Podcasts about uc davis

This episode features a conversation with Elias Fernandez, longtime winemaker at Shafer Vineyards in Napa Valley. Fernandez, who was raised by migrant farm workers in the Napa Valley, traces his path from studying enology at UC Davis to joining Shafer in 1984, where he became winemaker in 1994. He discusses the winery's evolution under John and Doug Shafer, its shift toward estate-only vineyards with additions like Wildfoote and Altimeter, and the current portfolio, including Hillside Select, TD-9, the One Point Five, and the Wine Spectator–acclaimed Relentless Syrah. The conversation also covers his hands-on approach to extended maceration, his early and enthusiastic adoption of non-Saccharomyces yeasts and crossflow filtration, and his use of AI-based tools like Tule for vineyard water management. Fernandez closes by reflecting on mentoring his son, now assistant winemaker at Shafer, and on the importance of introducing younger generations to wine. Resources from this Episode Shafer Vineyards

O Domingão do Carlão conversa com Mark Stetter, reitor da Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária da Universidade da Califórnia, Davis, uma das instituições mais respeitadas do mundo na formação de médicos-veterinários e na pesquisa em saúde animal. Ao longo da entrevista, ele relembra sua trajetória profissional, que inclui trabalhos com animais silvestres no Brasil, a participação na implantação do Disney's Animal Kingdom e sua atuação à frente da UC Davis, destacando a importância da pesquisa, da conservação da fauna e da formação de novos profissionais. Um encontro que reúne ciência, gestão, educação e experiências internacionais para mostrar como conhecimento, inovação e colaboração ajudam a transformar a medicina veterinária e a produção animal em escala global.

Fog is a constant presence on the Oregon Coast, but it can be difficult to measure and track. In a recent study, researchers used webcams that are normally used to check surfing conditions to get a better picture of when and where fog forms and dissipates.    The team analyzed images from six cameras stretching from Cannon Beach to Yaquina Head and compared them with data from a visibility sensor at the Newport Municipal Airport that measures fog. They found that while fog was often patchy and rapidly shifting between camera sites, the airport sensor still provided a reliable picture of average fog frequency along the coast.   Sonya Rauschenbach is a graduate student in atmospheric science at UC Davis and the lead author of the study. She joins us with more details.  

College football season is almost here, but the offseason still refuses to calm down. This week, Ciarnan and Kev break down Ohio State & Notre Dame's massive jersey patch deals and debate whether schools or conferences are better off cashing in on sponsorships. They also discuss the latest lawsuits surrounding player transfers, the NCAA's never-ending stupidity, Brett Bielema's comments about the SEC, Michigan State's lofty expectations, and why the Arch Manning Heisman hype may have gotten completely out of hand. Then it's time for another conference logo showdown, this week featuring the Mountain West Conference. From iconic classics and underrated mascots to logos that look more like government agencies than football programs, the guys discuss every Mountain West logo and decide which schools nailed their branding and which ones desperately need a redesign. 0:00:00 – Jersey patch chaos, Arch Manning hype, and college football countdown 0:06:00 – Big 12 vs. Ohio State deal, commercialization of CFB, and the "patch problem" 0:12:00 – NIL mess, player transfer lawsuits, and college football's shifting identity 0:18:00 – NCAA suspensions, administrative scandals, and Karen's rant about contracts 0:24:00 – Big Ten Media Days: Bielema's SEC shade and a deep dive on Big Ten odds 0:30:00 – The questionable Heisman hype for Arch Manning and legacy QB wishful thinking 0:36:00 – Mountain West Conference logos: nostalgia, bad upgrades, and logo roasts 0:42:00 – Mountain West logos Pt. 2: UNLV Confederate weirdness, New Mexico State disasters 0:48:00 – San Jose State logopalooza, UTEP debates, and Wyoming's subtle glow-up 0:54:00 – More MW visuals: North Dakota State, Grand Canyon, UC Davis throwdown, and wrap-up 0:59:00 – Favorite conference logos, what's next, and social plugs

Intermittent fasting. Cold plunges. Daily HIIT. These trends have real benefits — but not for every body, and not in every season of life. In this episode, I break down why three of the most popular wellness trends can quietly work against your hormones if you're already dealing with chronic stress, HPA axis dysregulation, and the hormonal shifts of entering midlife. Plus — three embarrassingly simple tools that actually support your nervous system and your hormones right now.Resources:Read the full blog post on these 3 Wellness Trends and their impacts on your hormonesBook Your Free Hormone Clarity CallGet your FREE copy of Maybe It's Not You: The Truth on PMSSources referenced:Bhutani et al. (2010), Obesity — intermittent fasting and cortisol in womenWitbracht et al. (2015), UC Davis — breakfast skipping and HPA axis disruptionSystematic review and network meta-analysis, PMC (2025) — exercise, dose, and cortisol regulationDr. Stacy Sims — HIIT and women's physiology, drstacysims.comAbout KateKate Nguy is the founder of Shee Revival and a Certified Hormone Health Practitioner and Cycle-Syncing Strategist who helps busy women in their 30s and 40s balance their hormones and reclaim their energy. Specializing in the hormonal ups and downs of midlife—from PMS and perimenopause to burnout and cortisol overload—Kate guides women to feel at home in their bodies and live in sync with their natural cycles. Through cycle syncing, hormone hacks, and nervous system regulation, Kate empowers women to rebalance their hormones, reconnect to their bodies, and revive the vibrant, grounded version of themselves underneath the overwhelm.Tune in now and join the movement toward better hormone health!Follow me @hormoneswithkate on Instagram for more insights, tips, and support!

