Learn about the forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their 50-year sisterhood, a legacy unknown—until now.

At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other’s chosen family. She was the first Black company ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends—founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells.

These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found.

Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again—to share their story with the world.

Join us for a lively discussion revealing the glamour and grit of professional ballet, a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship—and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.

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

This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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An innovative investigation of the five strange worlds that worship women’s chests.

After years of biopsies, sociologist and bestselling author Sarah Thornton made the difficult decision to have a double mastectomy. But, after her reconstructive surgery, she was perplexed: What had she lost? And gained? An experienced sleuth, she resolved to venture behind the scenes to uncover the social and cultural significance of breasts.

Join us in person or online as Thornton talks with Michael Lewis and draws on what she learned from latest book, which excavates the diverse truths of mammary glands from the strip club to the operating room, from the nation’s oldest human milk bank to the fit rooms of bra designers. Thornton has insights from plastic surgeons, lactation consultants, body-positive witches, lingerie models, and “free the nipple” activists to explore the status of breasts as emblems of femininity. She examines how women’s chests have become a billion-dollar business, as well as a stage for debates about race, class, gender and desire.

Blending sociology, reportage, and personal narrative with refreshing optimism and wit, Thornton has one overriding ambition―to liberate breasts from what she says are centuries of patriarchal prejudice.

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Ready for an adventure into the “bare stuff of reality”?

Join us for a special online program when theoretical physicist Sean Carroll returns to the Club on the occasion of the publication of his new book Quanta and Fields, the second book of his internationally acclaimed series The Biggest Ideas in the Universe. Quantum field theory is how modern physics describes nature at its most profound level. Starting with the basics of quantum mechanics itself, Carroll explains measurement and entanglement before explaining how the world is really made of fields.

Why is matter solid? Why is there antimatter? Where do the sizes of atoms come from? And why are the predictions of quantum field theory so spectacularly successful? Carroll explains fundamental ideas like spin, symmetry, Feynman diagrams, and the Higgs mechanism are explained.

Sean Carroll is creating a new approach to sharing physics with a broad audience, one that goes beyond analogies to show how physicists really think. He cuts to the bare mathematical essence of our most profound theories, explaining every step in a uniquely accessible way.

In association with Wonderfest.

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Can you imagine an America where housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor are not only attainable by all but guaranteed, by our government, for everyone? But isn’t this pie-in-the-sky thinking? Not by a long shot, according to Natalie Foster, co-founder of the Economic Security Project. She says our current economic system is chock full of government-backed guarantees, from bailouts to bankruptcy protection, to keep the private sector in business. So why can’t the same be true for the rest of us?

Her vision for a new American Guarantee is rooted in real-life experiences, collaborations with some of today’s most important activists and visionaries, and a concrete sense of the policies that are possible—and ready to implement—in 21st-century America.

Natalie Foster joins with Dr. Darrick Hamilton, economics professor at The New School for Social Research, to discuss shifting the debate about our shared economic system.

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Who is the American working class? Do they still have a fair shot at the American Dream? What do they think about their chances to secure the hallmarks of a middle-class life?

Newsweek’s Batya Ungar-Sargon visited states across the nation to speak with members of the American working-class fighting tooth and nail to survive. In her new book Second Class, working-class Americans of all races, political orientations, and occupations share their stories—cleaning ladies, health care aides, police officers, truck drivers, fast food workers, electricians, and more. In their own words, these working-class Americans told Ungar-Sargon the struggles and triumphs of their increasingly precarious lives, as well as what policies they think would improve them. Ungar-Sargon’s reporting and research on America’s emergent class divide reveals people for whom the most basic elements of a secure and stable life are increasingly out of reach for those without a college education.

She says America has broken its contract with its laboring class. So, how do we get back to the American Dream? How do we once again become the land of opportunity, the promised land where hard work and commitment to family are enough to protect you from poverty? Ungar-Sargon says all it would take is for those in power to once again respect the dignity of work—and the American worker.

