Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Irregular sleep schedules, smoking cigarettes, skipping meals, procrastination: common bad habits and vices can seem nearly impossible to break. “Quick fixes” to ending unhealthy cycles are rarely backed by scientific evidence, making the process of retraining your brain more difficult and frustrating. Neuroscientist Russell Poldrack, however, conjectures that the brain is a habit-building machine, and to curb unwanted behaviors, we must use evidence-based strategies to build healthy habits. In his new book Hard to Break, Poldrack offers an explanation of how habits are built in the brain, why they are so hard to break, and how evidence-based strategies might help us curb bad behaviors.

Russell Poldrack is a professor of psychology at Stanford University whose research has focused on learning and memory, neuroinformatics and data sharing, and decision-making processes. He has gained recognition from the American Psychological Association and the Organization for Human Brain Mapping for his stellar research in the field. In his new book, Poldrack reveals how we can make the changes we desire, and why we should have greater empathy with ourselves and others who struggle to do so.

Join us as Russell Poldrack gives us scientific tools for curbing bad habits and living a healthier lifestyle

SPEAKERS

Dr. Russell Poldrack

Ph.D., Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology, Stanford University; Author, Hard to Break: Why Our Brains Make Habits Stick

In Conversation with Dr. Daniel Levitin

Founding Dean of Arts and Humanities, Minerva Schools at the Keck Graduate Institute; Author, Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives

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 13th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Join us for a timely conversation with Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne on how the pandemic has catalyzed change in higher education and how universities can help define new ways of working together to solve our great challenges.

The pandemic has magnified our social and economic challenges. As we move into a post-COVID world, President Tessier-Lavigne believes that universities can further apply the foundational knowledge within their walls to make greater and more effective contributions beyond them. He contends that higher education can amplify its contributions across many fields, at the same time as universities champion fundamental research, increase access for students from all backgrounds, and reinforce the importance of a broad liberal education.

Pioneering neuroscientist, biotechnology entrepreneur and academic leader, Marc Tessier-Lavigne became Stanford University’s 11th president in 2016. At Stanford, he has championed a model for a purposeful university that accelerates the application of knowledge to tackle the world’s great problems, and anchors research and education in ethics and civic responsibility.

SPEAKERS

Marc Tessier-Lavigne

Ph.D., President, Stanford University

In Conversation with Mary Cranston

Retired Partner and Former Chair, Pillsbury Law Firm; Past Trustee, Stanford University; Past Chair, 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 May 12th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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The economic opportunities available to citizens in rural America have become an issue of increasing national interest and focus. Since the 2016 presidential election, policymakers and politicians from across the political spectrum have tried to understand the unique economic and workforce needs of rural communities and workers at this critical time in American history.

Throughout the pandemic, many rural areas have seen an influx of urban residents in search of cheaper real estate and new ways of remote working. Recent federal legislation to address the economic fallout from the pandemic has also focused on directing new resources to rural areas. In short, there is, perhaps, a once-in--a-generation opportunity to address some of the gaps that exist between rural America and metropolitan areas. How will rural America seize this moment, and what do leaders and policymakers need to understand about rural America at this important time?

This discussion will focus on what policymakers, philanthropists and politicians must get right at this moment to aggressively implement innovative solutions to help build geographically inclusive growth that includes rural areas. This includes addressing key issues around high-speed internet access and other digital solutions, identifying emerging growth industries in rural areas, and training the workforce of tomorrow for these opportunities. We will hear directly from the head of a foundation committed to this work, the leader of a national nonprofit that has received major media attention for focusing on closing the rural opportunity gap, and a California congressman who, despite representing Silicon Valley in Washington, is dedicated to addressing rural economic issues.

Please join us for a critical conversation about how rural areas can grow innovation economies for the 21st Century.

SPEAKERS

Matt Dunne

Founder and Executive Director, Center on Rural Innovation

Katy Knight

President and Executive Director, Siegel Family Endowment

Ro Khanna

U.S. Representative (D-CA 17)

Ray Suarez

Co-host, “WorldAffairs” Radio Program and Podcast; Washington Reporter, Euronews

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 14th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Dr. Keynoush, who earned her Ph.D. from Tufts University, has conducted research in the Near East for 2 decades. She has contributed to the Commonwealth Club's Member-led Middle East Forum, as has Jonathan Curiel, today's moderator, a journalist and author. They will talk about about her latest book, Iran's Interregional Dynamics in the Near East, about how Iran was less successful in expanding regional influence than assumed, why opportunities to engage with Iran have been squandered, Pope Francis' recent visit to Iraq and his meeting with Iranian-born cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and the complex relations between Iran and other states in the Near East, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and others.

MLF ORGANIZER: Celia Menczel

SPEAKERS

Banafsheh Keynoush

Ph.D., International Law and Diplomacy; Author, Saudi Arabia and Iran: Friends or Foes

Jonathan Curiel

Journalist; Author—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 May 6th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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This is your Commonwealth Club week in review. Hear what you missed this week, and what we’ve got lined up for you next week.

We’re always adding new programs - check out commonwealthclub.org/online for all of our upcoming events.

If you haven’t already - please consider becoming a member of the Club. Enjoy exclusive discounts and access to special programs all while knowing your contributions directly support our many public programs and civic initiatives.

Visit commonwealthclub.org/special, for special rates on memberships.

Thanks for your support and as always - thanks for listening!

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Corporations and their boards are under great pressure these days. Scandals and malpractice at companies like Theranos, WeWork, and Uber have raised questions among regulators, shareholders and the public about the quality of corporate governance. Renowned global economist and veteran board director Dambisa Moyo argues that corporations need boards that are more transparent, more knowledgeable, more diverse and more deeply involved in setting the strategic course of the companies they lead.

