Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Congresswoman Barbara Lee has spent 20 years representing Oakland and the East Bay in Congress. First elected as U.S. representative for California’s 9th (now 13th) congressional district in 1998, she has enjoyed a storied career, including stints within the California State Assembly and State Senate. Throughout her career, Lee has advocated for LGBTQ rights, minority rights, women's rights and an end to the cycle of poverty. Most notably, she was the lone vote against the war on terror, which was lauded by the anti-war community. Today, she serves on the House Appropriations Committee and the House Committee on the Budget, and she previously served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Richard Caro will describe the Longevity Explorers’ most recent explorations. The explorers are a unique sharing, evaluation and ideation community made up of older adults (in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s) and their friends, families and caregivers. The presentation will include promising products the explorers have tried, ideas the explorers have been discussing related to improving the quality of life for older adults and some ideas for products we wish someone would develop. The Longevity Explorers program is an initiative enabled by Tech-enhanced Life. MLF Organizer Name John Milford Notes MLF: Grownups

What do you want in 2019? Is the curtain about to rise on your second act? Are you working on a big idea? Do you want to pivot in your career? Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it,” but you will need a plan and a pitch to communicate your ideas and inspire people. In this presentation, Kristi Royse shares steps for making your vision a reality and tips to build the skills to communicate that vision. You'll end the talk with the start of your own strategic plan and techniques for crafting your elevator pitch.

With technology, the economy and the world moving so fast, Eric Garcetti, the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles, California's largest city, will discuss Washington’s inability to prepare Americans for the future. Garcetti, who is considering a presidential run, argues that while Washington sows division—urban versus rural, coastal versus heartland, immigrant versus native citizen—the real division in this country is between Washington and the rest of us. Garcetti is the chief executive of a government that serves 4 million people and also oversees the nation’s largest municipal utility and seaport as well as one of the nation’s busiest airports. Garcetti is also a leader among his peers, serving as chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ infrastructure task force and as co-chair of the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, which organized 407 Climate Mayors, representing 70 million Americans, to commit to the goals of the Paris Agreement after President Trump’s withdrawal from the accord. He is the advisory council chair of Accelerator for America, a nonprofit that identifies and supports local initiatives that create opportunity so they can be replicated city by city, nationwide. Under his watch, Los Angeles has created a record number of jobs, and Garcetti has worked to expand immediate and future opportunity by leading and signing into law an increase of Los Angeles’ minimum wage to $15 by 2020, cutting Los Angeles’ business tax, and making two years of community college free. He also led the nation's largest anti-homeless and affordable housing initiatives and spearheaded the passage of the nation's largest local infrastructure plan—the $120 billion Measure M. Los Angeles was named America’s top digital city in 2016 and 2017 by the Center for Digital Government and, this year, the Bloomberg Foundation selected Los Angeles as the only city to receive its top gold certification for excellence in city governance. Garcetti's government service began on the Los Angeles City Council, where he spent four terms as council president before being elected mayor in 2013 and re-elected in 2017 with a record-breaking 81 percent of the vote. Garcetti was an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve and is an avid jazz pianist and photographer.

When Christiana Figueres was herding 196 countries into the historic Paris climate accord, she tapped a secret source of personal sustainability. After the pact was finished, she told a reporter in Davos, Switzerland that the teachings of Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh “literally fell into my lap” when she was going through a deep personal crisis. “This has been a six-year marathon with no rest in between,” she told The Huffington Post. “I just really needed something to buttress me, and I don’t think that I would have had the inner stamina, the depth of optimism, the depth of commitment, the depth of the inspiration if I had not been accompanied by the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.” In conversation with Greg Dalton and recorded for the Climate One podcast and radio show, Figueres will reflect on how mindfulness contributed to realizing the Paris climate accord. Notes This program is generously underwritten by the Susie Tompkins Buell Foundation

Today’s movement against marginalization is fueled by an unequivocal desire for the system to recognize and incorporate identity. However, identity politics has caused deep fragmentations in American society that are predicated on the belief that one group’s inclusion means the other’s exclusion. In his new book, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and The Politics of Resentment, Francis Fukuyama, best-selling author and renowned political scientist, addresses the issues of identity politics. Fukuyama argues that our connection to personal identities has disconnected us from universal understandings of human dignity. He agrees that identity is fundamentally democratic and is indeed a pillar of fledgling democracies. However, narrow identities can pit groups against one another and manipulate people’s ability to recognize or seek out mutually inclusive solutions. Fukuyama is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has written a number of successful works on developmental and international politics. Come listen to him deliver a provocative examination of identity and its connection to democracy.

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. Are leaders born or made? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin draws upon her research of four U.S. presidents—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson—to show how they first recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized by others as leaders. Goodwin explains how no common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Set apart in background, abilities and temperament, these four men shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships.

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Miriam Pawel's panoramic history of California, from the Gold Rush to Silicon Valley, is told through the lens of the Brown family political dynasty. When Governor Jerry Brown finishes his fourth term at the end of 2018, he will have served as both the youngest and the oldest governor of California. His father, Pat Brown, served two terms starting in 1959. Almost half of the state's modern history has happened under a Governor Brown. As Pawel weaves a narrative that is essential to understanding California and the way it has shaped our nation, she brings to life four generations of the Brown family. Pawel also offers correctives for those who confuse stereotypes and legends for history. She opens new vistas for readers only vaguely familiar with the state habitually viewed from afar with a mix of envy, awe, disdain and fascination.

MLF ORGANIZER NAME

George Hammond

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

In association with the California Historical Society

Richard Caro will describe the Longevity Explorers’ most recent explorations. The explorers are a unique sharing, evaluation and ideation community made up of older adults (in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s) and their friends, families and caregivers. The presentation will include promising products the explorers have tried, ideas the explorers have been discussing related to improving the quality of life for older adults and some ideas for products we wish someone would develop. The Longevity Explorers program is an initiative enabled by Tech-enhanced Life.

MLF Organizer Name

John Milford

Notes

MLF: Grownups

The Business & Leadership member-led forum is pleased to launch a new series highlighting the use of tech for good. This inaugural panel will focus on how social sector companies and nonprofit organizations are using innovations in data analytics, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), to foster social engagement. The conversation will spotlight how we can use technology to measure and assess program outcomes and impact. Panelists will also look at underlying constituent values and culture in areas such as education, criminal justice and employee engagement. Audience members will be given the opportunity to receive an overview of their philanthropic personalities, and a data-driven donation will be made on behalf of the audience cohort’s collective social impact values—a way to see social impact in action. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Elizabeth Carney NOTES MLF: Business & Leadership