Variously referred to as the “Nation’s Attic” or “Octopus on the Mall,” the Smithsonian is an institution that is 172 years old and comprised of 19 museums; 9 research centers; 21 libraries; and the National Zoo, which is bound to have secrets. (Well, maybe not secrets, but certainly the uncommon, rare, curious, extraordinary—even perhaps bizarre.) Nancy E. Gwinn will delve into the fascinating history of the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum complex and America’s national museum, and share some of its intriguing stories. Gwinn has been director of the Smithsonian Libraries since 1997. She oversees a network of 21 libraries and central services units and is a recognized leader in international librarianship, in developing digital libraries, in building cooperative programs and partnerships, and in promoting Smithsonian scholarship to external communities. A former Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oxford in England, Gwinn holds a doctorate in American civilization from George Washington University, a master’s in library science from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s from the University of Wyoming.
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Nancy Gwinn: Secrets of The Smithsonian

The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's largest public affairs forum. The nonpartisan and nonprofit Club produces and distributes programs featuring diverse viewpoints from thought leaders on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast — the oldest in the U.S., since 1924 — is carried on hundreds of stations. Our website features audio and video of our programs. This podcast feed is usually updated multiple times each week.

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Anyone who has fallen off the conveyer belt of mainstream health care and into the shadowy corners of illness knows what a dark place it is to land. Where is the infrastructure, the information, the guidance? What should you do next? Susannah Fox draws on 20 years of tracking the expert networks of patients, survivors, and caregivers who have come of age between the cracks of the health-care system to offer a way forward. Covering everything from diabetes to ALS to Moebius Syndrome to chronic disease management, Fox taps into the wisdom of these individuals, learns their ways, and fuels the rebel alliance that is building up our collective capacity for better health.
Join us for a special online-only talk as Fox discusses the issues raised in her new book Rebel Health, an action-oriented and radically hopeful field guide to the underground, patient-led revolution for better health and health care.
Fox says the next wave of health innovation will come from the front lines of this patient-led revolution. Fox identifies and describes four archetypes of this revolution: seekers, networkers, solvers and champions. She has collected tips, such as picking a proxy to help you navigate the relevant online communities or learning how to pitch new ideas to investors and partners or new treatments to the FDA. On a systemic level, this “rebel health” movement is a competitive advantage for businesses, governments and organizations to understand and leverage the power of connection among patients, survivors and caregivers.
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Susannah Fox: Rebel Health

Think you know the Bay Area? Our past is so much more diverse, more heartbreaking, and more inspiring than anything we are taught in school.
Join us as we explore some of these histories with Heather Bourbeau, Gary Kamiya, and Liam O’Donoghue, three locals who are deepening our understanding of and relationship to this place we call home.
Heather Bourbeau is an award-winning author whose latest poetry collection, Monarch, explores overlooked histories of the U.S. West where she was raised—California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
Gary Kamiya is an award-winning journalist of “Portals of the Past” that ran for more than 10 years in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner.
Liam O’Donoghue is an award-winning journalist and hosts the “East Bay Yesterday” podcast.
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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.
This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
 

 
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Overlooked Histories of the Bay and Beyond

From massive forest fires in California to hurricanes in Louisiana, receding coastlines in Massachusetts and devastated fisheries in Alaska, the climate catastrophe is already here.
Discussion of the climate crisis has always suffered from a problem of abstraction. Data points and warnings of an overheated future struggle to break through the noise of everyday life. Deniers often portray climate solutions as inconvenient, expensive and unnecessary. Many politicians, focused always on their next election, do not yet see climate as a winning issue in the short run, so they don’t take any action at all. But climate change, and its devastating consequences, has kept apace whether we want to pay attention or not.
CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti has seen that crisis unfold for himself, spending nearly two decades reporting across the United States (and the world) documenting the people, communities, landmarks, and traditions we’ve already surrendered. Vigliotti shares with urgency and personal touch the story of an America on the brink.
In his new book, Before It’s Gone, Vigliotti traces his travels across the country, taking him to the frontlines of climate disaster and revealing the genuine impacts of climate change that countless Americans have already been forced to confront. This is the story of America, and Americans, on the edge, and a powerful argument that radical action on climate change with a respect for its people and traditions is not only possible, but also the only way to preserve what we love.
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Jonathan Vigliotti: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America

Is the future of San Francisco on the line right now? Since COVID hit, San Francisco has repeatedly made headlines across the world for the challenges the city faces. The pandemic, remote work, downtown retail woes and the perception of rising crime have all contributed to a “doom loop” narrative. In response, city boosters have acknowledged our city’s “boom and bust” cycles and looked forward to the city rising again.
Join Larry Baer, president and CEO of the San Francisco Giants, in conversation with NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai to explore how San Francisco’s business community is responding and how they propose to ensure the city’s best days are still ahead. As co-chair of Advance SF, Baer spearheads a group of business leaders born, raised and living in San Francisco, just like him, who are betting big on the city’s future.
From his work in the 1990s to keep the Giants in San Francisco to the Giants current role investing in and building Mission Rock, a new mixed-used neighborhood next to Oracle Park, Baer has been at the nexus of sports, business and innovation in the city for decades. And, of course, he will look ahead to the 2024 MLB season as it gets underway and we ask: Should we be betting big on the Giants?
A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Baer has gained a national reputation as one of professional sports visionaries leading the San Francisco Giants. Baer joined the team in 1992 as the executive vice president after he and Peter Magowan led the effort to assemble a new ownership group that kept the Giants in the city. A limited partner and board member of the ownership group, Baer was named CEO on January 1, 2012. In his first year as president and CEO, the Giants won their second World Series Championship in three years. In 2014, the Giants won their third World Series title in five years. Baer is responsible for the overall day-to-day operations of the organization and serves as a key strategist and negotiator of the club’s major transactions.
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Larry Baer, San Francisco Giants CEO: Betting Big on the City

What can we learn about the polarized and unstable world in which we live by exploring the revolutions―past and present―that define our age?
Populist rage, ideological fracture, economic and technological shocks, war, and an international system studded with catastrophic risk―the early decades of the 21st century might be one of the most revolutionary periods in modern history. But it is not the first. Humans have lived, and thrived, through more than one great realignment. What are these revolutions, and how can they help us to understand our fraught world?
CNN host and bestselling author Fareed Zakaria has investigated the eras and movements that have shaken norms while shaping the modern world. He says three such periods hold profound lessons for today. First, in the 17th-century Netherlands, a fascinating series of transformations made that tiny land the richest in the world―and created politics as we know it today. Next, the French Revolution, an explosive era that devoured its ideological children and left a bloody legacy that haunts us today. Finally, the mother of all revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, which catapulted Great Britain and the United States to global dominance and created the modern world.
Zakaria, author of the new book Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, probes four present-day revolutions: globalization, technology, identity, and geopolitics. For all their benefits, the globalization and technology revolutions have produced profound disruptions and pervasive anxiety and our identity. And increasingly, identity is the battlefield on which the 21st century’s polarized politics are fought. All this is set against a geopolitical revolution as great as the one that catapulted the United States to world power in the late nineteenth century. Now we are entering a world in which the United States is no longer the dominant power. As they find themselves at the nexus of four seismic revolutions, people can easily imagine a dark future. But Zakaria says pessimism is premature. If we act wisely, he says, the liberal international order can be revived, and populism relegated to the ash heap of history.
As few public intellectuals can, Zakaria combines intellectual range, deep historical insight, and uncanny prescience to once again reframe and illuminate our turbulent present. Don’t miss his return to Commonwealth Club World Affairs.
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Nancy Gwinn: Secrets of The Smithsonian

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