Berkeley Talks

In episode 135 of Berkeley Talks, UC Berkeley political scientist George Breslauer and economics professor Yuriy Gorodnichenko discuss Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine — what his motivations are and how they compare to Hitler's and Stalin's, if the invasion was avoidable and what should be done about it. Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News.If you haven't already, follow Berkeley Talks and review us on Apple Podcasts! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Black feminist artists and cultural workers communally explore the questions of how the forms and methods of opera, surrealism, free jazz, poetry and dance help us communicate the concerns of radical Black feminisms. This Feb. 11 conversation was organized by the Black Studies Collaboratory, a collaborative initiative to address racial inequality through bold and unique humanities-based research projects.Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News.If you haven't already, follow Berkeley Talks and review us on Apple Podcasts! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Paulina Przystupa, a Ph.D. student at the University of New Mexico, discusses how archaeology inspires comic books and proposes ways archeologists can help build connections with the comic book community.Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News.If you haven't already, follow Berkeley Talks and review us on Apple Podcasts! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The co-editors of The Palgrave Handbook of EU Crises discuss their research that explores the European Union's institutional and policy responses to crises across policy domains and institutions, including the Euro crisis, Brexit, the Ukraine crisis, the refugee crisis and the global health crisis caused by COVID-19."The EU has been surprisingly able to cope with crises of different kinds through adaptations, through reforms and through further integration," said Jarle Trondal, professor of public administration at the University of Agder in Norway, at the Jan. 13 event. "We argue that crises no longer pose existential threats to the EU as a political order."Panelists include:Akasemi Newsome, associate director of UC Berkeley's Institute of European Studies and executive director of the Peder Sather Center for Advanced StudyMarianne Riddervold, professor of political science at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and senior fellow at UC Berkeley's Institute of European Studies Jarle Trondal,

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Elizabeth Kolbert in conversation with David Ackerly, dean of UC Berkeley's Rausser College of Natural Resources, and Geeta Anand, dean of Berkeley Journalism, as part of the 2021 Horace Albright Lecture in Conservation.Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of The Sixth Extinction, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize in 2015, and Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. For her work at The New Yorker, where she’s a staff writer, she has received two National Magazine Awards and the Blake-Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In her 2021 book, Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, Kolbert asks the question: “After doing so much damage, can we change nature — this time, to save it?”Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News. (The page will go live Friday afternoon.) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In episode 130 of Berkeley Talks, Eva Paterson, president and co-founder of the Equal Justice Society, talks in 2017 with Savala Nolan (then Savala Trepczynski), director of Berkeley Law's Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, about when Paterson first realized the need for social justice, litigating implicit bias and why she loves — and hates — America. This conversation first appeared on Nolan's 2017 summer podcast series, Be the Change.Berkeley Talks is going on winter break. We'll be back with new episodes on Jan. 14, 2022.Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News. (This page will go live Friday afternoon.)(The Atlantic photo by Edwin Tse) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lewis Feldman, UC Berkeley professor of plant biology and executive director of the UC Botanical Garden, explores why some leaves appear to change color in the fall season — exhibiting reds, oranges and yellows — and the environmental influences that affect the brilliance of these colors. He also explains the evolutionary benefits of a tree losing its leaves.Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News. (UC Berkeley photo by Keegan Houser) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A panel of artists, organizers and academics discuss UC Berkeley professor Eric Stanley's 2021 book that interrogates why, in a time when we're told LGBT rights are advancing in the U.S., anti-trans violence continues to rise.Panelists include:Angela Y. Davis, professor emerita, UC Santa CruzDean Spade, professor, Seattle University School of LawEric A. Stanley, associate professor, UC BerkeleyJules Gill-Peterson, associate professor, Johns Hopkins UniversityLaVelle Ridley, Ph.D. candidate, University of MichiganModerated by Courtney Desiree Morris, artist and assistant professor, UC BerkeleyThis Nov. 2, 2021 talk was co-sponsored by Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute, the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, the Center for Research on Social Change, the Center for Race and Gender and the American Cultures Center.Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out informatio

A panel of scholars explore how technology is changing how and when we practice religion, as well as our notions of religious community, religious doctrine and what it means to be religious.Panelists at the Nov 2. event included: Steven Barrie-Anthony, research associate at the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion Kelsy BurkeAssociate professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska-LincolnErika Gault, assistant professor of Africana Studies from the University of ArizonaHeather Mellquist Lehto, postdoctoral fellow with Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Religion and ConflictModerated by Carolyn Chen, associate professor of ethnic studies at UC BerkeleyListen to the talk and read a transcript on Berkeley News. If you haven't already, please follow Berkeley Talks and review us on Apple Podcasts!(Photo by Ashkan Forouzani via Unsplash) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In episode 126 of Berkeley Talks, evolutionary biologist Erica Bree Rosenblum, a professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, tells a story about when she held a little frog — the last known member of its species — in her hand as it died. "I am a scientist who studies extinction," says Rosenblum. "I am a scientist who thinks about biodiversity and interconnectedness every single day ... but the difference between thinking about it and feeling a life slipping away in my hand and knowing that it was the last of an entire branch of the biodiversity on our planet was emotionally impactful in a way that I never could have expected." In that moment, she says, she woke up to how hard it is to feel interconnectedness for students in society, even if we know it to be true. In this talk, Rosenblum explores why we keep this feeling of connection at arm's length and how we can begin to build it back into our lives. This talk was given on Oct. 8 and was sponsored by UC Berkeley's

A panel of leading Berkeley experts describe the harms of disinformation and potential solutions to its spread, from measures to strengthen old-school local news media to government regulation of tech titans like Facebook and Twitter. But there’s a critical obstacle: Efforts to directly block disinformation could challenge core American values, such as free speech and freedom of the press. Scholars in the panel: Geeta Anand, dean of Berkeley Journalism; Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law; Hany Farid, associate dean and head of the School of Information; Susan D. Hyde, chair of the Department of Political Science; john powell, director of the Othering & Belonging Institute; and moderator Henry Brady, former dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy. Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News. (Photo: Joe Flood via Flickr; Music: "Silver Lanyard" by Blue Dot Sessions) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Judith Butler, a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at UC Berkeley, and Mel Y. Chen, an associate professor in Berkeley's Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture, joined in conversation about Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive's expansive exhibition, New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century.  "There's never been anything mild about feminisms, in the plural," said Butler at the Sept. 20 event. "It has always been a life and death struggle from the start." Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News. (Artwork: "Stigmata" by Linda Stark, 2011) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his inaugural address, President Biden called for Americans to unite more than any other U.S. president. But UC Berkeley experts say unity is unrealistic — at least, right now — and offer other ways to create a more just society. "Where we are today is a result of decades upon decades of systemic and structural race, class and gender-based injustice," said Sandra Bass, associate dean of students and director of the Public Service Center, during an April 9, 2021, panel discussion sponsored by UC Berkeley's Osher Lifelong Learning Center (OLLI). "To think that we can just jump over all of that and leave it unexamined and unresolved and go straight to unity is not just unrealistic. It ignores the genuine harm these systems have and continue to perpetuate, and suggests we all just need to move on without addressing them. We can't leapfrog over the damage that has been done. We have to go through it, not around it. Given our history, any hope of moving towards some understanding of our shared humanity, and our

Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, discusses happiness — what it means, where it comes from and how we can enhance it in each of our lives — during a Science at Cal lecture on July 28, 2021. Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In episode 121 of Berkeley Talks, graduate students Sierra Edd (Diné) and Ataya Cesspooch talk about their experiences at UC Berkeley as Native American students and reflect on the history and future of the Hearst Museum and Berkeley’s relationships with Indigenous communities. Edd and Cesspooch are co-hosts of Indigenous United, a podcast from Native American Student Development at Berkeley that explores Indigenous issues through interviews with Native artists, scholars and activists. Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Longtime venture capitalist Roger McNamee discusses how he, an early Facebook investor and former adviser to Mark Zuckerberg, came to realize the damage caused by the social media giant and others like it, and how he's committed to try to stop them. Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News. (Photo by Alessio Jacona via Flickr) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In episode 119 of Berkeley Talks, Shane McCrae, a poet born in Portland, Oregon, who was kidnapped by his maternal grandparents at age 3, reads new works about his experience as a child growing up with his captors. The April 1 reading was part of the UC Berkeley Library’s monthly event, Lunch Poems. Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Berkeley's associate vice chancellor for research discusses the measures being taken to repatriate Native American ancestral remains and sacred artifacts held by the campus.Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today, we're sharing an episode from 2019:Brown v. Board of Education was hailed as a landmark decision for civil rights. But decades later, many consider school integration a failure. UC Berkeley professor Rucker Johnson's 2019 book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works, shows the exact opposite is true. The book looks at decades of studies to show that students of all races who attended integrated schools fared better than those who did not. In this January 2019 interview with Goldman School of Public Policy Dean Henry Brady, Johnson explains how he and his team analyzed the impact of not just integration, but school funding policies and the Head Start program.Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of Berkeley Talks, Bay Area labor lawyer Bill Sokol discusses the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021."What I want to talk about," began Sokol, "is what I think is an incredibly spectacular piece of legislation, perhaps the largest, deepest, broadest piece of social legislation since the New Deal. And certainly, since the LBJ Great Society more than half a century ago."During his May 12 talk, sponsored by UC Berkeley's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Sokol outlined the ways the act builds a bridge towards economic recovery, invests in racial justice and addresses intergenerational inequities that have worsened in the wake of COVID-19.Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.