Photo by Nicole Sepulveda.
Tani Cantil-Sakauye was the 28th Chief Justice of the State of California. The first Asian Filipina American and the second woman to serve as the state’s chief justice, she is the current president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California. Before sitting on the panel for “What Makes a Great California Idea?,” part of the inaugural CalMatters Ideas Festival, Cantil-Sakauye joined us in the green room to talk about humor, mediation, and the “Sackamenna Kid.”
In this event description, we referred to California as Tomorrowland. If you could create any land, what land would it be?
I would call it Opportunityland, and I would like it to be a place where people could try out new things, find who they really are, find their passions and their talents instead of finding out too late, or never finding out at all, or being wistful that they had tried something else.
What is your go-to karaoke song?
King Harvest, “Dancing in the Moonlight.”
What’s the last book you read that you loved?
The Personal Librarian. It is about J.P. Morgan’s home art collection turned into a public museum in New York, all curated by the most successful businesswoman in the 1900s, who was a Black woman who had to pretend and fake that she was white in order to succeed. Tremendous book.
As a Toast Master awardee, what’s one thing that goes into making a good speech?
Humor! Humor that lends itself to the subject matter, or to the audience or to the time in history. A lot of mine is self-deprecating.
Can you give us an example?
I was a lawyer at a time when there weren’t a lot of female prosecutors in the courtroom. And I was standing by the elevator once, and the lawyer said to me, Cantil, it looks like you’re gaining weight. And I said to him: you should talk, you have seven hairs on your head and four are loose. And so, we are friends to this day, but I always felt that insulting attorneys going into trial about their hair sort of took them off balance.
What is your hidden talent?
I have a well of energy. I’m probably going to jinx myself or something. But I feel like I have energy that keeps me going and going and going.
What have you learned as a mediator about navigating conflict?
It takes a while, and it requires multiple steps along the way and then an assessment of how the steps are going with talking to them. So for me, and for contemporary mediation, we meet in separate rooms. It’s about getting to know not necessarily the lawyer, but the client of the lawyer. I think it’s a lot of listening and empathizing, and truly understanding and standing in the shoes of who they are, their experiences, and how it’s feeling to them now.
What did you want to be growing up?
I thought I wanted to be in journalism, either writing or reporting, because I really do like information gathering and investigation. And I like the teaching part of journalism. So I thought that’s the way I might go. But I went in a different direction that is not altogether different from journalism.
Was there a journalist that you particularly admired growing up?
I’m old enough to remember and appreciate Herb Caen, who wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle. He was from Sacramento, but he was basically, professionally, in the Bay Area. And he was called the “Sackamenna Kid.” He wrote about current events and insights into politics with humor, and he had his own column. While I was aware of all the other news, Herb Caen was the piece of paper that I would always grab and read. I didn’t understand most of it, frankly, because it was all political insider stuff. But he did it in such a humorous way that was pithy and funny but meaningful; so that was what I remember. When I was growing up, there were like three TV stations. There wasn’t cable. There wasn’t streaming. There wasn’t internet. There wasn’t anything. There was like one or two newspapers, and that was it. So you know, you made your joy wherever you could find it.
What’s one way you make your joy today?
I love and have become accustomed to walking my standard poodle every morning for about an hour and a half. Abe is my office buddy. Whenever I get to remote work, he’s my constant companion.
