Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement. Over its 90 years, the California Book Awards have honored the writers who have come to define California to the world. Among them are John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, MFK Fisher, Thom Gunn, Richard Rodriquez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joan Didion, Ishmael Reed, and Amy Tan. Recent award winners include Hector Tobar, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Susan Orlean, Rachel Kushner, Rachel Khong, Tommy Orange, Morgan Parker and Steph Cha.

This year’s winners include:

GOLD MEDALSFICTION

A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel Mason, Little, Brown and Company 

FIRST FICTION

How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang, Riverhead Books

NONFICTION

South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, Alice L. Baumgartner, Basic Books

JUVENILE

Efrén Divided, Ernesto Cisneros, Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

YOUNG ADULT

Private Lessons, Cynthia Salaysay, Candlewick Press

POETRY

Quiet Orient Riot, Nathalie Khankan, Omnidawn 

CALIFORNIANA

California Exposures: Envisioning Myth and History, Richard White, with photos by Jesse Amble White, W.W. Norton & Company 

CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING

A Natural History of the Anza-Borrego Region, Marie Simovich and Mike Wells, Sunbelt Publications

SILVER MEDALSFICTION

Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu, Pantheon/Vintage

NONFICTION

Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream, Conor Dougherty, Penguin Press

YOUNG ADULT

The Black Kids, Christina Hammonds Reed, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

SPEAKERS

Julia Flynn Siler

Juror, California Book Awards—Moderator

Peter Fish

Jury Chair, California Book Awards—Moderator

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 16th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Courtney E. Martin is an author, organizer and entrepreneur known for provocative writing and for helping found important content-based organizations that help tell the story of America's diverse future. She is the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers Bureau, and often works with organizations—TED, the Aspen Institute, The Obama Foundation, and The Sundance Institute—on how to make impactful, story-rich social change.

Her newest book, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School, explores her own story about finding the right school for her daughter in Oakland. While many of the white families in her gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school near her home, she chose differently. Moving beyond hashtags and yard signs as a way to make a difference, Courtney discovered that her local public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, was a powerful place to dig deeper to change the country, herself and her family.

Martin examines her own fears, assumptions and conversations with other parents as they navigate choosing what school is right for their child. The book provides a vivid portrait of integration’s virtues and complexities, and yes, the palpable joy of trying to live differently in a country re-making itself around racial issues.

Please join us for an important conversation on education, integration and how the schools we choose for our kids can shape the world we live in and the world we want.

** Note: This Podcast Contains Explicit Language **

SPEAKERS

Courtney Martin

Co-founder, Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers Bureau; Editor, "Examined Family" Newsletter; Author, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School

Ashley McBride

Education Equity Reporter, The Oaklandside--Moderator

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via live stream video conference on August 3rd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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On Thursday morning, July 25, 2019, then-President Donald Trump made a congratulatory phone call to Ukraine’s newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the months that followed, the true nature of that conversation would be revealed to the American public due to the moral stance of one man: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Faced with a moment of truth for his nation, Vindman felt duty-bound to report it up the chain of command that the president of the United States had extorted a foreign ally to damage a political challenger at home. Now, for the first time, Alexander Vindman is telling his story of how he ended up at the center of a firestorm for his decision to report the infamous phone call that led to the presidential impeachment.

As an immigrant raised by a father who fled the Soviet Union in pursuit of a better life for his children, Vindman had to learn how to build a life from scratch and take big risks to achieve important goals. In his new book, Here, Right Matters, he discusses how, in the face of sure-fire career derailment and intense public scrutiny, he put it all on the line to protect American democracy.

Join us for Alexander Vindman’s passionate and candid account of his family, his career and his exposure of what he considered a grave abuse of power.

SPEAKERS

Alexander Vindman

Former Director for European Affairs, United States National Security Council; Author, Here, Right Matters: An American Story

In Conversation with Tim Miller

Writer-at-Large, The Bulwark; Political Analyst, MSNBC; Twitter @Timodc

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 10th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Liz Cheney serves as Wyoming’s lone member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was first elected in 2016, on a platform of restoring America’s strength and power in the world, and pursuing conservative solutions to create jobs, cut taxes and regulation as well as expand America’s energy, mining and agriculture industries.

