UC San Diego (Audio)
UC San Diego (Audio) presents programs from the University of California, San Diego. The content comes from UCTV and features lectures, interviews, and campus events. It highlights research, academics, and public programming from UC San Diego.
Episodes
A Conversation with Kristin Hannah - Writer's Symposium By the Sea 2026
Kristin Hannah is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels, including The Nightingale. Her 2024 novel, The Women, is a historical fiction about female nurses in the Vietnam War. Hannah wrote it during the Covid pandemic lockdown, seeing similarities to the nation's political division of the Vietnam era. A theme of Hannah's writing is the marginalization of women and the powe
Stem Cells and the Future of Heart Care - Medicine Informing Novel Discoveries (MIND)
Heart repair is moving beyond a single strategy. Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D., Ehtisham Mahmud, M.D., FACC, FSCAI, Eric Adler, M.D., Karen Christman, Ph.D., and set designer Robert Brill discuss approaches to preventing and repairing heart damage. Mahmud describes a model linking cardiovascular care, training and clinical research. Adler explains how patient skin cells can be turned into beating
Aging Grief and the Science of Resilience
As we age, experiences of loss often become more common, but so can our capacity for resilience. Danielle Glorioso, executive director of the Stein Institute for Research on Aging, explores the psychological and emotional processes that help older adults adapt to bereavement and other significant life losses. Drawing on current research and clinical insights, participants will learn how resilience
Becoming a Perinatologist: One Doctor’s Path
Gladys (Sandy) Ramos, M.D., is a UC San Diego Health perinatologist and professor who cares for patients with complex pregnancies, including those affected by diabetes. She explains how immigrating from Peru, learning from her grandmother and wanting to serve Spanish-speaking communities shaped her work. Ramos also describes feeling out of place in college and not getting into medical school on he
How Startups are Accelerating Innovation in Women's Health
Vaginal microbiome research may offer new ways to understand infections, fertility, preterm birth and other areas of women’s health. Pita Navarro, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Evvy, joins Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, M.D., M.S., of UC San Diego Health, to explain how patient-contributed samples and health information can support research and product development. Navarro describes Evvy’s
Side by Side: From Mexicali to Electrical Engineering
Grecia Paola Siono Gutierrez and Jose Enrique Siono Gutierrez share how family, mentorship and community shaped their path from Mexicali to studying electrical engineering at UC San Diego. The siblings describe beginning at community college, transferring together and adjusting to classrooms where they often saw few students who shared their background. Grecia discusses finding support through the
Social Isolation is a Biological Risk Factor in Recovery after Maternal Birth Injury with Dr. Lindsey Burnett
Social isolation may influence how the body recovers from pelvic floor injury after childbirth. Lindsay Burnett, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor and physician-scientist at UC San Diego, studies factors during pregnancy and postpartum that may affect pelvic floor muscle recovery, including medications, diet, exercise and social interaction. Her research grew from clinical observations connecting p
Mechanosensory Control of Pregnancy and Parturition
Mechanical forces may help the body coordinate pregnancy and labor. Yunxiao Zhang, Ph.D., of Scripps Research Institute, examines how PIEZO1 and PIEZO2, proteins that open in response to stretch, contribute to uterine contractions and the timing of birth. Zhang finds PIEZO1 in uterine smooth muscle and PIEZO2 in sensory nerve fibers around the cervix. In mouse models, removing both channels weaken
Alex Chaim: Building a Life and Community in Science
RNA damage, mentorship and the realities of building a career in science come together in Alex Chaim's work and personal journey. Chaim, principal investigator of the Chaim Lab and assistant professor of cell and developmental biology at UC San Diego, studies whether damage to RNA may contribute to diseases associated with oxidative stress, including neurodegeneration. He also reflects on finding
The Great Philosophers: Utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill
Utilitarianism affects law, public policy, and social justice in important ways. Professor Peter Bolland explains how Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill’s focus on the greatest good for the greatest number shaped modern ethical decision-making. Bolland examines women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and animal welfare, helping clarify how Utilitarian ideas influence debates about justice and equality. Th
Creating the UC Menopause Collaborative: An Opportunity for Research and Clinical Collaboration
Menopause care is changing as more patients seek evidence-based guidance for symptoms, prevention, and long-term health. Kathryn Macaulay, M.D., M.S.C.P., F.A.C.O.G., UC San Diego Health, and Rajita Patil, M.D., M.S.C.P., F.A.C.O.G., UCLA Health, explain why many people still struggle to find trained care, even as menopause affects sleep, mood, work, genitourinary health, and cardiometabolic risk.
U.S. and China: Stable Great-Power Relationship?
U.S.-China relations affect global stability in important ways. Graham Allison, Professor of Government at Harvard Kennedy School, explains how the Thucydides’ Trap shapes the challenge of managing competition between the two countries. Allison examines strategic stability, the Xi-Trump summit, and the promise and limits of a new paradigm for major-country relations, helping clarify whether the U.
Neurobiology in a Changing Ocean with Martin Tresguerres
Climate change is fundamentally altering marine environments worldwide. But what does this mean for the creatures that call the ocean home? Join Martin Tresguerres, Ph.D., as he delves into the work of the Allen Discovery Center for Neurobiology in Changing Environments (ADC-NiCE), where researchers are working towards answering this question. Through a combination of neurobiology, physiology and
Multidisciplinary Care of Pregnant Women with Cardiovascular Disease with Dr. Laith Alshawabkeh
Cardiovascular disease is a major threat to maternal health during pregnancy and the peripartum period, particularly for women with preexisting heart conditions. A UC San Diego cardiologist describes the development of a multidisciplinary cardio-obstetrics initiative designed to coordinate care for patients with congenital heart disease, heart failure, arrhythmias and coronary artery disease. The
Label-free AI-enabled Imaging Flow Cytometry for Discovery of Subpopulations of Extravillous Trophoblast from a Stem Cell-based Model of Trophoblast Differentiation
AI-powered cell imaging may help researchers identify biological differences that are difficult or impossible to see by eye. Yu-Hwa Lo, Ph.D., and Louise Laurent, M.D., Ph.D., describe a system that combines high-speed imaging, cell sorting, microfluidics, and artificial intelligence. The technology creates label-free images of cells, uses AI to classify them, and can isolate selected cells for de
DM in Pregnancy and AI - Ben Smarr Ph.D. and Sandy Ramos M.D.
Continuous glucose monitoring and wearable data are changing how researchers study pregnancy and women’s health. Gladys (Sandy) Ramos, M.D., explains why glucose control is difficult during pregnancy and how CGM can reveal patterns that finger-stick testing may miss. She also describes research on CGM use in type 2 and gestational diabetes, labor, and behavior change. Ben Smarr, Ph.D., shows how w
Hall of Famer David Justice on Prostate Cancer
For people diagnosed with cancer, patient advocacy can play a vital role throughout the treatment process. At UC San Diego’s annual Prostate Cancer Patient Summit, keynote speaker and three-time MLB All-Star David Justice brought visibility and purpose to that message, underscoring the broad reach and lasting importance of speaking up for patients and families. [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 4164
Rising Beyond Circumstance: Faith Resilience and the Power of Community with Jolinda Wade
Drawing from her remarkable life journey and her memoir, Conquering Me: A Memoir of Courage, Faith, and Transformation, pastor and author Jolinda Wade shares powerful reflections on overcoming adversity, embracing purpose, and the mentors, opportunities, and communities that help shape our futures. The mother of NBA Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, she talks about how, before becoming an advocate for pe
Why Topology Matters for Data Science and AI
Topology offers a way to organize complex data by looking for shape, structure, and relationships. Yusu Wang, Ph.D., UC San Diego, and Gunnar E. Carlsson, Ph.D., Stanford University, discuss how ideas from algebraic topology move from pure mathematics into data science, machine learning, and AI. Carlsson explains why topological data analysis helps identify meaningful groups in large data sets, ho
Improving Early Alzheimers Detection in Women by Integrating Multimodal Data Into Clinical Decision Tools with Iris Broce-Diaz Ph.D.
Alzheimer’s disease can begin developing years before memory and thinking problems become noticeable. Iris Broce-Diaz, Ph.D., of UC San Diego is developing accessible, noninvasive, and cost-effective tools to help primary care physicians and neurologists identify people at higher risk earlier. Her models combine information from cognitive assessments, brain imaging, genetics, and PET scans to esti
Development of a Non-Invasive Male Fertility Assay for Testicular Sperm Retrieval and Fertility Treatment with Kun Tan Ph.D.
Men with non-obstructive azoospermia may undergo microscopic testicular sperm extraction, or mTESE, without knowing whether sperm will be found. Kun Tan, Ph.D., of UC San Diego explains how molecular semen analysis could provide a noninvasive way to predict the procedure’s outcome. The assay uses stage-specific germ cell markers identified through single-cell RNA sequencing, then measures those ma
Archaeology Coastal Heritage and Climate Adaptation with Isabel C. Rivera-Collazo
Archaeology can help communities understand environmental change, protect cultural heritage, and prepare for an uncertain climate future. Isabel C. Rivera-Collazo, Ph.D., of UC San Diego studies relationships among people, oceans, coastal ecosystems, and climate in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. She explains how Hurricane Maria shifted her research from identifying theoretical vulnerabilities to s
Motivating Movement: An Age-Friendly Approach to Pain Mood and Mobility
Chronic pain in older adults can affect mobility, mood, sleep, social connection, and independence. Una Makris, M.D., M.Sc., UC San Diego and VA San Diego Healthcare System, explains why musculoskeletal pain is common later in life and why medications or procedures alone may not meet the needs of many patients. Drawing on her work in rheumatology and geriatrics, Makris describes how pain and depre
The Rescue: Centering Autistic Voices in Film
Authentic autism representation begins with listening to autistic people and including them in stories about their lives. Seth Bakke, producer, writer and director of The Rescue, explains how his autistic cousin Aaron and a poem by autistic typer Peter Tran inspired the film. Bakke describes working with Aaron on screen, consulting the Tran family and adapting the set to support his needs. Autisti
Trust and Support in the Future of American Science and Biomedical Innovation with Fred Ramsdell
Scientific progress depends on curiosity, investment and the freedom to take risks. Nobel Laureate and UC San Diego alumnus Fred Ramsdell traces his path from community college to biotechnology and a discovery that reshaped understanding of immune regulation. He explains how decades of publicly funded research made that breakthrough possible and why failed experiments are essential steps toward di
Janelle Iglesias on Art Identity and Collaboration
Art can connect personal history, community, and social change. Janelle Iglesias, Assistant Professor of Studio Art at UC San Diego, traces her path from a multicultural childhood in Queens to anthropology, ceramics, sculpture, and public art. She explains how objects in her family home sparked an interest in material culture, and how a reconciliation program in South Africa changed her view of wh
Returning to the Moon
With the success of Artemis II, NASA is preparing for humanity’s return to the Moon through the ambitious Artemis Project. In this lecture, Professor Neil Farber explores the future Artemis missions, the spacecraft and technologies designed to support them, and the challenges NASA faces in sending astronauts back to the lunar surface. Building on the legacy of the Apollo program, Artemis represent
Early Roles of SYNGAP1 in Neurodevelopment: Insights from a Top Autism Risk Gene
Human brain organoids help researchers study neurodevelopmental disorders that are difficult to examine directly in developing brain tissue. Giorgia Quadrato, USC, uses cortical organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells to examine SYNGAP1, an autism risk gene associated in the transcript with intellectual disability, epilepsy, and global developmental delay. Quadrato describes how SYNGAP
The 2000-Year History of Rome and Its Lessons Today
Rome survived for 2,000 years. Edward Watts explores the long history of the Roman state and the lessons it offers for the modern world. From its beginnings as a small Italian city-state to its transformation into a Christian empire centered in Constantinople, Rome maintained a remarkable sense of political continuity across centuries of cultural and religious change. Watts examines how Roman inst
How Machine Learning Improves Algorithms with Ellen Vitercik
Hard optimization problems often look impossible through worst-case analysis, but real-world problems can contain structure that helps algorithms work faster. Ellen Vitercik, Ph.D., of Stanford University explains how machine learning can improve algorithm design for NP-hard optimization problems while preserving the formal guarantees that make solvers useful. She discusses beyond worst-case analy
Heart Regeneration in Humans: Are We There Yet?
Heart regeneration faces two connected challenges: replacing lost muscle and keeping transplanted cells safe and accepted by the body. Charles Murry, M.D., Ph.D., of USC explains why the adult heart heals major cardiomyocyte loss with scar tissue rather than new muscle, leading to progressive heart failure. Murry describes how stem cell derived cardiomyocytes can be manufactured at scale, transpla
How to Not Know with Simone Stolzoff
In an age obsessed with expertise, certainty, and endless self-optimization, author and journalist Simone Stolzoff invites audiences to rediscover the power of curiosity, humility, and not having all the answers. His new book, How to Not Know, challenges the cultural pressure to define ourselves by what we do or what we know—and instead celebrates the richness of uncertainty as a pathway to creati
Inflammatory Memory in Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells as a Driver of Clonal Selection in Aging and Cancer
Hematopoietic stem cells make blood across the lifespan, but they do not all behave the same way. Stephanie Xie, Ph.D., Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, examines how these rare cells self-renew, differentiate, and respond to inflammatory stress, asking whether differences in the stem cell pool help explain why aging affects people so differently. Xie identifies
Gene Therapies and Rare Disease - Medicine Informing Novel Discoveries (MIND)
Rare disease research is creating new paths for diagnosis, treatment, and broader medical discovery. Gene therapy can repair or replace faulty genes, and work on cystinosis has led to a stem cell platform now being applied to Danon disease, Sanfilippo syndrome C, Friedreich’s ataxia, and Alzheimer’s research. Funding programs support gene therapy, clinical trials, and new platform approaches for r
Ethical Sourcing in Health Data Supply Chains: Considerations for ML/AI Training
Health data affects artificial intelligence in important ways. Camille Nebeker, Ed.D., M.S., UC San Diego, explains why ethically sourced data is foundational to building trustworthy, AI-ready health data repositories. Nebeker examines how ethical sourcing applies across the full data lifecycle, including consent, governance, transparency, data quality, privacy, stewardship, and community engageme
Stem-Cell Aging and Pathways to Precancer Evolution
Pre-cancer and cancer can begin when stressed blood-forming stem cells lose their normal controls. Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D., UC San Diego, explains how inflammation-linked editing enzymes, repetitive elements in the genome, and stem cell stress shape the progression from myeloproliferative neoplasms to acute myeloid leukemia. Jamieson examines how spaceflight accelerates stem cell aging, how
From Electronic Health Records to Space Medicine: Building the Future of Space Healthcare
Space healthcare depends on connected health data that can follow people wherever care happens. Peter DeVault, Epic, explains how electronic health record tools built for hospitals, labs, and patients can also support healthcare in space. DeVault describes patient-facing tools like MyChart, interoperability across health systems, structured genomics and pharmacogenomics in the patient record, and
The Causes of Autism
Understanding the causes of autism matters for families, public health, and public trust in science. Jonathan Sebat, Ph.D., UC San Diego, explains what research actually shows about the causes of autism and how scientists separate strong evidence from misleading correlations. Sebat examines genetics, de novo mutations, twin studies, developmental regression, and the interplay of genes and environm
Conducting Autism Research from a Stakeholder Perspective
Autism research affects how autistic people and families receive support, care, and opportunities to participate in daily life. A panel with autistic, family, clinical, and research perspectives discusses the world of autism research and how it can better serve the people it is meant to support. The program examines quality of life priorities, co-occurring conditions, accessible study design, comm
From Orbital Experiments to Curing Earthling Diseases: How Space-Enabled Biotechnology is Advancing Neuroscience on Earth
Brain aging and disease research can gain new insights from space. Aline M.A. Martins, Ph.D., UC San Diego, explains how neuroscience studies in space use brain organoids, proteomics, and single-cell analysis to understand cognition decline, space-induced neurosenescence, and disease-related changes. Martins examines molecular markers of senescence, mitochondrial impairment, and neuroinflammation
Climate Faith and Collective Responsibility with Bill McKibben
Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben has helped shape how the world understands climate change. In this conversation with Marco Werman, host of The World, McKibben offers a clear-eyed look at the climate crisis and the solutions that could help reduce the damage of a warming planet.
