IDEAS IN ACTION | USC's Podcast Series

Thousands of new homes and businesses will be built to replace the ones that were incinerated by the Los Angeles County fires this month. If done properly, the rebuilding could create more resilient communities. However, if done poorly the structures will be tomorrow's fire fuel. Join a panel of experts to learn the right — and wrong — ways to rebuild L.A. The panelists are:  Christopher Boone, USC Price Dean and Director of USC Urban Futures. Santina Contreras, USC Price Assistant Professor of Environmental Planning. Richard Green, Chair, USC Price Wilbur H. Smith III Department of Real Estate Development. William Deverell, Historian and Co-Director of The West on Fire. With the moderator, Sarah Pilla, Climate Reporter for Spectrum News 1.

Authors and creators will discuss the role of TV in society historically and today, including connections to politics, queer spectatorship, and representations of race, class, and gender. David Craig is a Clinical Professor of Communication and director of the Global Media and Communication program at USC. An expert in Hollywood, Chinese, and social media industries; a television historian; an Emmy-nominated producer and television executive; and a pioneer in the field of Creator Studies at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his most recent books is Apocalypse Television How The Day After Helped End the Cold War. Anthony Sparks is showrunner, head writer, and executive producer of the TV drama, Queen Sugar, created by Ava DuVernay and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey and writer/producer for the Iron Mike series on Hulu. A former cast member of Broadway hit STOMP, he holds three degrees from USC (BFA, MA, and Ph.D.), where he studied Theatre, Film, Anthropology, and American History. Karen Tongson is the author of Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes Us, Why Karen Carpenter Matters (one of Pitchfork's best music books of 2019), and Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries. In 2019, she was awarded Lambda Literary's Jeanne Cordova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction. She directs the Mellon-funded Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race, and Public Culture at USC, where she is also Chair and professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies and professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity.  Moderator: Tara McPherson is the HMH Foundation Endowed Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and director of the Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study. She is author of Feminist in a Software Lab and Reconstructing Dixie, co-editor of Hop on Pop and Transmedia Frictions, and editor of Digital Youth, Innovation and the Unexpected. She was founding editor of the pioneering multimedia journal Vectors and the lead PI of the online platform Scalar. She has received funding from the Mellon, Ford, Annenberg, and MacArthur foundations, as well as from the NEH.

Experts on electoral politics, political strategy, economic development, and immigration will have a wide-ranging discussion on the 2024 election and the systems that influence and inform voter beliefs and engagement. Brett Carter is an assistant professor of Political Science and International Relations at USC and a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is the author of Propaganda in Autocracies: Institutions, Information, and the Politics of Belief, and his work has been featured by the New York Times, The Economist, and NPR's Radio Lab, among others. Elizabeth Currid-Halkett is the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and professor of Public Policy at USC. A recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, she holds the Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the Library of Congress. Currid-Halkett is the author of four books, including most recently The Overlooked Americans. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and The New Yorker. Roberto A. Suro holds a joint appointment as a professor at USC Annenberg and the USC Price School of Public Policy. He is a long-time journalists' TIME, New York Times, Washington Post and a specialist on immigration and the Latino population. He was awarded a Berlin Prize for his scholarship on immigration and was the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at the American Academy in Berlin in 2019. Moderator: Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at USC, where he directs the Equity Research Institute and holds the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC. A member of the California Governor's Council of Economic Advisors and the California Racial Equity Commission, his most recent book is Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter, co-authored with Chris Benner. Forthcoming in 2024 is Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future, also co-authored with Chris Benner ·  

A diverse panel of experts will shed light on how individuals and communities have stood against oppression and persecution during World War II, the civil rights movement, and in struggles for social justice today. Wolf Gruner is the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, a professor of History, and Founding Director of the Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research at USC. He is an appointed member of the Academic Committee at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum since 2017. He is the author of eleven books, among them the prize-winning The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses. His new book, Resisters. How Ordinary Jews fought Hitler's Persecution, is a National Jewish Book Award finalist. Susan H. Kamei, the managing director of the Spatial Sciences Institute, a professor of History, and author of When Can We Go Back to America? Voices of Japanese American Incarceration during World War II, is recognized as a leading scholar and educator on our country's unjustified wartime imprisonment of more than 125,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, solely on the basis of their race. A descendant of incarcerees, she draws upon personal and community stories to convey the continuing relevance of this tragic episode in our history to contemporary issues of racial identity, immigration, and citizenship, and today's threat to civil liberties. Hajar Yazdiha is an assistant professor of Sociology at USC, faculty affiliate of the USC Equity Research Institute, and author of the book, The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. A public scholar whose writing and research has been featured in the New York Times, TIME Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, The Hill, and The Grio, Hajar researches the politics of inclusion and exclusion, examining the forces that bring us together and keep us apart as we work to forge collective futures.  Moderator: Allissa V. Richardson is an associate professor of journalism at USC's Annenberg School and the founding director of the USC Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab. The award-winning journalism instructor, scholar, and author studies how marginalized communities use mobile and social media to produce innovative forms of journalism, especially in times of crisis. Richardson's best-selling book, Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism, explores the lives of 15 mobile journalist-activists who documented the Black Lives Matter movement using only smartphones and Twitter.