Come hear Dr. Moyo's insights on corporate ethics and necessary steps to insure that companies benefit employees, shareholders, and society at large.

SPEAKERS

Dambisa Moyo

Global Economist; Contributor, The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times; One of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World; Author, How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World

In Conversation with Jonathan Rosenberg

Former Senior Vice President, Google; Manager Adviser, Alphabet; Twitter @jjrosenberg

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 12th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Food processing isn’t listed on the nutrition facts food label. The label tells you what’s in the food. Critics say this is mostly irrelevant—what you really need to know is what’s been done to the food, and no label tells you that. In this program, Dr. Robert Lustig will expllain nutrition and food science. He says that essentially, all you need to know are two precepts, six words total: 1) protect the liver, 2) feed the gut. Those foods that satisfy both precepts he deems to be healthy; those that do neither are poison, and those that do one or the other are bad (but less bad)—no matter what the USDA and FDA allow to be stated on the package. Only items that meet both of Lustig's criteria qualify as real food—i.e., that hasn’t been stripped of its beneficial properties and sprinkled with toxins that will hasten our demise.

Dr. Robert H. Lustig is professor emeritus of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. He specializes in the field of neuroendocrinology, with an emphasis on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. His research and clinical practice has focused on childhood obesity and diabetes. Lustig holds a Bachelor’s in Science from MIT, a Doctorate in Medicine from Cornell University Medical College, and a Master’s of Studies in Law from U.C. Hastings College of the Law. Lustig has fostered a global discussion of metabolic health and nutrition, exposing some of the leading myths that underlie the current pandemic of diet-related disease. He believes the food business, by pushing processed food loaded with sugar, has hacked our bodies and minds to pursue pleasure instead of happiness; fostering today’s epidemics of addiction and depression. Yet by focusing on real food, he says we can beat the odds against sugar, processed food, obesity and disease.

MLF ORGANIZER

Patty James

NOTES

MLF: Health & Medicine

SPEAKERS

Robert H. Lustig

M.D., M.S.L., Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology, University of California, San Francisco; Author, Metabolical

Patty James

M.S., N.C. Nutritionist; Chef; Author—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 May 11th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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What motivates the activists? Grassroots activism can take many forms, from protests to letter-writing to citizen science to community organizing. But these often more local forms of activism can get short shrift compared to the more powerful, national players in climate and environmental movements.

Nick Mullins, a former fifth-generation coal miner, grew up seeing multiple generations of his family endure hardships created by our nation’s demand for cheap coal. In search of decent pay, he became a miner himself – but he eventually left the industry in search of justice for his mountain communities. 

James Coleman started his career as a teenage climate activist before becoming the youngest elected public official in California in over 100 years. San Francisco activist Marie Harrison fought against environmental contamination of her community by the U.S. Navy and a fossil-fuel-burning power plant – and now her daughter, Arieann Harrison, has picked up her mantle to continue pushing for environmental justice.  

Mullins, Coleman, and dozens of activists featured in Audrea Lim’s book The World We Need, Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movement represent just a fraction of those motivated to take action on climate. 

“The thing about grassroots activism, actually, apart from the stereotype is that it’s really just people in a community who see a problem and then they get together on their own and try to find a solution to it,” says Audrea Lim.

What can grassroots activists do that national organizations can’t? And what can their stories and experiences teach us?

Guests:

Nick Mullins, former fifth-generation coal miner, blogger, Thoughts of a Coal Miner

Audrea Lim, Journalist & Editor, The World We Need, Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movement

James Coleman, City Councilor, South San Francisco

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Cycles are hard to break. Once you get into the habit of eating badly, not exercising, or procrastinating, finding purpose and success can seem like an insurmountable goal. No matter how many books you read, podcasts you listen to, or YouTube how-to videos you watch, you're still not where you want to be. But maybe there’s still hope. Award-winning Wharton professor and "Choiceology" podcast host Katy Milkman understands the blockages she says are preventing you from making change. She has spent her career studying behavior change, and she offers a new strategy for breaking bad habits to make personal change.

In her new book How to Change, Milkman suggests new solutions for getting where you want to be. Backed by case studies, personal narratives and innovative research, Milkman encourages readers to focus on timing, turn temptation into assets, and give others advice to help people achieve more and meet success. Turning an uphill battle into a downhill one is the key to success, and Katy Milkman is here to show how it can be done.

Join us as Katy Milkman offers an indispensable, research-based approach for designing your life and achieving your goals, once and for all.

SPEAKERS

Katy Milkman

James G. Dinan Professor, The Wharton School; Author, How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

In Conversation with Charles Duhigg

Contributor, The New Yorker; Author, Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity

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 11th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Join us for an in-depth dialogue about race relations and turning words into action.

Our panelists will explore changing the narratives about critical issues in the deeper layers of race relations. What does "stand together” mean and what are some of the roadblocks? How can communities preach beyond the choir and impact interactions in our daily lives?

This timely deep-dive discussion promises to be thought provoking—don’t miss it.

NOTES

Presented in association with the APA Heritage Foundation.

SPEAKERS

Alicia Garza

Principal, Black Futures Lab; Strategy & Partnerships Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance; Co-creator, #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network; Co-founder, Supermajority; Twitter @AliciaGarza

Hala Hijazi

Commissioner, San Francisco Human Rights Commission; Member, Board of Directors, San Francisco Interfaith Council; Co-director, Truman National Security Project San Francisco Chapter

Jon Osaki

Executive Director, Japanese Community Youth Council; Filmmaker, Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066

Dr. Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran

Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, CSU East Bay; Executive Director, Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce

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 6th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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