Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. Adam Savage is a maker. From his elaborate Comic-Con costumes to a 1,000-shot Nerf gun, he has built thousands of projects as a special effects artist and co-host of the hit TV show “MythBusters.” Savage will highlight some of his memorable ideas and shares what inspires him to build, make, invent, explore and above all else create. Savage spent 14 years as the popular co-host of “MythBusters.” He currently stars on Tested.com’s YouTube channel and is the host of “MythBusters Jr.” In association with Wonderfest ** This Program May Contain Explicit Language **

When Nancy Pelosi first ran for political office at the age of 47, she wasn’t new to politics. From the time she spent helping her father while he served as the mayor of Baltimore, working for Jerry Brown’s presidential campaign or serving as the Democratic Party chair of California, she developed skills that would propel her to the peak of American politics. As the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, she is now the most powerful woman in the political history of the United States. In the first 100 days of the 116th Congress, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have worked on their “for the people” agenda, passing legislation to clean up corruption and restore ethics to Washington, D.C., a bipartisan background checks bill, and what many Democrats call a landmark paycheck fairness bill. House Democrats are also pursuing a bipartisan infrastructure deal, looking at ways to expand and protect the right to vote, tackling climate change, and lowering health care costs and prescription drug prices for all Americans. This progress comes as Democrats welcome the most diverse caucus in the history of Congress, including more than 100 women in the same Congress that America will mark 100 years since women won the right to vote. Speaker Pelosi says this diversity is a strength that enables Democrats to more fully represent the values and voices of the American people and deliver progress in their lives. How will the Democratic Party try to recreate the success it saw in the 2018 midterm elections? As America heads toward the presidential election in 2020, join us for a conversation with the iconic face of the Democratic Party, and bring your questions.

Join us for an evening to recognize community leaders advocating for immigrant rights. Immigration has become the central social issue of our time. A rise in anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric are creating instability for immigrants, including many here legally. Advocates argue that those most in need are being turned away at the border, detained, and their families separated with no clear path to follow. Yet for centuries, immigrants have come to America expecting a place of refuge, hope and opportunity. During the program, the following organizations and community leaders will be recognized: CAIR SF (Council of American Islamic Relations–S.F. Chapter), Transgender Law Center, African HRC, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Plus live music from three immigrant singers during the program: Flash is a 23-year-old metal-rock artist who hails from Nepal. He was the lead guitarist of the local band named Beside The Coffin. He immigrated to America three years ago to escape religious and political persecution. Flash is a creative, multi-instrumentalist who plays lead guitar, bass, drums and piano. He writes and produces his own music and is currently finishing an EP to be released at the end of 2019. He is one of the subjects of a documentary film currently in production with a working title “In a Flash,” which documents the lives of three music artists who use their music to escape, engage, and dream big while navigating the harsh realities of immigrant life in America. Igor Chudak is 26 years old and originally hails from Russia. Igor moved to the United States when he was 21 years old to escape the Russian persecution against LGBTQ people. In 2014, he released his first mini-album entitled “Inception.” He is currently a member of the San Francisco Gay Man’s Chorus and is about to release his first American EP entitled “Out of Faith.” Igor has developed a drag queen alter ego named "Mila Knockabitch," the supposed sister of Melania Trump, and has a Youtube comedy series called “Russian Concussion.” He is part of the advisory council of the LGBT Asylum Project. Tookta is a Thai Molam (folk, country) singer. She started singing at the tender age of 12 years old. Her sound and genre is specific to the Isaan region of Thailand. She has performed for an audience of more than 100,000 on Mother's Day for Thailand's queen. In addition to a successful career as a Molam singer, Tookta has also performed as a popular stand-up comedian. She immigrated to the United States 2 years ago and is now beginning a new chapter in her life and career.

The speakers will survey the retirement living options available in the Bay Area, from living at home to choosing a communal living option. Learn the key decision points in comparing rental, equity-based options, entry fee communities and assisted living. A spreadsheet answering frequently asked questions will be provided. Subsidized, low-income housing options will not be included in this program. MLF Organizer: Denise Michaud MLF: Grownups

What does a former advisor to Richard Nixon think about the climate crisis? “This is turning out exactly the way scientists predicted, with one exception: it’s happening faster than they thought,” says David Gergen, who served in four presidential administrations. “The question is what can we do rapidly that would alleviate this and be fair to all.” InsideClimate News reporter Marianne Lavelle credits the Green New Deal for moving the debate forward, while Republican pollster Lori Weigel highlights the divergence between GOP voters and the current administration’s environmental policies.

Join us as we discuss the biggest, most controversial and sometimes the surprising political issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil and have a good sense of humor. Our panelists will provide informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, and we'll have audience discussion of the week’s events and our live news quiz! And come early before the program to meet other smart and engaged individuals and discuss the news over snacks and wine at our members social (open to all attendees).

Technology has transformed the often-confusing personal finance landscape. From Bitcoin to mobile pay, digitization has fundamentally changed the rules of spending, saving and investing, and financial guru Alexa von Tobel views these changes as incredible opportunities. Von Tobel’s confusion surrounding her own personal finances as a young professional shaped the trajectory of her career. She dropped out of Harvard Business School to found LearnVest.com, a personal finance website with the goal of helping other women take control of their money, before launching her new venture capital firm, Inspired Capital Partners. In her new book, Financially Forward: How to Use Today's Digital Tools to Earn More, Save Better, and Spend Smarter, she demonstrates how to harness the smartphone-accessible tools of the digital age to maximize financial gain, covering everything from financial planning to preparing for the future of digital money. Join von Tobel live at INFORUM as she reflects on how the digital age has created new potential for successful financial planning.

Franca Viola made #MeToo history in 1966. When she was 18, she refused to go along with a centuries-old forcible marriage custom in Sicily. Having endured kidnap and rape, she publicly defied the expectation that she would marry the rapist in order to “restore her broken honor.” A social uproar occurred throughout the island and beyond. Two decades later, with little more than the memory of the article she had read, author Natalie Galli traveled to Palermo to search for Viola. Galli wanted to know: What had become of this courageous girl who had defied an ancient tradition? Galli recounts the riveting events after Viola pressed charges with the police: Franca was publicly taunted whenever she appeared on the street, Mafia-orchestrated bullying threatened her entire family, and her own relatives pleaded with her not to break the Sicilian code of silence. Throughout her search for the enigmatic Viola, Galli shares her own poignant and hilarious observations about a vibrant culture steeped in contradictions and paradoxes. Does Galli succeed in locating the elusive protofeminist? Join us for Galli's odyssey and find out. MLF ORGANIZER NAME George Hammond NOTES MLF: Humanities

Whether it was the invention of the radio at the beginning of the 20th century or the advent of smartphones in the mid-to-late 2000s, technological revolutions have fundamentally shaped the era with which they are associated. Yet, according to Susan Hockfield, technological advances are only the half of it. It is instead the combination of technological innovation with biological research that are producing and will produce the most revolutionary products and technological advances of our time. Her new book, The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution, describes some of the most exciting developments in this field, including mind-reading bionic limbs, cancer-detecting nanoparticles, virus-built batteries and protein-based water filters. What is even more impressive is the fact that many of these technologies were the result of Hockfield’s own foresight and tenacity. As the first female president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hockfield was a key advocate for interdisciplinary research and breaking down borders between fields. Join us for an optimistic conversation about how these living machines may help us overcome some of the greatest humanitarian, medical and environmental challenges of our time.

For a decade, Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) India program has advanced clean energy and public health solutions while fighting climate change. As India, the world's largest democracy, prepares to vote in its general election, the country’s clean energy future remains a central question. Will India achieve its ambitious climate goals and successfully fight air pollution? What does India's rapid development mean for the rest of the world? What are the business opportunities to engage with India and clean energy? Join our experts for a discussion about India's climate actions, progress on climate commitments under the Paris Agreement and the transition to a low-carbon economy. Today, India stands at the crossroads of development and the future. At the same time, clean energy and energy efficient solutions are more critical than ever before. With its fast-growing economy, rapid urbanization and employment growth, India is skyrocketing, increasing energy and providing electricity to rural communities and addressing long-time poverty. Join us for this very important program about India at the crossroads as it debates clean energy and energy-efficient demands and solutions. MLF Organizer: Ann Clark MLF: Environment & Natural Resources

The Green New Deal is shaking up climate politics in Washington. The resolution’s ambitious clean energy goals are championed by several leading Democrats — but are criticized by Republicans for being costly and unrealistic. With an increasing number of Green New Deal alternatives being put forward by Democrats, the pressure is on Republicans to propose an actionable climate plan of their own. Is there such a thing as a bipartisan climate solution? Join us for a conversation with two Republicans and a Democrat about the politics of energy leading up to the 2020 campaign.

