When you send a message to a friend—whether by text, email, or social media—you probably don’t think much about where it’s actually going. We’ve grown so accustomed to our free-floating devices and digital clouds and seemingly wireless connectivity that we might not realize just how wired our digital world truly is. The reality is, every message we send travels through a vast physical system: routers, cell towers, data centers, power grids, and miles of undersea and terrestrial fiber networks. And every part of it depends on human decisions. This means that the future of digital infrastructure depends not just on engineers but on policymakers, biologists, economists, designers, even journalists. But how do we bring all these people together?

Nicole Starosielski, professor of Film and Media at UC Berkeley, is working on exactly that. She studies the hidden physical systems that make the internet possible—from undersea cables to global media networks to the environmental costs of connectivity—and is training a new generation of leaders who can navigate this field across all dimensions.

Further reading:

• "Professor Nicole Starosielski (Film & Media) launches world's first certificate in internet infrastructure at Berkeley"
• UC Berkeley's Summer Minor and Certificate in Global Digital Infrastructure (GDI)

This episode was written and hosted by Pat Joseph and Leah Worthington and produced by Coby McDonald. 

Special thanks to Nicole Starosielski, Pat Joseph, and Nat Alcantara. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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For decades, researchers believed that whales communicated using a sort of underwater Morse code—simple, repeated patterns of clicks. But recent advances in technology have revealed a much more complex, even human-like language. Now, with artificial intelligence, scientists are getting closer than ever to translating their vocalizations. UC Berkeley’s Gašper Beguš is one such researcher building advanced AI to learn and decipher sperm whale communication. But what happens when we crack the code? What might whales tell us—and what would be the practical, ethical, and legal implications of what we learn? 

Further reading:

• Berkeley News - “UC Berkeley and Project CETI study shows sperm whales communicate in ways similar to humans”
• National Geographic - “Whales could one day be heard in court—and in their own words”
  National Geographic - “What are animals saying? AI may help decode their languages”
• Legal Paper - “What if We Understood What Animals Are Saying?: The Legal Impact of AI-Assisted Studies of Animal Communication”
• NYU More-Than-Human Rights report - “Listening to Our Animal Kin: Legal and Ethical Principles for Nonhuman Animal Communication Technologies”

This episode was written and hosted by Leah Worthington and Nat Alcantara and produced by Coby McDonald. 

Special thanks to Gašper Beguš, Pat Joseph, and Laura Smith. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Wild Wild Country. Escaping NXIVM. The Path. Holy Hell. That’s just a few of the vast and growing collection of documentaries, podcasts, docuseries exploring the history and legacy of cults. What explains this explosion of interest? Associate professor of English and resident cult expert Poulomi Saha joins Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph live onstage to discuss America’s long enthrallment with—and participation in—cults. 

Further reading: 

• Watch the full live conversation with Poulomi Saha on YouTube
• Buy your tickets for “Alone in the Algorithm: Human Connection in the Age of AI” with Berkeley Professor Jodi Halpern and technologist Jaron Lanier on March 26 

This episode was produced by Coby McDonald. 

Special thanks to Alex Filippenko, Pat Joseph, and Nat Alcantara. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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No doubt you’ve heard a thing or two about Bad Bunny recently. He’s a rapper, singer, and producer, also known as the “King of Latin Trap”—and reggaeton, of course—who’s soon to become the first solo Latino to headline the Super Bowl. But he’s also Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a 31-year-old from Puerto Rico and an outspokenly political artist, using his platform and music to address humanitarian crises, gender-based violence, and political corruption. Our guest today is Petra Rivera-Rideau, an expert in music and racial politics who completed her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley and also holds the distinct honor of having taught the first-ever (as far as we know) course on Bad Bunny. She talks about her latest book, P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, Bad Bunny’s artistic and political legacy, and the rise of popstar-studies in academia. 

Further reading:

• Book: P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican ResistancebyPetra Rivera-Rideau
• The Bad Bunny Syllabus by Petra Rivera-Rideau and Vanessa Diaz 
• Article: “How Bad Bunny Saved the Grammys” by Brady Brickner-Wood, The New Yorker
• Video: “El Apagón” by Bad Bunny
• Video: “TURiSTA” by Bad Bunny 
• Video: “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” by Bad Bunny

This episode was written and hosted by Leah Worthington and Nat Alcantara and produced by Coby McDonald. 

