Join us on November 19 at 6 pm for the Commonwealth Club’s Virtual Gala. Raise your glass to Good Health, as we celebrate the leadership of women in science and medicine. Visit

Join us on November 19 at 6 pm for the Commonwealth Club’s Virtual Gala. Raise your glass to Good Health, as we celebrate the leadership of women in science and medicine. Visit commonwealthclub.org/2021gala to learn more or Text Club2021 to 41444 to register and donate today! Many nations have a national poet, whose poetry helps carve out their own unique cultural niche in human civilization. Italy has enjoyed many literary geniuses for over two millennia, but still looks to one man the most: Dante. Like major poets in other cultures, Dante’s influence on the Italian language can hardly be overstated. The Divine Comedy was the first major work of literature to leave Latin behind in favor of Italian, and it remains the world standard of poetic excellence. Dante’s fertile imagination also inspired artists, writers and theologians, making him almost as influential about the afterlife as he is linguistically. Join Humanities West in person at The Commonwealth Club, or via livestream, to celebrate the 700th Anniversary of Dante’s death—which ironically occurred not that many months after he completed his speculations about post-death possibilities—with a two-hour, three-lecture Dante feast: • Timothy Hampton on "Dante After Dante: the Forms of Memory." Though there were many "in the know" about the achievement of Dante's great poem during his lifetime, his vast influence on Italian poetry and world literature was uneven in the centuries following his death. In some areas of artistic creation—for example, in the painting of Botticelli—Dante was powerfully present. In other areas (poetry, philosophy, literary criticism) his influence was definite, but diffuse and oblique. This lecture will speak about the ways in which Dante's work did and didn't shape Italian and European culture in the early modern period. • Kip Cranna on "Dante at the Opera: From the Divine Comedy to a Comic Puccini Delight." In "The Inferno," part one of The Divine Comedy, Dante introduces the condemned sinner Gianni Schicchi, consigned to the Eighth Circle of Hell along with others guilty of fraud. His crime: impersonating the deceased Buoso Donati to falsify Buoso's will for his own benefit. Dante personally knew the Donatis (he was married to one), and therein lies an intriguing tale of medieval Florentine society. The story of this fraudulent will and the legend surrounding it became the inspiration for the famed composer Giacomo Puccini's only comic opera. After outlining the Dante-Puccini connection, San Francisco Opera's Dramaturg Emeritus Kip Cranna will present brief video highlights from the opera Gianni Schicchi, including the ever-popular aria "O mio babbino caro." • Marisa Galvez on "Dante Before Dante Become Dante." In retrospect it almost seems like Dante invented Italian literary culture, but he arrived on the Italian literary scene as a love poet—an admirer of courtly love and the troubadour traditions which had begun a century earlier in Occitania, and had spread to Italy, Spain and then most of Europe. Dante defined the troubadour lyrics as rhetorical, musical and poetical fiction — which is also a good description of The Divine Comedy. OCTOBER 22, 2021 SPEAKERS Kip Cranna Dramaturg Emeritus, San Francisco Opera Marisa Galvez Professor of French and Italian, and by Courtesy, of German Studies and Comparative Literature; Faculty Director, Structured Liberal Education, Stanford University Timothy Hampton Aldo Scaglione and Marie M. Burns Distinguished Professor of French and Comparative Literature; Director, Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, University of California, Berkeley George Hammond —Moderator 💯SUBSCRIBE for more VIDEOS: https://www.youtube.com/user/commonwealthclub 📆 UPCOMING EVENTS: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events 🎉 BECOME a MEMBER: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/membership 💰 DONATE NOW: https://support.commonwealthclub.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=298 📺➕📻 Watch & Listen https://www.commonwealthclub.org/watch-listen CWC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecommonwealthclub/ CWC Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cwclub/ CWC Twitter https://twitter.com/cwclub The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum 📣, bringing together its 20,000 members for more than 400 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy. Founded in 1903 in San Francisco California 🌉, The Commonwealth Club has played host to a diverse and distinctive array of speakers, from Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 to Hillary Clinton in 2010. Along the way, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton have all given landmark speeches at the Club.

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Dr. Jasmine Marcelin is one of the Healthcare Heroes who are working on the frontline of COVID-19. While the medical workers are really heroic, Dr. Marceline points out they are doing what they do

Dr. Jasmine Marcelin is one of the Healthcare Heroes who are working on the frontline of COVID-19. While the medical workers are really heroic, Dr. Marceline points out they are doing what they do everyday. However, after a year of the pandemic, they are exhausted, decimated by the pandemic, and their emotional and energy bank is running on empty. Her talk highlights the critical role that many other frontline workers are playing and the often-devastating impact COVID has taken on these unsung heroes. While the gift cards and free meals are generous and thoughtful, what is more impactful is everyone stepping up and playing their part to combat COVID-19, reduce the spread, and reduce the punishing emotional and physical toil faced by health care workers and others on the frontline. Now is the time for everyone to be heroic. There is a role that each member of the public can play, to prevent the spread of the virus and really show appreciation of other frontline workers. Dr. Jasmine R. Marcelin is an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases, Co-Director of Digital Innovation & Social Media Strategy for the Division of Infectious Diseases, Associate Medical Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship & Associate Program Director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency. Born in Dominica, she earned her medical degree from American University of Antigua College of Medicine & completed Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases training at Mayo Clinic. A fierce advocate for health equity and justice for patients and the community, and a champion for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in healthcare and Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and youngest member ever elected to the IDSA Board of Directors. A founding member of the IDSA Inclusion, Diversity, Access & Equity Taskforce, playing a pivotal role in developing and maintaining principles of Inclusion, Diversity, Access & Equity in IDSA. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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Richard Wolfson discusses his book "Nuclear Choices for the Twenty-First Century: A Citizen's Guide", an authoritative and unbiased guide to nuclear technology and the controversies that surround

Richard Wolfson discusses his book "Nuclear Choices for the Twenty-First Century: A Citizen's Guide", an authoritative and unbiased guide to nuclear technology and the controversies that surround it. Are you for nuclear power or against it? What's the basis of your opinion? Did you know a CT scan gives you some 2 millisieverts of radiation? Do you know how much a millisievert is? Does irradiation make foods safer or less safe? What is the point of a bilateral Russia–US nuclear weapons treaty in a multipolar world? These are nuclear questions that call for nuclear choices, and this book equips citizens to make these choices informed ones. It explains, clearly and accessibly, the basics of nuclear technology and describes the controversies surrounding its use. Richard Wolfson is a Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Middlebury College, where he also taught in the Environmental Studies Program and at the Middlebury Institute in Monterey. He did undergraduate work in physics and philosophy at MIT and Swarthmore, holds a Master’s in environmental studies from the University of Michigan and a PhD in physics from Dartmouth. Wolfson’s research involves the Sun, climate change, and solar energy. Other published work encompasses medical physics, plasma physics, electronics, nuclear issues, and astrophysics. His books "Nuclear Choices for the Twenty-first Century: A Citizen’s Guide" and "Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified" exemplify Wolfson’s interest in making science accessible to nonscientists. Wolfson has published in Scientific American and World Book Encyclopedia. His video courses for The Teaching Company’s Great Courses series include Einstein’s Relativity and the Quantum Revolution, Physics in Your Life, Earth’s Changing Climate, Physics and Our Universe, and Understanding Modern Electronics. He has spent sabbaticals at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, St. Andrews University, and Stanford University. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Get the book here: https://goo.gle/3bDYgZ6. Moderated by Matt Bongiovi. Speaker photo credit: James P. Blair. #nuclearpower #RichardWolfson

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