Panelists will offer a wide array of perspectives on acting, scenic design, playwriting, diversity in theatre, theatrical institutions, and possibilities for a more equitable and inclusive theatre world. Sharon Marie Carnicke, author of Dynamic Acting through Active Analysis and Stanislavsky in Focus, is an internationally acclaimed expert on acting for stage and screen. Her award-winning translations of Chekhov’s plays have been produced nationally. Her other books include Checking out Chekhov and Reframing Screen Performance. She is a professor of Dramatic Arts and Slavic Languages and Literatures at USC and founder of the Stanislavsky Institute for the 21st Century. Snehal Desai is the artistic director of Center Theatre Group, one of the largest theatre companies in the nation. Previously, he was producing artistic director of East West Players. A Soros Fellow and the recipient of a Tanne Award, Snehal was the Inaugural Recipient of the Drama League’s Classical Directing Fellowship. He has served on the boards of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, Theatre Communications Group, and currently serves on the board of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. Snehal was on the faculty of USC’s graduate program in Arts Leadership and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Rena Heinrich is an associate professor of Theatre Practice at USC. Her book, Race and Role: The Mixed-Race Asian Experience in American Drama, traces the shifting identities of multiracial Asian figures in theater from the late-nineteenth century to the present day and exposes the absurd tenacity with which society clings to a tenuous racial scaffolding. She is a contributor to Shape Shifters: Journeys Across Terrains of Race and Identity and The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. Maureen Weiss is a performance designer and scenic investigator who has worked in all aspects of theatre, design, and art for the past 25 years. Her work has been seen internationally, and was honored at the Prague Quadrennial in 2023. As a designer, her work has been seen nationally, as well as locally in Los Angeles at The Getty Villa, The Latino Theater Company, The International City Theatre, and 18th Street Arts Center. Maureen is the co-author of Scene Shift: U.S. Set Designers in Conversation, with Sibyl Wickersheimer, which inspired an exhibition at the USC Fisher Museum of Art. She was an associate professor of Performance Design at Alfred University before coming to Los Angeles City College in Fall 2023.  Moderator: Luis Alfaro is a Chicano playwright born and raised in downtown Los Angeles and an associate professor of Dramatic Writing and director of the MFA Dramatic Writing Program at USC. His fellowships include the MacArthur Foundation; United States Artists; Ford Foundation; Joyce Foundation; Mellon Foundation & the PEN America Award for a Master Dramatist. His plays, including The Travelers, Electricidad, Oedipus El Rey, and Mojada, have been seen throughout the United States, Latin America, Canada, and Europe. 

Award-winning scholars on Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism will discuss the role of religion in public settings and spaces and the relationships between religion and culture, politics, and identity. Sherman Jackson is the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture and professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. He focuses on pre-modern Islamic law and theology with an emphasis on bringing them into robust and synergistic conversation with the realities of the modern world, including (if not especially) America. He is author of several books, his most recent being The Islamic Secular. Duncan Ryuken Williams is a professor of Religion and the Director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture at USC. Williams’ monographs include American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War, the winner of the 2022 Grawemeyer Religion Award and a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and The Other Side of Zen. He is also the editor of seven volumes on race and American belonging or Buddhist studies including Hapa Japan, Issei Buddhism in the Americas, American Buddhism, and Buddhism and Ecology. Diane Winston holds the Knight Chair in Religion and Media at USC. Her new book is Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan's Evangelical Vision. A scholar as well as a journalist, Winston’s research centers on white American evangelicals as well as religion and media. Moderator: Varun Soni is the Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at USC.

From California's wine country to the Panama Canal to Owen's Lake and the LA River, this provocative panel will explore placemaking and the land that we share, looking at issues related to labor, race, gender, sustainability, and more. Joan Flores-Villalobos is an assistant professor of History at USC whose work focuses on histories of gender, race, and diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her first book, The Silver Women: How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal, focuses on the West Indian women who travelled to Panama and made the canal construction possible by providing the indispensable everyday labor of social reproduction.  Julia Ornelas-Higdon is an associate professor of History at California State University, Channel Islands, whose research and teaching focus on the intersections of race, agriculture, and labor histories. Her book, The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769-1920, explores California's 19th century wine industry as a site of conquest and racialization.  Alex Robinson is a landscape architect, researcher, and associate professor in USC's Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program whose work seeks to reinvent our most consequential anthropogenic landscapes through collective authorship, multidisciplinary tools, and community engagement. His book, The Spoils of Dust: Reinventing the Lake that Made Los Angeles, examines the unlikely reinvention of Owens Lake by the city that dried it. Moderator: William Deverell is director of the Huntington-USC Institute of California and the West and Divisional Dean of Social Sciences at USC. He is the author of numerous studies of the 19th and 20th century American West, including To Bind Up the Nation's Wounds: The American West After the Civil War and Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past.

The new book Dis...Miss Gender? features a bold mix of photographs and short essays in which artists, writers, and theorists celebrate the rapidly evolving world of gender. The book's editor and several contributors will discuss intersectionality, queer thought, fourth-wave feminism, and more.  Tiffany E. Barber is a prize-winning, internationally-recognized scholar, curator, and critic whose work focuses on artists of the Black diaspora working in the United States and the broader Atlantic world whose writing and commentary appears in top-tier academic journals, popular media outlets, and award-winning documentaries. She is assistant professor of African American Art at UCLA and the recipient of the Smithsonian's 2022 National Portrait Gallery Director's Essay Prize. Anne Bray, editor of Dis...Miss Gender?, works at the intersection of public space and media art as a hybrid artist and director of the nonprofit public arts organization, LA Freewaves. Engagement with edgy, demanding, clarifying art by a broad public is Bray's mission. As a lecturer, she taught graduate seminars for 25 years in the new genre arts at Claremont plus media art and public art at USC. Her recent awards include the Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Fellowship, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Cultural Trailblazer award, NEA Our Town grant, and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation grant.  Amelia Jones is Robert A. Day Professor and Vice Dean at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Recent publications include the catalogue Queer Communion: Ron Athey, co-edited with Andy Campbell, and In Between Subjects: A Critical Genealogy of Queer Performance. She is currently writing a book entitled Cultural Capitalism, which addresses the structural racism and neoliberalism of the twenty-first century art world and university, as well as organizing a survey exhibition of the work of Ken Gonzales-Day. Young Joon Kwak is an L.A.-based multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work spans sculpture, performance, video, sound, and community-based collaborations. They are founder of Mutant Salon and lead performer in the electronic-dance-noise band Xina Xurner. They received an MFA from USC, an MA in Humanities from University of Chicago, and a BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They are Visiting Faculty at California Institute of the Arts.  Moderator: Holly Willis is the Chair of the Media Arts + Practice Division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and co-director of the AI for Media & Storytelling (AIMS) initiative of the USC Center for Generative AI and Society. As a hybrid scholar/practitioner, she studies reconfigurations of cinema and experimental media and integrates critical theory and media production using video, still images, and sound as forms of critical making. 

