Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

On March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman delivered an address before Congress announcing a policy of Soviet containment that would later be known as the Truman Doctrine. This was just the beginning of a global movement against communist attempts at power that changed U.S. foreign procedure and policy. In his new book, Saving Freedom: Truman, the Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization, Scarborough documents the hard work of the U.S. government in containing the spread of communism around the world. The historical account focuses a particular spotlight on President Truman and his ability to rally Republicans and Democrats behind one of America’s most dramatic foreign policy shifts. Join us as Scarborough tells the story of a president’s ability to protect democracy not only in the United States, but around the world. Joe Scarborough is the co-host of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. He is a former Republican congressman from Florida and also writes for The Washington Post. Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

As discussed in his new book The Myth of Chinese Capitalism, Dexter "Tiff" Roberts will describe how surging income inequality, an unfair social welfare system, and rising social tensions block China’s continued economic rise, with implications for companies and countries around the world. He will discuss how China is struggling to leave behind its "Factory to the World" growth model, and include its hundreds of millions of left-behind migrant workers into a more innovative, consumption-driven economy. The conversation will also focus on how these internal challenges could well further complicate the already troubled relationship between China, the United States, and the world. Dexter Roberts is an award-winning writer and speaker who previously spent more than two decades as China bureau chief and Asia news editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, reporting from all of China’s provinces and regions, as well as Taiwan, Mongolia and North Korea. He now serves as an adjunct instructor in political science and a Mansfield Fellow at the University of Montana and as a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Asia Security Initiative. He has launched a China newsletter called "Trade War"; his book The Myth of Chinese Capitalism: the Worker, the Factory and the Future of the World was published in March 2020. Mei Fong is an award-winning communicator and writer. As a Wall Street Journal China correspondent, she won multiple awards, including a shared Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. Her first book, on China’s one-child policy, was critically acclaimed and winner of a non-fiction award by the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Her efforts led to her being named a Top 50 influencer on U.S.-China relations by Foreign Policy magazine. She has appeared on CNN, CBS and ABC, and her writings have been published in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian. She is a graduate from the National University of Singapore and holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.

Activist Alicia Garza started a movement that changed how we think about race. One of the pioneers behind the phrase #BlackLivesMatter, Alicia co-founded the Black Lives Matter Network in 2013 and remains a seminal leader in the effort to organize for racial justice. In her new book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, Garza relays details and lessons from her life working as a community organizer. Garza argues for a new outlook in community organizing in which social movements are more accommodating and understanding of burgeoning activists. Join her at INFORUM to learn more about what it takes to effectively mobilize people around the issues that matter the most, from climate justice to voter suppression. NOTES This program is generously underwritten by the Blue Shield of California Foundation.

Join us for a virtual conversation with Lisa Feldman Barrett to explore fundamental questions, like why we even have a brain and what that means for all of us. When we think about the larger issues in our own society, and for humanity as a species, we don't often focus on the role science plays in our understanding of these issues. But even when not explicitly involved in the discussion, the assumptions of scientific thought influence how we think about almost everything. Feldman Barrett takes us on a scientific journey, in 7-1/2 steps, full of intrigue and adventure, inviting you to think about important topics such as: Are we rational creatures? If rationality is not the absence of emotion, what is it? Why does loneliness make people physically sick? Why do we create societies that grant individual rights and freedoms in spite of the human nervous system having evolved to be biologically dependent on other humans? What does this mean for notions of hate speech or free speech? For democracy? And most essentially, what kind of person do you want to be? This program contains EXPLICIT language.

Noted chef José Andrés and actor/activist Sean Penn are of course each well regarded for their respective talents. But in recent years, they have worked both individually and together to provide philanthropic assistance to those in need. Join us for a program that will salute these efforts and discuss what we all can do to help others during this challenging time. Chef Andres' World Central Kitchen has served nearly 25 million meals throughout the United States, Spain and beyond in response to the COVID pandemic. By feeding health-care workers across the country with meals prepared at restaurants that would have otherwise remained closed due to stay-at-home orders, he has provided laid-off restaurant workers jobs during the pandemic. His organization also served more than 3.6 million meals to the people of Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, and in 2018, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Penn's CORE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and strengthening communities affected by or vulnerable to crisis around the world, including in Haiti, The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the United States. CORE is currently committed to an integrated approach for the COVID-19 relief effort across the United States, which is inclusive of streamlined testing with results returned within 48 hours, comprehensive and timely contact tracing programs, supported quarantine and isolation services that provide shelter, food and wage replacement. The organization has been operating free COVID-19 testing sites across the United States since March, with a focus on serving vulnerable and underserved communities, targeting low-income groups, communities of color, first responders and essential workers. At the end of this program, Chef Andrés will be presented with the John Steinbeck Award "In the Souls of the People." This award is given to writers, artists, thinkers and activists whose work captures Steinbeck’s empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of people who by circumstance are pushed to the fringes. The phrase “in the souls of the people” comes from Chapter 25 of The Grapes of Wrath. Chef Andres has cited John Steinbeck as a motivator for his work, also quoting The Grapes of Wrath: "Whenever there is a fight, so hungry people may eat, I will be there.'" Mr. Penn is a past recipient of the Steinbeck Award, and other recipients include Bruce Springsteen, Arthur Miller, Joan Baez, Dolores Huerta, Michael Moore, Ken Burns and Rachel Maddow. Come for this important program about giving back. NOTES In partnership with the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, San Jose State University. A portion of the program's proceeds will go to the Steinbeck Center, and a portion of the proceeds from Chef Andrés' book We Fed an Island will go to the Chef Relief Network of World Central Kitchen.

Join us for this special program in The Commonwealth Club's series recognizing recipients of the Club's 2020 Distinguished Citizens Award. This program honors Lauren (Laurie) Dachs and her colleagues at the S. D. Bechtel Jr., Foundation. The Foundation, based in San Francisco, was established in 1957 by Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr., as a reflection of his personal commitment to ensuring a prosperous California. To this day, Mr. Bechtel remains involved with the foundation as chair of its board, and his daughter, Laurie Dachs, serves as president. The foundation is a grant-making organization that "invests in preparing California’s children and youth to contribute to the state’s economy and communities, and in advancing management of California’s water and land resources.” In 2009 the foundation made a pivotal decision to spend down its assets in a defined period of time. The foundation will sunset at the end of 2020. The Commonwealth Club is pleased to honor the foundation's myriad achievements. Joya Banerjee joined the Bechtel Foundation in 2009, and she oversees the foundation’s Environment Program. She works with the Environment team to advance water management and land stewardship in California, with a particular focus on advancing integrated solutions, building field capacity, and developing new partnerships. Prior to joining the foundation, Ms. Banerjee was an attorney at Latham & Watkins and worked for the City of New York, first with the Mayor’s Office of Operations and later with the Economic Development Division of the Law Department. Banerjee graduated from the University of Southern California and received a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School. She currently serves on a range of advisory boards; she is a board member for the newly formed state California Water Data Consortium and the San Francisco-based 826 Valencia. Arron Jiron joined the Bechtel Foundation in 2012 and is the associate program director for the Education Program. He leads the team’s grant making in education policy and advocacy, with an overall focus on supporting California’s implementation of new math and science standards and on expanding civic learning, character development, and environmental literacy to improve the quality of student learning in and out of school. Before joining the foundation, for six years, Mr. Jiron served as program officer at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where he led grant making for policy, advocacy and systems building to advance early education and youth development programs. Prior to that, he was the development director for a state intermediary that improves access and quality of youth development programs in California. Mr. Jiron started his career at a community action agency in Nebraska, where he led the creation of the Youth Opportunities Center, a comprehensive education division for low-income youth and young adults. There, he co-developed a nationally recognized restorative justice project for youth in the juvenile justice system, launched a YouthBuild program, and designed a regional workforce development system for adults.

Is this the end of the road for the internal combustion engine? California isn’t the first major economy to ban gas-powered cars and trucks, and it won’t be the last. Fifteen countries, including some of the world’s top auto markets, have announced plans to phase out gas-powered engines as a step toward a 100% zero-emission vehicle future. It’s a bold move, but a critical one for climate. Transportation emits more greenhouse gas than any other sector of the US economy, and 15% of all global emissions come from road transport. What does this mean for drivers, for automakers, for infrastructure and for businesses that depend on a gas-powered economy? Can we get to a zero-emission future quickly enough?

In honor of Transgender Awareness Month, join a dynamic post-election discussion with trans leaders and advocates on the fight for trans rights. The event also includes an important discussion on trans health equity and wellness in the time of COVID and beyond. Trans and gender nonconforming communities—especially trans communities of color—continue to be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased needs for inclusive and community-led services and solutions. Kicking off with remarks by San Francisco Mayor London Breed, our host and panelists include Akira Jackson, Aria Sa’id, Nicole Santamaria, Clair Farley, Maceo Persson, Michelle Meow, and more. Get information and learn how to support essential community services, including housing, mutual aid programs, employment, and more. Learn how people can improve trans health care, testing and mental health services in a time of COVID. Learn strategies to address the increased anti-trans violence and systemic racism in our communities. Find out how allies can get involved and support trans rights. Come learn how you can take action and get involved during Trans Month and beyond. NOTE: This program contains EXPLICIT language

Few 18-year-olds have thousands of Twitter followers, unless they're actors or boy band stars. But Georgia teenager Niles Francis' 21,500 Twitter followers—including many established political journalists, analysts and strategists—follow him because of his expertise at analyzing voting trends and data. A regular contributor to Decision Desk HQ, Francis has earned praise for his insight and skill. Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein praised Francis in Jewish Insider, saying he has "quickly made a mark on Georgia politics with his quick wit and incisive analysis. Most people are stunned to discover he’s a teenager and not a grizzled veteran politico—a testament to his remarkable political aptitude.” Join us for a live conversation with the Atlanta-based political wunderkind about analyzing votes, trends, and just what he makes of the rare double-run off elections for U.S. senators in his home state of Georgia.

