Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Join us for an online conversation with one of the biggest names in science fiction—bestselling author John Scalzi. He has entertained millions of fans with his hugely popular Old Man's War series of books and other novels, earned himself two Hugo awards, and regularly engages and occasionally enrages the science fiction world with his lively blog on whatever.scalzi.com. Scalzi's newest novel, The Last Emperox, caps off his Interdependency trilogy that began with The Collapsing Empire and The Consuming Fire. In this final volume, Emperox Grayland must pull out all of the stops to save as much of humanity as possible from the collapsing network that ties together the human worlds; she is opposed by forces who want to destroy her and could end up destroying human civilization in the process. Don't miss this discussion with the witty, outspoken and talented John Scalzi. This is an online program, presented free; donations are welcome and may be made during the registration process Purchase a signed copy of The Last Emperox from San Francisco's legendary SF bookstore Borderlands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all face difficulty and pain in life, and whether we are the perpetrators or the victims, we must all inevitably learn how to forgive and open up to healing. New York Times best-selling author Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt has experienced the often slow and thorny journey toward forgiveness, and she knows how the power of personal insight can illuminate the path of forgiveness. In her new book, The Gift of Forgiveness, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt helps people navigate the difficult path toward healing with first-hand accounts and experiences from her own life. Join her, in conversation with New York Times best-selling author Kelly Corrigan, to learn the power of forgiveness in finding peace and acceptance. This program is free, though we invite you to make a donation during registration ** This Podcast Contains Explicit Language ** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The catastrophic, overwhelming challenges we are facing globally are manifesting locally—week by week, day by day, hour by hour. Cities are besieged. Economies are failing. Friends are dying. As the human toll creeps ever higher, it begins to feel as though our very humanity lies in the balance. How can we preserve it? Although the scale of the COVID-19 disaster is unprecedented, it is worth recalling that this is not the first time that human societies have faced catastrophic collapse. What can we learn from those who have come before us? The Commonwealth Club and UC Berkeley's Townsend Center for the Humanities invite you to take part in Catastrophe: Dialogues on Storytelling and the Present Moment, a series of conversations that will examine catastrophe and the essential role that stories play in helping us to face and survive catastrophe. Bringing together (remotely, of course) internationally known humanities scholars from UC Berkeley and prominent figures from the Bay Area arts community, this series is an opportunity to share knowledge and renew hope by discussing literary accounts of catastrophic change, ranging from Ancient Egypt to Bronze Age Troy and from Imperial Rome to colonial America. Please join Townsend Center scholar Ron Hendel and poet Matthew Zapruder to discuss the Book of Exodus. Ron and Matthew will look at and listen to the poetry at work in the Exodus account of the collapse of pharaoh’s Canaanite empire and the subsequent rise of Israel. Their conversation will bring the power of that poetry and the cultural memories embedded within it to bear on the precarious nature of our present moment. Ronald Hendel is the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many books and articles on the religion, literature, and history of the Hebrew Bible, including The Book of Genesis: A Biography, and How Old is the Hebrew Bible? He is the general editor of The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition. Matthew Zapruder is the author of five collections of poetry, including Come On All You Ghosts, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Father’s Day (Copper Canyon, 2019), as well as Why Poetry, a book of prose. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a William Carlos Williams Award, a May Sarton Award from the Academy of American Arts and Sciences, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship in Marfa, TX. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is an Associate Professor at Saint Mary’s College of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the coronavirus spreads rapidly through the population, the United States is racing to provide test kits, develop a vaccine and find treatments. Meanwhile, we’re running dangerously low on supplies, ranging from ventilators and test reagents to gowns and N95 masks. When will we have the test kits we need? Can we develop a vaccine and identify treatments in time to contain the pandemic? Will we have enough ventilators to save patients and sufficient equipment to protect our providers? Three leading experts will share where we are today, where we are headed, and what it will take to get us there. In association with The Zetema Project This program is free, though please consider making a donation during registration This program will be online only, and you must pre-register for a link to the program This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors; we are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us virtually for a conversation with Robert Hirst about the millions of words Mark Twain wrote but left behind for Hirst and his team to organize. The Mark Twain Project at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library started with a core collection transferred in 1949 to UC Berkeley by Clara, Mark Twain’s sole surviving daughter. For the last four decades, the ever-growing archive of original and photocopied documents, unpublished manuscripts and thousands of letters, as well as the editorial project to create a digital record of everything Mark Twain wrote, have both been under Hirst’s direction. That project included publishing Mark Twain’s complete autobiography in 2010, 100 years after he died—a century’s wait required by Twain’s desire to save his heirs from being lynched. Hear a great storyteller tell great stories about one of America’s greatest authors. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities ** This Podcast Contains Explicit Language ** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nuclear power - revive it or allow a slow death? Today, about a hundred nuclear plants provide 20 percent of America’s electricity. Once touted as a modern power source, nuclear fell out of favor after a series of major accidents – most notably those at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. A handful of the plants that once dotted the landscape have been shuttered because they can’t compete with cheaper sources of power. By the end of the century, the industry was languishing. But the urgency of climate change causes some to advocate giving nuclear a new lease on life. A discussion about the health of the nuclear power industry today, and the 21 st century innovations that could point to a new path forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Through the adept facilitation of journalist Katie Hafner, the audience will hear directly from four expert panelists from four key service organizations that are helping to connect older adults at risk of social isolation. Village organizations, assisted living communities, phone line support services and senior centers are facing new challenges to support and connect at-risk older adults and disabled people in this time of social distancing and self-quarantine. Each of the four types of organizations is different. Learning how all four are working from different angles to meet the challenge of social isolation posed by this epidemic will give a sense of what is possible—and hopefully will generate ideas to open even more avenues for socialization. To bring it all together, Commonwealth Club president and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy will give us her family's firsthand perspective of living with her aging mother who suddenly finds herself separated from the groups and activities that would routinely bring connection and variety to her life. MLF Organizer: John Milford MLF: Grownups Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to the general shut-down and shelter-in-place orders, you're home—now what? We're talking with three TV and media critics about the television shows and movies that are worth your time. What classic movies should you watch? Where can you find them? Which TV series are worth binge viewing? What programs have you overlooked but now have the time to discover and enjoy? Join us for a fun and informative program to help us all get through these tough times. Notes This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The vulnerability of certain populations to the coronavirus COVID-19 has been well publicized—everyone knows seniors and people with asthma, diabetes and certain other conditions are in the most danger from the virus. But less well-known is the virus' impact on LGBTQI communities. Join us for a discussion with experts about how this virulent disease impacts this community, and submit your questions for our speakers on our YouTube livestream. This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors. We are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few individuals are as uniquely qualified to provide insight about the coronavirus pandemic as physician Dr. Margaret Hamburg. She is the past commissioner of Public Health for the city of New York, and also the past commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, having served as the chief U.S. official responsible for approving new drugs. She also sits on the board of the organization Ending Pandemics. Dr. Hamburg will be in conversation from Washington, D.C. with Dr. Gloria Duffy, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Club. They will cover the prospects and timing for drug treatments for the coronavirus, how the virus and policies to stop its spread will affect New York, who predicted a pandemic and what advice they gave, and how the coronavirus spread and lessons to learn to prevent future pandemics. Dr. Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine, and currently serves as foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine and chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative Bio Advisory Group. She previously served as assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. As foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, Hamburg serves as senior adviser on international matters and is the liaison with other Academies of Medicine around the world. She is president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), as well as an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Hamburg earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Notes This program is generously supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a collaborative of local funders and donors. We are grateful for their support and hope others will follow their example to support the Club during these uncertain times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices