The Commonwealth December 2018-January 2019

Commonwealth The

THE MAGAZINE OF THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB OF CALIFORNIA

DEC./JAN. 2018-2019

APRIL RYAN UNDER FIRE AT THE WHITE HOUSE MICHAEL RICH GREG GUTFELD BETH COMSTOCK RICK WILSON

JANET NAPOLITANO & DR. LUCY JONES TOM STIENSTRA P.J. O’ROURKE

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

On the Road to Freedom Understanding the Civil Rights Movement April 7-14, 2019 Join Judge LaDoris Cordell (Ret.) on a carefully designed program that focuses on understanding the Civil Rights Movement, as we travel to Jackson, Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery.

• Visit important sites of the movement, from Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge to Little Rock High School.

• Meet with many figures who were involved, such as 16th Street Baptist Church bombing survivor Dr. Rev. Carolyn McKinstry, Bloody Sunday foot soldier Annie Pearl Avery, and Little Rock Nine member Elizabeth Eckford.

• Experience the newly opened Memorial for Peace and Social Justice in Montgomery and the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.

• Meet with members of the Equal Justice Initiative and learn about the work that is being done today to fight racial injustices in the legal system.

• Explore the Mississippi Delta, tour Malaco Records and the B.B. King Museum, and enjoy local music and restaurants featuring southern specialties.

Cost: $3,995 per person, based on double occupancy

Brochure at commonwealthclub.org/travel

| 415.597.6720

|

travel@commonwealthclub.org CST: 2096889-40

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INSIDE15 THIS ISSUE 41

Editor’s Desk

Greg Gutfeld

The rest of life

Laughing with Trump, not at him

5

20

News and insights from the Club.

Creating a corporate culture that embraces change

8

23

The Commons

First Word: Michael Rich Fighting truth decay

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April Ryan

A veteran White House correspondent explains the perils of reporting on the Trump administration

Last Word: P.J. O’Rourke Crazy money

43

Beth Comstock

Two-month Calendar What’s happening at the Club in December and January

Rick Wilson

GOP strategist burns some bridges

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Janet Napolitano & Dr. Lucy Jones Are you ready for disaster?

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Program Listings

57

Late Breaking Events

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58

Trekking the Sierra

By Dr. Gloria Duffy

Tom Stienstra

On the Cover: April Ryan Photo from: Ed Ritger

Insight On This Page: LaDoris Cordell & April Ryan Photo by: Ed Ritger

Steve Bannon is important, whether you believe it or not; there’s a thought that he was the de facto president at one time. Also, members of this administration have blamed him for the racist tone and behavior [in] the White House. I asked him about that. He denied it, but still I want to hear; I’m going to listen and I want to get it on tape, because I want to get the pieces of the puzzle together.

APRIL RYAN

December/January 2018-2019 - Volume 112, No.7

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

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John Zipperer, Vice President of Media & Editorial, (415) 597-6715 jzipperer@commonwealthclub.org The Commonwealth (ISSN 0010-3349) is published bimonthly (6 times a year) by The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. Periodicals postage paid at San Francisco, CA. Subscription rate $34 per year included in annual membership dues.

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The Commonwealth magazine covers a range of programs in each issue. Program transcripts and question-and-answer sessions are routinely condensed due to space limitations. Hear full-length recordings online at commonwealthclub. org/watch-listen, podcasts on Google Play and Apple iTunes, or contact Club offices to buy a compact disc.

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Copyright © 2018 The Commonwealth Club of California.

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THE NNWE THECOMMO COMMO WEAL ALTH TH

Photo by Geographer

The Rest of Life

I

t is just a few days before the November 2018 election as I write this; through the magic of magazine lead time, it will be several weeks after the election when you read this. Maybe you’re happy about the results; maybe you’re not.

Perhaps more important, maybe you don’t care. Or are sick to death of politics. We live in a time when politics at all levels seems to intrude into our lives, taking over dinner conversations and social media feeds. On television, I just watched Bill Maher say he has begun watching pre-playoffs basketball for the first time in his life, just so he can get away from the overload of political news— and he’s the host of a political talk show.

Life is not all politics.

That might seem to be mixed messaging. I host our Week to Week political roundtable; I co-host “The Michelle Meow Show” at the Club on Thursdays, which often tackles controversial political issues. And this issue you’re reading right now includes political articles on White House correspondent April Ryan, GOP consultant Rick Wilson, and Fox News host and political satirist Greg Gutfeld.

But there’s much more to life, and more to the Club, than politics. So I invite you to cleanse your intellectual palate and enjoy nature journalist Tom Stienstra’s hike through the Sierras, or Lucy Jones discussing

natural disasters.

Probably a majority of our nearly 500 programs each year are not political. We can only fit so many programs into each magazine, so if there’s a program you missed that you wanted to see, watch them on commonwealthclub.org/videos or listen to them on commonwealthclub.org/podcasts.

And of course subscribe to our podcasts.

Nearly every Club program is podcast, and currently more than 4.4 million Commonwealth Club podcasts are downloaded each year. As Alta magazine said about us while naming us one of California’s top podcasts, “The volume is staggering.” So listen to what you want; pass up the others. But we’re the leading source of civil and intelligent and fun talk and ideas. So why not take advantage of it and subscribe to our free podcast on iTunes, Google Play or other podcast services?

I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and a great new year. Everyone at The Commonwealth Club looks forward to going through 2019 with you—being provoked, intrigued and informed by speakers from around the world, on every topic imaginable.

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

TALK OF THE CLUB Robot Petting Zoo

D

o you fear a future robot apocalypse, or will the spread of artificial intelligence lead to friendly C-3PO-type mechanical beings? We recently got a look at some of the nicer types when a “robot petting zoo” was set up for a weekend at the Club.

Wired magazine’s 25th anniversary celebrations in October included a private event at the Club in which it showed off some cutting-edge technology. There were robots greeting people as they arrived in our Osher Lobby, including the Knightscope security robot and the doglike SpotMini.

In the third-floor robot petting zoo, guests interacted with a robot that cuddles you to sleep, an insect-like bot with six legs, an inflatable robot that could help in search and rescue missions, a personal health-care companion and a machine with “feeling fingertips.” You can see a selection of Wired’s photos of the robots at the Club at wired.com/ story/photo-gallery-robot-petting-zoo.

Above: The Knightscope (left) and the SpotMini greet attendees. Below: Artist Linda Hope and detail from one of her paintings now on display in the Club’s Farmer Gallery. Bottom: Grownups MLF Chair John Milford.

Knightscope photo: Rebecca Norton; SpotMini photo: Adam Anderson; Linda Hope photo and art: Linda Hope

In the Farmer Gallery

The next time you are in the building for a program (or in the neighborhood during business hours), ask the front desk about the Farmer Gallery and see the works of our latest featured artist. The paintings of Linda Hope have been featured since October 16 and will be on view until January 15, 2019.

“While my paintings contain specific imagery, I do not paint with any intent toward narrative,” Hope says. “The act of painting allows me to exist with perceptual awareness, but without the need for thought or language. It is the sense of being a consciousness separate from the self of personality, and in the moment, interacting with an object of interest or beauty that serves as the inspiration for me to paint.”

Hope’s work can be found in private and public collections, including at AT&T, California Lawyers for the Arts, Embarcadero Center, KGO TV and the State Department in Washington, D.C. Hope’s exhibit will be followed by “Afterthoughts” by printmaker Ryan Farley, which will be on display from January 15 to March 15. We’ll have details on his work in our next issue.

A Place for Grownups

The Commonwealth Club’s Grownups Forum is dedicated to the proposition that the second half of life can offer a richness of experience and enjoyment that comes with maturity and the freedom to explore.

If that sounds like a match for you, consider attending Grownups programs or, better yet, become involved in creating the events.

Club members are invited to get involved in the Grownups forum by attending an open planning meeting on January 22, at 4 p.m., at the Club’s headquarters. You can sign up for this meeting at commonwealthclub.org/ events. The Grownups MLF, led by chair John Milford (pictured above) and Denise

Michaud, is one of more than a dozen Member-Led Forums, each of which presents programs throughout the year that are run

by Club members.

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TALK OF THE CLUB

In the News

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma took another swipe at calls for a “Medicare for All” healthcare system this week, saying expanding those benefits to every American would “dilute” the program.

Verma’s comments, made at a session of The Atlantic Festival, echo a speech before the Commonwealth Club in July, where she said calls to expand Medicare are built on a “fundamental lack of understanding about the uniqueness of Medicare to the very specific population it serves.”

At the festival, Verma said, . . .“Putting more people in the program is not going to solve the problem, and actually threatens the focus and security of the program for seniors,” Verma said.

—Fierce Healthcare, “Verma, Azar take aim at ‘Medicare for All’ proposals,” October 5, 2018 The Ace of Cups, formed in the Haight Ashbury during the Summer of Love, was the first and only all-female rock band on the San Francisco scene in those heady psychedelic days more than a half century ago. . . .

And now, the women of the Ace of Cups, all in their 70s with passels of children and grandchildren, are about to get their first taste of belated rock recognition. As unlikely and improbable as it may seem, High Moon is

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THE COMMO N WE AL TH

about to release the Ace of Cups eponymous debut studio album. A dream deferred, it comes 51 years after the band members first began jamming together in an apartment on Waller Street in San Francisco. . . .

The album will be released . . . on Nov. 9. That night the band will be celebrated at the Mill Valley Community Center in an evening of songs and stories titled “Course Correcting Rock History” sponsored by The Commonwealth Club.

—Marin Independent Journal, “Decades after fading from SF’s psychedelic scene, the Aces of Cups arrives,” October 25, 2018

We talk to one of the 21 young people who are suing the federal government for failing to take sufficient action to address climate change. . . . ‘The laws that we really turn to in this effort are foundational laws; they’re laws that explain why we have government in the first place and what our basic human rights are,’ Julia Olson, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, said in San Francisco at The Commonwealth Club of California in February of 2017.

“And one of those is the public trust doctrine,” Olson said. It holds that the government must guard common supplies, like air and water, in perpetuity,’ she said.”

—WBUR, “Why Nearly Two Dozen Young People Are Suing The Federal Government Over Climate Change,” October 9, 2018

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION Publication title: The Commonwealth. ISSN: 00103349. Filing date: October 29, 2018. Issue Frequency: Bimonthly. Number of issues published annually: 6.

Annual subscription price: $34. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. Name and complete mailing address of publisher: The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. Name and complete mailing address of editor: John Zipperer, The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. Name and complete mailing address of managing editor: Megan Turner, The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. Owner: The Commonwealth Club of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105. Known bondholders, mortgages and other security holders: None.

EXTENT AND NATURE OF CIRCULATION Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: Total number of copies (net press run): 11,935. Paid/Requested Outside County Subscriptions: 11,302. Paid In-County Subscriptions: None. Sales Through Dealers and Carriers: None. Other Classes Mailed Through USPS: None. Total Paid Distribution: 11,302. Free Distribution by Mail: None. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail: 583.

Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 583. Total Distribution: 11,885. Copies not Distributed: 50. Total: 11,935. Percent paid and/or requested circulation: 95.09 percent. No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date (October/November 2015): Total number of copies (net press run): 13761. Paid/ Requested Outside County Subscriptions: 13,161. Paid In-County Subscriptions: None. Sales Through Dealers and Carriers: None. Other Classes Mailed Through USPS: None. Total Paid Distribution: 13,161. Free Distribution

by Mail: None. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail: 550. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 550. Total Distribution: 13,711. Copies not Distributed: 50. Total: 13,761. Percent paid and/or requested circulation: 95.99 percent.

I certify that the statements above are correct and complete.

John Zipperer, Vice President of Media & Editorial, October 29, 2018.

A gift that truly keeps on giving.

You are invited to join a dedicated group of Club members who want to ensure that the Club’s mission to promote and uphold civil discourse is safeguarded into the future.

Legacy gifts made to the Club become part of our new endowment, which will support our programming activities in perpetuity.

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

-Anonymous Legacy Circle donor

As a member of the Legacy Circle, you’ll also be offered certain privileges and invited to special events. We are grateful for gifts of all sizes. For most kinds of legacy gifts, there is no minimum gift amount.

To Learn More: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/legacy-giving Contact: Kimberly Maas, Vice President of Development 415-597-6726

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First Word

WITH MICHAEL RICH

Photos by Ed Ritger

Fighting Truth Decay E

ssentially “truth decay” . . . is the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American life.

According to official Justice Department statistics, violent crime in America has been declining since 1993. At first, public attitudes tracked those trends; that is, opinion surveys showed people stated that they believed that crime was falling. But in the year 2000, public opinion parted company with the facts. Violent crime rates have continued to fall since that time, but more and more people say that crime is rising.

Here’s another one. Over the last two decades, the scientific evidence about the safety and benefits of childhood vaccines has gotten stronger—actually, much stronger. Yet over the same period, the public’s belief in the safety of childhood vaccines has declined—markedly, in fact. The decline’s not explained by party affiliation, it’s not explained by ideological viewpoint. It transcends the political divide.

So what’s going on here? We’ve been following trends like this at the RAND Corporation now for many years, and they’re growing noticeably worse. As a result, I’ve come to believe that truth decay is a grave threat to our democracy, possibly even an existential threat.

What do we mean by “truth decay”? We’ve defined it as four interrelated trends.

The first trend is the increasing disagreement about facts and ana-

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THE COMMO N WE AL TH

lytical interpretations of data. The safety of vaccines, what’s happening with violent crime rates—those are examples.

The second trend is a blurring of the line between fact and opinion.

You can see this when you watch any so-called all-news program; they’re not all news. It’s happening with newspapers, too; features that mix reporting and interpretation in the same story are often interspersed among straight news.

The third trend is the vast increase in the quantity of opinion relative to fact, and therefore its influence. [For example,] when newspapers went online, with essentially infinite space to fill, they discovered that opinion pieces cost far less to produce than reported stories. In fact, most op ed writers don’t get paid at all.

The fourth trend is the loss of trust in institutions that have traditionally been sources of factual information, especially the government and the media.

We found that the four trends reinforce each other. As a result, people are increasingly unable to determine what is a fact and what is not. Some people don’t even know where to turn to find reliable factual information when they need it.

—RAND Corporation CEO Michael Rich, “Fighting Truth Decay in America,” September 25, 2018

APRIL RYAN Under Fire at the White House APRIL RYAN White House Correspondent, American Urban Radio Networks; Author, Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House; Twitter @AprilDRyan In conversation with

LADORIS CORDELL

Retired Judge

“It’s a very sad day when a reporter has to ask a president of the United States of America if you are a racist.

It still bothers me to this day.”

Photos by Ed Ritger

The veteran White House correspondent takes us back to the day she asked a sitting U.S. president if he was a racist. From the October 1, 2018, program in San Francisco, “April Ryan: Under Fire in the Trump White House.” Part of our Good Lit series, under writ ten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

LADORIS CORDELL: April, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, graduate of Morgan State University, a historically black university. A mother of two daughters, member of the White House press corp for 21 years.

Can you give us just a brief look at the journey of April Ryan to the role of White House reporter?

APRIL RYAN: My journey is nontraditional to say the least. I am a product of two people who came from agrarian families. In 1967 I was born to two people who just wanted to build a family together. I was the firstborn of that union and I was very precocious, to say the least. I grew up in a household

where my father and mother watched Walter Cronkite religiously. My mother was ahead of her time. She was an activist; she was on the college campus; she toiled at Morgan State University for 42 and a half years until her death. She believed in people and she believed in advancing causes. I guess I picked it up.

I said, “Dad, why are you watching the news all the time?” I should have, as a child, run from the news when he said this, but I just ran to it. He said, “I want to know when the world comes to an end.” I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” You don’t tell a child that. Me and my crazy self, I’m running to find out when the world comes to an end. I believe now that I look back, that’s where the foundation was laid for me.

My mother was always into current events.

She knew what was happening. I always knew about my history. I was that kid—you sit at the kitchen table and you have a peanut.

“Do you know how many uses there are of a peanut?” “Oh, Momma.” George Washington Carver. If we talk about blood—Charles Drew. If you don’t know about it, Google it. My mother used to tell me, “Look it up” when we had dictionaries without the Internet. Google Charles Drew. You’d be surprised and fascinated. We’d stop at a stoplight. “Do you know a black man made the stoplight.”

“Okay, Momma.”

My mother always taught me about excellence in our community. I always knew what was going on because we listened to the news.

I grew up understanding life, but I was never socially aware. I went through college, I was a jazz DJ in school.

CORDELL: Were you any good?

RYAN: I was pretty good. “Hi, this is April Ryan, WEAA FM 88.9.” I could still do it.

But you know, after a while I needed more. Time, weather, temp; I didn’t have anything else to talk about other than, “This is Sade [singing] ‘Is It a Crime?’”

I had a yearning for news.

I wanted to get more information. I started venturing into producing a news show and I started doing news. I remember my last DJ gig was at the station in Baltimore. It used to be owned by James Brown—yes, James Brown.

I just said, “This is not for

me.” I had a yearning—I didn’t realize it—for information. That’s where it started at school; my sophomore year I started really getting into news.

CORDELL: You finished college and then what?

RYAN: While I was in school, I was working at various radio stations, but the payroll checks were bouncing. I was getting experience. I worked at a gospel radio station, and I was telemarketing at the same time.

I’ll never forget—my father didn’t want me to get into this business because what we knew of as black radio or black media, you wouldn’t make money. They sent me to school so I could get off of their paycheck.

They wanted me to be independent; they wanted me to be someone who is living a middle income dream through obtaining my college degree. He said, “April, I don’t want you in this business.” I said, “I’m going to prove him wrong. I’m going to prove him wrong,” and I did prove my dad wrong. I worked hard. I jumped around a little bit, but I honed my skills. All throughout my time at this station or that station I was that girl that was always, “This is newsy. Let me send it to the network.”

American Urban Radio Network [AURN] noticed me when I was in Baltimore. They saw the news stories that I was doing and they liked it. What really sparked their interest in me—it was in the early ’90s and you all may remember this when the NAACP was having its big problems with then-[Executive Director] Ben Chavis—I made a report. I went against everyone else; that’s what I like to do. I like to break the news. Make sure it’s factual and then break it. I said it’s not about if he would go, it’s about how he would go and when he would go. They’re like, “No, they’re not going to fire him.” Sure enough that weekend he was gone.

[In 1997 I joined AURN and began covering the White House.] The White House, that place will eat you alive. This was before the Trump era. If you don’t know, you won’t know. I mean, I did city hall, state capital and stuff like that and did the Washington scene from afar. I was also working [for] WTOP in Washington, the local news station, being the news anchor. But nothing prepared me for this.

CORDELL: Let’s go then right to White House briefings. First, I think we can imagine, but tell us the difference between

attending a White House briefing in the Obama administration and attending it in the Trump administration.

RYAN: There was a report today that there was only one press briefing for the month of September. That wouldn’t have happened in the Obama years, it wouldn’t have happened in the Bush years and it wouldn’t have happened in the Clinton years. I’m giving you some extra presidents. What’s different is that we would time the briefings. Those briefings would last about 1 hour 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Now it’s like, we’re lucky if we [get] 12 minutes after she gives her opening statement—Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

But here’s what is interesting as well. She’s strategic in who she picks. She’s strategic.

CORDELL: Obama was not?

RYAN: They were strategic, but they called on a lot of different people. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the press secretary, likes to make sure that the conservative press is called on quite a bit. [They ask] friendlier questions or those that they don’t perceive as more hostile.

Let me say this: During the Clinton years, during the Bush years and during the Obama years, even when they were going through the hardest of times, they knew that tough questions about the issues of the day were coming. They were prepared. They answered them. They may have cut you off and gone

to someone else, but someone else was going to pick up. This administration­—they won’t focus and make sure they might hit it once and move on. Maybe some other people might continue, but they don’t like it, and she gets very defensive. She’ll move off and shut it down. Watch how they shut down the briefings when they shut it down. When it starts getting hot, you know it’s getting ready to end. You can see it with this president.

They do not like the questions that put them up against a wall or the hot topic of the day that they have not figured out the spin on as of yet. I hate to say that, but it’s the truth.

CORDELL: You walk into the press briefing room, and Sarah hasn’t come out yet. What are you thinking? Are you fearful?

RYAN: Fearful of what?

CORDELL: Who knows?

RYAN: I know now, at this moment, she’s not going to call on me, but I still raise my hand and I’ll go “Sarah.”

CORDELL: She doesn’t call on you?

RYAN: Not right now, no. She doesn’t like me. It’s okay. It’s sad. She doesn’t like me.

Thank you. I’m okay with that. I haven’t done anything wrong. I have asked questions like anyone else in that room, but I am now singled out. Why? CORDELL: Let’s get to this right now. I want to talk about the question.

RYAN: Which one?

CORDELL: You asked President Trump a question that no one in the press has ever asked of a president. Do you know what question I’m talking about?

RYAN: I know. I asked it. I know.

CORDELL: What was the question? What was the answer?

RYAN: There was no answer for that moment.

CORDELL: All right, what was the question you asked?

RYAN: Before we get into that— CORDELL: Set the stage.

RYAN: It’s a very sad day when a reporter has to ask a president of the United States of America if you are a racist. It happened in January, and it still bothers me to this day, and I’m going to explain why. I told you my beginnings, but I also come from that family who had the picture of King and Kennedy.

That’s not about my politics; that’s about my parents’ politics. I still grew up understanding that so many of us stand on the shoulders of those great men. If it weren’t for Dr. King, I wouldn’t be in that room probably. Really, truthfully.

I ask questions about all things. I asked about Russia when Sean [Spicer] told me, “Stop shaking your head.” [Laughter.] God bless him. What is interesting is I ask quesDECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

11

tions about—my focus is on urban America.

