University of California Audio Podcasts (Audio)

This symposium addresses the interactive gene-culture co-evolution of the human brain with tool use and technology - ranging from simple stone tools millions of years ago to computers today. Language co-evolved with the human brain throughout the evolution of Homo sapiens. Writing, on the other hand, is a relatively new technology that was invented by humans to translate spoken language into a visual form for transmitting verbal communication broadly to many people over large distances and time. As such, writing and reading can be considered the first 'social media' technology. Paula Tallal, Rutgers University. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 34194]

We have come so far in understanding the brain, yet we are often perplexed by our emotions. Geronima Cortese gives an brief history of herbalism and how it is practiced today. She explores the herbal approach from diagnosis to treatment.

Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 34525]

CARTA celebrates its 10th anniversary with a whirlwind tour of anthropogeny, the study of the origin of humans, by addressing these questions across multiple disciplines: What do we know for certain? What do we think we know? What do we need to know? How do we proceed? Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 34697]

David Traver explores how discoveries made using tiny Zebrafish will lead to cures for blood diseases like leukemia using stem cells. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Science] [Show ID: 34764]

Alysson Muotri and top geneticists Rusty Gage and Miles Wilkinson explore the fact that ninety-nine percent of human DNA doesn't code for anything used by the human body. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Science] [Show ID: 33492]

David Lukoff, PhD, explores transpersonal psychology, the study of human growth and development from a perspective of spirituality and the inner soul. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 34524]

Leonard Bernstein's "Kaddish" Symphony interweaves an ancient Jewish prayer for the dead with a text written by Bernstein himself that violently challenges God's apparent disinterest in the face of human suffering, before finally reaching an accommodation with the Creator. This conflict is reflected by music that is by turns aggressive, even dissonant, and serenely harmonious. Bernstein dedicated the work's late 1963 premiere "To the Beloved Memory of John F. Kennedy." Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34689]

Alysson Muotri and Catriona Jamieson discuss how cutting-edge stem-cell-based cures will reach patients through California's network of Alpha Clinics. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 34763]

Rachel Kadish is an American writer of fiction and non-fiction, author of several novels and a novella. Her fiction work has won the National Jewish Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize, the John Gardner Fiction Prize, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award. She discusses her latest book, "The Weight of Ink," a work of historical fiction set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century. Series: "Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34680]

Dr. Steven Schroeder is Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at UCSF, where he also heads UCSF’s Smoking Cessation Leadership Center. In this interview, he discusses academic medicine, the epidemic of substance abuse, his work at the RWJ Foundation (including the “failed study” that helped build the field of palliative care), and his life in healthcare policy and politics. Between 1990 and 2002, Dr. Schroeder was President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. During that time, the Foundation gave out nearly $4 billion in grants, including for new programs in substance abuse prevention and treatment, care at the end of life, and health insurance expansion for children, among others. He has won numerous awards, including six honorary doctoral degrees and the Gustav Leinhard Award from the National Academy of Medicine.

Series: "A Life in Medicine: People Shaping Healthcare Today" [Health and Medicine] [Business] [Show ID: 34715]