She made national headlines earlier this year when she voted to impeach President Trump, saying he "provoked" the January 6 Capitol attack. She has also vowed to fight to keep President Trump out of office if he runs again and has challenged all assertions by Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was fraudulent and stolen. This led to her removal as chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. She was also recently appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. In a Washington Postopinion column published this past May, Rep. Cheney wrote, “the Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution. . . .History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be."

Join us for a rare in-person and online conversation with congresswoman Cheney about the outlook for American democracy.

This program is part of The Commonwealth Club’s Future of Democracy Series, supported by Betsy and Roy Eisenhardt.

 

SPEAKERS

Liz Cheney

U.S. Congressional Representative (R-Wyoming)

In Conversation with Dan Ashley

Anchor, ABC 7 News, San Francisco Bay Area; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 17th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Established in 1981, the Council for National Policy has been the leading organization for wealthy, conservative decision makers to consolidate their power. This little-known coalition of elites is the strategic nerve center for fundraising money and mobilizing voters behind the scenes. Critics say that with its membership private and meetings held at an undisclosed location, the Council for National Policy has successfully made game plans and decisions steering the Republican Party in a process virtually unknown to the public. Award-winning author and media analyst Anne Nelson, however, is looking to demystify the elaborate organization.

In her new book Shadow Network, Nelson uncovers the key fundamentalists, oligarchs and allies that comprise the powerhouse of the Council for National Policy. She reveals stories about the Koch brothers, radical right-wing organizations, the decline of local journalism, the race for digital engagement, and the fight over the information war. As a research scholar at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, Nelson has focused her work on the role of digital media in aiding underserved populations through health, education and culture. Now, in a time of stark and growing threats to our most valued institutions and democratic freedoms, Nelson looks to illuminate the clouded history behind the political coalition.

Join us as Anne Nelson uncovers the conservative process that plays a significant role in shaping political outcomes today.

SPEAKERS

Anne Nelson

Journalist, Author, Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right

In Conversation with Kirk Hanson

Senior Fellow and Former Executive Director, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on May 26th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Join us for a conversation between Jeffrey Kluger and astronaut Nicole Stott about Kluger's new novel Holdout, which tells the story of a principled astronaut who has to make a spilt-second decision to try to seek justice in the only place she knows how—the International Space Station. Watch life meet art, as Stott brings her experience to bear on Kluger's imagination.

Kluger's plot centers around Walli Beckwith, a model astronaut who graduated at the top of her class from the Naval Academy, had a successful career flying fighter jets, and has spent more than 300 days in space. So when she refuses to leave her post aboard the International Space Station following an accident that forces her fellow astronauts to evacuate, her American and Russian colleagues are mystified. For Walli, her decision is all too clear and terrifying to worry about ruining her career. She is stuck in a race against time to save a part of the world that has been forgotten, plus the life of the person she loves most. She will go to any length necessary, using the only tool she has, to accomplish what she knows is right.

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

NOTES

MLF: Humanities

SPEAKERS

Jeffrey Kluger

Editor at Large, Time Magazine; Emmy Award-Winner, "A Year in Space" Web Series; Film Consultant and Actor, Apollo 13; Author, Holdout

In Conversation with Nicole Stott

NASA Astronaut, Including more than 100 days Aboard the International Space Station; Aquanaut; Founder, Space for Art Foundation

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 5th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Jeremy Lent returns to The Commonwealth Club to discuss the ideas in his new book, which weaves together the latest scientific findings with age-old philosophical insights to show how some of our most ingrained beliefs about human nature and the world are mistaken.

Who am I? Why am I? How should I live? These are some of the oldest questions humans have grappled with. Our modern, high-tech society, having grown up in Darwins' shadow, assumes that humans are hardwired for selfishness, that we are separate from nature and so can exploit it, that we do best when left alone to pursue our own individual goals.

