The Commonwealth February/March 2017 by The Commonwealth Club of California

The Magazine of The Commonwealth Club of California

February/March 2017

MAE JEMISON

page 8

THOMAS FRIEDMAN

page 12

GLORIA DUFFY

page 46

FRANCIS FORD

Coppola $5.00, free for members | commonwealthclub.org

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Inside this issue 5

The Commonwealth Club not only will continue to do its good work, it is stepping up its game.

In conversation with Gavin Newsom

EDITOR’S DESK

THE COMMONS

Local schoolchildren benefit from California Book Awards work, a Club alum hits The New York Times’ best-seller list, and more; plus The Big Picture.

MAE JEMISON

In conversation with Kimberly Bryant Jemison discusses the influences that made her into a scientist and astronaut, and how she now influences new generations of future scientists.

THOMAS FRIEDMAN

Friedman says this is a time of historic structural change that dislocates and alienates millions.

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

An expert panel explores what can be done about the human-made housing affordability challenges in the Bay Area.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

The legendary filmmaker makes a rare public appearance, speaking with Adam Savage.

INSIGHT

Dr. Gloria C. Duffy President and CEO

Programs Program Information 17 Two Month Calendar 18 Program Listings 20

February/March 2017 Volume 111, No. 2

On the Cover

Francis Ford Coppola captured on-camera at the Castro Theatre shortly before his program. Photo by ED RITGER

George Lucas said, ‘Francis, you’ve got to do this book. We have no money. The sheriff’s gonna chain the door.’” FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

Shaping the Future

John R. Farmer

Lata Krishnan

Megan Smith

Alex Macgillivray

Bernard J. Tyson

03.03.17 | The Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco Reserve your seat at our most important fundraiser of the year: 415.597.6737 | annualdinner@commonwealthclub.org

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EDITORIAL TRANSCRIPT POLICY

The Commonwealth magazine covers a range of programs in each issue. Program transcripts and question and answer sessions are routinely condensed due to space limitations. Hear full-length recordings online at commonwealthclub.org/media, podcasts on Google Play and Apple iTunes, or contact Club offices to buy a compact disc. Printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. Copyright © 2017 The Commonwealth Club of California.

The Antidote

VER THE PAST decade or two, many Americans have complained about the decline in political discourse. Disputes became more bitter, commentators became more polarized (and polarizing), and truth was often lost as it was put on an equal footing with flat-out lies. It was often entertaining, perhaps, but for everyone who is interested in our country as a political and social entity, it has been disheartening and even worrying. In the past year, we saw two very bruising primary battles in the major parties, and many people wondered if the wounds would heal once each party picked its presidential nominee. But that was followed by a general election that made the primaries look tame, and the election night results left pretty much everybody surprised. Where does the country go from here? What do the political parties— both of them still riven by the same divides that broke out into the open during the primaries—do? What do you, the involved and concerned citizen, do? One thing that is making it harder to have meaningful discussions on social media or even on television is the spread of fake news. Digital antagonists have discovered that a good portion of the population doesn’t know how to evaluate the truthfulness of news or the trustworthiness of news sources, and therefore we see such things as the December incident in Washington, D.C., in which a man fired a rifle in a pizzeria because he was “self-investigating“ a fake news story about a sex ring operating out of that restaurant. Whatever your political inclinations, if you want to make this a better world, you can do something about it.

The Commonwealth Club hosts people from across the political spectrum, from Occupy Oakland activists to Ben Carson, from Nancy Pelosi to Rick Perry. We do that not only because our membership is vast and varied in its views, but because we firmly believe that people should hear for themselves what others are saying, exposing themselves to civil discussions of things even if they disagree with the speakers. Out of that intelligent exchange of ideas and information comes much better plans for dealing with our problems than you’ll get from a sensationalist viral Facebook post from an iffy source. So The Commonwealth Club will not only continue to do its good work, it is stepping up its game. Early this year, we are moving into our new building at 110 The Embarcadero in San Francisco, and from there we will have expanded auditorium space to host more and larger programs, plus there will be expanded space for socializing and informal gatherings. On the technological side, we are beefing up our ability to bring our programs to ever-more people, with high-quality live streaming of Club programs, in addition to our large and always-expanding library of archived programs. Watch for a full report on the building in an upcoming issue of this magazine. But for the antidote to the Lord of the Flies-like political and cultural scene, show your support for the Club by coming to our programs, sharing our audio and videos, following us online, chipping in financially, and taking the conversations started on our stages back home with you and continuing them with others. The Club is the antidote to incivility in public discourse; you are the antidote to a passive citizenry. JOHN Z I P P E R E R VP, ME DIA & ED I T O RI AL

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

TALK OF THE CLUB

The Commons In Living Color Live video expands our audiences

Next-Generation Readers

Now even more people are able to follow a select number of our events that have been streamed live on Facebook and YouTube. The top-viewed livestreamed program was our November 15, 2016, program with director and businessman Francis Ford Copolla (see this issue’s cover story). There will be many more. To watch upcoming livestreams, like us on facebook.com/ thecommonwealthclub and subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/commonwealthclub.

Finding a new home for books “Thank you for the books. My favorite book is Sunny Side Up,” Kevin wrote to us. He added that the book “is about a girl that goes to a camp with only old people.” Kevin and other students were writing to The Commonwealth Club’s book events coordinator, Renee Miguel, after the Club donated childrens books to Linscott Elementary School in Watsonville. The books were left over from our California Book Awards competition, and we figured the young students would make good use of them. When we received a packet of letters—many of them illustrated, as you can see on this page—we knew the books were in good hands. “Thank you for the books! We really like them,” wrote Laila. “My favorite book is Private Pig. I want to change the world by helping people with lots of stuff, like raising money and giving people food.” Sounds like a future Club member to us.

Comic Genius Club alum joins the best-sellers Professional cartoonist Andy Warner started his post-college life a decade ago as the Club’s art director, working at a small desk in our editorial department. Today you can find him on The New York Times’ best-seller list where his first book, Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, has resided for at least four weeks as of this writing. We knew him when...

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CLUB LEADERSHIP CLUB OFFICERS Board Chair: Richard A. Rubin Vice Chair: Evelyn S. Dilsaver Secretary: Dr. Jaleh Daie Treasurer: John R. Farmer President & CEO: Dr. Gloria C. Duffy BOARD OF GOVERNORS John F. Allen Carlo Almendral Courtland Alves Dan Ashley Massey J. Bambara Dr. Mary G. F. Bitterman** Harry E. Blount John L. Boland J. Dennis Bonney* Michael R. Bracco Thomas H. Burkhart Maryles Casto** Hon. Ming Chin* Mary B. Cranston** Susie Cranston Dr. Kerry P. Curtis Dr. Jaleh Daie Dorian Daley Joseph I. Epstein* Jeffrey A. Farber Dr. Joseph R. Fink* Rev. Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J. Dr. Carol A. Fleming Kirsten Garen Leslie Saul Garvin John Geschke Paul M. Ginsburg Rose Guilbault** Edie G. Heilman Hon. James C. Hormel Mary Huss Claude B. Hutchison Jr.* Julie Kane John Leckrone Dr. Mary Marcy Lenny Mendonca Anna W. M. Mok** Kevin P. O’Brien Richard Otter* Joseph Perrelli* Donald J. Pierce Bruce Raabe Frederick W. Reid Toni Rembe* Victor J. Revenko* Skip Rhodes* Bill Ring Renée Rubin* Martha Ryan Robert Saldich** George M. Scalise Lata Krishnan Shah Connie Shapiro* Dr. Ruth A. Shapiro Charlotte Mailliard Shultz George D. Smith, Jr. James Strother Hon. Tad Taube Hon. Ellen O’Kane Tauscher Charles Travers Nelson Weller* Don Wen Judith Wilbur* Dr. Colleen B. Wilcox Dennis Wu* Jed York Mark Zitter * Past President ** Past Chair ADVISORY BOARD Karin Helene Bauer Hon. William Bradley Dennise M. Carter Rolando Esteverena Steven Falk Amy Gershoni Dr. Charles Geschke Jacquelyn Hadley Heather M. Kitchen Amy McCombs Don J. McGrath Hon. William J. Perry Hon. Barbara Pivnicka Hon. Richard Pivnicka Ray Taliaferro Nancy Thompson

THE BIG PICTURE

Francis Ford Coppola brought more than great stories with him when he came to the stage of the Castro Theatre in November. He also had these snazzy non-matching socks. We bet he has another pair just like it at home. Photo by Ed Ritger

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

SCIENCE HERO MAE JEMISON

A science educator and former astronaut discusses her journey from Chicago public schools to running international camps that spread science literacy.

Mae Jemison, M.D., astronaut and physician, in conversation with Kimberly Bryant, electrical engineer and founder and executive director of Black Girls Code. From the December 13, 2016, program in San Francisco “Astronaut Mae Jemison: Launching Women into Science and Tech.” Sponsored by Bayer Corporation. Photos by LJ Photographic. KIMBERLY BRYANT: I felt such a connection with Dr. Jemison and your upbringing, first in Alabama—because I am from the South as well—and then going into Chicago. How did those experiences in your early youth shape the woman that you would become now? MAE JEMISON: One of the things that is very true is that every experience you have leads into what you do next and how you view the world. I was born in Decatur, Alabama, but we left Decatur when I was three years old and we moved to Chicago. I grew up during the civil rights movement, but it was really all during the ’60s and all the things that happened during that time. When people think of the ’60s, they always talk about anarchy and things like that. But I remember the ’60s as this really creative time. I wasn’t quite old enough to be a hippie. I always resented that. [Laughter.] But I always thought of it as this time when so many people were pushing to be a part of things. They were as-

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serting their right to participate. Whether you talk about de-colonialization, you talk about the women’s movement, you talk about the civil rights movement, you talk about space exploration—there was this incredible creativity. I remember being enlivened by that and in thinking that I could participate and do just about anything. That was very important. I went to Chicago public schools. What was important about going to Chicago public schools is that, at that time, you also had these incredible teachers because a lot of times women back then only could be teachers or nurses. They had a very truncated set of jobs that they could do. And I remember having some incredible teachers. The ’60s also were the time when they were experimenting with different kinds of educational practices. So I got to be the beneficiary of that in some ways, because there were always new things that were going on and my teachers were like, “Okay, why don’t you try this and that?” For me it was a time that allowed me to think that I could do whatever I wanted to do. When I was a little kid in kindergarten, your teacher always asks you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I said, “I wanna be a scientist.” She said, “Don’t you mean a nurse?” There’s nothing wrong with being a nurse, but she was trying to steer me into what she considered a safe career. Luckily enough, I was sort of a little spunky, and I said “No, I mean a scientist.” [Laughter.] But I wanted to try other things, and I think it was a

very interesting time and was very meaningful. BRYANT: So how did you land on chemical engineering? What really led you to this path of becoming a creator and an innovator? JEMISON: I think we all like to create things. We all like to see what we can do. I don’t know where it came from, but my entire time I always wanted to do things and create stuff, and have this impact. Now, I was a third child, right? So from when I can remember, I remember my brother and sister had science projects and I always wanted to work on their science projects with them. I was always there, like “Okay, I wanna do this.” I couldn’t wait to get to school so I could get science projects, too. BRYANT: You went to Stanford at 16. What was that experience like for you as a young woman of color starting on this path at not just any engineering school, [but] at Stanford, as a 16-year-old? Especially for the students in the audience, how did you navigate that path as a young woman of color in this very male-dominated environment? JEMISON: The back story is that in high school I was student council president. I was tall—I wasn’t small—so I was used to running stuff. I skipped seventh grade. I felt very comfortable. I went to an integrated high school in Chicago; I had taken advanced placement physics; I did very well on SATs and standarized tests. I felt very comfortable with myself. So when I went to college I thought, “Yeah, of course, I’m good, right?”

I had white male teachers, African-American male teachers, I had a range of teachers. I had taken Russian in high school. So I felt really comfortable with myself. I was actually a little surprised that I ended up again with some professors who were not as comfortable with me in their classrooms. I always say the good thing was that I went when I was 16, and so I still had that level of rebelliousness where I wasn’t well socialized, right? Because I didn’t really worry so much what they thought of me. I chose to be in a four-class dorm. Stanford had co-ed dorms at the time; it’s no big deal now. But when I went to school, it was a big deal that dorms were co-ed on the same floor. So a lot of them were like, “Don’t pay any attention to that teacher or that teacher.” I didn’t dwell on it. Sometimes it hurt my feelings a little bit, but you move on. I had something else that made a difference. I had a scholarship from Bell Laboratories. Bell Laboratories was basically the place at the time that came out with all the kinds of technology and engineering that powered AT&T and the phone companies, and things like that. Bell Labs did incredible kinds of research. So every summer while I was in college, I had a job at Bell Labs’ facilities, which allowed me to do things [such as] learn how to program. I was doing all these things, and I got to work on incredible equipment and things at Bell Labs. I think that being able to do internships, to be able to be out in the work world and have people who believe in

Dr. Mae Jemison said her future success was based in childhood knowledge that she could do whatever she wantsed.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

Dr. Jemison (left) makes a point to moderator Bryant

you—that’s really important. You see it mirrored in studies that we look at now about what helps kids to succeed, so that was important. You asked me before how I got to chemical engineering. Because I wanted to do something called biomedical engineering, and everybody knows what biomedical engineering is now, and not so much back then. I ended up being steered to this chemical engineering professor, Channing Robertson, who was doing work around biomedical engineering. He told me by the time he would approve an interdisciplinary degree, that I would be one or two courses shy of being a Chem E. So I said okay. And he said, “You should be a chemical engineer, because people know what you do.” So I did. [Laughter.] So I ended up majoring in chemical engineering, but also majoring in African and African-American studies. BRYANT: I really want to talk a little bit now about why it’s important for us to focus on science literacy for young people today, in terms of how they can use that as a platform to shape the future. JEMISON: I’m going to say that it’s not just about young people with science literacy. Everybody needs to be science literate. So let me just get that out there. [Applause.] And I use the term science literacy. BRYANT: And why not STEM? because that’s what everybody’s saying now? STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM, STEM. JEMISON: Because I’m old-school. We were working

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on science literacy before STEM was coined. [Laughter.] I’ve been working with Bayer for over 20 years on making science make sense in science literacy programs. When I first left NASA, one of the immediate things I did was to start an international science camp called The Earth We Share. It was about science curriculums, and building critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. I think everyone needs to be science literate to think their way through the day, to tackle the kinds of situations that we see, right? Science literacy is about being able to understand what’s going on in the world around you, to be able to read an article in the newspaper about the environment about toxins, about health, to be able to figure out how to vote on it. It’s about being able to see evidence. I always think about science literacy as these things that you need to be to be a contributing member of society, no matter what field you decide to go into. When you say someone is science literate, it doesn’t mean that they’re solving the equation e=mc2 and stuff. You don’t have to be a professional scientist or technologist to be science literate, just like you don’t have to be able to write like Nikki Giovanni to be reading and writing literate, right? [Laughter.] But you do expect people to be literate. That’s the reason I use the term science literacy. But why is it important? It’s important because it’s really cutting a wide swath in our world today. When you look

around, we expect science, engineering, mathematics, those fields to be able to solve our problems. And we say that’s just going to happen. But the reality is that when you look at what goes on in science, people have to choose what they’re going to research, right? They have to choose what problem they’re going to tackle. Some of your interpretation in how you see data sets is even influenced by who you are. So that’s the reason it’s important that we have more people involved and we have people that are science literate. So even if you’re not the one who’s doing the research, or doing the technology development, if you’re funding it, you get to choose some things. So it really makes a difference to understand that, what we’re working on. People write laws and regulations, or don’t write laws and regulations, or want to reverse laws and regulations based on how they see the thing, right? So that’s the reason why it’s really important when we push on science literacy. Now there’s also the idea of the pipeline, right, of being able to go in and get different kinds of jobs. But if you build science literacy, you’re going to get that pipeline filled going into the different jobs and different sectors. There’s this piece of awareness that you have to get. And you really need to start early, and we have an opportunity to do a lot of things with that. BRYANT: This is from one of our teachers in the audience. She asked, “What is the one thing you would impart on current middle and high school STEM students to keep them engaged?” JEMISON: Why do people always ask what we’re gonna impart to the students to keep them engaged? [Laughter.] I’m gonna be a little bit blunt. But the reason why I bring that up is because I can’t sit here and say one thing. What keeps students and what keeps people engaged is doing stuff that’s engaging. BRYANT: That’s true. [Laughter.] JEMISON: We have this incredible opportunity because folks like to explore the world around them. We want to do hands-on experiments, we want to try things. I told you the first thing I did when I came out of NASA was to start this science camp. It was about building critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It was for 12- to 16-year-olds, because that’s the age where they start sort of slipping out. We had them work in teams and task them to answer problems like predicting the hot public stocks for the year 2030. This was back in 1994. Design the world’s perfect house. How many people can the Earth hold? Create a global budget for science and technology research. They came from all around the world, they worked in teams, and all we gave them was a problem. But we taught them to think about the problem. And we didn’t mean you’d get to come up with any kind of old nonsense. You had to think about, here are the questions. First of all, because you’re working on a team, you have to ask what this question means. As you’re starting to work through, you have to ask questions without trying to solve them first. What does this actually mean? So we worked

with them through asking those questions. But they really worked with themselves. We gave them a methodology to think through it. Then they had to come up with possible solutions. They had to weigh the solutions, vote on them, figure out [what to do], and then they had to go test those solutions. They had to present their solutions in front of the whole camp. It gives them the opportunity to focus and engage, because

Science literacy is about being able to understand what’s going on in the world around you. It’s about being able to see evidence. this really is their solution. And we worked with teachers and they acted as guides, because there was no single answer.... We, as teachers, as adults, have to be confident enough in and of ourselves to be guides and not figure that we have to have the one right answer. It means that we have to be confident enough. I really wanted to train teachers. You train teachers differently than you train students. So I got to train the teachers. So we give them really hard problems, then I let them fall down cliffs, roll down valleys, all kinds of things, because sometimes as adults we are hard to learn, right? We have to actually spend some time and get our world shaken a little bit in order to figure out how to do things differently. So I would say figure out what’s engaging, but it’s always going to be hands-on, it’s always going to be something where people are coming out with their own creativity. Now let me just do one thing about creativity and all of that. Sometimes you have to just do rote memorization, too. When I went to medical school, remember I was in engineering? Engineers try to think through a problem, right? You do open-book tests, all that kind of stuff. So when I went to medical school, I was an engineer. We’re working on the cadaver, and you’re learning all this gross anatomy. My cadaver mates, they were looking at variants of tiny nerves and blood vessels that were coming off. And here’s their three or four different variants about how it comes out. I’m like, “My God, they’re boring me to death.” [Laughter.] I’m trying to think through the body, right? I asked the anatomy professor, “You really don’t expect us to know all these things by heart, do you?” He looked at me like, how did she get in? And he said, “Yes.” So luckily, it was early enough in this semester and I went off and started learning it by rote. Then I realized you actually want your doctor to know this stuff cold. FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

WHAT COMES NEXT

In this excerpt from the question and answer session between Thomas Friedman and Gavin Newsom, the New York Times columnist talks about this “hinge moment” in time.

Thomas Friedman, columnist for The New York Times and author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, The World Is Flat, and Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations; in conversation with California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. From the December 6, 2016, program in San Francisco “Thomas Friedman: A Field Guide to the 21st Century.” Photos by Ed Ritger. GAVIN NEWSOM: It’s interesting; almost without exception, every single question the audience offered me was around globalization issues—of what’s happening with manufacturing, are we going to get the jobs back, etc. I want to go back to what you described in your presentation and in the book: this hinge moment of sorts. We’re going from something old to something new. The industrial economy has run out of gas. It’s in atrophy. Technology, economics, demographics [are] all shifting. Paralysis contrasted by rebirth. Are we really moving that quickly into this sort of exponential phase, as you describe it in the book, of technology? And in that context, what is the future of work? THOMAS FRIEDMAN: Well, I think we are. The way I think about that question is that technology always moves up in steps. I mean, boy, when we moved to the telegraph, that was a big step. Then we moved to steam engineering,

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and then the mainframe and the PC and the desktop; each one of those is a platform. But what’s different from the telegraph was that the iPhone—it came out here, and it came out in Nigeria like a few weeks later. So these things now scale globally at a rate we’ve never seen before. How does this step-up compare to others? What I think happened in the early 2000s were two steps up that were quite profound, and they’re both driven by a price collapse. The first was a collapse in the price of fiber-optic cable. Happened around the late ’90s and early 2000s, driven by the dot-com boom, bubble and bust. We overbuilt all this fiber-optic cable, the price collapsed, we accidentally wired the world, and we woke up in the early 2000s and discovered that we could touch people who could never touch us before, and we’re being touched by people who could never touch us before. I remember calling home to my mom in Minneapolis, and she was clearly distracted. I said, “Mom what’s wrong?” She said, “You’re disturbing me; I’m playing bridge on the internet with someone in Siberia, okay?” [Laughter.] NEWSOM: In Siberia. FRIEDMAN: So suddenly, that was new. When I tell people, people say it’s nothing new. I say “Really? Was your grandmother playing bridge on the internet with someone in Siberia?” [Laughter.] So I wrote a book about that moment and I gave it a name, I said The World Is Flat. I didn’t mean that every

border was disappearing. I meant that suddenly more people were on an equal platform to compete, connect and collaborate. That book came out in 2005, I did a 2.0 in 2006 and then I did the 3.0 edition in 2007 and then I stopped. I thought I had it figured out, but as my broker says to me, 2007 was a bad year to stop sniffing glue. [Laughter.] What happened in 2007 was another price collapse. We had a massive collapse in the price of compute and storage. Hadoop and Google enabled us to actually string together a million computers to store and compute things as if they were one machine. The price of compute, storage, search [dropped]—and especially when you can then search unstructured data, boy, that was a new world, and that’s what gave us the automated cars. Machines that can think. So, again, I don’t know how that compares to the telegraph. NEWSOM: Right. FRIEDMAN: All I know is that’s a pretty big step up. And I think what happened in the last decade and a half, my short history of America is, let’s go back to the 1950s. I have a quote from a congressman in Minnesota who talked about growing up in Minnesota in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, which we now know as the golden age of blue-collar work where you could get high wages for middle skills, and a strong union time. We were a giant industrial economy and most of the world was still recovering from the war. He said growing up in Minnesota in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, if you

were an average blue collar worker, you needed a plan to fail. You actually needed a plan to fail; there was so much work. I had an uncle who only had a high school degree. He worked as a loan officer at Farmers and Mechanics Bank in Minneapolis. I really remember that. What happened then is we began the early IT revolution, automation and globalization, and a lot of people really didn’t keep their skills up. But we gave them hammers to build houses, and we gave them mortgages and credit cards. And a lot of people were able to stay in the middle class by really riding up the value of their homes, their home mortgages, and by credit. Then think what happens in two years—2007, 2008; 2007 comes along and [starts] devouring white-collar and blue-collar work like we’ve never seen before. And 2008 takes away your mortgage. A lot of people find their homes underwater. I think the confluence of those two things gave us the tea party and gave us the election we just had. NEWSOM: Let’s extend this out. You were up in Seattle yesterday, and we all read [that] Amazon just came out with a fully automated grocery store—putting, literally, at peril potentially 3.5 million workers that are cashiers. That’s AI [artificial intelligence], that’s big data, the combinatorial nature of that technology.... How concerned should we be about this tech genie being out of the bottle? FRIEDMAN: I’m very concerned because it’s happening

Thomas Friedman tells The Commonwealth Club that a number of factors have created an inflection point in our society.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

Thomas Friedman talks to the sold-out audience before his conversation with Gavin Newsom.

too fast. Again, when people tell me this is not happening fast, [that it’s] nothing new, I say “Really? Okay, talk to me in three years.” So it’s happening, I think faster than our social technologies. I really liked the idea that there are physical technologies, and there are social technologies that need to go with them. But if your physical technologies get way ahead of your social ones, you have a problem. Let me step back and tell you what I think the answer is. That the proper governing unit for the 21st century—and you have a lot of experience in this—is not gonna be the federal government. We still need it for a national bank, for national security. The federal government is simply too slow now at adapting to this rate of change, to gridlock. It’s not gonna be the single family, because it’s too frail, especially [because] we have so many single-parent families. They can’t navigate these winds of change. My argument in the book is it’s going to be the healthy community.

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NEWSOM: Yeah. FRIEDMAN: And the healthy community that’s close enough, nimble enough—there’s not so much politics. Yes, there’s left and right in San Francisco and Minneapolis. But there is, at the end of the day, no Democratic sewer, no Republican electricity. People in the end do tend to compromise. So these communities are much more nimble at responding to the changes. That’s one thing that gives me succor. Everything that matters most today, it’s all the stuff you can’t download. It’s all the stuff you have to upload the old fashioned way. One human being to another. What I have found in writing the book is how that human-to-human connection is becoming more important than ever. I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but I think that’s going to spin off millions of jobs we can’t imagine. Gav and I were talking before we came out about a quote in the book from our surgeon general, [Vivek] Murthy.

He’s the surgeon general of the United States, a really amazing doctor. I was interviewing him, and he said, “What do you think is the most prevalent disease in America today? Is it heart disease, is it cancer, is it diabetes?” And he said “No, it’s none of those; it’s isolation.” I thought wow, we live in the most connected age, you’re telling me, and the biggest disease in America is people feeling isolated and disconnected. I think there’s going to be a huge amount of work around that. We were at Thanksgiving this year with our best friend’s family. We go to Thanksgiving back in Washington with them every year, and their daughter is married to a guy who’s a consultant for restaurants. So I just said to him, “Daniel, what’s new? What are you working on?” He said it’s interesting. [He] was approached by a company, I think it’s called Paint It, where they have bars now where adults come to do paint by numbers. You can Google it as they say, and what it is is really about social connection. People come together in a bar, they paint by numbers, they have a drink. Now, guess what? I bet there’s a lot of jobs now designing paint-by-numbers for adults. After you do that for a day, you’re probably going to need a massage. So you’re never going to see it coming. But what I always remind people, if horses could have voted there never would have been cars, okay? NEWSOM: Right. FRIEDMAN: And that’s why the thing we actually have to trust in now, and it’s the hardest thing politically to do, is to actually—Do you want to make America great? You’ve got to make it great the way we always made it great, by being radically open, okay? Because when we are radically open, what happens? We feel the heat and the changes first, and we attract the most high-IQ risk takers. This country, this city and this valley down here—it was built by high-IQ risk takers. As long as we do that, I think it’ll be okay. I do believe the transition of this one is going to be really difficult, and that’s why I want to work on my safety nets over here. And not just safety nets, but trampolines and education. My friend Simon calls [it] the human economy now that we’re going into. He says we’ve moved from hands to heads to hearts. I think that economy is going to be spilling out so many jobs in a country where the most prevalent disease is isolation. But I can’t tell you what they are. NEWSOM: You talk about that transition in the context of horses and cars. You said the most dangerous time in New York’s history was the advent of the car when we still had horses and buggies. FRIEDMAN: You did not want to be on the street then, because you never knew where you could get hit. NEWSOM: And that’s where we are, in terms of this inflection point from your perspective. FRIEDMAN: I think we are. I always tell people, Gavin, someone was alive when Gutenberg invented the printing press. And some monk said to some priest, “That’s really cool, okay? You mean I don’t have to write these bibles out

longhand anymore? I could just stamp them out?” I think that we’re at such a moment. But people always say, “Freidman, you always think change yada, yada. And the world is flat, it’s not flat, tell me about it, okay?” I’ll stick with my analysis. I think something big is happening. I don’t know whether it’s the biggest all-time great, I don’t know what it is. I just know, when you make connectivity fast, free, easy for you and ubiquitous, and you make complexity fast, free, easy for you and invisible,

Everything that matters most today, it’s all the stuff you can’t download. It’s the stuff you upload the old-fashioned way. I can now with one touch on my phone page a car, pay the car, direct the car and rate the driver with one touch, we are abstracting complexity now everywhere, which you talked about, Gavin, now in grocery shopping. And that’s happening everywhere. I don’t think that’s a small thing. NEWSOM: In that context, does it require [that] we have to have a different kind of conversation than we’re having on issues like education? Something that’s been a theme in many of your books, at least the last two books, [is] you’ve got to step up your game, it’s the rise of the rest, etc. Are you an advocate for re-imagining a 21st-century education system, or just reforming the existing education system, paving over the old cow path? FRIEDMAN: I think it’s really got to be reimagined. My daughter works for the Khan Academy Lab School. I was talking to her over Thanksgiving about things they’re doing, very cutting edge. Their work is really focused on one thing, one principal, she was explaining to me: ownership. NEWSOM: Yeah, your favorite word. FRIEDMAN: The most important word in the English language, because where ownership exists good things happen. I am a believer, you can put it on my tombstone, really, that in the history of the world no one has ever washed a rented car. I’m a big believer of that. In the history of all mankind, I know there’s some knucklehead out there who washed their rented car. But I’m here to tell you that most normal people never wash a rented car. And where there is ownership in the room, where a kid owns their own education, where a teacher owns their classroom, where a community owns their streets, good things happen. You have self-propulsion. But where ownership isn’t in the room, bad things happen. NEWSOM: Do you think we’ve lost a little of that? It seems to me we look for the guy or gal on the white horse to come save the day. FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

Gavin Newsom (left) and Thomas Friedman, before their Club program.

FRIEDMAN: Exactly. Everybody wants the government to do it for me. Somebody come do it for me. I can understand the fear and anxiety that people feel. I live a privileged life, I’m not going to sit here and look down at people or whatnot. But I didn’t do this, in the sense that these changes are much bigger than me; I just tried to categorize them and optimize them. I think we do people no favor by telling them that the government’s gonna fix it for you. If in the ’60s in Minnesota you needed a plan to fail, today you need a plan to succeed. You’ve got to update it every six months, and everyone’s gotta think of themselves as their own startup. When I graduated from college, I had to find a job. My girls had to invent a job. That’s the big difference between us and them, and they got lucky they found their first job. But to stay in the job, advance in the job, they have to invent, reinvent and retool themselves. I’ve been at The New York Times 36 years. The chances of my girls working at the same place for 36 years, I probably

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would say, are zero. I think the job of government [is] to enable people to take ownership, but not to do it for them because that’s a losing game. You can’t keep up with it fast enough, but if people have ownership and you’re giving them the tools—it’s why one of the things I call for is making all post-secondary education tax deductible. Cuz if we’re telling people you have to be a life-long learner but you have to earn $80,000 to pay $40,000 in tuition, you can’t do that. So to me, all higher education should be tax deductible. NEWSOM: Interesting. I serve on the UC Regents board. You think we’re in many respects on a collision course in the future. You think we’re no longer a monopoly in that respect? FRIEDMAN: Yeah, but also you cannot tell people you have to be a life-long learner, but you have to go in debt for half your career to pay for it. That is unsustainable. The market is going to respond to this need. NEWSOM: You said something the other day, and this is to do justice to all the questions people are asking related to the presidential campaign. You said something about people wanting to feel protected, connected, and respected. FRIEDMAN: That’s my friend Andy Karsner. NEWSOM: That’s an extension of what you were just saying. How do you feel that played out in this presidential election? FRIEDMAN: I think these [big social developments] have made some people feel that the changes in their community through immigration or other things, it happened just too fast for some people. It’s not to defend it or not defend it, it’s how they feel. I think a lot of people feel they go to work, some robot sits down next to them and seems to be studying their job. Both of these are happening at the same time. I go to the grocery store and there’s someone there, doesn’t speak my language, and is wearing a head covering that doesn’t look like a baseball cap. I personally like that. I celebrate that world, I’m really comfortable in it. But I understand why, for some people, that can happen too fast. And then I go to the office, and I read the news that IBM Watson just cowrote a song with Alex Da Kid and in 48 hours it went to number 4 on iTunes and I think, “Whoa, what will there be for me?” I wish I had an easy answer for it. I don’t. But I also look back and say, “Wow, Obama just announced that we’ve got 4.6-percent unemployment.” I’m not saying that everything is good. Wages are clearly not going up at [a fast enough] rate, though they’re actually now starting to go up. If you trust in America, keep the system open and do everything we can to give the people the tools of education to own the start-up view. It’s going to be okay. I certainly know it’s going to be better than the alternative. When Trump browbeats a single company in Indiana to keep 1,000 jobs, what he doesn’t see is the 10,000 CEOs who say, “Whoa, I am not building my next factory in America. I don’t wanna be subject to that.” And what he doesn’t see is the 100,000 CEOs who then say, “Get me a robot.”

