The Commonwealth February/March 2018

Commonwealth The

THE MAGAZINE OF THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB OF CALIFORNIA

FEB./MAR. 2018

DONNA BRAZILE DEFEATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE POLICING IN AMERICA STEVE FORBES BILL NYE

UPCOMING PROGRAMS Complete Guide $5.00; free for members | commonwealthclub.org

MONGOLIA WITH A COUNTRY NAADAM FESTIVAL

AUGUST 3-13, 2018 Discover Mongolia, known for its vast, rugged expanses and nomadic culture. Learn about Genghis Khan and enjoy the other-worldly sound of Mongolian throat-singing. Hear from a local paleontologist about the discovery of the first dinosaur eggs.

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Optional 5-night extension to Siberia’s Irkutsk & Lake Baikal.

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Study Leader Ambassador John Ordway is a retired Foreign Service Officer who is the U.S. Commissioner for the New START Treaty’s Bilateral Consultative Commission. He served as Ambassador to Kazakhstan and to Armenia. He was Director of African Affairs at the NSC during the George H.W. Bush administration, as well as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 19992001. Following retirement from the Foreign Service in 2008, he served in the U.S. embassies of Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic & Kazakhstan. Ambassador Ordway graduated from Stanford University and the University of California’s Hastings College of Law before entering the Foreign Service in 1975.

March 22 at noon Jack Weatherford,

Author of “Genghis Khan and the Quest for God.” (See website for details.) ©Helge Pedersen

Detailed brochure available at commonwealthclub.org/travel | 415.597.6720 | travel@commonwealthclub.org CST# 2096889-40

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 4

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Spend more time at the Club

A panel considers whether more public input—and more body cameras—will improve policing

EDITOR’S DESK

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THE COMMONS

Remembering Mayor Lee, plus announcing our new drinks service

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DONNA BRAZILE: INSIDE A HACKED ELECTION

The former interim head of the Democratic National Committee defends her explosive revelations about candidate influence and Russian hacking

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BILL NYE: IN DEFENSE OF SCIENCE

Science educator Bill Nye and filmmaker Jason Sussberg talk science and science denial

POLICING IN AMERICA

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STEVE FORBES: GET THE ECONOMY MOVING

The conservative media mogul describes what Washington should do with tax policy to get the economy moving faster

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DEFEATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

A panel discussion on improving methods for helping people involved in domestic violence

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INSIGHT

Dr. Gloria C. Duffy President and CEO

Programs Program Information 31 Two-month Calendar 32 Program Listings 34 Late-breaking Events 497

February/March 2018 Volume 112, No. 2

On the Cover

Former DNC head Donna Brazile Photo by Rikki Ward

On this Page Bill Nye

Photo by Ed Ritger

We want to work the problem from both ends. We want to have less of a bad effect on the environment, but we also want to innovate so that we can provide clean water, electricity and Internet to everyone. We’ve got to work it both ways.

BILL NYE

FOLLOW US ONLINE facebook.com/thecommonwealthclub

EDITOR’S DESK

@cwclub youtube.com/commonwealthclub commonwealthclub.org

BUSINESS OFFICES

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VP, MEDIA & EDITORIAL

John Zipperer

DESIGNER

James Meinerth

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Megan Turner

PHOTOGRAPHERS

James Meinerth Rikki Ward Ed Ritger

ADVERTISING INFORMATION

John Zipperer, Vice President of Media & Editorial, (415) 597-6715 jzipperer@commonwealthclub.org The Commonwealth (ISSN 0010-3349) is published bimonthly (6 times a year) by The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. 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, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: (415) 597-6700 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/watch-listen, podcasts on Google Play and Apple iTunes, or contact Club offices to buy a compact disc.

Printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink.

Copyright © 2018 The Commonwealth Club of California.

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Photo: James Meinerth

Spend Time at the Club

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ccasionally we get the question, “Why are you called The Commonwealth Club? What makes you a club?”

It’s a fair question. We don’t have a secret handshake, and we don’t meet in a tree house in our backyard. And most clubs are exclusionary; The Commonwealth Club is open.

But we are definitely a club, legally and in spirit and practice. We’re not one of those for-profit speaker series found here and there; we are a nonprofit organization that holds 450 programs a year for the purpose of serving the community with information, education and entertainment. The Club’s bylaws specify a membership organization; many of you were at our December program where you voted on new members of the Club’s Board of Governors. As for the spirit and practice, we’ve now got the beautiful waterfront home to make your Club membership really satisfy.

Come to your new Club headquarters at 110 The Embarcadero. During most business hours (10 a.m.–5 p.m. most days), Club members can make themselves at home at our headquarters. We have hundreds of public and private events each year in this much sought-after space, but when it’s not otherwise in use, please make it your home away from home. It’s a great place to sit in our second-floor Hormel-Nguyen Lounge: eat your lunch or read a newspaper or check your social media feeds while looking at the amazing views outdoors. Heck, take a selfie

against the beautiful backdrop of the Bay Bridge. Go relax on our Kaiser Permanente Rooftop Terrace, a place where I have been many, many times since the Club moved into its new home. I always hear visitors remark on the fantastic views—in one direction there’s the expansive bay view and the bridge, in another direction there’s the Ferry Building, and in another it’s the stunning cityscape of skyscrapers.

You can find up-to-date information about availability at commonwealthclub.org/ frequently-asked-questions.

The Club’s new home at 110 The Embarcadero has already been the scene of dozens of programs—many of them sold out—as well as private meetings, holiday parties, small business meetings, a wedding, musical performances and a film festival. Come out and see why this building has become a magnet for people who want to enjoy the cultural hotspot on San Francisco’s waterfront. keep in touch: Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter (@cwclub), YouTube (youtube.com/ commonwealthclub), Facebook (facebook.com/ thecommonwealthclub), and get thousands of past audio and video programs, upcoming listings, membership and rental information, read the digital Commonwealth magazine (issuu.com/thecommonwealth), and more at commonwealthclub.org.

JOHN Z I P P E R E R VP, ME DIA & ED I T O RI AL

TALK OF THE CLUB Mayor Ed Lee addresses The Commonwealth Club of California.

Remembering Ed Lee

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n December, San Francisco received a jolt when 65-year-old Mayor Ed Lee passed away unexpectedly, dying of a heart attack while shopping near his San Francisco home.

Following reports of his passing, Commonwealth Club President and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy recalled the late mayor’s accomplishments and his support for the Club. “Ever since his first campaign, when he appeared at a Club forum with the other mayoral candidates, Mayor Lee has been an active participant in the Club’s mission to stimulate public debate and dialogue. Believing that such transparency was one of the obligations of his office, he returned during his tenure to speak and answer questions about important issues in San Francisco,” Duffy wrote in a public statement.

“Mayor Lee steadily supported the Club’s efforts to build our new home on The Embarcadero, keynoting both the groundbreaking for the Club’s new headquarters in 2014 and the celebratory opening of the building this past September 12th,” Duffy added. “The Club’s permanent home for ideas and dialogue in San Francisco is one of Mayor Lee’s legacy projects. Throughout his tenure, Mayor Lee represented public service at its finest. He concentrated on the responsibilities of his office and making good public policy, with a minimum of focus on himself. He worked for equity and justice, as well as strengthening San Francisco’s economy and technology leadership. Mayor Lee’s quiet but effective leadership will be missed.

The Club extends its deep condolences to his wife Anita and daughters Brianna and Tania.”

Attorney Richard Rubin, chair of the Club’s Board of Governors, recalled that he and his wife enjoyed a long and warm friendship with Lee, traveling to China with him twice: “He was a good conversationalist who nevertheless listened more than he spoke. He was not one to brag about his accomplishments—and there were many during his two administrations. One in particular which drew less notice but is part of his legacy was an ability to calm the tensions between a city that has grown into a technological colossus and the challenges to working people, the jobless and many of lesser means who feel left out of the economic boom.

Photo: Ed Ritger

“The son of Chinese immigrants who never forgot his humble family heritage, he launched his career as a tenants’ rights attorney and was the city’s most committed housing advocate until his premature death at 65. He did not solve the homeless problem, but he never gave up working at it,” Rubin said. “Mayor Lee tackled a tough job with no ready solutions and he will be missed by a city that can be grateful for his contributions and those of us who came to know him.”

Club Board member Mark Zitter, chairman of Zitter Health Insights, had met the mayor “mostly in passing” at various SFJAZZ and Commonwealth Club events. But he shared one interaction that gives good insight into the mayor’s character. “It was at a 2012 fundraiser for Barack Obama’s reelection at a downtown San Francisco hotel,” Zitter remembered. “I was sitting at a table with about nine others, all of whom had made an extra contribution to have their photo taken with Obama; I was too cheap for that. They left for the photo shoot in the next room. Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein, and many other bigwigs were on hand, but all the other tables were full, so Mayor Lee sat down next to me. He was there to introduce the president, but that part of the program was greatly delayed—due to all those photos being taken in the next room. The mayor and the cheapskate chatted for 30-40 minutes, and finally Ed’s aide walked up and said, ‘Mr. Mayor, I’m sorry that you’ve had to waste all this time.’ Then he looked at me, thought about what he had just said, and muttered, ‘No offense.’ Mayor Lee apologized, but I thought it was hilarious.”

Edwin Lee had served as San Francisco’s city administrator from 2005 to 2011, when the Board of Supervisors made him mayor in the wake of Gavin Newsom’s election as lieutenant governor. Lee subsequently won two elections to the office. He was succeeded in office by Board of Supervisors President London Breed as acting mayor.

Enjoy the Club’s New Drinks Service

The Club is in full swing for 2018 at 110 The Embarcadero, hosting programs most noontimes and evenings. Drinks service, including the new Club label Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and a signature FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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LEADERSHIP OF THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB CLUB OFFICERS Board Chair Richard A. Rubin Vice Chair Evelyn S. Dilsaver Secretary Dr. Jaleh Daie Treasurer John R. Farmer President & CEO Dr. Gloria C. Duffy

BOARD OF GOVERNORS John F. Allen Carlo Almendral Courtland Alves Dan Ashley Massey J. Bambara Dr. Mary G. F. Bitterman** Harry E. Blount John L. Boland Michael R. Bracco

Maryles Casto** Mary B. Cranston** Susie Cranston Dr. Kerry P. Curtis Dorian Daley Alecia DeCoudreaux Lee Dutra Joseph I. Epstein* Jeffrey A. Farber Rev. Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J. Dr. Carol A. Fleming Kirsten Garen Leslie Saul Garvin John Geschke Paul M. Ginsburg Hon. James C. Hormel Mary Huss Julie Kane John Leckrone Dr. Mary Marcy Frank C. Meerkamp Lenny Mendonca

Anna W.M. Mok Bruce Raabe Skip Rhodes (Past Board President) Bill Ring Martha Ryan George M. Scalise Lata Krishnan Shah Dr. Ruth A. Shapiro Charlotte Mailliard Shultz George D. Smith, Jr. James Strother Hon. Tad Taube Ellen O’Kane Tauscher Charles Travers Don Wen Dr. Colleen B. Wilcox Jed York Mark Zitter ADVISORY BOARD Karin Helene Bauer

Hon. William Bradley Dennise M. Carter Steven Falk Amy Gershoni Jacquelyn Hadley Heather Kitchen Amy McCombs Don J. McGrath Hon. William J. Perry Hon. Barbara Pivnicka Hon. Richard Pivnicka Ray Taliaferro Nancy Thompson

PAST BOARD CHAIRS AND PRESIDENTS Dr. Mary G. F. Bitterman ** Hon. Shirley Temple Black*† J. Dennis Bonney* John Busterud* Maryles Casto** Hon. Ming Chin* Mary B. Cranston**

Joseph I. Epstein * Dr. Joseph R. Fink * William German * Rose Guilbault** Claude B. Hutchison Jr. * Dr. Julius Krevans* Anna W.M. Mok** Richard Otter* Joseph Perrelli* Toni Rembe* Victor J. Revenko* Skip Rhodes* Renée Rubin * Robert Saldich** Connie Shapiro * Nelson Weller * Judith Wilbur * Dennis Wu* * Past President ** Past Chair † Deceased

TALK OF THE CLUB

cocktail “The Agora,” in honor of the Club’s early name, began in early January. Sparkling water and sodas, as well as light snacks, are also available. Drinks service is available before, during and after many evening programs.

Additional Services for Members

Our new headquarters at 110 The Embarcadero is not only for your use during programs, it’s your club at other times, too. Club members have access to the facilities thoughout the week. (Subject to closures for private events.)

General Members may use the first floor Irvine Foundation Library and second floor Hormel-Nguyen Lounge, as well as the first floor Osher Lobby, during our daily member open hours: 10 a.m. to 5

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p.m. Monday to Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays Open hours will expand as the year progresses. For information about private event closures, please check the recording at 415-5976708, check the Club’s website (commonwealthclub.org/visit/privateevents), inquire at the Front Desk or check the weekly schedule posted at the front desk.

Leadership Circle Members have additional access to the private Taube Philanthropies Donor Lounge on the third floor overlooking the Bay, which has seating, a small meeting space and a digital screen. Please contact Leadership Circle concierge Anna Bryan to reserve the Taube Lounge (abryan@commonwealthclub.org or 415-597-6734). Lacking reservations, the Taube Room may be used by Leadership Circle members on an availability basis. Inquire at the Front Desk when you arrive about whether the room is free.

Otherwise, Leadership Circle Members are of course free to use the Library, Member Lounge and Lobby.

All rooms at the Club are equipped with free Wi-Fi for members, as well as charging stations for electronic devices.

Also remember to visit the Farmer Gallery on the first floor, which shows artwork by Northern California artists. The first exhibit, showing the woodcuts of Tom Killion, has just ended and an exhibit featuring the work of printmaker Carrie Ann Plank began on January 8 and runs through February 26. Learn more at commonwealthclub. org/exhibits.

DONNA BRAZILE

Former Chair, Democratic National Committee; Author, Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House In conversation with

AUDREY COOPER

Editor in Chief, San Francisco Chronicle

Photos by Rikki Ward

The former party leader talks candidates and politics of the epic 2016 campaign.

From the November 9, 2 017 p r o g r a m “ D o n n a Brazile: The Hacking of an American Election.”

AUDREY COOPER: Donna is speaking about her time in the DNC [Democratic National Committee] in her new book. Now, you’ve probably already heard some of the tidbits about the book, including— DONNA BRAZILE: Tidbits?

COOPER: Tidbits—some of them are chapters long—such as how she considered replacing Hillary Clinton [with another] candidate after she fainted at the 9/11 Memorial. Also, revelations about how the Clinton campaign was essentially using the DNC as a puppet organization even before the convention.

Donna, as I told you backstage, I really find it the most fascinating book I’ve read so far about this election. And of course, it’s also been widely criticized by your former colleagues on the Left, even while it’s been celebrated by some people who were Bernie Sanders supporters and [are] still upset about how that happened. It’s even earned you a few tweets of praise from the president. Strange bedfellows.

BRAZILE: And you know, I tweeted back, “Mr. President, go back to attacking me, please.”

COOPER: It’s more comfortable.

BRAZILE: It’s much better to be attacked than loved by President Trump.

COOPER: I read a political consultant today, however, who called it the

equivalent of a political suicide note. So I’m wondering—you’ve spent most of your life working on behalf of the party and Democratic causes. You had to have known this book would be as controversial as it was.

For somebody who’s been trying to unify a party for so long, what was the win you saw in opening some of these healing wounds?

BRAZILE: Well, the reaction itself should tell you why this book is important to read.

For those of you who, perhaps, haven’t had a chance to read it but only have gleaned some of the excerpts or some of the 140 or 280 characters from Twitter, let me just tell you, I took time to think about what this would mean, not just for my party, but also for my country.

Last week, when I received notice that Politico would publish an excerpt, I went over to Robby Mook’s office at Harvard. I’m at Harvard also. I’ll tell you one little quick story. Every time the winner of the electoral college loses the popular vote, I go to Harvard. [This was] my second trip at Harvard, after the Gore campaign—now Clinton. So, I went over to say hello to Robby and say, “Robby, my book is coming out.” I said, “You know what I wrote about.” Throughout the entire time, we reached out to my colleagues.

They knew I was writing a book. They knew exactly what I wanted to write about. And Robby did this—dismissed me.

That was the same attitude that I had throughout the time when I served as chair.

So I went to Robby; Karen Finney, who was the deputy communications director; I emailed other people in the Clinton campaign. I did my due diligence. And by the way, I didn’t have to. I wasn’t paid to be chair of the Democratic National Committee. I served as chair twice in my life. I did it because I love Hillary. I did it because I love my country. I did it because the DNC was hacked.

When you think of hacking—I know many of you probably think, “Oh, this is just somebody walking into your house and taking a few items and just leaving everything else.” No, this is a burglary. This is a crime.

Somebody walked into the house and not only took the precious jewels, all of the electronics, but they also got a chance to turn on the gas, to remove items and to discard most of the other material.

I became chair because the DNC was a victim of a

crime. It was a cyber-espionage crime. And while many of you probably read all of the emails, what you didn’t know was that they corrupted our data. What you didn’t know is that they got into our voter files. So for a campaign to rely on data and analytics at a time when the Russians were essentially using active measures to disrupt our campaign and to discredit our nominee, let me just tell you—this story [is] a warning to all Americans that we have to protect our democracy. We have to ensure that we never ever experience an election where there is a foreign government—a hostile foreign government—sowing weapons of what I call “weapons of mass disinformation” into our electorate. I experienced it; my colleagues did.

There was not one night that we could sit in the DNC headquarters without fearing for our lives and our safety. Most of the time, I did not tell the staff. Most of the time, I just reported it to those who needed to know because I was under disclosure from the FBI. That’s the one last thing I have to tell you.

People say, “Well, why did Donna write it now?” My disclosure did not end until October 17. And a week later, Robert Mueller is handing down indictments. Now, hey!

I’m going to say one last thing, Audrey, and then you get as tough as Andrea Mitchell and all the other sisters and brothers I’ve dealt with this week. I have always stirred the pots.

Ladies and gentlemen, we would not have a diverse and inclusive Democratic Party had it not been for people like me who did not disturb the pots. Look, I could have gone on and on and on and on. I had some chapters that we left on the floor.

The Russians are coming back. If not the Russians, who knows? I’ve been hacked by the Chinese and the Russians. All I know is that if the North Koreans come, they’re not coming after our election system, our voting machines, or our little data—or Donnie [Fowler’s] emails. They’re coming after our power grids. They are coming after our airport towers. They are coming after our defense systems.

So this book is a warning about what we should be doing to prepare for the future.

COOPER: In the book, you describe coming into a DNC that is pretty severely mismanaged, especially financially, and a campaign that’s really under the thumb of the Hillary Clinton campaign because of a fundraising agreement they [the DNC] signed. So it’s

been said that is evidence that the election was rigged—that the primary was rigged against Bernie Sanders. Can you explain, first of all, why this is important to your average voter? And more important, [for] voters who actually go to the ballot box and click on their favorite candidate, how did it affect them?

BRAZILE: That’s a great question. I write in the book that I wanted to—when I became chair, I promised Bernie, as well as Hillary, that I would find out what, if anything, occurred. Remember, there was a big dump of emails; Guccifer 2.0. They had our emails.

