The UCI Podcast: Recent Episodes
University of California, Irvine
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.
Pharmaceutical Sciences, whose lived experiences inspired her team’s business, CuraVoice. We’ll also hear from Alicia Rantos and Ernie Rapp, two of the event’s 160 volunteer coaches and judges. And we’ll take listeners inside the Merage School’s SB1 Auditorium on May 21, when the finalists presented their pitches to dazzle the panel and audience and win prize money that could help them achieve their goals.“Blazing Nights of Light,” the music featured throughout this episode, was provided by The Whole Other via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Roland Betancourt examines how the Magic Kingdom introduced the world to the large-scale realities of industrial automation. The UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of art history put seven years of archival research into a book that appeals to fans of Disney and popular culture as well as people interested in engineering and corporate histories. In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Betancourt will discuss his unique journey from medievalist to authoritative voice on the technology powering the Happiest Place on Earth and connect 1950s anxieties about automation with today’s concerns about artificial intelligence. Just in time for summer, he’ll tell us what we shouldn’t miss the next time we visit the theme park, and he’ll share why he’s enthused to return to teaching the class he created – Disneyland: Art, Architecture and Operation – this fall. “Inevitable Hope,” the music that introduces this episode, was provided by RKVC via the audio library in YouTube Studio. Betancourt recorded the various sounds from rides and attractions at Disneyland during a visit to the theme park.
In 1949, Mental Health America established that each May would be recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month. The theme for 2026 is “More Good Days, Together,” and it encourages everyone to think about what a “good day” looks like – for both ourselves and our communities.Here to share insight on that is Susan Charles, UC Irvine professor of psychology and nursing, who examines emotional processes across the adult lifespan. In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, she will discuss her award-winning findings on how people’s perceptions of good days – and their priorities – change as they grow older. The director of the Emotion Research Lab will also highlight several factors her team has learned contribute to well-being over the years and answer a common question: How do individuals know if they’re aging well? “The Day Is Close,” the music for this episode, was provided by The 126ers via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Public Health involves per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – a massive group of synthetic chemical compounds that don’t break down easily. Known as PFAS, they are pervasive and persistent. The most studied of these “forever chemicals” indicate a toxicity that affects liver and thyroid function, and some have been shown to lead to cancer. In 2019, Scott Bartell, professor of environmental and occupational health, launched the UCI PFAS Health Study after receiving a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lead California’s contribution to a national multisite probe. In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Bartell will share what drew him to the study of environmental contaminants, where PFAS are found and how people can decrease their exposure. He’ll also update what his team has learned about PFAS and what work is left to be done, as well as grade how the human race is doing in its efforts to take better care of the planet.“Walking in the Sky,” the music for this episode, was provided by Nico Staf via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Public Health reflects on the transformations she’s witnessed since arriving at UC Irvine in 2019 and what it will take for health and well-being to thrive. She shares insights from her latest research on stroke and cardiovascular disease, the role of social networks in disease prevention, and how community partnerships – paired with stronger advocacy for science and investment in women’s health – can improve health outcomes for everyone.“Rising Sun,” the music for this episode, was provided by DivKid via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
For over two decades, Charis Kubrin, UC Irvine professor of criminology, law and society, has examined how the presence of immigrants in communities affects public safety. Her findings continually challenge a myth that has persisted throughout history: that immigrants bring crime to their new countries. In November 2025, Kubrin learned that she’s one of two researchers who’ll receive the Stockholm Prize in Criminology for 2026 – a recognition often seen as equivalent to the Nobel Prize in that field. During the official announcement, the competition jury noted that the 2026 award is “shining the spotlight on how criminology is myth-busting on immigration and rehabilitation.” In the latest episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Kubrin will share her reaction when she learned about the prestigious honor, explain her life’s work and how it’s particularly relevant in today’s global climate, and address the rigors of trying to bridge the gap between scientific research and public understanding. “A Caring Friend,” the music for this episode, was provided by Bad Snacks via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Public Health, and Theresa Nutt, administrative director of education at UC Irvine’s Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute.Landry’s research interests include identifying the optimal diet for chronic disease prevention, and Nutt is a registered and holistic nurse who has also been a health and wellness coach since 2003. In this podcast, they team up to discuss why it’s hard to stick to our diets during the holidays and share tips on how to avoid overindulging. In addition, they’ll address prioritizing activities that benefit physical fitness and how to reframe thoughts around resolutions to encourage better success.“Fresh Healthy Perspectives,” the music for this episode, was provided by Birocratic via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
The University of California defines a first-generation college student as “a student where neither parent nor guardian have earned a four-year college degree.” At UC Irvine, Institutional Research, Assessment, and Planning updated its student head count data on Oct. 24 to include fall of 2025, and according to the enrollment dashboard, 11,104 out of 30,260 (36.7 percent) undergraduates have first-generation status. The latest four-year graduation rate for first-gen students at UC Irvine is 72.8 percent, and the six-year graduation rate is 83.8 percent.We’re shining the spotlight on first-gen students in this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast. Our guest is Scott Lerner, a lecturer in the School of Humanities’ composition program. Once a first-gen student himself, he commits extensive time and energy to that population on campus, teaching classes with their experiences as the primary theme and helping lead initiatives to increase first-gen visibility. These efforts include a freshman seminar exploring the hidden curriculum and a website of resources and contacts. Lerner shares stories of tribulation and triumph from his first-gen journey, explains how he structures courses to help students tell their own tales, and muses about changes that could further enhance everyone’s capabilities to succeed.“Brave,” the music for this episode, was provided by Mark Karan, Scott Guberman, Angeline Saris and Jeremy Hoenig, via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Paul Robertson, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, is co-author of a new paper in The Astronomical Journal on an exoplanet that is tantalizingly close to Earth. The proximity of this exoplanet helps astronomers glean more details about it. They want to know how it compares in size to Earth, if it has an atmosphere, and if it is in the habitable zone, a distance from the host star that would make it possible for the planet to have liquid water on its surface, a key ingredient to support potential life. In this episode of the UC Irvine Podcast, Robertson discusses the tools he and his team used to characterize this exoplanet and what he hopes to learn in future exoplanet hunting efforts.
Internationally recognized neuroscientist Aileen Anderson – a professor of physical medicine & rehabilitation, anatomy & neurobiology and neurosurgery, and the former director of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center – started her tenure as UC Irvine’s vice chancellor for research on July 1. She had no opportunity to ease into her new, important role.In her first month at the helm, the federal government announced it was suspending approximately $584 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other agencies to UCLA, putting the entire UC system on alert for what might be next. In the months since, several federal court orders have restored vast amounts of those grants, but the situation remains in flux. On Aug. 21, Anderson hosted a town hall to address how federal funding suspensions impact UC Irvine. To make clear her position, her campuswide emails offering updates to the latest developments all end with this quote: “The Office of Research and I stand with our research community. We appreciate your resilience and remain committed to supporting you every step of the way.”In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Anderson demonstrates that dedication by sharing what she knows about the current state of federal funding, how cuts are affecting the research community at UC Irvine and globally, and what these changes could mean for the future of the university, its faculty and students, science, medicine, and, eventually, the health of Americans and international reputation of the United States. “Building Blocks,” the music for this episode, was provided by Nate Blaze, via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
On April 3, 2025, Julie Washington was appointed interim dean of the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. No stranger to leadership roles, the professor of education was already associate dean for faculty development and diversity at the school, where she’s been a member of the faculty since 2021. Before that, Washington served as professor and chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Georgia State University and professor and chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Washington describes herself as a “language nerd” who, during her high school years, frequently won oratory contests and reveled in the art of diagramming sentences. After working with a speech-language pathologist for voice therapy during that same period of her life, Washington knew she had found the career she wanted to pursue. Most recently, her research has centered around how language impacts reading and writing and how it develops in children who learn variations of American English in their communities. Washington shares her expertise worldwide – this summer, she served as the keynote speaker at the Africa Dyslexia Conference, held in Accra, Ghana, an event co-sponsored by UC Irvine’s School of Education.In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, we’ll learn more about her origin story and the work she’s leading with UC Irvine’s Language Variation and Academic Success lab and Learning Disabilities Research Innovation Hub, which is funded by the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Washington will also share where she’s seeing the positive impacts of AI in education, why research drives practice in the field, and how she plans to lead her school and maintain its nationally recognized reputation during this time of funding uncertainty. “Words” the music for this episode, was provided by Audionautix via the audio library in YouTube Studio. Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on July 29, 2025, showed 7.44 million jobs open in the United States at the end of June, a decrease from May’s number of 7.71 million, the highest number of job openings since November 2024. The lingering effects of the 11 interest rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 to combat inflation are one factor creating momentum changes in the U.S. job market. Another is the uncertainty resulting from the trade wars brought on after the 2025 change in presidential administration. Some of the many diverse elements affecting the American labor market include automation, artificial intelligence, energy transition and, more recently, the deportation of laborers in various fields. Other important talking points around employment include the future of wages, benefits, workers’ rights and unions. Virginia Parks, UC Irvine professor of urban planning and public policy, will address each of these topics in this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast. She’ll also give advice to young people making the daunting decision about what they should do for a living – and share how the UC Irvine Labor Center can help.“Confliction & Catharsis,” the music for this episode, was provided by Asher Fulero, via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
In his 1988 semiautobiographical novel "The Beautiful Room Is Empty," author Edmund White relates his experiences on the night of June 28, 1969, as he and others passed by the Stonewall Inn, a New York City gay bar: “I suppose the police expected us to run away into the night, as we’d always done before, but we stood across the street on the sidewalk of the small triangular park. … Everyone booed the cops, just as though they were committing a shameful act. We kept exchanging peripheral glances, excited and afraid.”The uprising that White witnessed is described by the Library of Congress as a “tipping point” for the gay liberation movement in the United States. One year later, the first Pride marches were held in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – the beginning of an annual June tradition of events commemorating Stonewall and the continuation of prior decades of activism and demonstrations for equal rights for LGBTQ+ people.White, the author of over 30 books of fiction and nonfiction and hundreds of essays and articles, died on June 3, 2025. He’s called a “towering figure in American literature” who is “most justly known as one of the singular lights of gay letters” by Jonathan Alexander, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of English and informatics who’s been named the next chair of the campus’s nationally ranked Department of English.In this wide-ranging episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Alexander reflects on both White and Pride. He also describes how he thinks about fear in the face of uncertainty, his vision for the future of the UC Irvine English department, and what he’s learning through his current research on how the craft of writing affects University of California graduates.“Shadowing,” the music for this episode, was provided by Corbyn Kites, via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
“Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.” That’s a memorable line from the 2013 tune “Happy,” by Pharrell Williams – a song that reached No. 1 in the charts in over 20 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada and was the most played song of the 2010s.One truth about happiness: It’s among the many positive emotions that people can use to counter stress, which affects thoughts, feelings, behaviors and physical health. Unchecked stress can lead to myriad health problems like hypertension, heart disease, stroke, obesity and diabetes.Sarah Pressman, UC Irvine professor of psychological science, has made examining the health benefits of positive emotions her life’s work. In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Pressman explains how researchers analyze the protective properties of positivity, relates their findings and suggests simple steps people can take to improve their own happiness.“High Life,” the music for this episode, was provided by The Mini Vandals, featuring Mamadou Koita and Lasso, via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Social movements – and the protests they give rise to – have happened on American soil since before the country’s establishment as an independent nation. On Dec. 16, 1773, American colonists demonstrated their dissatisfaction with British tax policies by dressing in disguise and dumping 342 chests – around 92,000 pounds – of valuable tea into Boston Harbor. Originally known as “the Destruction of the Tea,” the event was later nicknamed “the Boston Tea Party.”In this century, we’ve seen part of that moniker repurposed by the tea party movement, a group interested in lower taxes and decreased government spending who staged protests in over 750 U.S. cities on April 15, 2009 – Tax Day.Social injustices, environmental issues and political concerns are just a few of myriad reasons people have organized protests over the course of history. David S. Meyer, UC Irvine professor of sociology, political science, and urban planning and public policy, is one of the nation’s top scholars on social movements. In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Meyer leans on years of study to put today’s realities into historical perspective, analyze the current state of polarization and share what he’s learned about how action can spark change.“Downpour,” the music for this episode, was provided by Patiño via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
In 1987, Congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March as “Women’s History Month,” intended to honor “women of every race, class, and ethnic background” who have made “historical contributions to the growth and strength of the Nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways.”One academic discipline where the contributions of women have been overlooked and undervalued is science. Cailin O’Connor, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of logic and philosophy of science, has spent significant time studying scientific communities and how they learn about the world together – and how cultures evolve unfair rules around characterizations like race and gender. Because O’Connor is a female working in science herself, she has paid special attention to the unique histories, challenges and successes of women who have chosen career paths in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.In this episode of The UCI Podcast, O’Connor addresses why women have been historically underrepresented in science and the barriers that still exist, how the accessibility of science careers for women has changed, and what can be done to increase female representation.“Divine Life Society,” the music for this episode, was provided by Jesse Gallagher via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
With a focus on early childhood education, Andres Bustamante and his team at the STEM Learning Lab are busy developing interactive learning spaces to enhance science, technology, engineering and math education in places where families gather – parks, playgrounds, grocery stores, even bus stops. Through collaborative partnerships with schools and community organizations – and by integrating the thoughtful input of local families in their design process – members of Bustamante’s group are creating opportunities for young children to learn in ways that are powerful and effective because they are also engaging, joyful and fun.In this episode of The UCI Podcast, the associate professor of education and faculty director of UC Irvine’s Orange County Educational Advancement Network guides us on a tour of the playful learning landscapes he has helped install in schools and community locations throughout the city of Santa Ana and explains how and why they’re already making a difference.“Skedaddle Back,” the music for this episode, was provided by Nathan Moore via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
According to poll results from the American Psychological Association last November, 89 percent of adults in the United States were overwhelmed as the holidays approached by concerns such as not having enough money, missing loved ones and anticipating family conflict.The goal of this episode of The UCI Podcast is to help you develop some strategies to manage the added stressors of this time of year – particularly when it comes to having challenging conversations with loved ones. Our guest today is Naomi Tabak, a licensed and board-certified clinical psychologist and director of UC Irvine’s Psychological Services Center. She’ll share tips to help listeners mitigate holiday stress and prioritize their well-being at a time of year when self-care is crucial.Community members over 18 who are interested in learning more about the UC Irvine’s Psychological Services Center can check out its webpage at https://sites.uci.edu/psychologyclinic.The center is NOT affiliated with UCI Health or the UCI Counseling Center. If you’re currently enrolled as a student at UC Irvine and are seeking campus counseling and clinical services, please visit the Counseling Center website at https://counseling.uci.edu.“Soft Feeling,” the music for this episode, was provided by Cheel via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
The much-loved and eclectic campus radio station KUCI, 88.9 FM, turns 55 this year, and it has been quite a ride. What started as an underground station was among the first to embrace the internet. With an audience that now spans the globe, KUCI continues to air a diverse schedule of music and voices.
Chang Liu, UC Irvine professor of biomedical engineering, is a leader in the field of directed evolution, an effort to train genes to evolve in a laboratory in order to perform desired functions. Through this method of gene engineering, researchers hope to create new biological substances for use in pharmaceuticals and as cheaper and more environmentally responsible industrial catalysts. The work is also helping the scientific community build genetic knowledge for the benefit of bioengineering. Liu's research group has a new paper out in the journal Science in which they discuss improvements to their OrthoRep gene evolution platform. The system allows mutations to happen a million times faster than natural evolutionary time frames. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, speaks with UC Irvine communicator Brian Bell about the findings detailed in the paper. Musical accompaniment to this podcast episode is Bach’s E Major Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2, played by Professor Liu.
Research released in June by the Berkeley Institute for Young Americans revealed that younger voters had a broad, decisive impact on the 2020 presidential election and on congressional elections in 2018 and 2022 – with the same being expected this year. In the latest episode of The UCI Podcast, we’ll speak with Kylie Jones, Khushi Patel and Evelyn Rodriguez – three UC Irvine undergraduates who are passionate about participating in the political process. They’ll tell us why voting is important to them, offer their thoughts on voter turnout and share key issues that younger voters are focusing on in this election cycle.“Believe (Instrumental),” the music for this episode, was provided by NEFFEX via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
On the UCI Podcast, the law professor shares how the Korematsu Center and his students can make a difference
National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in the U.S. from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 each year. The theme for 2024 is “Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together.”Belinda Campos relishes that idea. Between her work as chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Chicano/Latino Studies and a faculty member with the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community in the School of Medicine, Campos takes the future of the Latino population very seriously. She helps lead a network of colleagues who endeavor to foster in students an understanding of Latino history – and how to apply that knowledge in building a brighter future. Campos’ research examines how people develop the high-quality relationships associated with better health and longer life. Her team’s work has revealed that some classic Latino cultural components, such as an emphasis on positivity and tight-knit families, create a connectivity that can help individuals endure difficult, stressful times. Some of their findings are shared in a recent article in "Greater Good" magazine titled “How to Fully Appreciate Your Loving Relationships,” a collaboration with Jessica Borelli, UC Irvine professor of psychological science. This multifaceted episode of The UCI Podcast includes detailed descriptions of Campos’ research and other undertakings in the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies and discussions on the history and future of PRIME-LC and its new offshoot, UC PRIME Pre-Health Pathways; how culture can influence our interpretation of social support in times of stress; and why connecting to our families and communities is good for one’s health. “Pioneers,” the music for this episode, was provided by Audionautix via the audio library in YouTube Studio. “Pioneers” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Mark Deppe goes on The UCI Podcast to talk about the program he built and his new team of superstar gamers.
According to a 2023 analysis by the Pew Research Center, new school years across the United States begin from as early as late July until after Labor Day. Regardless of when families prepare for the academic year, the process often looks the same: purchasing needed supplies, finishing a summer reading list, adjusting sleep schedules and adapting to a new routine. The phrase “back to school” can catalyze a spectrum of emotional responses for both students and parents. In the latest episode of The UCI Podcast, Jessica Borelli, UC Irvine professor of psychological science, offers insight on the array of reactions that accompany this time of year, and she shares tips on how families can embrace the change together and make it as smooth as possible for all involved.“For Time to Disappear,” the music for this episode, was provided by Ocean/Ryan McCaffery via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
On Thursday, June 27, in Atlanta, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off in the first debate of the 2024 presidential election. The event marked the first debate in U.S. history between a sitting and former president and was the first time the presumptive nominees for their respective parties had been on a debate stage since 2020. Held months earlier than the usual tradition, it was also the first not coordinated by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, bringing with it a new set of rules and guidelines. No studio audience was present for the 90-minute affair, which featured a pair of commercial breaks – another first. Candidates’ microphones were muted unless they were directed to speak by a moderator, and they were not allowed to bring any prewritten notes or props to their lecterns. What debate moments stood out, what happened that wasn’t expected, and where do the campaigns go from here? These are some of the questions asked of UC Irvine political scientists Louis DeSipio and Tony Smith in this episode of The UCI Podcast. “American Frontiers,” the music for this episode, was provided by Aaron Kenny via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Every June, the United States celebrates Pride Month, commemorating the 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn that inspired a global movement toward LGBTQ+ equality. The rich history of gay bars leading up to and since the Stonewall Riots is thoroughly explored in "The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After," written by Lucas Hilderbrand, UC Irvine professor and chair of film and media studies.The combination of a dearth of books investigating the history of gay bars and the closure of many gay bars around the nation catalyzed Hilderbrand’s motivation to tackle what he calls an “ambitious project” to “look at the role of gay bars in shaping community politics, subcultures and the ways in which we imagine what queer public life could be in the United States.” In this episode of The UCI Podcast, Hilderbrand shares how bars are powerful community cornerstones; what he learned on his extensive research journey examining archival accounts in all corners of the U.S.; and why he chose to inform this unique history with anecdotes, stories and even musical references. Playlists to accompany the book can be found on both YouTube and Spotify. The music for this episode, titled “The Gentlemen,” was provided by DivKid via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
In 2021, UC Irvine officially became a health-promoting university through the adoption of the Okanagan Charter. In this edition of the UCI Podcast, Doug Everhart, director of Student Wellness and Health Promotion, will discuss what it means to adopt the Okanagan Charter, how it enables UC Irvine to be a health-promoting university and explore the creation of its comprehensive wellbeing initiative.
