UC Santa Barbara (Video)

Randy Modos is the president and a founder of PayJunction, where he provides vision and leadership for the company as it pioneers green payment technology and delivers operational efficiencies for businesses. The founders of PayJunction took an inspired idea and grew it into a company that process over $4 billion annually. But it’s one thing to create a world-class product, it’s another to leverage your core beliefs into a revolutionary approach. PayJunction is a leader in ethical payment processing and prioritizes long-term relationships over short-term profit. Modos has been a champion of this approach over PayJunction’s 18 years in business. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33673]

Drawing on personal experiences of living with the Maasai tribe in east Africa and the Inuit of Greenland – whose cultures and resilience derive from living in constantly changing environments - Jacqueline McGlade explores how mind-sets, economies and ecosystems can become (re)active and more resilient to an increasingly uncertain world. McGlade has pioneered research in the dynamics of ecosystems, citizen science and social and environmental informatics. Series: "Bren School of Environmental Science & Management" [Science] [Show ID: 33663]

UC Santa Barbara professors Eloi Grasset (Spanish and Portuguese) and Cristina Venegas (Film and Media Studies) discuss Lucrecia Martel’s adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto’s iconic Argentine novel about the interconnected decay of the Spanish empire and one of its low-level bureaucrats who is stationed in Paraguay. Grasset and Venegas examine Martel’s approach to the interiority of Di Benedetto’s novel and her expansion of the novel’s critiques of colonialism. They also touch on the film’s innovative use of sound. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33755]

Eighteen years ago, Israeli author Ruby Namdar arrived in New York, not knowing that he had just taken the first step of an incredible literary, cultural and personal journey. He discusses the novel The Ruined House, winner of the 2014 Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award, which was an artistic response to Namdar’s wonderful experience of discovering America, American Jewry, and American Jewish literature. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33734]

Bambi Haggins (Film and Media Studies, UC Irvine) joins Patrice Petro (Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center) for a conversation about the 2013 documentary "Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley." Haggins, who served as a historical consultant to the film, reflects on the five-decade career of Moms Mabley, the raucous, pioneering African-American vaudeville performer and comedian. Haggins discusses the timelessness of Mabley’s material, her popularity and ability to command an audience, and her influence on contemporary comedy, as well as the broader significance of race, gender, sexuality, and cultural respectability in the reception of comedians and their work during different historical moments.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33753]

Based on a true story, I, Tonya (2017) is a darkly comedic tale of American figure skater Tonya Harding and her role in one of the most sensational scandals in sports history. Screenwriter/producer Steven Rogers discussed the film with Matt Ryan before a live audience at UCSB. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33751]

Improvisational comedy, women in media, and the unpredictability of cult classic status all arise in this conversation about Drop Dead Gorgeous between actress Mindy Sterling and Carsey-Wolf Director Patrice Petro. The two discuss the importance of female-led and female-targeted comedy, and the powerful sense of place that screenwriter Lona Williams brought to the behind-the-scenes world of Minnesota beauty pageants. In addition, they talk about the surprising journey the film traveled from theatrical-dud to home video classic.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33752]

Rabbi Prof. Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is an award-winning editor, author, and biblical scholar. She is the Chief Editor of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, the winner (with Dr. Andrea Weiss) of the 2008 Jewish Book of the Year Award. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33661]

Why are negative emotions out of control? How do we begin to tame them? UC Berkeley Professor Charis Thompson focuses on how we understand and deal with negative emotions in this turbulent moment, when new technologies (e.g. reproductive technology, digital media, robotics, AI) can contribute to the shared environment of polarization. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33662]

Eytan Elbaz is an American entrepreneur and investor best known for co-founding Applied Semantics. In 2003, Applied Semantics was acquired by Google for $102 million in a deal that included pre-IPO Google company stock. As part of the acquisition, Elbaz served as Head of Domain Channel at Google from 2003 to 2007. Eytan is an Angel investor and founder of many Los Angeles companies, most notably Scopely, a mobile gaming startup. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Board of Render Media, a new-age digital media start up. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Science] [Business] [Show ID: 33473]