They were in our system from July 2015 until it reached the top. Now, let’s talk about that.

I’m going to talk about mismanagement, and I’m going make it really quick. Mismanagement is when someone is in your house robbing you, and no one has informed the homeowner. And the homeowner’s in the house. And they are robbing you. But they are telling the Geek Squad; the Geek Squad knows that somebody’s in your house, but they don’t tell the management. So by the time that management was informed that the Russians, “Cozy Bear” and then “Fancy Bear”—these are [also known as] APT28 and APT29—by the time it reached to management, Audrey, it was too late. They had been in our system for almost a year, and they had stolen most of our data. They began to leak selective emails—not all emails—[of ] over 150 staffers.

So the first mismanagement, in my judgment—as an officer, I was not informed

until May that something was happening.

You know how I learned? I was at a Beyoncé concert. [Laughter.] And I’m trying to take a picture, and I’m like, “What’s wrong with my phone?” And I noticed two of my colleagues that I mentioned in the book, Julie Greene and Patrice Taylor, they were also there. I found out from them that their computers had been taken. But I also had a DNC account.

So, the chair of the party was not informed until April 29. And on June 14, when they went public, they informed the officers, “Oh, by the way, we’ve been hacked.” Well, hell!

June 14. Because she wanted to tell us before she told The Washington Post.

COOPER: Because they were about ready to do a story on it.

BRAZILE: Yeah. That’s how we learned.

That’s how Americans learned.

So part of what I’ve confronted as the chair of the party—because [when I was] vice chair, I [didn’t] have fiduciary responsibility of the day-to-day operation. I [didn’t] run the day-to-day staff, although I had two staff members—part of my responsibility when I walked into that building [as chair] was to find out what happened and to go back and report. Was it [the primary] rigged? No, I found no evidence that the primary was rigged. But what I found evidence of, which made me very upset, [was] that in addition to the standard joint fundraising agreement, there was also an addendum—a memorandum of understanding—that in exchange

for helping the DNC pay off its debts, the Clinton campaign would run certain parts of the DNC. And my reaction to that was, “Oh hell, no.” You don’t do that. You don’t run any aspect of the DNC until you become the nominee.

Now, I give Secretary Clinton and her campaign a lot of praise, because the DNC was at a point in September 2015 where it could not meet payroll. But I was worried that this would give the impression that the DNC was in the tank for one candidate. And that, in my judgment, was immoral. That was wrong.

And that’s why I confronted it. [Applause.]

I learned something else when I had to confront it. I learned that the chair of the party did not have day-to-day control over what was being spent. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to tell you something. If I raise two dollars, I want to at least spend $1.90 of it. I’ll put 10 cents aside.

When Donald Trump on August 19 said, “What the hell do you have to lose?” He was in a black church, in a black community. I’m like, “Oh hell, no. We got a lot to lose.” We’ve got Obamacare; we’ve got climate change; we have gay rights; we have civil rights. It’s already getting a little purple. [Laughter.]

And I’m like, “I’ll give it back to him.” I was ready to get some radio ads. I was going to use Obama or somebody to respond. And I was told, “Madam Chair, no. We’re not running ads right now.” And that’s when I realized that this agreement [with the Hillary Clinton campaign] forced me, as chair, to FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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be on the sidelines. I could not do my job as chair. And yet, when I told Bernie [Sanders] it was cancer—I said it’s cancer because I cannot do my job as chair, but I’m not going to destroy the patient; I was not going to be accused of hurting the campaign, hurting Hillary Clinton, who I supported and loved, and I was not going to be accused of hurting the DNC and all of the other down-ballot races.

So, I put my head down. People in this room know, we started raising our own money. Because they forced us to raise our own money. Forcing a black woman who’s been in the Democratic Party since the age of nine to raise her own money to respond to DT [Donald Trump], that really unnerved me.

COOPER: The problems you describe when you started as interim chair are certainly— Russia, the hack, is a major part of it; the financial problems are a major part of it. You portray the party as being this place where largesse was entertained because there were personal benefits for it. Do you think that donors should be concerned to donate to the party in the future?

BRAZILE: Well, no, because we’ve cleaned it up. But some of the feathers that are being ruffled this week—you all know I’m having fun [with] some of the things they’re saying about me. I’ve never been a corporate lobbyist. I’ve never received 25, 30, 40, $50,000 from the DNC as a consultant. I mean, the last time I got paid—I was thinking the other day—when was the last time I got paid? I just got reimbursed from the DNC recently after thirtysomething years. It was a good check, by the way.

But there were contracts—I was asking people to come on board for free or to come on board for reduced salaries, and there were people making $25,000 a month. These are Democrats. I’m a Democrat. I am becoming chair of the party, and I’m not making a penny. I have people in this room who can attest to the fact that my travel—I had already figured out how to get around the country without charging the DNC a dime.

So I was upset that they still insisted on making $25,000 a month or $15,000 a month. Yes, I know some of my friends from the Obamaland said, “Why’d you say that about Obama?” Well, the president was also getting—he was doing polling and focus groups. I said, “But your pollster is Hillary’s pollster; so you’re paying him double.” I just

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tried to expose everything.

I used to get on the phone with the lawyers.

I should have got on the phone with them more. I’m like, “Why are we giving you $40,000 a month? What are you doing?”

You—grassroots America—you’re sending me $5–10. I am responsible for you. I want to tell you how I’m spending your money. I went to every meeting telling people how I’m spending your money, but I could not control your money. The chair of the party could not control your money. I felt a responsibility to tell them that.

COOPER: We have a president now who seems to lack a consistent political ideology.

The parties are, of course, built on some semblance of consistent political ideology. I’m wondering how you think about it—especially given the rifts between the Bernie wing and the Hillary Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. What makes parties relevant nowadays?

You can donate to any PAC [political action committee]. You can be super-nuanced on the issues that you’re interested in. Why is the DNC even relevant, moving forward?

BRAZILE: Well, because we saw [this] on Tuesday night [the Democratic victories in the November election]. [Applause.] We saw how relevant an energetic, grassroots— that was, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, that was a

bottom-up grassroots momentum. It was not top-down. For too long in our system of politics, we’ve had these two big political parties, and they’re becoming less and less relevant. I totally agree with you. But I also believe [for] our democracy to be vibrant and strong, we need to strengthen our political parties. They [political parties] have become ATMs now for special interests, and I am bothered by that.

And I’m bothered by the fact that we raised close to $1 billion, and we only spread it among a handful of states. So in states like my beloved home state of Louisiana—my state, we don’t get money. We don’t get money for organizing; we don’t get money for voter registration campaigns; we don’t get money to hire strategists; we don’t get resources. This past year, we saw four congressional races in Georgia, South Carolina, Kansas and Montana. And Democrats did very well, but when is the last time the Democratic Party put money in those states? I can tell you when.

When Howard Dean was chair. Howard Dean had a 50-state strategy. One of the reasons why I wanted to hire Tom McMahon [former executive director of the DNC] was to ensure that the Democratic Party can go back to a 50-state strategy. We have to become relevant. We have to run candidates at every level.

And I’ll tell you one other reason why we need political parties: The other day in Virginia—the reason why the Democrats did so well is, for the first time in

almost a decade, we ran candidates.

I’m a Democrat, ladies and gentlemen, so if a Republican is in the room or an Independent, here I go. We have ceded too much ground to the Republicans in the South, and we don’t run candidates. We don’t fund those candidates. Those candidates won this week because we funded them, because we gave money to down-ballot races, which helped people at the top. We have to strengthen our political parties; otherwise, they’re going to disappear.

COOPER: One of the criticisms that we’re hearing a lot of now about the party and Democrats in general is that they are very bad about giving up the reins to the next generation. You’ve already pointed out a few of your kids, as you call them, in the room.

You talk a lot about the millennials and what’s good about them and what’s bad about them in a campaign. Here in California, we are looking at our local congresswoman Nancy Pelosi—a lot of questions about whether she should continue to serve as [the Democratic] leader. [Senator] Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) might have a race—a real race—for the first time in a long time. How important is it that

the Democrats start to give up some ground to the next generation, even if it’s [to] a super liberal, Bernie Sanders-type part of the party?

BRAZILE: It is the most important challenge facing the Democratic Party. We need to make room for others in the party. The bench is shrinking. If we don’t begin to expand the number of people who are able to sit at the table—and here’s what I tell people: I [don’t] want the Dianne Feinsteins and the Nancy Pelosis of the world to leave the room; I want them to just scoot over. [Applause.]

Make room.

On the Republican side, I’m telling you, they start training people after their first campaign. And Donnie [Fowler] and Annie [Friedman] and everybody in this room who’s ever worked on the Democratic Party—after every election, every two years, we discard our young people. We discard them. And then two years later, we say, “Oh, come on back in.” [Republican political consultant] Karl Rove used to keep those kids, on his side of the aisle, working. He kept them involved, whether through think tanks, or he put them in down-ballot races. On the Democratic side, we say, “goodbye.” We don’t say, “Go

back to Texas,” or “Go back to Louisiana, or come back here.” We say, “goodbye.”

Then two years later, we wait for some super person to present him or herself and [then we] say, “Oh, now we need fresh blood.”

Well, that blood needs to stay in the room.

COOPER: I have to say, I thought I had trolls. But girl, you have trolls.

BRAZILE: I got bots too.

COOPER: Bots, trolls. We are at this point where civil civic discourse seems very difficult to come by. Even yesterday, you took a picture with Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, who is the darling of the far Right; I think you would probably disagree with most of what he thinks. You were pretty well filleted by the Left for even posing for a picture with him.

BRAZILE: They acted as if the man and I were sleeping together [laughter]—that we were going and sharing a hot dog.

In the hotel lobby, Sheriff Clarke was there. ... He took a picture with me. He posted it [on Twitter]. So I said, “Okay.” It’s all good.

But let me just tell you this—I have relationships; I love to have relationships on the Left as well as the Right. And I’ll tell you why: I’ve been involved in politics since the age of FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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nine. I want to know who’s working on the other side of the fence.

COOPER: But you can surely understand why people—we have white supremacists coming out of the closet now.

BRAZILE: I grew up with a bunch of white supremacists. [Laughter.] I grew up in Louisiana. I grew up when there was something called the neutral ground. You couldn’t go over on the other side because white folks would kill you—and let me tell you something about white people. Can I tell you all about yourselves? I stood up for you all this year. I said, “These white people who are coming after me—these are not American white people. They stop at the N-word.” But these were calling me [the N-word]; the monkey, and then I got called the B-word and the C-word. I’m like—now, white people don’t put those kinds of combinations together.

No, no, no. I knew it was trolls. But it’s okay, you all, because my mama also taught me, “It’s not what they call you; it’s what you answer to.” [Applause.] So I ignore it. I’m speaking my truth.

COOPER: But given all these trolls and bots, how do you think about the role of social media now in politics? We have a president who, whether you like it or not, is a master of it. But yet, you’ve also been the victim of the horrible side of it. What role do you see for social media in organizing?

BRAZILE: In the middle of our struggle, we were told not to talk about it. We were

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being attacked. Our data was being compromised. We didn’t know what the Russians had—wherever they threw all of the data.

And what worried us is that they could be compromising election day activities.

We knew at the time that social media was playing this weird game—and those of you who follow Black Lives Matter or Black Twitter [have seen some of this]. One day my niece called me and said, “Auntie Donna, we’re shutting down I-12” [an interstate in Louisiana]. I said, “You’re shutting down what?” We never shut down I-12. I mean, the Civil Rights Movement was not about shutting down I-12. She lives in Baton Rouge, and you all know what happened in Baton Rouge with the unarmed black man who was murdered by a policeman. And so, I said, “Don’t you dare bring your — to I-12 and shut down anything.”

Then I went on Twitter, and I started looking at these black activists. I said, “Where in the hell are these people coming from? I’d never seen them before.” They were antagonizing these young people to go out there and do things that I know if [Representatives] John Lewis (D-GA) or Maxine Waters (DCA) or Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) or [former Mayor of San Francisco] Willie Brown—the tactics that they used in the ’60s and the ’70s. These [Black Lives Matters and Black Twitter] activists were doing things that I said, “Oh, my God.” They are doing some confrontational things that we were not taught to do; we were not trained to do. That’s

what made me recognize that something was going on on Twitter.

Here’s my best day: On October 7, 2016, I thought Donald Trump was going to lose the election. Around 3:30, we got a DNI [Director of National Intelligence] report that confirmed that the Russians did, indeed, hack the DNC. “Thank you, Jesus”—that’s how I felt. And then, around 4:30, we had the Access Hollywood [Billy Bush and Donald Trump] tape. And then around 5:30, here come [the release of emails by former Clinton campaign chairman] John Podesta.

What do you think got picked up on social media? Podesta. [There were] 2 million hits on social media for the DNI assessment, about 5 million hits on the [obscenity]-grabbing tape. And on John Podesta’s emails—33 million [hits]. It’s just like when the Comey letter came out—[there were] 28 million [hits]. So, this was being pushed aggressively.

What WikiLeaks did, ladies and gentlemen, along with Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks—I had seven, eight, nine [email] accounts—they didn’t just pour out my accounts from one email address; they poured out my information from my DNC address.

And yet, when it was hacked, we were told we could not go and check and see what was on those leaked emails, because they were filled with malware and phishing and spyware. You cannot go out to Best Buy or Staples to get that stuff cleaned out of your system. This is some super-duper hacking.

Photos by Ed Ritger

Bill Nye

FIGHTING FOR SCIENCE BILL NYE

Television Host; Science Educator

JASON SUSSBERG

Filmmaker, Bill Nye: Science Guy

GREG DALTON

Founder and Host, Climate One

Bill Nye sits down for a t a lk w i t h C lim a te O n e and Jason Sussberg, the f i l m m a ke r b e h i n d t h e new documentar y Bill N ye: Science Gu y. From the November 6 , 2017, program in San Francisco, “Bill Nye: The Science Guy.” GREG DALTON: One of the most dramatic moments in the film is when you go to Greenland and you go into the scary looking tube/cave/tunnel down into the ice. Tell us what you learned there and why it matters to people who will never go to Greenland.

BILL NYE: What I learned [is] that it’s all real. For years, I have used the ice cores in my public talks. And by use, I mean I did visit—years ago—the Ice Core Lab in Golden, Colorado. It’s a suburb of Denver. [It’s] where we keep the ice from all over the world.

But in Greenland, we got to participate and carry pieces of ice around and label the plastic bags and stuff. I’m a mechanical engineer because I like this kind of thing. [There’s] this very cool, hollow drill bit [with which] you pull up .7-cm pieces of ice, and you can see the layers of snow just like tree rings. As the snowflakes fall, they capture bubbles of air between the tines of the snowflakes, and they get compressed, and the air is trapped in the ice indefinitely. You pull it up, and you can tell the ancient atmosphere. And I used to tell the story in my college talks, but then when you’re actually there, and you actually get to see it and hold it—it’s really cool. In fact, it’s really cold—freaking cold.

DALTON: So, when people say, “We’re not sure what the climate was like ... ” NYE: “Yes we are!”—is the response. Yes, we are.

DALTON: There’s something of an anti-science movement in this country. You talk about that in the film. Why has that [anti-science] movement—that effort—been so effective in this country?

NYE: My understanding is the fossil fuel industry has been very successful at introducing the idea that plus or minus 2 percent is somehow the same as plus or minus 100 percent—that scientific uncertainty is the same as doubt about the whole thing, and

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that’s not accurate—but it is, I think, writ large the fossil fuel industry [propelling this movement].

DALTON: Jason Sussberg, there’s some really interesting characters in this film. Tell us about Joe Bastardi, who is straight from central casting.

JASON SUSSBERG: Yeah. Joe is a trained meteorologist. He has his degree from Penn State University. [Bastardi] is a serious meteorologist. He works for an organization called WeatherBell. He’s actually a very good long-range forecaster. He is serious at what he does. However—and Bill can attest to this— he just doesn’t see the link between CO2 and our [changing] climate. It’s a little mysterious.

I don’t know what his motivations are. We met him, but it’s still unclear why he comes to the conclusion that he comes [to].

DALTON: Bill Nye, you spent some time with him. You go to his home. You have a glass of wine. You hope that you might be able to bring him around. Did you make any progress?

NYE: Yes, so—maybe. Here’s what I say, if you meet people—I’m a longtime skeptic, you know. I belong to both skeptic organizations, and when someone is first exposed to the idea that astrology may not be true, that there really aren’t ghosts, that nobody has psychic powers that enable them to predict with whom you’ll fall in love or so on—it takes somebody about two years to come around to that [idea]. The first time you’re exposed to the idea that astrology was made up 2,000 years ago, was just sort of [a] shot in the dark, and the constellations have shifted, the sun rises in a different place now than it did 2,000 years ago—it takes somebody a couple of years to change their mind.

So I look at this as chipping away. But part of the odd nature of the Bastardi family is they invited us, I thought, to dinner at 6:30 p.m., but there was no food; there were no Doritos chips. There was nothing. And I’m not joking you, it was— SUSSBERG: He’s trying to throw you off your game. They were just going [to] keep you kind of, you know, hungry— NYE: Yeah, so it was weird. It was a weird— the whole interaction was weird. But you watch the film and decide for yourself. But I think he equates the idea that .03 percent carbon dioxide, now .0403 percent carbon dioxide—that’s the same number as 403 parts per million—that because that fraction

is small, then its effect must be small. He somehow went to meteorology school at a venerable university and didn’t understand, or [it] didn’t become clear to him, the greenhouse effect—greenhouse gases. You know, without this tiny fraction of carbon dioxide, there’d be no green plants; there’d be no us.

I mean for crying out loud, Joe. DALTON: By the way, he is not alone.

There’s a lot of meteorologists who also have been very difficult to get on board with climate science.

Jason Sussberg—also, there’s Garrett Bastardi, who’s a very interesting character in this film. Tell us about him, because he seems really conflicted, and you’re the Garrett whisperer.

SUSSBERG: Garrett is Joe’s son. He’s also a student at Penn State, his father’s alma mater.

In the film, there’s this tension between his dad’s position that the Earth is not changing and humans are not controlling it. And then there’s his childhood hero, Bill, and there’s the mainstream science perspective. So Garrett is on this razor’s edge, and he could tilt either way. He could follow his father, or he could listen to mainstream science. We left the film in an ambiguous way. We still to this day don’t know what Garrett’s position is, though he’s basically following in his father’s footsteps for now. We’ll see what happens with him.

DALTON: One of the points made in the film is changing the narrative—and, as you know, the tobacco companies in the ’50s said, “We’re not sure.” They doubted science, famously said, “doubt is our product.” That was then picked up by the oil companies, and lately it’s kind of the NFL saying, “We’re not so sure” [about concussions from playing football]. What do you see is the thread between those narratives and the importance of changing that denial narrative?

NYE: Well, the word “thread” is good because the fossil fuel industry hired the same guys from the cigarette days—the very same people.

Anyway, the thread is that denial or doubt is their friend. I think what’s going to happen as people come of age—and my claim is that climate deniers are almost universally older—that is to say, baby boomers and up.

And when those guys and gals “age out”—can I use that term? [laughter]—then scientifically literate people will emerge and get to work on climate change very quickly. I mean, really fast. I think the pendulum will swing back

really fast.