Each May, the U.S. recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month, established 75 years ago to highlight the importance of this essential issue in Americans’ lives. It’s also a time to recognize the resilience of people who live with mental health conditions and honor all those who stand by them – a group that includes both family and friends, and the dedicated mental health care professionals providing services to improve their well-being. Psychologist Jason Schiffman is deeply committed to assisting others. The professor of psychological science heads a research team that has published over 200 scientific articles and acquired over $15 million in funding for their work on psychosis. He also trains and consults for clinics across the county on best practices for supporting people on the psychosis continuum. As the director of UCI’s Clinical Psychology Program, he helps guide cohorts of graduate students who are similarly compelled to provide mental health care for others. What is psychosis and what do we know about it? Why do mental health challenges like psychosis still have a pervasive stigma and how can our community come together to change that? How is UC Irvine playing its part in providing mental health services with its new Psychological Services Center, and how can community members access care? What are some simple steps we can all take to protect and improve our own well-being? Schiffman answers these questions and more in this episode of the UCI Podcast. The music for this episode, titled “A Quiet Thought,” was provided by Wayne Jones via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Various researchers in UC Irvine’s School of Education are studying the wide range of technological innovations available to enhance education, including assistant professors Shayan Doroudi and Nia Nixon. One facet of Doroudi’s research focuses on how different technologies improve learning. A segment of Nixon’s work centers on developing AI-based interventions to promote inclusivity in team problem-solving environments. How are artificial intelligence tools currently affecting teaching and learning? What are some of the most promising applications that have been developed so far? How are AI tools being used to personalize learning experiences – and what are the benefits and drawbacks of that approach? What’s next? These are some of the questions Nixon and Doroudi address in this episode of the UCI Podcast. The music for this episode, titled “Computer Bounce,” was provided by Geographer via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
March is Women’s History Month, an opportunity to celebrate the numerous contributions that women have made to American society. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, we’ll shine a spotlight on women who have worked tirelessly to bring attention to injustice via the Black Lives Matter movement and others like it.Begun in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, BLM encompasses yearslong campaigns across several anti-carceral organizations striving to end state violence against African Americans.Jordie Davies, UCI assistant professor of political science, pays special attention to BLM as she examines the foundations of social movements that have emerged in response to anti-Blackness for a new book. She’ll teach us the history behind BLM and anti-carceral groups catalyzed by women, forecast what may be on the horizon, and discuss her recent publication on the process of building solidarity and sharing power in multiracial coalitions. The music for this episode, titled “Awake,” was provided by Emmit Fenn via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
In this special episode of the UCI Insider podcast, director of Financial Aid & Scholarships, Becki Sanchez, and senior associate director of Financial Aid & Scholarships, Crystal Maudale, explain the changes found in the simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Bridget R. Cooks, UC Irvine professor and Chancellor’s Fellow of art history and African American studies, was invited to participate on the advisory committee for an upcoming six-month exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art titled “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism.” She also wrote a piece detailing the history of Harlem Renaissance shows for the event’s official catalogue. What is the Harlem Renaissance? Cooks will answer that question in this episode of the UCI Podcast. In addition, she’ll tell us what it’s like to serve alongside some of her heroes, why her career is exactly what she’s “supposed to be doing” and how time spent at a museum can benefit everyone. This episode was recorded in the podcast studio at UCI’s ANTrepreneur Center. The music, titled “Don’t Fret,” was provided by Quincas Moreira via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Who are UCI’s Underground Scholars? In 2018, students established the Underground Scholars Initiative to create pathways into higher education for incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and system-impacted individuals. After three years, USI members advocated for a staff-led program, leading to the formation of the Underground Scholars Program in October 2021. The two groups are separate but aligned in their mission to provide support services for such students. Shawn Khalifa – an undergraduate with a compelling story – is one of 44 participants currently in UCI’s Underground Scholars Program. He began serving a life sentence for first-degree murder at the age of 15. Released 16 years later, Khalifa is now on track to graduate in June with a degree in sociology. His journey highlights the transformative power of education and support in changing lives and trajectories.In this UCI Podcast, Khalifa candidly opens up about his personal history and reveals how his lived experiences ignited a passion for a future career in which he helps develop policies promoting systemic transformation in education. This episode was recorded in the podcast studio at UCI’s ANTrepreneur Center. The music, titled “Road Home,” was provided by VYEN via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
Supported by funding from the National Science Foundation since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Roxane Cohen Silver focuses her research on how major tragedies – both mass violence and natural disasters – are depicted in the media and how this may affect the health – physical and mental – of consumers. After the events of 9/11, there have been a series of events that have allowed the Distinguished Professor of psychological science, medicine and public health and her research team to continue their important work: the war in Iraq, which began in March 2003; the bombing at the Boston Marathon in April 2013; the Ebola virus outbreak in 2014; the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016; and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and then the war between Russia and Ukraine. In this UCI Podcast, we talk to Professor Silver about her findings and why graphic images leave an indelible mark on those who see them, how social media adds a new layer to the availability of that content, and what people can do to decrease the negative consequences that too much exposure to gruesome photos and videos can have on their health. This episode was recorded in the podcast studio in the ANTrepreneur Center. The music, titled “Invisible Beauty,” was provided by Aakash Gandhi via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Sheri Ledbetter, UCI's director of internal and critical communications, speaks with Dale Leaman, the executive director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The discussion centers on requirements prospective students should keep in mind when applying to UCI and the other UC campuses. There is also some information about the emerging role of artificial intelligence in the admissions process, from the perspective of students and admissions office staff who are processing thousands of applications. Leaman brings an extensive background to higher education with 28 total years with the University of California and the last 11 with UCI. He’s been the executive director of undergraduate admissions for the past five years.
Schools shape the lives of students in many ways. Along with teaching the basic skills that will help them function in and contribute to a society – such as reading, writing and arithmetic – ideally, a school will also help young people identify their strengths in order to reach their full potential.In addition, schools educate students about identities. From early labels like “kindergartner” or “English-language learner” to later designations such as “honor roll student,” how do assigned categories affect a young person’s life?This is the topic of "Schooled and Sorted: How Educational Categories Create Inequality," a new book by Andrew M. Penner, UCI professor of sociology; Emily K. Penner, UCI associate professor of education; and Thurston Domina, professor of educational policy and organizational leadership at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.In this UCI Podcast, we talk to the Penners about the challenges and opportunities presented by educational categorizations. The married co-authors also offer examples of how we can create categories that help instead of harm students.Music for this episode, titled “Metamorphosis,” was provided by Quincas Moreira via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
In this episode of the Anteater Insider podcast, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Patty Morales and fourth-year Education Sciences student Ella Lee discuss the barriers UCI students face along the way to graduation and how the university is working to address those barriers through analytics and data partnerships to support student progress.
Ian O. Williamson, dean of UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business, is a globally recognized expert in the field of human resource management, a reputation earned by traveling the world over to examine how talent pipelines affect organizational and community outcomes.In this UCI Podcast, Williamson identifies significant changes in business during the last decade, analyzes how the pandemic altered business education and forecasts the future of work for employers and employees.This episode of the UCI Podcast was recorded in the podcast studio in the ANTrepreneur Center. The music, titled “Swimming Lessons,” was provided by Bail Bonds via the audio library in YouTube Studio.
What makes a hit?
That’s a question that Noah Askin has devoted his career to answering. The assistant professor of teaching in the academic area of organization and management in UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business focuses his research on the production and consumption of culture.
In this UCI Podcast, Askin describes how he scoured the Billboard charts to investigate which characteristics of songs lead to their being a “hit” and examined why bands were able to demonstrate sustained success over long-running careers. He also shares how general themes of creativity and collaboration seamlessly cross over from pop culture into professional networks and community relationships.
This episode of the UCI Podcast was recorded in the podcast studio in the ANTrepreneur Center. Music for this episode of the UCI Podcast, titled “Stars Align,” provided by The 126ers via the Audio Library in YouTube Studio.
Dean of UCI's School of Social Sciences for the past decade, anthropology professor Bill Maurer recently agreed to five more years at the helm of the school with the largest percentage of undergraduates majoring in their departments.
In this UCI Podcast, Maurer describes how he morphed from reluctant leader to a third term as dean, reflects on his first decade in the role and looks ahead to what’s next as the School of Social Sciences continues its mission to “create positive change and improve the human condition.” Maurer also shares why he was drawn to anthropology and offers a quick Cryptocurrency 101 lesson, including the potential benefits and drawbacks of digital currency.
This episode of the UCI Podcast was recorded in the podcast studio in the ANTrepreneur Center. Music for this episode of the UCI Podcast, titled “Wide Awake,” provided by The 126ers via the Audio Library in YouTube Studio.
People all over the world are taking notice of "Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity," a new book by UCI’s Gloria Mark, Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics. For over two decades, Mark has studied human-computer interaction, examining how the increase in our society’s use of technology has altered people’s attention spans.In this UCI Podcast, Mark explains different types of attention and various myths about it. She also offers suggestions on how to find better balance, which could lead to improved productivity and well-being. This episode of the UCI Podcast was recorded in the podcast studio in the ANTrepreneur Center. Music for this episode of the UCI Podcast, titled “Socialite Mugshot,” provided by Verified Picasso via the Audio Library in YouTube Studio.
Arash Kheradvar, UC Irvine professor of biomedical engineering, is co-principal investigator on a project to study congenital heart defects. Part of the National Science Foundation-funded project involved inviting high school students into Dr. Kheradvar's laboratory on the UCI campus. The students got first-hand exposure to cardiovascular research activities, experts in the field and the latest medical research technologies. The outcome was a group of students well-prepared to pursue their further education in biomedical engineering.
With the 53rd annual Earth Week set to begin on Monday, April 17, we’ll ask one of UCI’s strongest student advocates for sustainability - UC Climate Action Fellow Joy Seo - to share what the concept means, how it shaped her future and for actions we can all take to better care of Earth and each other.This episode of the UCI Podcast was recorded in the podcast studio in the ANTrepreneur Center. Music for this episode of the UCI Podcast, titled “A Long Cold,” provided by Riot via the Audio Library in YouTube Studio.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, we’re going to dive into undergraduate admissions and discuss what the process is once offers of admissions go out and how a waitlist works. Joining Sheri Ledbetter is Dale Leaman, the executive director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Leaman brings an extensive background to higher education with 27 total years with the University of California and the last 10 with UCI. He’s been the executive director of undergraduate admissions for the past four years.This episode of the UCI Podcast was recorded in the podcast studio in the ANTrepreneur Center. Music for this episode of the UCI Podcast, titled "Building Blocks," provided by Nate Blaze via the Audio Library in YouTube Studio.
As March Madness in college basketball begins this week, it’s a great time to talk with Victoria E. Johnson, UCI professor of film and media studies and African American studies and the author of the recently-published Sports TV, an introductory guide to the history of sports television in the United States. What are some of the biggest transformations sports TV has experienced in the decades that it transitioned from the classic network era to the multichannel network era to its current state of streaming TV? How has the expansion of viewing opportunities affected sports coverage? Which production changes and new technologies worked well and what might fans expect to see in the future? Music for this episode of the UCI Podcast, titled “Airborne,” provided by Quincas Moreira via the Audio Library in YouTube Studio.
In this episode of the Anteater Insider, vice provost for enrollment management, Patricia Morales, and director of undergraduate advising for social ecology, Danielle Primavera, discuss how they collaborate on lifting the student experience to meet students where they are in their academic journey. Together, they reflect on how their partnership is helping advisors to navigate a successful path to graduation for social ecology students.
Brett Sanders, UC Irvine professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been focusing his research efforts on understanding flood risk in Southern California, with a significant emphasis on the impact of climate change-caused sea level rise on coastal communities. Lately he has been examining flood risk to populations living further inland, in many cases affecting people of lower socioeconomic status. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Professor Sanders talks about his research and its relevance in this season of substantial rain and snowfall in the U.S. West.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, we’re going to dive into the applications process with an insight into undergraduate admissions. Joining Sheri Ledbetter is Dale Leaman, the executive director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Leaman brings an extensive background to higher education with 27 total years with the University of California and the last 10 with UCI. He's been the executive director of undergraduate admissions for the past four years.
If you haven’t heard, there’s been big news recently about Alzheimer’s disease. Over the past year, the Food and Drug Administration has approved two new treatments that may slow the cognitive decline in people with dementia, and studies are under way to see if these treatments possibly delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. To help us understand these developments, Dr. Joshua Grill is joining the UCI Podcast. Dr. Grill is the director of the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders at UCI, better known as UCI MIND.
What are the major conversations happening around education right now, and why is research significant in these conversations? How will technology continue to shape the future of education? What is it going to take for teachers to feel supported in their craft? How do today’s students differ from those of past generations? These are some of the many questions we pose to Frances Contreras, dean of UCI’s School of Education, in the latest episode of the UCI Podcast.Music for this episode of the UCI Podcast, titled “When We Found the Horizon,” provided by Late Night Feeler via the Audio Library in YouTube Studio.
In February of 1978, the University of California, Irvine named Linda Dempsay as its director of athletics – the first woman ever to lead an NCAA Division I athletic program. At the time, she was only 39 years old.Now Dempsay is 84 years old. Host Cara Capuano met Dempsay during a session of Rams Training Camp on campus and talked her into sharing her experiences with the UCI Podcast. In this episode, Dempsay reflects on her time leading Anteaters athletics in those early days of UCI’s existence and the incredible changes she has seen in collegiate athletics – and the world - over the course of her life.Music for this episode of the UCI Podcast, titled “First Time Experience,” provided by Nate Blaze via the Audio Library in YouTube Studio.
Tiffany López joined the Claire Trevor School of the Arts on July 1, and she has spent the past whirlwind four months learning about her school and developing a new vision for it. And she’s now on the UCI Podcast to tell us about it … and much more – like the importance of the arts in higher education, the need for diversity, and why it’s necessary to invest into arts and music education for economically disadvantaged students in California’s public schools. Plus, she shares her own amazing story.
The Latinx Resource Center opened in late 2019, and quickly moved to virtual because of the pandemic, so not many were familiar with one of UCI's newest centers. With UCI as a Hispanic-Serving Institution for five years, with a steady growth in UCI's Latino student population over the past decade – not to mention throughout the state of California – the time was right to dedicate a center where students can build community, while accessing programs and resources that celebrate their heritage. On the UCI Podcast, Latinx Resource Center director adelí durón shares insights into how students can effectively use and engage with the center, as well as shares some big plans for the future.
Program director Dr. Charles Vega and 2016graduate Dr. Michelle Crespo join the UCI Podcast to talk about the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community’s vast influence on improving healthcare in California and on UC Irvine's status as an Hispanic-Serving Institution.
In 1992, the University of California Regents formally approved UCI's School of Social Ecology - the first of its kind in the U.S. But what, exactly, is social ecology? To answer that question, we welcome Jon B. Gould, Dean of the School of Social Ecology, to the UCI Podcast. Gould breaks down what is being done in his school’s three departments, how their groups are collaborate on programs to solve social problems in the community, and why social ecology Anteaters can see how they can affect change before they even graduate.
James Bullock, dean of UCI's School of Physical Sciences, was one of the earliest proponents of a multidisciplinary initiative called Solutions That Scale. The project was created to bring researchers from nearly every academic unit on campus together to come up with ways to mitigate the effects of climate change. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Dean Bullock discusses the origin of Solutions That Scale, what its researchers are doing now, and what they plan to do in the future.
With the inflation up and the GNP and stock prices down, UCI economist Eric Swanson explains that there’s nothing yet to fear … at least for now.
On June 23, 2022, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Cara Capuano talks to the co-authors of the first biography of longtime Congresswoman and Title IX pioneer Patsy Mink - UCI professor Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn “Wendy” Mink, Patsy’s daughter and only child. They discuss the book’s unique structure, the inspiration for Title IX, the challenges to get it passed into law, and what’s next for the landmark legislation.
In honor of Juneteenth, the UCI Podcast is bringing back a June 2020 podcast with Jessica Millward, an associate professor of African American studies and history at UCI. Here, Millward discusses this important day in the context of the thousands of Black Lives Matter rallies across the world protesting the police murder of George Floyd.
Jonathan Alexander says he has been “privileged to be a writing teacher for a very long time.” He always tells his students to be honest and frank - and found the process of writing his latest book with that advice in mind liberating. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, the Chancellor’s Professor of English and informatics talks with Cara Capuano about the genre of creative nonfiction and the role each book in The Creep Trilogy held on his personal journey, with a special focus on the latest installment, Dear Queer Self: An Experiment in Memoir. He also shares advice for others who may find themselves on the outside looking in, and details why he finds Pride Month both aspirational and hopeful.
How does nursing intersect with philosophy? What are some of the tools in a philosopher’s toolbox that would serve a nurse? What changes can be made to the language of health care to make it more understandable for a larger audience? These are some of the questions Cara Capuano asks of Mark Lazenby and Tyrus Miller, deans of two schools with disciplines very attuned to people – nursing and humanities – in this edition of the UCI Podcast.
With recent announcements of Native Americans eligible to have their UC tuition waived beginning this fall and adding Native Hawaiians to the heritage month that historically honored Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, we checked in with Assistant Professor Na'puti in the Department of Global and International Studies to help break down these massive identify groups and their cultures. Broadcasting from the island of Guam, Na'puti shares about her work with indigenous populations in the Pacific Islands and how that translates to better understanding of global indigeneity.
Professor Iryna Zenyuk, associate director of UCI's National Fuel Cell Research Center, was born in Ukraine and lived there until age 15. As an academic, she felt duty bound to help her fellow Ukrainian researchers when Russia invaded her home country earlier this year. Through the Ukraine Relief Fund she helped launch at UCI, Zenyuk is raising money to help Ukrainian academics come to the United States to work while the war rages on in Central Europe. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Prof. Zenyuk provides an update on the Ukdraine Relief Fund.
UCI Law professor David Kaye discusses Musk's controversial buyout of the social media giant and the human rights issues related to online speech.
Eric Rignot, UCI professor of Earth system science, recently concluded a six-year, NASA-funded project to study the impact of warming ocean water on Greenland's land ice. The Oceans Melting Greenland, or OMG, mission resulted in much more precise knowledge about the dynamics of rapid ice sheet deterioration in Greenland and other polar regions.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, UCI’s director of intercollegiate athletics Paula Smith talks sports with Cara Capuano, and among the topics they discuss: Title IX, a groundbreaking federal civil rights law passed on June 23, 1972, that prohibits gender discrimination in educational programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Approaching its 50-year anniversary, the historic legislation has positively impacted the lives of women and provided a pathway in their continued pursuit of achieving gender equity in all facets of life, including collegiate athletics.
When people are getting together with loved ones over the holidays, how do they prepare themselves for interacting with a relative who has dementia resulting from Alzheimer's disease or another neurological condition? In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Frank LaFerla, Chancellor's Professor and dean of the School of Biological Sciences, has some advice to share with people coping with this situation.
Magnus Egerstedt, dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, has a new book out. Titled "Robot Ecology: Constraint-Based Design for Long-Duration Autonomy," the book explores the field of slow-moving robots. Used for tasks in agriculture and environmental and climate monitoring, these robots are specially designed to withstand long deployments without human intervention.
Tom Andriola, vice chancellor for information, technology and data at the University of California, Irvine joins UCI Podcast correspondent Sheri Ledbetter to discuss new ways of thinking about all the data we have access to and how "collaboratories" can help us put data to work.
Science and policy are frequently disconnected. Though scientists urged policymakers at the COP 26 climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland to drastically reduce emission of carbon dioxide, the pledges that resulted won’t do enough to stave off the most dire effects of climate change. And that’s just the latest example.
But a UCI professor is seeking to bring science into the policymaking process through a fellowship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Ann Marie, Carlton, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at UCI who recently began the Roger Revelle Fellowship in Global Stewardship, discusses why it’s difficult to ensure science informs policy, what she’s aiming to accomplish during her fellowship and how curiosity can help us all think more like scientists.
With a bird's eye view of the UCI student body, enrollment management is in the unique position to see into the future. This ability to identify trends enables the division - which includes undergraduate admissions, financial aid and scholarships, registrar, and enrollment management analytics - to engage with campus partners and create the environment that best meets the needs of our students and advances the campus’ mission. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management Patty Morales breaks down just how her division helps to position UCI as a future ready campus that produces future ready students.
The cleanup of the oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach earlier this month is essentially complete, but responsibility for the spill of up to 131,000 gallons has yet to be assigned. In the coming months, and possibly years, it will be the legal system that determines liability — and damages.
Michael Robinson-Dorn, a clinical professor of law, co-associate dean for experiential education at the law school and director of UCI’s Environmental Law Clinic, joins the UCI Podcast to discuss how this spill compares to past ones, why simply shutting down offshore drilling is more challenging than it may seem and how society’s values will shape the future of oil drilling in California.
As COVID-19 patients are isolated in hospital rooms trying to stay alive, nurses are the ones serving every role, from caretaker to chaplain to stand-in loved one. And when those patients die, nurses take that pain of loss upon themselves. The trauma is heaping up.
But it doesn’t have to be this way, says Candace Burton, an associate professor of nursing at UCI who is conducting a study about nurses’ experiences during the pandemic by interviewing them. Nurses are confronting both a deadly disease and a culture that refuses to take it seriously. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Professor Burton shares what nurses are telling her, why reforms in the nursing profession are needed, and how everyone can help prevent more of this trauma.
Latino people from all 50 states shape American culture and politics, but despite their diversity, they are too often viewed as belonging to a single category. That diversity appears across the U.S.: In New Mexico, where hispanos have deep connections to Spanish culture; in South Texas, where some Mexican-Americans express disdain for the country just a few miles south; in Miami, where cubanos differentiate themselves from Hispanics; and in New York City, where Puerto Rican immigrants have been linked with with the local Black community.
This Hispanic Heritage Month, Héctor Tobar, an associate professor of literary journalism and Chicano/Latino studies at UCI, joins the UCI Podcast to discuss the origins of the term “Latino,” the various Latinx cultures he encountered during a road trip across America for a story he published in Harper's Magazine, and how the lives of all Latinx people are influenced by U.S. imperialism.
Launched last year in response to the killing of George Floyd, UCI's Black Thriving Initiative is a whole university response aimed at mobilizing the whole university to promote Black student success, degree completion and advancement in academic programs, with a goal of making UCI a first choice for Black students.
As part of the UCI Black Thriving Initiative, the program has continued to prioritize hiring faculty and staff who are paving new paths for research and creative expression, teaching and learning, and community engagement; generating interdisciplinary collaboration; and manifesting UCI's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. UCI has announced hiring initiatives such as the Inclusive Excellence Term Chair Program and the inaugural UCI Black Thriving Initiative Faculty Hiring Program, which has recently announced funding for a proposal focused on environmental health disparities. In this episode of the UCI Podcast Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Doug Haynes reflects on the accomplishments made over the last year and shares plans for year two and beyond.
Water was never abundant in California, and the state has gone to great lengths to engineer a landscape where millions of people can live. As climate change grows more severe, it is only going to be more challenging to meet the water needs of city dwellers, farmers and nature.
But certain technologies and policy changes offer hope. California can recycle wastewater, capture stormwater and desalinate seawater, and policymakers can rethink water management. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, David Feldman, a professor of urban planning and public policy and the director of Water UCI discusses the options for overcoming worsening droughts, including the most important change of all.
The line between a misdemeanor and a felony is thin, and the teenagers who cross it bear a scarlet letter for the rest of their lives — long after they’ve grown into more mature people. Even though the science on emotional and mental development suggests that a 19 year old is fundamentally different from 30 year old, the justice system treats them the same.
That’s why Elizabeth Cauffman, a UCI professor of psychological science, has worked hard alongside partners in the Orange County court system and Orange County jails to develop programs that hold young convicts accountable, while also allowing them to reclaim their futures. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Professor Cauffman discusses the research on young adult maturation, how these programs were established and why scientific partnerships with the community are so important.
The financial uncertainty, chaotic scheduling demands and fear of illness and death during the COVID-19 pandemic have all caused stressors to multiply. And the weight of the last year and a half has fallen especially hard on women and people of color, who have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s worst effects.
But has the pandemic caused a mental health crisis, with corresponding increases in anxiety and depression?
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Tim Bruckner, a professor of public health at UCI, discusses whether the predictions of a follow-on mental health pandemic have come true, how women’s careers have been affected by the pandemic and how equity has been incorporated into California’s public health response.
In Santa Ana, lead contamination in the soil has driven residents to organize and advocate for environmental justice. Researchers from UCI are working with them to assess the severity of the problem and identify solutions. Though lead contamination is frequently blamed on lead-based paint, a UCI historian’s research suggests another factor may be to blame.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Juan Manuel Rubio, a Mellon Humanities Faculty Fellow in the School of Humanities at UCI, discusses his historical research into the source of the lead contamination in Santa Ana, why historians should partner with scientists and how historical analysis can contribute to identifying systemic solutions.
It sounds too crazy to be true: Corporations and scientists using sounds and smells to influence people’s dreams. But targeted dream incubation is not limited to the realm of science fiction. Scientists use the method to help patients overcome addictions such as smoking, and corporations have launched advertising campaigns that encourage willing participants to participate in having their dreams shaped.
Sara Mednick, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at UCI, is worried about the potential misuse of dream incubation and recently joined about 40 other sleep and dream scientists in signing an open letter voicing their concerns. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Professor Mednick discusses how dream incubation works, and how sleep keeps people healthy.
The cost of commuting drops dramatically when you’re only walking a few feet from the bedroom to the home office. Such savings in time and money have prompted many people to take their work-from-home flexibility and relocate to cheaper, more spacious homes farther away from the city centers where their jobs may have been based in the past. This pandemic-induced movement has, in turn, disrupted housing markets across the country, with prices rising in some cities and falling in others.
Jan Brueckner, a distinguished professor of economics at UCI, recently conducted an economic analysis of the effects of work from home policies on housing markets. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Brueckner discusses the forces that traditionally shape housing markets, why work from home has been so disruptive, and why these corporate policies might lead to more suburban sprawl.
Cultivating core intellectual virtues can help anyone — not just college students — develop habits of mind that enable them to act with empathy in a chaotic world and to decipher the truth in an internet landscape littered with misinformation. At UCI, students can hone these virtues through the Anteater Virtues Project, an online course created by Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Duncan Pritchard.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Professor Pritchard discusses the benefits of inculcating these four intellectual virtues, and how they can even help students succeed academically, regardless of what they’re studying.
About 39 percent of UCI’s total student population identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander. This episode of the UCI Podcast explores the meaning behind UCI’s federal designation as an Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander Serving Institution, commonly referred to as “AANAPISI.” UCI's ANNAPISI status is fairly unique among the UC campuses and members of the Association of American Universities (AAU). Dr. Joseph Morales, the associate director of strategic initiatives and partnerships in the Office of Inclusive Excellence discusses this federal designation and what it means for UCI and for students.
Concerned about the safety. Complacent about the risks. Unable to find the time.
Different people give different reasons for hesitating to get a vaccine — whether for COVID-19 or another disease. But for the coronavirus pandemic to end and social life to fully resume, a vast majority of people need to roll up their sleeves and get the shot.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Suellen Hopfer, an assistant professor of public health at UCI, rebuts the five most common reasons for vaccine hesitancy, and discusses what her surveys of Orange County parents and students reveal about local attitudes to the COVID-19 vaccine.
The past year — with the pandemic, police violence and political unrest — hasn’t been easy for anyone, especially college students. This month is mental health awareness month, and UCI is spotlighting the resources available to assist students with their mental health. The most important thing to know? You’re not alone.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Dr. Marcelle Hayashida, the associate vice chancellor for wellness, health and counseling services at UCI, discusses the signs that indicate you might need a mental health checkup, the resources students can tap for help and why openness and honesty about your struggles can help both you and others.
The COVID-19 vaccine is now available to everyone in California 16 years of age and older, but actually getting the shot is another matter. Navigating appointment systems and finding time to receive both doses can be challenging. That’s why UCI is assisting students, staff and faculty with scheduling vaccine appointments. Because vaccination is how UCI will be able to have a fall quarter that resembles the pre-pandemic college experience.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, David Souleles, the director of UCI’s COVID-19 response team, discusses how vaccination benefits both the individual and the community at large, what the proposed vaccine mandate from the University of California Office of the President means, and how members of the UCI community can get help in getting the shot.
Environmental justice advocates in California have fought for years against landfills, refineries and other polluting facilities in their neighborhoods. They insist that a progressive environmental agenda can’t tackle crucial environmental issues such as climate change from a purely global perspective; the local impacts matter, too. They say that regulators and politicians need to craft environmental policy with an eye toward reversing the discrimination and racism that have long affected low-income communities of color.
Michael Méndez, an assistant professor of urban planning and public policy, documents some of the crucial years of the environmental justice movement in California from 2006 to the present in his book “Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement.” The book recently won the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award, sponsored by the International Studies Association (ISA).
On this episode of the UCI Podcast, Professor Méndez talks about California’s leading role in the environmental justice movement, what he believes are the flaws of California’s cap and trade carbon emissions reduction system, and why the Green New Deal isn’t really that new.
Rain is scarce in much of California, and most of California’s people live in water-starved regions. And yet the state is, by some measures, the fifth largest economy in the world. How? Because during the last century, California has built a complex network of dams, pumps and canals to transport water from where it falls naturally to where people live.
But climate change threatens to upend the delicate system that keeps farm fields green and household taps flowing.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Nicola Ulibarri, an assistant professor of urban planning and public policy who is an expert on water resource management, discusses how droughts and floods have shaped California’s approach to water, what policy changes resulted from the record-breaking drought of 2011-16, and how better groundwater management might offer a solution for the future.
Tired of talking about COVID-19? We are, so as we approach the one-year anniversary of California’s shutdown, we are taking a break.
On this special episode of the UCI Podcast, Infectious Disease Specialist Daniel Parker and Communications Officer Nicole Feldman take you on a tour of Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand. They talk about Parker’s work with diseases that affect millions of people each year but are rarely discussed in the United States.
In this episode: Daniel Parker, assistant professor of public health at UCI School of Public Health
Half a million people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. and countless millions have contracted the virus. Doctors have been concerned, first, with preventing death. But another threat is becoming clear: long-term neurological consequences such as brain fog, depression and anxiety.
Tom Lane, a Chancellor’s professor of neurobiology and behavior at UCI, has studied how coronaviruses neurologically affect mice for the last two decades. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Professor Lane discusses COVID-19 long haulers, his current research using mice to look at COVID-19’s impact on the brain, and how people can prevent the disease’s neurological repercussions.
Many students in California have barely seen the inside of a classroom in person since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly a year ago. In that time, low-income students and families in low-income school districts have suffered the most.
With more and more people receiving vaccines, the end of remote learning is in sight. But schools will still need to implement COVID-19 mitigation strategies, according to doctors from UCI Health. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Dr. Dan Cooper and Dr. Chulie Ulloa discuss school reopenings and the impact of distance learning on children.
For people who are incarcerated, college can change their life: The likelihood that they will wind up back in prison after they’re released drops dramatically when they earn their degree. This lower recidivism rate benefits both them as individuals and society as a whole.
To help people in prison along the college pathway, UCI has launched a new initiative called LIFTED, which stands for Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees. People in prison who are working on their associates degree in sociology at Southwestern College can use an existing program open to community college students to transfer to UCI and earn their bachelor's degree.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, LIFTED Director Keramet Reiter, who is an associate professor of criminology, law and society at UCI, talks about how college changes the lives of people in prison.
Wind and solar energy, necessary as they are to reversing climate change, won’t be enough for society to completely wean itself from fossil fuels. Something else is needed for particularly energy-intensive sectors such as heavy duty trucking and to replace ubiquitous natural gas appliances.
Enter hydrogen.
Clean hydrogen fuel will be a crucial part of the renewable energy mix going forward, according to Jack Brouwer, a UCI professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and the director of both the National Fuel Cell Research Center and the Advanced Power and Energy Program. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Brouwer discusses the unique advantages of hydrogen and why he believes it will soon be cheaper than gasoline.
It takes gumption to run for political office — especially when you’re just 24 years old. But that’s exactly what UCI PhD student Dylan Green did last year when he registered his candidacy for Irvine City Council and then took on the challenge of campaigning during the pandemic.
Green earned his bachelor's degree at UCI and is now studying the origin of the universe in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, using machine learning on images to filter out pixels corrupted by cosmic rays. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, he discusses what he learned about running for office and why he thinks more scientists and young people should get involved in politics.
Few elements of society suffered as much as live music and theater productions when COVID-19 struck. At the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts, a whole season’s worth of scheduled productions went out the window as performers and professors adapted to an online-only reality. But while in-person performances are impossible, the need for the arts is greater than ever to provide a salve for the crisis.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Dean Stephen Barker discusses how the School of the Arts answered the pandemic, and why the arts have such power to heal.
Clean air standards, water pollution rules and public lands protections have all been scaled back under the Trump administration, which aggressively attacked the administrative state. Under the Biden administration, environmentalists hope to reverse the tide by reviving regulations.
But rolling back the rollbacks won’t be easy. Though the Biden administration may be able to quickly implement executive orders and ramp up environmental enforcement, changes to regulations must go through extensive review processes — that could take years to complete.
Alex Camacho is a Chancellor’s professor of law at UCI and the Faculty Director of the Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources at the UCI Law School, and he studies environmental regulations. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Professor Camacho discusses how regulations are made and unmade, and the ways the Biden administration can advance its environmental agenda.
COVID-19’s disastrous impacts are obvious: a quarter million deaths in the U.S., millions of jobs lost and a financial downturn that prompted a $2 trillion economic stimulus. These impacts are front and center in the public consciousness, especially as people mourn lost loved ones and worry about how lost wages threaten their ability to pay rent.
But what about two, three or four decades down the line? What will be the long-lasting effects of the pandemic on individuals’ health and finances — and the economy as a whole?
Vellore Arthi, an assistant professor of economics at UCI, has examined the long-term health and economic consequences of previous pandemics and financial crises, including the Black Death of the 14th century, the 1918 influenza pandemic and the Great Depression of the 1930s. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Arthi discusses what these previous pandemics and downturns can teach us about today’s crisis — and how we can prevent the worst results.
Burnout and stress have been on the rise among medical students for years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse. Helping their fellow medical students cope inspired UCI's Ajay Nair Sharma and Daniel Azzam to publish Diary of a Med Student, a book that collects stories from 100+ students from over 50 medical schools across the country. Some are heart-wrenching, some uplifting, and some good for a chuckle, but all stories paint a picture of what life is like in medical school today.
Learn more about the book, and read an excerpt: https://news.uci.edu/2020/12/01/alleviating-med-school-angst.
Dr. José Mayorga has witnessed firsthand the disparate impacts of COVID-19 on different communities in Orange County. As executive director of the Family Health Center, a federally qualified health center that is part of UCI Health, he serves the low-income and Latinx patients who have been disproportionately exposed to the virus.
“These workers are people who are working in food industries, such as fast food places, housekeeping, janitorial services. So they have no choice,” Mayorga says on this episode of the UCI Podcast. “They have to come into work. And, you know, on top of that, they're getting exposed. There’s no ability for them to socially distance in some of these workspaces.”
Virus cases are surging, and local leaders continue to face choices about how to respond. Dr. Mayorga urges decision-makers to consider these most vulnerable communities as they formulate plans and policies.
“This pandemic is impacting every aspect of our community, and it will eventually impact them as well,” Dr. Mayorga says.
A wave of Democratic victories in Orange County during the 2018 midterm election — including four Congressional seats that flipped from red to blue — convinced many that Republicans’ days here were numbered. But this year, the trend reversed, and Republicans reclaimed two of those seats.
Demographic changes in the last few decades have resulted in a political reorienting in Orange County, according to Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science and Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California, Irvine. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, DeSipio talks about how the mixed results of the last few years demonstrate Orange County’s purple identity — and the reasons behind it. He also discusses national voting trends this year among Latino voters, and offers some predictions for how President-elect Joe Biden will address social justice issues such as immigration.
Andrew Noymer is an associate professor of public health at UCI, and he’s an expert on public health responses to pandemics like COVID-19 and their long-term consequences. In this special UCI Podcast, he discusses what we’ve learned over the last eight months of the pandemic and what we can expect next with the novel coronavirus. For instance, we need to be prepared for a harsh winter with a surge of infections. Also, he talks about the impact a vaccine can make for having the general population reach herd immunity levels, and our realistic future living with a virus that won’t be going away anytime soon. And don’t forget, wearing a face covering works.
With a student resident population of 7,000 for Fall Quarter, UCI embarked on an ambitious combined effort to help slow the spread of coronavirus on campus: weekly asymptomatic testing for resident students, and a contact tracing program unique to the UCI community. Dr. Albert Chang, the Medical Director of the UCI Student Health Center; and David Souleles, the Director of UCI’s COVID-19 Response Team, together join the UCI Podcast to discuss these two programs and how the two initiatives work together to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The nature of political partisanship has metastasized in recent years, and the consequences are on full display this election season. According to Pete Ditto, a UCI professor of psychological science and expert on political partisanship, what used to be disagreements about the best way to solve common problems have morphed into a conflict that more closely resembles religious sectarianism. As voters head to the polls, Ditto joins the UCI Podcast to discuss why the two sides are so far apart and how everyone can remain level-headed in these tense times.
The clouds of misinformation swirling on the internet have only thickened this election season, with unfounded allegations of rampant voter fraud and online conspiracy theories that severely strain credulity. To learn more, the UCI Podcast spoke with Cailin O’Connor, an associate professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at UCI, is an expert on misinformation, and, along with fellow UCI professor James Weatherall, the co-author of the book, The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread (2019). In this interview, O’Connor discusses the most consequential pieces of misinformation this election season and the ways people can slow their spread.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley’s parents didn’t go to college, but today the UCI graduate (BA ‘96, MBA ‘99) leads the largest higher education system in the country. As chancellor of the California Community Colleges, Oakley oversees 116 campuses across the state that educate 2.1 million students, while he also serves on the University of California Board of Regents. Oakley's story demonstrates the capacity of UCI — and the California Community Colleges system — to elevate first generation college students to remarkable heights. In this interview with the UCI Podcast Oakley discusses his journey to UCI, the challenges the California Community Colleges faced in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and the opportunities for using technology to increase college access for students. Plus, he shares tips for first generation students navigating their own college journeys.
UCI is the #1 university doing the most for the American Dream, according to the New York Times’ College Access Index, and has been designated a Hispanic Serving Institution.
With just weeks to go before the election, the Senate has launched confirmation hearings for President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Conservatives have praised her judicial approach, while liberals are worried that she could contribute to undoing the gains they’ve made on social issues in recent decades — and especially on women’s reproductive rights. The one thing both sides seem to agree on is that at stake are some of the most contentious cultural issues of this era.
On this episode of the UCI Podcast, Michele Goodwin, a Chancellor’s professor of law at UCI, discusses how Judge Barrett, if confirmed, could affect the Supreme Court.
What is the Federal Reserve? What does it do? When is debt not a bad thing? Is a universal basic income economically sustainable? Why would you take financial advice from philosopher? Aaron James, UCI professor of philosophy works at the intersection of economics and political philosophy and is co-author of a new book, “Money from Nothing: Or, Why We Should Stop Worrying About Debt and Learn to Love the Federal Reserve,” published by Melville House. He answers those questions and more in this conversation with UCI Podcast.
The possible scenarios for election night and the days after multiply like a many-branched tree: What if one candidate claims victory even as mail-in ballots continue to be counted? What if states end up sending competing slates of electors to Congress? What if no winner is determined before January 20?
Rick Hasen, a Chancellor's professor of law and political science at UCI, views himself as the nuclear engineer examining the small risks of a total election meltdown. In fact, Hasen, who is also a CNN election law analyst, wrote the book on it: “Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy” (2020).
Hasen spoke with the UCI Podcast about the risks of election meltdown, how particularly close elections have unfolded before (such as the 2000 election), why there is a low risk of voter fraud, and what voters can do to make sure their vote is counted.
