University of California Audio Podcasts (Audio)

It is widely held today on grounds of prudence if not realism that in designing public policy and legal systems, we should assume that people are entirely self-interested and amoral. But it is anything but prudent to let "Economic Man" be the behavioral assumption that underpins public policy. Samuel Bowles (Santa Fe Institute) supports his position using evidence from behavioral experiments mechanism design and other sources, and proposes an alternative paradigm for policy making. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Show ID: 34354]

John Caldwell, UCLA media studies professor, ethnographer, and filmmaker, discusses his film Land Hacks: Masculine Media Anxiety Disorder (2018). Caldwell is joined by moderator, Jennifer Holt of the Department of Film and Studies at UCSB. Their conversation covers the inspiration and significance of the film which sets out to explore white male victimization in the Trump era. Caldwell’s film uses advertisements, excerpts from Hollywood films, and documentary footage to highlight a series of masculine anxieties for the modern era, and particular to California’s Central Valley. The Q&A contextualizes Caldwell’s development of the film, which explores the politics of industry and labor in the Central Valley, the birthplace of the UFW, and a bastion for California conservatism through the lens of Caldwell’s own health concerns during the filmmaking process. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Show ID: 34591]

Bill Morrison, comic book writer and artist, and colorist Nathan Kane join moderator Joe Paladino in a Q&A about Yellow Submarine (1968). Kane and Morrison discuss their collaborative work on the 2018 graphic novel adaptation of the film, as well as their careers and the wider significance of the film. The conversation covers Morrison's work with Matt Groening as an illustrator for The Simpsons and as art director for Futurama, and the influence Yellow Submarine had on the art styles of these shows. Kane discusses his career in the comics industry and his work as creative director of Bongo Comics. Together, Morrison and Kane, reflect on the legacy of Yellow Submarine fifty years later, in terms of their comic adaptation, but also in terms of its pop-cultural significance and influence on directors from Terry Gilliam to John Lasseter. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Show ID: 34641]

Sherry Turkle is concerned with how dependence on smartphones affects maturation. Turkle, the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, advocates for the integration of boredom and solitude in daily life. Series: "Excerpts" [Show ID: 34651]

The former editor of Poetry Magazine, Christian Wiman is both a poet and an essayist who teaches Literature and Religion at Yale Divinity School. In an interview he discussed what he hopes readers might take from his work: I have no illusions about adding to sophisticated theological thinking. But I think there are a ton of people out there who are what you might call unbelieving believers, people whose consciousness is completely modern and yet who have this strong spiritual hunger in them. I would like to say something helpful to those people.

His most recent book is He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art, released in 2018. Other books include My Bright Abyss, Ambition and Survival, Every Riven Thing, Hammer is the Prayer, Hard Night, and The Long Home. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Show ID: 33947]

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Professor Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley for a discussion of her intellectual odyssey that led to the discovery of CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary tool for gene editing. In the conversation, they explore the implications of CRISPR-Cas9 for agriculture, biotechnology and biomedicine. They also discuss how education and public advocacy can broaden insight into the ethical and policy dimensions of the biological revolution that is upon us. Series: "Conversations with History" [Show ID: 34595]

Whales are among the most fascinating animals in the ocean. People are intrigued by their impressive size, intelligence, and their use of sound to communicate. Join postdoctoral scholar Goldie Phillips for a captivating look into how scientists use whale calls to study whale populations. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Show ID: 34395]

Computer security is a field that is fundamentally co-dependent — an interplay between the potential risk created by technology and the actual threats created by adversaries. The dance between defenders, technologists and attackers is one that is rich and dynamic and fuels both a large active research community and a multi-billion dollar computer security industry. Inevitably, ethical issues are exposed at multiple levels of this stack -- frequently at precisely those points where consequences are not well understood. Stefan Savage, PhD, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, describes some of the ethical issues he has encountered in his work - ranging from measurement studies of cybercrime to identifying security vulnerabilities in automobiles - and explore how these issues have challenged and focused him. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Show ID: 33716]

E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column for the Washington Post, and is a government professor at Georgetown University, a visiting professor at Harvard University, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. He is a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio.

Before joining The Post in 1990 as a political reporter, Dionne spent 14 years at The New York Times, where he covered politics and reported from Albany, Washington, Paris, Rome and Beirut. His coverage of the Vatican was described by the Los Angeles Times as the best in two decades. In 2014-2015, Dionne was the vice president of the American Political Science Association. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Show ID: 33946]

This panel explores the relevance of race, citizenship, immigration status, and community context in explaining lethal violence and criminal case outcomes, both currently and historically. Drawing from a variety of data sources and employing a wide range of analytical approaches, the panel illuminates largely overlooked and underappreciated racially-contingent micro- and meso-level processes and their enduring consequences for Latinx defendants, Latinx victims, and Latinx communities. Moderator: Alicia Virani, UCLA School of Law. Panelists: Klara Stephens, University of Michigan Law School/ National Registry of Exonerations; Cynthia Willis-Esqueda, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Jeffrey Ulmer, Penn State; Ramiro Martinez, Northeastern University

Series: "Immigration" [Show ID: 34539]