The UCI Podcast
University of California, Irvine
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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.
Available episodes
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Jun 22, 2022
UCI Podcast: Patsy Mink’s role in Title IX passage
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.
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Jun 16, 2022
Recognizing Juneteenth
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.
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Jun 13, 2022
Jonathan Alexander takes his own advice as a writing teacher
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.
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May 25, 2022
UCI Podcast: At the intersection of nursing and philosophy
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.
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May 25, 2022
UCI Podcast: Global indigeneity
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.
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May 16, 2022
UCI Podcast: Relief for Ukrainian Academics
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.
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Apr 25, 2022
Elon Musk, Twitter and free speech
UCI Law professor David Kaye discusses Musk's controversial buyout of the social media giant and the human rights issues related to online speech.
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Apr 11, 2022
UCI Podcast on the Oceans Melting Greenland mission
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.
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Mar 28, 2022
UCI Podcast: Director of intercollegiate athletics Paula Smith discusses impact of Title IX
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.
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Dec 24, 2021
UCI Podcast: Dean Frank LaFerla on memory impairment over the holidays
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.
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Dec 19, 2021
UCI Dean of Engineering Magnus Egerstedt discusses his new book on robots in the wild
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.
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Dec 1, 2021
The UCI Podcast: How do "collaboratories" put data to work?
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.
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Nov 22, 2021
Bringing science to White House policy making
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.
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Oct 18, 2021
UCI Podcast: Producing future ready students through enrollment management
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.
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Oct 15, 2021
UCI Podcast: The legal fallout of the Orange County oil spill
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.
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Oct 6, 2021
Nurses’ trauma and the two fronts of the war against COVID-19
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.
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Sep 28, 2021
Hector Tobar on the diverse faces of Latino America
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.
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Sep 20, 2021
UCI's Black Thriving Initiative one year later
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 Inclusio…
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Sep 8, 2021
The technologies that could solve California’s droughts
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.
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Aug 24, 2021
A second chance for teens marked by felony’s scarlet letter
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.
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Aug 17, 2021
Did COVID-19 cause a mental health pandemic?
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.
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Jul 28, 2021
Uncovering the cause of the soil lead crisis in Santa Ana
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.
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Jun 30, 2021
The perils and benefits of dream incubation
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.
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Jun 15, 2021
The economics of why work from home favors the suburbs
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.
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Jun 3, 2021
Why curiosity, integrity, humility and tenacity contribute to the good life
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.
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May 27, 2021
What it means to be Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI)
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.
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May 21, 2021
The five most common reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy
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.
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May 14, 2021
It’s time for a mental health checkup, and honest conversation
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.
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Apr 27, 2021
How UCI is helping students get vaccinated
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.
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Apr 13, 2021
California environmental justice advocates lead the way
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 Podca…
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Mar 25, 2021
How drought and climate change threaten California’s water
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.
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Mar 12, 2021
We're tired of COVID, let's go to Thailand!
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
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Feb 23, 2021
The lasting neurological damages for COVID-19 long haulers
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.
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Feb 16, 2021
Why low-income children suffer the most during remote learning
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.
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Feb 2, 2021
UCI’s new in-prison bachelor’s degree to transform lives
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.
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Jan 26, 2021
Solving climate change with clean hydrogen fuel
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.
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Jan 12, 2021
Running for city council as a 24-year-old UCI PhD student
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.
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Jan 5, 2021
The arts respond to COVID-19
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.
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Dec 15, 2020
Undoing Trump’s environmental regulation rollbacks
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.
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Dec 8, 2020
COVID-19's long-term economic and health impacts
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.
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Dec 1, 2020
Diary of a Med Student
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.
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Nov 24, 2020
UCI Podcast: The frontline view of COVID-19’s disparate impact
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…
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Nov 17, 2020
UCI Podcast: Orange County election analysis and social justice under Biden
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.
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Nov 9, 2020
UCI Podcast: What’s next with COVID
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.
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Nov 4, 2020
UCI Podcast: COVID-19 Testing and Tracing
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.
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Nov 2, 2020
UCI Podcast: The new American political sectarianism
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.
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Oct 27, 2020
UCI Podcast: Slowing the spread of election misinformation
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.
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Oct 20, 2020
UCI Podcast: Eloy Ortiz Oakley ensures access for first generation students
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, an…
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Oct 12, 2020
UCI Podcast: How Amy Coney Barrett could reshape the Supreme Court
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.
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Oct 5, 2020
UCI Podcast: At the intersection of economics and political philosophy
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.
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Oct 5, 2020
UCI Podcast: What could cause an election meltdown?
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 test…
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Sep 14, 2020
UCI Podcast: At the forefront of digital learning
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.