Note: This episode of the UCI Podcast was recorded before reports emerged that President Trump tested positive for COVID-19.
The pandemic-induced pivot to remote instruction has made digital learning the most important issue in education today, for students from pre-K to Ph.D. In 2015, the UCI Paul Merage School of Business launched an in-house Digital Learning Program that designs, develops and produces meaningful online learning experiences. Here, Program Director Natalie Blair tells UCI Podcast what she recognized five years ago that most of academia missed, what makes this program unique and what she sees for the future of digital learning.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted college education, including the campus experience, how classes are delivered and, crucially, how students even decide to go to college. Constance Iloh, an assistant professor in UCI’s School of Education, has developed a framework to understand people’s college-going trajectories, and she recently earned a grant to examine how the pandemic is affecting the way Black and Latinx students look at college, using her Iloh Model of College-Going Decisions and Trajectories. Iloh speaks with the UCI Podcast about the factors that contribute to a person’s college trajectory, why the concept of “college choice” excludes many people and how her model can help leaders in higher education to provide access to more diverse students.
Since 2011, 13 million Syrians have fled the nation's civil war. Amal Alachkar and her family were among them. Alachkar tells the UCI podcast how she went from establishing Syria's first neuroscience research lab to an associate professor of teaching in pharmaceutical sciences at UCI to helping establish an online master's in pharmacology and working to prevent psychiatric disorders for the children of her fellow refugees.
For more information on Alachkar's work with schizophrenia, autism, and Alzheimer's, visit https://bit.ly/2EQte2S.
The Aug. 28 Black Lives Matters March on Washington D.C. marks three months of nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd. The movement has raised awareness to myriad issues related to racism and inequality, but where does it go now? In this edition of the UCI Podcast, Doug Haynes, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and a professor of history at UCI, offers his perspectives on this pivotal time in U.S. history and discusses what’s happening on campus, such as with the UCI Black Thriving Initiative he’s leading.
Major consumer brands across the country, from Disneyland to Quaker Oats, have announced plans to retire, evolve or review images used for marketing purposes, in response to complaints they perpetuate racial stereotypes. In today’s climate of heightened public awareness of the impact and legacy of images, Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of African American studies and art history at UCI, speaks to the need for comprehensive, widespread change.
The free speech movement was born on college campuses in the 1960s as students protested the Vietnam War and voiced their support for civil rights. But what will happen as the COVID-19 pandemic suppresses in-person campus gatherings, and as discourse increasingly moves online? The University of California's National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement was formed in 2017 to foster dialogue about these kinds of free speech issues, and it's housed at UC’s Washington, D.C. location. UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman is the co-chair and Executive Director Michelle Deutchman is based here at UCI. The UCI Podcast spoke with her to get her take on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting campus free speech.
UCI is writing the prescription that will reshape healthcare for the 21st century. Last week, the University of California Board of Regents approved the establishment of a new school of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCI. As part of the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, the school will approach patient health holistically, conducting research and educating students on the entire continuum from drug discovery to clinical practice. On this episode of the UCI Podcast, founding dean Jan Hirsch discusses what differentiates the new school and how it will help solve healthcare's $528.4 billion problem.
The COVID-19 crisis has intertwined economics and public health into a single issue, creating a collective action problem. Eric Spangenberg, dean of The UCI Paul Merage School of Business and consumer behavior expert, joins the UCI Podcast to share his insights into the relationship between community action and keeping Orange County safely and successfully open for business during the pandemic.
In fiscal 2019-20, which ended on June 30, UCI researchers receive the most funding and campus history with $529 million in grants and contracts. Leading the effort to keep UCI’s researchers well-funded is Pramod Khargonekar, the vice chancellor of research. He joins the UCI Podcast to describe how the campus has become a research powerhouse.
Major portions of society are continuing to open back up in Orange County, even as some restrictions return amidst surging coronavirus cases in California. In the spring, Orange County managed to flatten the COVID-19 curve, and even served as an exemplary model for other cities around the nation. Now, the question is whether Orange County can do the same thing again. Bernadette Boden-Albala, dean of UCI’s Program in Public Health, argues that Orange County needs to pursue harm reduction by remaining dedicated to the most effective methods of preventing the spread of the virus, while also protecting our own mental health.
The protests over George Floyd’s death and the wider activism seeking to end police brutality and fight anti-Black racism are swiftly reshaping political discourse. With the elections in November, the question is whether the energy and anger of this moment will lead to lasting political change. Davin Phoenix, an associate professor of political science at UCI, is an expert on the role that anger and race play in politics. In his research, and his book “The Anger Gap: How Race Shapes Emotion in Politics,” Phoenix finds that anger benefits some groups more than others. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Phoenix discusses the protests and their potential influence on the November elections. “Black people have the underlying sense that the system itself isn’t actually just,” Phoenix says. “So they can react to some of these threats not with indignation that fires up that political response, but with that sense of resignation. Been there, done that. We’ve been here before; we’ll be here again.”
Melissa King, a UCI alumna who earned her BS in cognitive science in 2005, won Top Chef: All-Stars L.A., the 17th season of the show. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, King dishes on the final moments of the show and her unique California-Asian culinary style. She also shares tips for college students cooking in their dorms — and offers advice for young people today who admire her achievements as an Asian American queer woman.
When Russ Dalton's mother Sandy passed away in 2018, his sister Janet found a trove of letters their father Bob, a soldier in Patton's Third Army, had sent during his deployment to Germany. Earlier this year, Russ and Janet published a book, "Love Letters from World War II: Robert W. Dalton's WW II Service" that is an assembly of some of their dad's letters and photos. It offers a first-person account of an average GI's war experience and an intimate glimpse into the lives of two members of the Greatest Generation. Russ, a UCI political science research professor, tells the UCI podcast how that war affected family relations and touched all of their lives.
The coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of winter and spring sports tournaments around the country, cutting short student athletes' seasons. Since then, UCI's student athletes have found innovative ways to stay in shape and keep team camaraderie strong. Paula Smith, UCI's director of intercollegiate athletics, tells the Anteater Insider how UCI Athletics is creating and implementing plans to safely bring back sports for the fall.
What’s it like to be on the front lines of the largest human health crises in more than a century? Dr. Chris Fox can tell you. He’s the chair of emergency medicine at UCI, and he helps oversee the best-equipped and one of the biggest emergency rooms in Orange County. The ER has become the epicenter of U.S. medicine, and in Orange County, that epicenter is at the UCI Medical Center, where more than 50,000 people per year receive immediate trauma care. But the COVID-19 pandemic has considerably impacted how the UCI ER operates and the type of treatments it provides. Dr. Fox joins the UCI Podcast to describe to toll COVID-19 is taking on the ER these days.
June 19 — Juneteenth — marks the day in 1865 that the Union Army announced in Texas that the African American slaves were free. Since then, black Americans have honored the day, even as it has gone unnoticed by many others. But in 2020, with protesters filling the streets over the death of George Floyd, what is there to celebrate? Jessica Millward, an associate professor of history at UCI, tells the UCI Podcast about the history behind Juneteenth, the decades upon decades of continued struggle, and the hope she feels in this moment.
Can coronavirus be spread with the flush of a toilet? Can it be detected in municipal waste water treatment facilities? Sunny Jiang, professor and chair in UCI's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, is working two simultaneous projects to answer these questions, which she discusses in this episode of the UCI Podcast.
Melissa Mazmanian, UCI associate professor of informatics, is an author of a new book titled "Dreams of the Overworked: Living, Working & Parenting in the Digital Age," published by Stanford University Press. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, the professor, who holds appointments in the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences and the Paul Merage School of Business, discusses what she went through to write the book and how it relates to our lives in this time of global pandemic.
This August, 12 black first-year medical school students will arrive at UCI — the most ever. What prompted that record-setting achievement? Much of the credit goes to a growing program at the School of Medicine called LEAD-ABC, which recruits top-level black medical school students and allies who are dedicated to working with those communities to pursue their degrees at UCI. LEAD stands for Leadership Education to Advance Diversity, and ABC stands for African, Black and Caribbean. In today’s episode of the UCI Podcast, Dr. Carol Major, who is the co-director of the LEAD-ABC program and the assistant dean for student inclusive excellence and a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and Kaosoluchi Enendu, who is a current UCI School of Medicine student in the class of 2021, discuss the origins of the LEAD-ABC program and the success it has already achieved.
Rick Coulon, UCI's associate vice chancellor for operations, has been putting a lot of thought and planning into the upcoming resumption of closer-to-full-scale activities on campus following the months' long curtailment to prevent the spread of coronavirus. He discusses the steps he and his colleagues are taking to prepare in this episode of Anteater Insider.
Technology has played a crucial role in UCI’s ability to shift to remote work, instruction and even patient care. As UCI starts to reengage operations, the campus has an opportunity to develop a new normal around technology. Tom Andriola is vice chancellor of information technology and data at UCI and he tells the Anteater Insider about the rapid transition to off-campus operations, the sheer scale of the change and how UCI can reimagine technology.
Interim provost and executive vice chancellor Hal Stern is leading UCI’s plan to re-engage with campus operations after a state-wide, stay-at-home order was issued in March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Anteater Insider podcast, he describes this methodical re-engagement approach, which started last week with the resumption of some research functions. It and it will continue over the summer to allow for essential employees to resume to on-campus work activities. By fall, the plan is to have the campus bustling with activity once again – this time with the expectations of frequent handwashing, the wearing of facial coverings and physical distancing. Welcome to the new normal.
UCI is reengaging operations and more people are getting ready to come back to campus, with university leaders generating plans and implementing measures to ensure a smooth, safe transition. Bernadette Boden-Albala, the director and founding dean of UCI’s Program in Public Health, talks with the Anteater Insider about those plans, where Orange County stands on COVID-19, and why it’s safe to return to campus.
Pramod Khargonekar, UCI's vice chancellor for research, is the first guest on Anteater Insider, a new podcast series from UCI's office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs. The vice chancellor discusses the plans and procedures UCI has put in place to enable increasing numbers of researchers to come back to campus, when necessary, to do their work.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Alison Holman, an associate professor at UCI’s Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, speaks with UCI's Aaron Orlowski about the different ways the coronavirus pandemic has affected our ability to keep track of time. An expert in trauma, Holman says the COVID-19 crisis has stripped us of our expected futures, unmooring us.