But the question that I think about continually, every hour of every day, is it going happen in time? Where will the curves cross?

Will the deniers get aged out fast enough for the climate change embracers to emerge?

DALTON: Let’s talk about solutions. There’s a lot of debate. People think [climate change] is so big. What can I do that matters? Individual action. Does individual action matter, or is it like writing a check to the federal government to pay down the national debt?

NYE: My claim is if everybody were talking about climate change, if we were talking about climate change the way we talk about what happened in Charlottesville or what happened in Texas, people would be doing something about it, if we were talking about it every day. Yes, recycle your water bottle.

Don’t squander water bottles. Don’t squander water. Don’t leave the lights on. Don’t take unnecessary car trips that you don’t need to take. Yes, yes, yes. Put in double-pane, triple-pane windows. Yes, yes, yes.

But if we were talking about it the way we talk about these other issues, we’d be getting it done. And the evidence for this I present to you comes from my parents—and they’re mentioned in the film. During World War II, everybody was talking about World War II. That’s all they were talking about. The music,

the food—everything was about winning the war. If we had that same idea about climate change—or from my own lifetime, the Apollo program—we would be getting it done.

DALTON: But that greatest generation believed in that collective sacrifice in a way that [isn’t usual now]. Jason Sussberg, the millennial generation that you’re part of—they grew up on Bill Nye. One of the critiques of that generation is that they want all their convenience. They want food delivered to them. They don’t do sacrifice. They think that clicking on an icon on Facebook—that that’s activism. So tackle that in terms of this.

SUSSBERG: Okay, I’m going to be the voice of my generation?

DALTON: There you are. Yes. Everybody.

SUSSBERG: I mean, I just find that to be—well, first off, give us a second here.

We’re just emerging. This generation of millennials, we are 20 to 35; there needs to be some time to see what happens with the millennial generation. I just find that to be old man shaking fist at sky and hand-wringing. [Laughter.] If you want to talk—baby boomers have caused all the problems. So, if we’re impatient—[applause].

DALTON: We actually did an entire Climate One podcast on a generation of sociopaths, and there’s a book out there bashing the boomers for what they’ve done.

NYE: Very reasonable.

SUSSBERG: Yeah, absolutely. I think that our generation—and Bill was absolutely instrumental in getting a lot of millennials to take science seriously—we are going to be, as Bill says, “captains of industry” one day.

We are going to be elected leaders, and when that does happen—I think it’s trending in the right direction. So I’m hopeful.

DALTON: Bill Nye, if someone young, like a millennial or below, wants to get into a climate-change career—you obviously speak to basic science more than applied science thanks to the guidance you got from Carl Sagan—what kind of career path would you say people ought to [consider] to have an impact in their job, not just as a consumer?

NYE: Well, so keep in mind that I’m an engineer. I went to engineering school right off. [Applause.] I love pure science as much as the next guy, maybe more.

But there’s three things we want for everybody in the world: We want clean water; renewably produced, reliable electricity; and access to the Internet. With those three things we could, I believe, provide a high-quality life for everyone on Earth. In order to provide clean water, we’re going to need new technologies, or better technologies, for let’s say desalinating seawater—let’s say capturing, or harvesting, rainwater. But for that we’re FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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going to need venture capitalists; we’re going to need attorneys to protect intellectual property; we’re going to need people to deliver the food to the people working on these things.

We’re going to need everybody working together. But in the beginning of all that, it’s going to be technology, which comes from innovation, which comes from science.

One of my favorite stories from my own life: I was a consultant to General Motors at one point. Instead of money, I negotiated for the use of the EV1, the electric vehicle one, which General Motors—they didn’t call it the Ventura or the Impala or the Bel Air—they called it the Impact. That’s a car; that’s not what you want in a car. [Laughter.]

The same bunch of guys who were in this meeting [said], “You know what we want, Bill? We want our light trucks to be 50 percent recyclable.” No, no, you want them to be 100 percent recyclable. So, this attitude that we can’t do it—I have no time for that.

If you think you can’t do it, you sure as hell won’t. Let’s get to 99 percent. Would that be all right?

If you’re out there—I see some very young people [in the audience]—here’s what we want you to do: new fuels for jet planes— probably won’t be algae-based oil. It could very well be hydrogen. I want you to solve that problem, and then whoever else is out here. Are there any plumbers here? You guys, I have a solar hot water system on my house. The heat is free. This is not rocket surgery—it’s plumbing in a box, and it gets hot, and then you need less heat to make it hotter. Can we just do that? Let’s get it done out there. Invest in that.

DALTON: True or false: Bill Nye, many opponents of nuclear power do not ground their opposition in knowledge of the science?

NYE: I guess that’s true. But the problem that the nuclear industry has had is nobody wants it. That’s the biggest drawback. Nobody wants a nuclear power plant around.

And objectively—this idea that you have waste products that are dangerous for 10,000 years—some people just think that’s a little irresponsible to be burying that [nuclear waste] someplace.

DALTON: Jason Sussberg, true or false: Science is more political now than it ever has been?

SUSSBERG: I would say true, but—what do you think, Bill?

NYE: Here’s what we like to say: Science

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has always been political. What you want is not to have it partisan. [Applause.] Where do you invest in basic research, you know?

Without investment in the Department of Defense, you wouldn’t have the Internet.

Without investment in space, you wouldn’t have the Internet.

DALTON: Let’s talk about food and the importance of food. People think that a lot of climate is really abstract. How important is agriculture and food in making the kind of changes that we want to make for climate?

NYE: There’s no connection at all. What do you want? Of course, it’s huge!

DALTON: Explain your conversion. There’s a podcast on that— NYE: My belief was that you can’t know the ecosystem—that you would accidentally do something to crops that would create a superbug. You’d create some virus that you couldn’t anticipate. But after I did two things—I went to Monsanto in St. Louis. I decided they really could tell. They really can tell what genes are going to do, and they really are diligent about monitoring the crops and keeping so-called sterile refuges. They’re really into it. They’re very, very careful about it.

But Monsanto has a terrible reputation, I think, for two reasons: First of all, they used to make Agent Orange, which [in] the Vietnam War would denude Vietnam in the hopes of making battles more successful, but it [Agent Orange] had this horrible knock-on effect that gave people a horrible disease. I guess it was cancer related.

And then—why didn’t, not just Monsanto, but Pioneer, DuPont, Syngenta—why didn’t all those guys come out “proudly GMO.” Why didn’t they do that? They’re not that great at public relations.

Then, the other thing I’d say, you guys— the climate is changing; crops are going to move north from North America; they’re going to move into Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and we’re going to be ready for that.

The problem is the speed. It’s the speed that these things are happening. And so, with modern genetics, they (agricultural geneticists) are able to anticipate changes and make crops that are more drought resistant or more flood resistant or literally more wind resistant.

Just amazing. So there’s something to it.

And then on the “Bill Nye Saves the World” show, we had the mythic guy from Monsanto—Robb Fraley. We had a farmer, a woman from Iowa who says she’s a

ninth-generation farmer, and a guy from the Department of Agriculture. And everybody agreed that genetically modified food has a place. It does not solve all your problems, but it has a place.

DALTON: I think some of the critics of GMOs are more concerned about industrial monoculture, the massive use of glyphosate.

It enables—it’s not just the GMOs themselves; it’s the other things that it enables.

NYE: Well, as far as herbicides—glyphosate is actually pretty benign compared to some of the stuff.

DALTON: Even though the state of California [has] listed [it] as a carcinogen?

NYE: Well, it may be. I’m not an expert on that, but compared to a lot of other stuff, it’s not as bad.

And another big idea—something to keep in mind is farming is not natural. If you stop farming, nature goes back to forest or prairies or whatever it was. And that’s sort of a big idea that I think people lose sight of.

Without humans just going crazy, you would not have a farm; you could certainly not have 7.4 billion people eating around the world.

So, just sort of keep that in mind.

Oh yeah, the other thing I did—I went to the Monarch Venture. This is kind of a hippie-titled thing. It was held in Minneapolis.

They got people—Robb Fraley and people from DuPont, from Pioneer seeds, and the people that monitored the flight of monarch butterflies. They decided that if they had these patches of milkweed along the flyways, then they could sustain large populations of monarch without screwing up farms very much—because farmers don’t like milkweed; it takes over everything. And it worked. The last three years the monarch population has gotten bigger. But three years is not much of a sample size, so stay tuned. Is it because of El Niño and rainfall, or is it because of the refuges?

What I’m saying is everybody acknowledged there was a problem with the monarch populations going down. And everybody, both the hippies and the corporate pigs, wanted to do something about it. So that was really moving for me. I was really impressed with that.

DALTON: Speaking of the severe weather, I’d like you [to provide] a couple explainers before we go to audience questions because you’re known as the great explainer. We’ve had a lot of fires, a lot of hurricanes recently.

Starting with the fires, what is the climate connection with the fires in America?

NYE: So it’s big rainfall in the spring. Then, it got really dry and super-hot in the summer.

When things started burning, there was a lot of fuel. Everybody was affected by the fires.

Everybody either had their lives destroyed, or they know somebody that had his life or her life destroyed.

DALTON: And Hurricane Harvey, Irma, Maria— NYE: Nothing to worry about. Everything is fine. [Laughter.] There is everything all at once. You know, it’s never—as we say in airplane crashes—it’s never any one thing.

So, Houston has all this hardscape—fastest-growing large city in the U.S., maybe in the Western Hemisphere. So there’s all this asphalt—so-called sealed roads, waterproof

roads—and when it rained and stayed there, the problem just got worse and worse and worse. My understanding is, after Hurricane Katrina, people’s houses were flooded and ruined, and they lost everything. And if someone had gone to those people and said, “Okay, here’s half the value of your house and everything you own. Would you abandon your house?” Everybody said, yeah. But after it [the water] drains, and there is no relief, and you can’t sell it—nobody wants to buy your soaked-up house. You just stay, so then the problem happens again.

I wonder all the time: Is there going to be a future [where] people just start leaving Houston, Corpus Christi, Pensacola, Miami, Miami Beach, New Orleans, and then is somebody going to go in there and try to salvage all the copper plumbing and wire? I mean, is there going to be a salvage business we haven’t even thought of yet? It’s the speed that’s the problem. Let’s get to work.

DALTON: That’s really dark. How do you stay motivated? [Laughter.]

NYE: Iowa gets 25 percent of its electricity from the wind, competing head-to-head with oil and gas.

A friend of mine lives in [the] Coweta/Broken Arrow [area of ] Oklahoma—a suburb of Tulsa. They have earthquakes. They don’t like earthquakes; it’s from fracking. Nobody

thought you could frack to the extent that you’d have earthquakes, like magnitude 5— real things—and nobody wants that.

And Texas, in the springtime, gets 10 percent of its electricity from the wind. Now, I’m not saying the wind is the whole answer, but it just shows you what’s possible.

Oh, the other thing—young people— transmission lines, better electric power lines.

What we have doesn’t suck, but we can do way better. I’m sure of it. So [work on] the jet fuel, transmission lines, solar hot water.

DALTON: First question [from the audience] from Jessica Hill on Facebook. What do you make of environmental movements within the Christian framework, such as creation care?

NYE: I don’t know creation care, but— DALTON: It’s just a religious term for stewardship of God’s creation.

NYE: Sounds great. We are more alike than we are different, so go for it. But whatever it is—the Earth is not 6,000 years old, and trying to base your science or your understanding of the Earth on the idea that it was 6,000 years old and that 4,000 years ago there was a flood around the whole Earth that nobody wrote down except some people in Mesopotamia—be skeptical of the rest of your theology.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Why did you FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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become a scientist? How did you become a scientist? And when did you become a scientist?

NYE: I was sitting on the front porch, and I got stung by a bee. I think I was three and a half. It was in the summertime, and this was traumatic. And my mother put ammonia on it. Do you know what ammonia [is]? You know Windex? That’s the main ingredient of Windex ... but the pain went away, and I just was fascinated with that.

Then I found out, about that same time, that my grandfather, who had died before I was born, was an organic chemist. And they gave me his glassware to play with. This is back in the day—like my nephew and niece are chemical engineers, and they use the software ChemDraw. But my grandfather didn’t have any such thing. Instead, the skills that he learned were blowing glass. I just thought it was the coolest thing. And I just thought science was cool, and then I found out that you could do science for a living as an engineer. I sort of found that out when I was working in a bike shop.

So it’s been a lifelong process. Science is how we know nature. It’s the coolest—I think

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it’s the best idea humans have ever had.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: There’s been a sort of fight between environmentalists on either doing something about the problem of climate change or learning to live with it.

Where do you stand on that?

NYE: The answer is everything all at once.

The answer is: You’re both right. In other words, the expression is: We want to work the problem from both ends. We want to have less of an effect, or bad effect, on the environment, but we also want to innovate so that we can provide clean water, electricity and Internet to everyone. We’ve got to work it both ways. The shortest cut to this, by the way, is to raise the standard of living of girls and women. When you do that—[applause]—I mean, thank you for the applause, but this isn’t really—I didn’t make this up. When you raise the standard of living of girls—and it’s generally through education—when they grow up and become women, in general they have fewer kids. And the kids have a better quality of life because they have more resources. Then they have less of an impact on the environment. However, note: Humankind now moves more rock and

soil than Mother Nature does; this is really a sobering and amazing idea. With all the bulldozers for all the shopping malls, all the explosives and all the mines, all the explosives to make highways, humans move more dirt than nature.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: What do you think is more important to focus on at the moment: employing defense mechanisms against the effects of climate change or working on reversing climate change and stopping our impact?

NYE: Reversing climate change is really hard.

Instead, we’re going to have to learn to live with higher carbon dioxide levels. I’m not saying it can’t be done. It’s just really hard.

Once you get the roast in the oven, and you take it out of the oven, it keeps cooking. The heat keeps moving into the middle of the roast. The same is true for the Earth in a sense.

There’s so much extra carbon dioxide put there so fast we’re not going to be able to take it out at the rate we put it in over the last two and half centuries. But the longest journey begins with a single step. So do everything all at once: provide clean water, electricity, Internet and produce zero emissions.

Photos by Rikki Ward

Policing in America

Would more public involvement help policing?

From the November 6, 2017 program in San Francisco, “Policing in America; Force, Surveillance and the Future.”

BARRY FRIEDMAN

Professor of Law, New York University; Director, The Policing Project; Author, Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission

GEORGE GASCÓN

District Attorney, City and County of San Francisco; Former Police Chief, San Francisco

JENNIFER GRANICK

Surveillance and Cybersecurity Counsel, ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project

IN CONVERSATION WITH JUDGE LADORIS HAZZARD CORDELL (RET.) LADORIS CORDELL: As the debate about out-of-control policing continues, we’re going to discuss threats to constitutional rights

Left to right: LaDoris Cordell, Barry Friedman, George Gascón and Jennifer Granick

involving the use of force and surveillance by law enforcement agencies and how those threats can be kept in check.

Professor Friedman, you write that the Fourth Amendment is at the core of policing—be it when police patrol the streets or when they patrol in the cloud. Could you give us all a quick primer on the Fourth Amendment and how it pertains to policing?

BARRY FRIEDMAN: Sure, I’d be glad to. The main way we regulate policing in the United States is through the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. When I say policing, as the judge indicated, it’s everything from what you think of as street policing— stop-and-frisk, use-of-force questions—all the way to surveillance, whether it’s license plate readers or facial recognition. All of this is regulated by one part of the Constitution.

This is pretty much what the Fourth Amendment says. It says: People have a right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

That’s the core of the entire thing. There’s also a clause about what warrants need to look like and probable cause, but the main regulation of this entire range of policing is just that little bit that says no unreasonable searches and seizures.

The question you might ask is, What’s unreasonable? Who decides? What we’ve largely done in this country is turn the answer to that question over to judges. One of the things I argue in the book is that’s a terrific

mistake. It’s not led us down a very good path, and we need to think of another way of proceeding. The way that I suggest that we proceed is pretty radical, which is that we do it through democracy. That we actually let the people have a voice in deciding what policing should look like.

If you think about government and how government runs, there’s a set of basic principles that everybody knows. We have rules.

We put those rules in place before officials act. They’re transparent. We all know what the rules are, and not only do we know what the rules are, but we ask the public to be involved in writing the rules. Then, we try where we can to do a little cost–benefit analysis and make sure that the rules do more good than harm. That’s how government runs in most areas—whether it’s the school board or environmental protection. That’s just the sort of heartbeat of democracy.

CORDELL: You mean there are public meetings, right?

FRIEDMAN: Sometimes they’re happy; sometimes they’re unhappy with government, but they get their say.

CORDELL: And policing?

FRIEDMAN: Policing, not so much. I distinguish these days between front-end accountability—what we just talked about— and back-end accountability. Things go wrong in government all the time, of course.

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part. Then, in policing, we don’t do any of that front end. Many of the rules around policing are not even public. If they are public, we certainly don’t ask people what they think the rule should be. Instead, when we talk about accountability in policing—and you hear us talk about it all the time—we talk about the back end after things have gone wrong.

We have courts, civilian review boards and inspectors general. If you think about it, even body cameras are a form of backend accountability. We don’t step in until something’s gone wrong, and then we try to figure out whether to cast blame. What we don’t do is ask people up front, “How do you want to be policed?” That’s the question that I think we need to start asking.

CORDELL: George Gascón, racial profiling and excessive uses of force by law enforcement continues to be a huge issue, especially in communities of color.

One response to stop racial profiling has been advocating for the use of body-worn cameras to ensure that those on both sides of the camera behave. But a just-released study of 2,000 police officers in Washington, D.C. showed—this was in The New York Times—that body-worn cameras had almost no effect on officer behavior. Should we stop spending taxpayer dollars on these body-worn cameras? If not, why not?

GEORGE GASCÓN: Great question. Let me begin by saying that I agree with the thesis of the book [by Friedman]. I read most of it. I think I’m missing only about 25 pages.

I also want to put on the record that I do believe that, historically, the African-American community has especially been impacted

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through racist policies and practices by law enforcement.

Having said that, when we’re talking about body-worn cameras—I believe it’s nuance.

While I understand that the recent study of the D.C. police came up with certain outcomes—which I’m not questioning, because I don’t know enough to question them—I also know that there are other jurisdictions where we have seen the use of body-worn cameras actually reduced officer use of force. [These cameras also] reduced public complaints in settings where the public complaints are not filtered by the police—meaning in communities where people actually can complain to a third party, [an] arguably unbiased repository of complaints, so that people may feel more comfortable reporting officer misconduct. I understand, by the way, that officer misconduct is terribly underreported, but there are gauges that you can go by.

To me, the issue of body-worn cameras is not whether we should have them or not.

I think it really comes down to policy and how the policies to the use [of them] are created; who gets access to the information, how is the information reviewed, how the information is used. San Francisco had a very robust public conversation around equipping San Francisco police officers with body-worn cameras. While I purposely had my office stay out of the conversation because we did not want to be conflicted by our participation, we thought that the process was generally a good, robust process. Yet, at the very end, at the eleventh hour, there were some negotiations that took place with a union, and what we saw—the end product was not necessarily the

product that we’re following when we were seeing the development of the policy.

