UC Berkeley (Audio)

California State Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León outlines the state’s efforts to protect its progressive agenda on climate, immigration and the economy as it girds itself from policies being implemented by the federal government. De León, a Democrat, is also running for the United States Senate but must first win one of two spots in California’s June 2018 primary before he can compete in November’s general election. He is presented by the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Berkeley Forum at UC Berkeley. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 33564]

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Michael Warner, the Seymour H. Knox Professor of English and American Studies, at Yale University, and the 2018 Tanner Lecturer at Berkeley. The conversation focuses on Professor Warner’s intellectual odyssey from a Pentecostal upbringing to an Ivy League professorship of American literature. The conversation includes discussion of his scholarship on the reciprocal influence of colonial printing and the development and assertion of democratic values; his advocacy on issues surrounding gay marriage; and his theoretical insights on publics and counter public as they apply to contemporary political dialogue. Series: "Conversations with History" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33587]

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes David Cole, National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union for a discussion of two of his ten books-- his first book, No Equal Justice, and his most recent, Engines of Liberty. The conversation begins with his reflections on his formative years and the skill set and temperament appropriate for a constitutional lawyer. It then turns to the work of the ACLU and his role as national legal director. On the issue of criminal justice, Cole emphasizes how the structure of the criminal justice system reinforces inequality and sacrifices justice. On the Bill of Rights, Cole analyzes the role of political activism in shaping constitutional law, referencing the establishment of gun rights and gay marriage rights. The conversation concludes with a discussion of the implications of the changing political landscape - with its emphasis on libertarian ideology, nationalism, and the importance of social media - for constitutional law. Series: "Conversations with History" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 33467]

The ACLU is committed to civil rights and civil liberties issue. David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU and Georgetown law professor, explores what Trump's first year as president tells us about about constitutional law and the future of civil liberties and civil rights in the United States. David Cole was named Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2016. He oversees approximately 1,400 civil liberties lawsuits, both state and federal. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 33307]

The first detection of gravitational waves from the cataclysmic merger of two neutron stars, and the observation of visible light in the aftermath of that merger, finally answer a long-standing question in astrophysics: Where do the heaviest elements, ranging from silver and other precious metals to uranium, come from? Series: "UC Berkeley News" [Science] [Show ID: 33299]

UC Berkeley researchers have developed a robotic learning technology that enables robots to imagine the future of their actions so they can figure out how to manipulate objects they have never encountered before. In the future, this technology could help self-driving cars anticipate future events on the road and produce more intelligent robotic assistants in homes, but the initial prototype focuses on learning simple manual skills entirely from autonomous play. Series: "UC Berkeley News" [Science] [Show ID: 33302]

Robots today must be programmed by writing computer code, but imagine donning a VR headset and virtually guiding a robot through a task, like you would move the arms of a puppet, and then letting the robot take it from there. That's the vision of Pieter Abbeel, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, and his students, Peter Chen, Rocky Duan, Tianhao Zhang, who have launched a start-up, Embodied Intelligence, Inc., to use the latest techniques of deep reinforcement learning and artificial intelligence to make industrial robots easily teachable. Series: "UC Berkeley News" [Science] [Show ID: 33301]

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes New Yorker staff writer George Packer for a discussion of the US political landscape. Packer recounts the insights he derived in researching and writing The Unwinding, his 2013 book about the US in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse. In the conversation, he traces the rise of the white working class, the failure of the Democratic Party to address their interests, and the emergence of Trump as a representative of enraged voters in the 2016 election. He identifies the 4 narratives that define the divisions in the US today. Packer concludes with an analysis of leadership and ideas that might change America in the future. Series: "Conversations with History" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 33175]

Economist William Easterly describes how the fight against global poverty is linked to the migration from poor to rich countries and how the war on terror perpetrates a stereotype of poor people as violent, unintentionally fueling xenophobia and travel bans. The good news is that economic ideas are the best antidote to xenophobia, opening the door again to migration as a powerful vehicle for global poverty reduction. Easterly, a professor of economics at New York University, is a visiting scholar at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Series: "Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 32993]

Alice Rivlin, the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office who went on to serve as the Office of Management and Budget director under President Clinton and is now a Senior Fellow in Economics and Health Policy at the Brooking Institution, mulls today’s paradox. At a time where policy makers and legislators have access to more data-based evidence about potential costs and effects of policies than ever before, the institutions that produce these independent analyses are under increasingly strident partisan attack. Dr. Rivlin speaks how evidence-based practitioners got into this tough situation, and how to navigate their way out. She is presented by the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

Series: "Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 33107]