Programs The Commonwealth Club organizes more than 450 events every year on politics, the arts, media, literature, business and sports. Programs are held throughout the Bay Area. Standard programs are typically one hour long and frequently include panel discussions or speeches followed by a question and answer session. Many evening programs include a networking reception with wine.

SOME PROGRAMMING DIVISIONS

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

INFORUM

MEMBER-LED FORUMS

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

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

INFORUMSF.ORG

COMMONWEALTHCLUB.ORG/MLF

RADIO, VIDEO, & PODCASTS

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

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

Hear Club programs on more than 200 public and commercial radio stations throughout the United States. For the latest schedule, visit commonwealthclub.org/broadcast. In the San Francisco Bay Area, tune in to: KQED (88.5 FM) Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 a.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

TuneIn.com Fridays at 4 p.m.

TICKETS Prepayment is required. Unless otherwise indicated, all events—including “Members Free” events—require tickets. Programs often sell out, so we strongly encourage you to purchase tickets in advance. Due to heavy call volume, we urge you to purchase tickets online at commonwealthclub.org; or call (415) 597-6705. Please note: All ticket sales are final. Please arrive at least 10 minutes prior to any program. Select events include premium seating, which refers to the first several rows of seating. Pricing is subject to change.

HARD OF HEARING? To request an assistive listening device, please e-mail William Blum seven (7) working days before the event at wblum@commonwealthclub.org.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SAT/SUNDAY

5:15 p.m. Blinding Flash of the Obvious 6:30 p.m. Ben Franklin Circles FM 6:30 p.m. Changemakers: Movement Leaders on Civil Rights in an Uncivil Time FM 7:45 p.m. The Future of America’s Political

10 a.m. Chinatown Walking Tour 6:30 p.m. Sallie Krawcheck: The Power of Women, Work and Wallet 7 p.m. Gopi Kallayil: Brain, Body and Consciousness

4/5

11/12

18/19

25/26

6 p.m. Reading Californians Book Discussion Group FM 6:30 p.m. Can Clean Tech Clean Up Our Future? FM

12 p.m. Regional Middle East Issues FM 6:30 p.m. Week to Week Political Roundtable and Social Hour: Fifth Anniversary Edition

6 p.m. A Valentine’s Call-to-Action for the Baby Boomer Generation 6:30 p.m. For the Love of Beer

6 p.m. The Paleovedic Diet: Early Human Diets and Ayurvedic Medicine 6:30 p.m. The Honorable George Shultz: Lessons from Government, Business and Life

5:30 p.m. Middle East Forum Discussion FE 6 p.m. Stanford University Sustainability Vision: Now and for the Future FM

6 p.m. Crossing the Thinnest Line 6:30 p.m. Bret Baier, Fox News Chief Political Anchor

2 p.m. North Beach Walking Tour 6 p.m. Our Constitution, Our Climate, Our Kids: Is There a Right not to Be Harmed by Climate Change? 6:30 p.m. Journalist Stephen Kinzer: History’s Lessons for American Foreign Policy in 2017

12 p.m. Travel Expert Patricia Schultz: Emerging Destinations—Places You Have to See 6 p.m. What’s Wrong with Mindfulness (and What Isn’t) 6:30 p.m. Humanities West Book Discussion FM

6 p.m. Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen: The Reporter Who Knew too Much 7 p.m. The Science of Coffee

7 p.m. Alison Gopnik: The New Science of Child Development

6 p.m. The End of the Vikings 7:30 p.m. SV Reads 2017: Adam Benforado and Shaka Senghor FE

6 p.m. Afghanistan: Current Challenges and Future Prospects 6:30 p.m. Socrates Café FM

San Francisco

East/North Bay

Silicon Valley

FM Free for members

FE Free for everyone

MO Members-only

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

6:30 p.m. Ben Franklin Circles FM

FRIDAY

SAT/SUNDAY

4/5

6 p.m. The Hamilton Affair 6 p.m. Assassination of a Saint: Reflections on the U.S. Trial for the Killing of Archbishop Óscar Romero

6 p.m. Impact Investing: Invest and Improve the World with Your Portfolio, Endowments and Foundations 7 p.m. Priya Natarajan: Mapping the Heavens—A Delightful Tour of the Cosmos

2 p.m. Russian Hill Walking Tour 6 p.m. Hewlett Packard: Why Strategic Leadership Matters

11/12

18/19

25/26

6 p.m. The Revolution Where You Live: Stories from a 12,000-mile Journey through a New America 6 p.m. A New Kind of Heroism: Extreme Measures at the End of Life FM

6 p.m. Mark Twain’s Funny Fight for Free Will 6:30 p.m. Week to Week Political Roundtable and Social Hour

12 p.m. Rhodessa Jones and Cultural Odyssey’s Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women and HIV Circle 5:15 p.m. Life After Hate FM 6:30 p.m. Socrates Café FM 6:30 p.m. The U.S.

5:30 p.m. Middle East Forum discussion FE 6 p.m. Fire, Beetles, Water Resources and Dying Trees 6:30 p.m. P.J. O’Rourke: Has America Gone Crazy?

6 p.m. From Moldova to Mountain View: Creating Innovative Solutions for Real Life Problems 6:30 p.m. The Inside Story of Levi Strauss FM

6 p.m. Beethoven in China

6 p.m. The Courage and Compassion to Do the Right Thing 7 p.m. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes: The Two Americas

commonwealthclub.org/events

THURSDAY

5:15 p.m. What You Need to Know Before You’re 65: A Medicare Primer 6:30 p.m. Humanities West Book Discussion FM

6 p.m. San Francisco Green Film Festival: Film Stories From Your Dinner Plate

2 p.m. Waterfront Walking Tour 6 p.m. Zip Code, not Genetic Code

6 p.m. What Do Millennials Want in Their Portfolios, 401(k)s and Workplaces?

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

FEBRUARY 1 - 2 WEDNESDAY, 1 1 WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY Blinding Flash of the Obvious: Changing Your Feelings with Your Beliefs Steven Campbell February 1

Sallie Krawcheck February 2

Steven Campbell, M.S., Information Systems

Campbell presents an eye-opening look at the latest research on how our feelings do not come from what has happened to us, or past events in our lives, or the relationships we have. They come from our beliefs about what has happened to us, and the beliefs about those events, and our beliefs about those relationships. When you change those beliefs, your feelings follow. When this was posited back in 1962 in one of the first books on cognitive psychology, A Guide to Rational Living, it changed psychology forever. It argued that we can affect how we feel about ourselves, and about our lives and loved ones, by changing our beliefs. Campbell shows how.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Program organizer: John Milford

Ben Franklin Circles Join us monthly, every first Wednesday, for a 21st-century version of Ben Franklin’s mutual improvement club. One evening a week, for more than 40 years, the founding father discussed and debated with his friends the 13 virtues that he felt formed the basis for personal and civic improvement, a list he created when he was 20 years old. The virtues to which he aspired included justice, resolution and humility (but don’t misunderstand Ben on that one—his explanation of humility was “imitate Jesus and Socrates”). Ben Franklin Circles bring people together to discuss the most pressing philosophical and ethical issues of our time with the goal of improving ourselves and our world. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

Changemakers: Movement Leaders on Civil Rights in an Uncivil Time

Lariza Dugan Cuadra, Executive Director, Carecen SF Abdi Soltani, Executive Director, ACLU of Northern California

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Mina Kim, Anchor and Host, KQED— Moderator Additional Panelists TBA

Black Lives Matter. Immigrant rights. Climate justice. Are demands for change leading to lasting change? Are we rewriting the rules, or just arguing about them? How do movements— their leaders and their members — successfully build power and spur lasting change? What can we learn from leaders of recent efforts and from history? At a time of great disruption, join us as we continue The San Francisco Foundation’s series People, Place and Power with a discussion with Movement Leaders on Building Power and Voice.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:45 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: Sponsored by the San Francisco Foundation as part of the People, Power, Place Series, which addresses access and equity in the Bay Area.

The Future of America’s Political Parties

David Brady, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Professor of Political Science, Stanford Graduate School of Business Melissa Caen, Political Analyst, CBS San Francisco—Moderator

The 2016 election challenged what we know about traditional American politics. Both major political parties, Democratic and Republican, show fractures within their ranks. How will establishment politics move forward? Has gridlock politics left a vacuum for new parties and political movements to arise? Dr. David Brady, known as one of the most astute political commentators in the country, joins us to discuss what’s happening to American democracy. A political independent since 2003, Brady is an expert in the political history of the U.S. Congress, the history of U.S. election results and public policy processes. His recent research looks at how the transformation of the world economy (globalization) has shaken up Western politics and has led to political instability. The program includes complimentary light hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar from 7:00-7:40. Conversation begins promptly at 7:45pm and ends at 9:00pm.

NB • Location: Outdoor Art Club, One West Blithdale, Mill Valley • Time: 7 p.m. check-in and light hors d’oeuvres, 7:45–9

SF: San Francisco

SV: Silicon Valley

p.m. program • Notes: This program is sponsored by Relevant Wealth Advisors

THURSDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY THURSDAY, 22 Chinatown Walking Tour Enjoy a Commonwealth Club neighborhood adventure. Join Rick Evans for a memorable mid-day walk and discover the history and mysteries of Chinatown. Explore colorful alleys and side streets. Visit a Taoist temple, an herbal store, the site of the first public school in the state and the famous Fortune Cookie Factory.

SF • Location: Meet in front of Starbucks, 359 Grant Avenue, San Francisco (corner of Grant & Bush near Chinatown Gate) • Time: 9:45 a.m. check-in, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. walk • Notes: Temple visit requires walking up three flights of stairs; tour operates rain or shine; limited to 12 participants; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in; photo by dewet/Flickr

Sallie Krawcheck: The Power of Women, Work and Wallet

Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and Co-founder, Ellevest; Author, Own It: The Power of Women at Work

Are you ready to take charge of your career and financial destiny? Let Sallie Krawcheck show you how to harness your potential and fearlessly go after your goals. Sallie Krawcheck has been called the most powerful woman on Wall Street, and she’s opening up her years of experience to create a playbook for women’s professional success in Own It: The Power of Women at Work—one that incorporates women’s strengths, allows for non-traditional career paths, and shapes women’s power to advance themselves creatively and courageously. Sallie once held senior positions at Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Citigroup. Now, she runs Ellevest, a digital platform focused on redefining investment tools, resources and strategies for women. “[Ellevest] isn’t ‘for women,’ ‘pink it and shrink it,’ ‘make it smaller,’” Sallie shared in a recent interview, reminding us that women often have different salary arcs, live longer on average, and often make decisions such as taking a few years off from career to raise children—all key components in investment strategies. Sallie’s wide range of experiences—

EB: East Bay

NB: North Bay

FEBRUARY 2 - 7 from reaching the top rung in the “boys’ club” of Wall Street to launching Ellevest—mean there are myriad stories, skills, and sage pieces of advice, and we can’t wait to hear from her. Spend an evening walking in Sallie’s high-powered heels with INFORUM, and get inspired to own your future.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:45 p.m. book signing

Gopi Kallayil: Brain, Body and Consciousness

Gopi Kallayil, Chief Evangelist for Brand Marketing, Google; Author, The Internet to the Inner-Net: Five Ways to Reset Your Connection and Live a Conscious Life

The Internet has become humanity’s invisible central nervous system connecting us with a click of a button. Yet the most important technology is still within us: our brain, body and mindfulness. Drawing on his own experiences as a high-tech industry executive and a devotee of meditative practices, Kallayil explains the importance of conscious living and encourages yoga, mindful eating and even napping in the workplace. From “logging in” (mindful ways of connecting and engaging) to “clearing out your in-box” (shedding what doesn’t serve you to make space for what does), Kallayil lays out practices and perspectives that can help you become more creative and adaptable, and live with more purpose, fulfillment and joy. SV • Location: Asilomar Theatre, The Googleplex, Charleston Road, Mountain View • Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing

MONDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY MONDAY, 66 Reading Californians Book Discussion Group: An Unnecessary Woman, by Rabih Alamaddine An Unnecessary Woman was written by Rabih Alameddine, one of Beirut’s most celebrated voices. The novel is a breathtaking portrait of a reclusive woman’s late-life crisis that garnered a wave of rave reviews and love letters to Alameddine’s cranky yet charming septuagenarian protagonist, Aaliya, a character you “can’t help but love,” according to NPR.

Aaliya’s insightful musings on literature, philosophy and art are invaded by memories of the Lebanese civil war and her volatile past. As she tries to overcome her aging body and spontaneous emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left. Here, author Rabih Alameddine has given us a nuanced rendering of one woman’s life in the Middle East and an enduring ode to literature and its power to define who we are. An Unnecessary Woman was the gold medal winner for fiction in the Commonwealth Club’s 84th Annual California Book Awards in 2014, an annual event that honors California writers. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. The New York Times describes the book as “beautiful and absorbing.” Please join us to discuss this interesting and inventive novel by an author born in Jordan and educated in England and America. He presently lives in San Francisco and Beirut. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. program • MLF: Reading Californians Book Discussion • Program organizer: Betty Bullock

Can Clean Tech Clean Up Our Future?

Holmes Hummel, Founder, Clean Energy Works Andrew Chung, Founder and Managing Partner, 1955 Capital Danny Kennedy, Managing Director, California Clean Energy Fund

With stock market values at near-record highs, again, how is the clean tech sector doing? One index of solar stocks is down 50 percent from a year ago and the industry was stung by the high-profile flame-out of SunEdison. Overall, however, the clean energy industry is growing and creating jobs. One recent report found the number of people who work in renewable energy grew 5 percent to 8 million people worldwide. What technologies are most promising for making money and getting a job? What areas offer the biggest prospect for game-changing breakthroughs? Join a conversation with three battle-hardened experts about what’s real and what’s hype in today’s clean power landscape. Climate One is excited to be working

commonwealthclub.org/events

with CleanTech Open for this program, making it the kick-off event for Clean-Tech Week 2016. We will be hosting a post-event reception for extended networking and mingling.

SF • CLIMATE ONE PROGRAM • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 program, 7:30 reception

Gopi Kallayil February 2

TUESDAY, 77 TUESDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY Crossing the Thinnest Line

Lauren Leader-Chivee, Founder and CEO, All In Together; Author, Crossing the Thinnest Line

Explore the social advantages of diversity. Crossing the Thinnest Line argues passionately and persuasively for the possibility, power, purpose and payoff of embracing difference. Already 89 percent of the world’s educated population is either female or minority. In less than a generation, the United States will become minority majority. The world economy is global and interconnected, and Leader-Chivee says that embracing diversity has never been more imperative. With compelling data and powerful, personal stories, Leader-Chivee looks at challenges and solutions to immigration, education, business, media and politics and inspires Americans to rise to the challenge.

Lauren LeaderChivee February 7

Bret Baier February 7

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

Bret Baier, Fox News Chief Political Anchor

Bret Baier, Chief Political Anchor, Fox News; Author, Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission Kori Schake, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution

Since 1998, Bret Baier has been a Fox news stalwart. In addition to being chief political anchor, he anchors “Special Report with Bret Baier,” the top-rated cable news program in its time slot and one of the top five shows in cable news. Baier was the first reporter in Fox News’ Atlanta bureau and went on to become chief White House and then national security correspondent. As the country grapples with the meaning of presidential leadership in 2017, Baier’s new book covers Presi-

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

FEBRUARY 7 - 13

Stephen Kinzer February 9

Yoaz Hendel February 13

Week to Week February 13

dent Dwight Eisenhower’s leadership in guiding America out of war in Korea, through the apocalyptic threat of nuclear war with Russia, and into one of the greatest economic booms. In his last address to the nation, Eisenhower looked to the future, warning Americans against the dangers of elevating partisanship above national interest, excessive government budgets (particularly deficit spending), the expansion of the military-industrial complex, and the creeping political power of special interests. Baier will discuss how these words resonate today and the lessons Eisenhower’s leadership impart. He’ll also discuss the current state of media and the new administration.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation; photo by Keller Photography

THURSDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY THURSDAY, 99 North Beach Walking Tour Join another Commonwealth Club neighborhood adventure! Explore vibrant North Beach with Rick Evans during a two-hour walk through this neighborhood with a colorful past, where food, culture, history and unexpected views all intersect in an Italian “urban village.” In addition to learning about Beat generation hangouts, you’ll discover authentic Italian cathedrals and coffee shops.

