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Public Talks

Free! All Talks are at 518 Valencia (near 16th Street, one block from 16th Street BART) and begin at 7:30 pm  unless otherwise noted.


Our Public Talks are partly underwritten by the City Lights Foundation and Rainbow Grocery Cooperative.




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Archive of past talks

All our Talks have been integrated into our digital archive at Foundsf.org, and may be easier to access there.

Topic areas of our audio recordings of public talks going back to 2006:

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Wednesday, February 26, 7:30 pm

New Luddites vs. Biopiracy and AI

“New Luddites” Camila Morena and Jim Thomas join us fresh from the latest conference on biotech at Asilomar. Up close and deep in the international negotiations on biodiversity, climate change, and synthetic biology, both of them have seen how the proponents of AI are working to inject their techno-fantasies into every realm. They share a cogent presentation of what’s going on beyond our view, and how a new Luddism is the sensible response.

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Wednesday, March 26, 7:30 pm

Lessons for the Biosphere

In our seat upon the California Coast, we who live in the territory of Yelamu are favored with remarkable biodiversity. A conversation between Bruce Byers, ecologist and author of the new book, Nature on the Edge: Lessons for the Biosphere from the California Coast, and Sara Moncada, the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone Director of Native Ecology, looks at the uniqueness of place and locates us within it. From our state rock—Serpentine—to local events like the annual circumambulation of Mt. Tamalpais and the restored salmon habitat in Muir Woods to the concept of bioregionalism that began with Peter Berg and Planet Drum, join us for an exploration of the biosphere and the knowledge we gain from it.

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Wednesday, April 16, 7:30 pm

Explosivity! Port Chicago & Beyond

Javier Arbona-Homar is the author of the new book, Explosivity: Following What Remains, an exploration of the racial violence embedded in San Francisco's landscapes as exposed by five disastrous explosions from the last two centuries. His presentation covers the geography of memorials, critical military studies, and social practice art. Specially commissioned site photography by artist Andrea Gaffney accompanies conceptual musings on sites of explosions. Javier is an assistant professor in American Studies and Design at UC Davis, and a co-founder of the DEMILIT landscape arts collective.

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Wednesday, May 14, 7:30 pm

80 Years After HUAC:
McCarthyism Resurgent

In 1960 the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) held its last-ever public hearings in San Francisco City Hall. Police turned fire hoses on peaceful student protesters while fiery rebukes were issued to the reactionary congressmen by Communist Party “witnesses.” This was a crucial turning point between the bone-chilling McCarthyism of the 1950s and the soon-to-explode movements for social liberation of the 1960s. We welcome David Palumbo-Lie to discuss what we might we learn about today as we witness transphobia on the rise, efforts to stamp out all pro-Palestinian speech, and other attacks on resistance in a strange echo of the ghosts of Cold War hysteria eight decades ago.

Co-sponsored by Left in the Bay

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