The Commonwealth October/November 2012

Commonwealth The

THE MAGAZINE OF THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB OF CALIFORNIA

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012

SPECIAL ISSUE

ELECTION

2O12 Saunders, Marinucci

& Gerston

Meghan McCain & Michael Ian Black

$teve Forbe$ Obamacare in the Courts SPECIAL ISSUE $2.00; free for members | commonwealthclub.org

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INSIDE The Commonwealth VO LU M E 1 0 7 , N O . 0 5 | O C TO B E R / N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 2

FEATURES ON THE COVER

6 FULL CAMPAIGN MODE Larry Gerston, Carla Marinucci and Debra J. Saunders provide 2012 election commentary

8 IMAGINE Jonah Lehrer talks about how imagination works

12 OBAMACARE IN ACTION

Photo by Rikki Ward

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, how will it work?

46 GOING FOR THE GOLD “The private sector gets starved of credit, even though there’s a lot of liquidity out there. Government gets its money; big business gets its money; but small and medium-sized businesses? Very uncertain.” – Steve Forbes Photo by Amanda Leung

EVENTS

4 EDITOR’S DESK

25 PROGRAM

Many of us won’t do our most basic civic duty at election time

5 THE COMMONS Nonpartisan and bipartisan, dating success, and good ol’ mom

49 BOARD OF

GOVERNORS BALLOT

Vote for your Club Board

50 INSIGHT Dr. Gloria C. Duffy The Greatest Generation Were Women, Too

David Walker offers a suggestion for backing away from the edge

18 INNOVATIVE TECH Todd Park taps rich data to fuel innovative health-care services

20 DESIGNING A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE

INFORMATION

Charles Yu discusses his books, science and his grandmother playing video games Photo by Ed Ritger

DEPARTMENTS

16 LIFE ON THE FISCAL CLIFF

26 EIGHT WEEKS CALENDAR Events from October 1 to December 19, 2012

28 PROGRAM LISTINGS 31 LANGUAGE CLASSES

44 AMERICA THROUGH

43 LATE-BREAKING EVENTS

THE EYES OF TWO AMERICAN AMERICANS

About Our Cover: We’ve assembled a lineup of issues and commentary to make your voting meaningful. Design by Steven Fromtling.

Republican Meghan McCain and Democrat Michael Ian Black took an all-American road trip

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EDITOR’S DESK J O H N Z I P PE R E R V P, M E D I A & E D I TO R I A L

Throwaway Votes

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f you vote in the United States, your finger will not be stained with ink. You won’t have to brave militias to get to and from the polling place, nor will you live in mortal fear that people will discover that you voted for an opposing candidate.

You might not even get one of those red “I Voted!” stickers, because (like me) you voted by mail days or weeks before election day. It’s easy, but it’s easy to forget that each time you vote, it is a historic act of defiance against people who would much prefer that you let them make your decisions for you. For most of history and across most of the world, republics have not been the norm. Even today in the United States, there are people who are working very hard to make it difficult for some people to vote.

So it is a shame to see people throwing away the franchise, allowing other people to run everything, letting other people set all the rules and elect all the candidates. They do that by not voting, and sometimes if they vote, they frankly don’t know what they’re voting about.

Gore Vidal, who died recently, once said that “50 percent of people won’t vote, and 50 percent don’t read newspapers; I hope it’s the same 50 percent.” Is that typical Vidal hyperbole? Perhaps; but there are some disturbing facts about the level of knowledge that Americans have with them when they go into the polling booth.

Last year, Newsweek surveyed American citizens, using questions from the country’s official citizenship test, and let’s just say Americans are lucky they don’t have to re-qualify for citizenship like they do for a drivers license. One-third of Americans didn’t know when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Almost two-thirds did not know what happened at the Constitutional Convention (which, in one of the more accurately named gatherings ever, was where the Constitution was written). Forty percent didn’t know America’s enemy during World War II. And a whopping 73 percent didn’t know America’s opponent in the Cold War. In July 2012, two university leaders wrote in the Omaha WorldHerald that American citizens “have been reneging” on their part of the republican agreement, in which citizens contribute to their communities and make informed votes. They added these awful data: “Only one-third of Americans could name all three branches of government. One-third couldn’t name any.” They cited the 2010 FOLLOW US ONLINE

facebook.com/thecommonwealthclub

Photo by Yuli Weeks / VOA

National Assessment of Educational Progress, which reported that “only about one-quarter of our high school seniors are proficient in civics.” And “only 5 percent of Americans were deemed competent in economics, 10 percent in geography, 11 percent in domestic issues and 14 percent in foreign affairs.”

So if you’re trying to rely upon Gore Vidal’s hope that the ignorant people just aren’t voting, that doesn’t even help. The knowledge-gap is greater than 50 percent.

I offer this handy check-off list for anyone who’s not planning to vote. They can fill it out and pin it to their shirts on Election Day, so others can compare their own red “I voted!” stickers with this list.

I didn’t vote because: c I don’t care who runs this country c I want other people to make decisions for me c I don’t care about democracy as much as people do in Egypt, Tunisia and Iraq c I’m more interested in voting for the American Idol than for the American president c I think things are going so well that voting could only mess things up c I don’t pay enough attention to issues to vote intelligently c I believe that elections are run by a mysterious and magical group of people who register voters, run the polls and select candidates c If people knew what candidates I supported, I would lose Facebook friends c After the voting is done, the professional politicians take over and do everything anyway, so why bother?

I think people would feel a lot better with an ink-stained hand or wearing a voting sticker on their shirt.

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BUSINESS OFFICES The Commonwealth, 595 Market St., 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 | feedback@commonwealthclub.org VP, MEDIA & EDITORIAL John Zipperer | SENIOR EDITOR Sonya Abrams | ART DIRECTOR Steven Fromtling EDITORIAL INTERNS Amelia Cass, Pria Whitehead, Alex Wolinsky | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Ed Ritger, Rikki Ward ADVERTISING INFORMATION: Mary Beth Cerjan, Development Manager, (415) 869-5919, mbcerjan@commonwealthclub.org The Commonwealth (ISSN 0010-3349) is published bimonthly (6 times a year) by The Commonwealth Club of California, 595 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-2805. | PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID at San Francisco, CA. Subscription rate $34 per year included in annual membership dues. | POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Commonwealth, The Commonwealth Club of California, 595 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-2805. | Printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. Copyright © 2012 The Commonwealth Club of California. Tel: (415) 597-6700 Fax: (415) 597-6729 E-mail: feedback@commonwealthclub.org | EDITORIAL TRANSCRIPT POLICY: The Commonwealth magazine covers a range of programs in each issue. Program transcripts and question and answer sessions are routinely condensed due to space limitations. Hear full-length recordings online at commonwealthclub.org/archive or contact Club offices to order a compact disc.

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Commons THE

Talk of the Club

Giving Back

VALENTINES

Jennifer Ong tries for Sacramento

The Dating Games

T

he Commonwealth Club is str ic tly non-partisan, so don’t expect any endorsements here.

But the Club is in favor of participation in the electoral process to deal with our shared concerns, so we were proud to see that Jennifer Ong is a candidate for the California State Assembly. Perhaps her name is familiar to you; Ong is a longtime supporter of the Club and even volunteered at the Club’s front desk.

Ong, who immigrated to the United States from the Philippines at the age of 11, owns an optometry practice in Alameda, from which she hopes to commute to Sacramento one day.

Club’s Cupid strikes again

A Romer photo by Ed Ritger, Hennessy courtesy NYTimes

Who Says Bipartisanship Is Dead?

GOPer Hennessey and Dem. Romer prove otherwise

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t the national political conventions last month, there was a lot of talk about how the lack of bipartisanship in Washington hurts our economy.

The Commonwealth Club can help. Our Bank of America/Walter E. Hoadley Annual Economic Forecast last year paired a high-profile Democrat with a high-profile Republican to examine the economy. It was such a successful event that we’re repeating the concept for 2013’s forecast

luncheon, which takes place January 25, at San Francisco’s Hotel Nikko.

Christina Romer, former economic advisor to President Barack Obama, will share the stage with Keith Hennessey, former economic advisor to President George W. Bush.

But politics might be the easier divide to bridge; Romer teaches economics at UC Berkeley, while Hennessey does the same at Stanford.

Will the Cal-Stanford divide hurt our economy? Find out.

Mom’s Got His Back Author Charles Yu’s cheerleader

S

ometimes you don’t need to ask an author about their family influences. Sometimes, it’s obvious how positive family support can be.

The morning of July 26, when Charles Yu, the 36-year-old author of three well-received books, came to The Commonwealth Club (see page 20), we posted a note about the upcoming program on the Club’s Facebook page, inviting people to “meet the young writer

who wrote the book in which a big-box store employee is confronted by a zombie during a graveyard shift.” Within 30 minutes of that message being posted, Charles’ mother, Betty Yu, posted a comment: “Charles, Dad and I and all family members are so proud of you. Sorry we are not able to be there, but you will do well. Love

Photo by John Zipperer

you and best luck. Dad sends his wish from Taiwan.”

Told about his mother’s post while he signed books on the Club stage, Charles smiled and said, “Yep, that’s my mom.”

O C TO B E R/N O V E M B E R 2012

little bird tells us that love blossomed during a recent Commonwealth Club trip to Death Valley. Despite the negativesounding name of the place, it was lively enough for the study leader and one of the travelers to strike up a relationship – a relationship that we’re told has now led to engagement.

As pleased as we are to see two p e o p l e b ro u g h t together through Club programs, we don’t claim to be a 21st century matchmaker. Although ...

Longtime readers of the Talk of the Club page might remember that Cathy Curtis, chair of the Club’s Bay Gourmet Member-Led Forum, met her husband at The Commonwealth Club. So it does happen.

Did you find love at The Club?

If so, let us know at feedback@ commonwealthclub.org.

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LARRY GERSTON Professor,

SJSU; Political Analyst, NBC 11; Author, Not So Golden After All

L L U F

CARLA MARINUCCI Senior Political Writer, San Francisco Chronicle DEBRA J. SAUNDERS olumnist, San Francisco Chronicle; C “Token Conservative” Blogger, SFGate.com

JOHN ZIPPERER V P, Editorial,

CAM PAIG N

E D MO

Our political commentary panel looks at the national race – and what everyone in California will be doing instead of meeting presidential candidates.

6 THE COMMO N WE AL THto Week,” O C TO BER/NO V EM BER Excerpt from “Week July 30,2012 2012.

ZIPPERER: You all remember Ted Turner, the media mogul. When he was at The Commonwealth Club a few years ago, he was talking about his business success: meeting people internationally, going to other countries and how he was able to deal even with Communists – in countries in all different areas. He said, Well, here’s what you do: You go to another country, you get off the plane, you meet their leaders and say, “This is a great country; I love this country; this is a beautiful land! Your women are beautiful; the food is great!”

Then there’s the Mitt Romney way.

[Laughter.] He is having a trip that has certainly provided some joy to Democrats watching it, but, Debra, this isn’t going to change a single vote, is it?

SAUNDERS: Let me just say that he did do that in Israel, and everyone’s jumping on him for doing that. I’m sort of surprised that Mitt Romney did that, because I don’t think foreign policy is a strength for him with American voters. I think American voters are pretty happy with Barack Obama’s foreign policy. I think they feel good about Iraq and Afghanistan; they don’t want to be too muscular with Syria and Iran. And so it’s a little surprising that Mitt Romney decided he wanted to do this foreign policy tour.

Now, when he went to London, the Brits were going to jump all over him because he’s conservative. It doesn’t matter what he did; something was going to be wrong – OK, he made it easy – but it was going to happen. He bought himself a week where he’s not getting torn apart at home, and that’s a good thing when you’re running for president this year.

ZIPPERER: That’s really a vacation.

Obama photos by Christopher Dilts for Organizing America / flickr, Romney photo by James Skidmore and James Currie / wikimedia commons

The Commonwealth Club – Host

SAUNDERS: It is: It’s like a vacation. It’s like going to a spa.

ZIPPERER: The Jerusalem spa, OK. Larry, what do you think about this trip? Has it changed any opinions of him?

GERSTON: I think the Great Britain thing is a bit of a joke; I quite agree. Now, you talk about Jerusalem and the comment he made today about what makes Israel special is the cultural difference – oh my gosh, he has stepped in it. But he stepped in it with votes he wasn’t going to get. How many Muslims are going to vote for Mitt Romney? I don’t think very many in the United States. So he hasn’t really hurt himself, and in some ways, he’s probably beefed up his credentials with the far Right. The Republicans would love to tear away a bit at the Jewish vote, which was 78 percent for Obama last time – 1 percent below the average, so it’s been very strong, and they have a shot. Look, the Jewish vote: It’s 2 percent, 3 percent [of the total voting population], but it’s of course gathered in a couple of states – Florida, New York, and to a lesser degree, California’s important; if the Florida vote changes because of what he said in Jerusalem, he may have done himself an awful lot of good.

The other point I would simply make is, you’re right. Foreign policy? No one’s going to care about this trip in two months.

MARINUCCI: I kind of wonder about that, Larry, because this was a well-planned trip.

This was supposed to be the easy foreign policy trip: You go to our best ally; you go to Israel, Poland; what happens when he goes to Pakistan? This is supposed to be a slam dunk.

The problem is perception. The leadership is what is being raised here, and from the press point of view, I just say this: When you have, as you had today, [Fox News host] Greta Van Susteren complaining about no access to the candidate on her blog, saying she felt like an animal in a zoo, all the press being put in a bus and not being given any access to him – and he’s had this issue a couple of times on this trip, not answering questions about basic policy – then I think the question is perception. Is he ready? Is the campaign ready?

In the big picture, will this matter? Maybe not. [But] does it sort of solidify perceptions people have about him?

GERSTON: We know that some of us view Romney as a captive.

ZIPPERER: What do you mean by that, a captive?

GERSTON: I don’t think I’ve seen the real Mitt Romney. I think: Who am I supposed to be today? What am I supposed to say?

How do I make sure the far Right I’ve been cultivating like crazy doesn’t abandon me, because I’ve had a heck of a time getting ahold of the middle? So much of what he seems to do is so stiff and choreographed. Maybe Obama can be criticized for talking down and lecturing us, but Romney’s problem is that he’s very stiff, and nobody can get their arms around this man. It’s an issue that goes beyond this trip, really, to the construction of the entire campaign.

MARINUCCI: I think you’re absolutely right. As someone who’s watched Romney in person, who’s covered him, I think the single biggest problem is this feeling of not knowing who he really is. You never see the passion or the spontaneity – except when he’s with his wife, I have to say. Everything seems so preplanned with him, and I’m hearing Republicans – solid Republican voters – saying they’re just not feeling a connection with him.

ZIPPERER: That was going to be my question. In 2008, the story was that of all the Republican candidates in that presidential primary, they could all get along to some degree, but they didn’t like Romney. What is it about him that truly is making him unable to connect even with people he should be able to connect with?

SAUNDERS: Politicians are the friendliest people in the world. They really are. It’s their job to court votes and to get as many people to vote for them as possible, and they just deal with people in a very different way than a CEO-type does. He has a corporate structure, and we all wonder what his core beliefs are, though I actually think, Larry, that what he’s talking about now is closer to his core beliefs than when he ran for governor of Massachusetts. Like other Republicans, I don’t feel a real sense of who he is. You knew who John McCain was. It’s not always good when you know who somebody is – John McCain I have a great deal of respect for; I was thinking of Newt Gingrich – but that’s a problem he has.

We saw this with Meg Whitman. When you deal with CEOs, they’re used to having people treat them with a certain kind of deference with which we do not treat politicians, and they’re used to structuring things in a way that makes them look better. Let’s face it: What do we in the press do? We like to make

you look silly sometimes, and we like to jump on you for a stupid comment, and why would they want to give us that? With Romney, you have someone who’s not a gladhander; he’s not an affable person; he’s never had to cultivate that except for this chore of trying to be president, and that’s why he didn’t get along with [the other candidates].

He’s worked better at it now. Real Clear Politics has this little e-book out on this election already, and they tell this story about how Tim Pawlenty was talking about “Obamneycare.” Everybody was expecting him to jump all over Romney at the debate, and Romney walked up to Pawlenty and said, Hey, nice to see you, asked him about his family, and Pawlenty didn’t jump on him; that pretty much ended Pawlenty’s campaign at that moment, when he finally had some momentum going.

MARINUCCI: Debra, you mentioned Meg Whitman; that brings up a good point, because we in California have seen this movie probably more than any other state.

A wealthy business individual running for high office: Al Checchi, Steve Westly, Steve Poizner, Meg Whitman – we could go on and on. You’re absolutely right. There is a parallel with all of these candidates. They are used to working in the boardroom; it isn’t the same as on the campaign trail. Some of them have made the transition when they run for office at a lower level first and can sort of inoculate themselves, but we’ve seen this numerous times, and with Romney on the communications front, here’s the problem: a 59-point economic plan? How many did Meg Whitman have – a 48-page economic plan? Bring it down to what the voters can understand. He still hasn’t done that.

SAUNDERS: I think people have a pretty clear idea of what Mitt Romney would do as president. People have a pretty clear idea as to how he would work.

GERSTON: People need to feel comfortable with the person they’re going to trust, and the issue with Mitt Romney is, I think, he’s uncomfortable that people know he’s rich. He doesn’t handle this well. He’s almost ashamed that they know he’s rich. I think he ought to say, “You bet I’m rich! You bet I’m rich, and I want to be president so that every one of you has the opportunity to be rich!”

SAUNDERS: You want him to be Donald Trump.

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(Continued on page 22)

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The controversial science writer explores the way in which imagination fuels creativity and how the mind uses input to come up with solutions to vexing problems.

Excerpt from “Jonah Lehrer: How Creativity Works,” April 5, 2012.

JONAH LEHRER Contributing Editor, Wired; Author, How We Decide and Imagine: How Creativity Works

Illustration by Steven Fromtling

I

’d like to begin with a story about Bob Dylan. In the summer of 1965, Dylan was finishing up his tour of England.

It had been a grueling few months, as Dylan has been struggling to maintain a nonstop performance schedule. He’d been paraded in front of the press and asked an endless series of inane questions. By the time Dylan arrived in London, it was clear that the tour was taking a toll: The singer was skinny from insomnia and pills, his nails were yellow from nicotine, and his skin had a ghostly pale pallor. For the first time, his shows felt formulaic, as if he were singing the lines of someone else.

Before long, it all became too much.

While touring in England, Dylan decided that he was leading an impossible life. The only talent he cared about – this ceaseless creativity – was being ruined by fame. The breaking point probably came after a brief vacation in Portugal, where Dylan came down with a vicious case of food poisoning. The illness forced him to stay in bed for a week, giving the singer a rare chance to reflect. “I realized I was very drained,” Dylan would later confess. “I was playing a lot of songs I didn’t want to play; I was singing words I didn’t really want to sing.”

Dylan told his manager he was quitting the music business. He was finished with singing and songwriting; he was going to move to a tiny cabin in Woodstock, New York. He just wanted to be left alone. Dylan wasn’t bluffing: As promised, he returned from his British tour and rode his Triumph motorcycle straight out of New York City.

He didn’t even bring his guitar.

Of course, our story doesn’t end here.

Bob Dylan did not retire in 1965. After a few relaxing days in Woodstock, just when Dylan was most determined to stop creating music, he was overcome with a strange feeling. So Dylan did the only thing he knew how to do: He grabbed a pencil and he started to scribble. Once Dylan began, his hand didn’t stop moving for the next several hours. “I found myself writing this

song, this story, this long piece of vomit – 20 pages long,” Dylan said. “I had never written anything like that before, and it suddenly came to me that this is what I should do.”

Vomit is the essential word here. Dylan is describing with characteristic vividness the uncontrollable rush of a creative insight, that flow of associations that can’t be held back. “I don’t know where my songs come from,” Dylan said. “It’s like a ghost is writing the song: gives you the song, and he goes away. You don’t know what it means.”

Once the ghost arrived, all Dylan wanted

“Scientists have made progress in trying to understand how this

mysterious mental event happens.” to do was get out of the way. In retrospect, we can see that this frantic composition in Woodstock allowed Dylan to fully express for the very first time the full diversity of his influences. In these cryptic lyrics we can hear his mental-blendered work as he mixes together scraps of Bertolt Brecht, Fellini, Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson. In those first minutes of writing, he finds a way to make something new out of this incongruous list of influences, drawing them together into a catchy song. When Dylan gets to the chorus, the visceral power of the lyrics becomes obvious: “How does it feel to be without a home/Like a complete unknown/Like a rolling stone.”

