Called “the voice of the resistance” by The New York Times, writer, historian and activist Rebecca Solnit, the author of 20 books on feminism, western and indigenous history, popular power, social change and insurrection, hope and disaster, and most recently Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, will discuss her view that the future will be decided by whether we act in the present—and she says we must act—to counter institutional inertia, fossil fuel interests, and political obstinacy. Guided by her typical clear-eyed wisdom, Rebecca Solnit will lead our audience from discouragement to possibilities, from climate despair to climate hope. Solnit will be joined by co-editor and climate activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua and native Fijian Fenton Lutunatabua (participating virtually), calling on us to rise to the moment with the benefit of indigenous wisdom and by telling new stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seeking to improve public policy in California, in 1993 a group led by Hewlett-Packard co-founder Bill Hewlett created the Public Policy Institute of California to do independent, nonpartisan research in the public interest. PPIC produces high-quality data to inform leaders and the public, and conducts nationally recognized polls on the preferences and opinions of California voters.  Now PPIC welcomes former Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Tani Cantil-Sakauye as its third president and CEO. Cantil-Sakauye has had a distinguished legal and judicial career, supporting bail reform and decriminalizing minor traffic offenses, improving funding for courts and the bar, and championing education on civil discourse for students. She made history when she became the first person of color, first Asian-Filipina American and the second woman to serve as California’s chief justice.  She is now poised to impact the Golden State through her leadership of PPIC, which focuses on the economy, the environment, education, health, the safety net and criminal justice.   How will Justice Cantil-Sakauye make the transition from her role as a Supreme Court chief justice to being a leader in research and polling, and what are her vision and priorities for PPIC and California? Please join us for this unique opportunity to visit with our former chief justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The January mass shooting in Half Moon Bay brought to light the intolerable conditions in which farmworkers often still live and work. Almost 40 years after Cesar Chavez’s renowned 1984 Commonwealth Club speech, his successor as president of the United Farm Workers Union, Teresa Romero, joins us to discuss the hardships and exploitation agricultural laborers face. She will address the progress achieved by the United Farm Workers Union, and the important work that remains to be done to improve their work and living conditions. The first Latina and first immigrant woman to become president of a national union in the United States, in 2018 Teresa Romero became only the third president of the United Farm Workers since Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the union in 1962. Rising through the ranks of the UFW after arriving in this country without speaking English, she is proud of both her U.S. citizenship and her Mexican and Zapotecan heritage. Most recently, Romero led farm workers in a campaign—including a grueling 24-day, 335-mile march up the Central Valley to Sacramento in the searing heat of summer—that last year convinced Governor Newsom to sign a UFW-backed law making it easier for farm workers to vote in union elections free from abuse and intimidation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for a conversation with Mabel van Oranje, human rights activist and serial entrepreneur for social change, for a reflection on the global challenges facing women and girls, and the solutions that are possible. Mabel has dedicated her career to ending the practice of child marriage, which impacts 12 million girls every year. That’s a girl every 3 seconds. Her latest venture is VOW for Girls, which invests in the power, voice and choice of girls whose futures are at risk. In this interactive Q&A, Mabel will discuss her journey and share her vision for a world in which every girl can determine her own future. SPEAKERS Mabel van Oranje Princess Mabel van Oranje of the Netherlands; Serial Entrepreneur for Social Change; Founder and Chair, VOW for Girls Randy Newcomb Senior Advisor, The Omidyar Group—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 March 22nd, 2023 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our brains have evolved over millions of years to deal with immediate and direct challenges, but they’re not so great at processing large existential threats, like the climate crisis. Understanding why people behave the way they do could be a critical step in bringing about more meaningful climate action. Despite having the technical ability we need to stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, we’re on a path to surpass that number by the early 2030s. Yet doom and gloom framing can drive people away from even thinking about the climate crisis. How can we use our understanding of behavior to incorporate happiness into meaningful climate action?    Guests:  Ann-Christine Duhaime, Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Author of Minding the Climate: How Neuroscience Can Help Solve Our Environmental Crisis Jiaying Zhao, Associate Professor, University of British Columbia For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a nation's politics get wild and its democratic standards frayed, things can go bad quickly. Just ask Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator who met his fate 2,067 years ago on the Ides of March. At Week to Week, we're dedicated to the lively and informed discussion of politics—with a healthy sense of humor—as a platform for healthy involvement in the issues that drive our society. The Commonwealth Club's Week to Week Political Roundtable and social hour, now in its 12th year, will take a look at the politics of the day on the eve of the Ides of March 2023—the issues, the people, the trends affecting our political world. This Program Contains Explicit Language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ginni Rometty spent nearly 40 years at IBM and was the first woman to become the company's CEO before retiring in 2020. Under her leadership the iconic company reinvented 50 percent of its portfolio, built a $25 billion hybrid cloud business, and expanded in AI and quantum computing. Rometty reveals the personal hurdles, high-stake decisions, and groundbreaking milestones that defined her life and shaped her leadership philosophy. Over the years Rometty learned how leadership and big ideas can drive meaningful change in the world—a concept she calls “good power.” Join us as she reflects on how “good power” evolved from her days as a manager to becoming IBM’s CEO and the lasting principles in both her work and life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two prolific writers—individually admired, respected and award-winning in their own areas of research—have been married to each other since 1965. Join us to discuss with Arlie and Adam Hochschild the global political and social issues they have investigated, and the major changes in American culture they have witnessed, as we roam through two lifetimes of caring and creative writing in their pursuit of understanding the patterns of history and culture more clearly—with the mutual goal of developing a more humane civilization. This Program Contains EXPLICIT Language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to the United Nations Development Program, 54 countries, accounting for half the world’s population, face such critical debt burdens that they simply cannot finance climate adaptation and mitigation on their own. Most of these same countries are in the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world, setting them up for compounding disasters. At the same time, every nation on earth is being asked to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels – which enabled the richest countries to develop their economies. So how can those in the developing world make the transition to a clean energy economy while centering economic justice?  This episode is a collaboration with Foreign Policy’s Heat of The Moment podcast. Guests: Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO, World Resources Institute Featuring stories from Amy Booth and Elna Schütz for Heat of The Moment podcast  For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are endless opinions on the best way to eat for optimal health. Physician, chef and cookbook author Linda Shiue, M.D., will share her inclusive approach to choosing and preparing foods to promote health. With her unique background combining medicine and culinary, Dr. Shiue is emphatic that food can and should be a source of both pleasure and health, as well as a means of connecting to culture. She will be reviewing the best evidence-based diets and sharing the latest research on the health benefits of spices.  Linda Shiue, MD, is a physician, director of culinary medicine and lifestyle medicine at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, professionally trained chef and author of the award-winning cookbook, Spicebox Kitchen: Eat Well and Be Healthy with Globally Inspired, Vegetable-Forward Recipes. She serves on the boards of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and Meals on Wheels of San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan is an award-winning journalist who has interviewed everyone from Edward Snowden to former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. Throughout his career, Hasan hasn’t been one to avoid arguments but relishes them as the lifeblood of democracy and the only surefire way to dispel misinformation and uncover the truth. Join us as Hasan reflects on his career as a journalist, anchor and interviewer, and offers tips on how to overcome the arguments and debates that engulf our lives daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monday Night Philosophy at The Commonwealth Club celebrates its 14th anniversary by revealing how 20th century scientific knowledge was used to revitalize the power of Pythagorean insights and Platonic ideals. Using ancient Greek principles that promote clear conceptual reasoning, Hammond spent his 20s reorganizing the concepts we all use into a more coherent whole, generating both philosophical wisdom about the patterns in our personalities and perhaps even a better scientific understanding of the universe as well. Just as it did 2,500 years ago, focusing on the existence of the continuum of change and on the unchanging principles inherent in it reveals a cosmos of order rather than an impenetrable chaos. Surprisingly, the same thing can also be said about uncovering the patterns of order in our own individual―and admittedly apparently chaotic—personalities.  