SF • Location: Meet at Victoria Pastry Cafe, 700 Filbert Street (at Columbus Ave) across from Washington Square Park • Getting there: Muni Bus 30, 41, 45; North Beach Parking Garage, 735 Vallejo St. • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. program • Notes: Tour operates rain or shine; limited to 20 participants; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in; photo by Clemson/Flickr

Our Constitution, Our Climate, Our Kids: Is There a Right not to Be Harmed by Climate Change? For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

Philip Gregory, Partner, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP Tia Hatton, Youth Plaintiff in Constitutional and Public Trust Case Julia Olsen, Executive Director, Our Children’s Trust

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Climate change has an immediate, disproportionate effect on our youth, present and future generations. As with the civil rights movement, young people are turning to courts and regulatory bodies to require governments to implement plans to phase out pollution in line with science. The question is this: Do present and future generations have a constitutional right to be protected from invasive and destructive environmental harm, danger and damage? SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment & Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

Journalist Stephen Kinzer: History’s Lessons for American Foreign Policy in 2017

Stephen Kinzer, Columnist, The Boston Globe; Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University; Author, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire

As President Trump takes office, how should the United States act in the world? Drawing on his latest book, Stephen Kinzer will transport us back to the early 20th century, when the United States first found itself with the chance to dominate faraway lands. That prospect thrilled some Americans. It horrified others. Their debate gripped the nation. The country’s bestknown political and intellectual leaders took sides. Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and William Randolph Hearst pushed for imperial expansion; Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, and Andrew Carnegie preached restraint. Only once before—in the period when the United States was founded—have so many brilliant Americans so eloquently debated a question so fraught with meaning for all humanity. Join Kinzer as he discusses these impassioned arguments and their great relevance to the world of 2017. Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. Kinzer spent more than 20 years working for The New York Times, where his foreign postings placed him at the center of historic events and, at times, in the line of fire. While covering world events, he has been shot at, jailed, beat-

SF: San Francisco

SV: Silicon Valley

en by police, tear-gassed and bombed from the air.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:45 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Photo by Deborah Donnelley

MONDAY, MONDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY1313 Regional Middle East Issues

Yoaz Hendel, Ph.D., Military History; Director, Institute of Zionist Strategies

Dr. Hendel, who describes himself as a pragmatic centrist with a national liberal identity, will discuss regional issues confronting the Middle East. He will also explore the influence of the Russian-Iranian relationship in the Middle East. Dr. Hendel is the director of the Institute of Zionist Strategies and is an award-winning radio and print commentator on political and human rights issues. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Began-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and was communication director for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2011-12. His latest book is called, Iran vs Israel: A Shadow War.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel

Week to Week Political Roundtable and Social Hour: Fifth Anniversary Edition 2/13/17 Panelists TBA

It’s the fifth anniversary of Week to Week, the political roundtable of The Commonwealth Club of California! It’s going to be a big year for all things political, so join us as we explore the biggest, most controversial and sometimes the surprising political issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil, and have a good sense of humor. Join our panelists for informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, audience discussion of the week’s events, and our live news quiz! Come early to meet other smart and engaged individuals and discuss the news over snacks and wine at our member social (open to all attendees).

SF • WEEK TO WEEK PROGRAM • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. wine-and-snacks social, 6:30 p.m. program

EB: East Bay

NB: North Bay

Walking Below & Beyond Mont Blanc

Switzerland, Italy & France September 23-October 5, 2017

Saturday, September 23 Depart the U.S. for independent flights to Geneva, Switzerland. Sunday, September 24 Geneva, Switzerland to Villars sur Ollon Arrive at Geneva Airport and transfer to our hotel (1.5 hours) in Villars sur Ollon, which sits at 4,100 ft. Enjoy an orientation walk through town before our welcome dinner. Hôtel Du Golf and Spa (D) Walking time: 1 hour Monday, September 25 Villars sur Ollon Travel to Solalex (4,806 ft), a beautiful mountain pasture under the breathtaking cliff Miroir d’Argentine. Walk through pine forests and alpine meadows to Barboleuse (3,772 ft). After lunch at a local restaurant, walk to the picturesque village of Gryon (3,655 ft) where we enjoy a wine and liquor tasting in the Maison du Terroir, a local handicraft and food store. Hôtel Du Golf and Spa (B,L,D) Walking time: ~3.5 hours Tuesday, September 26 Bretaye Travel to Bretaye (6,000 ft), the starting point of today’s walk. Hear a field lecture about Bretaye Lake, then walk across alpine meadows enjoying views of the Swiss Alps at every turn. Arrive to a farm and learn the details of alpine farming and cheese making. After a fondue lunch, hike through forested trails as we make our way back to Villars for a free evening and dinner on our own. Hôtel Du Golf and Spa (B,L) Walking time: ~3.5 hours

Wednesday, September 27 St. Bernard Pass to Cogne, Italy Travel by bus to the Rhone Valley and up to the incredible St. Bernard Pass (8,100 ft), an ancient Roman transalpine route and more recently the path of Napoleon’s army into Italy in 1800. Visit the St. Bernard Museum, the first hospice founded as early as 1049 and appropriately named after Saint Bernard. Enjoy a field lecture and lunch before continuing to the French-speaking Valle d’Aosta in Italy. Arrive to Cogne (5,000 ft), the main gateway to the Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso. Hotel Sant’Orso & Wellness Le Bois (B,L,D) Walking time: ~2 hours Thursday, September 28 Lillaz and Gimillan Travel to Lillaz (5,304 ft) and the Lillaz waterfall. Walk along the Urtier River, enjoying views of mountain peaks, glaciers and three different waterfalls. Return to the hotel for lunch before we head out to the village of Gimillan (5,900 ft) where we walk in Gran Paradiso National Park. After a field lecture, return to Cogne for dinner at a local restaurant. Hotel Sant’Orso & Wellness Le Bois (B,L,D) Walking time: ~3.5 hours Friday, September 29 Aosta Travel to the mountain town of Aosta (1,900 ft), founded by the Romans in 25 B.C. primarily as a military camp, and called the “Rome of the Alps.” Explore the town and hear a lecture about the history of the area. After an independent lunch and free time in Aosta, return to Cogne. Hotel Sant’Orso & Wellness Le Bois (B) Walking time: ~2 hours

Saturday, September 30 Valnontey and Alpe Vermiana Travel to Valnontey to begin our walk along the Valnontey River, through forests of coniferous and larch trees to the Alpe Vermiana (5,800 ft). Experience fabulous views as you walk closer to the snow-covered Gran Paradiso Mountains. Enjoy a field lecture and a picnic lunch, followed by an afternoon of bread baking and tasting the local herbal liqueur. Hotel Sant’Orso & Wellness Le Bois (B,L,D) Walking time: ~3.5 hours Sunday, October 1 Courmayeur, Italy to Chamonix, France Depart Cogne for Courmayeur, a striking and fashionable resort located at the foot of Mont Blanc. Continue through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Chamonix (3,500 ft). On arrival, we walk around town and hear a lecture about the history of the town. Mercure Chamonix Centre (B,L,D) Walking time: ~1.5 hours Monday, October 2 Aiguille de Midi Ride the cable car up Mont Blanc, enjoying the marvelous views as it first climbs to Plan de l’Aiguille (7,600 ft) and then to Aiguille de Midi (12,700 ft). The panorama on a clear day is simply one of the best in the Alps. If the sky is clear, you may even get a glimpse of the Matterhorn. Hear a field lecture on the Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc, then walk from the middle station Plan de l’Aiguille (7,600 feet) to the Lac Bleu Lake. Return to Chamonix by cable car. Enjoy an evening and dinner on your own. Mercure Chamonix Centre (B) Walking time: ~1 hour

Tuesday, October 3 Petit Balcon Sud Trail and Chamonix Hike from the town of Chamonix to the Petit Balcon Sud trail, which leads through forested and open areas and offers the most spectacular views of the north face of Mont Blanc. Enjoy a field lecture and picnic on the trail. Tonight gather for a farewell drink and dinner. Mercure Chamonix Centre (B,L,D) Walking time: ~3.5 hours Wednesday, October 4 Chamonix to Geneva, Switzerland Transfer by private coach to Geneva, Switzerland. Enjoy a one-hour bus tour of international Geneva, followed by a two-hour walking excursion in old town with visits to the Town Hall, St. Peter’s Cathedral, the Arsenal and the Reformation Wall. Enjoy the rest of the day for independent exploration of the city’s museums and gardens. Novotel Genève Centre (B) Walking time: ~2 hours Thursday, October 5 Geneva to the U.S. Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer to Geneva airport. (B)

Questions or to Sign Up

Call (415) 597-6720 or email travel@commonwealthclub.org

What to Expect Participants must be in very good health and able to keep up with an active group. Walks are moderate, from 1-5 miles and approximately 2-4 hours per day. Most walking activities each day will take place at an average altitude of 3,000-6,000 feet. The highest altitude we reach is 12,700 feet. Travelers should be able to walk on gravel and dirt hiking trails, meadows, and pavement. Trails are well-marked, mostly gentle undulating hills, with some rocky sections and steep ascents. Sturdy walking/hiking shoes are required; ankle-high shoes are highly recommended. One should be able to use stairs without handrails and walk and stand unassisted for periods of two hours at a time. You will need to board buses, trains and cable cars unassisted. We use local buses and trains at many times during the trip, as well as private vehicles. You do not have to participate in every activity, and there may be options for longer and shorter walks depending on the day. Hotels are clean, comfortable and charming but not luxury accommodations.

Trip Details Dates: September 23-October 5, 2017 (13 days) Cost: $4,895 per person, double occupancy; $700 single room supplement Group Size: Minimum 10, Maximum 20 (not including staff) Included: Tour leader, local guides, and guest speakers; activities as specified in the itinerary; transportation throughout; airport transfers on designated group dates and times; 11 nights accommodations as specified (or similar); 11 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 7 dinners; wine and beer with welcome and farewell events; Commonwealth Club rep with 13 or more participants; gratuities to local guides, drivers, and for all included group activities; pre-departure materials. Not included: International airfare to Switzerland; optional gratuity to tour leader; 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.

Commonwealth Club Travel

Walking Below & Beyond Mont Blanc

Reservation Form September 23 – October 5, 2017

Phone: (415) 597-6720 Fax: (415) 597-6729

Name 1 Mr. / Mrs. / Ms. / Miss / Dr. / Prof. Name 2 Mr. / Mrs. / Ms. / Miss / Dr. / Prof. Address

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Single Travelers Only:

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If this is a reservation for one, please indicate:

We require membership to The Commonwealth Club to travel with us. Please check one of the following options:

I plan to share accommodations with:

I am a current member of the Commonwealth Club. Please use the credit card information below to sign me up or renew my membership. I will visit commonwealthclub.org/membership to become a member.

OR I wish to have single accommodations. OR I would like to know about possible roommates. I am a smoker / nonsmoker (cirlce one).

Payment: Here is my deposit of $

($500 per person) for

place(s)

Enclosed is my check (made payable to The Commonwealth Club of California) OR Charge my deposit to my:

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I/We have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions for this program. Signature(s) Please note that final payment must be made by check. Mail completed form to: Commonwealth Club Travel, PO Box 194210, San Francisco, CA 94119, or fax to (415) 597-6729. For questions or to sign up over the phone call (415) 597-6720. Terms & Conditions The Commonwealth Club (CWC) has contracted European Walking Tours to organize this tour. Reservations: A $500 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 90 days prior to departure and must be paid by check. Eligibility: We require membership to the Commonwealth Club to travel with us. People who live outside of the Bay Area may purchase a national 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+ days prior to departure: $350 per person • 90-1 days to departure: 100% fare Tour pricing is based on the number of participants. Tour can also be cancelled due to low enrollment. Neither CWC nor European Walking 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 European Walking 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 European Walking Tours its Owners, Agents, and Employees act only as the agent for any transportation carrier, hotel, ground operator, or other suppliers of services connected with this program (“other providers”), and the other providers are solely responsible and liable for providing their respective services. CWC and European Walking Tours shall not be held liable for (A) any damage to, or loss of, property or injury to, or death of, persons occasioned directly or indirectly by an act or omission of any other provider, including but not limited to any defect in any aircraft, or vehicle operated or provided by such other provider, and (B) any loss or damage due to delay, cancellation, or disruption in any manner caused by the laws, regulations, acts or failures to act, demands, orders, or interpositions of any government or any subdivision or agent thereof, or by acts of God, strikes, fire, flood, war, rebellion, terrorism, insurrection, sickness, quarantine, epidemics, theft, or any other cause(s) beyond their control. The participant waives any claim against CWC/ European Walking Tours for any such loss, damage, injury, or death. By registering for the trip, the participant certifies that he/ she does not have any mental, physical, or other condition or disability that would create a hazard for him/ herself or other participants. CWC/ European Walking Tours shall not be liable for any air carrier’s cancellation penalty incurred by the purchase of a nonrefundable ticket to or from the departure city. Baggage and personal effects are at all times the sole responsibility of the traveler. Reasonable changes in the itinerary may be made where deemed advisable for the comfort and well-being of the passengers. CST: 2096889-40; Photos: Michael Steigerwald

FEBRUARY 14 - 16 TUESDAY, 1414 TUESDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY A Valentine’s Call-to-Action for the Baby Boomer Generation

John Tarnoff, MA Spiritual Psychology; Former Hollywood Executive; Educator; Trainer; Coach; Author Marc Freedman, Founder and CEO, Encore.org; Former Visiting Scholar, Stanford University (2014-15); Member, The Wall Street Journal’s “Experts” Panel; Author, The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife

In this era of career uncertainty, low retirement savings and digital disruption, boomers may be feeling discouraged, categorized by ageism, insecure in their own abilities and fearful of the future. Boomer career coach John Tarnoff’s new book, Boomer Reinvention: How to Create Your Dream Career Over 50, is actually a love note to this generation, proposing clear and achievable strategies for how boomers can prevail through these troubled times, and steer their own course toward meaningful, purposeful and prosperous careers past traditional retirement. Tarnoff will be in conversation with Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Encore. org. Freedman’s mission is to celebrate and facilitate the career contributions of aging professionals in these encore careers. Boomers came of age wanting to make a difference in the world. On this Valentine’s Day 2017, now more than ever, Tarnoff and Freedman will be here to reaffirm that, yes, boomers can still make that difference. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Business & Leadership • Program organizer: Elizabeth Carney

WEDNESDAY, WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY1515 Travel Expert Patricia Schultz: Emerging Destinations—Places You Have to See

Patricia Schultz, Travel Writer; Author, 1,000 Places To See Before You Die and 1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die

Patricia Schultz has a dream job: traveling the globe and writing about it. She is the author of the international

#1 bestsellers, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (translated into 25 languages) and her new book, 1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die. With these works, she has reinvented the idea of travel book as both wishlist and practical guide. She was recently chosen by Forbes as one of the 25 most influential women in travel, and was executive producer of the Travel Channel’s TV show based on her first 1,000 Places book. Schultz will focus on emerging destinations, featuring four eye-opening trips that have slowly and recently been securing their places in the global limelight: Iran, Myanmar, Cuba and Antarctica (including the Falkland Islands and South Georgia). Listen to her experiences and anecdotes and learn why Americans are joining the still limited number of travelers who return with similar tales of an authentic, safe, fascinating and welcoming adventure.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 11:15 a.m. check-in, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing

What’s Wrong with Mindfulness (and What Isn’t)

Robert Rosenbaum, Neurophsychologist; Psychotherapist; Co-editor, What’s Wrong with Mindfulness (and What Isn’t); Author, Walking the Way: 81 Zen Encounters with the Tao Te Ching and Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy

In his new book, Rosenbaum and co-editor Barry Magidin bring together various essayists who examine critical concerns and creative engagment of zen experience with mindfulness practice. The marketplace, mindfulness myths, fantasies and facts, solitude and mindfulness in the arts, feminism and Zen liberation, Western Buddhism— all consider the topic. Rosenbaum introduces the topic with the “Zen in America” question of “Universal Mindfulness—Be careful what you wish for?” Robert Meikyo Rosenbaum is a neuropsychologist and psychotherapist who is a Zen practitioner and senior teacher in the Taoist practice Dayan QiGong. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: The Arts • Program organizer: Anne W. Smith

commonwealthclub.org/events

Humanities West Book Discussion: The Age of Vikings, by Anders Winroth Join us to discuss The Age of Vikings, whose image is often distorted by myth. Though it is true that they pillaged, looted and enslaved, the Vikings also settled peacefully and traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships to explore. Anders Winroth captures the innovation and pure daring of the Vikings without glossing over their destructive heritage, revealing how Viking arts, literature and religious thought evolved in surprising ways. Discussion led by Lynn Harris. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

John Tarnoff & Marc Freedman February 14

Patricia Schultz February 15

THURSDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY1616 THURSDAY, Alison Gopnik: The New Science of Child Development

Alison Gopnik, Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley; Author, The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us about the Relationship Between Parents and Children Dr. Julie Lythcott-Haims, Former Dean of Freshman, Stanford University; Author, How to Raise An Adult

Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Yet the thing we call “parenting” is a surprisingly new invention. In the past 30 years, “parenting” has transformed into an obsessive, controlling, goal-oriented effort to create a particular kind of child. But children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative, and to be very different both from their parents and from each other. Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge research, Gopnik shatters key myths of “good parenting,” and suggests a new approach—where variability and flexibility in childhood lets them innovate, create and survive in an unpredictable world.

SV • Location: Cubberley Community Theatre, 4000 Middlefield Road (near Montrose & Middlefield), Palo Alto • Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing • Notes: In association with Wonderfest

Robert Rosenbaum February 15

Alison Gopnik February 16

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

FEBRUARY 21 - 23 TUESDAY, TUESDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY2121 The Paleovedic Diet: Early Human Diets and Ayurvedic Medicine Akil Palanisamy February 21

George Shultz February 21

Linda Rugg February 23

Akil Palanisamy, M.D., Author, The Paleovedic Diet: A Complete Program to Burn Fat, Increase Energy, and Reverse Disease

In this lecture, Dr. Akil Palanisamy will describe the outlines of a comprehensive roadmap to optimal health, one that combines the most effective aspects of the “paleo” diet (so-called because it seeks to emulate the diet of early humans), cutting-edge nutritional science, and the time-tested philosophy and techniques of ancient Ayurvedic medicine. He will share practical tips on what to eat in order to boost well-being and vitality, and he will have detailed and practical information about implementing these concepts in daily living. Dr. Palanisamy is a Harvard-trained physician who practices integrative medicine, incorporating the best of conventional medicine and alternative therapies. A holistic doctor, he completed his premedical training in biochemistry at Harvard University, received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, and completed his residency in family medicine at Stanford University. He also completed a Fellowship in Integrative Medicine with Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona, and is certified by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine at Georgetown University. Dr. Akil practices at The Institute for Health and Healing in San Francisco, one of the oldest centers for integrative medicine in the United States.

SF • Location: 555 Post Street, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Health & Medicine • Program organizer: Patty James

The Honorable George Shultz: Lessons from Government, Business and Life

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

George P. Shultz, Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution; Former U.S. Secretary of State, Labor, and Treasury; Author, Learning From Experience Dr. Gloria Duffy, President and CEO, The Commonwealth Club

George Shultz has had a distinguished

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

career in government, academia and the world of business. He is one of two individuals who have held four different federal cabinet posts; he has also taught at three of this country’s great universities. In 1989 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Come hear Secretary Shultz’s seasoned observations on foreign policy, economics and on what makes great presidential leadership, especially as the Trump administration’s policies begin to take shape.

SF • Location: Marines Memorial Theater, 2nd Level, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation

WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY WEDNESDAY, 2222 Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen: The Reporter Who Knew too Much

Mark Shaw, Former Criminal Defense Attorney; CNN Legal Analyst; Author, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much

Occurring less than two years after JFK’s assassination, the mysterious death of Dorothy Kilgallen, a “What’s My Line” media star and investigative reporter, remains an enigma. Despite an apparently staged death scene in her apartment, and friends who suspected she had been murdered, no police investigation followed. Relying on fresh evidence secured through discovery of never-before-seen videotaped interviews and secret government documents, Shaw unfolds a murder mystery featuring Frank Sinatra, J. Edgar Hoover and Mafia don Carlos Marcello, whose motives included being threatened by Kilgallen’s 18-month investigation into JFK’s death. (For more about the book, see http://www.thereporterwhoknewtoomuch.com.) SF • Location: 555 Post Street, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

The Science of Coffee

William Ristenpart, Joe and Essie Smith Endowed Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of California-Davis

SF: San Francisco

SV: Silicon Valley

Can UC Davis do for the coffee industry what it’s done for the wine industry? Ristenpart is head of the Coffee Center, the first multidisciplinary university research center in the world devoted to post-harvest studies of coffee and designed to generate unparalleled teaching, research and collaborative opportunities for students, scientists and engineers. The project has its roots in the Engineering Department, where Ristenpart co-developed “The Design of Coffee” course that became hugely popular with both science and java junkies and boasts the highest enrollment of any elective course on campus. Come learn about the core engineering and science principles involved in roasting and brewing the perfect cup of coffee and participate in an informal coffee “cupping” sponsored by Peet’s Coffee.

SV • Location: Schultz Cultural Hall, Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto • Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7—8:30 p.m. program and coffee cupping

THURSDAY, 2323 THURSDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY The End of the Vikings

Linda Rugg, Professor of Swedish Studies, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of California Berkeley

In the year AD 1000, at the annual Althing (national assembly) in Iceland, a decision was made to make Christianity the official religion of the island. The road from paganism to Christianity was not, however, completely smooth, nor did the conversion process happen as abruptly as the political decision implied. A key text describing the declaration at the Althing appears in Njal’s Saga, and it will form the basis for this lecture, along with two medieval Icelandic short stories that illustrate how Christianization began to take shape in the North. The continued presence of the pagan past in modern Scandinavia can be traced in literature, artifacts and enduring cultural practices, indicating that while the Scandinavians eventually embraced Christianity and then secularism, they did not leave their Viking identity behind. SF • Location: 550 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

EB: East Bay

NB: North Bay

FEBRUARY 23 - MARCH 2 SV Reads 2017: Adam Benforado and Shaka Senghor

Adam Benforado, Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University; Author, Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice Shaka Senghor, Director of Strategy and Innovation, #Cut50; Author, Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison Sal Pizzaro, Columnist, San Jose Mercury News—Moderator

How can we reduce bias in our legal system? Benforado and Senghor examine this critical issue from both a legal perspective and from someone who has been incarcerated. Benforado says, “The failure of our legal system has been a defining issue in the U.S. over the last year…. To make progress in our fight against abuse, unequal treatment and wrongful convictions, we must come together as a community to consider the psychological biases that share the behavior of judges, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, police officers—and all of the rest of us.” Senghor shares his own personal experiences as someone who has gone through the system and is now one of the leading voices on criminal justice reform. SV • Location: Visual and Performing Arts Center, De Anza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino • Time: 6:45 p.m. doors open, 7:30 p.m. program, 8:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Presented by The Santa Clara County Library District, The San Jose Public Library, The Santa Clara County Office of Education, and De Anza College

MONDAY, 2727 MONDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY Middle East Forum Discussion The Middle East Forum discussion group, which primarily covers the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan, has been meeting monthly for about nine years. We are not a debate group.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. program • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel

Stanford University Sustainability Vision: Now and for the Future

Pamela Matson, Chester A. Naramore Dean, Stanford School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences

Fahmida Ahmed, Director, Office of Sustainability, Stanford Department of Sustainability and Energy Management Joseph Stagner, Executive Director, Stanford Department of Sustainability and Energy Management Chris Field, Perry L. McCarty Director, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

Stanford is actively pursuing a wide range of sustainability goals. The university’s efforts range from a unique new campus energy system to rethinking dining services. Stanford has an inclusive participatory approach that makes faculty, students and employees all partners in its efforts to create a living laboratory for sustainable solutions.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment & Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

TUESDAY, 2828 TUESDAY,FEBRUARY FEBRUARY Afghanistan: Current Challenges and Future Prospects

Mohammad Qayoumi, Ph.D., President Emeritus, San Jose State University; Advisor, President of Afghanistan

Dr. Qayoumi, former member of The Commonwealth Club’s Board of Governors, is presently advisor to President Ghani of Afghanistan on infrastructure, human capital and technology. He will give a brief overview of current conditions in Afghanistan, the plans of the government in achieving self-reliance and promoting democracy and economic development. The discussion will center around the role of Afghanistan in integrating the economies of Central Asia with South Asia while serving as a regional roundabout. The presentation will also focus on current challenges regarding the struggle with ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other regional and global terrorist organizations. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel

Socrates Café On one Monday evening of every month the Humanities Forum sponsors Socrates Café at The Commonwealth Club. Each meeting is devoted to the discussion of a philo-

commonwealthclub.org/events

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

Elizabeth Cobbs March 2

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30–8 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program Organizer: George Hammond

WEDNESDAY,MARCH MARCH WEDNESDAY, 11 Ben Franklin Circles Join us monthly, every first Wednesday, for a 21st-century version of Ben Franklin’s mutual improvement club. One evening a week, for more than 40 years, the founding father discussed and debated with his friends the 13 virtues that he felt formed the basis for personal and civic improvement, a list he created when he was 20 years old. The virtues to which he aspired included justice, resolution and humility (but don’t misunderstand Ben on that one—his explanation of humility was “imitate Jesus and Socrates”). Ben Franklin Circles bring people together to discuss the most pressing philosophical and ethical issues of our time with the goal of improving ourselves and our world. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

THURSDAY, THURSDAY,MARCH MARCH2 2 The Hamilton Affair

Elizabeth Cobbs, Professor and Melbern G. Glasscock Chair in American History, Texas A&M University; Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Author, The Hamilton Affair

Celebrate the imminent arrival of the musical Hamilton with a discussion of a new novel about this intriguing founding father. The Hamilton Affair tells the true story of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler, from passionate and tender beginnings to his fateful duel. Hamilton was a bastard and orphan,

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

MARCH 2 - 8

Sarah van Gelder March 6

raised in the Caribbean and desperate for legitimacy, who became one of the Revolution’s most dashing—and improbable—heroes. Admired by Washington, scorned by Jefferson, Hamilton was the most controversial leader of the new nation. Elizabeth was the wealthy, beautiful, adventurous daughter of the respectable Schuyler clan—and a pioneering advocate for women. Together, the unlikely couple braved the dangers of war, the anguish of infidelity, and the scourge of partisanship that menaced their family and the country itself.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond • Notes: This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation

Jessica Zitter March 6

Assassination of a Saint: Reflections on the U.S. Trial for the Killing of Archbishop Óscar Romero

Almudena Bernabeu, Co-Founder, Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers (Member of the Legal Team) Russell Cohen, Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (Member of the Legal Team) Terry Lynn Karl, Gildred Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Political Science, Stanford University (Expert Witness at the Trial) Matt Eisenbrandt, Author, Assassination of a Saint (Member of the Legal Team) Nico van Aelstyn, Principal, Beveridge & Diamond PC (Member of the Legal Team)

In 2004, a U.S. court found a California resident responsible for the 1980 death squad killing of El Salvador’s Archbishop Óscar Romero, who will soon be made a saint in the Catholic Church. Matt Eisenbrandt, a member of the legal team and author of a recently published book about the Romero case, joins his colleagues to discuss the investigation and trial as well as the historical background that led to the assassination. For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: International Relations • Program organizer: Linda Calhoun

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MONDAY, MONDAY,MARCH MARCH6 6 The Revolution Where You Live: Stories from a 12,000mile Journey through a New America Sarah van Gelder, Co-founder, Yes! Magazine; Author

During the 2016 election year, Sarah spent months on a road trip traveling in a pick-up truck and tiny camper to listen to people’s concerns and hopes of a better life. In her book, The Revolution Where You Live, she takes you from inner-city neighborhoods in Detroit, Chicago and Ohio to Greensboro, North Carolina’s new food co-op; she explores the Appalachian radio network that reaches coal miners, small farmers, poverty, polluted environments and water resources that permeate mountains, hollows and towns. Sarah met with local leaders who are committed to building hometown sustainable economies; encouraging local community diversity collaboration and resisting mining, fracking and environmental degradation. Their local stories offer hope for all of us for a better world with healthy and safe environments, opportunities, jobs and collaboration of diverse communities and people working together. Sarah herself lives on the traditional lands of the Suquamish Tribe, near Seattle. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Environment & Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

A New Kind of Heroism: Extreme Measures at the End of Life

Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH, ICU and Palliative Care, Highland Hospital; Author, Extreme Measures; Contributor, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, the Journal of the American Medical Association

Dr. Zitter entered the field of critical care medicine to be a hero. She wanted to rescue people from the brink of death like a fireman rescues fire victims—calmly, swiftly and without stopping to ask questions. But one day, as she was aggressively treating a dying patient in the ICU, a nurse challenged her on why she was putting the patient through the pointless ordeal. The remark smarted, and Dr.

SF: San Francisco

SV: Silicon Valley

Zitter began asking herself the same question about many of her patients. She came to realize that while the standard no-holds-barred medical approach achieves some dramatic victories, it often causes more suffering than benefit for patients with life-limiting illness. In this program, Dr. Zitter will describe a new kind of heroism. Her current practice is influenced by the palliative care movement, which has the potential to transform medicine in the ICU and beyond. This new model is patient-centered and participatory. Doctors pursue direct and honest communication, however difficult, over false hope and avoidance. And the central actor is no longer a lone warrior-doctor in the trenches of medical warfare, but rather a diverse team of health-care providers acting in partnership with patients and family members.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Health & Medicine • Program organizer: Mark Zitter • Notes: This program is part of our End of Life series

WEDNESDAY, 88 WEDNESDAY,MARCH MARCH Impact Investing: Invest and Improve the World with Your Portfolio, Endowments and Foundations

Robert E. Johnson, Ph.D., President, Becker College Ardyth Neill, President, Heifer Foundation Jase Wilson, CEO, Neighborly.com R. Paul Herman, CEO, HIP Investor Ratings + Portfolios

Is your college investing its endowment to change the world? How about the recipients of your charitable giving, are their endowments aligned with their mission and making positive impact? How can you invest in your city’s schools, hospitals and roads to build a better world? Learn how these leaders of colleges, foundations and investment platforms are enabling your money to improve society, the environment and our everyday lives. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Business & Leadership • Program organizer: Elizabeth Carney

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MARCH 8 - 14 Priya Natarajan: Mapping the Heavens—A Delightful Tour of the Cosmos

Priya Natarajan, Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Yale University; Author, Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas that Reveal the Cosmos

The formation and growth of black holes, the accelerating expansion of the universe, the echo of the big bang, the discovery of exoplanets, and the possibility of other universes—these are some of the puzzling cosmological topics of the early 21st century. Natarajan is an astrophysicist who literally creates maps of this invisible matter in the universe. She explores these discoveries that have reshaped our understanding of the universe over the past century, and takes us on a tour that will help make sense of our wondrous, mysterious cosmos.

THURSDAY,MARCH MARCH9 9 THURSDAY, Russian Hill Walking Tour Join a more active Commonwealth Club neighborhood adventure! Russian Hill is a magical area with secret gardens and amazing views. Join Rick Evans for a “cardio hike” up hills and staircases and learn about the history of this neighborhood. See where great artists and architects lived and worked, and walk down residential streets where some of the most historically significant houses in the Bay Area are located.

