Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

La Cocina started in San Francisco, one of the nation’s most competitive food industries, as a grassroots organization in the Mission District. It has grown into the best-known kitchen incubator in the United States. La Cocina provides support and resources to help women, people of color and immigrants formalize and expand their food businesses to create a more diverse and equitable food industry. Caleb Zigas, executive director of La Cocina, built the original infrastructure of the incubator program. This program now supports nearly 40 growing businesses and continues to break down barriers and strengthen communities. For the first time, get a glimpse of this life-changing work with We Are La Cocina, a new cookbook that offers over 40 stories of women pursuing economic freedom and includes over 120 of their recipes, bringing a taste of that success into your own home. Join Zigas and La Cocina graduates live at INFORUM as they share inspiring stories featured in the cookbook and reflect on their journeys to entrepreneurial success as they progress toward increasing diversity and equity in the food industry.

Representative Eric Swalwell, an East Bay Democrat and fixture in Bay Area politics, launched his presidential campaign on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in April 2019. Swalwell’s long-awaited announcement is another marker of the generational shift emerging in the 2020 election, and he is sure that millennials are ready to take on the country’s toughest issues. Swalwell was first elected to Congress at the age of 31 after winning an upset primary contest against a 40-year Democratic incumbent. Now 38, he is one of the youngest candidates in the presidential race and, if elected, would be the youngest president in American history. He is a vocal advocate for stricter gun policies and student debt reform, two issues that have earned him national recognition. Swalwell joins INFORUM to chronicle his rise in Congress, discuss his highly anticipated campaign and urge Americans to “go big, be bold, and do good.”

In the context of the catastrophic Syrian refugee crises, Niveen Rizkalla will discuss her work with refugees struggling with PTSD and how secondary traumatization affects aid workers. Rizkalla, a post doctorate fellow at UC Berkeley’s Mack Center for Mental Health and Social Conflict, has an impressive record of scholarship, research and volunteerism. A Palestinian Israeli, she earned her doctorate at the school of social work at Tel Aviv University and has worked professionally and as a volunteer with survivors of trauma, war and sexual violence. In honor of World Refugee Day on June 20, join us for a program that recognizes the plight of refugees and their aid workers. MLF Organizer: Celia Menczel MLF: Middle East

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. The United States experiences the highest number of school shootings in the world. Shannon Watts decided to do something about it. In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Watts, a mother of five and former communications executive, started Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, an organization that advocates for gun regulation reform. Moms Demand Action has grown into one of the largest and most far-reaching organizations in American politics with a grassroots network in all 50 states and millions of supporters. Under Watts’ leadership, Moms Demand Action has enjoyed a 93 percent success rate in beating the NRA in state legislatures. In her forthcoming book, Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby, Watts recounts how she and other mothers turned their outrage into action to drive progress in gun safety. The book celebrates the unique strength and power of women and highlights the potential for everyone to engage in everyday activism. In addition to her work with Moms Demand Action, Watts is the founder and board chair of Rise to Run, an organization dedicated to mobilizing young progressive women to run for office, and an active board member of Emerge America. Join Watts live at INFORUM as she shares her inspiring journey of how one woman’s cry for change became a driving force in a national demand for action. Notes This program was generously supported by Levi Strauss & Co.

The Distinguished Citizen Award recognizes those who exemplify the ideals and values that have guided The Commonwealth Club for over a century and whose professional and humanitarian contributions and accomplishments are worthy of admiration. The Gala is the Club's most important annual fundraiser and provides valuable support for the Club's dynamic non-partisan programming. The event cocktail hour and award ceremony will take place in the breathtaking San Francisco Ferry Building nearby. After a quick stroll down the street, the evening will continue with an intimate dinner on each level of The Commonwealth Club’s state-of-the-art new building. Guests on each floor will dine in the company of an honoree and enjoy an engaging civic dialogue featuring the honoree in conversation with a fellow thought-leader. To more easily locate each of the honorees, you may scroll through the audio to these locations; 00.35 Madeleine Albright 21.00 John Hope Bryant 51.10 Suzanne DiBianca 65.33 William and Susan Oberndorf

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. As fashion designer, Tan France said, “Yes, I know I’m gayer; yes, I know I’ve got a different skin color. Yes, I know I’m a certain religion. Yes, I know I’m an immigrant. But look at all the similarities we have.” France is more than a star of the hit Netflix reboot, “Queer Eye”—he is an unapologetic representative of his many, often marginalized identities, and he leverages his unique ability to connect with others in spite of their differences. As one of the Fab Five, performing makeovers for a diverse array of people, France has played a vital role in transforming the perception of “Queer Eye” from a niche fashion show into an authentic exploration of identity and difference, and it continues to captivate viewers across the country and around the world. In his new memoir, Naturally Tan, France recounts his experience growing up gay in a traditional South Asian Muslim family in South Yorkshire. Alongside fashion advice and humor, he connects his unusual childhood to his rise to stardom and ability to connect across the divide. Experience the style icon’s charisma and compassion as he reflects on the importance of representation and the power of connection. Notes This program is generously supported by Academy SF !! THIS PROGRAM CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE - MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES !!

The Department of Defense is the single largest institution in America, managing the most complex information network, carrying out more research and development than Google, Apple and Microsoft combined, owning and operating more real estate and spending more money than any other entity. As such, it has incredible power and immense responsibility. There is no better person to explain the inner workings of such a place than the man who ran it all. In his new book, Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter gives us an inside look into all that happens in one of the most secretive and secure locations in the nation—the obstacles it faces and the innovation taking place there. Unlike many of his colleagues in the Department of Defense, Carter was not always a career bureaucrat. His straightforward explanations of American foreign policy, and the ways in which the private sector and public sector can work together towards greater peace and security, reflect a refreshingly moderate perspective in such a highly-politicized era. Join us for a conversation with America’s 25th secretary of defense about what really goes on inside that mysterious five-sided box, and how people are learning to think outside it.

Presidential hopeful Jay Inslee is the only candidate who has made stopping climate change his top priority. The Washington state Governor is a notable departure from other Democratic candidates who regularly mention, but rarely prioritize the issue. Yet in a recent poll of public policy priorities, Americans ranked climate change next to last. Could a climate-focused candidate nudge the Democratic platform toward bolder action – let alone become the Climate President? Join us for the first in a series of conversations with the 2020 candidates about their plans for climate action.

For over a century, conventional science has attributed illness and disease to mechanistic failures of the body’s systems. Rather than “victims” of dysfunctional cells and genes, the new fields of epigenetics and quantum biophysics reveal that your mind expresses creative mastery over your biology and the character of your life. A radical new insight on how the mind shapes the body was discovered in 2007. A population of exosomes, small submicroscopic vesicles in the blood, were found to be virus particles created by our own cells and designed to infect our own cells. Via the cell’s membrane, consciousness is translated into gene and behavior controlling molecules. These information molecules can be conveyed by exosome viruses to specifically targeted cells. Exosome signaling coordinates the structure and function of the body’s cellular community in shaping overall health and wellbeing, including disease states, especially cancer. Understanding epigenetic and exosome mechanisms offers profound insight on the process of expressing self-empowerment in the unfolding of our lives. Join Bruce H. Lipton for an illustrated and animated presentation that will engage your mind and challenge your creativity as you comprehend the enormous potential for applying this information in your life and practice. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Adrea Brier NOTES MLF: Health & Medicine

Meet a pathbreaker and a powerful persona. Donna Personna is an artist and activist for transgender rights who got her start with the Cockettes. She has served on the boards of Trans March and Transgender Day of Remembrance, and on the committees to name streets after Vicki Marlene and Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Transgender Cultural District. In 2018, she raised San Francisco’s first transgender flag at City Hall with Mayor London Breed. Donna was the subject of the Iris Prize-winning 2013 short film My Mother and was featured in the film Beautiful by Night. Donna has been covered in media outlets such as Out, The Advocate, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Daily Beast. The immersive play she co-wrote, The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, recreates San Francisco transgender history and received many accolades, including SF Weekly’s Best of 2018. Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready.

For decades, a range of authors have tried to explain who Donald Trump is, what makes him tick, and, since he has become president, what drives his political decision-making. Legendary sportswriter Rick Reilly thinks one of the best ways to understand who the 45th president of the United States really is as a person is to study how he golfs, a sport Reilly reveres. In his new book, Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, Reilly takes readers on an on-the-ground and behind-the-scenes look at Trump's ethics deficit on and off the course. Reilly has been with Trump on the fairway, the green and in the weeds and has seen firsthand how the president plays—and it's not pretty. Based on his personal experiences and interviews with dozens of golf pros, amateurs, developers, partners, opponents and even caddies who have firsthand experience with Trump on the course, Reilly takes a deep and often hilarious look at how Trump shamelessly cheats at golf, lies about it, sues over it, bullies with it and profits off of it. Reilly, in conversation with beloved Bay Area sportswriter Joan Ryan, will outline a new and amusing way to think about the current president, his administration and one of the country's most popular sports.