New project could help identify genetic traits for healthier commercial flocks

Conspiracy theories are not new in the United States, but over the years they have taken on a life and power of their own. How did conspiracy theories become so entrenched in the American mind? Why is it that, even if we don't entirely believe them, we like them? Our guests today are Katherine Olmsted, author of Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI and history professor at UC Davis and Derek Arnold, an instructor at Villanova University who teaches communications and conspiracy theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tim Akin spent 26 years at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, which gave him a large window on the business world. He retired as the school's executive director of marking and communications in June, and today on Davisville we talk about what he has seen and learned over the years. The topics include whether he thinks business is ready to manage AI, what the school brings to the different worlds of business and academia, and the value of business education that includes other areas of study, and doesn't just focus on itself.    The photo shows Tim, with a few items he once kept on his desk at UC Davis, in KDRT's studio on July 25.

Listen in as we chat with VIN Foundation Vets4Vets® team lead Dr. Bree Montana as part of our Inhale, Exhale Series and this time were talking about the importance of work transitions In this episode we have eight major topics we're addressing: Defining work transitions Why thought through work transitions matter Build a departure ritual Create a rejuvenation plan Add in technological barriers Build a work transition ritual for homecoming Things that go bump in the night Where to get help   As always, we want to hear from YOU. Please share your thoughts by sending an email or joining the conversation.   GUEST BIO: Dr. Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP Bree Montana, DVM, CCFP, is a small animal practitioner and Founder of the Agate Bay Animal Hospital and Dog Gone Crazy boarding/training facilities in North Lake Tahoe California. Following the completion of a B.S. in Biology at the University of Cincinnati's McMicken College, Dr. Montana graduated from the Ohio State University's College of Veterinary Medicine with a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in 1992. A past member of the external advisory and admissions committees for UC Davis' College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Montana also served as a working member of the VIN Foundation Board. In 2010, Dr. Montana helped to create the VIN Foundation's innovative Vets4Vets® program, a confidential support group providing critical emotional care to veterinarians struggling with all forms of stress/addiction/mental health issues. The program is international and free for all veterinarians and veterinary students. Learning to balance the life of a rural solo practitioner, mom, wife, husky wrangler and aspiring dressage queen while coordinating the Vets4Vets® program has allowed Dr. Montana to become an expert at thinking outside of the box when advising veterinarians who feel stuck in their careers and personal lives. Dr. Montana enjoys lecturing on topics at the intersection of personal and professional life balance, including strategies for a healthy mentoring relationship, job seekers' success techniques, effective communication in the workplace, as well as teaching the workplace ergonomics section of The Other Side of Veterinary Medicine: Healthy Clinicians Make Better Practitioners (a RACE approved course).   LINKS AND INFORMATION: Leaving Work at Work: A Daily Transition Checklist: https://vinfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/VIN-Foundation-_-Veterinary-Pulse-Podcast-_-Inhale-Exhale-Series-_-Bree-Montana-DVM-CCFP-_-Transitions-Checklist.pdf Brene Brown on transitions: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/lock-in-and-lock-through-power/ VIN Foundation Vets4Vets®: https://vinfoundation.org/v4v VIN Foundation Veterinary Pulse Podcast Inhale, Exhale Series: https://vinfoundation.org/category/inhale-exhale/ VIN Foundation Veterinary Pulse Podcast Future's So Bright Series: https://vinfoundation.org/category/futures-so-bright/ VIN Foundation get updates: https://vinfoundation.org/updates/ VIN Foundation GIVE page to support these programs & tools: https://vinfoundation.org/give You may learn more about the VIN Foundation, on the website, or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you like this podcast, we would appreciate it if you follow and share. As always, we welcome feedback. If you have an idea for a podcast episode, we'd love to hear it!

Tim Milos is a highly respected winemaker and consultant working across Napa and Sonoma, with current winemaking roles at Immortal Estate, Hidden Ridge Vineyard, and RD Winery, and as proprietor of Vino di Milos LLC. He is a Napa and Sonoma-based winemaker with over 20 years of experience in wine production, vineyard management, and consulting. He is known for crafting terroir-driven wines using traditional winemaking techniques and a minimalist approach to highlight the unique characteristics of each vineyard block. Tim has had multiple 95+ point ratings from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, was included in the Top 100 Wines of the World by Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast and has had 100-point wines from Wine Advocate and Jeb Dunnuck for his Impassable Mountain Cabernet Sauvignons RD Winery. Milos began his career in the Finger Lakes before moving to Napa Valley, where he has worked with notable wineries such as Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Opus One, S. Anderson, and Cliff Lede RD Winery. He studied cell biology and biochemistry at Sonoma State University, enology and viticulture at UC Davis, and has experience in plant genome mapping at the USDA RD Winery. His take on the chemistry of wine as it pertains to smoke taint is eye opening. [Ep 421] @timothymilos thewinemakerspodcast.com