The following week, on June 15, 1965, Dylan brought this sheaf of paper into the cramped space of Studio A Columbia Records in New York City. After just four takes – the musicians were only beginning to learn their parts – “Like a Rolling Stone” was cut on acetate. Those six minutes of

raw music would revolutionize rock and roll. Bruce Springsteen would later describe the experience of hearing the single on the radio as one of the most important moments of his life.

The reason I’m talking about Bob Dylan [is] because it’s the story of a moment of insight. At times, such stories can feel like romantic clichés, sort of make-believe breakthroughs that happen to Archimedes in the bathtub and Newton under the apple tree.

And yet, moments of insight do happen; they are a genuine mental event.

In recent years, cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists have made some really interesting progress in trying to understand how this very mysterious mental event happens, as if the cortex is sharing one of its secrets. It turns out there are two defining features of such moments of insight.

The first defining feature is that the answer comes out of the blue; it arrives when we least expect it: We [write] our best song after we’ve stopped writing songs and moved to Woodstock, New York. The second defining feature is that as soon as the answer arrives, as soon as we begin writing those words down, we know this is the answer we’ve been searching for. So the solution comes attached with this feeling of certainty – it feels like a revelation.

What scientists have to do – and I’m talking primarily here about the research of Mark Beeman at Northwestern and John Kounios at Drexel – is find a way to generate lots of moments of insight inside the brain scanner. So what they came up with was a set of word problems called “compound remote associate problems.” The word problems go like this: I’m going to give you three words – we’ll do the first one together – and you have to find the fourth word that can form a compound word with those three. So the three words are pine, crab and sauce. The fourth word here is apple: pineapple, crabapple, applesauce.

So here’s one for you guys: The three words are age, mile and sand. Stone. If the answer

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came that quickly to you, you either had read the book or had a moment of insight.

We’ll pretend it was a moment of insight.

The first thing Beeman and Kounios discovered when they gave people these problems is that in the seconds before a moment of insight popped into consciousness, a part of the brain called the interior superior temporal gyrus, an obscure bit of cortex in the back of the right hemisphere, lit up, showing a sharp spike in activity. It’s a part of the brain nobody knows too much about. It’s been previously associated with things like the processing of jokes – it lights up when you hear a punchline – and also the interpretation of metaphors, and this begins to make a little bit of sense. When we’re watching “Romeo and Juliet” and Romeo says that Juliet is the

sun, we know he’s not saying that Juliet’s a big flaming ball of plasma gas; we know he’s trafficking in metaphor. The way we make sense of those metaphors is by searching for the remote associations, those underlying themes they actually share, so we’re able to figure out Romeo is saying Juliet lights up his world the way the sun lights up ours.

When you need a big breakthrough when you’re struggling to solve a very difficult problem, chances are you also need to bring together a set of remote associations, because if those connections were on the surface, you probably would have found them already.

The second thing Beeman and Kounios found is a bit more interesting.

They discovered that when they hooked people up to EEG machines, they found, in conjunction with colleagues at University College in London, that they could predict up to eight seconds in advance

Imagination Running Wild Whiz kid catches the eye of a leading publication, quickly collects bylines and acclaim, then is brought down in a barrage of fraud and plagiarism accusations.

In late July, author, journalist and three-time Commonwealth Club speaker Jonah Lehrer found himself the newest member in a club of disgraced writers including Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass.

Allegations of selfplagiarism surfaced in early summer 2012, when the Columbiaeducated Lehrer was accused of lifting passages directly from his best-selling book Imagine in his New Yorker blog entries. These charges were ethi-

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cally murky enough to keep Lehrer out of hot water. But in late July, writer and devoted Bob Dylan fan Michael C. Moynihan penned an article in Tablet magazine accusing Lehrer of fabricating quotes by the famous singersongwriter in Imagine’s dissection of Dylan’s creative process.

After initially disputing the charges, Lehrer admitted to falsfiying information. He resigned from his position as New Yorker staff writer, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt recalled print and e-copies of Imagine. He was fired from his position as a contract writer for Wired, speaking engagement offers have dried up, and Lehrer

has been maintaining a low profile since the scandal surfaced.

Jonah Lehrer spoke to The Club before these allegations surfaced, and we’ve chosen to include his speech here because the topic is thought-provoking, and we suspect enough of the speaker’s research is conducted honestly to make it an engaging work of (mostly) nonfiction. Though we try to have faith in the professional integrity of the people who address the Club, it’s always wise to take everything you read with a grain of salt. Jonah Lehrer’s downfall serves as a powerful reminder of this.

By Sonya Abrams

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whether or not someone was going to have a moment of insight.

The question, of course, is what this predictive signal is. It turns out to be something called alpha waves. Like most things in the mind, alpha waves remain pretty mysterious, but they are closely associated with states of relaxation. Things that lead to the generation of lots of alpha waves are things like taking a walk on the beach, sitting on your couch with a beer, taking a hot shower – going wherever it is you go that makes you stop thinking about work, that place where you leave the world behind; you just get to daydream and feel good about yourself. That’s probably a situation where you’re having lots of alpha waves.

The reason these states of relaxation are so important for the generation of moments of insight, Beeman and Kounios argue, is that when we’re not relaxed, when we’re juiced on caffeine, our attention’s out here; it’s fixated on the world. So we’re stuck. It’s not until we’re shampooing our hair in the shower, feeling good and nice and relaxed, and we can’t even check our email because there’s no waterproof iPhone. We’re forced to just daydream, when at long last we turn the spotlight of attention inwards, and that’s when we hear that quiet voice coming from the back of our head [with the answer].

Now, I wish I could tell you that the way to solve every creative problem is to take a shower, to go on vacation, to take a lovely, relaxing hike in the woods; but that would be terrible advice. Relaxation is not a universal cure. In reality, all great artists and great thinkers are great workers.

So what defines this kind of creativity?

What allows some people to simply persist when others quit? It turns out to be largely defined by a new character trait called grit.

This also helps explain a longstanding mystery in creativity research, which is that when you look at [successful] people on the far right side of the creative bell curve – Bob Dylan, Pablo Picasso, Steve Jobs – and try to figure out what makes them so special, I think what really separates these people on the far right side of the bell curve is that they’re grittier than the rest of us; they are more likely to persevere, to persist. J.K. Rowling suffered through 12 rejections from publishers but kept on writing about Harry Potter in coffee shops while her baby daughter took naps.

These people are just more stubborn.

This brings us back to creativity.

So far, I’ve been attempting to describe these two very distinct forms of creativity, which depend on very distinct mental processes in the brain. The more practical lesson, though, is that different kinds of creative problems benefit from different kinds of creative thinking. The question, of course, is how to adjust our thought process to the task at hand. What requires relaxation, and what requires grit?

The good news is the human mind has a natural ability to diagnose our problems, to assess the kind of creativity we need. These assessments have an eloquent name: They’re called feelings of knowing, and they occur whenever we suspect that we can find the answer if only we keep on thinking about the question. One of my favorite examples is when a word’s on the tip of your tongue; you’re walking down the street and you see someone; you know you know their name, but you just can’t quite place it. How do you know you know something if you don’t actually know it? Why are you so convinced you can remember that name if you can’t find the memory? This brings us back to feelings of knowing. That feeling of knowing is a hunch telling you that if you just keep on looking for that name, eventually you will find it in one of those overstuffed file cabinets inside your head.

When it comes to creative problem solving, feelings of knowing are often essential.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that when it comes to problems that don’t require insights, don’t require a sudden flash of revelation, the mind is remarkably accurate assessing the likelihood that a problem can be solved. We can glance at a question and know that the answer is within our reach if only we put in the work. The end result is that we’re motivated to stay focused on the challenge. What makes these feelings of knowing even more useful is that they come attached with a sense of progress.

Now, what’s impressive about such estimates is that people are able to assess their closeness to a solution without knowing what the solution is. This ability to calculate progress is a very important part of the creative process. When we don’t feel that we’re getting closer to the answer, when we hit the wall, so to speak, we probably need an insight. In these instances, we should rely on the right hemisphere, which excels

at revealing those remote associations.

Focusing on the problem will be a waste of mental resources. We will stare at our computer screen and repeat our failures.

Instead, we should find a way to relax. The most productive thing we can do is forget all about work. However, when those feelings of knowing are telling us that we’re getting closer, then we need to keep on struggling.

The idea I’d like to end with today speaks directly to the difficulty of fostering innovation, even in a place like Silicon Valley. In fact, it suggests that many of the things we do with the best of intentions, from holding brainstorming meetings to hiring chief innovation officers, actually hinder our natural creativity. This is best demonstrated by Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist at the Santa Fe Institute. He studies cities, and he gathers vast tracts of data from the Census Bureau, the Patent Office and governments across the world.

He’s interested in how cities tick and what makes some cities tick better. He also makes this very interesting comparison between cities and companies. He points out that from a certain perspective, cities and companies look really similar: They’re both big clusters of people in a fixed physical space, lots of infrastructure. Yet cities and companies exhibit one very interesting difference, which is that cities never die. Cities are immortal. You can nuke a city; it comes back. You can flood a city; it comes back. Devastating earthquake: We still have San Francisco. Companies, on the other hand, are incredibly fragile. The average lifespan of a Fortune 100 company is 45 years; 25 percent of Fortune 500 companies die every decade. So West wants to figure out: Why are companies so fragile, and why are cities so durable?

He’s found that cities and companies actually exhibit one very interesting difference: As a metropolis expands in size and population, everyone in that city becomes more productive – they make more money; they invent more patents; they invent more trademarks. By every metric we have, they’re going to look smarter and simply better.

This is why urbanization is the great theme of the 21st century: Something amazing happens when you put too many people in the same zip code; all those bumps, all that human friction – what Jane Jacobs called knowledge spillovers – add up. All those

random conversations on the sidewalk while waiting in line for a latte – every once in a while, they lead to a new idea. This is called superlinear scaling; as cities get bigger, people become smarter and more productive.

In companies, the opposite happens.

As companies get bigger, everyone in that

“The secret of cities is that they don’t

really try to manage us. Cities are these freewheeling, chaotic places.”

company becomes less productive. You get less profit per employee, fewer patents per employee – by every metric we have, companies look sublinear. Now, of course, over time this is quite dangerous, because Wall Street’s saying, Grow the bottom line, keep getting bigger, so companies get these elaborate fixed costs, elaborate bureaucracies that cost a lot of money to maintain, but they can’t generate new ideas at the same rate, so they become more reliant on their old ideas; they’ve got to invest in expensive acquisitions for the new ones. Sometimes those acquisitions don’t work out, and eventually, of course, your old ideas no longer bring in enough revenue, and that’s when you go belly-up.

West wants to figure out what explains this difference. Why are cities superlinear, and why are companies sublinear? He argues that companies get in the way.

The secret of cities is that they don’t really try to manage us. Cities are these freewheeling, chaotic places – a mayor is a pretty powerless figure – they can’t tell you where to live or who to talk to or what problems to work on. Companies’ CEOs try to micromanage innovation. They try to control the pipeline, try to control the process. They tell people what to work on, whom to talk to. They try to manage our attention. They tell us to brainstorm, and brainstorming just doesn’t work. They hinder the innovation that simply emerges when too many people share a small space.

So West’s advice is simple: When in doubt, imitate the city.

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In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding Obamacare, an expert panel explains the Affordable Care Act’s impact on the Golden State. Excerpt from “The Supreme Court HealthCare Ruling and Its Impact on California,” July 18, 2012.

PETER LEE Executive Director, California Health Benefit Exchange LARRY LEVITT Sr. VP for Special Initiatives, Kaiser Family Foundation BILL KRAMER Executive Director for National Health Policy, Pacific Business Group on Health

ANTHONY WRIGHT Executive Director, Health Access

ALIFERIS: Mr. Kramer, the key elements of the Affordable Care Act are about expanding access to the uninsured and the individual market and also small employers, but your organization represents a lot of large employers in California. How are they reacting to the ACA, and what changes does the law bring for people who already get their insurance at work?

KRAMER: The primary purpose of the Affordable Care Act was to expand coverage to the uninsured and to reform the insurance market, especially for individuals and small employers. As a result, the impact of the Affordable Care Act on large employers and their employees is relatively modest, at least in the short and medium term. This is good news and bad news at the same time.

The good news is, as we all know, most large employers offer good, affordable, comprehensive coverage to their active, full-time employees, and I don’t think we want to disrupt that. There have been a number of requirements in the early years of the Affordable Care Act that large employers have had to comply with or demonstrate compliance with, such as expansion of coverage for dependents up to age 26, coverage of preventive services, standardized statement of benefits and coverage. Those are relatively modest – some employers have complained that it’s a bit of administrative hassle, but in the grand scheme, compared to the other changes in the Affordable

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Obama photo by pennstatelive / Flickr, doctor by aldomurillo / istockphoto

LISA ALIFERIS Health Editor, KQED News – Moderator

Care Act, these are relatively modest.

In 2014, things become a little more serious, with the establishment of the employer responsibility requirements, and then in 2018, with the advent of the so-called “Cadillac tax,” which is an excise tax on very high-cost employee benefit plans. But the bad news is, regardless of how large employers felt about the Affordable Care Act, pro or con, on the day after the Supreme Court decision, they still woke up with the same problem they’ve been facing for the past year, for the past decade, which is that costs are too high. Rising costs are a threat not only to the future of employer-sponsored coverage but actually to the Affordable Care Act itself, particularly the expansion of coverage, and that is so important. The Affordable Care Act does include a number of elements that set us in the right direction, and that we think over time may have an impact on costs – changes in payments under Medicare to reward value, not just volume; demonstrations and new programs like accountable care organizations and primary care medical homes; the new pilots, such as bundled patients; but most employers and many health-care experts feel that, while these are headed in the right direction, they probably won’t make the kind of dent in the health-care spending trends that we need.

The bottom line is that cost containment is the next chapter of health-care reform. We need to do that not only to shore up the employer-based system but also to preserve the gains of the Affordable Care Act. ALIFERIS: California is moving ahead with the Medicaid expansion. From the consumer perspective, give us a quick overview of what needs to be in place to make sure the millions of uninsured in California smoothly access health insurance, either through the exchange or through Medicaid expansion.

WRIGHT: The first thing that needed to be in place was a good Supreme Court decision, and we got that, and that’s especially

important here in California. No state in the nation had more at stake with what the Supreme Court decided than California, not only because we have some of the greatest severity of the problem – Californians are more likely to be uninsured, more likely not to get coverage at work, more likely not to be able to afford coverage, more likely to be denied for pre-existing conditions than residents of all but a handful of states – but no state in the nation has been as aggressive in taking advantage of the new benefits,

“People who are uninsured live sicker, die younger and are one

emergency or illness away from financial ruin.” – Wright

the new options, the new funds, the new opportunities to address those problems under the Affordable Care Act. Very excitingly, there are people who now have coverage because of the Affordable Care Act; 12,000 people who were denied for pre-existing conditions now have coverage through a pre-existing condition insurance program. If the Supreme Court had ruled the other way, those 12,000 Californians would have been left uninsured and uninsurable in our individual market. More exciting, we have over 400,000 Californians who are now getting coverage through the Medicaid expansion – an early part of the Medicaid expansion where we’re drawing down federal funds. Counties have stepped up to take some of their dollars that they put to medical care to draw down federal funds to start the expansion early. This is a very exciting prospect: Low-income people are now getting coverage that they didn’t before; over 47 counties are already moving ahead

with that, and we think most of the others will in the next few months.

But again, the real promise for coverage expansion is in 2014, when millions of people will newly be eligible. But then the question is, Are we going to have the infrastructure and systems in place to get all those folks into coverage? I would like to make the case that this is not just important to get millions of people enrolled on day one, January 1, 2014; it is imperative. Number one: We want people to get coverage. People who are uninsured live sicker, die younger and are one emergency or illness away from financial ruin. We have the tools in place to deal with that issue directly. Number two: For every day we do not enroll people in coverage and get people coverage, that is millions, if not billions, of dollars that we’re leaving in Washington, D.C., and not bringing into our health-care system and our economy, because for the exchange and for Medi-Cal, those are 100 percent federally funded, but only if we enroll people, so that’s really important as an economic stimulus if anything else. Third, we need this to be a big and broad pool, because if it’s a small and sick pool, the costs will be higher.

The people who sign up the quickest will be the sickest, because they need it most, and that’s a good thing – we want those people to get care – but we need everybody to participate, because then the risk and the cost will be spread, and the prices will be lower.

ALIFERIS: Peter Lee, you need to enroll these millions of people – half of them will be coming through the exchange. How is that infrastructure going to be built and be ready?

LEE: I really couldn’t agree more with Anthony that we need to get everyone in, and part of changing the rules of the game in health insurance is to say, It isn’t about the risk avoidance business and avoiding sick people; it’s about getting everyone in.

That’s what the Affordable Care Act does.

At the exchange, we’re doing three things

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Photos by Ed Ritger

KQED’s Lisa Aliferis (left) led her panel in examining the inplications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding President Obama’s law.

to ensure this works for Californians. First, we’re going to have – again – affordable, private plans that people can choose. You hear a lot of this sort of hyperbole of government takeover of health care – this is the furthest thing you can get from a government takeover of health care. We’re giving people the ability to choose the right plan for themselves with federal support to make it affordable.

Number two, we will be doing outreach.

There has been so much confusion, misinformation, disinformation; people have no idea of what the benefits are under the Af-

“There are lessons

that have been learned that can be adapted by the exchange.” – Kramer fordable Care Act, so we’ll be reaching out in communities.

Third, we’re going to have an online system that people can enroll in, and we hope to make enrolling in health care as easy as buying a book on Amazon. Now, it’s going to be a complicated book; it’s not going to be that easy, but at the same time if you’re sick, if you’ve got diabetes, you’ll stay on the phone that extra 20 minutes, that extra half-hour, that hour. If you’re one of those

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young invincibles – that 25-year-old that thinks, “I don’t really want to buy insurance” – if we don’t make it easy, every little bit of friction means maybe they’ll drop off the phone, maybe they won’t click to enroll.

ALIFERIS: We have a question from the audience, and I think this connects to Bill Kramer from the Pacific Business Group on Health: [it’s about] how much accessing insurance through the exchange is going to be similar to what people who work for a large employer [are familiar with]?

LEE: Actually, it’s going to be very, very similar to working for a large employer, and a couple things are changing with the Affordable Care Act. First, right now, many of us, whether we work or a large employer or buy insurance on your own – it’s hard to know what you’re actually getting. One of the things the Affordable Care Act does is say everyone – large employers, small employers, individuals – should make sure they’re getting essential health benefits covered.

KRAMER: The exchange doesn’t have to start from scratch and decide how it’s going to do this. Large employers may not have been perfect over the years in how they design and develop health-benefit plans for their employees, but there’s some good lessons that have been learned about what works and what doesn’t work. How do you choose what’s a good health plan? How do you choose a health plan that offers a good provider network that provides access to all the employees? How do you make sure information is available to the employees,

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consumers, so they can compare the plans, how they can compare physicians, how they can compare hospitals? There are lessons that have been learned, standards have been developed, tools have been used that can be adapted by the exchange. I give Peter and the exchange board a lot of credit for looking for existing performance standards, quality measurements and consumer tools that can be used and adapted and built upon as they design and develop the exchange.

ALIFERIS: On the flipside, the majority of Californians do have health insurance, and I have several questions from the audience: “If I have Kaiser, how will I be affected?”

“If I have Medicare, how will I be affected?”

LEVITT: For the most part, people who have insurance now can keep that insurance. It’s not going away; there’s no federal takeover of the health-care system, but there are some protections that go into place for people who already have insurance. We talked earlier about people being able to keep their kids on their policy up to age 26; policies can no longer have lifetime limits, which may happen today; they have to cover these essential benefits: drugs, maternity care, hospital care, physician care, etcetera; and most important, the coverage can’t be denied. If you’ve got coverage, it’s guaranteed renewable; you can always keep that coverage. Right now, if you have a pre-existing condition and you have coverage, you’re sort of stuck in that coverage. You may even be stuck in a job because you’re worried about losing that coverage.

With these protections that go into effect in 2014, you always have the option of leaving

a job or shopping around for a better deal with insurers.

ALIFERIS: I think people have somewhat of a misperception that the Affordable Care Act will somehow be able to roll back insurance prices. Then the flipside: There’s cost of health insurance; there’s also healthcare costs themselves. Bill Kramer, you mentioned health-care costs contribute to the rising cost of health insurance. What does the Affordable Care Act do to address increase in quality and decrease in costs?

KRAMER: Health-care costs in the United States are much too high. They’re much higher than any other industrialized country, and we don’t get the quality, the outcomes, that other countries do. It’s estimated that the waste in our health-care system is around 30 percent. That’s unnecessary care, services that are being provided that do not help people get better and in some cases are harmful. We have a great opportunity to reduce costs and do it in a way that improves quality, because some of that unnecessary care creates harm.

The Affordable Care Act makes some steps in the right direction to reduce that waste and improve the affordability of health care. One change would be under Medicare.

Currently, physicians and hospitals are paid largely based on the volume of services they provide. That leads to an incentive for unnecessary care. Under the Affordable Care Act and other legislation, the payment mechanisms under Medicare are beginning to change so that there will be rewards to physicians, hospitals and other providers that are doing the right thing by providing safer care, better care and more efficient care for their patients.

ALIFERIS: Isn’t there the risk that people hear this “more efficient care” as meaning “denial of care”?

KRAMER: That’s why any kind of cost containment measures need to be coupled with a very good measurement of the quality of care that’s being provided to ensure that that kind of stinting of care or reduction of necessary care does not happen.

LEE: We have an affordability crisis. It’s an affordability crisis for America’s families, for business but also for government. The main problem with the federal deficit is Medicare spending. If we don’t get our arms around having our spending [improve] quality, we’re going to have a collapsed economy.

The issues of what the exchange can do: We’re going to be big; we’re going to be a very large purchaser, but we’re not big enough alone. Medicare’s not big enough alone. Private purchasers aren’t big enough alone. We need to be together saying, Let’s not pay for a treadmill of doing more being rewarded; let’s instead pay for better quality.

I’ll give you one example of what Medicare’s doing. Coming up, hospitals will be rewarded and paid more if they reduce the number of people that are harmed by that hospital. That’s a good thing. Tens of thousands of Californians are injured every week by hospital-acquired infections. It’s not because hospitals want to do this, but we have systems that aren’t working. All of a sudden, hospitals are saying, I think I’ll invest in actually making sure we don’t have pressure ulcers in this hospital; I’m going to invest in reducing central line infections instead of putting in a new cardiac wing, because there’s a financial reason to do it.

We need to change the incentives. The exchange can be part of that, but we need to be working with other purchasers.

ALIFERIS: There’s a lot of concern and skepticism from the audience about the funding: both the Medicaid expansion

funding and how long the federal government will really provide that funding, and also the subsidies.

LEE: There’s no question that California needs the federal support to expand coverage, without a doubt. [But] we’re paying the bill already. We’re paying the bill by people who have no coverage going to the emergency room in the most expensive, least efficient way. The reason I’m very

“Let’s not pay for a treadmill of doing more being rewarded, but let’s instead pay

for better quality.” – Lee confident that the subsidies are going to stay is I think they’re going to show value to the entire system by having people being kept healthier, having preventive care be delivered more effectively, having less stress on emergency rooms – but also, the 7 million in California that don’t have insurance want to have insurance. They want coverage. These are people that are going to be talking to their family members, talking to others, and this is why, when we launched Medicare 50 years ago – it took a couple years, but after a couple years people said, How can we not have this? We take it for granted that our seniors should absolutely have health care.

This program was made possible by the generous support of the California HealthCare Foundation.

Our program took place just a couple weeks after Chief Justice John Roberts stunned conservatives by siding with supporters of Obamacare.

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T

his country was founded, among other things, upon limited but effective government. Individual liberty and opportunity. Personal responsibility and accountability. Rule of law and equal justice under the law. Fiscal responsibility and intergenerational equity.

And let me give you a word that we don’t hear enough, and the word is stewardship.

That word means that as a leader, whether you’re in the private sector, the public sector, the not-for-profit sector – and I’ve had the good fortune of being a leader in all three – your job is not just to generate positive results today, not just to leave things better off when you leave than when you came, but to leave things better positioned for the future. That is much tougher, and the truth is my generation, the Baby Boom generation,

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is failing on its stewardship responsibility to our children and grandchildren. Our fiscal policy, which is tax and spending, is imprudent and unsustainable, but we face a number of other key sustainability challenges that we have to address: our energy policy, our environmental policy, our infrastructure policy, our immigration policy, our health-care policy, our tax policy. I could go on and on, but I’ve got a limited amount of time. The current path we’re on in all these areas is imprudent and unsustainable. We are the largest economy on Earth; we’re the temporary sole superpower; our currency, the U.S. dollar, represents over 60 percent of the world’s global reserve currency; and we issue debt in our own currency. All of these things mean that we’re a powerful nation, our culture is felt around the world,

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but we’re not learning from history and we’re not learning from others. Other great civilizations and great powers have strayed from their principles and values and paid a price. We need to not follow their mistakes.

At the federal level, the government has grown too big, promised too much and waited too long to restructure, but it’s not too late. Let me give you some stats.

In 1900, the federal government was less than 3 percent of the economy. This year, it’s over 24 percent of the economy, so it’s eight times bigger relative to the size of our economy than in 1900. It’s scheduled to be 37 percent of the U.S. economy by 2040 on our current path. If you add state and local government, government would be over 50 percent of the U.S. economy in 2040, which sounds like a long way off,

The former U.S. comptroller general lays out the facts for a countr y that is coming to terms with a gap between its ambitions a n d i t s c h e c k b o o k .

Excerpt from “Correcting America’s Fiscal Imbalances,” June 6, 2012.

DAVID WALKER Founder, President and CEO, Comeback America Initiative; Author, Comeback America Photo by PeskyMonkey / istockphoto

but, believe me, it’s not; think about your kids and your grandkids.

I’m not an anti-government person.

Some of the brightest, most dedicated and capable people I’ve ever worked with are civil servants. I’ve run two agencies in the executive branch, one in the legislative branch; I’ve been a trustee of Social Security and Medicare. The fact is that they’re capable people trapped in a bad system. The truth is, government is not the engine of growth, innovation and job creation, and you cannot allow government to get that big and expect to maintain your competitive posture, economic growth and opportunity.

So we must change course. The same is true at the state and local level. By the way, you’ve all heard the saying, “Bad news flows downhill”? When the federal government has to

restructure its finances, it will have a ripple effect down to state and local governments.

Today, most states rely upon the federal government for one-third to 42 percent of their revenues, and they’re assuming they’re going to continue to receive that! That is not a reasonable assumption. The most likely scenario is that in order to put the federal government’s finances in order, it’s going to have to significantly reduce future projected spending, and it’s going to have to raise more revenues. That means it’s going to do less than people are expecting, and people are going to have to pay more taxes than they’re accustomed to paying. That means the states and localities will get less, will have to finance more of their own, and that also means that individuals will have to assume more responsibility for their own financial future: plan, save, invest and preserve.

I’ve been to 49 states during town hall meetings, to business community leaders, editorial boards, local media. The people are ahead of the politicians. They know we have a problem. They’ve adjusted their behavior, but government hasn’t adjusted its behavior. Believe it or not, I’m 60 years old, and do you know how many times in 60 years Congress has passed a budget and appropriations bills on time? Four times in 60 years. And even when they pass a budget, they only control 37 percent of spending, and the rest is on autopilot; a blank check has been written.

Could you run your family, could you run a business, could I run my nonprofit having a budget that only controls 37 percent of spending? No. How can we run the largest entity on the face of the earth that way, the United States government?

By the way, at the state level, believe it or not, including your state – your state counts proceeds from borrowing as revenue to balance the budget. Now that’s pretty creative accounting. At least the federal government doesn’t do that.

The good news is there is a way forward: the Simpson-Bowles Commission, the Domenici-Rivlin Commission, the Comeback America Initiative – the entity that I had, our Restoring Fiscal Sanity Report. There are a number of frameworks for reform out there that should be able to get broad-based, bipartisan support, that end up separating the short-term challenge from the structural, that recognize that everything has to be on the

table, that we have to regain control of the budget. We have to reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while maintaining a strong and secure safety net. We have to cut defense and constrain defense spending without compromising national security. We have to separate the wheat from the chaff between which federal government spending programs and tax policies and regulatory actions are working and aren’t working, which ones are based on the past and which ones are trying to create a better future. We have to comprehensively reform our tax system to make it simpler, fairer, more competitive and more equitable and to generate adequate revenue to pay our bills and deliver on the promises we intend to keep.

In my view, any comprehensive reform plan has to be successful and sustainable.

First, it’s got to make economic sense: progrowth. Secondly, it’s got to be socially equitable. We need a solvent, sustainable and secure social safety net in this country.

Thirdly, it’s got to be culturally acceptable.

It’s got to envision a size of government and a level of taxation that will be supported by a majority of the American people. The size of government is not based upon how much it taxes; the size of government is based on how much it spends, and the difference between what you spend and what you get in revenues is called a deficit, which results in debt, and that represents deferred taxation that our children, grandchildren and generations unborn will have to pay absent us changing our course.

We’re number 28 out of 34 in the world in fiscal responsibility and sustainability.

Greece is 34; Australia’s number 1; Mexico’s 18 – we’re 28! Which way are they going on the border this week? If you look at health care, we spend double per person on health care, and we get below average societal outcomes. K-12 education: We spend double per person, and we get below average results. If you think you’re going to solve your problem by throwing more money at a system that you’re already spending double per person and getting below average results, that ain’t going to work. We’re going to have to transform it, focusing on incentives, transparency and accountability.

This program was made possible by the generous support of the Travers Family Foundation.

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INNOVATIVE TECH Health and Human Services took a cue from the Weather Channel and tapped the resources of the world’s programmers to create new services from its wealth of available data. Excerpt from “Unleashing the Power of Open Data and Innovation for Health Care,” June 18, 2012.

TODD PARK U.S. Chief Technology Officer; Former CTO, Health and Human Services (HHS)

I

’m going to talk to you specifically about an initiative that I was lucky enough to co-found at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when I was CTO there two and a half years ago. It’s called the Health Data Initiative. The Health Data Initiative is an effort by the U.S. government to replicate successes it has had in the past with open data and open innovation, specifically inspired by the weather.

About 40 years ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which collects virtually all weather data in America, did something incredibly interesting: It decided to make its weather data downloadable by anybody, free, in electronic form without intellectual property constraint. That then fueled an enormous amount of innovation outside government as people created services like The Weather Channel, Weather.com, iPhone weather apps, weather insurance and many other services that improved lives and created jobs.

We thought that this was quite extraordinary and said, Look, can we run that again – this time with the vast reservoirs of health-related knowledge and information sitting in the vaults of HHS? That’s exactly what the Health Data Initiative seeks to do: to liberate data from the vaults of HHS and other agencies while rigorously protecting privacy, and to spur innovation and entrepreneurship that improves health and health care, helps to create jobs, and grows the economy.

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The ingredients in the Health Data Initiative are threefold. First, we’re making brand new data available that have not been made available to the public before, while rigorously protecting privacy. Second – maybe less sexily but equally important – there’s a lot of data that HHS had made available but in the form of books, PDFs and static websites, which were not useful to third-party developers, so we’re taking that

“We ended up having to

publicize our data to entrepreneurs, who could then turn it into all kinds of services.” data and turning it into data that’s actually usable by developers. The third thing that we’re doing may seem like the simplest and most obvious, but in many ways it turns out to be phenomenally important.

We found that about 95 percent-plus of American entrepreneurs and innovators that could turn our data into new products and services didn’t really know what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services even does, let alone the fact that we have all this data, let alone the fact that we’re trying to make it available to them as fuel for innovation. So we ended up having to do an

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education campaign to publicize our data to entrepreneurs, who could then turn it into all kinds of services: hackathons, meet-ups and “datapaloozas.”

We’ve been doing meet-ups with inventors, hackers, innovators, doctors, patients, entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists around the country to educate them about the data we’re making available and brainstorm what they could do with it.

We’ve been doing hackathons, codeathons – for those of you who have not been to a codeathon, it’s essentially a coding party. A bunch of people get together – say, doctors, patients, health experts, developers, entrepreneurs – over a weekend or even a single day at, say, Google’s campus or Georgetown’s campus or Berkeley’s campus, and they scrub into a bunch of health data; they learn more about the health data, decide to build stuff with it and then build stuff with it over the course of a single weekend.

Just to give you a flavor of a couple of hackathons that happened recently, Georgetown actually did a hackathon around health data with AcademyHealth, a phenomenal research organization, and the HHS about a year ago. A hundred and twenty-five people showed up at this health data hackathon, including five young people from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who bought lab coats with matching insignia that said “Team MAYA.” They had no background in health and health care at all; they just wanted to help.

Illustration by Steven Fromtling

They started scrubbing the data, and they met a few of our health data experts, and they discovered this thing called “food deserts.” So you look at data from the USDA; you can see vast swathes of America where if you live in one of these areas you do not have access to affordable, healthy food, which then creates all kinds of issues.

These kids didn’t know that this was an intractable problem. They had not gotten the memo about what’s impossible, so they decided to solve the food desert problem in eight hours, and they did so via an idea that, like all great ideas, seems incredibly obvious in retrospect. They did a mash-up of texting and farmers markets, kind of a flash farmers markets app.

They essentially built an app called “Food Oasis,” where if you have access to text messaging, which virtually every American does now, including Americans in low-income neighborhoods, you can text in the fact that you want to buy a zucchini and eight tomatoes. Your neighbors do the same. Then all the orders go to a central website, where food co-ops, food suppliers, farmers markets can look at the website and look at all the orders and circle the ones they’re going to fulfill and hit “fulfill” and then text everyone back: “Come to St. John’s Church from 12 to 5 p.m. this Saturday, and I’ll have your food.” Because you don’t need a physical store, because you know demand entirely in advance and because within five hours of showing up your entire inventory gets bought, the cost of food drops – like a rock.

They won the hackathon with this idea.

They’ve gotten so enamored with it they’ve decided to spin it off as a separate venture.

They’ve gotten backing from a major American company; they’re going to beta test it in three American cities. And here’s the thing that’s the best part about this: These kids, while they know nothing about health and health care, are experts in supply chain management and consumer experience design, which health care needs a lot more of.

I went to go visit their offices in Pittsburgh, and they’ve got one of those rooms

that’s one giant whiteboard, and these kids had diagrammed out to the nth level of detail how they were going to pressure test every single component of this thing until it morphed into something that was going to work. I don’t know if their original idea is actually going to be the one that works, because very rarely is that the case, but I do know one thing: These five young people are now addicted to the idea of leveraging the power of data and IT to improve

health and health care.

I ’l l j u s t tell one more story of a hackathon-codeathon. I was in Louisiana talking about health data liberación and its power to help improve health and health care. In the middle of the talk, this guy got up – Ramesh Kolluru – and said, “I am very excited. I am very excited; I am going to host a health data hackathon in Lafayette, Louisiana, very soon, and I’d like you to come and be my guest.” I said, “Absolutely.” Four and a half months later, I find myself flying to Baton Rouge and then driving to Lafayette to be Ramesh’s guest at a health data hackathon. Three hundred people have converged from 18

states and as far away as [Europe] for a hackathon to utilize open datasets from the federal government, from the state and from other sources to build solutions that can contribute to the fight against childhood obesity.

So this hackathon happens.

Pickup teams get formed of doctors, nurses, patient advocates, obesity experts and hackers. They compete over the course of 36 hours. Six startups were born out of this hackathon, including a startup that has as one of its newest members a kid from Germany who’s living a 21st-century American dream.

Just two weeks ago we convened with 20 organizations for our 2012 Health Datapalooza, about two and a half years after the start of the Health Data Initiative. It was at the Washington Convention Center. Sixteen hundred people converged on the convention center for two days of palooza-ing; over 242 companies and nonprofits competed in an “American Idol”-style process for the right to present their amazing datafueled innovation to the 1,600 folks.

They were extraordinary.

There were services and applications to help you find the right doctor for your family or that help you get connected to a clinical trial you didn’t know about that could save your life or give you the latest and greatest information and coaching about how to best manage your asthma and your diabetes in partnership with your doctor or your nurse. [There were] all kinds of services that leverage the power of data to help doctors and hospitals get the latest evidence at their fingertips to deliver the best possible care to a patient or that enable them to bring the true power of information-driven care management to bear as they seek to become medical homes or accountable care organizations or any of these new care delivery systems that really are proactively trying to do the stitches in time that keep you out of the ER, keep you out of the hospital, keep you healthy.

This program was made possible by the generous support of the California HealthCare Foundation.

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19

DESIGNING A FICTIONA E C N E I C S L V UNI ERSE S RLE ow to A CH thor, H cience Au aS YU Safely in iverse and

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ELI onversatin Form HO ion wit RO h er and Pub Mana WIT Co- lishe ging Z r a E

Live onal Un e Thank i s Fict ry Plea ories r o S : St You

utho , Mc d r, Ev Swe itor e Kno e n w Is rything ey’s; You Pon g

Photo by Gilderic Photography / Flickr

A young author combines brains and science fiction knowledge – and a law degree – to produce innovative and arresting fiction. Excerpt from “How to Live Safely in the Fictional Universe,” July 26, 2012.

HOROWITZ: The first story in this book, “Standard Loneliness Package,” is about an engineering firm in India. Do you want to describe it?

YU: The premise is that this is Earth, it’s near-future, and you can for a fee outsource the bad parts of your life. It’s almost like you call your broker and say, “I’ve got an hour’s dental appointment coming up; I don’t want to do it. Someone else will experience this pain for me.” But in the story, it’s not just dental appointments. It’s funerals, even experiences that you’d think were sort of central to life – people just outsource it, because why go through it if you don’t have to?

This explores it from the perspective of somebody who is sitting in a call center in India. They open their screen. Basically, at the time of the switch, the technology shifts the paying customer into some kind of false memory. It’s sort of like a mental waiting room; they just sit there for an hour and read a magazine or have a drink. Then the bad experience, the qualia [the property that is experienced by someone] gets shifted to the worker who has to then experience it.

HOROWITZ: All of the stories in this

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collection feel weirdly personal. Almost all are first-person. Do you find that that firstperson angle makes it easy to get at that emotional core of a story?

YU: That would be a generous way of putting it. That’s like, I know how to drive in one-and-a-half gears right now, and I’d like to learn how to drive the whole car. But I think I’m writing around my limitations.

HOROWITZ: Your novel [How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe] of course had Charles Yu as the protagonist.

What draws you to those concerns?

YU: I’m interested in looking at the conventions of genre – in that novel, at the conventions of science fiction – as a way of thinking about assumptions that we make about ourselves and how we go through life, if that makes any sense at all. The embedded assumptions of science fiction are interesting to me: How do we tell stories about ourselves? And why do we make these rules about stories, versus other rules?

HOROWITZ: To the extent that you are thinking of identity and self, and almost existential crisis, I would say most of [your] books are existential crises in one way or

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another. A role-playing character trying to find out where he is in his quest. Other stories are more obviously and nakedly about someone wrestling with their identity. What is it about science fiction and fantasy that makes you feel that it’s useful for addressing those things, which in some sense have been around since Socrates or Rousseau? Why go futuristic to address those?

YU: Because it’s fun for me. I don’t think Socrates played video games, so in two senses a video game is interesting. One, as a new way of exploring very old things.

Maybe. [Two,] a video game has a certain kind of visual layout, but it also has a conceptual layout, right?

My mom has played video games, but if I tried to explain to my mom’s mom how to play a video game, it would not compute. It would eventually. Whereas I’ve got kids, my four-year-old and my three-year-old, and if I showed them a little guy on a screen, they would know that that guy probably jumps.

That guy probably is supposed to jump over the hole – the hole being a two-dimensional gap on a two-dimensional [screen].

These are artificial environments. They

are cartoonish by definition. But they are also places where we spend a lot of time.

The other part of it is that that’s what I grew up with, so those are environments that I feel comfortable navigating.

HOROWITZ: It’s interesting in the title of your novel – How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe – that’s obviously set in some future time. Are we in a more science fictional universe than when the classic science fiction was written?

YU: If you could draw a world history curve, if there were such a thing, a technology curve, is there some inflection point past which it’s always going to feel like we’re living in a crazy sci-fi universe, more and more?

My one sort of partial stumble on an answer to that is that I think there is. I think we’re at a point now where the pace at which technology advances [is] so fast in a human lifetime that you are now guaranteed to be mystified by what your grandkids are looking at. I’m not sure that was true before. Like [A.D.] 1400 to 1500: battle axes and battle axes, right? 1900 to 2000, and then 2000 to 2100, I just think that gap [increases].

Unless there’s an apocalypse, it’s going to be worse. So I can’t even imagine what my kid’s kids are going to be using.

HOROWITZ: You’re a lawyer by training.

In this book and your novel, there’s a lot of mundane workplaces as the setting for these things. But there’s no law. Are you embarrassed to be a lawyer? [Laughter.] What kind of law do you practice?

YU: I work in-house at a company that does visual effects for movies and TV commercials. So I am sort of a generalist; I get to do all kinds of stuff.

HOROWITZ: Intellectual property and things?