Special thanks to Petra Rivera-Rideau, Pat Joseph, and Laura Smith. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Some Catholics no doubt took offense, but no one was seriously harmed by the Pope-in-a-puffer-jacket meme. Far more sinister deepfakes are on the rise, however, with scammers now frequently using widely available technology to bilk the unwary, and political campaigns marshaling AI to sow lies about their opponents. Perhaps the greatest threat is not the deepfakes themselves but that their mere existence can cause us to question the veracity of nearly everything we see and hear online and in the media. So, how concerned should we be about the proliferation of fake media? And what, if anything, is being done to staunch the bleeding? UC Berkeley Professor Hany Farid, a pioneer in the field of digital forensics, joins Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph live onstage to discuss what the growing onslaught of mis- and disinformation portends for our society and what we can do to manage it.

Further reading: 

• Watch the full live conversation with Hany Farid on YouTube
• Find out more about California Live! events 

This episode was produced by Coby McDonald.  Special thanks to Hany Farid, Pat Joseph, and Nat Alcantara. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Just over a decade ago, Berkeley computer science professor Stuart Russell, recently named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, warned a lecture audience that achieving artificial general intelligence “would be the biggest event in human history . . . and perhaps the last event in human history.” Since then, the development of superintelligent AI has only accelerated—infiltrating nearly every part of society. So, what does the future hold? Stuart joins Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph live onstage to discuss the perils and promise of the AI revolution. 

Further reading: 

• Watch the full live conversation with Stuart Russell on YouTube

This episode was produced by Coby McDonald. 

Special thanks to Stuart Russell, Pat Joseph, and Nat Alcantara. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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There’s a paradox in robotics that says: what’s easy for humans is hard for robots, and vice versa. Complex calculations, for instance, are the domain of machines. Simple motor tasks like picking up an object, on the other hand, can stump a robot. That’s where our guest comes in. Jeff Mahler has spent his career working on improving the capabilities of robotic object manipulation. After completing his postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley, Mahler went on to co-found Ambi Robotics with Stephen McKinley, David Gealy, Matt Matl, and Professor Ken Goldberg, building AI-powered robots for warehouse operations. He talks to us about the state of robot assistants and how soon—if ever—we might expect a full robot revolution.

Further reading:

• TechCrunch article on the launch of Ambi Stack
• UC Berkeley News article on Berkeley’s latest breakthroughs in robot learning
• WIRED article covering Amazon’s new tactile-sensing warehouse robot, Vulcan. 
• Mahler et al.’s 2019  Science Robotics paper, which introduces Dex-Net 4.0 
• Watch Dex-Net 2.0 picking up objects
• Episode transcript

This episode was written and hosted by Nathalia Alcantara and produced by Coby McDonald.

Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Can we look into the past? Does the universe have an edge? What’s so great about a total solar eclipse? Have we been visited by aliens? Astrophysicist Alex Filippenko joins Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph live onstage to discuss eclipse chasing, dark energy, and the abiding mysteries of the universe. 

Further reading: 

• Watch the full live conversation with Alex Filippenko on YouTube
• Check out more California Live! events  and recordings

This episode was produced by Coby McDonald. 

Special thanks to Alex Filippenko, Pat Joseph, and Nat Alcantara. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Octopuses and humans have very little in common. It’s not just a matter of their eight limbs and cool camouflage—we haven’t had a shared ancestor for more than half a billion years, before dinosaurs walked the earth. But there’s one surprising thing we do seem to share: MDMA makes us both a lot cuddlier. For neuroscientist Gül Dölen, this was a huge insight into the powerful role psychoactive drugs can play in animal social behavior. Now a pioneer in the burgeoning field of psychedelic research at UC Berkeley, Dölen discusses her quest to understand how these drugs could be harnessed as tools in learning and therapeutics. 

Further reading: 

• Gül Dölen’s 2019 Nature paper “Oxytocin-dependent reopening of a social reward learning critical period with MDMA”
• Gül Dölen’s 2018 Current Biology paper “A Conserved Role for Serotonergic Neurotransmission in Mediating Social Behavior in Octopus”
• UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics launches new online course on “Psychedelics and the Mind”
• Altered States, a new podcast from from PRX and the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics about “what science can tell us about psychedelics and what psychedelics can tell us about ourselves”

This episode was written and hosted by Leah Worthington and produced by Coby McDonald. 

Special thanks to Pat Joseph, Nathalia Alcantara, and Gül Dölen. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

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Don’t let the term “climate change” mislead you. It’s true that our environment is changing in all sorts of ways as we continue to pollute and exploit and manipulate our planet. But even as we brace for more historic typhoons and biblical floods, there's an invisible and pervasive force that is wreaking havoc on us all: heat. In this episode, we speak with environmental journalist and Berkeley alumnus Jeff Goodell about his latest book, The Heat Will Kill You First, the potentially lethal effects that rising temperatures will have on our lives and on our planet, and what we can do to prepare for it.

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