The longtime professor and academic administrator discusses how the journey to equal access and fairness in education has reached a critical inflection point.

In Berkeley Talks episode 196, Ruth Simmons, a longtime professor and academic administrator, discusses how the journey to equal access and fairness in education has reached a critical inflection point — and why educators are essential to the progress we need to see.“History has shown: The failure to resolve satisfactorily the issue of whether and how the state should address the causes and effects of discrimination will continue to impair progress, sow seeds of hatred and despair, and make even more distant the goals and ideals enshrined in the United States Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution,” Simmons said during the Clark Kerr Lecture at UC Berkeley in April.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“Yet, as we know,” Simmons continued, “considerable efforts have been undertaken by various branches of government, non-profit institutions, for-profit institutions, educational institutions and activists to reconcile the immense differences over what constitutes appropriate remedies for past and present discrimination. That we have failed to resolve this question adequately almost 250 years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights proves the intractability of the dilemma.”Simmons, currently the president's distinguished fellow at Rice University, served as the eighth president of Prairie View A&amp;M University, an HBCU, from 2017 until 2023. And from 2001 to 2012, she served as the 18th president of Brown University, where she was the first Black president of an Ivy League institution.&nbsp;In closing, Simmons said: “Education makes possible the smoothing out of the unequal circumstances into which many are born. Educators are therefore on the front lines in ensuring that this democracy endures because we are optimistic enough, brave enough and wise enough to create and manage a process in which the public as a whole feels well-served by our work.&nbsp;“And so our efforts to make plain where we stand in regard to evening out unequal circumstances are, in this moment, all-important. So, let's get about the work of making plain where we stand.”This April 18 event was sponsored by the <a href="https://cshe.berkeley.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Center for Studies in Higher Education at Berkeley</a>. <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/05/03/berkeley-talks-ruth-simmons" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts).<a href="https://www.sessions.blue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions.</a><a href="https://brandonsanchezphotography.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UC Berkeley photo by Brandon Sánchez Mejia.</a>

Ruth Simmons on access and equity in higher education

UC Berkeley professors explore how psychedelics could alleviate stress-related disorders, influence “critical periods” of neural plasticity and learning, and the evolutionary forces that led to the emergence of psychoactive compounds in nature.

In&nbsp;Berkeley Talks&nbsp;episode 195, UC Berkeley professors discuss how and why psychedelic substances first evolved, the effects they have in the human brain and mind, and the mechanism behind their potential therapeutic role."If it's true that the therapeutic effects are in part because we're returning to this state of susceptibility, and vulnerability, and ability to learn from our environment similar to childhood," says psychology Professor Gül Dölen, "then if we just focus on the day of the trip and don't instead also focus our therapeutic efforts on those weeks after, where the critical period is presumably still open, then we're missing the opportunity to really integrate those insights that happen during the trip into the rest of the network of memories that are supporting those learned behaviors."And then the caution is that we don't want to be opening up these critical periods and then, for example, returning people to a traumatic environment or exposing them to potentially bad actors … So we want to be very careful about the way that we take care of patients after they've been in this open state of the critical period."Panelists of this March 27, 2024 event included:&nbsp;<ul><li>Imran Khan (moderator): Executive director of the<a href="https://psychedelics.berkeley.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP).</a></li><li>Gül Dölen: Renee &amp; U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Bob Parsons Endowed Chair in psychology, psychedelics, and neuroscience; professor in the Department of Psychology.</li><li>Daniela Kaufer: Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute; associate dean of biological sciences.</li><li>Noah Whiteman: Professor of integrative biology and of molecular and cell biology; faculty director of the Essig Museum of Entomology.</li><li>Michael Silver: Professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science and in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute; faculty director of BCSP.</li></ul><a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/04/19/berkeley-talks-psychedelic-science" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts).<a href="https://www.sessions.blue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions.</a>UC Berkeley photo of Daniela Kaufer.

The future of psychedelic science

The renowned sports activist and UC Berkeley professor emeritus of sociology, discusses the intersections of race and sport, the history of predatory inclusion, athletes’ struggle for definitional authority and the power of sport to change society.

