Speakers

See you there, 5pm

Come hear Bill Durham, Professor Emeritus at Stanford, discuss the Galapagos islands and find out why he finds Galapagos endlessly fascinating and why, even now, You Should Go!  Bing Professor in Human Biology (Emeritus), Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and a Senior Fellow (Emeritus) in the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford, Prof. Durham was one of the first scholars to receive the MacArthur Prize Fellowship and has also received five five awards for research and teaching at Stanford, including one by vote of the students. Bill’s recent book, Exuberant Life: An Evolutionary Approach to Conservation in Galápagos (Oxford University Press, 2021) was named a Finalist for the 2022 PROSE Award from the Association of American Publishers.

"The terrestrial organisms of the Galápagos Islands live under conditions unlike those anywhere else. At the edge of a uniquely rich mid-ocean upwelling, their world is also free of mammalian predators and competitors, allowing them to live unbothered, exuberant lives. With its giant tortoises, marine iguanas, flightless cormorants, and forests of giant daisies, there's no question that this is a magnificent place."

Evening Social

Michael Baker is a retired admiral and a frequent speaker on international conflict. He recently returned from a tour in Ukraine, and will be joining our club meeting to share his impressions.

" If the world's children are going to write their own stories...they're going to need to know how to write."

"Who can reach them, when conventional schools are failing to do so?

We teach mothers to teach children. A mother attends an Amarok School each day. Then, after class, she teaches 5 children everything she's learned. In other words, we teach her how to conduct her own micro-school at home, for 5 neighbourhood children. The boys and girls she teaches then advance to higher levels of education, moving from destitution to university graduation."

Jaxon Van Derbeken is an award-winning reporter for NBC Bay Area, with a focus on public safety and enterprise reporting. He brings an unique background to the job. He is the child of artists, who wanted to be an engineer but ended up studying political science before finding journalism. You will hear how he combines the various skills he has picked up along the way with a still-evolving technical mindset to tell the story behind the story of ever-more complicated events. Jaxon joined NBC Bay Area in March of 2016. Prior to joining NBC Bay Area, he reported for the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly 20 years, leading the paper’s investigative and public safety efforts.

Pilots rarely survive small-plane crashes. I was piloting my family’s Cessna out of the Truckee airport near Lake Tahoe, California, on Labor Day Weekend nine years ago when the plane crashed. In an instant, my life changed. I became a paraplegic. “I Can Still Do It” is a quote that I find myself saying all the time, and with my long road to recovery, I am constantly surprised not only that I survived but what I can still do.

Originally, I was encouraged by friends, colleagues and caregivers to write a book about what I was going through.  As the book took shape, I kept the path to the truth to help others become aware that we all have difficulties in our lives; it is how we respond and deal with the situations that show our character plus make us better, stronger people.

Although this is a story about me, it really is a story about you, your friend, neighbor, or loved one.  My hope is that you will understand how you can be supportive to them and if it is you, how you can push through any adversity!  I found that “I can still do it” and so can you!

Choices by American foreign policymakers in the 1940s shaped trajectories of climate change and the planetary politics of climate (in)justice. The consequences of their choices are still unfolding. By comparing American debates on industrialization and resource use in occupied Germany and Japan, I trace a new story of American global power and responsibility linking the acceleration of climate change and the origins of the Cold War.