Julia Flynn Siler’s new book, The White Devil’s Daughters: The Fight Against Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown, is a revelatory history of the trafficking of young Asian girls—a practice that flourished in San Francisco during the first century of Chinese immigration (1848–1943)—and the "safe house" on the edge of Chinatown that became a refuge for those seeking their freedom. Starting in 1874, the brick house at 920 Sacramento Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown served as a home and gateway to freedom for thousands of enslaved and vulnerable young Chinese women and girls—a pioneering “rescue mission.” Known then as the Occidental Mission Home, it survived earthquakes, fire, bubonic plague and violence directed against its occupants and supporters—a courageous group of female abolitionists who fought the slave trade in Chinese women. Donaldina Cameron was the indomitable leader of the home for over 37 years. In 1942, the home was renamed Cameron House, and it still serves the Asian-American community today, offering a range of social services and youth programs. With compassion and an investigative historian's sharp eyes, Siler relates how the women who ran the house defied contemporary convention and anti-Chinese prejudices. These women occasionally even broke the law by physically rescuing children from the brothels where they worked or snatching them off the ships that were smuggling them in, helping bring the exploiters to justice. Siler has also uncovered the stories of many of the girls and young women who came to the Mission and the lives they later led. Sometimes these women became part of the home's staff themselves, including Tien Wu, who became Donaldina Cameron’s translator and aide. Siler will talk about this remarkable story of an overlooked part of our history—a story that still resonates today. This is the tale of immigrants overcoming great difficulties with the aid of sympathetic Americans. MLF ORGANIZER NAME Lillian Nakagawa

Annie Jacobsen is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and investigative journalist whose work revolves around government secrets. She has published books on a range of topics, including what really goes on inside Area 51; Operation Paperclip, which brought Nazi scientists to America; and government-funded research projects on extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis. Her latest book delves into one of the most infamously covert agencies in the country: the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins is an unprecedented look inside the Special Activities Division of the CIA, one of the most effective black operations in the world. Through interviews with 42 men and women who served in covert CIA operations, she delivers a shocking exposé of U.S. covert operations with the pace and novelistic skill of a thriller. Join us for an insider’s view on this controversial and understandably obscure component of American foreign policy and the political, ethical and legal quandaries that have come with it.

Monday Night Philosophy and almost all physicists agree that quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a not-so-scientific brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. That is why, even though it is a mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, the Copenhagen interpretation has endured, with Bohr's students vigorously protecting his legacy, and the physics community favoring practical experiments over philosophical arguments. As a result, questioning the status quo has almost always meant professional ruin. And yet, from the 1920s to today, physicists such as John Bell, David Bohm and Hugh Everett persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics. Join us—first for the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for seeking truth, and then for reexamining the littered trail of half-understood research results in the never-discarded quest for answering the fundamental questions that can be summed up as: “What is real?” MLF Organizer: George Hammond MLF: Humanities

Suicide and mental health are hard subjects—so Crisis Text Line leveraged the power of the data it collects to help their counselors determine the best way to talk about the topics with those in need. The nonprofit, founded in 2013 by CEO Nancy Lublin, has provided a free text-based and human-driven service to support those experiencing mental health stress, gathering data points from more than 75 million text messages sent and maximizing the impact of their information to better train counselors and support their community. Its innovative and data-driven methodology for tackling hard conversations can also be applied to more than the mental health space, including to Lublin’s latest venture: Loris.ai. Lublin’s entire career has focused on initiatives addressing social issues, and she founded Dress for Success and Do Something prior to Crisis Text Line. With her technology lens on big challenges, she continues to iterate on innovative mechanisms and creative solutions to sticky problems. At INFORUM, she’ll be joined in conversation by DJ Patil, head of technology at Devoted Health and former U.S. chief data scientist in the Obama administration, to dig into the power of data to effect change. Come curious! ** This Program Contains Explicit Language **