The Commonwealth April/May 2019 by The Commonwealth Club of California

Commonwealth The

THE MAGAZINE OF THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB OF CALIFORNIA

APRIL/MAY 2019

LEONARDO’S GENIUS

Economic Forecast • Da Vinci Decoded • Genius by the Numbers Housing for the Middle • Can the California GOP Survive

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UPCOMING PROGRAMS Complete Guide

2019 Distinguished Citizen Award Gala & Annual Dinner Corporate Citizen Photo by: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

John Hope Bryant

Madeleine Albright

Founder & CEO of Operation Hope

Former United States Secretary of State

Susan & William Oberndorf Oberndorf Foundation

Friday, May 17

Salesforce Accepting on behalf of the company, Suzanne DiBianca

Cocktail Reception at The San Francisco Ferry Building Dinner & Conversation at The Commonwealth Club Headquarters For more information contact Kate Steffy 415-597-6737 or go to commonwealthclub.org/gala

INSIDE12 THIS ISSUE 21

Editor’s Desk

Leonardo da Vinci still has things to teach us, 500 years after his death

The Commons

“Nests” comes to the Farmer Gallery, Afghan cash, the Club in the News, and more

Republicans in California

Leonardo’s Knots

Caroline Cocciardi says you can find the math in Leonardo da Vinci’s artworks

Is the state GOP in a cyclical downturn or is it in terminal fall?

Two-month Calendar

Annual Economic Forecast

Dr. Brad DeLong and Stephen Moore on taxes, policy, and how to make an economy boom

Salvator Mundi

Art historian Martin Kemp explains why people are still talking about this controversial painting by Leonardo da Vinci

On the Cover: Various da Vinci Sketches Photos from: The Public Domain

Increasing Housing Options for People in the Middle

Laura Foot and Kristy Wang explain where and why to build more middle-class housing

What’s happening in April and May

Program Listings

Detailed listings of our events

Late Breaking Events

Insight

By Gloria Duffy

On this Page: The Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci

Photo from: The Public Domain

A lot’s been said about Leonardo as a heretic, and he certainly had original ideas. But his theology was absolutely orthodox and not at all Dan Brown-ish in flavor. . . . If you look at the religious subjects in late Leonardo, these are mysterious figures from a realm we can’t understand. They’re figures who know the secrets, and there are secrets which we will never know. -MARTIN KEMP

April/May 2019 - Volume 113, No.2

APRIL/MAY 2019

EDITOR’S DESK

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Leonardo, First Tech Genius

hen the producers of TV’s “Star Trek: Voyager” wanted to have a resident genius for their captain to converse with, they chose Leonardo da Vinci. Played by actor John Rhys-Davies, “da Vinci” appeared as a digitally created character who could share his wisdom when Captain Janeway needed it (sort of a holographic Siri or Google Home). He was a fictional version of a real person in a fake, computer reality in a fiction TV series. If that makes sense. The real-life da Vinci was a man of towering genius, often considered the epitome of the Renaissance Man. This issue, we are featuring some recent Club programs that concerned da Vinci. The Italian polymath died May 2, 1519, so this year is the 500th anniversary of his death at the age of 67. For someone who has been gone for half a millenium, da Vinci continues to make headlines. For example, his Salvator Mundi painting sold for nearly a half-billion dollars in 2017. Starting on page 8, we hear from two experts on Leonardo’s art. They spoke to our Humanities member-led forum in separate programs. Though these two speakers focus on Salvator Mundi and its related controversy, we learn a lot from them about da Vinci’s work methods, his focus on

math and even his theology. Just like the fictional television da Vinci who advised Captain Janeway, there are a lot of da Vinci myths and lies and fakes that make for fascinating reading. we brought together more smart people for our annual economic program in January. Dr. Brad DeLong, a UC Berkeley economics professor and a former U.S. Treasury official under President Clinton, had a lively conversation with Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore, who has advised our current president on economic matters, most notably the big 2017 tax cut, on which DeLong and Moore have decidedly different takes. See page 13. Bringing together knowledgeable people for good, substantive and civil discussions is something the Club does all year long. As Moore noted during the program, he has debated DeLong on TV from separate locations, but this was their initial meeting in person. I have heard similar stories from other panelists over the years, and I am pleased that the Club is the place to put these people together in one place for the first time. JOHN Z I P P E R E R VIC E PRE SIDE NT, ME DIA & ED I T O RI AL

TALK OF THE CLUB Freedom Scholarship

ifteen Club travelers have chipped in to help send two students on a trip of a lifetime. Two college-age young men will travel—all expenses paid—on our debut civil rights trip “On the Road to Freedom: Understanding the Civil Rights Movement,” in the company of Club travelers and trip host retired judge LaDoris Cordell. The scholarship winners are David Miles, a graduate of San Jose State University, and Hatim Mansori, currently a junior at Morehouse College. From April 7–14, the group will journey through Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama, tracing the momentous history of the movement. The two travelers have been selected by San Francisco Achievers, a Bay Area nonprofit organization that provides college scholarships and mentoring services for young African-American men in San Francisco’s Unified School District. The young men will chronicle their travels and share their experiences on The Commonwealth Club stage at a special program on April 30. The Commonwealth Club hopes to expand this new travel scholarship program with the support of contributions and be able to send four co-ed student travelers in 2020. If you would like to support this effort, please call Kimberly Maas at 415-597-6726.

In the Farmer Gallery

Photographer Sharon Beals’ photography exhibit “Nests” is on display at the Club’s Farmer Gallery, highlighting this Bay Area artist’s works and environmental concerns. “It was only after making the first photograph of a nest, drawn to its palette and messy yet graceful and functional form, that I knew I had found my medium—or at least a way that I could be a medium for the birds,” she says. Photographer and author Sharon Beals was born in 1945 in Seattle. After an apprenticeship in photography, she moved to San Francisco in 1979 to begin a career in professional photography. Since then, she has expanded into the field of environmental protection, creating and

Above left to right: The Lorraine Motel, site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination; Afghan money. Below left to right: “Bachman’s Warbler” and “Tree Swallow” by photographer Sharon Beals. “Nests” photos by Sharon Beals

documenting the intricacies of birds’ nests and their occupants, with the hope of protecting their continued survival. “Nests are creations of spider’s web, caterpillar cocoon, plant down, mud, found modern objects, human and animal hair, mosses, lichen, feathers and down, sticks and twigs—all are woven with beak and claw into a bird’s best effort to protect their next generation,” she says. “It is my hope that capturing the detailed art form of the nests in these photographs will gain appreciation for their builders, and inspire their protection.” “Nests” will be on display from April 3 through June 28.

Pay Up

A Los Angeles-based member renewed their membership in the Club and it was a first for us: Afghan currency. At current exchange rates, the two 5,000-Afghani bills roughly equaled the membership rate.

Podcast fans

We were happy enough to hear that Lady Gaga’s team contains Commonwealth Club fans. But we’re also proud to note that the Club’s podcast was named one of the 10 best California podcasts by Alta magazine, and Neat Work Co. named our podcast one of its favorites, under “Misc. awesomeness.” APRIL/MAY 2019

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

BOARD OF GOVERNORS Robert E. Adams John F. Allen Scott Anderson Dan Ashley Massey J. Bambara Dr. Mary G. F. Bitterman**

Harry E. Blount John L. Boland Maryles Casto** Charles M. Collins Mary B. Cranston** Susie Cranston Dr. Kerry P. Curtis Dorian Daley Alecia DeCoudreaux Lee Dutra Joseph I. Epstein* Jeffrey A. Farber Dr. Carol A. Fleming Leslie Saul Garvin Paul M. Ginsburg Hon. James C. Hormel Mary Huss Julie Kane Lata Krishnan John Leckrone

Dr. Mary Marcy Lenny Mendonca Anna W.M. Mok Mauree Jane Perry Bruce Raabe Kausik Rajgopal Skip Rhodes* Bill Ring Martha Ryan George M. Scalise Charlotte Mailliard Shultz George D. Smith, Jr. Dr. Marc Spencer James Strother Hon. Tad Taube Charles Travers Kimberly Twombly-Wu Don Wen Dr. Colleen B. Wilcox

Brenda Wright Jed York Mark Zitter

ADVISORY BOARD Karin Helene Bauer Hon. William Bradley Dennise M. Carter Dennis Collins Steven Falk Rev. Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J. Amy Gershoni Jacquelyn Hadley Heather Kitchen Amy McCombs Don J. McGrath Hon. William J. Perry Hon. Barbara Pivnicka Hon. Richard Pivnicka

Hon. Ellen O’Kane Tauscher Nancy Thompson Dr. Ruth A. Shapiro

Anna W.M. Mok** Richard Otter* Joseph Perrelli* Toni Rembe* Victor J. Revenko* PAST BOARD CHAIRS Skip Rhodes* AND PRESIDENTS Renée Rubin * Dr. Mary G. F. Bitterman ** Hon. Shirley Temple Black*† Richard Rubin** Robert Saldich** J. Dennis Bonney* John Busterud* Connie Shapiro * Maryles Casto** Nelson Weller * Hon. Ming Chin* Judith Wilbur * Mary B. Cranston** Dennis Wu* Joseph I. Epstein * Dr. Joseph R. Fink * * Past President William German * ** Past Chair Rose Guilbault** † Deceased Claude B. Hutchison Jr. * Dr. Julius Krevans*

TALK OF THE CLUB

The Club in the News

The barista in chief of the United States came to San Francisco on Tuesday to say that President Trump “needs to be fired,” and that he just might be the fellow to replace him. Howard Schultz, the former head of the 28,000-store Starbucks coffee empire, also said if the Democrats pick some “far leftleaning challenger” — someone besides him, for instance — then the “chances of Trump getting re-elected are high.” Throughout his hour-long speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, Schultz didn’t say he was running for president as an “independent centrist,” and he didn’t say he wasn’t. But he said the country ought to be run the way he ran his coffeehouses — where all baristas got stock options, health care and the possibility of a college scholarship. —Steve Rubenstein, San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2019 Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is warming the planet, increasing chaotic weather patterns and melting Arctic ice. But there are ways to rebuild Arctic sea ice and drawdown excess carbon dioxide, according to the father-daughter team of Peter Fiekowsky and Erica Dodds, leaders of Healthy Climate Alliance, who presented their work to a packed room at the Commonwealth Club last week. “We can do it,” Fiekowsky told the

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audience. “We have all these solutions.” Dubbed “climate restoration,” this work will get the planet back to the safe and healthy conditions that existed 100 years ago. —Robyn Purchia, San Francisco Examiner, February 13, 2019

[C]oming this spring [is] Winning Westeros: How Game of Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict. . . . Back to edit Winning Westeros is Max Brooks, whose hit zombie book, World War Z, landed him surprising spots at military conferences and study groups. . . . Brooks called himself “a tourist in this world” while talking about the book last summer at the Commonwealth Club, the prestigious public affairs forum. He referenced a chapter by a former senior military strategist, who argues that the Jedi became too elite, insulating themselves from the republic. “And so when a big crisis came, the republic didn’t know what to do,” Brooks said. “The Jedi simply didn’t have the numbers, and they didn’t have the public outreach, and that’s happening today.” —Seth Boster, The Gazette, (Colorado Springs, Colorado), February 11, 2019 A 2010 video of now-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) boasting about her truancy platform while she was the district attorney of San Francisco has resurfaced and gone

viral on Twitter. The video, posted by journalist Walker Bragman on Monday, features Harris, at the time the state’s attorney general, delivering a speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. In it she defends her decision to take punitive measures against the parents of truant children in the city, despite controversy surrounding the plan. . . . —Jenavieve Hatch, HuffPost, January 29, 2019 Bay Area power brokers fired a major shot in the fight against the housing shortage Thursday, as tech leaders, elected officials and philanthropists came together to launch what is poised to become the region’s largest investment fund for affordable housing. With backing by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the San Francisco Foundation, Facebook, Genentech and others, the new $500 million fund promises to build or preserve more than 8,000 homes in the fivecounty Bay Area over the next 5 to 10 years. “I think it really has come to a point where we all need to get together and really think about that complex, comprehensive solution that we need in the Bay Area for everyone to thrive, especially the most vulnerable,” Priscilla Chan, co-founder of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, said from the stage of the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. —Marisa Kendall, The Mercury News, January 24, 2019

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DA VINCI

Program Photos by James Meinerth

DECODED MARTIN KEMP

Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, Oxford University; Author, Living with Leonardo

The discover y and the myster y behind Salvator Mundi, one of fewer than 20 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. From the February 21, 2019 Humanities MLF program in San Francisco, “Salvator Mundi”

n the 5th of March 2008, Nicholas Penny, the director of the National Galleries of Scotland, said, “We’ve got something here which I think you would like to see.” You don’t refuse that kind of invitation. I went to London, went into the conservation studio, and . . . I was confronted with

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the National Gallery’s second version of The Virgin of the Rocks; they were thinking about cleaning it for the big Leonardo show; and the Salvator Mundi was on the easel beside it. I walk into the room. There are some Leonardo scholars already there—Carmen Bambach from the Met, great scholar of Leonardo drawings; two Italians, Pietro Marani and Maria Teresa Fiorio; and a man I didn’t know at that point, who obviously seemed to be in charge of it, Robert Simon. You walk in, and it has a presence. You see lots of rubbish, but you can’t say immediately, “That’s Leonardo.” You keep saying, “Don’t believe it,” because no new painting has come out for a hundred years, so this is most improbable. Nonetheless, there’s a frisson of excitement. The Russian oligarch who owned it for a short period of time

said that it had a vibration. It’s rather a nice way of putting it, and it does indeed have a vibration. I thought, “What do I do? Do I play it cool? Do I pretend it’s not very exciting?” I said hello to the others. I got out my magnifying glass, which makes me look like a professional, and started looking at it. I did natural sciences at Cambridge. That’s how I started, and I’d done some geology. I said, “Oh, that’s a rock crystal sphere. It’s not a glass sphere,” which is a kind of smart-ass remark. But it actually happened to be true and is of some significance. The National Gallery decided that they’re going to exhibit it in their Leonardo show. They were planning a blockbuster Leonardo show for [November 2011–February 2012], “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan.” This is not a Milanese painting, but there we are. Also, I’ve been a trustee of the British Museum, the National Galleries of Scotland, and the V&A [Victoria and Albert

Museum], and you don’t show works that are in the trade, rightly or wrongly, but that’s the rule. This was owned by three dealers, so, again, The National Gallery are doing some not very nifty footwork to show this painting. To have an exhibition on Leonardo and not to have this new discovery in it was obviously unthinkable, so they managed to manipulate it, so it worked out all right. I think in New York in one of the dealer’s rooms, Larry Keith, the conservation officer [of ] The National Gallery, [examined] the picture, as conservation officers will. Luke Syson, then at The National Gallery, was the keeper responsible for the Italian paint-

ings and was doing the exhibition. Robert Simon, the New York dealer, was one of the discoverers of the picture. Luke Syson on the strength of that went on to become keeper of sculpture and decorative arts at the Met. He’s now back in England at the Fitzwilliam Museum, and so it did his career no harm at all putting on this exhibition of Leonardo and getting absolutely astonishing loans along the way. It was exhibited in The National Gallery. On either side of it [were] two drapery drawings, red chalk drapery drawings—drawings for the Salvator Mundi itself. The exhibition was absolutely a clamorous success—the only time I’ve known tickets for an exhibition selling on the black market; they were selling for the same amount as Bruce Springsteen, The Boss, was selling. The National Gallery made a great display of trying to stop the pirate tickets being sold. But, they were absolutely delighted. In a way, they sort of encouraged it, because it was a mark of their success. People were queuing from 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning in rather inclement [weather]—the exhibition was a winter exhibition, and that’s a stoic queue. It was pretty well received. One or two people were a bit huffy about it, but generally speaking, it fitted in. It looked right in that context. On the Market Then extraordinary things began to happen. The picture was sold pretty quickly after the exhibition. It was owned by a syndicate of three dealers by that time, including Warren Adelson in New York. It had been cleaned and it was now in very presentable condition. But what happened was that a collector called Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch who owns Monaco Football Club, or soccer club in your terms, bought it via Sotheby’s from a man called Yves Bouvier. Bouvier is called King of the Freeports. [Freeports] are storage facilities in Geneva and other places around the world full of Old Master paintings which never see the light of day. A lot of pseudo-Leonardos are in this condition. They’re owned by syndicates who sell them on tax-free. You can market your Old Master painting, whatever it happens to be, to another syndicate. I suspect there’s a lot of money laundering involved in this as well. It’s a distinctly dodgy business.

