The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the…
Commonwealth Club of California
Listeners of Commonwealth Club of California Podcast that love the show mention: always interesting, speakers, experts, discussion, topics, right, life, time, love, truly a great program, commonwealth club.
The Commonwealth Club of California Podcast is an incredible resource for anyone seeking engaging and thought-provoking discussions with some of the brightest minds of our time. As a former longtime member, I have always admired the club's commitment to fostering discussion on important topics in today's world. The podcast allows listeners like me to access these conversations and stay connected even when life gets in the way.
One of the best aspects of this podcast is the wide range of topics covered and the caliber of guests featured. From politics to science, pop culture to activism, each episode brings together experts and leaders who provide valuable insights and analysis. Whether it's a presidential cabinet member or a Black Lives Matter activist, the diversity of voices ensures that listeners are exposed to various perspectives and ideas. The Commonwealth Club truly lives up to its mission of encouraging discussion.
However, one drawback of subscribing to this podcast is the overwhelming number of episodes released regularly. This can lead to information overload, making it difficult for listeners to choose which episodes are worth their time. It would be beneficial if they could break down the content into separate podcasts based on broad topics, allowing listeners to pick and choose according to their interests and avoid feeling drowned by a continuous avalanche of episodes.
In conclusion, despite its minor flaw regarding episode overload, The Commonwealth Club of California Podcast remains an outstanding platform for intellectual stimulation and insightful conversations. By bringing together influential figures from various fields, this podcast enriches our understanding of complex issues and promotes productive discourse in today's polarized society. Whether you're interested in politics or science or simply want to broaden your knowledge base, tuning into this podcast is sure to leave you informed and inspired.

From patents to IPOs to international bridge titles, Vinita Gupta has navigated male-dominated arenas with clarity and courage. In this fireside chat with Nalini Elkins, she shares fresh takes from her new memoir on resilience, inclusion, and building durable success in a volatile world—plus what it takes to keep learning through every pivot. join us to hear her timely playbook for founders, operators and the curious. Vinita Gupta is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and the first woman of Indian origin to take a company public in the United States. Her memoir, The Woman in Deed: Road to IPO, Bridge Tables, and Beyond, traces a life of invention, leadership, and competitive bridge at the highest levels. She writes on innovation, integrity, and reinvention across the India–U.S. corridor. Nalini Elkins, the CEO and founder of Inside Products, Inc., is a recognized leader in the field of computer performance measurement and analysis. She is also the chief technical officer and co-founder of Outside the Stacks. An accomplished software product designer, developer and strategist, she has founded or co-founded three high-tech start-ups over the course of her career. In 2014, Nalini was awarded the prestigious AA Michelson Award by the Computer Measurement Group (CMG). An International Relations 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. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. Organizer: Frank Price Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling author and noted historian Mark Shaw returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to discuss his latest research and his newest book. They strengthen his conclusion that New Orleans mafia don Carlos Marcello was the point person pulling the strings behind the murders of JFK and famed journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. And, for the first time, he also links Marcello to the murder of Robert Kennedy. In his previous books, Shaw established the connections between Marcello, Oswald, Ruby and Kilgallen and Marcello's use of Kilgallen's lover to silence her before she could expose Marcello's involvement in the JFK assassination. In his latest book, Abuse of Power, Shaw lays out compelling evidence that Marcello's pattern of using patsies to exact his revenge culminated in his setting Sirhan Sirhan up to take the fall for the assassination of RFK on June 6, 1968. Shaw's new research includes his examination of the JFK assassination records recently released by the federal government. In those files is a December 1985 FBI transcript in which Carlos Marcello was taped “confessing” to his role in JFK's death: “Yeah, I had the son of a b---h killed. I'm glad I did. I wish I could have done it myself.” Shaw investigates whether Marcello decided on a similar approach when it became clear in early 1968 that RFK could become president. Shaw says that since Robert Kennedy, as attorney general, had ordered Marcello deported in April 1961, charging him with racketeering, Marcello had no intention of allowing RFK to get in his way again and so had Bobby killed. Shaw alleges that Marcello used his “associate,” mobster Mickey Cohen, who controlled the Southern California racetracks, including Santa Anita, and knew the layout of the Ambassador Hotel where RFK was killed, to “recruit” 24-year-old Sirhan just as the mafia don had recruited Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate JFK. Evidence for Shaw's allegation is a never-before-published, eyewitness, video-taped account from John Shear, a celebrated paddock captain at Santa Anita Racetrack. He had hired Sirhan to work as a “hot walker” at the racetrack and considered him “easily manipulated.” Shortly before RFK was killed, Shear noticed that Sirhan was all dressed up, had money and was hanging around nearby Hollywood Park Racetrack with “two hoodlums” despite being poorly paid and having gambling debts. Shaw says that shortly after RFK's murder, it was Shear who first identified Sirhan for the LAPD and the FBI from the photo of Sirhan being shown on TV—but Shear was never contacted by either the LAPD or the FBI about Sirhan, pointing to a cover up. Then, just as twice before regarding JFK's and Kilgallen's deaths, the trail of evidence quickly and suspiciously went cold. Join us as Shaw makes sense of the newfound evidence and heats up his call for justice in the murders of JFK, Dorothy Kilgallen and Robert Kennedy. 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. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. OrganizerGeorge Hammond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On November 7, Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum, will host The Asian American Foundation's (TAAF) first-ever AAPI Youth Mental Health Summit. Under the theme “Sparking Solutions Together,” the summit will convene hundreds of experts, advocates, funders, and business executives to address the urgent and often overlooked mental health challenges facing Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth. From 2018 through 2022, suicide was the leading cause of death among Asian Americans aged 15–24, and the second leading cause of death among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Yet despite being deeply impacted by the nation's mental health crisis, AAPI youth remain largely invisible in the national mental health conversation, and the data needed to understand their mental health is scarce at best. To fill the gap, TAAF released "Beyond the Surface" in December 2024, the most comprehensive study to date on AAPI youth mental health, which revealed: Nearly 1 in 2 AAPI youth screen positive for moderate depression; 1 in 3 have planned or attempted suicide; Stigma, family pressure, and silence keep many from seeking help; Only 53 percent feel comfortable talking with their parents; Just 1 in 4 have accessed formal care; and 46 percent have never seen a mental health provider. Building on these findings, the November 7 summit will bring together leading experts to spark dialogue on breaking stigma, closing gaps in care, and exploring how community partners and technology are reshaping the ways young people seek and receive support. Join us online to hear from: Midori Francis, Actor, "Grey's Anatomy" Ryan Alexander Holmes Owin Pierson, Creator and Mental Health Advocate Lisa Ling, Journalist Noopur Agarwal, VP of Social Impact, MTV Norman Chen, CEO, The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) Philip Yun, Co-President and Co-CEO, Commonwealth Club World Affairs Rushika Fernandopulle, MD, Practicing Physician; Co-Founder and Former CEO, Iora Health; TAAF Board Member Juliana Chen, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Cartwheel Perry Chen,Director of Programs and Partnerships, Behavioral Health at Blue Shield of California Rachel Miller, Founder & CEO, Closegap Meena Srinivasan, Founding Executive Director, Transformative Educational Leadership Ayesha Meer, Executive Director, Asian Mental Health Collective Henry Ha, Program Director, Community Youth Center of San Francisco Anne Saw, PhD, HOPE Program Reid Bowman, MPH, CHES, Outreach & Program Manager, UCA Waves Rupesh Shah, COO of Crisis Text Line Tone Va'i, LCSW, Clinician, Samoan Community Development Center Amy Grace Lam, PhD, Chief Program Strategist, Korean Community Center of East Bay Christine Yang, ASW, Korean Community Center of East Bay Christina Yu, LCSW, Clinical Supervisor, Korean Community Center of East Bay William Tsai, PhD, Associate Professor, New York University Cindy H. Liu, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, BOBA Project, Harvard Medical School Tiffany Yip, Professor of Psychology, Fordham University Quynh Nguyen, TALA (Thriving AANHPI Leadership Accelerator) Fellow This program is presented by The Asian American Foundation and Commonwealth Club World Affairs. For full program, please visit: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/video/youth-mental-health-summit-sparking-solutions-together Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can the United States advance its interests without abandoning its core values? Alexander Vindman, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former director for European Affairs on the White House's National Security Council, presents a discussion on the critical interplay between morality, values and power in the practice of geopolitics and national security. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, six U.S. presidential administrations across both parties crafted policies for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia that unintentionally emboldened Russia and played into its imperialist, centuries-long mythos of regional hegemony, by pursuing short-term transactional policies. The result: military aggression and full-scale invasion. It was all too foreseeable. Vindman will discuss the shifting U.S. foreign policy landscape, what a just peace and lasting end to the war in Ukraine might look like, the administration's increasingly transactional approach to international relations, and Trump's heavy-handed approach to national security and domestic politics. About the Speaker Dr. Alexander Vindman, a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, was the director for European Affairs on the National Security Council. Before that, he served as the political-military affairs officer for Russia for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an attaché at the U.S. Embassies in Moscow and Kyiv. While on the Joint Staff, he authored the National Military Strategy for Russia. He earned a Master's from Harvard University, where he served as a Hauser Leader, and a Master's and Doctorate from Johns Hopkins, where he is a senior fellow. Dr. Vindman leads the national security think tank Institute for Informed American Leadership, is the president of the nonprofit Here Right Matters Foundation, an executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative, a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation, and a senior advisor to VoteVets. Dr. Vindman is the author of the "Why It Matters" Substack and the New York Times bestselling books Here, Right Matters and The Folly of Realism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Project Drawdown is the world's leading science-based guide to climate solutions. According to Jonathan Foley, Project Drawdown's Executive Director, they aim to be the Consumer Reports for climate change. “We synthesize every paper ever written in science, engineering, technical, economic literature, all the data, and bring it together and say, ‘Hey, does this actually work? And if so, how much would it cost? And how long would we have to wait for it?'” Foley is not just an expert on the intricacies of hundreds of potential climate solutions; he's also the winner of the 2025 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Science Communication, and an expert at explaining complex ideas in easily digestible terms. As he said on a past Climate One episode, “The great news about addressing climate change is we also build a better world in the process. Imagine going to the doctor and they're like, ‘Wow, you're really sick and I'm gonna give you this medicine, and its side effects are, you're gonna feel better.' Climate solutions are like that.” Episode Guests: Jonathan Foley, Executive Director, Project Drawdown Eliza Nemser, Executive Director, Climate Changemakers Highlights: 00:00 Intro 02:11 Jonathan Foley on Stephen Schneider 06:33 Jonathan Foley on balancing science and communication 13:09 Jonathan Foley on Project Drawdown 20:08 Jonathan Foley on less effective climate solutions 23:27 Jonathan Foley on the food industries effect on climate 26:22 Jonathan Foley on being attacked for speaking out about beef 34:20 Jonathan Foley on the need to stop doing “stupid” stuff 40:31 Greg Dalton on meeting Stephen Schneider 41:25 Greg Dalton on creating the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Science Communication 45:52 Greg Dalton on Stephen Schneider's legacy 47:14 Eliza Nemser on her journey to climate activism 49:12 Eliza Nemser on effective volunteerism 53:23 Eliza Nemser on finding your place in climate action ******* Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the age of 83, Jesse Jackson has a long career behind him as one of the most influential Black activists of the past century. As a civil rights leader, activist, shadow senator, presidential candidate, and ordained Baptist minister, he has been at the center of the public eye and a thorn in his opponents' sides. Now CNN anchor and author Abby Phillip comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to share the story of Jackson, focusing on his presidential campaigns of 1984 and 1988. In both campaigns, he was initially viewed as a fringe candidate yet went on to surprisingly strong finishes—third place in 1984 and runner-up to nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988. How did he do it? How did he build a coalition that appealed to urban working-class people, college students, and Southern Blacks? That coalition would go on to become a core part of many Democratic presidential campaigns in the decades following the 1980s. Drawing on his time working with Martin Luther King, Jr., his organization of the SLCC's Operation Breadbasket in Chicago and elsewhere, and his deep southern roots, Jackson mounted campaigns that gave hope to many people who had been overlooked by the major parties. Join us in-person or online to learn more about the man Phillip explores in her new book Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for a December program and celebration featuring youth speakers from San Francisco's LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ+ Youth. These young people will speak about today's important social issues affecting their lives. After the program, stick around for an appreciation reception with food and beverages. The Commonwealth Club thanks Gilead Sciences, Inc. for its generous support of The Michelle Meow Show. See more Michelle Meow Show programs at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Civic engagement is being redefined by members of a generation that is both deeply critical of the systems around them and deeply committed to shaping something better. Rather than relying solely on traditional channels such as electoral politics or government-backed programs, students and young leaders are turning to alternative forms of participation—mutual aid networks, campus resource-sharing, community coalitions, and peer-led initiatives—that center care, solidarity and local action. How can civic life can be sustained and strengthened even when public institutions appear stagnant or unresponsive? What does it mean to be civically engaged when government channels feel inaccessible? How can young people build community and foster accountability when the structures designed to support them fall short? And how can higher education remain a space for meaningful participation amid growing tensions around inclusion, access and speech? Through a conversation rooted in practice and reflection, this event highlights how civic engagement today is as much about relationships and shared responsibility as it is about politics or policy. It invites us to think expansively about how community, on campus and beyond, can serve as a foundation for democratic life, particularly when formal institutions struggle to meet the moment. At a time when many are asking where their voice fits into the broader civic landscape, this event offers space to consider new answers and new paths forward. This event is part of the Creating Citizens Speaker Series at UC Berkeley, an ongoing student-led series that provides opportunities for Berkeley students, faculty, and staff, and the surrounding community to interact with leading minds in politics, media and education as they learn how to become better, more involved citizens. We welcome community members and students from around the Bay Area to participate in this riveting conversation and to join us for future programs in the series. This program is part of The Commonwealth Club's civics education initiative, Creating Citizens. Produced in partnership with the UC Berkeley Vote Coalition and co-sponsored by the Mario Savio Social Justice Program at the UC Berkeley Public Service Center. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leading writers and researchers will discuss and explain the issues that arise in writing with the entrance of large language models into this space. Are they useful for fiction and nonfiction writers, and in what ways? Can their use be considered ethical? About the Speakers Nina Beguš is a researcher at UC Berkeley working in artificial humanities, an interdisciplinary approach she designed to understand the cultural, ethical and philosophical dimensions of AI. Focusing on language and literature, her work foregrounds our imaginary around AI. She lives in the West Coast's only residential college, Bowles Hall, with her husband, three sons, and 188 students. James Yu is a speculative fiction writer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Sudowrite, the AI assistant for creative writers. His writing explores how technology mediates our everyday experiences. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, two kids, and a growing number of AIs (none sentient yet.). Ted Chiang is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, six Locus awards, and the PEN Malamud Award. His novella “Story of Your Life” was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). His most recent short story collection, Exhalation (Knopf, 2019), was listed as one of the Top Ten Books of 2019 by The New York Times and was included in former President Barack Obama's 2019 reading list. In 2023, he was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in AI. A Technology & Society 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. OrganizerGerald Anthony Harris Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for a special screening of the new documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka, followed by a conversation with acclaimed Ukrainian filmmaker and war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov. From the Oscar-winning team behind 20 Days In Mariupol, 2000 Meters to Andriivka documents the toll of the Russia-Ukraine war from a personal and devastating vantage point. Following his historic account of the civilian toll in Mariupol, Chernov turns his lens toward Ukrainian soldiers—who they are, where they came from, and the impossible decisions they face in the trenches as they fight for every inch of their land. Amid a failing counteroffensive in 2023, Chernov and his AP colleague Alex Babenko follow a Ukrainian brigade battling through approximately one mile of a heavily fortified forest on their mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka. Weaving together original footage, intensive Ukrainian Army bodycam video and powerful moments of reflection, 2000 Meters to Andriivka reveals, with haunting intimacy, the farther the soldiers advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that, for them, this might never end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been ten years since Pope Francis issued his landmark encyclical on climate and caring for our common home, Laudato Si'. With the election of the new Pope Leo XIV, many are hopeful he will follow in Francis' path. Three-quarters of the global population follow a major religion. And the Catholic Church is far from alone among religious institutions in its directives to care for creation. A few years after Laudato Si, Muslim leaders issued Al-Mizan, which restates principles from the Quran on protecting nature in terms of meeting current challenges. Organizations like Interfaith Power and Light, the Jewish group Dayenu, the Hindu Bhumi Project, and the Buddhist Climate Action Network demonstrate the universality of creation care as central to religions worldwide. Especially at a time when governments are failing to take meaningful action on climate progress, can faith traditions provide new paths forward? Guests: Celia Deane-Drummond, Director, Laudato Si' Research Institute; Senior Research Fellow in Theology at Campion Hall, University of Oxford Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Founder & CEO, Dayenu Iyad Abumoghli, Founder, Former Director, Faith for Earth Coalition, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Founder and Chair, Al-Mizan For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org. Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 00:10 – Quick update on COP30 conclusions 03:40 – Celia Deane-Drummond explains importance of Laudato Si' 08:15 – Will Pope Leo continue Pope Leo's environmental legacy? 11:00 – Role of religion and ethics in climate conversations 17:45 – Rabbi Jennie Rosenn explains Jewish concept of Dayenu 20:30 – What religious leaders can do that political leaders can't 26:30 – Rosenn on deregulatory agenda of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin 37:45 – Iyad Abumoghli on how religion shapes human actions 40:30 – Al-Mizan's origins and approach 51:00 – Faith and political leaders meeting to discuss the role of faith and values in facing climate change and climate justice 54:40 – Climate One More Thing ******** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the HIV fight behind or ahead of us? On this World AIDS Day, we will have a panel with key players in the space. These doctors are working on clinical trials to develop drugs to prevent and treat HIV, they work on policies to help bring the interventions where they are needed, and they are also on the ground caring for the individuals needing the care. Join us to hear how they feel about where we are with the fight. Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. This program is sponsored by ViiV, along with the generous support of Kaiser Permanente. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can we reclaim control of our economy to make it work for everyone? What needs to be understood about the big tech platforms before that could even be attempted? Tim Wu has a plan. Wu, a scholar and the former White House official who coined the phrase “net neutrality,” has examined the rise of “platform power” and the risks and rewards of working within such systems. It's a topic he explores in his latest book The Age of Extraction. Drawing on lessons from recent history—from generative AI and predictive social data to the antimonopoly and crypto movements—Wu says the internet that was promised to be the provider of widespread wealth and democracy in the 1990s and 2000s instead created new economic classes and helped spread autocracy. Wu envisions a future in which tech advances can serve the greatest possible good, and he offers proposals for making a more balanced economy. Wu has been named one of Scientific American's 50 people of the year (2006), one of the “Politico 50” (2014 and 2015), one of The National Law Journal's “America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers” (2013) and one of 02138 magazine's 100 most influential Harvard graduates (2007). Put him on your list of people to see in-person when he returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs in November. This program is supported by the Ken & Jaclyn Broad Family Fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join the multi-talented Jay Kuo for "political and legal analysis with a dose of humor." Jay will discuss issues ranging from the president's use of the National Guard, immigration, Supreme Court decisions and more. About the Speaker Jay Kuo is the chair-elect of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization with more than 3.3 million members. He currently leads its Public Policy Committee to help elect equality-focused candidates at the national, state and local level. Jay is the CEO and founder of The Social Edge, a digital publishing and social media company. As head of "Team Takei,” he built actor and activist George Takei's social media into an online juggernaut reaching more than 25 million fans. Jay writes a popular daily Substack on politics and law called "The Status Kuo," which has more than 5 million monthly reads. Bu that is not all. He is a two-time Tony winning co-producer for Hadestown and The Inheritance and is currently developing two new musical productions in the U.K. Jay is also a musician and composed the score for the Broadway musical Allegiance. Jay is a partner in Gaingels, the nation's largest LGBTQ+ investing group. He has worked as an appellate litigator admitted to practice before the Ninth Circuit, where he argued the first “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” challenge in 1996, and is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar. Jay has previously served on the boards of the Northern California ACLU and the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom. He currently lives in New York City, where he is a single dad with two beautiful infant children, Riley and Ronan. Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. See more Michelle Meow Show programs at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Melody Glenn was a burned-out emergency physician who had grown to resent the large population of opioid-dependent patients passing through her ER. While working at a methadone clinic, she realized how effective harm reduction treatments could be and set out to discover why they weren't used more broadly. That's when she found Dr. Marie Nyswander. In the 1960s, Dr. Nyswander defied the DEA and medical establishment to co-develop methadone maintenance as a treatment for heroin addiction. According to some addiction specialists, its discovery could be considered as monumental as the discovery of penicillin. Yet, it still carries a stigma today. As the United States continues to struggle with opioid and fentanyl use, Dr. Glenn shares Dr. Nyswander's legacy and important lessons that can be used in dealing with today's addiction crisis. Dr. Melody Glenn is an author and associate professor of addiction and emergency medicine at the University of Arizona. She graduated with her M.D. from The University of Southern California, completed her emergency medicine residency at Maricopa Medical Center, and earned her EMS fellowship from The University of California, San Francisco. Moderator Margaret Juhae Lee is the author of Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History. She received a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University and a Korean Studies Fellowship from the Korean Foundation in support of research for her book. Previously, she was an editor for the Books and the Arts section at The Nation magazine. Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. A Psychology 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. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. OrganizerPatrick O'Reilly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thien Ho, the current district attorney of Sacramento County, delivers the first official account of the investigation, capture and prosecution of Joseph DeAngelo, one of America's most notorious serial predators. Known by many chilling names over the years, including the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Original Nightstalker, and finally the Golden State Killer, DeAngelo terrorized California communities for more than a decade—and then disappeared without a trace for more than 30 years. It's a tale Ho recounts in his new book The People vs. the Golden State Killer, from Third State Books. As the lead prosecutor on the case, Ho recounts the exhilarating and harrowing experience of bringing a cold-case killer to justice and putting him behind bars for life. Rather than focusing solely on the criminal and the crimes, Ho's narrative centers the dedicated law-enforcement teams who never gave up their pursuit, and the courageous survivors of the GSK's crimes who fought to heal and regain control of their lives. Ho has hundreds of never-before-revealed details and firsthand insights, and this is the first time the public hears directly from the lead prosecutor who helped close the case. A portion of the book's proceeds will benefit Phyllis's Garden, a nonprofit that honors a GSK survivor and champions victims' rights. Ho, who comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs for a discussion with award-winning journalist Dion Lim, will also share his compelling personal story: a Vietnamese refugee whose family fled Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War; he arrived in the United States knowing no English. He rose from being an intern to being elected Sacramento County district attorney in 2022, becoming one of only 10 Asian American district attorneys out of 2,400 nationwide. Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. See more Michelle Meow Show programs at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California. Photos courtesy the speakers. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Commonwealth Club World Affairs welcomes back Jeffrey Rosen, this time to explore the clashing visions of Hamilton and Jefferson about how to balance liberty and power in a debate that continues to define—and divide—our country. Hamilton pushed for a strong federal government and a powerful executive, while Jefferson championed states' rights and individual liberties. This ongoing tug-of-war has shaped all the pivotal moments in American history, including Abraham Lincoln's fight against slavery and Southern secession, the expansion of federal power under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and Ronald Reagan's and Donald Trump's conservative pushes to attempt to shrink the size of the federal government. Rosen will explain how Hamilton's and Jefferson's disagreement over how to interpret the Constitution has shaped landmark debates in Congress and the Supreme Court about executive power, from John Marshall's early battles with Andrew Jackson to the current divisions among the justices on issues from presidential immunity to control over the administrative state. More than ever, the clash between Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian ideals resonates today in our most urgent national debates over the question of whether modern presidents have been consolidating power and subverting the Constitution—the very threat to American democracy that both Hamilton and Jefferson were determined to avoid. Rosen explores all of this in his new book The Pursuit of Liberty, and he'll join us in-person to offer a compelling history of the opposing forces that have shaped our country since its founding, and the ongoing struggle to define the balance between liberty and power. 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. OrganizerGeorge Hammond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The climate doesn't care where emissions cuts come from; what matters is that the world transitions to renewable energy quickly and cheaply. If it's significantly cheaper to install solar panels in India than on a rooftop in California, then isn't that where they should be built? Similarly, transferring money directly to local people with the greatest stake in preserving their land can have outsized impact in conservation. Where does a climate dollar go furthest? Guests: Kinari Webb, Founder, Health in Harmony Premal Shah, Founder, kiva.org, renewables.org Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder and Executive Director, Environmental Voter Project For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 04:30 – Origins of Kinari Webb's nonprofit Health in Harmony 09:00 – Rainforests as lungs and heart of the planet 12:00 – Radical listening to communities about what they need 15:00 – Positive outcomes from responding to community needs directly 18:00 – Webb's near-death experience from a jellyfish sting 22:00 – Rainforest conservation as a giant climate lever 29:00 – Premal Shah describes how he came to create Kiva.org 32:00 – How Kiva.org works 35:30 – Thought experiment from moral philosopher Peter Singer 38:40 – Kiva tries to reframe stories of poverty as stories of entrepreneurship 41:00 – Applying crowdfunded microfinance model to renewable energy 46:00 – Idea of “effective altruism” 49:30 – Nathaniel Stinnett: we've been taught to blame ourselves for the climate crisis 53:00 – How to shift public actions to make climate more political ***** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veteran reporter Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp embark on a cross country journey to memorialize the bedrooms of children lost to school shootings, highlighting their urgent call for action against the rising epidemic of gun violence. Their story is told in the new documentary All the Empty Rooms, which follows Hartman and Bopp on their seven-year-long project. Hartman, known for his heartwarming human-interest stories on CBS News, takes a more serious turn in this exploration of absence, memory, and the unseen ripples of America's gun violence. Join us for a screening of All the Empty Rooms, followed by a Q&A with director Joshua Seftel. The directory says “We traveled from Steve's home in upstate New York to Nashville to Uvalde to Santa Clarita and back to the CBS News studios to document Steve's final news report. And we get to know the children through the rooms they left behind. They came to life for us and the weight of their absence was crushing." All the Empty Rooms is a Netflix release by Smartypants Pictures, in association with Hyperobject Industries and Artemis Rising Foundation. Photos courtesy Netflix and Smartypants Pictures; used with permission. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's the secret to a long, healthy life? Join us for a live conversation with longevity expert Ken Stern, who will discuss the research that went into his new book Healthy to 100. Contrary to popular belief, the secret to living longer is not just about eating well, exercising, or getting regular checkups. Instead, successful aging depends on the nature of your relationships and your social connections. If you want to live a healthy and rewarding life, Stern says, you need to start with social health. In Healthy to 100, Stern goes on a journey to some of the longest-lived countries in the world—Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Spain—places that have achieved great advances in longevity by intentionally strengthening social connections. Science shows that physical and mental health outcomes are all improved by the intergenerational connectedness, sense of purpose, and respect enjoyed by older people in these countries. Their example offers a personal and societal guide for how people can improve the second half of their lives. Stern will weave in surprising, colorful stories from around the world, arguing that the key to healthy longevity involves a mindset shift and purposeful building of social connections. About the Speakers Ken Stern is a nationally recognized expert on longevity and aging. He is the founder of the Longevity Project and hosts the popular “Century Lives” podcast from the Stanford Center on Longevity. Stern is a best-selling author and has been a frequent contributor to a wide variety of publications, including Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and Slate. He is also the former CEO of NPR. He lives in Washington, D.C. A Grownups 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. OrganizerDenise Michaud Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The international order in which most of us grew up is over, and a new cold war is setting in. That's the growing consensus of people adjusting to the aggressive rise of China, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the reelection of President Donald Trump amid the growth of right-wing populist movements around the world. Michael McFaul says America's future depends on how successfully it deals with this new global order. McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and an international affairs analyst for NBC News, says new thinking is required. The new cold war isn't the same as the old U.S.–Soviet Cold War. He argues in his new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, that we should not underestimate the disruptive ambitions of Russia, nor should we overestimate China's capabilities, and that the shift here at home toward isolationism and autocracy weaken America's position in the world. Join us to hear McFaul draw from historical analysis and a forward-looking perspective to craft a new grand strategy for the United States in the challenging new age of global disorder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the ACLU, to hear the latest on the organization's legal strategy to defend civil rights and civil liberties, including the ACLU's cases against the Trump administration. Since the beginning of President Trump's second term, the ACLU has filed more than 77 lawsuits on issues ranging from birthright citizenship, ideologically targeted immigration arrests and detentions, racial profiling by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, discrimination against transgender Americans, and termination of federal scientific research grants on disfavored topics such as COVID vaccines or gender and racial disparities in health outcomes. "Win or lose, it matters when we stand up in court to fight for freedom, due process, and the basic notion that the president is not above the law," Wang has said. The first woman and the first woman of color to serve as the ACLU's top lawyer, Wang was formerly director of the ACLU's Center for Democracy and its Immigrant Rights Project. This on-stage conversation will explore: Current controversies in constitutional law, civil rights and civil liberties, and where our country—and the Bay Area—stand in historical context How the upcoming Supreme Court term could impact civil rights What ordinary citizens can do to help protect our rights and freedoms and U.S. democracy Join us for this compelling conversation with one of the leaders on the national front lines of fights over immigration, abortion, voting rights, transgender rights and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The shutdown is over, more Epstein news has dropped, Nancy Pelosi has given notice, and the November election is still reverberating. As the year winds down and we head into the holiday season, let's take stock of the state of politics in the Bay Area, California, and nationally. Join us for the Week to Week political roundtable. Learn more about the people, trends and topics driving the political news of the day. Enjoy and learn as our panel of political experts explains what happened and what to expect, and answers your questions. See other upcoming Week to Week political roundtables, as well as audio and video of past Week to Week programs. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Manchin grew up in the coal fields of West Virginia, the grandson of a miner and the son of a small-town grocer. His worldview was shaped by a place where energy isn't an abstract policy debate; it's the identity of the community and vital for economic survival. Manchin was portrayed as a bit of a villain in liberal circles for his role in blocking or slowing down Biden-era policy goals, including climate policy. Yet he was also the architect of the biggest climate legislation the country has ever enacted: the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, in the midst of the Trump administration dismantling climate policy and basic political norms, Manchin is calling for a return to compromise and “common sense.” Episode Guests: Joe Manchin, Former US Senator, West Virginia Thomas Ramey, Commercial and Nonprofit Solar Evaluator, Solar Holler For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org Highlights: 00:00 - Intro 05:27 - Joe Manchin on his first senate run 10:42 - Joe Manchin on Build Back Better 19:26 - Joe Manchin on how the Inflation Reduction Act was written 22:51 - Joe Manchin on the dismantling of the IRA 27:21 - Joe Manchin on the effects of climate 31:02 - Joe Manchin on West Virginia's transition to clean energy 37:10 - Joe Manchin on the state of the country 38:10 - Joe Manchin on how to make the country better 42:56 - Joe Manchin on working together 44:20 - Thomas Ramey on growing up in West Virginia 50:08 - Thomas Ramey on how he talks about solar energy ******* Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The UN climate convention known as COP30 is now underway in Brazil. As the nations of the world gather to discuss their efforts to rein in climate disruption, the facts are clear: we're not doing enough, fast enough, to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Climate-fueled disasters are increasingly impacting nearly every part of the world. And in Belém, Brazil, near the heart of the Amazon rainforest where the conference is being held, organizers have promised that Indigenous voices will play a bigger role than in the past. They've also billed this as an “implementation COP” where past promises will be turned into action. What practical steps can we hope countries achieve in this year's negotiations? Episode Guests: Ilana Seid, Permanent Representative of Palau to the United Nations; Chair, Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) Davi Neustein, Sustainability Consultant; Advisor to Marcelo Behar, COP30 Special Envoy Deborah Sanchez, Director, CLARIFI (Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative), Rights and Resources InitiativeFor show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org. Highlights: 00:00 - Intro 00:30 – Voters responding to energy and affordability in most recent election 02:00 – COP30 is happening in Brazil, opening remarks by UN leaders 07:00 – Major items on the COP30 agenda 10:30 – Davi Neustein on deliberate choice to hold COP30 in Belém 14:00 – Brazil can speak to Global South and Global North 19:00 – Neustein's hopes for the COP30 action agenda 21:30 – Weeks before COP, Brazil approved new oil drilling in Amazon 27:00 – Ilana Seid shares climate impacts to her home nation of Palau 29:30 – What an “implementation” COP means 35:30 – Is there a need for a new narrative around climate change? 42:00 – Deborah Sanchez shares story of securing land rights for her community 47:00 – Example of a project funded through CLARIFI (Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative) 51:00 – How COP goal of elevating Indigenous voices is working out in reality 55:00 – What can we learn from the Amazon and how its managed 56:30 – Climate One More Thing ***** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When President Reagan nominated Anthony Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, few could have expected that he would not only serve for 30 years but would also author landmark opinions on such contested issues in American society as abortion, gay rights, and free speech. At the ideological center of an increasingly divided court, Kennedy became the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court's 5–4 decisions following the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor. He said his principles never wavered; “The cases swing, I don't.” That role earned him the monicker “The Decider” by Time magazine. He is the 15th longest-serving Supreme Court justice in American history. But what judicial philosophy guided his time on the bench? How did he keep his judgments separate from his political and religious beliefs? He says it is all owed to a fundamental conviction that neutral principles must drive the decision and an unyielding commitment to the rule of law. Join us for a live discussion in San Francisco with retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy to learn about his life—beginning in Sacramento, California, and taking him to the center of power in Washington, D.C.—and his approach to the rule of law. These are topics he explores in his new book Life, Law, and Liberty, and you can hear firsthand at Commonwealth Club World Affairs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How was the history of Russia made by its women through the cataclysms of revolution, war, idealism, and defeat? Join us for an engaging tour of Russia through the lives of its women. Journalist Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union in 1990. She wouldn't return for nearly two decades, and when she did, she found a country significantly changed. The Soviet Union had tried to portray itself as being on the vanguard of world feminism; today, Russia presents itself as the last bastion of conservative Christian values. How did that happen? What happened to the women of the Soviet era, who served as doctors, engineers and scientists? How, she asks, did they get replaced with women who are just desperate to marry rich and become stay-at-home mothers? It's a topic she explores in her new book Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy. From her own great grandmothers, who were physicians, to Lenin's lover, who was a feminist revolutionary, to the hundreds of thousands of young Soviet women to fought in the Second World War to the millions of single mothers who repopulated the devastated country—and onward to Pussy Riot and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Ioffe reveals the failure of the social experimentation of the Soviet era and how it paved the way for the revanchist policies of Vladimir Putin. Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for a special program that goes inside Washington's murky foreign lobbying industry and reveals the world of the politically connected and powerful Americans who get rich working on behalf of brutal dictators, corrupt oligarchs, and global arms dealers. New York Times investigative reporter Kenneth P. Vogel has used exclusive sources, thousands of documents, and on-the-ground reporting to reveal the people, places, and deals involved in this usually unseen billion-dollar industry. It's a world of big money, fast cars, pricey cigars and flashy watches. The business of currying favor and influencing U.S. foreign policy on behalf of foreign powers is nothing new, though lately it has attracted more controversy and attention due to some of the outsized characters who rose to prominence during Donald Trump's first term in the White House. Among them is Robert Stryk, who dresses like a cowboy, failed at several businesses before bluffing his way into relationships in Washington and around the world, amassed wealth, influence, and a reputation for taking deals no one else would touch. Rudy Giuliani, once known as “America's Mayor,” found his star rising again under Trump; Giuliani leveraged his position as Trump's personal lawyer into deals with foreign interests who saw him as a direct line to the president. And then there's Hunter Biden, son of a future president and no stranger to the business, having capitalized on his father's connections since the elder Biden's days as a senator and vice president. Don't miss this conversation with Vogel, who relates these stories and more in his new book Devils' Advocates: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an age defined by disinformation, division, and deepening suspicion, one question looms large: How do we rebuild fundamental trust in one another? Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales offers an answer in his new book, The Seven Rules of Trust—a sweeping and deeply reflective look at how one of the internet's most improbable success stories came to be. What began as a scrappy experiment built by strangers is now one of the most utilized sources of information, viewed 11 billion times in just the English language edition alone. Wales says one of the first challenges the site faced was getting internet strangers to trust one another. There had to be an expectation of civility and fairness—and that others would be acting with good intentions. There had to be trust, and that's something that needed to be cultivated, maintained, and scaled in communities across the globe. How did Wikipedia do it? And how did Wikipedia leverage that trust to help it become an authority globally at the same time the public's trust in so many institutions faded? Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with Jimmy Wales as he explores what it takes to build institutions—and relationships—that last. In an era hungry for truth and connection, this dialogue offers a rare glimpse into the power of trust as a foundation for progress. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fossil-fueled climate disruption is driving political instability around the world. The relationship between climate disasters and conflict are well-established — and also complicated. Even in war-torn regions like Israel and Palestine, people work across political and ethnic divides to address humanitarian and climate crises. The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has helped bring together Israelis, Palestinians, Moroccans, and Jordanians to study and tackle shared environmental challenges. How does climate disruption reshape cross-border relations? And can climate cooperation become a force for peace? Episode Guests: Peter Schwartzstein, Environmental Journalist; Climate Security Researcher Fareed Mahameed, Assistant Director, Center for Transboundary Water Management, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies Liana Berlin-Fischler, Associate Director, Center for Applied Environmental Diplomacy, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org. Highlights: 12:42 Peter Schwartzstein on seeing the link between climate and violence 21:02 Peter Schwartzstein on the importance of governance 22:56 Peter Schwartzstein on better governance examples 27:17 Peter Schwartzstein on the danger of climate induced violence in the US 31:13 Peter Schwartzstein on new paths for cooperation 36:49 Liana Berlin-Fischler on moving to Israel 37:59 Fareed Mahameed on “fixing the world” 42:16 Fareed Mahameed on being compelled to help 47:05 Fareed Mahameed on figuring out what a community needs most 51:30 Liana Berlin-Fischler on the Jumpstarting Hope in Gaza project ***** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is this the beginning of a countermovement to Project 2025?Join us as legal expert Joyce Vance diagnoses our country's democratic ills and offers a prescription of citizen action as a cure. Vance's message is a call to action, based on placing our current crisis in historical context and coming up with a vision for what to do next. Despite what she says has been a continued erosion of democratic norms, she remains optimistic and hopeful, even acknowledging the daunting challenges ahead. She'll explain the legal context, the political history, and the practical reasons behind the rule of law and why it still matters. And she'll share things you can do—big and small—to right the balance. Because, as she writes in her Substack columns, we're all in this together.Vance is a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama; she is an MSNBC legal analyst, a distinguished visiting lecturer in law at the University of Alabama School of Law, and the co-host of the “#SistersInLaw” and “Café's Insider” podcasts. October 21, 2025 sees the publication of her first book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy. NOTE: This podcast contains explicit language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert S. McNamara was widely considered to be one of the most brilliant men of his generation. He was an invaluable ally of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as their secretary of defense, and he had a deeply moving relationship with Jackie Kennedy. But to the country, McNamara was the leading advocate for American escalation in Vietnam. He strongly advised Johnson to deploy hundreds of thousands of American ground troops, just weeks before concluding that the war was unwinnable, and for the next two and a half years McNamara failed to urge Johnson to cut his losses and withdraw. Join us to hear Philip and William Taubman examine McNamara's life of intense personal contradictions—from his childhood, his career as a young faculty member at Harvard Business School, and his World War II service, to his leadership of the Ford Motor Company and the World Bank. They had access to materials previously unavailable to McNamara biographers, including Jacqueline Kennedy's warm letters to McNamara; family correspondence dating back to McNamara's service in World War II; and a secret diary maintained by McNamara's top Vietnam policy aide. What emerges is a comprehensive story of the controversial former leader of the Pentagon: riven by melancholy, guilt, zealous loyalty, and a profound inability to admit his flawed thinking about Vietnam before it was too late. The Taubmans relate this story in McNamara at War, presenting a portrait of a man at war with himself―with a grave influence on the history of the United States and the world. The Commonwealth Club of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. 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. Philip Taubman photo by and copyright Linda Cicero, Stanford University; William Taubman photo by Michele Stapleton; courtesy the speakers. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. Organizer: George Hammond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Human-caused climate change is fueling extreme floods, wildfires, rising seas, and record-breaking heat all around the world. At the same time, some of the most senior U.S. government officials and other powerful actors are actively defunding climate programs, dismantling research institutions, erasing decades of environmental data, and launching direct attacks on climate professionals. This week's episode is about what it's like to be a climate scientist, researcher, or environmental professional trying to do meaningful work in a country with a government that increasingly doesn't want it. Many have faced harassment, threats, or dismissal — or live in fear that their funding will be frozen or cut. How does it feel to do climate work not just in an era of climate denial, but of deliberate climate erasure? Episode Guests: Rachel Rothschild, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Law School Brent Efron, Senior Manager for Permitting Innovation, Environmental Policy Innovation Center J. Timmons Roberts, Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology, Brown University **For show notes and related links, visit climateone.org/podcasts. Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 03:00 – Brent Efron on how he got into climate work 05:30 – Efron relates a casual date he had in DC 08:00 – Efron is contacted by Project Veritas, who plans to release a video they recorded of his comments about his work at the EPA during the date 11:00 – Hate and public backlash following his remarks, as well as the EPA 13:00 – Efron is contacted by EPA investigators and the FBI 17:30 – His new job in climate policy and how it feels to be doing that work again 21:30 – Rachel Rothschild explains climate superfund laws 25:00 – An organization uses FOIA to request Rothschild's emails with environmental groups, then filed a lawsuit 32:00 – Personal and professional toll it has taken on her 37:00 – Needing to have threat monitoring 41:00 – How she thinks about her work as a teacher 42:30 – J. Timmons Roberts explains his work on links between offshore wind opposition groups and entities tied to fossil fuel interests 48:00 – Marzulla Law sends a letter to Brown University demanding Roberts' work be redacted 52:30 – Universities in vulnerable position right now 58:45 – Why uncovering climate obstruction work is so important 59:45 – Climate One More Thing *** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year marked the steepest retreat to foreign assistance in recent memory, and the human cost is staggering. Global needs are growing more complex under the weight of today's crises, while the aid system—built for a different era—is facing unprecedented disruption. Yet, this moment of upheaval may be the catalyst needed for meaningful humanitarian reform. Innovation is no longer optional; it's the driving force behind resilience, adaptability, mobilizing new funding and creating pathways to progress. From reimagining delivery models to forging unconventional philanthropic partnerships, the future of aid demands transformation we cannot afford to miss and one that brings glimmers of hope. Named to the 2025 Forbes 50 Over 50, Save the Children U.S. President & CEO Janti Soeripto is navigating the funding crisis with a bold philosophy: respond, rebound, reform. In this exclusive Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California discussion, Janti joins fellow leaders tackling this urgent question: Where do we go from here, and how do we unlock innovative financing to drive shared progress? An International Relations 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. Organizer: Frank Price Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Nygren is the founder and CEO of Serenbe, a wellness community created as a model to demonstrate that preserving green space interlaced with agriculture, housing and retail is not only economically viable, but the future of community wellbeing. Nygren, a visionary placemaker—someone who specializes in transforming public spaces into areas that foster community, connection and well-being—has pulled together his expertise in Start in Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where We Live with Radical Common Sense, a blueprint for developing sustainable communities where citizens of all generations can thrive, "and awe is found in everyday moments." He says this requires understanding the following: The unintended consequences of sprawl, and why clustered development supports more green space, more housing and lower costs Why being disconnected from nature and each other is at the root of many environmental, societal and health-related woes Tactics to encourage a local food-based economy (and why that matters) How small yards, front porches, and blueberry bushes at crosswalks lead to strong, supportive neighborhoods The benefits of aging in place, and how to nurture connections between uncaged elders and free-range kids Nygren says that for many Americans, life is no longer working. We are increasingly sick, stressed, anxious, and unhappy. Many feel left behind by the economy, disillusioned by once-respected institutions, and helpless in the face of environmental decline. Nygren argues that much of this can be traced to where—and how—we live, and that by rethinking and reinvesting in our own communities, we can rediscover the joy of connected, meaningful lives for ourselves and future generations. Nygren's work has earned him the Global Wellness Institute's Leader in Innovation Award and Southface's Argon Award as well as recognition from the Urban Land Institute and the Atlanta Regional Commission. He was also named Georgia Trend's 2019 Most Respected Business Leader and the MLK Jr. Beloved Community Environmental Justice Award in 2025. Nygren currently serves on multiple local and national boards dealing with children, agriculture and environmental issues, including The Ray C. Anderson Foundation, Children & Nature Network, Chattahoochee Now and The Biophilic Institute. He is also a partner at Nygren Placemaking consulting and started his career as a serial hospitality entrepreneur, having founded the 34-restaurant group, Peasant Restaurants. A People & Nature 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. Organizer: Andrew Dudley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The human body is invincible—at least from the perspective of modern medicinal innovation. Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff and Fuzz, follows the astonishing evolution of body part replacement, from sculpting noses from brass to crafting body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3-D printing. While these advancements are miraculous lifesavers, it begs difficult bioethical questions: When and how does a person decide they'd be better off with a prosthetic than their existing limb? Can a donated heart be made to beat forever? Roach offers an insightful discussion and potential answers to these questions with her uniquely characteristic verve and infectious wit. Join us for a fascinating conversation with Mary Roach as she investigates the moral, medical and metaphysical implications of remaking ourselves from the inside out. Are we on the verge of replacing the irreplaceable? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So much of the conversation about the climate crisis focuses on prevention. But no matter how well we succeed on that front, climate-induced disasters are already causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage worldwide every year — not to mention destroying livelihoods and causing deaths. We're seeing those impacts today, and we need to be ready. Adaptation does not mean giving up on trying to rein in heat-trapping pollution; it's facing reality. The way we adapt can be creative and empowering. But what does that kind of adaptation look like? Episode Guests: Susannah Fisher, Principal Research Fellow, University College London; Author of "Sink or Swim" Nick Mott, Multimedia Journalist; Author of “This Is Wildfire” Tanya Gulliver-Garcia, Director of Educational Impact, Center for Disaster Philanthropy This episode features a field piece by David Condos, who originally reported the story for KUER in Salt Lake City, Utah.For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org. Highlights: 00:00 Intro 4:06 Susannah Fisher on her findings as a research student 7:43 Susannah Fisher on transformational changes 11:52 Susannah Fisher on the realities of climate migration 17:41 Susannah Fisher on the future of adaptation 22:47 Susannah Fisher on international cooperation 27:01 Susannah Fisher on surprising connections 30:35 Nick Mott on who is responsible for protecting your house 33:09 Nick Mott on the next level steps for protecting from wildfire 39:58 Field piece by David Condos on reusing sewage water 44:38 Tanya Gulliver-Garcia on what mutual aid is 48:20 Tanya Gulliver-Garcia on a mutual aid response to climate disasters 53:35 Climate One More Thing *** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's common about common knowledge, and how does it become common? Common knowledge—the awareness of how others think and even how others think others think—is needed for social coordination, things as basic as driving on the same side of the road or using paper currency. And it has a hidden logic that makes it all work. Cognitive psychologist and author Steven Pinker returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs in Silicon Valley to explore some of the paradoxes of human behavior. It's the subject of his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. Pinker addresses issues as seemingly disparate as why people hoard toilet paper when an emergency breaks, why crypto ads clog up Super Bowl advertising, why Russian officials arrested a protester carrying a blank sign, or even why everyone seems to agree that life would be unbearable if everyone was completely honest at all times. Tying it all together, he says, is our ability to know what others think and what others think about what others think . . . on and on, ad infinitum. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Charles H. Kahn wrote that Pythagorean contributions to Western thought were "on the one hand, a mathematical understanding of the world of nature; and, on the other hand, a conception of human destiny that points beyond the visible world and beyond the mortal body to a higher form of life." Unfortunately, for the following 2,500 years, we took the first part: logic and reason, and largely discarded the other: intuition and imagination. Or, as Nietzsche put it in The Birth of Tragedy, we chose to rely heavily on our Apollonian side (yang) while neglecting our Dionysian side (yin). And here we are, in a world of contradictions which are becoming ever more acute with the astounding recent advancements of Artificial Intelligence, which is of course based on numbers (in fact, it was Pythagoras who said, "everything known is a number"). How do we go back to the Pythagorean tradition? How do we restore balance between Apollo and Dionysus? On this special evening, we will attempt to do just that. We will start with a talk by Edward Frenkel, mathematician, Berkeley professor, and author of Love and Math (currently out in 20 languages) who considers himself a Pythagorean. He will provide the context and the background. His talk will be followed by a ceremony, administered not by a priest or shaman but, as is more common these days, by DJs. During the dance party following Edward Frenkel's talk, DJ Wilder (Anna Fedorova) will dazzle us with music sourced from different genres and epochs, followed by Edward Frenkel himself (as DJ Moonstein) playing back-to-back with Cihat Fitzgerald (DJ Chi) taking us further into the unknown. Magic awaits. 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. Frenkel photo courtesy the speaker; public domain painting is "Pythagoreans Celebrate the Sunrise" by Fyodor Bronnikov. Organizer: George Hammond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Film screening and Q&A with director Naja Pham Lockwood and panelists; building community and healing through food with Bay Area Vietnamese chefs and restaurateurs. Join us for a film screening of On Healing Land, Birds Perch, a documentary by Naja Pham Lockwood, a Vietnamese-born filmmaker, which explores the continuing aftershocks of the Vietnam War from the perspectives of both sides of the war: North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese, including Vietnamese Americans alive today. The story is told through the iconic Pulitzer-Prize-winning photo by Associated Press photojournalist Eddie Adams of South Vietnamese General Loan executing Viet Cong Captain Lem two days after the 1968 Tet Offensive. Interviewees include the daughter of General Loan, the children of Captain Lem, and the son of the family who was allegedly killed by Captain Lem and his men. All share the intense emotions this photo continues to elicit and the impact it has had on their lives. The interviewees hold widely differing views, but the film poignantly portrays what they all have in common: the lasting trauma from the war. The Commonwealth Club of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming. 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. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Organizer: George Hammond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August, after Texas acceded to President Donald Trump's demand that it adopt a redistricting plan favoring Republicans, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would fight back. He signed legislation creating Prop. 50, which asks voters to suspend California's independent redistricting maps and allow the legislature to draw new districts. "Today, we gave every Californian the opportunity to stop Trump by saying yes to our people, to our state, and to American democracy," Newsom said at the time. Supporters say the plan is a temporary but critical defense against partisan mapmaking in other states. They argue that California must step in to protect democracy nationwide and pledge that the state will restore its independent redistricting process after 2030. Critics, who include former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, contend the proposal undermines the state's voter-approved redistricting reforms, restoring the same partisan gerrymandering that California has banned. “We know American democracy is on fire, but accelerating gerrymandering only adds fuel!,” a No-on-50 ballot argument states. “[Prop. 50] claims to protect democracy, yet diminishes our communities' voices and is ineffective against any overreach of presidential power.” With voting already underway, join us to learn more about Prop. 50 and what's at stake for California and control of Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After nearly 14 years, the Club's Week to Week Political Roundtable and Social Hour is drawing to a close. The next two Week to Week programs—on Wednesday, October 15 and Monday, November 17—will be the final two programs in the series. That means it's your last chance to join us in-person for our lively political conversations, preceded by a social hour when you can mix with other attendees and have some wine and light bites. During times of political upheaval and great stress, it can be a great help to gather with others who are also interested in learning the latest about the people, topics, and trends moving the political world. Join us for the Week to Week political roundtable. Learn more about the people, trends and topics driving the political news of the day. Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our online programming. See other upcoming Week to Week political roundtables, as well as audio and video of past Week to Week programs. Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Brewster Kahle will be in conversation about the rise of the internet, its continuing and explosive impact on society, the importance of the Internet Archive and other developing issues in the growth and use of the internet. Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web, HTML, the URL system and HTTP. Berners-Lee proposed an information management system on 12 March 1989 and implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in mid-November of that year. He devised and implemented the first web browser and web server and helped foster the web's subsequent development. He is the founder and emeritus director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the continued development of the web. With Rosemary Leith he co-founded the World Wide Web Foundation. In April 2009, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences. Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, is a passionate advocate for public internet access. He has spent his career intent on a singular focus: providing universal access to all knowledge. Soon after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kahle helped found the company Thinking Machines, a parallel supercomputer maker. In 1989, Kahle created the internet's first publishing system, called the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS). In 1996, Kahle founded the Internet Archive, and he co-founded Alexa Internet, which helped catalog the Web. A Technology & Society 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. OrganizerGerald Anthony Harris Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This program features a unique public affairs arts conversation between Chinese-born composer Huang Ruo and Matthew Shilvock, who is in his tenth season as San Francisco Opera's general director. The Monkey King (猴王悟空), by Huang Ruo and American librettist/playwright David Henry Hwang, conducted by Carolyn Kuan, is of topical interest as an action hero story with moments of peace and reflection. The Monkey King centers around the mythic hero from China's classic novel Journey to the West. A monkey born from a stone becomes the ruler of the monkeys and challenges the gods of the seas and heavens in a bid for immortality. SF Opera is producing the world premiere, performed in English and Chinese, uniting the disciplines of opera, dance and puppetry. The Monkey King's blended production is not your grandmothers' traditional opera! It's also a 2024 blockbuster video game Black Myth: Wukong. Musical theatre audiences are familiar with Broadway's acclaimed Tony award winning M. Butterfly team, which was also led by Ruo and American librettist/playwright David Henry Whang and conductor Carolyn Kuan. Describing a technique he calls "dimensionalism," Ruo uses a “musical voice which draws equal inspiration from Chinese folk, Western avant-garde, rock and jazz (Mimakos, 2011)." Of Monkey King, he says, "In our new opera, which blends cultural traditions with a spectacular multidisciplinary production, I hope to bring this Eastern superhero to life and shine a hopeful light that will always appear in any turbulent time.” Shilvock announced that The Monkey King, opening November 14 at War Memorial Opera House, reflects SF Opera's commitment to global storytelling that makes a difference. He notes that “It's indicative of artistry that affirms the Bay Area as one of the great cultural centers of the world.” Our moderator will be Cole Thomason-Redus, vice chair of the Arts Member-led Forum, and educational content curator for San Francisco Opera. An Arts 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 San Francisco Opera and Chinese Heritage Foundation of Minnesota. Organizer: Anne W Smith & Cole Thomas-Redus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We know what needs to be done to ward off the worst impacts of global climate disruption: rein in heat-trapping pollution, reverse deforestation, build resilient systems. But how we do those things is the trick. Every second counts. The sooner we act, the more lives saved, the more jobs protected and the more futures secured. So how do we orchestrate the vast change we need in a short amount of time? World Resources Institute President Ani Dasgupta gives his honest take on the lack of progress since the Paris Agreement was signed 10 years ago — and maps a path forward. Guests: Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO, World Resources Institute (WRI); Author, “The New Global Possible” Jonathan Foley, Executive Director, Project Drawdown Nikhil Swaminathan, CEO, Grist Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 01:46 – Importance of the Paris Accords in terms of multilateralism 04:00 – Backlash to climate action 07:00 – The market is producing the technology we need, but we also need to deploy them at scale 12:00 – How do we get companies producing the bulk of emissions to change course? 16:00 – Addressing climate disruption is a societal choice about what we value 20:40 – Why COP is essential and also disappointing and maddening 23:30 – Unpacking climate finance and why it's so important 27:30 – Addressing justice isn't a choice but an imperative when it comes to climate 31:00 – How to keep focused and remain optimistic in this current moment 37:00 – We have everything we need right now to solve climate change 41:00 – Project Drawdown's analysis of what climate tools do and don't work 45:00 – So many missed climate opportunities 52:00 – Tradeoffs of tools like batteries 58:00 – Climate One More Thing ***** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

oin former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin for a timely and candid online-only conversation about his maverick career in government, crossing party lines, and addressing the dysfunction at the heart of our politics—centered around his new memoir, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense. At a time when our country feels more divided than ever, Senator Manchin is inviting Americans back to the center—where solutions are possible, principles still matter, and leadership starts with listening. From the coal fields of Farmington, West Virginia, to some of the highest-stakes decisions in the U.S. Senate, Manchin has never wavered from his core beliefs: fiscal responsibility, social compassion, and putting country before party. In Dead Center—part memoir, part manifesto—he makes a passionate case for a new, solutions-oriented politics rooted in common sense. Reflecting on the decisions that shaped him as a leader and public servant, he shares never-before-told stories from inside the Senate and the White House, along with fresh insight into how government can deliver real results for the American people. It's a reminder that leadership still matters, character still counts, and common sense should never go out of style. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When President Trump deployed the military to Los Angeles in June, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called it an “abuse of presidential power.” Napolitano, who is also the former governor of Arizona, told MSNBC that to federalize the national guard over California Governor Gavin Newsom's objections was “simply outrageous.” During Napolitano's time at DHS, she beefed up border security and increased deportations while also spearheading the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. Now director of the new Institute for Security and Governance at UC Berkeley, Napolitano joins Commonwealth Club World Affairs to talk about the current administration's border crackdown, criticism of ICE tactics, and what it all means for immigration policy, civil liberties and the economy. We'll also hear from Napolitano, the former president of the University of California, about Trump's efforts to reshape higher education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With TikTok's 1.6 billion active users worldwide and unprecedented power it wields over culture, politics, and commerce, the social video app's addictive algorithm is one of the greatest prizes in America's technological cold war with China. How did this social media platform become so wildly popular and a source of contention in international politics? In her book Every Screen on the Planet, Harvard-trained lawyer and investigative journalist Emily Baker-White charts TikTok's rise from the Chinese founders' ambitions to its emergence as the world's most valuable startup―and a potential surveillance and propaganda tool for strongmen―to the dramatic events surrounding its ban and tenuous resurrection in January 2025. Come hear about the reporting that caused TikTok to track the author and led to an ongoing criminal investigation. Baker-White's engrossing narrative takes us inside the struggle as hawks in Congress push the company to the brink while the U.S. government seeks backdoor access to observe and influence TikTok's data stream. Touching on politics, finance, business, and technology, she explains that the war for TikTok will either create a blueprint for autocrats to warp our information landscape or close the open internet as we know it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Shaka Senghor was twice denied parole after 18 years behind bars, he had to decide: surrender to despair or transform himself from within. He chose the path of hope. He adopted daily practices including journaling, meditation, mindfulness, and creative expression, and he turned his vision into action—in the process, discovering how to break free from everything that was holding him back from reaching his true potential. As a result, he was able to focus on what he saw as his greatest barriers, which were within his own mind, and he discovered some truths about freedom he believes apply far beyond the walls of prison and that can transform every aspect of life, from relationships to careers. New York Times bestselling author Senghor returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to share his inspiration for transforming lives, just as he transformed his self-esteem after incarceration. Photo by Aaron Jay Young; courtesy the speaker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The global view from the frontlines of journalism, where every border tells a bigger story. Commonwealth Club World Affairs welcomes the World Press Institute, which has been the premier organization in the United States providing international journalists with the opportunity to broadly investigate this country—its values, traditions of a free press, institutions, customs, and people. These nine journalists from across the globe are here because of the World Press Institute. This is the 60th annual journalism fellowship program. Hailing from Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, and Namibia, these journalists represent the future of media and bring with them a diverse range of perspectives and experiences. Learn how these international journalists are reporting on a world in flux: where borders are hardening, alliances are shifting, and disinformation is redefining public trust. These journalists will share their notes on the dynamics of power in geopolitics, in tech, in media—and how these forces are felt on the ground back home. The journalists include (Argentina) Mr. Marcelo Silva de Sousa; (Bulgaria) Ms. Janan Dura; (Canada) Mr. Ian Froese; (Egypt) Ms. Eman Ahmed; (Finland) Ms. Nina Svahn; (Indonesia) Ms. Ardhike Setyaningrum; (Italy) Ms. Francesca Canto; and (Kenya) Mr. Njoroge Muiga; (Namibia) Ms. Sonja Smith. All are International Fellows of the World Press Institute. An International Relations 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. Presented with the World Press Institute. Organizer: Frank Price Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices