Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Elisabeth Rosenthal will reveal the dark details of the American health-care system. Breaking down the monolithic business into its individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our health-care system, Rosenthal will divulge a history of American medicine that’s never been told before. She will also tell patients exactly how they can fight back. After 22 years as a correspondent at The New York Times (where she covered a variety of beats from health care to environment), Rosenthal joined Kaiser Health News last September. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School and briefly practiced medicine in a New York City emergency room before converting to journalism.

Technology has made our lives incomparably better, but it is also one of the greatest threats facing humankind. All of the marvelous gadgets we’ve invented are not only thoroughly reinventing us, but they are also doing it in ways in which we have no idea of their full impact. In short, we are undergoing a transformation that affects every aspect of our being—our brains, bodies, institutions and the entire world. Ian Mitroff, currently developing ideas for an upcoming book, will discuss these topics and more. According to Mitroff, we cannot continue to dump the latest technologies on the world without doing a better job of forecasting their negative and positive aspects; we need to do everything we can to mitigate potential negative impacts in order to avoid an immense backlash against technology. Mitroff is a professor emeritus at the University of Southern California where he was the Harold Quinton distinguished professor of business policy at the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He is currently a senior investigator for the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Management. He holds a bachelor's of science in engineering physics, a master's in structural engineering, and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and the philosophy of social systems science from the University of California, Berkeley. He has published 37 books and hundreds of articles and op-eds. He is a regular blogger for The Huffington Post. He lives in Oakland, CA, where he is president of Mitroff Crisis Management. He is generally regarded as one of the principal founders of the crisis management field. Gerald Harris leads the Club's science and technology member-led forum and has over 20 years experience as a strategy consultant for energy and high technology companies.

To the American public, Vicente Fox may be Mexico’s most well-known, modern politician. Prior to becoming president, he received a top management diploma from Harvard Business School and went on to become president of Coca-Cola for Mexico and Latin America. He has most recently made national headlines by telling President Trump that Mexico “will not pay for that [expletive] wall,” and continues to engage President Trump on social media. Fox was the first candidate from an opposition party to be elected president. Currently, he is actively involved in encouraging leadership and creating opportunities for less favored people through his organization Centro Fox. What are the realities and possibilities for the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico? Here’s a rare chance to get a unique perspective from one of Mexico’s most prominent and outspoken thought leaders.

The heart of Krista Tippett’s work on her NPR program and podcast, "On Being," has been to shine a light on people whose insights kindle in us a sense of wonder and courage. She interviews a variety of people, including scientists, poets, activists and theologians from an array of faiths who have all opened themselves up to Tippett's compassionate yet searching conversations. In her latest book, Becoming Wise, Tippett distills the insights she has gleaned from these luminous conversations into a master class about living. Join us for an enlightening discussion about her work and insights into her fiercely hopeful vision of humanity for this century.

David Callahan holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton and is the author of seven previous nonfiction books, including The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead and Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking America. Callahan’s latest investigation focuses on what he calls the secretive world of elite philanthropists—and how they're quietly wielding ever more power to shape American life in ways both good and bad. While media attention focuses on famous philanthropists, such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Charles Koch, Callahan says thousands of donors are at work below the radar promoting a wide range of causes, converting fortunes into influence, with deep impact on government policy. Emmett Carson, president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, now with $8 billion in assets, has become a major player in Bay Area and national philanthropy, especially for tech givers, and will give his perspective on the philanthropic world. Come hear about a power shift in American society that Callahan says has implications for us all. Labels:

