University of California Audio Podcasts (Audio)

UC Santa Cruz has renamed the Research Center for the Americas in honor of social justice icon Dolores Huerta, whose legacy has influenced the center’s work and values.

Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez in 1962, and has spent more than 60 years leading community organizing and lobbying efforts to address issues like labor rights, gender discrimination, voter registration, education reform, LGBTQ rights, and economic inequality on behalf of farm workers, immigrants, women, youth, and others in California and the United States. Series: "UC Santa Cruz News" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39253]

Lauren Santiesteban, MD, discusses symptoms and treatments for trigger finger. Series: "Osher WISE: Well-being and Integrative Science for Everyone" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 39562]

How can we improve the human connection for people with autism? In this program, Ty Verno, director of the UC Santa Barbara's Koegel Autism Center discusses novel methods for measuring, understanding, and altering the social developmental trajectories of individuals with autism and related conditions. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 39439]

Hanna Mikkola, M.D., Ph.D., shares her work in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and their complex renewal process. Her research aims to unravel these cells' behavior in mice and humans, offering potential insights for future medical advancements. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 39258]

In Rome in 1644, four butchers were accused of killing seven of their fellow Roman citizens, stripping the meat from their bones, and grinding it together with pork to make sausage, which was then sold from their shop behind the Pantheon. Although the butchers were quickly executed, their tale was not so easily forgotten. In pamphlets issued around the event, the story of the butchers turned into a morality tale about what to and not to eat. Using these pamphlets, along with trial documents, edicts, and other contemporary diaries, historian Bradford Bouley explores the context of this unusual story of cannibalism, the veracity of the sources, and the meaning of meat and the ways it was produced in early modern Rome. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39336]

What are the shapes of stories? This is a longstanding question in narrative arts, from the plot arcs of novels and rhyme schemes of poems to the shot sequences of films. This program discusses two narrative media forms: interactive branching stories (as in games, gamebooks, and hypertext fiction) represented as networks, and graphic narratives (as in comics, manga and webtoons) with individual pages represented as grid compositions. Through description, encoding, and data visualization, we will explore the shapes of stories in comics and games. Series: "GRIT Talks" [Humanities] [Show ID: 39335]

Tara Javidi, an Electrical and Computer Engineering professor at UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering discusses her research in artificial intelligence and large scale wireless networks. Series: "Science Like Me" [Science] [Show ID: 39163]

Mathew Blurton-Jones presents CRISPR-based interventions for a rare brain disorder in mice by substituting defective brain cells with healthy ones. He details experiments demonstrating the efficacy of corrected cells in mitigating brain pathologies. Blurton-Jones emphasizes the need for cautious translation to human trials, advocating gradual cell replacement to preempt potential adverse effects. Additionally, he delves into the implications of microglia in Alzheimer's disease progression and explores potential interconnections among various neurodegenerative conditions. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38333]

Comparative Anthropogeny (CompAnth) is the study of distinctly human traits and characteristics in the context of comparisons with our closest living relatives, the “great apes.” This symposium, the third of CARTA's CompAnth series, will present a collection of distinctive human traits, ranging from molecular, cellular, and anatomical biology to behavioral, societal, and cultural features. Given the large number of human traits for which no counterparts have yet been described in nature, the limitations of the comparative method will also be addressed and alternative approaches to the singularity that is the human phenomenon will be discussed. The goal is a better understanding of human origins and a full appreciation of our species’ planet altering effects. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 39281]

Millions attempt some form of diet yet only a small fraction achieve permanent weight loss. Neuroscientist and author Sandra Aamodt suggests four healthy habits instead. Series: "Osher WISE: Well-being and Integrative Science for Everyone" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 39533]