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Sep 8, 2020
UCI Podcast: College access and choice in the pandemic
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.
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Sep 1, 2020
UCI Podcast: Amal Alachkar from leaving Syria to preventing psychiatric disorders
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.
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Aug 24, 2020
UCI Podcast: The future of social justice
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.
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Aug 19, 2020
UCI Podcast: The cultural significance of visual representation
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.
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Aug 10, 2020
UCI Podcast: Michelle Deutchman on the pandemic's effect on campus free speech
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.
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Aug 3, 2020
UCI Podcast: A prescription to reshape healthcare
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.
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Jul 27, 2020
UCI Podcast: Coronavirus crisis and economic recovery
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.
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Jul 19, 2020
UCI Podcast: How UCI became a research powerhouse
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.
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Jul 14, 2020
UCI Podcast: Flattening the coronavirus curve – again
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.
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Jul 7, 2020
UCI Podcast: Professor Davin Phoenix on the political impact of the Black Lives Matter movement
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;…
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Jul 1, 2020
UCI Podcast: Top Chef winner is UCI alumna Melissa King
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.
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Jun 29, 2020
UCI Podcast: Commemorating the 75th anniversary of WW II
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.
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Jun 25, 2020
Anteater Insider: Paula Smith on bringing back UCI sports safely
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.
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Jun 22, 2020
UCI Podcast: In the ER with Dr. Chris Fox
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.
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Jun 18, 2020
UCI Podcast: Celebrating Juneteenth because George Floyd changed the world
June 19 — Juneteenth — marks the day in 1865 that the Union Army announced in Texas that enslaved African American 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.
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Jun 17, 2020
UCI Podcast: Coronavirus in the bathroom and waste water treatment facilities
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.
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Jun 17, 2020
UCI's Melissa Mazmanian on her new book on our work, family and digital lives
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.
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Jun 15, 2020
UCI Podcast: How the LEAD-ABC program gives black medical students a ‘powerful’ voice
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.
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Jun 12, 2020
Anteater Insider: UCI AVC of operations Rick Coulon on keeping campus clean for reengagement
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.
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Jun 11, 2020
Anteater Insider: Tom Andriola on reimagining technology's role in reengaging operations
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.
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Jun 10, 2020
Anteater Insider: Hal Stern on the campus re-engagement plan
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.
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Jun 9, 2020
Anteater Insider: Prof. Bernadette Boden-Albala on coming back to campus
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.
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Jun 8, 2020
Anteater Insider: Conducting research on the UCI campus with a steady eye on the pandemic
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.
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Jun 4, 2020
UCI Podcast: Prof. Alison Holman on how the pandemic influences our sense of time
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.
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May 29, 2020
UCI Podcast: Where we stand on COVID-19
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.
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May 27, 2020
UCI Podcast: The race for COVID testing
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.
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May 6, 2020
UCI Podcast: On the front lines of COVID-19
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.
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Apr 28, 2020
UCI Podcast: Mental health and home self-isolation
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.
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Apr 22, 2020
UCI Podcast: Andrew Noymer
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.
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Apr 15, 2020
Coronavirus and inclusivity: A call for proposals
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/.
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Apr 10, 2020
UCI Health response to coronavirus pandemic
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.
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Feb 28, 2020
The UCI Podcast on travel during difficult times
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.
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Feb 14, 2020
UCI Podcast on inclusivity in difficult times
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.
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Jan 28, 2020
Coronavirus discussion with UCI's Dr. Albert Chang
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.
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Jan 6, 2020
UCI research reveals molecular secrets of herbal remedies
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.
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Jan 3, 2020
UCI researchers attend 2019 AGU Fall Meeting
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.
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Dec 13, 2019
Year-end UCI Podcast with Chancellor Howard Gillman
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.
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Nov 21, 2019
UCI's Ask A Philosopher
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.
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Nov 17, 2019
Basketball is back at UCI
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!
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Nov 11, 2019
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o: How he wrote Devil on the Cross
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 2…
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Nov 4, 2019
KUCI’s 50th anniversary with Kevin Stockdale
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.
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Oct 25, 2019
UCI School of Physical Sciences Dean James Bullock
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.
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Oct 4, 2019
UCI's Brilliant Future Campaign
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.
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Sep 3, 2019
UCI is a Sierra Cool School
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.
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Aug 12, 2019
Willie Banks on why UCI is #1
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.
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Jul 8, 2019
UCI's New Swan Theater readying for 2019 season
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.”
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May 23, 2019
UCI Podcast Esports Edition
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.
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Apr 9, 2019
UCI Podcast on exoplanet hunting and queer video games
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.
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Mar 20, 2019
The UCI Podcast on TMJ treatments
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.
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