Join George Hammond on his 70th birthday as he explains why he expects this civilizing force to get a big boost in the near future, and why he continues to focus on clarifying first principles first—and then setting them loose in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every place we inhabit has its own tapestry of sound, whether you’re hiking through the woods or sitting in a cafe with a friend. And not only are sounds a part of our sensory experience, but they can give us vital information about the health of our ecosystems. As the planet warms and we lose biodiversity, those sounds are changing. The natural world isn’t the only space where the soundscape is changing. Electrifying everything will have a direct effect on the sound of urban centers. What will cities sound like in the future? Will we listen to the messages our world is sending us, or will we tune them out?  Guests:   Bernie Krause, Soundscape Ecologist Dan Hill, Director, Melbourne School of Design For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States prides itself for its maverick soul, but Sathnam Sanghera says it inherited the ambition, brutality and thinking of its empire roots. Sanghera reveals the hidden legacies and modern realities of the British empire and makes the case that to understand America, we must first understand British imperialism. He says the pernicious legacy of imperialism is rooted in our everyday lives yet remains shockingly obscured from view. Sanghera offers a sobering appraisal of Britain and America’s political histories to help us move forward to a more just future. SPEAKERS Sathnam Sanghera Author, Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain; Twitter @Sathnam In Conversation with John Oliver Host, "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"; Twitter @iamjohnoliver 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 March 6th, 2023 by the Commonwealth Club of California. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Bill Clinton once called the border between India and Pakistan the most dangerous place on Earth. The two countries have been at war with each other on four separate occasions with numerous skirmishes in between. In 1948, 1965 and 1999 war was fought over Kashmir, and in 1971 it was over East Pakistan, later Bangladesh. There have been numerous peace talks, but in some cases the talks seem to have exacerbated the conflict. Complicating the issues has been access to Middle East oil. The Chinese have embarked on a great road-building effort to bypass the Malacca Straits—through which they get their oil supplies and which can be bottled up by the U.S. Navy in times of conflict—by reviving the old Silk Routes to Asia and beyond. Part of this old Silk Route makes its way through Kashmir and into the Pakistani port of Gwadar, on the Persian Gulf. This also helps China keep India, a potential rival in Asia, on the defensive. Kashmir, containing both the headwaters of the great rivers of South Asia as well as the trade routes linking China to the Gulf, is key. Pakistan sees Kashmir as central to its identity and with China’s support, sees little advantage in seeking peace. India, with its nationalist government, will see any flexibility on its part as a sign of weakness. And the United States is determined to contain China any way it can. Meanwhile the search for enduring peace between these two countries continues. Helping us understand the various sides of the issues and the conditions required for peace are two former ambassadors and two journalists, all of whom have been, at one stage or another, involved with the peace process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Experience an amazing, uplifting and exhilarating program presented by AfroSolo Theatre Company, a sanctuary for Black arts, culture, intellect and entertainment founded by Thomas Robert Simpson. Our event emcee will be Dr. Brenda Wade, psychologist, television expert, speaker and author. The performance line-up includes an exciting mix of talented performing artists. African drumming by three master drummers, one being a two-time Grammy winner; a mini concert featuring harpist Destiny Muhammad and soprano Jeannine Anderson performing Black spirituals and classical music, a poetry reading by Devorah Major, San Francisco's first Black poet laureate, and a performance by Brian Freeman about the life of William Leidesdorff, one of San Francisco's leading entrepreneurs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bozoma Saint John is no stranger to adversity, and when her husband Peter died of cancer, she made one big decision: to live life urgently. In her book The Urgent Life, she shares the highs and lows from her personal life and what she learned from these tragedies to build a life worth living even in times of darkness and brokenness. She offers a hopeful message about coping with loss and grief and how to live life to the fullest. Bozoma Saint John is an American businesswoman who started her career at Spike Lee’s advertising agency and has gone on to work at Pepsi, Apple Music, Uber, Endeavor, and most recently was the global chief marketing officer at Netflix. NOTES This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. SPEAKERS Bozoma Saint John Author, The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival; Twitter @badassboz In conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk Entrepreneur; Chairman, VaynerX; CEO, VaynerMedia; Creator and CEO, VeeFriends; Twitter @garyvee 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 February 23rd, 2023 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not long ago, it was said that “hydrogen is the fuel of the future - and