Authors, artists, and activists will share how film, music, public art, and other art practices can help build communities and imagine new futures. Ben Caldwell is an arts educator, independent filmmaker, and creator of the KAOS Network, whose goal is to be the bridge that connects South LA communities with the new technology of the 21st century as a vanguard in all the art forms. Caldwell is the co-author and subject of KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell.  Robeson Taj Frazier is a writer, associate professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and director of the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg (IDEA). He is the author of The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination, producer of the documentary film It's Yours: A Story About Hip Hop and the Internet, and host of the PBS Digital Studios production, Hip Hop and the Metaverse. Jonathan Leal is an assistant professor of English at USC. Originally from the Rio Grande Valley, the South Texas region located at the border of the U.S. and Mexico, and now based in Los Angeles, the Latino author, composer, and scholar creates writing, music, and integrative arts projects that amplify creative resistances to bordered life. He is the author of Dreams in Double Time: On Race, Freedom, and Bebop, co-editor of Cybermedia: Explorations in Science, Sound, and Vision, and co-creator of numerous musical projects, including, most recently, After Now. Brettany Shannon, co-author of Co-Creative Placekeeping in Los Angeles: Artists and Communities Working Together, is an urban scholar researching the intersection of art, technology, public space, and community participation. Shannon is the co-editor of Planning for AuthentiCITIES and is an adjunct professor at California State Polytechnic Institute, Pomona; California State University, Northridge; and Woodbury University. Moderator: Annette Kim is associate professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy and affiliated faculty at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Her books include Sidewalk City: Re-Mapping Public Space in Ho Chi Minh City and Learning to be Capitalists: Entrepreneurs in Vietnam's Transition Economy. Her current research project, ethniCITY, remaps how race and ethnicity shapes spatial patterns in Los Angeles. She founded and directs SLAB (USC's Spacial Analysis Lab) an helped found the RAP collective about race, arts, and placemaking.

How can we live long and live well, too? Experts on aging will discuss the individual and societal challenges as well as gifts of longevity from legal, health, and practical perspectives, as well as share advice on preparing for a safe and healthy old age.  M.T. Connolly, author of The Measure of Our Age: Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and Meaning Later in Life, is a leading elder justice expert who won a MacArthur Fellowship for her work. Her book’s compelling stories reveal longevity’s abundant challenges and gifts, showing how unprepared we are for both—as individuals, families, and a society. Connolly founded the Justice Department’s Elder Justice Initiative, was architect of the federal Elder Justice Act, and is part of the USC Center for Elder Justice.  Valter Longo is the Edna Jones Professor in Gerontology at USC, director of the USC Longevity Institute, and group leader at the IFOM cancer research institute in Milan, Italy. He is the author of The Longevity Diet. The culmination of 25 years of global research on aging, nutrition, and disease, this unique combination of an easy-to-follow “everyday” diet and short periods of fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) provides a key to living to a healthy old age. Laura Mosqueda is a professor of Family Medicine and Geriatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a widely respected authority on the care of older adults and people who are underserved. Since joining Keck, her roles have included Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, Associate Dean of Primary Care, and Dean. She is the principal investigator of two studies funded by the National Institute on Aging to understand the causes, consequences, and prevention of abuse of people with dementia. As a clinician, researcher, administrator, and educator, she has a unique perspective that is informed by her extensive experiences in the community. Paolina Milana is the author of several books, two of which are award-winning memoirs. Paolina is first-generation Sicilian-American and was primary caregiver to her mother and sister, both diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Paolina began her career as a features writer for a daily newspaper, then crossed over into public relations and marketing, succeeding as a communications executive. Paolina is the Founder of Madness to Magic Life & Book Coaching. She most recently spearheaded The Caregiver Chronicles, a collaborative book project with 22 family caregivers, each of whom authored a chapter. She is the USC Family Caregivers Support Center community engagement specialist.  Moderator: Sean P. Curran is a professor and James Birren Chair of Gerontology who serves as the Vice Dean of USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and leads a research program focused under understanding the connection between genes and diet in maintaining health across the lifespan. He established the Los Angeles Aging Research Alliance (LAARA) and co-founded the Geroscience Los Angeles Meeting (GLAM). He is the director of the Geroscience PhD program and is the co-director of the GEMSTEM program that provides research training and professionalization to undergraduate researchers interested in studying aging.

Since 9/11, Muslims have occupied the U.S. public and political spheres as threats to national security, as victims of hate crimes, as targets of torture and war, and as a community to be included in diversity initiatives. This insightful panel will explore Muslim inclusion and representation in a variety of contexts, including education, politics, and the entertainment industry. Shafiqa Ahmadi is an associate professor of Clinical Education at the Rossier School of Education and the co-director for USC's Center for Education, Identity, and Social Justice. She is an expert on diversity and legal protection of underrepresented students, including female Muslims, and is the co-editor of Islamophobia in Higher Education: Combating Discrimination and Creating Understanding. Maytha Alhassen holds a PhD in American Studies and Ethnicity from USC. She is the writer of the report, Haqq and Hollywood: Illuminating 100 Years of Muslim Tropes and How to Transform Them, and producer and writer of the Golden Globe and Peabody­–winning Hulu series Ramy. Evelyn Alsultany is the author of Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion and Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11. She is an associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC, has served as a consultant for Hollywood studios, and co-authored the Obeidi-Alsultany Test with criteria to help Hollywood improve representations of Muslims. Hajar Yazdiha is an assistant professor of Sociology, faculty affiliate of the Equity Research Institute, and a 2022–23 Ford Foundation Fellow at the USC Dornsife School of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. She is an expert on the racial politics of inclusion and exclusion and is the author of The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. Moderator: Varun Soni is the Dean of Religious Life at USC, University Fellow at USC Annenberg's Center on Public Diplomacy, and an adjunct professor at the USC School of Religion. His writings have appeared in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Crosscurrents, Jewish Journal, and Harvard Divinity Bulletin.

In light of the growing divisions among Americans, this panel will address the intersection of culture and politics in society, how we can better understand divisiveness, and find common ground. Geoffrey Cowan is an award-winning writer, television producer, and University Professor and Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He is the author of several books, including Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary, See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence on Television, and The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer. Elizabeth Currid-Halkett is the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and professor of Public Policy at the USC Price School of Public Policy, whose research focuses on arts and culture, the American consumer economy, and the role of cultural capital in geographic and class divides. She is the author of several books, including The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class and The Overlooked Americans: The Resilience of Our Rural Towns and What It Means for Our Country (forthcoming). Jeffery Jenkins is the Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law, Maria B. Crutcher Professor of Citizenship and Democratic Values, and director of the Political Institutions and Political Economy (PIPE) Collaborative at USC. His book, Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968, shows how the GOP evolved from a biracial party into one dominated by whites, with lessons that inform today's politics. Moderator: Robert Shrum is the director of the Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. A legendary political strategist, he was once described as “the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party,” by The Atlantic Monthly. 

Comedy can be seen and experienced in many forms—onstage, on screens, and even in hospitals. Like laughter, its effects are contagious and its power spills over onto all of us. This panel of experts, comedians, and expert comedians will talk about the history of comedy and its potential to create change. Wayne Federman is a stand-up comic, actor, author, comedy writer, professor, and Emmy-winning producer. He has appeared multiple times on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon and has his own stand-up special on Comedy Central. He is the author of the bestselling book, The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle, and teaches the history of stand-up comedy at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. Lanita Jacobs (joining remotely) is an associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Anthropology at USC. Her fieldwork across sites of hair care, hospitals, and humor, asks how speakers construct a sense of themselves as individuals and community members without forgetting the socio-political stakes animating their lives. She is the author of To Be Real: Truth and Racial Authenticity in African American Standup Comedy. Kristina Wong is a performance artist, comedian, writer, and elected representative in Koreatown Los Angeles. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she founded the Auntie Sewing Squad, a national network of volunteers sewing masks for vulnerable communities. Their work inspired the book, The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice. Wong's show, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, is a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and winner of the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Solo Performance. Moderator: Zachary Steel is an assistant professor of Theatre Practice and director of Comedy at USC. He has taught at the Clown School, is currently teaching at the Idiot Workshop, and is director of USC Comic+Care, a program that utilizes the practice of various comedy disciplines to strengthen community and support the healing process. USC Comic+Care has partnered with LAC+USC, CHLA, Norris Cancer Center, The Children's Bureau, and other healthcare organizations.

California, the nation's leader in clean energy and climate policies, has set an ambitious goal to achieve net zero carbon pollution by 2045. But what will it take? How might the policies affect the availability, reliability, and price of power consumption? This panel will address the political, technological, economic, as well as human and societal factors that play into our energy system and explore what must do to achieve our energy goals. Moderator: Genevieve Giuliano is a Distinguished Professor and the Margaret and John Ferraro Chair in Effective Local Government at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. She is the former director of the USC METRANS Transportation Consortium and, at the state level, she is working with Caltrans and CARB on the implementation of the California Sustainable Freight Action Plan. Najmedin Meshkati is a professor of Civil/Environmental Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, and International Relations at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. For the past 35 years, he has been teaching and conducting research on risk reduction and reliability enhancement of complex technological systems, including nuclear power. Gale Sinatra is the author of Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It. She is a professor of Psychology and the Stephen H. Crocker Professor of Education at the USC Rossier School of Education. Her areas of expertise include climate science education and the public understanding of science.

Increasing rents and home prices, gentrification, and historic inequities have contributed to a major housing crisis in Los Angeles. Yet, L.A. has a rich residential legacy that includes innovative housing design, successful housing developments, and leadership in historical preservation. Panelists will draw upon their interrelated recent books on housing, architecture, and preservation to offer compelling approaches to help address L.A.'s housing crisis. Frances Anderton covers Los Angeles design and architecture in print, broadcast media, and public events. She is the author of Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles and co-producer of the short film, 40 Years of Building Community. For many years, Anderton hosted the radio show, DnA: Design and Architecture, on KCRW. She is adjunct faculty at the USC School of Architecture. Ken Bernstein is a Principal City Planner for the Los Angeles Department of City Planning where he directs L.A.'s historic preservation policies. He serves as lead staff member for the city's Cultural Heritage Commission and oversaw the completion of SurveyLA, a multi-year citywide survey of historical resources. He is adjunct faculty at the USC Price School of Public Policy and the author of Preserving Los Angeles: How Historic Places Can Transform America's Cities. Liz Falletta is a professor of Architectural and Urban Design, Vice Chair of Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis, and faculty director of the Executive Master of Urban Planning at the USC Price School of Public Policy. She is the author of By Right, By Design: Housing Development vs. Housing Design in Los Angeles, an interdisciplinary study of significant Los Angeles housing design precedents and developments that offers insights for future housing production in L.A. and beyond. Moderator: Todd Gish is an urban designer, licensed architect, and adjunct professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy. He is a published author on planning and architectural subjects (especially housing) and trained historian with extensive expertise in the research and analysis of buildings, sites, land uses, and urban environments.

Academics, artists, and authors will have a wide-ranging conversation exploring gender, sexuality, queerness, and the body in art, culture, fashion, and society. Topics will include, but not be limited to, an inside look at being a professional dominatrix, queer performance art and theory, and fabulousness as resistance. Chris Belcher is a writer, professor, book coach, and assistant professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Writing at USC. Under her working name, Natalie West, she edited the acclaimed anthology We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival. Her debut memoir, Pretty Baby, is a searing, darkly funny account of being a lesbian and professional dominatrix with male clients that upends ideas about desire, class, and power. Amelia Jones is Robert A. Day Professor and Vice Dean of Faculty and Research at the USC Roski School of Art & Design and curator and scholar of contemporary art, performance, and feminist/sexuality studies. Jones's most recent book, Between Subjects: A Critical Genealogy of Queer Performance, explores the history of performance art and queer theory since the 1950s from a queer feminist point of view. madison moore is an artist-scholar, DJ, and assistant professor of Critical Studies at the USC Roski School of Art & Design who is broadly invested in the aesthetic, sonic, and spatial strategies queer and trans people of color use to survive and thrive. madison's first book, Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric, offers a cultural analysis of fabulousness as a practice of resistance. madison has performed internationally at a range of nightclubs, parties, and art institutions. Moderator: Karen Tongson is Chair and professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, as well as professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC, where she also directs the Mellon-funded Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture. Her books include Why Karen Carpenter Matters and Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries.

Growing up has never been easy, and today's children and young adults must also face modern anxieties stemming from the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, threat of mass shootings, pressures of social media, and looming specter of climate change. Experts will discuss factors that are exacerbating the mental-health struggles of youth today and how we can better support their wellness and resilience. Broderick Leaks is the Vice Chair for Student Mental Health, director of Counseling and Mental Health, and licensed clinical psychologist and clinical associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. As a psychologist, Leaks specializes in the treatment of anxiety and panic disorders, OCD, stress management, ethnic minority identity development, and the integration of psychology and spirituality. Cat Moore is the director of Belonging at USC. She is a speaker, writer, and activist who has advised leaders from corporate, civic, and non-profit sectors on how to create cultures of belonging, and builds collective power with local and national coalitions to overcome loneliness. Linda Yaron Weston is a lecturer on Physical Education and Mind Body Health at USC. With twenty years of classroom experience teaching academic and well-being courses at the high school and college level, her books include Teaching Resilience and Mental Health Across the Curriculum and Mindfulness for Young Adults: Tools to Thrive in School and Life. Moderator: Quade French is the Associate Dean and Chief Diversity Officer of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences and senior director of consultation and training at USC Campus Wellbeing & Education. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and expert on workplace culture, equity, inclusion, belonging, and wellbeing.