As part of the Burke Lectureship at UC San Diego, McKibben also explores the moral and spiritual questions at
Extreme Events in California’s Changing Climate
How does global warming connect to the extreme weather people experience close to home? Drawing on the work of the Weather Extremes and Climate Impacts Analytics group, Sasha Gershunov of Scripps Institution of Oceanography outlines the accelerating warming trend, the role of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide, and the greenhouse effect, and how it relates to extreme weather. He also traces key mile
Microgravity at Scale: Turning Insight into Impact
Microgravity can change biological systems in ways that may open new paths for biomedical research and commercialization in space. Twyman Clements, Space Tango, explains how “middleware” helps connect research use cases with space infrastructure by adapting terrestrial processes and supply chains for a spaceflight environment. Clements examines how long-duration microgravity creates different phys
Leveraging Space
Stem cell health in space matters for astronaut health and cancer research. Jessica Pham, UC San Diego, explains how spaceflight shapes normal hematopoietic stem cells and cancer stem cells through nano bioreactor studies, astronaut blood analysis, and tumor organoid work in low-Earth orbit. Pham examines increased cycling and reduced dormancy in space, reduced self-renewal after return, and ongoi
Protecting Patients: Privacy-Preserving Computing in Patient Data
Privacy-preserving computation can help hospitals and researchers use sensitive health data without exposing it. Farinaz Koushanfar, Ph.D., UC San Diego, explains how secure computation and distributed learning make it possible to collaborate on medical data while protecting patient privacy. Koushanfar examines secure multi-party computation, zero-knowledge proofs, and federated and split learning
Writing PrairieLearn Questions and Computer-Based Test Practices
Computer-based assessment can change how students practice, test, and learn. Craig Zilles, Ph.D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explains how PrairieLearn supports mastery-oriented teaching through immediate feedback, auto-grading, randomized question generators, and repeat practice. Zilles examines asynchronous exams, frequent small tests, retake opportunities, and question banks design
Green Building in the Age of Wild Fires with Drew Hubbell
Architect Drew Hubbell explores the intersection of sustainable design and architectural artistry, highlighting how thoughtful, aesthetically rich structures can also embody strong environmental principles. He presents several recent projects, with particular attention to their fire-resistant strategies and materials. Against the backdrop of increasingly destructive wildfires across California, Hu
Sexual Well-Being: How it Evolves as We Age
Sexual health is an important part of healthy aging and offers a useful way to understand how well-being can change without disappearing in later life. Annie L. Nguyen, Ph.D., M.P.H., UC San Diego, explains how sexual interest, sexual activity, and sexual satisfaction follow different patterns as people age. Nguyen examines research on health status, relationship context, and gender differences, t
The Geometry of Reasoning and Learning in the Age of Agentic AI with Stefano Soatto
Artificial intelligence affects how we understand the behavior of machine learning systems. Stefano Soatto, VP of Applied Science, Amazon Web Services, explains how ideas from information geometry shape emerging theories of how these artifacts work. Soatto examines the natural gradient, the connections between geometry and concepts such as probability distributions, entropy, mutual information, an
Youth Mental Health and Conversational AI: AI Use for Emotional Support In the Wild
Youth mental health is increasingly shaped by how teens use AI for emotional support outside clinical care. Cinnamon Bloss, Ph.D., UC San Diego, explains how growing use of conversational AI reflects major gaps in care and changing preferences for support. Bloss examines the appeal of AI’s accessibility and nonjudgmental responses, concerns about replacing human connection, and the need to monitor
The Audacity of Listening with Carol Gilligan 2025 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy
Carol Gilligan, professor at New York University, received the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, specifically in the field of Thought and Ethics, for pioneering a new horizon for the “ethic of care” while pointing out the distortions and limitations of conventional psychological theories pertaining to women’s thoughts and behaviors. By offering research-based insights into women’s moral reasonin
Growing Human Brains in Space
Brain aging and neurological disease are hard to study because living human brain tissue is difficult to access. Alysson Muotri, Ph.D., UC San Diego, explains how brain organoids sent to space can model accelerated aging, reveal changes in neural networks, and help test potential treatments for brain disorders. Muotri examines space-induced senescence, fragmented network activity linked to dementi
My Life Has Been Lucky! with Shun-Ichi Amari 2025 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Advanced Technology
Shun-ichi Amari received the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology, specifically in the field of Information Technology, for his work on neural network dynamics and learning theory. His studies also elucidate our understanding of brain activity in perceptual systems such as vision. Amari established a new academic field that he named “information geometry,” which considers statistical models and prob
Sexual Health and Menopause
Menopause can affect sexual health in ways that are common, frustrating, and often overlooked. Kathryn Macaulay, M.D., Director, UC San Diego Menopause Health Program, explains how hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause contribute to vaginal dryness, pain with intercourse, and low libido. Macaulay also outlines why these symptoms can have more than one cause, including physical change
What is Menopause?
Menopause symptoms can affect sleep, mood, and everyday quality of life in ways that are easy to dismiss but hard to ignore. Kathryn Macaulay, M.D., Director, UC San Diego Menopause Health Program, explains what menopause is, when hormone therapy is considered, and why treatment decisions depend on symptoms, health history, and individual risk. Macaulay also addresses hot flashes, night sweats, os
An Introduction to Academic Medicine
Academic medicine affects patient care in important ways. Julia Cormano, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., Assistant Dean for Clinical Curriculum, Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences, UC San Diego, explains how medical students, resident physicians, and fellows contribute to care in a supervised teaching hospital environment. Cormano defines the role of each learner, outlines ho
Defining Perimenopause
Perimenopause can bring physical and emotional changes that leave many women feeling unsettled. Kathryn Macaulay, M.D., Director, UC San Diego Menopause Health Program, explains how hormonal shifts and changing menstrual cycles shape this stage of life. Macaulay examines symptoms such as irregular periods, hot flashes, and mood changes, along with broader concerns including weight, overall health,
CARTA: The Idea Organ - Questions Answers and Closing Remarks
Humans live in a world of ideas—born in the brain, shared through language, accumulated in culture across generations, and made reality. From the first flaked stone tools to the building of shelters, from figurative and symbolic art to abstract thought, our brains are engines of imagination—an “idea organ” that has transformed both our species and the planet itself.
