Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Don’t miss this rare chance—right here in the Bay Area—to hear directly from Ukrainian heroes at the forefront of rebuilding their nation while under attack. Go beyond the headlines to truly understand how life in Ukraine changed after the brutal and unrelenting Russian invasion that began almost two years ago. Discover how the whole-of-nation response has unfolded: driving back Russian forces while steeling national resolve and overcoming the war’s destruction.

Join us for personal insight as we host a distinguished Ukrainian delegation of parliament members, governing officials, civic leaders and cultural heritage experts. Hear the mayor of Irpin’s experience of devastating attacks as retaliation for halting Russia’s advance on Kyiv. Learn about Kharkiv, a city just 20 miles from the Russian border, where its citizens are rebuilding while on the frontlines of entrenched war in eastern Ukraine. Discover the inspiring story of Dobrobat, a volunteer builders’ brigade, leading the civil response to rapid response repair. Our resilient and inspiring guests will share their experiences and strategies for mending and rebuilding physical infrastructure, entire communities and cultural heritage vital to national identity.

Stick around after the program to mingle with the community and enjoy delicious local cuisine from Leleka, a San Francisco-based family-run restaurant serving Ukrainian food with a modern twist.

Co-presented by the Center for Innovation.

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American institutions of higher education have long been the targets of critical books from the right, arguing they have betrayed their fundamental educational role. Now from the left comes a book that takes the author's own institution, the University of California, Berkeley, to task for what he says is its culpability in some of the cruelest chapters of U.S. history.

UC Berkeley, popularly known as Cal, is famous worldwide as a hotbed of left-wing activism and academics. But Tony Platt, who has taught at Berkeley as well as Cal State, Sacramento, says that UC Berkeley hasn't owned up to its roots in "plunder, warfare, and the promotion of white supremacy." He takes it to task for involvement in the eugenics movement, hoarding of Indigenous remains, and its "complicity with the military-industrial complex and its incubation of unprecedented violence through the Manhattan Project." 

In this era in which many institutions, educational and otherwise, are reckoning with their histories, join us as Dr. Tony Platt talks with Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Cal's law school, about his call for the institution to deal honestly with its controversial past.

MLF ORGANIZER: George Hammond

A Humanities Member-led Forum program. Forums 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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While the United States officially denounces prejudice based on race and gender, it has fostered the growth of another form of prejudice: class and income discrimination. Through state-sponsored government policies, millions of working-class Americans have opportunities blocked by exclusionary "snob zoning," making housing unaffordable, frustrating the goals of the Civil Rights Movement, and locking in inequality in our urban and suburban landscapes.

Through poignant accounts of families caught in the web of new redlining, Richard Kahlenberg, in his new book Excluded, brings to life the human consequences of these policies, revealing how economic segregation extends its tendrils into every aspect of life. Access to transportation, employment opportunities, health care, and quality education hang in the balance, disproportionately favoring the affluent.

Kahlenberg will explain the hidden mechanisms that perpetuate America's housing crisis, underscoring the profound impact of where one lives. He'll shed light on a shocking paradox—that the most restrictive zoning flourishes in politically liberal cities, where progressive racial views should hold sway.

It's a compelling indictment of America's housing policy, revealing the intricate web of social engineering that perpetuates segregation by economic class. Join us in unlocking the hidden truths behind America's housing crisis as Kahlenberg explains our problems and offers hope for change. 

NOTES

This program has 2 types of tickets available: In-person and online-only. Please pre-register to receive a link to the live-stream event.

If you have symptoms of illness (coughing, fever, etc.), we ask that you either stay home or wear a mask. Our front desk has complimentary masks for members and guests who would like one.

The Commonwealth Club of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming.

All in-person attendees will receive a copy of Excluded compliments of the Ken & Jaclyn Broad Family Fund.

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We often talk about a “just transition” from dirty to clean energy as if the term means the same thing to everyone. Indigenous people have seen their resources extracted and exploited to further the wealth of others for centuries. Now renewable energy is looking to expand to Indigenous land.

How can renewable energy help Tribes leapfrog the twentieth century technologies that put them at the end of the line for corporate-controlled electricity? How can we, as Chéri Smith, Founder of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy, says, “make sure that Tribes are not only having a seat at the table, but they're building the table and inviting everyone else to it?”

Guests:

Chéri Smith, President & CEO, Founder at Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy

Steven Wadsworth, Vice Chairman, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe

Raylene Whitford, Founder, Canative Energy

Maui Solomon, Executive Chairman, Moriaori Imi Settlement Trust

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

This episode was produced in collaboration with On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez, featuring Suarez as a guest host. Additionally, Sarah Howard provides field reporting.

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On November 8, 1623, just seven years after Shakespeare’s death, his plays were collected and published in what is now known as The First Folio. It is surmised that half his plays might have been lost if the First Folio had not been created when it was, and Humanities West is celebrating not losing that much literary gold with a 400th anniversary program on Shakespeare’s cultural contributions.

Roland Greene will speak on "The First Folio as Cultural Engine." If the Folio had not been published, we would have been left without several famous plays, but also without many other cultural influences that still resonate centuries later. Shakespeare’s plays continue to have such a strong effect on our world today that it is hard to imagine our culture without them. But imagine that; Professor Greene will.