This discussion will explore a wide range of immigrant stories and experiences, including Vietnamese refugee girlhood, community-building for Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles, and the role of Black migrant women's labor in the construction of the Panama Canal. Lan Duong is associate professor in Cinema and Media Studies at USC. She is the author of Treacherous Subjects: Gender, Culture, and Trans-Vietnamese Feminism and co-writer of Departures: An Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies. Her debut collection of poetry, Nothing Follows, is forthcoming (April 2023). Joan Flores-Villalobos is an assistant professor of History at USC and author of The Silver Women: How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal. Her work focuses on gender, empire, race, and migration in Latin America and the Caribbean and has received support from the Ford Foundation and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars. Natalia Molina is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC whose research explores the interconnected histories of race, place, gender, culture, and citizenship. She is the author of several books, including How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts and, most recently, Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community. Moderator: Viet Thanh Nguyen is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer, The Committed, The Refugees, and Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War. He is the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and a professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at USC. He is also a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations.

This panel will include a variety of perspectives on neurodiversity and developmental disabilities, from autism to schizophrenia. Experts will share their research as well as personal experiences and discuss how to support neurodiverse children and adults and create a more equitable and inclusive society. Sneha Kohli Mathur is the author of Understanding the Lived Experiences of Autistic Adults and a lecturer of Applied Behavior Analysis and Psychology at USC. Considering herself an ally to the disAbility and Autism communities, she started Spectrum Success to support individuals on the autism spectrum while educating neurotypical people on how to create a socially inclusive community. Elyn Saks is the Associate Dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, professor of Psychology, and professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the USC Gould School of Law, as well as the director of the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics. Her memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, describes her struggles with schizophrenia and how she has managed to craft a good life for herself in the face of a dire prognosis. Olga Solomon is an assistant professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine and Director of Community Education at the USC University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Since 2003 she has served as an advisory board member for the Innovative Technology for Autism Initiative (ITA) of Cure Autism Now and Autism Speaks foundations. Moderator: Linsey Grunes is assistant professor of occupational therapy at USC and primarily provides instruction in the foundations of pediatric occupational therapy practice. Her teaching contributions also include the development of a course on autism and neurodiversity for the occupational science minor program. Dr. Grunes has 15+ years of clinical experience in various pediatric settings and has served in various leadership and mentoring roles. In her teaching and clinical work, she is a strong advocate for neurodiversity-affirming practices, including forming strong partnerships with neurodiverse communities to guide priorities and outcomes.

Access to safe drinking water is a pressing global issue, with approximately 2 billion people currently lacking consistent access to this fundamental resource — a sobering statistic that is projected to soar to 5 billion by 2050. We caught up with researchers Wändi Bruine de Bruin, a Provost Professor of public policy, psychology and behavioral science at the USC Price School of Public Policy and the Department of Psychology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Joshua Inwald, a USC psychology doctoral student, whose research focuses on the relationships between water safety concerns, climate change and severe weather.    

María P. Aranda is a professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, the executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging and the director of the outreach, recruitment and engagement core of the USC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. She holds a joint appointment with the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and is a psychotherapist with over 30 years of experience providing mental health services to middle-aged and older adults and their families.

The Colorado River is in crisis. Once hailed the "American Nile," the river stretches 1,450 miles and provides drinking water, irrigation, and hydroelectric power to nearly 40 million people across seven states and northern Mexico. But after decades of prolonged drought and overuse, vital reservoirs along the river are drying up. USC experts Robin Craig and Shon Hiatt discuss the far-reaching impacts of Colorado River water shortages on the region's agriculture and energy industries. Read the full story on USC News.  Robin Craig is the Robert C. Packard trustee chair in law at  USC Gould School of Law. Shon Hiatt is an associate professor of Business Administration at USC Marshall School of Business.

As we work to create a more equitable world, marginalized and underrepresented communities must be able to tell their own stories. Learn and find inspiration from BIPOC authors whose books uplift, celebrate, and amplify their communities through art, cooking, journalism, history, storytelling, and more. Panelists Jamal Jordan is a multimedia documentarian, professor, and Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Last year, he published his first book, Queer Love in Color, a collection of portraits and stories of love between people of color. He teaches multimedia storytelling at Stanford University and publishes work in spaces ranging from The Washington Post to Mic.com. He was formerly a digital storytelling editor for the New York Times. Adrienne Keene is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, an assistant professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University, and Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. She cohosts the podcast All My Relations and is the longtime author of Native Appropriations, a blog discussing representations of Native peoples in popular culture. A contributor to outlets such as Teen Vogue, the New York Times, Stanford Magazine, and Indian Country Today, her newest book is Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present. Tien Nguyen teaches food journalism at USC Annenberg. She co-authored the Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook, which focuses on fish sauce and its central role in Vietnamese American cooking and makes use of the cookbook format to tell a larger story about the legacy of war and colonialism, the Vietnamese American diasporic journey, and the critical role of culture in community building. Amara Aguilar (moderator) is a journalism professor of Professional Practice at USC Annenberg. At USC, she co-founded Annenberg Media's award-winning bilingual outlet, Dímelo, focused on serving Latinx audiences. Her first co-authored and co-edited book is Covering Latino/a/x Communities: A Guide for Journalists.  

While education is weathering attacks on Critical Race Theory, outlawed instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, and issues of inclusion, educators are working to create a more equitable educational system. Several renowned authors and educators will discuss what's at stake, offer innovative approaches to teaching and learning, and share their visions for the future of education. Christopher Emdin is the Robert A. Naslund Endowed Chair in Curriculum and Teaching and professor of Education at USC, where he also serves as director of youth engagement and community partnerships at the USC Race and Equity Center. He is the author of numerous award-winning works, including Urban Science Education for the Hip-hop Generation; the New York Times bestseller, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood and the Rest of Ya'll too; and Ratchetdemic: Reimagining Academic Excellence. Matthew Manos is the Director of Challenge-Based Learning and assistant professor of Teaching and Design Strategy at the Iovine and Young Academy. He is also the founder and managing director of verynice, a design strategy practice that gives half of its work away for free to nonprofit organizations; the author of over 30 books and toolkits on the intersection of creativity, social impact, and strategy; and chair of Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti's creative advisory board. Pedro A. Noguera is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education. An elected member of the National Academy of Education, his research focuses on the ways schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, and demographic trends locally, regionally, and globally. His latest book, A Search for Common Ground: Conversations About the Toughest Questions in K–12 Education, co-authored with Rick Hess, won the Association of American Publishers' 2022 Prose Award. In 2022, he ranked third in the nation for influence and impact by Education Week. LaVonna Blair Lewis (moderator) is the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Lewis's areas of research and professional interests focus on cultural competency and health equity. Her work has appeared in The American Journal of Public Health, Family, and Community Health; The American Journal of Health Behavior, Social Science, and Medicine; The Journal of General Internal Medicine; and other journals.

Wrapping up #USCEarthWeek, experts from a variety of fields will look at the impacts of the climate crisis and discuss ways to create a more sustainable world, including ecological design, sustainable consumption, and production, and implementing institutional change. Jennifer Bernstein is a lecturer at the Spatial Sciences Institute at USC. She studies contemporary environmentalism with a focus on inclusiveness and collaboration, and has been published in the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Conversation. She recently published her first book, SDG 12: Sustainable Consumption and Production, with co-author Robert O. Vos. Mick Dalrymple is USC's Chief Sustainability Officer. With 21 years of accomplishment in the sustainability field, he helped Arizona State University earn the #1 ranking in Sierra Magazine's Coolest Schools list and carbon neutrality six years early. He is also a produced feature film screenwriter and an author of more than 50 published articles. Alexander Robinson is a landscape architect, researcher, and scholar. As an associate professor in the Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program at USC, he researches how infrastructure can function as landscape, exploring methods to re-envision ecological function and community value. His most recent book, The Spoils of Dust: Reinventing the Lake that Made Los Angeles is a history, field analysis, and design investigation into Owens Lake. Jill Sohm (moderator) is an associate professor of Environmental Studies and director of the Environmental Studies Program at USC. She is trained as a biological oceanographer and microbial ecologist, and her research is student centered. Currently leading an initiative to expand sustainability in the USC curriculum through grants and faculty development workshops, her career is focused on educating the next generation of environmental leaders. #USCsustainability

Noted USC professors provide insight into three different neighborhoods of Los Angeles, mobilizing Latinx pasts to better understand the future and rethink our understanding of democracy, community, and political power. Panelists Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo is the Florence Everline Professor of Sociology at USC. She is a co-author of South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A., which takes a deep dive into the lives of first- and second-generation Latinx immigrants as they shape home and identity alongside their Black neighbors in South L.A., and explores the ways Latinx identity is shaped by Blackness. Natalia Molina is Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Her book, A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community, traces her grandmother's Echo Park restaurant that served as an urban anchor for a robust community and a gathering space where ethnic Mexican workers and customers connected with their patria chica (“small country”). George J. Sánchez is a professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History at USC and the 2020–2021 President of the Organization for American Historians. His book, Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy, is a love letter to a vibrant, sometimes fragmented, yet deeply interconnected metropolis that shows how people's connection to community and neighbors can transcend time and historical change. Juan D. De Lara (moderator) is the director of the Latinx and Latin American Studies Center and an associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. He is the author of Inland Shift: Race, Space, and Capital in Southern California.

Two of the foremost experts on national security will participate in an insightful discussion about the war in Ukraine. Join the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future for a conversation with retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and former Congresswoman Jane Harman. The conversation is moderated by Mike Murphy.  

Tune into a conversation with Dr. Nicole Mitchell, faculty director of the OB/GYN Diversity & Inclusion Program, exploring topics of reproductive justice, providing quality care for underrepresented patients, and the healthcare disparities that exist among Ob/Gyn, including among African American, LatinX, and the transgender patient population. 

Join USC President Carol L. Folt along with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members as we celebrate and honor women while exploring the theme "Providing Healing, Promoting Hope."

The USC Global Policy Institute, Department of Political Science and International Relations, the Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures present a crisis briefing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Listen to a distinguished panel of six experts discuss the ongoing conflict, what it means for the world and what may happen next. With Russia's invasion, negotiation talks in Belarus, the EU and NATO on standby, the U.S. on high alert and the world watching, the Ukraine-Russia conflict is at the forefront of the public mind. Speakers: USC professor and former Soviet Union expert Robert English; USC Kade Institute Director and Central Europe expert Paul Lerner; Slavic Languages Post-Doc Fellow Andrzej Brylak; European Academy of Public Diplomacy Director Katarzyna Pisarska; USC professor and Russia and Poland expert Tom Seifrid; and USC professor and human rights lawyer Steve Swerdlow.

USC professors Dr. Shaun R. Harper and Dr. Camille Gear Rich discuss the impact of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the challenges we still face today. Panelists Dr. Shaun Harper studies racial, gender, and LGBT issues in corporations, law firms, Hollywood production companies, K-12 schools, and universities. He is a Provost Professor in the USC Marshall School of Business and USC Rossier School of Education and the USC Race and Equity Center Executive Director. Dr. Camille Gear Rich's research and teaching interests include constitutional law, feminist legal theory, family law, children and the law and the First Amendment. She is Associate Provost for Faculty and Student Initiatives in the Social Sciences, and Professor of Law and Sociology at USC Gould School of Law, and co-founded USC's Diversity and Inclusion Awareness Week.

Most Americans have an aging family member, friend, neighbor, or colleague who will someday be living with memory loss — and needing help. Join experts from USC and the Alzheimer's Association for a conversation about the increasingly important role of caregivers in comprehensive Alzheimer's care for #AlzheimersAwarenessMonth. Panelists Laura Mosqueda, MD, FAAFP, AGSF, is a professor (with tenure) of Family Medicine and Geriatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She is a widely respected authority on elder abuse and care of the elderly and underserved. She is the principal investigator of an NIA-funded R01 study to understand the causes of the abuse of people with dementia and is the director of the National Center on Elder Abuse. This federally funded initiative serves as the nation's coordinating body and clearinghouse for information on research, training, best practices, news, and resources. Susan Howland is a gerontologist and the Program Director at the Alzheimer's Association, California Southland Chapter. In this position, she is responsible for the delivery of care and support programs in the organization's seven-county territory and developing the dementia capacity of health systems and community-based organizations. Susan has worked in aging and Alzheimer's disease for over 25 years and has received numerous national awards recognizing her contribution to the field. She holds a master's degree in Gerontology from the University of Southern California. Moderator Michelle Levander is the founding director of the Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg and editor-in-chief of CenterforHealthJournalism.org. The center, which she launched in 2004, partners with journalists and their newsrooms to support ambitious reporting on health policy and health conditions in underserved communities.

USC researchers are exploring a unique group: veterans outside the VA struggling with isolation, depression, PTSD and substance use. Eric Pedersen of Keck School of Medicine of USC and Jordan Davis of USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work talk about what they've learned over the past years and how to better reach veterans grappling with these issues.

Experts John Vidale, former Director of Southern California Earthquake Center and USC Dornsife Professor, and Steve Goldfarb, USC Fire Safety and Emergency Planning Specialist, speak on earthquakes—the research behind them and how we might better prepare!   Jyetbf7NtVT7MDdJKGL7

USC experts discuss how parents and guardians can maintain open communication with and support their students as they begin to navigate the college experience! Dr. Tracy Poon Tambascia is a Professor of Clinical Education in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Her areas of interest include international higher education, higher education policy, issues that affect the practice of student affairs, and minoritized student access and success in higher education. Dr. Broderick Leaks is director of counseling and mental health at USC Student Health and clinical associate professor of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences at Keck School of Medicine. As a psychologist, Leaks specializes in individual and group psychotherapy. Treatment of anxiety and panic disorders; OCD; stress management; ethnic minority identity development (particularly African American); and the integration of psychology and spirituality.

USC experts discuss their work and recent books, each highlighting a different neighborhood in L.A. and the Latinx contributions to the city's history. These three books are changing and challenging some of the historical ways Latinx L.A. has been written about. What does talking about Latinx historiography or “Latinidad” in Boyle Heights, Echo Park, and South Central LA mean? How have these communities transformed over time and how can we expect them to change in the future? And what does it mean in terms of issues around democracy, power and politics? Speakers include USC Dornsife faculty: Natalia Molina, MacArthur Foundation Fellow and Distinguished Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Florence Everline Professor of Sociology George J. Sanchez, Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity and History Manuel Pastor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity and Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change Moderated by Juan De Lara, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Director, Latinx and Latin American Studies Center.

USC has produced more Olympians, overall medalists, and gold medalists than any other U.S. university. But what has it been like to train during the pandemic for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics? What are some of the surprising ways in which the games of ancient Greece were different from the modern Olympics? What are a few of the nearly 3,000-year-old traditions that haven't changed? Listen in on this lively discussion with political science major and Olympian Tina Graudina of USC's beach volleyball team — the 2021 NCAA champions — and two USC Dornsife scholars of ancient Greece: Vincent Farenga, professor of classics and comparative literature, and Lucas Herchenroeder, associate professor (teaching) of classics. They'll be interviewed separately by USC Dornsife's new student correspondent, history and archaeology major Sean Silvia, host of “Door to Dornsife” and “Archaeologists Anonymous” on YouTube. USC Dornsife Dean Amber Miller provides the introduction. This recording is a part of the Dornsife Dialogues Series.

Juneteenth is the oldest celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. But the fight against institutionalized racism continues today. Join USC experts as they discuss critical race theory, voting rights, criminal justice reform, and the ongoing struggle for liberty and justice for all. Panelists Jody Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at USC. Armour's expertise ranges from personal injury claims to claims about the relationship between racial justice, criminal justice, and the rule of law. He studies the intersection of race and legal decision-making as well as torts and tort reform movements. Armour teaches students a diverse array of subjects, including Criminal Law, Torts, and Stereotypes and Prejudice: The Role of the Cognitive Unconscious in the Rule of Law. Alaina Morgan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at USC. Trained as a historian of the African Diaspora, Professor Morgan's research focuses on the historic utility of religion, particularly Islam, in racial liberation and anti-colonial movements of the mid-to late-twentieth-century Atlantic world. Morgan teaches classes on African American and African Diaspora History; Islam in the Americas; race and ethnicity in America; mass incarceration, discipline, and racialized punishment; Black intellectual history; and Black international movements. Christian Grose is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at USC. He is the Academic Director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, where he led a team that administered the USC Schwarzenegger Institute nonpartisan democracy grants to local election administrators to open new polling places; and he is now researching how best to improve voter access and voting rights based around this community-engaged work.

Working with the federal government and the city of Los Angeles, USC researchers have identified pathways to a zero-emissions future for the megalopolis in 25 years, a new report shows. But how do you get there from here? What are the challenges and benefits? And can L.A. become a clean-energy model for other cities? Join Sammy Roth, energy reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Lauren Faber O'Connor, city of Los Angeles' chief sustainability officer, Adam Rose, professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy, and Kelly Sanders, professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, for a lively discussion about Southern California's sustainable future.

March 2021 marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Illness, distance learning, and social isolation have turned our lives upside down. Depression rates are up among teens and young adults. How have young people fared after a year of lockdowns, remote schooling, and the disruption of social norms? Join Dean Willow Bay, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Common Sense CEO Jim Steyer for a conversation on how young people use digital devices and media to manage their mental health. The discussion will also cover a groundbreaking new research report on the mental health of today’s young adults. Additional participants include Associate Vice Provost for Student Health Dr. Sarah Van Orman and student co-moderators Josie Bullen, Abel Jaquez and Anushka Joshi.

As part of USC’s International Women’s Day 2021 celebration, USC President Carol L. Folt sits down with rising filmmaker and USC alumna Channing Godfrey Peoples for an inspiring conversation about Peoples’ career and her critically acclaimed, award-winning film, “Miss Juneteenth.” USC Cinema Dean Elizabeth Daley provides introductions.

Scientific innovation was put to the test in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, and it resulted in two vaccines in record time that are at least 94% effective in clinical trials. Now the task of vaccinating the population has begun with many skeptics fearing side effects, rushed science in its development, and political involvement. There is also a segment of the population who are generally vaccine skeptics. Join the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy and the USC Behavioral Science and Well-Being Policy Initiative for an expert discussion on how to encourage vaccine adoption. Learn more about the USC Schaeffer Center at healthpolicy.usc.edu

When COVID-19 emerged, it was a new coronavirus we knew little about. Over the past year, experts from across the globe have worked together to better fight the pandemic. Listen in as faculty experts from the Keck School of Medicine of USC discuss what we’ve learned so far about COVID-19: Paula Cannon, a microbiologist who is an expert in all the ways COVID can, and cannot, be transmitted. Susan Butler-Wu, also a microbiologist, is an expert on COVID testing. Ali Gholamrezanezhad, a radiologist who has viewed the pandemic through a unique lens: chest x-rays.

