Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

When Grete and Julius fled Nazi Germany, they never imagined they’d be forced into hiding in a Dutch attic. While in hiding, their daughter Marion was born—a moment of light amid the darkest of times. Years later, Marion Seidemann Fredman shares her family’s courageous story of love, loss, and resilience in this visually rich, nonfiction picture book. A Time to Hide is suitable for readers as young as 9 or 10 but appropriate for all ages to learn about World War II and the Holocaust. Through a blend of historical documents, family photos, a collage of paintings and illustrations, including newly commissioned illustrations by acclaimed artist Elisa Kleven, Fredman makes history accessible to young readers while preserving the emotional truth of one family’s courage and humanity. Fredman, a longtime Berkeley resident, joins Commonwealth Club World Affairs to talk about the book—and her family’s remarkable story of survival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has a lot in common with his Democratic opponents in the race for California governor. Like them, he is making affordability and cutting red tape centerpieces of his campaign. But he has been more outspoken in his criticism of Governor Gavin Newsom, and he’s often described as the moderate Democrat in the race. Still, Mahan has pushed back on the moderate label. “I think we should want great things for everyone, but I worry that our state often embraces policies that are idealistic, that sound good, are performative and aren’t working in practice,” Mahan told the Orange County Register in February. “And that’s why I consider myself a pragmatist more than anything.”To address the homelessness crisis, Mahan would expand the use of tiny homes, among other initiatives. He also supports “requiring treatment for the drug, alcohol and mental health conditions that lead to repeated arrests and trap people on the streets.” A former tech entrepreneur, Mahan grew up in Watsonville and was elected to the San José City Council in 2020. He narrowly won the race for mayor two years later, and was reelected in a landslide in 2024. Mahan joins Commonwealth Club World Affairs as part of our “Race for Governor 2026” series of candidate forums. Come meet the candidate, hear his vision for California, and ask your questions before you cast your vote for California’s next governor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I don’t know who discovered water, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a fish.” Like a fish in water, we rarely notice the cultural forces that surround us every day—especially when it comes to our mental health. Join UCSF psychiatrist Dr. Descartes Li as he dives into the invisible cultural currents that shape the human mind. From the American emphasis on “talking it out” and finding your “true self,” to the physical experience of distress in other parts of the world, this fascinating lecture will reveal how deeply our beliefs and cultural norms construct our understanding of illness, suffering and healing. About the Speakers Our speaker today is Dr. Descartes Li, a professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Li has spent his career at the intersection of clinical care, medical education and cultural psychiatry. Recognizing the unique mental-health needs of diverse populations, he founded and directed the UCSF Asia America Clinic to provide specialized care to the Bay Area's Asian American community. In addition to his focus on cultural psychiatry, Dr. Li is a highly respected clinical leader, serving as the director of both the UCSF Bipolar Disorder Program and the Electroconvulsive Therapy Service. He recently completed a five-year tenure as UCSF's vice chair for education in psychiatry, and his impact on global medical education includes serving as a distinguished professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. A returning speaker to Commonwealth Club World Affairs, Dr. Li brings decades of frontline clinical experience, a passion for understanding the human mind, and a commitment to humanistic care. A Psychology Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. Organizer: Veronica Ortega & Patrik O'Reilly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year, one of the most powerful politicians in the country decided not to seek re-election. For nearly 38 years, Nancy Pelosi has represented the people of San Francisco in the US House of Representatives. As one of the most powerful House Speakers in U.S. history, Pelosi played a central role in advancing landmark environmental and climate laws, and bringing energy and climate policy to the forefront of the national agenda. Her retirement opens up a space for a new person to take up her mantle as an advocate for climate and energy policies, as well as the other priorities of the people of California’s 11th District. Saikat Chakrabarti and Scott Wiener are both vying to represent the district in congress. How does each candidate plan to balance serious climate action with the everyday economic pressures facing Bay Area communities? Can they refocus Congress on climate solutions? And what, specifically, is their plan? Guests: Saikat Chakrabarti, President, New Consensus Scott Wiener, California State Senator For show notes and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org/podcasts⁠. ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠Patreon⁠, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at ⁠patreon.com/ClimateOne⁠. Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for a special Songkran program celebrating the Southeast Asian New Year. We’ll bring together Lao American community members who will offer perspectives on the human consequences of the current U.S. immigration policy. Raised in the United States, many Lao American refugees are vulnerable to current immigration policy changes, with some facing deportation back to a country unfamiliar to them. Through storytelling of their own lives, we’ll explore issues of belonging and the impact of families currently being separated. The discussion will conclude with a special musical performance by Tookta and Morlam SF, followed by a reception featuring a traditional blessing and Southeast Asian flavors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Doleac studies the economics of crime and discrimination. And when she considers criminal justice reform, she’s not only hopeful but actually optimistic that things can improve for the entire system as a whole. In her new book The Science of Second Chances, Doleac lays out her view of how to reduce both crime and incarceration. She draws on cutting-edge economic research and experiments to offer a reform blueprint. She says shifting the incentives that people face can produce dramatic changes in the decisions they make, which can result in significantly fewer people going through the criminal justice system. From DNA databases that increase the likelihood of catching repeat offenders to leniency programs for first-time defendants, she reveals a series of surprising interventions that she says actually work, along with cautionary tales about great ideas that never panned out. Doleac says we can have both public safety and a smaller, “less intrusive” justice system without waiting for big structural reforms that might never happen. Can small changes result in big results? Come with your questions and find out when Jennifer Doleac joins us in San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is a question just about everyone confronts in their life, and it centers on how we find our way in the world. How do we deal with challenges that can radically change a life? And what comes next? Author Jim Collins returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to share his lessons on constructing—and reconstructing—a life through those “cliff moment” challenges and transitions that come up repeatedly in our lives. Collins devoted a decade to studying these questions and to minutely analyzing those moments when life flips from clarity to confusion and casts us into a befuddling fog. He followed people in side-by-side positions who shared “cliffs,” and he analyzes the different decisions people made and the divergent paths taken. Such as two rock musicians facing a future without the group that brought them success. Or two public figures who endured scandal and then had to figure out how to rebuild their lives. Two suffragists achieved their big goal—and then had to decide out what to do next. Then there are two figure skaters scoping out a new life’s purpose for their post-Olympic careers. From Collins’ studies, he developed a framework for figuring out how a life can be rebuilt and constantly renewed. Come hear him for yourself and hear his deeply researched prescription for discovering deeply fulfilling roles in life, enduring tough times and even pivotal events, and building personal momentum, decade after decade, throughout life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Change can come from out of nowhere. A relationship ends, a doctor gives an unwelcome diagnosis, a business closes, a loved one passes away. At times like those, it can feel as if we’re in free-fall into the unknown. Maya Shankar, a cognitive scientist, has spent decades studying the human mind. When she experienced an unwanted change in her own life that left her reeling, she sought out people who had navigated major disruptions in their lives, and she tells what she learned in her new book The Other Side of Change. She shares their stories, along with insights from science to shine a light on universal lessons. She says we can rethink how we engage with change altogether. When something big happens to us, she says, it can lead to profound change within us. That can lead to uncovering new abilities, perspectives, and values; the process can transform us in extraordinary ways. Can moments of upheaval be seen as opportunities for positive change? What potentials lie within people waiting to be unlocked? Join us to hear a scientist’s take on finding meaning in the turmoil of changes. The program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finding one's voice in climate action can come in many forms. Author and activist Taylor Brorby grew up in Center, North Dakota as a fourth-generation member of a fossil-fuel family. He struggled to find his place as a young gay kid who loved art, music, nature and poetry. Over time, he turned that tension into writing that challenges the fossil fuel industry, makes space for others stuck in a broken system, and inspires a more just future. Suzie Hicks felt the weight of climate concerns but after college, didn’t know what to do with those feelings. After doing an internship at the New England Aquarium, they realized they could merge their love of performing with a career focused on climate. With the help of a sunflower puppet named Sprout, Suzie created a children’s show that teaches kids about climate change through a frame of possibility and hope, not doom and gloom. Guests Taylor Brorby, Activist, Author, “Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land” Suzie Hicks, Climate Media Maker and Educator For show notes, transcript, and related links, visit ⁠ClimateOne.org/podcasts⁠. Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 02:20 – Taylor Brorby describes the N.D. town where he grew up 05:00 – What he learned from the prairie landscape 07:30 – Other queer writers from the Great Plains 13:30 – Influential environmental writers 17:00 – Writing optimistically rather than dystopian narratives 20:00 – Getting arrested protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline 25:30 – Why we need to be supporting rural writers 30:00 – Project Tundra, a carbon capture project near Center, N.D. 34:00 – Origins of Suzie Hicks, the Climate Chick 36:30 – It’s okay to have complicated feelings about climate change 40:00 – Working with kids' existing love for nature in educating them about climate change 42:00 – Why introduce kids to climate change? Because it’s already happening. 47:00 – How Hicks sees their role as a positive storyteller around climate change ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠Patreon⁠, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at ⁠patreon.com/ClimateOne⁠. Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rarely does a historian of science have the opportunity, in the midst of changing trends in a science, to point backwards in time and explain how dismissive reactions to the ideas of a scientific pioneer might have harmed the accuracy of that science for centuries. Jessica Riskin has seized such an opportunity in her new book about the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), who proposed the first evolutionary theory of life and, with it, a new science: biology. For centuries evolutionary theorists have discredited Lamarck due to his theory of self-transforming organisms, since they rejected (and mocked) the idea that animals could play an active role in shaping their own evolution. But new findings suggest that Lamarck’s basic claim was, in many ways, correct. Riskin also argues that that denial of the agency of living beings led to two centuries of eugenic policies and environmental destruction, encouraging people to regard the living world as so much raw material to be shaped and exploited for economic, industrial, and imperial gain. Riskin’s melding of biography, history, politics, and science sets out to correct this record. She tells the story of Lamarck’s life and work as an intense struggle between rival forces attempting to answer questions that remain foundational to our modern worldview: What is a living being, and what is science? Join us as Riskin shines a much-needed light on an underappreciated biologist whose evolutionary theory offered a more inclusive, collaborative, and enlightened approach to science. A Humanities Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. Organizer: George Hammond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress has long been a punching bag for American dissatisfaction with their government or with the direction of the country. But its unpopularity keeps plumbing new depths, even as the major party polarization has strengthened. In short, Congress—the central democratic institution in the country—is hanging on by a thread. But its biggest liability might be its inability to reform itself. Maya Kornberg, a senior research fellow at the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program, has explored the ways that Congress has become increasingly inhospitable to change. The “Watergate babies” of 1974, the Contract with America conservatives of 1994, and the historic 2018 class fueled by backlash to Donald Trump all represent younger, more diverse, and less entrenched members who arrived in the capital energized and idealistic. Today, Dr. Kornberg says political violence, astronomical campaign costs, relentless fundraising demands, shrinking staff, and centralized party leadership all constrain the ability of new members to legislate and represent their constituents. Social media, while offering new platforms for political expression, has also heightened harassment and fed a performative culture that rewards spectacle over substance. Kornberg talked with dozens of individuals, examined congressional records, and heard from lawmakers past and present—including Henry Waxman, Toby Moffett, Phil English, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Lauren Underwood. She presents her findings in her new book Stuck: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress. In it, she chronicles the efforts of congressional reformers over the last 50 years and documents the mounting forces that have kept their reforms from creating meaningful change. Come hear her talk about the sobering portrait that emerged of a legislative body paralyzed by its own internal dynamics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed historian Howard W. French’s new book, The Second Emancipation, recasts the liberation of 20th century Africa through the lens of revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah. The first prime minister of Ghana, Nkrumah “was in his day as important as Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Mohandas Gandhi of India,” according to The Wall Street Journal. In fact, French writes, African opinion polls often rank Nkrumah as the greatest Black person of the last 100 years, surpassing Mandela. The Second Emancipation is the second work in French’s trilogy about Africa’s pivotal role in shaping world history. The title―referring to a brief period beginning in 1957 when dozens of African colonies gained their freedom―positions this liberation at the center of a “movement of global Blackness,” with one charismatic leader, Nkrumah, at its head. That so few people today know about Nkrumah is an omission that French demonstrates is “typical of our deliberate neglect of Africa’s enormous role in the birth of the modern world.” Join us to hear French talk about Nkrumah’s legacy and dramatic life story, the history of African liberation, and the current state of America’s engagement with Africa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us at the North End of Pier 35 for a private tour of the SS Jeremiah O’Brien. See what Rosie the Riveter and Wendy the Welder helped create, and hear about the ship’s fascinating history and the details of keeping a war machine’s supply chains open and effective. Experience the ship as she was in 1943, tour her historic decks, and explore her engine room (powered by a functioning triple-expansion steam engine similar to the one used on the Titanic—and which was filmed in action by James Cameron for use in his 1997 movie). The Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien, permanently docked at Pier 35, is a living museum of the Bay Area’s crucial role in the massive production efforts required to equip the WWII Allies and keep them supplied under adverse wartime circumstances. Launched on June 19, 1943, from the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine, the SS Jeremiah O’Brien is one of the last survivors of the 2,710 Liberty ships that were built—and the only one that remains completely unaltered and fully operational. She carried troops and supplies across dangerous wartime seas, completing seven voyages to destinations as far-flung as Northern Ireland, India, Australia, and South America. She also made 11 crossings to the Normandy beachhead during the D-Day landings—a critical component of the largest seaborne invasion in history. In 1994, she journeyed through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic Ocean to take part in the 50th anniversary of D-Day. She was the only Liberty ship— and the only vessel from the original invasion fleet—to return to the beaches of Normandy. Her voyage, widely celebrated in Europe and the United States, cemented her status as a symbol of courage, endurance and historical fidelity. And every year she still sails a few times on the Bay—always for May Memorial Cruise and for Fleet Week. A Humanities Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. In association with the Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien Foundation Organizer: George Hammond Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement last year, USA Today called her “the most powerful woman in the history of the United States.” The first woman to become speaker and one of the most consequential legislators of her era, Pelosi has represented San Francisco for nearly four decades. First elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi has described her journey as going from “kitchen to Congress, housewife to House Speaker.” She says she was first driven to run for office out of concern over child poverty. Among the proudest achievements she cites are shepherding passage of the Affordable Care Act and passing the American Rescue Plan Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She also points to her leadership on climate issues, including the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022— the largest climate investment in American history. In this Commonwealth Club World Affairs program, Pelosi will reflect on her career, the turning points that defined her leadership, and the future of American democracy. From her years in Washington’s power centers to the upheavals of recent political history, she joins us to talk about her legacy and her view of the road ahead—including this year’s midterm elections and 2028 presidential race. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The star of the evening is Genny Lim, San Francisco’s current poet laureate—an acclaimed poet, playwright and performer whose work reflects the rhythms, struggles and resilience of the city we call home. Appointed poet laureate in 2024 by London Breed, Lim is the city’s first Chinese American poet laureate. Drawing inspiration from her upbringing in Chinatown and North Beach, her poetry invites us to listen more deeply—to one another and to San Francisco itself. The evening will also feature remarks from Commonwealth Club World Affairs Board Member Claudine Cheng, with a moderated conversation led by Dion Lim, former ABC7 news anchor. Enjoy an intimate evening featuring: A live poetry experience with Genny Lim is accompanied by musicians Chris Trinidad, known for jazz, Latin, and experimental music, and Unpil Baek, a Bay Area-based pianist anchored in improvisation and cross-genre collaboration Reflections on poetry as connection, healing and civic voice Time to mingle with fellow members over light refreshments Come for the poetry. Stay for the conversation. Join us for an evening designed to inspire, connect and remind us why shared cultural experiences matter. No-host bar and lite bites. An Arts Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. Organizer: Robert Melton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are living through a time where big positive change seems unachievable, but there are two instances from the recent past that prove change is possible. For over a century, Indigenous people along the Klamath River fought to protect their way of life, and the salmon they depend on. Their persistence helped remove four dams and restore hundreds of miles of river. In Los Angeles, decades of science, activism, and policy turned toxic smog into cleaner air. Both stories reveal that progress takes persistence, coalition-building, and time. But when communities push and institutions respond, meaningful change is possible. Guests: Amy Bowers Cordalis, Yurok Tribe member, Author, The Water Remembers Ann Carlson, Professor of Environmental Law, UCLA; Author, Smog and Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up Its Air For show notes and related links, visit ⁠https://www.climateone.org/podcasts⁠ Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 02:26 – Amy Bowers Cordalis on the river and salmon 06:63 – Amy Bowers Cordalis on Uncle Ray 12:53 – Amy Bowers Cordalis on witnessing the effects of the dams 16:04 – Amy Bowers Cordalis on the lowest salmon run 2218 – Amy Bowers Cordalis on getting to destroy the dams 28:18 – Amy Bowers Cordalis on seeing the river come back to life 34:13 – Ann Carlson on the state of LA air 37:58 – Ann Carlson on the first steps towards cleaning the air 40:14 – Ann Carlson on getting from pineapples to smog 44:27 – Ann Carlson on the Mothers of East LA 52:40 – Ann Carlson on why it the book is important now ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠Patreon⁠, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at ⁠patreon.com/ClimateOne⁠. Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About half the global population spends some amount of their leisure time playing games, whether it’s a board game after dinner with friends or online role-playing experience through an alternate world. While many video and board games have long incorporated elements we can imagine in a climate-altered future — such as resource scarcity, conflict, and survival — some in the industry are working to shift players’ mindsets towards protecting nature and reducing their own climate impacts in the process. Daybreak is a cooperative board game about stopping climate change. Cities: Skylines lets players do urban planning with climate-friendly policies such as offering free public transportation or implementing congestion pricing. And the UN’s Environment Programme is backing the Playing for Planet Alliance, which awards games that spark engagement while delivering an environmental message. How can games encourage people to explore climate realities and possible futures in a way that allows greater engagement, rather than anxiety and despair? Guests: Jacob Geller, Author; Video Essayist Laura Carter, CEO and Founder, TreesPlease Games Sam Barratt, Chief of Youth, Education and Advocacy, UN Environment Programme For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/podcasts Highlights: 00:00 – Intro 00:30 – Kousha and Ariana play a video game 05:00 – Jacob Geller on video games and climate themes 11:00 – World-building games that employ climate solutions and strategies 21:30 – Laura Carter on her early love of games and environmental issues 26:00 – LongLeaf Valley and storytelling in games 33:30 – Why build tree-planting into the gameplay 40:00 – Sam Barratt on why video games medium is so critical for engagement 46:30 – Playing for the Planet Alliance and Green Games Jam 52:00 – Why it’s important for games industry to decarbonize 58:00 – Climate One More Thing ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on ⁠Patreon⁠, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at ⁠patreon.com/ClimateOne⁠. Ad sales by ⁠Multitude⁠. Contact them for ad inquiries at ⁠multitude.productions/ads⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is “great replacement theory” and how did it come to be a powerful fuel for right-wing nationalist groups in the United States and around the world? When white marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanted “You will not replace us,” it was probably the first time most Americans had heard the phrase. But a string of mass shooters around the world—in Oslo and Christchurch, Buffalo, El Paso, and Pittsburgh—all claimed their crimes were a defense against “white genocide.” These incidents only scratch the surface of this ascendant idea: Popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world have been expressing some version of great replacement theory, eroding democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change and claiming to restore national greatness. Variations on the theory have been around for centuries, but it was given this name by a French novelist in 2011 who believed Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, brought there by shadowy elites to “replace” Europe’s white population. Politicians and theorists—in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Chile, Hungary, Australia and elsewhere—repackaged the conspiracy as a story of “globalists” welcoming “migrant criminals” and diversity initiatives to take away the jobs, cultures, electoral power, and the very lives of white people. Over time, great replacement theory has expanded the threatened categories to include citizens, men, Jews, Christians, heterosexuals, and ethnic majorities in various countries. All are targeted with the message that they are under an existential attack that only a strongman can prevent. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the new book Chain of Ideas, returns to the Club to explore the roots of great replacement theory and its various mutations around the world. He says the controversial theory has brought humanity into this authoritarian age, but we can free ourselves from it. Come find out how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us in-person or online to hear a grounded and intimate portrait of life by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. His new book, Where We Keep the Light, is the story of public service and personal faith. From an early age, Josh Shapiro learned and practiced the power of showing up, listening and executing, to make people’s lives a little better. Shapiro relates powerful stories about his family, his faith, and what matters to Americans tired of all the divisiveness and distrust in our leaders. Reflecting on what he’s learned by knocking on doors, serving his community, and tackling the tough problems that no one wanted to touch in new and different ways, Shapiro reminds us that government can be a force for good, that conventional wisdom is rarely wise, and there’s more that unites Americans than divides us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can corporate scandals—from Enron to the Facebook privacy controversy—change the way the world works for the better?Political scientists Pepper Culpepper and Taeku Lee have drawn on a decade of research on policymaking and public opinion to show how scandals can ignite a public with few political outlets for their discontent. Scandals don’t simply dominate news cycles: they can provoke us to demand better policy, spurring governments to adopt rules that protect us from massive corporations run amok. They say that today it is giant companies, not governments, that run the world. Businesses launch rockets into space, control satellite communication, and develop era-defining AI technologies. But around the globe, these corporate titans are facing increasing public hostility. Tech giants are accused of promoting misinformation, undermining democracy and violating our privacy. Big banks, reeling since the financial crisis of 2008, continue to face major scandals. Drawing on real-life examples such as the powdered milk scandal that rocked France, the VW scandal in Germany, the Goldman Sachs scandal in the United States, Cambridge Analytica in Britain and Samsung in South Korea, Culpepper and Lee say these scandals are not just symptoms of a careless corporate elite, they are opportunities for real political change.They explore all of this in their book The Billionaire Backlash, and Taeku Lee comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to reveal their take on how the shared anger of citizens can be channeled into a backlash that has the potential to reinvigorate our failing democracies. One corporate scandal at a time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices