Podcasts about uc berkeley center

Episode 31 explores the sacred role of nursing in psychedelic-assisted therapy with Wendy Marussich, co-founder of the Organization of Psychedelic and Entheogenic Nurses (OPENurses). Wendy shares her unique journey from evolutionary ecologist to oncology nurse to psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and discusses why nurses are uniquely suited for psychedelic work. In this episode, we discuss: Wendy's unconventional path from PhD biologist to oncology nurse, driven by a desire for more meaningful, heart-centered work that could make a tangible difference in people's lives How nurses' training in grounded presence, "non-awkward touch," and crisis management translates perfectly to psychedelic support work—from holding space during difficult journeys to recognizing when someone needs medical intervention The critical importance of discussing consent and boundaries around touch before a session, including practical techniques like testing different types of touch beforehand and using "imaginal touch" when physical contact isn't desired The mission of OPENurses: Creating professional support, education, and ethical standards for nurses working in psychedelic therapy, while advocating for full inclusion of nurses in this emerging field Why having a nurse in the room automatically increases safety as they can authoritatively reassure patients about medical status in a way that truly lands, especially in altered states when perception is heightened Pathways for nurses interested in psychedelic work, including ketamine training programs, experiential learning, and the importance of doing your own inner work before supporting others Resources Mentioned: Open Nurses (Organization of Psychedelic and Entheogenic Nurses): https://www.opennurses.org Open Nurses YouTube Channel: Monthly interview series with nurses working in psychedelic spaces: https://www.youtube.com/@OPENurses Open Nurses Facebook Group: Community support and networking: https://www.facebook.com/OPENurses The Microdose Newsletter: Free newsletter from UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics - https://psychedelics.berkeley.edu/about-the-microdose/ PRATI (Psychedelic Research and Training Institute): Ketamine training program in Colorado - https://pratigroup.org Polaris Insight Center: Psychedelic therapy training - https://www.polarisinsight.com Zendo Project: Peer support for people having difficult psychedelic experiences at festivals - https://zendoproject.org Kay Parley's Article: "Supporting the Patient on LSD Day" - American Journal of Nursing, 1964 Connect with Carla If you're inspired by this episode and want to stay connected, follow Carla and Psychedelic Divas on social media or visit the website to get your Psychedelic Safety Guide Including What to Do When Things Go Wrong: Website: PsychedelicDivas.com Carla's Coaching: CarlaDetchon.com Instagram: @psychedelicdivas YouTube: @carladetchon Subscribe & Review: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review Psychedelic Divas. Your support helps amplify these important conversations and grow our community.

Dr. Tomer Persico is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Rubinstein Fellow at Reichman University, and a Senior Research Scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His fields of expertise include contemporary spirituality, Jewish modern identity, Jewish renewal, and forms of secularization and religiosity in Israel. In God's Image, Persico examines the central role that the idea that all people were created in the image of God played in the development of Western civilization. Focusing on five themes―selfhood, freedom, conscience, equality, and meaning―the book guides the reader through a cultural history of the West, from ancient times through modernity. It explains how each of these ideals was profoundly influenced by the central biblical conception of humanity's creation in God's image, embracing an essential equality among all people, while also emphasizing each human life's singularity and significance. The book argues that the West, and particularly Protestant Christianity, grew out of ideas rooted deeply in this notion, and that it played a core role in the development of individualism, liberalism, human rights discourse, and indeed the secularization process. Making the case for a cultural understanding of history, the volume focuses on ideas as agents of change and challenges the common scholarly emphasis on material conditions. Offering an innovative perspective on the shaping of global modernity, In God's Image examines the relationship between faith and society and posits the fundamental role of the idea of the image of God in the making of the moral ideals and social institutions we hold dear today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Episode 078: Leading on Climate Action for a Positive FutureHow can architects address the challenge of global warming?Planetary warming is one of the biggest disruptions of our time. In this special crossover episode focused on climate action, our friends from Design the Future podcast will join us to discuss the evolution of the sustainable design movement and where it is heading. What can architects do to be part of the solution?The Design the Future podcast is hosted by Lindsay Baker and Kira Gould, two women working at the intersection of the built environment and climate change. Kira and Lindsay will share how they've seen architects leading on climate action, and where the opportunities exist for new leaders to join this work.Guests:Kira Gould is a writer, consultant, and convenor, working from multiple perspectives. As a writer and member of the design media, on staff at and as a consultant to firms, and as a volunteer leader at AIA, she has led the redefinition of design excellence as inclusive of climate action, health, and equity, and emphasized that human and leadership diversity is crucial to advancing all those goals. She is a member of the AIA Committee on the Environment's national Leadership Group. She is a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030, and was named an Honorary Member of the AIA in 2022. She co-authored Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design with Lance Hosey (Ecotone, 2007).As CEO of the International Living Future Institute, Lindsay Baker is the organization's chief strategist, charged with delivering on its mission to lead the transformation toward a civilization that is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative. Lindsay is a climate entrepreneur, experienced in launching and growing innovative businesses. Her introduction to the green building movement began at the Southface Institute in Atlanta, where she interned before entering Oberlin College to earn a BA in Environmental Studies. She was one of the first 40 staff members at the U.S. Green Building Council, working to develop consensus about what the LEED rating system would become. She then earned an MS from the University of California at Berkeley in Architecture, with a focus on Building Science, and spent five years as a building science researcher at the UC Berkeley Center for the Built Environment. Lindsay applied her experience around the study of heat, light, and human interactions in buildings to a role with Google's Green Team, and later co-founded a smart buildings start-up called Comfy, which grew over five years to 75 employees and a global portfolio of clients. She was the first Global Head of Sustainability and Impact at WeWork, where she built the corporate sustainability team and programs from scratch. Lindsay is a Senior Fellow at the Rocky Mountain Institute, and a lecturer at UC Berkeley. She serves on several non-profit boards, and is an advisor and board member for numerous climate tech startups.

Dr. Tomer Persico is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Rubinstein Fellow at Reichman University, and a Senior Research Scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His fields of expertise include contemporary spirituality, Jewish modern identity, Jewish renewal, and forms of secularization and religiosity in Israel. In God's Image, Persico examines the central role that the idea that all people were created in the image of God played in the development of Western civilization. Focusing on five themes―selfhood, freedom, conscience, equality, and meaning―the book guides the reader through a cultural history of the West, from ancient times through modernity. It explains how each of these ideals was profoundly influenced by the central biblical conception of humanity's creation in God's image, embracing an essential equality among all people, while also emphasizing each human life's singularity and significance. The book argues that the West, and particularly Protestant Christianity, grew out of ideas rooted deeply in this notion, and that it played a core role in the development of individualism, liberalism, human rights discourse, and indeed the secularization process. Making the case for a cultural understanding of history, the volume focuses on ideas as agents of change and challenges the common scholarly emphasis on material conditions. Offering an innovative perspective on the shaping of global modernity, In God's Image examines the relationship between faith and society and posits the fundamental role of the idea of the image of God in the making of the moral ideals and social institutions we hold dear today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Dr. Tomer Persico is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Rubinstein Fellow at Reichman University, and a Senior Research Scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His fields of expertise include contemporary spirituality, Jewish modern identity, Jewish renewal, and forms of secularization and religiosity in Israel. In God's Image, Persico examines the central role that the idea that all people were created in the image of God played in the development of Western civilization. Focusing on five themes―selfhood, freedom, conscience, equality, and meaning―the book guides the reader through a cultural history of the West, from ancient times through modernity. It explains how each of these ideals was profoundly influenced by the central biblical conception of humanity's creation in God's image, embracing an essential equality among all people, while also emphasizing each human life's singularity and significance. The book argues that the West, and particularly Protestant Christianity, grew out of ideas rooted deeply in this notion, and that it played a core role in the development of individualism, liberalism, human rights discourse, and indeed the secularization process. Making the case for a cultural understanding of history, the volume focuses on ideas as agents of change and challenges the common scholarly emphasis on material conditions. Offering an innovative perspective on the shaping of global modernity, In God's Image examines the relationship between faith and society and posits the fundamental role of the idea of the image of God in the making of the moral ideals and social institutions we hold dear today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

Originally developed as an anesthetic in the 1960s, ketamine has reemerged as one of modern psychiatry's most promising tools for treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Its superpower lies in working with your brain's glutamate receptors to create antidepressant effects. What does the future of psychedelic-assisted mental health care hold? Could this once-stigmatized molecule represent the future of mental health care and healing the mind from within?In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Mai Shimada, M.D., MBA, FAAEM. Dr. Shimada is a board-certified emergency medicine physician with over a decade of experience and is the founder and CEO of Isha Health, an online at-home ketamine clinic dedicated to providing safe and effective treatments for depression and anxiety.Dr. Shimada received her MD from the University of Tokyo, Emergency Medicine residency in the United States, and later on, completed the Psychedelic Facilitation Certification Program at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics in two areas and the Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Training Program at Polaris Insight Center. Currently, alongside Isha Health, Dr. Shimada is a study physician for psychedelic medicine clinical trials at Open Mind Collective, a Fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (FAAEM), a member of The American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM), and a visiting professor of Medicine at Tohoku University in Japan. Dr. Shimada has been featured on Forbes Japan.Follow Friends of Franz Podcast: Website, Instagram, FacebookFollow Christian Franz (Host): Instagram, YouTube

This summer, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said he'd like to see psychedelic therapies for depression, trauma and other hard-to-treat disorders approved for use within the next 12 months. Last year the FDA rejected psychedelic-assisted therapy for use in treating PTSD. We check in with long-time researchers about how state and federal governments can influence the momentum of their field, how they're reconciling the new right wing support, and what it all means for the future of psychedelic research and therapy. Guests: Michael Silver, director, UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics Marlena Robbins, Indigenous public health and policy consultant; doctor of public health candidate, UC Berkeley Berra Yazar-Klosinski, founder and CEO, Yazar Lab, LLC; former chief scientific officer, Lykos Therapeutics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Powazek, Director of the Public Interest Cybersecurity Program at UC Berkeley's Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, and Michael Razeeq, Nonresident Fellow at the Public Interest Cybersecurity Program, join Lawfare's Justin Sherman to discuss the cyber threats facing states, what options and resources states currently have to address cybersecurity problems, and how the concept of state cyber corps and volunteer programs fits into the picture. They also discuss how states can stand up a cyber corp or volunteer program, including recruiting and retaining talent; the impact of federal workforce and spending cuts on states' cybersecurity capacities; and what future state and federal action on cybersecurity could do to improve states' cyber postures.For more on this topic, see:Sarah Powazek and Grace Menna, “The Roadmap to Community Cyber Defense,” June 2025, UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term CybersecurityCyber Resilience Corps websiteTo receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Bible's most revolutionary concept wasn't monotheism - it was something far more profound. What if the most revolutionary idea in human history wasn't freedom, democracy, or even monotheism — but a single verse from Genesis? This week on Madlik Disruptive Torah, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz are joined by Dr. Tomer Persico, author of In God's Image: How Western Civilization Was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea. Together, they explore how the Torah's concept of tzelem Elohim — the image of God — was originally understood not as a metaphor, but as something startlingly literal: humanity as the actual analog of the divine. The conversation also traces how Christianity, more than Judaism, adopted and amplified this idea — translating it into the language of conscience, equality, and individual dignity. Does that history diminish the Jewish claim to tzelem Elohim or, paradoxically, confirm its enduring power? Finally, the discussion turns inward: once God's mind becomes internalized within the human mind, religion itself becomes a human sense — like music or beauty — embedded in the architecture of our consciousness. Studying religion, then, is not just the study of the divine, but the study of what makes us most profoundly human. Dr Tomers Biography Dr. Tomer Persico is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Chief Editor of the 'Challenges of Democracy' book series for the Rubinstein Center at Reichman University, and a Senior Research Scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Persico was the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies for three years and has taught for eight years in Tel Aviv University. His fields of expertise include cultural history, the liberal order, Jewish modern identity, Contemporary Spirituality and Jewish fundamentalism. His books include The Jewish Meditative Tradition (Hebrew, Tel Aviv University Press, 2016), Liberalism: its Roots, Values and Crises (Hebrew, Dvir, 2024 and German, NZZ Libro, 2025) and In God's Image: How Western Civilization Was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea (Hebrew, Yedioth,2021, English, NYU Press,2025). Persico is an activist for freedom of religion in Israel, is frequently interviewed by local and international media and has written hundreds of articles for the legacy media, including Haaretz and the Washington Post. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Yael and two sons, Ivri and Shilo. Key Takeaways The concept of humans being created in God's image was revolutionary because it applied to everyone, not just rulers or heroes. Taking the idea of God's image literally led to profound implications for human rights and dignity. The "image of God" concept evolved through Christianity and ultimately influenced secularization and the emancipation of the Jews Timestamps [00:00:27] — Opening narration begins: “What if one of the most radical ideas in human intellectual history…” [00:01:42] — Host commentary: Jeffrey connects the “image of God” to the modern idea of dignity and introduces the hope for the hostages. [00:02:34] — Guest introduction: Dr. Tomer Persico is welcomed; he explains his research journey and the origins of his book. [00:05:19] — Defining the radical idea: Persico explains how “in God's image” reframed power, privilege, and ethics in Western culture. [00:07:45] — Literal God debate: Discussion turns to the ancient Israelite belief that God had a visible, bodily form. [00:10:12] — Reframing idolatry: Persico redefines idolatry as failing to see the divine in people, not in statues. [00:14:18] — Birth of human rights: Conversation about Genesis 9:6 and how individuality replaced collective punishment. [00:18:47] — The Christian turn: How Christianity internalized the “image of God” into conscience and reason—laying foundations for science. [00:25:26] — Secular autonomy and modernity: How reverence for human autonomy led to the rise of secularism and liberal rights. [00:31:38] — Closing reflection: The innate “hunch” or instinct toward the sacred—“we do God” naturally—and the episode's farewell prayer for hostages. Links & Learnings Sign up for free and get more from our weekly newsletter https://madlik.com/ Sefaria Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/681682 Transcript here: https://madlik.substack.com/ Dr Tomer's book - https://a.co/d/biMkA6b

On this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast we speak with Sarah Powazek about the Roadmap to Community Cyber Defense. Diving into the report, Sarah emphasizes the need for low-resource organizations and cyber experts to come together in a co-responsibility model for cyber defense. Learn more about the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC).Get help or join the Cyber Resilience Corps here.Read the roadmap.Sarah leads flagship research on defending low-resource organizations like nonprofits, municipalities, and schools from cyber attacks. She serves as Co-Chair of the Cyber Resilience Corps and is also Senior Advisor for the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics, advocating for the expansion of clinical cyber education around the world. Sarah hosts the Cyber Civil Defense Summit, an annual mission-based gathering of cyber defenders to protect the nation's most vulnerable public infrastructure. Sarah previously worked at CrowdStrike Strategic Advisory Services, and as the Program Manager of the Ransomware Task Force.Support our show by sharing your favorite episodes with a friend, subscribe, give us a rating or leave a comment on your podcast platform. This podcast is brought to you by LimaCharlie, maker of the SecOps Cloud Platform, infrastructure for SecOps where everything is built API first. Scale with confidence as your business grows. Start today for free at limacharlie.io.

Before law school, Sam taught elementary school on Chicago's South Side,For consumer protection, Sam is known far and wide.Sam spent many years at the Federal Trade Commission,He's an expert in privacy and unfair competition!

A conversation about the evolving world of psychedelics. While scientific breakthroughs continue to reshape our understanding of how these substances work, psychedelics are also at the center of debates about religious freedom, mystical experiences, politics, and how we treat mental health.For more than thirty years, Michael Pollan has been writing about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds. His acclaimed books include How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire. Pollan co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.Gül Dölen is professor at UC Berkeley in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychology. Her research expertise and interests include behavioral and systems neuroscience, psychedelics, social behavior, evolution, synaptic plasticity, extracellular matrix, oxytocin and stroke, autism, PTSD, and addiction.Indre Viskontas is a cognitive neuroscientist with the University of San Francisco and a faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has published groundbreaking work on the neural basis of memory and creativity, and co-hosts the podcast Inquiring Minds. Her past City Arts guests include Atul Gawande and Temple Grandin.

Podcast: Hack the Plant (LS 35 · TOP 3% what is this?)Episode: Bridging the Cybersecurity Resource GapPub date: 2025-04-08Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationBryson Bort welcomes Sarah Powazek, Program Director of Public Interest Cybersecurity at the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, to discuss the organization's work providing cybersecurity resources for the public, and CyberCAN, a project to connect cities and nonprofits providing critical services.  How can cities play a larger role in protecting their communities? What are the biggest cybersecurity challenges facing nonprofits? What innovative solutions are being developed to address the cybersecurity resource gap? “It's never going to be enough to have one federal agency help every single organization in a country. We're just too large,” Sarah said. “I think the solution is to create more infrastructure at the state, local, and regional level.”Join us for this and more on this episode of Hack the Plan[e]t. Hack the Plan[e]t is brought to you by ICS Village and the Institute for Security and Technology.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bryson Bort, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

In this conversation, Jonathan Stray, Senior Scientist at the UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI, explains to Eric Schurenberg the intersection of AI, media, and conflict, emphasizing the challenges of objectivity in journalism and the need for a new approach to reporting that embraces complexity and 'multipartiality'. He explores the role of AI in shaping social media narratives and the potential for algorithms to foster better understanding in political discourse. Stray also highlights reasons for hope in addressing political polarization and the importance of bridging divides through constructive dialogue.Website - free episode transcriptswww.in-reality.fmProduced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapiensoundsapien.comAlliance for Trust in Mediaalliancefortrust.com

In episode 224 of America Adapts we're diving into climate change and human mobility—how rising seas, extreme weather, and disasters are forcing communities to relocate and what that means for policy and planning. Joining the podcast is Dr. Eric Chu, who's helping lead a new webinar series (where America Adapts was the moderator) on this topic with CCST (California Council on Science and Technology), the UC Disaster Resilience Network, and the UC Berkeley Center for Security in Politics. We'll talk about how cities can prepare for climate-driven displacement, how researchers can better engage with policymakers, and what lessons we can take from California's leadership in adaptation.  Eric's been involved in some major climate convenings, including discussions on wildfire smoke and policy action at the university level. There's a lot to unpack! Battelle's ICR25 ICR25 brings together the world's brightest minds to solve the resilience challenge. This year's theme, “Partner, Accelerate, Launch,” highlights the critical need for innovative solutions to reach commercialization and impact resilience. Submit an abstract here:  Abstracts  https://www.battelle.org/conferences/icr  Register here: https://www.battelle.org/conferences/icr/technical-program-registration   Check out the America Adapts Media Kit here! Subscribe to the America Adapts newsletter here. Donate to America Adapts Listen to America Adapts on your favorite app here!   Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/americaadapts/ @usaadapts https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-parsons-america-adapts/ Links in this episode: https://ccst.us/register-climate-change-and-human-mobility-briefing-series/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzT8noY0IVM UC Disaster Resilience Network UC Berkeley Center for Security in Politics https://ccst.us/people/staff/eric-chu/   Doug Parsons and Speaking Opportunities: If you are interested in having Doug speak at corporate and conference events, sharing his unique, expert perspective on adaptation in an entertaining and informative way, more information can be found here! Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/americaadapts/ @usaadapts https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-parsons-america-adapts/ Donate to America Adapts   Follow on Apple Podcasts Follow on Android Now on Spotify! List of Previous Guests on America Adapts Follow/listen to podcast on Apple Podcasts. Donate to America Adapts, we are now a tax deductible charitable organization! Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Strategies to Address Climate Change Risk in Low- and Moderate-income Communities - Volume 14, Issue 1 https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/publications/community-development-investment-review/2019/october/strategies-to-address-climate-change-low-moderate-income-communities/   Podcasts in the Classroom – Discussion guides now available for the latest episode of America Adapts. These guides can be used by educators at all levels. Check them out here! The 10 Best Sustainability Podcasts for Environmental Business Leadershttps://us.anteagroup.com/news-events/blog/10-best-sustainability-podcasts-environmental-business-leaders Join the climate change adaptation movement by supporting America Adapts!  Please consider supporting this podcast by donating through America Adapts fiscal sponsor, the Social Good Fund. All donations are now tax deductible! For more information on this podcast, visit the website at http://www.americaadapts.org and don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.   Podcast Music produce by Richard Haitz Productions Write a review on Apple Podcasts ! America Adapts on Facebook!   Join the America Adapts Facebook Community Group. Check us out, we're also on YouTube! Executive Producer Dr. Jesse Keenan Subscribe to America Adapts on Apple Podcasts Doug can be contacted at americaadapts @ g mail . com

In August this year, a US court in Washington DC ruled that Google acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising. This is just one of a number of lawsuits that have been filed against the big tech companies, as US antitrust authorities attempt to strengthen competition in the industry. Now Google is facing another legal case in Virginia, USA, over its advertising technology. Whilst in Europe it has been fined billions in monopoly cases. Google themselves dispute they are a ‘monopolist' and presented evidence in the US court case in August to show that they face ‘fierce competition from a broad range of competitors'. The court did find Google's search to be ‘superior' to its competitors. And Google's executives say consumers stick with them because they find Google ‘helpful'. Google is everywhere in our online lives and it handles billions of search queries every day, so on this week's Inquiry, we're asking ‘Can we trust Google?'Contributors: David Vise, Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist and Author of ‘The Google Story', New York, USA Professor Douglas Melamed, Visiting Fellow, Stanford Law School, Washington, DC. USA Jonathan Stray, Senior Scientist, UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI, California, USA Cristina Caffarra, Independent Expert Economist, Honorary Professor, UCL, London, UK Presenter: David Baker Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Broadcast Co-ordinator: Jacqui JohnsonImage Credit: Reuters/Steve Marcus

Octopuses and humans have very little in common. It's not just a matter of their eight limbs and cool camouflage—we haven't had a shared ancestor for more than half a billion years, before dinosaurs walked the earth. But there's one surprising thing we do seem to share: MDMA makes us both a lot cuddlier. For neuroscientist Gül Dölen, this was a huge insight into the powerful role psychoactive drugs can play in animal social behavior. Now a pioneer in the burgeoning field of psychedelic research at UC Berkeley, Dölen discusses her quest to understand how these drugs could be harnessed as tools in learning and therapeutics. Further reading: Gül Dölen's 2019 Nature paper “Oxytocin-dependent reopening of a social reward learning critical period with MDMA”Gül Dölen's 2018 Current Biology paper “A Conserved Role for Serotonergic Neurotransmission in Mediating Social Behavior in Octopus”UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics launches new online course on “Psychedelics and the Mind”Altered States, a new podcast from from PRX and the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics about “what science can tell us about psychedelics and what psychedelics can tell us about ourselves”This episode was written and hosted by Leah Worthington and produced by Coby McDonald. Special thanks to Pat Joseph, Nathalia Alcantara, and Gül Dölen. Art by Michiko Toki and original music by Mogli Maureal. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

In Berkeley Talks episode 207, bestselling author and UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Michael Pollan discusses how he chooses his subjects, why he co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the role of storytelling in shifting our perspective. “We're wired for story,” he told KQED's Mina Kim, whom he joined in conversation at a UC Berkeley event in May 2024. “We're a storytelling and consuming people, and we remember better and we're moved more by narrative than we are by information or argument. “The shorter journalism gets, the more it relies on argument to get any kind of heat. And I just don't think that's how you change minds. I think changing minds has to work at all levels: It has to work at the intellectual level, it has to work at the emotional level, and at even probably subliminal levels, and story does that.“When you look at great pieces of narrative journalism, people don't even realize their minds have been changed by the time they get to the end of it.”Pollan has written eight books, including The Omnivore's Dilemma (2010), about the impact of our various food choices on animal welfare and the environment, and How to Change Your Mind (2018), an exploration of the history of psychedelics and their effects on the human mind. He recently retired from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where he taught for many years.Read the transcript and listen to the episode on Berkeley News (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts).Music by Blue Dot Sessions.UC Berkeley photo by Marlena Telvick. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Powazek, the Program Director of Public Interest Cybersecurity at the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, joins Dennis Fisher to talk about her work in setting up Cybersecurity Clinics at high education institutions around the country to help bring knowledge and skills to underserved organizations. 

The incomparable science journalist David Tuller (https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/42302) shares how he dissects and reports on medical research. He made a name for himself contesting the methods used in the PACE trial, a study that claimed to support the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exercise as a treatment for ME/CFS, but has now been debunked. He sees similarities between the approach to ME and now Long Covid. I ask David about the legacy of the PACE trial today, and how we can we trust what we read in scientific journals.David is an independent science journalist and holds a fellowship at UC Berkeley Center for Global Public Health. His position is entirely funded by donations from the public. Consider supporting his work here:  https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/42302Follow me on X @doctor_zeest

Radio show host, Gary Calligas will have Nick Merrill, research fellow, UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity on his Saturday, April 27th“The Best of Times Radio Hour” at 9:05 AM on News Radio 710 KEEL to discuss suggestions on the precautions to safeguard oneself from cyber crimes. You can also listen to this radio talk show streaming LIVE on the internet at www.710KEEL.com . and streaming LIVE on 101.7 FM or via the RadioPUP or KEEL app on apple and android devices. For more information, please visit these websites at www.thebestoftimesnews.com and www.hebertstandc.com. This radio show is proudly presented by AARP Louisiana and Hebert's Town and Country of Shreveport featuring – Dodge, Chrysler, Ram, and Jeep vehicles and service.

Join us as we discuss with Dr. Miller on regenerative agriculture, the soil, traditional food, and health. About Guest She is a practicing family physician, science writer, Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco, and Research Scientist at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Miller started the Health from the Soil Up Initiative at UC Berkeley Center for Occupational and Environmental Health to engage other health professionals in transforming our food system from the soil up. She is also Curriculum Director for Community and Integrative Medicine in the Lifelong Family Medicine Residency Program in Richmond, CA. Where she partners with Urban Tilth, a local farm, to teach doctors-in-training about the connections among food, soil, community, and health. Sponsor: The podcast is made possible by FoodNiche-ED, a gamified platform that enhances the knowledge of food and health. Learn more on foodniche-ed.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/foodniche_ed Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodniche_ed/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FoodNicheEd/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/foodniche-education About Dr. Olayanju: Dr. Julia Olayanju is a scientist and educator who advocates for enhanced nutrition education in schools and communities. She is the founder of FoodNiche-ED and FoodNiche where she and her team are driving a healthier future through programming, resources and technology.

The Inside Economics team revels in the great economic numbers of the past week. The economy not only avoided a recession in 2023, but it ended the year enjoying robust GDP growth and tame inflation. But there are threats at the start of the new year, including a potential seizing up of the all-important Treasury bond market. Samim Ghamami of the SEC joins the podcast to discuss this threat, its causes and implications, and potential reforms to ensure it doesn't upend financial markets and the economy.  Today's guest Samim Ghamami is currently an economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he works with the SEC senior management on the reform of the US Treasury market and several other capital market initiatives. Ghamami is also a senior researcher and an adjunct professor of finance at New York University, a senior researcher at UC Berkeley Center for Risk Management Research and the Department of Economics, and a senior advisor at SOFR Academy. Ghamami has been a senior economist and a senior vice president at Goldman Sachs. He has been an adjunct associate professor of economics at Columbia University. Ghamami has also been an associate director and a senior economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Financial Research, and an economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.Ghamami's work has broadly focused on the interplay of finance and macroeconomics, and on financial economics and quantitative finance. His work on banking, asset management, risk management, economic policy, financial stability, financial regulation, and central clearing has been presented and discussed at central banks. He has been an advisor to the Bank for International Settlements and worked as an expert with the Financial Stability Board on post-financial crisis reforms in 2016 and 2017. Ghamami also served on the National Science Foundation panel on Financial Mathematics in 2017 and 2018. Ghamami received his Ph.D. in Mathematical Finance and Operations Research from USC in 2009. His publications have appeared in different journals including Management Science, Journal of Applied Probability, Mathematics of Operations Research, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Credit Risk, Journal of Derivatives, Quantitative Finance, and Journal of Risk. Follow Mark Zandi @MarkZandi, Cris deRitis @MiddleWayEcon, and Marisa DiNatale on LinkedIn for additional insight.

 What is the IMF?The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provides aid to developing countries to promote global economic and monetary growth.  IMF investments and loans can significantly impact the ability of developing countries to improve climate resilience. Most directly, reforms to the IMF can allow developing countries to invest more in climate resilience and disincentivize fossil fuel production. How does the IMF affect the climate crisis?According to critics, the IMF's Climate Change Strategy inadvertently worsens the climate crisis and amplifies financial risk. Specifically:1.     Prohibitively high IMF borrowing rates for developing countries block vital investments in climate change mitigation, adaptation, and recovery and trap Global South nations in a cycle of escalating climate risks and mounting debts.2.     IMF loan conditions and policy advice that make fossil fuel production more profitable enable the expansion of oil, gas, and coal, prolonging dangerous global heating. What can be done to reform the IMF?In a report issued this month, the UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy & Environment (CLEE) suggested the following reforms:Form a Climate Advisory Group consisting of diverse external experts to recommend updates to the IMF's Climate Change Strategy and adopt legal requirements for timely IMF action.Reform longstanding IMF practices that exacerbate risk by (1) improving climate-related risk assessment, (2) expanding climate finance and alleviating debt distress in developing countries, and (3) curtailing fossil fuel profitability.The CLEE report also envisions a significant role for the US, as the largest shareholder in the IMF with significant influence, including  championing ambitious IMF reform on the global stage, leading by example, addressing climate change domestically and allocating new resources to support climate resilience in developing countries, highlighting the financial threat posed by the IMF status quo and actively participating in international dialogue, research, and analysis related to climate-related financial risk.The IMF controls almost $1 trillion in assets and could be a linchpin for climate action in support of worldwide economic stability.  About our GuestKelly Varian is a policy analyst working at UC Berkeley Law. She has a Master of Public Affairs degree from UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy and a decade of experience in the social sector. In her current role as a Climate Policy Analyst at UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment, she leads research to design equitable policies to mitigate climate-related financial risk.ResourcesCLEE, Monetary Fund Reform for Climate Resilience (2023)Bridgetown Initiative For a transcript of this episode, please visit https://climatebreak.org/international-monetary-fund-reform-with-kelly-varian/

Author, journalist, and professor Michael Pollan talks about the influence Julia Child had on his mother's kitchen and the nature of kitchens in America today, and shares his unexpected favorite dish growing up. Michael Pollan is a renowned advocate for responsible farming, gardening, and slow, local eating. Pollan has been a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine since 1987 and is the author of several successful books. Pollan writes about “the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds.” In 2003, Pollan was appointed Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. In 2017, he was appointed Professor of the Practice of Non-fiction at Harvard. In 2020, he co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. In his Netflix documentary series Cooked, Pollan explores how cooking transforms food and shapes the world. Michael Pollan was born into a Jewish family in Long Island in 1955. He is the oldest of four children and brother to three little sisters. His father, Stephen Pollan, was a financial consultant, and his mother, Korky, was a New York Magazine columnist, style editor at Gourmet magazine, and an avid home cook. Pollan has a son, Isaac, and lives in the Bay Area with his wife, the painter Judith Belzer. Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode14 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ayize Jama-Everett holds three Master's degrees: Divinity, Psychology, and in Fine Arts, Writing. He blends these degrees in all his work, often identifying as a guerilla theologian, a community-based therapist, and an afro-futurist in the same breath. He's taught at Starr King School for the Ministry, California College of the Arts, The University of California, Riverside, Western Colorado College, and several private High schools for over twenty years. His expertise includes working with adolescents, the history of substance use in the United States, the history of Sacred Plant medicines in the Maghreb, the religious roots of political violence from Ireland to the Middle East, educational arts pedagogy, and Afrofuturism. He's published four novels (The Liminal series )and two graphic novels(Box of Bones and The last Count of Monte Cristo). As an associate professor at Starr King, he teaches The Sacred and the Substance, a course that examines the role of consciousness altering plants in religions around the world. He also coordinates the Psychedelics and the Seminary lecture series for Starr King, which invites luminaries from the Psychedelic world to discuss their orientations to faith and religion. Ayize is the producer of a documentary about Black people and psychedelics entitled A Table of Our Own. His shorter works can be found in the LA Review of Books, The Believer, and Racebaitr. He is a Board member of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, leading their initiative to look at the role of psychedelics in the mental health of People of color and poor people. Ayize also serves as a board member to Access to Doorways, a non-profit committed to increasing the number of Queer and BIPOC people involved in psychedelics at every stage. In addition, he serves as a board-level advisor to Psychedelics Today, focusing on their VITAL psychedelics training program. He's also served in an advising capacity at UC Berkeley Center for psychedelic science, has been a guest lecturer at the California Institute of Integral Studies Psychedelic Therapies and research center, and was a featured speaker at Stanford's first Psychedelics and design symposium. A Table of Our Own is a groundbreaking documentary about Black People and Psychedelics/Plant Medicine. Although Ayize wears many hats, from therapist to writer to professor, filmmaking was not something he ever saw himself doing. He shares about the process of seeing this project through, including the fact that no major psychedelic organizations put forth support to make it happen. Through discussion of one of his books, Box of Bones, the topic of stories arises - who gets to tell the stories, and why? The cornerstone of therapy is, what stories are you telling yourself, and why? Stories always reinforce a narrative. Adjacent to this and the discussion of evil, Ayize pushes back on the “hurt people hurt people” trope - not all hurt people hurt people. Some hurt people hurt people, some hurt people protect people, help people, say “never again, I'm not going to let that happen to me or anyone else.” During and following this conversation, I find myself reflecting on the position of privilege that is to take a stance that evil does not exist. In the context of harms in community, Ayize puts forth that people who want to avoid conflict will ask what was going on for that person who caused harm? You get to ask the question because you haven't been hurt. The conversation winds down with a tip of the hat to speaking the truth, and all of the people who have come together to birth A Table of Our Own. Links: A Table of Our Own Ayize's writing Therapy/psychospiritual work with Ayize A Table of Our Own on IG “The greatest tool the colonizer has is the mind of the colonized” - Franz Fanon

In this episode, Joe interviews Imran Khan: Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Khan shares his journey into the world of science and policymaking, beginning with science journalism and inspired by David Nutt's famous ‘Equicy' paper and subsequent firing for telling the truth. Realizing how strong the disconnect was between political and science worlds, his goal became to represent science when it comes under attack; using campaigning, lobbying, advocacy work, etc., and essentially becoming a translator between science and society – bringing these overly complicated concepts down to a level every day culture can understand. At UC Berkeley, he's focusing on research, training scientists to be better communicators, educating the public on the benefits of psychedelics, and trying to make research more trustworthy. He discusses the word “science” and how it's used to describe lots of things; the hard problem of consciousness; color constancy, perception, and the influence of priors; the risk of abuse in all therapies; trust and why people don't always “trust the science”; the risks of putting too much faith in experience insights; the word “sacred”; and more. He concludes by discussing the findings of the first UC Berkeley psychedelic survey, which revealed public sentiments and attitudes towards psychedelics, and, while mostly positive, truly proved the need for people like Khan to be out there educating the public. Click here to head to the show notes page. 

Next month will mark one year since the public release of ChatGPT, the AI-enabled chatbot. The technology immediately sent shockwaves across college campuses: Would it revolutionize higher education, or simply lead to widespread cheating and plagiarism? We'll look at how chatbots and AI are impacting higher ed, from college essays to classroom teaching. Guests: Francesca Caparas, professor of english, De Anza College Beth McMurtrie, senior writer, The Chronicle of Higher Education Jenae Cohn, executive director, UC Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning Andrew Yu, senior, UC Davis Jennifer Tran, sophomore, UC Berkeley; student representative, Committee on Teaching, Academic Senate

An intro to the "spirit molecule" and "the toad" plus safety and ethical considerations around their use   ***Please take a couple minutes to complete a brief survey about the podcast here. If you have any specific open ended feedback for the podcast, please feel free to leave a comment below or email at cburns@neuralpharm.net*** References: “Ayahuasca and 5 Me-ODMT.” UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Last accessed 28 Sept 2023. https://psychedelics.berkeley.edu/substance/ayahuasca/ Bernal A, et al. Reactivations after 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine use in naturalistic settings: an initial exploratory analysis of the phenomenon's predictors and its emotional valence. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2022; 13: 1049643 Halberstadt A. Dimethyltryptamine: Possible Endogenous Ligand of the Sigma-1 Receptor. MAPS bulletin: Spring 2011 volume 21, number 1. https://maps.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/v21n1-56to58-1.pdf Niznansky L, et al. Ayahuasca as a Decoction Applied to Human: Analytical Methods, Pharmacology, and Potential Toxic Effects. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2022; 11(4): 1147. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/11/4/1147 Paredes R. DMT vs Ayahuasca: is one better than the other? Mind Better. 17 Aug 2022. https://mindbetter.com/dmt-vs-ayahuasca/ Reckweg J, et al. A phase 1/2 trial to assess safety and efficacy of a vaporized 5-methoxy N,N-dimethyltryptamine formulation (GH001) in patients with treatment resistant depression. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2023; 14: 1133414. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10319409/ Smith, Patrick. Ayahuasca vs DMT. Third Wave. 30 April 2023 (accessed 28 Sept 2023). https://thethirdwave.co/ayahuasca-vs-dmt/ Thomas, SS. Ayahuasa vs DMT: Unveiling the Differences and Similarities. Psychable. 23 April 2021. https://psychable.com/ayahuasca/ayahuasca-vs-dmt-whats-the-difference

In this Psychedelic Podcast episode, host Paul F. Austin speaks with Imran Khan, Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). The conversation explores diverse topics, from the recent MAPS conference to Khan's career journey and BCSP's mission to reshape psychedelic awareness. It asks the essential question: How can the field of psychedelics strike a balance between rapid growth, scientific rigor, and ethical considerations? Paul and Imran dissect the accelerating shift in public sentiment, evidenced by UC Berkeley's survey indicating that 61% of Americans support psychedelic therapy. This episode offers a multifaceted dialogue navigating the complexities of psychedelics, science, and society. Imran Khan: Imran Khan is Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). The BCSP exists to explore the potential of psychedelics through independent and rigorous research, training, and public education at one of the world's foremost universities. Imran has spent most of his career working at the nexus of science and society. He was previously the CEO of the British Science Association and ran grants programs for the Wellcome Trust, the world's third-largest charitable foundation. Imran has also advised lawmakers in the UK Parliament. He has presented at forums ranging from the Aspen Ideas Festival to the World Economic Forum and SXSW. His writing has appeared in the Financial Times, the Guardian, and BBC News. Imran has degrees in biology and in science communication from the University of Oxford and Imperial College London, respectively, and an MBA from City University, London. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and enjoys trail-running, many forms of nerdery, and trying to cook the perfect dal. Highlights: Paul & Imran's reflections on the 2023 MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference. Imran's career trajectory and motivations for working with psychedelics. The surprising results of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) public survey. How history has informed BCSP's approach to psychedelic science. BCSP's role as a reliable voice in the field of psychedelic education. BCSP's psychedelic journalism fellowship, sponsored by Tim Ferriss. Berkeley's psychedelic facilitator training program. The impact of California's Senate Bill 58 and the TREAT Initiative. Imran's gripe with the term “plant medicine.”   Key Links: UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP): http://psychedelics.berkeley.edu/ Imran on Twitter: https://twitter.com/imrankhan?lang=en Third Wave's Psychedelic Coaching Institute: https://psychedeliccoaching.institute/   Episode Sponsors:  Apollo Neuro - Third Wave listeners get 15% off. Psyched Wellness - use code THIRDWAVE23 to get 15% off. BiOptimizers - Get 10% off Magnesium Breakthrough

This week's episode features a fun conversation with Lindsay Baker and Kira Gould. These two women are amazing advocates for sustainability in AEC industry and have an inspiring podcast called Design the Future. They had me on their podcast last year and it was fun to be able to turn the tables on interview them. During the conversation we chat about what got them into their perspective fields, the trends they're seeing, and recommendations they have for students. There were a few moments where we got into the weeds and so be sure to check out instagram for some additional images for what we're referencing. Building Highlight: The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Environmental Center at the Alice Ferguson foundation in Accokeek, MDLinks:Design the Future podcast (Nakita's episode)Architecture 2030 slides (1.5 degrees)International Living Futures Institute (ILFI)Biomimicry by Janine BenyusDoughnut Economics by Kate RaworthTangible Remnants on InstagramTangible Remnants WebsiteLinkedTr.ee for resourcesGabl Media NetworkSarah Gilberg's MusicBios: Lindsay BakerAs CEO of the International Living Future Institute, Lindsay Baker is the organization's chief strategist, charged with delivering on its mission to lead the transformation toward a civilization that is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative.Lindsay is a climate entrepreneur, experienced in launching and growing innovative businesses. Her introduction to the green building movement began at the Southface Institute in Atlanta, where she interned before entering Oberlin College to earn a BA in Environmental Studies. She was one of the first 40 staff members at the U.S. Green Building Council, working to develop consensus about what the LEED rating system would become. She then earned an MS from the University of California at Berkeley in Architecture, with a focus on Building Science, and spent five years as a building science researcher at the UC Berkeley Center for the Built Environment.Lindsay applied her experience around the study of heat, light, and human interactions in buildings to a role with Google's Green Team, and later co-founded a smart buildings start-up called Comfy, which grew over five years to 75 employees and a global portfolio of clients. She was the first Global Head of Sustainability and Impact at WeWork, where she built the corporate sustainability team and programs from scratch. Lindsay is a Senior Fellow at the Rocky Mountain Institute, and a lecturer at UC Berkeley. She serves on several non-profit boards, and is an advisor and board member for numerous climate tech startups.Kira...

Our focus on the renaissance in research into psychedelics continues on this episode of Raise the Line, but instead of looking at their potential therapeutic applications, we're going to hear about using them as a tool for learning how the brain works. “We don't have a great idea about the neural basis of self-conception, and psychedelics make us question so many of our fundamental assumptions about the nature of reality,” says Dr. Michael Silver, director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Dr. Silver, who is also a professor of Optometry, has the advantage of using the extensive knowledge we already have of how visual activity works in the brain as a predicate for his research. “We have the ability to do human neuroimaging and objectively define many areas in the visual cortex, while it's still unclear how some higher order areas of the brain are defined,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. The Center was established in 2020 in part to fill a need for credible information about psychedelics and its work is informed by a wide range of disciplines including molecular and cell biology, psychology, neuroscience and journalism. In fact, one of the Center's founding members is journalist Michael Pollan, author of the bestselling books How to Change Your Mind and This is Your Mind on Plants. This is a truly fascinating conversation on the nature of visual perception, standards for training psychedelic facilitators and the possible recategorization of mental health disorders, among other implications of psychedelic research. Mentioned in this episode:UC Berkeley Center for the Study of PsychedelicsUC Berkeley Online Course: Psychedelics and the MindSam Harris Podcast

Host Michael Taft talks with neuroscientist and Executive Director of the Alembic, Kati Devaney about meditation, the neuroscience of meditation, predictive processing, the wonder of travel, psychedelics, and more.Kathryn Devaney, Ph.D. is a neuroscientist and meditation practitioner, with over 20 years of meditation experience. Kati earned her PhD in 2018, using fMRI to examine attention and default mode network function in experienced Vipassana meditators. After completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Kati moved to Berkeley CA to start The Berkeley Alembic Foundation with Michael Taft and Erik Davis. Kati is currently the Executive Director of The Alembic, the Chief Science Officer of Jhourney.io, and a researcher at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. You can support the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

School of Greatness Key Takeaways Check out The School of Greatness Episode Page & Show NotesRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.orghttps://lewishowes.com/mindset - Order a copy of my new book The Greatness Mindset today!Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect for more than 30 years. He is the author of nine books, seven of which have been New York Times bestsellers. In 2003, Pollan was appointed the Knight Professor of Journalism and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2017, he was appointed professor of the practice of nonfiction at Harvard and the university's first Lewis K. Chan Lecturer in the Arts.  In 2020, along with Dacher Keltner and others, he cofounded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. In 2022, Pollan released his four-part docuseries, How to Change Your Mind, on Netflix, which explores the history and uses of psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and mescaline. Most recently, Pollan released his class on MasterClass where he teaches intentional eating. In the class, he breaks down decades of research to help members rethink their relationship with food and make choices that benefit their health and the planet.In this episode you will learn,Everything you need to know about eating intentionallyHow important the communal meal is for our overall healthThe science  of psychedelics and what it teaches us about consciousness, addiction and mental healthThe effect caffeine has on the mind and bodyHow to align your eating habits with your valuesCheck out Michael's new MasterClass - Intentional EatingFor more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1424How Food Heals or Harms Your Body, Aging & Mental Health: https://link.chtbl.com/1075-podBuild Your Health to Build Your Wealth: https://link.chtbl.com/916-podUse Food to Heal Your Body: https://link.chtbl.com/714-pod

https://lewishowes.com/mindset - Order a copy of my new book The Greatness Mindset today!Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect for more than 30 years. He is the author of nine books, seven of which have been New York Times bestsellers. In 2003, Pollan was appointed the Knight Professor of Journalism and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2017, he was appointed professor of the practice of nonfiction at Harvard and the university's first Lewis K. Chan Lecturer in the Arts.  In 2020, along with Dacher Keltner and others, he cofounded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. In 2022, Pollan released his four-part docuseries, How to Change Your Mind, on Netflix, which explores the history and uses of psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and mescaline. Most recently, Pollan released his class on MasterClass where he teaches intentional eating. In the class, he breaks down decades of research to help members rethink their relationship with food and make choices that benefit their health and the planet.In this episode you will learn,Everything you need to know about eating intentionallyHow important the communal meal is for our overall healthThe science  of psychedelics and what it teaches us about consciousness, addiction and mental healthThe effect caffeine has on the mind and bodyHow to align your eating habits with your valuesCheck out Michael's new MasterClass - Intentional EatingFor more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1424How Food Heals or Harms Your Body, Aging & Mental Health: https://link.chtbl.com/1075-podBuild Your Health to Build Your Wealth: https://link.chtbl.com/916-podUse Food to Heal Your Body: https://link.chtbl.com/714-pod

We take another deep dive into the world of psychedelic research with our guest, Brian Anderson, this week. Is there a place for group therapy with psychedelic medicine and treatment? Brian just concluded a clinical trial to study just that. Working with HIV/AIDS survivors, Brian and his team focused on the efficacy of group therapy following psychedelic treatment. The outcome was generally positive, not just for the trial participants but also for Brian and his fellow researchers, who have a renewed curiosity and optimism about what we can offer those seeking help from past trauma. The burning question on everyone's mind: will the government allow psychedelic research and trials to continue? Tune in to find out!“I'm certainly more optimistic about how we can find ways to make psychedelic healing fit into conventional settings and do that in respectful and safe ways.”Brian Anderson, MD MSc, is a psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He is affiliated with the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and UCSF Neuroscape. In 2018 he led a pilot clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted group therapy for demoralized long-term AIDS survivors. His research includes clinical trials as well as observational methods to assess the safety, clinical implementation, and regulation of the uses of psychedelics and other controlled substances.Show notes:* How Brian Anderson got involved with Psychedelic research* Why research focuses on Psilocybin rather than LSD* Is psychedelic group therapy in the near future?* Brian's study with HIV/AIDS survivors* The impact dosage and preparatory work has on trail participants* Some unwanted consequences to psilocybin treatments* The headline of his trail* Will the government allow psychedelic research and trails to continue?Links and references:* Psychedelic Wisdom* Psychedelic Medicine* So You Want to be a Psychedelic Researcher?* clinicaltrials.gov* Pragmatic Trial of Psilocybin Therapy in Palliative CareWant the episode transcript and video? Join our Tribe!Mind Body Health & Politics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.https://www.mindbodyhealthpolitics.org/subscribe Get full access to Mind Body Health & Politics at www.mindbodyhealthpolitics.org/subscribe

For more than thirty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds. His many acclaimed titles include How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire. In his recent essay collection, This is Your Mind on Plants, Pollan takes a deep dive into three psychoactive plants: opium, caffeine, and mescaline. Pollan co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. The center combines research, training, and public education to explore the psychological and biological effects of psychedelics on cognition, perception and emotion. Pollan was interviewed on stage at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on July 26, 2022, by Lauren Schiller. She is the co-author of the forthcoming book It's a Good Day to Change the World, and the creator and host of Inflection Point, an award-winning podcast and public radio show about how women rise up, build power and lead change.

Uwe Westphal, author of the 2019 book, Fashion Metropolis Berlin 1836-1939: The Story of the Rise and Destruction of the Jewish Fashion Industry, discusses Berlin's once-thriving Jewish fashion industry and how the Nazi confiscations of Jewish-owned companies in the years before World War II led to the industry's demise."The destruction of the entire fashion industry meant forced labor, government-organized theft and the murder and the deportation of Jews," Westphal says. "Today, 78 years after the end of World War II, unlike most other industries in Germany, fashion producers small and large have not yet taken on responsibility for what happened. … A younger generation needs to understand the connection between the Holocaust and the destruction of the Berlin fashion industry.”This Feb. 15, 2023, lecture was sponsored by the UC Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Goethe-Institut San Francisco and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany San Francisco.Read a transcript and listen to the episode on Berkeley News.Music by Blue Dot Sessions.Photo © Ullstein-Bild/Zander&Labisch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rina Bliss is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. She is the award-winning author of Race Decoded (Stanford University Press) and Social by Nature (Stanford University Press). She is an expert on the social significance of emerging genetic sciences. Rina is a member of the Human Genome Synthesis Project known as “GP-Write,” as well as the Finding Your Roots Genetics and Genealogy Project. She is an affiliate of UCSF and the UC Berkeley Center for Social Medicine and is a consultant to public institutions like the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, California Academy of Sciences, Exploratorium, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Rina's upcoming book Rethinking Intelligence (Harper Wave) tells us what we should know about the new science of intelligence, and how best to use that knowledge. Recent years have witnessed a drive to sequence people for genetic markers associated with IQ. Get Rethinking Intelligence Here: I've teamed up with the amazing Company SLOUCH POTATO the most comfortable clothes you will ever wear and they are designed to be Pyjamas! The best part is you can wear them wherever you want. If you use discount code: STORYBOX at checkout you'll receive 10% off. Just visit https://slouchpotato.com/ Get my new book 'The Path of an Eagle: How To Overcome & Lead After Being Knocked Down'.► AMAZON US► AMAZON AUS► AMAZON UKSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/thestorybox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Discover More, a show for independent thinkers, by independent thinkers with an emphasis on mental health. This week's guest is Dr. Christine Ziemer. Christine is a cognitive psychologist, a tenured professor of psychology at Missouri Western State University, and a psychedelic science educator. Christine got her doctorate in developmental psychology and dedicated the last 10 years to teaching her students about the intricacies of psychology, psychedelic science, and how our actions and perceived feedback affect our perceptions in this reality. Christine was featured in the well-known psychedelic newsletter: The Microdose, published by the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, where she got interviewed for being the first professor in her conservative region to teach psychedelic science to her undergraduate students. Expect to learn about why psychedelics is the new age religion, the power of transpersonal psychology, the inner intelligence of our body, how our sensation perception works, normalcy bias, Christine's polyamorous journey, and much more. Let's get this started. * Feeling altruistic? https://www.buymeacoffee.com/discovermore Show Notes Christine's Email: cziemer@missouriwestern.edu Christine's Faculty Website: https://www.missouriwestern.edu/psychology/facultystaff/ The Microdose Article: https://themicrodose.substack.com/p/5-questions-for-psychedelic-professor?utm_source=email * Subscribe to Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/discovermorepodcast?sub_confirmation=1 Discover More Website: https://www.discovermorepodcast.com/ Follow Discover More on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discovermorepodcast/ Connect with Benoit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benoitkim/ * Discover More is a show for independent thinkers, by independent thinkers. Have you ever felt lonely due to your wide-ranging and esoteric interests? Are you looking for practical mental health insights? Let's get this started. * Thank you for Discovering More with us!

Michael Pollan's award-winning writing about plants, nature and food combines anthropology and philosophy with culture, health and natural history. Time Magazine has named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world and his maxim to ‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.' is a central tenet of the sustainable food movement. Michael grew up in suburban Long Island, USA, and planted his first garden when he was eight-years-old. He was an intern at the Village Voice newspaper in New York while he was a student and after he graduated he joined Harper's Magazine as an editor where he worked with the writer Tom Wolfe among others. Michael's first book Second Nature: A Gardener's Education is a collection of essays about gardening and his later titles, including the Botany of Desire and the Omnivore's Dilemma, addressed modern methods of food production and argued that in an era of fast and processed food, basic cooking skills were being lost. Recently, Michael has written about the use of psychedelic drugs as a potential treatment for some mental health conditions, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Michael is professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2020 he co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Michael is married to the artist Judith Belzer and they live in California. DISC ONE: Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) by Harry Belafonte DISC TWO: The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel DISC THREE: Going Up the Country by Canned Heat DISC FOUR: Cheek to Cheek by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald DISC FIVE: Shady Grove by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman DISC SIX: California by Joni Mitchell DISC SEVEN: Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles DISC EIGHT: Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: I. Prélude, composed by J.S Bach and performed by Yo-Yo Ma BOOK CHOICE: Ulysses by James Joyce LUXURY ITEM: Dark chocolate CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: I. Prélude, composed by J.S Bach and performed by Yo-Yo Ma Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Encultured AI, Part 1 Appendix: Relevant Research Examples, published by Andrew Critch on August 8, 2022 on The AI Alignment Forum. Also available on the EA Forum.Appendix to: Encultured AI, Part 1: Enabling New BenchmarksFollowed by: Encultured AI, Part 2: Providing a Service Appendix 1: “Trending” AI x-safety research areas We mentioned a few areas of “trending” AI x-safety research above; below are some more concrete examples of what we mean: Trustworthiness & truthfulness: Owain Evans, Owen Cotton-Barratt and others have authored “Truthful AI: Developing and governing AI that does not lie” (arxiv, 2021; twitter thread). Andreas Stuhlmüller, Jungwon Byun and others at Ought.org are building an AI-powered research assistant called Elicit (website); here is the product:. Task-specific (narrow) preference learning: Paul Christiano et al (arxiv, 2017) developed a data-efficient preference-learning technique for training RL-based systems, which is now very widely cited (scholar). Jan Leike, now at OpenAI, leads a team working on ‘scalable alignment' using preference-learning techniques (arxiv, 2018) (blog). Interpretability: Chris Olah (scholar) leads an interpretability research group at Anthropic. Anthropic (website) is culturally very attuned to large-scale risks from AI, including existential risks. Buck Shlegeris and others at Redwood Research (website) have built an interpretability tool for analyzing transformer networks trained on natural language (demo). Prof. Cynthia Rudin at Duke (homepage) approaches interpretability by trying to replace black-box models with more interpretable ones (arxiv, 2018), and we know from conversations with her that she is open to applications of her work to existential safety. Robustness & risk management: Prof. Jaime Fisac at Princeton (homepage) researches AI safety for robotics, high-dimensional control systems and multi-agent systems (scholar), including provable robustness guarantees. He was previously a PhD student at the UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI), provided extensive feedback on AI Research Considerations for Human Existential Safety (ARCHES) (arxiv, 2020), and is very attuned to existential safety as a cause area. Prof. David Krueger at Cambridge (scholar) studies out-of-distribution generalization (pdf, 2021), and is currently taking on students. Adam Gleave (homepage) is a final-year PhD student at CHAI / UC Berkeley, and studies out-of-distribution robustness for deep RL. Sam Toyer (scholar), also a PhD student at CHAI, has developed a benchmark for robust imitation learning (pdf, 2020). Appendix 2: “Emerging” AI x-safety research areas In this post, we classified cooperative AI and multi-stakeholder control of AI systems as “emerging” topics in AI x-safety. Here's more about what we mean, and why: Cooperative AI This area is “emerging” in x-safety because there's plenty of attention to the issue of cooperation from both policy-makers and AI researchers, but not yet much among folks focused on x-risk. Existential safety attention on cooperative AI: Many authors — too many to name! — have remarked on the importance of international coordination on AI safety efforts, including existential safety. For instance, there is a Wikipedia article on AI arms races (wikipedia). This covers the human–human side of the cooperative AI problem. AI research on cooperative AI: Multi-agent systems research has a long history in AI (scholar search), as does multi-agent reinforcement learning (scholar search). DeepMind's Multi-agent Learning team has recently written number papers examining competition and cooperation between artificial agents (website). OpenAI has done some work on multi-agent interaction, e.g. emergent tool use in multi-agent interaction (arxiv). Prof. Jakob Foerster at Oxford (scholar search), and ...

For more than thirty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds. His many acclaimed titles include How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire. In his recent essay collection, This is Your Mind on Plants, Pollan takes a deep dive into three psychoactive plants: opium, caffeine, and mescaline. Pollan co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. The center combines research, training, and public education to explore the psychological and biological effects of psychedelics on cognition, perception and emotion. Pollan was interviewed on stage at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on July 26, 2022, by Lauren Schiller. She is the co-author of the forthcoming book It's a Good Day to Change the World, and the creator and host of Inflection Point, an award-winning podcast and public radio show about how women rise up, build power and lead change.