Bouvier has more freeports and is the great operator of the system. He was using his knowledge, because he obviously knows what’s in the freeport, to massage sales. He would say to a collector, “I happen to know that you might be able to get this for $100 million or whatever, because I know where it is, and I know who owns it.” He shouldn’t have been doing that, of course; there are huge issues of confidentiality. Yves Bouvier had been selling things to Rybolovlev. Rybolovlev had been collecting quite seriously, and he was acting as the agent of sales. They did it via Sotheby’s. But basically the picture was what they call flipped—i.e., Bouvier would buy it from Sotheby’s and would then flip it straight over to Rybolovlev, the collector. [For example,] a Modigliani nude [that sold for] a world record price for a Modigliani nude, Jackson Pollock, and so on—he’d been feeding him these pictures. Rybolovlev assumed that Bouvier was taking a decent cut. But, as happens in Monaco, there was a party, and Rybolovlev overheard a conversation. That person, who was well-informed, who knew what was happening in the art world, said, “Oh, I know how much Bouvier paid for that picture.” Bouvier paid £93 million for it, and he sold it to Rybolovlev for £127 million. That is a big mark up. Rybolovlev was absolutely disgusted, thinking that he’s being ripped off, and he decided to sell all the pictures which had come via Bouvier, including the Salvator Mundi. He arranged to meet Bouvier in Monaco, ostensibly to discuss more sales; the police were waiting there and arrested Bouvier for money laundering and fraud. These are two very wealthy men, and the case still rumbles on with the lawyers getting enormously rich and getting no nearer justice, which is rather typical in these art cases. The picture came up at Christie’s, not Sotheby’s, because [Rybolovlev’s] very fed up with Sotheby’s, who seemed to be a party to all this. It was given a guarantee at Christie’s of $100 million. The Bouvier pictures that had come to Rybolovlev via Bouvier weren’t selling very well. He was making a loss on these pictures. I knew there was a $100 million guarantee on it—maybe an individual or a syndicate had guaranteed to take it off the auctioneer’s hands for that price—and I thought there’s APRIL/MAY 2019

no point in staying up; it’s not going to reach its record price. Two o’clock in the morning, my [personal assistant] rings me. My phone starts going, and my emails start going, and they say it went for $450 million, which is way above any conceivable price. My view is it’s not a price for a painting. It’s a price for buying into Leonardo. It was not marketed as an Old Master painting. It was put in a sale of celebrity works by contemporary and 20th century artists. It went on a world tour. It’s a fantastically slick piece of marketing. The sale itself was very, very brilliantly staged. The bids were attenuated. The auctioneer took the bids slowly, and the telephone bids came in very slowly to build up the tension. It was entirely stage-managed and with great brilliance and great tension, because they could have gone through the auction in three or four minutes basically. They managed to stretch it out with great tension. [The] $450 million includes the buyer’s premium, by the way, but, it’s a lot of money. Where did it go? I was told by Christie’s that it had been sold to the Department of Tourism and Culture in Abu Dhabi. That seemed to be right, and they were due in September

last year to launch it, to have it on display. Traditional Europeans, maybe even Americans, get slightly huffy about the Arabs buying up [art]. But the British spent three centuries hoovering up world heritage, and the Americans then spent a century hoovering up world heritage, so we’re not really in much of a position to complain about it. Where is it now? George [Hammond] mentioned quantum mechanics. Richard Feynman said, “Anyone who understands quantum mechanics doesn’t.” Anyone who claims to know where this picture is doesn’t know. The Arab hierarchy are very tight, very secretive. The staff don’t know. It’s very, very characteristic of how the culture works. I wrote, “If you have doubts about it, I’m perfectly happy to come out with all guns blazing and say this is absolutely secure as Leonardo.” But I don’t know what’s happening. The Louvre obviously want it for their exhibition in the autumn this year. But it’s unclear whether they will get it. [Saudi Arabia’s crown prince] Mohammed bin Salman has been broadcast fairly widely as the owner. Maybe, maybe not. He’s the man, of course, who’s caught up in the [Jamal] Khashoggi affair, in the killing of the journalist, so he’s got other things on his mind that may take precedence over Leonardo. But I don’t know. . . . Decoding Da Vinci A lot’s been said about Leonardo as a heretic, and he certainly had original ideas. But, his theology was absolutely orthodox and not at all Dan Brown-ish in flavor. He had a doctrine, which is called the doctrine of the double truth, the truth of reason and the truth of revelation. It’s a well-known medieval doctrine. He takes an extreme view of it—that you can manifest and see God’s works in nature through the sheer perfection of creation. Nothing is lacking, nothing’s superfluous. Nature testifies to God’s ubiquitous, mathematical skill in devising the forms of nature in all their perfection. Beyond that, our intellect can’t go. We have to go with faith. We have to go with inspiration. We have to go with

the sacred books. As he says, “I leave the definition of the soul to the minds of the friars, fathers of the people who by inspiration possess the secrets. I let be the sacred writings, for they are the supreme truth.” I think there’s no irony in that at all, and there are other short, pithy statements by Leonardo saying, “I’m not going there.” “On Earth, I can with my intellect demonstrate that God is the great shaper of the universe, but I can’t tell you the nature of God.” As I say, it’s a medieval doctrine. It’s a perfectly respectable one, which he adopts in a very extreme way. If you look at the late Leonardo, the religious subjects in late Leonardo—the Salvator Mundi and the John the Baptist in the Louvre—these are mysterious figures from a realm we can’t understand. They’re figures who know the secrets, and there are secrets which we will never know. It’s a very consistent stance with Leonardo. Every sign is that he was employed by church authorities. He wrote a perfectly orthodox will with masses to be said for his soul, and so on. Any idea that he’s an anti-Christian heretic of some sort is absolute nonsense. Salvator Mundi What’s going to happen now? We’re not at the end. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Where is the picture going to appear? I trust it will appear at Louvre Abu Dhabi, and I’ll trust it will appear in Paris in the Louvre, but with Leonardo you absolutely never know. Question and Answer Session AUDIENCE MEMBER: Other than the painting or paintings themselves, what’s the basis for the claim that we know that Leonardo painted an image of Christ? MARTIN KEMP: There are two aspects to that. One is the drawings. Obviously, we’ve got the drawings, which are for the draperies. We don’t have similar drawings for Mona Lisa, but you could recognize if there were drawings for that. But, also, after his death—Leonardo died in 1519, hence the celebrations—his pupil, Salaì, who I said was a bit of an operator, had a series of paintings which are very highly valued. Somehow or other, he got hold of the Leonardo legacy. In that list, there is a Christ in the manner of God the Father, which is

rather a nice way of describing it. I should say the Salvator Mundi name occurs in music, in Christmas music. But it doesn’t occur in painting inventories until well into the 17th century. We use these terms, and we think they’re like sfumato [a technique of gradually shading tones and colors into one another—Ed.]. They have some kind of period reality, but no it’s in the copies and so on. But, before the Salvator Mundi appeared, we knew that Leonardo had been involved in the Salvator Mundi composition. But, we didn’t know whether he’d actually painted one himself, or whether it was just a studio invention. It’s not a retrospective thing. We’re not now climbing on the bandwagon saying, “It’s obvious he painted it.” It was obvious before. Obvious, that he invented it, whether he painted it or not. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I understand that Leonardo wrote at one point that he felt that his writings would live beyond him for many, many hundreds of years, and so he was obviously concerned about his legacy. I’m just really curious, why was it if he was so concerned about his legacy that he didn’t sign the artworks that he created? Was this just a norm of the time? Why didn’t he make sure that everybody would know a Leonardo is a Leonardo? KEMP: Yeah, signatures are interesting that they’re very rare in Renaissance paintings. Michelangelo, you’ve got one which is the St.

Peter’s Pietà. As a young man, he inscribed the band across the Virgin’s chest. Paintings are not often signed. Venetians did it rather more. The Last Supper, people knew that was a Leonardo painting. If Francesco del Giocondo had ever have got the portrait of his wife, he would have known who painted it. Signatures in the sense of Rembrandt, which is like a signature on a legal document, they’re late. You get that in the 17th century. You occasionally get inscriptions by artists. You get them in the medieval period as well, surprisingly. But, yeah, signing absolutely wasn’t the norm, and I think he didn’t feel any need to sign them, because there were not many of them, and people knew who’d done it. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Who did Leonardo paint Salvator Mundi for? The second question is, in the painting of Salvator Mundi, you mentioned he had a studio. Did Salaì or others assist him in the painting of Salvator Mundi? KEMP: Painted for—yeah, we actually don’t know. I think it’s commissioned. He painted some Madonnas, I think as off-the-peg pictures. One of the versions of the Madonna, The Yarnwinder, both of which involved Leonardo—one was a commission, and I think the other was an off-the-peg picture. Small diversional pictures could be done like that by the studio or by the artist as a picture which is available to be bought. But, in this case, I think it’s very likely to

be commissioned, because it’s an unusual subject. It’s a known subject. The Madonna and Child, of course, almost everybody who could afford a Madonna and Child would like a Madonna and Child. In the case of the Salvator Mundi, it’s a very specific one, which has a very specific quality. I suspect it’s commissioned; we don’t know who by. There’s no shortage of possibilities, but we just don’t know. If it was commissioned like a lot of other Leonardo paintings, the patron never got it. It’s not just Salaì’s account of the pictures he had. But Antonio de Beatis, the secretary to the Cardinal of Aragón, visited Leonardo in Amboise in Clos Lucé in the manor house he had when he was in France, and he had a number of the major pictures with him. He kept these pictures. They were like his children, I think, and the patrons didn’t get them. It’s very extraordinary. He had assistants, and there you obviously make qualitative judgments. I can’t see in the stripped-down picture obvious areas where you can say, “Well, that is just studio.” But you might imagine, for instance, with the bands and their geometric patterns, that’s a repeat. Once Leonardo had done it, and the band does vary a bit in quality, but [it’s unclear] whether that’s abrasion or whether it’s a sign of studio work. But, yeah, you can’t rule out studio work in this. Probably not in Mona Lisa, which took years and years, and I think there’s no studio work in that, but it’s possible.

APRIL/MAY 2019

GENIUS BY NUMBERS CAROLINE COCCIARDI

Author, Leonardo’s Knots

What do all of da Vinci’s paintings have in common? Knots and mathematics, says Cocciardi. From the February 11, 2019, Humanities MLF program in San Francisco, “Leonardo’s Knots.”

et me paint you the context [of ] the Salvator Mundi. He finishes it in 1513; he dies in 1519. This is his last commission. It’s for the king, and he has been under the wing of the most famous mathematician of his day, Luca Pacioli, and he has spent a career studying interlocking knots. For some reason, his knot artwork has been overlooked for the last 500 years. I just really saw a work of excellence, and I never saw a line abruptly terminated. I never saw a geometrical pattern that changed to being loopy, and I never found a knot sequence that went incomplete. I take you back to Mona Lisa. Unlike the uncertainty of the authenticity of the Salvator Mundi, we all agree that the Mona Lisa hanging in a bulletproof box at the

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Louvre Museum in Paris is by the hand of Leonardo da Vinci. But like all Leonardo’s paintings, copyists copy him. [One] was originally called the Isleworth Mona Lisa from London. Recently, a consortium purchased this and renamed it Mona Lisa earlier version, . . . saying it was from the hand of Leonardo da Vinci in 1490, where the original, the one in the Louvre, was started in 1503. Well, I dispute and challenge anyone that says that the knotting pattern on the Mona Lisa earlier version is by the hand of Leonardo da Vinci. [In] 1490, he was at the top of his game—it’s not like a little knot doodle. I think he had thoughts of maybe publishing them; they’re stand-alone gems. Whoever this journeyman was that did this on the Mona Lisa earlier version had no clue about knot math. On the horizontal bar, which should be a band, which should be a chain of octagons, it’s a mishmash of circles and oblongs. Leonardo took octagons very, very seriously. If I could say that there was a preliminary drawing for the Mona Lisa—in 7,000 pages, I’ve cataloged over 100 octagons. Out of any shape he ever draws, he draws octagons more than any other. I had the pattern looked at by Keith Critchlow. He’s a famous author of books on sacred geometry. As he describes it, it’s a celebration of the octagon and perhaps it’s the real reason why Mona Lisa is smiling. When you look at the

lower red row of cruciforms, every time you see it in red, those knot crossings are incorrect and not the same as what we find on the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum; and the center hexagon, the three missed completely. In fact, you’re not going to find one copy of Mona Lisa that will have the three hexagons. The preliminary drawing [of the Mona Lisa by da Vinci]—the first one I saw when he does that—that’s dated in 1490. I know that Leonardo would want his knot art to be considered in the critique of authenticating a Mona Lisa earlier version or a Salvator Mundi “blue robe” [version]. What story would be complete without talking about a Solomon’s knot? In 400 A.D., simultaneously Solomon’s knot appeared everywhere on rock carvings, mosaic tiles. It’s two spheres, one vertical, one horizontal, cross four times. [Consider two examples]; one’s from Italy, one’s from Jerusalem. What is different between these two? The crossings are different; one goes under, and one goes over. It’s always the discretion of the artist how that patterning is going to start. Next time you’re going to lace up your shoes, you’re going to be holding a string in each hand and you will make a determination how that crossing happens. When you do, it will cross three times, and when you pull it, you have done your first mathematical knot, which is called a trefoil. The Salvator Mundi “red robe” [is a version, by] artists only known as “from the school of Leonardo” based on [Czech etcher Wenceslaus] Hollar’s etching [of Salvator Mundi]. What did he see in the monastery? The center medallion. I’m looking for three sets that frame in that center medallion. Each one has five hexagons, but look what happens here in the center. This is the only one [that] extends the five hexagons, and it creates a cruciform. Out of all the 22 copies of Salvator Mundi, the “red robe” is the only one that finishes this finial off. Like the Mona Lisa, it’s a nugatory knot. So with one twist, it comes untwisted and it untwists toward the left. When Leonardo da Vinci painted cruciforms, he always started his crossing patterns the same. From right to left diagonal, he always goes over. Copyists thought they were copying an artist, but Leonardo da Vinci was a mathematician that happened to be an artist, and no copyist has successfully copied Leonardo’s knots. They’re one of a kind.

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Walter E. Hoadley

Annual Economic Forecast

The Rollercoaster

ECONOMY DAVID BATSTONE

BRAD DELONG, PH.D.

STEPHEN MOORE

Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of San Francisco School of Managementâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Moderator

Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley; Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy Under President Bill Clinton

Chief Economist, Heritage Foundation; Former Economic Adviser to Donald Trump; Former Member, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board; Author, Trumponomics

Photos by Ed Ritger

From the January 25, 2019 program in San Francisco, “Brad DeLong and Stephen Moore: Bank of America/ Merrill Lynch Walter E. Hoadley Annual Economic Forecast.” DAVID BATSTONE: Stephen, I didn’t realize that there was a very rooted philosophy to Trump’s economy. You’ve been one of the architects of that. The tax cut was of course one of the principal pillars of that philosophy. We’re a maybe eight [to] nine months into that tax cut. Has it accomplished what you hoped it would, and where do you think it deviated—if it did—from your intention? STEPHEN MOORE: I saw the president on Wednesday, as a matter of fact, and I said to him, “Mr. President, this tax bill is working out even better than we thought when we drafted the whole thing.” I believe that’s true. I didn’t think it would work so well so quickly. If you look at the objective evidence of where the economy is today—I do a lot of

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debates on CNN and other shows, and after we passed the [bill], I said, “Look, we don’t have to debate this anymore. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Let’s see if it works or not. Let’s see what results we got.” The real objective of what we wanted to do was fix our business tax system. That’s where we felt we were most efficient; we were uncompetitive. We were at a 40 percent marginal tax rate on our businesses. If you look at what’s happened over the last 25 or 30 years with other countries, when you were at the Treasury, other countries actually had higher tax rates than we did; over the ensuing next 20 years, those rates went down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down. So we got into a situation where we just weren’t competitive on our business taxes. We were at 40 percent, the rest of the world was 20–22 percent. We used to tell Donald Trump that this is like a 20-percent head start program for every country that we compete with. Then we did want to make America great again; we want to make sure that America is the most competitive place in the world to do business. So we wanted to cut that rate to at least where the rest of the world is so that

we would have more a competitive situation. The other thing that Donald Trump always insisted upon was, he said, “I want to make sure that every one of the 27 million small businesses in the United States get a tax cut as well.” That’s one of the reasons, by the way, we feel very strongly about cutting the individual rates. I think most of you understand this, but a lot of Americans don’t understand, because they’re not tax experts—small business owners, for the most part 90 percent of them, don’t pay a corporate income tax; they pay their taxes through the individual code. And that’s one of the reasons we wanted to cut the rates. Has it worked? By the way, the other big component of this that we felt very strongly about was immediate expensing. If a business wants to build a factory or purchase more trucks or equipment or build a structure, they can write that off in the first year rather than have to depreciate over 5 or 10 or 20 years. We thought that would be like steroid injections into the economy. Has it worked? I think if you look at what’s happening with employment, if you look at what’s happened with business investment, which has been strong year over year, last year

we were at 7 percent, that’s a very healthy number. If you look at what’s happening to wages, one of the points we made over and over to Donald Trump is the best way to raise wages—in the short term obviously; in the long term you want better skilled and better talented and better educated workers— you’ve got to have more capital investment by businesses, because workers are the ones who actually benefit when businesses spend. So yeah, we’re really happy with the results. We got the best, in my opinion, labor market in 50 years today. We have 7 million more jobs today than [workers] to fill them. We’ve never had a situation like that before. I was joking with the president; I said, “Mr. President, stop creating so many jobs, we don’t have enough workers to fill them; that’s why we need immigration.” I think it’s been positive for shareholders, it’s been positive for workers and it’s been positive for the overall U.S. economy. BATSTONE: Okay, thank you very much. We are going to get to immigration by the way. So Brad, that’s a pretty rosy view of the tax

cut Do you share that? BRAD DELONG: I think the economy is pretty good. I think the tax code hasn’t fulfilled what it was supposed to do. Fifteen months ago you had the boosters—CEO Robert Barro from Harvard, the Stanford gang [of ] John Taylor, Mike Boskin, George Shultz, John Cogan—all writing op-eds in The Wall Street Journal confidently predicting that if the tax cut were passed we’d have not 7 percent growth in investment, we’d have 25 percent growth in investment this year; we’d have an extra $800 billion worth of investment in plant and equipment, in machinery . . . this year. It simply hasn’t happened. There are a couple reasons it hasn’t happened: the big one was that the Republicans would not deal with the Democratic factions that wanted a corporate tax cut, and wanted to pass it through the so-called reconciliation process. Which means, like the 2001 tax cut, it expires within a decade, and so it creates a great deal of uncertainty about what the future of the tax code would be. Like the 2001 tax cut, it’s actually not changing what businesses are doing as much as a permanent shift would. We actually don’t have businesses taking

all the money they’ve gotten from reduced corporate taxes and using it to build more plant and buy more equipment. Instead, we’ve seen a large and extraordinary orgy of stock buybacks. Four times since 1980, presidents have sold tax bills as things that are going to generate a lot of extra investment in America and boost long-run growth. We had Reagan in ’81; we had Clinton in ’93; we had Bush in 2001. Now we have Trump 2017. And yet if you adjust for the effect of the short-term business cycle, if you adjust for fluctuations up or down in employment, investment in America fell after Reagan’s 1981 [bill] as a lot of money that would otherwise have gone to businesses went to feed the government deficit instead. Investment failed after Bush, cyclically adjusted as well. It rose after Clinton put his stuff through. That was the one thing that seriously worked, although there’s an argument over how much it was good policy and how much it was Silicon Valley, [with] the extraordinary fall in the price of computer equipment that was driving it all. I think it’s half and half; we can disagree about this. It looks as though Trump today is going APRIL/MAY 2019

to be a lot more like Bush 2001. The people who now have models are not forecasting any jump. The Congressional Budget Office has taken a look back at the past year and has said we’ll get maybe 1 percent higher growth over the first five years, and we’ll give all that back in the second five years. The people who actually track the money flow say that yes, it’s a substantial tax cut to those who own lots of stock—that is to the rich—but that one-third of those are foreigners. So Americans’ incomes are actually going to drop as a result of the marginal effects of the tax cut, because the taxpayers will have to pay for it somehow, because there’s not going to be enough of a boost to economic growth to pay for a significant part of it. A whole bunch of the gains are going to people who don’t live here and never will. Now if you and yours are each making more than $500,000 a year in California—it’s less elsewhere because elsewhere most of you do not get dinged by the reduction in your ability to deduct the state and local taxes, so that there’s a tranche of your income that you’ll pay tax on once to the state and then not having gotten that income. You still have to pay tax on it again to the feds. That’s what drives it up to $500,000 or so for the average California citizen. If you’re a California citizen making more than $500,000, it’s a good thing for you. Yes, it is a tax cut. Is it good for everybody else? Is it good for the economy as a whole? It really doesn’t look like it. It really looks as though the money the corporations are getting back is going to stock buybacks. And there’s an additional diversion of the savings flow to fund the government budget deficit. And a decade from now we’ll look back and we’ll say, “Huh, just as in 1985, investment in America was at a remarkable low

for a boom, because the Reagan deficits were starving midwestern manufacturing of finance because of high interest rates.” People . . . will look back at in five years and say, “Huh, I guess that Trump’s tax cut actually didn’t produce any boost to investment in America.” This is really unfortunate, because we had an opportunity to do a corporate tax cut that could have boosted investment in America significantly, and could have been a significant win-win for America as a whole. But [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell and [former House Speaker Paul] Ryan wanted to ram through what they could ram through the reconciliation process without dealing [with Democrats]. And the reconciliation process produces bad and inconsistent policies that create uncertainty, but at least their base is happy. BATSTONE: So Brad, you wouldn’t argue that the economy is anything but strong right now. Is that just an illusion? That the economy isn’t strong? DELONG: No, it’s been building for the past decade. It was extraordinarily weak in 2009. BATSTONE: Should we be worried about the deficit growing as a part of the whole process, and certainly feel free to respond to Brad’s commentary? MOORE: I helped write the economic plan for Trump and on the campaign was very involved. I did a lot of debates with Obama’s economists and Hillary Clinton’s economists. Look, we had eight years of Obama’s plan. I think Barack Obama did the best that he could. I think his intentions were good. It just didn’t work very well right? We never got the economy growing very rapidly. We had the worst recovery from a recession since the Great Depression. You talked about Reagan—are you kidding me? That was the biggest economic boom

in the history of the country that we saw in the 1980s. DELONG: 1990s boom was a bunch bigger. MOORE: The economy grew almost twice as fast on Reagan’s recovery when we cut taxes than they did under Obama’s recovery when we raised them. I think that’s pretty strong evidence. By the way, look, I think Bill Clinton was one of the great presidents. Under Bill Clinton, government spending fell from 21 percent of GDP to almost 17.5 percent. It was the biggest retraction of government that we saw since the end the World War II. Yeah, the economy grew great under Bill Clinton, because we cut the hell out of government spending. That’s a good thing, that we remove that money from the government and put it in the private sector. BATSTONE: Are we seeing real wage growth now? DELONG: Not yet. The labor market looks remarkably strong, if you look at the unemployment rate. But it looks not yet so remarkably strong if you look at the share of, say, prime-age people 25 to 54 who are working. BATSTONE: How does immigration at this moment in time either contribute [to] or is being limited by the economy? MOORE: Look, I’m very pro immigrant. I think immigrants are one of our greatest assets as a nation. It’s one of the reasons I’m so bullish on America, because we have opportunity that no other country in the world has. We can get the best and brightest and hardest working people to come from every land in the world and come to the United States. I always say that the single biggest issue for the world, certainly for America over the next 10, 20, 50 years, is what country will be the economic superpower of the planet over the next 50 years. For the last 75 years, the United States has been the unchallenged rival. Now we have a rival in China; everything we’ve tried to do under Trump is just try to make America more competitive so we can outgrow these other countries.

HOUSING

FOR

THE MIDDLE

Where and why to build more housing to meet needs.

From the February 20, 2019, Grownups MLF in San Francisco, “Increasing Housing Options for People in the Middle.” LAURA FOOTE

Executive Director, YIMBY Action

KRISTY WANG

Community Planning Policy Director, SPUR

SHELLY SUTHERLAND

San Francisco Realtor, Compass—Moderator

SHELLY SUTHERLAND: So we now have a new mayor and a new governor, and these people have made housing their top priority. Mayor [London] Breed has a goal of increasing housing 5,000 units per year. In the past it’s been about 2,000, but of 2,000 it’s been mostly ultra-luxury or for low income. Not much has been planned for middle-income. What are your policy goals and strategies to increase housing options for the middle-income group? LAURA FOOTE: I think the first step that YIMBY [Yes In My Back Yard] takes is saying we have an overall housing shortage. That it’s not just the new stuff that’s expensive;

the older housing stock is also expensive. What you see in a shortage is that overall prices have gotten really crazy high. It’s also true that the cheaper housing that might be more likely to come in at middle-income levels, we’ve made that really difficult, illegal or expensive to build. In vast areas of the city, you can’t build a courtyard bungalow, 6-unit, 10-unit, “missing-middle” apartment building. What we used to think of as gentle infill, or what they disparagingly called a Richmond special, where a homeowner would tear down an existing single-family home and build a 6-unit, maybe even, God forbid, a 10-unit apartment building that was just a walk-up apartment building. We don’t build that housing anymore, and that’s because of the laws that we have that make it either illegal or extremely difficult to build it. SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I mean, one of the stats is 50 percent of our housing stock was built before World War II. FOOTE: That’s crazy, and it’s also true that that housing stock is aging and not always well [kept up]. I live in a rent-controlled apartment building, and my landlord has been at war with the mice for a while. This APRIL/MAY 2019

is a problem that happens when you have a chronic housing shortage. You’re reliant on older housing stock that is “naturally affordable.” I would like to live in a mouse-free, naturally affordable building. SUTHERLAND: Do you have anything to add? KRISTY WANG: SPUR’s general take on addressing our housing shortage and resulting affordability crisis is there are many things that we need to do, and most of them fall into two buckets of increasing the overall supply so that we can moderate housing prices, then also investing more in affordable housing. We traditionally devote that affordable housing funding to low-income housing. Many people who consider themselves middle-class actually fall into the low-income [category] when you look at where our incomes are today in San Francisco. I think that there’s an increasing need for people in the middle. There’s an increasing shortage of housing that’s available to people in the middle. Laura is right that we need to look at the overall housing stock and how that addresses all of our needs. And then a few years ago, in one of the housing bonds, a small portion of that was devoted to moderate-income housing and trying to figure out other ways of addressing that need. That is an important thing, and it’s also a drop in the bucket. I think our strategy is more on the side of what can you do in the market to make housing more affordable to the middle, rather than subsidizing up to the middle? We’re never going to have that much money. SUTHERLAND: Zoning plays a big role in this. If we were to change the zoning, focused on say height limitations, what would our city look like? FOOTE: Isn’t it exciting to not know the answer to that question? It will look different over time. It’s strange to me that that is a controversial opinion, because when they

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started building San Francisco, they didn’t know what it was gonna look like today. The whole “Rome wasn’t built in a day”—that is meaningful. It is a dangerous thing to think of a city that never changes, that’s frozen in amber, that it means that you’re going to drain all of the color and interestingness out of your city if you try to hold it static. I grew up in the most historic part of [Washington, D.C.]. My mother is constantly reminding me how beautiful architecture can be. While I understand that, I also think that there is this urge to be preserving things for the future generations. I want people who believe in that to understand that the future generations are deeply concerned about being unable to live anywhere near jobs and opportunity, and being locked out of an entire future. I want to have kids; the idea of buying a home, which used to be a normal activity in San Francisco—me and my partner both work for nonprofits—the idea that we would be able to buy even a modest condo in San Francisco is totally out of reach. What are we preserving? Why are we preserving things? Who is the future for? I don’t believe that a city should be preserved in amber. I believe that there are things that have historic value that we should preserve, but we have to understand what the cost of overall preservation is. A city should grow. It’s exciting, and that’s why we build cities—is to continue building them, is to continue having them be places where people can thrive. That applies to older people as well. There are a lot of older people who feel trapped in sprawling houses that made sense for them when they had two kids living in that home who might now want to scale down, and cannot afford to scale down. That’s a really weird situation to be in. SUTHERLAND: Right. A lot of the older community, they don’t want to leave a home that they’ve been in for 40 to 50 years. There

is the whole aging-in-place concept, but sometimes I think that’s not a great way for someone to live. There’s not that many options for them in San Francisco. FOOTE: Yeah, they could age in place by moving down the block into a building that maybe would have a doorman and that had a grocery store on the corner, so they could still go to their bridge game, because they would still be in the neighborhood. That’s an entire lifestyle that we don’t make available. There is no scaling down and maintaining your relationships with the people in your neighborhood, because we don’t have a variety of building type. SUTHERLAND: Just one example [is] the development project in the Haight, which was on Stanyan and Haight—the old McDonald’s. The plans were I think six stories, so a little bit higher than the rest of the area. FOOTE: Lower than what it was zoned for. SUTHERLAND: There was some neighborhood groups who are very pro-housing, but they put a kibosh on this, because they felt that it was too high, even though there would’ve been more units built. FOOTE: Right, and are they pro-housing? SUTHERLAND: Correct, and that’s supposed to also be middle-income, more-affordable housing. WANG: If this is the McDonald’s site, I think that’s supposed to be 100-percent affordable for low-income. FOOTE: Yeah, I think that one’s going to be all lower income. I don’t know if we want to talk about this now—but [there’s] the subsidized affordable versus generally housing that’s considered affordable. Those 100-percent affordable projects are low income with a patchwork of subsidies from state, federal and local, and that generally target people at about 55 percent of the area median income. There’s a lot of variation in that, but we’re talking about when we say affordable hous-

ing, [we mean] subsidized housing generally targeted a quite lower incomes. It’s really hard to come by; I mean, the waiting lists for those are decades long. It’s a lottery, and when we say lottery, we mean you’re probably not going to win. Those lists have only gotten longer as the overall housing crisis has gotten worse and worse. SUTHERLAND: Which parts of San Francisco [would be] a good start to increase heights? We’re seeing it on Van Ness and Polk Street. WANG: Anywhere. SUTHERLAND: Anywhere. WANG: I mean, to different amounts, right? At least right now we’re not going to put towers out on the Sunset or the Richmond. There are corridors in the Sunset and the Richmond and Excelsior that are perfectly appropriate for some taller buildings than we have right now. There are existing buildings in all these neighborhoods that are taller than that right now; they are grandfathered in, but we don’t allow new ones to be built. That’s possible, but I think that adding more accessory dwelling units throughout the housing stock—I think we agree on this for sure. Offering more opportunities to create duplexes, triplexes, quads throughout San Francisco would be very smart, and is an idea that I think across the country is catching on, and even in San Francisco, which is a fairly dense city compared to the rest of the country, 60 percent of our housing stock is single-family homes, so we have room to change. FOOTE: I guess, how many people can visualize the painted ladies? Right, how many people here in that mental model—do you know that there is an eight-story apartment building next to them? I think that if you propose a new eight-story building out, especially on the west side, in Forest Hills, in

neighborhoods that have not changed for a long time, you came out and you said, “Okay, we’re going to build an eight-story apartment building,” people will lose their minds. They just gasp, “How could you? That’s outrageous.” I’m not afraid of an eight-story building, I just don’t think they’re that bad. There are a lot of pro-housing people who think that because we don’t want to give people anxiety attacks, we should ask for it not to be quite eight stories; that’s too much. We should scale it down, how about five? How about four? Most of San Francisco is already zoned for four stories. It’s mostly that it’s illegal to build multifamily within those four stories. The first restriction we do is density, that on about 35 percent of lots in San Francisco you can only have a single unit, and then we have duplex, triplex, but a first step would be just remove density restrictions, and allow—we don’t even have to touch heights—just allow whatever number of safe up-to-building-code units you want in the existing heights. SUTHERLAND: That’s a great point. FOOTE: People would still lose their mind, but I think that it would be good. SUTHERLAND: Parking. FOOTE: Parking, oh my God, parking. SUTHERLAND: Which projects on the pipeline that you both support as good models for middle-income housing, and which ones are you pushing for in the future? WANG: I don’t know there a ton that are specifically targeted for middle-income housing. I mean, I think the school district has a property that is aimed at teachers and educators, and that will address a few households that are at middle income. Then there are a couple of projects that are a mix

of affordable, and some of those will get some subsidy to address middle-income housing, middle-income households. I’m not aware of a lot, unless any of the co-living developments can actually address a household at moderate income. FOOTE: It was the idea of the mortgage interest tax deduction that we would make it easier for middle-income families to buy homes. In the current modern era of housing subsidies, that’s a huge one. But we don’t think about subsidizing a lot of middle-income housing until the housing situation now has gotten to the point where people are thinking about it. I worry about that, because if we’re talking about subsidizing our way to middle-income affordability, the amount of money that is something that I don’t see a huge appetite for. It is right now going to mean taking money away from the lowest income and moving it to middle-income affordable housing. That seems to me like dollar for dollar a bad path to go down. The Bay Area is capable right now of building sufficient [amounts of ] housing that housing becomes more affordable to middle-income people. It’s a policy choice to have a shortage, and that seems to me not one that we have to continue. SUTHERLAND: Earlier you described building duplexes, triplexes and quads, as well as adding ADUs [accessory dwelling units]. You think that would be sufficient? FOOTE: Nothing’s ever sufficient, you don’t build the city once, right? As jobs grow in the region, you continue to build housing. Thirty years ago, middle-income families were more able to find housing. We haven’t built sufficient housing since then, and so the housing that we have is too expensive.

WANG: I would add to that, and bringing up the region, this is not just San Francisco’s issue; this is a regional issue. This is a California issue, and I think one of the things we have a shortage of is desirable urban places. Why are so many people wanting to live in San Francisco? Part of it is the jobs, and part of it is the desire to live in a place where you don’t have to get in a car everywhere, where there are exciting things to get to within your city. The more that we can encourage other cities to both create or build up some of these urban places, and also that they are also responsible for adding more housing, and that we invest in transit that gets to those places—that’s all a piece of the puzzle as well. That is not to let San Francisco off the hook in any way, but it is both-and—we need to do both of those things. FOOTE: I did want to add one thing in terms of the subsidizing our way for the middle, is that counterintuitively it would cost San Francisco, the city, more money per unit to invest in middle-income housing than in low-income housing, because there are no other sources available. We don’t have federal sources that meet moderate income; we don’t have very many state sources for rental. The full [funding] gap that is needed to make a development viable would all rest on the city, so they would have to put in tens of thousands of dollars more on a per unit basis, which is a hard and maybe not the right decision for the city to make. WANG: Not when so many people are sleeping on our streets. FOOTE: Right. I mean, we need more shelters. We are capable of building more Navigation Centers. We have a ban on apartments in most neighborhoods; our zoning does not allow apartment buildings to be built. That same ban means that it’s illegal to build affordable subsidized multifamily. It’s illegal to build formally homeless housing. It’s illegal to build shelters; it’s illegal to build Navigation Centers, all of the things that are sort of dense.

