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The Luncheon Society
Michael Dukakis, 1988 Democratic nominee for the Presidency and 3 term governor of Massachusetts, began the year by drilling into us that the candidate who can best organize in 2004 will win the presidency. This was just as his old Lt Governor, John Kerry, was starting to pull ahead in Iowa. Kerry, who was nearly at the bottom of the pile only weeks earlier, stepped into the breach as the campaign of Howard Dean began to flame out in Iowa. The only other candidate to survive beyond the early primaries would be Senator John Edwards, who would become Kerry's Vice Presidential choice.
 Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, talked about the future of work as seen through a cross-country trip that he took with his son as they moved from Massachusetts to The Bay Area. Locked in the Cabinet is a close-up view of the way things work, and often don't work, at the highest levels of government--and a uniquely personal account by the man whose ideas inspired and animated much of the Clinton campaign of 1992 and who became the cabinet officer in charge of helping ordinary Americans get better jobs. Robert B. Reich, writer, teacher, social critic--and a friend of the Clintons since they were all in their twenties--came to be known as the "conscience of the Clinton administration and one of the most successful Labor Secretaries in history. Here is his sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant chronicle of trying to put ideas and ideals into practice. With wit, passion, and dead-aim honesty, Reich writes of those in Washington who possess hard heads and soft hearts, and those with exactly the opposite attributes. He introduces us to the career bureaucrats who make Washington run and the politicians who, on occasion, make it stop; to business tycoons and labor leaders who clash by day and party together by night; to a president who wants to change America and his opponents (on both the left and the right) who want to keep it as it is or return it to where it used to be. Reich guides us to the pinnacles of power and pretension, as bills are passed or stalled, reputations built or destroyed, secrets leaked, numbers fudged, egos bruised, news stories spun, hypocrisies exposed, and good intentions occasionally derailed. And to the places across America where those who are the objects of this drama are simply trying to get by--assembly lines, sweatshops, union halls, the main streets of small towns and the tough streets of central cities.
 Jane Goodall, the UN Messenger for Peace, Primatologist, and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute for Peace talked about her 45 year study of social and family interactions of Chimpanzees in the Gombe Preserve in Tanzania. World-renowned primatologist, conservationist, and humanitarian Dr. Jane Goodall's account of her life among the wild chimpanzees of Gombe is one of the most enthralling stories of animal behavior ever written. Her adventure began when the famous anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey suggested that a long-term study of chimpanzees in the wild might shed light on the behavior of our closest living relatives. Accompanied by only her mother and her African assistants, she set up camp in the remote Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanzania. For months the project seemed hopeless; out in the forest from dawn until dark, she had but fleeting glimpses of frightened animals. But gradually she won their trust and was able to record previously unknown behavior, such as the use-and even the making- of tools, until then believed to be an exclusive skill of man. As she came to know the chimps as individuals, she began to understand their complicated social hierarchy and observed many extraordinary behaviors, which have forever changed our understanding of the profound connection between humans and chimpanzees.
 Dr. David Kessler, Dean of UCSF Medical School and former Chairman of the Food and Drug Administration talked about the potential and outlines for healthcare reform for the present and the future. He also gave us his phone number should we have any medical issues. From 1981 to 1984 he served as a consultant for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, and from 1982 to 1984 he was special assistant to the president of Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Dr. Kessler then went on to serve as medical director of the Hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1984 until President Bush appointed him as FDA commissioner in December of 1990. Dr. Kessler was sworn in on the same day that the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) was signed. Early in his tenure, he took action to protect consumers from misleading uses of the term "fresh" in conjunction with processed or partially processed orange juice and tomato products, gaining himself the nickname "Elliot Knessler." Kessler himself later appeared on major news and entertainment shows to unveil the agency's new "Nutrition Facts" food labels. Designed with bold new graphics, they were intended to make food labels more useful to the consumer and soon became one of the most recognizable graphic formats in the world. Dr. Kessler announced his intention to step down in 1996, citing a desire to return to private life. He officially left his position February 28, 1997. He was subsequently named dean of Yale medical school, a post which became effective July, 1997.