Our distinguished panel will discuss the history of the conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan to gain control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory within Azerbaijan mainly populated by Armenians. The influence that Russia, Turkey, America, Iran, etc. have in the dispute and the specter of a regional war will also be discussed. MLF ORGANIZER Celia Menczel NOTES MLF: Middle East

Join us for a virtual conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Ricks to discuss four founding fathers, their educations and, in particular, their devotion to the ancient Greek and Roman classics—and how that influence would shape their ideals and the new American nation. Ricks, provoked by the 2016 presidential election, awoke the next morning wondering what kind of nation we had now. He decided to go back and read the philosophy and literature that shaped the founders’ thinking, and the letters they wrote to each other debating classics like The Iliad, Plutarch’s Lives, and the works of Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato and Cicero. Ricks creates fresh portraits of the presidents we thought we knew by showing that Washington absorbed the classics mainly from the elite culture of his day, Adams from the laws and rhetoric of Rome, Jefferson from classical philosophy, especially Epicureanism, and Madison from his years studying the ancient world like a political scientist. First Principles follows these four from their youth on, as they grapple with questions of independence, and forming and keeping a new nation. But Ricks not only interprets the effect of the ancient world on each president, and how that shaped our constitution and government, he also offers us a startling contrast with our leaders today, reinforcing the currently overlooked idea that learning from history is more socially productive than canceling it. MLF ORGANIZER George Hammond NOTES MLF: Humanities This program contains EXPLICIT language.

John Hope Bryant says American opportunity is not dead. In his new book, Mr. Bryant outlines the mindset and practices that he says will allow all of us to achieve the American Dream, no matter what our current circumstances. He discusses his own rise from humble beginnings, and argues that individually, we can change our mindset from survivor to thriver to winner, and move beyond just getting by or being financially independent to becoming wildly successful. Mr. Bryant is a prominent thought leader on financial inclusion, economic empowerment and financial dignity. His Operation HOPE, Inc.is the largest nonprofit, best-in-class provider of financial literacy and economic empowerment services in the United States for youth and adults. Bryant is also founder and principal of The Promise Homes Company, the largest minority-controlled owner of single-family rental homes in the United States. He has been listed as one of Time magazine’s “50 Leaders for the Future." The last five United States presidents have recognized Bryant's work, and he has served as an advisor to the last three sitting U.S. presidents from both political parties. He is responsible for financial literacy becoming the policy of the U.S. federal government. Bryant has received Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award, the John Sherman Award for Excellence in Financial Education from the U.S. Treasury, and The Commonwealth Club's Distinguished Citizen Award. Come for an inspirational discussion with real world advice for achieving financial security. This program is generously underwritten by First Republic Bank

Join us for a rare conversation with renowned statesman George Shultz, former long-time State Department official James Timbie and economist Adele Hayutin about opportunities facing the United States and the world at this unique point in history. In their new book, Hinge of History, our speakers say that the world is at an inflection point. They argue that with advancing technologies, great demographic changes, and governance in disarray, a new world is emerging and it is still possible to make positive changes. They present concrete proposals for the United States to lead the way in addressing such issues as immigration, K–12 education, updating the social safety net, maintaining economic productivity, protecting democratic processes, and improving national security. Come for a discussion about how to foster international cooperation, constructive engagement, and strong governance and ultimately create a better future.

What is the role of the Peace Corps? Where is the Peace Corps going in the future? What are some of the changes envisaged? How does the National Peace Corps Association connect and work with Peace Corps? Join us for an in-depth conversation with two leaders of this unique movement. Peace Corps Director Jody K. Olsen was sworn into office as the 20th director of the Peace Corps in March 2018. Olsen began her career as a Peace Corps volunteer, serving in Tunisia 1966–1968. She has since served the agency in numerous leadership positions. Prior to returning to the Peace Corps in 2018, Olsen was a visiting professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Social Work and director of the University's Center for Global Education Initiatives. Throughout her career, Olsen has championed the expansion of service, learning and international opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds. Glenn Blumhorst is president and CEO of National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), a 501(c)(3) enterprise at the center of a community of more than 180 grassroots affiliate groups and 235,000 individuals who share the Peace Corps experience. Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., NPCA’s mission is “to champion lifelong commitment to Peace Corps ideals.” Blumhorst launched his career by serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1988 to 1991. He holds a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science in agriculture, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia. MLF ORGANIZER Frank Price NOTES MLF: International Relations

Please join us for an exclusive and comprehensive docent art talk by Kathryn Zupsic on the exhibit "Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving," currently showing at the de Young Museum. We'll take a close look at some of Kahlo's personal items, photographs and paintings that reveal the many ways the artist constructed her identity. The talk will be followed by Q&A, so bring your questions as we decipher the world of Frida. MLF ORGANIZER Robert Melton NOTES MLF: Arts