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition One of the world's foremost chroniclers of the intersection of the human and natural worlds, Michael Pollan is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of eight books. These works include How to Change Your Mind, an examination of the science of psychedelics; Cooked, which was adapted into a Netflix series; Food Rules: An Eater's Manual; and A Natural History of Four Meals, which won the James Beard Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. A contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine for 35 years, Pollan has earned two James Beard Awards, the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism, and the Genesis Award from the Humane Society of the United States, among numerous other honors. He is the co-founder of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and is the Knight Professor of Science and Journalism at UC Berkeley. A challenge to rethink traditional notions of drugs, This Is Your Mind on Plants explores the allure, taboos, and effects of three very different psychoactive plants. (recorded 7/18/2022)

At Starbucks locations across the country, workers are unionizing. Dozens of stores have joined the union, and many more are scheduled to vote soon. One of those is in Mill Valley, California, where high school junior Ella Clark is leading the efforts to organize. Ella joins host Soleil Ho to talk about holding Starbucks accountable to its values, then UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education chair Ken Jacobs explains why the wave of Starbucks unionization is spreading — and why it's unlikely to end anytime soon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 078: Leading on Climate Action for a Positive Future How can architects address the challenge of global warming? Planetary warming is one of the biggest disruptions of our time. In this special crossover episode focused on climate action, our friends from https://mailtrack.io/trace/link/e4e1c22f0bfec61d832b9e86311db6516333013a?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.designthefuturepodcast.com%2F&userId=6702384&signature=b20977236b9d237e (Design the Future podcast) will join us to discuss the evolution of the sustainable design movement and where it is heading. What can architects do to be part of the solution?  The Design the Future podcast is hosted by Lindsay Baker and Kira Gould, two women working at the intersection of the built environment and climate change. Kira and Lindsay will share how they've seen architects leading on climate action, and where the opportunities exist for new leaders to join this work. Guests: Kira Gould is a writer, consultant, and convenor, working from multiple perspectives. As a writer and member of the design media, on staff at and as a consultant to firms, and as a volunteer leader at AIA, she has led the redefinition of design excellence as inclusive of climate action, health, and equity, and emphasized that human and leadership diversity is crucial to advancing all those goals. She is a member of the AIA Committee on the Environment's national Leadership Group. She is a Senior Fellow with https://architecture2030.org/ (Architecture 2030), and was https://www.aia.org/showcases/6450915-kira-gould (named an Honorary Member of the AIA in 2022). She co-authored Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design with Lance Hosey (Ecotone, 2007). As CEO of the https://living-future.org (International Living Future Institute), Lindsay Baker is the organization's chief strategist, charged with delivering on its mission to lead the transformation toward a civilization that is socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative. Lindsay is a climate entrepreneur, experienced in launching and growing innovative businesses. Her introduction to the green building movement began at the Southface Institute in Atlanta, where she interned before entering Oberlin College to earn a BA in Environmental Studies. She was one of the first 40 staff members at the https://www.usgbc.org/ (U.S. Green Building Council), working to develop consensus about what the LEED rating system would become. She then earned an MS from the University of California at Berkeley in Architecture, with a focus on Building Science, and spent five years as a building science researcher at the UC Berkeley Center for the Built Environment.  Lindsay applied her experience around the study of heat, light, and human interactions in buildings to a role with Google's Green Team, and later co-founded a smart buildings start-up called Comfy, which grew over five years to 75 employees and a global portfolio of clients. She was the first Global Head of Sustainability and Impact at WeWork, where she built the corporate sustainability team and programs from scratch. Lindsay is a Senior Fellow at the https://rmi.org/ (Rocky Mountain Institute), and a lecturer at UC Berkeley. She serves on several non-profit boards, and is an advisor and board member for numerous climate tech startups.

We hear a lot about harm from AI and how the big platforms are focused on using AI and user data to enhance their profits. What about developing AI for good for the rest of us? What would it take to design AI systems that are beneficial to humans?In this episode, we talk with Mark Nitzberg who is Executive Director of CHAI or the UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI and head of strategic outreach for Berkeley AI Research. Mark began studying AI in the early 1980s and completed his PhD in Computer Vision and Human Perception under David Mumford at Harvard. He has built companies and products in various AI fields including The Blindsight Corporation, a maker of assistive technologies for low vision and active aging, which was acquired by Amazon. Mark is also co-author of The AI Generation which examines how AI reshapes human values, trust and power around the world.We talk with Mark about CHAI's goal of reorienting AI research towards provably beneficial systems, why it's hard to develop beneficial AI, variability in human thinking and preferences, the parallels between management OKRs and AI objectives, human-centered AI design and how AI might help humans realize the future we prefer.Links:Learn more about UC Berkeley CHAISubscribe to get Artificiality delivered to your emailLearn more about Sonder StudioP.S. Thanks to Jonathan Coulton for our music This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit artificiality.substack.com

In God's Image: The Making of the Modern World (Yediot Aharonot, 2021) examines the central role that the biblical idea of the “image of God” has played in the development of Western civilization. Focusing on five themes—selfhood, freedom, conscience, equality, and meaning—this book guides the reader through a cultural history of the Judeo-Christian tradition, from biblical times through modernity. It explains how each of these ideals was profoundly influenced by a central ancient conception – that every human being was created in the divine image of God. The book makes the case for a cultural, ideational understanding of history that places the development of the individual at the core of Western civilization. In our interview, we will focus not only on the ideas of the book but also on how they are deeply relevant to our existential Western society challenges around spirituality, anxiety, social media, and more. This interview is relevant not only for scholars but also for students, lay leaders, and anyone interested in how ideas have been shaped in history. In God's Image posits the fundamental role of the idea of the Image of God – running through the Jewish and Christian traditions and being constantly reinterpreted – in the making of the moral ideals and social institutions that we hold dearly today. Dr. Tomer Persico serves as the Academic Director at Kolot and a member of the senior management team, and a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Between 2018 and 2021 he was the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, a Senior Research Scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His fields of expertise include contemporary spirituality, Jewish modern identity, Jewish renewal, and forms of secularization and religiosity in Israel. Dr. Yakir Englander is the National Director of Leadership programs at the Israeli-American Council. He also teaches at the AJR. He can be reached at: Yakir1212englander@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In God's Image: The Making of the Modern World (Yediot Aharonot, 2021) examines the central role that the biblical idea of the “image of God” has played in the development of Western civilization. Focusing on five themes—selfhood, freedom, conscience, equality, and meaning—this book guides the reader through a cultural history of the Judeo-Christian tradition, from biblical times through modernity. It explains how each of these ideals was profoundly influenced by a central ancient conception – that every human being was created in the divine image of God. The book makes the case for a cultural, ideational understanding of history that places the development of the individual at the core of Western civilization. In our interview, we will focus not only on the ideas of the book but also on how they are deeply relevant to our existential Western society challenges around spirituality, anxiety, social media, and more. This interview is relevant not only for scholars but also for students, lay leaders, and anyone interested in how ideas have been shaped in history. In God's Image posits the fundamental role of the idea of the Image of God – running through the Jewish and Christian traditions and being constantly reinterpreted – in the making of the moral ideals and social institutions that we hold dearly today. Dr. Tomer Persico serves as the Academic Director at Kolot and a member of the senior management team, and a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Between 2018 and 2021 he was the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, a Senior Research Scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His fields of expertise include contemporary spirituality, Jewish modern identity, Jewish renewal, and forms of secularization and religiosity in Israel. Dr. Yakir Englander is the National Director of Leadership programs at the Israeli-American Council. He also teaches at the AJR. He can be reached at: Yakir1212englander@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

When you're told you have a tumor the size of a grapefruit growing in your brain, and you have it removed, and you live to tell the story about it without experiencing profound disability, then you have a lot to be grateful for. That's what happened to Amy. Learn more about Amy's health story in this podcast episode. She had no idea about a brain tumor until family members made an intervention and tests revealed the source of her various symptoms which taken individually caused no alarm for Amy. 'Tis the season to be grateful. And Amy is grateful for much. What are you grateful for? In the latest AARP magazine Michael J. Fox talks about how gratitude is a source for his continued optimism in spite of having to give up acting because of unreliable speech. The UC-Berkeley Center for the Greater Good explores the concept of gratitude with evidence-based research. Check out articles and video clips here. An earlier podcast episode, Gratitude & Thinking Small, includes an interview with noted author and Buddhist practitioner, Toni Bernhard.