Humanities (Video)

An engaging lecturer and storyteller, Rabbi Feinstein unites the ancient Jewish love of ideas with the warmth of Jewish humor. He is the author of several books and offers a new way to do Judaism urging us to recover the message of Jewish self empowerment, or chutzpah, to reshape the world. Series: "Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34372]

Most people are part-Neanderthal, the closest extinct human relative. Svante Pääbo explores human genetic evolution by analyzing preserved genetic material from the remains of ancient organisms, including Neanderthals. He explores his findings on interbreeding of Neanderthals and modern humans. Series: "Scripps Institution of Oceanography" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 34458]

In this talk Julian McAuley, UC San Diego Computer Science and Engineering, discusses the modeling techniques behind personalized recommendation technology on the web. Examples of Recommender Systems range from simple statistical approaches like Amazon's people who bought X also bought Y links, to complex AI-based approaches that drive feed ranking on sites like Facebook. We'll discuss the models that drive these systems, look at the research questions that drive the future of this field in the coming years, and discuss their ethical implications. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 33714]

As a music supervisor and executive on such films as The Big Lebowski, Sweet Home Alabama and Dead Man Walking, Dawn Solér joined ABC Studios in 2006 to bring her extensive film experience to the world of television. Once there, she established a full-service music department that manages every musical component on all of its shows -- the hiring of music supervisors and composers, budgets and integrating music from programming into marketing. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34368]

Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship. Through this fellowship, she studied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, which eventually led to her current book, Thinking In Bets. Here, Annie explores bad experiences as opportunities to learn from. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34445]

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Josh Singer (Spotlight, The Post) discusses First Man (2018) with Matt Ryan as part of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Script to Screen series. Singer talks about the depth of research necessary to write the screenplay for First Man, including the creative challenges involved in portraying Neil Armstrong who was known for being a man of few words in a film that also has long stretches of minimalistic dialogue, much of which was taken directly from Apollo 11 mission transcripts. Singer comments on his shared desire with director Damien Chazelle for maximum historical accuracy, and the challenges this presented when accounts and recollections of the events sometimes differed in detail. Singer mentions his extensive work consulting with those who were actually present during the mission and depicted in the film, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the family of Neil Armstrong, and other members of NASA.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34339]

With its extreme sex, violence, and gore, Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein has alternately excited, disgusted, and baffled audiences for decades. In this conversation, media Professor Bliss Cua Lim (UC Irvine) and film and media graduate student Rachael Ball (UC Santa Barbara) unpack and celebrate this exceptional movie. Lim and Ball describe the production, release, and response to Flesh for Frankenstein, noting its connections to Italy’s Cinecitta studios, Andy Warhol’s Factory, and the mainstream success of X-rated films in the mid-1970s. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34362]

Lester Friedman, Professor of Media and Society at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, joins moderator Patrice Petro in a Q&A discussion of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974). They cover the production, style, and influences at work in Brooks’ adaptation. Part of the Frankenstein: Afterlives series, this Q&A emphasizes the ways Brook’s film references James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and Mary Shelley's original novel. Young Frankenstein is faithful to the form and production technology of Whale’s version, while seeking to return more closely to the themes developed by Shelly’s original work. Friedman discusses the way Brooks’ adaptation, through comedy, returns to questions of science, ethics, and sexuality in ways that reference Shelly but update them for 1970s audiences—speaking to the politics of marginality and social change. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34295]

Marsha Kinder, Professor of Cinematic Arts at USC, joins moderator Cristina Venegas, Professor of Film and Media Studies at UCSB, for a discussion of Víctor Erice’s 1973 directorial debut, The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena). Their conversation addresses the significance of Spirit of the Beehive in terms of the history of Spanish cinema, and particularly its production at the end of the Franco Era in Spain and its setting at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Part of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Frankenstein: Afterlives series, Kinder also addresses the significance of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as an influence for the film, as well as Whale’s 1931 film Frankenstein, which appears and motivates characters in Erice’s Film. This discussion situates Spirit of the Beehive in the history of Spanish dictatorship and as an allegory for life under fascism.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34296]

In the opening conversation within the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Frankenstein: Afterlives film series, CWC director Patrice Petro and English professor Julie Carlson (UC Santa Barbara) discuss the life of Mary Shelley and the representation of her views and career in director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s new biopic, Mary Shelley. During the discussion, professors Petro and Carlson cover the film’s feminist elements and the historical connections Mary Shelley had with literature, science, and philosophy.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34291]