The distinct biology of the h
A Conversation with George Saunders - Writer's Symposium By the Sea 2026
New York Times bestselling author George Saunders is an American writer who won the Booker Prize for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo. Saunders is known for his sharp wit, moral insight, and inventive storytelling. A longtime contributor to The New Yorker and a creative writing professor at Syracuse University, Saunders is admired for exploring kindness, consumerism, and the human condition with hum
Where Are We Now? Bias in Health AI
Bias in health AI can shape who gets care, how fairly risk is measured, and whether automation helps or harms patients. Karandeep Singh, M.D., M.M.S.C. explains that predictive AI can reflect historical, representation, measurement, learning, evaluation, and deployment bias, especially when models are trained on limited populations or use flawed proxies for illness and access to care. Singh also d
CARTA: Development and Evolutionary Specializations of Human Cognitive Networks with Nenad Sestan
The extraordinary abilities of the cerebral cortex are central to what sets humans apart from other species. A defining feature of the cortex is its organization along a sensorimotor-to-association (S–A) axis, extending from primary sensorimotor areas to transmodal association regions that support abstract cognition. This axis varies across species and has been profoundly remodeled in humans. Nena
CARTA: The Costs of Big Brains with Alex Pollen
Human brain expansion is often discussed in terms of the genetic and molecular innovations that drove uniquely human cognitive abilities. Yet evolution is fundamentally a process of tradeoffs. Disproportionate expansion of forebrain structures increases the demands placed on long-range connectivity, metabolism, and cellular maintenance, imposing costs that scale with brain size. Alex Pollen, assoc
A Conversation with Jamaica Kincaid - Writer's Symposium By the Sea 2026
Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American writer known for her vivid, poetic prose and exploration of themes like colonialism, family, identity, and the legacy of the Caribbean. Her deeply personal and reflective style has made her one of the most influential voices in contemporary literature. Born Elaine Potter Richardson on May 25, 1949, in St. John’s, Antigua, she moved to the United States as a
Artificial Intelligence in (AI-Driven) Healthcare
AI in healthcare raises urgent questions about bias, privacy, and power. Safiya U. Noble, Ph.D., examines how AI systems can reproduce social and racial inequities when they rely on incomplete data, hidden assumptions, and proxies such as healthcare spending. Noble points to problems in search engines, image generation, facial recognition, and medical algorithms, including cases where systems misl
CARTA: The Human Brain in its Usual Extraordinary and Compromised States with Bruce Miller
Dr. Bruce Miller, director of the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center, examines what neurodegenerative disease reveals about the neural basis of creativity and the social mind. Research in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) shows that visual creativity is not rare: a subset of patients—particularly those with left anterior temporal degeneration—develop new or intensified artistic abiliti
Alzheimer's and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases: From Mechanisms to (Faltering) Therapies - Shiley Endowed Lecture
Alzheimer’s disease unfolds over many years through a complex interplay of amyloid, tau, genetics, lipid biology, and the brain’s immune response. John Hardy, Ph.D., explains how rare inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease helped shape current thinking about how the disease begins, then connects those discoveries to broader questions about late onset disease and why it develops differently across
The Impact of AI on Business
Artificial intelligence is changing how businesses use data, make decisions, and organize work. UC San Diego Rady School of Management's Thomas Beyer looks at that evolution from the early push to collect as much data as possible, through predictive analytics and generative AI, to emerging systems that can act more proactively across business environments. Beyer examines the promises and limits of
Germline Epigenetic Imprints Regulate Mammalian Development with Azim Surani 2025 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Basic Sciences
Azim Surani, Director of Research at the Gurdon Institute and Professor Emeritus at University of Cambridge, received the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, specifically in the field of Life Sciences and Medicine, for his work in demonstrating how male and female mammalian genomes receive distinct imprints during germ cell development. Genomic imprinting introduced a novel concept to Mendelian genetic
Social Science Careers in Climate Action
Climate action needs more than great science, it needs people who understand how communities, institutions, and policy actually change. The Climate Action Lab in UC San Diego’s School of Social Sciences spotlights alumni building climate careers across sustainability, climate, and public policy. Panelists trace the paths that led them into the field, share how social science training helped them n