An Interview with A Mentor- Chancellor Gary May, 7th Chancellor of University of California, Davis- Recorded in 2026INTERVIEW OVERVIEW⁠Chancellor Gary S. May⁠⁠7th Chancellor, University of California, Davis⁠ KEY FIGURES•      433 underrepresented students earned Ph.D.s in science and engineering at Georgia Tech — most in the nation•      73% of SURE program participants went on to graduate school•      200+ technical publications; 15 book contributions; 1 patent•      $13.2 billion annual economic contribution to California•      40,000+ students enrolled at UC Davis•      $1 billion+ in annual sponsored research Some of the questions in this interview included: Background: Created the Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Science (SURE) program backed by NSF. Founded FACES and the University Center of Exemplary Mentoring with NSF and Sloan Foundation grants. Produced the most Ph.D.s among underrepresented groups in science and engineering in the nation. Q3. SURE sent 73% of participants to graduate school. What design principles separate a research experience that genuinely transforms a student from one that's merely decorative on a résumé? Q4. Through FACES and the University Center of Exemplary Mentoring, 433 underrepresented students earned Ph.D.s — the most in the nation. If a provost called you tomorrow wanting to replicate that, what's the one structural element they cannot skip — and the mistake institutions most often make? Background: Steve W. Chaddick Chair, Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dean, Georgia Tech College of Engineering — largest and most diverse engineering school in the nation (400+ faculty, 13,000 students). Executive Assistant to President G. Wayne Clough. Elected to the National Academy of Engineering, 2018. Q5. You went from the Chaddick Chair to dean of the largest, most diverse engineering school in the country while sustaining 200+ publications. How did you manage the scholar-administrator tension, and what did serving as executive assistant to President Wayne Clough teach you about executive leadership before you ever held the title? Q6. Leaders keep emerging from your Georgia Tech orbit including President DesRoches at Rice, Isbell at UIUC,  President Ayanna Howard now at Spelman,  President Blake at Georgia State, Provost Beyah as provost. Coaches have coaching trees — you have a leadership tree. Was this the product of a deliberate, repeatable system for developing leaders, or a culture that leadership simply grows in? Q7. Often a mentor sees leadership potential in someone before they see it in themselves. When you spot that raw material in a young faculty member or administrator, what exactly are you looking for — and how do you have the conversation that plants the seed of "you could run an institution one day"? Background: 7th Chancellor, UC Davis (2017–present). Four colleges, six professional schools, 40,000+ students, $1B+ in annual sponsored research. Ranked 3rd best public university in the United States (Wall Street Journal/College Pulse, 2024). Ten-year strategic plan: To Boldly Go. Music by Nikita Kondrashev from Pixabay

Send us Fan MailMainstream education doesn't teach much, if anything, about the history of Trans people, but we have existed forever! And we will continue to exist forever! In this episode of Dem Bois Podcast, my guest Wen Neal shares how learning Trans history helped him understand gender more deeply. Wen also discusses the importance of online communities in understanding gender identity, the complexities of familial relationships, and the ongoing journey of understanding yourself and your place in the world. We talk:9:27 - The role of online communities in self-discovery17:26 - Family dynamics and growing up24:03 - Navigating difficult conversations with parents37:19 - Healthcare disparities: Florida vs. California43:30 - The importance of Trans history education52:40 - Art as a reflection of identityEpisode References:Deviant ArtMaine-coon Cat BreedMy Strange AddictionDeantrbl IGRead more about Wen in his bio below:Wen Neale is a Asian American transman who's been on HRT for over 10 years (and has four cats) - since the beginning of his transition, he's been an open book on the internet about his transgender journey, and was able to share his experiences as a speaker in UC Davis. Wen is an inspirational figure in the Asian American trans community for his outspoken experiences about living authentically and taking calculated risks in finding his own path to happiness, from personal life to his career.Website - catdad.online IG - sippystrawIG Shop - catdadshop Twitter - catdadwenCelebrate 10 years of Dem Bois Inc.!2026 marks ten years of Dem Bois Inc. To honor this milestone, we invite you to join our 10 for 10 campaign by giving $10 a month to help sustain the care, leadership, and visibility that trans men of color deserve.Your support helps build a future rooted in care, visibility, and possibility.Donate today!Donate today to support Transmasc Gender Affirming Grants and Community Wellness Packages for Trans Men of Color!The  Visibility = Possibility™️ Merch is here! - Not just merch, but a movement! Dem Bois Community Voices Facebook Group is a safe, moderated sanctuary where trans men of color can connect authentically, discuss podcast episodes, share powerful experiences, and build support networks. Dem Bois YouTube Channel! - @demboisinc - Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else!

What if breast cancer risk is not determined only by your genes or family history? In this episode, Dr. Taz sits down with double board-certified breast cancer surgeon and lifestyle medicine physician Dr. Kristi Funk to discuss why breast cancer is becoming more common, especially among younger women, and what women can do to better understand and potentially reduce their risk.Dr. Funk explains why 95% of women diagnosed with breast cancer do not have a BRCA mutation and why 87% do not have a first-degree relative with the disease. Together, Dr. Taz and Dr. Funk explore how food, alcohol, exercise, body weight, stress, inflammation, environmental toxins, sleep, and hormone therapy may influence breast health.They also break down some of the most confusing questions surrounding breast cancer screening and treatment. Do mammograms cause cancer? Is ultrasound a good alternative? When should women begin breast exams? Are some cases of stage zero breast cancer being overtreated? And how much does menopause hormone therapy actually increase breast cancer risk?Breast cancer screening is important, but screening and prevention are not the same thing. Understanding your individual risk factors can help you have better conversations with your doctor and make more informed decisions about your health.If you are navigating cancer treatment or recovery, concerned about inflammation, or want personalized support for your hormones and nutrition, explore related Hol+ care options here:Cancer Support:https://holplus.co/services/cancer-support/Inflammation:https://holplus.co/conditions/inflammation/Hormone Balancing:https://holplus.co/services/hormone-balancing/About Dr. Kristi Funk:Dr. Kristi Funk is a double board-certified breast cancer surgeon, lifestyle medicine physician, bestselling author, and international speaker. She graduated from Stanford University and received her medical degree from UC Davis before completing her surgical residency and breast cancer fellowship.Dr. Funk previously served as Director of the Cedars-Sinai Breast Center and co-founded the Pink Lotus Breast Center in Los Angeles, where she continues to practice. She has helped thousands of women navigate breast health and breast cancer, including Angelina Jolie and Sheryl Crow. She is also the author of Breasts: The Owner's Manual and the founder of the Cancer-Kicking! Summit.Connect with Dr. Kristi Funk:https://www.instagram.com/drkristifunkhttps://pinklotus.com/About Dr. Taz:Dr. Tasneem Bhatia, also known as Dr. Taz, is a triple board-certified integrative medicine physician, bestselling author, and founder of hol+, a multi-location integrative medicine practice.Learn more: https://doctortaz.com/aboutStay Connected:Connect further to Hol+ at https://holplus.co/ - Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated on future episodes of hol+.Book a Hol+ Consultation: https://holplus.co/locations/virtual/Follow Dr. Taz on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/drtazmd/https://www.instagram.com/liveholplus/Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://holplus.transistor.fm/subscribeSubscribe to the video podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@DrTazMD/podcastsHost & Production TeamHost: Dr. Taz; Produced by ClipGrowth.com (Producer: Pat Gostek)Chapters0:00 Why breast cancer is rising6:20 Why most cases are not genetic14:53 The biggest breast cancer risk factors34:25 How stress and inflammation affect risk40:33 Breast exams, mammograms, and screening49:40 Are we overtreating stage zero breast cancer?57:20 Hormone therapy and breast cancer risk