Kip Cranna will speak on "Shakespeare in Song: Operas Inspired by the Bard." Shakespeare has been the source of more operas than any other writer. Generations of composers have brought his dramas to musical life in fascinating ways in a vast variety of styles. Cranna will explore some of these intriguing page-to-stage transformations using video examples (with subtitles) that will take you on a brief literary tour of Shakespearean operas. To quote the Bard, “If music be the food of love, sing on till I am fill'd with joy!”

A Humanities Member-led Forum program. Forums 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.

In association with Humanities West and the Stanford Humanities Center.

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It's the beginning of the season of caucuses and primaries, as we get ready to pick our next president. And that's just one of the many things we'll be tracking all year, starting with this kickoff program.

As usual with Week to Week, our panelists will discuss the latest political developments in an informed, civil (and fun) manner. And come early before the program for our social hour for some wine and light bites and an opportunity to talk with other Club members and friends.

Join us for a whole new year of lively political discussion at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California.

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

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The Ku Klux Klan rose from the ashes of the Civil War. At its peak in the early 1870s, the Klan had tens of thousands of members, many of them landowners, lawmen, doctors, journalists, and churchmen, as well as future governors and congressmen. The Klan’s mission was to obliterate the democratic power of newly emancipated Black Americans and their white allies, often by the most horrific means imaginable.

To repel the tidal wave of violence, President Ulysses S. Grant waged a two-term battle against both armed Southern enemies of Reconstruction and Northern politicians seduced by visions of postwar reconciliation. In his new book Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction, historian Fergus Bordewich transports us to the hamlets of the former Confederate States and to the marble corridors of Congress, where an unsung generation of Black leaders tried to hold onto Reconstruction-era political gains, and where senators such as Carl Schurz from Missouri, and the ruthless former slave trader and Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest, worked to eliminate the rights of Black Americans in the name of political “reform.”

Join us for a special online-only program as Bordewich shares the  stunning history of the first national anti-terrorist campaign waged on American soil, as Ulysses S. Grant wielded the power of the federal government to dismantle the KKK. It is also a bracing reminder of the bloody, Reconstruction-era roots of current battles to protect the ballot box and to undercut resurgent white supremacist ideologies.

A Humanities Member-led Forum program. Forums 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.

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

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Drawing on her personal journey from economic hardships to financial prosperity, Arlan Hamilton shares her conviction that wealth is not just about affluence, but more important, it's about options. The freedom to chase dreams, take bold leaps, and transform one's life trajectory.

Arlan Hamilton has defied the odds, garnering respect and recognition for her entrepreneurial spirit and financial acumen. In her new book, Your First Million, Hamilton provides an insightful guide for those aspiring to chart a similar path. She provides actionable strategies for achieving entrepreneurial success and emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurs reinvesting in their neighborhoods. She passionately believes by altering the landscape of decision-makers and innovators, we can not only better individual lives but also usher in societal change on a grand scale.

Join us as Arlan Hamilton, a source of inspiration to many in the world of entrepreneurship, shares her invaluable insights on achieving financial empowerment and catalyzing change—and maybe discover how you, too, can forge a legacy of prosperity and impact.

See more  Michelle Meow Show programs at The Commonwealth Club of California.

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What we wear defines us in so many ways. But in recent decades we’ve moved away from long-lasting, quality pieces in favor of disposable fast fashion, with major consequences for our climate and environment. From mechanized farming and pesticides to grow fiber crops, to energy for manufacturing and transportation, fossil fuels are embedded in the clothing industry at every step of the process.

Companies large and small are working against this trend, with some setting lofty goals for reducing carbon emissions and water use. But achieving those goals is hard. So what are the solutions? Buy less? Design new fibers and materials? Thrifting and repurposing existing clothing? New business models? How can we make low-impact clothing?

Guests: 

Aja Barber, Author, “Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change and Consumerism”

Jason Kibbey, President and Founder, Worldly

Molly Morse, CEO, Mango Materials

Jonathan Chapman, Professor, Carnegie Mellon University School of Design

For show notes and related links, visit our website.

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In the famous photograph taken of the balcony of Memphis's Lorraine Motel just moments after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., one man is kneeling down beside King, trying to staunch the blood from his fatal head wound with a borrowed towel. That man, Marrell McCollough, was a representative of the Invaders, an activist group that was in talks with King in the days leading up to the murder. But he was also an undercover Memphis police officer reporting on the activities of the Invaders, which was thought to be possibly dangerous and potentially violent.

When Seletzky found out that her father had been secretly working for the white power structure as a spy, it was so far from her understanding of what it meant to be Black in America, of everything she eventually devoted her life and career to, that she set out to learn what she could about her father’s life, his actions and his motivations. But with that decision came risks. What would she uncover about her father, who went on to a career at the CIA, and did she want to bear the weight of knowing?

Join us for this intimate and heartbreaking story of a Black undercover police officer who witnessed the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a daughter's quest for the truth about her father. 

MLF ORGANIZER: George Hammond

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

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

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