Humanities (Audio)

Humans are a spectacular outlier among the millions of species of life on planet earth, with incredibly unique biological success. Slowly, scientists have begun to understand the traits that interacted to make us unique, such as cumulative culture, unique scales of cooperation, cognitive abilities, language, and a unique life history and mating system. However, the sequence of evolutionary events that led to our unique species was very much a mystery until the discovery of early bipedal hominins like the australopithecine, Lucy. Here, Kim Hill explains how we have learned so much about this improbable sequence and evolutionary pathway by discovering that early hominins were fully bipedal but still had small brains and little evidence for human mating and life history patterns or cumulative cultural evolution. Lucy helped us understand why the evolution of bipedality was a critical first step that led to an amazing evolutionary sequence that resulted in our spectacular outlier species. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 39825]

Director Nicole Newnham joins moderator Kyna McClenaghan (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a discussion of her film The Disappearance of Shere Hite. They discuss the origin of the film and her interest in Shere Hite, as well as the archival research undertaken in making the documentary. Together, they also detail the work of Shere Hite in the context of the feminist movement of the time, the sexist backlash she received, and the enduring impact of The Hite Report and other studies. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39973]

The connection between paleoanthropology and primatology began with Darwin's theory of human origins. Lucy's discovery challenged existing ideas, coinciding with observations of wild primates. This sparked a surge of research on primate behavior, enriching our understanding of human evolution. Despite behavior not fossilizing, studying living primates has deepened insights into ancestral lifestyles. By examining their social and ecological dynamics, researchers unravel the origins of complex behaviors like cooperation and culture, shedding light on human adaptations. This interdisciplinary approach has refined methods for studying social processes and their biological effects. Fifty years since Lucy's find, these tools continue to shape our understanding of human evolution and its relevance today.

Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 39824]

Filmmaker Jess X. Snow joins UCSB's Heidi Amin-Hong to discuss a selection of Snow’s films and their broader artistic journey. As a multidisciplinary artist, Snow's work encompasses poetry, visual art, and film, often addressing themes like the model minority myth, community care, mutual aid, and the Asian-American immigrant experience. They also explore how their films depict queer intimacy and the romantic and erotic agency of Asian-Americans. The conversation provides a deep dive into Snow’s creative process and how their diverse body of work challenges stereotypes and offers empowering narratives for marginalized communities. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39972]

This program discusses humanist and scholar Walter Capps’ political career and the ongoing value of public service. The panel discussion features four people who have all worked as public servants: former U.S. Senator and Nebraska Governor Bob Kerrey; Lois Capps, former Congresswoman who served as a U.S. Representative from 1998-2017 representing Santa Barbara and the Central Coast, Laura Capps, the Second District Supervisor for Santa Barbara County; and Todd Capps, founding Executive Director of the Common Table Foundation. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 39721]

Lucy's 1974 discovery reshaped our understanding of early hominins. Geological studies dated her to 3.21 million years ago. Questions arose about her life and death, leading to investigations into her burial site and skeletal preservation. Found scattered on the surface, less than 40% of her skeleton was preserved. Some parts were articulated, indicating rapid burial, possibly by a river. Missing elements suggest scavenging and erosion. Debate surrounds her cause of death, with theories including a fall or predation. Bone fractures hint at trauma, but the exact circumstances remain unclear. Geological evidence disputes death by mudslide or flood. Tooth marks on her bones lack conclusive evidence of predation. These debates underline Lucy's enduring influence on paleoanthropology, sparking ongoing research into human evolution. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 39823]

In this program, Russell M. Jeung, professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, explores COVID-19 racism against Asian Americans, which led to what he terms a period of “collective racial trauma.” Twenty-five peer-reviewed articles have since documented the deleterious impacts of direct and indirect racism on the mental health of Asian Americans. Yet Asian Americans have been resilient in the face of this trauma, and utilized their ethnic and cultural wealth as buffers against anti-Asian hate. Jeung identifies three key ways that Asian Americans responded to this trauma and even grew from this painful time. Asian Americans’ posttraumatic growth, the positive psychological change after trauma incidents, is also be detailed. Jeung is the author of many books and articles on race and religion. In 2020, he co-founded Stop AAPI Hate to track instances of bias, harassment, and violence against AAPI people during Covid-19 and to fight racism. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 39867]

Writer/director Gregg Araki joins moderator Bhaskar Sarkar (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a discussion of his film, Nowhere. Araki reflects on post-punk and do-it-yourself subcultures, as well as his memories taking film classes at UCSB as an influence on his work. He also discusses the cult following and home distribution of the film, the legacy of independent and new queer cinema on his career, and finding influence in new wave film movements and the city of Los Angeles. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39781]

This program aims to recover Plato’s idea of craft or art, Greek technê, in the expansive sense which includes not only the handicrafts but skilled practices from housebuilding to navigation. Rachel Barney, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, examines Plato and other Greek thinkers who were fascinated by the craft model: the idea that both the moral virtue of the good person and the political widom of the expert ruler are — or could be made into — skilled practices as reliable as shoemaking or carpentry. Similar ideas appear in classical Chinese philosophy, developed in very different ways by Daoist and Confucian thinkers. In our time, craft is in a bad way: marginalized in theory and everywhere endangered in practice. Ancient thinkers can help us to see what remains valuable and urgent about craft today, and what a reinvigorated understanding of it might contribute to our ethical and political thought. Crafts to be considered include carpentry, medicine, drawing, film editing, the ‘multicraft’ of the restaurant, tennis, and traditional Polynesian navigation. Philosophical points of reference, in addition to Plato, Aristotle, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi, include Murdoch, MacIntyre, Korsgaard, and the Hart-Fuller debate, as well as literary reflections from Kazuo Ishiguro and Cormac McCarthy. Barney is joined by Adam Gopnik, Rachana Kamtekar, Christine Korsgaard, and Alexander Nehamas to discuss the topic of craft. Series: "Tanner Lectures on Human Values" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 39865]

The AI revolution and other innovations are bolstering equitable, community-centered solutions to major societal issues from disease to wildfire, and technologies piloted at UC San Diego are laying the groundwork for a better future. UC San Diego’s experts are making the case for why public higher education institutions must be a driving force to ensure that ethical, people-centered technology is at the center of AI advancements, and why the U.S. must invest in infrastructure that ensures institutions like UC San Diego are able to work alongside industry and government to develop the next generation of AI technology and advocate for responsible development, regulation and investment. Series: "A Deep Look into the Future of Biology" [Humanities] [Science] [Education] [Show ID: 39709]