Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Amid nationwide reckoning with racial justice and calls to reimagine policing in America's cities, Oakland has moved ahead with plans to change its public safety funding and performance.

The Defund OPD campaign was launched by the Anti Policy Terror Project five years ago. Join us for a discussion with two leaders in the effort to change the criminal justice system.

About the Speakers

Cat Brooks is an activist, performer, politician and speaker or who has served as the communications director for Coaching Corps, as executive director of Youth Together and executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. Brooks is the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) whose mission is to rapidly respond to and ultimately eradicate what it calls state violence in communities of color. With APTP, she shepherded the development of a “first responders” process, which provides resources and training for a rapid community-based response to police violence. She also helped negotiate the passage of AB392, AB 931 and SB 1421 and has organized with local housing advocates to bring Proposition 10 (Repeal Costa Hawkins) to the ballot in November. n late 2018, Cat was the runner up in the Oakland mayoral race. Brooks currently serves as the executive director of the Justice Teams Network, a network of grassroots activists providing rapid response and healing justice in response to all forms of state violence across California. In addition, she is touring her one-woman show, Tasha, about the in-custody murder of Natasha McKenna in the Fairfax County Jail. She lives in West Oakland with her daughter.

Born and raised in Natick, MA, James Burch grew up with the direct impacts of a punitive carceral system within his immediate family; all three of his siblings have been entangled in the criminal justice system for their entire lives. To address this, James became a lawyer after attending Yale University and Georgetown Law School. Upon moving to the Bay Area, James became an active member of the Anti Police-Terror Project, eventually becoming the director of policy and a member of the Black Leadership Team. Burch now works as the policy director for the Justice Teams Network (JTN), a statewide coalition working to end state violence in California. James is also the current president of the National Lawyers Guild of the Bay Area.

SPEAKERS

Cat Brooks

Activist; Politician; Performer

James Burch

Lawyer; Activist

Michelle Meow

Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show" on KBCW/KPIX TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow—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 April 29th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Elsalameen, a prominent activist, social media analyst, political commentator and public speaker will discuss Arab-Israeli progress toward Middle East peace with Jonathan Curiel, journalist and author. As a known critic of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and of Hamas, Elsalameen will also discuss how President Abbas's "reign has been marred by corruption," etc. (Elsalameen recently accused Fatah’s military wing of sending him death threats for his pro-democracy and anti-corruption work.)

Born in Hebron, Elsalameen is an adjunct senior fellow at the American Security Project, which was created to develop an American national security vision and strategy for the 21st century. He is also a successful businessman with working experience in the United States, the Middle East, and Africa, a graduate of Seeds of Peace and of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) program.

MLF ORGANIZER

Celia Menczel

NOTES

MLF: Middle East

SPEAKERS

Fadi Elsalameen

MS, International Relations and Economics, John Hopkins University (SAIS)

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 April 29th, 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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"I love, love, love this book! The true story of a true heroine for our times—bold, brash and entirely honest about the downs and ups of making dreams come true."

—Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit

Have you ever had a glimmer of an idea for a new company, project or product but were convinced you didn’t have the tools to get started? Ellen Marie Bennett, CEO of Hedley & Bennett, may have a concise but powerful piece of advice for you: “You got this! Dream first, details later.”

At 24, Bennett was a line cook at Providence, a two Michelin-starred Los Angeles restaurant. As she explored the culinary world and sharpened her skills, she also noticed the poorly designed aprons and shirts kitchen staff were required to wear. She decided to use her experience as a chef (in other words, not as a manufacturer but as a person who actually wore these uniforms) and leveraged this into a multi-million dollar apparel company. Her premium chef aprons and kitchen gear are worn by several of the best chefs and home cooks around the world.

Join Bennett at INFORUM and in conversation with author and Character Lab CEO Angela Duckworth, to learn how “fake it ‘till you make it” is actually a practical and effective business strategy, and how making your dreams a reality is as simple as just going for it.

 

Note: This program contains EXPLICIT language

SPEAKERS

Ellen Bennett

Founder and CEO, Hedley & Bennett; Author, Dream First, Details Later: How to Quit Overthinking and Make It Happen!

Angela Duckworth

Founder and CEO, Character Lab

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 April 28th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration. “Tough on crime” attitudes in the 1980s have shaped the policies that criminalize more people in the United States now than ever before. With this carceral approach, the United States must deal with consequences such as overcrowding, prison violence and unnecessary fiscal burdens. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has spent 30 years learning about America’s carceral system as a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer, and his goal is to transform the system from the inside out.

When he first launched his campaign for district attorney of Philadelphia, progressive Krasner seemed unlikely to win the seat so long-held by “tough on crime” attorneys who helped turn Philly into a city with one of the highest rates of incarceration in the country. But with perseverance to create a radical reform plan, Krasner won the DA election by a margin of nearly 50 percent. In his new book For the People, Krasner takes readers on his lifelong journey through election precincts and courtrooms all the way up to his swearing-in ceremony to see how what he calls our system of injustice was built and how we might dismantle it. ​​​​​​

Join us as Larry Krasner asks us to confront the ills of the criminal justice system and pioneers one of the most important civil rights movements of our time.

