Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

David Bacon has spent his life as a union organizer and activist focused on issues related to labor, immigration and international politics. In his landmark work of photojournalism, In the Fields of the North/En los campos del norte, he combines haunting photographs with the voices of migrant farmworkers, documenting the experiences of some of the hardest-working and most disenfranchised laborers in the country: the farmworkers responsible for making California "America's breadbasket.” José Padilla will add to Bacon’s account of abuse, which also includes sexual abuse, in the labor contractor work system. He will comment on California Rural Legal Assistance’s (CRLA) role in fighting and winning against an almost feudal labor system in America’s fields. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Norma Walden NOTES MLF: International Relations

How can owners of coastal property prepare for rising seas? The coastline has been in the same place for basically all of human civilization, and that’s now changing in very unpredictable and unsettling ways. Oceans will rise faster than in the past, but no one can say how fast that will happen or what’s the best strategy for protecting trillions of dollars in waterfront real estate. A week before Hurricane Sandy slammed into New York and New Jersey, John Englander published a book, High Tide on Main Street, predicting such a disaster. A resident of Florida, he is now a consultant to countries and cities on how to build cities that can withstand severe weather changes. Will Travis is a national expert on balancing environmental and economic priorities along the San Francisco Bay and was a top California policy official for nearly 17 years. Kiran Jain is the former chief resilience officer of Oakland and now is an executive at a startup that connects investors with municipal infrastructure projects. Join us for a conversation about envisioning, creating and paying for a new way of life by the water. This event was recorded in-front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on November 15th, 2017.

Two of five Californians live in poverty or just above the poverty line. A staggering three out of four couldn't weather an emergency expense of $700 or more. In these tough economic times, progressive entrepreneur Joe Sanberg hopes to create a future where everyone who works can afford life’s basic needs. This is why Sanberg has been the leading advocate for a California state earned income tax credit (CalEITC), a cash back tax refund that works in tandem with the federal EITC to ensure that all who work are able to afford life's basic needs. After successfully advocating for the state-level credit to be adopted, Sanberg created the grassroots campaign CalEITC4Me to connect working Californians to $2 billion of state and federal credits since 2015. Last spring, his organization won a massive expansion of the credit so that three times more families—1.7 million—will be eligible to earn the credit. Sanberg is also co-founder of Aspiration.com, a socially conscious online financial firm that puts people and the planet first. In his advocacy and entrepreneurial pursuits, Sanberg focuses on keeping the dignity of the human experience central. Join an uplifting and time-sensitive conversation with Sanberg about how we advance public policies that address California’s economic crisis. This event was recorded in-front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on January 10th, 2018.

Join INFORUM as we screen three of the films vying for a 2018 Oscar nomination for best documentary (short subject) from The New York Times’ Op-Docs. The screenings will be followed by a panel featuring several of the filmmakers, moderated by a New York Times culture reporter. In "116 Cameras," filmmaker Davina Pardo introduces us to a Holocaust survivor who takes part in an innovative new attempt to preserve survivors’ stories in holographic form for future generations. In "Alone," filmmaker Garrett Bradley explores the dilemma of a single mother deciding whether or not to marry her jailed boyfriend. In "Ten Meter Tower," by filmmakers Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson, fear of jumping off a 10-meter diving tower is pitted against the personal loss that would arise if you didn't dare. What do we look like when we hesitate and when we make a decision? What does it look like when we overcome our fears? Kathleen Lingo is commissioning editor of Opinion Video and executive producer of Op-Docs. Since joining Op-Docs in 2013, the series has published over 200 short films and virtual reality and interactive documentaries, two of which were nominated for Oscars (“4.1 Miles” in 2017 and “Our Curse” in 2015). Op-Docs films have also received seven Emmy nominations, earned two Emmys (“A Short History of the Highrise” in 2014 and “Notes on Blindness” in 2015) and won two Peabodys (“Highrise” in 2014 and “Notes on Blindness” in 2015). She began her career in documentary film working at Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions. She went on to work on nonfiction projects such as “The IFC Media Project”; the HBO documentary El Espiritu de la Salsa, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010; and WNYC’s “The Takeaway." Filmmakers Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck collaborate under the banner of Plattform Produktion in Gothenburg, Sweden. Together, Van Aertryck and Danielson direct and produce both feature-length documentaries and short films. Their short films have premiered in the official competitions of Berlin, Cannes, Sundance and Toronto, earning several awards. Their recent short film, “Ten Meter Tower,” has been seen by millions through The New York Times' website. Their films aim to have a critical and humorous approach and are distinguished by their minimalistic style as well as theme-based rather than plot-driven narratives. Davina Pardo is documentary director and producer based in New York City. She recently produced Very Semi-Serious, an HBO documentary about New Yorker cartoonists, which received a 2015 Emmy for outstanding arts and culture programming. Her award-winning documentary shorts include “Minka” and “Birdlings Two,” and her work has been supported by the Tribeca Film Institute, IFP's documentary lab and Independent Film Week, and the Sundance Institute. Pardo previously worked as David Cronenberg’s assistant and associate produced the Academy Award-winning documentary Freeheld. Garrett Bradley (b. 1986) was born and raised in New York City. She received an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in film and a bachelor’s from Smith College in philosophy. Bradley’s first professional work began in high school as a concert photographer, during which her work was published in Rolling Stone, Vibe and The New Yorker. Bradley’s debut feature-length film, Below Dreams, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014. The film followed the lives of three people making their way back to New Orleans in search of a better life. A recipient of 2017 Sundance/Cinereach art of nonfiction fellowship, Bradley has been honored with fellowships from Art Matters, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Warhol Foundation. Bradley has received numerous prizes—most recently the 2017 Sundance jury prize for the short film Alone, released in February 2017 with The New York Times’ Op-Docs. NOTES In association with The New York Times

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of nine resettlement agencies in the United States. They currently resettle 15 percent of all refugees who come to the United States each year—totaling 2,800 just in Northern California in the past year. Karen Ferguson will discuss the Trump administration's perspective on refugees, the work the IRC is doing in Northern California and how they expect that work to change. She will inform the audience about the resettlement process and which refugee populations we see most often in the Bay Area. The discussion will also include refugee success stories as well as false rumors about one of the world’s most vulnerable populations. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Karen Keefer NOTES MLF: International Relations In association with Northern California Peace Corps Association This program was recorded in front of a live audience at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on January 9th, 2018.

What do concussions, cigarettes and climate have in common? A common narrative. When tobacco companies started facing public scrutiny about the link between cancer and smoking, the industry launched a campaign questioning the scientific evidence. One executive famously wrote, “Doubt is our product.” New evidence shows ExxonMobil and other companies used the same playbook to confuse the public about the link between burning fossil fuels and rising temperatures and seas. Confronted with new evidence linking repeated head trauma and brain disease, the NFL is now going down a similar path. Some of the arguments are strikingly similar—the science is unclear, more research is needed, the industry is doing everything it can to solve the problem and protect people. Join us for a conversation with experts involved in some of the most compelling tobacco, oil and football narratives of our times.

Sifting through the Trump administration’s misleading statements on climate change can be a daunting task. That’s where scientist Bill Nye comes in. The Science Guy is on a quest to set the record straight when it comes to anti-scientific thinking and climate denial. A new documentary, Bill Nye: Science Guy, chronicles the beloved children’s show host as he pivots into the role of one of the country’s leading scientific voices. The film is directed by Jason Sussberg, who takes viewers on an intimate, behind-the-scenes journey as Nye confronts climate change deniers and those who don't believe in science-based facts. Join us for a conversation about Nye's new documentary, climate science and planet Earth.

Zero is the new hundred. Designing and operating a home that generates as much energy as it uses used to be a theoretical concept. Now it’s becoming a reality. Some homes are also catching as much water as they use. Pricey? Sure. But not as pricey as you might think. We’ll discuss real homes that are exploring the boundaries of efficient living without reducing comfort. San Francisco aims to produce zero waste by 2020. Is that really possible in a city with a booming economy and growing population? The city is ahead of the curve but policy, culture and psychology need to come together to reach the finish line. Other cities and universities are joining in and shaping the habits of big institutions and future generations.

from Daniel Ellsberg: The Doomsday Machine held on December 12, 2017 In 1971, young defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg took on the Nixon administration, risking his career and freedom to leak the Pentagon Papers and show the world that the U.S. government had lied repeatedly about winning the war in Vietnam. Since then, Ellsberg has been a tireless activist for freedom of the press, whistleblowers’ rights and government accountability. Now, for the first time, Ellsberg is sharing his findings from his most ambitious project yet, The Doomsday Machine—a stunning insider’s tale of the American nuclear regime in the 1960s. Ellsberg will reveal the terrifying truth behind the American Cold War defense strategy, from the disturbingly large number of people with the ability to initiate a nuclear strike to the shocking plans developed by the Eisenhower administration for all-out nuclear war. Ellsberg will also discuss his fears that the Trump administration’s current policies will plunge the world’s great powers back into a costly arms race with the potential for global annihilation. Ellsberg is an award-winning defense analyst, author, speaker and activist. A Harvard-educated nuclear strategist and former Department of Defense policy expert, Ellsberg gained national attention when he leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, creating a scandal for the U.S. military and greatly discrediting those who advocated for continuing the Vietnam War. Ellsberg is also a co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Join Ellsberg for an important conversation about truth and deception, military excesses, and the very survival of the human race. This event was recorded in-front of a live audience on December 12th, 2017 at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

The Seventh Annual Lundberg Institute Lecture focuses on how the U.S. health-care industry became big business. It is now by far the most expensive in the world, with prices for drugs, procedures and hospitalizations many times that of those in other developed countries—and generally without better care or results. Its evolution over the last three decades moved it from a caring endeavor to a financially driven system. Elisabeth Rosenthal will trace how commercial forces and interests insinuated themselves, step by step, so no one protested much. But we now live in a system where medical machinery comes with brochures on how to recoup return on investment (ROI), and ambulance companies as well as dialysis units are owned by venture capital firms. Still, while explaining ways to push back, Rosenthal's ultimate message is one of optimism and hope. MLF ORGANIZER NAME George Hammond NOTES MLF: Humanities In association with The Lundberg Institute