Holidays represent normalcy for children during uncertain times. With Halloween around the corner, as well as other fall celebrations, USC's Rita V. Burke, Assistant Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, offers tips for having fun without spreading or catching COVID-19.

Listen in as Caleb Finch and Axel Montagne (in conversation with Leigh Hopper from USC’s University Communications), discuss their respective research on Alzheimer’s disease, including how pollution may cause inflammation in the human body, contributing to the acceleration of dementia. Axel Montagne is an Associate Professor of Research Physiology & Neuroscience at Keck School of Medicine at USC and Assistant Director of the USC Functional Biological Imaging Core. Caleb Finch is University Professor, ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Gerontology, Biological Sciences, Anthropology, and Psychology at USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

As an undergraduate majoring in history at USC Dornsife, Tracy Walder had planned to become a teacher. Until the CIA recruited her. Not long after graduating, the former sorority sister known for dressing in pink was wearing camouflage fatigues, toting an assault rifle and hunting down Al-Qaeda as a counterterrorism field agent in the aftermath of 9/11. Returning to the U.S., she made the almost-unheard-of-transition to the FBI, where she continued to take down bad guys out of the L.A. field office. Walder sat down with USC Dornsife historian Peter Mancall, divisional dean for the humanities, to discuss her larger-than-life career as a spook — and why she left that life behind to return to her first love: teaching history. Dornsife Dialogues Join us for stimulating online forums in which leading scholars and distinguished alumni from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences share new perspectives, research-based findings and fresh insight on timely topics. The free events are open to the entire USC community and general public. https://dornsife.usc.edu/dornsifedialogues/

Listen in on the conversation with experts from USC Dornsife, USC Viterbi and the California Science Center about the NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launch. Kenneth Phillips is Curator for Aerospace Science at the California Science Center and an adjunct professor of the practice of physics and astronomy at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He’s an expert in aeronautics, space exploration and science education. Anita Sengupta is an associate professor of astronautics at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and a former engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She’s an expert in spacecraft design for interplanetary exploration and was responsible for the supersonic parachute system of the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars in 2012. Ken Nealson is an emeritus professor of Earth science at the Dornsife College. He is an expert in astrobiology, microbial life in extreme environments and the evolution of life in the universe. He led the astrobiology program at JPL, started the geobiology program at USC and is a member of the science team for the 2020 Mars mission. Garrett Reisman is a professor of astronautical engineering at the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC. He was an astronaut for NASA and conducted missions aboard the Space Shuttles Endeavor, Discovery and Atlantis as well as the International Space Station. He was also director of space operations for SpaceX and remains a senior advisor to the company.

Resources and Solutions at USC The novel coronavirus pandemic has Americans across the country fearful for their personal health and well-being, but for Asian Americans, the virus has stirred up another threat: a wave of verbal and physical attacks. While we employ social distancing to keep us safe from COV19, how do we prepare our USC community for widespread acts of individual bigotry when we reenter the world? Stronger than Hate: Resources and Solutions harnesses the power of USC’s resources in the area of hate and extremism, outlining tangible resources and real solutions to better help our community navigate the complex challenges presented by this crisis. USC Pacific Asia Museum: Bethany Montagano, PhD, Director Quade Yoo Song French, PhD Clinical Psychologist, Office of Well-being and Education, Office of the Provost USC Campus Wellbeing and Crisis Intervention: Patrick Prince, Associate Vice Provost of Threat Assessment and Management USC Price: Erroll Southers, DPPD, Director of the Safe Communities USC Shoah Foundation: Stephen Smith, PhD, Executive Director USC Department of Public Safety: Josh Voyda, Intelligence and Threat Manager USC TIX/OED: Kegan Alee-Mowad, PhD, Associate Director of Student Civil Rights, Conduct and Compliance USC Center for Work and Family Life: Linda Snouffer, Director With opening remarks by USC President Carol L. Folt.   Presented by: USC Pacific Asia Museum USC Price School -Safe Communities Institute USC Shoah Foundation OED Title IX

Why weren’t we better prepared for the COVID-19 outbreak and what can we learn from our current ordeal to be better prepared for the next pandemic? USC Dornsife’s Andrew Lakoff and Nils Gilman, Vice President of Programs at the Berggruen Institute, talks with journalist and author Mark Perry about how the U.S. did and didn’t prepare for COVID-19. Lakoff, Professor of Sociology and Divisional Dean of Social Sciences, is the author of Unprepared: Global Health in a Time of Emergency, in which he describes the challenges of properly anticipating and preparing for biological threats. Gilman previously worked as Associate Chancellor at the University of California Berkeley and as Research Director and scenario planning consultant at the Monitor Group and Global Business Network. Perry is a contributing editor at The American Conservative and writes for Politico and Foreign Policy. His latest book is titled The Pentagon’s Wars. Watch the video >> Dornsife Dialogues Join us for stimulating online forums in which leading scholars and distinguished alumni from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences share new perspectives, research-based findings and fresh insight on timely topics. https://dornsife.usc.edu/dornsifedialogues/

Helping your kids cope with the stress of quarantine while protecting your own mental health is a growing challenge for many, particularly for families hit hardest by the pandemic. Experts with the USC Center for the Changing Family discuss the impact of the pandemic on kids and families as well as solutions and strategies that parents, clinicians, and communities can use to boost family mental health. The experts are clinical psychologists Amy West and Marian Williams, law professor Clare Pastore, professor of Social Work Dorian Traube, and psychology professor Darby Saxbe, director of the Center for the Changing Family at USC Dornsife.   Dornsife Dialogues Join USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences for stimulating online forums in which leading scholars and distinguished alumni from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences share new perspectives, research-based findings and fresh insight on timely topics. Learn more at https://dornsife.usc.edu/dornsifedialogues

It's the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day. Amid COVID-19 and climate crises, USC experts discuss causes and solutions to disruption and the USC sustainability response. USC President Carol L. Folt provides an introduction, speakers include: Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Provost Professor of Public Policy, Psychology and Behavioral Science, USC Price School of Public Policy Dan Mazmanian, Professor of Public Policy, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and Chairman of the USC Presidential Working Group on Sustainability Gale Sinatra, Professor of Education, USC Rossier School of Education #LiveGreenFightOn #EarthDay2020