YU: Yeah, everything else that comes in day to day. That’s just a huge part of my experience. I work 10 hours or more a day, and the people I deal with and the kinds of things I think about, and just having that routine every day, that’s why the workplace turns up so often in my stories. I think that in a way law has crept in there. I do like my job. But I have worked at law firms where you bill your time by the hour. When you bill your time by the hour, you do think about your day differently. It’s now been chopped up into economic units. So that transmutes into a story about a guy who literally is paid to feel other people’s pain.

You’re sitting in an office and, “This is not my problem. Someone is going to pay me to make it my problem.”

HOROWITZ: There was a line I liked on page 42: “It’s like all technology, either not powerful enough or too powerful. It will never do exactly what you want it to do.”

That tends to be the kernel of all of your concerns and maybe of all science fiction in general. Is that something you feel playing out throughout our modern world?

YU: I don’t know. That story, in particular, is called “Troubleshooting.” It’s not a long story, but within the course of the story you come to understand that it’s a kind of handheld wish-fulfillment device. You punch in some characters, and you basically put a wish in there. The machine will transform your intention into results in the world.

In the context of that story, the line was about how what we want is never exactly what we want. But you’re right to hold it to the actual words; it was also about the technology. I don’t know if technology never matches up to what we want. I think some of it does.

HOROWITZ: How much do you think of science fiction as a genre?

YU: I think about it a lot, because it’s so pervasive. I think about that actually, the fact that it’s so pervasive. Even basically all superhero movies – which in the summer is all movies – that’s science fiction, essentially, isn’t it? So it’s on my mind in the sense of how much of pop culture it is. In terms of the actual genre and people writing in science fiction, I read it. I do think of myself as an outsider, because I feel like one, but I hope a respectful outsider and one who is interested in the genre and the conventions, not in a judgmental and exploitative way but like some people work this way in the genre, some people stand on the edge and kind of play around with the edge. That’s what’s interesting to me.

HOROWITZ: Do you want to talk about your next work?

YU: It’s going to have at its core a relationship of a father with his children, told from the perspective of the father. It will be about storytelling and metaphor and how we learn it and how pervasive it is in seeing the world.

Club Leadership OFFICERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB OF CALIFORNIA Board Chair Maryles Casto Vice Chair Anna W.M. Mok Secretary William F. Adams Treasurer Lee J. Dutra President and CEO Dr. Gloria C. Duffy BOARD OF GOVERNORS Dan Ashley Lata Krishnan Massey J. Bambara Don J. McGrath Ralph Baxter Richard Otter* Dr. Mary G. F. Bitterman** Joseph Perrelli* Hon. Shirley Temple Black* Hon. Barbara Pivnicka John L. Boland Hon. Richard Pivnicka J. Dennis Bonney* Fr. Stephen A. Privett, S.J. Michael R. Bracco Dr. Mohammad H. Qayoumi Helen A. Burt Dan C. Quigley John Busterud* Toni Rembe* Michael Carr Victor A. Revenko* Hon. Ming Chin* Skip Rhodes* Dennis A. Collins Dr. Condoleezza Rice Jack Cortis Fred A. Rodriguez Mary B. Cranston** Renée Rubin* Dr. Kerry P. Curtis Robert Saldich** Dr. Jaleh Daie Joseph W. Saunders Evelyn S. Dilsaver George M. Scalise Lee J. Dutra Connie Shapiro* Joseph I. Epstein* Charlotte Mailliard Shultz Jeffrey A. Farber George D. Smith, Jr. Dr. Joseph R. Fink* James Strother Carol A. Fleming, Ph.D. Hon. Tad Taube Lisa Frazier Charles Travers William German* Thomas Vertin Dr. Charles Geschke Robert Walker Rose Guilbault** Daniel J. Warmenhoven Jacquelyn Hadley Nelson Weller* Edie G. Heilman Judith Wilbur* Hon. James C. Hormel Dr. Colleen B. Wilcox Mary Huss Dennis Wu* Claude B. Hutchison Jr.* Russell M. Yarrow Dr. Julius Krevans* * Past President ** Past Chair ADVISORY BOARD Karin Helene Bauer Hon. William Bradley Dennise M. Carter Rolando Esteverena Steven Falk Amy Gershoni

Heather M. Kitchen Amy McCombs Hon. William J. Perry Ray Taliaferro Nancy Thompson

This program was made possible by the generous support of The Bernard Osher Foundation.

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Photos by Ed Ritger

Full Campaign Mode (Continued from page 7) GERSTON: No I don’t. But there’s the old story from decades ago where Roosevelt had a big gathering – hundreds or thousands of people – he gave a speech, and a reporter comes up to this guy in the crowd who’s just beside himself and says, “Do you know the president?” And the guy says, “No. But he knows me.” Clinton does it. Reagan did it.

But Romney has none of that. He’s got to find a little bit.

SAUNDERS: He’s got to have some of it, because he did get elected governor of Massachusetts in a very blue state, so obviously he’s been able to convince people before.

GERSTON: It’s a different stage.

SAUNDERS: Let’s face it. This race, it’s a tough room.

GERSTON: Today, it’s a tossup.

SAUNDERS: Gallup poll: 46-46, I think it is, and we’re 100 days out.

ZIPPERER: The economy is not a positive for the incumbent president when you have stubbornly high unemployment, gas prices starting to rise again, our estimated rate of economic growth in the country has come down. So if you were Barack Obama, how do you make a positive campaign out of that?

You can’t do “It’s morning in America.” You could say, “It’s dusk, and eventually morning will come in America.”

SAUNDERS: “It’s 2 in the morning and you’re stuck with a whiskey bottle in bed next to you.” [Laughter.] You know, I saw the most devastating graphic on CNN today.

It talked about, as you know, Bill Clinton is going to give the penultimate address at the Democratic National Convention in Char-

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lotte, and now we have Obama pulling out his old best friend – not really – Bill Clinton to introduce him. What’s devastating is CNN had this graphic: By this time in Clinton’s presidency, there were 9.9 million new jobs; Obama, we’ve lost 473,000, I think it is. It’s just devastating. Here’s the other thing: What is the defense that Democrats always give for why Obama can’t really get the economy together and work on this? It’s because the Republicans got in his way. Well, Bill Clinton dealt with Newt Gingrich and still managed to get things done. This president is in such a weak position with this economy.

GERSTON: You know, it’s a funny economy, because we know when generally the economy’s in malaise, no president in the last 50 years has been re-elected when the unemployment rate was over 7.8 percent.

We’re at 8.2. On the other hand, you have $2 trillion parked out there. Two trillion dollars.

You’re talking about companies with corporate profits that are record-setting. What are they so afraid of here? Excuse me; there’s another side to this story. We’ve got gobs of money out there, and, quite frankly, I think there’s a rolling of the dice here. Maybe I don’t want to try to make the economy so much better right now; maybe I want to help that transition. I’m not so sure that companies are suffering. Their employees are, because of where jobs have gone and everything else.

Companies, I’m not so sure.

SAUNDERS: I hear this hint that Republicans are holding back from hiring. I don’t know how to tell you folks this, but there are a lot of Democrats who hire people too.

This is California; this is a very blue state.

Our unemployment rate is over 11 percent.

Folks here aren’t hiring either. They don’t

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have the confidence. It’s not just these evil Republicans; it’s also Democrats who aren’t hiring people.

GERSTON: I’m not talking about evil Republicans or evil Democrats; I’m talking about evil companies.

SAUNDERS: Evil companies have to feel that there’s a reason for them to start hiring people, and they don’t see it. They’re afraid.

ZIPPERER: Is it uncertainty about where the economy is going to be, where regulation is going to be?

SAUNDERS: Uncertainty/fear.

GERSTON: Our tax rates are the lowest tax rates we’ve had in 80 years. Don’t give me this 35 percent stuff, because we all know that 35 percent corporate rate – nobody pays it, unless they’re nuts. Everybody’s paying a whole lot less than that. Some companies are getting money back: GE got money back last year.

SAUNDERS: It’s not working. It’s not working, and Barack Obama’s not fixing it.

GERSTON: Well, first of all, we both know any president, whether it’s Barack Obama, George Bush or whatever, can’t fix it. They don’t get magic wands when they take control of the White House.

SAUNDERS: That’s right; they work with Congress.

GERSTON: That’s right.

MARINUCCI: But I’m not so sure it’s uncertainty. I tend to agree with Larry: I think a lot of businesses have realized they can make their employees do more with less. I was talking to a dad whose son’s a very wealthy investment banker who went to his work staff and said, You know, I don’t want to hire anybody right now. We all have to work a little harder; you’re all going to have to work 12-hour days. And a working mom said, We’re not working 12-hour days; we’ve got kids. Hire somebody else; you’re driving the Lamborghini home! In a lot of cases, I think a lot of businesses are just saying, Well, we’ve made do with less staff. It’s working out fine; we don’t need to hire other people.

SAUNDERS: But you don’t grow that way.

The truth is, if you’re a company and you want to grow, you don’t grow by not hiring people. I get emails from people all the time: They have small businesses. The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, is an example of something. There are so many mandates in that [for] employers; that’s a huge tax on hiring people and giving them benefits. There are a lot of employers that are afraid they’re just

going to keep getting squeezed and squeezed.

I mean, Larry, I get your point about the corporate tax rate. I think we should have a flatter tax that people actually pay. We don’t have that, and I don’t see this president trying to get that. All I see him doing is saying, I can’t get anything done; it’s their fault. I don’t think that’s leadership.

MARINUCCI: Brian Williams had an interview with Mitt Romney this weekend and said, What would you do differently to turn around the economy than George W. Bush? I think he had about a four-point answer, which was more energy investment, education, trade – essentially, it was George W. Bush; it wasn’t a whole lot different. I think that’s his problem. I know he has the 59-point plan, but specifically, what would he do different than the last Republican administration? We really haven’t heard an answer from him.

ZIPPERER: Couldn’t you even say, What could he do that was dramatically different from what Barack Obama has done?

SAUNDERS: But I think we do understand.

The problem the president has is his solution is to increase taxes on the top 2 percent of earners. That keeps the government going for less than a week. It doesn’t solve anything, and what are we going to do? We’re going to make people who could be hiring people more afraid to do it and more likely to hoard their cash. I don’t hear many Democrats saying, This is going to stimulate the economy; it’s going to jump-start the recovery. They don’t say that. They just want it to be fair. Well, you can have fairness, but you can have less of a pie, too, and that’s where he’s going. It just isn’t working.

GERSTON: Debra, the way I see things, there are two types of policies: substantive and symbolic. When we’re talking about this tax stuff, the Bush tax cuts about to expire, and what happens, raising the taxes on $250,000 families and up, you’re right: It’s about a week. It’s a symbolic thing. But symbolism in politics really resonates with people, and they want to believe that they’re being treated fairly, and they see these huge numbers that people are making – $30 million, $50 million, $100 million – for what? What did you do, walk to the moon from Earth?

And they’re saying, “This isn’t right.” So it’s a symbolic thing. It doesn’t solve the biggest problem, which has to be a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. It’s got to be

both. You can pick the [spending cuts to tax hikes ratio of ] three-to-one, four-to-one – so far, we couldn’t get the Republicans to do tento-one in one of the most stupid moments of this whole campaign, and it’s hard to pick one. They have to be grownups, and that goes beyond the president.

SAUNDERS: First, Larry, you’ve got to get the economy back on track, and I agree with you: We need to increase revenue. If you could somehow lower rates but get rid of the deductions in a way to bring in more revenue, that’s the way to go. I just don’t see that we’re going to get that with Barack Obama as president.

Things are so ugly right now, we’re at a point of no return for some people who are unemployed. This is not positive. And you can talk about fairness all you want. It’s a symbol if I put a gun to your head and don’t shoot it, right?

But it’s a powerful symbol, and if people are not hiring, and they’re not spending money because they’re afraid, all you’re doing is hurting your economy for a gesture. It’s not smart.

ZIPPERER: In the presidential election, of course, California’s not really in play – I don’t think anyone seriously thinks that this state is going to go red, as they say. But we are, nonetheless, playing a big part in the presidential campaign; we’re funding it. We’ve been called the ATM of the presidential election; Barack Obama, Mitt Romney come here, get money.

It kind of gives us the opportunity in California to watch the presidential election but to really focus on some of the state and local things. Carla, one of the interesting stories you broke recently is the state of the California GOP, which was a shocker that we actually still have a GOP in this state. Tell us what’s happening.

MARINUCCI: We know the Democrats run everything here in this state, but the fact is there are a lot of Republicans who want a vibrant Republican Party, and I found out last week that the party here is in such debt – it’s behind in its bills; it’s declining in registration – even the board of directors of the party was so alarmed that it voted to close the headquarters in Sacramento and lay off people and essentially try to get some fiscal control over what’s going on, which is a really tough thing for the party of fiscal responsibility to be dealing with in an election year. A hundred days out, a party is supposed to do things like voter contact, voter registration, get out the vote and other important things, and when you’re talking about House races

that are really important to the Republicans, this is a critical thing.

Other people have filled in the gap. You’ve seen Kevin McCarthy, the GOP whip, come in, and he is just all over this state raising money and working with congressional candidates. You see a lot of the party stuff now going to the counties that have a lot of money. In other words, the California Republican Party is sort of withering away, registration withering away, and it’s of concern to a lot of Republicans in this state; there has to be some kind of other voice out there. You talked about the presidential candidates, and you’re right; this is part of the issue with the Super PACs and with Citizens United. Why is anybody going to give to the California Republican Party anymore when they can give to [Karl] Rove or any of these other groups and it’s unlimited and they don’t have to say who they are, and that’s what’s happening. A lot of these parties can’t raise money anymore because people have decided to give to these other committees.

Citizens United has created this whole other situation for political parties. Obama now has been here to California 17 times – 11 times to the Bay Area. It just seems like he keeps coming; every week we have to deal with another visit, and now, when he comes in, he usually has a big fundraiser, and then he has a $40,000-a-head dinner at somebody’s house, and then he has – and this

“It’s 2 in the morning and you’re stuck with

a whiskey bottle in bed next to you.”

– Saunders is sort of a new phenomenon – a roundtable discussion with maybe 25 people who pay $40,000 each, and there’s no press at any of these events. We don’t get to see what they discuss, and you should all be concerned about that. What does the $40,000 voter say to the president? He’s our public servant; we should know that. Romney, too, is not great about opening up his events. He did, I think, in Tel Aviv; that caused him some problems.

That’s my beef with both of these candidates:

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“Companies have to feel there’s a reason to start

hiring people, and

“Obama can be criticized

“Specifically, what would

for lecturing

us, but

Romney do different

Romney’s problem is that

than the last Republican

they don’t see it.” –Saunders

he’s very

This stuff should be open so all of you can hear what goes on in these fundraisers.

GERSTON: It’s a tragedy when you’re down to one party. Our system in this country is a two-party system; a third party rarely gets anywhere because of the single-district plurality thing. It’s a two-party system, and when one party is no longer viable, that’s dangerous; that gives the other party way too much power and authority. I don’t care if it’s a party we like or we hate: It isn’t right.

Now, the question is what do we do about that, and how has it happened? Well, the Citizens United case has certainly sped things along. A lot of people get mad at me when I say this, but I’m not so upset by the Citizens United case by itself; that doesn’t bother me so much. What bothers me is the lack of transparency. Someone wants to write a $100 million check, good; please make it out to me. But if you’re not, please let me know who you are.

So now the parties, which used to gather this money, they’re no longer collecting that money because these various Super PACs and other entities are just circumventing it. That’s leaving both parties rather impotent, much more so for the Republican.

SAUNDERS: The state Republican Party – I don’t think the problem is so much campaign

finance as the fact that it’s just becoming more irrelevant. We live in a state where Republicans live among themselves and Democrats live among themselves, and they feed the extremes of each other, and they get further and further apart. As there are fewer Republicans, they become more irrelevant, they become more conservative than most voters; and I think the party has just lost its way. I have to say, I tend to support state parties and want them, but I’m not heartbroken about what’s happening in Sacramento because I feel that the state Republican Party has lost its way, and I don’t see any way back.

ZIPPERER: Let’s look at the race of Dianne Feinstein. She’s running against someone probably most people – [to audience:] raise your hand if you know who Dianne Feinstein’s Republican challenger is.

GERSTON: One out of 250. That’s pretty good.

ZIPPERER: What’s going on with that race?

Is Feinstein just going to cruise through it?

SAUNDERS: This is what’s so fascinating, though. The [challenger’s] name is Elizabeth Emken. She’s from Danville. But here’s what’s fascinating. Guess what? Dianne Feinstein got less than 50 percent of the vote in the primary.

MARINUCCI: But she was up against 24 challengers.

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stiff.” –Gerston

administration?” – Marinucci SAUNDERS: OK, but so what? There were 24 midgets. There were 24 people nobody had ever heard of, and people were still angry enough – there was enough of a protest vote – she’s like the Shirley Temple of California politics.

Everybody loves Dianne Feinstein.

When she comes in under 50 percent, that bespeaks a kind of anger at the establishment that really could be dangerous to the Democratic Party if there were good Republican challengers – and there are some, and there are some races where they exist. Elizabeth Emken’s interesting. I mean, we had Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina two years ago; [but] this woman’s an activist, went out and raised some money — ZIPPERER: Autism activist, right?

SAUNDERS: She’s an autism activist, and she really worked hard at it, and maybe the fact that she isn’t your sort of moneybags Republican businessperson-turned-to-politics person – maybe that, if she can raise money this time around, would actually make people look twice at her. She is a different candidate; she’s not an establishment candidate.

This program was made possible by the generous support of Accenture.

Programs

For up-to-date information on programs, and to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, go to commonwealthclub.org

OVERVIEW

TICKETS

The Commonwealth Club organizes more than 450 events every year – on politics, the arts, media, literature, business and sports.

Programs are held throughout the Bay Area.

Prepayment is required. Unless otherwise indicated, all Club programs – including “Members Free” events – require tickets.

Programs often sell out, so we strongly encourage you to purchase tickets in advance. Tickets are available at will call. Due to heavy call volume, we urge you to purchase tickets online at commonwealthclub.org; or call (415) 597-6705. Please note: All ticket sales are final. Please arrive at least 10 minutes prior to any program. If a program is sold out and your tickets are not claimed at our box office by the program start time, they will be released to our stand-by list. Select events include premium seating; premium refers to the first several rows of seating.

STANDARD PROGRAMS Typically one hour long, these speeches cover a variety of topics and are followed by a question and answer session. Most evening programs include a networking reception with wine.

PROGRAM SERIES CLIMATE ONE programs are a conversation about America’s energy, economy and environment. To understand any of them, it helps to understand them all.

GOOD LIT features both established literary luminaries and upand-coming writers in conversation. Includes Food Lit.

RADIO, VIDEO AND PODCASTS

INFORUM is for and by people in their 20s to mid-30s, though events are open to people of all ages.

Hear Club programs on about 200 public and commercial radio stations throughout the United States. For the latest schedule, visit commonwealthclub.org/broadcast.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, tune in to: KQED (88.5 FM) Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 a.m.

KRCB Radio (91 FM in Rohnert Park) Thursdays at 7 p.m.

KALW (91.7 FM) Inforum programs on select Tuesdays at 7 p.m.

KOIT (96.5 FM and 1260 AM) Sundays at 6 a.m.

KLIV (1590 AM) Thursdays at 7 p.m.

KSAN (107.7 FM) Sundays at 5 a.m.

KNBR (680 and 1050 AM) Sundays at 5 a.m.

KFOG (104.5 and 97.7 FM) Sundays at 5 a.m.

MEMBER–LED FORUMS (MLF) Volunteer-driven programs focus on particular fields. Most evening programs include a wine networking reception.

MEMBER-LED FORUMS CHAIR Dr. Carol Fleming carol.fleming@speechtraining com FORUM CHAIRS ARTS Anne W. Smith asmith@ggu.edu Lynn Curtis lynnwcurtis@comcast.net ASIA–PACIFIC AFFAIRS Cynthia Miyashita cmiyashita@hotmail.com BAY GOURMET Cathy Curtis ccurtis873@gmail SF BOOK DISCUSSION Howard Crane cranehow@aol.com BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP Kevin O’Malley kevin@techtalkstudio.com ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL RESOURCES Ann Clark cbofcb@sbcglobal.net Marcia Sitcoske msitcosk@yahoo.com GROWNUPS John Milford Johnwmilford@gmail.com

HEALTH & MEDICINE William B. Grant wbgrant@infionline.net HUMANITIES George C. Hammond george@pythpress.com INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Norma Walden norwalden@aol.com LGBT Stephen Seewer stephenseewer@gmail.com

Watch Club programs on KRCB TV 22 on Comcast & DirecTV the last Sunday of each month at 11 a.m. Select Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley programs air on CreaTV in San Jose (Channel 30).

View hundreds of streaming videos of Club programs at fora.tv and youtube.com/commonwealthclub

Julian Chang julianclchang@gmail.com MIDDLE EAST Celia Menczel celiamenczel@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe to our free podcasting service to automatically download a new program recording to your personal computer each week: commonwealthclub.org/podcast.

PSYCHOLOGY Patrick O’Reilly oreillyphd@hotmail.com

HARD OF HEARING?

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Chisako Ress chisakoress@gmail.com

To request an assistive listening device, please e-mail Ricardo Esway at resway@commonwealthclub.org or call (415) 869-5911 seven working days before the event.

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Eight Weeks Calendar October 01 – November 25 M on

Tue

Wed

October 01

02

03

6:00 p.m. Antimatter, Anti-atoms and the Big Bang FM 5:30 p.m. The True Believer FE

6:00 p.m. Chris Dodd

6:00 p.m. California Votes: What’s at Stake for the Golden State

08

09

10

6:00 p.m. What Is the Purpose of Democracy? FM 6:30 p.m. Joel Stein Bites

6:00 p.m. Hollywood, Creativity and Entrepreneurial Creativity 6:00 p.m. Energy and the Election 7:00 p.m. Steven Pinker

2:00 p.m. Chinatown Walking Tour 6:00 p.m. Spillover 7:00 p.m. Cecile Richards

15

16

17

6:00 p.m. Romaine Brooks – The Other Amazon FM 6:00 p.m. Tear Down that Dam? FM

6:00 p.m. Standing into the Storm 6:00 p.m. Ray Lane

6:00 p.m. Education Beyond Talk 7:00 p.m. Sister Carol Keehan FE

22

23

24

Noon Justice Sandra Day O’Connor 5:15 p.m. What You Need to Know About Medicare Before You’re 65 FM 6:00 p.m. Yaron Brook and David Callihan FM

6:00 p.m. The Perlan Project 6:00 p.m. Chris Anderson

6:30 p.m. Ballot Box 2012

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29

30

5:30 p.m. Middle East Discussion FE 6:00 p.m. Dr. Otis Brawley FM 7:00 p.m. Kim Silverman: Making Magic Meaningful

Noon George M. Church: Regenesis 6:00 p.m. A Consumer’s Guide to Media 6:00 p.m. Doctors Without Borders 6:30 p.m. The Science of Distilling 7:45 p.m. California Cuisine and Just Food

05

06

6:00 p.m. A Startling Tale of Personal Triumph FM

12

07 6:00 p.m. San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour 6:00 p.m. The Night After 6:30 p.m. Water 6:30 p.m. Julia Ross: Sugar Addiction

13

14

6:00 p.m. Eric Asimov: How to Love Wine 6:00 p.m. Reform in Morocco

5:30 p.m. Book Discussion: Everybody Was So Young FM 6:00 p.m. Global Economic Forum

19

20

21

5:15 p.m. How Chains from Childhood Keep Us from What We Want FM 5:15 p.m. What’s Your Next Chapter? FM

6:00 p.m. Technology-Based Planning

Veterans Day (observed) Club offices closed

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Legend

San Francisco

FM

Free program for members

East Bay

FE

Free program for everyone

Silicon Valley

MO

Members–only program

Thu

Fri

S at

Sun

04

05

06

07

12

13

14

18

19

20

21

6:00 p.m. Theodore B. Olsen 6:00 p.m. Piracy – Ancient and Modern

Noon What the Ink Sings to the Paper FM

27

28

03

04

10

11

6:00 p.m. Integral Health Care: Healing Approaches for Troubled Times 6:00 p.m. Charles Phan 6:30 p.m. Week to Week FM

11 6:00 p.m. Gay Mormons for Equality 7:00 p.m. Ralph Nader

25

26

2:00 p.m. North Beach Walking Tour 6:00 p.m. Sufism

Noon A Political Prognosis for the Presidential Race and Its Aftermath FM Noon Thomas Countryman FM

November 01

02

6:00 p.m. Chef Yotam Ottolenghi

Noon How Wall Street Is Destroying America FM

08

09

Noon Leonardo and the Last Supper 6:00 p.m. The Watchman’s Rattle 6:00 p.m. Built in the Bay 6:15 p.m. Science & Tech Discussion FE

Noon The Kurds FM

15

16

17

18

22

23

24

25

Club offices closed

Club offices closed

2:00 p.m. Nob Hill Walking Tour 5:15 p.m. The Viagra Diaries 7:00 p.m. Ray Kurzweil

Thanksgiving

Day after Thanksgiving

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October 01–09 SEPT 28 – NOV 30

M O N 01 | San Francisco

M O N 01 | San Francisco

El Maghreb: Reconstructed Memories

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements,

by Eric Hoffer

Antimatter, AntiAtoms and the Big Bang

Deb Siboney, Printmaker

Author Eric Hoffer analyzes and attempts to explain the motives of the various types of personalities that give rise to mass movements; why and how mass movements start, progress and end; and the similarities between them, whether religious, political, radical or reactionary. Come discuss Hoffer’s ideas and share your own. As a reminder, this is a book discussion; the author will not be present.

Joel Fajans, Professor of Physics, UC Berkeley

Deb Siboney’s work derives from her North African heritage and her upbringing in Italy. She travels into history, memory and imagination, looking for connections among regions and cultures, which elements cross, which are repeated. Using a variety of printmaking methods, Siboney employs intricate patterns and lines, layering, and the power of color in the exploration of her ideas.

MLF: THE ARTS Location: SF Club Office Time: Regular Club business hours Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Lynn Curtis

MLF: SF BOOK DISCUSSION Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: $5 standard, MEMBERS FREE Program Organizers: Barbara Massey and Howard Crane

Antimatter has long fascinated scientists, science fiction writers and laymen. The Big Bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter, and one of the grand challenges in science is to explain why there is very little antimatter in the universe. Fajans describes antimatter and how his research team (the ALPHA collaboration) was able to trap and study anti-atoms.

MLF: HUMANITIES/SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: George Hammond

T U E 02 | San Francisco

W E D 03 | San Francisco

Chris Dodd: Creative Content and the Cloud

California Votes: What’s at Stake for the Golden State

Chairman and CEO, Motion Picture Association of America; Former Senator, Connecticut

MPAA chief Dodd is charged with advocating for the film, home entertainment and television industries around the world. With technology advancements and the migration of content to the cloud, it is more important than ever to make sure industries and, where appropriate, governments work together to ensure the Internet works for everyone. Dodd will discuss why technology and creative communities are essential to the economic well-being of their industries, consumers and the country.

Robert Hertzberg, Member, Think Long Committee for California; Co-Chair, California Forward; Executive Committee Chairman, The Public Policy Institute of California; Former Speaker, CA Assembly Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director, SPUR Lenny Mendonca, Board Member, California Forward; Chairman Emeritus, Bay Area Council; Chairman, Economic Institute of the Bay Area; Director, McKinsey & Company, Inc. Scott Shafer, Host and Reporter, “The California Report”– Moderator

This fall’s elections promise to effect sweeping change both in Washington and closer to home. California voters will be asked to consider measures aimed at rectifying the looming budgetary crisis (including Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed tax increases), campaign finance reform, redistricting, the three-strikes rule, revoking the death penalty and much more. What challenges face the state as we head into the election? If the proposed measures pass, what are the implications? We’re bringing together representatives from some of California’s most eminent institutions to shed some light on these issues.

Location: SF Club Office Times: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students (with valid ID)

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students

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T H U 04 | San Francisco

T H U 04 | San Francisco

T H U 0 4 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

Integral Health Care: BodyMind Healing Approaches for Troubled Times

Charles Phan

Week to Week: The News Commentary Program

Michael Mayer, Ph.D., Co-founder, Transpersonal Psychology Program, John F. Kennedy University; Author, The Path of the Reluctant Metaphysician

Using his background as a psychologist who incorporates body-mind healing methods, cross-cultural mythology, Tai Chi/Qigong, metaphysics, and political action in his viewpoint on integral health, Dr. Mayer will present methods for dealing with our responses to adversity and feelings of disempowerment to help people find new life stances.

MLF: HEALTH & MEDICINE Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Len Saputo

Executive Chef and Owner, The Slanted Door; Author, Vietnamese Home Cooking

Be among the first to see the cookbook that Phan followers and food lovers everywhere have been waiting for. In his first cookbook, Phan, the city’s most prominent Vietnamese chef and restaurateur, focuses on the fundamental techniques and ingredients involved in the preparation of his native land’s cuisine to enable one to enjoy the flavors at home.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $12 members Also know: In assn. with the Bay Gourmet MLF. Underwriter: The Bernard Osher Foundation.

Terry Christensen, Professor Emeritus, San Jose State University; Member, Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley Advisory Council John Zipperer, VP of Media and Editorial, The Commonwealth Club – Host Additional panelists TBA

It’s political prime time, so join our panelists for informative and fun commentary on political and other major news, plus an in-depth look at one topic in the news, audience discussion of the week’s events and a news quiz.

Location: Adobe Systems, 345 Park Ave., San Jose Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program Cost: $10 standard, MEMBERS FREE

M O N 08 | San Francisco

M O N 08 | San Francisco

T U E 09 | San Francisco

What Is the Purpose of Democracy?

Joel Stein Bites

Hollywood, Creativity and Entrepreneurial Recovery

Patrick Iber, Lecturer, Stanford Department of History, and Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities

One month before the presidential election, Monday Night Philosophy discusses discontent with both the results and the process of democracy. Do the solutions to these problems lie in more democracy or in less? Iber will consider the history of ideas about democracy to suggest that we regard democracy not only as a set of legal procedures for collective decisionmaking but also as a system of enhancing individual and social capacity.

MLF: HUMANITIES Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: George Hammond

Journalist; Contributor, Time; Author, Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity

As Time’s cheeky humor columnist, Stein is famous for his rants against societal norms. Now, the last man standing is Stein – and it’s time for a takedown of himself. With a new son at home, he’s calling his own manliness into question, with predictably hilarious results. Join us for a night of laughs with the man who says everything you wish you were gutsy enough to say yourself.

Location: Swig, 561 Geary St. Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. reception and book signing Cost: $40 standard, $30 members (includes Stein’s book and one drink) Also know: Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation. This is a 21+ event.

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Adam Leipzig, Former President, National Geographic Films; Former Senior Vice President, Walt Disney Studios

The man who helped bring us Dead Poets Society and March of the Penguins outlines a bold vision for America’s future: how artists, writers, photographers, filmmakers and other creative people can be engines for economic recovery – and inspire us all. Drawing on his experience producing hit films – and including tales of Hollywood and beyond – Leipzig will leave you passionate about the value of your own creativity, and the stilluntapped potential of our nation.

MLF: BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Kevin O’Malley

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October 09–15 T U E 09 | San Francisco

T U E 0 9 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

Energy and the Election

Steven Pinker

Bob Inglis, Former U.S. Representative (R-South Carolina) Bill Reilly, Former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tom Steyer, Managing Partner, Farallon Capital

Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; Author, The Better Angels of Our Nature

High gasoline prices, hydraulic fracturing and the Keystone XL Pipeline have kept energy in the headlines. How will that play this election cycle? What national policies should be pursued to advance American competitiveness? How is natural gas changing energy politics in America? Are Democrats sanctimonious and Republicans delusional about climate change, or is this unfair stereotyping? South Carolina Representative Bob Inglis lost a 2010 primary election after saying his party needs to stop denying mainstream climate science. What lessons can be drawn from that, and what does it augur for bipartisan action on carbon pollution? Join us for a conversation on powering America’s future.

Pinker posits that we might be living in one of the most peaceful times of our existence. Our wars are proportionally a fraction as deadly as ancient tribal warfare, and smaller-scale violence has also waned over the centuries, he claims.

Pinker examines how the decline in violence has transformed our society and offers his thoughts on the continuation for future generations.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. networking reception Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students (with valid ID)

Location: Schultz Cultural Hall, Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $12 members Also know: In assn. with Oshman Family JCC

W E D 10 | San Francisco

W E D 10 | San Francisco

Chinatown Walking Tour

Cecile Richards: INFORUM’s 21st Century Visionary Award

Enjoy a Commonwealth Club Neighborhood Adventure. Join Rick Evans for a memorable midday walk and discover the history and mysteries of Chinatown. Explore colorful alleys and side streets. Visit a Taoist temple, an herbal store, the site of the first public school in the state and the famous Fortune Cookie Factory. There will be a short break for a tea sample during the tour.

President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Location: Meet at corner of Grant and Bush, in front of Starbucks, near Chinatown Gate Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–5 p.m. tour Cost: $45 standard, $35 members Also know: Temple visit requires walking up three flights of stairs. Limited to 12 people.

Participants must preregister. Tour operates rain or shine.

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Richards has earned respect for her poised leadership amidst controversy, braving congressional budget debates and forcefully advocating for equal access to health care and women’s reproductive rights. Her initiatives extend far beyond the gender sector, however, and include promoting leadership programs for today’s youth and leading national health-based educational campaigns. Richards has mastered the seeming oxymoron of a gentle revolutionary, which this award recognizes, as she continues her lifelong fight to inspire women and the next generation.

Location: Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St. Time: 3 p.m. Will Call opens to pick up tickets, 6 p.m. check-in and premium reception with appearance by Richards, 7 p.m. program Cost: $25 standard, $15 members, $7 students (with valid ID). Preferred tickets: $45 standard, $30 members (includes priority seating). Premium tickets: $80 standard, $65 members (includes priority seating and reception).

Also know: In partnership with The National Association of Women Business Owners – San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, The Global Fund for Women, and the League of Women Voters of San Francisco.

O C TO BER/NO V EM BE R 2012

W E D 10 | San Francisco

T H U 11 | San Francisco

T H U 1 1 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

Spillover: The Rise of New Viral Disease Epidemics

Gay Mormons for Equality: In Conversation with Mitch Mayne

Ralph Nader

David Quammen, Science, Nature and Travel Writer; Author, Spillover Nathan Wolfe, Director, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative; Visiting Professor of Human Biology, Stanford University

The emergence of strange new diseases is a problem that seems to be getting worse.

They originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover.

Quammen will discuss his global quest to learn how, why and from where these diseases emerge; Wolfe will share information about his virus hunting activities.

MLF: HEALTH & MEDICINE/ SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Executive Secretary, SF Bishopric, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Aren’t Mormons prejudiced against gay and lesbian people? Shouldn’t the LGBT community be angry with the Mormon Church for its involvement in Proposition 8? These are just some of the myths and facts to explore surrounding gay Mormons, the Mormon faith and the struggle for peace and equality. Mayne, an openly gay Mormon serving as an executive secretary in the bishopric of a San Francisco congregation, will candidly discuss faith, inclusion, community, progress and the road ahead.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Bill Grant

MLF: LGBT Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Julian Chang

M O N 15 | San Francisco

M O N 15 | San Francisco

Romaine Brooks: The Other Amazon

Tear Down that Dam?

Kerrin Meis, Art Historian

Ed Lee, Mayor, San Francisco (invited) Spreck Rosekrans, Director of Policy, Restore Hetch Hetchy Jim Wunderman, CEO, Bay Area Council Additional panelist TBA

Romaine Brooks is best known for her relationship with the American expatriate writer Natalie Barney, and her paintings have often been dismissed as retardataire because she embraced the figurative in a period of artistic upheaval. But Robert de Montesquiou dubbed her the Thief of Souls, recognizing her uncanny ability to capture the essence of her subjects. Meis will briefly review Brooks’ life, beginning with her bizarre childhood, her flings and affairs and her life with Natalie, and will then turn to her portraits.

MLF: HUMANITIES/THE ARTS/LGBT Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Program Organizer: George Hammond Also know: In assn. with Humanities West

A measure on the San Francisco ballot asks voters to consider a two-phase plan that could lead to draining the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Leaders on both sides of the debate will tackle this thorny issue and look at other regional water issues in the age of climate disruption.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. networking reception Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Also know: Underwritten by the San Francisco Foundation.

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Former Presidential Candidate; Author, The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future

Nader warns that our country is in the midst of serious fiscal and social distress.

The consumer advocate and former presidential candidate presents a series of solutions, including cracking down on corporate crime and reducing the military’s budget. He will discuss these as well as 15 other proposed ingredients for how he believes we can get our country back on track.

Location: Cubberley Theater, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $12 members

FOREIGN LANGUAGE GROUPS Free for members Location: SF Club Office FRENCH, Intermediate Class Thursdays, noon Pierrette Spetz, Graziella Danieli, danieli@sfsu.edu FRENCH, Advanced Conversation Tuesdays, noon Gary Lawrence, (925) 932-2458 GERMAN, Int./Adv. Conversation Wednesdays, noon Sara Shahin, (415) 314-6482 ITALIAN, Intermediate Class Mondays, noon Ebe Fiori Sapone, (415) 564-6789 RUSSIAN, Int./Advanced Conversation Mondays, 1:30 p.m. Rita Sobolev, (925) 376-7889 SPANISH, Advanced Conversation (fluent only) Fridays, noon

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October 16–23 T U E 16 | San Francisco

T U E 16 | San Francisco

W E D 1 7 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

Standing into the Storm

Ray Lane

Catholic Health Care: Mandates and Morals in an Era of Change

Managing Partner, Kleiner Perkins

Ken and Kathy Lindner, Founders, Lindner Bison and Heritage Ranch; Authors, Standing into the Storm

Corporatization of agriculture and livestock has been a prominent issue in the national consciousness for the past few decades, and it has been defining for Ken and Kathy Lindner. The Lindners, firstgeneration sustainable bison ranchers, will discuss the flaws of industrial farming as well as their experience in moving away from it.

MLF: ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL RESOURCES Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Alice McKeon

Equity markets are frowning upon clean tech startups these days, and financing is tough to come by now that federal stimulus dollars have dried up. Yet some exuberant entrepreneurs are still working on energy breakthroughs.

Join us for a conversation on clean tech with a Silicon Valley mogul.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. networking reception Cost: Regular: $25 standard, $15 members, $10 students (with valid ID). Premium (seating in first rows): $65 standard, $45 members.

Sister Carol Keehan, President and CEO, Catholic Health Association of the United States

Keehan heads the largest private healthcare provider in the nation, and many believe her support for federal healthcare reform was crucial in attaining the reform’s passage in 2010. She will offer her thoughts on how the Affordable Care Act will help individuals, businesses and health organizations nationwide.

Location: Recital Hall, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara Time: 7 p.m. program Cost: FREE Also know: In association with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

W E D 17 | San Francisco

T H U 18 | San Francisco

Education Beyond Talk: The Amazing Impact of Learning by Doing

Theodore B. Olson: Reflecting on Prop 8

Charles Best, Founder, Donorschoose.org Vince Bertram, Ph.D., President and CEO, Project Lead the Way Helen Quinn, Ph.D., Emerita Professor of Physics and Former Chair, Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Stanford; Chair, National Board on Science Education Dennis Bartels, Ph.D., Executive Director, Exploratorium; Member, Education Working Group for the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology – Moderator

Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Former U.S. Solicitor General (2001-2004) Pamela Karlan, Professor of Public Interest Law and Co-director, Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, Stanford Law School - Moderator

It’s no secret that California and the nation continue to fight an uphill battle to stay educationally competitive. A recent study showed that American students ranked 25th among 34 countries in math and science, behind China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Finland. And California ranked “below average” in the United States. What are the solutions for getting back on track? How can students develop the critical thinking and communication skills necessary for postsecondary success and citizenship in a world fueled by innovations in science and technology? Hear from a panel of educational experts who say the answer lies in real-world problem solving, what’s termed “experiential education” or learning by doing. Hear about innovative work that could well hold the key to turning around the educational system and America’s future.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students (with valid ID) Also know: Part of the Innovating California Series, sponsored by Chevron Corporation

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Olson is one of the nation’s premier appellate and Supreme Court advocates. He has been at the forefront of groundbreaking litigation, including Bush v. Gore. In 2009, Olson teamed up with David Boies to challenge California’s Prop. 8 in federal court.

Olson will discuss challenging the initiative in federal court and what lies ahead.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students; Premium seating (seating in first few rows): $45 standard, $30 members

F R I 19 | San Francisco

M O N 22 | San Francisco

Piracy: Ancient and Modern

What the Ink Sings to the Paper

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

Andrew Jameson, Professor Emeritus of History, Harvard; Assistant Vice Chancellor, UC Berkeley (Retired)

Robert Bringhurst, Author, The Elements of Typographic Style

Former Justice, U.S. Supreme Court In conversation with Dr. Mary Bitterman, President, The Bernard Osher Foundation

T H U 18 | San Francisco

Take a realistic look at the history of high-seas theft. From the ancient Mediterranean to the Vikings to the pirates of the Caribbean, honesty has not always been thought to be the best policy. Professor Jameson’s theoretical and personal knowledge (he was a guest lecturer on a cruise ship in the Indian Ocean that was attacked) will be detailed and illustrated.

Even in the era of the Internet and digital publishing, the writer’s craft becomes visible through the medium of print. Bringhurst will examine the common spirit that moves the typographer, master printer, artist and writer. He will place particular emphasis on California printing at the center of discovery and expression in the form of printed books.

Justice O’Connor will discuss the need for a better-informed citizenry as well as her life, career and views on the role of the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor strongly believes that America suffers from a lack of civic education, which is hurting Americans’ capacity to solve 21st century challenges.

MLF: HUMANITIES Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: George Hammond Also know: In assn. with Humanities West

MLF: THE ARTS Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Program Organizer: Anne W. Smith Also know: In assn. with and underwritten

by The Book Club of California’s Centennial Celebration

Location: Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave. Time: 11 a.m. box opens, noon program Cost: Regular: $30 standard, $15 members, $10 students. Premium (seating in first few rows) $65 standard, $45 members. Attendees Must Register through City Box Office online or by calling (415) 392-4400

M O N 22 | San Francisco

M O N 22 | San Francisco

T U E 23 | San Francisco

What You Need to Know About Medicare Before You’re 65: A Medicare Primer

Yaron Brook and David Callahan: Is Capitalism Moral?

A Debate

The Perlan Project: Climate Science and Altitude Record

Esther Koch, Medicare Aging Network Partner, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

Yaron Brook, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Ayn Rand Institute; Co-author, Free Market Revolution David Callahan, Ph.D., Co-founder, Demos; Author, The Cheating Culture

2011 marked the year the first Boomers turned 65 and qualified for Medicare benefits, but for most, a true understanding of what these benefits are, how to determine the best options and how to actually sign up is not clear at all. Learn the realities of what to expect — and, more important, what not to expect.

Here’s what every Boomer needs to know before turning 65.

MLF: GROWNUPS Location: SF Club Office Time: 4:45 p.m. networking, 5:15 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Program Organizer: John Milford Also know: In assn. with San Francisco Village

From the financial crisis to Obamacare to the budget debates, the size and scope of government is being debated across the country. Two staunch advocates debate government, values and the economy – the fundamental social, economic and moral ideas that underlie U.S. politics.

Bring your questions.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Also know: Part of the American Values Series, underwritten by the Koret and Taube Family Foundations

O C TO B E R/N O V E M B E R 2012

Einar Enevoldson, Founder and Chairman, Perlan Project

The Perlan Project is dedicated to building and flying a manned research glider to 90,000 feet in altitude to study what role the strong stratospheric winds play in ozone depletion and how they influence global weather patterns. The experience in designing and flying the Perlan aircraft will be useful to scientists designing a future airplane to fly on Mars where conditions are similar. Come learn about this exciting project.

MLF: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Ettore Leale

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October 23–30 T U E 23 | San Francisco

WED 24 | East Bay

T H U 25 | San Francisco

Chris Anderson

Ballot Box 2012: A Key to the California Election

North Beach Walking Tour

Editor in Chief, Wired; Author, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

Dan Walters, Political Columnist, The Sacramento Bee

In an age of custom-made, do-it-yourself product design and creation, the collective potential of a million garage tinkerers and enthusiasts is about to be unleashed, Anderson says, driving a resurgence of American manufacturing.

A generation of “makers” using the Web’s innovation model could help drive the next big wave in the global economy as the new technologies of digital design and rapid prototyping give everyone the power to invent. Anderson will take us to the front lines of a new industrial revolution.

This election cycle is poised to be a watershed moment in California politics.

In November, Californians will consider solutions to the state’s budgetary woes, campaign finance reform and a proposed repeal of the three-strikes law, among many other initiatives. Join veteran Sacramento Bee political columnist Walters as he takes a look at the issues facing Californians in the upcoming election.

Location: Lafayette Library and Learning Center, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd. Lafayette Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program Cost: $22 standard, $12 members

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students

Join another Commonwealth Club Neighborhood Adventure! Explore vibrant North Beach with Rick Evans during a two-hour walk through this neighborhood with a colorful past, where food, culture, history and unexpected views all intersect in an Italian “urban village.” In addition to learning about Beat generation hangouts, you’ll discover authentic Italian cathedrals and coffee shops.

Location: Meeting spot is Washington Square Park at Saints Peter and Paul Church (Filbert & Powell). Transportation to Washington Square Park is either the 30 bus or the 41/45 - all of which stop right in front of the park.

Our guide will be on the steps of the church.

Please meet at 1:45, depart by 2.

Time: 2-4 p.m. tour Cost: $45 standard, $35 members Also know: Limited to 20 people. Must preregister. Operates rain or shine.

T H U 25 | San Francisco

F R I 26 | San Francisco

F R I 26 | San Francisco

Sufism: Mysticism of Islam

A Political Prognosis for the Presidential Race and Its Aftermath

Addressing Next-Generation Proliferation Challenges

Nahid Angha, Ph.D. , Co-director, The International Association of Sufism; Director, Sufi Women Organization Michael Pappas, Executive Director, SF Interfaith Council – Moderator

Learn about Sufism – the inner, mystical interpretation and expression of Islam – from an internationally esteemed Persian Sufi scholar, author and lecturer. Dr. Angha will discuss Sufi history and Sufi literature, with an emphasis on the poetry of Rumi and Omar Khayam. Angha, a human rights activist, women’s rights and interfaith activist, will also discuss the rights of women in Islam.

MLF: MIDDLE EAST Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, students free Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

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Henry Brady, Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley

Eleven days before the election, Dean Brady will delve into the details of electoral politics, laying out the reality of the processes of our democracy, how they played out in this election cycle, what we can expect to happen on election night, and what shifts he anticipates in the political landscape if those expectations are realized.

MLF: HUMANITIES Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID) Program organizer: George Hammond

O C TO BER/NO V EM BE R 2012

Thomas Countryman, U.S. Assistant Secretary, International Security and Nonproliferation

Countryman is responsible for nonproliferation efforts, ensuring nuclear energy and biological research are being used for peaceful purposes, nuclear security, and regulating the international trade of destabilizing conventional weapons. In town for a meeting of the G8 Nonproliferation Directors Group, Countryman will address the global nonproliferation regime and some of the major efforts to address proliferation challenges.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students

M O N 29 | San Francisco

M O N 29 | San Francisco

M O N 2 9 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

Middle East Discussion Group

Dr. Otis Brawley: Fighting Patient Mistreatment in America

Making Magic Meaningful: Where Science and Magic Interact

Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President, American Cancer Society; Co-author, How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America

Kim Silverman, Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist, Apple; President, the Society of American Magicians

Make your voice heard in an enriching, provocative and fun discussion with fellow Club members as you weigh in on events shaping the face of the Middle East. Each month, the Middle East Member-Led Forum hosts an informal roundtable discussion on a topic frequently suggested by recent headlines. After a brief introduction, the floor will be open for discussion. All interested members are encouraged to attend. There will also be a brief planning session.

MLF: MIDDLE EAST Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

Finance, Brawley asserts, is inextricably linked to health care in our current system. Even the procedures patients undergo, he says, are frequently determined more by doctors’ expected payment than their actual appropriateness in mitigating the ailment with which the patient is afflicted. Brawley will discuss the extent of this problem as well as possible solutions.

A research scientist as well as a magician, Silverman draws on his background in science, technology and cognitive psychology to take magic from mere “tricks” to creating something scientifically meaningful. He will discuss the interaction between science and magic, demonstrating how magic can help us understand more about how the human mind works and how science can be used to improve the illusion of magic.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: FREE Also know: Underwritten by the California HealthCare Foundation

Location: Eagle Theatre, Los Altos High School, 201 Almond Avenue, Los Altos Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program Cost: $15 standard, $10 members

T U E 30 | San Francisco

T U E 30 | San Francisco

George M. Church: Regenesis – How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves

A Consumer’s Guide to Media: Finding Truth in an Election Year

Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Director, Lipper Center for Computational Genetics Thomas Goetz, Executive Editor, Wired - Moderator

We eat genetically engineered foods, take drugs made in engineered bacteria and someday soon may drive our cars using fuel produced by engineered microorganisms.

Church will discuss where these technologies came from and where they’re going.

MLF: HEALTH & MEDICINE/SCIENCE & TECH. Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Chisako Ress Also know: In association with the Bay Area Science Festival

Ronn Owens, KGO Talk Radio Host Lowell Bergman, Logan Distinguished Professor in Investigative Reporting, U.C. Berkeley; Producer/Correspondent, PBS documentary series “Frontline”; Former Producer, “60 Minutes” Additional panelists TBA

With talking heads and TV and radio pundits feasting on the run-up to the presidential election, some observers say that claims and counterclaims by candidates have never been more sensationalized or confusing…and that media have often not stepped up to the plate when it comes to separating truth from inuendo. What are the ethical guidelines governing print, online and broadcast journalism, as well as talk radio? What should they be? And ultimately, how can the public be more discerning in evaluating what we read, see and hear? A high-level panel will discuss media ethics and highlight ways to be better consumers.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:15 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students (with valid ID) Also know: Part of the Club’s Series on Ethics and Accountability, underwritten by the Charles Travers Family

O C TO B E R/N O V E M B E R 2012

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October 30 – November 08 T U E 30 | San Francisco

T U E 30 | San Francisco

Doctors Without Borders and the Politics of Compromise

California Cuisine and Just Food

Sophie Delaunay, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the United States

Doctors Without Borders negotiates life-and-death issues for people in need, but the organization’s work also raises troubling political and ethical dilemmas.

Delaunay reflects on MSF’s recent medical humanitarian responses. She explores the purposes of negotiations and explains how MSF makes tough political choices, as well as how the landscape has changed.

Sally Fairfax, Henry J. Vaux Distinguished Professor Emerita, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley; Co-author, California Cuisine and Just Food Sue Conley, Co-founder, Cowgirl Creamery Nikki Henderson, Executive Director, People’s Grocery Maisie Greenawalt, Vice President of Strategy, Bon Appétit Management Company Caleb Zigas, Executive Director, La Cocina

Can a celebrity chef find common ground with an urban community organizer? What began as niche preoccupations with parks, the environment, food aesthetics and taste has become a broader and more integrated effort to achieve “food democracy”: agricultural sustainability, access for all to good food, fairness for workers and producers, and public health. Our speakers explain that progress toward food democracy in the Bay Area has been significant: Innovators have built on familiar yet quite radical understandings of regional cuisine to generate new, broadly shared expectations about food quality, and activists have targeted the problems that the conventional food system creates. But they caution that despite the Bay Area’s favorable climate, progressive politics, and food culture, many challenges remain. Join us for a wine and cheese reception before the program, cheese courtesy of Cowgirl Creamery.

MLF: INT’L RELATIONS/HEALTH & MEDICINE Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Paul Clarke Also know: In assn. w/ the UN Assn., the Truman Nat’l Security Institute & Nor Cal Peace Corps. Assn.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 7:15 p.m. wine and cheese reception, 7:45 p.m. program, 8:45 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Cathy Curtis

T U E 30 | San Francisco

T H U 01 | San Francisco

F R I 02 | San Francisco

The Science of Distilling

Chef Yotam Ottolenghi

How Wall Street Is Destroying America

MLF: BAY GOURMET

Author, Plenty and Jerusalem

Get your hands dirty learning the science behind the still (cocktailshaking robots, anyone?) with INFORUM and the Bay Area Science Festival as we dive into the chemistry behind the cocktail. Bay Area master distillers will indulge your inner mad scientist, as you geek out over interactive beverage creation stations, and enjoy a drink (or three).

Explore how alcohol makes its way from the ground to your gullet and become a true bar star. Tickets include tastings from some of the Bay’s best booze slingers, including St. George Spirits, Anchor Distilling, Charbay Winery and Distillery, 1512 Spirits, Essential Spirits Alambic Distillery, SFVodka and more.

Location: 111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna St. Time: 6:30-9 p.m. program Cost: $40 standard, $25 members

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In Jerusalem, Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi explore the vibrant cuisine of their home city, with its diverse Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities. Both men were born in Jerusalem in the same year – Tamimi on the Arab east side and Ottolenghi in the Jewish west. Their cookbook offers 120 recipes from their unique cross-cultural perspective, from inventive vegetable dishes to sweet, rich desserts. Join Ottolenghi to learn about his career and the flavors of Jerusalem.

MLF: BAY GOURMET Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Cathy Curtis Also know: Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation

O C TO BER/NO V EM BE R 2012

Leland Faust, Founder and Chairman, CSI Capital Management

Wall Street is a giant casino where gambling masquerades as investment, says Faust; pundits, politicians and regulators suggest only meager reforms that do nothing to eliminate the systemic rot that is leading us to financial disaster.

Faust, an outspoken financial services insider and investment advisor, argues that a fundamental overhaul of the system is needed to rebuild the great economic engine that once powered prosperity.

He offers insights to accomplishing this.

MLF: BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, students free (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Kevin O’Malley

M O N 05 | San Francisco

W E D 07 | San Francisco

W E D 07 | San Francisco

A Startling Tale of Personal Triumph

San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour

The Night After: The Machiavellian Marketplace and the 2012 Election

Explore San Francisco’s Financial District with historian Rick Evans. Hear about the famous architects who influenced the building of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Discover hard-to-find rooftop gardens, Art Deco lobbies, unique open spaces and historic landmarks. This is a tour for locals, with hidden gems you can only find on foot! For those interested in socializing afterward, we will conclude the tour at a local watering hole.

Henry Eason, Managing Partner, Eason Communications; Former Washington Correspondent, Cox Newspapers

Deborah Strobin, Philanthropist; Coauthor, An Uncommon Journey Ilie Wacs, Fashion Designer; Artist; Coauthor, An Uncommon Journey Sydnie Kohara, Broadcast Journalist – Moderator

Strobin and her brother Wacs fled from Nazi Austria to the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto. Hear their story of escape from Vienna to Shanghai to the U.S. during World War II and the ultimately uplifting tale of survival as seen through the eyes of two children with their different memories of the period that shaped their lives.

Monday Night Philosophy (in a special Wednesday evening edition) looks behind the scenes of the presidential election through a Washington insider’s eyes. Hear Eason’s stories of his White House reporter days and his analysis of how our marketplace culture influences the American version of Machiavellian political shenanigans and the electoral strategies employed by President Obama and Governor Romney.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Also know: Part of the Good Lit Series, underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation

Location: Lobby of Galleria Park Hotel, 191 Sutter St. Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. tour Cost: $40 standard, $30 members Also know: Tour operates rain or shine. Limited to 20 people. Participants must pre-register.

The tour covers less than one mile of walking in the Financial District. Involves stairs.

W E D 07 | San Francisco

WED 07 | East Bay

T H U 08 | San Francisco

Water: Innovating for the Essential Resource

Julia Ross: Sugar Addiction

Leonardo and the Last Supper

MA; MFT; NNTS; CEO, Recovery Systems; Author, The Diet Cure and The Mood Cure

Ross King, Author, Leonardo and the Last Supper

One of Ross’ areas of focus since she began researching dietary addiction has been the compulsion to consume large amounts of refined sugar. Ross believes our addiction to sugar is the dynamic that propels a dietary disaster. While exposing her finding that low-calorie dieting actually contributes to the overeating epidemic, Ross, a celebrated pioneer and educator in the fields of addiction and eating disorders treatment, focuses primarily on how we can correct the faulty appetite chemistry that drives addiction.

Come hear her approach on how to kick sugar addiction to the curb.

In 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began painting one of history’s most influential and beloved works of art. Leonardo was then at a low point, having failed to complete anything that demonstrated his astonishing promise. The commission to paint The Last Supper provided only small compensation, and Leonardo’s odds of completing such a large fresco, without previous experience, were not promising. King finds that many of the myths about The Last Supper are inaccurate and that the painting’s true story is even more interesting.

See website for panelists

Water: We can’t live without it – but most of the world practically does. The event will begin with a conversation about the global water crisis and those working on creative new approaches for providing clean drinking water. Hear from the leaders in the field and find out more about innovative projects. After the kick-off panel, we’ll dive right into an interactive social in an attempt to grasp the realities of H2O hardships and opportunities.

Let’s hear the stories and wade neck-deep into the worldwide water crisis.

Location: Levi’s Auditorium, 1155 Battery St. Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 book signing and networking reception Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students Also know: Underwriter: Levi Strauss & Co.

Location: Lafayette Library and Learning Center, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd. Lafayette Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program Cost: $22 standard, $12 members, $7 students

O C TO B E R/N O V E M B E R 2012

MLF: HUMANITIES Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: George Hammond

MLF: HUMANITIES/THE ARTS Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: George Hammond

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November 08–15 T H U 08 | San Francisco

T H U 08 | San Francisco

T H U 08 | San Francisco

Science & Technology Discussion Group

The Watchman’s Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction

Built in the Bay

“Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Scotty … we need you along with your ship and the crew of the Enterprise!” Join us for a lively discussion focused on science and technology education. Our nation has seen a decline in the academic performance of our youth in math and science vis-à-vis other nations.

Are we in danger of losing our competitive advantage? How can we improve science and technology education? How can we align education to secure a large, welleducated workforce? We will examine the current state of science and technology education and explore ways to inspire our youth to pursue careers in these fields.

Rebecca Costa, Interviewer, The Costa Report; Author, The Watchman’s Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction

Sociobiologist Costa asks what happens to us when complexity exceeds our ability to handle it. The difference between the slow rate of evolutionary change for our biological bodies and the fast rate of technological change for our modern societies leaves us in a cognitive quandary as the complexity of our problems continues to increase faster than our ability to adapt. Will we succumb or overcome?

Mark Dwight, Founder, SFMade; Founder and Owner, Rickshaw Bagworks Hut Landon, Executive Director, Locally Owned Merchants Alliance Caleb Zigas, Executive Director, La Cocina

From crafting handbags to distilling booze, San Franciscans are tapping into the deep well of creativity and expertise that exists here to build, brew, bake and create. Join our panel of entrepreneurs and community leaders for an exploration of the local marketplace, the benefits of buying local, and the distinct procurement culture that makes the Bay Area so unique. After the program, join the Club for an exposition of some of San Francisco’s finest locally made goods.

MLF: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Location: SF Club Office Time: 6:15 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program organizer: Tom Devine and Dan Trachewsky

MLF: HUMANITIES Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: George Hammond

F R I 09 | San Francisco

T U E 13 | San Francisco

T U E 13 | San Francisco

The Kurds: Self Determination and Human Rights

Eric Asimov: How to Love Wine

Reform in Morocco: Evolution, not Revolution

Karaman Mamand Faraj, Student of International Legal Systems, Golden Gate University

Chief Wine Critic, The New York Times; Author, How to Love Wine

André Azoulay, Senior Advisor to King Mohammed VI of Morocco

Oenophiles and wine novices are being exposed to an ever-expanding universe of wines. This array of choices can overwhelm us and make choosing a good wine a stressful experience. Happily, the chief wine critic for The New York Times and author of How to Love Wine is here to help. Join Asimov for an enlightening conversation on how to embrace variety and the quest for a fantastic vintage. Join Asimov after the program for a tasting with Bravium Wines.

Well known in Europe and Africa for his work in business development, Azoulay was a leading architect of the remarkable economic reforms and growth Morocco has experienced over the last three decades. He is also a respected advocate of pluralism and inter-religious dialogue.

He will discuss Morocco’s constitutional reforms and election following the Arab Spring and share his views on the future of Morocco and North Africa.

Educator, researcher and activist Faraj will discuss the history of the Kurdish people, who number more than 30 million and yet do not have their own country. Faraj received his masters degree in Laws in Kurdistan, Iraq, where he taught law. He has researched and led workshops on several subjects including human rights and has investigated violations such as honor killings.

MLF: MIDDLE EAST Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, students free (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

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Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. network reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing/wine tasting Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students Also know: Part of the Food Lit series, underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation

O C TO BER/NO V EM BE R 2012

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. reception Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students

MLF: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Norma Walden

W E D 14 | San Francisco

W E D 14 | San Francisco

Humanities West Book Discussion: Everybody Was so Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Story

Global Economic Forum: Corporate Social Responsibility in a PostCrisis World

Join us to discuss Amanda Vaill’s biography of artist Gerald Murphy and his elegant wife, Sara, wealthy expatriate Americans at the center of the literary scene in 1920s Paris. Gerald and Sara summered with Picasso on the French Riviera, watched bullfights with Hemingway in Pamplona and inspired kindred creative spirits. The discussion will be led

by Lynn Harris. Though the author will not be present in person, she will participate with Skype, so bring your questions.

MLF: HUMANITIES Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: $5 standard, MEMBERS FREE Program Organizer: George Hammond Also know: In assn. with Humanities West. Underwitten by The Bernard Osher Foundation.

Michael E. Fox, Jr., President and CEO, Goodwill Industries of Silicon Valley Kapil Sharma, Senior General Manager – North America, Tata Sons Peter Graf, Ph.D., Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President, SAP Edgard Habib, Ph.D., Chief Economist, Chevron Corporation (invited) Shyam Kamath, Associate Dean of Graduate Business and Global Programs, Saint Mary’s College of California – Moderator Jim Hawley, Ph.D., Director, Elfenworks Center for Fiduciary Capitalism, Saint Mary’s College – Co-moderator

The Great Recession and its aftermath have left the world in turmoil. The events leading up to the recession have also generated greater scrutiny of business. What was corporate America’s role in creating the Great Recession? Were only certain sectors of the economy to blame? Could better corporate governance have prevented this from happening? The momentous changes of the last five years have resulted in a clamor for business to rethink its role and responsibilities toward society. What does business need to do to reposition itself in the current environment to provide active and responsible leadership while re-igniting economic growth to better the lot of mankind?

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6-8 p.m. program, 8-8:30 p.m. post-program reception and discussion Cost: $20 standard, $12 members Also know: In assn. with Saint Mary’s College of California School of Economics and Business Administration

T H U 15 | San Francisco

T H U 15 | San Francisco

T H U 1 5 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

Nob Hill Walking Tour

The Viagra Diaries

Ray Kurzweil

Nob Hill became an exclusive enclave of rich and famous West Coasters who built large mansions in the neighborhood.

Residents included prominent tycoons such as Leland Stanford and other members of the Big Four. Highlights include the history of four landmark hotels: The Fairmont, Mark Hopkins, Stanford Court and the Huntington. Visit the city’s largest house of worship, Grace Cathedral, and discover architectural tidbits and anecdotes about the railroad barons and silver kings. Enjoy a true San Francisco experience of elegance, urbanity, scandals and fabulous views.

Barbara Rose Brooker, Author, The Viagra Diaries

Inventor; Futurist; Author, How to Create a Mind

Native San Franciscan, author, journalist and activist Barbara Rose Brooker will speak about her post-middle-age journey to Hollywood and the upcoming HBO series, starring Goldie Hawn, based on her hit novel, The Viagra Diaries, which chronicles the travails of a 65-year-old who struggles with dating, her career and ageism. Brooker will remind us why she believes that “everything is possible at any age.”

Pioneering inventor and theorist Kurzweil explores how artificial intelligence can enrich human capabilities. Now he takes this exploration to the next step: reverse-engineering the brain to understand how it works, then applying that knowledge to create vastly intelligent machines. He shows how these insights could enable us to extend the powers of our own mind and provides a roadmap.

Location: Meet in front of the Stanford Court Hotel, 905 California St. Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. tour Cost: $45 standard, $35 members Also know: Limited to 20. Must preregister.

Tour operates rain or shine.

MLF: GROWNUPS Location: SF Club Office Time: 4:45 p.m. networking, 5:15 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: John Milford Also know: In association with San Francisco Village.

O C TO B E R/N O V E M B E R 2012

Location: Schultz Cultural Hall, Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8:15 p.m. book signing Cost: Regular $20 standard, $12 members.

Premium (includes copy of book and reserved seating in front) $40 standard, $40 members.

Also know: In assn. with Oshman Family JCC

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November 19–29 M O N 19 | San Francisco

M O N 19 | San Francisco

Sheldon H. Kardener: Breaking Free – How Chains from Childhood Keep Us from What We Want

What’s Your Next Chapter?

Sheldon H. Kardener, M.D.

Why do our best intentions so often go awry? What prompts people to engage in behaviors that have the opposite outcome from what they wished to have happen? Kardener’s book, Breaking Free: How Chains from Childhood Keep Us from What We Want, distills his experiences and illuminates his unique approach to understanding how emotional conflicts develop, why they are maintained and what we can do to get past them.

Marcy Adelman, Founder, Openhouse; Purpose Prize Winner 2009 Toni Heineman, Founder, A Home Within; Purpose Prize Winner 2008 Catalino Tapia, Scholarship Founder, Bay Area Gardeners’ Foundation; Purpose Prize Winner 2008 Jim Emerman, Executive Vice President, Encore.org – Moderator

Some have called the Purpose Prize the “genius award for retirees.” The winners exemplify the spirit of the $100,000 award – the country’s only large-scale investment in social innovators in their second half of life. Three winners who live in the Bay Area will each tell of the “encore career” that led to their awards.

MLF: GROWNUPS Location: SF Club Office Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: John Milford Also know: In association with San Francisco Village

MLF: PSYCHOLOGY Location: SF Club Office Time: 4:45 p.m. networking, 5:15 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Program Organizer: Patrick O’Reilly

T U E 20 | San Francisco

M O N 26 | San Francisco

M O N 26 | San Francisco

Michael C. Sekora: Technology-Based Planning, the Foundation of All Competitive Advantage

Middle East Discussion Group

What Is Terrorism Really, and How Does It End?

President, Quadrigy, Inc.

Sekora, who was the founder and director of Project Socrates, a U.S. intelligence community initiative under President Reagan, posits that the shift from technology-based planning to economic-based planning has caused our nation to lose its ability to compete economically. Sekora contends that technology-based planning is the key to competitive advantage for any nation, region, public or private organization.

MLF: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Chisako Ress

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Make your voice heard in an enriching, provocative and fun discussion with fellow Club members as you weigh in on events shaping the face of the Middle East. Each month, the Middle East Member-Led Forum hosts an informal roundtable discussion on a topic frequently suggested by recent headlines. After a brief introduction, the floor will be open for discussion. All interested members are encouraged to attend. There will also be a brief planning session.

MLF: MIDDLE EAST Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

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Captain Paul Shemella, U.S. Navy SEAL (retired); Program Manager, Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program, Center for Civil-Military Relations, Monterey

Retired Navy Seal Shemella has spent the last decade working with partner countries around the world to develop strategies and capacities to combat terrorism. Shemella will address the future of combating terrorism and how we might bring an end to the current conflicts.

MLF: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Program Organizer: Paul Clarke Also know: In association with the Truman National Security Institute and the United Nations Association

W E D 28 | San Francisco

W E D 28 | San Francisco

T H U 29 | San Francisco

The Truth About Truvada and HIV Prevention

Tim Ferriss: The 4-Hour Movement

Jon Meacham

Robert Grant, Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology; Professor of Medicine, UCSF Cecilia Chung, Commissioner, San Francisco Health Commission

The medication Truvada has been hailed as a turning point in the fight against HIV, because it has been shown to prevent infection in some people when used as a precautionary measure. But what are the limits of Truvada? Is a preventative pill a license to change behaviors? And who should receive this wonder drug? Experts Grant and Chung will discuss the science, policy, myths and facts surrounding Truvada.

Investor and Entrepreneur; Author, The 4-Hour Chef, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Workweek

Ferriss has changed lives twice now. The author of two New York Times best-sellers, Ferriss is on a one-man mission to make you more effective in everything you do – whether it’s in the office, the gym or even the kitchen. Now, he dishes up the radically counterintuitive advice that his devotees have come to expect, via culinary pointers from world-renowned chefs and insider tips.

Contributing Editor, Time magazine; Author, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

Thomas Jefferson hated confrontation, and yet, according to Meacham, his understanding of power and human nature enabled him to prevail. Meacham brings to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. He gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era. Philosophers think; politicians maneuver. Jefferson’s genius, Meacham argues, was that he was both and could do both.

MLF: LGBT Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Julian Chang

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. reception and book signing Cost: $20 standard, $12 members; Premium (book, reserved seating, premium reception.

40 guests max): $50 standard, $35 members

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: Regular: $20 standard, $12 members.

Premium (priority seating and copy of book): $40 standard, $40 members.

Also know: Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation

T H U 29 | San Francisco

T H U 29 | San Francisco

T H U 2 9 | S i l i co n Va l l e y

Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2’s Deadliest Day

Science & Technology Planning Meeting

Tim Ferriss: The 4-Hour Movement

Amanda Padoan and Peter Zuckerman, Co-authors, Buried in the Sky

For as long as Westerners have been climbing the world’s highest Himalayan peaks, Sherpas have been at their sides.

But their stories are too often overlooked.

Join Padoan and Zuckerman for a discussion about Sherpa folklore and culture, revealing a world in which climbing is a lucrative career for young men but also a sin against the gods.

MLF: ASIA-PACIFIC AFFAIRS Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizers: Lillian Nakagawa and Cynthia Miyashita

Join fellow Club members with similar interests and brainstorm upcoming Science & Technology programs. All Commonwealth Club members are welcome. We explore visions for the future through science and technology. Discuss current issues and share your insights with fellow Club members to shape and plan programs for the months ahead.

MLF: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Location: SF Club Office Time: 6:15 p.m. planning meeting Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Chisako Ress

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Investor; Entrepreneur; Author, The 4-Hour Chef, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Workweek

Ferriss is on a one-man mission to make you more effective in everything you do – whether it’s in the office, the gym or even the kitchen. He dishes up the counterintuitive advice that his devotees have come to expect, via culinary pointers from worldrenowned chefs and insider tips.

Location: Schultz Cultural Hall, Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $12 members Also know: Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation. Also know: In assn. with Oshman Family JCC

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December 03–19 M O N 03 | San Francisco

T U E 04 | San Francisco

W E D 05 | San Francisco

Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon

The Stephen Schneider Award for Climate Science Communication

Simon Winchester: Skulls – A Compelling Tale of the World’s Most Bizarre Collection

Paola Gianturco, Author; Photojournalist

Gianturco discusses a new movement represented by grandmothers who are younger, better educated and healthier than grandmothers have ever been before.

She discusses activist grandmothers in 15 countries who are fighting against poverty, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and abuse of human rights to create a better world for grandchildren.

MLF: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS/ GROWNUPS Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID) Program Organizer: John Milford Also know: In association with the International Museum of Women, the Global Fund for Women and San Francisco Village

James Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Join us as America’s foremost climate scientist Hansen receives the 2012 Stephen Schneider Award for Climate Science Communication for his efforts in raising awareness of global warming.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. networking reception Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students (with valid ID)

Journalist; Author, A Crack at the Edge of the World and Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley’s Curious Collection

The renowned writer and raconteur whose books on the 1906 earthquake, the Oxford English Dictionary and Krakatoa captivated readers worldwide now presents a spellbinding exploration of an obsessive collector of what some may call the macabre: more than 300 animal skulls. Join Winchester for a fascinating and entertaining exploration into obsession and the macabre.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing Cost: $20 standard, $12 members, $7 students

T H U 06 | San Francisco

F R I 07 | San Francisco

M O N 10 | San Francisco

Russian Hill Walking Tour

Oil, Earthquakes and Declining Science in Arabia

Middle East Discussion Group

Join a more active Commonwealth Club Neighborhood Adventure! Russian Hill is a magical area with secret gardens and amazing views. Join Rick Evans for a twohour hike up hills and staircases and learn about the history of this neighborhood.

See where great artists and architects lived and worked, and walk down residential streets where some of the most historically significant houses in the Bay Area are located.

Location: Meet in front of Swensen’s Ice Cream Store located at 1999 Hyde Street at Union.

Tour ends about six blocks from the Swensen’s Ice Cream Shop at the corner of Vallejo and Jones.

Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2– 4 p.m. tour Cost: $45 standard, $35 members Also know: Steep hills and staircases, parking difficult. Limited to 20. Must pre-register. Tour operates rain or shine.

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Muawia Barazangi, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University; Ph.D, Seismology Richard Cardwell, Academic; Former Senior Geophysicist, Chevron - Moderator

How do natural resources and geologic features affect the course of Middle East history and geopolitics? Barazangi highlights the critical importance of better understanding Islamic history and cultures of the Arab/Persian region, which has the world’s largest oil reserves. He will also discuss the earthquake hazards of the Dead Sea Fault and the decline of science and technology in Arabia.

MLF: MIDDLE EAST/SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Location: SF Club Office Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, students free (with valid ID) Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

O C TO BER/NO V EM BE R 2012

Make your voice heard in an enriching, provocative and fun discussion with fellow Club members as you weigh in on events shaping the face of the Middle East. Each month, the Middle East Member-Led Forum hosts an informal roundtable discussion on a topic frequently suggested by recent headlines.

After a brief introduction, the floor will be open for discussion. All interested members are encouraged to attend. There will also be a brief planning session.

MLF: MIDDLE EAST Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. program Cost: FREE Program Organizer: Celia Menczel

M O N 10 | San Francisco

Ethical Destinations: Vote with Your Wings Jeff Greenwald, Executive Director, Ethical Traveler Malia Everette, Director, Global Exchange Reality Tours

One of the most important things concerned travelers can do is spend their tourist dollars in countries that uphold core values like human rights, civil society and environmental protection. Every November, Bay Area-based Ethical Traveler releases its list of “The World’s Best Ethical Destinations,” which honors 10 countries – all in the developing world – that are promoting a locally based, sustainable tourism economy. Join a discussion of which nations made the 2013 list.

M O N 10 | San Francisco

W E D 12 | San Francisco

December 21st, 2012 and All That: An Entertaining History of End of the World Doom

Joanne Weir: Hot Out of the Oven

Speaker TBA

Chef and Owner, Copita Tequileria y Comida; Host, “Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence”; Author, Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence

Monday Night Philosophy attempts to save the Mayans’ scientific reputation just 11 days before their calendar’s final date has convinced many that the end of the world is nigh. We will delve into why eschatological excesses excite and enchant otherwise (fairly) rational minds, while recounting some of the more humorous episodes of the end-of-the-world fever epidemics humanity has experienced.

Come have some unusual holiday fun ... just in case the doomsayers are right about the Mayans’ timetable.

We love the occasional bit of sea urchin foam with our rabbit roulade, but more often than not we find comfort in a home-cooked meal. Weir has cooked with Alice Waters, studied under Madeleine Kamman in France, and won a James Beard Award, but her heart is in home cooking. Come glean tips from her food theory and technique.

Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID)

MLF: HUMANITIES Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students Program Organizer: George Hammond

Location: SF Club Office Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. reception and book signing Cost: $25 standard, $15 members Also know: Underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation, as part of the Food Lit Series

T U E 18 | San Francisco

W E D 19 | San Francisco

JUST ADDED!

A Bright Future for Health Care: Is It Possible?

Design Alert: Blue Is the Next Green

October 17: God’s Hotel – A Doctor, a Hospital and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine San Francisco 6 p.m. program

Dr. Donald Berwick, Former President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The second annual Lundberg Institute Lecture welcomes Dr. Berwick. Hear Dr. Berwick’s ideas on how true delivery system reform – changing care to better meet the needs of patients, families and communities – provides a sensible and effective alternative to the much-feared threat of rationing of care.

MLF: HUMANITIES Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: George Hammond Also know: In association with The Lundberg Institute

Peter Williams, Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Architect, ARCHIVE Global

According to some studies, nearly 10 percent of people who move to a city each year move directly into a home that is overcrowded, structurally unsound, has inadequate sanitation and/or where the risk of eviction looms continually. Architect Williams designs healthy homes to help prevent illnesses like cholera and malaria in poor and underserved communities through his nonprofit ARCHIVE Global.

MLF: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Location: SF Club Office Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students Program Organizer: Karen Keefer Also know: In association with the NorCal Peace Corps Association and the College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley

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October 18: Step off the Getting-and-Spending Treadmill and Simplify!

San Francisco noon program October 23: Meet the Bizumer: How Consumers Are Changing How Business Gets Done Adobe Systems, San Jose 7 p.m. program October 31: Ambassador Ira Shapiro: Recapturing Courage and Statesmanship in American Politics San Francisco Noon program November 5: Book Discussion: Underworld San Francisco 5:30 p.m. program

Please visit commonwealthclub.org for more information on these and other latebreaking events.

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AMERICA AMERICAN AMERICANS

A liberal and a conservative travel across the country – wait, it’s not a joke. It’s the true-life pairing of pundit and comedian, who went looking for meaning in the mundane. Excerpt from Inforum’s “Meghan McCain and Michael Ian Black: Two Slices of American Pie,” July 17, 2012.

MEGHAN MCCAIN Political Pundit; Co-author, America, You Sexy Bitch MICHAEL IAN BLACK Actor; Comedian; Co-author, America, You Sexy Bitch

Party animals

WALSH: Michael, in some ways you play into Meghan’s stereotypes of Democrats, where you’re kind of down, but not with all of it.

BLACK: The answer is maybe more complicated. I’m – as I think a lot of comedians are – just generally anti-authoritarian. The political parties to me are anachronisms; I don’t like them; I don’t believe in them.

I definitely feel like I caucus with the Democrats; I feel like they represent far more of what I believe in than the Republicans do. But as an organization, I feel like both parties are more or less money-laundering operations, and I would just as soon get rid of both of them, and I think we have the technology now to do that. We

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don’t need them. We don’t need these big machines that are just vacuuming up dollars and giving them to their friends. I look at them like mob families.

WALSH: You each share your strange loves of people in the other party. [Meghan], what did you see in Dennis Kucinich that you loved?

MCCAIN: He was the first politician we met that was happy to be on the record. I was expecting not to like him, because he’s obviously an extremely liberal Democrat. He wasn’t the most impressive presidential candidate. But we met with him, and I asked him, “Why would you meet with us?” and he said, “Because your father is part of the congressional family, and by offshoot, you’re part of the congressional family. And I think we should take care of our family.” I was like, “Where am I?” He was so excited to still be a congressman.

We had this endearing conversation about how he’s grateful that he can work in politics and how much respect he has for my father and how much he loves his wife. He was so kind and so nice. I’m

Photos by Ed Ritger

in conversation with JOAN WALSH Editor at Large, Salon.com

so jaded by politics and politicians, [but] he was warm and friendly and gave us so much time and answered our questions. Two weeks ago, I got a letter in the mail that he’d hand-written, thanking us.

Fight night at the McCains

WALSH: There’s a way in which Democrats are really demonized by the other side. I’ve talked to other Democrats, and even in my own life being on MSNBC and talking to Joe Scarborough or even Pat Buchanan where they’re kind of shocked that I have a family, I love my daughter, I love my country – it’s sort of like we have been demonized. Did you feel that at all on the tour?

MCCAIN: We got in a fight about this issue, actually.

BLACK: Meghan had a kind of epiphany about her own relationship with stereotypes about Democrats. My sense is that Republicans have co-opted the word patriot, have co-opted the word freedom, have coopted the idea of America in a way that is so destructive not only to Democrats but to themselves, because you end up seeing Democrats or people who don’t agree with you politically as somehow alien. That’s untruth, and obviously it’s corrosive. We see it manifested just today when Governor Sununu said President Obama needs to start acting like an American – WALSH: Learning how to be an American.

BLACK: It’s that kind of “otherness” language, that makes it very easy for polarization to occur. As a Democrat and as a liberal, I want to reclaim the word patriot and say, “I’m a patriot, and I believe in freedom, and I believe in this country, and I love my country.” And I want that to be okay for Democrats to say and not be selfconscious about it.

MCCAIN: A fight we got in early on in the book – we were drinking in Prescott, Arizona. My brothers were there, as were some of his friends who were in the military, and for whatever reason we started talking about the war in Iraq, and we were discussing why [Black] disagrees with it and why I supported it. I was like, “Listen, Michael, freedom doesn’t come free,” and he laughed in my face – literally laughed in my face.

My mom was there, and she was like, “Now Michael, you have to understand what this means for Meghan and our family.” For me,

when my brother deployed, I remember sitting on the tarmac in Camp Pendleton and feeling like this is the cost of freedom, seeing my brother maybe for the last time as an 18-year-old, hysterically crying. This is the cost, and that’s what “freedom doesn’t come free” means to me. It is a rallying cry, and it’s something I used to say to myself when he was deployed, and Michael laughed at me!

So that was when this conversation started about what it means to be a real American and what freedom means to me versus what freedom means to Michael or to liberals, and I found out through our writing and through our experience on the trip that I was stereotyping a lot of people as well. I consider myself a pretty openminded person, but I was still projecting my feelings, like Michael couldn’t possibly understand America in the way that I do because I come from a military family and I know what the cost of this is – and it’s wrong, and I was guilty of doing it.

Other voices

WALSH: What is the next step in bridging the boundaries between Republicans and Democrats?

BLACK: My fear is it really isn’t about Democrat versus Republican. I’m one of those Occupy people, I guess, who feels like what we’re really fighting over is an ever-shrinking slice of a pie, and that there’s a small group of people for whom the pie is ever-expanding. That’s why we’re fighting so much. It’s like the walls are closing in, and we’re all fighting for elbow room. I do think that we have to figure out income inequality in this country. Whether that’s through taxation or whatever, we have to figure out a way to grow and strengthen our middle class, because otherwise we’re doomed, we’re a banana republic.

MCCAIN: It’s more of a culture war than anything else. It’s more about people having such a basic misunderstanding of one another. If you’re Republican as a journalist or commentator or politician, if you bridge the divide at all – look at Olympia Snow – you are ostracized and demagogued and seen as somehow weak. I remem-

ber Mike Huckabee said I was part of the “mushy middle.” That’s a really rude thing to say about my political beliefs. It’s scary to me that compromise is seen as not having a backbone.

GOP evolving

WALSH: When will the Republican Party support marriage equality for all?

MCCAIN: Once they realize they’re going to continue losing elections until they start supporting it. It’s that simple.

WALSH: With global warming, why does the Republican Party insist on the one dissenting scientist out of 100 that’s right?

MCCAIN: [Black and I] agree on this. I don’t understand, with all the things going on and weather patterns this summer, how you don’t think something is happening to our planet. It should be a human issue. It scares me to death when I see the polar bears drowning, and I start getting really scared about the future of our culture. All that being said, the PR for climate change has been so poorly conducted to Middle America; it’s sort of become this Hollywood elite issue.

BLACK: You don’t want Leonardo DiCaprio teaching you science?

MCCAIN: No. I don’t want Leonardo DiCaprio teaching me science.

This program was made possible by the generous support of Levi Strauss & Co.

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Photo by AdamG1975 / istockphoto

Sound money makes for sustainable economic growth, Forbes argues, as he looks at the state of the economy and the 2012 presidential election. Excerpt from “Simple Ways to Get the U.S. Economy Growing Again,” August 24, 2012.

STEVE FORBES Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Media; Former Republican Presidential Candidate

I

n terms of the economy, yes, we are growing this year. But we’re like a car on the open highway going about 30 miles an hour instead of 70, 75 miles per hour. Never before have we had such a weak recovery from a sharp downturn, and that leads to the basic question: Why? What are the things that are standing in the way?

The first barrier is the most boring subject in the world: monetary policy. You can

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have an economy with basic strengths, but if you don’t supply enough money to meet the organic needs of the marketplace, you’re going to stall the thing. You print too much money, you get the economic equivalent of flooding the engine; right amount and you have the chance to move ahead.

This is what is happening in the world today. The Federal Reserve has been on a money binge since the early part of the last

O C TO BER/NO V EM BER 2012

decade. This is something that most political authorities don’t understand, precisely because it’s so inhibiting, so boring. But it undermined the presidency of George W. Bush with the weak dollar, and it’s undermined the presidency – along with some other things – of President Obama; it undermined Nixon – he did a lot other things, but this was a contributing factor to the great inflation; and it undermined

Carter. None of those individuals fully appreciated what hit them, even to this day.

Money is simply a means of doing transactions with each other. Money is fixed in value; it’s like weights and measures. When you go buy a pound of something, you assume it’s 16 ounces, not 13 ounces, 10 ounces, or 18 ounces; it doesn’t fluctuate each day. Imagine if the government did to the hour what it does to the dollar. You assume 60 minutes to the hour. Imagine if they floated the clock. You have 60 minutes to the hour one day, 80 minutes the next, 20 minutes the day after? You’d soon have to have hedges, derivatives, futures to figure out how many hours you’re working. You go hire somebody for $16, $20 an hour to do a job. Is that a California hour? Is that an Arizona hour? A Bangladeshi hour?

When you have a cheapening of the dollar, it profoundly undermines commerce in ways we don’t even realize. [John Maynard Keynes] was right when he said not one in a million realize how destructive this thing is. It misdirects capital, when suddenly you can’t trust the value of money, where does money go? It goes into hard assets. You saw that in the 1970s. You saw oil suddenly go from $3 a barrel to $40 a barrel. People wondered, is this greedy oil companies?

What’s happening? Whatever. When inflation was conquered by President Reagan and then-Fed Chairman Paul Volker, what happened to the price of oil? It crashed from $40 down to $10, finally stabilized around an average of $20, $25.

You also see it around housing. You also had an artificial housing boom in the 1970s, you had it on steroids this time. The blunt truth is, in terms of the housing bubble and then bust, you never could have had a bubble of that size, even with Fannie and Freddie and everything else, if the Fed hadn’t printed the money to finance it. Could not have happened. And yet, the Fed doesn’t get the blame; everyone else gets the blame.

When the dollar is being trashed, you can’t trust prices anymore. How much of [it] is genuine supply and demand? How much of it is speculation, or anticipation of inflation, speculation, hoarding? You see it, too, in the capital markets. Do any of you really believe that in a normal market, the United States government today could sell 10-year bonds at 1-and-a-half percent interest? Or 30-year bonds at 2-and-a-half

percent interest? Only the Brits did that in history, back in the 1800s, when the pound was seen as good as gold.

What happens is you can’t trust the prices of credit anymore. So that means the private sector gets starved of credit even though there’s a lot of liquidity out there. Government gets its money; that’s easy. Big business gets its money; that’s easy. But small and medium-sized businesses? Very uncertain, because you don’t know what the real price of money is. So it’s very, very disruptive.

What it is in essence is a kind of government coercion. When the government crashes the value of your money, it means it takes assets away from you, or it gives

“Half of the lobbying revolves around the

tax code, trying to get an advantage or protect yourself.” windfalls to commodities or the financial [institutions] without legislation, without any discussion; it’s done arbitrarily, which ultimately undermines social trust. And that’s why you have this breakdown out there, [with] the traditional link between effort and reward being undermined. You see it in the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Could you have had the borrowing binges there if you’d had sound money, stable money in value? No. So watch the price of gold. Watch those commodities. They’ll tell you more than any statement from the Fed of what markets anticipate. You’re not going to get a growing economy on a sustainable business if you can’t trust weights and measures, if you can’t trust the value of the dollar.

What’s this lead to ultimately? I’ll say something that sounds outlandish, but it’ll happen I think in five years. I say five years, because most of you will forget what I said, so if I’m wrong, we’ll just let it go into the ether. And if I’m right, I’ll remind you of it.

But ultimately what I think you’re going to see is that the dollar will be relinked to gold. Why? Because no other commodity keeps its intrinsic value better than gold.

It’s the best thing we’ve got.

Taxation isn’t just about taking in revenue to meet the needs of government. It’s also a price and a burden. The tax on income is the price you pay for working. The tax on capital gains is the price you pay for taking risks that work out. Tax on profit – the price you pay for being successful. The proposition’s a very simple one, but it’s amazing how much it’s ignored: When you lower the price of good things – like productive work, risk-taking and success – you’ll get more of them. Raise the price, and you’ll get less of them.

So you have to understand that when you have money instability, [there’s a] huge misallocation of time, resources, arbitrary awards, arbitrary punishments. It becomes clear where we have gone wrong in recent years. We should be simplifying the tax code.

The I.R.S. calculates that last year we spent 6.5 billion hours filling out tax forms.

For what purpose? It’s the biggest source of corruption in Washington. Half of the lobbying revolves around the tax code, trying to get an advantage or protect yourself.

It brings out the worst in us. We should junk the thing, start over again with a flat rate, generous exemptions for adults and for kids, and there should be no death taxes, and do the same thing on the business side. Make it simple so the brains can focus on the real things: Increase the wealth of the nation.

Question and answer session with Skip Rhodes, member of The Commonwealth Club’s Board of Governors RHODES: Are there more financial shoes to drop in Europe that could badly impact or even cripple the U.S. economy?

FORBES: I’m an optimist, but unfortunately the Europeans are behaving in ways that just have you shaking your head. The answer is, Yes, they’re on their way to really messing things up.

What is happening in Europe, amazingly in this day and age, is they’re making the same mistakes they made in the early 1930s. Thankfully, today, unlike in the early ’30s, we still have an international trading system of goods and services flowing around the world; in the early ’30s, we blew that up. But what you see in Europe today is for all the talk of austerity, most governments are still spending more than they spent two or three years ago. Greece this year is spending more than it did last

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year. Where the burden is falling is on the private sector. More taxes are falling on the private sector, on consumers and producers. As a result, they’re in a death spiral; they have to meet budget deficit projections, so they pile on more taxes, which makes the economy slower and drives the economy down so the revenues are short, and then they go through the process again.

In the early ’30s, when the Depression started after we blew up the trading system, how did Britain respond? It increased income taxes in 1930, increased them again in 1931; the U.S. and other countries did the same. In 1932, we put in a tax increase that raised the top income tax rate from 25 percent to 63 percent. We had numerous excise taxes, including a stamp tax on checks; every time you wrote a check, you had to pay a tax to the government. So – no surprise – the economy went straight down.

What do we find unfolding today? Spain just raised the top income tax rate to 52 percent. Italy wants to raise the value-added tax yet again, put new taxes on homeowners.

Greece is just piling on new taxes.

They should be going in the opposite direction to make it viable for the private sector to exist. The Italians, Spanish, refuse to make internal structural changes in terms of labor laws, in terms of starting a business.

RHODES: Could you comment on recent articles in the media that the middle class has either disappeared or is at least declining, and what that means to the U.S. economy?

FORBES: Well, it’s highly abnormal for the middle class either to not be expanding in this country, in terms of numbers, as people work their way up, especially as an immigrant – you come with nothing and within a generation you’re really starting to get into it and your kids even more, or moving up to upper middle class.

When you start trashing money, who is hurt most? Wage earners. Get the money right, so you can trust it again, stable value, and a few of these other things going, and that will reverse itself quite quickly. People want to trade with each other. People are accustomed to being masters or mistresses of their own fate.

RHODES: How would you address the student debt crisis?

FORBES: Why in the world is [the cost of ] education going up far faster than even health care? Last 12 years, health-care

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prices have gone up about 220 percent; tuition is up 400 percent. Why is this happening? One of the reasons it’s happening is government help for tuitions, whether it’s Pell Grants or guaranteed loans. That means when the money is in the parents’ hands before they shovel it over to the university, the university spends the money. To be blunt, look at most of these institutions. Look at their real administrative costs; they try to hide this; it goes up faster than classroom instruction. If you want your kids to be rude, have them ask,

“When you start trashing money, who is hurt most?

Wage earners. Get the money right, and that will reverse itself quickly.”

How many hours does a professor now spend in a classroom [compared to] 20 years ago, 30 years ago?

Until recently, institutions all tried to raise prices. But that’s going to change profoundly. High tech means you have access to teachers and professors all around the world. You don’t need to have them physically there. The other thing that’s going to happen is [we’ll] ask ourselves, Why does it take 4 years or 6 years or 10 years to get an undergraduate degree? Well, we take three months off in the summer. What if we took five weeks off and do this in three years? Advanced degree, four, four-and-a-half instead of six or eight. Parents are now asking in a way they would never have dared do before, What are we getting for the resources we are spending? It doesn’t mean you become just a trade school; it means really focusing on courses that really develop the mind and not so many gut courses that so many of us coasted by on.

RHODES: We’ve had the dot-com bubble, the housing bubble, and now the Obama debt bubble. Should we be as concerned about the debt bubble as the pundits are touting?

FORBES: The answer about bubbles, especially artificially created bubbles, is that yes, they do a lot of harm.

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You have to make the distinction. It’s one thing when something new comes along and people jump into it because they all see an opportunity. Remember the early ’80s, when PCs first came along, everyone knew this was big so everyone jumped into it. Companies like Atari and Commodore and others. And you had the inevitable shakeout. And you saw it in automobiles – you had over 300 major manufacturers in this country. So when something new comes along and everybody jumps into it, that’s not a bubble, that’s capital that jumps in, sees an opportunity, it shakes out, and the marketplace determines who does it best.

In terms of bubbles like we saw in the late 1990s, part of it was natural, but it was artificially inflated by the Fed. Why? Because inadvertantly the Fed tightened up in the late 1990s. The U.S. had cut its capital gains tax under Bill Clinton, and did some other pro-growth things, so suddenly we became a magnet; people wanted dollars again. So you had a dollar shortage, so investment in traditional areas like manufcaturing, steelmaking and agriculture suffered a deflation, and [in] hot areas like high tech you got a real bubble effect, not just the normal one, but tens of billions flowing in that normally wouldn’t have flown in if you’d had a stable currency.

The housing bubble came about because the Fed was going in the opposite direction, printing too much money, so you got the bubble there, just as you got it in oil.

As for the debt bubble, when you artificially lower the price of credit and artificially decrease the supply of government bonds as the Fed is doing, it becomes very easy for the government to finance its debts. The insanity is that the government’s taken on huge amounts of debt, at shorter maturity rates. They should be going long, because when rates go up, the cost of financing that debt is going to mushroom. So yes, it is a bubble to worry about.

RHODES: How close will this election be?

FORBES: We don’t know. One reason why Romney’s negatives are high is that in the swing states he’s been trashed [in negative ads]. But that comes from people not knowing the man. I think as people learn more about Romney and Paul Ryan, I think they will end up winning on Election Day. This program was made possible by the generous support of Ernst & Young and Wells Fargo.

ONLINE ELECTION

Commonwealth Club Board of Governors

The election of members of The Commonwealth Club Board of Governors for the 2013 term will be conducted online. The ballot will be available on the Club’s website, www.commonwealthclub.org, from Monday, October 22, 2012, through Sunday, October 28, 2012, during which time Club members may submit their votes.

Following the voting period, the votes will be tabulated, and a meeting of the membership will be held at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday November 13, 2012, preceding that evening’s program, at which the election results will be ratified by the members present.

Members, please visit the Club’s web site www.commonwealthclub.org/boardvote between October 22 and October 28 to submit your vote for the 2013 term of the Board of Governors.

2012 CHALLENGE GRANT

Your next step in support of The Commonwealth Club can go twice as far!

Every day, the Commonwealth Club offers a dazzling array of events, trips and groups to help keep you abreast of current events – over 400 events in a year. Putting on this variety of programs needs careful planning and much work by our dedicated staff and volunteers… and significant funds. Membership dues do not completely cover our operational expenses, so we rely on dedicated members, friends like you, to take the next step in supporting The Commonwealth Club and make an additional gift beyond their memberships dues.

But time is of the essence…

Support from our members has made The Commonwealth Club a key institution in the civic and cultural life of the Bay Area for 109 years. Your contribution today will help ensure that The Club remains a hub of dynamic cultural and intellectual life in our community for the next 100 years.

Use the form below, the envelope in this magazine, or go to commonwealth.org/match to take advantage of this opportunity to forge a new relationship with The Commonwealth Club and transform your membership into a full-fledged partnership.

One of our most generous friends and previous Board presidents, Skip Rhodes, has pledged to match contributions made by Club members dollar for dollar through October 30th, 2012, up to $20,000.

Every dollar of your support will be doubled and go twice as far. It’s that simple.

YES! I want to take the next step in supporting The Commonwealth Club, and help ensure that the Club remains a vital part of cultural and intellectual life of the Bay Area. I understand that my gift will be matched and provide more resources.

Here is my 2012 Matching Gift of:

$50

$75

$100

$150

$200

Other $__________

Name

Make checks payable to The Commonwealth Club of California

Street Address

Please bill my:

City, State, Zip

Card #

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Photo courtesy of Gloria Duffy

InSight with

DR. GLORIA C. DUFFY

President & CEO, The Commonwealth Club

The Greatest Generation Were Women, Too

I

t’s not everyone who has a best friend for 75 years, but that was the von Beroldingen challenged male social clubs that did not comply with case for my mom, Gloria Senior. And when she lost her life-long equal rights laws and refused to serve women or admit them as mempal, Ollie Marie-Victoire, in August, our family and many others bers. On September 16, 1976, Ollie and von Beroldingen arrived at lost a role model for how to be a strong, principled woman. the males-only dining room of the Commercial Club at 465 California Mom and Ollie met in 1936 at age 13, in ballet class in Denver, Street in San Francisco and asked to be served. They were refused service, Colorado. They lived not far from one another, and both attended while 100 women demonstrated outside, and news coverage of their Catholic schools. When they became friends, their mothers – both “meal” of bread and water, while waiting vainly to be served, dramatized strong single parents – also became close, another friendship that lasted the issue. In succeeding years, courts decided against discrimination by for decades. Mom and Ollie had many stories about one another as girls private clubs, including a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states and young women; Ollie was still professed to be puzzled 75 years later could require such clubs to admit women and minorities. about why my mom would have prankishly thrown Ollie’s clothes up A prominent figure in the San Francisco legal community, Ollie in a tree on one of their walks home. administered the oath of office to Supervisor Ollie continued dancing, first with the Harvey Milk. She served as presiding judge Denver Ballet, and then briefly with the San of the Superior Court and was instrumental “Ollie was known for her Francisco Ballet, after she graduated from in the construction of the new courthouse Denver University, married and moved here profound dedication to equal building at 400 McAllister Street. in 1946 with her husband Georges MarieOllie’s softer side was evident as she perVictoire. My mom came west soon after, formed numerous marriages, with a twinkle protection under the law.” taking at job as a broadcaster with KNBC in her eye always pronouncing the newly marRadio in San Francisco, and their friendship continued. rieds “wife and husband,” and held in her lap the babies brought into Ollie went to work as a legal secretary for a San Francisco firm, the courtroom by plaintiffs and defendants. Her own marriage, to a and the partners were so impressed that they urged her to attend dashing French aviator she (and my mom) met at a USO dance in law school. She graduated with honors from Hastings, clerked for a Denver during WW II, lasted 62 years until his death a few years ago.

California Supreme Court justice, founded her own law firm, and in Ollie retired from the bench in 1994, but she continued to sit almost 1974 Governor Reagan appointed her to the San Francisco Municipal full-time as an assigned judge until her eightieth year.

Court bench. Subsequently elected three times, she was one of San An only child, Ollie was raised during the Depression in Denver, Francisco’s first female – and longest-serving – Superior Court Judges. Wyoming and New Mexico by her hard-working, strict and loving As a judge, Ollie was known for her profound dedication to equal mother, laying the groundwork for her strong sense of justice and protection under the law. Among her most notable rulings was her advocacy for women.

1975 dismissal of more than 100 charges brought by the district atStrong and decisive to the end, when she received a diagnosis of torney in San Francisco against prostitutes. She argued that the San pancreatic cancer in July at the age of 88, she decided she had had a Francisco police were prosecuting female prostitutes but not their male good life, opted against treatment, used her remaining time to visit customers, and thus applying the law unequally and discriminatorily. with family and friends, and planned her own warm, and typically Though local prosecutors had Ollie disqualified from hearing cases modest, memorial service. against female prostitutes, her position was upheld by courts in CaliA Republican, Ollie was tough on criminals, and imbued with core fornia and other states, and led to the arrest and prosecution of not conservative values of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility. And only the johns soliciting prostitution, but pimps and others involved yet she strongly advocated the equal rights of women and other groups. in the prostitution business.

Among the many inspirations I took from her is that equal rights under Ollie’s commitment to equal rights extended outside the courtroom. the law are an absolute commitment that knows no political or party In another dramatic step, she and Acting San Francisco Mayor Dorothy affiliation. That is an important message, in these times.

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O C TO BER/NO V EM BER 2012

From $5,495 per person, depending on category, based on double occupancy. Book by October 15 for lowest rates possible.

CST: 2096889-40 Photos: (top to bottom) Carlos Lopez Molina / Flickr, n/a, Visit Scotland, amcewan / Flickr, Pilgrim / Flickr

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PROGRAMS YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS October 4

Week to Week: Silicon Valley

October 10

President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood

Terry Christensen Professor Emeritus, SJSU

It’s political prime time, so join our panelists for informative and fun commentary on political and other major news, plus an in-depth look at one topic in the news, audience discussion of the week’s events, and a news quiz.

Cecile Richards, a high-profile defender of women’s rights, will be honored with INFORUM’s 21st Century Visionary Award. She has earned respect for her poised leadership amidst controversy, braving congressional budget debates and forcefully advocating for equal access to health care and women’s reproductive rights. Richards has mastered the seeming oxymoron of a gentle revolutionary, which this award recognizes, as she continues her lifelong fight to inspire women and the next generation.

for event details, see page 29

for event details, see page 30

John Zipperer VP, Media and Editorial, The Commonwealth Club – Host Additional panelists TBA

October 22

Cecile Richards

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Former Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

November 15

Ray Kurzweil Inventor; Futurist; Author, How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed

In a rare public appearance, Justice O’Connor will discuss the need for a better-informed citizenry as well as her life, career and views on the role of the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court, strongly believes that America suffers from a lack of civic education, and that is hurting Americans’ capacity to solve 21st-century challenges.

For decades pioneering inventor and theorist Kurzweil has explored how artificial intelligence can enrich and expand human capabilities. Now he takes this exploration to the next step: reverse-engineering the brain to understand how it works, then applying that knowledge to create vastly intelligent machines. Drawing on the most recent neuroscience research, Kurzweil describes his new theory and shows how these insights could enable us to vastly extend the powers of our own minds.

for event details, see page 33

for event details, see page 39