Digital marketing is constantly evolving with incredible advancements in technology, partnerships, acquisitions and new strategic thinking. Ad-blocking, artificial intelligence, programmatic media buying, and big data are constant buzzwords we hear about the marketing landscape. Join this panel of experts across agency, publishing and technology as they discuss the biggest challenges and opportunities ahead for the next year. Mason Garrity has over eight years experience in digital marketing, originally getting hooked at Kayak.com in college. Leading 3Q Digital's consulting and strategy practices, he works with the Bay Area’s most innovative companies and achieves growth goals through performance marketing. Prior to 3Q, Garrity co-founded Noosphere Marketing, an online marketing firm in New York City and received a degree in economics from Pomona College. Nikesh Desai is the co-founder and CEO of InvestingChannel, an interactive media platform that aggregates independent financial news. Prior, Desai co-founded the consultancy Giant Step Strategies and served as VP of business development at TheStreet.com. Ming B. Wu is chief revenue officer of MightyHive. He's also worked as SolarCity's executive vice president of marketing and as president of Accuen. During the mid-2000s, he led Yahoo's $1 billion brand advertising business and managed their monetization organization across $1.7 billion in display advertising in North America, Asia-Pacific and emerging markets.

In his book, Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the Genius of Leadership, Strauss draws lessons from the experiences of history’s greatest generals. Strauss explains that a key component of these leaders’ successes was their ability to inspire loyalty from their troops. They did so by leading by example and, in turn, earned their soldiers’ trust and respect. In this program, Strauss will apply these lessons to today’s executives who strive to outperform competition and create an engaged, high-achieving workforce.

California has committed to getting one-half of its electricity from renewable sources by the year 2030. But clean energy advocates say the state could be more ambitious and shoot for 100% clean electricity. Still, not everyone agrees on how the existing energy grid can integrate new technologies, or whether getting to 100% is even technically possible yet. On today's program, we hear how smart technology and the "Internet of things" can be part of the solution, while making our lives greener, safer, and more convenient. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at the Commonwealth Club of California.

Sam Altman, 31, has been one of Silicon Valley’s brightest stars for years as a founder, investor and president of Y Combinator. But, more recently, Sam and Y Combinator have both been making headlines for their involvement in some of today’s most contentious political and social issues. Y Combinator’s new "basic income project," based in Oakland, will give 100 families a minimum wage with the goal of exploring alternatives to the existing social safety net. Sam has also been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration and has backed "track Trump," an online tool that monitors the promises President Trump delivers on, and those on which he comes up short. Y Combinator also recently welcomed the ACLU into their winter 2017 class and will help the ACLU turn its recent $24 million donation haul into concrete actions and organizational growth. Finally, Sam is in the beginning stages of a new project focused on finding a way to reduce housing costs through the creation of a smart city prototype. Sam was named president of Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s largest startup incubator, in 2014. Y Combinator’s portfolio includes heavyweights, such as Airbnb, Dropbox and Stripe. Sam began his tech career as CEO of Loopt, which was acquired in 2012 and was included in Y Combinator’s first round of funded companies in 2005. Sam is also a personal investor in several of today’s most successful startups, including Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Asana and Pinterest. Join INFORUM, Sam and moderator Nellie Bowles of Vice for an insightful and timely conversation about tech, politics and everything in between.

On the eve of the annual tax deadline, here’s a program that promises to provide ammunition for the next time you complain to elected officials about the hassles and inequities of the U.S. tax system. Noted journalist T.R. Reid points out the following: Last year, Americans spent more than 6 billion hours and $12 billion filing their taxes. In the Netherlands, the average filing time is 15 minutes; in Estonia, it takes 7 minutes. According to Reid, Congress has given its members various tax breaks and deductions that other Americans never receive. In Slovakia, by contrast, government representatives pay 5 percent more in tax. Reid goes on to say that U.S. billionaires can pay relatively very little tax—and sometimes no tax at all. France, Norway and Switzerland all have wealth taxes designed to reduce economic inequality. Historically, there have been total rewrites of the U.S. tax code every 32 years—in 1922, 1954 and 1986. This means the next rewrite is due in 2018, and Congress and President Trump will need to begin revamping the code this year. Can they write a new tax code that is both fair and simple? Can they cut tax rates and still bring in the revenue required? According to Reid, this can be done. In this program, he’ll detail exactly how America can rewrite the tax code, in this case learning from other democracies around the world.