The San Francisco Experience

California's senior Senator Dianne Feinstein passed away September 28, 2023. Her life and legacy are unique and reflective of the San Francisco values she embodied.

Since the mid 2000s, China has taken a more aggressive stance on the world stage and towards the United States in particular. President Xi Jin Ping reformed the constitution, got rid of term limits and is effectively President for Life. He has rejected collective rule of his predecessors and has concentrated power in his office, much like Mao Zedong. Where will these changes lead China and America ?

Barbie, the Summer blockbuster which has already grossed $1.34 billion worldwide, is a unique film that caught the public's attention at a unique moment in time. It has become a cultural phenomenon and stirred debate.

Is Russia so desperate for old Soviet era shells and ammunition still made by North Korea and interoperable with Russian armaments, that they would trade their advanced high tech weapons with Kim ? And what does China - North Korea's largest donor - make of this unlikely alliance ?

San Francisco's great wealth creation in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as the emergence of dynastic family elites largely developed as a result of exploitation of nearby natural resources. But most great cities have followed a similar path. And today's Silicon Valley fortunes are little different in that respect, but substitute the mining of academic excellence for natural resources.

Award winning film maker, John Montoya discusses the 10 part docuseries entitled When the Sound hits the Walls which he is producing . It will feature the Hyde Street Studios, where Rock and Roll Greats like Herbie Hancock, the Headhunters, Creedence Clearwater, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Jefferson Airplane produced iconic hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Shattered Nation, written by Oxford Professor Danny Dorling, demonstrates how the United Kingdom has been fundamentally damaged by 40 years of neoliberal policies of successive Conservative and Labour governments. Inequality is on the rise while life expectancy is declining and infant mortality is on the upswing. What has caused the reversal in social progress in the UK and how can it be turned around ?

The India and US relationship is growing in importance and per Prime Minister Modi and President Biden will be the defining global relationship of the 21st Century. And the 4 million Indian American community serves as a cornerstone of the growing trade, academic, business, finance and cultural links between the two countries.

Sweden's path to NATO membership has been made more arduous by Turkey, itself a NATO member. Despite Turkish President Erdogan's agreement at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Swedish concessions, the process drags on. Turkey's Parliament reconvenes on October 1, 2023 to consider the issue. Professor Paul Levin of the Stockholm University Institute of Turkish Studies (SUITS), walks us through the history.