Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

COVID-19 is challenging the U.S. health-care system in unprecedented ways. Hospitals are staggering under the burden of treating infected patients, doctors struggle to protect themselves while working overtime, and insurers weigh eliminating co-pays for testing and treatment as their expenses skyrocket. Hear top executives from among the country’s largest hospital systems, physician groups and health insurers describe the situations they’re facing and how they’re coping with our nation’s worst pandemic. Notes 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.

What can the spread of the coronavirus teach us about the spread of climate change? Both crises have global reach, invisible perpetrators, and require aggressive, early action for containment. But while an infectious disease is acute and deeply personal, the impacts of a changing climate are systemic and vague. Scientists point out that the coronavirus family—which includes COVID-19 and SARS—originated as an animal disease that can be passed along to humans. With increased human development encroaching into wildlife areas, should communities be preparing for more pandemics? A conversation on climate factors shaping human health with Brian Allan, associate professor of entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Aaron Bernstein, interim director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Barbara Gottlieb, director of environment and health at Physicians for Social Responsibility. 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.

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.

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 **

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.

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.

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 **

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.

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

Shahid Buttar is challenging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2020 election, hoping to succeed her as the representative for California D-12. In a district where Pelosi regularly is reelected with more than 70 or 80 percent of the vote, it's an uphill climb. But Buttar is riding a wave of Democratic Socialist enthusiasm, and he believes he has a chance to topple the country's top Democrat. Join us online to meet Buttar and talk politics in this high-stakes election year. This is a free program, but please consider supporting the Club during these uncertain times by making a donation at registration

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

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.

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.

Join us virtually for a Monday Night Philosophy conversation with Kitty Ferguson about the life and scientific theories of Stephen Hawking, whom she first met in 1988. That encounter began her mid-life transition from being a professional singer, music teacher and Juilliard graduate to an explainer of difficult scientific concepts and Hawking’s biographer. We will also discuss her nine other books, which she wrote in the clearest possible manner, translating from the “language” of mathematicians, scientists, and other experts into the language of the rest of us, without dumbing down the ideas. There is nothing more Pythagorean than that combination of clarity, theoretical science and music, and Ferguson’s childhood and family life, even more than her formal education, prepared her well for merging all three talents. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

Join us virtually for a conversation with Tamim Ansary about the patterns he sees in ancient civilizations and in current cultures derived from those historical developments. The four major rivers along which large-scale human civilizations began—the Nile, the Tigris–Euphrates, the Indus and the Huang He—each had characteristic traits that contributed to the underlying cultural assumptions our ancestors made about the nature of reality. Being who we are, mainly concerned with the world as seen through our own culture's eyes, for most of recorded history each major civilization has seen the other civilizations as peripheral players on this planet. Ansary shows how we have always been interconnected but that the speed at which that takes place in the 21st century has made many issues worldwide concerns requiring consensus on solutions, including climate change and the spread of deadly viruses. Ansary wants us to understand, in time, that each human civilization we have created mostly has points of similarity with every other civilization in our pursuit of happiness and that it is the points of cultural divergence that are truly peripheral. MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities