Programs from the University of California, Berkeley.
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What is a decision, and why does decision-making matter in politics, history, war, and public life? This panel examines how decisions differ from choices, when decisions become political, and how theories of rational choice, game theory, cognitive bias, neuroscience, and emotion shape our understanding of judgment. They explore how constitutional, legal, cultural, and social frameworks influence…
Decision-making in history affects how societies understand power, responsibility, and change. Sir Christopher Clark, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, explains how narratives turn moments of decision into markers of sovereignty and political action. Clark examines real and ostensible decisions, deterministic political environments, and modern pressures from democracy,…
Political decision-making affects governments and societies in important ways. Sir Christopher Clark, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, explains how choices become decisions within political, legal, and cultural systems. Clark examines rational choice theory, cognitive bias, and decisions about war, helping clarify how power acts under pressure. This work helps explain…
Award-winning historian Jules Gill-Peterson examines transgender identity and politics through the lens of American liberalism, arguing that anti-transgender politics cannot be understood by analyzing conservatism alone. She traces the emergence of transgender identity from middle-class cross-dressing cultures, the development of transgender medicine, and the class tensions surrounding transition.…
Embodiment affects how we understand personhood, moral status, and whether this life is our only life. Mark Johnston, Henry Putnam University Professor, Princeton University, explains how competing theories of mind and matter shape the question of whether a will could have an embodiment other than its present one. Johnston examines the failures of functionalism, reductive and non-reductive…
A common model of AI suggests that there is a single measure of intelligence, often called AGI, and that AI systems are agents who can possess more or less of this intelligence. Cognitive science, in contrast, suggests that there are multiple forms of intelligence and that these intelligences trade-off against each other and have a distinctive developmental profile and evolutionary history.…
Contemporary populism is almost everywhere; a right wing phenomena that focuses on a politics of white working class grievance. A set of grievances that are to be addressed, when in power, with policies of expulsion, exclusion, and domination. Attempts by liberal states to deal with such movements paradoxically rely on a similar politics of exclusion, such as building so-called firewalls against…
How do you navigate a nonlinear, “squiggly line” career in science and public health? Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and scientific communicator, explores challenges of science communication within academia—from cultural resistance to misaligned incentives—and why so much vital research never reaches the public. Joined by Dr. John Schwartzberg, Professor Emeritus, School of Public Health,…
Espiritismo traces its roots to the sacred knowledge of West and Central African peoples carried into the Americas by enslaved ancestors between the 15th and 19th centuries. Marta Moreno Vega, Ph.D., scholar and co-founder of Corredor Afro, explores how these traditions—sustained in Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Puerto Rico, other Caribbean islands, and U.S. urban centers—function as systems of memory,…
Public health often works behind the scenes—preventing illness, protecting communities, and generating research that too often stays hidden behind paywalls. In a world of eroding trust and rising falsehoods, Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and scientific communicator, explores how we can make the value of public health visible: by telling better stories with data, making science more…
Peter Godfrey-Smith, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, explores the evolutionary roots of consciousness by surveying animal evolution and the emergence of felt experience in several lineages. He examines two central philosophical questions: how such experience might arise gradually, existing in partial forms, and whether it represents a single unified…
Legal scholar Annabel Brett explores the idea of “moral possibility”—the boundary between what laws demand and what people can realistically or ethically be expected to do. Drawing from early modern thinkers like Aquinas, Suarez, and Hobbes, Brett shows how moral impossibility has long shaped debates about legal obligation, resistance, and political agency. Commentators Melissa Lane and David…
Political theorist Annabel Brett of Cambridge University explores how the concept of “moral possibility” shapes law, politics, and public obligation. She explains that laws must be realistic for people to follow—what is morally possible varies by individual, culture, time, and circumstance. Drawing on early modern Catholic legal theory, Brett discusses how extreme demands (like enduring war or…
It's time for a new narrative for the ocean, one that reflects current scientific knowledge and acknowledges innovative new partnerships and solutions that center the ocean in our future. In this program, Jane Lubchenco, Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University and with expertise in the ocean, climate change, and interactions between the environment and human well-being, talks about…
Three major global challenges – climate change, loss of biodiversity and its benefits, and inequality and inequity among people – are typically tackled within three separate silos. However, scientific knowledge tells us that the three are inextricably linked. If the problems are not considered together, solutions to one may undermine solutions to the others. Moreover, more holistic, integrated…
There's a powerful idea in the history of European legal and political thought: that laws must be possible for people to follow. Annabel Brett, professor of Political Thought and History at Cambridge University, describes how from ancient times through the Renaissance, thinkers believed that demanding the impossible—whether physically or psychologically—was a hallmark of tyranny. A classic example…
The "energy transition" is actually a shift from relying on fossil fuels (like coal, oil, and gas) to using metals to generate energy. However, extracting metals has always been a significant environmental and political issue, especially for cities. This problem has been around for centuries, even ancient Roman writers wrote about it. In this program, Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy…
Historian and political commentator Heather Cox Richardson joins UC Berkeley professor of law and history Dylan Penningroth in a timely conversation about the reshaping of the United States’ two major political parties. A professor of 19th century American history at Boston College, Richardson provides an incisive perspective on current politics to the more than three million readers of her…
We are at a critical moment in our society. While we advance efforts to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis, across the globe, millions are experiencing issues of energy affordability, reliability and equitable access to modern energy technologies. In this program, Tony Reames, Professor of Environmental Justice at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, explores…
Does giving cash up front improve the health and wellbeing of people in poor communities? In this program, Edward (Ted) Miguel, professor of economics and co-director of the Center for Effective Global Action at UC Berkeley, talks about his work in Kenya on the impact of cash transfers on infant mortality, leveraging a unique large-scale census of local households’ birth histories. The findings…
This program explores the decolonizing potential of Indian aesthetic-social philosophy by challenging two entrenched colonial prejudices: the supposed radical dissimilarity and inferiority of pre-modern Indian traditions compared to modern social theory. Through an analysis of the Upanishads and Vaisnava theology and poetry, Sudipta Kaviraj, professor of Indian Politics and Intellectual History at…
What defines a person’s character, and how does it shape who they are? In this lecture, Susan Wolf, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, challenges traditional ideas about character. She argues that character is more than just a set of traits or values an individual endorses—it can include aspects of ourselves we may not even recognize or approve of. Wolf explores…
Oil and gas are the most traded commodities on the planet; they are also the chief causes of the most grievous harm our species has yet faced, the burgeoning climate crisis. Bill McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He examines how the export of hydrocarbons,…
As voters prepare to head to the polls on Election Day, join the Goldman School of Public Policy and Cal Performances for a critical look at the moment we’re in, the issues that have shaped and led us to this year’s tumultuous election, and the future of American democracy. UC Berkeley experts from former presidential administrations—Janet Napolitano, former Secretary of Homeland Security under…
This program aims to recover Plato’s idea of craft or art, Greek technê, in the expansive sense which includes not only the handicrafts but skilled practices from housebuilding to navigation. Rachel Barney, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, examines Plato and other Greek thinkers who were fascinated by the craft model: the idea that both the moral virtue of the good person and…
Across the United States, homelessness has been on the rise. In California, there have been over 181,000 people without a stable place to call home—about 30 percent of the nation’s homeless population. During the COVID-19 pandemic, those numbers continued to rise as earnings dropped and the housing affordability crisis worsened. What interventions have prevented people from becoming homeless? What…
What is a craft? For Plato, paradigmatic craft-practitioners include the doctor, carpenter and navigator; an updated, more generous conception should include the dancer, coder, waitress, painter, chef, professional athlete, and firefighter. Rachel Barney, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, discusses how each of these skilled practices is oriented to the achievement of a…
Especially when practiced as a line of work — as a job or métier — craft sets norms for its practitioners. On the whole, a shoemaker should try to be a good shoemaker, and the good person who is a shoemaker routinely does just that. But what kind of ‘should’ is this, and what could connect these two kinds of goodness? Rachel Barney, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, examines…
In this program, Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA, examines how police in the neoliberal era–in tandem with other state and corporate entities—have become engines of capital accumulation, government revenue, gentrification, the municipal bond market, the tech and private security industry—in a phrase, the profits of death. Kelley…
The 2021-2022 term of the U.S. Supreme Court is widely considered to be the most consequential in living memory. Bruen, West Virginia v. EPA, Dobbs—the Court’s rulings in these controversial cases weakened gun restrictions, hobbled the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to fight climate change, and overturned the constitutional protection for abortion rights nearly 50 years after Roe v.…
America’s contemporary democratic predicament is rooted in its historically incomplete democratization. Born in a pre-democratic era, the constitution’s balancing of majority rule and minority rights created still-unresolved dilemmas. Placing the U.S. in comparative perspective, Daniel Ziblatt, professor of government at Harvard University, offers new perspectives on what should be “beyond the…
What does it mean when we use the first-person pronoun ‘I’? And how does it relate to self-consciousness? In this program, Béatrice Longuenesse, professor of philosophy emerita at New York University, compares the analysis of philosophers Elizabeth Anscombe and Jean-Paul Sartre on consciousness, self-consciousness and the use of 'I'. Languenesse's current work spans the history of philosophy,…
Where did the American Dream of hard work equals upward mobility go? And what will it take to bring it back? In this talk, Raj Chetty, director of Opportunity Insights and professor of public economics at Harvard University, focuses on three policy levers to increase upward mobility: reducing racial and economic segregation through more effective affordable housing programs, investing in…
Children’s chances of earning more than their parents have fallen from 90% to 50% over the past half century in America. How can we restore the American Dream of upward mobility for all children? In this talk, Raj Chetty, director of Opportunity Insights and professor of public economics at Harvard University, shows how big data from varied sources ranging from anonymized tax records to Facebook…
Young children’s learning may be an important model for artificial intelligence (AI). In this program, Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology and member of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab at UC Berkeley, says that comparing children and artificial agents in the same tasks and environments can help us understand the abilities of existing systems and create new ones. In…
After founding four companies and working at top firms in venture capital and private equity, where fast growth and maximum profits rule, David Whorton, Founder and CEO of the Tugboat Institute, has spent the last decade exploring and developing the concept of the evergreen company—one built to last privately over 100 years. The evergreen company stands in contrast to those that are being built to…
Researchers used to define objectives for artificial intelligence (AI) agents by hand, but with progress in optimization and reinforcement learning, it became obvious that it's too difficult to think of everything ahead of time and write it down. Instead, these days the objective is viewed as a hidden part of the state on which researchers can receive feedback or observations from humans — how…
California’s deepest problems — the skyrocketing cost of housing, the lagging development of clean energy, the traffic choking the state — reflect an inability of Democratic governments to build real things in the real world quickly and affordably. The result is liberal governance that routinely fails to achieve liberal outcomes. New York Times opinion columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein talks…
In this program, Jaron Lanier, Microsoft's prime unifying scientist, discusses a piece he published in The New Yorker (“There Is No AI”) about applying data dignity ideas to artificial intelligence. Lanier argues that large-model AI can be reconceived as a social collaboration by the people who provide data to the model in the form of text, images and other modalities. This is a figure/ground…
This episode of TecHype features Yoel Roth, former Head of Trust and Safety at Twitter. Yoel provides first-hand insights into how one of the largest online platforms in the world built out its trust and safety operations to better ensure its service was helpful, harmless, and aligned with user expectations While at Twitter, Dr. Roth found himself the target of a coordinated harassment campaign on…
Joan Donovan, a leading disinformation researcher specializing in media manipulation, explains how social media platforms have become the new battleground for public persuasion. Co-author of “Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America,” Donovan uncovers the ways memes and social media enable fringe groups to lure in new recruits and spread their ideologies. In…
TecHype is a groundbreaking series that cuts through the hype around emerging technologies. Each episode debunks misunderstandings around emerging tech, provides insight into benefits and risks, and identifies technical and policy strategies to harness the benefits while mitigating the risks. This episode of TecHype features Prof. Stuart Russell from UC Berkeley, a world-renowned expert in…
UC Berkeley engineers have created a simple and low-cost new arsenic treatment system to help low-income communities access safer water. In many areas throughout California, the groundwater is tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic, a highly carcinogenic element that can seep into the water table from deposits in the soil and bedrock. While cities and larger municipalities can afford to remove…
Researchers deployed a fleet of 100 semi-autonomous vehicles to test whether a new AI-powered cruise control system can help smooth the flow of traffic and improve fuel economy. In a massive traffic experiment, scientists tested whether introducing just a few AI-equipped vehicles to the road can help ease “phantom” jams caused by human behavior and reduce fuel consumption for everyone. (Video:…
TecHype is a groundbreaking series that cuts through the hype around emerging technologies to get to what matters. Each episode debunks misunderstandings around emerging tech, provides insight into benefits and risks, and identifies technical and policy strategies to harness the benefits while mitigating the risks of emerging technologies. This episode of TecHype features Prof. Hany Farid from UC…
UC Berkeley drills a 400-foot borehole to explore geothermal heating on campus. UC Berkeley plans to decommission its 40-year-old cogeneration plant and replace its current steam heating system with a new system that uses water pipes to heat and cool buildings on campus. While the cogeneration plant burns natural gas to produce electricity and steam heat for the campus, the new system will use…
Using real-life examples and historical evidence, French anthropologist Philippe Descola aims to understand the unique characteristics of communities that exist outside of modern societies. These communities have often been misunderstood because they were mistakenly compared to nation-states. However, Descola argues that we should examine the components and relationships within these communities…
In this program, scholars Philippe Descola, Adom Getachew, Timothy LeCain and David Wengrow discuss how views of humans verses non-humans shaped the modern world. Series: "Tanner Lectures on Human Values" [Humanities] [Show ID: 38618]
This series on artificial intelligence explores recent breakthroughs of AI, its broader societal implications and its future potential. In this presentation, Pamela Samuelson, professor of Law and Information at UC Berkeley, discusses whether computer-generated texts and images fall under the copyright law. She says that early on, the consensus was that AI was just a tool, like a camera, so humans…
This series on artificial intelligence explores recent breakthroughs of AI, its broader societal implications and its future potential. In this presentation, Sergey Levine, associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, discusses AI reinforcement learning methods. Levine asks what it would take to create machine learning systems that can make decisions when…
