University of California Audio Podcasts (Audio)

Grammy award-winning tabla musician Zakir Hussain is the 2022 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy. He has opened new possibilities beyond the framework of traditional Indian music in collaboration with artists of other diverse genres worldwide. Dr. Hussain's performance innovations include a unique method of creating melodies on the tabla, originally regarded as a rhythmic instrument of accompaniment. In the process, he has expanded the tabla's possibilities and established it as one of the most expressive percussion instruments in the world. UC San Diego Professor of Indian Classical Music, Kartik Seshardi hosts an enlightening conversation with Dr. Hussain, before the laureate takes to the stage for thought-provoking lecture performance on the tabla and Indian classical music. Series: "Kyoto Prize Symposium" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 38887]

The cell phone revolutionized how we communicate with each other, but its origins are extremely different from the device you use to talk, text and even surf the internet with on a daily basis. Its roots could be traced back to the early 1970s when the head of Motorola’s communications systems division, Martin Cooper was tasked with developing a device that would make the up and coming car phone obsolete technology. On April 3, 1973, Cooper made the very first handheld cell phone call while standing on Sixth Avenue outside the New York City Hilton in midtown Manhattan to engineer Joel Engel, head of AT&T’s rival project. In a conversation with Al Pisano, Dean of UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering, Cooper reflects on the past fifty years including what it took to develop the world’s first cellular telephone, the impact it’s had on the world and the future of smartphone technology. Series: "Computer Science Channel" [Science] [Show ID: 38819]

What we eat -- and don’t eat -- is directly related to our health. Poor diets lead to poor health outcomes, including cancer. Dr. Donald Abrams, integrative oncologist at UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, is an expert on nutrition and cancer. Dr. Abrams says you can never overstate how important the food we eat is to our health. In this excerpt Dr. Abrams discusses the role body fat plays in the production of insulin. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38815]

Evolution always presented life forms with new challenges -- due to changes in weather, terrain, competition between different organisms, and other reasons. To increase the chance of survival, instead of solely optimizing current performance, it is in an agent's interest to maximize its ability to adapt to changes. Possibly this old evolutionary trait manifests itself in modern humans in their ability to adapt to new tasks and challenges quickly. Even if we consider a lifetime of a human, the ability to adapt is critical. An open question is what enables humans to adapt, a trait that modern AI systems lack. Frivolous play prepares infants for future life by laying down the foundation of a high-level experimentation framework to quickly understand how things work in new environments for constructing goal-directed plans. Pulkit Agrawal discusses how the idea of experimentation can be leveraged to construct robots that improve with experience and solve novel problems presented to them. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 38678]

Have questions about publishing in academic journals? Sheila Chari, Ph.D., editor in chief of Cell Stem Cell, explains the process from pre-submission through publication. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 38722]

Moderator Cristina Venegas joined Chicano and Chicana Studies Professors Gerardo Aldana, Giovanni Batz, and Daina Sanchez to discuss Wakanda Forever and Indigenous Worldbuilding. Professor Gerardo Aldana served as a consultant on the film’s representation of Mesoamerican cultures and played the role of UN assembly chairperson in the film. The panel discussed the politics of representation and the film’s themes of displacement and diaspora. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38744]

Feedback interconnections are widespread in the brain; yet clear explanations for most of them are currently lacking. Carmen Amo Alonso and John Doyle explore current experimental evidence on the relationship between the auditory and motor parts of the brain during speech perception and production. These models provide a plausible explanation for how the structure of language, as described in the Parallel Architecture, is implemented in the brain. Together, they provide a plausible account for how the Parallel Architecture of language originates as a result of functional constrains in the sensorimotor system. They compare the brain’s implementation of the language capacity with other cognitive capacities, such as vision or motor planning and control, which also have massive internal feedbacks that our new theory explains for the first time. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 38682]

Tim Fenton, Ph.D., University of Southampton, shares his work on the roles of APOBEC3 genes. Hear how he is investigating APOBEC regulation and function in keratinocytes. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38724]

How do visions and norms of scientific progress inform, encourage or constrain democratic governance of science? How do questions of warrant, purpose, and benefit get asked and answered? Andy Murray, Ph.D., sits down with Carrie Wolinetz, Ph.D., National Institutes of Health (NIH), Maria Millan, M.D, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM, Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, and Sheila Jasanoff, J.D., Ph.D., Harvard University, to explore these questions and more. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Science] [Show ID: 38731]

Just a hundred miles to the east of San Diego, one of the largest inland lakes in the West is drying up as a result combined human activity and climate change. The exposed lake bed is rapidly turning into a source of dust, worsening the frequent dust storms that impact the people who live in the surrounding areas. Learn about the intersection of architecture and science in this stark but magnificent landscape in a conversation with Climate Scientist Amato Evan and Architect Gillian Shaffer Lutsko. Discover how collaborations with local activists, policy groups, scientists and indigenous communities inspired an architectural project that envisions how we can unite conversations around redevelopment, the climate crisis, public health and community-led design. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 38689]