 Gary Hart, retired two-term US Senator from Colorado and Presidential candidate, chaired a conversation about the challenges faced by a Democratic president should John Kerry beat George W. Bush in the fall election. Rarely does scholarship anticipate the most dramatic events of the moment. In this timely work Gary Hart does just that, arguing for the restoration of republican virtues and for homeland security as an important first step. The American democratic republic has from its founding been a paradoxical success. Simultaneously attached to state and national power, citizens' rights and citizens' duties, American democracy has uniquely turned its reliance on consent from the governed into a powerful governing of the consenting. In a remarkable political feat, America's founders combined mixed government, the language of popular sovereignty and a self-conscious emphasis on checks and balances to forge a republic that has weathered the test of time. The complex realities of the twenty-first century, however, have fundamentally challenged the underpinnings of this enduring American experiment, repeatedly exposing the tensions at the heart of America's mixed system of government. What then is the nature of an American republic in an age of democracy? How can the democratic values of social justice and equality be balanced with republican values of civic duty and popular sovereignty? Bringing to light a long-neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy--the "ward republic"--Gary Hart here offers a wholly original blueprint for republican restoration in which every citizen can participate democratically in the governing of his or her own life.
 Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. His is also professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford. He leads the Hoover Institution's programs on China's Global Sharp Power and on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. At FSI, he leads the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy, based at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, which he directed for more than six years. He also co-leads with (Eileen Donahoe) the Global Digital Policy Incubator, based at FSI's Cyber Policy Center. He is the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and also serves as senior consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. His research focuses on democratic trends and conditions around the world and on policies and reforms to defend and advance democracy. His latest edited book (with Orville Schell), China's Influence and American Interests (Hoover Press, 2019), urges a posture of constructive vigilance toward China's global projection of "sharp power," which it sees as a rising threat to democratic norms and institutions. He offers a massive open online course (MOOC) on Comparative Democratic Development through the edX platform and is now writing a textbook to accompany it.
 Vanity Fair, Slate.com contributor, and author of numerous books, Christopher Hitchens, discussed his most recent adventure in Afghanistan, where he was pinned down in Herat by enemy machine. After that we all took off to Beldon Place for an afternoon of power drinking. We still talk about it all of these years later. Hitchens was an English intellectual, polemicist, and socio-political critic who expressed himself as an author, orator, essayist, journalist, and columnist. Hitchens was the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of over 30 books, including five collections of essays on culture, politics, and literature. He became an American citizen in 2007. A staple of public discourse, his confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded public intellectual and a controversial public figure. He contributed to New Statesman, The Nation, The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, Free Inquiry, The Spectator, and Vanity Fair. As an anti-theist, he regarded all religions as false, harmful, and authoritarian. He argued in favor of free expression and scientific discovery, and asserted that it was superior to religion as an ethical code of conduct for human civilization. He also advocated for separation of church and state. The dictum, "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence", has become known as Hitchens's razor.
 Liz Carpenter, syndicated columnist, reporter and Press Secretary for Lady Bird Johnson discussed her Washington years where she covered Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to John Kennedy. Carpenter was a writer, feminist, reporter, media advisor, speechwriter, political humorist, and public relations expert. Carpenter was born in historic Salado in southern Bell County, Texas. In 1936, her 24-room residence there was declared a state historic monument. In 1967, a plaque was unveiled to indicate that Carpenter had once lived there. At the age of seven, she moved with her family to Austin. In November 1963, it was Carpenter who wrote LBJ's remarks when he returned to Washington after the Kennedy assassination. Carpenter stood in the forefront of the Women's Movement when it began and never wavered from her platform. Her projects and causes ranged from supporting high tech to fighting cancer. Often called the "funniest woman in politics", she was in demand as a public speaker until her death.
 Melba Pattillo Beals, a Congressional Gold Medal award winner, talked about her childhood as a member of The Little Rock Nine, as part of the group that integrated Central High in 1957, which was a turning point in the struggle for Civil Rights. In this essential autobiographical account by one of the Civil Rights Movement's most powerful figures, Melba Pattillo Beals of the Little Rock Nine explores not only the oppressive force of racism, but the ability of young people to change ideas of race and identity. In 1957, well before Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Melba Pattillo Beals and eight other teenagers became iconic symbols for the Civil Rights Movement and the dismantling of Jim Crow in the American South as they integrated Little Rock's Central High School in the wake of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education. Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob's rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down. Warriors Don't Cry is, at times, a difficult but necessary reminder of the valuable lessons we can learn from our nation's past. It is a story of courage and the bravery of a handful of young, black students who used their voices to influence change during a turbulent time. We passed around the Congressional Gold Medal over lunch.
 Jeff Bingaman, the United States Senator from New Mexico, discussed the sustainable energy opportunities open to Americans who were open to solar, wind, and biomass after we were able to pull him away from a sun fuels conference at Stanford. In 1982, Bingaman was elected the Senate, defeating one-term Republican incumbent Harrison Schmitt. Bingaman accused Schmitt of not paying enough attention to local matters; his campaign slogan was "What on Earth has he done for you lately?"-a jab at Schmitt's previous service as an astronaut. He was reelected four times. Bingaman was Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a member of the Finance Committee; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; and Joint Committee on the Economy. Generally, Bingaman kept a fairly low national profile, even though he was the ninth most senior member of the Senate at the time of his retirement. He was very popular in New Mexico, facing substantive opposition only once, in 1994. Bingaman and his Senate colleague Pete Domenici were the longest-serving duo among senators in the 110th United States Congress (2007-2009). In second place were Ted Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts. Due to serving alongside Domenici, the longest-serving Senator in New Mexico's history, Bingaman spent 26 years as New Mexico's junior Senator, though he had more seniority than all but a few of his colleagues. Their combined seniority gave New Mexico clout in national politics well beyond its modest population. He was the most-senior junior senator in the 110th United States Congress.
 William Perry, former Secretary of Defense under Clinton, discussed his disdain for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and worried that the lack of planning would harm military planning in the long-term. Perry is an engineer, businessman, and civil servant who was the United States Secretary of Defense from 1994, to 1997, under President Bill Clinton. He also served as Deputy Secretary of Defense (1993-1994) and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (1977-1981). Perry is the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor (emeritus) at Stanford University, with a joint appointment at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the School of Engineering. He is also a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He serves as director of the Preventive Defense Project. He is an expert in U.S. foreign policy, national security and arms control. In 2013 he founded the William J. Perry Project, a non-profit effort to educate the public on the current dangers of nuclear weapons. Perry also has extensive business experience and serves on the boards of several high-tech companies. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among Perry's numerous awards are the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1997) and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (2002), awarded by Japan.
 Will Durst, offered us humor to mask our tears, only four days after John Kerry lost to George Bush in the 2004 Presidential election in San Francisco. The only comic ever invited to perform at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Durst writes a daily column on the Internet, his radio commentaries can be heard on PRI's "Marketplace" and he pens monthly columns for "George", "The Progressive" and "Funny Times" magazines, along with occasional editorials for various newspapers including the New York Times. Host of 2 PBS series premiering Fall of 1997: "The Durst Amendment" & "livelyhood"; the Dark Prince of Public Broadcasting is a veteran of every comedy show featuring a brick wall, including HBO, Showtime and Letterman, and was nominated for a Cable Ace Award for his A&E's "A Year's worth with Will Durst". The Susan Lucci of stand up, Durst has been nominated 7 times for the American Comedy Awards Male Stand Up of the Year, but has yet to win. Hobbies include the never-ending search for the perfect cheeseburger, and his heroes are the same as when he was twelve: Thomas Jefferson and Bugs Bunny.
 Peter Schwartz, a Futurist, Chairman of GBN, and just part of a cover story in Time Magazine, discussed how his group helps businesses, NGOs, and governments plan strategies for multiple possible futures. The future has never been more complex and uncertain; yet leaders of companies, governments, and nonprofits must act and adapt with confidence. Peter Schwartz, the acclaimed futurist and business strategist, first popularized scenario planning-a powerful tool for navigating uncertainty-in "The Art of the Long View" in 1991. At that time, his knowledge about foresight and scenarios was drawn mostly from his previous planning and consulting experience at Royal Dutch Shell and the Stanford Research Institute. Global Business Network (GBN)-the innovative company Schwartz had cofounded-was a mere three years old. Since then GBN has undertaken hundreds of scenario projects with a diverse range of clients: Fortune 500 companies in every sector, nonprofits, NGOs, and governmental groups around the world. This little book, completed in late-2010, reflects on that legacy. It shares GBN's mistakes as well as successes and what Schwartz got right in the original "The Art of the Long View," (e.g., the rise of the global teenager, two out of the three scenarios for 2005) and wrong (e.g., the transformative power of the Web). Finally, Schwartz looks forward once more-examining the next great global driving force (hint: more troubling than teenagers) and constructing three scenarios for the year 2025.
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The Luncheon Society™
 is a series of private luncheons and dinners that take place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and Boston. During the Pandemic, we are on Zoom. Discussions center on politics, art, science, film, culture, and whatever else is on our mind. Think of us as "Adult Drop in Daycare." We've been around since 1996 and we're purposely understated; 2021 will be our 26th season. In these gatherings, you interact with the main guest and conversation becomes the end result. There are no rules, very little structure, and the gatherings happen when they happen. Join us when you can.
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