Send us Fan MailWhat shapes a world-leading scientist?Is it intelligence?Great mentors?Opportunity?Or simply an insatiable curiosity that never stops asking why?In Episode 489 of the Leave Your Mark Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Keith Baar, one of the world's most respected molecular exercise physiologists, whose work has transformed our understanding of muscle growth, tendon adaptation, rehabilitation, and human performance.As Professor of Molecular Exercise Physiology at UC Davis—and soon to begin the next chapter of his career at McMaster University—Keith has spent decades translating molecular biology into practical strategies for clinicians, therapists, coaches, and elite sporting organizations worldwide.But this conversation isn't about signalling pathways or collagen synthesis.It's about the journey that created the scientist.We explore the mentors who shaped him, why curiosity has always driven his career, how his relationship with his wife Barb influenced many of life's biggest decisions, and the leadership philosophy that built one of the world's most respected research laboratories around the simple idea of conducting world-class science in a family environment.Along the way, we discuss why science should never be about proving yourself right, how diverse experiences lead to better discoveries, the challenges facing research today, and why asking better questions is often more important than finding quick answers.Of course, we couldn't resist diving into some of Keith's latest work on tendon adaptation, including the exciting potential of low-load, long-duration isometrics (3LD) and what his research may mean for rehabilitation and performance practitioners everywhere.This is an episode about science.But even more, it's an episode about the people behind the science.I think you're going to enjoy this one.If you liked this EP, please take the time to rate and comment, share with a friend, and connect with us on social channels IG @Kingopain, TW @BuiltbyScott, LI+FB Scott Livingston. You can find all things LYM at www.LYMLab.com, download your free Life Lab Starter Kit today and get busy living https://lymlab.com/free-lym-lab-starter/Please take the time to visit and connect with our sponsors, they are an essential part of our success:www.ReconditioningHQ.comwww.FreePainGuide.com 

On today's show, host Esty Dinur speaks with Sasha Abramsky about his recent article for the Nation Magazine, “Trumpworld's Global War on Multiracial Democracy.” Sasha Abramsky is the Nation Magazine’s Authoritarian Watch columnist and a frequent feature writer for the magazine. His work has also been published in the Atlantic, New Republic, New York Review of Books, the Guardian, Rolling Stone and many other venues. He is the author of 11 books, including, most recently, American Carnage: how Trump, Musk, and DOGE Butchered the US Government. Abramsky teaches writing at UC Davis. Featured image of Sasha Abramsky from 2023 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Trump's Propaganda Masquerades as Policy appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

New research suggests winter crops may offer California farmers an alternative to fallowing land while adapting to groundwater restrictions.

Allison McColloch is an American volleyball Coach, admin and former indoor and pro beach standout. Playing with and against the best of the world and domestic scene, she is a household name. She threw her name in the NCAA hat, serving as the head coach of UC Davis. She is now deeply involved with LOVB, a professional indoor volleyball league that also developed a club system to enhance more playing opportunities for juniors. 03:50 - What is LOVB? The idea, the plan the evolution, plus, who did she aspire to be growing up? 20:20 - Don't remove social media - enhance the good things, are we attracted to the right kind of drama, and what exactly is that? 31:22 - What we love about the old school scene, and where they failed at passing the baton, why LOVB is headed the better direction 37:31 - Be yourself, but if it is manufactured, the audience sees that, too, plus, so many great tournaments, but who is there to tell the story? 1:02:08 - LOVB rewind video, showcasing what they are doing, the clear indications of the work being put in. The idea of the Jason Olive's Hawaiian Festival 1:18:00 - Personalizing your work, the pros and cons 1:37:55 - being in a position to affect change, pouring through the list of coaches for LOVB, inspiring reads or sports movies

On the Contacts Coaching Podcast, Justin interviews Kevin Fox, a Salinas native and longtime Midland, Texas resident who serves as character coach for Grant McCasland at Texas Tech. Fox shares his path from UC Davis and early ministry work to building relationships in junior college basketball at Midland College, where he connected with coaches like McCasland, Ross Hodge, and others. They discuss West Texas sports culture, the importance of encouraging multi-sport athletes, and how character coaching works best through organic relationships, clear boundaries, and accountability. Fox addresses how NIL has increased pressure and outside pull on athletes, the value of JUCO coaching experience for today's roster turnover, and practical ways teams define and measure culture, including tracking “positive touches.” He also reflects on humility, continuous learning, and stepping out from behind the scenes.00:00 Welcome and Introductions01:06 From Salinas to Midland01:53 Hoops to Coaching Network04:38 Character Coach Role05:15 West Texas Football Culture07:06 Multi Sport Debate10:37 Organic Mentorship Model14:40 NIL Pressures and Protection17:39 JUCO Mindset at Tech21:16 Calling to Ministry25:16 Teaching Faith and Coaching28:44 Coaching Meets Ministry30:21 Learning to Say I Don't Know31:53 Humility and Adaptation34:26 Boundaries and Accountability39:03 Preacher vs Minister41:15 Coaching Across Levels47:12 Defining Character Culture51:12 Changing Minds and Showing Up53:57 Closing Story and Farewell

While "gut health" is a ubiquitous buzzword in the wellness industry, it has historically lacked a clear scientific definition. In this episode, host Dr. Siobhan McCormack sits down with world-renowned expert Professor Maria Marco from UC Davis and the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP).They discuss the new scientific consensus defining gut health, the crucial differences between fermented foods and probiotics, and what we can actually learn from direct-to-consumer stool tests. Plus, Siobhan gets a behind-the-scenes look at a rigorous clinical trial investigating the health impacts of kimchi.What We Cover:Defining Gut Health: How a global expert panel established the first consensus definition, moving beyond just the microbiome to include six complex domains.Symptoms vs. Biomarkers: Why you can still achieve "gut health" even with a chronic but well-managed gut disorder.The Microbiome Testing Reality Check: The limitations of commercial stool tests and why they currently lack the clinical utility to guide personalized medical treatment.Fermented Foods vs. Probiotics: The true distinction between foods fermented for taste and preservation, versus specific live microbial strains proven to deliver targeted health benefits.Inside the Marco Lab: A look at the complexities of nutritional science, including an ongoing clinical trial comparing the physiological effects of kimchi to unfermented cabbage.Scientific References & Further Reading:Marco, M., et al. (2025). Consensus panel definition of gut health. Nature Reviews.Marco, M., et al. (2026). 'The impact of fermented dairy on gastrointestinal health and associated biomarkers'. Nutrition Reviews.Bischoff, S. (2011). "Gut health": a new objective in medicine? Perspective Paper.This podcast is brought to you in collaboration with the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine.Disclaimer: The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast.

A Clean Energy Campus In July 2025, the University of California Board of Regents approved a plan to modernize UC Berkeley's energy infrastructure by replacing its aged steam system with efficient, all-electric heating and cooling systems.  Today, 90% of Berkeley's power comes from the combustion of natural gas at UC Berkeley's costly and outdated fossil gas cogeneration plant. However, the plant is nearing the end of its life: it has less than a decade of life left, and is a source of frequent, costly, and disruptive repairs on campus (UC Berkeley Clean Energy Campus). In an effort to build a more sustainable future, the plan seeks to phase out fossil fuel use for powering, heating, and cooling campus buildings by 2035 or sooner. Advantages The plan is primarily funded by a capital investment from the State of California, and will be conducted in 3 phases. Phase 1, which will take place from mid-2026 through 2030, will electrify Berkeley's heating and cooling plant, upgrade electrical infrastructure, improve thermal energy storage, distribute heated and chilled water through an underground system, and update the accessibility of landscaping and pathways on campus (UC Berkeley Clean Energy Campus). The plan not only predicts a 70% reduction in carbon emissions from campus buildings by 2028 and a 59% reduction in campus-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and promotion of energy resilience, but also promises to create new employment and training opportunities, distributing the benefits of clean energy across the campus and the local community (CEC First Phase Underway). The project's primary priority is the establishment of an Electrified Heating and Cooling Plant (EHCP). The new system, rather than relying on steam and natural gas, will develop a fully functional clean energy microgrid. A major component of this includes a “new central electrified heating and cooling plant capable of serving more than 12 million square feet of building space,” located underneath a new recreational field (CEC First Phase Underway). The plant functions primarily through a “geothermal” mechanism: an underground heat exchange will distribute hot and chilled water throughout campus to heat and cool buildings (Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative).  UC Berkeley is not alone in its goals to phase out fossil fuels — both UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz — are making similar long-term plans for transitioning to renewable energy sources (University of California). Each of the individual campus' goals align with the UC system's new climate policy, which aims to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions across all ten campuses by 2045 (University of California).  Drawbacks While the plan would undoubtedly make strides in UC Berkeley's plans to reduce their carbon footprint, its success is not guaranteed. Of the $700 million required to complete the plan, UC Berkeley has currently secured $270 million (Cal Alumni Association). In order to ensure the project is seen through, pressure on campus leadership and the State of California to maintain continued funding is critical. About our guest Sally McGarrahan oversees the Berkeley Clean Energy Campus Project at UC Berkeley's Office of Facility Services. Before joining UC Berkeley, she held executive positions at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the City of San José, and the City of Oakland, where she managed large utility systems, capital programs, and public works departments. Resources November 2023 Update, CEC First Phase Underway Home, Clean Energy Campus UC Berkeley Clean Energy Campus Utility Improvement Project, Youtube UC Berkeley Goes All-Electric As Part of Ambitious Clean Energy Campus Plan, Cal Alumni Association UC Berkeley's Clean Energy Campus – A Sequential Plan for Success, Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative Further Reading How three UC campuses are phasing out fossil fuel, University of California With major strides toward decarbonization, Brown to create sustainable thermal energy system, Brown University Campus-wide electrical upgrades will help Stanford achieve climate goals, Stanford Report

