University of California Video Podcasts (Video)

Conductor Steven Schick leads the La Jolla Symphony in a performance of Jean Sibelius’ mighty "Symphony No. 5," which drives to its triumphant conclusion on six shattering chords for full orchestra. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34889]

Collapsing ice shelves and calving of large icebergs in Greenland and Antarctica have recently become major drivers of sea level rise. The rapidity of these changes has come as a surprise, revealing major gaps in our understanding of how ice sheets respond to a changing climate. To a large extent, these gaps are due to the lack of measurements from the marine edge of glaciers - the Achilles' heel of glaciers. For over a decade, since the glaciers in Greenland began their retreat, Fiammetta Straneo and her group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography have been probing the edge of massive calving glaciers in iceberg-choked fjords in Greenland using helicopters, icebreakers, fishing vessels, and autonomous vehicles. The understanding gained through these measurements is being used in models aimed at improving sea-level rise predictions. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 34572]

Professor Michael Berry (Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA) joins PhD candidate Wesley Jacks (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening conversation about Zhang Yimou’s 1987 film adaptation of Mo Yan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Red Sorghum. Berry explains the legacy of the so-called “Fifth Generation” of Chinese filmmakers including Yimou, and how Red Sorghum’s production during the era following Deng Xiaoping’s 1978 shift to an open door policy resulted in a film that was both uniquely a product of its own time, and subject to less censorship and thematic restriction than other eras of Chinese filmmaking. A milestone adaptation of an important literary text, Berry describes some of the history of Yimou’s work on the project, and how many of the cast and crew involved in Red Sorghum have since gone on to have celebrated careers. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34884]

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus closes its 64th season with a reflection on the composer/soldiers of World War I, from Maurice Ravel to Ralph Vaughan-Williams to George Butterworth, whose life was tragically cut short in the war. Music from the same time by Charles Ives, and a favorite of Benjamin Britten, Barber's Adagio for Strings, rounds out a program that is both steeped in memory and full of messages for our own time. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34007]

Director Nishtha Jain joins UCSB’s Bishnupriya Ghosh (English and Global Studies) for a post-screening discussion of her 2012 film Gulabi Gang. The conversation includes Jain’s early career as a documentary filmmaker, the film’s examination of violence against women in India both as a result of the dowry system and a general social devaluation of women, and how she worked with Gulabi Gang leader Sampat Pal on location with individuals that were sometimes reluctant to speak on their own behalf or who felt conflicting familial loyalties. Jain addresses the film’s unusual three-part structure and her desire to let the complexities of the film’s subject shape the structure, rather than the reverse. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34844]

The CSE Celebration of Diversity is a day-long event aimed at recognizing the wealth of contributions from all the different kinds of people in the CSE community, and act as a forum to discuss how the department can continue to evolve to become a community of inclusive excellence. This event is led by the CSE Department's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) committee. Series: "Computer Science Channel" [Science] [Show ID: 34958]

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Drew Lansdown goes over the basic science of knee cartilage and looks at treatment options including injections, such as hyaluronic acid, and biologics, such as platelet rich plasma and mesenchymal stem cell injections. He also looks at surgical knee preservation options. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 34796]

Hunting is considered a key human adaptation and is thought to have influenced our anatomy, physiology and behavior over time. This symposium explores the evidence pertaining to the origins of hominin hunting. Variation exists within and among chimpanzee populations in the social importance of hunting and meat eating. David Watts, Yale University. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 33573]

Scientist Karl Wahlin is hoping to use the tiny retinas he's developed from stem cells to find a cure for blindness. Wahlin has teamed up with UC San Diego Stem Cell Program Director Alysson Muotri, who is using a similar technique to study the brain. Together, they hope to understand how the brain and the eye influence one another's development. Series: "Stem Cell Channel" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 34273]

Lucy Fischer (English and Film Studies, University of Pittsburgh) joins Carsey-Wolf Center Director Patrice Petro for a post-screening discussion of Alain Resnais’ 1959 film Hiroshima Mon Amour. Fischer places the film, which features a screenplay by the French novelist Marguerite Duras, in the context of other French New Wave cinema; drawing attention in particular to the juxtaposition of images that are simultaneously fictional and documentary, and to the ways in which Duras’s influence is felt throughout the finished film. Fischer and Petro discuss the critical reaction to the film, as well as its meditation on the nature of memory as one of the first major post-WWII art films. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34843]