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

Hewlett Packard: Why Strategic Leadership Matters Webb McKinney, Co-author, Becoming Hewlett Packard: Why Strategic Leadership Matters Philip Meza, Co-author, Becoming Hewlett Packard: Why Strategic Leadership Matters

Hewlett Packard has been instrumental in the explosive and world-changing growth in Silicon Valley. Webb McKinney and Philip Meza will share with us their insights on the strategic thinking and leadership that was key to HP’s contributions that helped create the technologically innovative world in which we live today. Webb McKinney began his career at HP when David Packard and Bill Hewlett ran the company. McKinney held numerous engineering management and executive positions at HP, running HP’s entry into consumer PCs and going on to lead its entire PC business. McKinney later led worldwide sales, marketing and supply chains for all of HP’s commercial customers. Before retiring from HP in 2003, McKinney was the executive vice president responsible for HP’s integration of Compaq. McKinney is currently a consultant in merger integration and leadership development. Philip E. Meza is a strategy consultant and researcher. Much of his consulting work focuses on technology strategy and business development. His books and numerous case studies are used at business schools and universities around the world. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Meza is the author of Coming Attractions: Hollywood, High Tech and the Future of Entertainment (2007) and co-author of Strategic Dynamics: Concepts and Cases (2006). SF • Location: 555 Post Street, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Science & Technology • Program organizer: Gerald Harris

MONDAY, MONDAY,MARCH MARCH1313 Mark Twain’s Funny Fight for Free Will

George Hammond, Author, Mark Twain’s Visit to Heaven

Monday Night Philosophy finds the fun in Mark Twain’s almighty fight for

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free will. Taking issue with analysts who believe that Mark Twain became a pessimist in old age due to his many personal tragedies, and finding the cracks of freedom in Mark Twain’s own deterministic conclusions about the “damned human race” in “What is Man?”, George will focus on the consistent, and consistently humorous, though sometimes painful and angry, philosophical fight Mark Twain waged from his youth to his dying breath against the stultifying fears and clearly false ideas about life that keep our otherwise free wills chained to “petrified opinion,” preventing us from dreaming “other dreams, and better.”

SF • Location: 555 Post Street, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

Priya Natarajan March 8

Webb McKinney & Philip Meza March 9

Week to Week Political Roundtable and Social Hour 3/13/17 Panelists TBA

It’s an important year for all things political, so join us as we explore the biggest, most controversial and sometimes the surprising political issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil, and have a good sense of humor. Join our panelists for informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, 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 member social (open to all attendees).

George Hammond March 13

Week to Week March 13

SF • WEEK TO WEEK PROGRAM • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. wine-and-snacks social, 6:30 p.m. program

TUESDAY, TUESDAY,MARCH MARCH1414 From Moldova to Mountain View: Creating Innovative Solutions for Real Life Problems

Madhavi Bhasin, Senior Director, Technovation and Curiosity Machine, Iridescent Additional Panelist TBA

Technovation, a flagship program of non-profit Iridescent, is the world’s largest global tech entrepreneurship competition for girls. The program offers girls around the world the op-

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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

MARCH 14 - 27 portunity to learn the necessary skills to emerge as tech entrepreneurs and leaders. Every year, Technovation challenges 10- to 18-year-old girls to build a business plan and mobile app that will address a community problem. Since 2009, more than 10,000 girls have participated from more than 87 countries. The international reach of the competition has escalated in the last three years. The winner of the 2014 competition was from Moldova, and the 2015 winner was a Nigerian team. Our speakers will give an overview of the competition, its sponsors (Google, Facebook and others), outreach efforts, and partners (such as UN Women, Peace Corps and more).

Lynn Downey March 14

Esther Koch March 15

Rhodessa Jones March 20

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: International Relations • Program organizer: Linda Calhoun, Barbara Jue

The Inside Story of Levi Strauss and His Mark on America

Lynn Downey, Independent Scholar, Former Historian, Levi Strauss and Company; Author, Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World

Blue jeans are globally beloved and quintessentially American. They symbolize everything from the Old West to the hippie counter-culture; everyone from car mechanics to high-fashion models wears jeans. And no name is more associated with blue jeans than Levi Strauss & Co., the creator of this classic American garment. Despite creating an American icon, Levi Strauss is a mystery. Little is known about the man, and the widely circulated “facts” about his life are steeped in mythology. In this first full-length biography, Lynn Downey sets the record straight about this brilliant businessman. Hear how Strauss’s life was the classic American success story, filled with lessons about craft and integrity, leadership, and innovation. Dare we say, his story is riveting.

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:15 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation

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WEDNESDAY, WEDNESDAY,MARCH MARCH1515 What You Need to Know Before You’re 65: A Medicare Primer

Esther Koch, Founder of Encore Management; Medicare Aging Network Partner with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

If you are approaching the Medicare qualifying age of 65 and Medicare seems like one big alphabetical maze to you, you are not alone. For most, a true understanding of how Medicare works, what options are best for you, and when or how to sign-up is not clear at all. Learn the ABC and Ds of Medicare, plus the realities of what to expect … and what not to expect. Here’s what every Boomer needs to know before they turn 65. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Program organizer: John Milford

Humanities West Book Discussion: The Prose Edda, by Jesse Byock Join us to discuss The Prose Edda, the most renowned work of Scandinavian literature and our most extensive source for Norse mythology. The Edda was written in Iceland a century after the close of the Viking Age, and tells in clear prose, interspersed with powerful verse, the ancient Norse creation epic and stories of the battles that follow as gods, giants, dwarves and elves struggle for survival. Discussion led by Lynn Harris.

SF • Location: 555 Post Street, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

THURSDAY, THURSDAY,MARCH MARCH1616 San Francisco Green Film Festival: Film Stories From Your Dinner Plate

Rachel Caplan, CEO, San Francisco Green Film Festival Mischa Hedges, Director, Of the Sea Additional Speakers TBA

Filmmakers are delving into our complex food system with farmers, chefs, food-lovers and campaigners who are challenging the status-quo. Join the San Francisco Green Film Festival and Bay Area filmmakers for a visual feast of films and conversation about the stories that are shaping our eating and

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healthy sustainable food choices. And a plus! Enjoy a sneak preview of the spring 2017 SF Green Film Festival with a celebration of the interaction of food, film and the arts!

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment & Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

MONDAY, MONDAY,MARCH MARCH2020 Rhodessa Jones and Cultural Odyssey’s Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women and HIV Circle

Rhodessa Jones, Co-Artistic Director, Cultural Odyssey; Actress; Teacher; Writer; Director, Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women and HIV Circle; Former Visiting Artist in Residence, University of California, Berkeley Black Theater Workshop; Visiting Professor at St. Mary’s College, Moraga, California; Spring 2014 Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence, University of Wisconsin-Madison

In 1989, on the basis of material developed while conducting classes at the San Francisco County Jail, Rhodessa Jones created “Big Butt Girls, Hard Headed Women,” a performance piece based on the lives of the incarcerated women she encountered. Based on this observation, Jones founded The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women to explore whether an artsbased approach could help reduce the numbers of women returning to jail. In 2008, The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women joined forces with UCSF’s Women’s HIV Clinic to create theater that explores what it means to be living with the virus in the 21st century. For the past seven years, The Medea Project: HIV Circle has performed shows all around the United States, sharing the truth and the stories of what it means to be female and infected or affected. SF • Location: 555 Post Street, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 p.m. check-in, noon program • MLF: The Arts • Program organizer: Anne Smith

Life After Hate

Antony McAleer, Executive Director, Life After Hate

A former organizer for the White Aryan Resistance (WAR), Tony

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MARCH 20 - 27 McAleer served as a skinhead recruiter, proprietor of Canadian Liberty Net (a computer-operated voice messaging center used to disseminate messages of hatred), and manager of the racist rock band Odin’s Law. It was love for his children that finally led Tony on a spiritual journey of personal transformation. Today he is the executive director of Life After Hate and shares his practice of compassion as an inspirational speaker.

SF • Location: 555 Post Street, San Francisco • Time: 4:45 p.m. networking reception, 5:15 p.m. program • MLF: Psychology • Program organizer: Patrick OReilly

Socrates Café On one Monday evening of every month the Humanities Forum sponsors Socrates Café at The Commonwealth Club. Each meeting is devoted to the discussion of a philosophical topic chosen at that meeting. The group’s facilitator, John Nyquist, invites participants to suggest topics, which are then voted on. The person who proposed the most popular topic is asked to briefly explain why she or he considers that topic interesting and important. An open discussion follows, and the meeting ends with a summary of the various perspectives participants expressed. Everyone is welcome to attend. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30–8 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Program Organizer: George Hammond

The U.S. and China in 2017

Howard French, Former New York Times Asia Correspondent; Author, Everything Under the Heavens: Empire, Tribute and the Future of Chinese Power George Koo, Ph.D., Special Advisor, Deloitte China Services Group; Member, Committee of 100 George Lewinski, Former Foreign Editor, “Marketplace”—Moderator

For many years after its reform and opening in 1978, China maintained an attitude of false modesty about its ambitions. That role has been set aside, asserts panelist Howard French, who says China has revealed plans for panAsian dominance by building its navy, increasing territorial claims to areas like the South China Sea, and diplomatically bullying smaller players. Hear from French and China analyst George Koo, who says that whatever China’s

plans, following a western template to become a global hegemon is not a likely outcome, nor will “false modesty” necessarily find any validity. Come for a fascinating discussion about the historical context of China’s actions and what the future holds for the U.S. relationship with China under the Trump administration.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:45 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: In association with The Committee of 100; French photo by Stuart Isett

TUESDAY, TUESDAY,MARCH MARCH2121 Beethoven in China

Jindong Cai, Associate Professor of Music (performance), Stanford University; Orchestra Conductor; and Co-Author, Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People’s Republic Sheila Melvin, Co-Author, Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People’s Republic

Beethoven in China demonstrates that there is no parallel to the depth and breadth of Beethoven’s integration into the culture, politics and private passions of China. Schoolchildren routinely read Beethoven, My Great Model, and busts of Beethoven are a common sight. Cai’s and Melvin’s research reveals that the process by which Beethoven became a Chinese icon was tumultuous, starting with a 1906 article by Li Shutong, who referred to him as The Sage of Music, and held him up as a moral exemplar for a struggling nation trying to prevent a slide into chaos. His stoicism in the face of paternal mistreatment and increasing deafness resonated with a culture focused on working hard, on “eating bitterness,” in order to achieve greatness. That stoicism proved crucial when Mao had musicians arrested and executed during the Cultural Revolution. But at Tiananmen Square students accompanied their protests with his “Ode to Joy” anyway. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

THURSDAY,MARCH MARCH2323 THURSDAY, Waterfront Walking Tour Join Rick Evans for his new walk-

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ing tour exploring the historic sites of the waterfront neighborhood that surrounds the location of the future Commonwealth Club headquarters. Hear the dynamic stories of the entrepreneurs, controversial artists and labor organizers who created this recently revitalized neighborhood. This tour will give you a lively overview of the historic significance of this neighborhood and a close look at the ongoing development.

SF • Location: Meet in front of Boulevard Restaurant, 1 Mission St. (corner of Mission & Steuart), San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2-4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: Tour operates rain or shine; limited to 20 participants; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in; photo by JaGa

Zip Code, not Genetic Code

Anthony B. Iton, M.D., J.D., MPH, Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities

Where you live shouldn’t predict how long you’ll live, but it does. In many California cities, there is a 15–20 year life expectancy difference between neighborhoods, and that gap is growing. Researchers say that this life expectancy difference cannot be explained by lack of access to health care; in fact, research shows that health care is responsible for only about 15 percent of health status. When it comes to your health, your zip code is more important than your genetic code. Why? Building Healthy Communities is an effort that enlists the very residents who have been the targets of exclusion, stigma, and discrimination in remaking their environments. Six years into BHC, the results have been dramatic. Learn how people can take the BHC model to help improve the health of our own communities and families.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 program • MLF: Health & Medicine • Program organizer: Patty James

MONDAY,MARCH MARCH2727 MONDAY, Middle East Forum discussion The Middle East Forum discussion group, which primarily covers the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan, has been meeting monthly for about nine years. We are not a debate group. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

MARCH 27 - 30 • Time: 5:30 p.m. program • MLF: Middle East • Program organizer: Celia Menczel

Fire, Beetles, Water Resources and Dying Trees: Spring 2017 Report on the Sierra Nevada’s Rain, Snowpack and Climate Changes

P.J. O’Rourke March 27

Jeanne Higgins, Acting Associate Deputy Chief, Forest Service, National Forest System Patrick Koepele, Executive Director, Tuolumne River Trust Michael Carlin, Deputy General Manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Bob Kingman, Assistant Executive Officer, Sierra Nevada Conservancy

Chris Hayes March 28

R. Paul Herman & Chinwe Onyeagoro March 30

Join our distinguished panel for an up-to-date report on the Sierra Nevada mountains, habitats, water, rivers, trees, ground cover and the harsh economic impacts caused by fire, degradation and the cycle of climate changes. After the 2016-17 winter of rain and snowfall, where are we now in the climate cycle and the cycle of destruction, renewal and regrowth for our mountains, valleys, rivers and economies?

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment & Natural Resources • Program organizer: Ann Clark

P.J. O’Rourke: Has America Gone Crazy?

P.J. O’Rourke, H.L. Mencken Research Fellow, Cato Institute; Author, How the Hell Did This Happen?: The Election of 2016

For current prices, call 415.597.6705 or go to common wealthclub.org

P.J. O’Rourke says no comedian could have written the joke that the recent election cycle has been. As celebrated political satirist, journalist, and diehard Republican O’Rourke put it in his endorsement of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, “America is experiencing the most severe outbreak of mass psychosis since the Salem witch trials of 1692.” Come hear O’Rourke’s uniquely humorous take on the election, on Donald Trump (whom he calls “Landlord of the Flies”) and on America in 2017.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:45 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Photo by James Kegley

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TUESDAY, TUESDAY,MARCH MARCH2828 The Courage and Compassion to Do the Right Thing

Marty Brounstein, Author, Two Among the Righteous Few: A Story of Courage in the Holocaust

Come hear a true interfaith story of courage, compassion and rescue during the Holocaust. A Catholic couple in the Netherlands, despite great risk and danger, helped save the lives of at least two dozen Jews from certain death during World War II. Brounstein will also explain the meaningful personal connection that inspires him to tell and retell the story of their heroic actions.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes: The Two Americas

Chris Hayes, MSNBC Host, “All in with Chris Hayes”; Editor at Large, The Nation; Author, A Colony in a Nation

Emmy Award-winning news anchor and New York Times best-selling author Chris Hayes argues that there are really two Americas: a colony and a nation. He says America likes to tell itself that it inhabits a post-racial world, but nearly every empirical measure—wealth, unemployment, incarceration, school segregation—reveals that racial inequality hasn’t improved since 1968. Hayes contends that our country has fractured in two: the colony and the nation. In the nation, we venerate the law. In the colony, we obsess over order, fear trumps civil rights, and aggressive policing resembles occupation. He asks how and why did Americans build a system where conditions in Ferguson and West Baltimore mirror those that sparked the American Revolution? Come hear Hayes’ insights on the threats to American democracy and how to preserve justice.

SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing • Notes: Photo by Virginia Sherwood/MSNBC

THURSDAY,MARCH MARCH3030 THURSDAY, What Do Millennials Want in Their Portfolios, 401(k)s and Workplaces?

