The Break Room

In this episode of The Break Room, host Shay is joined by UCLA third-year Brielle Kinkead, director of 1 Student at a Time. Through its Students for Students Solidarity Fund, this student-led organization raises and redistributes funds for students whose finances have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through September they have collected over $12,000 for students in need through GoFundMe and Venmo.

GoFundMe: bit.ly/UCLA-Solidarity-Fund

Venmo: @UCLA-Solidarity-Fund

Instagram: @1st_losangeles

Linktree: linktr.ee/1st_losangeles

In this episode of The Break Room, host Shay is joined by Bri-Ann Hernandez, a Master’s student at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health specializing in Community Health Science and Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights. Shay and Bri-Ann discuss the role of psilocybin (magic mushrooms) in indigenous Mexican cultures, the history of psychedelics in the US, how psilocybin acts on the brain, potential uses for psychedelics as treatments for anxiety and depression, expert advice on how to trip safely, the future of psilocybin research, and more.

In this episode of The Break Room, host Casey is joined by Justin Mott, an award winning photojournalist based in Vietnam, specializing in wildlife and conservation photography. Justin’s work has appeared in a variety of publications, including TIME, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. Casey and Justin discuss travelling across the world to photograph animals, imitation photography and ethics, doing shoots during COVID, staying creative while staying safe, looking back at old work, and more.

In this episode of The Break Room, host Sophia is joined by Dr. Michelle Dee, an anesthesiologist and first-line responder at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Sophia and Dr. Dee talk about the experience of treating COVID-19 patients, including dealing with the constant threat of infection and how doctors decide which patients to save when they cannot treat everyone. They also discuss the effectiveness of COVID-19 responses across the globe, lifting quarantine, and the effectiveness of online classes.

In this episode of The Break Room, host Jonah is joined by Izzy Sumner, a rising fourth-year at UCLA who designed and taught a course on behavioral economics, the intersection of psychology and economics. They discuss the field of behavioral econ; the cognitive biases that affect us in everyday life; how to use psychology to encourage eating healthier foods, investing more in retirement, and reducing energy consumption; why people tend to use intuition over reason; Izzy’s experience teaching a self-designed class as an undergraduate; and more.

In this episode of The Break Room, host Lauren is joined by Julia Mariano and Samantha Smith of Reform Revolution Project, an organization that promotes resources for anti-racist education. They discuss convenient resources for learning about social justice, cancel culture and the impediment to lifelong learning it creates, prospects for improving ethnic studies curricula, how social media encourages performative activism, the power of youth-led advocacy, and more.

In this episode of The Break Room, host Shay is joined by Thao Do, a master's student in the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA who specializes in the health and well-being of underrepresented communities. They discuss the neurological roots of racism, the shortcomings of colorblindness, the psychological harm done to victims of racial bias, the potential for unlearning racial prejudice, and more.

In this episode of The Break Room, host Sophia is joined by Xavier Brown, an activist and rising sophomore at UCLA. Xavier recently organized and helped lead a 15,000-person march in Oakland in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, making it one of the East Bay’s largest protests following the killing of George Floyd. Xavier and Sophia discuss his experience as a student activist, the meaning of white privilege, the connection between redlining and police brutality, the slogans “defund the police” and “all cops are bastards,” media misrepresentation of the protests, the dangers of performative activism, and more.

In this episode of The Break Room, host Jonah is joined by Rob Wiener, founder and executive director of the California Coalition for Rural Housing, a nonprofit that advocates for investment in low-income housing. They discuss the causes and consequences of California’s housing crisis, the upsides and downsides of rent control, the legal and practical challenges of building new housing, the potential legacy of COVID-19 on housing policy in California, and more.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic scattering members of the Bruin Review back to their homes all around the world, The Break Room is giving listeners an inside look into how life in quarantine compares and differs from city to city and country to country.

In this combo episode of The Break Room, host Keaton is joined by Sahil Jog, a UCLA freshman quarantining at home in Riverside, California. They discuss Riverside County’s response to the pandemic, new hobbies college students can pick up while social distancing, and more. Next, Keaton speaks with Nel Alpysbayeva in Astana, Kazakhstan, on her journey back home, her time spent quarantining alone, design classes, and more.