLF Organizer: Shiva Berman MLF: Personal Growth

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The renewing energy of art helps to manage the stress of negative events. There is overwhelming research that contemplation, observing and taking in beauty stimulate the brain and create a sense of well-being. In these turbulent times, art can be a vehicle not only for fulfillment but to encourage and expand consciousness through conversation and connection. The panel participants represent a spectrum of viewpoints of nonprofit, artistic and psychotherapeutic perspectives. Each of the panel members will share unique views during the discussion of artistic creativity and consciousness. MLF Organizer: Robert Melton MLF: Arts

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It's our second annual year-end program and party, celebrating the completion of another year of Michelle Meow and LGBTQ programming at the Club. We'll have food and drink, a short program, and lots of good cheer. Joining us as our special guest is Robyn Crawford. In her New York Times bestselling book, A Song for You, Crawford opens up for the first time about her close friendship with superstar Whitney Houston. Whitney Houston was a super-big superstar since she burst on the music scene in the mid-1980s. For two decades she topped the charts and drew millions of fans, and one person was there by her side through it all—her best friend, assistant, and confidante, Robyn Crawford. Join us for an in-depth discussion about that friendship, an exploration of Robyn's own life and family, and the legacy of Whitney Houston. ** This Podcast Contains Explicit Language **

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Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig is a celebrated academic and activist for constitutional theory and reform. A longtime advocate for campaign finance reform, Lessig founded political funding tracker MapLight, Creative Commons and the anti-corruption nonprofit Rootstrikers. With partisan gridlock in Congress, the Supreme Court has emerged in recent times as a new power center in Washington, D.C. But what are the consequences of this change? In his newest book, Fidelity & Constraint: How the Supreme Court Has Read the American Constitution, Lessig explains how our understanding of the U.S. Constitution has changed with each era of judicial interpretation. Lessig argues that with each era of Constitutional translation, the role of our judges has evolved. Join us for an enlightening conversation with Lessig as he teaches us about an often missed but critically important issue.

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It is often said that "reentry begins on the first day of incarceration," but how can we ensure that people leave prison prepared to succeed in the free world? This conversation between Marc Morjé Howard and Stephanie McGencey will highlight recommendations from the Reentry Ready Project, which focuses on the tremendous benefits of education and positive programming for incarcerated people so that they can develop self-worth and critical reasoning skills; the program also focuses on making carceral facilities safer for both residents and staff. Howard will share examples from the innovative and groundbreaking Georgetown programs in Washington, D.C. McGencey will describe efforts planned to improve reentry outcomes nationwide. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

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