Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Monday Night Philosophy follows award-winning author Adam Hochschild deep into the three crucial years in the 1930s when the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world. Volunteers rushed to help Spain’s democratically elected government fight off an uprising by right-wing army officers heavily backed by Hitler and Mussolini. Adam Hochschild brings alive a group of men and women who lived through this painful and dramatic period: a few are familiar figures like Hemingway and Orwell; others, until now, have been completely unknown.

In his new book Smarter, Faster, Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg presents eight key points that illustrate the reasons that some people and some companies are more productive than others. Coupling statistics from neuroscience and psychology coupled with real-world stories from CEOs, FBI agents and airplane pilots, Duhigg explains how the most productive people and organizations view the world and their choices differently and how this ultimately influences their heightened levels of productivity. Join INFORUM for a thought-provoking discussion with Duhigg about the science of productivity and learn how you can be more productive and successful in your personal and professional lives.

Whether we have a good day or not depends partly on things we can’t control—perhaps there’s a crisis unfolding or our colleagues are cranky today. But behavioral science shows us that many things that seem “fixed” or “random” can be surprisingly strongly influenced by our own actions, once we understand just a little about how the brain works. Caroline Webb demonstrates how tiny tweaks to our daily routines can transform our experience of what happens around us, the number of hours in the day, our level of intelligence and even other people’s moods. With this kind of powerful insight in your back pocket, you can change your “luck” and put many more good days within reach.

Mr. Schwartzbach argues that true justice can only happen when we refuse to objectify a criminal defendant—whether it is Robert Blake, civil rights activist Stephen Bingham, transplant surgeon Hootan Roozrokh, or anyone else. Actor/writer Peter Coyote has written that Leaning on the Arc is a “fascinating book packed with great tales of injustice subverted by intelligence and passion.”

Midway through this century, there will be more than 9 billion people on the planet. Already we are using most of the arable land that exists and overfishing the oceans. Water, too, is becoming scarce in many places. And the services that humans depend upon—clean drinking water, steady energy supplies, and protection from disease—are under threat. Barnosky and Hadly believe that the grand challenge of the 21st century is to change the endgame from one that looks like a train wreck to one to a brighter future. They offer their solutions to our most pressing problems. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on May 4, 2016.

Dr. Zimbardo became well-known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment and has since authored various introductory psychology books, textbooks for college students, and other notable works, including The Lucifer Effect, The Time Paradox, and Shyness. He is also the founder and president of the Heroic Imagination Project.

From influencing our health-care decisions to helping to make our streets safer, big data has changed the way that our government and the private sector are tackling some of today’s most complicated social and economic issues. Join us in welcoming U.S. Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil to the INFORUM stage for a conversation about the benefits and controversies surrounding human-centered big data and how it affects us in our everyday lives.

Brilliant was the executive director of Google.org and chaired the Presidential Advisory Committee on Bio-Surveillance. He lived in India for more than 10 years working as a United Nations medical officer, where he played a key role in the success World Health Organization smallpox eradication program in South Asia. He also co-founded The Seva Foundation, an international NGO whose programs and grantees have given back sight to more than 3.5 million blind people in more than 20 countries.

Mendoza, a British politician and frequent contributor to international broadcast and print media, including Al Jazeera, is the founder of the Henry Jackson Society, a cross-party British think tank named after Senator Henry Jackson. Marray, is a British author, journalist. commentator and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and more. They will look to explain how recent changes in the region have led to a new Middle East—one that is more unstable and dangerous, and that threatens global security.

How can schools work with industry leaders to ensure relevant education and training programs? What specialized skills will be needed to plan and construct a world-class transit system? Which technologies will be critical in developing clean, efficient freight transportation systems that can compete at the regional, state and national levels? Focus will be on innovative technologies, including intelligent transportation systems, high-speed rail, wireless technologies, big data systems, smart freight networks, environmentally sustainable technologies, and others.