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At age 9, Nalleli Cobo, suffering headaches, heart palpitations, nosebleeds, and body spasms, became an activist, driven to fighting to close the local oil well responsible for her ailments. In 2022, at age 20, she won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her work shutting down toxic wells throughout the Los Angeles region. The same year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law prohibiting such neighborhood wells. Then Big Oil bankrolled a referendum on the matter for the November 2024 ballot, putting the restrictions Cobo fought so hard for on hold. 

Also in California, State Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against five of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, along with the lobbying organization American Petroleum Institute, for willfully misleading the public about climate change. This week we explore two methods of challenging fossil fuels: in the courts and on the ballot.

Guests:

Nalleli Cobo, Cofounder, People Not Pozos

Rob Bonta, California Attorney General

It's time for our annual spring appeal! At Climate One, we believe in the power of open conversations to drive positive change. Through our thought-provoking discussions and interviews, we strive not only to raise awareness of climate issues and solutions, but to also empower individuals — like each of our valued listeners — to take tangible steps toward a more sustainable future. 

You can show your support for Climate One by contributing to our spring fundraising campaign.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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“The will of the people,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1801, “is the only legitimate foundation of any government.” But that foundation is crumbling.

Join us as journalist Ari Berman describes what he calls a decades-long effort by reactionary white conservatives to undermine democracy and entrench their power―and the movement to stop them.

The mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, represented an extreme form of the central danger facing American democracy today: a blatant disregard for the will of the majority. But this crisis didn’t begin or end with Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Through voter suppression, election subversion, gerrymandering, dark money, the takeover of the courts, and the whitewashing of history, Berman says reactionary white conservatives have strategically entrenched power in the face of a massive demographic and political shift. He has followed these efforts, chronicling how a wide range of antidemocratic tactics interact with profound structural inequalities in institutions like the Electoral College, the Senate, and the Supreme Court to threaten the survival of representative government in America.

Some counter-majoritarian measures were deliberately built into the Constitution, but Berman says they have metastasized to a degree that the Founding Fathers could never have anticipated, undermining the very notion of “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Don’t miss his talk on the long history of the conflict between white supremacy and multiracial democracy that has reached a fever pitch today―while also telling the inspiring story of resistance to these regressive efforts.

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Plastics are everywhere. And while we’ve known for a long time that plastics and our environment aren’t a good mix, it's becoming apparent that they’re massive climate polluters too. The production of plastics alone produces about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. After what is often a single use, the resulting waste continues releasing the greenhouse gasses ethylene and methane as it breaks apart. 

Yet, as petrochemical companies pay lip service ending fuel production, they are pouring resources into plastics production. How do we wrap up our reliance on plastics?

Guests: 

Diane Wilson, Founder and Director, San Antonio Bay Waterkeeper

Jane Patton, U.S. Fossil Economy Campaign Manager, Center for International Environmental Law 

Susannah Scott, Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara 

Alexis Jackson, Ocean Policy and Plastics Lead, California Chapter, The Nature Conservancy 

It's time for our annual spring appeal! At Climate One, we believe in the power of open conversations to drive positive change. Through our thought-provoking discussions and interviews, we strive not only to raise awareness of climate issues and solutions, but to also empower individuals — like each of our valued listeners — to take tangible steps toward a more sustainable future. 

You can show your support for Climate One by contributing to our spring fundraising campaign.

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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As usual with Week to Week, our panelists will discuss the latest political developments in an informed, civil (and fun) manner.

See other upcoming Week to Week political roundtables, as well as audio and video of past Week to Week programs.

This program contains EXPLICIT content.

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The Philippines has traditionally been seen as a gateway to Southeast Asia and a strong ally of the United States in the Pacific. The country’s natural beauty and endowment have attracted many to its shores but have brought opportunities and challenges to the nation as well.

Learn about its continued march toward economic development and as an archipelagic nation in a sea of warring interests, as we engage Philippine Consul General in San Francisco Neil Ferrer in a discussion.

MLF ORGANIZER: Kalidip Choudhury

An Asia-Pacific Affairs Member-led Forum program. Forums and chapters at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

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