UC Berkeley (Audio)

It has become commonplace that democracy in the United States faces an existential threat. This belief has gained popular currency in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency, nourished by his conduct in office, the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and continuing efforts to subvert the electoral process. Whether this is true only time will tell. But a common narrative among scholars of American government holds that representative democracy is failing more systematically than the Trump phenomenon suggests. In this program, Charles Beitz, professor of politics at Princeton University, along with commentary by Martin Gilens, Pamela S. Karlan and Jane Mansbridge, talk about the current state of democratic dysfunction and what the future might hold. Series: "Tanner Lectures on Human Values" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 38274]

It has become commonplace that democracy in the United States faces an existential threat. This belief has gained popular currency in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency, nourished by his conduct in office, the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and continuing efforts to subvert the electoral process. Whether this is true only time will tell. But a common narrative among scholars of American government holds that representative democracy is failing more systematically than the Trump phenomenon suggests. In this program, Charles Beitz, professor of politics at Princeton University, along with commentary by Pamela S. Karlan and Jane Mansbridge, talk about how to regulate rivalry in democratic representative government. Series: "Tanner Lectures on Human Values" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 38273]

It has become commonplace that democracy in the United States faces an existential threat. This belief has gained popular currency in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency, nourished by his conduct in office, the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and continuing efforts to subvert the electoral process. Whether this is true only time will tell. But a common narrative among scholars of American government holds that representative democracy is failing more systematically than the Trump phenomenon suggests. In this program, Charles Beitz, professor of politics at Princeton University, and Martin Gilens, professor of public policy at UCLA, address how to diagnose the problem of whether or not our system of government is failing. Series: "Tanner Lectures on Human Values" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 38272]

The world has lived through 2+ years of the COVID-19 pandemic, heightening the awareness of the links between health and other aspects of life including education and the economy. Future pandemics are a real risk but there are a number of other threats to human health and well-being as well. These include climate change, the rise of obesity, inverted population pyramids, inter-state conflict, rising inequalities, antimicrobial resistance. Counterbalancing these threats are the opportunities that may come through the health sector and broader innovation. Using a comprehensive future health scenario framework, Christopher Murray, professor and chair of Health Metrics Sciences, University of Washington and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, explores the range of future trajectories that may unfold in the 21st century. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Business] [Show ID: 38271]

A hallmark of every developed nation is the provision of a social safety net – a collection of public programs that deliver aid to the poor. Because of their higher rates of poverty, children are often a major beneficiary of safety net programs. Compared to other countries, the U.S. spends less on antipoverty programs and, consequently, has higher child poverty rates. Professor Hilary Hoynes discusses the emerging research that examines how the social safety net affects children’s life trajectories. The long run benefits are significant for the families, but also show that many programs prove to be excellent public investments. This has implications for current policy discussions such as the expanded Child Tax Credit. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Business] [Show ID: 38275]

The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) began in 1991 sponsored by the World Bank and the World Health Organization to fill a critical gap in global health information. It has grown steadily to become an active collaboration of more than 8,000 scientists, researchers and policy-makers from 156 countries working together to quantify health at the national and subnational level. In this program, Christopher J.L. Murray, Professor and Chair of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington and Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), discusses what we've learned over the last 30 years studying global health. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 38270]

UC Berkeley Goldman School's new Center for Security in Politics hosts a fireside chat with former UC President and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano in conversation with Jose Antonio Meade. He served as a cabinet minister under Presidents Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto in a variety of roles, including Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, Secretary of Social Development, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and Secretary of Energy. He was the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate in the 2018 presidential election, where he placed third. Napolitano is a Professor of Public Policy and Director of the new Center for Security in Politics. An in-depth conversation about U.S.-Mexico relations, the challenges of the border, and how we can align forces to build a better future for both countries. Series: "Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 38556]

Kate Crawford, author of "Atlas AI: Power, Politics and Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence," is a leading international scholar of the social and political implications of artificial intelligence. This program looks at the intersection of art, activism and artificial intelligence. Series: "Tanner Lectures on Human Values" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 37967]

The last decade has seen a dramatic capture of digital material for machine learning production. This data is the basis for sense-making in AI, not as classical representations of the world with individual meaning, but as mass collections: ground truth for machine abstractions and operations. What happens when data is seen as an aggregate, stripped of context, meaning, and specificity? In what ways does training data limit what and how machine learning systems interpret the world? And most importantly, what forms of power do these approaches enhance and enable? Professor Kate Crawford is a leading international scholar of the social and political implications of artificial intelligence. In this lecture, Crawford shares new work that reflects on what’s at stake in the architecture and contents of training sets, and how they are increasingly part of our urban, legal, logistical, and commercial infrastructures. Series: "Tanner Lectures on Human Values" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 37729]

The International System of Units (the SI), the modern metric system, has recently undergone its most revolutionary change since its origins during the French Revolution. The nature of this revolution is that all of the base units of the SI are now defined by fixing values of natural constants. Our measurement system is now, both philosophically and practically, strongly quantum. Nobel Prize recipient William Phillips, Ph.D., a Distinguished University and College Park Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, talks about why this reform was needed and how it is done. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 37728]