January 2010

Shape Public Discussion - INFORUM's Program Committee

Published in:
Mon, Jan 25 2010 - 6:30pm

Shape Public Discussion: INFORUM’s Program Committee
Do you want to share your passion for politics and civic dialogue with the world? Think that you know who The Commonwealth Club should host and what burning issues we should address? Come to INFORUM’s Program Committee meeting and be a part of the team that shapes public debate and invigorates civic dialogue. We are artists, writers, scientists, financial analysts – all dedicated to putting together timely and compelling events. Read more »

Hunted and Gathered: Adventures in Collecting as seen in "The Face in the Lens: Anonymous Photograph

Published in:
Mon, Jan 25 2010 - 6:00pm

Hunted and Gathered: Adventures in Collecting as seen in “The Face in the Lens: Anonymous Photography”
Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus, Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
In “Face in the Lens”, Johnson’s second book on anonymous photography, he focuses on the human condition.  These photographs, which were once taken with a purpose, cannot tell us who, when or why their subjects were selected. However, their anonymity does not detract from their quality. Read more »

David Walker: Comeback America

Published in:
Mon, Jan 25 2010 - 6:00pm

Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility
David Walker, President, CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Former Comptroller General of the U.S.; Author, Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility
One of America’s foremost independent financial experts, former comptroller general of the U.S. and head of the U.S. Read more »

Robert Reich: Bank of America Annual Economic Forecast

Published in:
Fri, Jan 22 2010 - 11:45am

Bank of America Walter E. Hoadley Annual Economic Forecast
This program is sold out
Robert Reich, Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, U.C. Berkeley; Former U.S. Secretary of Labor; Author, The Work of Nations
Is the U.S. economy showing signs of recovery, as some indicators suggest, or are these assertions dangerously premature? Read more »

Robert Reich Table Sponsorships

Published in:
Fri, Jan 22 2010 - 11:00am

Bank of America Walter E. Hoadley Annual Economic Forecast
Robert Reich, Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, U.C. Berkeley; Former U.S. Secretary of Labor; Author, The Work of Nations
Is the U.S. economy showing signs of recovery, as some indicators suggest, or are these assertions dangerously premature? Having served in three administrations, written best-selling books and published articles in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, former U.S. Read more »

The King of Coal. Prince of Wind?

Published in:
Thu, Jan 21 2010 - 6:00pm

The King of Coal
Dave Freudenthal, Governor, Wyoming
With America’s largest deposits of coal and uranium, Wyoming sends massive amounts of energy to California and the rest of the country. Governor Freudenthal is trying to chart a new path for an extraction state where half the people don’t believe global warming is real. He’s looking to cleaner ways of using coal and believes natural gas is a winner, for fueling transportation or generating electricity. Read more »

Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift

Published in:
Thu, Jan 21 2010 - 6:00pm

Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift
Richard Reeves, Author, Daring Young Men
Best-selling author Reeves offers a gripping account of one of the most audacious and perilous actions of the post-WWII years – the Berlin Airlift. When the Soviets cut off all supplies to two million West Berliners in 1948, President Truman boldly resolved to resupply the isolated city by air. Read more »

Marvin Chun: Probing the Secrets of the Mind and Brain

Published in:
Thu, Jan 21 2010 - 7:00pm

Probing the Secrets of the Mind and the Brain
Marvin Chun, Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Why do people behave the way they do? Chun will highlight the recent advances in medical imaging that have given psychologists and neuroscientists unprecedented access to the inner workings of the human mind. He will also discuss what brain imaging can reveal about the unconscious thoughts, memories, emotions and even social biases that influence our everyday behavior. Read more »

Uncommon Exchange with George Lakoff

Published in:
Wed, Jan 20 2010 - 4:00pm

Uncommon Exchange
George Lakoff, Author; Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics, UC Berkeley
Could the end of California’s political gridlock be one word change away? Lakoff thinks so. Famous for his ideas about the centrality of metaphor to human thinking, political behavior and society, he is particularly well-known for his concept of the “embodied mind,” which he has written about in relation to mathematics. Read more »

Modern European Nationalism and the Fight to Control the Past

Published in:
Wed, Jan 20 2010 - 5:15pm

Modern European Nationalism and the Fight to Control the Past
Patrick Geary, Professor of Medieval History, UCLA
Does history matter in the New Europe? Geary will explore the recent, dangerous resurgence of ethnocentric nationalism since 1989 in Europe, which makes an appeal to long-discredited but still powerful myths about the region’s deep past. Read more »