PRESS RELEASE
The Commonwealth Club of California
110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105
Contact: John Zipperer, Vice President of Media & Editorial
415-597-6715 or jzipperer@commonwealthclub.org
415-597-6715 or jzipperer@commonwealthclub.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Upcoming Speakers and Topics at The Commonwealth Club of California
Larry Baer, Malcolm Nance, Patti Poppe and others come to the nation’s largest public forum
(SAN FRANCISCO)—The Commonwealth Club of California, the nation's oldest and largest public forum, presents its upcoming programs. They are a mix of online-only and in-person and online, and tickets are available to the public via the URLs with each program; new programs are added every week, for the complete list, see commonwealthclub.org/events.
KATIE HAFNER, AUTHOR OF "THE BOYS"
MON, JUL 18 / 5:30 PM PDT Online Only
Katie Hafner, Journalist; Host and Co-Executive Producer, "Lost Women of Science" Podcast; Author, The Boys
Carol Edgarian, Co-Founder, Narrative; Author, Vera—Moderator
Katie Hafner is a technology, health care, and society journalist who wrote on staff for The New York Times for 10 years and remains a frequent contributor. She has also worked at Newsweek and BusinessWeek and has written for many major publications, including The Washington Post and Oprah Magazine. She is the author of five previous works of nonfiction covering a range of topics, including the origins of the Internet, computer hackers, German reunification, and the pianist Glenn Gould.
Hafner’s first novel, The Boys, writes a charming narrative about love and the yearning for connection. The story follows Ethan Fawcett, an introvert who marries the vivacious Barb. One day Barb brings home two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, for them to foster, and when the pandemic hits, Ethan becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for the boys. The introduction of the boys into their household drives a wedge between Ethan and Barb. Ethan decides to take the boys on a biking trip in Italy on a misguided quest for love and connection, and expectedly discovers what it will take to repair his marriage.
Join us to as Katie Hafner takes us through her reflections on loneliness and community.
IAN MORRIS: GEOGRAPHY IS DESTINY
TUE, JUL 19 / 5:30 PM PDT Online Only
Ian Morris, The Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics and Professor in History, Stanford University; Author, Geography is Destiny—Britain's Place in the World: A 10,000 Year History
In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates
Ian Morris returns to The Commonwealth Club for an online discussion of his latest research into the deep history of the human race. In the wake of Brexit, Morris now tackles the 8 millennia history of Britain's relationship to Europe as that relationship keeps changing in the context of a continually globalizing world.
When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the 48 percent who wanted to stay and the 52 percent who wanted to go each accused the other of stupidity, fraud and treason. But the Brexit debate merely reran a script written 8,000 years earlier, when rising seas physically separated the British Isles from the European continent.
Morris describes how technology and organization have steadily enlarged Britain's arena, and how its people have turned this to their advantage. For the first 7,500 years, the British were never more than bit players at the western edge of a European stage, struggling to find a role among bigger, richer and more sophisticated continental rivals. By A.D. 1500, however, new kinds of ships and governments had turned the European stage into an Atlantic one. With the English Channel now functioning as a barrier, England transformed the British Isles into a United Kingdom that created a worldwide empire. Since 1900, however, Britain has been overshadowed by American, European and Chinese actors. But Morris says that in trying to find its new place in a global economy, Britain has been looking in all the wrong places. The great question for the 21st century is not what to do about Brussels, but what to do about Beijing.
MALCOLM NANCE: BEHIND THE IDEOLOGY OF THE TRUMP INSURGENCY
TUE, JUL 19 / 6:00 PM PDT In-person and Online
Malcolm Nance, Retired Intelligence Officer; Author, They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency
In Conversation with Chip Franklin, Writer; Talk Show Host;
In the post-2020 world, Americans, having faced the controversies of the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection, may be tempted to do their best to forget these events and move on — yet to bestselling author Malcolm Nance, this is the worst thing they can do. As the country is experiencing a sharp rise in radicalism and hostility toward democracy, Nance argues that it is more important than ever to be actively confronting the rise of a new threat to democracy from within.
Malcolm Nance is a leading expert in counter-terrorism studies, as well as an intelligence analyst, cryptologist, former senior chief petty officer in the United States Navy and founding executive director of the New York-based think tank Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideologies. Nance has written at length on the dangers posed by major terrorist groups, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.
In his latest book, They Want to Kill Americans, Nance explains how conspiracy theories, white privilege and increasing hostility toward democracy have all contributed to the rise of what he calls a “Trump Insurgency in the U.S.,” or TITUS. Having forewarned of divisions in America turning into fractures in our country months before the January 6 insurrection, Nance warns that the rising generational threat may rival the Islamic State or al-Qaeda, and that immediate action is necessary to address this growing unrest before it is too late.
Join us as Nance explains how such a destructive force has sprung up in our own backyard, and what can be done to quell its growth.
MARK LEIBOVICH: DONALD TRUMP'S WASHINGTON AND THE PRICE OF SUBMISSION
WED, JUL 20 / 6:00 PM PDT In-person and Online
Mark Leibovich, Staff Writer, The Atlantic; Former Chief National Correspondent, The New York Times Magazine; Author, Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission; Twitter @MarkLeibovich
In Conversation with Tim Miller, Writer-at-large, The Bulwark; Political Analyst, MSNBC; Host, "Not My Party" on Snapchat; Communications Director, Jeb Bush 2016; Author, Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell; Twitter @timodc
The Republican Party used to stand for individualism, and according to journalist and author Mark Leibovich, it now largely answers to the whims of one man: former president Donald Trump. Tracing Trump’s ascent to the top of a party that in the early months of his candidacy viewed him with contempt, Leibovich brings answers to the massive question of “what happened?”
Mark Leibovich is an award-winning journalist and writer for The Atlantic. Called the “reigning master of the political profile” by Washingtonian magazine and named one of “Washington's 25 Most Powerful, Least Famous People” by The New Republic, Leibovich has decades of journalistic experience, including previously writing for The New York Times for 15 years.
In his latest book Thank You For Your Servitude, Leibovich retells how figures like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham went from vocal Trump critics to loyal soldiers. With shocking honesty from some of Trump’s biggest supporters admitting they are “in on the joke,” Leibovich uses interviews, news media and an incisive, brutally honest investigation to tell how Trump remade the GOP in his own image—and how far his politicians are willing to go to stay relevant.
Join us, as Leibovich recounts the transformation of the American political right, and how it gave hints of the events we see unfold today.
THE HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION AND JUSTICE IN SYRIA
THU, JUL 21 / 3:00 PM PDT Online Only
Roberto González, Chief Advocacy Officer, Human Rights Foundation
Malaak Jamal, Director, Policy and Research, Human Rights Foundation
Roberto González will discuss the important work the Human Rights Foundation has done since its inception in 2005, including its project Defund Dictators Too. The HRF is a nonprofit that defends and promotes freedom and justice throughout the world. He will likely include the recent Oslo Freedom Forum. Malaak Jamal will concentrate on HRF's 2022 report, "Framing Justice in Syria."
Roberto González is an attorney admitted to practice in the State of New York. He graduated cum laude from Rafael Landívar University, where he earned a Bachelor of Laws degree. He also holds a master’s degree in International Law and Justice from Fordham University School of Law. As a part of HRF’s Center for Law and Democracy, González’s research focuses on comparative constitutional law and international law. Malaak Jamal oversees HRF research and analyzes political regimes in countries under authoritarian rule. She received her M.A. in diplomacy and international relations from Seton Hall University, with specializations in human rights, international law, post-conflict state reconstruction and sustainability. Malaak has a minor in Middle Eastern studies at the American University in Dubai. Malaak’s opinions have been featured in Time, The Washington Post ,CNN, and other media outlets.
PATTI POPPE: NAVIGATING PG&E THROUGH CLIMATE DISRUPTION
THU, JUL 21 / 6:00 PM PDT In-person and Online
Patricia Poppe, CEO, PG&E
Greg Dalton, Founder & Host, Climate One
As the CEO of PG&E, Patti Poppe is charged with navigating the company through epic wildfires, disrupted energy markets, and lingering public distrust of the utility. The company is undergrounding 10,000 miles of electric lines, working with GM and Ford on incorporating EV batteries into homes and the grid, deploying batteries at large power plants, and pushing to change net metering rates that pay homeowners for electricity generated on their roofs.