Victor Montejo is a Jakaltek Maya originally from Guatemala. He is a sociocultural anthropologist specializing in Mesoamerican Indigenous cultures. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut, USA, in 1993. He was awarded the UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Davis in 1995 and then joined the faculty of Native American Studies in 1997. He is a scholar, novelist, poet, activist, journalist, and major Mayan public intellectual, recognized nationally and internationally for his work.During his time in Native American Studies, he served as Department Chair for one term and consistently helped strengthen the Graduate program in Native American Studies with his colleagues. At the undergraduate level, he taught one of the introductory courses in Native American Studies, along with NAS 115 Indigenous People in the Contemporary World; Native Knowledge, Methods and Epistemology. At the graduate level he taught NAS 200 Seminar: Basic Concepts: NAS 246: Research Methods and Theory in Native American Studies; NAS 202: Indigenous Myths and Worldviews; NAS 250: Seminar: Classic Maya Ethnographies.As a Maya native of Guatemala, he has focused his research on Maya culture and the pan-Maya movement of self-representation in the Americas. His academic interests focus on the Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. He works on the Latin American diaspora, human rights, migration and transnationalism, comparative studies, ethnicity, Indigenous worldviews and Native knowledge, and Indigenous literatures.  Current projects include: Indigenous community development, rural development, sustainable development,  cultural/economic/political self-determination, cultural resource management. Victor Montejo has been a columnist for a national newspaper in Guatemala and obtained First Honorable Mention for Best Column in Native Americas, Cornell  University, from the Native  American Journalists Association in 2000.His Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History won the national Race, Ethnicity and Politics Award from the American Political Science Association.In 2003, Victor Montejo received a Fulbright Scholar Award to teach and conduct research in Guatemala at the University of El Valle de Guatemala. He ran for Congress and won; from 2004-2008, he served in the Guatemalan national Congress. From this post, he was named Minister of Peace during the Guatemalan Presidency and worked out the National Program for Reparation to the victims of the armed conflict in Guatemala. He was president of the Congressional Commission of Indigenous Peoples. As a Congressman he proposed and passed the law of the National Day of Indigenous People of Guatemala, and and proposed the Law Initiative: Ley de Consulta a Pueblos Indígenas. Professor Emeritus Montejo's major publications include: Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village (1987); The Bird Who Cleans the World and Other Mayan Fables, Curbstone Press, 1991; Sculpted Stones [poetry], 1995; The Adventures of Mister Puttison Among the Mayas [novel], Yax Te' Press, 1998; Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History (1999); Maya Intellectual Renaissance: Critical Essays on Identity, Representation, and Leadership. Austin: University of Texas Press (2003); Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Mayas (1999); Q'anil: Man of Lightning, University of Arizona Press (2002). Pixan: El Cargador del Espíritu, Editorial Piedra Santa, Guatemala, (2014); Secuestro a ultratumba.https://www.indigenouspeople.net/victorm.htmBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/earth-ancients--2790919/support.

