Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

mkirchner@commonwealthclub.org

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Simone Stolzoff: How to Not Know

July 13, 2026

Famously or infamously, in 2002 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that “[A]s we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” That comment stoked a lot of mockery among his critics, but he was addressing something that all people feel. It is difficult to deal with uncertainty at times wh...

Humanities West Presents The Etruscans

July 13, 2026

The Etruscan culture, which flourished from the ninth to the first centuries B.C. in Tuscany, left behind a rich history with many unique traditions that are reflected in the artistic objects found in their tombs, temples, sanctuaries and homes. Renée Dreyfus and Lisa Pieraccini will discuss the latest advances in scholarship and archeological discoveries, and in the translation of the Etruscan language, which have been leading historians to an ever better understanding of the Etruscan contri...

Will It Ever End? San Francisco’s Drug and Homeless Crisis and Overdose Epidemic

July 12, 2026

San Francisco’s drug and homelessness crisis is impacting everyone, and the community is sounding the alarm. As San Franciscans raise issues of safety, over the last 5 years the city has lost more than 4,500 people to fatal overdoses. Although San Francisco has poured billions of dollars into proposed solutions, our public health systems continue to fail the community. Many people continue to deny the link between addiction, homelessness, and crime, while others with lived experience are call...