This is urban America. San Francisco is urban America. No matter what color we are.

I was hearing this stuff percolating in the community and through leaders, “He’s a racist, he’s a racist.” Why were they saying he’s a racist? Just before that King monument event in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, white congressional leaders were leaving the meeting with the president on immigration, where the president was supposed to be giving his heart. It was about his heart; do you remember that? What were the words coming out of the heart meeting on immigration? A-hole nations. Black and brown nations, but Norway was great. The homeland security head didn’t know that Norway was majority white. You can’t make this up. It’s the truth.

Not long before that was Charlottesville, comments about slavery and the confederacy.

It was percolating. Hearing things, what do blacks have to lose—that was in the campaign. All of this stuff built up. Frederica Wilson with Sgt. La David Johnson.

Just before that, before the a--hole comments, he was talking about how Nigerians if they leave their huts . . . they’re going to come here and not want to go back. Remember that? I’m not making this up.

You had black leaders and white leaders

both [say] he’s a racist. I’m like, hmm. Words mean something. You have to be careful in how you label someone and what you say about someone because that can stain them or even worse. I said, “Let me call the leaders of the NAACP.” I asked them, “What’s the definition of a racist?” Because before you go out and do a story, you have to research it.

You have to talk to leaders about it. I don’t just sit up there and ask something off the side of my neck. I know some people think I do, but it’s already researched. I was told, it’s so simple. The definition of a racist is the intersection or meeting of power and prejudice.

I said, “Okay, we’re off to the races.” That was the night before. I had not made a firm decision if I was going to ask the question, because that day was so heavy to me.

Dr. King means the world to me. I was that kid in Baltimore who—I was a latchkey child. I used to come home after school, walking home in my little Catholic school uniform. I was one of those bad Catholic schoolgirls. A Southern Baptist but a little Catholic schoolgirl. I would walk home. I wasn’t supposed to go out until my parents got home. Stayed in the house. I would go to that stereo system that looked like a coffin.

You slide the top over; I would go through my mother’s 45s and 33s and 75s and put on the records of Dr. King, his “I Had a Dream” speech. His “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. That was weird; I should have been watching something else on TV or doing homework. I was listening to Dr. King and reading his speeches.

I felt it as a child. He meant a lot to me.

I’m there that day trying to figure out, Am I going to ask the question? Should I or shouldn’t I? I didn’t make the determination until I delivered it. It weighed on me so much.

After I asked the question twice, and I asked, “Mr. President, you want to answer any questions?” He didn’t answer. I felt the weight of the moment. I felt the weight of what I had done. I felt the weight of my history. I felt ashamed because I marred Dr. King’s day. The president was there with Dr. King’s niece and nephew— not the children—and black Republicans to celebrate this man, this dreamer who was a marcher and is now a martyr.

To celebrate the fact that they were expanding the land around the King Center. Here I come, messing it up. That still bothers me.

CORDELL: Do you regret asking the question?

RYAN: No. CORDELL: Why not?

RYAN: I called MLK, Martin Luther King III, and I asked him. First I said, “I want to apologize to you.” He said, “For what?” I said, “Because I asked—” He said, “No, no, no; you did the right thing.” It still bothers me because again, you should never have to ask a sitting U.S. president if he is a racist and then on that day. I didn’t realize how big the question was. I did not know. I made it a point to pull myself away from TV because I was so upset. I just lived my life, because not only that, I had [to deal with conservative evangelical] Pastor Darrell Scott. He was going to throw water on me.

CORDELL: You’re right about that.

RYAN: [He was] in that room after I asked the question and other reporters were around.

CORDELL: Let me ask you this. I’m going to read from your book, and this is after the question was asked. “As a reporter,” you write, “I have been lied about and talked about all with an effort to discredit me. I have been harshly criticized by some and applauded by others.” Then a little further in the book you write, “It’s a job I love.”

RYAN: I do love this job.

CORDELL: How do you love a job where, seemingly, you have become the story?

RYAN: I get emotional talking about that night, and it still bothers me. This is what I studied for. This is my vocation. I didn’t know all this other stuff was going to happen. I love this job, and I’m not going to let anyone tear down my dream—my mother and father’s dream for me, my community’s dream, and those shoulders that I stand on. I will not. I love this job because I’m asking a question.

No, I’m not going anywhere. I love my job.

CORDELL: Let’s go to a lighter subject.

Have you read [former Trump advisor] Omarosa’s book Unhinged?

RYAN: No, and I will not.

CORDELL: Why is that?

RYAN: Lord have mercy.

CORDELL: Well, in your book you write about your interactions with Omarosa.

RYAN: Let’s talk about why I write about the interactions with Omarosa. Omarosa is the reason why all of this stuff happened.

She started it; even though she is fired, the residue is still there. The book is not about her; I don’t have a tape.

Omarosa and I were friends; we were close.

I loved her like a sister. Everybody was telling me, “Girl, she’s going to cut your throat.” I’m like, “No, y’all don’t know her.” I said, “That’s just for TV.” Little did I know. She hurt me.

It’s crazy. Today I was on a plane, trying to figure out what’s going on. What do I do?

Looking through my phone, I look through my pictures and go, “Oh.” I go back in time.

Today was the first day I went back in time with my pictures with her. It brought a tear to my eye. We were close. I showed you some of the pictures.

CORDELL: Yes you did.

RYAN: Our families knew each other. I went to her church. She took me to Skid Row where she ministered. Then this person—who is this? You’re fine unless you get in her way.

CORDELL: Did you get in her way?

RYAN: Apparently. It’s sad.

CORDELL: We can leave it at that if you’d like.

RYAN: No, I’ll talk about it. It’s cathartic.

Get it out and breathe. What happened was, we were friends. She worked for Bill Clinton.

She was in Al Gore’s office; when Al Gore wanted me to interview him, he would tell her to call me. That’s how we started.

Back then we were both young. We became friendly, and then after she left—or got fired or moved up or failed up or whatever out of the White House—we’d run into each other around the country. She’d be somewhere, and I’d be somewhere like, “Hey, let’s get together.” We got closer, much closer over the years. Long story short, when she became part of the Trump campaign, I became a target. The president did not like the press. “Oh, I’ve got someone close. I’ve got a dean of the press corps. Oh, I can get her and make them think that I am in this camp. Make them accept me.” That’s what a friend would do.

I was in WikiLeaks. I’m not mad. I don’t care. They can talk about me on Twitter.

I think it’s a badge of honor that I’m in WikiLeaks. Any reporter in Washington worth their pen and pad, their microphone and video camera, should have been in WikiLeaks. I was asking John Podesta why is it that Hillary Clinton isn’t doing so well in the black community? I said, “We should

have black reporters come together with her.”

With WikiLeaks, I did see the back and forth exchange with Karen Finney and the rest.

They’re like, “April’s wrong. It’s not that bad.”

April was right. But what WikiLeaks doesn’t tell you is that I was calling Donald Trump’s people. I was calling his secretary at Trump Tower trying to get an interview. I was asking Omarosa; they don’t tell you that I was talking to Ben Carson’s people. They don’t tell you I was talking to Ted Cruz’s people or Jeb Bush’s people. They don’t tell you I was also talking to Bernie Sanders’ people. That’s what they don’t tell you. But it’s all one-sided—that I’m supporting Hillary and I’m trying to do all this. I’m like, whatever.

Then in her warped way of trying to make people think that I’ve done something wrong to cut our friendship off, she tells people I’m taking money from Hillary Clinton.

That will kill a career. I’ve worked hard. My parents sacrificed for me, and they’re gone to glory. I would do them a disservice if I would have fallen under that trap. All of this was in efforts for her to look good in this Trump administration.

When it comes to reading her book, no thank you. When it comes to her tapes, yeah those are tapes. But like she taped me. She takes the portion that she wants you to hear.

Put it in context and consider the source.

CORDELL: You write in your book and I quote, “This White House wants to control the browning of America.” What do you mean?

RYAN: Michael Steele, the former [Republican National Committee] chairman, even said that. We are a nation that at one time used to be proud of talking about Lady Liberty, how people came. We used to always hear, we’re a nation of immigrants. No, we’re a nation of natives, slaves and immigrants. But the immigrant thing was really the prideful thing that everyone took to. Lady Liberty— bring me your tired, your hungry—and how everyone would come through New York and see Lady Liberty standing there at the harbor.

Now it’s shameful for some. When you hear people talking about a Muslim ban, who are they talking about? When they were talking about cutting off these visas and they got

into this thing about, “We don’t want these immigrants coming on welfare,” I said, “Wait a minute.” I’ll never forget that night I was on “Erin Burnett [OutFront”]; I was on with Paris Dennard and Joan Walsh and someone else, and they were trying to talk about the welfare rules. I said, “No, no, no.” They were starting to go down the line of black and brown immigrants.

I said, “Wait a minute. I remember”—this is when you’re dangerous. When you’ve worked in prior administrations, you have recall about things and can pull it up. You can Google it for proof. They had to go to commercial break. I was so thankful for the commercial break. I took my phone. I said, “Wait a minute. Center for American Progress.” Black immigrants came up. Black immigrants are the immigrants who have more education and do better than the other immigrant communities. This is the Center for American Progress. Paris was like, he ultimately told me to shut up on air because he was so upset; but where is Paris now? But that’s a whole other story; I’m not going to get into it. [In August 2018, CNN suspended Paris Dennard as a commentator pending an investigation into sexual misconduct.—Ed.] Then the disparaging remarks about other countries, a--hole nations versus Norway.

There is a concern. The vast majority of children born in hospitals now are minority.

We are a nation that’s browning. There is the attempt to roll it back. If you don’t believe it, just listen to the speech on immigration from [Senior Advisor to the President] Stephen Miller that the president gives.

CORDELL: I’m going to include some questions now from our audience. Did you enjoy being on the [“Real Time With] Bill Maher” show with Steve Bannon?

RYAN: Okay, let’s break that down in parts.

How many of you watch Bill Maher? I was crying on that stage laughing; it was terrible.

It was a fun show. All right, I’m going to give you all some truth, and you may not like it.

CORDELL: All right.

RYAN: As a reporter, we have to go into situations and places and meet with people to inform you. I don’t go upstairs [in the White House] anymore. The only time Sarah and I or some of those people in the White House will see each other is when we’re in that room together. When the president sees me he makes this awful face. I’m like, I’m not afraid of you. You can make all the faces you want. I’m going to do my job.

I never met Steve Bannon until that night.

I told the producers, I said, “I want to meet Steve Bannon. I want to find out what’s going on.” They said, “Oh.” To my surprise, Steve Bannon was like, “Yeah, tell her to come.” “He really said that?” I was shocked.

I go downstairs and I meet him. He said, “I think you’re really good.” I’m like, but the

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president said he thought I was really good in that first press conference and then look what happened.

I gave [Bannon] the what-for on some issues. I’m not going to get into it right now because we’re going to continue our conversation this week. That’s all I’m going to say.

I want to get it on tape.

CORDELL: Good, it will be interesting.

RYAN: Let me say this: The reason why Steve Bannon is important, whether you believe it or not—there’s a thought that he was the de facto president at one time. He was leading this country. Also, members of this administration have blamed him for the racist tone and behavior that’s come out of the White House. I asked him about that. He denied it, but still I want to hear. I’m going to listen, and I want to get it on tape because I want to get the pieces of the puzzle together.

When it’s in chaos and dismay, you can’t put it together, but at least you can kind of see a little bit more clearly in that murky mess what’s going on. You have to talk to people.

You have to listen to what people have to say.

Sometimes there is truth within the lie. Or the lie within the truth, I don’t know.

CORDELL: One of the reasons I love The Commonwealth Club’s audiences is because they have such good questions.

RYAN: I’m scared.

CORDELL: Here’s another one: Can you comment on Trump’s attack on female reporters? Is this workplace harassment?

RYAN: You’re talking about what happened

today. I am livid about that.

CORDELL: Why don’t you bring some folks up to speed?

RYAN: Cecilia Vega from ABC and Kaitlan Collins from CNN. Kaitlan was in the news a couple weeks ago, asking questions, and he wouldn’t answer when he answers other people’s questions in the Oval Office. As reporters, we are supposed to question. Up until now, when did they have press conferences just on one issue? There are thousands of issues that are happening at one moment in time. The White House is where everything comes—war and peace and everything in between. It’s not just a moment that it’s just this. Anyway, the president decides to shut Kaitlan down: “No, we’re talking about this”; he was just really nasty to her.

Cecilia gets up and says something. What did she say? “I’m confused” or something.

He said, “Yeah, you don’t know what you’re doing,” or something along those lines—on international television, demeaning this woman. You know what happens now; when people see Cecilia, they’re going to say that to her. It was taken out of context, because she may have been confused with who he was going to [meet with] or something. I wasn’t there today because I was coming here to be with you. But when I saw it, I got on Twitter and I went off, because it makes not one ounce of sense. There is residue from that stuff. When Sarah and the president do that stuff to me, I get death threats.

It’s real. That’s all I’m going to say.

Greg Gutfeld

Laughing with Trump, Not at Him GREG GUTFELD Host, Fox News’ “The Greg Gutfeld Show”; Co-Host, Fox News’ “The Five”; Author, The Gutfeld Monologues: Classic Rants from the Five In conversation with

SCOTT ADAMS

Creator, “Dilbert”

Photos by Sarah Gonzalez

The political satirist and Fox News hos t on “ the insanit y of politics over the past several years.”

From the August 14, 2018 program in San Francisco, “Greg Gutfeld.”

SCOTT ADAMS: Greg Gutfeld is an admitted outrageous and outspoken libertarian, political satirist, humorist, magazine editor and blogger. Now, if you only read one book this year, you would be exactly like me cause I’ve read exactly one book this year, which is actually true. I’m a skimmer, but I read this entire book because I find it very voicey.

If you haven’t heard that term, it’s sort of a writer industry term; it means you can pick up the personality of the author. That’s sort of your trademark—that your personality is all through the writing, so it’s really easy to stay with it for a long time.

Can you describe your writing process? I heard you talk about layers one time, and I know everybody likes to write better. What’s that process of layering writing?

GREG GUTFELD: There’s a couple of things. The first thing I do is I try to see what’s out there, and I try to figure out what no one else has said. Let’s say it’s something about Trump’s tweets, and it’s like everybody’s freaking out, freaking out, freaking out. Okay, what is being overlooked? Now obviously anything could be overlooked and be absurd and wrong. I could say obviously he’s from outer space or something, say something stupid.

But the first thing you have to do is come up with the thing that no one else has said.

And the second thing is to make sure that that thing exists in everybody else’s head. So

that when it happens, they go, “Exactly.” If they hear it on TV or if they read it, they go, “That’s exactly what I was going to say and what I was thinking. But actually, he said it better.” So the goal is to come up with something no one said, but that it already exists. I call it the unspeakable truth. It’s in everybody’s head, but it just takes me to come up there and crack it open and pull it out.

That’s the goal. If it’s boring, I will throw it away. But also the next layer is to make it funny. That’s the important thing, because funny is generally memorable, and it makes the truth memorable.

ADAMS: I want to read you two of my favorite parts from your book. Some descriptions of people I want to ask you about. [The] first one is about Hillary Clinton. You said, “Hillary is the patch of carpeting in the basement that absorbed all the spills around it and yet it never actually gets dumped. It just gets moved around to another part of the room.”

And my second one—just so you see nobody is safe—it’s about Steve Bannon. You said, “Steve Bannon is a circus peanut left out in the sun on a minivan dashboard.”

GUTFELD: Yes. I have no idea—but he just reminds me of a circus peanut. Kind of the color and the texture. Do you guys know what a circus peanut is? Very careful how you say it cause it could come out in a different way. It’s that really horribly spongy candy.

Yeah, am I that old? All right.

Yeah, but Hillary’s the gift that keeps giving; you can come up with analogies, metaphors and descriptions for her because just by the virtue of her never going away, you can always come up with something new and fresh. She is kind of this person that’s always here that we move over here and then that doesn’t work so we move her over here and it just never seems to work

out. Everybody has had that carpet.

ADAMS: How important is the truth these days?

GUTFELD: That’s actually okay. It’s a very good point, because that’s more about what you do. I have friends here by the way that I’ve talked to about Trump while we were talking about Trump on “The Five” and how I was hypercritical of him. He was driving me crazy. He was saying stuff that like, “Let’s face it, I’ve said worse.” But he was running for president, and I was more obsessed with his words, because there were no deeds yet because he wasn’t president. But I’d become more and more emotionally invested in his behavior, which was kind of a waste of time.

This guy Charlie Munger had recommended a book by [Robert] Cialdini called Influence. It’s kind of the art of persuasion.

When I read that book, I started to see what Trump was doing, and I started to look at him less as a political figure and more as a host of a comedy roast. He had basically redefined every context he was in. This is how hypocritical I was in this whole thing. During the first debate when Megyn Kelly asked that first question, and [she] says, “Mr. Trump, you’ve said some very horrible things about women.

You’ve called them these names like pigs and whatever,” and his response was, “To be fair, it was Rosie O’Donnell.” It might have been the greatest debate answer in the history of debates going back to Lincoln-Douglas.

I was sitting there, and I think you had the same experience. I was sitting there with a buddy of mine who’s a cop and my friend of mine who’s a producer and restaurant owner, and I just go,

“That’s amazing.” I go, “How can you not love that?” There’s 17 people [on the debate stage], and it’s the contrast theory of you have 17 similars and one difference. He just stood out. But then the next day, I get to work and all of a sudden I became something else, which was, “Ugh, that nonserious character Donald Trump. He’s rude. He’s crass. There’s no way he’s going to last.” I basically purged.

My gut feeling about him was that this guy was unique, but I purged it all. I thought, no, what you need is a [Marco] Rubio. I was a Rubio guy. But I realized that I was a hypocrite, because I’d opened a speech for Trump years ago in which I was probably more crass than he was, and then all he was doing was he was adopting kind of the practices that he had learned from Comedy Central into this arena. And he was saying, “I don’t care.”

He didn’t care, and it’s like if you ran or if I ran, if you’re honest you would run as yourself. That’s what he was doing. The other thing I realized was that anybody else who won—if you think that Rubio would be treated any better than Trump, you’re wrong because he’s pro-life. They would have eaten him alive. Look how they treated Mitt Romney in 2012 because he cut some kid’s hair. He put a dog on a roof. I mean, where I come from that’s a hood ornament.

But anyway, so my point is . . . I don’t know what my point was, Scott. You asked me a question about truth. You asked me about truth, and I rambled incoherently.

Donald Trump didn’t have the truth. Right?

He didn’t have the truth. But what he did was he was coloring in the right circles, but he was coloring outside the circles a lot so he’d get some things wrong, but he picked the right circles. I call it the stool of law and order. He had police, he had national security, he had borders. He could have been wrong on the statistics, but he got that right. That became persuasive in a way, and he used humor in a way that I was using on “The Five.” I look back now and I go, “Okay, I got tied up in his language.”

Once he became president, I could get tied up on his deeds. I said, “I already get his language. I get it. He’s going to tweet. What are you going to do? But look at his deeds.”

And when you look at his deeds, there’s not a lot to complain about. When he pulled out of the climate change thing, I’m like, “Yeah.” That was the first thing. And then you started watching other things happening and you’re going, “Okay.” So he’s a jerk. I say this: Would you rather have a doctor who’s got great bedside manner but he loses a patient a day? It’s like the reason why a doctor has great bedside manner is because he has to practice it. He’s gotta give a lot of bad news.

Trump has no bedside manner. Maybe cause he didn’t think he needed it. So I’d rather have a jerk who’s good with the knife. That could be taken out of context.

ADAMS: Do you see anybody on the Left who’s coming up or already up who has the same kind of persuasion skill?

GUTFELD: Yeah. A couple people. I’d say Kamala Harris seems pretty . . . she’s pretty together. I know, I’m not talking about ideas.

I’m just talking about somebody who can get up there and argue. I think somebody has to have a sense of humor, and that’s the hard part on the Democrat side right now. There’s nobody as funny as Trump. A lot of people keep saying Biden. But I just don’t know if Biden’s going to be able to keep up with Trump because Trump is just a freight train.

He’s an orange meteor.

The other person I was thinking of—and people laugh at me, because the name recognition isn’t very good—but I was watching that progressive rally with Mark Ruffalo.

Remember that actor? I love him. He’s a great Hulk. But he was pretty good. I have to say that he was positive, and what the Democrats need right now is a positive person, not a negative person. It’s slim pickings.

ADAMS: I thought you were going to talk about Alexandria— GUTFELD: Octavio-Cortez?

ADAMS: Whose name I can never say correctly.

GUTFELD: Yeah. I think she’s got charm.

She’s got the charm and the energy, and she’s going to win. There’s no way she’s going to lose in that part of New York City, but she doesn’t have the truth yet or the facts.

ADAMS: But will it matter? Will it matter?

GUTFELD: That’s true.

ADAMS: So you probably saw a tweet in which Ben Shapiro challenged her to a debate for $10,000 and she responded, “I don’t respond to catcalling.”

GUTFELD: Yes. ADAMS: Now, was that not a Rosie O’Donnell move?

GUTFELD: Yeah, it was great.

ADAMS: It just totally took the debate out of “You don’t know anything” to is this an issue about catcalling? And that’s all anybody wanted to talk— GUTFELD: I mean, I disagree with it, but I admire it. It is kind of like the go-to now. Just shout sexism, and people are so scared these days of being labeled sexist or racist that you can probably chase anybody out of a room.

But yeah, calling it catcalling was pretty . . . and then also just imagining Ben Shapiro catcalling is funny. I can’t do an impression of him but, “Hello there young lady. You look mighty attractive.

Would you like to discuss the consequences of progres-

sive socialism over at my place? We have that cappuccino machine. I might have some wine. I could probably get some wine. I can call a place and get some wine.”

ADAMS: I could listen to that all day.

GUTFELD: Is that a decent impression?

I don’t know. I love Ben. I did his podcast yesterday. It was fun. I don’t know why I brought that up, but I thought I would share.

ADAMS: All right. Here’s a question from the audience. It says most regulars on Fox News seem happy. Is it like a family? Or do you all—I’ll add my own commentary—just hate each other?

GUTFELD: We talked about this at some point. Fox News is different, because the people who watch it have a relationship.

It’s a relationship. It’s like you don’t have a relationship with CNN. It’s not like you know those people or if you saw them on the street you could feel like you know them.

The same thing with MSNBC. But if you saw somebody from Fox News on the street, and this happens to me, people will just start in on a conversation with you, because you’re in their living room all the time. I always call Fox the aquarium, because it’s this blue box

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that’s there all the time in your living room.

My mom used to keep it on, and I used to joke that Bill O’Reilly was the one fish that comes around three times. Here comes the Bill O’Reilly repeat. There he is. And he stops, shakes his pen, moves away.

But what’s interesting about the relationship is that we’ve had a 75 percent turnover in prime time. We lost three major anchors, but the numbers were never higher. We keep doing better and better and better, and I do think it’s because of the fans more so than anything who have invested in a relationship.

We are generally, I think, a happy crew. It’s interesting. People that I don’t think I would get along with, I really like there. It is like the world’s strangest surreal high school.

ADAMS: Identity politics. You talk about it a lot. You don’t like it. Is there ever a place for it? Was there ever a place for it?

GUTFELD: I don’t think so. I mean, all I know is identity politics prevents you from actually saying you’re an American. Because you’ve created the oppressor-versus-oppressed paradigm or whatever you want to call it. So that no matter what, America’s always going to be the oppressor. You can’t get out of that

equation, and I don’t see anything good coming of it.

You can’t be an American if you’re dividing groups into sections and then they end up turning on each other, and you’re seeing this now. There are actual subgroups that don’t like other groups; it’s so anti-individual. It’s like we’re eliminating the idea of who you are as a person and replacing it with who you are as a group.

ADAMS: Here’s [an audience] question that I’ve always been curious about. The media, except for Fox News and a few outlets, are very anti-Trump. Do they know it? Are they intentionally biasing their coverage, or is it really what they feel?

GUTFELD: I knew people like that about Obama. Right? That were just so “Obama’s the worst thing ever.” And it’s like, not really.

If you just go out and live your life, 99 percent of your life is not going to be affected by this. You might pay more taxes, but I think you’re going to pay more taxes under Trump as well.

People who are too close to the fire of politics have no idea how the rest of the world is. They have no idea. By the way, CNN is

culpable. They elected Trump; they gave him more coverage than anybody. They thought that Hillary had it in the bag, so let’s have fun with this jerk. And then the jerk kicked their asses, and they’re like completely . . . I think it’s a combination of a guilt complex, because they fed the beast and also they believe the beast is evil. So it’s almost like a moral crusade.

I didn’t vote for Obama, but I didn’t think he was evil. I just thought he was wrong. So it wasn’t a moral crusade. On [my previous Fox program] “Red Eye,” I would make fun of the people, my peers, who were serious about impeaching Obama and [wanting to see] the birth certificate. So I would hyper pretend to be that way just as a joke. But I never thought that he was evil.

In this case, I do believe that they do think he’s a danger, even though almost everything he does that bothers them is verbal. And none of it is actual deeds. I mean, I don’t know how, after the North Korea thing, you cannot look at him differently—that he did something. Obama’s known for being audacious.

That’s the most audacious thing a president has done just to say, “We’ll see what happens.

I’ll meet with the guy. I’ll meet with the guy.

You know, he’s not a bad guy.”

Like I always say that Trump was a real estate contractor from Queens. He’s dealt with worse. You think Putin’s bad; talk to the Mob in Brooklyn.

ADAMS: He had to buy concrete from somebody.

GUTFELD: Somebody. Exactly. And that concrete wasn’t just concrete. There was some guy in there.

ADAMS: Filler. I forget who said this first, but how did it get to the place where the Left thinks that the Right is evil and the Right thinks that the Left is stupid?

GUTFELD: It was said by Charles Krauthammer, one of the great minds [who] passed away recently. He said it in a column in the late ’80s maybe, or early ’90s. He goes, “That’s the key difference. It’s this moral belief that if I disagree with somebody, I think it’s because they’re wrong or maybe stupid. But they just think I’m evil.”

That allows for everything, including violence. So you’ll have a talking head on CNN defending Antifa because they’re good, even though they’re hitting people with bike

locks. It’s weird, that kind of moral certainty can excuse any behavior.

ADAMS: What do you think changed your opinion of Trump as things went? Was there anything that specifically turned you?

GUTFELD: Him winning. I decided to rewind and start over and go deeds, not words.

That was just it. It was like, “Okay you gotta accept the personality for what it is.” He’s not going to change. You could say, I wish he wouldn’t tweet as much. He’s not going to listen. He’s going to insult people. That’s who he is. And he got that from doing all those Comedy Central roasts and being the target. He knows what he’s doing. He’s a New York contractor from Queens. That’s who he is. Watch the deeds.

I also had to recognize my own hypocrisies—that I was like he’s redefining what a president can do, and he’s basically acting like somebody on a talk show. I had people at Fox, and I won’t mention their names—O’Reilly—that said, “Why didn’t I run?” That’s what he said. And he wasn’t joking. He was watching what was happening with Trump, and he was like, “I could have done it.”

And then I said, “Not on your life.”

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

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BETH COMSTOCK

Former Vice Chair, General Electric; Author, Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change

Beth Comstock THE INNOVATORS

In conversation with

GINA BIANCHINI

Founder and CEO, Mighty Networks

How do companies deal w i th con s t ant change?

From the September 20, 2018, program “A Guide to Innovation, With Beth Comstock” in San Francisco.

Prog ram sup p or te d by Wells Fargo.

GINA BIANCHINI: How do you define what it means to be a changemaker, and when did you know you were one?

BETH COMSTOCK: Well, I didn’t aspire to be one when I was growing up. That’s for sure. To me, changemaker is just somebody who has a passion to discover what’s new and what’s next, and you believe in a better way, and you’re going to make it happen.

It’s also a very entrepreneurial kind of trait, right? To believe in a better way and you’re going to do whatever you can to make it happen. So I think there’s a part of an entrepreneur that’s a changemaker.

BIANCHINI: And when did you know you were one?

COMSTOCK: I kept finding myself in these positions where I wanted to be part of something better and different. I say my big epiphany came at one of the most formative jobs I ever had when I worked at NBC News the second time. It was right after NBC had had a big crisis—the original fake news episode in the ’90s—where the news division was basically brought to its knees. Everyone got fired, and I was brought in as part of a new team. It was the most entrepreneurial assignment I’d had. We had nothing to lose because everything had almost been lost.

They’d almost shut the news division down.

So we were encouraged to— BIANCHINI: What was the incident?

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Left to right: Beth Comstock and Gina Bianchini. Photos by Sarah Gonzalez

COMSTOCK: There was a “Dateline” episode where they faked a General Motors car blowing up. They faked it by putting rockets on the truck and blew it up for effect.

BIANCHINI: Talk about entrepreneurial.

COMSTOCK: Yeah, it was very entrepreneurial. It basically got almost everyone fired.

When you’re in that position where you have nothing to lose, you become very creative.

You bring this team together. For me, it was an incredible awakening that I could be part of change, that I could be valued for an opinion, that I could form a team around it.

It was just freeing, and to this day [it was] probably one of the best jobs I ever had. That was very early in my career.

BIANCHINI: One of the things in your story that is super interesting is the fact that you have found yourself time and time again being asked by someone to take on more responsibility, to take on a big challenge, and you haven’t backed down from it. When was the moment that you knew you were not only capable but excited for the thrill and the challenge of taking on something that didn’t seem like it was possible? Because what you’re describing in terms of NBC News was before you went to GE for the first time. Maybe you can share that story in terms of what you walked into.

COMSTOCK: I grew up on NBC. GE owned NBC. I got a call one day from Jack Welch, saying, “Hey, come upstairs. I want to talk to you.” And he brought me into GE. It was the height of GE’s ascension to rock star status as a company—and him as rock star CEO. He was in the process of having a suc-

cession; he had announced that. But the culture was very much [one] of perfection and precision. It was very much [based on] Six Sigma [a managerial process for improving how a company runs by eliminating flaws].

He had used that to help the company. At NBC, we did Six Sigma, and we didn’t know what we were doing. Imagine Six Sigma in a broadcasting network. I don’t know. The best we came up with [was] we rebranded these hats that were really great. We called them “QNBC.” It was “quality NBC”— BIANCHINI: My first exposure to Six Sigma was actually the “30 Rock” episode [which spoofed Six Sigma].

COMSTOCK: Yeah. No, it’s the best. But people thought we were launching the queer network, “queer NBC,” and they became incredibly hot hats. People thought we were launching something really exciting, and it wasn’t that exciting.

But I go to GE, and it was very much this precision culture. Jack [Welch] leaves; Jeff Immelt comes in. At the time, I became chief marketing officer, and we had to innovate. It was really hard to innovate in a culture that was all about perfection.

Trust me, when you’re flying [on] a jet engine next time, you want Six Sigma. You want there to be as many sigmas as possible.

But if you’re going to innovate, a quest for perfection holds you back. People go around measuring defects, and if you made a mistake, you were a defect. That was the environment I walked into.

BIANCHINI: So many times changemaking, discovery, exploration, even just the

terms innovation or disruption, can almost be mocked as terms. But they’re used in so many generic ways that they actually become almost meaningless.

There was a very specific reason that GE was moving from the Six Sigma financial operations, engineering and manufacturing excellence to innovation and exploration, which was this move from essentially manufactured growth to organic growth. What was that like to go through the transition of a corporate strategy, which, in that case, you’re moving 300,000 employees?

And then there’s also a really interesting aspect, which was not only were you entering an organization that had 300,000 employees and needed to move to a very different culture and a very different metric, which was organic growth, but you were also doing it in a role you’d never had before.

COMSTOCK: Yeah. The organic mandate was clear. The company had grown a lot through acquisition, and I think that happens a lot in business, where you grow through acquisition, but you need to grow what you have. The world was becoming more global, and the opportunity to grow meant you had to go to new markets. You had to discover all kinds of new trends. You had to be part of the world. That was the mandate, right?

So I came in as the chief marketing officer— To me, the opportunity was: Marketing’s about the market. It’s about growth; it’s about making the market. When you take your job seriously, it’s about marketing. Live in the market, you start to see change; you start to see patterns. The discovery for us was: Hey, marketing should be brought to the beginning of the process. It’s the GPS of an organization. It’s: Where’s the world going?

And that was really our calling card.

BIANCHINI: And was that the expectation of your peers at GE? COMSTOCK: No, not at all. Jeff Immelt’s expectation [was] that he wanted a team that could help us point to where the world was going and help drive new revenue. That was organic growth, new revenue. He just kind of said, “Here, go figure it out.” I hadn’t been trained classically; I hadn’t been to business school. I grew up in media. I had to kind of forge a new path.

People were like, “Why are you here?”

They didn’t even really understand what marketing was—nor did I, really. But [there was this] sense of: It’s not just the story you

tell; it’s not just the ad you do. So we went out and hired a bunch of great marketing people.

I hired a bunch of MBAs; I think that they were helpful. They brought their toolkit, but they were not as entrepreneurial and figure-itout kind of people as we ultimately needed.

But it was really: Let’s get people; let’s just go to the markets and see what’s happening. And that was the journey we went on.

BIANCHINI: When you hired MBAs, it wasn’t like you hired a couple summer interns.

COMSTOCK: Yeah, we hired 100 MBAs. BIANCHINI: You hired 100, and you sent them off to emerging markets, different markets, and then brought them back, which is a scale that—again, you weren’t also just trying to grow revenue organically. It was [the scale of ] like five Ubers or something like that.

COMSTOCK: We had to grow. I’m on the board of Nike; we had to grow a Nike every year, a Starbucks every year—that was the challenge. So you had to find new growth.

It’s a very great culture: performance driven, integrity, all those things—but really [it was] kind of waiting for the checklist, wanting to be told what to do in some respect, and we were forging yet another lane that said, “We don’t know the answer. We don’t know where we’re going. We don’t know.” That uncertainty, I think, creates tension. And it created some tension in the culture.

BIANCHINI: You’re sitting there the night that you get this mandate, or you’re being presented with this new opportunity—not only a new opportunity new to you, but it’s also new to the company. What was that process like for you in terms of steeling yourself to say, “Okay, I’m going to do this.”

Did it come from a place of naivete, or do you feel like it came from a place of just, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to stay open to it?”

COMSTOCK: It was a bit of both. [There was] definitely naivete of not knowing what I don’t know. And then just openness. In times like those, I rely on my curiosity.

Where’s it going to take me? What can I learn?

For the first 100 days, my method is just to do what I do: I go into discovery mode.

I called everybody I knew. I called famous chief marketing

officers of major companies and said, “I’m new in this job. Can I come and study from you?” I called up college professors [such as] Philip Kotler of Northwestern. I read his textbooks. I called him up and [said], “Can I ask you questions?” I just went to school and tried to hire great people who had knowledge that I didn’t have.

I think that’s been my go-to move.

Whenever I don’t know [where to start], I get out and I just try to get into discovery mode. That’s really part of what I’m trying to do with the book: encourage people to not always feel like you’re going to have the answer, to make room for discovery. It’s a part of the book that I’m actually most passionate about. Too often, we just want to stick with what we know. We don’t want to get out of our existing habits. I try to make a case that if you’re not out in the world trying to see patterns, understand where change is happening, you’re going to be disrupted by it. I think everybody has to make that part of their job. You don’t just delegate it to the marketing department, the insights department.

One of the things I encourage people [to do] is just pick 10 percent of your time. I guarantee you, everybody has 10 percent of their time that they’re currently in meetings, doing things they’ve already done the same old way that they don’t really need to be there. Can you find 10 percent of your time and just force yourself to see things?

Just to go to places where things challenge what you know. Go to places that are seemingly weird, right? Things that you’re like,

“What does this have to do with what I’m doing? Well, there’s a trend here. I think I need to understand it.” And [that is], I think, what everybody needs to do to get ready for change.

BIANCHINI: Shifting to thinking about you as a leader and driving forward not only change but [also] discovery and how you think about discovery and exploration—you were not entering organizations that were really fired up for it. I’m curious; you basically got yourself comfortable with the 10 percent but also [with] putting yourself in situations and saying yes to things.

COMSTOCK: Saying yes to pretty much anything. [There are] limits, but [I would say “yes” to] pretty much anything—because I want to learn.

BIANCHINI: Right. How do you infuse that as a leader into, not just your own team where you have direct reports—but you are coming out of an incredibly matrixed organization, as many people in this room probably have as well, where it feels like the best-case scenario is the skeptics will speak up, and the worst case scenario is people are, I think the technical term for it is, blowing you up behind your back. What did you do that in hindsight really worked, and if you could wave a magic wand and go back in time, you would want to have done more or less of?

COMSTOCK: Partly, because I defined my job, I was going to be more externally

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focused in a company that was very internally focused. It was in some ways an easy opportunity, because it’s not like everybody else was doing it. So I just grabbed that. I saw what was happening and said, “I’m going to make that my job.” I put myself out there.

I’m by nature more shy and introverted.

So that seemingly is at odds [with being externally focused]. But it’s that curiosity. I just want to learn, and I like seeing what’s new and next. So I put myself in those positions where I can learn. I’m kind of the advance person, the advance woman of the company.

I talked about in the book this idea of being “the outsider inside.” I feel like that’s always been a way I’ve looked at myself, being a bit different. I left media to go to GE. There weren’t many people leaving NBC to go to GE. BIANCHINI: And then go back.

COMSTOCK: And then go back. Yet it seemed like, “Why not?” It’s this huge platform. I wanted to learn. So I make sure I put myself there. First thing is people see me doing it. Often, it’s like, “Oh, it’s so silly.

Why are you wasting your time?” But with enough pattern recognition, I am able to say, “I saw this.” I think it’s really great when you can take your teams together. Simple trick: I always like to do field trip Friday. It’s a really simple concept: Once a month, take your team together and go explore something new.

I remember, we were looking at new mod-

els of energy, and we went and studied vertical farming in New York City and [looked at] how are they using energy and water. It’s these kinds of things you can—most places will let you come in and learn from them. And then you just sort of graduate from there.

I call it going on three. It’s really simple, and it’s really just pattern recognition. So the first time I go out, and I’ll try to see something and I’ll make note of it. I’ll see something [and say], “Oh, that’s interesting.” Second time, it’s like, “Huh, I’m seeing [the same thing]—is that a coincidence?” Third time, I just declare it’s a trend. I’m seeing this three times and in three situations. I’m going to declare it’s a trend, let’s go to work. Let’s figure out what’s going on. Why do we need to understand this, and why is it relevant to us?

And then you have to start bringing those insights in. I call them “sparks.” You bring in people that have expertise in this new weird thing, and you make the team feel really uncomfortable, because they provoke them.

BIANCHINI: What are you the most excited about in the near future?

COMSTOCK: I’m most excited about . . . I do think there is this sense of people wanting to take a stand in things, wanting to tell their story, wanting to be more authentic. I think we’re seeing just the sense of authenticity of people wanting to own that. I’m excited about that in products, in business, and communities being built.

RICK WILSON EVERYTHING DIES TRUMP TOUCHES

Photos by Sarah Gonzalez

RICK WILSON Republican Campaign Strategist; Columnist, The Daily Beast; Author, Everything Trump Touches Dies In conversation with

JOHN ZIPPERER

Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President, Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club— Moderator

The king of negative ads finds his real nemesis in t he c ur rent pre sident .

From the October 23, 2018, program in San Francisco, “Republican Strategist Rick Wilson: Dark Politics in the Age of Trump.”

JOHN ZIPPERER: This book is a no-holdsbarred takedown of Donald Trump, the Trump administration, and every individual in government, the GOP, the media, and elsewhere who has supported him, whether reluctantly or enthusiastically. You’ve known him for years or you’ve known of him for years— RICK WILSON: I’ve known of him. I’ve met Donald Trump a few times over the years. When I worked for [Rudy] Giuliani in New York, when he was mayor, the impression of Donald Trump of every single person in this city was basically “This guy’s a fraud” and “This guy’s a joke.” He’s always looking for the greater fool lender to come down the pike. When I started to grow extremely concerned about Trump in the course of the election, I ran out to see a hedge fund friend of mine in New York. I said, “We’ve got to be very careful because if Trump puts his own money into this race, he could—he’s a billionaire.” My friend says, “Wait a minute. . . . Donald Trump’s not a billionaire.” He looks at me and he goes, “I’m a billionaire.

Donald Trump is a clown living on credit.”

It struck me at that moment the enormity of the fraud we were looking at, because this guy has always looked for one scam after

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another, one sucker after another. Unfortunately, this time the mark was the Republican Party and the conservative movement and about 40 percent of Americans.

ZIPPERER: Let’s talk about where you came from and how you came to your views. Now, you were born in Tampa, Florida.

WILSON: I was born in Florida and raised in an educated family, upper middle class family.

ZIPPERER: Conservative?

WILSON: No, actually my mom was a damn hippie liberal. I would say that I was raised in a conservative climate, but my parents were very much civil rights liberals. I grew up not thinking of that as a particularly liberal position, but as a particularly humane and appropriate position.

I came up in politics working for George H. W. Bush and for a lot of people who now would be viewed in this Republican Party as people that were to the left of Ted Kennedy.

There was a certain fundamental decency about how we approach people and a certain degree where we played very, very hard politics. We didn’t take a lot of prisoners, but we were also mindful of the progress of this country on some very meaningful areas— civil rights in particular, the environment in particular—that was precious, and we didn’t want to see it walked back or rolled back or destroyed.

Unfortunately, we’re now in an era where all the works of the past must be torn down.

The president is proposing to eliminate the Intermediate Forces Treaty, which that noted liberal extremist, Kenyan, Muslim, sleeper agent Ronald Reagan signed with Gorbachev to reduce the threat of nuclear war in Europe.

That has to be torn down now because it’s an artifact of the non-Trumpian past. We’ve got to have year zero on everything.

ZIPPERER: The type of conservative you are and the type of Republican you are—other Never Trumpers who’ve been here, David Frum, Charlie Sykes, both came to the realization that they thought that they were the majority in the party, and they came to realize they were a thin veneer on the party, that this populist feeling and this disgruntlement and the lack of attachment to these principles that have been argued out in the Federalist Society and all these other conservative organizations meant nothing to [GOP voters].

WILSON: We’ve learned that, and that’s been part of the shock and awe of Trumpism.

For people who have a room temperature or

greater IQ in the Republican Party, this idea that the people that go to a Trump rally want to talk about [economist Friedrich] Hayek and want to talk about free markets—they don’t give a damn about that stuff. They have a bundle of anxieties and resentments that’s being fed every day by Fox. They have this enormous anger with the educated part of the party. They look at it as something that’s held them back or held them down or hurt them or belittles them in some way.

That old model [of ] the GOP [was] the tripod, where you had social conservatives, you had national security and foreign policy conservatives, and you had economic and individual liberty conservatives. That balance used to keep any particular faction from becoming too powerful. But that’s all gone now. There is only one pillar of the Republican Party today, and that’s Donald Trump.

The party that produced Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and Jack Kemp and John McCain and a whole host of other people who had a view of the world that was nuanced and had a view of the world that spanned an entire area of conservative thought in different degrees and different flavors, it’s all gone. It’s all been replaced by: Do you love the dear leader enough? Will you sacrifice for the Donald enough? They’ve gambled everything on whether Donald Trump is going to be verbally incontinent two days before the election and blow up their entire strategy. They recognize that they’re one tweet away from disaster at any given moment, but they’re also terrified of his base, they’re terrified of the people that support him.

If you guys ever wonder why aren’t more Republicans standing up and fighting back against Donald Trump, I will tell you exactly why. Because the minute they do, their Facebook pages and their Twitter feeds and their voice mails fill up with the most vile, horrifying death threats you’ve ever imagined.

A member of Congress who’s a friend, right after the election was doing a town hall meeting. He was asked by a guy, “Are you going to support Mr. Trump 100 percent of the time?” He says, “Well, I’m going to support the president when the president does things that are right for our district. I represent you.

I don’t represent Donald Trump.”

The guy insists, “Are you going to support Mr. Trump 100 percent of the time?” He says, “No, I’m not going to support him 100 per-

cent of the time. I’m going to support him when he’s right. I’m going to work with him when he’s right to do things for our district.”

This is not some flaming liberal social justice warrior. This is a guy who’s from a decently red seat.

By the time he got off the stage, his kids’ social media pages had threats on them, saying things like, “You better tell your dad he better stick with Mr. Trump or you’ll grow up without a daddy.” His wife’s business got calls that morning, “You better fire her because we’re going to boycott you and do all these things,” and the death threats they got were ridiculous.

I’ve fought a lot of races against Democrats. I’ve taken you-all’s lunch money a lot.

I’ve run some ads that really pissed people off. There were only a couple times when I’ve gotten a death threat I thought was credible, where I thought it was like, “I better call the P.D. about this one.” Since 2015, in a state where I can, I carry a gun for a reason. I’ve had enough threats, my kids have had enough threats, my wife’s had enough threats, my dogs and cats have had enough threats. These people are bonkers and they feel unhinged

by Donald Trump. They feel liberated to do this sort of thing.

This is why the projection you’re hearing from Donald Trump about mobs is out there.

This is why Republicans are saying, “Oh, the Democratic mob, the violent Democratic antifa.” Well, the people that are carrying torches and calling for black people to be put back in chattel slavery are not a bunch of Democrats that I noticed. They’re people who supported Donald Trump 100 percent of the time. Trump has what the Russians will call zampolit—they’re political enforcers by threat of violence.

ZIPPERER: You seem confident about the Democrats taking the House. What are some of the factors that come into play?

We talked here at the Club last night about millennials voting or Hispanics voting or not voting. What do you think will be the key decision-makers?

WILSON: Well, let me say this first off, and I told Democrats this a lot. I mean this with love, you all: Democrats are holistically bad at politics. They chase every damn rabbit out there, and they cannot stay on target for their lives. This entire caravan issue, that is Trump bait. He threw that out there and, of course, the Democrats crawled all over

it. Therefore, the news media starts covering it. It gives Fox News something to say every night that the Bin Laden family is creeping toward the border to murder you with their Mexican MS-13 allies, and [it] stoked the Republican base into a frenzy.

This idea that the blue wave has completely dissipated is mistaken. Those things are baked in the cake already. Look, a lot of people on the Republican side were motivated by the [Brett] Kavanaugh thing, because it got wall-to-wall coverage on Fox for three consecutive weeks. It became something that was a unifying thing outside of Trumpism for Republicans, the feeling of the media is treating us badly, as juvenile as that is.

The flip side of this coin, in 2016, Republican women got a trial separation from the party. All through ’17, the divorce proceedings were going on. We saw in all the special elections that Republican women had basically moved to the independent category, but they were casting votes for Democrats.

A lot of groups that people think are going to come out in great numbers are not. Stop thinking millennials are going to save you.

They’re not going to save you. You know what? It’s going to maybe be instead of 23 percent, 25 percent. Even Barack Obama only juiced them about five points, and that was an epic moment. Millennials are not going to be the be-all and end-all to fix politics for the Democrats in America. They’re going to help. They’re certainly all identifying as Democrats now.

Hispanic voters are going to come out, not in as big a number as Democrats had hoped perhaps, because they, again, suck at politics holistically, and they’re not good at addressing things beyond “feels,” the identity politics clichés of, “Oh, all they care about is immigration.”

You know what Hispanics care about more on polling that I’ve done all over the country? Education by far. It’s way up here for Hispanic voters. The Democrats never give them the answers they’re looking for. It’s always, “You’re the oppressed minority.

We’re going to take care of you by fixing the immigration system.”

A lot of these people care about immigration, it affects

their lives very directly, but they care about education and jobs more. Read the polls once in a while. It might help.

ZIPPERER: A question from the audience.

“If Trump is so terrible, how do you explain his success? The economy, Supreme Court, et cetera.”

WILSON: Well, President [Mitch] McConnell has been very successful in naming two Supreme Court justices, first of all. The economy—when this economy was doing exactly what it’s doing right now, when it was Barack Obama, I criticized it because the economy is held afloat on a gigantic bubble of Fed equity, of zero-interest loans to Wall Street. After the 2008 economic collapse, the Fed stepped in and inflated the economy.

That bubble is still keeping us afloat.

There have been no meaningful legislative accomplishments of Donald Trump on the economy at all. These manufacturing jobs that were coming along, they were coming along in the end of Obama’s term.

The regulatory fixes he’s done have actually been so narrowly crafted because they are payoffs to the coal industry and the steel industry. Those things have been almost tuned to support individual corporations. A lot of the stuff he’s talking about is, of course, completely false. When he comes out and says, “We’re opening 20 new steel plants in this country and a million people are going to be working in them”—well, it’s one, that it planned to reopen under Obama and it’s employing 40 more people. This bubble of fantasy of Trump’s accomplishments is just that. It’s a bubble. It’s all hat and no cattle.

ZIPPERER: You devote a large part of your

book to describing the people who have fallen victim to the curse of “everything Trump touches dies.” Let’s talk about some of them.

Let’s start with Steve Bannon.

WILSON: Well, imagine cancer with legs.

Steve Bannon is one of the darkest and most evil people in American politics. . . . He’s a racial arsonist. He is seeking to overturn the republic and replace it with an authoritarian nationalist populist state. He’s a walking treason. He’s one of the most loathsome human beings I’ve ever encountered in any context whatsoever. The fact that Steve Bannon targeted my kids to get at me, he should hope we never meet in a dark alley. Let’s put it that way.

ZIPPERER: You do take delicious satisfaction in working against Bannon— WILSON: Oh, yes.

ZIPPERER: —in that infamous Roy Moore Senate campaign in Alabama. Tell our audiences about that.

WILSON: I would have done the Roy Moore race pro bono, because I heard Steve Bannon had every scrap of his credibility into the race. I thought, “Oh, my God. He’s actually dumber than I thought.” I took my superpower—which is making terrible negative ads that people go, “I can’t believe I saw that on TV” and then they go out and vote the way I want them to—against Roy Moore.

It’s rare in politics when you get to do the right thing and screw your enemy to the wall.

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Steve Bannon’s hide is tacked up on the barn up behind the house right now because he lost everything at that. Why is Steve Bannon running around Europe trying to rev up lowrent, right wing, Hitlerite parties? Because the [billionaire] Mercers . . . cut off Steve Bannon at the knees. He’s running around now trying to revive his reputation as this mastermind of nationalist populism. But he’s an evil human being, and a healthy political system would purge him.

Even Trump himself, last night, finally broke the seal. He came out and said in Texas, “Oh, I’m a nationalist. I’m a nationalist.”

Well, that’s an old song. We know how it ends. We’ve seen it over the last 150 years over and over again. Nationalism is not patriotism. Nationalism is not conservatism.

Nationalism is not even populism. Nationalism is a tool, a gateway drug for authoritarian statism that leads to people being stacked up like cordwood in camps. It never ends well.

I think the full embrace of nationalism by Trump last night was something that we’re going to look as an inflection point in this country, where people are going to have to make a call, and they’re going to have to make a call very soon about which side they’re on.

Are they on the side of the republic? Are they Republicans, Democrats, or independents, or do they favor something new and dark? Unfortunately, it may be a new and dark thing in America, but it’s something

we’ve seen in the world, in Bosnia and in Germany and in Italy and in Cambodia and in Rwanda. It never ends the way they want it to end.

ZIPPERER: Is it fair to say more so than Trump’s betrayal of conservative views, more than what he’s doing to the Republican Party, that, at the core, is what’s driving you against him?

WILSON: Absolutely, because I don’t think anyone of good will, from any political perspective, wants to see the republic fall and be replaced by authoritarianism.

Authoritarianism, left or right, is anathema to what I believe America represents and what America can and should be. We’ve always had this broad, homeostatic political system in our country. Right never gets control for too, too long or too, too much.

Left never gets control for too, too long or too, too much. We don’t always get what we want. We play back and forth.

That was what the founders designed.

They designed a beautiful tension in our system. They designed a government that had three co-equal branches. They designed a system that limited executive power and that limited legislative power and limited judicial power. They had these careful lanes and balances. We’re at the point where the enthusiasms of the crowd and the mob are going to replace that if we’re not extraordinarily careful as a country.

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DR. LUCY JONES

Seismologist; Research Associate, Caltech Seismological Laboratory; Author, The Big Ones In conversation with

JANET NAPOLITANO

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

Program Photos by James Meinerth

Dr. Lucy Jones works to increas e t he abili t y of communities to adapt and be resilient to whatever nature throws their way.

H i s t o r i c a l l y, p l a n n i n g for dis as ter s does not adequatel y t ake into account the great loss of life post-disaster. From the August 21, 2018, program in San Francisco, “Janet Napolitano and Dr. Lucy Jones: Reducing the Risk from Natural Disasters.”

JANET NAPOLITANO: As we know, we live in a world where we are beset with earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, wildfires and erupting volcanoes. Here in California, of course, we live with the knowledge that the big one could happen at any time. And we are living through one of the worst wildfire seasons in our history.

You’ve worked as a seismologist for the USGS [United States Geological Survey] for 33 years, and you continue to serve as a research associate at Caltech. What led you on your path to becoming an internationally renowned seismologist? And the next question is going to be: What led you to write this book?

LUCY JONES: I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was very torn between the humanities and the sciences. My father was an engineer and worked on Apollo 14. When it landed on the moon, I told him I was going to become an astrophysicist and live on the moon. At the same time, I found myself studying Chinese because my grandparents had been missionaries there. My dad had been born and brought up in China. I ended up going and spending my junior year in Taipei and becoming fluent in Chinese. And I sat there going: physics—building bombs?

And maybe—the foreign service and being a government bureaucrat?

Somebody convinced me to go and take a geology class. Since I had grown up hiking the mountains of the Sierras, they said you can become a geophysicist and go play in the mountains and get paid for it. It sounded

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like a pretty good idea if that would actually work out.

I ended up reading the 900-page textbook in the first week because I couldn’t put it down. I just had discovered what I really wanted. It was science that was applied. It was science that mattered to the world. I wasn’t inventing the great[est], newest equation, but I was figuring out what it meant and how the world worked, and I thought I’d come and save the world—or at least the part of it stupid enough to live on the San Andreas Fault, which is all of us Californians.

NAPOLITANO: What led you to write this book?

JONES: Well, after a career of doing this, I ended up in a position where—because I spoke a little perhaps closer to English than some of my colleagues at Caltech—when the media would come and talk to us after an earthquake, I was often the one that was asked to do it. It was also partly because I did not follow the scientific norm of always couching everything about my uncertainties.

I would tend to make more definitive statements than perhaps many scientists are comfortable with—but it meant the media really wanted to talk with me. And I went through this whole experience of listening—you know, the disconnect between what people were asking and what people were thinking and what we as scientists knew—and realizing that our science wasn’t getting used in the way it could [be].

We have all these scientific articles. The information’s all there. How come it’s not getting used? Part of it’s because it didn’t connect with people. This whole process helped me understand how much stories matter to people. We determine facts through the scientific method, but we make decisions with storytelling. I needed to put the two together.

NAPOLITANO: There have been lots of disasters in the world.

JONES: Yes. NAPOLITANO: And we’re not just talking politics, we’re talking . . . [Laughter.]

JONES: I try to stay in the natural realm.

NAPOLITANO: Natural disasters. There have been lots of natural disasters, and you selected 11 because they changed society somehow.

JONES: My requirement [was] that they couldn’t just be a really bad disaster. They had to have been something that really affected the fundamentals of their society. I start

with Pompeii, which completely eliminated a whole part of the Roman Empire, and [I] end up with the Japanese Tohoku earthquake in 2011.

NAPOLITANO: Fukushima.

JONES: The Fukushima nuclear disaster is really changing how Japan deals with its energy issues, but it’s also changing the role of women in Japanese society, because of this really fundamental disruption that’s happened to the communities there. But there would be more than 11 of those [types of disasters].

I then had a second criteria: I had to know there was something I wanted to say about the disaster, that it exemplified something that I thought was important to communicate about it.

NAPOLITANO: One of the really interesting chapters was the eruption at the Laki volcano in Iceland in 17— JONES: ’83.

NAPOLITANO: … ’83, right. I don’t think many people know about this, so why don’t you walk the audience a little through the scope of this disaster?

JONES: Yeah, this is the greatest catastrophe in human history—at least, counted from number of dead—which, given that the country of Iceland only had 50,000 people at that point, takes getting beyond the country of Iceland. It happened in the southeast, in the farmlands—an eruption that went on for about eight months and eliminated, completely covered in lava, close to half the cropland of the country.

It was devastating to Iceland. They became a nation of refugees with no place to go. The whole country was affected by this. They lost their food. Every bit of land was covered in poisonous gas so that all the land-based food was poisonous. And the only food had to come out of the ocean. They lost almost a quarter of their population to famine. They lost communities. People had to give up and leave—it was a huge migration. They are very fascinated with lineage and genealogy in Iceland, but there’s a lot of the records that don’t make it past . . . you can’t go back before Laki, because so many communities were so disrupted [that] there was nobody left to record the deaths, and the records break down.

So fundamental to them—but it also produced a huge amount of poisonous gas.

And that gas went through an eruptive phase that got the gas up into the stratosphere. So Continued on page 33

Walking the Camino de Santiago Highlights of Spain’s Pilgrimage Trail May 15-28, 2019

ITINERARY Wednesday, May 15 Depart the U.S. on independent flights to Madrid, Spain.

Thursday, May 16 Madrid, Spain / Burgos Arrive in Madrid and transfer (~2 ½ hours) to Burgos. After a guided walk of the town and visit to the cathedral, gather for our welcome dinner.

Walking: ~2 hour Hotel NH Collection Palacio de Burgos (D)

Friday, May 17

WHAT TO EXPECT Participants must be in very good health and able to keep up with an active group of walkers. Walks are moderate with some strenuous segments. On average guests will walk 4-5 miles each day over 2-4 hours. Our longest hike is 8 miles.

Most walking activities take place between 2,000-5,000 feet.

Travelers should be able to walk on gravel and dirt hiking trails and through uneven meadows. Trails are well-marked, but some include rocky sections and steep ascents and descents. Sturdy walking/hiking shoes are required; ankle-high shoes are highly recommended.

One should be able to use stairs without handrails and stand for periods of two hours at a time.

One does not have to participate in every activity, but travelers should be aware of the pace.

Cirueña / Santo Domingo de la Calzada / Rioja We travel by bus to Cirueña to begin our walk to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, where we visit the charming town center and the cathedral. After lunch, continue by bus through the Rioja region, stopping to visit a wine cellar for a tasting before returning to Burgos.

Walking: 4 miles/~2 hours, countryside trails and village walking Hotel NH Collection Palacio de Burgos (B,L,D)

Saturday, May 18 Oca Mountains and the Shrine of San Juan Travel to the edge of the Oca Mountains where we start our walk to the shrine of San Juan de Ortega with its beautiful Romanesque church and monastery ruins.

Today is our longest hike and we stop on the trail for lunch. Return this afternoon to Burgos for free time.

Walking: Up to 8 miles/~4 hours, mountain trails Hotel NH Collection Palacio de Burgos (B,L,D)

Sunday, May 19 Castrojeriz / Fromista / Leon Depart Burgos by coach for Castrojeriz, enjoying views of the evocative landscape of the great plains of Castile. From Castrojeriz, walk through the flat lands and rolling hills of the “Meseta” (the plateau) to the border of the province of Palencia. Continue by coach

to one of the architectural gems on this trip, the Romanesque church of Fromista. Arrive in Leon late in the day.

Walking: Up to 5 ½ miles/~3 ½ hours, flat lands and rolling hills Hotel Real Colegiata de San Isidro (B,L,D)

Monday, May 20 Leon Visit the former Roman garrison of Leon and tour the Gothic cathedral. Its impressive stained glass windows rival those of Chartres and the cathedral is the purest example of the Gothic style in Spain. See the Pantheon of the Kings, which contains some of the finest medieval frescoes in Europe, remarkably preserved and still in their original setting. See the Casa de Botines, an uncharacteristically restrained modernist building by the great Catalan architect, Gaudi. Enjoy lunch on your own and a free afternoon to explore Leon.

Walking: Up to 2 miles/~3 hours, city walking Hotel Real Colegiata de San Isidro (B,D)

Tuesday, May 21 Natural Park of Somiedo / Brana de Mumian Travel to the beautiful region of Austurias to explore the Natural Park of Somiedo in the foothills of the Picos de Europa.

This reserve has the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve designation and it is one of Spain’s most breathtaking settings. Today’s walk leads us up the hills to the picturesque shepherd’s village of Branade Mumian.

Enjoy magnificent view from the mountain range of the Cordillera Cantabrica.

Walking: 4 ½ miles/~4 ½ hours, up and down trails Hotel Real Colegiata de San Isidro (B,L,D)

Wednesday, May 22 Astorga / Molinaseca / Ponferrada Depart Leon by coach, stopping in Puente de Orbigo to walk across the medieval bridge “Paso Honroso.” Continue to the walled city of Astorga for an orientation walk and free time. You might want to

visit the Bishop’s Palace (built by Gaudi) which houses a museum about the Camino de Santiago. Continue to the edge of the Leon Mountains, one of the main natural barriers of the road. Over the pass of “Cruz de Hierro” (The Iron Cross) we find one of the oldest monuments along “St. James Way”. Stop to walk amidst some of the wildest scenery of the trip, to the village of Molinaseca. Continue by coach to our hotel in Ponferrada.

Walking: Up to 6 miles/~3 hours, village and dirt trails AC Hotel Ponferrada (B,L,D)

Thursday, May 23 Villafranca del Bierzo / Ponferrada Depart for Camponaraya for an easy walk through vast vineyards to Cacabelos.

Continue by coach to Pieros where we then walk to Villafranca del Bierzo , where we see the Iglesia de Santiago, a place where pilgrims who could not continue on to Santiago de Compostela due to health reasons could receive a special absolution.

Following lunch, return to Ponferrada for a free afternoon.

Walking: Up to 6 miles/~2 ½ hours through vineyards and villages AC Hotel Ponferrada (B,L,D)

Friday, May 24 O’Cebreiro/ Triacastela / Sarria Travel into Galicia through O’Cebreiro, an important symbolic site of the pilgrimage.

Explore this mystic place, known for its thatched stone huts (pallozas) and its preRomanesque church. After a short drive, walk along the pilgrim’s way to Samos Monastery, an impressive example of the importance of monastic life on El Camino.

Continue by coach to the hotel in Sarria.

Walking: Up to 7 ½ miles/~4 hours rolling

hills, some steep uphill and downhill Hotel Alfonso IX (B,L,D)

Saturday, May 25 Sarria / Portomarin / Santiago de Compostela We start our walk of the pilgrim’s road right from the hotel in Sarria, the starting point of the most popular section of the pilgrimage: the “Camino Last 100 km.” Walk along cultivated fields, with cows grazing in the meadows, and lanes flanked by chestnut and oak trees. Arrive at Lavandeira, where we then drive to the pretty town of Portomarin, located on the banks of the Rio Mino. Continue to Santiago de Compostela stopping along the way to climb the Hill of Joy. Check in to our hotel in the center of town and walk to the Cathedral of Santiago, on the path that pilgrims have walked for centuries.

Walking: Up to 4 ½ miles/~4 hours, undulating fields and meadows, some steep uphill Hotel Monumento San Francisco (B,L,D)

Sunday, May 26 Santiago de Compostela Tour the magnificent Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, the finest example of both Romanesque and Baroque art in Spain, set in the monumental Obradoiro Square. Enjoy a local lunch on your own and a free afternoon.

Walking: Up to 1 ½ miles /~2 hours in town Hotel Monumento San Francisco (B,D)

Monday, May 27 Finisterre / Santiago de Compostela Travel to Finisterre, passing the fisherman’s village Fisterra en route to the cape, Cabo Finisterre, “the end of the world.” After our walk, enjoy a seafood lunch before returning to Santiago. Gather tonight for a farewell tapas dinner at the hotel.

Walking: Up to 2 miles / ~1 hour on coastal roads Hotel Monumento San Francisco (B,L,D)

Tuesday, May 28 Santiago de Compostela / U.S. Breakfast at the hotel, and transfer to Santiago de Compostela airport for flights home. (B)

TRIP DETAILS Dates: May 15-28, 2019 (14 days) Group Size: Minimum 10, Maximum 20 (not including staff) Cost: $5,795 per person, double occupancy, $6,790 single room Included: Tour leader, local guides, and guest speakers; activities as specified in the itinerary; transportation throughout; airport transfers on designated group dates and times; 12 nights accommodations as specified (or similar); 12 breakfasts, 9 lunches (including some bagged picnic lunches), 12 dinners; wine and beer with welcome and farewell events; Commonwealth Club representative with 13 or more participants; gratuities to local guides, drivers, and for all included group activities; pre-departure materials.

Not included: International airfare; 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.

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Terms and Conditions The Commonwealth Club (CWC) has contracted European Walking Tours to organize this tour.

Reservations: A $1000 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 Worldwide membership. To learn about membership types and to purchase a membership, visit commonwealthclub.org/membership or call (415) 597-6720.

Cancellation and Refund Policy: Notification of cancellation must be received in writing. At the time we receive your written cancellation, the following penalties will apply: • 91 or more days or more prior to departure: $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

Continued from page 28 it traveled in both the lower atmosphere and the stratosphere over to Europe, and it killed people across Europe because this is poisonous gases. They didn’t know it was coming from Iceland. There was just this mysterious fever [and] people who worked in the fields were dropping dead. They estimate 23,000 people dead in the UK. Nobody’s ever done the analysis for Europe.

Then the gasses that got into the stratosphere cooled the Earth, and we had a huge freeze and famine that developed over the next year in Europe. That famine in France is considered a significantly contributory factor to the French Revolution. But then, the overall cooling of the Earth—[if ] you cool the continents, [then] you disrupt the monsoons. So the monsoons didn’t form in Egypt, the Nile didn’t flood. They had a famine that killed a sixth of their population.

There were famines in both India and Japan.

Now they do think there were other contributing factors. There was probably an El Niño that year, but 11 million people died from the famine in India, and another million people in Japan. However much of that you attribute directly to the volcano, it is without question, many millions—and that makes it the deadliest disaster in human history.

NAPOLITANO: Some people just rise to the occasion and really deal with the disaster response. You had Pastor Jón Steingrímsson.

JONES: Yeah, Pastor Jón. In Iceland, they don’t have surnames, so everything is done by first name.

Pastor Jón was the pastor of one of the towns that was near where it happened. [He] really led his congregation to respond to this.

As the lava was first coming through, and they thought it was going to be overwhelming the church, he had a final day where he called everyone in on Sunday. They thought it would be their last time in their church.

He preached a long sermon, and during the sermon, the lava stopped. They actually now think it ran into a big enough river that it was able to freeze the lava and create a dam to divert the flow before the river had completely evaporated. He was credited as the “fire priest”—the one who stopped the lava in its tracks.

Afterwards, he was fundamental to his community. It’s like another year-and-ahalf or two years that they’re all poisoned.

His wife died from the fluorine poisoning.

[There was] this commitment that everyone

who died in his parish would get a Christian burial, and there would be weeks that he would be bringing 10 bodies back to the church. He went to Reykjavik to get aid. At the end, as they’re starving to death, he led a group of people down to the coast to try and get some food out of the ocean. They ended up coming on a flock of seals and got enough meat to survive through the next winter.

It’s very clear that he held his community together. He kept them functioning as a society. Because that’s the core issue here.

Even here, the deadliest event, 80 percent of the people in Iceland lived through it.

The question is whether society would live through it. Are you going to be able to hold together as a community?

This could have destroyed the whole country. They could have given up and left, and it was people like Jón Steingrímsson who kept them going. Yet when you look at his reputation, Icelandic students are all taught in school, like we hear about Father Serra—they hear about the fire priest. What he’s famous for was his sermon stopping the lava rather than all of that difficult work that he did for the next few years. But I would argue that it’s how we deal with the aftermath of the disasters that really determines who we are.

NAPOLITANO: Another figure in the book is de Carvalho from Lisbon.

JONES: Yes. He ended up being called the Marquis de Pombal. Sebastião de Carvalho e Melo. The Marquis de Pombal was the prime

minister of Portugal. They had a magnitude 8.7. Most people don’t realize that Europe has had an 8.7 that destroyed Lisbon, killed about a sixth of the population of Lisbon.

Destroyed basically— NAPOLITANO: On All Saints’ Day, right?

JONES: It was on the morning of All Saints’ Day, during the church services in an extremely Catholic country. In 18th century Europe, we all knew—it was absolute—that disasters happened because God was angry at us. Now go read Psalm 18: The mountains quaked because of God’s anger. And we just knew it. We needed a pattern to tell us why an event would come along and kill this generation and not that generation, and it had to be God’s work.

But now you’ve got this issue. This earthquake happens during the church service. All of the churches fall down. So the pious are all crushed in their pews, and the brothels were basically spared because they were up on the hill, [in] wooden buildings and didn’t get the amplified shaking.

NAPOLITANO: And the king was away hunting someplace. Wasn’t he?

JONES: The king had left town.

NAPOLITANO: He wasn’t so pious.

JONES: [Laughing.] No, he went to the early church service. He had gone to the early service so they could get out and go to the summer palace. De Carvalho came along and rode out to where the king was.

The king at this point was very dependent on de Carvalho. He was the prime minister.

He really ran everything. The story is that he [the king] saw de Carvalho and went, “What do we do about this divine retribution?” De Carvalho’s response was, “Sire, we bury the dead, and we feed the living,” which to me is the most succinct description of FEMA’s role that I have ever heard.

NAPOLITANO: Yeah.

JONES: And [this is true] for emergency management now. That’s the fundamental.

In that aftermath, you’ve got to do that and keep society functioning.

[De Carvalho] was extraordinary at it. He did a great job. [Within a month], he had complete plans for rebuilding Lisbon. They got started on it within less than a year. It made him so popular. We weren’t going to talk too much about politics, but one of the things I see looking over all of these disasters is the political benefit of handling a disaster well and the political consequences of not.

De Carvalho became so popular, he was able to get the Jesuits thrown out of Portugal and stopped the Inquisition. He had been trying to get this beforehand, seeing the Inquisition as really holding Portugal back. But his political clout out of doing this allowed him to accomplish it.

[If ] you look at the other extreme, governments have fallen because of handling things poorly. I think you could argue that the 2006 midterms in the United States were affected by the poor handling of Hurricane Katrina.

Whatever our political ideology, the one time every one of us wants our government

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Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat from the capitol to his house and enter his house through a second-floor window. to be competent is in the aftermath of a great disaster. If we’re not competent then, it starts making us question the competency in other times as well.

NAPOLITANO: Everyone in California knows about the 1906 earthquake, but very few know about the mid-19th-century floods. That was also an astounding story.

JONES: I’ll do that a little personally. So, I am a seismologist with the USGS. I led a program for my last decade of service to develop scenarios of our big disasters, because the emergency managers were telling us we know we need to plan for this, and we aren’t sure what we’re planning for. We started with the big San Andreas earthquake for Southern California, since I was stationed down in Southern California, and this was a Southern California project. We created what ended up being called the ShakeOut Scenario, which led to the ShakeOut Drill.

The next thing we did was go to look at a storm. I went to the meteorologist and said, “Okay, so what’s the worst storm that we know about in California?” I couldn’t believe the answer. I mean, I’m a fourth-generation Southern Californian. We came here

in about the 1870s—the first part of my family. I had never heard of the storm from 1861–62 that flooded all of California. It put Sacramento under water. Now they remember it. If you go to Sacramento, if you ever see the Sacramento Underground Tour, it’s actually where they ended up raising all of Sacramento by 10 feet by just carting in huge amounts of dirt to recover from the flood and to not have it happen again.

But it wasn’t just a Sacramento flood. It was the whole state. Central Valley became a lake that was 300 miles long and up to 60 miles across. The new telegraph lines that connected San Francisco to New York were all under water and destroyed. The damage was so extensive, it took a year for the state to figure out what had happened.

NAPOLITANO: Also, because the communications were all destructed.

JONES: Yeah; communications were gone.

And by the time Southern California started being hit, Northern California was already under water, and they’d stopped talking to us. The largest town between Los Angeles and New Mexico was completely destroyed.

It was a town called Agua Mansa, which

[means] “peaceful water” which is sort of— NAPOLITANO: Ironic.

JONES: —ironic. [It was] on the banks of the Santa Ana River. The floods that came down through it washed away every building.

The priest in that town realized what was happening and the church was up above the town and not in the flood plain. He rang the church bell and wouldn’t stop until everybody from the town had gotten up to the church. The last few were reported as having had to swim to get there. By morning, when they came back out, the whole town was gone.

That happened over and over and over again across the state. There are dozens of towns that disappeared. It’s so extensive, we don’t have full documentation. What we do have is that one third of the taxable land in California was destroyed by the event and was not paying taxes then the next year.

The state went bankrupt. The legislature wasn’t paid for 18 months. The capital had to abandon Sacramento because it was under water. In fact, Leland Stanford was inaugurated as governor in the middle of the storm, and they decided to keep it at the capitol, and he had to take a rowboat back from the capitol to his house and enter into his house through a second-floor window. About five days after, they completely abandoned Sacramento and left.

It destroyed whole industries. It’s a big part of the end of the mining. There was a shortterm increase [in mining] because there was enough stuff washed away that new places were found. But it was pretty much the beginning of the end of the mining industry.

It was the end of the ranching industry: 200,000 head of cattle were drowned.

500,000 lambs were drowned. So what had been the major industry of California was abandoned. They couldn’t afford to restock the herds, and they turned to farming. It’s when California started to become a farming economy. . . .

At some point, we’re going to have another storm like that. In fact, with the climate change increasing the energy in the atmosphere—energy drives storms, and it makes the likelihood of these extreme events [to be] going up. Yet we don’t plan ahead for it. We don’t even think of it as a particular issue.

NAPOLITANO: Maybe you can describe for us why science has yet to find a predictive

pattern for earthquakes.

JONES: [It’s] because there isn’t a predictive pattern. I think we have done quite a good job of proving that it’s random, but nobody wants to accept that answer. I said I was going to go figure out how to predict earthquakes and save the world. We’ve been working at this for a while. Any time we think we find a pattern and we run the statistics to see if it’s valid, it all flows away.

Now you can make it look like you’ve got a pattern because, in fact, earthquakes happen pretty often. The small earthquakes are much more likely than the bigger ones.

You’ll get a situation where somebody thinks he has a pattern, and he says: “I think there’s going to be a magnitude 5 this week in this area.” Then, there’s a 4.7 just outside the area. Well, that’s close, right? That’s got to count.

Except that you’re now allowing your result to determine your definition of your box, and that really undermines the validity of the statistics. By letting a 4.7 count instead of a 5—well, actually, there’s twice as many 4.7s as there are 5s. So now your background, your random chance result, is now much higher. And whenever we hold people to the statistics, they don’t do better than random.

Well, [they don’t do better than random in terms of ] time. Spatially, we know where they’re going to happen. They happen near faults. They’re much more likely right here than they are in Nevada. And that’s much more likely than it is in Kansas, except for where we set them off by doing fracking.

I mean, Oklahoma should have about 1 percent of the earthquakes of California, and for a few years there, in 2014 and 2015, they were having more earthquakes than California. That was all human induced. I call them voluntary earthquakes. I want to make sure it’s clear what we’re doing.

So we do know where they’re going to happen. What we don’t know is when. This seems like it shouldn’t be the case, right? You have an earthquake because you push on the fault until you overcome the friction, and it slips just

like snapping your finger. I slip on the fault, and I produce energy in the form of a sound wave. Well, the problem is that you don’t have an earthquake because you’ve exceeded the strength of a fault. You’ve exceeded the strength of a fault in some tiny place on it, and once it starts to move, the dynamic friction is much lower than the static friction, and then it can propagate through.

So, yeah, eventually you would build up so much stress on the San Andreas that you have to have the earthquake, but that’s probably 10,000 years from now. By random chance, we’re sometime going to have some little knob that exceeds the strength and it lets go, and you have the earthquake long before you’ve accumulated the stress that would be required.

When does that one little knob go? That’s a random distribution. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of showing that’s what’s controlling the timing of earthquakes on human timescales. Give me enough time.

Give me 100,000 years, I can tell you what earthquakes are going to happen in California. But what happens in your lifetime is a random subset of that group.

NAPOLITANO: We can’t predict within a human’s lifetime when an earthquake will occur, but we can model the impacts of different strengths of earthquakes, and you’ve done some of that modeling.

JONES: Right.

NAPOLITANO: And, in fact, you have a pretty scary description of what would happen in Los Angeles. You might want to talk about that a little bit.

JONES: Okay. In the book I include what we did with the ShakeOut Scenario. My project at the USGS continued after I retired and just released the HayWired Scenario.

That’s the same thing [as the Los Angeles scenario but is instead] looking at what would happen on the Hayward Fault. We called it HayWired because it was a cool name and because it was also looking particularly at the impact on the digital economy.

So when you look at the issues—one, you’re probably not going to die. The rate at which people die— NAPOLITANO: That’s good to know.

JONES: Yeah. People don’t believe me when I say it, but it’s really true—even [for] those really bad earthquakes. For the southern San Andreas, we estimated 1,800 dead out of a population of 20 million. So you’ve got a 99.9 percent chance of not dying.

But you have a really good chance of being bankrupted by it, because our building codes are life safety codes. They say: If you choose to build a building that’s so weak that it will be a total financial loss after the earthquake, that’s your decision to make. The role of gov-

36

THE COMMO N WE AL TH

ernment is to make sure you don’t kill people in the process. So what the building code does is give you the minimum that you have to do to make sure you don’t kill somebody.

But the reality of the way in which we build buildings—a developer [builds] a building, if he builds it stronger than [the code], he’s not getting his money back. He really can’t go and build it stronger than that. So the de facto [has] become the minimum.

That means that when we have the big earthquake—the estimate for HayWired [is] magnitude 7 on the Hayward Fault—25 percent of the buildings built after 1997 to the most modern code will not be usable after the earthquake.

NAPOLITANO: Wow. JONES: That’s got huge financial [impacts] on everybody around you. That, in fact, is a life safety issue, too.

Part of what happened that led to me wanting to write this—I got to go to New Zealand after the Christchurch earthquakes.

The chief resilience officer of Christchurch took me to meet various people who had been through the event to talk about it and to give us stories. It’s like: “I know you scientists don’t like this part, but you need to think about the stories here.” There was one man who was vehement: “You’ve got to stop considering life safety as only what happens

in the event.” His brother had lost all his property, was bankrupted by the earthquake and committed suicide a year later. Another relative was so stressed out by it, his chronic diseases got worse and he died. And what you’re hearing in Puerto Rico—4,000-plus people have died since the event because they can’t get the electricity back.

So this idea that all that matters is what happens at the moment is driven by our fear of randomness, our fear of that unknown— [that question of ] when is it all coming out from under me? It becomes the only part we get to think about. We’ve got to really shift it and think about the earthquake—there’s a few people who die here, and then there’s all the rest of us who have to live with the consequences of it and live with damaged economies and struggling activities.

Think about what San Francisco was in 1905. It was the only city that mattered in California. The decade after the 1906 earthquake is the greatest growth decade in the history of Los Angeles, because people gave up on San Francisco. The new people coming into the state didn’t come here.

Before that earthquake, San Francisco was five times larger than Los Angeles. Now, Los Angeles is five times larger than San Francisco, and it could happen in reverse when we have our earthquake.

TOM STIENSTRA

2017 Emmy Award Winner in Science, Nature and Health, National Academy of Television and the Arts; Journalist; Twitter @StienstraTom

Tom Stienstra

TREKKING THE SIERRA

Cleanse your palate with this guided tour of the Sierras, led by legendar y nature journalist Tom Stienstra.

From the September 20, 2018 , program “ Tom Stienstra’s Sierra Crossing” in San Francisco. is your spirit. I mean, would you rather wake fer zone, and it rises quickly into the rock

A

reader [wrote] that he figured out that I had hiked 45,000 miles, and he wanted to know, of all that country we’ve seen, “What’s your favorite?”

This [talk] is about my favorite hike anywhere in the world, and it’s a hike that any of you can do, too. I’ll tell you how you can do that.

The Great Western Divide [is] the best hike in my opinion. It has everything. It has incredible natural beauty, history, and it has the power of place. That’s what puts me there.

You start at the foot of Mount Whitney and Lone Pine. The idea is, if you were a pioneer coming across the Great Basin and you came up on the Sierra Crest and you wanted to get to the San Joaquin Valley over the other side, what would you say? Well, just like the pioneers: “Let’s go back to St. Louis.” [Laughter.]

It’s only 70 miles; 70 miles puts it within range of anybody to do in a week. That’s only an average of 10 miles a day.

The first time I did this trip, our expedition team [included] my brother Bob, who made it here tonight, and my other pal, Mike Furniss. I’d say between the three of us we’ve probably hiked about 10,000 miles together.

Now, I just want to get out there, and the harder it is, the more I like it. Whether it’s crossing a stream or being up in the high country for the first snow of the year, it does feel like the marrow of life. The only difference between hardship and adventure really

up to that or the traffic out there?

Off You Go So we’re going to start in the town of Lone Pine on the eastern side of the Sierra. Mount Wxhitney . . . kind of defines the trip, in a way, because if you were a pioneer coming across east to west and saw something like that, you go, “How do we get around that thing?”

You know what? That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to walk in the footsteps of the pioneers, guys like Joe Walker, John Muir, Captain John Frémont and Ed Kern.

I hired a guy from Sequoia National Park, and he drove our crew from Sequoia at the end of the trail all the way to Lone Pine. My truck was waiting for us at the end of the trail. That makes it 70 miles. So we start.

Instead of hiking from Whitney Portal, which starts with a 6,000-foot gain, from 8,000 to 14,000, to the Whitney summit; instead, there’s a whole other way to do it.

I mean, I’ve done that hike, but there’s another way to do it, and that is you go up to the Alabama Hills. That’s where they filmed all of these episodes from movies and television, “Star Trek,” “Have Gun Will Travel.” I’m sure you just watch some of those old films, and you’ll see the scenery behind them. The reason this is such a great trailhead at Horseshoe Meadows—the elevation is 9,980 feet, almost a 10,000-foot jump-off spot—so instead of having to start the trip by climbing 4–5,000 feet from the bottom of a canyon someplace, instead, it’s just 1,200 feet.

It starts off a little bit sandy in the coni-

area and climbs about 1,200 feet. It climbs quickly to tree line and then emerges on top at Cottonwood Pass, and that’s at about 11,200 feet—I think it’s 11,180. Then from Cottonwood Pass, you pop out and you look over the other side, and that’s Big Whitney Meadow. I’ve spent a week in there just because I wanted to see everything, and that meadow is filled with all these little streams called stringers. They’re small creeks that cut away the meadows. It leaves cutbank, and it’s full of the last pure strain of golden trout in the world right there in that valley.

On the far side of it, it drops down into that canyon and goes down left to the Kern Canyon. That’s one way to do it. Instead, we turned right on the Pacific Crest Trail.

We went by Chicken Spring Lake, and on our left, it’s called the Siberian Outpost. It’s so remote that for miles and miles, there’s nobody. It’s incredible when you think that just outside the door here between Sacramento and the Bay Area, there’s over 10 million people. And we’re going about the same distance, and there might be 100 people out there.

What if you’re not feeling all that comfortable about hiking above 10,000 feet?

Well, we met somebody who didn’t want to do that and somebody who didn’t want to have to carry any gear. Jesus. [We] ran into Grace Lohr—Amazing Grace. She’s out of Bishop, California, and that’s what she does. She looked at me, she goes, “Man, you’re working way too hard carrying all that stuff. I just put my gear on my llamas, let them do all the work.” [The llamas’] names are Otis the Elevator because he can climb DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

37

so good, and the other one’s Osama bin Lama. [Laughter.]

She’s amazing, very inspirational. If you think, “I don’t want to have to carry all my stuff and hike for a week, but I want to see this country,” there’s other ways to do it. You can have a llama carry it. You can have a goat carry it. Have a mule carry it. Have a horse carry it, or get on the horse and have the horse carry you. But there’s many paths to do this. It doesn’t matter your age, whether you’re in your 80s like Grace, or [some] young women we met at the head of the Rock Creek Basin. They were on their very first trip, and they were looking for the lake and had no idea where it was. [They were] having the time of their lives.

My friend Mike helped them. They were very worried about this perilous creek crossing—this is serious business. But they ended up having just as much fun as anybody would have. You end up at one of the Soldier Lakes, this incredible place to camp the first night.

For years, we’ve had this joke that we’re going to hike for 50 miles into the middle of nowhere, and then here comes the Swedish bikini team. They looked over at us and said, “Would you mind if we went swimming?”

And Bob goes, “No, I think that’s okay.”

Mike goes, “No. No problem.” They’re wearing bathing suits. It was really fun, though.

They were having a good time. Mike has kept track of them; they’ve all grown up to have families with kids, and they’re sharing the outdoors, too. A lot of it is the imprinting they have from this experience out in the middle of the wilderness.

That was our first day’s camp. What a great first day. We wake up the next day.

We go back down. I check the map. We’re at a little spur, and it’s just a few miles back down to the Pacific Crest Trail. On

As you look down, you can see why I called it the cradle of the Sierra. There’s no place like it in the world. the way down the Rock Creek drainage, you go by this little unknown, unnamed lake.

As we went by, you could see first off how all lakes become meadows, and all meadows were once lakes. And eventually they fill in from sedimentation from the flow of water through them. As we were walking by, we stopped for a second because it was totally quiet except for all these little pop sounds.

It was the sounds of fish feeding. Just pop, pop, pop. It was just incredible, an unrepeatable moment.

The trail goes down and hooks up with the Pacific Crest Trail, where we ran into this wilderness ranger, Alison Steiner from UC Davis. She’s about six feet tall. She’s checking our wilderness permit, and you can see that she has a Sierra cup right on her hip there. I asked her, I said, “I used to do that, but since we have to filter all of our water, I stopped carrying mine on my hip.”

She goes, “Not me. I’ve spent six years back here, and I’ve never had to filter my water.”

That’s how pristine this area is. It’s really a defining moment.

As we head north on the Sierra Crest, you go over Guyot Pass, and then you settle down toward Crabtree Meadow, which is a major intersection with the John Muir Trail.

You’re looking at the Sierra Crest there right off to your right. As you descend down that rockfall, the trail switchback right down to the meadow, you can see Mount Whitney back there and you realize in two days you’ve gone from one side of Whitney to the other,

in just one and a half days, really. Incredible.

You come down and set up your camp, and Whitney and what it represents really comes into focus.

It was named after Josiah Whitney, who was part of the famous Brewer Expedition from around 1862. [From] 1860 to 1864, Brewer, Whitney, and two other great guys traveled the entire state by foot, horseback and boat and then did a geological essay that chronicled everything in California. That diary of that expedition has been reprinted

by UC Berkeley, and it’s an incredible time machine to read. [Mount] Whitney . . . is a beautiful, pristine place. It’s a popular camp.

If you want to take a side trip, it’s about nine miles from here up to Mount Whitney.

So we wake up from Crabtree, and we’re going to Wallace Creek, so we’re going to be on the John Muir Trail and Pacific Crest Trail for just four miles. This section of trail is pretty busy. The John Muir Trail is one of the most popular trails; 95 percent of the wilderness permits out of Whitney Portal or out of Yosemite are turned down. So other people come in on these side routes to avoid those major trail end points The one thing you do find is everybody is happy. People ask me, “Do you ever feel afraid or in danger?” No. My wife and me have been hiking a lot where we’ve run into countless solo women hikers or a pair in their 60s, 70s, and they just don’t want

things to pass by where they don’t get to see these places and experience them. What you don’t see is you don’t see a lot of young men.

Man, are they missing the boat.

You turn left at Wallace Creek, and from the John Muir Trail you descend down into the Kern Canyon. It’s a long day, but it’s mostly downhill. All the way down the canyon, you have all these side feeder creeks, so there’s plenty of water most of the route down. So you just stop to have lunch, stop to get water, stop to soak your feet. As you get down toward the canyon, the Great Western Divide starts coming into view. Then you come around this point, and the anticipation of what this means is just amazing.

You come to this point and a little bit beyond, and you’re going, “Wow. I’m going to drop to the bottom of that and then go over the other side.” And then at this point, the headwaters of the Kern River come out of Kings Canyon National Park. Above tree line and in late spring, all the way down that canyon, it’s a cataract of waterfalls, especially the big snow years. Then you turn and look the other way, and it’s a sea of conifers all the way out to the San Joaquin Valley. From the San Joaquin Valley to the headwaters, it’s 80 miles. You can start walking at the forks of the Kern and go 65 miles on a trail all the way up and back. You could do a 130-mile trip that’s fairly easy and have the river next to you the whole way.

It’s incredibly beautiful, and you drop down into forest near the river and you get this incredible first glimpse. I have to tell you, when you see something like this, it’s about as close as it gets to falling in love. It reminds me of the inflections I watch on my wife’s face and how they make me feel when I think of this river. It’s just incredible. What a place. So that’s our first night’s camp, and

we’re halfway through.

Now, that’s the most ambitious part of the trip—32 miles in two days. From the other areas, it’s even farther. If you start at the forks of the Kern, it’s 42.8 miles from the forks of the Kern, where the ranger station is, to Junction Meadow, where we ended up. Imagine that. That’s why you don’t see anybody in there.

As you look down from that point you can see why I called it the cradle of the Sierra, because it’s nestled between the Sierra Crest on one side and the Great Western Divide on the other. There’s no place like it in the world.

The history of this canyon is so special.

One of my heroes is Joe Walker. He’s the first trail blazer to see Yosemite—in 1833 on November 13.

Anyway, he was camping in 1844. He was actually at Walker Lake in Nevada that was named after him. He went over Walker Pass, which is south of the Domeland Wilderness, and then camped here at the forks of the Kern. His troop was being called back to the San Joaquin Valley by John C. Frémont, and his topographer, Ed Kern, took some time off while they were camped at the forks and went up the Kern River and was the first trailblazer to see all this stuff. That’s why John Fremont named it the Kern River.

You can go and see Joe Walker’s grave site in the Alhambra cemetery. To stand there and be with my hero is just an incredible moment—probably the greatest trailblazer of them all even though he didn’t write about his trip, so people tend not to know him. And then Ed Kern was the guy, a topographer. He was the first one to ever see this country. We set our trip up so we could take our time. By doing 16 miles in two days, we could take our time in the canyon and really see it and fish it.

Our first time fishing, I think in my first 11 casts I caught 7 fish. The other 4 casts, I think I had maybe 12 strikes and I didn’t catch them. It was just so amazing.

You’re talking about fish that have never been fished for. We catch and release about 90 percent of the time. But there comes a time when you’ve caught enough fish. We would pick spots out along the river and just watch the fish work. At one point, my brother looked down and saw I think he said it was an 18-to-20-inch rainbow [trout] that was just coming out, working, grabbing a bug, going back. You know what? He could have gone down there and caught that fish, but it’s more special that he didn’t. It’s like we know it’s there. It’s like our little secret.

There’s something special about that, when you know you could do it, but to leave it alone sometimes is magic.

You have to bring bear-proof food canisters in this country, and it’s really worked because we didn’t see any bears because there was no food to get. All the bears are back at the drive-in campgrounds where they just go from picnic site to picnic site, and the bears just walk right in and everybody screams, and they go through the picnic site, grab all the chicken. But the point is you don’t let the bears get your stuff. They don’t bother you. They move on. They might cruise through and just move right off. Now, we end up sleeping through if they do come through. They’re nothing to be afraid of; that’s for sure.

A lot of people ask what we do for water treatment. Just like you have to have canisters for the bear food, we use what’s called a SteriPen for our water purification, because the water pumps can choke up, clog up, and get really heavy and then don’t work very well.

A SteriPen is an ultraviolet

light. You put it in a large Nalgene bottle, you put it in the stream, and in a minute and a half you’re drinking ice cold, pure water.

I mean, it’s incredible. That’s probably the best invention in years.

Walking through the Kern Canyon is like a step back in time through these giant fern groves. As you go through these areas, you really start to feel like, “You know what? I am walking in the footsteps of Muir. I am in the same place that Ed Kern was, except he didn’t have a hot tub.” Years before the Wilderness Act was passed in ’64, trailblazing hikers went in and found a hot spring right along the Kern. It’s about seven miles downstream of Funston Meadow, or of the trail junction there, the head of the river. It’s so hot that there’s a scoop there to put river water into this tub From the top all the way down, we only saw a couple of people in three days, just taking our time, enjoying the beauty, soaking it up, just being in the footsteps of legends.

Best of all, you’re in a place that feels like an outdoor church to us. When you’re in traffic and in congestion and you’re trying to find a parking spot and you know that there’s still places like this out there, you keep that in the back of your mind, and it’s a saving place.

We spent three days in the canyon, and we crossed the river, went through this big rockfall. The trail is not too hard to pass there.

Our last campsite is down at the meadow.

It’s funny. We got kind of sad and melancholy because we didn’t want to leave.

We were looking at, to get out of that canyon, climbing from about 6,000 feet to 11,000-foot at Franklin Pass. So we’re looking at a 5,000-foot climb over 11, 12 miles.

We started out the next day, and you’d think with that kind of climb, we’d get out of our sleeping bags right away and get on the trail and catch it at dawn. No. We

This is the place where you can have what feels like unrepeatable moments, but you can repeat the adventure. just laid on our sleeping bags, and we were listening to the birds. It was an unbelievable symphony of birds.

Then we finally decided, “We gotta do this. It’s 5,000 feet ahead of us.” But then a funny thing happened. It’s 10.6 miles to Franklin Pass.

We started up the canyon, and it’s switchbacked, so you can get into a rhythm rather than just a goat trail going straight up. We start getting these incredible canyon views again.

Instead of just having to do this endless climb kind, it’s kind of like the trail over at Wilder Ranch State Park near Santa Cruz on the coast, where the hillside is terraced all the way up from being under the ocean at some point. That’s how it is here. You get these flat spots all the way up, so you get these breaks. You have short climbs and then terraces and little side spurs down to the river. And, again, you could just drink that water right out of the river. It’s incredible.

It’s like, “Man. This is where I want to live.” But that trail goes up on these terraces, and they’re full of wildlife. It’s so different than what we expected. We expected a long, grueling, sun-exposed march to a bare pass.

Instead, every step was great all the way up.

We took a spur over to Forester Lake, and this is one of the prettiest lakes you’ve ever seen in your life. Guess how many other people were there? Zero. How can this be in California with 40 million people? There wasn’t anybody.

[On] our last day, so we actually turned our back on our fishing rods and started heading out to Franklin Pass, about 11,000 feet. For about an hour and a half, you think you’re almost there. “Hey, it’s just around the bend. Hey, it’s just around the bend. It’s got

to be there.” Then, finally, it is around the bend and you pop out on top of Franklin Pass. On the other side is Sequoia National Park and the San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra Foothills. Then the best part is you turn the other way and you look across all the country you just walked over.

By now, you’re a week in. You’re feeling really strong. You’re totally acclimated to being up at 10,000 feet. You’ve been eating fish for the last three days in the river. You’re feeling really good, so you could make pretty good time going downhill here. You have to be careful to stay in rhythm and not make any bad steps. It works around past the Franklin Lakes, and it does this until you finally get down back into vegetation.

Even then, every single crevice and canyon inside Kern has water coming down it. It’s like you’re five, six miles from the truck now, and you’re thinking, “Oh, all the good stuff is done.” But it’s not, because the water is just amazing.

It gives you one last place where you just want to stop and enjoy it and drink it. You start getting back into the real old trees, and you wonder if Ed Kern may have walked past that tree, or maybe Joe Walker did at some point, or maybe John Muir. And then, as you descend and there becomes more soil, that’s when the wildflowers start picking up.

You come around the bend [and come to] Farewell Canyon. It’s the end of the trip.

What you just did was only 70 miles. That may sound like a lot of walking. It’s not.

That’s 10 miles a day; 10 miles a day is not a tremendous amount.

If I had to think of one place that I’d want to go, it’s this. This is the place where you can have what feels like unrepeatable moments, but you can repeat the adventure.

L ast Word

WITH P.J. 0’ROURKE

Photos by Ed Ritger

CRAZY MONEY

I

was an English major, or as they call it in business school, “stupid.” I knew nothing about business whatsoever. Still don’t, even though I wrote a book about it. The best investment I’ve made lately: I left a $20 bill in the jacket of this suit when I took my wife out for dinner over Labor Day weekend, and I found it this morning. So I’m not down anything; it was a good preservation of wealth. That’s about it.

So when I arrived in Lebanon [as a foreign correspondent in the early 1980s], besides being disoriented and terrified, I’m not even thinking about Lebanon having an economy at all. My initial plunge into Lebanon, I land at night in Beirut—every window’s been blown out of the airport, all the palm fronds have been blown off the palm trees, all the lampposts in the parking lot have been run over by tanks. It’s just a disaster. A taxi I get into looks like it was used by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. Just to get from the airport to downtown—there was an old hotel there called The Commodore Hotel, it was the unofficial press headquarters—you had to go through six or eight checkpoints of the various warring Lebanese factions. They would stick the gun barrel in the window and start screaming at you. I couldn’t understand what they were screaming. What they were trying to say was “passport.” It was the one English word that every militiaman knew and no militiaman

could [pronounce].

After a few days in Lebanon, I’m thinking, well of course it does have an economy. Or all the Lebanese who weren’t dead from the civil war, which was a considerable number of them, would be dead from starvation. Then I look around and I realize that all of the shops are open, and there’s traffic—and right in the middle of a war.

And it’s noisy, but not with the din of battle. Every house and shop has a gasoline generator sitting out on the sidewalk with extension cords going every which way, and they were so loud that it drowned out all but the loudest artillery fire.

I go, “Wow.” Then I started to think about it. War is a capital-intensive activity. Guns and bullets and stuff—they’re not cheap.

Where is all this money coming from?

Then I went out to the Beqaa Velley, which is the fertile agricultural central valley—like the Central Valley here. And it was, “I do know where the money’s coming from”: It was wall-to-wall marijuana plants. Big, green, lush marijuana plants everywhere you can see. They used to call Lebanon, before the civil war, the Switzerland of the Middle East. It was actually the Boulder, Colorado, of the Middle East.

—P.J. O’Rourke, “The Politics of Money,” September 20, 2018 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

41

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MONDAY

TUESDAY

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6 pm The Pitcher and the Dictator 6 pm Reading Californians Group: Goodbye, Vitamin 7 pm Jackie Speier: Jonestown Courage and Fighting Back

6 pm Vignettes and Postcards from Paris

6:30 pm Socrates Café FM

5:30 pm Celebrate New Year’s Eve at The Commonwealth Club: A Decadent Affair

6 pm Denial of Justice 6:30 pm Tony Prophet: Equality for All

2 pm Week to Week Politcs Roundtable and Holiday Social

commonwealthclub.org/events

2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE 6 pm Baseball Goes West 6:30 pm High Performance 7:45 pm Adam Hochschild’s Lessons from a Dark Time

2 pm Veiled Meanings: Jewish Dress from The Israeli Museum Collection

12 pm Michelle Meow Show FE 12 pm How America Exploited Japan’s Biological Weapons Crimes 6 pm Heroic Rescue and Reconstruction 6:30 pm Going Carbon Negative

12 pm Michelle Meow Show FE

6 pm The Kardashian-Free Conversation Club

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

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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

6 pm Why Has Nationalism Come Roaring Back?

6:30 pm Erwin Chemerinsky

7 pm Martin Rees: Prospects for Humanity

4 pm Grownups Forum Planning Meeting FM 6 pm Heart of The Matter 6:30 pm The Eight Annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication

12 pm The When Way 5 pm Middle East Forum Discussion 6 pm Stanford B-School’s Tools to Cut Stress, Boost Soft Skills and Productivity 6:30 pm Socrates Café FM

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10 a.m.

6:30 pmChinatown 2019 PolitiWalking TourA Week cal Preview: 6:30 p.m.Special Sallie to Week Krawcheck: The PowEdition er of Women, Work and Wallet 7 p.m. Gopi Kallayil: Brain, Body and Consciousness

5:15 pm Empathy Rising

San Francisco

East/North Bay

6:30 pm Imperfect Circles

2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE 6:30 pm Marc Freedman

2 pm Commonwealth Club Weekly Tour FE 6 pm Globalization and Its Cultural Disconnects

6:30 pm Week to Week Politcs Roundtable

6 pm Last Boat Out of Shanghai 6:30 pm Douglas Rushkoff 7:30 pm Marc Freedman

Silicon Valley

12 pm Michelle Meow Show FE 2 pm Russian Hill Walking Tour

12 pm Michelle Meow Show FE 6 pm The Kardashian-Free Conversation Club 6:30 pm A Bright Future 7 pm Diana Walsh Pasulka

12 pm Michelle Meow Show FE 2 pm Waterfront Walking Tour 6 pm Rethinking Crime and Punishment in The United States

12 pm Michelle Meow Show FE 2 pm San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour

FM Free for members

12 pm Bank of America / Merrill Lynch Walter E. Hoardley Annual Economic Forecast

FE Free for everyone

MO Members-only

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

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29

San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: THE LAST WATCHMAN OF OLD CAIRO Humanities • Program organizer: George Michael David Lukas, Author, The Last Hammond

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30

40 YEARS AFTER THE DEFEAT OF THE BRIGGS INITIATIVE: OUR POWER IN Watchman of Old Cairo SPEAKING UP AND SPEAKING OUT

Jonathan Curiel, Journalist—Moderator See website for panelists Lukas will discuss his critically acclaimed Join us as we look at the fight over the anmultigenerational novel The Last Watchman of ti-gay Briggs Initiative 40 years later.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW Old Cairo. Lukas uses real and fictional charPROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embar- acters from old and modern Cairo, Victorian cadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Fran- England, and Berkeley, California. cisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

JUST GIVING

Rob Reich, Professor, Political Science and Philosophy, Stanford University Is philanthropy a threat to democracy?

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

READING CALIFORNIANS BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP: GOODBYE, VITAMIN

Rachel Khong’s Goodbye, Vitamin is the winner of the Club’s 2018 first-fiction award.

The book’s narrator, 30-year-old Ruth Young, goes home for Christmas for the first time in years, after her fiancé has dumped her. Her father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and her mother asks her to stay home and help for a year. When a stranger calls to say he’s found her father’s newly labeled pants and shirts hanging from trees up and down the road, Ruth realizes she “can’t not stay.”

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- SEBASTIAN GORKA, FORMER DEPUSAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, TY ASST. TO PRESIDENT TRUMP San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 Sebastian Gorka, Former Deputy Assis- barcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San tant to President Donald Trump; Nation- Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing al Security Strategist, Fox News; Author, p.m. program • MLF: Reading Californians Why We Fight: Defeating America’s Ene- • Program organizer: Kalena Gregory MIND OVER CHATTER

mies—With No Apologies Join us for a conversation with this provoca- JACKIE SPEIER: JONESTOWN, tive figure who worked for Trump and contin- COURAGE AND FIGHTING BACK ues to influence global affairs.

Jackie Speier, U.S. Representative (DSAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- CA), Author, Undaunted: Surviving barcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Francisco • Time: 11 a.m. check-in, noon Fighting Back; Twitter @RepSpeier SAN FRANCISCO • CLIMATE ONE PRO- program • Notes: Attendees subject to In Conversation with Cheryl Jennings, GRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, search Television News Reporter, ABC 7 Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Jackie Speier was 28 when she joined RepMONDAY, DECEMBER 3 Time: 6:30 p.m. program resentative Leo Ryan’s delegation to rescue defectors from cult leader Jim Jones’ Peoples THE PITCHER AND THE DICTATOR Averell “Ace” Smith, Political Advisor; Temple in Jonestown, Guyana. Ryan was killed on the airstrip tarmac. Jackie was shot Author, The Pitcher and the Dictator Soon after Leroy “Satchel” Paige arrived at five times at point-blank range. While recoverspring training in 1937 to pitch for the Pitts- ing from what would become one of the most burgh Crawfords, he and five of his teammates, harrowing tragedies in recent history, Speier including Josh Gibson and James “Cool Papa” had to choose: Would she become a victim or Bell, were lured to the Dominican Republic a fighter? The choice to survive against unfathwith the promise of easy money to play in a omable odds empowered her with a resolve to baseball tournament in support of the coun- become a vocal proponent for human rights. try’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo. But the mon- SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Emey wasn’t so easy. Paige and his friends soon barcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San found themselves under the thumb of Trujillo, Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. known by Dominicans for murdering those program, 8 p.m. book signing • Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten who disappointed him.

Smith tells an extraordinary story of race and by the Bernard Osher Foundation; Speier politics and of some of the greatest baseball photo by Steve Maller players ever as they played high-stakes baseball TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4 for one of the Caribbean’s cruelest dictators.

See website for panelists This conversation with three psychologists will focus on how to talk with your family and friends on the other side of the climate debate.

It also will offer an approach to dealing with anxieties about climate change and a guide through the depression felt by many.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- DENIAL OF JUSTICE barcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, Mark Shaw, Author, Denial of Justice: Jackie Speier 12/3

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

45

Dorothy Kilgallen, Abuse of Power, and the Most Compelling JFK Assassination Investigation in History Mark Shaw’s Denial of Justice adds the final chapter to The Reporter Who Knew Too Much, the bestselling murder mystery about “What’s My Line” TV star and investigative reporter Dorothy Kilgallen. The Reporter Who Knew Too Much detailed the life and times of Kilgallen who, according to Shaw, came too close to the truth about the JFK assassination. In his new book, Shaw presents incriminating evidence about the main suspect in Kilgallen’s death from the suspect’s family members, detailing the disturbing conduct by FBI agents on the day Kilgallen died. Shaw also includes government documents never published before that might change the way you per-

ceive the JFK assassination.

Mitchell argues that those moves to California forged Major League Baseball (MLB) as we know it today, second in influence only to Jackie Robinson’s debut in 1947. By moving two teams with national reputations and wellknown players, MLB broadened its fan base.

This was particularly important following a decade plagued with moribund franchises, low TONY PROPHET: EQUALITY FOR ALL wages and the dismantling of baseball’s apartTony Prophet, Chief Equality Officer, heid system.

Salesforce SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmSalesforce Equality Team Members barcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 Show” on TV and Radio—Co-moderator p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Pol- Humanities • Program organizer: George itics Roundtable—Co-moderator Hammond In his role as Salesforce’s chief equality officer, Tony Prophet works to build a workplace HIGH PERFORMANCE: THE STATE that reflects the diverse communities it serves OF THE ART SECTOR IN THE and promote equality for all. Join us for an FAST-CHANGING BAY AREA in-depth discussion with Tony Prophet and Susan Medak, Managing Director, Berkemembers of his Salesforce Equality Team. ley Rep SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: In association with Salesforce

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5 WEEKLY CLUB TOUR

Join us for a complimentary tour of our beautiful new waterfront headquarters. At our state-of-the-art gathering space, which features a rooftop terrace with unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco Bay, you can learn about our storied history and the many amenities of being a Club member.

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

BASEBALL GOES WEST

Lincoln Mitchell, Adjunct Research Scholar, Arnold A. Salesman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, Author, Baseball Goes West: The Dodgers, the Giants, and the Shaping of the Major Leagues Following the 1957 season, two of baseball’s most famous teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, left New York City and headed West. Those events have entered baseball lore as acts of betrayal committed by their greedy owners.

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Nina Simon, Executive Director, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History Other panelists TBA The Bay Area arts community is at an inflection point, facing accelerating changes on a host of fronts. Technology is driving new ways for artists to create and audiences to experience and participate in the arts. Demographic shifts are posing challenges for many long-standing arts institutions trying to engage new audiences. Securing space for performances and artists in the Bay Area’s white-hot real estate market tests the sector’s resourcefulness as never before. Amidst all this change, the funding landscape is shifting too, with longtime arts funders leaving the field and new business models showing great promise. Join the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and arts experts from across the region and around the country for a discussion of where we go next.

The panel discussion will be followed by the presentation of the Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions 2018 awards in theater, musical theater and spoken word.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program • Notes: This program is generously supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

ADAM HOCHSCHILD’S LESSONS FROM A DARK TIME

Adam Hochschild, Journalist; Author, Lessons from a Dark Time and Other Es-

Baseball Goes West 12/5

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

Heroic Rescue and Reconstruction: Fires, Forests, Trees, Homes 12/6

says; Lecturer, Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley John McMurtrie, Book Editor, San Francisco Chronicle—Moderator Best-selling Bay Area author Adam Hochschild is back with a varied collection of essays on ideas and concerns that have spurred his career, with a particular focus on social justice and the people who have fought for it, the toll and aftereffects of colonialism, and the dangers of government surveillance. Hochschild was moved to collect and curate these essays (more than two dozen) by a sense that these issues matter more than ever in Trump’s America.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Outdoor Art Club, One West Blithedale, Mill Valley • Time: 7 p.m. check-in and complimentary light hors d’oeuvres, 7:45–9 p.m. program, 9 p.m. book signing • Notes: Light refresh- daily radio show to the Club one day each 6 p.m. program • MLF: Environment & ments and cash bar available week. Meet fascinating—and often contro- Natural Resources • Program organizer: versial—people discussing important issues of Ann Clark

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6

interest to the LGBTQ community, and have MONDAY, DECEMBER 10 HOW AMERICA EXPLOITED JAPAN’S your questions ready. Find specific program information at commonwealthclub.org/mms.

VIGNETTES AND POSTCARDS FROM BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CRIMES Paul Johnson, Producer, 731—How Amer- SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PRO- PARIS ica Exploited Japan’s Biological Weapons Crimes During World War II, Japan’s biological warfare research group, referred to as Unit 731, carried out some of the most inhumane research experiments ever recorded. They also supplied the biological weapons used in the most destructive attacks in human history, killing tens of thousands of Chinese civilians.

After the war, the Soviet Union tried, convicted and imprisoned several of the researchers as war criminals. As documentary filmmaker Paul Johnson reminds us, the United States instead made a deal with the Unit 731 leaders under their jurisdiction, agreeing not to prosecute them in exchange for the data they had developed from their human experiments. Johnson will discuss what he considers to be one of the darkest chapters of Cold War realpolitik.

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

GRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Erin Byrne, Editor, Vignettes & PostMax Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • cards from Paris Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program Catherine Karnow, Travel Writer, Pho-

HEROIC RESCUE AND RECONSTRUCTION: FIRES, FORESTS, TREES, HOMES

Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Deputy Secretary for Climate & Energy Policy, CalEPA Michael Reynolds, Park Superintendent, Yosemite National Park Scott Tangenberg, Deputy Forest Supervisor, Stanislaus National Forest John Buckley, Executive Director, Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center Blackened fire and drought damage can be seen from the skies, showing miles and miles of burnt forests, homes and land. Wildfires in California this year have had devastating impacts throughout state. These 2018 historic, unprecedented fires were among the largest fires in recorded California history. The fires have caused incredible damage and are projected to continue in the future throughout the state and the West. Our panel will talk about the devastation. More important, they will talk about the future and the many heroic people who worked and are working to save and reconstruct our forests, trees and homes.

tography Educator Kimberley Lovato, Travel Writer Join us for this voyage spécial to Paris, with three travel writers who share their love of all things Parisian. They will talk about their own adventures and also read excerpts from a new edition of Vignettes & Postcards from Paris, the award-winning anthology originally created at Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Come enjoy a discussion of Parisian literary and creative culture of the past and present.

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

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11 WEEK TO WEEK POLITICS ROUNDTABLE AND HOLIDAY SOCIAL 12/11/18

Carson Bruno, Adjunct Lecturer and Assistant Dean for Admissions and Program Relations, School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University; Twitter @carMichelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle sonjfbruno Meow Show” (Radio and TV) John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Polit- SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- Melissa Caen, Political and Legal Rebarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, porter, CBS Bay Area (KPIX) ical Roundtable—Co-Host Michelle Meow brings her long-running San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, Larry Gerston, Ph.D., Political Analyst,

THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 12/6/18

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

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Veiled Meanings: Jewish Dress from the Israeli Museum Collection 12/12

NBC Bay Area; Professor of Political Science, San Jose State University; Twitter @lgerston You made it through the year! Through primaries and tweets and Space Force and the midterms—now come out with us to celebrate the season with our annual year-end political roundtable and holiday party!

We will discuss the biggest, most controversial and sometimes the surprising political issues with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil and have a good sense of humor. Our panelists will provide informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, and we’ll have audience discussion of the week’s events and our live news quiz! Come early before the program to meet other smart and engaged individuals and discuss the news over snacks and wine at our members social (open to all attendees).

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

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12 VEILED MEANINGS: JEWISH DRESS FROM THE ISRAELI MUSEUM COLLECTION

Speakers TBD The extraordinary range of textile designs and clothing in the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s exhibit “Veiled Meanings: Fashioning Jewish Dress” illuminates the story of how diverse global cultures have thrived, interacted and inspired each other for centuries. Honoring Jewish communities from Afghanistan to Yemen, the exhibit represents excellent exam-

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ples of Jewish diasporic textiles and offers an to suggest topics, which are then voted on. incisive and compelling examination of diver- The person who proposed the most popular sity and migration through the lens of fashion. topic is asked to briefly explain why she or SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- he considers that topic interesting and imbarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, portant. An open discussion follows, and the San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, meeting ends with a summary of the various noon program • MLF: Middle East • Pro- perspectives participants expressed. Everyone gram organizer: Celia Menczel is welcome to attend.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 12/13/18

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show” (Radio and TV); Twitter @msmichellemeow John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. Find specific program information at commonwealthclub.org/mms.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW SHOW • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

MONDAY, DECEMBER 17 SOCRATES CAFÉ

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

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

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20 THE KARDASHIAN-FREE CONVERSATION CLUB

Charles DeLoach, Host and Moderator, “Kardashian Free-Conversation Club”; Aspiring Politician Zack Zbar, Host and Moderator, “Kardashian Free-Conversation Club” This program is for all curious members of society who are eager for civil peer-to-peer discussion but concerned with the lack of such discussion in our busy everyday lives. Every third Thursday of the month, the Kardashian-Free Conversation Club offers a chance to meet with your peers and talk through the things that really matter.

Here’s how this works: Before the event, members elect a single news topic to focus on.

Everything—from the Bay Area housing crisis to immigration reform—is on the table. When a topic is chosen, moderators Charles DeLoach and Zack Zbar will send out relevant materials, including podcasts, news articles, short documentaries and an easy-to-read fact sheet with the bare necessities. So even if you are unfa-

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

miliar with the topic, we will bring you up to speed. Then we’ll get together for an evening of light food, wine and enlightening small group discussions. The goal is to have an informal but informative discussion, where anyone can speak and everyone will listen. Bring your curiosity, your ideas and the desire to talk about anything but the Kardashians.

to our members. Members may purchase SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San up to six tickets.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 barcadero, Kaiser Permanente Rooftop p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • ProTerrace, San Francisco • Time: 9 p.m.– gram organizer: George Hammond 1:30 a.m. program • Notes: Contact Kate TUESDAY, JANURY 8 Steffy (ksteffy@commonwealthclub.org) for any questions regarding this event 2019 POLITICAL PREVIEW: A WEEK

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The TO WEEK SPECIAL EDITION 1/8/19 THURSDAY, JANUARY 3 Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, Panelists TBA San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, IMPERFECT CIRCLES Start off the new year with a preview of the 6–7:45 p.m. program • MLF: Humanities George Hammond, Author, Conversa- people and movements and organizations that • Program organizer: George Hammond tions with Socrates and Rational Ideal- will be important in 2019.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31 CELEBRATE NEW YEAR’S EVE AT THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB: A DECADENT AFFAIR

Let the countdown begin...

Join The Commonwealth Club as we celebrate 2018 and ring in the new year for the first time ever at our premier headquarters!

As thousands of onlookers crowd the street below, you’ll watch fireworks and partake in a celebration like no other, from the comfort of the Club’s waterfront location. The Commonwealth Club will be transformed into a multilevel experience emblematic of the roaring 20s.

Walk the red carpet like a star and amuse your decadent side while you and Commonwealth Club friends revel in indulgent cuisine, top-shelf alcohol, lively entertainment and, of course, the best view in town for the famous NYE Embarcadero fireworks!

Treat yourself to an evening indicative of a wonderful 2019!

Please note: This event will likely sell out. Tickets will be available first to donors and Leadership Circle members and then

ism—Moderator Are you a person who never tires of talking or thinking about philosophical, scientific or religious theories? Are you interested in psychological insights, or attempts at such insights, into human life? There are many who would insist that being realistic about human life means you should ignore such fundamental questions—starting around the time the ink dries on your diploma. But it is unrealistic to ignore the fundamental explanatory concepts that underlie each successful human civilization; these concepts sometimes help and sometimes hinder us in our pursuit of happiness. Such profound questions are naturally provoked simply by living an alert life.

There are millions of realistic people, of all ages and walks of life, who also find it impossible to delegate to one infallible authority or another the task of providing all the answers to such questions. Life is not totally chaotic, even though it looks that way sometimes. Therefore, it’s helpful to be aware of any subtle patterns to our experiences. Rejoin the continuing conversation of human civilization—this time at The Commonwealth Club.

Celebrate New Year’s Eve at The Commonwealth Club: A Decadent Affair 12/31

We’ll also discuss the biggest, most controversial and inevitably the surprising political issues of the day with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil and have a good sense of humor. Our panelists will provide informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, and we’ll have audience discussion of the week’s events plus our live news quiz!

Come early before the program to meet other smart and engaged individuals and discuss the news over snacks and wine at our members social (open to all attendees).

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

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9 COMMONWEALTH CLUB WEEKLY TOUR

Every Wednesday at 2 p.m., we’re giving members and nonmembers behind-the-scenes tours of our home at 110 The Embarcadero.

Join us for a complimentary tour of our beau-

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

49

tiful new headquarters on San Francisco’s waterfront. At our state-of-the-art gathering space, which features a rooftop terrace with unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco Bay, you can learn about our storied history and the many amenities of being a Club member.

Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. Find specific program information at SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- commonwealthclub.org/mms. barcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–3 p.m. tour PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon MARC FREEDMAN Marc Freedman, President and CEO, program

Encore.org; Author, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations; Twitter @marc_freedman Marc Freedman tells the story of his 30-year quest to answer some of contemporary life’s most urgent questions: With so many living so much longer, what is the meaning of the increasing years beyond 50? How can a society with more older people than younger ones thrive? How do we find happiness when we know life is long and time is short?

Freedman finds insights by exploring purpose and generativity, digging into the drive for longevity and the perils of age segregation, and talking to social innovators across the globe bringing the generations together for mutual benefit. He finds wisdom in stories from young and old, featuring ordinary people and icons such as jazz great Clark Terry and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

But the answers also come from stories of Freedman’s own mentors—a sawmill worker turned surrogate grandparent, a university administrator who served as Einstein’s driver, a cabinet secretary who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the gym teacher who was Freedman’s father.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: In association with Grownups MLF; Freedman will also be speaking in Marin January 30

THURSDAY, JANUARY 10 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 1/10/19

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

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fierce resurgence of “us versus them” nationalism. Veteran political reporter and author John Judis analyzes the underlying causes of the nationalist revolt and its global impact, arguing that nationalism is an inescapable aspect of politics that the Left has ceded to the Right.

The result: the rise of leaders such as Donald Trump in the United States and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. Judis looks to the future and urges leaders to identify and reclaim what is valid in nationalism while recognizing that it is in a country’s national interest to work together with strong international institutions.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, Join a more active Commonwealth Club San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 neighborhood adventure! Russian Hill is a p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: magical area with secret gardens and amazing Humanities • Program organizer: George Hammond views.

RUSSIAN HILL WALKING TOUR

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.

ERWIN CHEMERINSKY

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law; Author, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century For liberals worried about what a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court means for the future of civil liberties, Chemerinsky says it is time to develop and defend a progressive vision of the U.S. Constitution that protects the rights of all people.

Respected legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky argues that conservatives are using the Constitution to advance their own agenda that favors business over consumers and employers, and government power over individual rights.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Swensen’s Ice Cream, 1999 Hyde St., San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: Take Muni (Bus 45) or a taxi; there is absolutely no parking on Russian Hill—no parking lots or street parking; please take a taxi or public transport; the tour ends about six blocks from Swensen’s Ice Cream, at the corner of Vallejo and Jones; it is an easy walk down to North Beach from there; there are steep hills and SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Emstaircases; the tour is recommended for good walkers only; the tour operates rain or shine; limited to 20 participants; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in; walks with fewer than six participants will be canceled (you will receive notification of this at least three days in advance)

MONDAY, JANUARY 14 WHY HAS NATIONALISM COME ROARING BACK?

John Judis, Author, The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt Against Globalization Monday Night Philosophy investigates why the world is grappling with a Marc Freedman 1/9

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

Martin Rees: Prospects For Humanity 1/15 barcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15 MARTIN REES: PROSPECTS FOR HUMANITY

Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal; Author, On the Future: Prospects for Humanity Are we doing enough to protect our planet? According to world-renowned scientist and Astronomer Royal Martin Rees, humanity has reached a critical moment, and there is no plan B for Earth.

With our world changing at a rapid pace, Rees explains why the future of humanity is bound to the future of science. He offers a compelling look at how advancements in biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence, if applied wisely, can help address these growing challenges and threats.

SILICON VALLEY • Location: Oshman Family JCC, Schultz Cultural Hall, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto • Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. program, 8 p.m. book signing • Notes: In association with Wonderfest; Rees photo by Nesta

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16 COMMONWEALTH CLUB WEEKLY TOUR

Every Wednesday at 2 p.m., we’re giving members and nonmembers behind-the-scenes tours of our home at 110 The Embarcadero. Join us for a complimentary tour of our beautiful new headquarters on San Francisco’s waterfront. At our state-of-the-art gathering space—featuring a rooftop terrace with unobstructed views of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco Bay—learn about our storied history and the many amenities of being a Club member.

communications in an increasingly globalized, polarizing world. With YouTube, tweets, refugees and fake news rapidly crossing cultures without context, Lurie shares a timely, intriguing and sometimes tragic array of intercultural encounters gone wrong because of cultural misperceptions across the globe, in the worlds of migration, diplomacy, commerce and technology.

David Lennon, former managing editor of the Financial Times, called Lurie’s book “brilliant!” Lennon said the book offers “terrific and timely insights and tools for understanding culture clashes in a hyper-connecting world.”

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco • SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmTime: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–3 p.m. tour barcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 GLOBALIZATION AND ITS p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: International Relations • Program orgaCULTURAL DISCONNECTS Joe Lurie, Author; Cross-Cultural Com- nizer: Norma Walden • Notes: In associmunications Trainer; Executive Direc- ation with the Fromm Institute, UC Berketor Emeritus, International House, UC ley’s International House, the UC Berkeley Retirement Center, and The Osher InstiBerkeley Based on his recently released, expanded tute at San Francisco State University

edition of the award-winning Perception and Deception: A Mind-Opening Journey Across Cultures, Joe Lurie will present a spirited and insightful exploration of cross-cultural mis-

Meow Show” (Radio and TV); Twitter @ msmichellemeow John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. Find specific program information at commonwealthclub.org/mms.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program

THE KARDASHIAN-FREE CONVERSATION CLUB

Charles DeLoach, Host and Moderator, “Kardashian Free-Conversation Club”; Aspiring Politician Zack Zbar, Host and Moderator, “KarTHURSDAY, JANUARY 17 dashian Free-Conversation Club” THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 1/17/19 This program is for all curious members of Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle society who are eager for civil peer-to-peer disDECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

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Grownups Forum Planning Meeting 1/22

cussion but concerned with the lack of such discussion in our busy everyday lives. Every third Thursday of the month, the Kardashian-Free Conversation Club offers a chance to meet with your peers and talk through the things that really matter.

Here’s how this works: Before the event, members elect a single news topic to focus on.

Everything—from the Bay Area housing crisis to immigration reform—is on the table. When a topic is chosen, moderators Charles DeLoach and Zack Zbar will send out relevant materials, including podcasts, news articles, short documentaries and an easy-to-read fact sheet with the bare necessities. So even if you are unfamiliar with the topic, we will bring you up to speed. Then we’ll get together for an evening of light food, wine and enlightening small group discussions. The goal is to have an informal but informative discussion, where anyone can speak and everyone will listen. Bring your curiosity, your ideas and the desire to talk about anything but the Kardashians.

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

A BRIGHT FUTURE: HOW SOME COUNTRIES HAVE SOLVED CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE REST CAN FOLLOW

Joshua Goldstein, Speaker Staffan Qvist, Speaker See website for details.

SAN FRANCISCO • CLIMATE ONE PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero,

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Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • come with maturity and the freedom to exTime: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program plore. In addition to attending Grownups pro-

grams, members are encouraged to participate in this periodic forum meeting. We will discuss Diana Walsh Pasulka, Ph.D., Professor related topics and initiate programs using the of Religious Studies, University of North Club’s format. Forum leaders and Club staff Carolina Wilmington; Author, American will also offer guidance.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmCosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology Why do more than half of American adults barcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, and more than 75 percent of young Americans San Francisco • Time: 3:30 a.m. check-in, 4 p.m. program • MLF: Grownups • Probelieve in intelligent extraterrestrial life?

Diana Walsh Pasulka spent six years inter- gram organizer: John Milford, Denise Miviewing influential scientists and Silicon Valley chaud entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence. She has explored spiritual phe- HEART OF THE MATTER: WHAT nomena, visited the purported UFO crash sites DEATH CAN TEACH US ABOUT of New Mexico and roamed the archives of the LIVING FULLY Vatican. She argues that widespread belief in Frank Ostaseski, Buddhist Teacher; aliens is due to a number of factors, including Co-Founder, the Zen Hospice Project; their prevalence in modern media—from “The Founder, the Metta Institute; Author, X-Files” to the search for planets that might The Five Invitations: Discovering What support life. Pasulka explores the connections Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully between religion, technology and extraterres- In Conversation with Courtney Martin, trial life and examines how people interpret the Journalist; Activist; Speaker; Weekly unexplainable in our strange and sometimes Columnist, On Being; Author, The New Better Off: Reinventing the American mysterious world.

SILICON VALLEY • Location: Cubberley Dream The good news is we don’t have to wait until Theatre, 4000 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto • Time: 6:30 p.m. check-in, 7 p.m. pro- the end of our lives to realize the wisdom that death has to teach us. You are invited to an gram, 8 p.m. book signing evening of inspiring conversation about what TUESDAY, JANUARY 22 could be our most taboo subject, the inevitable GROWNUPS FORUM PLANNING and intimate experience of dying.

MEETING In both our professional and personal lives, The Grownups forum discusses and pro- a mindful and wise relationship with death can motes ideas about the ways and means of en- be a valuable companion on the road to living hancing the experience of growing older. The well, setting priorities, meeting crisis and forgforum believes the second half of life can offer ing a meaningful life, free of regret. a richness of experience and enjoyment that SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em-

DIANA WALSH PASULKA

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

barcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing • MLF: Business & Leadership • Program organizer: Elizabeth Carney

THE EIGHTH ANNUAL STEPHEN H. SCHNEIDER AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CLIMATE SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

news quiz (with chocolate prizes).

Come early before the program to meet other smart and engaged individuals and discuss the news over snacks and wine at our members social (open to all attendees).

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 SAN FRANCISCO • WEEK TO WEEK the historic significance of this neighborhood PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embar- and a close look at its ongoing development.

cadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmFrancisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. social hour, barcadero, Osher Lobby, San Francisco 6:30 p.m. program • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: The tour operates rain or Katharine Hayhoe, Associate Professor, THURSDAY, JANUARY 24 shine; limited to 20 participants; tickets Public Administration Program, Texas THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 1/24/19 must be purchased in advance and will Tech University Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle not be sold at check-in; walks with fewer Greg Dalton, Founder and Host, CliMeow Show” (Radio and TV); Twitter @ than six participants will be canceled (you mate One msmichellemeow will receive notification of this at least Join us in presenting Katharine Hayhoe John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Po- three days in advance) with the eighth annual Stephen H. Schneider

Award. Established in honor of Stephen Henry Schneider, one of the founding fathers of climatology who died suddenly in 2010, the $15,000 award recognizes a natural or social scientist who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear and compelling fashion.

“For many years, Katharine Hayhoe has been a unique voice in the climate communication world. With her patience, her empathy and her abiding Christian faith, she has been able to reach audiences that other climate scientists have not been able to reach,” says juror Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard University.

litical Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host Join us as Michelle Meow brings her long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. Find specific program information at commonwealthclub.org/mms.

SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO • CLIMATE ONE PRO- check-in, noon program GRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco WATERFRONT WALK• Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. pro- ING TOUR gram, 8 p.m. catered reception • Notes: Join Rick Evans for his Hayhoe photo by Christopher Soldt, Bos- walking tour exploring the ton College historic sites of the wa-

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23 WEEK TO WEEK POLITICS ROUNDTABLE WITH SOCIAL HOUR 1/23/19

Panelists TBA Week to Week is your chance to talk politics with others and hear from informed political journalists and academics.

We’ll discuss the biggest, most controversial and inevitably the surprising political issues of the day with expert commentary by panelists who are smart, are civil and have a good sense of humor. Our panelists will provide informative and engaging commentary on political and other major news, and we’ll have audience discussion of the week’s events and our live Katharine Hayhoe 1/22

terfront neighborhood that surround Commonwealth Club

RETHINKING CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Tony Platt, Distinguished Affiliated Scholar, Center for the Study of Law

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Walter E. Hoadley Annual Economic Forecast 1/25

and Society, UC Berkeley; Author, Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States The roots of the American criminal justice system reveal how the past bleeds into the present. The United States currently imprisons more people than any other country in the world and regularly turns a blind eye to the astonishing cruelty and institutionalized racism on display 24/7 in its prisons. How did a nation built on the rule of law get to this point, and what can be done about it?

Tony Platt begins by asking what a prison is and considers the commonalities between prisons, ghettos and reservations. He urges us to think about the public functions of private security and how the welfare system demeans and criminalizes many, but mostly poor women. Platt also explores the deep historical roots of the Trump administration’s law-andorder agenda, with specific attention to race, class and gender, and explains the failure of past reform efforts that have, ironically, led to an expansion of the police state rather than a contraction. Platt’ offers a call to action, a bold plan for structural reforms to improve justice for all.

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

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 25

U.S. and global economies are headed and what should be done to keep them on track.

BANK OF AMERICA/MERRILL LYNCH SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The EmWALTER E. HOADLEY ANNUAL barcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San ECONOMIC FORECAST Francisco • Time: 11 a.m. check-in, noon

Stephen Moore, Chief Economist, Heritage Foundation; Former Economic Adviser to Donald Trump; Former Member, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board; Author, Trumponomics Additional panelists TBA With changes to taxes taking effect, trade wars with China and other countries, health care in flux, housing prices continuing to rise, continued governmental gridlock as well as international challenges to the United States, what does all of this mean for your business, your investments and the overall economy in 2019?

Stephen Moore served as senior economic adviser to Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, where he focused on tax reform, regulatory reform and energy policy. With more than 30 years of experience as an economist, Moore focuses on the impact of government on business and analyzes shifts in the global economy. In addition to his role at Heritage, Mr. Moore serves as senior economic analyst at CNN. Previously, he served as a senior economist at the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and as a senior economics fellow at the Cato Institute. He advised the National Economic Commission in 1987, and served as a research director for President Reagan’s Commission on Privatization.

Join us for a lively discussion on where the

program • Notes: Underwritten by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch

MONDAY, JANUARY 28 THE WHEN WAY: THE BEST WAY TO EAT

Michael Crupain, M.D., MPH, Author, What to Eat When; Medical Director, “The Dr. Oz Show”; Fellow, The American College of Preventive Medicine Michael Roizen, M.D., Author, What to Eat When; Chief Wellness Officer, Cleveland Clinic; Chief Medical Consultant, “The Dr. Oz Show” This discussion about how to eat “The When Way” will not only present the science behind the optimal ways of eating based on your daily rhythms and changing circumstances but also offer easy-to-remember guidelines for how to adjust your diet to maximize the 24-hour cycle of life. Our speakers will explain why nutrition timing matters as well as what’s on the plate.

The result: better health, weight loss and the ability to use food to prevent disease.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco • Time: 11:30 a.m. checkin, noon program, 1 p.m. book signing • MLF: Food Matters • Program organizer: Bridget Flanagan

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

MIDDLE EAST FORUM DISCUSSION

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

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.

your superpower. Come learn the empathy rising framework for showing up in challenging situations and leave with tips for sustaining yourself while on empathy adventures.

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

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Max Thelen Board Room, San WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30 Francisco • Time: 4:30 p.m. check-in, 5 SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Emp.m. program • MLF: Middle East • Pro- barcadero, Max Thelen Boardroom, San LAST BOAT OUT OF SHANGHAI: gram organizer: Celia Menczel Francisco • Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30–8 THE CHINESE WHO FLED MAO’S p.m. program • MLF: Humanities • Pro- REVOLUTION STANFORD B-SCHOOL’S TOOLS TO gram organizer: George Hammond Helen Zia, Journalist; Author, Last Boat

CUT STRESS, BOOST SOFT SKILLS AND PRODUCTIVITY

Leah Weiss, Ph.D., MSW, Author, How We Work; Former Director, Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education; Principal Teacher, Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training Program Stressed at work but can’t find time to destress and meditate? Need to be creative but running into mind blocks? Sidetracked by trivia instead of getting work done? Stanford’s Leah Weiss, author of How We Work: Live Your Purpose, Reclaim Your Sanity, and Embrace the Daily Grind, will show us how to sidetrack anxiety and enter a creative state even if we’re not feeling like it. She will provide other practical examples as well.

During this interactive session, we will learn how to integrate useful tools derived from mindfulness into our actual workdays. Come learn what Stanford’s Graduate School of Business is teaching about how to incorporate evidence-based meditation and mindfulness practices directly into the workday, reaping the benefits of improved productivity, creativity and happiness without having to set aside a special time or place. Weiss’ class at Stanford usually has a long waitlist, so sign up for this session before it sells out!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 29 EMPATHY RISING

Shannon Weber, Serial Social Entrepreneur; Founder, LoveYou2.org; Director, HIVEonline.org, Founder, PleasePrEPMe.org and PleasePrEPMe.global; Coordinator, GettingtoZeroSF.org Perhaps you’ve had experiences at work or in your community where, while helping someone in crisis, you found yourself overextended.

Or maybe you’ve seen an opportunity to help someone in the past and held back because it felt too risky or dangerous. How do you typically engage in relationships? How does your engagement shift when you are in a professional role? How does a challenging situation or crisis impact how you engage? Sustaining empathy requires attention. Awareness of how you engage in challenging times can become

Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution (forthcoming) On the eve of the People’s Republic of China’s 70th anniversary, journalist and author Helen Zia discusses the desperate exodus out of that country’s biggest and most sophisticated city—a port so notorious that its name was synonymous with evildoing. Her new nonfiction book, Last Boat out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution, is the first English-language account of this mass flight, an event that mirrors the Jews and other intellectuals fleeing Berlin as Hitler came to power and the frantic rush for evacuees to enter the American embassy as Saigon fell.

This is the history of a generation of Chinese intellectuals dispersed throughout the world.

The story remained untold, even in China, until Zia interviewed more than 100 survivors of

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

SOCRATES CAFÉ

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 Stanford B-School's Tools to Cut Stress, Boost Soft Skills and Productivity 1/28

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

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Mateship and Australia–U.S. Relations: A Foundation for the Next 100 Years 10/31

this late 1940s and early 1950s exodus. Many endured great hardship and nativist hostility, including the McCarthy inquisition in the United States, as they tried to find safety for themselves and their families.

Their offspring include Maya Lin, I.M. Pei, Amy Tan, Steven Chu, Elaine Chao, David Henry Hwang, Chang-lin Tien, Gish Jen and many other notables.

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

DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF

Douglas Rushkoff, Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics, CUNY/ Queens; Author, Team Human; Twitter @rushkoff

Team Human is a manifesto—a fiery distillation of preeminent digital theorist Douglas Rushkoff’s most urgent thoughts on civilization and human nature. In 100 lean and incisive statements, he argues that we are essentially social creatures and that we achieve our greatest aspirations when we work together— not as individuals. Yet he says today society is threatened by a vast antihuman infrastructure that undermines our ability to connect. Money, once a means of exchange, is now a means of exploitation; education, conceived as way to elevate the working class, has become another assembly line; and the Internet has only further divided us into increasingly atomized and radicalized groups.

If people are to resist and survive these destructive forces, Rushkoff believes they must recognize that being human is a team sport.

In Rushkoff’s own words: “Being social may be the whole point.” Harnessing wide-ranging research on human evolution, biology and psychology, Rushkoff says that when people work together they realize greater happiness, productivity and peace. If people can find the others who understand this fundamental truth and reassert their humanity together, they can make the world a better place to be human.

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

MARC FREEDMAN

Marc Freedman, President and CEO, Encore.org; Author, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations; Twitter @marc_freedman Marc Freedman tells the story of his 30-year quest to answer some of contemporary life’s most urgent questions: With so many living so much longer, what is the meaning of the increasing years beyond 50? How can a society with more older people than younger ones thrive? How do we find happiness when we know life is long and time is short?

Freedman finds insights by exploring purpose and generativity, digging into the drive for longevity and the perils of age segregation, and talking to social innovators across the globe bringing the generations together for mutual benefit. He finds wisdom in stories from young and old, featuring ordinary people and icons like jazz great Clark Terry and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

But the answers also come from stories of Freedman’s own mentors—a sawmill worker turned surrogate grandparent, a university administrator who served as Einstein’s driver, a cabinet secretary who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the gym teacher who was Freedman’s father. He will share his deeply personal call to find fulfillment and happiness in our longer lives by connecting with the next generation and forging a legacy of love that lives beyond us.

Freedman will discuss his new book at the beautiful Buck Institute, an organization dedicated to helping people live better longer. It is a special event you won’t want to miss. Read more about Freedman’s views on the power of intergenerational relationships at webreprints. djreprints.com/4460340932488.html.

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Buck Institute, 8001 Redwood Boulevard, Novato, 94945 • Time: 7 p.m. check-in and reception, 7:30 p.m. program, 8:30 p.m. book signing • Notes: Light refreshments are available; Freedman will also be speaking in San Francisco January 9

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31 THE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW 1/31/19

Michelle Meow, Host, “The Michelle Meow Show” (Radio and TV); Twitter @ msmichellemeow John Zipperer, Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host Join us as Michelle Meow brings her

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Douglas Rushkoff 1/30

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

long-running daily radio show to The Commonwealth Club one day each week. Meet fascinating—and often controversial—people discussing important issues of interest to the LGBTQ community, and have your questions ready. Find specific program information at commonwealthclub.org/mms.

Join us for a discussion of Governor Brown’s for a conversation with a man who has been surprise gambit to take the world’s fifth largest called the “conscience of the nation” about the economy to net zero. possibilities for America to be inclusive and to SAN FRANCISCO • CLIMATE ONE PRO- find common ground across lines of race, culGRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, ture, class, gender and belief.

SAN FRANCISCO ARCHITECTURE WALKING TOUR

Charles Frankel, Honorary Consul General, The Republic of Botswana Graham Johansson, Wildlife Photographer, Safari Guide From the Okavango Delta to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana draws in wildlife and nature lovers from around the world. It also has one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies and a highly advanced banking system. It has had a democratic government for over 50 years.

Charles Frankel and Graham Johansson discuss what draws people to Botswana and the factors that contribute to the country’s success relative to the rest of Africa.

Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco • SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Marines Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter Street, SAN FRANCISCO • MICHELLE MEOW PRO- 7:30 p.m. networking reception San Francisco • Time: 5:30pm. check-in, GRAM • Location: 110 The Embarcadero, 6:30pm program Max Thelen Boardroom, San Francisco • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4 Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program BOTSWANA: DELTA, DIAMONDS AND DECEMBER 6

Explore San Francisco’s Financial District with historian Rick Evans and learn the history and stories behind some of our city’s remarkable structures, streets and public squares.

Hear about the famous architects that influenced the building of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Discover hard-to-find rooftop gardens, art deco lobbies, unique open spaces and historic landmarks.

This is a tour for locals, with hidden gems you can only find on foot!

DEMOCRACY

SAN FRANCISCO • Location: Galleria Park Hotel, 191 Sutter St., San Francisco • Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–4:30 p.m. walk • Notes: The tour involves walking up and down stairs but covers less than one mile of walking in the Financial District; the p.m. program tour operates rain or shine; limited to 20 LATE-BREAKING EVENTS participants; tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at check-in; NOVEMBER 29 walks with fewer than six participants will REVEREND JESSE JACKSON: be canceled (you will receive notification of A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE this at least three days in advance) PROMISE OF AMERICA

CAN CALIFORNIA GO CARBON NEUTRAL?

Mary Nichols, Chair, California Air Resources Board Greg Dalton, Founder and Host, Climate One Just 10 years ago, an entire state running on 100 percent renewable electricity was considered fanciful. But this dreamy vision became reality when, with the backing of big utilities, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 100 into law, committing California to 100-percent use of zero-carbon electricity by 2045. Then Brown took it one giant step further, catching even insiders by surprise, by signing an executive order committing California to economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2045. What will it take for California to achieve such a feat? What are the obstacles?

GOING CARBON NEGATIVE

Noah Deich, Executive Director, Carbon180 Greg Dalton, Founder and Host, Climate One The math is clear: Lowering greenhouse gas emissions is not enough to keep the Earth below 1.5 degrees Celsius of postindustrial warming. The latest science indicates that actively removing carbon from the atmosphere—storing it in rocks, soil, trees and even turning it into products like concrete—is critical to restoring the carbon and energy balance. To keep our planet from dangerous levels of warming, we’ll need to go carbon negative.

Is carbon removal a cost-effective solution to SAN FRANCISCO • Location: 110 The Em- addressing climate change? Which natural and barcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, technological approaches are the most promSan Francisco • Time: 5:30 p.m. check-in, 6 ising?

Reverend Jesse Jackson, Founder and President, Rainbow PUSH Coalition In Conversation with Judge LaDoris Cordell (Ret.) Jesse Jackson is one of America’s foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. For more than five decades, from working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to his own two presidential campaigns and beyond, Jackson has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice. On August 9, 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

As America grapples with polarization and increased threats of violence against social and political leaders, various ethnic groups, and the media, is it still possible for Americans to lessen the heated rhetoric and bridge divides? Come

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

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DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018-2019

57

INSIGHT

California, Land of Opportunity Dr. Gloria C. Duffy, President and CEO

T

he idea of California exceptionalism is embedded in our DNA. The concept was gelled by historian Carey McWilliams, who wrote in his 1949 book California:The Great Exception that rapid population growth, natural resources and industrial development had led California to be a new center of economic and political power in the United States. We are now accustomed to thinking that California leads the nation in social and economic trends.

This process has grown stronger since the middle of the last century.

Today California is an economic powerhouse, with the fifth largest economy in the world. Our annual GDP is $2.7 trillion. Only the United States as a whole, China, Japan and Germany have larger economies than California. Our economy is larger than those of Great Britain, France and Russia.

Our state contributes more than 14 percent of U.S. economic power. With our leadership in entertainment, agriculture, real estate, financial services, manufacturing and technology, we are a huge economic force. Our population is now nearly 40 million, or 12 percent of the U.S. population. California compares to other countries—China, Japan, Germany and the United States as a whole—not to other states in the United States. Our nearest competitors among the states—Texas and New York—lag more than a trillion dollars each behind California’s annual GDP. The United States today is beset by numerous problems. The demise of industries like coal, steel and lumber have created a loss of jobs, giving rise to groups of disaffected citizens who are unemployed or underemployed. More than 40 million Americans lack medical insurance; the United States is 33rd out of 34 OECD countries in the percentage of the population covered. Turkey, Slovakia and Poland have better rates of health insurance coverage.

Homelessness is epidemic. A half million Americans are homeless, including disproportionate numbers of children, veterans, disabled and the elderly.

We have an increasing rate of mass shootings and an increasing number of people killed this way.

We have a politics of me and mine, rather than us and ours. Due to dysfunctional hyper-partisan politics, we have been unable to take needed steps on the national level to deal with such issues as climate change and health insurance.

We have divisions between races and around gender. We have a public discourse that is difficult, divisive, sometimes rude, strident and demeaning. The diversity and effectiveness of our national media has declined. We are experiencing a rise in white supremacist activities and an increase in authoritarianism, nationally and internationally.

California is a microcosm of the nation’s issues; all of these trends affect us. But, unlike other regions of the United States, California has the resources—intellectual, scientific, natural, organizational, economic

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THE COMMO N WE AL TH

and political—to address the problems, and in doing so provide an example for the nation and the world.

And herein lies California’s current exceptionalism. The phrase, “California, land of opportunity,” has always meant the opportunity to start a new life; to succeed; to find gold, oil, land or an entrepreneurial environment conducive to founding a new business.

Today, it means that we have the opportunity to problem-solve for the nation.

Photo courtesy of Gloria Duffy In most of the challenges we face as a nation, California is either leading the way to solutions or is poised to do so. While we have political polarization nationally, in California, to a great extent we still have a functioning bi-partisan system that allows us to address our problems.

On climate change, for example, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 AB 32 was the most comprehensive climate change legislation in the world. Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has continued along this path, announcing that California will have a carbon-free energy base by 2045.

California is also leading in the development of public transportation, which is essential for our economy and to reduce carbon emissions.

We are building the first high-speed rail system in the nation. With Google’s proposed development around the Diridon Station in San Jose, we are also pioneering in transit-oriented developments that will locate homes, shops, restaurants and amenities around our major transportation hubs.

On health and medical care, California already delivers many of the medical breakthroughs and technologies that drive our dramatically expanding ability to provide outstanding health care. Now California is on the cusp of political leadership, as our new governor, Gavin Newsom, appears ready to find a financially sustainable approach to universal health insurance coverage for Californians.

California has one of the highest homelessness rates in the nation.

But funds and strategies are now flowing to solutions. San Francisco’s Proposition C, Cisco System’s commitment of $50 million, Mark Benioff’s leadership and independent organizations like Conard House, Miracle Messages and Chrysalis in Los Angeles are all addressing the problem with innovative approaches.

California will be the land of opportunity, in all senses, if we channel our resources through both political and citizen action to show the rest of the nation and the world how to solve our problems.

Your Board Ballot: Remember to cast your ballot for the Club’s Board of Governors by December 9. Go to commonwealthclub.org/boardvote

Discovering Eastern Europe Poland, Hungary, Austria & the Czech Republic APRIL 30 – MAY 15, 2019

Depart on an odyssey through Europe that visits four distinctly different nations—Poland, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic—with fascinating histories and monumental events of the last century.

• Explore Warsaw’s Old Town—a UNESCO World Heritage

Site—and visit the haunting Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.

• Near Krakow, visit the UNESCO-designated Wieliczka Salt Mines, which operated from the 13th century to 2007 and is home to a wild display of salt carvings.

• Discover Budapest’s Parliament, Dohany Synagogue (Europe’s largest), and spend time on the scenic Danube Bend.

• Experience Austria’s Vienna Woods, the health spa town

of Baden, a classical music performance, and the majestic Schönbrunn Palace.

• Visit Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral, Golden Lane, and Hradcany Castle. Wander through Wenceslas Square, the site of the demonstrations that led to the Velvet Revolution.

• Learn from expert guides and guest speakers.

• Take an optional 4-day/3-night post-tour extension to Berlin. $5,597, per person, based on double occupancy, and including air from SFO

Brochure at commonwealthclub.org/travel

| 415.597.6720

|

travel@commonwealthclub.org CST: 2096889-40

To purchase tickets:

The Commonwealth Club of California

visit commonwealthclub.org or call (415) 597-6705 or call (800) 847-7730

P.O. Box 194210 San Francisco, CA 94119

Periodicals postage paid in San Francisco, California

To subscribe to our email newsletter: visit commonwealthclub.org and use the simple “Be the First to Know” feature on the homepage

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3

Details on page 45

THURSDAY, JANUARY 17

JACKIE SPEIER

DIANA WALSH PASULKA

Jackie Speier, U.S. Representative (D-CA); Author, Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back

Diana Walsh Pasulka, Ph.D., Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina Wilmington; Author, American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology

Cheryl Jennings, Reporter, ABC 7

Why do more than half of American adults and more than 75 percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life? Diana Walsh Pasulka argues that widespread belief in aliens is due to a number of factors, including their prevalence in modern media—from “The X-Files” to the search for planets that might support life. She explores the connections between religion, technology and extraterrestrial life and examines how people interpret the unexplainable in our strange and sometimes mysterious world.

Jackie Speier was 28 when she joined Rep. Leo Ryan’s delegation to rescue defectors from cult leader Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana.

Ryan was killed on the airstrip tarmac.

Jackie was shot five times at pointblank range. While recovering from what would become one of the most harrowing tragedies in recent history, Speier had to choose: Would she become a victim or a fighter?

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22

Details on page 53

SCHNEIDER AWARDS

Katharine Hayhoe, Associate Professor, Public Administration Program, Texas Tech University Greg Dalton, Founder and Host, Climate One

Join us in presenting Katharine Hayhoe with the eighth annual Stephen H. Schneider Award. Established in honor of Stephen Henry Schneider, a founding father of climatology who died suddenly in 2010, the $15,000 award recognizes a natural or social scientist who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear and compelling fashion.

Details on page 52

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25

Details on page 54

ECONOMIC FORECAST

Stephen Moore, Chief Economist, Heritage Foundation; Former Economic Advisor to Donald Trump; Author, Trumponomics Additional panelists TBA

Tax changes, trade wars, health care in flux, housing prices rising, governmental gridlock as well as international challenges—what does all of this mean for your business, your investments and the overall economy in 2019? Join us for a lively discussion on where the United States and other global economies are headed and what should be done to keep them on track.