Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

This week's in-studio guest: A.C. Thompson A.C. Thompson is a staff reporter with ProPublica. His stories, which often examine the criminal justice system, have helped lead to the exoneration of two innocent San Francisco men sentenced to life in prison and the prosecution of seven New Orleans police officers. In addition to working as a print and web journalist, Thompson has reported extensively for television, serving as a producer and correspondent for the PBS documentary series "Frontline." His life was fictionalized on the HBO show “Treme.” We'll discuss his latest documentary, Documenting Hate: Charlottesville Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready.

Human brains are not wired to spring into action in response to long-term and slow-moving threats such as rising seas. Even among climate concerns, it ranks pretty low. But the reality of permanent change along the shoreline is starting to slowly sink in. Recent studies indicate that vulnerability to changing tides is starting to be reflected in property markets around the country. Cities are grappling now with how to build roads, airports and other infrastructure for a very uncertain future. San Francisco’s November ballot includes a $425 million bond measure that is a down payment on fortifying the seawall that prevents much of downtown from slipping into the Bay. How will the seawall project affect people living and working downtown? How will it impact property taxes citywide? How fast and how high will the tides rise? No one knows for sure but every new forecast tends to be faster and higher than scientists predicted just a few years ago.

In a time so divided, it can be hard to find connections that can bring us together. Ironically, it’s our differences—the intrinsic uniqueness of individuals—that have the greatest capacity to unite us. The “PBS NewsHour” weekly segment “Brief But Spectacular,” created by Steve Goldbloom, tells the unique stories of individuals from all walks of life. These stories give us the opportunity to go beyond ideology and politics and focus on the aspects of life that impact us all. Join Goldbloom and two of Brief’s most popular guests as they explore authenticity and empathy in a curated, polarized world. You’ll see Flossie Lewis’ take on growing old with grace as well as author and poet Mahogany Browne’s powerful delivery of her poem “Black Girl Magic.” After, Browne, Goldbloom and Lewis will all share the stage with Lauren Schiller and provide us with insight on how to impact the lives of those around us. Note: This Podcast contains explicit language.

Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, wildfires, volcanoes … Lucy Jones is one of world’s most renowned experts on natural disasters and the actions that can be taken to reduce their harmful effects. As the founder of the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society, and armed with a doctorate in geophysics from MIT, Jones seeks to increase communities’ ability to adapt and be resilient to the dynamic changes of the world around them. Focused on building resilience to whatever the Earth throws at our communities, Jones will offer insights to the disasters we've survived and those we've seen unfold, whether close to home in the form of wildfires or in the form of distant tsunamis that have a global impact. Come for a fascinating conversation that could ultimately save your life.

What’s the connection between climate change and national security? “Military commanders don't operate on the basis of fiction,” says Leon Panetta, who served as Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA under President Obama. “Understanding climate change and what was happening had to be part and parcel of our effort to protect our security.” The military has long seen climate as critical to readiness, as Rear Admiral David Titley (Ret) explains. “If you’re directly connecting renewable energy to increasing our combat effectiveness,” explains Titley, “the military is all in.”

This event is the latest in our member-led forums’ Crisis in Our Country summer series. While our government continues to stumble clumsily, or just gives up, trying to get its own political professionals to converse with each other productively, the Delancey Street Foundation manages to run several successful businesses with ex-felons, prostitutes and substance abusers as its employees. The Foundation that Dr. Karl Menninger called “the best and most successful rehabilitation program I have studied in the world” was started in 1971 with just a few residents. Now located in NY, MA, NM, NC, SC and Los Angeles, and headquartered here in San Francisco, Delancey Street is a residential educational community providing academic, vocational and social skills, and the discipline, values and attitudes its residents need to live in society legitimately and successfully—and drug, crime and alcohol free. Silbert herself lives in Delancey Street, and raised her children there, where everyone functions as an extended family. Although the 20,000 graduates were often violent gang members, or hardcore dope fiends, who were functionally illiterate and had never worked at even an unskilled job for more than three months, Silbert believed they could become their own solution to their problems. Delancey Street’s approach is to develop strengths rather than focus on problems. With no staff and no government funding, these graduates and current residents have not only turned their own lives around, but have built the entire organization. Note: This program contains explicit language.

Greg Gutfeld is a New York Times best-selling author, satirist, humorist, magazine editor and blogger known for his provocative opinions. He is the host of “The Greg Gutfeld Show” and co-host of “The Five” on Fox News. Prior to joining Fox, Gutfeld was editor of Men’s Health magazine. He later became editor of Stuff, helmed Maxim magazine in the United Kingdom and was a contributor to The Huffington Post. Gutfeld also grew up in the Bay Area and attended UC Berkeley. Come for a lively, no-holds-barred conversation where Gutfeld will reference his new book, The Gutfeld Monologues, and discuss what he terms “the insanity of politics over the last several years.”

This week's guest: historian Martin Duberman Award-winning historian and author Martin B. Duberman is on the faculty of CUNY's Lehman College, where he was also the founding director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author of many books, including Waiting to Land: A (Mostly) Political Memoir, 1985–2008, The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein, Stonewall, and About Time: Exploring the Gay Past. Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready.

It’s become increasingly and painfully obvious to farmers in California that climate change means more than just rising temperatures. Evermore erratic weather patterns fuel longer droughts, bigger floods and even more frequent wildfires. As we slowly come to terms with the consequences to our rural communities, food supply, local economy and the environment, forward-thinking farmers are learning to both adapt as well as fight back. Hear from the frontlines of an emergent climate-smart farming movement: soil scientists, family farmers and policy advocates all working to promote practices that prove more resilient in the face of these climatic changes. While global monopolies try to sell newfangled, patented quick fixes to the problem of feeding a growing population in the age of climate change, these grassroots efforts are proving effective with a more natural, holistic and egalitarian approach: building up the organic matter in soils, cover cropping, mindfully integrating crops and livestock, planting hedgerows, using compost, and applying rotational grazing. Not only does this dynamic suite of practices retain water better, endure temperature fluctuations and offer more resilient environments when disaster does strike, but together they can also sequester carbon back into the ground, reversing the trend that led us to the problem in the first place. While there are no easy solutions, these climate resilience champions—often overshadowed by other, more visible players in the fight against climate change—are working hard to reshape our agricultural system for long-term sustainability and regeneration. From ecology and policy to practical on-farm techniques, come learn how the land that feeds us—with a little help from education and policy reform, city slickers, and country folk alike—can help save our planet too. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Cathy Curtis NOTES MLF: Food Matters; Business & Leadership In partnership with the Community Alliance for Family Farmers (CAFF)

There is a lot of misinformation thrown around these days, especially online. Headlines tell us to do this, not that, with the hope that we will live longer and better, become thinner, and look younger. In Hype, Nina Shapiro distinguishes between falsehoods and the evidence-backed truth. Shapiro has more than twenty years of experience in both clinical and academic medicine. In her work at Harvard and UCLA, she helps patients make important health decisions every day. She brings those lessons to life in her book with a blend of science and personal stories to discuss her dramatic new definition of “a healthy life.” Shapiro will discuss Hype and the popular misconceptions found in the media. Come for a discussion on topics such as exercise and supplements, diets and detoxes, alternative medicine and vaccines, and medical testing and media coverage. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Bill Grant NOTES MLF: Health & Medicine