At colleges across California, many campus police departments have AR-15s, stun grenades and sonic weapons. This military-grade gear is supposed to be catalogued and open to public scrutiny. But according to recent reporting from CalMatters' College Journalism Network, the law meant to sunshine that information isn't really being followed. Guest: Phoebe Huss, CalMatters College Journalism Network New research from UC Davis shows California gray wolves are eating cattle more than anything else, and their presence is causing significant stress among livestock. Reporter: Chris Felts, CapRadio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are we being lied to about the science of attraction?In this episode, UC Davis relationship scientist and author of Bonded by Love: The New Science of Human Attachment, Paul Eastwick, challenges the massive online narratives around "mate value," hardwired gender differences, and dating strategies. It turns out a lot of the viral relationship theories we see online are built on shaky evidence, relying on photos and surveys rather than real, live human interaction.Paul explains why what we say we want on paper almost never predicts who we actually fall for in person. He redefines compatibility not as a rigid trait-matching algorithm, but as something unique that two people construct together over time.If you're ready to look past the internet's rigid dating rules and see how attraction actually works in the wild, tune in.[And if you are interested in pre-ordering Yael's book, Why Don't You Understand Me?, this link will take you to the larger booksellers, while THIS link will take you to her pre-order bonus form. Thank you for supporting Yael's book launch! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeq8tfQnl1o5GvfxrIrDzeOFtIvB8E16czMKajY3B8IDy1oww/viewform]Listen and Learn:The "Evo script" and the popular, outdated evolutionary psychology myths that dominate modern dating advice and why the latest science challenges its assumptions about mate value, gender differences, and relationship strategies Why popular evolutionary psychology models fail to predict real-world relationship success, and learn how relationship science reveals a far less competitive and much more hopeful reality of how we actually choose and stay with our partners Why the way we evaluate romantic partners on paper or dating apps is completely different from how we judge them in person The surprising scientific truth that our abstract checklists for a romantic partner rarely predict real compatibility, discovering instead how long-term satisfaction is built through shared experiences rather than finding someone who matches a mental template How actual data debunks extreme evolutionary psychology scripts about gender differences, revealing that men and women are much more aligned in their romantic and sexual desires than popular media and online advice suggest Why the concept of "mate value" and physical attractiveness only matter for short-term dating and initial impressions, while true long-term relationship success depends on compatibility that partners uniquely construct together rather than a predictable algorithm How relationship satisfaction and compatibility are not predetermined by matching personality traits, but are instead actively constructed through vulnerability, open-minded interactions, and the unpredictable connections built within real-world social networks Why platonic friendships between heterosexual men and women are not only entirely possible but also deeply enriching, mind-expanding, and a proven positive predictor for finding a romantic partner in the long run The major drawbacks of online dating, learn why you should wait until the third date before making a decision, and find out how a "failed" date can actually help you find your next match Resources:Bonded by Love: The New Science of Human Attachment https://bookshop.org/a/30734/9780593593981https://www.lovefactuallypod.com/http://pauleastwick.com/pauleastwick https://linktr.ee/pauleastwick About Paul EastwickPaul Eastwick is a professor of psychology at UC Davis, where he runs the Attraction and Relationships Research Laboratory. His work sits at the intersection of evolutionary psychology, social psychology, and close relationships research, meaning he has spent his career asking why people fall for who they fall for, and whether the stories we tell ourselves about that process hold up to scientific scrutiny.His new book, Bonded by Love: The New Science of Human Attachment, makes a sweeping argument: the dominant narrative about human mating — attraction as hierarchy, competition, genetic optimization — isn't just incomplete. It's wrong in ways that matter. The real science of how humans form lasting bonds is, if anything, more interesting and more hopeful than what we've been sold.His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, he sits on the editorial boards of several major psychology journals, and he has the rare combination of scientific rigor and personal candor. Paul is also the co-host of Love Factually, a podcast he runs with Northwestern relationship researcher Eli Finkel, which fact-checks Hollywood rom-coms one movie at a time (and which happens to be one of Yael's favorite binge-listens).Related Episodes:63. The Ape That Understood the Universe with Steve Stewart-Williams92. Marriage in Midlife with Daphne de Marneffe179. How to Be an Adult in Relationships with Dave Richo248. Let's Talk about Sex & Intimacy with Zoë Kors 397. The Mindful Path to Intimacy with James CordovaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"The more I work in this field, the more there is to learn — and there's multiple strategies that you have to implement." This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Feline Infectious Disease Summit 2026. Pallavi Kamath grew up fostering kittens in Mumbai, studied animal science at UC Davis, earned a master's in animal public policy, and returned home to lead The Feline Foundation — an NGO she describes as the first in Maharashtra to systematically address the needs of community cats. With an estimated one million cats on Mumbai's streets and no existing population data to work from, the Foundation built its entire approach around a Logical Framework Matrix: a structured problem tree that mapped every welfare challenge and converted each into a program goal, giving the organization three focused pillars — population management, healthcare, and community involvement. On the ground, that means zone-by-zone sterilization across Andheri West, Mumbai's largest suburb. The Foundation divides the area into zones, conducts exhaustive street-by-street cat censuses, organizes local feeders into "carer collectives," and sets monthly TNR targets before returning to repeat the census. Once a zone hits 80% sterilized, it moves into maintenance mode — with community members taking the lead. Six of their 12 zones have crossed that threshold. Pallavi and Stacy also dig into the logistical realities most programs never face: nearly zero access to commercial traps, a handful of expert cat catchers who learned entirely on the job, and a city so geographically dense that sterilizing one neighborhood means immediately contending with cats flowing in from the next. The conversation closes on scalability — how a cat cafe can seed community buy-in, why Mumbai's municipal government is a rare progressive funding partner, and what it would take to open additional centers across a city that still has nowhere near enough sterilization resources. Press Play Now For: How a Logical Framework Matrix turns a problem tree into an organizational blueprint The zone-by-zone census methodology: every street, every building, every shopkeeper — before TNR begins What a "carer collective" is and why organizing local feeders before you start trapping changes everything The 80% threshold: how the Foundation defines population stability and transitions to maintenance mode The reality of trap access in India — and how a visit from an international colleague transformed the team's efficiency Why Mumbai's dog sterilization history may have contributed to a massive cat population explosion How a cat cafe can function as an adoption engine and community awareness hub Why Mumbai's municipal government is one of the few in India providing grants for cat sterilization — and why it's still not enough Resources & Links The Feline Foundation The Feline Foundation on Instagram The Feline Foundation on Facebook The Feline Foundation on YouTube The Feline Foundation on LinkedIn CCC TNR Certification Workshops

Puerto Rico: Un archipiélago que, cada año, recibe a millones de turistas. Muchos de estos visitantes llegan a un lugar que, por décadas, se ha posicionado en una ruta de consumo caribeño – un lugar famoso por fantasías tropicales de ron, cigarros, café y, más recientemente, reggaetón. Si queremos ser más específicos, el Viejo San Juan, el sector colonial de la capital de Puerto Rico, está organizado en torno a satisfacer al visitante con sus restaurantes de comida criolla, coctelerías, tiendas y una proliferación de alquileres a corto plazo. Pero este modelo termina volviéndose insostenible para quienes la habitan. Detrás de las campañas publicitarias cuidadosamente diseñadas para atraer a turistas a un destino familiar y convenientemente situado “dentro” de los Estados Unidos, se oculta una historia incómoda de guerra, racismo y represión violenta.Hay muchas personas en Puerto Rico cuestionando el espacio público y excavando las historias que existen debajo de cada monumento, de cada estatua, de cada ciudad y su infraestructura. Una de esas personas es Rafael Capó García, el fundador de Memoria (De)Colonial – un proyecto en Puerto Rico que ofrece recorridos históricos en San Juan. Los guías interrogan los legados coloniales de la herencia y el patrimonio puertorriqueño. Esto lo hacen a través de un lente decolonial y antirracista, y el proyecto tiene como misión promover perspectivas críticas en el momento de acercarnos a un monumento histórico. Pueden conocer más de su proyecto aquí: https://memoriadecolonial.com/Para pensar más en este acercamiento hacia los monumentos, nos sentamos también con Javier Arbona-Homar, un profesor puertorriqueño en UC Davis quien se enfoca en el diseño y en los estudios explosivos, es decir, cómo las explosiones transformaron la política espacial de los paisajes. Pueden encontrar su libro más reciente, “Explosivity Following What Remains”, aquí: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517918842/explosivity/