In&nbsp;Berkeley Talks&nbsp;episode 194, Harry Edwards, a renowned sports activist and UC Berkeley professor emeritus of sociology, discusses the intersections of race and sport, the history of predatory inclusion, athletes’ struggle for definitional authority and the power of sport to change society.“You can change society by changing people’s perceptions and understandings of the games they play,” Edwards said at a March 2022 campus event sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI) and Cal Athletics.“I’m saying whether it’s race relations in America, whether it’s relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and China, whether it’s what’s going on in South Africa with apartheid, you can leverage sport to change people’s perceptions and understandings of those relationships. Change society by changing people’s perceptions and understandings of the games they play.”This episode is from our archive. It first ran on Berkeley Talks in April 2022.<a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/04/05/berkeley-talks-sociologist-harry-edwards" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts).<a href="https://www.sessions.blue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions.</a>Photo courtesy of Harry Edwards.

Sociologist Harry Edwards on sport in society (revisiting)

"It's a fighting position — angry optimism — and you need it," said Robinson, author of the 2020 novel, "The Ministry for the Future," at a UC Berkeley event in January.

In&nbsp;Berkeley Talks&nbsp;episode 193, science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson discusses climate change, politics and the need for "angry optimism." Robinson is the author of 22 novels, including his most recent,&nbsp;The Ministry for the Future, published in 2020.&nbsp;&nbsp;"It's a fighting position — angry optimism — and you need it," he said at a UC Berkeley event in January, in conversation with English professor Katherine Snyder and Daniel Aldana Cohen, assistant professor of sociology and director of the Sociospatial Climate Collaborative.&nbsp;"A couple of days ago, somebody talked about&nbsp;The Ministry for the Future&nbsp;being a pedagogy of hope. And I was thinking, 'Oh, that's nice.' Not just, why should you hope? Because you need to — to stay alive and all these other reasons you need hope. But also, it's strategically useful.&nbsp;&nbsp;"And then, how to hope in the situation that we're in, which is filled with dread and filled with people fighting with wicked strength to wreck the earth and human chances in it.&nbsp;&nbsp;"The political battle is not going to be everybody coming together and going, 'Oh, my gosh, we’ve got a problem, let's solve it.' It's more like some people saying, 'Oh, my gosh, we’ve got a problem that we have to solve,' and other people going, 'No, we don’t have a problem.'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"They'll say that right down over the cliff. They'll be falling to their death going, 'No problem here because I'm going to heaven and you're not,' or whatever. Nobody will ever admit they're wrong. They will die. And then the next generation will have a new structure of feeling."In the meantime, how to keep your hope going, how to put it to use … I think all novels have a little of this, and then&nbsp;Ministry&nbsp;is just more explicit."&nbsp;This Jan. 24 event was sponsored by the&nbsp;<a href="https://bccn.berkeley.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Berkeley Climate Change Network</a>&nbsp;and co-sponsored by&nbsp;<a href="https://journalism.berkeley.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Berkeley Journalism</a>;&nbsp;<a href="https://cici.berkeley.edu/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Berkeley Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry</a>, home to the&nbsp;<a href="https://cici.berkeley.edu/programs-and-initiatives/environmental-arts-humanities-initiative" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative</a>; and the&nbsp;<a href="https://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Townsend Center for the Humanities</a>.<a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/03/22/berkeley-talks-sci-fi-writer-kim-stanley-robinson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read the transcript and listen to the episode on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu).<a href="https://app.sessions.blue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions.</a><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/37170779926/in/photolist-YCDXRY-YGQe78-YEfhn7-Yjnwxq-YGQmZx-2aqd4QG-YVunTn-2bN72eX-2bN72qP-XFFFci-2aqd5AE-YVty18-2iMQkNC-R3VidA-2aqd5tf-2bN72ye-7LUXd9-xrz58M-e3Vdto-2mHZEZg-2mJ8dVJ-2bN71WT-2aqd4XL-2aqd55E-2c5F39E-2c5F32A-2aqd4GW-2aqd5fE-2jiBXfa-fyAB44-2mHZspg-F8oZ7z-2jX3aET-8ysYp7-GDJbyh-24MtLuk-222uX1C-222uWWE-8ypVdn-F8oYyk-GDJbfw-24MtFGp-GDJbYL-23qkRWr-2nrTkiN-kU6s16-222uX5A-F8oVPT-222uTTf-USPtiJ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr.</a>

Sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson on the need for 'angry optimism'

Sarah Deer, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma and a professor at the University of Kansas, discusses the recent Supreme Court decision in Brackeen v. Haaland, which upheld ICWA, and explores the future of the federal law.