In this special edition of the UCI Podcast, infectious disease experts Drs. Ming Tan and Saahir Khan of the UCI School of Medicine examine the past, present and future of global pandemics, and where we stand as the global community works to solve the coronavirus riddle and the deadly COVID-19 disease it causes.
In March, the UCI Medical Center became the first hospital in Orange County to provide COVID-19 testing. Dr. Ed Monuki, chair of pathology who leads UCI Health’s testing efforts, discusses how the campus came together to address this community need and how future testing for the coronavirus and its antibodies will play an important role with the resumption of our regular daily activities, like going back to work or the classroom.
If you were to point on a U.S. map where COVID-19 has hit the hardest, it would be New York City. And that’s where Dr. Robert Rowe, a critical care fellow and attending physician in emergency medicine with UCI Health, volunteered in the intensive care unit at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. The Elmhurst neighborhood has been called the “epicenter of the epicenter” of coronavirus infections in the United States. Dr. Rowe joins the UCI Podcast to discuss working 12-hour shifts for a week straight seeing severely ill COVID-19 patients, many of whom died. While COVID-19 cases are proportionately lower in Orange County than in other areas of the U.S., he warns its residents to continue to practice social distancing and other safe behaviors to stem the spread of the disease.
Jesse Borelli is an associate professor of psychological science at UCI, and she studies the links between close relationships, emotions, health and development, with a particular focus on risk for anxiety and depression. In this special UCI Podcast, she discusses how to stay safe and sane during social distancing.
Andrew Noymer is an associate professor of public health at UCI, and he’s an expert on public health responses to pandemics like COVID-19 and their long-term consequences. In this special UCI Podcast, he discusses how and when life will return to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is, social distancing seems to be working. In Orange County, COVID-19 infection rates are lower than predicted … for now. But, he says, don’t expect to return to your normal routines anytime soon. The “new normal,” as many call it, will involve opening up the economy, but social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands repeatedly will remain.
The Confronting Extremism Program in UCI’s Office of Inclusive Excellence has issued a call for proposals to promote understanding about equity in the age of the COVID-19. In addition to bringing to light some of the best qualities of ingenuity and empathy in individuals, the worldwide coronavirus crisis has exposed and exacerbated fault-lines of inequities in society. Douglas Haynes, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion, talks about the call for proposals in this episode of the UCI Podcast with host Sheri Ledbetter from UCI’s Office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs. More information about the project can be found at https://inclusion.uci.edu/.
The entire University of California, Irvine community has taken unprecedented steps to confront the coronavirus pandemic. UCI Health is on the front lines of the crisis response. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, two key members of the UCI Health staff -- Linda Dickie, senior director of quality & patient safety, epidemiology & infection control; and Joe Brothman, director of environmental health & safety -- discuss the measures UCI Health has undergone thus far to prepare for a potential surge in COVID-19 cases and ongoing efforts to keep the community safe and healthy.
With spring break around the corner, it is important to keep in mind best practices for staying well and considering your risk of exposure to the virus through travel activity. As you make plans to travel for spring break, or for other purposes Dr. Bernadette Boden-Albala, dean of UCI’s program in public health, shares some best practices for your safety and well-being while on your trip.
Douglas Haynes, vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion at the University of California, Irvine, joins Sheri Ledbetter on this episode of the UCI Podcast to discuss some of the sensitive cultural and racial aspects of the present time, particularly with regard to the growing awareness of the threat of novel coronavirus.
As medical director of the UCI Student Health Center, Dr. Albert Chang has gotten a lot of questions from UCI students, faculty, and staff about coronavirus. The respiratory infection was first detected in central China recently and has spread to several international locations around the world, including the United States. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Dr. Chang talks with Sheri Ledbetter of UCI's Strategic Communications and Public Affairs about some of the misconceptions around the illness, and offers advice on how members of the UCI campus community can protect their own health.
Stay up to date on coronavirus at https://www.ehs.uci.edu/PublicHealth/coronavirus/faculty_staff-faq.html.
Geoffrey Abbott, professor of physiology & biophysics in the UCI School of Medicine, is the senior author of a study on botanical folk medicines published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He and his colleabues tracked the relationship of the human KCNQ5 potassium channel – known for its regulation of vascular smooth muscle tone – to genetic and culturally diverse herbal remedies traditionally used to reduce blood pressure, such as lavender, fennel seed and chamomile. In this interview with UCI's Lilibeth Garcia, Abbott says the future of medicine may just rest in the molecular secrets of ancient cures.
In mid-December 2019 dozens of UCI faculty researchers, staff scientists and graduate and undergraduate students made the trip from Irvine up to San Francisco to attend the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, a gathering of Earth and space scientists from around the world. The UCI Podcast was there too, and here is our report.
In this year-in-review edition of the UCI Podcast, Chancellor Gillman shares his insights on a brilliant 2019 at the University of California, Irvine. By any measure, it was a great year. The campus became the No. 1 choice for California’s high school graduates, reflecting our commitment to providing access, support and opportunity for all students. In August, Money magazine rated UCI the best college in America, and the Sierra Club magazine chose UCI as the ‘greenest’ school in the U.S. And in athletics, the Anteater men’s basketball team won its first NCAA tournament game ever. To top everything off, UCI kicked off its $2 billion Brilliant Future fundraising campaign, which will pave the way for continued growth in healthcare, research, student achievement and the arts and the humanities. A Brilliant Future, indeed.
Rena Beatrice Goldstein is a graduate student in UCI's Department of Philosophy. She's the driver behind Ask A Philosopher, a program that seeks to engage the public in philosophical thinking and discussion. For this episode of the UCI Podcast, we caught up with Goldstein and colleagues at the Ask A Philosopher pop-up kiosk at the Sit Stay Cafe in Huntington Beach.
Basketball is back at UCI, and that means another season with Big West championships potentially in store for both the men’s and women’s teams. In this edition of the UCI Podcast, Trent Rush – the voice of Anteater basketball – catches up with head coaches Russell Turner and Tamara Inoue. Both are coming off record years. The 2018-19 men’s team was the best in UCI history. It won a record 31 games, the Big West Conference championship and its first NCAA tournament game ever. In addition, the women logged their first 20-win season in more than three decades. This year, both teams are preseason conference favorites and poised to once again contend for NCAA tournament berths next March. Let the excitement begin!
On the latest UCI Podcast, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o – Distinguished Professor of comparative literature and English at UCI – shares the amazing story of his captivity, which led to the writing of his influential novel Devil on the Cross. In 1977, armed police pulled the Kenyan writer from his home and jailed him in one of Africa’s largest maximum-security prisons. His crime? He had written a play about class struggle, poverty and the legacy of colonialism that offended the brutal Kenyan regime. Ngugi was held in a block with 18 other political prisoners and quarantined from the general prison population. To fight back against the humiliation and the intended degradation of the spirit, he chose to write a novel on the only material to which he had access: toilet paper. Ngugi left that prison on Dec. 12, 1978, with streams of paper on which was written one of his most memorable books. Today, Ngugi is considered one of the world’s greatest living writers, and he’s been at UCI since 2002. He has published more than two dozen novels, stories, essays and memoirs, and he remains a strong voice of freedom around the world.
When KUCI first broadcasted in 1969, the counter-culture college radio station brought unplanned, wacky programming to the nation’s largest planned community. This month, the highly admired station turns 50 and can be heard throughout most of Orange County and on the Internet. It’s our place to turn for compelling talk, UCI sports and innovative new music. But some UCI lifers like to recall KUCI’s eccentric past. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, host Tom Vasich talks about KUCI’s rich and eclectic history with its longtime broadcast media coordinator Kevin Stockdale.
James Bullock, UCI professor and chair of physics & astronomy, became dean of the School of Physical Sciences in the summer of 2019, taking over for Kenneth Janda. In this UCI Podcast interview, Bullock talks about the past, present and future of the school, of which he has been a faculty member since 2004.
The University of California, Irvine officially launched its Brilliant Future philanthropic campaign on Oct. 4, 2019, with a goal of raising $2 billion to fund scientific research, provide scholarships for students, advance healthcare innovations, and foster deeper explorations into our shared human experience.
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, host Tom Vasich delves into the campaign with one of its behind-the-scenes leaders, Karen Isble, associate vice chancellor & campaign director, University Advancement.
You can learn more about the Brilliant Future Campaign at brilliantfuture.uci.edu.
The green streak continues! Sierra magazine has named the University of California, Irvine No. 1 in the nation and No. 2 overall in its annual “Cool Schools” ranking of sustainability leaders among U.S. and Canadian colleges. Learn more at http://news.uci.edu.
Money magazine has ranked the University of California, Irvine No. 1 on its 2019-20 list of the nation’s “Best Colleges.” In this episode of the UCI Podcast, host Sheri Ledbetter speaks with Willie Banks, UCI's vice chancellor for student affairs, to gain his perspective on why the university has earned this top college ranking.
This latest episode of The UCI Podcast goes onstage at the New Swan Shakespeare Festival with its creative director Eli Simon. The eighth season of popular theater series kicks off this July with two of the Bard’s most archetypal plays: “The Merchant of Venice” and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.”
In this episode of the UCI Podcast, we meet with Mark Deppe, director of UCI Esports, and Avi Behar, jungler on the Anteaters collegiate champion League of Legends team who are defending their title this week. The two discuss the history and culture of the UCI Esports program and their excitement about competing in the College League of Legends championship.
This episode of The UCI Podcast features two interviews with University of California, Irvine faculty members. In our first conversation, we'll discuss the history of video games through the lens of LGBTQ theory with Bonnie "Bo" Ruberg, assistant professor of informatics, whose new book, "Video Games Have Always Been Queer," is on shelves now. Then we'll talk about what it takes to find exoplanets orbiting dim M-dwarf stars in the Milky Way with UCI assistant professor of astronomy Paul Robertson. Learn more by visiting news.uci.edu.
This first episode of The UCI Podcast features an interview with Kyriacos Athanasiou, Distinguished Professor of biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Athanasiou's group at UCI has been looking into ways to treat defects to the temporomandibular joint, which impact about a quarter of the population.