You have to ask yourself, well, is this the body-worn cameras, or is it the lack of political will to actually do the right thing and take a tool that could, in fact, be a useful tool across the board, by the way—not only when it comes to policemen’s conduct. I have to tell you that often we’re able to gather evidence in domestic violence cases, sexual assault cases that facilitate our work and determine the way we’re going to prosecute our case or not. If we are prosecuting, [it’s helpful to be] able to show to a jury what the officers [were doing] and what was the scene like— and what was happening at the time. It’s a two-dimensional process. It’s never going to give you the full context of the scene; there are many things that are happening.

Unfortunately, in many jurisdictions, including our own, officers are often muting the sound [on their cameras]. They’re turning the cameras off—sometimes accidentally, sometimes intentionally, sometimes for good reasons; sometimes we’re not sure why. You can speculate as to why. But I believe that— assuming that eventually we get the political will to make sure that these things are used appropriately, then the information is shared responsibly, because I believe in responsible transparency. I think it’s a tool that we should not walk away from. We just simply need to look at the Washington, D.C. police report and say, “How is it that your behavior hasn’t been adjusted?” Quite frankly, most of us it’s just human nature—if I know that I’m being videoed, I’m generally going to try to be on my best behavior, which is a good thing for both of us [the police officer and the

suspect]. It reduces the likelihood that I may overreact, that the officer may use force on the other party. I think the fact that the study is showing that there has been no behavioral modification tells me that there are some really bad policies that need to be looked at.

FRIEDMAN: I think the wrong message to take away from the D.C. study is body cameras are a waste. I’m ambivalent about body cameras. I worry about them. In one sense, we’ve installed the largest surveillance system we may have ever seen in this country with all the officers walking around with cameras. I think George is exactly right. What happens, ultimately, with the cameras is going to depend on what the policies look like. One of the problems with the policies very often is that the footage is not disclosed at the time that the public most might want to see it.

It’s interesting to just note one of [the problems with the D.C. study], because it’s fascinating. One of the things that the study found was that uses of force didn’t drop appreciably when the cameras were on. If you think about what’s going on, it’s possible—we don’t know—that, in fact, what happened is because the officers were wearing the cameras, they reported uses of force more frequently because they knew that there was the video of that. You can’t be sure if, in fact, part of what happened is just that we had more reporting of uses of force rather than the same sort of constant use of force.

CORDELL: One thing that just makes no sense to me is that police departments around the country [are] running to get grants to buy these body-worn cameras without first developing the protocols for the use of them, because that will determine what kind of

camera you get. There are some cameras that have different features on them. Some actually activate as soon as an officer gets out of the car, for example. But the protocols, it seems to me, are what should be developed by public input—how they’re going to be used, when they’re going to be used and what the repercussions are for not using them. Once they’re in place, I think the public then has more of a sense of trusting that these cameras are going to hold officers accountable as well as the public.

Jennifer, can you tell us about the ACLU’s [American Civil Liberties Union] Community Control Over Police Surveillance legislative effort?

JENNIFER GRANICK: The community control program is very much along the lines of what we’ve been talking about here—the idea of getting democratic, public involvement in choices about policing and surveillance technology. [The program involves] setting up those processes, [looking at] what are the protocols going to be, what are the proper rules going to be, and how are we going to ensure that these devices are used properly?

[The program ensures that] there’s a public hearing with notice that people can show up to and talk about, so there can be democratic involvement in decisions about whether to adopt body cameras, street cameras, facial recognition technology or license plate detection. [It also ensures] that there are procedures in place that deal with the important questions and policies raised by these technologies—data retention, auditability, discoverability by defendants, and accessibility by public agencies and the

inspectors general.

I think that’s just one of many examples of why privacy isn’t dead—to get to the bigger question. Technology poses an unprecedented challenge to privacy, as well as a challenge to policing and a resource for policing as well.

Law plays this very important role in regulating how these technologies are used and in ensuring that people still have that realm of privacy, which is fundamentally important.

While I agree that it’s a good thing when police officers doing their jobs are observed to ensure that that immense amount of power that comes with that job is being exercised responsibly, for the rest of us, we want to be unobserved so that we can do the crazy, creative, inventive stuff we do without fear of reprisals or shame.

To me, that’s one of the things that’s most interesting about your book, Barry—the idea that we would get people to be democratically committed to preserving this realm of privacy for us. When I think about the Bill of Rights and the Fourth Amendment—one of the things about the Bill of Rights is it’s counter-majoritarian. It protects our rights against what the public might want, against what a mob might ask for and says, “Even if everybody thought it was a great idea to go into everyone’s house and look for drugs, because drug dealers are bad, we don’t allow that to happen.”

I think there’s this balance between democratic accountability and public commitment to making sure that policing is responsive to our needs, and then [there’s] the fundamental underlying safeguard of the Constitution, which is to ensure that there is a baseline below which we don’t fall.

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STEVE FORBES GET THE ECONOMY MOVING

STEVE FORBES Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Media; Author, Reviving America: How Repealing Obamacare, Replacing the Tax Code, and Reforming The Fed will Restore Hope and Prosperity JOHN FARMER Past Chair, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Retired General Partner, Goldman Sachs—Moderator

Photos by James Meinerth

Conservative media figure Steve Forbes suggests a way for ward for Washington law maker s . From the October 31, 2017, program in San Francisco, “Steve F o r b e s : T h e Eco n o m y, Stocks, Taxes and Health Care—What’s Next?”

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n ancient times, back in the old days, when people wanted to know what was going to happen in the future, they’d go to things like the Delphic oracle in Greece.

[It was] a lot of smoke and hocus-pocus, but it was a great show. The Delphic oracle made sure things were said that could be interpreted both ways—a great way to make a living. It would’ve been a great talking head today. In Rome, perhaps because they had a Las Vegas gene, they had Vestal Virgins dancing around while they did this stuff.

But to show the lack of imagination in Washington today—what they worship, at least on the Republican side, is a thing called the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which purports to do economic modeling about what the future holds. Well, they can no more predict the future than anyone else. If they could predict the future, they wouldn’t be working for the CBO; they’d be out buying lottery tickets or speculating in commodities, getting on the Forbes 400 list.

But they pretend they do [know the future].

Economic models have a lot of assumptions. The CBO assumption is that tax cuts don’t do much good for the economy, even though experience shows quite the opposite.

No matter what you do, it’s always going to be, as they say, a bad score. As you know about modeling—GIGO [garbage in, garbage out].

Nonetheless, the Republicans take these numbers very seriously, even though . . . they’re really not fake numbers—the numbers are real enough—but they don’t reflect anything resembling reality. You’ll learn more about the future reading chicken entrails.

Nonetheless, the Republicans are now going through pretzel-like maneuvers to try to get what they call net revenue neutrality. In other words, they’re going to cut taxes, but it’s not going to cost any money. Okay—all

right. But the fact of the matter is the feeling they have to appease the CBO gods has gotten them to do some pretty crazy stuff.

First of all, that leads to the question: Why did they lead off with health care? [The] new administration comes in, and they pounded the new president: “You’ve got to lead with health care rather than tax cuts.” The reason they want to lead with health care [was], in the CBO world they live in, they thought they would save $1.1 trillion over 10 years, which should give more money for tax cuts.

Now ponder how stupid that messaging is.

First of all, when people hear you’re going to cut money for health care, they initially assume you’re taking something away. You can show that it isn’t, but that’s the initial assumption and public perception. You’re taking money away from health care to do what? Cut corporate taxes. Boy, that’s a great message—not. But that’s what they led with.

Instead of leading with, “Boy, these health care changes [are] going to make it better for you, give you more control” —the things people are worried about—they lead with this thing, “Oh, save $1.1 trillion of ...”

So that’s why they led with health care [and] they discovered health care is complicated. They’re still discovering that. That’s why they didn’t lead with a simple tax cut.

But the need to appease the CBO gods also led them to produce crazy proposals.

The speaker of the house, Paul Ryan (RWI), proposed, about a year ago, a thing called the Border Adjustment Tax, which was a 20 percent national sales tax on imports.

Well, guess what that would do? That would slam the very people who live from paycheck to paycheck. [The price of ] a typical vehicle would go up $2,500. They forgot that, even though a car may be manufactured in the U.S., a lot of parts are from overseas—your handheld, your Apple, whatever you have— parts from all over the world. So, a 20 percent sales tax is going to boost the price of it and hurt the people with the least. When asked why he was proposing this, one of the reasons, Ryan said, [was]: “We need the money for tax cuts.” Again, why are you raising a tax to cut a tax? Just cut the taxes, Paul.

Anyway, they finally dropped this crazy 20 percent sales tax, but now they’re talking about reducing IRA contributions, fourth tax bracket, phasing in corporate tax cuts, which just creates uncertainty. Just do the simple tax cuts. John Kennedy did it in the

early ’60s; Ronald Reagan did it in the ’80s.

Forget about cleaning up the tax code. It is too late, guys. You dawdled too long. Just do an across-the-board tax cut.

Forget about fooling around with mortgage deductions; forget about state and local tax deductions. It’s too late. Just go for a straight tax cut and be done with [it], and get the economy moving. Your task is not revenue neutrality or reform. That’s another thing—don’t talk about tax reform; talk about tax cuts. People understand cuts. Tax reform—what are you talking about? Just go for a straight tax cut; start to get the economy from 35 miles an hour to 50–60 miles an hour, and you’ll have an environment which can do other good things in the future. Just start with something simple.

On the business side, go for a 15 percent business tax. Ireland has 12.5 percent; England’s bringing theirs down to 15. So other countries are moving that way. Let’s do it and go from the worst in the world to one of the best in the world.

In terms of taxing profits overseas, stop it. Most other countries don’t do it. So we’d get some of these hundreds of billions coming back in the U.S., investing in the U.S. Good stuff. Pass-throughs—a lot of you have businesses that are partnerships or LLCs or S corps. Take it down to 20 or 25 percent and just be done with it.

On the personal side, they say they’re going to double the standard deduction, which tells people nothing. Talk about messaging. They should say, “Your first $24,000–$25,000 of income will be free of federal income tax.”

People get that—but no, they want to make it complicated. So double that, and then do across-the-board rate cut—like Reagan or Kennedy did. Pick 15–20 percent. Just cut the rates across the board.

Now a lot of people don’t pay income tax in this country, so what do you do about them? Do what we did with President Obama several years ago. It’s a bipartisan proposal.

They took, for a couple of years, two points off your Social Security tax. They made up for the revenue from general revenue, so you didn’t take money out of the trust fund. Your first points of tax, employee tax, you didn’t have to pay it anymore. Instead of doing two points, how about doing four points?

So somebody making as little as $10,000 or $15,000 a year, part-time or whatever, [gets a] $500–$600 raise in pay, so everyone gets FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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a pay raise. Even if you don’t pay federal income tax, you all pay the payroll taxes.

By the way, they think in Washington those are not real taxes—those are contributions. No, they are a tax. It comes out of your pay, and they spend it right away. Let’s get over that illusion.

Do the Social Security thing, so everyone gets a cut. Do the rates across the board, because you want consumption and you want investment. The way you get a higher standard of living is when you have more investment. We’re starting to get more investment now after a long drought. You want to get more investment. You want to get more small businesses created. That’s how you get the job creation, innovation for the future.

Do it across the board.

And capital gains—you want more risk-taking, so cut the capital gains tax.

[There are] those [who] call themselves deficit hawks, which really means deficit brains because they don’t realize you need a booming economy to deal with budget deficits. After the Kennedy cuts in the ’60s, even though Lyndon Johnson spent zillions of dollars on what he called the Great Society, by the

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end of the ’60s, we had a balanced budget.

Then, after the buildup, Reagan cut taxes.

We had a booming economy. We spent a lot of money on defense, won the Cold War. Defense spending was cut in the ’90s. We had surpluses in the late ’90s. It’s only when you have a booming economy that you’re going to balance the books. You need a booming economy.

These people who say, “We can’t cut taxes because it might increase deficit”—I guarantee, if you have a stagnant economy, you’re going to get deficits. People are going to say, “What do we do?” We’ve got to spend more to rev up the economy, so let’s go for growth.

In terms of other things they should do—capital gains. Get rid of the alternative minimum tax [and the] death tax, and make it retroactive. Make it retroactive to January 1 this year. Why? Because that way, the thing takes effect immediately. And next spring, things start to get better in weather, [and] you get a nice refund. Good for psychology, good for the country.

This thing is very important: If you don’t get a booming economy, politics goes south.

We saw that in the ’30s; we saw that in the

’70s. Politics is not good when people feel there’s no hope. Even though we have low unemployment, we have a huge underemployment. People feel they’re not getting the kind of raises they should have. Even though things are getting better, it’s not what it should be. Let’s get that right.

Now, ultimately, I hope in a couple years, they’ll do what 40 other countries and jurisdictions have done, and that is go for a flat tax. What that does is take the current federal income tax code [and simplifies it]. Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” defined the character of the American nations [in] all of 273 words. The Bible took centuries to put together—773,000 words. The federal income tax and all the intendant rules and regulations—10 million words and rising.

[Laughter.] And nobody knows what’s in it.

Those who say, “Well, I’ve got good software”—no. [Laughter.] Depending on your circumstance, different software packages will give you different calculations of what you owe the government. They don’t really get it.

Why don’t you just throw the whole thing out, start over? [It’s] a simple thing. And it’s ultimately a moral issue.

Why is it a moral issue? The IRS estimates that we spend six billion hours a year filling out tax forms. Experts estimate that we spend $200 to $300 billion a year complying with this corrupt, complex monstrosity. Half the lobbying in Washington revolves around the tax code. So go back 20 years. Now imagine if all those tens of billions of hours—literally trillions of dollars, all that immense brain power—instead of going to this crazy code had instead gone into creating new products, new services, new medical devices, new cures for diseases. [Imagine] how much better off we’d all be. What economists call the opportunity costs have been enormous.

The quicker we just throw this thing out and start over, the better. We literally could do it on a single sheet of paper—a few keystrokes, and you’re done with it. Then you can focus your mind on good things, productive things.

Health Care: What to do?

Okay, health care—why do we have a health care crisis in this country? People say, “Well, people like me are getting older. We want more health care. Therefore, prices go up, and

we have an affordability problem.” But step back for a moment and ask a basic question: Why is demand for health care considered a crisis, whereas demand for anything else in this economy is seen as a great opportunity?

People want more apps. A lot of [app] writers around here would be glad to help you out. People want more vehicles—Detroit and other manufacturers are glad to come to your assistance. Anything else is seen as a great opportunity for entrepreneurs. “Oh, people want more of something? Boy, rev up and do it.” Why is health care different?

Ultimately, the answer is we don’t have real, free markets in health care. Think of it. It’s all third-party. It’s not you and the doctor. It’s third-party. Hospitals, for example—no one designed the system. It grew up out of decisions made in World War II—after World War II. Moving forward, it’s not going to do any good pointing fingers. It’s how we get this thing fixed in a productive way.

In terms of hospitals, for example—they know their revenues depend on how well they negotiate with insurance companies, with large employers, with the government—not on how they satisfy you. So the proof of it

is where the patient lies in this chain. The lousiest motel in America wouldn’t dare put you in a room with another guest—a sick guest—with a curtain in between. [Laughter.]

It’s done routinely at hospitals. If you get a private room, “Oh, my God. I’m so privileged. I don’t have people wheezing on me.”

Crazy. Or the robes they give at these places sometimes. When you put it backwards, forwards, over your head—I mean it looks like the Salvation Army washed them 10,000 times before it gets to you. [Laughter.]

Then, when we go to the hospital, even though we’ve got fantastic health care in this country—the overall quality is superb, and I’ve been a beneficiary of it—but you sometimes wonder, Do the specialists talk to one another? Who’s looking out for me? Who’s my advocate? Oftentimes you feel you’ve got to take a relative or a friend to look in and make sure everything is all right. The thing is—no one’s really happy about it.

In terms of a normal market, if you go for something other than an emergency, you want to know what the price is. In health care, it’s the opposite. Don’t worry about it— insurance will cover it. Insurance will cover FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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it nominally, but you ultimately pay for it.

A study was done several years ago—if you add up over your lifetime what you actually spend on health care—not just through copays and deductibles and co-insurance pays and things like that—but add up what you pay, [including] taxes to finance Medicaid on the local level, taxes to finance Medicaid on the federal level, taxes you pay for Medicare, and the pay that you lost because when somebody pays you a salary, they have to pay for your health insurance … that’s money that could have gone to you and doesn’t go to you. Over a lifetime, you’ve paid, without you knowing it, $1.9 million. And you don’t even know it. . . .

Hopefully I think the Republicans will pass a tax bill. Why? Because of the instinct of self-preservation. I hope it’s a good one.

They’re suddenly realizing there’s an election next year. It suddenly dawned on them that if they don’t get this economy moving, a lot of them are going to be pursuing new opportunities after the elections, and not many of them want to become Uber drivers. They’d rather stay ensconced in Washington.

From the question and answer session with John Farmer, retired general partner with Goldman Sachs JOHN FARMER: An audience member asks, “Bernie Sanders says effective corporate tax rate is 14 percent. Is that accurate?”

FORBES: I’ve heard it. It’s more like 22 percent. Anyway, what it underscores is why we need real tax simplicity, because instead of having a 35 percent rate, then you have to go through all these contortions to try to get it down, wasting all that brainpower and time and money. Just knock it down to 17, and

so you don’t have to go through all of that.

You can go about doing more productive things like coming up with new products and services. . . .

Every country has found that when you make things simple, you get, first, ultimately more prosperity because people are focused on real things. Also, you collect more because it’s just, unless you’re really perverse, not worth it to get around something that’s low.

You’ve got other things on your mind than traversing the [depths] of the tax code.

FARMER: Another question. “How can we make bipartisanship cool again?”

FORBES: Well, you have to have two sides willing to do it. The problem is now there’s no trust. Now that will change. By the way, they talk about Ronald Reagan, who was president, and a fellow named Tip O’Neill, who was a Democrat speaker of the house, the two didn’t like each other. They disdained each other. O’Neill thought Reagan was a dope, Reagan thought O’Neill was just an inebriated hack. But they did sit down in ’86, and others did, too, and came up with a great tax bill.

Now the reason they came up with the great tax bill is that Reagan cut taxes. They had some increase, but mostly big tax cuts in his first term.

How did they get together? Well, Democrats hated all these tax shelters. The tax code then was littered with tax shelters from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, avocado tax shelter, llama tax shelter, all this stuff in there. Republicans wanted lower tax rates. They discovered when they sat down that you just can’t touch this shelter and that shelter. You either get rid of all of them or none of them. They swept most of them away, just cleaned the code of

those tax shelters.

They drastically cut tax rates, reduced the number of brackets down to two. The top income tax rate went from 50 percent down to 28 percent. They got rid of all these tax shelters, and the bill passed the Senate 97-3 because everyone got something big from it. The Democrats got the shelters on the chopping block, the Republicans got the lower tax rates. Everyone came away happy.

You have to have that kind of mood. Maybe we need another election or two before they sit down and say, “Okay. Here’s where we’ve got to go.” It’ll happen again, it always does. These things don’t last forever.

FARMER: This is a very interesting question.

“I like to listen to the radio. Would you consider starting a radio broadcast network like Bloomberg?”

FORBES: If you pay for it, sure. The thing about radio is now with podcasting, the technology, a lot of people can go on radio. You go on what we used to call radio now with your desktop or whatever. You can [hear] talks about music of Croatia, all around the world.

You can find musicians and bands all around the world, I mean an amazing variety of stuff out there trying to break through. If we can make a living at it, quite another thing. Yes, if somebody comes up [with something] where I can just yap off and get a royalty, it may not be a bad idea.

FARMER: Well, on a positive note, this question [says], “Congratulations on 100 years of publishing Forbes.”

FORBES: Yes, we did in September celebrate our hundredth anniversary. I had my 70th birthday this year. I had explained to my young grandson the magazine was 100, not me.

Moderator John Farmer (left) and Steve Forbes

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M O NT H/M O NT H YEA R

Photos by Ed Ritger

DEFEATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE From the October 30, 2017 program in San Francisco, “Defeating Domestic V iolence: Per sp e c t i ve s for Societal Change.” The program was supported

by Blue Shield of California Foundation.

LISA JAMES

Director of Health Programs, Futures Without Violence MARC PHILPART Senior Director, PolicyLink

SHARON TURNER

Director of Client Services, Stand!

JILL ZAWISZA

Executive Director, Women Organized to Make Abuse Nonexistent Inc.

LEIGH KIMBERG

M.D., Professor of Medicine, UC San Francisco; Coordinator for Intimate Partner and Family Violence Prevention, San Francisco Department of Public Health—Moderator 27

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Left to right: Leigh Kimberg, Lisa James, Marc Philpart, Sharon Turner and Jill Zawisza

LEIGH KIMBERG: We’re here today to discuss domestic violence with particular attention to under-resourced communities and marginalized communities, which means that we’re really discussing the fact that people are not just experiencing domestic violence in their intimate relationships, but they’re also experiencing many forms of structural violence, including racism, economic discrimination, anti-immigrant or anti-LGBTQ oppression, police violence and more factors.

Share some stories or some experiences that really get to your perspectives on what are the complex barriers that people are facing to having increased safety and empowerment, especially in the marginalized or under-resourced communities that you work in.

JILL ZAWISZA: We speak with a lot of folks who are dealing with issues around immigration, specifically folks who might not have documentation to be here. Of course, as you can imagine, there’s a litany of barriers and challenges that are attached to that, so I think there’s a common misconception, perhaps, that our organizations are somehow connected to the criminal–legal system directly so it might not be safe for someone to call one of our organizations and get some support. It can act as a barrier for resources in general.

There’s a lot of fear.

Let’s just be real about it. In a lot of ways, it’s a legitimate fear. There’s been instances across the country where folks have been tak-

en out of court houses and put in ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention. It’s not like it’s this unfathomable fear they have. That doesn’t just act as a barrier for them to access services necessarily; it also is a barrier for them to remove themselves from an unhealthy, unsafe situation. If we’re towing the line with messaging that isn’t mindful of that very legitimate barrier, we’re essentially marginalizing these communities even further. So, we really have to be mindful of the way that we connect with folks and not make any assumptions about who they are and what their challenges are.

SHARON TURNER: When I started, I had a question about why is it that African-American women aren’t accessing the shelter. The overreliance [on] the criminal justice system, as it relates to African-American men as well as women, is still a huge barrier. There’s also a barrier that the family, which might be the community that you live in, that the secret is to stay there [in that community]. Actually, if I look at part of what happens with domestic violence—the shame that’s around that . . . and someone was asking, “What’s the will to break the shame?” If we make it okay to talk about it and not punish—there’s a difference between, I think, punishment and accountability. If you’re in a community where the punishment has happened so often, so long, it continues to promote [the idea of ]: “I’m not going to go to a shelter.”

LISA JAMES: I would just add [the idea of ]: “I’m not going to call the police, and I’m not going to go to the health-care setting.” We’ve all seen what’s happening now and has been happening for many years, so I really agree that we need to confront those barriers.

When we are actually providing services, one approach I would just share that’s been effective is not being reliant on disclosure-based support—providing universal education about the connection between violence and health, and then resources that are offered regardless of whether or not somebody discloses or not. Secondly, [we can start] looking outside the systems that people are reluctant to seek services—so looking at more community-based, peer-based supports and intervention is a really critical piece as well.

MARK PHILPART: I would also add that in many instances, from what we’ve seen and what we’ve studied, women, women of color, low-income women are reluctant to call. One of the contributing factors is because they [are afraid they] may be deemed unfit parents, and they may jeopardize their parental status and custody of their children.

So that as a form of state violence—wresting

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a child from a mother—is something that we don’t talk about enough, but [it’s] definitely something that is a stigma associated with why people don’t seek help.

KIMBERG: Right. We’ve seen that quite a bit in the health-care setting, where people don’t necessarily want to disclose for that reason. Blue Shield actually commissioned a study about domestic violence in California, and they found that 91 percent of California residents surveyed agreed with this statement: For various reasons, victims of domestic violence might be just as afraid about getting the police involved in their personal domestic violence disputes as they are about facing the abuser again.

Maybe we could delve a little bit more deeply; Sharon, you mention this distinction between accountability and how can we balance accountability for the use of violence with the real fear of involving law enforcement or the criminal justice system in people’s lives.

TURNER: We’ve had what’s called a batterer’s intervention program since 1989.

Working with the men and the women that come to that program—it’s a 52-week pro-

gram—one of things that I continually hear about is that it’s not just the systems, but it’s their own self-esteem, their pain, the hurt they have experienced, and so, as I’ve said before, they pass it on. The other thing is that if they have witnessed domestic violence as a child— especially if you, in terms of gender norms, figure out this is what a girl acts like, this is what a boy acts like, and so, to be a man of the house, for example, it becomes sanctioned as an expression of love—that’s what I hear in the young community—to knock your women around.

A lot of what we try to do is to say, “This is about behavior. It’s not about your human dignity because you deserve to be treated with respect”—and that the experiment that you’re working with around your own relationship is not working. That takes a long time for people to really understand, and what we ask people who come into the program is, “Can you take even a half of an ounce of responsibility for what you did?”

That becomes the basis for the journey of healing for them. Sometimes they make it; sometimes they don’t.

KIMBERG: I think we have so much ex-

pertise on this panel about what you just raised in terms of gender norms and talking to people in respectful ways about the use of violence. I wonder if others would like to comment more on work that they’re doing in that way.

PHILPART: Sure. The science on gender norms says that most people are formulating their sense for gender norms in middle school. When you think about all of the exposure type issues that contribute to violent behavior, those things are happening at that stage, if not younger, throughout a young person’s formation of their identity.

We then get to a point where they’re an adult and we try to intervene, and we try to undo all of that, and often it’s too little too late.

By the time people are presenting as violent in intimate relationships, we’ve missed so many other opportunities to be able to engage them. So what we’re trying to do and what we’re exploring is, Can we get to these young people earlier? We know that they’ve witnessed violence. Many of them have, both in their home and their community.

Shoot—for many, utilizing violence is a way of survival in the community. So undoing

it is actually working against the protective mechanism that they have just to survive in the neighborhoods.

There’s a real opportunity for us to be thinking more deeply about how to address these things from the very early stages, and I think if we’re going to have a serious conversation in society about how to prevent intimate partner violence, we have to be thinking that young. We have to be thinking about young men in particular, and we have to be thinking about those young people who are the most vulnerable, the young people who we often want to exclude or not align ourselves with or be connected to, because those are the young people who are ultimately the most damaged and who suffer the most. I feel like that’s the real work that we need to do.

JAMES: I would just add to that. I really agree with the points that’ve been made and the opportunities at a very young age. In fact, from a parenting perspective, to think of early intervention and prevention in the prenatal and perinatal [periods]—talking to new parents offers this incredible window of . . . an opportunity to talk about violence

prevention and possibly in the context of what somebody has gone through as a child themselves, so there’s a huge opportunity. In schools, there’s an important opportunity to work with kids who’ve been exposed to trauma, all types of trauma. We know that that has impact on their health and on their safety, and on their risk for both perpetration and victimization moving forward, but we also know that there is a power of a supportive adult, and that supportive adult can really turn things around for children. So we’re looking at those model programs that are working in schools and working in early Head Start and working in health settings, to be that supportive adult to the best of their ability.

Then lastly, I’ll just mention a program also in schools and definitely implemented in a variety of different ways and settings across the country, which is looking at sports for social change. At Futures Without Violence, we have a program called Coaching Boys Into Men, where coaches are talking to their athletes about respectful behavior to girls and women and very brief conversations about what that might look like. We’re seeing some FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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real results, and it’s one of the few sports based interventions that Centers for Disease Control has found effective. So, the athletes are reporting that they’re more willing to stand up to their peers and challenge them around respectful behavior toward women and girls, and that they themselves also report perpetrating less abusive behaviors. I do think, to your point, that we know a lot about how to prevent violence. We need to learn a lot more, but we’re on a pathway there as well that we can really build on.

ZAWISZA: What you said really resonated in terms of punishment versus accountability. I think that when you’re doing the work, that rings true. When you say a lot of times it’s not about wanting to end the relationship or leave, it’s about wanting the relationship to be safe again, or safe for the first time.

When you’re in the position where you’re supporting a survivor, if we take that hard line stance of, “Well, no. This isn’t right, you have to leave,” it’s flying in the face of what the survivor wants, and if we really want to be survivor-centered, we have to find some [common ground]. It’s complex, right? I think that is really connected to gender roles,

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and there’s also the complexity that is gender.

It’s not binary, so we have to make some space there. We have to do some probing and figure out sometimes what gender even means for the person that we’re talking to.

Again, complex hard work.

KIMBERG: There’s also questions from the audience about if you could share a little bit more about how we’re addressing domestic violence in the LGBTQ community as well.

ZAWISZA: At W.O.M.A.N. Inc., we try to be very gender neutral with our messaging, and in part that is to really be mindful of LGBTQ communities and that when we use the single-story narrative, and it’s the woman who’s the survivor or the victim and the man who’s the abuser or perpetrator, again, we’re marginalizing a huge number of folks. So as with every other kind of participant we deal with, we listen and get what cues they’re giving us. Who is it that we’re talking to?

What is their relationship?

There’s a lot of struggles. We deal with folks a lot that can’t get into shelter because they’re trans, or they can’t get into the shelter if they’re a gay man. It can be really difficult.

So I think it’s really important in understand-

ing those barriers exist and knowing where we might be able to connect to really meet the needs of that survivor.

I’ve been this for 20 years. Primarily I’ve worked with women on a personal level.

When I’m thinking of survivor, first thing that comes to mind to me is a cisgender female who’s straight. So if I’m not willing to step back from that and be mindful, at least that that’s my bias, I could really marginalize and kind of put out someone who’s maybe queer or transgender.

I think it starts on an interpersonal level, and an organizational commitment to serving LGBTQ folks and kind of figuring out what can we do here, where is our level of flexibility and how can we create an open environment and be welcoming. When we really started focusing in on that conversation, in terms of our statistics, I think, one year, it’s like 30-percent increase in queer survivors coming to the agency or calling a line. It was like an if you build it they will come, type of scenario.

JAMES: I would just add that in any of the partnerships that we work with, that’s a core part of the work that we do. It’s exploring our own biases, and then also providing resources. In the health setting, it would be training resources for health-care providers and patient resources for LGBT patients and trans patients. So we’ve got some new resources there and we’re in the process of doing a formal piloting of those, and hopefully adapting and improving upon them and moving forward.

TURNER: We’ve worked with our local LGBTQ community resource center for a number of years to both provide education both ways, and also to create the kind of structures and ways in which people can access the shelter.

ZAWISZA: We’re really fortunate to work with two local organizations here in the city, CUAV—Communities United Against Violence—and El/La Para TransLatinas. Two organizations, they’re amazing. They work with LGBTQ folks who are experiencing state violence at CUAV, and domestic violence; and El/La, they really have built a community together for trans Latinas. It’s not to say that they can be like, “Oh, you’re a lesbian. Well, then you need to go talk to CUAV because we can’t help you,” but when we work together and we share our stories, each of us gets better at what we do.

PROGRAMS 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 in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Marin County, and the East Bay. Standard programs are typically one hour long and frequently include panel discussions or speeches followed by a question and answer session. Many evening programs include a networking reception with wine.

PROGRAM DIVISIONS

CLIMATE ONE Discussion among climate scientists, policymakers, activists, and citizens about energy, the economy, and the environment.

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INFORUM

MEMBER-LED FORUMS

Inspiring talks with leaders in tech, culture, food, design, business and social issues targeted towards young adults.

Volunteer-driven programs that focus on particular fields. Most evening programs include a wine networking reception.

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RADIO, VIDEO, & PODCASTS Watch Club programs on the California Channel every Saturday at 9 p.m., and on KRCB TV 22 on Comcast. Select Commonwealth Club programs air on Marin TV’s Education Channel (Comcast Channel 30, U-Verse Channel 99) and on CreaTV in San Jose (Channel 30). View hundreds of streaming videos of Club programs at fora.tv and youtube.com/commonwealthclub

Subscribe to our free podcast service on iTunes and Google Play to automatically receive new programs: commonwealthclub.org/podcasts.

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

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

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

KRCB Radio (91.1 FM in Rohnert Park) Thursdays at 7 p.m.

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

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

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

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

TuneIn.com Fridays at 4 p.m.

TICKETS Prepayment is required. Unless otherwise indicated, all events—including “Members Free” events—require tickets. Programs often sell out, so we strongly encourage you to purchase tickets in advance. 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. Select events include premium seating, which refers to the first several rows of seating. Pricing is subject to change.

HARD OF HEARING? To request an assistive listening device, please e-mail Mark Kirchner seven working days before the event at mkirchner@commonwealthclub.org.

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9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE 5:30 pm Climate Chaos and Local Resilience 5:30 pm David Cay Johnston 6:45 pm Silicon Valley Reads 2018 No Matter What

5:30 pm (Saturday) Larry Wilmore: Black on The Air Live!

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11 am 5:15 p.m.

David Blinding Frum Flash 5 pm of Reinventing the Obvious 6:30 p.m.

Wires: TheBen Future Franklin Lndlines of Circles FM and 6:30 p.m. ChangeNetworks makers: 5:30 pm Movement Reading Leaders on Civil Californians Book Rights in anGroup Discussion Uncivil Time FM FM 7:45 pm 5:30 p.m.Mayor The Future of America’s Michael Tubbs Political

11:30 am Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clmapus Vitus 5:30 pm Do We Learn from History?

6 pm Journalist Steve Coll: How America Became Ensnared in Afganistan

11:30 am The Panama-Pacific Partnership 1:45 pm Nob Hill Walking Tour 5:30 pm Secrets to Finding Love in The Bay Area 6 pm Power Shift 7 pm Carl Pope: Climate of Hope

4:45 pm It’s Your Money: Making and Sticking to Tough but Smart Money Decisions 6 pm Rep. Adam Schiff: Investigating Russia and Defending Democracy

11:30 am Isa Gucciardi: Meditating Your Way Through Chaos 4:45 pm Freud Without Contradictions 5 pm Middle East Forum Discussion FM

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5:30 10 a.m. pmChinatown Learning Walking How to Say Tour Hard 6:30 p.m.

Things with Sallie Kelly Krawcheck: The PowCorrigan er of Women, Work and Wallet 7 p.m. Gopi Kallayil: Brain, Body and Consciousness

4:45 pm A Brighter Day 5:30 pm John Hope Bryant: The Path to Financial Liberation

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6 pm Ben Franklin Circles FM 7 pm Impact Investing: Doing Good and Doing Well

9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE 5:30 pm Timothy Leary: The Most Dangerous Man in America 5:30 pm 6th Anniversayr: Week to Week Politics Roundtable and Social Hour

9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE 5:30 pm Why Need to Protect Half The Planet and Where to Start?

6 pm Historian Max Boot 6:15 pm Emily Chang

6 pm Is Silicon Valley as Green as It Claims?

6 pm Humanities West Book: Ancient Greece FM

5:30 pm Modern Loss: Candid Conversations About Grief

Silicon Valley

9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE 1:45 pm North Beach Walking Tour 5:30 pm Europa and The Alphabet: Phoenicians Awaken The Greeks from their Dark Age

FM Free for members

11:30 am Voices from Syria

FE Free for everyone

6:30 pm (Saturday) Rick Steves: Traveling as A Political Act

MO Members-only

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5:30 pm Celebrating Beach Blanket Babylon 5:30 pm Arlie Hochschild: Anger and Mourning on The American Right

5:30 pm Plato’s Radical Respect for Reason 5:30 pm Week to Week Politics Round Table and Social Hour 6:15 pm Parenting 101: Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Proprery Protection

6 pm Socrates Café FM

5 pm Middle East Forum Discussion FM 5:30 pm Week to Week Politics Roundtable and Social Hour 5:45 pm Ryan Holiday

5:30 pm Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren and Dan Ashley: Stories from America’s First Mental Health Court

5:30 pm The People Verses Democracy

5:30 pm Cisco’s Alex Goryachev and Maciej Kranz: Innovation in The Digital Economy

5:45 pm Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

commonwealthclub.org/events

11 am The University of California at 150 4:45 pm New Beginnings: Architect Designs His Own Retirement 6 pm Ben Franklin Circles FM 5:30 pm Amy Chua: Political Tibes

4:45 pm A Medicare Primer: What You Need to Know About Medicare Before You’re 65

5:45 pm John Beyrle, Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia 6 pm Humanities West Book Discussion: The Odyssey,

by Hober FM

4:45 pm Trauma and Resilience: Why Some Femal Survivors Are More Resilient Than Others 5:30 pm The Art of Resistance in The Bay Area

9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE

9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE 1:45 pm Russian Hill Walking Tour

9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE 5:30 pm Solar Energy Project: Kenyan Youth Innovation Centers

9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE 1:45 pm Waterfront Walking Tour 5:30 pm John Cox, Republican Candidate for Governor: An Agenda for Economic Growth

9:45 am The Michelle Meow Show FE 5:30 pm There are No Dead Here, with Author Maria Mcfarland Snachez-Moreno

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For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

Climate Chaos and Local Resilience 2/1

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 2/1/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club

Michelle Meow brings her long-running radio program to The Commonwealth Club, each Thursday recording her program before a live audience. Each week, she will talk with fascinating—and often controversial—folks involved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

CLIMATE CHAOS AND LOCAL RESILIENCE: WATER SOLUTIONS IN THE AMERICAN WEST

Fernanda Santos, Journalist, The New York Times; Southwest Borderlands Initiative Professor, Arizona State University; Author, The Fire Line: The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots; Winner, Western Writers of America 2017 Spur Award for Best First Nonfiction Book Kimery Wiltshire, CEO, Carpe Diem West

Climate chaos looks different in different places, and in the West, it’s all about water: drought, floods, fires, unhealthy drinking water. Communities across the West are facing these challenges in interesting and unique ways. Carpe Diem West supports a network of diverse western water leaders who are implementing innovative and equitable responses to the impacts of the warming climate on our water resources in the American West.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco

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David Cay Johnston 2/1 • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment and Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: LIVING IN TRUMP’S AMERICA

David Cay Johnston, Founder, DCReport. org; Author, It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America

While Twitter feuds and Russian hackers dominate news headlines, President Donald Trump’s administration is radically changing the policies and programs that define the American way of life. In their first year, the Trump administration’s efforts to defund Obamacare, repeal LGBT protections in the workplace, impose tax cuts and deport undocumented immigrants have significantly impacted millions of Americans, all while the mainstream media has struggled to keep up. Beyond the tweets, firings, scandals and indictments, how will Trump’s policy agenda continue to affect our daily lives?

