Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Their competing visions of social democracy and their pursuit of justice, peace and freedom led them to organizations sponsored by the governments of the Cold War powers: the Soviet-backed World Peace Council, the U.S.-supported Congress for Cultural Freedom and, after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the homegrown Casa de las Américas. Neither Peace Nor Freedom delves into the entwined histories of these organizations and the aspirations and dilemmas of intellectuals who participated in them, from Diego Rivera and Pablo Neruda to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges.

Young Africans are living in faraway regions of their own country, developing the kind of understanding of poverty that only comes from living it, and benefitting personally and professionally from the transformative experience of achieving successful development efforts.

Cindy also discusses her roles as a wife, mother and businesswoman and provides her unique take on issues like female empowerment, motherhood and aging. Join us in welcoming Cindy to the INFORUM stage for a candid discussion about her iconic career, her life after modeling and the lessons that she has learned along the way.

She describes this book as a first step in a comprehensive attempt to contrast Hadith with the Qur'an to uncover unjust practices concerning women and gender issues.

Mark Twain’s treatment of the clay-people episode in his re-writing of the Infancy Gospel, despite Twain’s habitual railing against “The Moral Sense,” is strictly moral. Twain asks: Shall human beings expect better treatment by the gods than mosquitoes can expect from humans? And he recognizes that the advent of a truly omnipotent child would, in reality, be a disaster for human society, and uses that to critique the theological commonplace that “apparent evils” are wrought by God for our own benefit, if we only could see.

We'll discuss the biggest (and some of the oddest) political news of the day with intelligence and wit, and you'll get to meet other interested and interesting people.

Chef, cooking instructor, and television host Joanne Weir has inspired legions of home cooks across the globe with her California-Mediterranean cuisine. In Kitchen Gypsy, the James Beard Award-winning author offers the recipes and lessons that have shaped her culinary career, including the 140-year-old lighting cake recipe handed down from her great-grandmother. The author of more than 20 cookbooks and the host of two popular PBS series, Chef Weir is the recipient of numerous awards, including the very first IACP Julia Child Cooking Teacher Award of Excellence and the 2005 James Beard Best Cookbook award for Weir Cooking in the City.

One reviewer of Lurie’s book observed, “Already I can hear the reader calling out to a friend across the room, ‘Wait, you’ve got to hear this!’”

David approaches his faith with the curiosity and dedication you would expect from a journalist accustomed to holding politicians and presidents accountable.

Weare’s lecture will highlight the key elements of his moral analysis and evaluation, including creation theology, integral ecology and the socio-political and economic realities constituent to the challenge of climate change.