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R. Paul Herman, CEO, HIP Investor Ratings + Portfolios; Author, The HIP Investor, Make Bigger Profits by Building a Better World Chinwe Onyeagoro, President, Great Place to Work Institute

With 70 million Millennials now the largest segment of the U.S. workforce, how do they stay satisfied in the workplace, while the company builds its bottom line? With a trust-based workplace, Millennials thrive in their jobs, while companies can also outperform financially, according to Chinwe Onyeagoro of Great Places to Work Institute. With a sustainable, fossil-free 401(k), Millennials are more engaged, innovative and can build a better world while saving for their future. Going beyond traditional investing, Millennials can use their forthcoming $40 trillion of inherited wealth to improve the health, wealth, earth, equality and trust of the world via their investing, according to Paul Herman, HIP Investor. Learn how to unleash the excitement of Millennials in the workplace. R. Paul Herman is a globally recognized leader in impact investing, impact ratings and impact-themed portfolios. Chinwe Onyeagoro serves as president of Great Place to Work. She works with executives in successfully executing business strategy through developing high-trust, high-performance cultures. Her executive advisory work with Great Place to Work includes multi-billion dollar technology, telecom, financial services, and bio-pharma companies. She has worked for two top management consultancies (McKinsey & Company and The Monitor Group ). She serves on the boards of private equity firms and lending institutions that have invested more than $1 billion in small and medium enterprises. SF • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Business & Leadership • Program organizer: Elizabeth Carney

LATE-BREAKING LATE-BREAKINGEVENT EVENT Tue, Feb. 14: For the Love of Beer Come learn, sip, and sample from top San Francisco breweries.

SF • INFORUM PROGRAM • Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:46–9 p.m. party • Notes: Ages 21+

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A PLACE TO CALL HOME

Many people are struggling to find a home or keep a home in the Bay Area. Our panelists discuss some of the issues involved and some possible approaches to addressing the problem.

Gloria Bruce, executive director of East Bay Housing Organizations; Xavier de Souza Briggs, vice president for Economic Opportunity and Markets at Ford Foundation; Tomiquia Moss, chief of staff for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf; and Tony Salazar, president of West Coast Operations for McCormack Baron Salazar, in conversation with Joshua Johnson, creator/ host of “Truth Be Told,” KQED Radio. From the November 1, 2016, program in San Francisco “A Place to Call Home,” sponsored by the San Francisco Foundation as part of the People, Power, Place Series, which addresses access and equity in the Bay Area. JOSHUA JOHNSON: Let’s cast a vision for the future as it relates to our housing market. What would an ideal market look like here? What is your ideal for what the Bay area housing market should be? XAVIER BRIGGS: Everyone in the Bay Area can access some kind of home that meets their needs and serves as a platform to help them access opportunity, [in] a location that lets them reach the many wonders of this region, but doesn’t sort of break the pocketbook. GLORIA BRUCE: I think I’ll follow up on what Xav said, but take it a little further. I think for me and my organization, the ideal housing market is one where we stop using

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the word “market” at all to talk about housing, and think of it as what I think it should be, which is a human right, and which isn’t always compatible with the profit motive in building and providing housing. I think that’s the end goal. On the way, what we need to do—given that we are in a market economy—is figure out ways to have more community control, [with] community directing housing and trying to pull at least some of it away from market forces. TOMIQUIA MOSS: I think ideally we would want to look at a system that addresses the affordability crisis in both directions. One based on actually having enough housing options for folks at different income levels to access. So you’re not just building enough housing to accommodate growth or existing residents, but you’re actually looking at incomes simultaneously to ensure that access starts from our most vulnerable citizens, and pathways to affordability are accessible. And then there’s a real meeting in the middle that in fact you’ve solved for [by] removing the regulatory barriers, land use barriers that prevent us from creating enough supply in the Bay Area. We’ve also looked at—as we have minimum wage and other methods—[how] to increase the incomes, and those [approaches] come together. TONY SALAZAR: I think for me, it’s one of having communities made up of housing that is available to all people regardless of their income, that also has access to transportation, schools, other opportunities, retail. And that these communities have a mix of income so that they’re

accommodating people who contribute to its growth [and] vitality, regardless of what work they do or the amount of money they earn. And that these communities are also safe, well-balanced social, ecological environments. JOHNSON: Tomiquia Moss, let’s talk about the municipal aspect of this. It seems to me that Oakland seems to kind of be the standard-bearer in dealing with at least two housing challenges. One is to keep housing affordable and the other is to keep the residential base diverse by preventing people from being squeezed out. What kinds of things is Oakland City Hall looking at in terms of its ability to influence those two issues? MOSS: Oakland has been an affordable city for a lot of people for a long time. Now with the pressures of the market, there is pressure on those units, there’s competition for those units. [What] policy tools do we have as a city to ensure that we can bring affordability protections, acquiring buildings that then we’re able to bring permanent affordability protections to those units? We’ve done a lot of this work through our equity road map that really informed the framework of how we look at this issue holistically. The mayor’s housing cabinet then took the framework and tried to create an action plan which addressed both the preservation side, but also the build side. We have got to build more housing. We have a shortage of both affordable housing and our market-rate supply, and we need to from City Hall reduce the barriers through our processes and streamline how quickly we can actually develop the pipeline. JOHNSON: Tony Salazar, you are a developer whose company works in a number of major markets, not just in the San Francisco Bay Area. How does the Bay Area compare to other markets purely on a getting-stuff-done level? SALAZAR: We work in every major city in the United States, even in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands. My base is in LA, and I’ve been developing up here since ‘92. There is absolutely nothing easy about working in San Francisco. Nothing. It is a tough, tough town to work in, in terms of the environment. And it’s because of several things. You’ve got a small area, very tight geographically, you’ve got a lot of people, there’s more people than housing. There’s competition at all levels. Your community input and involvement is very extensive. [Laughter.] JOHNSON: A lot of knowing laughter in the room. SALAZAR: I’ve gone to hundreds of community meetings here, and there’s never fewer than 10 or 15 architects in the room. Lawyers, other kinds of people. The population here is much more intellectually knowledgeable about what’s happening in the development world than people in other cities. And they express it very well and they are allowed to express it, and they are given value in that expression. So in that context it takes longer to develop here. It’s more expensive to develop here because it’s also [got strong] unions. The cost for each unit is much higher in San Francisco than any city that I work in, but once it gets done there’s connectivity, there’s community and acceptance. The last thing I’ll say is that, just to put it in simple terms,

financial terms, affordable housing is non-economic. Housing low-income people—no revenue, there’s a gap. And the higher the cost to build, the more resources it takes means there’s fewer units being built with government money. And all of our community involvement—I love it. I love taking a beating every time I go to one. BRIGGS: New Yorkers would laugh too if they were here. Same story. JOHNSON: It’s not just a matter of us being a big market and a competitive market, but the community itself. So you wouldn’t necessarily say a city of equal population to San Francisco would be equally tough; it’s the people in that city that have different demands. BRIGGS: It’s the people inside the city of San Francisco who are much more in tune with what’s happening in their neighborhood with development. [They] study it, are much more knowledgeable, probably much more educated. And I say that even when I’m dealing with public housing residents here in San Francisco, because of the amount of advocacy work that’s here. JOHNSON: Gloria Bruce, how did we get to this point? BRUCE: We had a very intentional series of policies working with the market over decades that were racialized in both their intent and in their impact. And that puts us where we are today, where we have a market that frankly serves some people better than others, and where we’re struggling with things like the fact that it’s suddenly really popular to build in cities again near transit and that’s great

We’re still dealing with the fallout from the foreclosure crisis, which had a really disproportionate impact on folks of color. from a sustainability standpoint. At the same time, a lot of those nodes are in places where communities of color have been sort of hanging on and building communities, and now are getting pushed out again. Their choices are even more limited, because we’re still dealing with the fallout from the foreclosure crisis of a few years back. Which as folks know, had a really disproportionate impact on folks of color, and there was a lot of wealth that was lost. A lot of homes that used to be owned by black and brown folks in San Francisco and Oakland are now rental houses. Because of that, we’re in a place now where all of the strategies that we need to address that, have to be just as complex, just as intentional and have a racial equity lens to be able to tackle it. So it’s really, I think, important that we allow developers to be able to increase the housing supply. And I love that you love all our community input. FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

THE SOUL OF THE GODFATHER Francis Ford Coppola did not want to make The Godfather. The studio did not want him to hire Marlon Brando. Both happened.

Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, author of The Godfather Notebook, in conversation with Adam Savage, maker and retired co-host of Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters.” From the November 15, 2016, program in San Francisco “Francis Ford Coppola: The Program You Can’t Refuse,” part of the Club’s Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. Photos by Ed Ritger. ADAM SAVAGE: Can you talk a little bit about what a “prompt book” is, what its origin is? FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: I was a theater student as an undergraduate, and a techie. I lived in and out of that theater, and I was often a stage manager. We were taught to make what was called a prompt book by taking the text, the play, and getting a bunch of loose-leaf pages. There are a number of ways of doing it. You could take two copies of the script. We could only afford one, so we cut holes in the loose-leaf paper and glued it in carefully so that now you had the whole play in a loose-leaf with big wide margins. The stage manager is the one who calls the show, so he has to say, “Okay, lighting cue one,” blah blah blah, and then underline all the things that the stage manager is responsible for. So I made this prompt book. I took my copy of The Godfather, which I had scribbled a few notes on in pencil, then I broke it apart and I built this mammoth thing. It’s big, very heavy. My idea was to just go through it

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carefully, step by step, and sort of use it as an opportunity to talk to myself, say, hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s this, underline that. I had a half dozen pencils, different colors, pens. Then I decided to put a typewritten page at each juncture that I felt, not so much by the chapters of the book, but what I felt were the main beats of this big novel. This came from a book called Directors on Directing, by a guy named Toby Cole. It has different directors talking about their work, and one of them is Elia Kazan talking about his work preparing for A Streetcar Named Desire. This was very illuminating to me. What was so impressive was that he had an item that he called the core. The core was just that: It was in every scene, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something that is really the essential point [about] why the scene even exists. So the director knows if he achieves the audience understanding what the core gets at, then everything else is gravy, so to speak, and of course, I was a theater student in the late 50s. So the trilogy of God was Elia Kazan,

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Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando to us drama students. Certainly Kazan, of all the movie directors, I always thought just always got the most beautiful performances from the actors. So seeing how Kazan prepared himself for Streetcar was very inspirational to me. I wanted to go through [The Godfather script] and certainly for every scene know what the core was. But then I added another four or five [elements] ... and then I think at the end was something I called pitfalls. SAVAGE: I found that the most interesting. COPPOLA: Well, pitfalls was a warning of things I wanted to avoid, that I could fall into. I did most of this work at the Cafe Trieste, next to the phone booth. I had my Olivetti typewriter. [Laughter.] It was fun to be there and all the Italians singing;, it was always my dream. One of the reasons why we all moved to San Francisco from LA at that time, myself and my colleagues from USC and UCLA, is we sort of wanted to have a little La Boheme going on in

our lives, with being in the cafe, working on your work. SAVAGE: So going back to the beginning, you got word that you might be directing The Godfather. And you got an early release copy, and you started marking that one up. It feels, looking at it, like I’m walking through your mind as the movie is developing in your head. COPPOLA: I have a rule that I’m always reading something, especially when I go to bed at night, that has nothing to do with anything I might be working on because it’s like a little vacation from it. But to this day when I see something that interests me, I’ll always underline it or highlight it. So I was in the habit of, especially when reading some literary material that possibly I had to adapt, I always put my first thoughts in pencil so I don’t destroy the book. And as you know, whenever you write something down, a sentence, a few words, what have you, it’s like a train of it. If you put it away it’s like you’re putting it in a magic microwave, because the next time you pull it out and look at

it, it’s the real nucleus of what you felt, and as the beginning of something you could expand upon. So I always had a few notes and at first, I was gonna just make more notes. I think what happened, really, is that I didn’t like the book so much. [Laughter.] I liked parts of the book. If any of you have read the original Godfather book—everything that’s in the movie was in that book. But there was a whole section, must have been a third of it, if not more, which was about a character named Lucy Mancini who appeared briefly in it. But she had certain anatomical problems and she finds a surgeon who can correct them and they fall in love. That is like a third of the book. And indeed Mario [Puzo], who was a wonderful writer and the most wonderful man that you could possibly be, he had written it as a pot-boiler, because he needed to make some money for his family. He adored his kids, and they were shy of money, they were living in Bay Shore, Long Island, and then he wrote The Godfather

Francis Ford Coppola (left) tells Adam Savage of his initial reluctance to make The Godfather, a film that would become a milestone in Hollywood history.

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Coppola said he was “trying to do a little personal film involving an Italian-American guy sort of like myself.”

entirely on research. He didn’t know anything other than what he [learned]. The [1972 mob film] The Valachi Papers had come out, so there was some information. Everything he did was on research, and at first I didn’t think I wanted to do it. When I saw the ad for The Godfather in the paper, I thought it was going to be this intellectual Italian writer like [Alberto] Moravia, or somebody, and it was going to be this interesting study of power. SAVAGE: With the hand, with the marionettes? COPPOLA: Then when I read this thing of Lucy Mancini’s private parts, I was—I couldn’t. [Laughter.] I don’t know if anyone even remembers that, but it was almost half of the book. So I didn’t really want to do it, and I don’t know why they offered it to me anyway. I was absolutely nobody, I had just made The Rain People, which showed that at least I could make a movie with decent acting. I hope they thought that.

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And I was Italian American, so if it offended Italians they could say, well, he wrote it, he did it. I was young. I was still in my late 20s, which meant I could be easily pushed around. And I was a screenwriter. I had written some screenplays. So they figured they’d get a free re-write out of it, because the script they had was sort of not very good. It was all set in the 70s, it has hippies in it. It was all to be shot in St. Louis. And it was very low budget. It was going to cost $2 million, $2.5 million, and it was the studio’s chance to make some money. But what happened was, of course, the book little by little became more popular, and then suddenly I was attached to a more important project than my pay grade justified. SAVAGE: Many directors had turned it down. COPPOLA: A lot of directors had turned it down. There had been a movie called The Brotherhood, starring Kirk Douglas, which didn’t perform, was considered a flop. So the idea of another gangster picture didn’t sit well.

I might have turned it down, too, but I had two kids, my wife was about to have a third. We had no money whatsoever. George Lucas at that time was like a young associate. He is about five years younger than me. So at first, he started as an assistant, and he was so sharp that he became like my kid brother. We all moved to San Francisco with this dream of having an independent kind of studio with filmmakers. And George said “Francis,” he says, “you’ve got to do this book. We have no money. The sheriff’s gonna chain the door on American Zoetrope {their production company] because we haven’t paid the rent in two weeks.” He says, “There’s no other choice. You’ve got to do this. You’re the only one who can make some money so we can get through this.” I realized he was right. Then I went to the Mill Valley library; there were three or four books on the five families. I read those and they were really fascinating. So then I thought maybe if I could make it more like that, then I could do something. SAVAGE: You say in the introduction that when you seen the cover, you thought this is a book about the depths of power. That’s a repeated refrain that you go back to in your notes, that that really is the central core of what the story is about. I’m curious: In the beginning of this book you have your list of all the characters and the actors, and it looks on the page like you knew exactly who you wanted to play most of the parts right off the bat. COPPOLA: I was trying to do a little personal film involving an Italian-American guy sort of like myself. I always believed [you should] write what you know, and get yourself into an emotional state while you do it. So I wanted to write something personal. I had heard about a guy named Al Pacino. He was in an Israel Horovitz play in New York. SAVAGE: The Indian Wants the Bronx, right? COPPOLA: I invited Al to come to San Francisco and get to know him a little bit. He did, and we kind of went around San Fransisco. I was shocked how much older girls liked him. [Laughter.] Even though he was a little guy. Wasn’t like you know, movie star handsome. But, he had a something that really worked. Anyway, what happened was that he went home and I had met him, so when I read The Godfather, every time I describe Michael Corleone I always saw his face. When he was there with the two shepherds in Sicily, in this scene in particular I just saw Al Pacino. It’s very hard once you see something, allbeit in your imagination, to have them suddenly say “Well, Ryan O’Neil should play the part.” Which is what they said, because there had just been a big hit for Paramount called Love Story, which starred Ryan O’Neil. And then they said well maybe Robert Redford could play the part. And indeed, it’s not as absurd as it sounds, because Sicily was sort of ruled and occupied by the French, for well over 100 years. Sicily is full of blondes with blue eyes, they’re Sicilian. And if you see an Italian with blonde hair and blue eyes, it’s likely he’s from Sicily. But nonetheless, I had that image of Al Pacino. And that

was what gave me the stubbornness to resist the fact that they absolutely rejected it. SAVAGE: You said the studio thought that they could push you around. I’ve read extensively that they fought you a lot on putting Pacino in the role of Michael. COPPOLA: Absolutely, they didn’t want Pacino at all. Later I realized it’s because Bob Evans was the head of production. He’s a kind of tall good-looking guy and I guess he wanted someone that looked like him and I wanted

They said, ‘Absolutely not, Marlon Brando is box office poison, and he’s a lot of trouble,’ which he was, in the sensibility of Hollywood. someone that looked like me. [Laughter.] But anyway, after I finally agreed with George that I had to do it and I wanted to do it, they didn’t pay me. I mean, they’ve offered two deals I remember. One was $75,000 to do everything and 10 percent of the net, or $125,000 and 6 percent of the net. I was absolutely broke. So I took the $125,000 and 6 percent, but I said “Seven is my lucky number. Please give me 7 percent.” They said they would, but they never did. [Laughter.] SAVAGE: Somewhere there’s an extra percent hanging out there. How early in the reading of the book did you know that you wanted Marlon Brando to play The Godfather? COPPOLA: Not early, oddly enough. When finally his name did come up and was talked about, Mario [Puzo, The Godfather author] said that he had always wanted Brando and even before I was involved had suggested it. They said, “Absolutely not, Marlon Brando is box office poison, and he’s a lot of trouble,” which he was, I mean in the sensibility of Hollywood in those days. He’s such an extraordinary person as well as actor. But he had just been in a Gillo Pontecorvo film called Burn. It was actually a good film, but no one went to see it. So they had this idea that Brando, aside from his alleged misbehaving, which I don’t know how true that it was, was box office poison. And the names that I heard floated were Danny Thomas, he’s a Lebanese which is close enough [laughter]. I think Ernest Borgnine was suggested. Even, interestingly, they had a brilliant idea of maybe Carlo Ponti, who was not an actor but who was a real Italian producer, so it was tricky. The character was in his 60s, so it wasn’t as though you were really going to find a newcomer who suddenly could act. Much later, I worked very closely with my associate, Fred Roos, who was a co-producer and a great casting talent. We finally said, “Well, who are the two greatest actors in the world?” He said, “Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier.” Both FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

of them had issues. I mean, Brando was only like 46. So he was young, he was not Italian. And Olivier really looked like Vito Genovese at that age, if you look at the pictures of who was one of the famous five guys. I think that Mario synthesized the character out of Vito Genovese and Joe Profaci. Put those two guys together. Then we heard that Olivier was too ill at this latter part of his age, and he was English. So we settled on Brando. But absolutely a stone wall. They had already turned down Pacino, and they kept wanting to do more screen tests. So we had the cast, ironically, that was actually in the film all up here in San Francisco. My wife, Ellie, gave them [each] a haircut. We knew more or less who we wanted, but Paramount spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to do real formal screen tests. We tested every young leading man in the business. Ultimately they never would accept Pacino, right to the end. As for Brando, they absolutely were adamant. I was even told in one meeting by the president of Paramount. “Francis, as the president of Paramount Pictures, I want you to know that Marlon Brando will never appear in this motion picture. And I forbid you from discussing it any further.” So with that, I kinda fell out of the chair onto the rug or some dramatic gesture of helpless protest. [Laughter.] Then they all looked, and then I got up. I said, “How can I direct a movie and I’m not even allowed to talk about it?” One guy said, “Listen, if we cast ... an unknown, more people will come than if Marlon Brando was in it.” That was how much they were against it. Finally they said, “Okay, we give you three conditions. One, if he does a screen test. Two, if he’ll do it for free. [Laughter.] And three, he has to put up a $1 million bond to guarantee that there will be no shenanigans on the set. So I said, “I accept.” Because at least we were talking. I had heard that Marlon didn’t like loud noises. He often wore earplugs and stuff. So I got together with some

My secretary said, ‘Don’t quit; let them fire you.’ What that meant was if I quit, I wouldn’t get the $125,000, and I needed the 125. of my San Francisco colleagues, some cameramen. I said, “Let’s dress in black, and no one talk. We’ll just do sign languages when we’re there.” [Laughter.] So we fly to LA with our cameras. I had one of the early Sony Handycams. We knocked on the door, and the maid let us in. We set up our cam very quietly. There was a beautiful little baby on the counter. That was the daughter that passed away—I always think of her. We were all ready, and I had brought a little mortadella, and put little dishes of provolone around,

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and Italian cigars. And then the door opened, and out walks this spectacular man with flowing blond hair, in a Japanese kimono. As I said, he was around 46 years old. And he comes out, and he caught what was going on like that, he’s so sharp. And he rolled his blond hair up into a bun, and he got some shoe polish, and he started making it black. Then he put on a shirt. And I remember he took the lapel and he went, “Those guys, their lapel is always folded,” and he started folding his lapel. And then he said, “You should look like a bulldog.” So he took some tissues and he stuffed it in his [cheeks], and I’m shooting this whole time for this gorgeous, blond Adonis. He said, “In the story he gets shot. So maybe he should talk like this, cuz he’s shot.” I said, “Yeah, Marlon.” And he’s sitting there; he takes the cigar, and he’s totally using all of these props to arrive at this Italianness. He was very gracious and I left. And I couldn’t believe the transformation I had seen. So I took a wild risk, and I just flew to New York on my own. I went to the Gulf and Western Building, and I went up to the floor where Charlie Bluhdorn was the owner of Paramount. I set up the tape recorder right in the kinda small board room that was right by his room. And he came out, he says, “Francis, Francis, what are you doing here?” I said, “Charles, can I just show you something?” I turn on the thing. And there is Marlon Brando and his blond hair coming out of the door. And he says, “No, no, absolutely, ... [pause] that’s incredible!” [Laughter.] And that was it. SAVAGE: You described the film as, for you, having downs and downs. COPPOLA: Well, I always thought I was gonna be fired. After a while I was sure I was gonna be fired. We were totally stuck on the Al Pacino thing, but Brando had been cast. And they sent me to England to go spend a little time with Brando. He was such an extraordinary man. So I went to this little English house where he was staying and I waited in the room. I heard footsteps coming and it was him carrying a tray of things for me, like some coffee and cakes. How brilliant he was to know that if he kind of played the role of a servant that would put me at ease. Which is why I think he did it. So we talked and it was very nice, and, well, when I was flying back, when I got off the plane, I called my secretary. She said, “Don’t quit; let them fire you.” [Laughter.] So I immediately knew what that meant. What that meant was if I quit, I wouldn’t get the $125,000 and I needed the 125. It mean I had a little family there waiting, but if I quit, I wouldn’t get it. But if they fired me, I would. So then I called and I said, “Look, don’t even make me bother to come in.” They said, “No, no, everything’s changed. The cast is gonna be Al Pacino, Jimmy Caan as Sonny, Talia, your sister.” And it’s true, I didn’t think my sister was right for the part, because my sister’s so beautiful. I thought Carlos’ wife should be some girl that only gets married because her father’s a big shot. But she

did wonderfully of course. The other cast, John Cazale and Bobby Duvall. So, I said, “Well, what happened?” He says, “We sorted it all out.” [They] saw some footage from a film called Panic in Needle Park that Pacino was in and they thought he looked really good. So that’s how we began the movie subsequently with that cast. Although every week the rumor was I was gonna be fired. SAVAGE: We have some questions from the audience. The first one wants to know, What was it like collaborating with Mario Puzo and how did you guys work together? COPPOLA: He was just the most wonderful man. I would write the screenplay and then I would send it to him. And then he in his marvelous way would write all these wonderful changes. One [that] sticks out in my mind is that I can cook a little bit. I figured it’s good in a movie if you have a recipe. So he explains how you brown the sausage and you put a little sugar. And a note from Mario was, gangsters don’t brown, they fry. I knew that Mario loved to gamble. So I said “Let’s just go to a gambling casino and work on one of the final scripts,” I don’t know if that was the first Godfather or the second Godfather. So we used to go to the Peppermill in Reno, me and Mario, and he used to just blow money on the roulette table, and people would say, poor guy, and he would say, “We’re losing thousands down here, but we’re making millions upstairs.” He was just a most wonderful man and you know there’s

a reason why when the movie starts it says, “Mario Puzo’s The Godfather,” because he really wrote The Godfather. And I’ve always felt that I’ve adapted a lot of written scripts from scratch, and I’ve adapted authors. But whoever wrote the original book or the play did the heavy lifting. SAVAGE: Your wife Eleanor Coppola is also a filmmaker, and this audience member says they love her generous and astute writing in Hearts of Darkness. Can you speak to the role she has played creatively to your own work and process? COPPOLA: Well, Eleanor is my first wife. [Laughter.] And she is here. Eleanor has just made her first feature film. I won’t say her age, but she’s in the book of records as the woman to make her first. [Applause.] She’s Irish and came from sort of a bohemian artist father living in a bungalow on the beach in Sunset Beach, but she always was very much caught up in arts, the visual arts, the plastic arts. She herself has made many kinds of artworks, even getting into conceptual art and performance. It was a good match as our children attested, because we have really neat children. I don’t know, there must be a contract in blood the Coppolas have to sign, because every one of them has made a feature film. [Laughter.] I think her input on the kids and my more Italian version of it all has not only imprinted the kids, but also us, me, and I think I’ve been a big influence on Eleanor, which is as it should be.

A quiet moment with moderator Adam Savage before the program begins.

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InSight The Slippery Slope Dr. Gloria C. Duffy, President and CEO

RE THERE CONFLICT of interest rules for the president of the United States? Must the president place his assets in a blind trust and avoid any business dealings while in office? Should there be anti-nepotism rules for the president or other officials, barring them from hiring their family members? Should Congress rescind the law prohibiting a member of the military from serving as secretary of defense within seven years of being on active duty, to permit a recently retired general officer to serve? These are all topics of sharp debate in our country right now, and they fall under the general category of ethics rules. Ethics laws and rules are found throughout our society—in government, business, the media, professions such as medicine and law and in other sectors. They are enforced, often by special offices or agencies in various fields. Government officials, corporate executives and others are monitored and periodically punished for violating ethics requirements. Strong ethics are certainly a moral good, supported and advocated by all of the major religious and secular philosophies developed over the millennia. Ethical standards have been written into law and administrative policies throughout our society, because people in positions of responsibility have not always been able to police themselves to adhere to ethical standards. Left to themselves, a certain number of people will have their hands in the cookie jar. Hence, there needs to be active oversight of ethics within our society. Lack of ethical behavior causes real harm in society. In journalism, for example, if journalists can be bribed, then accurate reporting and public information suffer. In medicine, if doctors can be directly paid by or own interests in pharmaceutical companies, then they may, and have, avoided prescribing competitors’ medications, resulting in suboptimum medical care. If corporate boards don’t include independent, financially expert directors, and if they become too close to the accounting firms that audit them, they may, and have, provided skewed financial reporting that misleads investors and markets. Ethical standards have also developed because they level the playing field, making American society more like our founders designed it, that is, supporting individual initiative, hard work, and the drive to succeed. In a society with ethical government and leadership, individuals have a chance to succeed no matter whether they start out rich or poor, are ill-connected or well-networked. In a corrupt society, who you know and how much you can pay often govern whether a person can succeed. Maintaining ethical standards is not just something that makes us feel righteous. It is key to the ability of an economy and society to succeed.

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Corrupt leaders and officials syphon money from the economy, often into their own pockets, which takes capital away from productive use in the business sector. Corruption promotes the advancement of enterprises that are not the most competitive or fiscally fit, skewing the economy away from maximum efficiency and undermining the ability of more capable businesses to succeed. Ethics laws and rules don’t prevent Photo courtesy of Gloria Duffy corruption or unethical behavior. Many major ethical scandals have rocked the U.S. government and business leadership, despite ethics rules. Watergate, Enron, Arthur Anderson, Monica Lewinsky, Bernie Madoff, Tyco, Martha Stewart, Dennis Hastert . . . the list goes on. But ethics rules make such misbehavior less likely, expose it when it happens, and remove the person responsible or otherwise remediate the situation to eliminate the corruption or unethical behavior. When ethical standards are relaxed or dismissed at the top, it doesn’t just make it less likely that we will catch and eliminate corrupt leaders. It has an insidious effect on behavior throughout the society, allowing corruption to spread. We have seen this in societies that have a relaxed attitude toward ethics. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych presided over one of the most corrupt societies in history, where he set the tone by stealing or misdirecting what is estimated as $100 billion during his tenure. The rest of Ukrainian society followed suite, where daily life was structured around the bribes required to get anything done, including, for example, receiving basic medical treatment or children’s entrance to school. Corruption at the top in Mexico has given rise to the famous “mordida”—the “bite”—where officials right down to building inspectors and police demand bribes before providing every service that Mexican citizens should have available to them without having to pay a bribe. I will never forget driving with a friend in his car in Moscow, when we were stopped by a policeman for a non-working tail light which was actually functioning just fine. A bribe was demanded, and then we could go on our way. This is what an unethical society looks like for average people on a daily basis. Corruption is the enemy of all good things in society. It makes life for ordinary citizens irrational and unpredictable. It harms the economy. Let’s not start down that slippery slope.

JULY 1 5-25, 201 7 Experience nature’s power and beauty in this land of massive glaciers and rumbling volcanoes, bubbling mud holes and powerful waterfalls; hugely abundant bird life and just 300,000 people. • See small fishing villages, bizarre rock formations, and nesting cliff birds on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. Take a bird-watching cruise to “Puffin Island.” • Experience standing on the edge of Europe’s largest waterfall, Dettifoss, and travel to Lake Myvatn, one of the world’s natural wonders. • Encounter remarkable landscapes at Hljodaklettar, and at Asbyrgi gaze into a long canyon created by enormous glacial floods.

• Visit the site where the country’s historic parliament was founded in 930 CE at Thingvellir National Park. • Learn about traditional Icelandic life in South Iceland’s excellent Skogar Folk Museum • Travel through the region where many of Iceland’s beloved medieval sagas are set. • Discover Reykjavik, a lively urban center with excellent museums and restaurants.

Space is limited to just 24 travelers and will fill quickly. Cost: $6,242 per person, double occupancy, including air from SFO

Brochure at commonwealthclub.org/travel

CST: 2096889-40

| 415.597.6720

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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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21

Details on page 28

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8

GEORGE SHULTZ

PRIYA NATARAJAN

George P. Shultz, Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution; Former U.S. Secretary of State, Labor, and Treasury; Author, Learning From Experience

Priya Natarajan, Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Yale University; Author, Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas that Reveal the Cosmos

Gloria C. Duffy, President and CEO, The Commonwealth Club

The formation and growth of black holes, the accelerating expansion of the universe, the echo of the big bang, the discovery of exoplanets, and the possibility of other universes—these are some of the puzzling cosmological topics of the early 21st century. Natarajan is an astrophysicist who literally creates maps of this invisible matter in the universe.She explores these discoveries that have reshaped our understanding of the universe over the past century, and takes us on a tour that will help make sense of our wondrous, mysterious cosmos.

Come hear Secretary Shultz’s seasoned observations on foreign policy, economics and on what makes great presidential leadership as the Trump administration’s policies begin to take shape. George Shultz has had a distinguished career in government, academia and the world of business. He is one of two individuals who have held four different federal cabinet posts, and he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989.

MONDAY, MARCH 27

Details on page 31

Details on page 34

TUESDAY, MARCH 28

Details on page 34

P.J. O’ROURKE

CHRIS HAYES

P.J. O’Rourke, H.L. Mencken Research Fellow, Cato Institute; Author, How the Hell Did This Happen?: The Election of 2016

Chris Hayes, MSNBC Host, “All in with Chris Hayes”; Editor at Large, The Nation; Author, A Colony in a Nation

Emmy Award–winning news anchor and New York Times best-selling author Chris Hayes argues that there are two Americas: a colony and a nation. He says America likes to tell itself that it inhabits a postracial world, but nearly every empirical measure—wealth, unemployment, incarceration, school segregation—reveals that racial inequality hasn’t improved since 1968. Hayes contends that our country has fractured in two: the colony and the nation. Come hear Hayes’ insights on the threats to American democracy and how to preserve justice.