CARTA: The Transformational Potential of Computer-assisted Brains with Joseph Paradiso
From stone tools and shelters to symbolic art and abstract thought, human history is shaped by a brain built to form and share ideas. Joseph Paradiso, Professor in Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab, explores what comes next after the early visions of ubiquitous computing have largely arrived in today’s Internet of Things world, where low-power sensors and interfaces are embedded in smar
Mapping Cognitive Resilience: How Environment Aging and Inflammation Shape Information Encoding in the Hippocampus
Cognitive resilience depends on how the brain responds to environment, aging, and inflammation. J. Tiago Gonçalves, Ph.D., studies the hippocampus to examine how spatial memory is shaped by factors such as cognitive enrichment, exercise, social interaction, disease, and age. Gonçalves explains how adult neurogenesis and microglia help support the brain’s ability to encode information, and how disr
Learning Beyond the Data: Adam Klivans on Distribution Shift and the Future of AI
Trustworthy machine learning requires models that still work when real-world data changes, and Adam Klivans, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (IFML), emphasizes learning under “distribution shift” as a major barrier to relying on models to predict disease across different patient populations. IFML focuses on foundational algorithms and mathematical techniques th
Where Innovation Meets Patients: The Work of California’s Alpha Clinics
Alpha Clinics in California accelerate the development of regenerative medicine therapies that use cells and genes to treat serious diseases. Patient advocate Tara Radcliffe Ghiglieri shares lived experience with gene therapy, while Sheldon Morris, M.D., M.P.H., Mehrdad Abedi, M.D., Daniela A. Bota, M.D., Ph.D., Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D., Michael Lewis, M.D., Mark Walters, M.D., and Leo D. Wa
A Conversation with Judy Woodruff - Writer's Symposium By the Sea 2026
Widely regarded as one of the most respected figures in American broadcast journalism, Judy Woodruff is known for her decades-long career covering politics and current events. She is also the author of the book, This Is Judy Woodruff at the White House. Renowned for her calm, balanced reporting and commitment to journalistic integrity, Woodruff has covered every U.S. presidential election since 19
CARTA: The Evolution of the Human Brain through Shifts in Gene Regulation with Miles Wilkinson
A fundamental question in biology is: how did humans acquire their unique characteristics? What allows us to stand upright, while our primate ancestors walked on all fours? What brain alterations drove our increased intelligence and allowed us to perceive our own mortality? One of the mechanisms that has been hypothesized to be involved is changes in gene expression elicited by nucleotide alterati
Reimagining T Cell Therapy: An Unconventional Path to Universal CAR-T Cells
Off-the-shelf immune cell therapies using engineered T cells represent an important direction in cancer treatment. Lili Yang, Ph.D., at UCLA develops an off-the-shelf platform based on invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells generated from hematopoietic stem cells, often sourced from cord blood. Yang programs these stem cells with iNKT cell receptors, chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), and genes s
How to be Remarkable with Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist of Canva and a former Apple evangelist who helped market the Macintosh in 1984, shares his 10 tips for writing your own story forward. A New York Times bestselling author, Kawasaki uses reinvention and resilience as a framework for decision-making in personal and professional life. His books include "Wiser Guy: Life-Changing Revelations and Revisions from Tech’s Chie
CARTA: Human Brain Specializations Related to Language and Theory of Mind with James Rilling
Humans excel at transmitting ideas, skills, and knowledge across generations, and at building on those competencies in a cumulative manner. James Rilling, Professor of Psychology at Emory University, explores how the transmission of our cumulative culture is assumed to depend on both language and mental perspective-taking, or theory of mind. If humans have specialized abilities in these domains, w
Slowing the Clock: Longevity Science Meets Alzheimer’s Prevention
How fast are you really aging, and what could that mean for brain health? Aladdin H. Shadyab, Ph.D., explores the gap between chronological age and biological age, and why that difference matters for long-term health. Shadyab describes tools that use information from blood to estimate how quickly the body is aging, including approaches that look beyond the body as a whole to consider aging in spe
Araceli Cervantes: Champion of Latin Dance
Latin dance is a living blend of rhythms, histories, and styles, and Araceli Cervantes approaches it as both cultural practice and personal craft. Cervantes is an actress and dancer whose love for the arts began early and continues to shape her work. Drawing on training that spans Mexican traditional dance as well as contemporary and Latin forms, she brings both technique and joy to performance. A
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