SPEAKERS

Larry Krasner

District Attorney, Philadelphia; Author, For the People: A Story of Justice and Power

In Conversation with Lateefah Simon

President, Akonadi Foundation; Member, BART Board of Directors

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 April 28th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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In the US, we’ve become accustomed to climate – like nearly everything else – being politicized. Even when potential solutions might benefit everyone, a zero-sum mentality has taken hold where there’s an “us” and a “them” and progress for them comes at the expense of us. “Racism in our politics and policymaking is distorting our ability to respond to big problems and to advance collective solutions,” says political strategist Heather McGhee. But does it have to be this way? Can we look to the UK and elsewhere for a different model? Is it even possible to make the whole planet a winner?

Guests:

Heather McGhee, Political Strategist & Author, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together 

Rebecca Willis, Researcher & Author, Too Hot to Handle? The Democratic Challenge of Climate Change

We have been nominated for a Webby!

Please give us your vote as the Best Science and Education Limited Series in the 25th Annual People's Voice Award below:

https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2021/podcasts/limited-series-specials/science-education

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The New York Times best-selling Bay Area author Jasmin Darznik returns to The Commonwealth Club to discuss her much-anticipated new novel, The Bohemians, a book that imagines the friendship between photographer Dorothea Lange and her Chinese American assistant in 1920s San Francisco.

Darznick's new book captures a glittering and gritty 1920s San Francisco, with a cast of interesting characters, including cameos from such legendary historic figures as Frida Kahlo, Ansel Adams and D.H. Lawrence. The novel is a vivid and absorbing portrait of the past; it also connects with our complicated present, as anti-immigration sentiment, anti-Asian violence, corrupt politicians and a devastating pandemic bring tumult to San Francisco. The book is perfect for anyone who cares about San Francisco history, especially those captivated by Lange's photography. Darznik will be in discussion with Bay Area author Julia Flynn Siler.

Jasmin Darznik's debut novel, Song of a Captive Bird, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice book and a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Darznik is also the author of The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life. Her books have been published in 17 countries and her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, among others.

SPEAKERS

Jasmin Darznik

Novelist; Professor; Author, The Bohemians

Julia Flynn Siler

Journalist; Author, The White Devil's Daughters

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 April 13th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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In 2017, Dr. Shanna Swan published an internationally acclaimed landmark study that sparked great concern about declining human fertility. Join us as this award-winning scientist and reproductive epidemiologist outlines steps individuals and society can take to prevent further impairment by everyday chemicals, which she says are severely impacting our reproductive health and imperiling the future of human and planetary health.

Shanna H. Swan, Ph.D., is a leading. environmental and reproductive epidemiologist and professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has published more than 200 scientific papers, appeared on numerous media outlets, and published a recent book titled, Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race.

MLF ORGANIZER

Adrea Brier

SPEAKERS

Shanna H. Swan

Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Adrea Brier

CHNP, CLC, Vice Chair, Health and Medicine Member-Led Forum; International Integrative Epigenetic Cancer Consultant and Life Coach—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 April 27th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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The pandemic has raised significant issues of concern for a democratic society, including that of balancing personal freedom against the greater good. How should this issue be most appropriately addressed during a time of pandemic or national emergency? How well is America actually equipped to handle this kind of crisis and how can we best reconcile the protection of individual rights with the need for a national uniformity of effort?

Dr. Frieden is a physician trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, public health, and epidemiology. He began his public health career in New York City confronting the largest outbreak of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis to occur in the United States. He was then assigned to India, on loan from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he helped scale up a program for effective tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. Asked to return to New York City to become Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s health commissioner, he directed efforts to reduce smoking and other leading causes of death that increased life expectancy by 3 years. As director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Frieden oversaw the work that helped end the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic. He now leads Resolve to Save Lives, a $225 million, 5-year initiative of Vital Strategies, working with countries to prevent 100 million deaths and to make the world safer from epidemics. He is also senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Join this important conversation about protecting the rights and health of Americans.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Tom Frieden

M.D., M.P.H., Director, Centers for Disease Control Under President Obama; Health Commissioner, City of New York under Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Current President and CEO, Resolve to Save Lives

In Conversation with Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal

M.D., Editor in Chief, Kaiser Health News; Former Health Correspondent, New York Times; Author, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back

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 April 22nd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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Amid an outcry over anti-Asian violence and harassment, filmmaker and writer Bee Vang turns the spotlight in Hollywood and its role in promulgating anti-Asian ideas.

The son of immigrants, Hmong-American actor and activist Vang starred as Thao Vang Lor in Clint Eastwood's 2008 film Gran Torino and has appeared in "Modern Family" and Comisery. He has performed in independent films and on stage at Brown University, where he received a 2016 liberal arts degree in international politics, media and cultural studies. Vang worked at MSNBC with "The Rachel Maddow Show," at The Economist and at a research institute at Columbia University. After several years working as a print journalist, nonfiction writer and policy researcher, he recently moved to Los Angeles to devote himself to acting, filmmaking and other creative pursuits.

SPEAKERS

Bee Vang

Actor; Journalist, The Economist and "The Rachel Maddow Show"; Policy Researcher

Michelle Meow

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

John Zipperer

Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—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 April 22nd, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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