always will be.” Now, with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law tagging $9.5 billion for developing a domestic hydrogen economy, this simplest of all elements is increasingly being discussed as a viable pathway for long-distance trucking, shipping, and hard-to-decarbonize industries like cement and steel. But how clean is clean hydrogen, really? And what will it take to make green hydrogen a cost-competitive option in applications like manufacturing, transportation, and grid-scale energy storage? Guests: Julio Friedmann, Chief Scientist, Carbon Direct Sunita Satyapal, Director, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, DOE  Alan Krupnick, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future  For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A renowned scientist and environmental advocate looks back on a life that has straddled the worlds of science and politics. Acclaimed as a public scientist and as a spokesperson on pressing environmental and equity issues, Paul R. Ehrlich reflects on his life, from his love affair with his wife Anne, to his scientific research, public advocacy, and concern for global issues. Interweaving the range of his experiences—as an airplane pilot, a desegregationist, a proud parent—Ehrlich’s offers valuable insights on pressing issues such as biodiversity loss, overpopulation, depletion of resources, and deterioration of the environment. A lifelong advocate for women’s reproductive rights, Ehrlich also helped to debunk scientific bias associating skin color and intelligence and warned some 50 years ago about a possible pandemic and the likely ecological consequences of a nuclear war. His new book Life: A Journey Through Science and Politics, focuses on the human predicament, including problems of governance and democracy in the 21st century, and insight into the ecological and evolutionary science of our day. It is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding global change, our planet’s wonders, and a scientific approach to the present existential threats to civilization. Paul Ehrlich is the Bing Professor of Population Studies, Emeritus, and president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. He has carried out field, laboratory and theoretical research on the dynamics and genetics of insect populations, the evolutionary interactions of plants and herbivores, the behavioral ecology of birds and reef fishes, the effects of crowding on human beings, human cultural evolution, and health problems related to industrialization. He is author and co-author of more than 1,100 scientific papers and articles and more than 40 books. Ehrlich is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. Among his many other honors is the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Crafoord Prize. He has appeared on more than 1,000 TV and radio programs and was a correspondent for NBC News. This Program Contains Explicit Language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Numbers and mathematics were in use long before Pythagoras was born in the mid-sixth century BC, but few if any suspected that beyond practical use these were keys to unlock doorways to vast hidden knowledge. The discovery made by Pythagoras or his earliest followers—that there is pattern and order hidden behind the apparent variety and confusion of nature and that it is possible to understand it through numbers—was one of the most profound and significant discoveries in the history of human thought.    Humanities West highlights this fundamental shift by focusing on that initial jolt of intellectual energy, even though most of the details have been lost or distorted, and on three exemplars of the Pythagorean emphasis on math and on logic: Philolaus, Archytas and Plato.     The Pythagorean intellectual revolution spread by these early pioneers progressed until the advances in math and in detailed observation reached a critical mass, causing one scientific revolution after another—accomplished by scientists such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Einstein and Heisenberg, who were all influenced by Pythagorean ideas (including the idea of not trusting traditional explanations―even Pythagorean ones). We know very little about the man Pythagoras and the philosophy he lived by and taught, but the revolutionary influence on human thinking of one great insight, carried forward by such geniuses as Philolaus, Archytas and Plato, has shaped our world ever since. Humanity has only rarely crossed such a threshold. Kitty Ferguson will speak on "What Do We Really Know about Pythagoras?"; Edward Frenkel will speak on "From Pythagoras to Plato: Philolaus and Archytas"; Joshua Landy will speak on "Plato’s Use of Irony: How does Plato Really Teach us?" NOTES 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. In association with Humanities West. SPEAKERS Kitty Ferguson Author, The Music of Pythagoras: How an Ancient Brotherhood Cracked the Code of the Universe and Lit the Path from Antiquity to Outer Space, and Pythagoras: His Lives and the Legacy of a Rational Universe Edward Frenkel Professor of Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley; Author, Love and Math Joshua Landy Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French, Professor of Comparative Literature, co-director of the Literature and Philosophy Initiative, Stanford University; Co-Host, "Philosophy Talk" George Hammond Author, Conversations With Socrates—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 February 24th, 2023 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices