Humanities (Audio)

What's the future look like with a changing climate? And who will lead the way to help us mitigate the environmental, economic and social impacts? In this program, internationally acclaimed author Kim Stanley Robinson talks about what motivates him to write science fiction that focuses on the environment. Robinson is author of more than 20 books, including "The Ministers for the Future," the "Mars" trilogy and "2312," which was a New York Times bestseller nominated for all seven of the major science fiction awards — a first for any book. He was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine and asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson” in his honor.

The program also features four UC San Diego students who talk about their research on dealing with climate change. Series: "Writers" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 38733]

Nobel Laureate and physicist Barry Barish, professor at UC Riverside, reflects on his life in science, being curious, experiencing imposter syndrome, and working in the field of physics with Brian Keating, host of the "Into the Impossible" podcast and professor of physics at UC San Diego. [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 38727]

Writer/director Antonio Dikele Distefano and scholar/filmmaker Fred Kuwornu discuss the film Autumn Beat with Claudio Fogu. Distefano details his experiences writing books and magazines and his transition to cinematic work, as well as his experiences growing up as a young Black man in Italy. Kuwornu elaborates on the evolving Black cultural renaissance in Italy and the struggles involved with it. They reflect on the themes of the film, including disability, parenthood, self-expression, and legacies of colonialism, all of which center on a story about the Italian rap scene. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38820]

Modern slavery, which encompasses 45 million people around the world, is intricately linked to the economy, politics, violence and war, gender and the environment. In this panel discussion, Kevin Bales, professor of contemporary slavery and research director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, talks about the impact of contemporary slavery with three UC Berkeley professors, Arlie Hochschild, professor emerita, Department of Sociology, Enrique Lopezlira, Ph.D., director, Low-Wage Work Program, and Eric Stover, adjunct law professor and faculty director, Human Rights Center.

Slave-based activities, like brick making and deforestation, are estimated to generate 2.54 billion tonnes of CO2 per year – greater than the individual emissions of all the world’s nations except China and the U.S. Globally, slaves are forced to do work that is highly destructive to the environment. This work feeds directly into global consumption in foodstuffs, in minerals – both precious and for electronics – construction materials, clothing, and foodstuffs. Most of this work is unregulated leading to extensive poisoning of watersheds, the clear-cutting of forests, and enormous and unregulated emissions of carcinogenic gases as well as CO2. Political corruption supports this slave-based environmental destruction and its human damage.

Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Science] [Business] [Show ID: 38615]

Moderator Peter Bloom is joined by Kim Knowles and Carrie Noland for a discussion of how contemporary experimental film represents multi-species relationships and dependencies. Together, they consider how experimental cinema can animate alternative understandings of the relations between human and non-human animals. Addressing questions of genre, style, narration, and performance, Knowles, Noland and Bloom highlight the political and aesthetic complexity of the cinematic representation of animals. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38777]

The origin of humans is a difficult scientific problem in evolution that is grounded in biology and molded by culture. Recent advances in neuroscience and artificial intelligence have led to synergies and surprising new hypotheses. Mysteries such as the origin of language and human sociality are being illuminated by these advances. This CARTA symposium will be explored by researchers at the frontiers of A.I., machine learning, language and sociality. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 38688]

Pragmatics poses a headache to developers of artificial systems. But how did language evolve to efficiently relay so much pragmatic trickery? Eva Wittenberg presents a new paper that builds on the idea that grammar evolved gradually, and with it, pragmatics. We argue that the simpler a grammar is, the stronger the reliance on pragmatic inferences for many aspects of meaning, including even basic questions such as who did what to whom. As grammars gradually evolve towards more complex systems, these coarse pragmatic inferences give way to pragmatic processes that are different in character: Syntax, semantics, and the lexicon evolve to contain reliable and systematic triggers for highly structured pragmatic phenomena. Our account thus links a gradualist scenario of the evolution of syntax that triggers distinct qualitative processes in pragmatic reasoning. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 38685]

There are 45 million enslaved people in the world today. The links between slavery, conflict, environmental destruction, economics and consumption began to strengthen and evolve in the 20th century. The availability of people who might be enslaved dramatically increased in line with population growth. According to Kevin Bales, professor of contemporary slavery and research director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, the large and negative environmental impact of modern slavery is just now coming to light.

Slave-based activities, like brick making and deforestation, are estimated to generate 2.54 billion tonnes of CO2 per year – greater than the individual emissions of all the world’s nations except China and the U.S. Globally, slaves are forced to do work that is highly destructive to the environment. This work feeds directly into global consumption in foodstuffs, in minerals – both precious and for electronics – construction materials, clothing, and foodstuffs. Most of this work is unregulated leading to extensive poisoning of watersheds, the clear-cutting of forests, and enormous and unregulated emissions of carcinogenic gases as well as CO2. Political corruption supports this slave-based environmental destruction and its human damage.

Kevin Bales, CMG, FRSA is Professor of Contemporary Slavery and Research Director of the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham. He co-founded the American NGO Free the Slaves. His 1999 book Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy has been published in twelve languages. Desmond Tutu called it “a well researched, scholarly and deeply disturbing expose of modern slavery.” The film based on Disposable People, which he co-wrote, won the Peabody Award and two Emmys. The Association of British Universities named his work one of “100 World-Changing Discoveries.” In 2007 he published Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves (Grawemeyer Award). In 2009, with Ron Soodalter, he published The Slave Next Door: Modern Slavery in the United States. In 2016 his research institute was awarded the Queens Anniversary Prize, and he published Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World. Check out his TEDTalk. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Science] [Business] [Show ID: 38614]

Patrice Petro and E. Ann Kaplan discuss Irving Rapper’s classic 1942 melodrama, Now, Voyager. Together, Petro and Kaplan situate the film historically in the context of the Second World War and the changing dynamics of the domestic and public spheres. They also address the film’s unique depiction of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and consider its complex representation of mother-daughter relationships. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38776]

Parallel Architecture is a theory of the mental representations involved in the language faculty. These representations are organized in three orthogonal dimensions or levels: phonology, syntax, and semantics, correlated with each other through interface links. Words are encoded in all three levels and serve as part of the interface between sound and meaning. In the representation of an entire sentence, the words are spread out across the combinatoriality of the three levels. An important requirement for a theory of language is that it must offer an account of how we can talk about what we see. It is proposed that conceptual structure in language interfaces with a level of physical space – which in turn interfaces with visual, haptic, and proprioceptive perception, and with the planning of action. Thus, the basic principles of the Parallel Architecture for language can be extended to major aspects of mental function. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 38684]