In 1974, nearly three quarters of all governments were dictatorships; today, more than half are democracies. Yet, by most measures, there are now 25 fewer democracies than there were at the turn of the millennium. Is democracy in decline? And if so, what has contributed to this regression? Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and professor of political science and sociology at Stanford University has dedicated the majority of his life to answering these questions. His newest book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, takes a strong and somewhat controversial stance: The defense of democracy depends upon U.S. global leadership. However, before it can fulfill this role, American democracy itself needs to be reformed from the inside. In the book, Diamond not only shares his wealth of knowledge about democracies across the globe but also provides concrete and deeply informed measures that can be taken to reduce polarization, reduce the influence of money in politics and make elections fairer, both here in the United States as well as globally. Join us for a conversation with one of the most respected scholars of democracy about its apparent decline, the challenges it faces and how we can best protect it.

The Bay Area's Jeff Raz presents an entertaining, inside view of his life on the road and at home as a clown, actor, teacher and playwright. Raz explores both ridiculous and profound revelations in his second book about a decades-long clowning career, The Snow Clown: Cartwheels on Borders from Alaska to Nebraska. He notes that as a teacher, a consultant and a medical clown, it takes practice and skill to ask good questions and to be quiet and acknowledge the other person in ways that build rapport. In the following excerpt, Raz has just performed a monologue at the University of Nebraska as his father’s ghost, talking about his suicide. He writes: “The theater is silent. It’s Monday morning … [I’m] determined to let the students talk first. A full minute passes. Another minute. Nebraskans are Olympians when it comes to silence. They win. This is a literature class so I say, ‘Have any of you read …’ A short young woman in a red tracksuit sporting a blond bouffant, interrupts, ‘Did your daddy really kill himself?’” Join us for a discussion on Raz’s life as a performer and the connections he’s made thus far. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Anne W. Smith

We face some unprecedented challenges today related to how we grow, produce, distribute and consume food. Changing climatic conditions, population growth and decades of unsustainable growing practices are leading to growing consumer demand for higher quality provenance and production practices and healthier food options. Entrepreneurs are at the forefront of this movement to design a food system that is focused on the health of people and planet. Join Presidio Graduate School for a conversation led by Renske Lynde, CEO of Food System 6, a Bay Area based non-profit organization that supports mission-driven entrepreneurs who are developing innovative solutions to some of our greatest food system challenges. Renske will be joined in conversation with Jordan Schwartz, co-founder and chief grainmaster of ReGrained; Andrew Falcon, CEO of Full Cycle Bioplastics; and Christine Su, CEO of PastureMap. Together they will discuss the ways in which their innovative solutions are remaking the food system as we know it. Come prepared to be inspired by these entrepreneurs and to learn how you too can become part of the good food revolution. MLF Organizer: Elizabeth Carney MLF: Business & Leadership In partnership with Presidio Graduate School

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. How do you come to terms with the need for an apology that will never come? How can the trauma of a childhood in an abusive household be put into words? And how can recounting the pain of those histories become a process of healing and personal reconciliation? These are the questions that Eve Ensler grapples with in her newest book, The Apology. It is a raw reckoning with a traumatic and unresolved past which has played an important role in Ensler’s artistic and political activist careers, and it shows other survivors of abuse how they may finally envision their own freedom from the past. Ensler’s theatrical career took off when she wrote “The Vagina Monologues,” a work of such originality and power that it ran for over 10 years and has been translated into 140 languages. The performances inspired the creation of V-Day, a global platform to share the stories of survivors and for groups to raise money for the cause through their own yearly performances of “The Vagina Monologues.” Ensler has received numerous awards, including the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship in playwriting, an Obie and Glamour’s Woman of the Year. Come join us for a discussion with a woman renowned for her artistic work and political impact on a topic for which words do not come easily but need to be heard. Audible Segments from The Apology, performed by Edoardo Ballerini. ** This Program May Contain Explicit Language **