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston says he has the answers. Since 1988, Johnston has been chronicling Trump’s personal life and business dealings—from his casinos to his marriages and beyond. In his new book, Johnston is going where the media won’t—into the weeds—to shed new light on the Trump administration’s policies and bureaucratic choices and how they will change America. Join Johnston for a revealing conversation about the Trump administration’s impact on our finances, health care, safety and much, much more.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: David Cay Johnston photo © Bonk Johnston

Larry Wilmore: Black On The Air Live! 2/3

SILICON VALLEY READS 2018 NO MATTER WHAT: CARING, COPING, COMPASSION

Rachel Khong, Author, Goodbye, Vitamin Mark Lukach, Author, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward Sal Pizarro, Columnist, The Mercury News— Moderator

Rachel Khong and Mark Lukach bring together the stories of two families that found renewed love and commitment after being thrust into caregiving roles. Khong’s novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, chronicles the life of a young women who returns home to care for her father who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Lukach’s memoir, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward, is about his wife’s experience with mental illness. Together, Khong and Lukach look at the role of caregivers and how it often takes a community to tackle life’s most challenging situations.

SILICON VALLEY • Location: De Anza College, Visual and Arts Performing Center, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino • Time: 6:45 p.m. doors open, 7:30 p.m. program, 8:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Presented by the Santa Clara County Library District, the San José Public Library, the Santa Clara County Office of Education and De Anza College; Khong photo by Andria Lo

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3 LARRY WILMORE: BLACK ON THE AIR WITH MICHAEL LEWIS

Michael Lewis, Author, The Undoing Project, Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, and others; Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair Larry Wilmore, Host, “Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air”—Moderator

Larry Wilmore’s podcast “Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air” debuted in May and features Wilmore’s candid thoughts on the most

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

David Frum 2/5

pressing issues of the week and his interviews with guests from the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports and beyond. This live conversation will feature guest and author Michael Lewis—we have a feeling the conversation will cover the wide range of subjects into which Larry and Michael both like to delve deeply!

SAN FRANCISCO • INFORUM PROGRAM • Location: Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco • Time: 4 p.m. check-in, 5 p.m. program • Notes: Wilmore photo by Peter Yang/ Comedy Central

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5 DAVID FRUM: THE CORRUPTION OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

David Frum, Senior Editor, The Atlantic; Author, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic

Frum outlines how he thinks President Trump could push America toward illiberalism, what the consequences could be for our nation and our everyday lives, and what we can do to prevent it. Join one of America’s leading conservative pundits for a conversation about our changing democracy and where the country is heading.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 11 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing • Notes: Frum photo by Michael Bennett Kress

RE-INVENTING WIRES: THE FUTURE OF LANDLINES AND NETWORKS

Timothy Schoechle, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy Martin Pall, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences, Washington State University Jim Turner, Esq., Partner, Swankin & Turner

commonwealthclub.org/events

Reinventing Wires 2/5

Duncan Campbell, Esq., Radio Host, “Living Dialogues”

There is an information vacuum among government, media and the public about the relative role of wired communications and the reasons hard wires, such as a copper cable and optical fiber, usually offer better telecommunications options. Critics say that from the perspective of public investment, health and ecosystem impacts, and energy efficiency, a strong case can be made that hard wiring is preferable to wireless, yet few understand this.

Instead, we seem to believe there is innate value to championing wireless over wired technologies, obsessing about how we can get and pay for more of it without first doing comprehensive cost–benefit analysis or understanding the risks. This program will feature a report by the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy, Re-Inventing Wires—The Future of Landlines and Networks.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5 p.m. check-in, 5:30 p.m. program, 6:45 p.m. wine and cheese reception • MLF: Health & Medicine • Program organizer: Bill Grant, Camilla Rees (co-chair), Ellen Marks (co-chair)

READING CALIFORNIANS BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP: THE OTHER SLAVERY, BY ANDRÉS RESÉNDEZ The Other Slavery by Andrés Reséndez was the gold medal winner in nonfiction in The Commonwealth Club’s 2017 California Book Awards.

Since the time of Columbus, Indian slavery was illegal in much of the American continent. Yet, as Reséndez describes in his The Other Slavery, it was practiced for centuries as an open secret. There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by

Mayor Michael Tubbs 2/5

the conquistadors. Reséndez builds the incisive case that it was mass slavery—more than epidemics—that decimated Indian populations across North America. Through riveting new evidence, including testimonies of courageous priests, rapacious merchants and Indian captives, The Other Slavery reveals nothing less than a key missing piece of American history.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Reading Californians Book Discussion • Program organizer: Betty Bullock

MAYOR MICHAEL TUBBS: REINVENTING STOCKTON

Michael Tubbs, Mayor of Stockton, Calif.

Twenty-seven-year-old Michael Tubbs has already made history as both Stockton’s first African-American mayor and as the youngest mayor in American history of a city of more than 100,000 people—and he’s just getting started.

He recently made headlines when Stockton became the first city in the nation to pilot a universal basic income program. Tubbs also hopes to use his tenure to reduce violent crime, foster economic development and partner with local school districts to improve public education. Tubbs’ bold leadership and commitment to his community have earned him recognition as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 young stars for 2017, and The Root named him one of its 100 most influential African Americans in 2017.

Tubbs was born and raised in Stockton, and he graduated with honors from Stanford University.

SAN FRANCISCO • INFORUM PROGRAM • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

Kelly Corrigan 2/6

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6 LEARNING HOW TO SAY HARD THINGS WITH KELLY CORRIGAN

Kelly Corrigan, Author, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say; Glitter and Glue; The Middle Place; Creative Director, The Nantucket Project Daniel Handler (also known as Lemony Snicket), Author, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Why We Broke Up—Moderator

Author Kelly Corrigan knows that words matter. Sometimes finding the right words to say in a difficult situation seems almost impossible, but the right words at the right moment can change everything.

In her new book, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say, Corrigan recounts the conversations and experiences throughout her life that have shaped the way she connects and empathizes with family, friends and her community.

Join master storyteller Corrigan, or as she’s been called, “the poet laureate of the ordinary,” as she shares stories that serve to remind us that we’re all human and all deserving of compassion and understanding.

SAN FRANCISCO • INFORUM PROGRAM • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program (book signing to follow) • Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation; Corrigan photo © Mellie T. Williams

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7 BEN FRANKLIN CIRCLES Join us monthly, every first Wednesday, for a 21st-century version of Ben Franklin’s mutual improvement club. One evening a week, for more than 40 years, the founding father discussed and debated with his friends the 13

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Impact Investing: Doing Good and Doing Well 2/7

virtues that he felt formed the basis for personal and civic improvement, a list he created when he was 20 years old. The virtues to which he aspired included justice, resolution and humility. (But don’t misunderstand Ben on that one—his explanation of humility was “imitate Jesus and Socrates.”)

The Ben Franklin Circles bring together people to discuss the most pressing philosophical and ethical issues of our time with the goal of improving ourselves and our world.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

IMPACT INVESTING: DOING GOOD AND DOING WELL

Bill McGlashan, Founder and Managing Partner, TPG Growth; Co-Founder and CEO, the Rise Fund In Conversation with David Bank, Editor, ImpactAlpha

What do Bono, Richard Branson and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, have in common? They are all committed to impact investing and are also board members of the Rise Fund, an innovative new fund at private equity titan TPG, which is run by Bill McGlashan. Impact investments are designed to generate measurable social and environmental impacts while creating a return for investors.

While this type of investment has risen in popularity lately, such investments have faced challenges in meeting the dual objectives of both doing good and doing well. McGlashan believes the Rise Fund can achieve both objectives and has brought great support and notoriety toward achieving these goals. He will share his thoughts on why the Rise Fund can do well and why impact investing is the key to

solving a number of global concerns.

NORTH BAY • MARIN CONVERSATIONS PROGRAM • Location: Outdoor Art Club, One West Blithdale, Mill Valley • Time: 7 p.m. check-in and light hors d’oeuvres, 7:45–9 p.m. program • Notes: Cash bar available

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 2/8/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club

Michelle Meow brings her long-running radio program to The Commonwealth Club, each Thursday recording her program before a live audience. Each week, she will talk with fascinating—and often controversial—folks involved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

TIMOTHY LEARY: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA

Bill Minutaglio, Co-Author, The Most Dangerous Man in America Steven Davis, Co-Author, The Most Dangerous Man in America

Bill Minutaglio and Steven Davis have written a madcap narrative about Timothy Leary, the High Priest of LSD, who ran a gleeful campaign for California governor against Ronald Reagan but was sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence for possessing two marijuana cigarettes.

On the moonlit evening of September 12, 1970, six months into his sentence, the ex-Harvard professor was aided in his escape from prison by the radical Weather Under-

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Timothy Leary: The Most Dangerous Man in America 2/8

ground. They aimed at sparking a revolution, and President Nixon believed it, obsessing about tracking down Leary, whom he branded “the most dangerous man in America.”

Based on new primary sources and firsthand interviews, this American thriller takes readers along for the gonzo ride of a lifetime, spanning 28 months of President Nixon’s global manhunt for Leary among homegrown radicals, European aristocrats, a Black Panther outpost in Algeria, an international arms dealer, hash-smuggling hippies from the Brotherhood of Eternal Love and secret agents on four continents.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond • Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation; Minutaglio and Davis photo by Dennis Darling

6TH ANNIVERSARY: WEEK TO WEEK POLITICS ROUNDTABLE AND SOCIAL HOUR 2/8/18

Carson Bruno, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Program Relations, Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy; Former Hoover Institute Research Fellow; California Policy Specialist Melissa Caen, Politics and Legal Reporter, CBS Bay Area (KPIX 5) Additional Panelist TBA

We’re celebrating our sixth anniversary with a special Thursday-night edition of the Week to Week political roundtable.

Join us as we discuss the biggest, most controversial and sometimes the surprising political issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil and have a good sense of humor. Join our panelists for

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informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, audience discussion of the week’s events, and our live news quiz! Come early before the program to meet other smart and engaged individuals and discuss the news over snacks and wine at our members social (open to all attendees).

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. wine-and-snacks social, 6:30 p.m. program

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 VOICES FROM SYRIA

Wendy Pearlman, Specialist, Middle East Politics; Associate Professor, Northwestern University; Author, We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria

Wendy Pearlman has spent years living in the Arab world. She will discuss her latest book, We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria, a fierce and poignant collection of stories based on interviews with hundreds of displaced Syrians.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel • Notes: Pearlman photo by Maia Rosenfeld

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12 ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ORDER OF E CLAMPUS VITUS

Robert Chandler, Ph.D., Former Senior Research Historian, Speaker and Exhibit Designer, History Department at Wells Fargo Bank; Author, California: An Illustrated History, Wells Fargo and San Francisco Lithographer: African American Artist Grafton Tyler Brown

Sir Francis Drake’s 1579 Plate of Brasse was left at Point Reyes, claiming California for

Voices from Syria 2/9

England. Its 1937 recovery became California’s greatest historical hoax. The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus (ECV), whose members are commonly known as Clampers, is a spoof on all other fraternal organizations. It was revived in 1932 by professional and successful businessmen, prominent collectors of Californiana, published historians, fine press printers, bibliophiles and University of California academics, who threw off scholarly stuffiness to have fun.

From the Roman Empire, ECV spread throughout Europe, China and to the New World via the Spanish. It was brought to California by Chinese mariners. Not until the 21st century did the Clampers’ background with the Plate of Brasse become revealed.

Robert Chandler, the speaker, will appear in full regalia and lead the presentation with PowerPoint.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program • MLF: Arts • Program organizer: Anne W. Smith

DO WE LEARN FROM HISTORY?

Steve Zolno, Management and Education Consultant; Author, The Future of Democracy

Monday Night Philosophy explores what we can learn from history in order to preserve and strengthen democracy. In The Future of Democracy, Steve Zolno asks: What is democracy? Where did it come from? Where is it going? He considers whether democracy is a new development or whether it has always been present in human society. Zolno will also discuss: What are the historical trends that have promoted democracy over authoritarian governments? Where and why has democracy been the most and least successFEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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Journalist Steve Coll 2/12

ful? According to Zolno, our most important political task is clarifying what each of us can do, as politicians or as ordinary citizens, to bring the benefits of democracy more fully into our personal and political lives. Join us for a lively discussion!

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

JOURNALIST STEVE COLL: HOW AMERICA BECAME ENSNARED IN AFGHANISTAN

Steve Coll, Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University; Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan (forthcoming) In conversation with Dr. Gloria Duffy, President and CEO, The Commonwealth Club

As former managing editor of The Washington Post and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll has spent years studying the forces that have impacted U.S. foreign policy. In his new book, Directorate S, he reveals how the war in Afghanistan was doomed because of the United States’ failure to apprehend the motivations and intentions of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Coll says ISI created a special branch, “Directorate S,” which covertly armed, trained and financed the Taliban, frustrating American forces at every turn. Come hear Coll’s startling explanation of how America came to be so badly ensnared in an elaborate, factional and seemingly interminable conflict.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30

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The Panama-Pacific Partnership: Realizing the Emerging Hub of the Americas 2/13 p.m. book signing • Notes: Coll photo by Annie Schlechter

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13 THE PANAMA-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP: REVITALIZING THE EMERGING HUB OF THE AMERICAS

Guillermo Cochez, Former Ambassador of Panama to the Organization of American States (2009–2014)

The once poor, troubled country that struggled to implant a democracy after the fall of General Manuel Noriega in 1989 has come a long way. Direct flights from San Francisco to the isthmus started in 2016, just as the Panama Canal was dramatically expanded.

The Panama crossroads has begun to truly rival Miami as the new hub of the Americas, and Panama is about to emerge as one of the countries with the highest per capita income in the region. Yet corruption scandals, unequal economic growth and increasing challenges to democracy across the hemisphere cloud the horizon as the Pacific continues to grow as the center of global commerce. Come join a discussion with Guillermo Cochez, the former ambassador of Panama to the Organization of American States, about the future of this country.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program • MLF: International Relations • Program organizer: Norma Walden

NOB HILL WALKING TOUR Explore one of San Francisco’s 44 hills, and one of its original “Seven Hills.” Because of great views and its central position, Nob Hill became an exclusive enclave of the rich and famous on the West Coast who built large mansions in the neighborhood. This includ-

ed 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 Huntington Hotel. Visit the city’s largest house of worship, Grace Cathedral, and discover architectural tidbits and anecdotes about the railroad barons and silver kings. A true San Francisco experience of elegance, urbanity, scandals and fabulous views.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Caffe Cento (meet in front), 801 Powell St., San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: Tour operates rain or shine; limited to 20 participants; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in; walks with fewer than six participants will be canceled (You will receive notification of this at least three days in advance.)

SECRETS TO FINDING LOVE IN THE BAY AREA

Rich Gosse, Chairman, Society of Single Professionals; Executive Director, International Association of Dating Websites; Author, The Donald Trump Syndrome: Why Women Choose the Wrong Men to Love

San Francisco can be a tough place to find love. There are plenty of apps to help you find casual connections, but what works for finding a longer lasting relationship or even true love? Where should you go, and how can you catch his or her eye? How can you handle rejection without feeling discouraged? And how can you quickly recognize that you’re talking to the wrong person?

If you’re ready to find the lifelong partner you truly want, come get advice from our speaker, Rich Gosse, the worldwide authority on dating. He has run over 2,000 dating parties over more than 30 years, many of which have been in the Bay Area. He’s been inter-

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Powershift: The End of Gasoline Cars? 2/13

viewed by dozens of major newspapers and TV shows to provide expert insight. And he found his wife by following his own advice.

So stop wasting time by falling into impulsive traps that all your friends can see but you can’t, or by making endless lists that never seem to lead to an enduring relationship. Come listen to Gosse and move forward with your life.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Personal Growth, Grownups • Program organizer: Eric Siegel • Notes: In association with INFORUM

POWER SHIFT: THE END OF GASOLINE CARS?

Caroline Choi, Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Southern California Edison Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President, Western States Petroleum Association Greg Dalton, Founder & Host, Climate One Additional Speakers TBA

Have gas cars peaked? Last year, Volvo announced it would stop making gas-only cars by 2019. Then, India, France and the United Kingdom said they will phase out cars that run on petroleum in the next couple of decades. When China moved in the same direction, automakers put the pedal to the metal on bringing electric cars to market. With Detroit embracing plug-in cars, electric utilities sense an opportunity to grow their business as the age of oil sunsets. The industries of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison are getting together to take over the John D. Rockefeller industry. How fast will that happen? Will some oil companies go the way of Kodak and disappear from the mainstream?

Join us for a conversation about the end of oil and the electrification of everything.

SAN FRANCISCO • CLIMATE ONE PROGRAM •

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Carl Pope: Climate of Hope 2/13

Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. networking reception

CARL POPE: CLIMATE OF HOPE

Carl Pope, Former Executive Director and Chairman, the Sierra Club; Co-Author, Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet

Carl Pope is a veteran leader in the environmental movement and spent nearly 20 years as the executive director of the Sierra Club.

He offers an optimistic look at the challenges of climate change, the solutions that hold the greatest promise and the practical steps that are necessary to achieve them. Pope also highlights the contributions and bold actions that cities, businesses and citizens are making to reshape and jump-start a new type of conversation about climate change.

SILICON VALLEY • Location: Cubberley Theatre (near Montrose and Middlefield), 4000 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto • Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing • Notes: Co-hosted by the American India Foundation

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 2/15/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club

Michelle Meow brings her long-running radio program to The Commonwealth Club.

Each week, she will talk with fascinating— and often controversial—folks involved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

WHY NEED TO PROTECT HALF THE PLANET AND WHERE TO START?

Cyril Kormos, Executive Director, Wild Heritage Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director, Amazon Watch Dominick DellaSala, President and Chief Scientist, Geos Institute

New research indicates current global conservation targets, which call for preserving 17 percent of land and 10 percent of oceans, are far too low. Instead, targets should be closer to 50 percent for land and 30 percent for oceans.

This will protect the diversity of life on Earth and ensure human well-being and survival.

Join panelists for this critical discussion on why we need to increase conservation targets in order to save the Earth.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment & Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

HISTORIAN MAX BOOT: WAS THE VIETNAM WAR AVOIDABLE?

Max Boot, Senior Fellow, the Council on Foreign Relations; Author, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam Roy Eisenhardt, Lecturer, UC Berkeley School of Law; Member, The Commonwealth Club’s California Book Awards Jury

Max Boot’s latest book, The Road Not Taken, discusses his contention that the Vietnam War could have been avoided if American leaders had listened to a visionary CIA Agent, Edward Lansdale, who called for a focus on hearts and minds, not bombs and body counts. Come hear a fascinating tale of spy craft, bureaucracy and combat.

Boot is a military historian and foreign FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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Emily Chang 2/15

policy analyst who has been called one of the “world’s leading authorities on armed conflict” by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Boot served as an adviser to U.S. commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also advised the presidential campaigns of John McCain, Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation

EMILY CHANG: BREAKING UP THE SILICON VALLEY BOYS’ CLUB

Emily Chang, Anchor and Executive Producer, Bloomberg Technology; Author, Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley has an ugly secret. Behind the million-dollar ideas and innovations, women in tech are vastly outnumbered and often face discrimination, sexual harassment and toxic work environments. Emily Chang reveals how Silicon Valley got so sexist despite its utopian ideals. Drawing on her deep network of tech insiders, Chang reveals just how hard it is for women to crack the Silicon ceiling and what companies and employees need to do to bring down the “brotopia” culture once and for all.

SILICON VALLEY • Location: Santa Clara Convention Center Theater, 5001 Great America Pkwy., Santa Clara • Time: 6:15 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 RICK STEVES: TRAVELING AS A POLITICAL ACT

Rick Steves, PBS Travel Host; Author, Travel As a Political Act

Rick Steves has lived out of a suitcase for

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Rick Steves: Traveling As a Political Act 2/17

much of his life. He states that “travel is freedom.” Through travel, we can all learn how to appreciate different cultures and gain a broader perspective. As the world seems more and more divisive, there has never been a more important time to explore. Steves shares some of his most memorable experiences trekking through Europe, Central America, Asia and the Middle East and explains how we have the power to change the world one trip at a time.

SILICON VALLEY • Location: Schultz 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

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20 IT’S YOUR MONEY: MAKING AND STICKING TO TOUGH BUT SMART MONEY DECISIONS

Valerie Coleman Morris, Journalist; Former Business Anchor, CNN; Author, It’s Your Money So Take It Personally

Valerie Coleman Morris, a distinguished money manager, TV financial anchor and author, will discuss the challenges of keeping hard-earned savings in one’s later years. She will discuss how to handle the boomerang trend (adult children returning home) and issues around the status of the family home (e.g., the kids want you to keep the house; you are trying to determine whether to reverse mortgage your home or have them buy it). Coleman will also address rightsizing versus downsizing your living space and explain the value of embracing the concept of gifting while alive. (The grandest gifts are often 529 plans.) Conversely, she will touch on the pitfalls of cash loans to family or friends and the importance of keeping vital documents current, confirming that all beneficiary designations are up to date.

Valerie Coleman Morris 2/20 SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Program organizer: John Milford, Denise Michaud

SOCRATES CAFÉ Each meeting is devoted to the discussion of a philosophical topic chosen at that meeting. The group’s facilitator, John Nyquist, invites participants to suggest topics, which are then voted on. The person who proposed the most popular topic is asked to briefly explain why she or he considers that topic interesting and important. An open discussion follows, and the meeting ends with a summary of the various perspectives.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30–8 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

REP. ADAM SCHIFF: INVESTIGATING RUSSIA AND DEFENDING DEMOCRACY

Adam Schiff, U.S. Representative for District 28 (D-CA)

This program is sold out.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program • Notes: Attendees subject to search

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21 HUMANITIES WEST BOOK DISCUSSION: ANCIENT GREECE Join us for a discussion of Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times by Thomas R. Martin. Martin’s compact yet comprehensive history of ancient Greece brings alive Greek civilization from its Stone Age roots to

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Humanities West Book Discussion: Ancient Greece 2/21

the fourth century B.C. Focusing on the development of the Greek city-state and the society, culture and architecture of Athens in its golden age, Martin integrates political, military, social and cultural history. The discussion will be led by Lynn Harris.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 2/22/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week

Michelle Meow brings her long-running radio program to The Commonwealth Club.

Each week, she will talk with fascinating— and often controversial—folks involved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

NORTH BEACH WALKING TOUR 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 hangouts, you’ll discover authentic Italian cathedrals and coffee shops.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Victoria Pastry Cafe, 700 Filbert St., San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: Take Muni bus 30, 41 or 45; use North Beach Parking Garage on 735 Vallejo St; tour operates rain or

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shine; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in; walks with fewer than six participants will be canceled (You will receive notification of this at least three days in advance.)

EUROPA AND THE ALPHABET: PHOENICIANS AWAKEN THE GREEKS FROM THEIR DARK AGE

Douglas Kenning, Former Professor of History and Literature

The rape of Europa is a Greek myth that tells of a Phoenician princess stolen across the sea from Tyre to Crete. Her five brothers are sent to find her. Although none is successful, one brother, Cadmus, finds the city of Thebes, marries a local girl named Harmonia, and is credited with giving Greece agriculture, the alphabet and metalworking—the pillars of civilization. The myth’s names tell its story: Europa means “west,” Cadmus derives from the word for “east,” and Harmonia (“harmony”) was how Greeks defined beauty. The Greek myth is thought to depict the arrival of ideas, art, stories and technical skills from the Near East to Europe in the middle of the first millennium B.C. It was a seedtime that fertilized rocky, resource-poor, illiterate Greece, giving birth to Western civilization. Douglas Kenning relates the history that this richly layered myth evokes, both as it was once told and as it is told now.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26 ISA GUCCIARDI: MEDITATING YOUR WAY THROUGH CHAOS

Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D., Founding Director, Foundation of the Sacred Stream; Author,

Isa Gucciardi 2/26

Coming to Peace: Resolving Conflict Within Ourselves and with Others

Whether it comes in the form of bickering with an irritating co-worker, having a disagreement with a spouse or arguing with a close friend, interpersonal conflicts are an inevitable and frustrating part of our modern lives. But how can we eliminate the sense of helplessness and anguish that accompanies these conflicts? What must we do to find true contentedness despite the chaos we find ourselves surrounded by?

Isa Gucciardi, director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream, says she has the solution. Gucciardi’s conflict resolution method builds on the wisdom of ancient meditation techniques and Buddhist traditions, encouraging us to come together and heal after a conflict while also acknowledging our own role in causing the conflict in the first place. Join Gucciardi for a transformational conversation about relationships, self-improvement and finding inner peace in a turbulent world.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing

FREUD WITHOUT CONTRADICTIONS

Frederick Crews, Professor Emeritus of English, UC Berkeley

Frederick Crews will present the main findings from his recent book, Freud: The Making of an Illusion. The over 700-page book is an intensive biographical study of Freud’s life through the early years of psychoanalysis.

It traces his several prior attempts to achieve fame, explains what he mistakenly learned from studying with the great Parisian neuroloFEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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John Hope Bryant 2/27

gist Jean-Martin Charcot and follows his quite revealing adventures with cocaine. The book also reassesses Freud’s relations with his early mentor Josef Breuer and shows how his eventual theory was shaped in part by his attachment to his eccentric friend Wilhelm Fliess.

Crews asserts psychoanalytic theory had no basis in either discoveries or cures. Instead, it can be understood as an outcome of Freud’s ambitions, circumstances and limitations.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Psychology • Program organizer: Patrick O’Reilly

MIDDLE EAST FORUM DISCUSSION The Middle East Forum discussion group, which primarily covers the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan, has been meeting monthly for about 10 years. We are not a debate group. We discuss timely, cultural subjects in a civil atmosphere with respect for others and their opinions.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5 p.m. check-in, 5:30 p.m. program • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 A BRIGHTER DAY

Elliot Kallen, Financial Accountant; Wealth Manager; Founder, A Brighter Day

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among teens in the U.S. In this program, Elliot Kallen, who founded A Brighter Day in honor of his late son, Jake, will discuss the organization’s efforts in fighting depression and teen suicide. A Brighter Day reaches out to teens suffering from depression and other related issues while allowing them to maintain their dignity. The charity connects teens to the

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Modern Loss: Candid Conversations About Grief 2/28

resources they need, showcasing local bands in a way that helps teens learn about depression and its risk factors.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Psychology • Program organizer: Patrick O’Reilly

JOHN HOPE BRYANT: THE PATH TO FINANCIAL LIBERATION

John Hope Bryant, Founder and CEO, Operation Hope; Chairman, President Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability; Author, The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation

John Hope Bryant is an entrepreneur, author, advisor and one of the nation’s most recognized empowerment leaders. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of Operation Hope and the Bryant Group Companies and is one of the top-selling African-American business authors in America. Along with Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland, Bryant is a co-founder of Global Dignity, which is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum.

In his new book, The Memo, Bryant argues that true power in this world comes from economic independence, but too many people don’t have enough money left at the end of the month. His message is simple: The supermajority of people who live in poverty, whom Bryant calls the invisible class, as well as millions in the struggling middle class, haven’t gotten “the memo”—until now. Come for an engaging discussion on achieving financial literacy and approaching wealth with a completely new attitude ... and about how the path to liberation is hiding in plain sight.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Au-

ditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 MODERN LOSS: CANDID CONVERSATIONS ABOUT GRIEF

Rebecca Soffer, Co-Founder and CEO, Modern Loss; Former Producer, “The Colbert Report” Gabrielle Birkner, Co-Founder and Executive Editor, Modern Loss; Former Managing Editor, Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Former Director of Digital Media, The Forward; Former Features Editor, The New York Sun Anna Sale, Host and Creator, WNYC’s “Death, Sex & Money”; Former Contributor, “Fresh Air,” “This American Life,” NPR News, “Marketplace,” “PBS NewsHour,” and Slate

Modern Loss co-founders Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner will discuss how the isolation they experienced after losing parents as young adults inspired them to take a noholds-barred approach to grief. Their efforts have taken the form of a website and community that The New York Times described as a way of “redefining mourning.”

Soffer and Birkner now have a new book, Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome. They will sit down with “Death, Sex & Money” host Anna Sale for an open exchange on loss, resilience, empathy and the power of owning your narrative. They will also discuss the importance of creating platforms for others to share and learn stories of loss—in all of its messiness, melancholy, hilarity and hopefulness.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Health & Medicine • Program organizer: Shoshana Ungerleider, M.D. • Notes: In association with End Well Project

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

Celebrating Beach Blanket Babylon 3/5

THURSDAY, MARCH 1 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 3/1/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club

Michelle Meow brings her long-running radio program to the Club. Each week, she will talk with fascinating—and often controversial—folks involved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

MONDAY, MARCH 5 CELEBRATING BEACH BLANKET BABYLON Panelists TBA

Beach Blanket Babylon, celebrating more than 16,000 performances and seen by over 6 million people, is the longest running musical revue in the world. According to The New York Times, it’s “updated more often than your average smartphone software.” Renowned for its iconic hats and amazing costumes, this show is filled with political and pop culture parodies. Cast members will perform one of the show’s signature songs and answer questions from the audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: International Relations • Program organizer: Norma Walden

ARLIE HOCHSCHILD: ANGER AND MOURNING ON THE AMERICAN RIGHT

Arlie R. Hochschild, Ph.D., Professor Emer-

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ita, Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley; Author, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Since the 2016 election, America’s great political divide seems to be getting wider.

Democrats and Republicans have grown further apart, and the national conversation has shifted away from cooperation and compromise. Renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild seeks to find common ground in our desire for community, our embrace of family and our hopes for a better future that we can all share.

In Strangers in Their Own Land, Hochschild embarks on a journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country—a stronghold of the conservative Right. She challenges the idea that people are voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of sociology to help us understand what it feels like to live in “red” America and how we can grow into a united America.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing

TUESDAY, MARCH 6 JUDGE GINGER LERNER-WREN AND DAN ASHLEY: STORIES FROM AMERICA’S FIRST MENTAL HEALTH COURT

Ginger Lerner-Wren, Judge in the Criminal Division of the 17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County, Florida; Presiding Judge, Broward County Mental Health Court; Author, A Court of Refuge In Conversation with Dan Ashley, News Anchor, KGO

In 1997, Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren was appointed to preside over America’s first

Janet Napolitano 3/7

mental health court. As a young lawyer, she bore witness to the consequences of an underdeveloped mental health care infrastructure. Unable to do more than offer guidance, she watched families get torn apart as client after client was ensnared in the criminal justice system for crimes committed as a result of addiction, homelessness and severe mental illness. She soon learned that this was not an isolated issue—the Treatment Advocacy Center estimates that in 44 states, jails and prisons house 10 times as many people with serious mental illness than state psychiatric hospitals.

Lerner-Wren says mental health courts offer some relief in underserved communities, but they can only serve as a single piece of a new focus on the vast overhaul of the policies that got us here. Come hear her thoughts on a future where our legal system and mental health infrastructure work in step to decriminalize rather than stigmatize.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT 150: A CONVERSATION WITH UC PRESIDENT JANET NAPOLITANO

Janet Napolitano, President, University of California; Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security; Former Governor of Arizona

University of California president Janet Napolitano will deliver a keynote speech, engage in a moderated conversation and take audience questions about the future of the University of California as the institution celebrates its 150th year.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family AuFEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

New Beginnings 3/7 ditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 11 a.m. check-in, noon program • Notes:

Amy Chua: Political Tribes 3/7

Attendees subject to search

Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

NEW BEGINNINGS: ARCHITECT DESIGNS HIS OWN RETIREMENT

IS SILICON VALLEY AS GREEN AS IT CLAIMS?

Jackson Fahnestock, Architect; Author, Shu Wei’s Revenge

Award-winning author Jackson Fahnestock will be in conversation with Denise Michaud, co-chair of the Grownups forum, about how a health crisis precipitated his early retirement from an architectural career and led to his pursuits of art and writing. He will talk about his first novel, Shu Wei’s Revenge, which was a distinguished favorite of the New York City Big Book Award and a 2015 semifinalist of the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Set in 1898 in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the book touches on several relevant themes.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Program organizer: John Milford

BEN FRANKLIN CIRCLES Join us monthly, every first Wednesday, for a 21st-century version of Ben Franklin’s mutual improvement club. One evening a week, for more than 40 years, the founding father discussed and debated with his friends the 13 virtues that he felt formed the basis for personal and civic improvement, a list he created when he was 20 years old. The virtues to which he aspired included justice, resolution and humility. (But don’t misunderstand Ben on that one—his explanation of humility was “imitate Jesus and Socrates.”)

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco •

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THE COMMO N WE AL TH

Suzanne DiBianca, Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and Chief Philanthropy Officer, Salesforce Lynelle Preston Cameron, President, CEO and Senior Director of Sustainability, Autodesk Foundation Greg Dalton, Founder & Host, Climate One Additional Speakers TBA

Tech companies are cleaning up their data centers and building shiny new buildings that sip water and energy. But are these companies really as green as they claim to be? How do we know they aren’t just greenwashing? Many tech and industrial companies have issued statements in support of the Paris climate agreement, but will they spend energy supporting something that seems so distant from their daily operations and bottom lines?

Sustainability officers also deal with issues such as trying to build housing near jobs, getting people to those jobs in something other than single-occupant vehicles and handling carbon impacts of the food served in their company cafés. In making these changes, are companies able to infuse sustainable lifestyles into American culture? What other social issues are firing up tech companies?

SAN FRANCISCO • CLIMATE ONE PROGRAM • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. networking reception

AMY CHUA: POLITICAL TRIBES

Amy Chua, John M. Duff Jr. Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Author, Political Tribes:

The Michelle Meow Show 3/8

Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations (forthcoming) Lanhee J. Chen, David and Diane Steffy Research Fellow, Hoover Institution—Moderator

Amy Chua, best-selling author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, provides us with a cautionary critique of political tribalism in her characteristically sharp style.

Humans are tribal: We need to belong to groups. In this same way, politics can be tribal too. While groups can strengthen communities, we should also be wary of groups’ ability to divide us. According to Chua, America’s political landscape has been transformed by these types of divisions, both at home and abroad, and they threaten to tear our country apart.

Chua believes that tribalism emerged in America’s foreign policy during Vietnam and Iraq. And now, as the stunning rise of Donald Trump has proven, all groups feel threatened: whites and blacks, Latinos and Asians, men and women, liberals and conservatives. Chua argues that America must rediscover a national identity that transcends our political tribes; we need to unify to fight the deep inequities that divide us.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Chua photo by Fadil Berisha

THURSDAY, MARCH 8 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 3/8/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club

Each week, Michelle Meow talks with fascinating—and often controversial—folks in-

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

Plato’s Radical Respect for Reason 3/12

volved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

RUSSIAN HILL WALKING TOUR 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 “cardio 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.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Swensen’s Ice Cream, 1999 Hyde St., San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: Take Muni (Bus 45) or a taxi; there is absolutely no parking on Russian Hill—no parking lots or street parking; please take a taxi or public transport; the tour ends about six blocks from Swensen’s Ice Cream, at the corner of Vallejo and Jones; it is an easy walk down to North Beach from there; there are steep hills and staircases; the tour is recommended for good walkers only; the tour operates rain or shine; limited to 20 participants; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in

MONDAY, MARCH 12 PLATO’S RADICAL RESPECT FOR REASON

George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates and Rational Idealism

Monday Night Philosophy recognizes that reasoning has always been part of human life, but Plato played a radical role in increasing our respect for the power of reason, cutting through mythological beliefs and inaccurate

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opinions. He shared his passionate enthusiasm for reason with the students of his Academy (and later with us) through his philosophical dialogues.

Plato carried his ideas out of the shadows of the cave of Pythagorean secrecy and spread them out in the sunlight for everyone to see.

Plato even records Socrates arguing that philosophical discussions should not be recorded in writing because they will then be distorted and misunderstood.

Plato’s mischievous and knowing disobedience was based on his acceptance that distortions and misunderstandings would abound.

But he was convinced that it was crucial to make clear, conceptual reasoning more popular if we were ever going to understand the world we inhabit. Plato’s decision proved vital to our current understanding of reasoning.

However, the popularity of his radical respect for reason is still in its infancy of influence on human culture. Peer ahead to see what is still to come.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond • Notes: Parthenon photo by Adam Crowley/Photodisc/Getty Images

WEEK TO WEEK POLITICS ROUNDTABLE AND SOCIAL HOUR 3/12/18 Panelists TBA

The year 2018 is shaping up to be a major battleground for control of state governments and the U.S. Congress. Closer to home, we will see a spirited competition to replace the late Mayor Ed Lee in San Francisco’s City Hall.

We will discuss the biggest, most controversial and sometimes the surprising political

The People Versus Democracy 3/13

issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil and have a good sense of humor. Join our panelists for informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, audience discussion of the week’s events, and our live news quiz. Come early before the program for our members social (open to all attendees).

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. wine-and-snacks social, 6:30 p.m. program

PATENTING 101: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION Panelists TBA

Silicon Valley is home to innovation and creation spurred by daring entrepreneurs chasing their dreams. At the heart of their businesses is intellectual property—their competitive advantage. Protecting that property is the difference between a slam dunk and failure.

Our panelists will provide resources for aspiring entrepreneurs while giving a basic overview of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and its services. Come network with fellow entrepreneurs and learn how to safeguard your ideas and business.

SILICON VALLEY • Location: Schultz Cultural Hall, Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto • Time: 6:15 p.m. check-in and networking reception, 7 p.m. program • Notes: In association with the Millennial Network

TUESDAY, MARCH 13 THE PEOPLE VERSUS DEMOCRACY

Yascha Mounk, Lecturer on Government, Harvard University; Senior Fellow in the Political Reform Program, New America; Author, The People vs. Democracy (forthcoming)

From India to Turkey, Poland to the UnitFEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

A Medicare Primer 3/14

ed States, authoritarian populists are now in power. Does this mean democracy itself is at risk? Two core components of liberal democracy—individual rights and the popular will—are increasingly in conflict with each other. As the role of money in politics has soared and important issues have been taken out of public contestation, a system of “rights without democracy” has taken hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people, but in practice they create something just as bad: a system of “democracy without rights.”

Drawing on vivid stories and original research, Yascha Mounk identifies three key drivers of voters’ discontent: stagnating living standards, fears of multiethnic democracy and the rise of social media. To avoid giving up on either individual rights or the popular will, Mounk believes politicians need to enact reforms that benefit the many, not just the few.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond • Notes: Mounk photo by Steffen Jänicke

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14 A MEDICARE PRIMER: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MEDICARE BEFORE YOU’RE 65

Esther Koch, MBA, CPA, President, Encore Management

If Medicare seems like one big alphabetical maze to you, you are not alone. For most, a correct understanding of how Medicare works, how Medicare interacts with company and retiree plans, what plan options might be best for you, and when or how to sign up are not clear. Learn the ABCs of Medicare as well as the realities of what and what not to expect.

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THE COMMO N WE AL TH

The Michelle Meow Show 3/15

Here’s what every boomer needs to know before they turn 65.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Program organizer: John Milford

THURSDAY, MARCH 15 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 3/15/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club

Each week, Michelle Meow talks with fascinating—and often controversial—folks involved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

SOLAR ENERGY PROJECT: KENYAN YOUTH INNOVATION CENTERS

Barry Levine, Ph.D., Professor of Computer Science, San Francisco State University Jambi Kahahu, St. Stevens Memorial Academy in Limuru, Kenya

Despite the high potential for solar power generation in Kenya, more than 84 percent of Kenyans in rural communities have no access to grid electricity. A pilot project in Limuru, Kenya, is teaching young people the skills they need to build a solar-LED light system with scrap components, soldering wire for electricity in their homes, schools and neighborhoods. The goal is to help youth learn to develop renewable energy. The program also encourages entrepreneurial goals and provides students with the skills they need for econom-

Innovation in The Digital Economy 3/20

ic self-sufficiency in their communities. Come learn what these young people are doing to create solar energy and power for both today and the future.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment & Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

MONDAY, MARCH 19 SOCRATES CAFÉ On one Monday evening of every month the Humanities Forum sponsors Socrates Café at The Commonwealth Club. Each meeting is devoted to the discussion of a philosophical topic chosen at that meeting. The group’s facilitator, John Nyquist, invites participants to suggest topics, which are then voted on. The person who proposed the most popular topic is asked to briefly explain why she or he considers that topic interesting and important. An open discussion follows, and the meeting ends with a summary of the various perspectives.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30–8 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

TUESDAY, MARCH 20 CISCO’S ALEX GORYACHEV AND MACIEJ KRANZ: INNOVATION IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

Alex Goryachev, Senior Director of Innovation Strategy and Programs, Cisco Systems Maciej Kranz, VP of Strategic Innovations, Cisco Systems; Author, Building the Internet of Things: Implement New Business Models, Disrupt Competitors, Transform Your Industry

Here’s a chance to get an inside view of

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

John Beyrle 3/21

innovation in the tech industry from two high-level executives at Cisco Systems, one of Silicon Valley’s most revered companies. Our speakers will discuss the disruptive impact of digitization on industries, their operations, cultures and employees as well as co-innovation best practices inside and outside that enable companies to lead the digital transition.

For the past 20 years, Alex Goryachev has made it his business to turn disruptive concepts into emerging business models. As Cisco’s senior director of innovation strategy and programs, he sparks internal innovation by providing employees at all levels the chance to share their big ideas, many of which make their way into the company’s innovation engine. Maciej Kranz brings 30 years of networking industry experience to his position as vice president of the corporate strategic innovation group at Cisco. He leads the group focused on incubating new businesses, accelerating internal innovation and driving co-innovation with customers and partners through a global network of Cisco innovation centers.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Underwritten by Accenture

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21 JOHN BEYRLE, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA Russia: Preparing for the Post-Putin Era

John Beyrle, U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2008–12; Board Director, U.S. Russia Foundation

Following the Russian elections on March 18, Vladimir Putin will likely have just won a fourth (and probable final) term as president.

commonwealthclub.org/events

The Odyssey, by Homer 3/21

Beyrle will discuss preparing for the post-Putin era in Russia.

Beyrle served as an American diplomat for more than three decades in foreign postings and domestic assignments focused on Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Russia. He was twice appointed ambassador—to Bulgaria (from 2005–08) and to Russia (from 2008–12). During the latter assignment, he led the implementation of policies resulting in improved United States–Russian relations, highlighted by the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization and liberalized visa formalities.

Beyrle’s diplomatic service included two earlier tours at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, most recently serving as deputy chief of mission. He also served as counselor for political and economic affairs at the U.S. embassy in the Czech Republic and a member of the U.S. delegation to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, negotiated in Vienna.

As a staff officer in the 1980s, he traveled extensively with George Shultz and James Baker, former secretaries of state. Beyrle currently serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law.

nearly three millennia. The discussion will be led by Lynn Harris.

HUMANITIES WEST BOOK DISCUSSION: THE ODYSSEY, BY HOMER Join us for a discussion of The Odyssey. Homer’s classic, as translated by Robert Fagles, is transformed from a long poem into an accessible war epic. Experience why Homer’s work continues to influence human culture after

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2-4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: The tour operates rain or shine; limited to 20 participants; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in; walks with fewer than six participants will be canceled (you will receive notification of this at least three days in advance.)

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:45 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

THURSDAY, MARCH 22 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 3/22/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club

Each week, Michelle Meow talks with fascinating—and often controversial—folks involved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

WATERFRONT WALKING TOUR Join Rick Evans for his walking tour exploring the historic sites of the waterfront neighborhood that surrounds Commonwealth Club headquarters. Hear the dynamic stories of the entrepreneurs, controversial artists and labor organizers who created this recently revitalized neighborhood. This tour will give you a lively overview of the historic significance of this neighborhood and a close look at the ongoing development.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

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For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

John Cox 3/22

JOHN COX, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR: AN AGENDA FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

John Cox, Businessman, Republican Candidate for Governor

John Cox is a successful small businessman born and raised in Chicago by his mother, a public school teacher who greatly influenced his perspective on politics. He resides with his family in the San Diego County community of Rancho Santa Fe and is a Republican candidate for California governor. Calling himself a “Jack Kemp-style” Republican, Cox is the author of the “neighborhood legislature” initiative. He founded an affiliate of Rebuilding Together, a nationwide organization that repairs the homes of low-income seniors and disabled persons. Cox will discuss limiting the influence of special interests and what he believes we can do to unshackle economic growth.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program

MONDAY, MARCH 26 MIDDLE EAST FORUM DISCUSSION The Middle East Forum discussion group is not a debate group. We discuss timely, cultural subjects in a civil atmosphere with respect for others and their opinions.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Max Thelen Board Room, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5 p.m. check-in, 5:30 p.m. program • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel

WEEK TO WEEK POLITICS ROUNDTABLE AND SOCIAL HOUR 3/26/18

Carson Bruno, Asst. Dean for Admissions and Program Relations, Pepperdine Univ.

School of Public Policy; Former Hoover Institute Research Fellow; California Policy Specialist

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Ryan Holiday 3/26

Additional Panelists TBA

This year is shaping up to be a major battleground for control of state governments and the Congress. In San Francisco, we see a spirited competition to replace Mayor Lee. Join us as we discuss the biggest, most controversial and the surprising political issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil and have a good sense of humor.

SAN FRANCISCO • WEEK TO WEEK PROGRAM • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. wine-and-snacks social, 6:30 p.m. program

RYAN HOLIDAY: PETER THIEL AND THE GAWKER CONSPIRACY Ryan Holiday, Author, Conspiracy

Author Ryan Holiday recounts the tale behind billionaire Peter Thiel and the demise of Gawker Media. See website for details.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:45 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Holiday photo by Jared Polin

TUESDAY, MARCH 27 DR. NADINE BURKE HARRIS

Nadine Burke Harris, M.D., Founder and CEO, Center for Youth Wellness; Author, The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity

Nadine Burke Harris was already known as a crusading physician serving vulnerable children. But a boy who had stopped growing after a sexual trauma galvanized her to dig deeper into the connections between toxic stress and the lifelong illnesses she was tracking among so many people.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris 3/27

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28 TRAUMA AND RESILIENCE: WHY SOME FEMALE SURVIVORS ARE MORE RESILIENT THAN OTHERS

Rachel Lev, MSW, Psychotherapist; Junior Council Member, Safe Horizons

As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who went into hiding, Rachel Lev has always been fascinated by the resilience of people who survive extreme trauma. Her father’s story was one reason that she collaborated on Collective Trauma, Collective Recovery: Promoting Community Resilience in the Aftermath of Disaster, a book that examines resilience in the face of political genocide and natural disaster. Lev then spent years working with women who survived genocide as well as domestic and sexual violence. A question guiding Lev’s academic and therapeutic work has been: Why are some women more resilient than others?

Drawing from neuroscience and genetics, Lev takes a biopsychosocial approach in examining resilience. She asks: What strengths and weaknesses are we born with? Which strengths and weaknesses do we develop as we face extreme challenges? How does the brain handle trauma, and what happens to the brain following multiple traumas?

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Psychology • Program organizer: Patrick O’Reilly

THE ART OF RESISTANCE IN THE BAY AREA Panelists TBA

From the beat of the drum to the stroke of the brush to the power of the spoken word,

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to commonwealthclub.org

There are No Dead Here, with Author Maria Mcfarland Sán-Chez-Moreno 3/29

art has been central to the Bay Area’s long history of activism. It’s those movements that have partnered closely with artists that have had some of the strongest ripples, from immigrant rights to the LGBTQ pride movement. In its many forms, art has the power to touch hearts, change minds and strengthen communities during difficult times. Today, as we face a new set of challenges, protest art is experiencing a renaissance in the Bay Area. With the click of a mouse, movement artists are engaging new audiences on a whole new set of platforms.

Join the San Francisco Foundation, together with some of the Bay Area’s most renowned “artivists,” to discuss the role of art in today’s social justice movements.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Part of the San Francisco Foundation’s series on People, Place and Power

THURSDAY, MARCH 29 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 3/15/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show”; President, SF Pride John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week

Each week, Michelle Meow talks with fascinating—and often controversial—folks involved in timely issues affecting the LGBTQ audience.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m. program

THERE ARE NO DEAD HERE, WITH AUTHOR MARIA MCFARLAND SÁNCHEZ-MORENO Maria

McFarland

Sánchez-Moreno,

commonwealthclub.org/events

Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance; Former Senior Americas Researcher and Co-Director of the U.S. Program, Human Rights Watch; Author, There Are No Dead Here

In the 1990s and 2000s, in the midst of the decades-long civil war, and with the complicity of much of the country’s military and political establishment, Colombian paramilitary groups with close ties to drug cartels massacred, raped and tortured thousands. In There Are No Dead Here, three ordinary Colombians—a prosecutor, an activist and a journalist—risk everything to uncover the truth about the paramilitaries’ hold on the government. The author takes readers from the sweltering Medellín streets, where criminal investigators were hunted by assassins; through the countryside, where paramilitaries wiped out entire towns; and into the corridors of the presidential palace in Bogotá.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: International Relations • Program organizer: Linda Calhoun

LATE-BREAKING PROGRAMS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6

HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE: LEARNING FROM PAST REVOLUTIONS

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Science & Technology • Program organizer: Gerald Harris WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14

MAKING CHOCOLATE: FROM BEAN TO BAR TO S’MORE

SAN FRANCISCO • INFORUM PROGRAM •

Location: Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, demos, samples, snacks and beverages; 6:30 p.m. program; 7:45 p.m. demos, samples, snacks and beverages • Notes: This program is part of our Food Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation; in-kind sponsors Fort Point Beer and Urban Remedy WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21

SHIFT AHEAD: HOW DO BRANDS STAY RELEVANT IN TODAY’S FAST-CHANGING WORLD? SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Business & Leadership • Program organizer: Elizabeth Carney THURSDAY, MARCH 1

CREATING PERSONAL GOALS THAT ACTUALLY WORK SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Program organizer: John Milford THURSDAY, MARCH 22

JACK WEATHERFORD: AUTHOR OF ‘GENGHIS KHAN AND THE QUEST FOR GOD’ SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program • MLF: International Relations • Program organizer: Norma Walden FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

49

INSIGHT A Century of Contagion, A Time for Action Dr. Gloria C. Duffy, President and CEO

T

his year is the 100th anniversary of the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918, which infected 500 million people worldwide and killed 50–100 million. This year, while not on the scale of 1918, is one of the worst flu seasons ever, with the flu vaccines having missed 90 percent of the active flu strains, thus being minimally effective. All around us, people are sick.

In 2014 I wrote a column strongly suggesting that folks wear face masks during flu season to protect themselves and others from contagion, as is routinely done in Japan and elsewhere in Asia.

Unfortunately, very little has improved in our ability to prevent the spread of the viruses since I highlighted this problem. Doctor’s offices do provide masks and ask visitors to wear them if they are coughing.

And a few offices and stores provide hand sanitizer. But overall, we are taking none of the obvious and simple steps to prevent viral contagion.

I commute via CalTrain. Every day, in the enclosed, crowded and poorly ventilated train cars, many people are coughing and sneezing, sometimes into their hands, which then touch seats and handrails, and often just into the air. The train is essentially a moving bug box. No one, except me, wears a mask, and no one seems to be aware of the virus transmission that is going on, even though it’s obvious that their colleagues and family members are getting sick.

The same is true of BART, MUNI and the other transportation systems in the Bay Area. And it’s the case for office spaces and places of public assembly, including movie theaters, concert halls . . . and potentially The Commonwealth Club, where we have hand sanitizer and a supply of face masks at our front desk.

Why are people out and about when they are sick? The pressures of our Bay Area economy impel people to go to work even if they are sick. Missing a day of work may mean getting behind on a project in our very competitive economy.

Employers need to make it clear that employees can and should stay home if they are sick, working from home if they are able. The medical fact is that current flu strains are contagious for the first 5–7 days, including prior to being fully symptomatic, which recommends extreme caution. That is how long a flu sufferer must isolate himself or herself, either by staying away from other people or by using an effective mask and constantly washing or sanitizing their hands.

Curad, by the way, has developed an anti-virus mask—a step up from the common surgical mask—that is supposedly effective against 99.99 percent of flu viruses. They are readily available from Amazon,

office supply stores, Bed Bath and Beyond and some drugstores.

The spread of flu is very dangerous for the elderly, of which we have ever larger numbers in the Bay Area, for children and the immuno-compromised. A case of the flu can be fatal for these groups of people. Folks think I am a bit weird when I take my 94-year-old mom out to events, when I wave them away from hugging or Photo courtesy of Gloria Duffy kissing this charming and beautiful elderly lady, but a case of the flu at this point may mean pneumonia and worse for her.

So what is to be done?

It is time for a serious public health campaign about how to prevent the spread of flu viruses. I am amazed when I don’t see information about masking, hand washing and sanitizing; isolating oneself when sick; and avoiding hugging and hand-shaking and so on, inside of buses, trains and other public transport. I am astonished that most offices, stores and cultural centers don’t provide masks and hand sanitizer.

The 100th anniversary of the greatest flu pandemic is a perfect time to stimulate practices here in the Bay Area like Japan’s “mask culture,” which started in 1918 and has grown in strength since then. County and city public health departments around the Bay Area, business associations, medical associations, foundations that focus on health and health care, university schools of public health and the media all have a responsibility to educate about preventing viral transmission and to take practical steps to implement the simple precautions that can be effective.

How about our public transit systems having public affairs messages on-board and in stations, and providing masks? What about an educational campaign on TV, radio, the Internet and in print media about how to prevent flu contagion? How about business associations urging businesses to have masks and hand sanitizer uniformly available?

The Bay Area often leads the nation in social and economic progress. Think what we can do to improve public health and the efficiency of our economy by addressing this problem. It’s a no-brainer. Let’s get it done!

It is time for a serious public health campaign about how to prevent the spread of flu viruses.

50

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

Antarctic Adventures Aboard the Island Sky December 9-19, 2018

Sail aboard the 114-guest all suite Island Sky, one of the finest small ships in the world.

Marvel at the natural beauty as you sail past glaciers and take zodiac rides amid icebergs. (For the more adventurous, there is an option to camp on shore overnight and experience the pristine silence of sleeping under Antarctic skies!)

Experience 18 to 20 hours of daylight, giving ample time to spot humpback whales, leopard seals and penguins.

Learn from a top-notch Expedition Team, which includes an ornithologist, a geologist, a marine mammal expert, an Antarctic history expert and a photography coach.

Participate in “Citizen Science� activities supporting research around the world.

Antarctica is like nowhere else in the world. Come experience the adventure of a true polar expedition!

From $7,995 per person, double accommodations

Brochure at commonwealthclub.org/travel | 415.597.6720 | travel@commonwealthclub.org CST: 2096889-40

To purchase tickets:

The Commonwealth Club of California

visit commonwealthclub.org or call (415) 597-6705 or call (800) 847-7730

P.O. Box 194210 San Francisco, CA 94119

Periodicals postage paid in San Francisco, California

To subscribe to our email newsletter: visit commonwealthclub.org and use the simple “Be the First to Know” feature on the homepage

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3

Details on page 34

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15

LARRY WILMORE

EMILY CHANG

Larry Wilmore, Host, “Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air”

Emily Chang, Anchor and Executive Producer, Bloomberg Technology; Author, Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley

Michael Lewis, Author, The Undoing Project, Moneyball Larry Wilmore’s podcast “Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air” debuted in May and features Wilmore’s candid thoughts on the most pressing issues of the week and his interviews with guests from the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports and beyond. Recent guests include U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Cecile Richards, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Kumail Nanjiani, Issa Rae and Gretchen Carlson.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27

Details on page 40

Details on page 42

Silicon Valley has an ugly secret.

Behind the million-dollar ideas and innovations, women in tech are vastly outnumbered and often face discrimination, sexual harassment and toxic work environments. Emily Chang reveals how Silicon Valley got so sexist despite its utopian ideals. Drawing on her deep network of tech insiders, Chang reveals just how hard it is for women to crack the Silicon ceiling and what companies and employees need to do to bring down the “brotopia” culture once and for all.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7

Details on page 44

JOHN HOPE BRYANT

AMY CHUA

John Hope Bryant, Founder and CEO, Operation Hope; Author, The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation

Amy Chua, John M. Duff Jr. Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Author, Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations

Bryant argues that true power in this world comes from economic independence, but too many people don’t have enough money left at the end of the month. His message is simple: The supermajority of people who live in poverty, as well as millions in the struggling middle class, haven’t gotten “the memo”—until now. Come for an engaging discussion on achieving financial literacy and approaching wealth with a completely new attitude … and about how the path to liberation is hiding in plain sight.

Lanhee Chen, David and Diane Steffy Research Fellow, Hoover Institution—Moderator Chua believes that tribalism emerged in America’s foreign policy during Vietnam and Iraq. And now, as the stunning rise of Donald Trump has proven, all groups feel threatened: whites and blacks, Latinos and Asians, men and women, liberals and conservatives. Chua argues that America must rediscover a national identity that transcends our political tribes; we need to unify to fight the deep inequities that divide us.