Affordable housing is almost always dense, because it’s a scaling thing. You should build a nice, beautiful, multifamily apartment building when you’re building affordable housing. Generally it’s between five and eight stories. They don’t generally do taller than that, because it’s a good, cheap construction type. The funny thing is that modern affordable housing is so good to look at, that you’re passing it every day and you don’t even know. We have this weird problem where people will say, “I don’t want that housing in my neighborhood,” and the truth is it looks like the condos. All you’re going to see when you pass by affordable housing is a tiny little plaque that might say, “Tenderloin Housing,” or “Mission Housing.” It’s a cute little plaque, and you’ll be like, “Oh, what lovely affordable housing. I’m sure the people who live here are lovely, and I want them for neighbors.” SUTHERLAND: What happened with [State Senator] Scott Wiener’s bill, why did that not pass, and how can we get that alive again? Could you describe a little bit more about what he was trying to get passed and what the obstacles were to that? WANG: Last year Scott Wiener introduced a bill called SB 827, which was about increasing zoning around good transit, across the states, and even if a city was not doing its part. FOOTE: Raising the floor. WANG: Obviously there is a lot about that, that is in some people’s minds an obviously good policy choice. In a lot of people’s minds, that was very challenging. It had its challengers on all sides of the political spectrum. It had the challenge of coming from a junior senator from San Francisco. I think this year he’s introduced something called SB50,

which is the second generation of that bill. I think he has done a lot of things to lay the groundwork for a more successful bill. Part of the reason why it didn’t pass last year was that the combination of NIMBY homeowners across the state who are well organized in many of their local communities, and in combination with many equity and tenant advocacy groups that were concerned about the possible displacement effects and feeling like he didn’t do his outreach early enough to get their input. I think the combination of those two things, some environmental concerns, and the internal workings of state politics all came together to kill it in its first committee. I think it really started a conversation that has continued. It was in The New York Times; it was in The Washington Post; it was in The Wall Street Journal; it was across the country something that people were talking about. That helps to change the conversation for the future, and similarly to a couple of years ago when the governor proposed a proposal around by-right housing that also failed spectacularly, the next year Scott Wiener came back with what we know as SB 35 to streamline housing in cities that weren’t doing their job. He was able to get that to pass. I’m cautiously optimistic that it will succeed this year. He has doubled down on the, if you are in a wealthy area with good schools, and even if you don’t have the same transit, your area may be up-zoned. I think there may be more vociferous opposition there, but I think he has the support of many types of organizations. He has the support of Southern California politicians as well as Bay Area politicians.

Photo by James Meinerth

REPUBLICANS IN CALIFORNIA CAN THE GOP SURVIVE?

From the February 5, 2019, program in San Francisco, “Republicans in California: Can the GOP Survive?” CATHARINE BAKER

Former California State Assemblymember (R-16)

KEVIN FAULCONER

Mayor, San Diego

KRISTIN OLSEN

Former Minority Leader, California State Assembly; Former California State Assemblymember (R-12); Supervisor, Stanislaus County

MATT SHUPE

Chairman, Contra Costa Republican Party; Managing Partner, Praetorian Public Relations; Communications Director, John Cox for Governor 2018

SCOTT SHAFER

Senior Editor, California Politics and Government Desk, KQED—Moderator SCOTT SHAFER: There’s little debate that California is undergoing a political sea change of sorts. Democrats have been solidifying power for much of the last decade in the state, but the blue wave hit California Republicans particularly hard in the November midterm elections. They lost half of their U.S. House seats, every statewide

election, and saw Democrats gain really super supermajorities in both chambers of the California legislature. Even traditional Republican strongholds in Orange County and San Diego turned blue for the first time, leaving the GOP with little foothold here in the Golden State. I thought I would begin by asking each of you, What do you think is the state of the GOP in California? Catharine? CATHARINE BAKER: I think the pulse of the GOP in California is very faint. I think there’s really no other message that Republicans can get from the November elections. It has been on the decline by virtue of registration and how many seats Republicans have in this area or the other for over 20 years. But it’s particularly been the last, I think, two years that a party that I thought was making a comeback in 2014 was starting to see the opposite direction. I think the pulse is very faint, and a lot of what will happen next is dependent on how the party responds to the election last November and what happens even in the next few weeks with our leadership in California. Faint pulse. SHAFER: Kristin? KRISTIN OLSEN: I wrote an op-ed that some of you may have seen, saying I believe the party in California right now is virtually dead. That’s not easy for me to say, as somebody who spent my entire adult life in Republican politics. But the fact of the matter is in the California State Assembly, we have fewer Republicans serving today than we’ve had since the 1800s. We really have to do some soul-searching; we have to acknowledge the state of the problem that we’re in if there’s any hope for rebuilding for the future. APRIL/MAY 2019

SHAFER: Mayor Faulconer? KEVIN FAULCONER: We have a lot of work to do as a party, and I have some very strong opinions on some of the things that I think we need to be doing as Republicans, but I think, most important, as Californians. I think that when we look at, particularly here in California, we cannot be a carbon copy of the national GOP. We have to be a party that is responsive to Californians. We have to be a party that is inclusive. We have to be a party that demands results and a party that appeals to the entire spectrum of the state. SHAFER: Matt? Let me ask a slightly different question to you. What do you think are the lessons for California Republicans from the November elections? MATT SHUPE: You’re going to find out tonight I’m an eternal optimist. I don’t think there’s a single Republican that’s happy with the results of the 2018 election, but at the same time I’m definitely an optimist moving forward. I think some of the results are interesting. One thing I’d like to point out is, in 2010, when Meg Whitman ran for governor, she had a 31 percent Republican voter registration, had $160 million. When John Cox ran in 2018, the Republican voter registration was 24 percent and he had $50 million. Meg Whitman got 41 percent of the vote;, John Cox got 38.5 percent of the vote. I think a lot of our losses were tactical and technical. I mean, between the two-and-a-half, three point difference there, I don’t think there’s this major pendulum swinging. I think that we have an opportunity to really examine how we do things moving forward. Hopefully we take this as a learning opportunity to adapt and overcome. Rolling Stone did an article in 2008 right after Obama got elected saying that the Republican [Party] was dead and George W. Bush killed it. A few years later, Republicans took back the House. Eight years later, they had the House, the Senate and a presidency. This stuff comes in ebbs and flows. We definitely have much more of a challenge in California than we did in the country. But again I think this presents an opportunity, and I’m an optimist for that. SHAFER: Catharine Baker, . . . you embodied many of the things that the mayor was describing: somebody who reaches across the aisle, someone who’s inclusive. You supported climate change legislation along with Democrats. You held regular town hall meetings with the Democrats. You supported same-sex marriage. I mean a lot of things were, if you look where are Californians, you’re pretty close to those positions. Yet you lost your reelection. What made the difference? BAKER: Well, any candidate who looks back on the election after losing is going to say, What could I have done differently? What happened? Fortunately, over time, you get an opportunity to look at the data and see. I don’t think it was a tactical change or technical, although I definitely think that Republican campaigns and just leaders in California can improve that. There’s a lot of different reasons why somebody votes for you or for a different candidate, and you have to be respectful of the fact that they’ll have their own reasons. But I can just tell you what we heard on the ground. One reason, that we heard many times, is, “Gee, I heard this about you just from the mail and the hit pieces that you get.” Very standard in campaigns. You’re always going to say, “Gee, the other side’s saying something about me that’s not true.” Very standard— you almost sign up for that whether you like it or not when you go

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

into campaign. But the majority reason we heard loud and clear, day in, day out, was, “I know who you are, Catharine. I like the positions that you’re taking, but I cannot vote for you because you have an ‘R’ after your name.” SHAFER: Mayor, this is a trend in California that preceded Donald Trump, right? We’ve been seeing Republican registration in California going down steadily since the mid-1990s, I would say. Maybe it’s accelerated, maybe it’s that “R” has become the scarlet letter for some voters. FAULCONER: People think of San Diego as a Republican bastion in registration. It’s not. When I ran for office, it was 25 percent; I think it’s like 23 percent Republican now. Virtually, just like the state, even a point or two lower. We have to be a California Republican Party that is inclusive, that welcomes everybody. We have to be a party that does talk about climate change and a party, increasingly here in California, that must focus on reform. A one-party rule is not good for a state. We can talk about some of the issues today, whether that’s our financial issues, our infrastructure issues and others. We need to show that competitiveness for ideas and to do that. When we focus on that, you can win. I won with 57 percent of the vote in a 25 percent registration. Not easy. It’s difficult but at the same time, the party’s way back in California has to be a party that really is encompassing of people and ideas and demonstrating that we care. It’s not just you care, but you demonstrate that with your actions and your values and your policy. When we do that as a party at the state level, then we can get back to winning. SHUPE: I agree with everybody and I actually want to build upon it. Catherine and Kevin are examples of Republicans that can win in what are considered hostile territory for Republicans, and they did that by having strong, bold messages. I think on the state level, we haven’t gone far enough with that yet. We keep talking about standing out to differentiate ourselves, but what has been the state party or the caucuses, the state senate caucus message to do so in the last eight years? I experienced this on two different levels. One, when I was John Cox’s communications director. Once we made it in the general election, every reporter in the state wanted to [ask] us questions on all our solutions on every problem in the state. I would have loved the opportunity to say, “Well, here’s the Republican solution to homelessness,” “Here’s the Republican solution to XYZ.” But I didn’t have a bill package that I could point to and say, “We’ve offered solutions to this and we’re supporting on that; we’re running on that.” Now I’m the Contra Costa County Republican Party chair, and I see the same thing in my county. If I want to go to downtown Walnut Creek at a farmers market and do voter registration, then I want to say, “Yeah, I get you don’t like Trump, but here in California, we’re different. We’re actually trying to make your life better, XYZ.” But the thing is I don’t have an XYZ to point to. I can’t really point to local officials, because a lot of the local Republicans in Contra Costa County or the Bay Area, which they are a lot of, don’t want to be . . . these Republicans. At the same time, I don’t have anything to point to. I want to be able to say that Republicans are working their butts off to solve homelessness in Sacramento, and there’s a reason to vote for them. I feel like we have fallen flat in coming up with good, viable alternatives. In the last eight years, I think we’re just in the party of no. I think it needs to change.

Yunnan & Tibet Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Frontiers September 5 - 21, 2019

Itinerary Thursday, September 5

What to Expect Participants must be in very good health and able to keep up with an active group; walk on average 1-2 miles a day; stand for up to two hours; walk in cities and towns on cobblestone, dirt and pavement; walk up and down steep stairs without hand rails and without the assistance of another person; get off and on tour vehicles without assistance. We travel and stay at altitudes up to 13,000 feet on this tour. While the tour is planned to steadily acclimatize to the high altitude, travelers should not underestimate this risk and a medical form is required to participate in this trip.

the oldest structures standing in southwest China. Discover Dali’s historic quarter, with its quaint stone houses and narrow streets. Linden Centre (B,L,D)

Depart the U.S. on flights to Shanghai, China. (Cross the International Date Line Tuesday, September 10 during flight.) Dali / Lijiang We drive to Lijiang (7,872 feet) the capital Friday, September 6 of the Naxi Autonomous Prefecture and Shanghai, China Arrive Shanghai’s Pudong International a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its Airport. Transfer to our hotel and enjoy an charming old town district is a world of cobbled streets, canals, and stone bridges evening at leisure. that date from the Ming Dynasty. Enjoy Hyatt on the Bund beautiful views of 18,000-foot-high Yulong Saturday, September 7 Shan (Jade Dragon Mountain). Experience Shanghai a special dinner with a performance by The bustling metropolis of Shanghai is traditional musicians and dancers. home to nearly 25 million people and a Jinmao Hotel (B,L,D) thriving seaport dominating the mouth of the Yangzi, the world’s third longest river. Wednesday, September 11 The hotel is located on the historic “Bund” Lijiang waterfront lined with architectural traces Explore Lijiang and travel to the outlying of 19th and early 20th-century European village of Nguluko, former home of the influence. Visit the classic Yu Gardens and Austrian-American explorer, Joseph Rock. the Shanghai Museum in Peoples Square. Visit China’s first national park and ascend to Spruce Meadow on the flanks of Jade Enjoy an evening acrobatics performance. Hyatt on the Bund (B,L) Dragon Peak by cable car.

Sunday, September 8

Jinmao Hotel (B,L,D)

Shanghai / Dali Explore the French Concession area this morning. Fly to Dali this afternoon. The Dali Bai Autonomous Region, lies at 6,000 feet and is set in a 30-mile-long rice plain wedged between the 12,000-foot-high Cangshan Range and Erhai Lake. This was capital of the independent Nanzhao kingdom during the 8th and 9th centuries and at its height conquered parts of Burma, Laos and Thailand.

Lijiang / Zhongdian (Shangri-la) Our scenic drive passes from deciduous forest, through conifer and rhododendron, to high grasslands, and on to the Tibetan plateau. We stop at Tiger Leaping Gorge along the upper reaches of the great Yangzi River before reaching Zhongdian (10,000 feet) where the local population is primarily of Tibetan heritage.

Linden Centre (B,L,D)

Monday, September 9 Dali Take a scenic two-hour boat ride on Erhai Lake. Visit Putao Bai temple, built on a rock island, and explore a Bai fishing village. See the San Ta Pagodas, which are among

Thursday, September 12

Shangri-la Hotel (B,L,D)

Friday, September 13 Zhongdian Tour the spectacular Ganden Sumsanling Monastery where more than 800 monks live and practice. Enjoy a walking tour along the shores of spectacular Shudu Lake. Shangri-la Hotel (B,L,D)

Saturday, September 14

Buddhism. Experience Norbulingka, the official summer residence of the Dalai Zhongdian / Lhasa Fly this morning to Lhasa. After lunch Lamas and their families located in a and a rest to acclimatize to the 12,000 feet park-like setting. altitude, we visit the nearby Tibet Museum. Shangri-la Hotel (B,L,D) Shangri-la Hotel (B,L,D)

Sunday, September 15 Lhasa Explore the Potala Palace, which is thirteen stories high and purportedly houses over 1,000 rooms, and contains the Dalai Lama’s residences, immense tombs and numerous prayer halls. Visit the pilgrimage site of the Jokhang Temple where the first statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in Tibet is housed. Around the Jokhang is a constant procession of pilgrims moving in circumambulation. Shangri-la Hotel (B,L,D)

Monday, September 16 Lhasa / Gyangtse Embark on an overland drive crossing a holy mountain pass at 16,000 feet and onwards to Yamdrok Lake, a brilliantly aquamarinecolored lake located on the high plains of the Tibetan Plateau. En route see local herdsmen and nomads tending yaks in high pasture. Arrive in Gyangtse (13,000 feet) and tour the “kumbum” at Palcho Monastery. Gyangtse Hotel (B,L,D)

Thursday, September 19 Lhasa / Beijing Enjoy some sightseeing and shopping in Lhasa before our afternoon flight to Beijing. Grand Hyatt Beijing (B,L,D)

Friday, September 20 Beijing Our sightseeing will focus on the Lama Temple of Tibetan Buddhism for an interesting contrast to the architecture seen in Tibet, and the charming Confucian Temple nearby. If this is your first visit to Beijing consider extending your stay. Enjoy a farewell dinner tonight. Grand Hyatt Beijing (B,L,D)

Saturday, September 21 Beijing / U.S. Transfer to the Beijing Airport for flights home or stay in Beijing.

Beijing Post-Trip Extension September 21-23

Spend two additional nights in Beijing at the Grand Hyatt. Visit the Mutianyu section of Gyangtse / Shigatse / Lhasa the Great Wall and the immense imperial Shigatse (12,600 feet) is the seat of power palace complex of the “Forbidden City. for the Panchen Lama and home to the impressive monastery complex, Tashilumpo. Cost: After we explore this “second city” of Tibet $685 per person, double occupancy we return to Lhasa by road or rail, as our $325 single room supplement schedule allows. Based on a minimum of 10 travelers.

Tuesday, September 17

Shangri-la Hotel (B,L,D)

Wednesday, September 18

Included: Lhasa 2 nights accommodations; 3 breakfasts, 2 Visit the great Drepung Monastery filled lunches; local guide and excursions. with art treasures and elaborate murals depicting the great epics of Tibetan Details will be provided upon registration.

Trip Details Dates: September 5-21, 2019 (16 days) Group Size: Minimum 15, Maximum 24 (not including staff) Cost: $7,395 per person, double occupancy, $1,500 single room supplement Included: 15 nights accommodations as specified (or similar); 15 breakfasts, 14 lunches, 13 dinners (including one in-flight); wine and beer with welcome and farewell events; Tour leader and local guides; activities as specified in the itinerary; internal flights; coach transportation throughout; airport transfers on designated group dates and times; Commonwealth Club representative with 15 or more participants; gratuities to local guides, drivers, and for all included group activities; pre-departure materials Not included: International airfare; visa and passport fees; meals not specified as included; optional outings and gratuities for those outings; alcoholic beverages beyond welcome and farewell events; travel insurance (recommended, information will be sent upon registration); items of a purely personal nature.

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Terms and Conditions The Commonwealth Club (CWC) has contracted Bamboo Tours to organize this tour. Reservations: A $1,000 per person deposit, along with a completed and signed Reservation Form, will reserve a place for participants on this program. The balance of the trip is due 120 days prior to departure and must be paid by check. Any credit card payment is subject to a 3.5% additional fee. Eligibility: We require membership to the Commonwealth Club to travel with us. People who live outside of the Bay Area may purchase a Worldwide membership. To learn about membership types and to purchase a membership, visit commonwealthclub.org/membership or call (415) 597-6720. Cancellation and Refund Policy: Notification of cancellation must be received in writing. At the time we receive your written cancellation, the following penalties will apply: • 91 or more days or more prior to departure: $1,000 per person • 90-60 days to departure: $2,500 per person • 59-30 days to departure: $3,500 per person • 29-0 days to departure: No refund Tour pricing is based on a minimum of 15 participants. Tour price is based on exchange rates as of January 2019 and is subject to change. Tour can also be cancelled due to low enrollment. Neither CWC nor Bamboo Tours accepts liability for cancellation penalties related to domestic or international airline tickets purchased in conjunction with the tour.

Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance: We strongly advise that all travelers purchase trip cancellation and interruption insurance as coverage against a covered unforeseen emergency that may force you to cancel or leave trip while it is in progress. A brochure describing coverage will be sent to you upon receipt of your reservation. Medical Information: Participation in this program requires that you be in good health and able to walk several miles each day. The “What to Expect” outlines what is required. If you have any concerns see your doctor on the advisability of you joining this program. It is essential that persons with any medical problems and related dietary restrictions make them known to us well before departure. Itinerary Changes & Trip Delay: Itinerary is based on information available at the time of printing and is subject to change. We reserve the right to change a program’s dates, staff, itineraries, or accommodations as conditions warrant. If a trip must be delayed, or the itinerary changed, due to bad weather, road conditions, transportation delays, airline schedules, government intervention, sickness or other contingency for which CWC or Bamboo Tours or its agents cannot make provision, the cost of delays or changes is not included. Limitations of Liability: In order to join the program, participants must complete a Participant Waiver provided by the CWC and agree to these terms: CWC and Bamboo Tours its Owners, Agents, and Employees act only as

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noon Achieve Fool Realization on April Fools Day 6:30 pm Guy Kawasaki: Lessons from Silicon Valley

6 pmp.m. 5:15 The Penalty Blinding for Flash of My Success: theFather Obvious 6:30 Lynched Was p.m. Ben in Franklin Circles FM Alabama 6:30 6 pmp.m. Reading Changemakers: California Book Movement Leaders Discussion on Civil Rights in an Uncivil Time FM 7:45 p.m. The Future of America’s Political

6:30 10 a.m. pmChinatown Max Brooks Walking and ML Cavanaugh: Tour 6:30 ‘Game How p.m. Sallie of Krawcheck: Thrones’ Explains The Power of Military Mondern Women, Work and Wallet Strategy 7 p.m. Gopi Kallayil: Brain, Body and Consciousness

6 pm Health Risks of Plastic Pollutants and How to Solve Them 6:30 pm Bret Easton Ellis: Freedom of Speech in a Digital Age

6:30 pm Nancy Gwinn: Secrets of The Smithsonian

5:30 pm Middle East Forum Discussion FM 6:30 pm Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle: Leadership in Silicon Valley

noon Our Inner Ecology—It’s All About Shifting How We Think: A Conversation with Nora Bateson

2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE 6:30 pm Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury 6:30 pm Week to Week Political Roundtable

2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE 6 pm William Burns 6 pm The California Table: Celebrating Sustainable Food and Wine 6:30 pm Humanities West Book: The Iliad

2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE

6 pm On the Road to Freedom and Home Again

San Francisco

2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE 5:15 pm Invisible Women’s Voices 6:30 pm Clive Thompson 6:30 pm Janet Napolitano 7:45 pm Farming to Save the Earth

East/North Bay

Silicon Valley

10 am Innovate for Good Conference noon The Michelle Meow Show FE 2 pm Waterfront Walking Tour 6 pm America and the Great Power Competiton

noon The Michelle Meow Show FE 6 pm Valerie Jarrett: Politics, the Obamas and Finding My Voice 6:30 pm Putin’s Quest for Greatness

noon The Michelle Meow Show FE

noon The Michelle Meow Show FE 6 pm San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour 6:30 pm Moving the Needle on Paid Leave: Men Taking a Stand

FM Free for members

noon Prenatal Care for Healthier ToxicFree Babies

10:15 am The 22nd Travers Conference on Ethics and Accountability in Government noon Trump & The Middle East 2019 6 pm Silicon City

FE Free for everyone

Sunday 1 pm Olympic Skater Adam Rippon

MO Members-only

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6 pm The Tubman Command 6:30 pm Week to Week Political Roundatble

noon Sandro Galea 6 pm What Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics 6:30 pm Data for Social Good: Crisis Text Line CEO Nancy Lublin

5 pm Middle East Forum Discussion FM

noon Do No Harm: Civic Leadership & the Role of Health Care 6 pm The Italian Table: Creating Festive Meals for Family and Freinds 6:30 pm Emily Bazelon

6 pm Donaldina Cameron and The Occidental Mission Home 7:30 pm Deborah Lipstadt on AntiSemitism

noon The Girl Who Said No: A Search in Sicily 2 pm Nob Hill Walking Tour 6:30 pm Susan Hockfield

6 pm Vignettes and Postcards from Paris

commonwealthclub.org/events

noon David Brooks: The Quest for Moral Life 2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE 6 pm A New Faustian Opera: “If I Were You”

6:30 pm Dustin Lance Black: Coming of Age in Red and Blue America

noon Annie Jacobsen 6:30 pm Humanities West Book Discussion: The Greek Way

2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE 7 pm Adam Savage 5:30 pm Spring Into Summer Member Party: Celebrate Summer at The Commonwealth Club

noon The Michelle Meow Show FE 6 pm The Penelope Poems 6:30 pm Willie Brown: Annual Commonwealth Club Lecture

10 am Chinatown Walking Tour noon The Michelle Meow Show FE

noon The Michelle Meow Show FE

noon The Michelle Meow Show FE 6:30 pm Week to Week Political Roundtable 5:15 pm A Guide to Retirement Living Alternatives

noon The Michelle Meow Show FE 6:30 pm Scott Pelley

APRIL/MAY 2019

Achieve Fool Realization on April Fools’ Day 4/1

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 CLIVE THOMPSON: HOW TECH REMADE THE WORLD

Clive Thompson, Columnist, Wired; Author, Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World; Twitter: @pomeranian99

MONDAY, APRIL 1 ACHIEVE FOOL REALIZATION ON APRIL FOOLS’ DAY

Steve Bhaerman (“Swami Beyondananda”), Comic

Celebrate the lunch hour on April Fools’ Day by sitting at the feet of cosmic comic Swami Beyondananda, whose favorite yoga pose is tongue in cheek. Swami will help you laugh lovingly at our human foolishness ’til the sacred cows come home. And at least one lucky person in the audience will achieve “fool realization” as to why author Marianne Williamson has called Swami the Mark Twain of our times. Come in darkness (to get a good seat), but expect to be enlightened. And BYOF (bring your own friends), because when it comes to laughter, the more the merrier. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

GUY KAWASAKI: LESSONS FROM SILICON VALLEY

Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist, Canva; Author, Wise Guy

Guy Kawasaki has been a fixture in Silicon Valley and the tech world since he was part of Apple’s original Macintosh team in the 1980s. He’s widely respected as a source of wisdom about entrepreneurship, venture capital, marketing and business evangelism. But before all that, he was just a middle-class kid in Hawaii, a grandson of Japanese immigrants. Kawasaki will take you through his surprising journey and focus on the experiences that have enlightened and inspired him. He’ll cover everything from moral values to business skills to parenting. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embar-

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

cadero, Taube Family Auditorium, 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

TUESDAY, APRIL 2 OUR INNER ECOLOGY—IT’S ALL ABOUT SHIFTING HOW WE THINK: A CONVERSATION WITH NORA BATESON

Nora Bateson, Filmmaker; Writer; Educa-

When we think of the people behind the most influential technological advances of our day, we usually imagine the leaders of the industry—but forget the armies behind them. Dedicated to the pursuit of higher efficiency, lovers of logic and puzzles, and able to withstand unbelievable amounts of frustration, these programmers are arguably the most quietly influential people on the planet. Clive Thompson argues just that. He analyzes this industry and its embeddedness, questioning the lack of geographic and demographic diversity in the sector while outlining his optimistic view on the opportunities that this age of code will can unlock. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing

tor; President, International Bateson Institute; Director and Producer, “An Ecology of WEEKLY CLUB TOUR Mind”; Author, Small Arcs of Larger Circles Join us for a complimentary tour of our In Conversation with Gil Friend, Expert in beautiful new headquarters on San Francisco’s Residence, Presidio Graduate School; CEO, waterfront. Natural Logic, Inc.; CEO, Critical Path Capital; SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmbarAuthor, The Truth About Green Business

Nora Bateson’s cinematic vision can help you to see the world in a different way. At the bottom of the climate crisis is the problem of how we think and how we encounter the world. Bateson and Gil Friend will discuss new forms of leadership. In today’s complex world, the tools they are offering can be applied to problem solving the pressing dilemmas of our time. Join Friend and Bateson as they explore warm data, the patterns that connect, the dilemma of purpose and the ways our words shape the worlds we inhabit. It is about the possibilities we generate, in each other and in ourselves. As Gregory Bateson said, “The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.” SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing • MLF: Business & Leadership • Program organizer: Elizabeth Carney • Notes: In partnership with Presidio Graduate School

cadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–3 p.m. tour

INVISIBLE WOMEN’S VOICES FINALLY BEING HEARD

Mariam Baker, Author, Sacred Voices: Stories from the Caravan of Women

In her book, Mariam Baker explores how we are all connected, and how women can lead the way. Finding herself strongly connected to Islam and Sufism since she was 20 years old, Baker, who grew up Catholic in the United States, conducts workshops all over the world, bridging the divide between Islam and the West. Believing it’s about time the greatness of women’s wisdom is spoken and heard, her lifelong work is devoted to empowering us all, especially women, with the goal of freeing women’s voices throughout the world and among all religions. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. check-in, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Program organizer: Denise Michaud

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

JANET NAPOLITANO: HOMELAND SECURITY SINCE 9/11

Janet Napolitano, President, University of

California; Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security; Author, How Safe Are We? Homeland Security Since 9/11 In Conversation with John Diaz, Editorial Page Editor, San Francisco Chronicle

Covering everything from terrorism prevention to law enforcement, and disaster recovery to public safety, the Department of Homeland Security goals can often seem self-contradictory and overly politicized, especially today. Few people understand this better than Janet Napolitano, who served as the secretary of homeland security from 2009–2013. Napolitano acknowledges the shortcomings and the challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security today, especially the politicization of border security and our lagging cybersecurity sector. But she also makes a pragmatic and honest case for its successes and explains the ways in which the Department of Homeland Security does indeed make us safer. Join us for a discussion that chronicles the evolution of our national security and that cuts through the political noise that too often dominates these conversations. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Napolitano photo from the University of California; attendees subject to search

FARMING TO SAVE THE EARTH

ing. Joining Dolan is Roots of Change presi- WATERFRONT WALKING TOUR dent Michael Dimock. Join Rick Evans for his walking tour explorMARIN • MARIN CONVERSATIONS PRO- ing the historic sites of the waterfront neighGRAM • Location: The Outdoor Art Club, 1 W borhood that surround Commonwealth Club Blithedale Ave, Mill Valley • Time: 7 p.m. check- headquarters. Hear the dynamic stories of the in, 7:45–9 p.m. program • Notes: Wine and entrepreneurs, controversial artists and labor cheese available organizers who created this recently revitalized neighborhood. This tour will give you a liveTHURSDAY, APRIL 4 ly overview of the historic significance of this INNOVATE FOR GOOD CONFERENCE neighborhood and a close look at the ongoing In an increasingly digital and global econ- development. omy, our cities and organizations are facing SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarrapid change. They must be able to attract cadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • Time: high-end talent and foster innovation while 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: maintaining competitiveness. They must also The tour operates rain or shine; limited to 20 grapple with increased environmental and participants; tickets must be purchased in adsocial issues that threaten not only corporate vance and will not be sold at check-in; walks with fewer than six participants will be canprofits but also human existence itself. In this celed (you will receive notification of this at context, innovation for good could not be least three days in advance) more important. The Innovate for Good Conference focusAMERICA AND THE GREAT POWER es on how organizations can innovate at the COMPETITION same time that they address issues with the Vice Adm. Charles W. Martoglio (Ret.), environment and societal inequality. Leaders Director of Strategy and Policy, U.S. Navy; Diin the public and private sector will discuss rector for Operations, U.S. Pacific Command; their strategy to do this—maintain financial Deputy Commander, U.S. Military Forces in profitability while bolstering sustainable devel- Europe, Eurasia and Israel opment values. They will offer lessons for how Retired Vice Admiral Charles W. Martoglio organizations need to prepare and adapt—in- of the U.S. Navy will discuss America’s greatest novating the future for good. security challenge of the 21st century, the inSAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 10 a.m.–4 p.m. program (includes lunch) • Notes: In partnership with the University of San Francisco School of Management

Paul Dolan, Former Chairman, Wine Insti- THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 4/4/19 tute; Former President, Fetzer Vineyards Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Michael Dimrock, President, Roots of Meow Show” (Radio and KBCW TV); Twitter Change

One of the best-kept secrets about combating the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity and agricultural productivity is a return to an agriculture model that sustained people and the planet prior to the age of industrial agriculture, according to some experts. The answer to the future of farming, they say, is to look to the past. Beginning from the modern sustainable agricultural and slow food movement, California’s early pioneers in organic farming have redefined the meaning of sustainability. Fourth-generation winemaker Paul Dolan led a transformation that put his company at the forefront of organic viticulture and sustainable business. Today, besides growing and making biodynamic wines, Dolan is a leader in redefining the farming system with a focus on regenerative agriculture and biodynamic farm-

@msmichellemeow John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club— Co-Host

Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. See program details at commonwealthclub.org/mms. SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

Janet Napolitano: Homeland Security Since 9/11 4/3

creasingly competitive rivalry posed by China and Russia teaming up against American interests at home and around the world. He’ll discuss the global security environment, how

China and Russia are challenging America, internal challenges faced by Russia and China, and America’s way ahead to ensure its global position in this increasingly dynamic and competitive world.

awakening and the long and inspiring history of young people enacting significant political change in the United States, ranging from the civil rights movement to the Parkland students’ stance against gun violence. Since its SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embar- founding in 2010 when Warren was a senior cadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San at Brown University, Generation Citizen has Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. worked with more than 50,000 students across program • MLF: International Relations • Pro- the country to engage them in politics as the gram organizer: Linda Calhoun next generation of future leaders. Join Warren and other rising voices in youth THE POWER OF YOUTH IN OUR leadership and civic engagement for an inspiring conversation about the political potential POLITICS Scott Warren, Co-Founder and Chief Execu- of youth and students. tive Officer, Generation Citizen; Author, Generation Citizen: The Power of Youth in Our Politics

Rigel Robinson, Berkeley City Councilmember Lexie Tesch, Junior, Berkeley High School; Former Chair, Berkeley Youth Commission Additional Panelists TBA Gun violence. #BlackLivesMatter. Climate change. Voting rights. Despite a sense of alienation from civic engagement in today’s political atmosphere, young leaders continue to take up the charge across these and other critical issues, demanding a better future, wielding their votes and pushing the country forward to create change. Scott Warren recounts his personal political

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

FRIDAY, APRIL 5 PRENATAL CARE FOR HEALTHIER, TOXIC-FREE BABIES

Nicole Avena, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Alexandra Destler, Ed.M., Founder, Public

Health Institute’s Center for Climate Change; Founder, the Environmental Stewardship Initiative, the American Hospital Association; Co-Developer, The Greenfield Path

More and more research finds that the environment in which a fetus develops can have a profound impact on development. Our modern environment can contain thousands of dangerous chemicals, many of which have not been tested for safety. These chemicals can be found in bed mattresses, hand lotion, food wrappers and the foods we eat. Nicole Avena will discuss research on how prenatal and early-life exposure to food ingredients can have long-term implications for health, including obesity, altered food preferences and hyperactivity. Tracey Woodruff will discuss research on exposures of pregnant women and fetuses to environmental contaminants and the impact of these exposures on health and fetal development, as well as how this research can inform public policy. Alexandra Destler will discuss how SafetyNEST, a one-stop online health platform being developed to educate the medical community and families about the health risks associated with exposures to toxic chemicals, particularly during vulnerable periods of development.

of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai; New York City Visiting Professor of Health Psychology, Princeton University Tracey Woodruff, Ph.D., MPH, Associate Editor, Environmental Health Perspectives; Former Senior Scientist and Policy Advisor, SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmbarOffice of Policy, Environmental Protection cadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Agency Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon

The Power of Youth in Politics 4/4

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

program • MLF: Health & Medicine • Program organizer: Patty James

MONDAY, APRIL 8 THE PENALTY FOR SUCCESS: MY FATHER WAS LYNCHED IN ALABAMA

barcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

READING CALIFORNIA BOOK Penalty for Success: My Father Was Lynched DISCUSSION: THE FAR-AWAY BROTHERS in Lowndes County Alabama Josephine Bolling McCall, Author, The

We will discuss the California Book Awards’ In Conversation with Margaret Russell, Interim Associate Provost for Diversity and 2018 silver medalist for nonfiction, by Oakland-based Lauren Markham. Subtitled Two Inclusion, Santa Clara University Monday Night Philosophy investigates the painful reality that succeeding in business is not always an advantage in America. In fact, if you were black in the Jim Crow South, it could get you killed. Elmore Bolling, a successful entrepreneur, was lynched in Lowndes County, Alabama in 1947 when his youngest daughter, Josephine Bolling McCall, was five years old. More than 70 years later, Bolling is now honored in the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in Montgomery last year. In her book, The Penalty for Success, McCall tells the story of her father’s murder and the impact it had—and still has—on her family and her community. She offers a revealing narrative that challenges us to rethink the reality of life for blacks and whites in the rural South during Jim Crow, where whites used lynching to destroy competition from black business owners as part of a pattern of racial violence that terrorized African-Americans for generations and has yet to be adequately addressed in America.

Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life, the story resonates with us about many contemporary immigrant stories. Ernesto and Raul Flores, identical twins from El Salvador, want to escape the gang life that threatens them in their homeland. This book traces their odyssey from Central America to Oakland and their navigation of a new life there. We are pleased that author Lauren Markham, who earned many awards and accolades for her work on this book, will be able to join us. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Reading Californians • Program organizer: Kalena Gregory

TUESDAY, APRIL 9

nister’s unlikely success, Daenerys Targaryen’s fire-strafing dragons and Jon Snow’s abilities as a leader), Brooks and Cavanaugh will discern the fascinating connections between George R. R. Martin’s fantasy world and real war and politics. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10

WEEKLY CLUB TOUR

Every Wednesday at 2 p.m., we’re giving members and nonmembers behind-the-scenes tours of our home at 110 The Embarcadero. Join us for a complimentary tour of our beautiful new headquarters on San Francisco’s waterfront. At our state-of-the-art gathering space, which features a rooftop terrace with unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco Bay, you can learn about our storied history and the many amenities of being a Club member. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–3 p.m. tour

FOURSOME: ALFRED STIEGLITZ, GEORGIA O’KEEFFE, PAUL STRAND, REBECCA SALSBURY

MAX BROOKS AND ML CAVANAUGH: HOW ‘GAME OF THRONES’ EXPLAINS MODERN MILITARY STRATEGY

Carolyn Burke, Author, Foursome: Alfred

Who will claim the Iron Throne and why? On the eve of the premiere of the final season of “Game of Thrones,” Max Brooks and ML Cavanaugh’s new book brings together 30 expert strategists to answer that query and engage in questions surrounding the most popular television series of our time. As characters battle for power and control, there is magic and witchcraft, fiery dragons, frozen zombies, chaotic combat, swordplay and brutal intrigue, creating one of the most intense worldwide strategy plotlines in contemporary television. By applying the theories of our actual world to the examples in fictional Westeros (including Tyrion Lan-

the most influential figure in early20th-century photography, celebrated the success of his latest New York City exhibition, whose centerpiece was a series of nude portraits of the young Georgia O’Keeffe (soon to be his wife). It was also a turning point for both O’Keeffe and Rebecca Salsbury, the fiancée of Stieglitz’s protégé at the time, Paul Strand. In the years that followed, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz became the preeminent couple in American modern art, spurring each other’s creativity. That led Salsbury to encourage new artistic possibilities for Strand and to rethink her own potential as an artist. In fact, it was Salsbury, the least known of the four, who

Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury Max Brooks, Writer; Fellow, Modern War In Conversation with Julia Flynn Siler, SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- Institute, West Point; Co-Editor, Winning Book Juror, California Book Awards Westeros: How Game of Thrones Explains Foursome is the spirited account of the inModern Military Conflict; Author, World War tense relationship among four artists whose Z; Son of Mel Brooks strong personalities, passionate feelings and Lt. Col. ML Cavanaugh, U.S. Army Strategist; aesthetic ideals drew them together, pulled Fellow, Modern War Institute, West Point; them apart and profoundly influenced Co-Editor, Winning Westeros: How Game of 20th-century art. In 1921, Alfred Stieglitz, Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict

“Game of Thrones” and Military Strategy 4/9

APRIL/MAY 2019

Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keefe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury 4/10

was the main thread that wove together the two couples’ lives. Carolyn Burke mines this foursome’s correspondence to reveal how each inspired, provoked and unsettled the others while pursuing their own artistic innovations. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, 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: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation

WEEK TO WEEK POLITICAL ROUNDTABLE 4/10/19

VALERIE JARRETT: POLITICS, THE Panelists TBA John Zipperer, Vice President of Media & OBAMAS AND FINDING MY VOICE Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—Host Valerie Jarrett, Former Senior Adviser to Join us as we discuss the biggest, most con- President Barack Obama; Author, Finding troversial and sometimes the surprising politi- My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and cal issues with expert commentary by panelists the Path Forward Despite the almost constant streams of media who are smart, are civil and have a good sense reporting on the White House, very few people of humor. Our panelists will provide informaknow what really goes on in the West Wing. tive and engaging commentary on political Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser in the Obama and other major news, and we’ll have audience administration, is one of those people. From discussion of the week’s events and our live the day she interviewed a young Michelle news quiz! And come early before the program Robinson in July 1991 to the night of January to meet other smart and engaged individuals 20, 2017, when the first family departed the and discuss the news over snacks and wine at White House, Jarrett has been a trusted confiour members social (open to all attendees). SAN FRANCISCO • WEEK TO WEEK PROGRAM dante and a close friend of the Obama family. • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Fam- In her book, Finding My Voice: My Journey to ily Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. the West Wing and the Path Forward, Jarrett check-in and social hour, 6:30 p.m. program shares her story of growing up with American • Notes: Each attendee will receive two free parents in the town of Shiraz, Iran, living in drink tickets for a glass of wine or a soft drink Chicago during the civil rights movement and during our social hour ultimately finding her voice in public service. She led the Obama administration’s criminal THURSDAY, APRIL 11 justice reforms, advocated for women’s rights THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW and political empowerment, and fought to im4/11/19 prove the lives of working families. Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Marines’ MemoriShow” (Radio and TV) John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club— Co-Host

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: International Relations • Program organizer: Norma Walden • Notes: In association with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, UC Berkeley

FRIDAY, APRIL 12 THE 22ND ANNUAL TRAVERS CONFERENCE ON ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNMENT: IS AMERICA BREAKING APART?

The 2019 Travers Conference will bring together experts from around the country to assess the question of whether America is breaking apart politically. There is a sense among al Theatre, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco • Time: some that Americans are more divided than at 11 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book any time since the Civil War. The conference signing • Notes: Attendees subject to search; will consider the nature of these divisions, Jarrett photo by Andrew Eccles; part of our how deep and genuine they really are, and Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard how they are affecting governance. It will inOsher Foundation clude three panels: “Prospects for Governing Amid Polarization,” “Identity and Politics in PUTIN’S QUEST FOR GREATNESS a Changing America,” and “Divisions in the Anastasia Edel, Russian–American Writer Public, Imagined or Real?”

Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your ques- and Political Commentator; Author, Russia: tions ready. See program details at common- Putin’s Playground; Lecturer, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of California wealthclub.org/mms. SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

ing this vision—removing constraints on presidential power, rolling back civil society and reforging an ideological state that he markets domestically as “great Russia.” Has his strategy to reverse territory losses and status left Russians in a better place— and at what price? As American democracy struggles with encroaching authoritarianism, Russia, the country that has succumbed to it, offers a cautionary tale.

Berkeley

Coming into power in 2000, Vladimir Putin had a message: Russia must be “lifted off its knees.” He spent the next 19 years implement-

EAST BAY • Location: Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way, Berkeley • Time: 10:15 a.m.–4 p.m. program • Notes: Free; lunch provided to registered participants; hosted by the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley; in cooperation with The Commonwealth Club of California

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

TRUMP AND THE MIDDLE EAST 2019 nomic Development, State of California—

Banafsheh Keynoush, Ph.D., Author, Moderator San Francisco is changing at warp speed. Saudi Arabia and Iran Eddy Simonian, MA, International Rela- Famously home to artists and activists, and tions Graduate, University of San Francisco known as the birthplace of the Beats, the Black Jonathan Curiel, Journalist—Moderator Panthers and the LGBTQ movement, in reThis is the third annual panel about how the cent decades the Bay Area has been reshaped Trump presidency is affecting the Middle East, by Silicon Valley, the engine of the new AmerNorth Africa and Afghanistan. (Note: Our ican economy. The richer the region gets, the monthly “Middle East Forum Discussion” also more unequal and less diverse it becomes, and covers these areas.) cracks in the city’s facade—rapid gentrificaSome experts continue to believe that tion, an epidemic of evictions, rising crime, Trump is destabilizing the region with his im- atrophied public institutions—have started to pulsive decisions and dangerous rhetoric and show. actions, while others believe that he is making Inspired by Studs Terkel’s classic works of America safer. Our distinguished panel will oral history, writer and filmmaker Cary Mccontinue the conversation. Clelland spent several years interviewing peoSAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embar- ple at the epicenter of the recent change, incadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Fran- cluding venture capitalists, coders, politicians, cisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon pro- protesters, as well as native sons and daughters gram • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: and the city’s newest arrivals. The crisp and vivCelia Menczel id stories of Silicon City’s diverse cast capture San Francisco as never before.

SILICON CITY

Cary McClelland, Author, Silicon City In Conversation with Lenny Mendonca,

Chief Economic and Business Advisor and Director of the Office of Business and Eco-

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

TUESDAY, APRIL 16 HEALTH RISKS OF PLASTIC POLLUTANTS AND HOW TO SOLVE THEM

John Peterson “Pete” Myers, Ph.D.,

Founder and Chief Scientist, Environmental Health Sciences; Former Director, W. Alton Jones Foundation; Co-Author, Our Stolen Future

Plastics are a ubiquitous, inescapable part of daily life. They have many seemingly irreplaceable, inexpensive and convenient uses. But there is a dark side to some of them that goes far beyond the painful photographs of albatross chick tummies stuffed with discarded cigarette lighters or turtle necks strangled by six-pack rings. Some of them are exceedingly hazardous to life, even at what appear to be low doses. Much of the hazard arises because they contain chemicals that interfere with hormone signaling: endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). By hacking the hormone signaling systems that control fetal development, they can set in motion physiological processes that can lead to a wide array of diseases and disabilities. Intense study of EDCs began in the 1990s. Since then, millions

A gift that truly keeps on giving. You are invited to join a dedicated group of Club members who want to ensure that the Club’s mission to promote and uphold civil discourse is safeguarded into the future. Legacy gifts made to the Club become part of our new endowment, which will support our programming activities in perpetuity. As a member of the Legacy Circle, you’ll also be offered certain privileges and invited to special events. We are grateful for gifts of all sizes. For most kinds of legacy gifts, there is no minimum gift amount. To Learn More: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/legacy-giving Contact: Kimberly Maas, Vice President of Development 415-597-6726

“I want The Commonwealth Club to continue to do constructive work for my community long after I am gone. That is why I made the Club a beneficiary of my estate.” -Anonymous Legacy Circle donor

of dollars have been invested in this scientific Over the course of more than three decades as an American diplomat, William J. Burns field, yielding thousands of research papers. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embar- played a central role in the most consequential cadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San diplomatic episodes of his time. He is widely Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. regarded as one of the most distinguished and program • MLF: Health & Medicine • Program admired American statesmen of the last half organizer: Patty James century. Upon his retirement in 2014, Secretary John Kerry said Burns belonged on “a very BRET EASTON ELLIS: FREEDOM OF short list of American diplomatic legends,” SPEECH IN A DIGITAL AGE alongside George Kennan. Join us as Burns Bret Easton Ellis, Author, White (Forth- recounts some of the seminal moments of his coming), American Psycho, The Rules of At- career. Drawing on a trove of newly declassitraction, Less Than Zero; Screenwriter; Host, fied cables and memos, he gives readers a rare “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast” inside look at American diplomacy in action. Bret Easton Ellis, the best-selling novelist SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarand screenwriter of the darkly incisive Amer- cadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisican Psycho and other hugely popular novels, co • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program is diving into nonfiction for the first time • Notes: Burns photo by Brigitte Lacombe; part with his provocatively titled new book White, of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Berwhich blends his personal perspective in the nard Osher Foundation entertainment industry and his sharp cultural insight into our digital age, simultaneously de- THE CALIFORNIA TABLE: fining and defending the concept of freedom CELEBRATING SUSTAINABLE of speech. Join Ellis live at INFORUM as he FOOD AND WINE reflects on the state of political discourse in the Allison Jordan, Executive Director, CaliUnited States and shares his unique perspec- fornia Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance tive as an unfiltered and often polarizing cul- Nancy Light, Vice President of Communications, Wine Institute tural commentator. SAN FRANCISCO • INFORUM PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program followed by book signing

Additional panelists TBA

Join the editors of Wine Country Table: With Recipes that Celebrate California’s Sustainable Harvest and other panelists for tips, recipes and stories based on the book’s culinary tour of California, highlighting vintners and farmers’ sustainability commitments. After the program, continue the conversation while enjoying wine from featured wineries. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment & Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

HUMANITIES WEST BOOK DISCUSSION: THE ILIAD

Join us to discuss The Iliad. Homer’s classic, as translated by Robert Fagles, makes the Trojan War come alive. Since Homer’s poetry is meant to be listened to, not just read, we also recommend the audio version of Fagles’ translation as performed by Derek Jacobi (available through Audible, Google Play and iTunes). Experience why Homer’s work continues to influence human culture after nearly three millennia. The discussion will be led by Lynn Harris. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17 WEEKLY CLUB TOUR

Join us for a complimentary tour of our beautiful new headquarters on San Francisco’s waterfront. At our state-of-the-art gathering space, which features a rooftop terrace with unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco Bay, you can learn about our storied history and the many amenities of being a Club member. Space is limited, so reserve your spot now to visit San Francisco’s newest—and oldest—cultural treasure at our new location. Feel free to call the front desk ahead of time for extra availability. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–3 p.m. tour

WILLIAM BURNS

William Burns, President, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; Author, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

Health Risks of Plastic Pollutants and How to Solve Them 4/16

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

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

THURSDAY, APRIL 18 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 4/18/19

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow

Show” (Radio and TV) John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable—Co-Host

space, which features a rooftop terrace with unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco Bay, you can learn about our storied history and the many amenities of being a Club member. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–3 p.m. tour

THURSDAY, APRIL 25

THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW Join us as Michelle Meow brings her 4/25/19

long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. For program topic and speakers, visit commonwealthclub.org/mms. SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

MONDAY, APRIL 22 NANCY GWINN: SECRETS OF THE SMITHSONIAN

Nancy Gwinn, Ph.D., Director, the Smithsonian Libraries

Evelyn Dilsaver, Chair, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Moderator

Variously referred to as the “Nation’s Attic” or “Octopus on the Mall,” the Smithsonian is an institution that is 172 years old and comprised of 19 museums, 9 research centers, 21 libraries, and the National Zoo, which is bound to have secrets. (Well, maybe not secrets, but certainly the uncommon, rare, curious, extraordinary—even perhaps bizarre.) Nancy E. Gwinn will delve into the fascinating history of the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum complex and America’s national museum, and share some of its intriguing stories. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24 COMMONWEALTH CLUB WEEKLY TOUR

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow

Show” (Radio and TV); Twitter @msmichellemeow John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club— Co-Host

Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. For program topic and speakers, visit commonwealthclub.org/mms. SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

and stories behind some of our city’s remarkable structures, streets and public squares. Hear about the famous architects that influenced the building of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Discover hard-to-find rooftop gardens, art deco lobbies, unique open spaces and historic landmarks. This is a tour for locals, with hidden gems you can only find on foot!

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Galleria Park Hotel, 191 Sutter St., San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: The tour involves walking up and down stairs but covers less than one mile of walking in the Financial District; 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)

MOVING THE NEEDLE ON PAID LEAVE: MEN TAKING A STAND

Andy Katz-Mayfield, Co-Founder and CEO, Harry’s

Jimmy Gomez, U.S. Representative for District 34 (D-CA)

Katie Bethell, Founder and Executive Director, PL+US; 2018 World’s Greatest Leaders, Fortune—Moderator

The United States is the only developed nation in the world without an established, fedSAN FRANCISCO ARCHITECTURE eral parental leave policy, leaving companies to WALKING TOUR pick up the slack for employees looking to start Explore San Francisco’s Financial District or expand their families. Additionally, paid with historian Rick Evans and learn the history leave is often considered a cultural facet of impending motherhood, leaving fathers and men out of a conversation that directly impacts the entire household in many complex ways from parenting to caretaking. Paid leave is a hot-topic issue in tech work culture, but are we framing the discussion in ways that make for an equal footing for both parents? Join us for a discussion with high-profile male tech leaders and parental leave advocates as they shed light on what has and hasn’t worked in the efforts for equal paid leave and what’s in the pipeline in California and nationally. Join INFORUM for a conversation including Andy Katz-Mayfield, the founder of Harry’s, the successful men’s grooming startup that recently announced its gender-neutral paid leave policy; and California Representative Jimmy Gomez, who authored an expansion that revamped the Paid Family Leave Act to increase job protection and wage replacement for paid leave. The program will be moderated by Katie Bethell, founder of PL+US (Paid Nancy Gwinn 4/22

APRIL/MAY 2019

Leave for the United States).

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

SUNDAY, APRIL 28 OLYMPIC SKATER ADAM RIPPON

cadero, Max Thelen Board Room, San Francisco • Time: 4:30 p.m. check-in, 5 p.m. program • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel

ERIC SCHMIDT, JONATHAN ROSENBERG AND ALAN EAGLE: LEADERSHIP IN SILICON VALLEY

Adam Rippon, Figure Skater; First Openly Eric Schmidt, Former Executive Chairman, Gay U.S. male Athlete to Win a Medal at the Winter Olympics; Winner, “Dancing With the Stars” Season 26 Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show” (Radio and TV)—Co-host John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable—Co-host

Alphabet; Former Chairman and CEO, Google; Co-Author, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell; Twitter @ericschmidt Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Alphabet; Co-Author, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Join us for a special Sunday program with Campbell; Twitter @jjrosenberg Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon. See web- Alan Eagle, Director, Google; Co-Author, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook site for details. for Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, In Conversation with Marissa Mayer, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Co-Founder, Lumi Labs; Former President and CEO, Yahoo!; Twitter @marissamayer Time: noon check-in, 1 p.m. program

MONDAY, APRIL 29

MIDDLE EAST FORUM DISCUSSION

The Middle East Forum Discussion group, which primarily covers the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan, has been meeting for over 10 years. We do not debate. We discuss political and cultural subjects in a civil atmosphere with respect for others and their opinions. Those interested in contributing to our conversation and learning more about the regions we cover are encouraged to attend. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embar-

TUESDAY, APRIL 30 ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM AND HOME AGAIN

Judge (Ret.)