Lent argues that the latest scientific research begs to differ, and that those ingrained but faulty beliefs—which got started in the 17th century and have since been updated with ideas like the “selfish gene”—underlie the environmental and social unraveling now threatening our very survival. Lent not only challenges outmoded beliefs, he also invites us to consider a new way of thinking about ourselves and the world that is both intellectually sound and spiritually vibrant. He weaves together the latest research in neuroscience and evolutionary biology with Buddhist, Taoist, and Indigenous wisdom, and shows how these seemingly disparate streams of thought are not only eminently compatible, but are the key to facing the existential problems of the 21st century.

SPEAKERS

Jeremy Lent

Founder and President, The Liology Institute; Author, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

In Conversation with George Hammond

Author, Conversations With Socrates

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on July 14th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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The Atlantic's Adam Serwer's unique approach to writing—combining political analysis of current events with a strong grasp of the historical antecedents that made those events possible—made him an indispensable writer during the Trump years, particularly for those who disagreed with the politics and approach to governance taken by the 45th president of the United States. Serwer coined the phase "the cruelty is the point" to describe how the Trump administration had made cruelty not merely an unfortunate byproduct of its efforts but the central theme of the MAGA approach toward governance and American civic life.

Serwer's new book—a collection of new and old essays—explores the the Trump presidency, the volatile powers it harnessed, and the continuing impact it has on the country's politics and the Republican Party. With his unique approach, Serwer chronicles the Trump administration not as an aberration but as an outgrowth of the inequalities the United States was founded on. He charts he ideological and structural currents behind Trump’s rise and why he remains so potent today.

The new essays and previously published works in this book explore white nationalism, myths about migration, the political power of police unions, and the many faces of anti-Semitism. For all the issues he examines, cruelty is the glue, the binding agent of a movement fueled by fear and exclusion. Serwer argues that rather than pretending these four years didn’t happen or dismissing them as a brief moment of madness, we must face what made them possible.

Please join us for an important conversation on the legacy of the Trump administration and why Serwer believes we must continue to understand its role in American political life.

SPEAKERS

Adam Serwer

Staff Writer, The Atlantic; Author, The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present and Future of Trump's America

In Conversation with Errin Haines

Editor at Large, Founding Mother, The 19th; Contributor, MSNBC

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on July 20th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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As we approach the 20th anniversary of 9/11, what is the lasting influence of Osama bin Laden? CNN national security analyst and New America Vice President for Global Studies Peter Bergen has been called the world's leading expert on bin Laden. In his new book, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, Bergen provides the first reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America’s long wars with al-Qaeda and its descendants, capturing bin Laden in all the dimensions of his life: as a family man, as a zealot, as a battlefield commander, as a terrorist leader, and as a fugitive.

Thanks to exclusive interviews with family members and associates, and documents unearthed only recently, Bergen’s portrait of bin Laden reveals for the first time who he really was and why he continues to inspire a new generation of jihadists.

Join a fascinating conversation about the man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century and whose ideological heirs the U.S. continues to battle today.

SPEAKERS

Peter Bergen

Journalist; Documentary Producer; CNN National Security Analyst; Vice president for Global studies & Fellow, New America; Author, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden

In Conversation with Brian Fishman

Director, Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organizations, Facebook; Former Researcher, New America; Former Director of Research, Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 9th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Worldwide attention turned to India recently following widespread reports about the devastating toll the COVID-19 pandemic was taking there. Join us for a discussion of India, COVID-19, and how the transgender community mobilized globally to save lives. 

Our special guest are with Parivar: Celebrating 3 years of ParivarBayArea, the only trans-led South Asian queer trans organization in America. Learn of the struggles, erasure faced by South Asian Queer Trans intersectionality and in continuing to build critical programming, including COVID relief efforts globally. 

SPEAKERS

Rachana Mudraboyina

Chair, #SITAL (SaveIndianTransALLINDIALives) Project; Director, Human Rights Law Network

Anjali Rimi

Founder and President, Parivar Bay Area

Devesh Radhakrishnan

Member, Parivar's Advisory Committee; Facilitator, Roobaroo

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW/KPIX and Podcast; Member, The Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Co-host

John Zipperer

Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club of California—Co-host

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 5th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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