In Berkeley Talks episode 192, Sarah Deer, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma and a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, discusses the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a federal law passed in 1978 that aims to keep Native children in their families and communities. She also talks about the recent Supreme Court decision in Brackeen v. Haaland, which upheld ICWA, and explores the future of ICWA.&nbsp;“I want to begin by just talking about why ICWA was passed, and it has to do with a very tragic history in the United States of removing children from Native homes,” said Deer, chief justice for the Prairie Island Indian Community Court of Appeals, at a UC Berkeley event in December 2023.&nbsp;“This issue really became a profound harm to Native people during the boarding school era, in which the policy of the federal government was to remove children from their Native homes and send them to boarding schools, sometimes thousands of miles away. At these boarding schools, the attempt was to civilize — so-called 'civilize' — Indian children, which was really a euphemism for destroying their identity.”&nbsp;Later in the talk, she continued, “We still see a need for ICWA because we still see a higher percentage of Native children being placed in out-of-home care. There may be a variety of reasons for that, but it took over a century to damage the relationship between Native children and their communities.”This Dec. 8 event was sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Joseph A. Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues, part of the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues. Its co-sponsors were the Center for Race and Gender; Native American Student Development; and the Native American Law Student Association.<a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/03/08/berkeley-talks-indian-child-welfare-act" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts).<a href="https://www.sessions.blue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions.</a>Photo courtesy of Sarah Deer.

The future of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)

"You can’t throw up your hands and walk away," said Sotomayor at a UC Berkeley event on Jan. 29. "That’s not a choice. That’s abdication. That’s giving up."

In&nbsp;Berkeley Talks&nbsp;episode 191, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor talks about getting up every morning ready to fight for what she believes in, how she finds ways to work with justices whose views differ wildly from her own and what she looks for in a clerk (hint: It’s not only brilliance).“I’m in my 44th year as a law professor,” said Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinksy, who was in discussion with Sotomayor for UC Berkeley’s annual Herma Hill Kay Memorial Lecture on Jan. 29. “I’m teaching constitutional law this semester. I have to say that I’ve never seen some of my students as discouraged as they are now about the Supreme Court and about the Constitution. What should I say to them?”“What choice do you have but to fight the good fight?” Sotomayor responded. “You can’t throw up your hands and walk away. That’s not a choice. That’s abdication. That’s giving up.“How can you look at the heroes like Thurgood Marshall, like the freedom fighters, who went to lunch counters and got beat up? To men like John Lewis, who marched over a bridge and had his head busted open? How can you look at those people and say that you’re entitled to despair? You’re not. I’m not.“Change never happens on its own. Change happens because people care about moving the arc of the universe towards justice. And it can take time, and it can take frustration.”<a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/02/23/berkeley-talks-supreme-court-justice-sonia-sotomayor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu).Photo by Philip Pacheco.<a href="https://www.sessions.blue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions.</a><a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/us-supreme-court-justice-sonia-sotomayor-offers-candid-insights-during-visit-to-berkeley-law/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more about Sotomayor’s lecture on Berkeley Law’s website.</a>

Justice Sonia Sotomayor on fighting the good fight

Journalist and UC Berkeley alumnus Vincent Bevins discusses mass protests around the world — from Egypt to Hong Kong to Brazil — and how each had a different outcome than what protesters asked for.

In Berkeley Talks episode 190, journalist and UC Berkeley alumnus Vincent Bevins discusses mass protests around the world — from Egypt to Hong Kong to Brazil — and how each had a different outcome than what protesters asked for.&nbsp;“From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in mass protests than at any other point in human history,” said Bevins, author of the 2023 book, If We Burn. “These protests were often experienced as a euphoric victory at the moment of the eruption. But then, after a lot of the foreign journalists, like me, have left (the countries), and we look at what actually happened, the outcome was very different than what was originally expected or indeed hoped for.”For his book, Bevins interviewed more than 200 people in 12 countries, all of whom were a part of the uprisings, whether they put the protests together or responded to them as government officials or lived through them.&nbsp;In closing, he said, “When you properly want to restructure the system or make real problems for powerful forces, the counterattack is going to come.”And, according to thinkers from around the world Bevins spoke to, including Berkeley sociology Professor Cihan Tuğal, instead of putting together an organization during an uprising, protesters should build in the off-season.“Build real structures that can allow human beings that want to reshape the world in the same way to act together in the moment of the uprising," said Bevins, "because it’s very difficult to put together an organization&nbsp;in&nbsp;the uprising.”This talk, recorded in October 2023, was moderated by Daniel Aldana Cohen, assistant professor of sociology at Berkeley and director of the Socio-Spacial Climate Collaborative, or (SC)2. The event was co-sponsored by (SC)2 and Social Science Matrix.<a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/02/09/berkeley-talks-journalist-vincent-bevins-mass-protests" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu).Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy via Flickr.<a href="https://www.sessions.blue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions.</a>

Why so many recent uprisings have backfired

Harvard Professor Daniel Ziblatt, co-author of "How Democracies Die," discusses how Americans need to do the work of making the U.S. political system more democratic through reforms that ensure that electoral majorities can actually govern.

In Berkeley Talks episode 189, Harvard Professor Daniel Ziblatt discusses how Americans need to do the work of making the U.S. political system more democratic through reforms that ensure that electoral majorities can actually govern.“If you're going to have a first-past-the-post electoral system, as we have in the United States, or one side wins and another side loses, then those with the most votes should prevail over those with fewer votes in determining who holds political office,” said Ziblatt, co-author How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority. “No theory of liberal democracy can justify any other outcome. Put differently, office holding should reflect how voters vote.”&nbsp;This Dec. 6, 2023 talk was presented by <a href="https://gradlectures.berkeley.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures</a> as part of the <a href="https://gradlectures.berkeley.edu/series/jefferson/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jefferson Memorial Lecture series</a>.<a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/01/26/berkeley-talks-american-democracy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Listen to the episode and read the transcript on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts).<a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/person-holding-white-and-blue-round-plastic-container-BzZ6aI5_AYs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Photo by Manny Becerra via Unsplash.</a><a href="https://www.sessions.blue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions.</a>

American democracy and the crisis of majority rule

"I think we should charge toward the conversations in these hard times, precisely because there are opportunities to learn so much," said Berkeley Journalism Dean Geeta Anand, who joined in conversation with a panel of scholars on Jan. 10.

In&nbsp;Berkeley Talks&nbsp;episode 188, a panel of scholars discusses free speech on university campuses — where things stand today, what obligation campus leaders have to respond to conflicts involving speech and the need for students to feel safe when expressing their own views."Issues of free speech on campus have been there as long as there have been universities," began Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky at a UC Berkeley event on Jan. 10. "There's no doubt that since Oct. 7, universities across the country, including here at Berkeley, face enormously difficult issues with regard to freedom of speech.""Especially in these times where, and especially with this (Israel-Hamas) war, where people are feeling so hurt by words, and arguing that words or phrases mean you're anti-Semitic or Islamophobic, it's really challenging," said Berkeley Journalism Dean Geeta Anand. "The temptation when people are so hurt and in so much pain is to run from it."But in fact, I think we should do the exact opposite. … At times, those are the moments where people will actually want to learn, and need to learn, and listen."So I think we should charge toward the conversations in these hard times, precisely because there are opportunities to learn so much. Because … when people make this demand or that demand, they're often expressing a need to be heard and a need to have a voice in what's happening."Panelists in this discussion included:<ul><li>Geeta Anand, dean of Berkeley Journalism</li><li>Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney, ACLU; adjunct professor, NYU School of Law</li><li>Howard Gillman, chancellor and professor of law, UC Irvine</li><li>Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law (moderator)</li></ul>This discussion is part of the Berkeley Law Conversations series.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/news/berkeley-law-conversations-free-speech-and-community-on-campus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Watch a video of the conversation and learn more about the speakers on Berkeley Law’s website.</a><a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/01/12/berkeley-talks-free-speech-on-campus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News</a> (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts).<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isreali_and_Palestinian_Flags_at_Pro-Palestinian_Protest.jpg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Photo by Kefr4000 via Wikimedia Commons</a>.<a href="sessions.blue" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Music by Blue Dot Sessions</a>.

Free speech on campus in times of great division

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