In 2006, PG&E was perceived to be one of the most progressive utilities in the country. They supported California’s landmark climate law AB 32, and a few years later, quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its opposition to climate action. But recently, a string of self-imposed disasters has damaged the company’s image and public trust. A company gas line exploded in San Bruno, killing eight people, and failure of PG&E equipment caused a rash of deadly wildfires — Butte, Tubbs, Camp, Kincade and Dixie — killing 113 people and burning nearly 1.5 million acres. The company’s 2019 bankruptcy was the largest ever for a U.S. utility.
Climate One welcomes you back for our first in-person event at the Commonwealth Club. Join PG&E CEO Patti Poppe and Climate One host Greg Dalton for a radio and podcast discussion of what one of the country’s largest utilities is doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a time of turmoil in energy markets and accelerating climate impacts in the American West.
LARRY BAER: THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS' 2022 SEASON
MON, JUL 25 / 6:30 PM PDT In-person and Online
Larry Baer, President and CEO, San Francisco Giants
Raj Mathai, Anchor, NBC Bay Area KNTV—Moderator
As the San Francisco Giants gear up after the All-Star break, what can we expect from this team in 2022? It is the 140th season for the franchise in Major League Baseball, its 65th year in San Francisco, and its 23rd at Oracle Park. This is also the third season under manager Gabe Kapler, and perhaps more important, the first season since 2008 without longtime catcher Buster Posey, who retired in November.
With three World Series titles in the last 12 years, and last year’s all- time franchise record of 107 winning games and the National League West title, can the Giants make another run for the pennant this year? Who better to ask than Larry Baer, president and CEO of the SF Giants franchise?
A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Larry Baer has gained a national reputation as one of professional sports’ leading visionaries. Baer joined the team in 1992 as the executive vice president after he and Peter Magowan led the effort to assemble a new ownership group that kept the Giants in San Francisco. A limited partner and board member of the ownership group, Baer was named CEO on January 1, 2012. In his first year as president and CEO, the Giants won their second World Series Championship in three years. In 2014, the Giants won their third World Series title in five years. Baer is responsible for the overall day-to-day operations of the organization and serves as a key strategist and negotiator of the club’s major transactions.
Join us at The Commonwealth Club to hear firsthand from Larry Baer on how the Giants are doing this season and what we can hope to see from the team in the second half of the season.
JASON KANDER WITH CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF: POLITICS, PROGRESS AND PTSD
TUE, JUL 26 / 12:30 PM PDT Online only
Jason Kander, President, Veterans Community Project; Host, "Majority 54" Podcast;; Author, Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD; Twitter @jasonkander
In Conversation with Adam Schiff, U.S. Representative (D-CA)
Before Jason Kander served as the Missouri secretary of state, he served as an Army intelligence officer who spent time stationed in Afghanistan. Later in 2017, President Obama, in his final Oval Office interview, was asked who gave him hope for the future of the country, and Jason Kander was the first name he mentioned. Suddenly, Kander was a national figure. As observers assumed he was preparing a run for the presidency, Kander announced a bid for mayor of Kansas City instead and was headed for a landslide victory. But after 11 years of battling PTSD from his service in Afghanistan, Jason was seized by depression and suicidal thoughts. He dropped out of the mayor’s race and out of public life. And finally, he sought help.
In his brutally honest second memoir, following his New York Times best-selling debut Outside the Wire, Kander shares his most painful moments with PTSD. In Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD, readers follow Kander through his struggles with undiagnosed illness during a presidential bid, his challenging treatment and ultimately his process of healing. The story gives hope to so many of people and teaches them how sometimes walking away from the chance of a lifetime can be the greatest decision of all.
Kander will be joined by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff for a powerful and candid conversation about his battle with PTSD, and the courage to take it on.
HUMANKINDNESS AND HEALTH JUSTICE SERIES: THE INTERSECTION OF MENTAL HEALTH AND EQUITY
WED, JUL 27 / 9:30 AM PDT Online Only
Hon. Patrick Kennedy, Former U.S. Representative (D-RI) and Founder of The Kennedy Forum
Paul Rains, Senior Vice President of Behavioral Health, CommonSpirit Health; President, St. Joseph’s Behavioral Health Center
Janet Reilly, Co-founder and Board President, Clinic by the Bay
COVID-19 illustrated to the nation the need to address disparities that exist in our communities, especially as they relate to mental health. These disparities are chronic, with intergenerational health impacts that also affect employment and create socioeconomic racial inequities. The direct result of all these inequities is that people of color die at a rate 3.6 times higher that of the overall general population. Eliminating persistent disparities and stigma in mental health will require correcting the systemic barriers created over generations.
Join us for a conversation on ways to overcome these barriers at the intersection of mental health and equity with the Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy, former congressman from Rhode Island and one of the world’s leading voices on mental health and addiction, and Paul Rains, system senior vice president for behavioral health for CommonSpirit Health and president at St Joseph’s Behavioral Health Center in Stockton, California. Leading the discussion will be Janet Reilly, co-founder and board president of Clinic by the Bay, a free, volunteer-powered health clinic for the working uninsured in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties.
READING CALIFORNIANS BOOK DISCUSSION: CITY OF A THOUSAND GATES
TUE, AUG 2 / 5:00 PM PDT In-person and Online
Rebecca Sacks, Author, City of a Thousand Gates (participating via Zoom)
Kalena Gregory, Chair, Reading Californians Member-led Forum Book Discussion
The silver medalist in the 2022 California Book Awards category of first fiction, Rebecca Sacks will join us via Zoom to discuss her book City of a Thousand Gates.
She has written a relevant novel that introduces a large cast of characters from various backgrounds in a setting (Israel) where violence is routine and where survival is defined by boundaries, walls, and checkpoints that force people to live and love within and across them. The multiple strands of the various characters' lives open this magnificent and haunting novel of present-day Israel and Palestine, following each of the diverse characters as they try to protect what they love. Their interwoven stories reveal complicated, painful truths about life in this conflicted land steeped in hope, love, hatred, terror, and blood on both sides. The book brilliantly evokes the universal drives that motivate these individuals to think and act as they do—desires for security, for freedom, for dignity, for the future of one’s children, for land that each of us, no matter who or where we are, recognize and share.
PSYCHIATRY AND ITS DISCONTENTS
TUE, AUG 2 / 5:30 PM PDT In-person and Online
Dr. Andrew Scull, Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology and Science Studies, University of California San Diego
Patrick O'Reilly, Ph.D., Chair, Psychology Member-led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—Moderator
Written by one of the world’s most distinguished historians of psychiatry, Psychiatry and Its Discontents provides a wide-ranging and critical perspective on the profession that dominates the treatment of mental illness. Andrew Scull traces the rise of the field, the midcentury hegemony of psychoanalytic methods, and the paradigm’s decline with the ascendance of biological and pharmaceutical approaches to mental illness.
Scull's historical sweep is broad, ranging from the age of the asylum to the rise of psychopharmacology and the dubious triumphs of “community care.” The essays in Psychiatry and Its Discontents provide a vivid and compelling portrait of the recurring crises of legitimacy experienced by “mad-doctors,” as psychiatrists were once called, and illustrates the impact of psychiatry’s ideas and interventions on the lives of those afflicted with mental illness.
COOL: WOMEN LEADERS REVERSING GLOBAL WARMING
FRI, AUG 5 / 5:30 PM PDT In-person and Online
Paola Gianturco, Author; Photographer
Avery Sangster, 6th Grade Student; Co-author
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit Activist
Carla Thorson, Vice President of Programs, The Commonwealth Club of California
Women and girls all over the world are using intelligence, creativity, energy, and courage to help stop global warming. Paola Gianturco and her 12-year-old granddaughter Avery Sangster set out to chronicle their stories, interviewing and photographing women politicians, corporate executives, scholars, heads of grassroots groups, and presidents of organizations that are all dedicated to combating global warming. These women leaders are based in 10 countries: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Tanzania, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, and Hong Kong.
Learn more about what women around the world are doing through the book co-authored by this granddaughter-grandmother team, COOL: Women Leaders Reversing Global Warming. Gianturco and Sangster will be joined by one of the leaders they interviewed, Sheila Watt-Cloutier. Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit activist, will share her thoughts about life in the Arctic and how her Indigenous people are climate change sentinels for the world.
Tackling global warming takes all ages. Paola, Avery and the leaders in their book demonstrate that when the generations listen to one another, change is possible. We invite young people and adults to come, learn together, and be inspired to take action in your own communities.
FUNNY AND DISABLED: AN EVENING OF COMEDY AND CONVERSATION
TUE, AUG 16 / 5:30 PM PDT In-person and Online
Nina G., "Stuttering Standup Comic"; Author, Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen, Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy: A Humorous History, and Once Upon an Accommodation: A Book About Learning Disabilities.
Eric Siegel, Chair, Personal Growth Member-led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—Moderato
More than one in four adults in the United States has a disability. And yet: Do you know how to be a true ally to someone, maybe yourself, with a disability? Have you felt awkward around people with a disability and not known what to say and do? Have you wanted to tell your friend how you understand yourself as a disabled person, but not known how to tell your story?
Fret not! Here comes Nina G., the stuttering standup comic to lighten up a heavy subject! Nina stutters and has learning disabilities. She also has a doctorate in psychology and is the author of multiple books on stand-up comedy as well as disability, invisible or not. Through humor and comedy, she will show us what it means to "laugh at disability" from an insider perspective. (When is it OK to laugh at people with disabilities? When they are holding a microphone and telling jokes!)
We'll practice our new skills, have a laugh-filled evening, and hopefully return home a little lighter, and a lot more enlightened. We'll deepen our understanding of what disability means, how to be an ally, and how to self-advocate. And maybe we can get her to tell us some stories about stand-up history.
There will be an opportunity an hour before and an hour after the event for Club members, especially those with disabilities, to meet one another and Nina. Although this also will be available on live stream video, for the full experience it's time to get out of the house and meet your community. We've all been cooped up for too long, and there will be wine! (But remember: you must be boosted to enter the Club, despite our ultramodern ventilation system. Masks are recommended.)
SAVING FREUD
WED, SEP 7 / 3:00 PM PDT Online Only
Andrew Nagorski, Former Bureau Chief (Hong Kong, Moscow, Rome, Bonn, Warsaw, and Berlin), Newsweek; Author, Saving Freud: The Rescuers Who Brought Him to Freedom
In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates
In March 1938, German soldiers, under Hitler's orders, crossed the border and absorbed Austria into the Third Reich. Anticipating these events, many Jews had fled Austria, but the most famous Austrian Jew remained in Vienna, where he had lived since early childhood. Sigmund Freud was 81 years old, ill with cancer, and still unconvinced that his life was in danger.
But those close to Freud thought otherwise and began a coordinated effort to persuade Freud to leave Vienna before it was too late. The persuaders included Freud’s devoted youngest daughter Anna, his personal doctor, a Welsh physician, an American ambassador, and Napoleon’s great-grandniece.
Join us as Andrew Nagorski shares how this remarkable collection of people succeeded in coaxing Freud out of his deep state of denial, allowing them both to extricate Freud and his family from Austria and to arrange for Freud to live out the remaining 16 months of his life in freedom in London.
QUEER AND TRANS PEOPLE IN THE AAPI MOVEMENT
THU, SEP 8 / 12:30 PM PDT In-person and Online
Cecilia Chung, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Evaluation, Transgender Law Center; Health Commissioner, San Francisco; Founding Producer, Trans March
Anjali Rimi, President and Co-founder, Parivar Bay Area; Member, Trans Advisory Committee, Office of Transgender Initiatives, San Francisco Mayor's Office
Morningstar Vancil, Activist; Artist; Co-founder, ForS/mWoC
Michelle Meow, Producer and Host, "The Michelle Meow Show," KBCW TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Co-host
John Zipperer, Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club of California—Co-host
When people talk about the many attacks on Asian and Pacific Islander (API) people,, they usually don’t talk about gay or queer people. These attacks have been going on for a long time, and seemingly nobody pays attention to it.
This special panel will highlight how these attacks are affecting the queer Asian community and how this silent violence is impacting their lives and the lives of their loved ones. It will also remove the veil of shame and secrecy around queerness that is experienced by many in the Asian diaspora.
About The Commonwealth Club
The Commonwealth Club of California is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public forum that hosts hundreds of programs a year featuring speakers on a wide variety of topics and from a broad range of views. In addition to its live programs, it produces a weekly radio program—the nation’s oldest—that airs on 230 stations nationwide, a weekly TV program that airs in the Bay Area, and hundreds of podcasts and videos a year. Founded in 1903, The Commonwealth Club is the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum. For more information, visit commonwealthclub.org.
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