Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

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

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

Join us for a conversation with Mabel van Oranje, human rights activist and serial entrepreneur for social change, for a reflection on the global challenges facing women and girls, and the solutions that are possible.Mabel has dedicated her career to ending the practice of child marriage, which impacts 12 million girls every year. That’s a girl every 3 seconds. Her latest venture is VOW for Girls, which invests in the power, voice and choice of girls whose futures are at risk. In this interactive Q&A, Mabel will discuss her journey and share her vision for a world in which every girl can determine her own future.SPEAKERSMabel van OranjePrincess Mabel van Oranje of the Netherlands; Serial Entrepreneur for Social Change; Founder and Chair, VOW for GirlsRandy NewcombSenior Advisor, The Omidyar Group—ModeratorIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on March 22nd, 2023 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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