LaDoris

Cordell

Join LaDoris Cordell and two student leaders after they travel on the Club’s trip, “On the Road to Freedom: Understanding the Civil Rights Movement” in early April. The group will have spent time in Jackson, Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery. Come hear a THE COMMO N WE AL TH

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program followed by reception • Note: In partnership with San Francisco Achievers

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 DAVID BROOKS: THE QUEST FOR MORAL LIFE

David Brooks, Op-Ed Columnist, The New

York Times; Author, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life; Twitter @nytdavidbrooks

What does it take to lead a meaningful life? Brooks believes we live in a society that celebrates freedom and takes individualism to the extreme. He explains that personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute our commitments. Through his research, he identifies and explores four Known as the ultimate coach, the legendary principal commitments that define a life of Bill Campbell mentored some of the best and meaning and purpose. brightest tech entrepreneurs, including Ap- SILICON VALLEY • Location: Oshman Family ple co-founder Steve Jobs, Google co-found- JCC, Schultz Hall, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto • ers Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Amazon Time: 11:15 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 CEO Jeff Bezos. p.m. book signing In honor of Bill Campbell, authors Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle COMMONWEALTH CLUB WEEKLY wrote Trillion Dollar Coach, highlighting some TOUR of his most valuable lessons in forward-thinkEvery Wednesday at 2 p.m., we’re giving ing business and management. The trio all re- members and nonmembers behind-the-scenes count their firsthand experiences with “Coach tours of our home at 110 The EmbarcadeBill,” giving a unique glimpse into the fast- ro. Join us for a complimentary tour of our paced environment of Silicon Valley. beautiful new headquarters on San Francisco’s SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation

discussion on the movement from both a historical perspective and how it impacts young people today.

waterfront. At our state-of-the-art gathering space, which features a rooftop terrace with unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco Bay, you can learn about our storied history and the many amenities of being a Club member. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–3 p.m. tour

A NEW FAUSTIAN OPERA: “IF I WERE YOU”

Jake Heggie, Composer, “Dead Man Walk-

ing,” “Moby Dick,” “It’s A Wonderful Life,” “Great Scott,” “Three Decembers,” “Out of Darkness: Two Remain” and “The Radio Hour” Clifford “Kip” Cranna, Dramaturg, San Francisco Opera Nicole Paiement, Founder and Artistic Director, Opera Parallèle; Conductor, the Dal-

Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle: Leadership in Silicon Valley 4/29

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

las Opera

Composer Jake Heggie, conductor Nicole Paiement and dramaturg Clifford Cranna share insights into the creation of Heggie’s “If I Were You,” a Faustian story that delves into issues of identity and a quest for one’s place in the world that are at once timeless and very relevant to the world today. As the hero, Fabian becomes a wealthy older man, a young handsome brute and eventually a young woman. The opera deals with issues of age, power, sexual politics and gender identity. Commissioned by the renowned Merola Opera Program, the world premiere of “If I were you” is on August 2019 at Herbst Theatre.

onto the loom of her research from academic woman can accomplish. The Tubman Command tells the story of Tubman at the height of texts and ancient Greek writings. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embar- her powers, when she devises the largest plancadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San tation raid of the war. Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

WILLIE BROWN: ANNUAL COMMONWEALTH CLUB LECTURE

Willie Brown, Former Mayor, San Francisco;

Former Speaker, California State Assembly Joseph Fink, Ph.D., President Emeritus, Do- WEEK TO WEEK POLITICAL minican University of California; Past Chair, ROUNDTABLE 5/6/19 Commonwealth Club Board of Governors— Panelists TBA Moderator John Zipperer, Vice President of Media & SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmbarFormer San Francisco Mayor Brown will Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—Host cadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San

give his annual lecture on national and regional political trends in 2019. A two-term mayor of San Francisco, legendary speaker of the California State Assembly and widely regarded as THURSDAY, MAY 2 one of the most influential African-American THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 5/2/19 politicians of the late 20th century, Brown has Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow been at the center of California politics, government and civic life for five decades. Show” (Radio and TV) John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Politi- SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmbarFrancisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Arts • Program organizer: Anne W. Smith

cal Roundtable—Co-Host

cadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Members only (plus guest) program

Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people MONDAY, MAY 6 discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions THE TUBMAN COMMAND ready. For program topic and speakers, visit Elizabeth Cobbs, Professor and Melbern G. Glasscock Chair in American History, Texcommonwealthclub.org/mms. SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

THE PENELOPE POEMS

Patti Trimble, Poet, Author and Performer, “The Penelope Poems” Julia Norton, Vocalist Peter Whitehead, Multi-Instrumentalist

Based on a careful study of Homer’s the Odyssey and her research on women’s lives in Bronze Age Greece, Patti Trimble has written a suite of spoken poems on women of the Odyssey. In this presentation of poetic/musical excerpts, Penelope speaks monologues on her life in the palace, weaving and thinking in her room, responding to Rumor’s messages about Odysseus and his return. A poetic chorus, supported by song and music, tells the mythical–historical origins of Homer’s female archetypes and monsters. Trimble uses the evolution of her imagined Penelope to weave poetic imagery

as A&M University; Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Author, The Tubman Command

The Tubman Command is an impeccably researched historical novel that brings to light the bravery and brilliance of American icon Harriet Tubman. It’s May 1863. Outgeneraled and outgunned, a demoralized Union Army has pulled back with massive losses at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Fort Sumter, hated symbol of the rebellion, taunts the U.S. Navy with its artillery and underwater mines. In Beaufort, SC, a female spy code-named “Moses,” is hatching a spectacular plan. Hunted by Confederates, revered by slaves, a bounty on her head, Tubman plots an expedition behind enemy lines to liberate hundreds of bondsmen and recruit them as soldiers. Gen. David Hunter places her in charge of a team of black scouts, even though he is skeptical of what one Willie Brown 5/2

Join us as we discuss the biggest, most controversial and sometimes the surprising political issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil and have a good sense of humor. Our panelists will provide informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, and we’ll have audience discussion of the week’s events and our live news quiz! And come early before the program to meet other smart and engaged individuals and discuss the news over snacks and wine at our members social (open to all attendees). SAN FRANCISCO • WEEK TO WEEK PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in and social hour, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Each attendee will receive two free drink tickets for a glass of wine or a soft drink during our social hour

other triple bottom line organizations, LaSala source that gives home cooks and hosts stepwill demonstrate how multisector partnerships by-step guidance on how to recreate these fabcan merge health care with social justice. To- ulous meals at their own tables. DO NO HARM: CIVIC LEADERSHIP gether, they will share what can help when the SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmbarAND THE ROLE OF HEALTH CARE cadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Rupa Marya, M.D., Associate Professor of community provides wide-spread and equitaFrancisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. ble benefits. Medicine, UCSF; Faculty Director, Do No Harm

TUESDAY, MAY 7

Coalition

Donna LaSala, Professor & Faculty Direc-

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program • MLF: Business & Leadership • Program organizer: Elizabeth Carney • Notes: In partnership with Presidio Graduate School

tor of MPA & Dual Degree (MBA/MPA) Programs; Co-Founder, Center for Civic Leadership & Social Justice (CCLSJ); CEO, Triple Bottom Line Institute; Former COO/CIO, Goodwill Industries; Former CIO/IT Director, THE ITALIAN TABLE: CREATING City of Berkeley Elizabeth Carney, Business & Leadership FESTIVE MEALS FOR FAMILY AND Member-Led Forum Chair, Commonwealth FRIENDS PROGRAM Club—Moderator Elizabeth Minchilli, Author; Blogger; Food Can we design a health-care system that Tour Leader

serves all? Rupa Marya thinks we can. Through hard lessons learned, Marya joins Donna LaSala, Presidio Graduate School professor, to discuss aspects of the U.S. health-care system that are aligned with social justice and others that create injustice. They will explore workable solutions for diversity and inclusion with a systems-thinking mindset. Based on Marya’s experience working for the City of Berkeley, Goodwill Industries and

Americans have a love affair with Italy and Italian food and few more so than our speaker, Elizabeth Minchilli, who has written eight books on the joys of Italian life. Her latest book, The Italian Table, delivers both parts of the fantasy and reality of meals as they would be eaten in Italy. Combining menus and recipes with visual experience and inspiration—as well as insight into the traditions of the food and celebrations—it serves as a practical re-

program • MLF: Food Matters • Program organizer: Cathy Curtis

EMILY BAZELON

Emily Bazelon, Staff Writer, The New York

Times Magazine; Author, Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration; Twitter @emilybazelon

The American criminal justice system is supposed to be a contest between two equal adversaries—the prosecution and the defense—with judges ensuring a fair fight. However, that image does not match the reality in the courtroom. Much of the time, it is prosecutors more than judges who control the outcome of a case. They answer to almost no one and make most of the key decisions: choosing the charge, setting bail and determining the plea bargain. They often decide who goes free and who goes to prison, even who lives

Spring Into Summer Member Party An evening of fun-filled activities, bites & libations

Wednesday May 29, 2019 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Reservations Required

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

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

The Italian Table: Creating Festive Meals for Family and Friends Program 5/7

LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. For program topic and speakers, visit commonwealthclub.org/mms. SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

MONDAY, MAY 13 SANDRO GALEA

Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health; Author, Well: What We Need to Talk About When We Talk About Health; Twitter @sandrogalea

and who dies. The system wasn’t designed for this kind of unchecked power. Emily Bazelon reveals how it is the underreported cause of enormous injustice—and the missing piece in the mass incarceration puzzle.

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

SAN FRANCISCO • INFORUM PROGRAM • Location: Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation

THURSDAY, MAY 9

CHINATOWN WALKING TOUR

Enjoy a Commonwealth Club neighborhood adventure. Join Rick Evans for a memWEDNESDAY, MAY 8 orable midday walk and discover the history DUSTIN LANCE BLACK: COMING OF and mysteries of Chinatown. Explore colorful alleys and side streets. Visit a Taoist AGE IN RED AND BLUE AMERICA Dustin Lance Black, Screenwriter, Milk; Au- temple, an herbal store, the site of the first thor, Mama’s Boy: A Story from Our Americas public school in the state and the famous Join Dustin Lance Black, influen- Fortune Cookie Factory. tial LGBTQ+ activist and the Academy SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Starbucks, 359 Award-winning screenwriter for Milk, as he Grant Ave., San Francisco (corner of Grant and Bush, near Chinatown Gate) • Time: 9:45 a.m. reveals his unexpectedly conservative origins check-in, 10–12:30 p.m. walk • Notes: The in his new memoir, Mama’s Boy: A Story from temple visit requires walking up three flights of Our Americas, providing personal and philo- stairs; the tour operates rain or shine; limited sophical insight into the complicated divide to 12 participants; tickets must be purchased between red and blue America. in advance and will not be sold at check-in; Black’s memoir chronicles his coming-of- walks with fewer than six participants will be age in a military, Mormon household in Texas canceled (you will receive notification of this at and moving to more liberal California after his least three days in advance) mother’s remarriage. Finding himself at odds with the religious and political atmosphere of THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW his family and his community’s condemnation 5/9/19 of his sexuality, Black kept his identity a secret. Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow He ultimately found release and professional Show” (Radio and TV) success in the arts and reveals that throughout John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Politihis often difficult childhood, he and his moth- cal Roundtable—Co-Host er always managed to share a powerful bond of Join us as Michelle Meow brings her support. When Black played an instrumental long-running daily radio show to The Comrole in the overturning of California’s antigay monwealth Club one day each week. Meet marriage Proposition 8, she was next to him fascinating—and often controversial—people despite a lifetime of opposition. discussing important issues of interest to the

Physician Sandro Galea examines what Americans miss when they fixate on health care: health. Americans spend more money on health than people anywhere else in the world. And what do they get for it? Statistically, not much. Americans today live shorter, less healthy lives than citizens of other rich countries, and these trends show no signs of letting up. The problem, Sandro Galea argues, is that Americans focus on the wrong things when they think about health. Our national understanding of what constitutes “being well” is centered on medicine—the lifestyles we adopt to stay healthy, and the insurance plans and prescriptions we fall back on when we’re not. While all these things are important, they’ve not proven to be the difference between healthy and unhealthy on the large scale. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing

WHAT IS REAL? THE UNFINISHED QUEST FOR THE MEANING OF QUANTUM PHYSICS

Adam Becker, Astrophysicist; Science Writer; Author, What Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates

Monday Night Philosophy and almost all physicists agree that quantum mechanics is among humanity’s finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a not-so-scientific brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr’s Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. That is why the Copenhagen interpretation APRIL/MAY 2019

has endured, with Bohr’s students vigorously protecting his legacy, and the physics community favoring practical experiments over philosophical arguments. As a result, questioning the status quo has almost always meant professional ruin. And yet, from the 1920s to today, physicists such as John Bell, David Bohm and Hugh Everett persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics. Join us—first for the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for seeking truth, and then for reexamining the littered trail of half-understood research results in the quest for answering the fundamental questions that can be summed up as: “What is real?”

and human-driven service to support those experiencing mental health stress, gathering data points from more than 75 million text messages sent and maximizing the impact of their information to better train counselors and support their community. Its innovative and data-driven methodology for tackling hard conversations can also be applied to more than the mental health space, including to Lublin’s latest venture: Loris.ai.

DATA FOR SOCIAL GOOD: CRISIS TEXT LINE CEO NANCY LUBLIN

Julia Flynn Siler, Journalist; Author, The Annie Jacobsen, Former Contributing Ed-

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

TUESDAY, MAY 14

SAN FRANCISCO • MARIN CONVERSATIONS PROGRAM • Location: Congregation Kol Shofar, 215 Blackfield Dr., Tiburon • Time: 7 p.m. check-in, 7:30 p.m. program, 8:45 p.m. book signing

DONALDINA CAMERON AND THE OCCIDENTAL MISSION HOME: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF THE WOMEN WHO FOUGHT AGAINST SEX WEDNESDAY, MAY 15 TRAFFICKING IN CHINATOWN SF ANNIE JACOBSEN

White Devil’s Daughters: The Fight Against Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown Nancy Lublin, CEO and Founder, Crisis Text In Conversation with Helen Zia, Journalist; Line; CEO and Founder, Loris.ai Author, Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic DJ Patil, Head of Technology, Devoted Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s RevoHealth; Former U.S. Chief Data Scientist— lution Moderator

Suicide and mental health are hard subjects—so Crisis Text Line leveraged the power of the data it collects to help their counselors determine the best way to talk about the topics with those in need. The nonprofit, founded in 2013 by CEO Nancy Lublin, has provided a free text-based

Over the past several years, there has been a noticeable uptick in anti-Semitic rhetoric and incidents, from U.S. college campuses to terrorist attacks against Jews throughout Europe, and in 2018, a tragic hate crime was committed at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue. Marin County has also not been immune, with anti-Semitic graffiti found in county schools recently. Where is this hatred coming from? Is there any significant difference between leftwing and right-wing anti-Semitism? What role has the anti-Zionist movement played? And what can be done to combat this latest manifestation of an ancient hatred?

Julia Flynn Siler’s new book is a revelatory history of the trafficking of young Asian girls—a practice that flourished in San Francisco during the first century of Chinese immigration (1848–1943)—and the “safe house” on the edge of Chinatown that became a refuge for those seeking their freedom. Starting in 1874, the brick house at 920 Sacramento Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown served as a home and gateway to freedom for thousands of enslaved and vulnerable young Chinese women and girls—a pioneering “rescue mission.” Known then as the Occidental Mission Home, it survived earthquakes, fire, bubonic plague and violence directed against its occupants and supporters—a courageous group of female abolitionists who fought the slave trade in Chinese women. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Asia-Pacific Affairs • Program organizer: Lillian Nakagawa

DEBORAH LIPSTADT ON ANTI-SEMITISM: HERE AND NOW

Deborah Lipstadt, Professor of Modern

itor, Los Angeles Times Magazine; Author, Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies Operators, and Assassins; Twitter @AnnieJacobsen

When diplomacy fails, and war is unwise, the president calls on the CIA’s Special Activities Division (SAD), a highly classified branch of the CIA and the most effective black operations force in the world. Originally known as the president’s guerrilla warfare corps, SAD conducts risky and ruthless operations that have evolved over time to defend America from its enemies. Almost every American president since World War II has asked the CIA to conduct sabotage, subversion and, yes, assassination. With unprecedented access to 42 men and women who proudly and secretly worked on CIA covert operations from the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, along with declassified documents and deep historical research, Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen unveils a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers and saboteurs. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing

HUMANITIES WEST BOOK DISCUSSION: THE GREEK WAY

Join us to discuss The Greek Way by Edith

Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Em- Hamilton. There are more recent, similar ory University publications, but Hamilton’s is itself a classic

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

Sandro Galea 5/13

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

The Girl Who Said No: A Search in Sicily 5/21

about the classics. Look on your bookshelves among your old college books and you will probably find it. Or get the audio version and make it even easier on yourself. Hamilton reintroduced several generations to the glories of Greek culture, and her book is still a great way to remind yourself why that ancient city–state culture has continued to influence human culture for millennia. The discussion will be led by Lynn Harris. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

THURSDAY, MAY 16 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 5/16/19

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow

Show” (Radio and TV) John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable—Co-Host

Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. For program topic and speakers, visit commonwealthclub.org/mms. SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

MONDAY, MAY 20 MIDDLE EAST FORUM DISCUSSION

The Middle East Forum Discussion group covers the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan. We do not debate. We discuss political and cultural subjects in a civil atmosphere with respect for others and their opinions. Those interested in contributing to our conversation and learning more about the regions we cover are encouraged to attend.

publicly defied the expectation that she would marry the rapist in order to “restore her broken honor.” A social uproar occurred throughout the island and beyond. Decades later, Natalie Galli traveled to Palermo to search for Viola. Galli wanted to know: What had become of this courageous girl who had defied an ancient tradition? Galli recounts the riveting events after Viola pressed charges with the police: Franca was publicly taunted whenever she appeared on the street, Mafia-orchestrated bullying threatened her entire family, and her own relatives pleaded with her not to break the Sicilian code of silence. Galli shares her own poignant and hilarious observations about a vibrant culture steeped in contradictions and paradoxes. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

NOB HILL WALKING TOUR

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)

SUSAN HOCKFIELD

Susan Hockfield, Former President, MIT; Author, The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution

A century ago, discoveries in physics came together with engineering to produce an array of astonishing new technologies: radios, televisions, radar, nuclear power, computers and a host of still-evolving digital tools. These technologies so radically reshaped our world that many people can no longer conceive of life without them. Today, the world’s population is projected to rise to well over 9.5 billion by 2050, and we are faced with the consequences of producing the energy that fuels, heats and cools us. With temperatures and sea levels rising, and large portions of the globe plagued with drought, famine and drug-resistant diseases, we need new technologies to tackle these problems. But we are on the cusp of a new convergence, argues world-renowned neuroscientist Susan Hockfield, with biology and engineering working together to produce another array of almost inconceivable technologies—next-generation products that could be every bit as paradigm shifting as last century’s digital wonders.

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 SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embar- famous on the West Coast who built large cadero, Max Thelen Board Room, San Francis- mansions in the neighborhood. This included co • Time: 4:30 p.m. check-in, 5 p.m. program prominent tycoons, such as Leland Stanford, • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia and other members of the Big Four. Highlights Menczel include the history of four landmark hotels. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmbarVisit the city’s largest house of worship, Grace cadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San TUESDAY, MAY 21 Cathedral, and discover architectural tidbits Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program; 7 p.m. book signing THE GIRL WHO SAID NO: and anecdotes about the railroad barons and A SEARCH IN SICILY silver kings. A true San Francisco experience THURSDAY, MAY 23 Natalie Galli, Travel Writer, Author; The Girl of elegance, urbanity, scandals and fabulous THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW Who Said No: A Search in Sicily views. Franca Viola made #MeToo history in 1966. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Caffe Cento 5/23/19 When she was 18, she refused to go along with (meet in front), 801 Powell St. • Time: 1:45 p.m. Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow a centuries-old forcible marriage custom in check-in 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: Tour oper- Show” (Radio and TV) Sicily. Having endured kidnap and rape, she ates rain or shine; tickets must be purchased John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week PolitiAPRIL/MAY 2019

cal Roundtable—Co-Host

TUESDAY, MAY 28

Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of VIGNETTES AND POSTCARDS interest to the LGBTQ community, and have FROM PARIS your questions ready. Cara Black, Parisian Mystery Novelist SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PRO- Erin Byrne, Editor, Vignettes & Postcards GRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

WEEK TO WEEK POLITICAL ROUNDTABLE 5/23/19

Dan Schnur, Professor, University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications; Twitter @danschnur Additional Panelists TBA John Zipperer, Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—Host

Our panelists will provide informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, and we’ll have audience discussion of the week’s events and our live news quiz! 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 • WEEK TO WEEK PROGRAM• Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in and social hour, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Each attendee will receive two free drink tickets for a glass of wine or a soft drink during our social hour

from Paris

Catherine Karnow, Travel Writer, Photography Educator

Kimberley Lovato, Travel Writer Join us for this voyage spécial to Paris, with three travel writers who share their love of all things Parisian. They will talk about their own adventures and also read excerpts from a new edition of Vignettes & Postcards from Paris, the award-winning anthology originally created at Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Come enjoy a discussion of Parisian literary and creative culture of the past and present. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

WEDNESDAY, MAY 29 WEEKLY CLUB TOUR

SPRING INTO SUMMER MEMBER PARTY: CELEBRATE SUMMER AT THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB!

Spring has arrived, and that means summer is just around the corner! Celebrate the warm weather together at our Spring into Summer Member Party. It’s an evening for members and nonmembers alike to enjoy tasty bites and drinks and fun-filled activities—plus all the benefits of our beautiful new home at the vibrant edge of the city and bay. We’ll toast to the season with a glass of fine wine (featuring our Club label chardonnay or pinot noir); our signature cocktail, “The Agora” (in honor of the Club’s early name); Fort Point Beer; and lemonade and soft drinks. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 5:30 p.m.– 7:30 p.m. program • Notes: Cash bar available

THURSDAY, MAY 30 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 5/30/19

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow

Show” (Radio and TV) John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable—Co-Host

We’re giving both members and nonmemMeet fascinating—and often controverbers behind-the-scenes tours of our home at sial—people discussing important issues of 110 The Embarcadero. Join us for a compliinterest to the LGBTQ community, and have mentary tour of our beautiful new headquarters on San Francisco’s waterfront. At our your questions ready. state-of-the-art gathering space, which features SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROa rooftop terrace with unobstructed views of GRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, the Bay Bridge and San Francisco Bay, you can Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: A GUIDE TO RETIREMENT LIVING learn about our storied history and the many 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program ALTERNATIVES Candiece Milford, MFA, Managing Director amenities of being a Club member. of Marketing, Rhoda Goldman Plaza; Board Member, At Home with Growing Older; Former Lead Director of Marketing, The Sequoias San Francisco John W. Milford, MHA, M.Div, Former Executive Director, the San Francisco Towers; Principal, Heritage Consulting for Retirement Living; Co-Founder, Tech-enhanced Life, PBC

Join us as we survey retirement living options available in the Bay Area, from living at home to choosing communal living. Learn key decision points in comparing rental, equity-based options, entry fee communities and assisted living. Answers to frequently asked questions will be provided. Subsidized, low-income housing options will not be covered. SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. check-in, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Program organizer: Denise Michaud

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–3 p.m. tour

ADAM SAVAGE

Adam Savage, Former Co-Host, “Myth-

Busters”; Author, Every Tool’s a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It; Twitter @donttrythis

Adam Savage is a maker. From his elaborate Comic-Con costumes to a 1,000-shot Nerf gun, he has built thousands of projects as a special effects artist and co-host of the hit TV show “MythBusters.” Savage highlights some of his memorable ideas and shares what inspires him to build, make, invent, explore and above all else create. SILICON VALLEY • Location: Silicon Valley location TBA • Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing • Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation

Adam Savage 5/29

SCOTT PELLEY

Scott Pelley, Correspondent, “60 Minutes”;

Author, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter’s

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

What You Need to Know Before You’re 65: A Medicare Primer 3/20 Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program working reception • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: Times; Twitter @ScottPelley

Don’t ask the meaning of life. Life is asking, What’s the meaning of you?   With this provocative question, Pelley introduces us to unforgettable people who discovered the meaning of their lives in the historic events of our times. A “60 Minutes” correspondent and former anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” Scott Pelley writes as a witness to events that changed our world. In moving, detailed prose, he stands with firefighters at the collapsing World Trade Center on 9/11, advances with U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reveals private moments with presidents (and would-be presidents) he’s known for decades. Pelley offers a resounding defense of free speech and a free press as the rights that guarantee all others. If you believe values matter and truth is worth telling, Pelley writes, “I have written this book for you.” SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St., 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

TUESDAY, JUNE 4 SECRET SAN FRANCISCO

Ruth Carlson, Travel Writer; Author, Secret San Francisco: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Have you ever taken an underground sewer tour in San Francisco? Or wandered through a labyrinth where the land meets the sea? Ruth Carlson will clue you in on the real crookedest street, local windmills and an airport for flying boats. Along the way, you’ll encounter bizarre and often hilarious history, including the origins of Burning Man, Santa Con and the fight to legalize public nudity. Carlson takes you places locals would rather keep to themselves—that is, if they even knew about them! SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

LATE-BREAKING PROGRAMS THURSDAY, APRIL 4 IMPERFECT CIRCLES

George Hammond

MONDAY, APRIL 15 SOCRATES CAFÉ

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

THURSDAY, APRIL 18 HOW CLIMATE BROKE CALIFORNIA’S BIGGEST UTILITY

JD Morris, Energy Reporter, SF Chronicle Greg Dalton, Founder & Host, Climate One

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

THURSDAY, APRIL 18 THE KARDASHIAN-FREE CONVERSATION CLUB

Charles DeLoach, Miri Miller, and James Xiao—Co-Hosts

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6–7:45 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

TUESDAY, APRIL 23 SEA CHANGES: WHY OCEANS PLAY A BIGGER ROLE IN CLIMATE THAN YOU THINK

Ken Caldeira, Scientist, Dept. of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science Greg Dalton, Founder & Host, Climate One

SAN FRANCISCO • CLIMATE ONE PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. checkin, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. networking reception • Notes: Generously underwritten by Bank of the West

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 BRETT MCGURK: FORMER U.S. SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY OVERSEEING THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT ISIS

Brett McGurk, Distinguished Lecturer,

Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Under President Obama; Former Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan Under President George W. Bush SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Attendees subject to search

THURSDAY, MAY 2 IMPERFECT CIRCLES

George Hammond, Author, Conversations with Socrates and Rational Idealism—Moderator

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

FRIDAY, MAY 10 THE ISRAELI ELECTIONS

Alon Sachar, Co-Author, A Path to Peace: A

Brief History of Israeli Palestinian Negotiations and a Way Forward in the Middle East

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel

MONDAY, MAY 20 SOCRATES CAFÉ

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

TUESDAY, APRIL 30 REPUBLICANS ON CLIMATE

THURSDAY, MAY 23 Carlos Curbelo, Former U.S. Representative THE KARDASHIAN-FREE CONVERSATION CLUB (R-FL)

Ryan Costello, Former U.S. Representative Charles DeLoach, Miri Miller, and James Xiao—Co-Hosts George Hammond, Author, Conversations Greg Dalton, Founder & Host, Climate One SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embar(R-PA)

with Socrates and Rational Idealism—Mod- SAN FRANCISCO • CLIMATE ONE PROGRAM • cadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco erator Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Fam- • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6–7:45 p.m. proSAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco

ily Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. net-

gram • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond APRIL/MAY 2019

INSIGHT New Frontiers for Governor Brown Dr. Gloria C. Duffy, President and CEO

hen the phone rang at my house at 9 p.m. one Sunday night recently, the very recognizable voice said, “Gloria, this is Jerry Brown.” For an instant, I thought it was a robocall, although I quickly realized that we were not in a political season when recorded phone calls from politicians are common. I knew the call was personal when he said he hoped he wasn’t calling too late. Governor Brown asked me if The Commonwealth Club would be willing to host meetings, later this year, in which he would be involved, to work on reducing the danger of nuclear war. My answer was yes, of course. We will share more about those interesting activities, as we get closer to the fall when they will take place. I chatted briefly with Governor Brown about how he will be spending his time post-governorship. He told me he wanted to work on the most important issues—climate change and reducing the danger from nuclear weapons. And it struck me how consistent this extraordinary man has been throughout his career, always focusing on the biggest challenges. His instincts about what is important have been constant and unerring, and he has laid the groundwork for almost four decades of change in several key areas. The first time I met Jerry Brown was in his office in Sacramento, during his first administration as governor. It was the early 1980s. Several of us sat around informally; he was perched on the edge of his desk. We talked about his ideas about the uses of space, including that California could launch its own satellite. His concept was prescient, although at the time it earned him the unfair nickname of Governor Moonbeam from those who did not understand the science and technology he was discussing. Last fall, Governor Brown announced a partnership between California and Planet Labs to design and launch a satellite fleet to monitor earth data related to climate change. This is hardly a far-fetched idea today, when satellites provide us with so much important information, and it shows the validity of his idea three decades earlier. As California’s governor in the late 1970s, Brown was concerned about energy and carbon emissions. Through state legislation, he brought about the nation’s first green building codes, appliance efficiency standards and wind farms. This was three decades before it was common wisdom that energy efficiency and alternative energy sources are crucial to reducing carbon emissions and combatting global warming. Continuing on this path he embarked upon decades ago, last year Brown signed legislation to make California’s electricity 100-percent

carbon free by 2045. He also pushed ahead California’s high-speed rail project, an electric train system that will reduce carbon emissions. Jerry Brown has also long been concerned about the danger of nuclear war. He criticized the Cold War nuclear-armed standoff between the United States and the Soviets in his 1980 presidential campaign and called for breakthroughs to reduce the nuclear threat. I heard him continue Photo by James Meinerth to express his concerns privately, as the years went on. Within the last few years, this concern came to the forefront in his mind. He spoke two years ago at Ploughshares Fund, a San Francisco foundation that works to reduce the nuclear threat. Last year, Jerry Brown became executive chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Chicago organization founded by Manhattan Project scientists that crusades against nuclear weapons and other major threats to humanity. He also joined the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington organization founded by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and funded by Ted Turner and Warren Buffett, among others, which supports practical steps to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons. Jerry Brown has the ability to see to the core of things, to identify what is truly important. In every position he’s held, he has broken down barriers and brought about important change. Even his term as mayor of Oakland launched a renaissance in that city that continues today. I think we have all learned to pay attention when Jerry Brown focuses on a problem. This is a difficult and dangerous time, when many of the protections against the spread of nuclear weapons are waning. The United States has just withdrawn from a treaty with Russia that banned intermediate-range nuclear weapons. Last year, the Trump administration terminated our anti-nuclear agreement with Iran. Talks with North Korea have resulted in little progress, and their nuclear weapons program continues. The nuclear threat looms as large or larger today than anytime in the past 70 years. Given the change he has been able to bring about in other areas, it is encouraging that Jerry Brown is focusing on the nuclear problem. We are honored at The Commonwealth Club to provide a venue for this latest effort by our insightful California native son to tackle a big global problem.

Je r r y B r o w n h a s the ability to see to the core of things.

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The Maya

Hidden Worlds Revealed December 7-15, 2019 Explore four of the most important Maya sites in the world: Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Tulum and Coba with award-winning Archaeologist William Saturno Visit the superb yet lesser-known sites of Labna, Sayil, Kabah, and Mayapan. Explore the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve by boat and enjoy the beautiful beaches of the Maya Riviera. Explore local crafts at the Sunday market in Mérida and learn about the life of the modern Maya during a village visit. Meet with local experts to learn about the region’s natural and cultural legacies. Cost: $5,990 per person, double occupancy

Study Leader William Saturno has received numerous National Geographic grants to support his excavation of ancient Maya murals and artifacts. His breakthrough discovery at San Bartolo of the oldest intact Maya murals yet found became the focus of the January 2006 National Geographic magazine article “The Dawn of Maya Gods and Kings,” and the June 2012 issue described his recent unearthing of murals at Xultún. Bill has also served as field director of the Río Amarillo Archaeological Project in Western Honduras, examining the relationships of Maya cities around Copán.

Brochure at commonwealthclub.org/travel

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CST: 2096889-40

travel@commonwealthclub.org

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

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 (SILICON VALLEY)

Details on page 38

DAVID BROOKS

Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times; Author, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life; Twitter @nytdavidbrooks

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8 (SAN FRANCISCO)

Details on page 41

DUSTIN LANCE BLACK

Screenwriter, Milk; Author, Mama’s Boy: A Story From Our Americas

Finding himself at odds with the religious and political atmosphere of his family and his community’s condemnation of his sexuality, Dustin Lance Black kept his identity a secret. He ultimately found release and professional success in the arts. Join Dustin Lance Black, influential LGBTQ activist and Academy Awardwinning screenwriter, as he reveals his unexpectedly conservative origins, providing personal and philosophical insight into the complicated divide between red and blue America.

TUESDAY, MAY 7 (SAN FRANCISCO)

Details on page 40

EMILY BAZELON Staff Writer, The New York Times Magazine; Author, Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration; Twitter @ emilybazelon

The American criminal justice system is supposed to be a contest between two equal adversaries—the prosecution and the defense—with judges ensuring a fair fight. However, this image does not match the reality in the courtoom. Much of the time, it is prosecutors more than judges who control the outcome of a case. Bazelon reveals how it is the missing piece of the mass incarceration problem.

THURSDAY, MAY 30 (SAN FRANCISCO)

Details on page 44

SCOTT PELLEY

Correspondent, “60 Minutes”; Author, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter’s Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times; Twitter @ scottpelley

Don’t ask the meaning of life. Life is asking, What’s the meaning of you? With this provocative question, Pelley will introduce you to the unforgettable people who discovered the meaning of their lives in the historic events of our times.