The popular HBO drama “The Pitt,” set in a Pittsburgh emergency trauma center, is having an impact on real-world healthcare. Doctors across California say the show has brought heightened public awareness of their daily work and sparked conversations about the challenges that emergency healthcare workers face. We'll talk to California ER physicians about the effect the TV show has had on their lives and work, and we want to hear from you: Has “The Pitt” changed how you think about emergency care? Guests: Dr. Christopher Colwell, vice chair and chief of Emergency Medicine, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Dr. Patil Armenian, professor of clinical emergency medicine and medical toxicology, UCSF Fresno; host, Human School podcast Dr. Sarah Medeiros, professor of emergency medicine, UC Davis; host, EM Pulse podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the churn of daily news growing more apocalyptic by the headline, and with earth scientists competing ferociously for the title of “gloomiest doomer,” it's time for some fun (or at least making fun) with a new fantasy-football-style draft. This time, Jason, Rob, and Asher are making their way through their top 3 signs of civilizational collapse, in 3 categories: Earth systems, pop culture, and politics. But they refuse to remain mired in the muck. Each draft pick has to be accompanied by a countervailing force, a real-world example of people facing reality and building resilience together. Originally recorded on 5/22/26.Sources & LinksThe 'Doomsday' Glacier's Giant Ice Shelf by Alison George, New Scientist, May 18, 2026Thwaites glacier in AntarcticaAntarctica's ‘doomsday glacier' by Hope Nguyen, Yahoo! News, May 20, 2026Plastic-Eating Microbe by Hafsa Aslam, UC Davis, Apr 7, 2025Gardening google search trendAdvances in AI will boost productivity, by Mark A. Wynne and Lillian Derr, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, June 24, 205Dallas Fed Chart 3 Possible AI Futures by Rudo Chakrabarti, Yahoo! Finance, May 9, 2026Local governments oases of compromise by Alexandra Marquez, NBC News, Oct 23, 2024North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre collapse by Laurie Laybourn, IPPR.org, Oct 9, 2024Global Tipping Points: Atlantic CirculationThe most pro-business Supreme Court ever by Felix Salmon, Axios, Aug 4, 2022Voting Rights Decision, New York Times, May 28, 2026Planetary Boundaries frameworkLand System ChangeWillamette Valley Wet PrairieWillamette Valley Upland Prairie and SavannaMaps of Crazy Town: Mar de Plastico by Rob Dietz, Resilience, Sep 4, 2025The Land Trust AllianceCommunity Land TrustsHow F1 Became the Fastest Growing Sport in the U.S. by Douglas Jase, Complex, May 6, 2026Fatalities in F1 racingExplainer: What's happening with gerrymandering in the United States—and who will “win” the redistricting battle? Harvard Kennedy School, May 4, 2026Democracy was never designed to work — but something better is emerging by Jeremy Lent, Resilience, May 6, 2026Related EpisodesEpisode 96, “The Frequent Flyer Tree: Losing the Last Bit of Sense in the Climate Emergency”Episode 103, “It Was Never Your Democracy Anyway: Thomas Linzey on Rethinking the Constitution”CreditsProduction and editing by Alex Leff. Editorial assistance and transcripts by Taylor Antal.Theme music is “Way Huge” and “Don't Give Up” by Midnight Shipwrecks, used with permission.Thanks to all the Crazy Townies, our listeners who are trying to understand humanity's overshoot predicament and do something about it.

The Mechanics of Genetic Drift Plants are natural genetic mosaics. As they grow and divide over time, typos naturally accumulate in their DNA code, which are known as somatic mutations. Traditional vegetative cuttings and field-grown plants accumulate these mutations at a very low, linear baseline rate over decades. However, the extreme genomic degradation highlighted in the paper is driven by rapid generational cell cycling in vitro. Forcing an unorganized mass of cells to constantly divide and regenerate bypasses the plant's normal cellular quality control checkpoints. Somatic Embryos vs. Meristem Cultures Somatic embryogenesis involves stripping a plant down to a single cell or callus phase to regenerate an embryo. This is considered high risk for mutations because if the founder cell contains a mutation, that mutation becomes permanently fixed in every single cell of the thousands of plants propagated from it. This differs from meristem tip culture, which is the low risk, predominant form of tissue culture used in cannabis for clearing Hop Latent Viroid. Because meristem tip culture preserves the existing, highly organized architecture of the shoot apical meristem rather than forcing single cells to reprogram, the genetic risk is fundamentally lower. DNA Typos vs. Chromosome Catastrophes The high-stress cell cycling environment caused macroscopic genomic errors, such as whole-chromosome duplications called trisomies. In the walnut clones, these large-scale errors made it incredibly difficult to grow the tissue back out into healthy adult plants. The stress of rapid lab cell cycling also desilenced transposable elements, or jumping genes, allowing pieces of DNA to insert themselves randomly throughout the genome and disrupt normal gene expression. It is worth noting that not all mutations are bad. Small point mutations, or single base changes, happen constantly in nature as life being life. Most occur in non-coding regions and have zero impact, while a rare few can actually create desirable new traits as seen historically in citrus and wine grapes. Genetics vs. Epigenetics The guests distinguish between true genetic mutations, which are permanent changes to the A, C, T, G code, and epigenetic modifications, which act like chemical bookmarks such as methylation that change how a gene is read without altering the underlying sequence. Some instances of a mother plant losing vigor may actually be epigenetic shifts caused by environmental stress or endophyte and pathogen buildup over time, rather than a permanent genetic mutation. Actionable Advice for Cannabis Nurseries Commercial operations scaling up clones to the tens of thousands should utilize genetic sequencing early in the pipeline. Testing the early founder material can easily catch large-scale catastrophic mutations like chromosome duplications or deletions, protecting the nursery from mass-producing defective production plants. Whole-genome sequencing costs have plummeted significantly, and the guests encourage cultivators and nursery operators with unique, degenerating, or shifting clonal lines to collaborate with academic labs to sequence the data and map exactly what is changing. Guest Information and Contact Details J. Grey Monroe is an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and the Genome Center at UC Davis. His lab studies how mutations arise across genomes, DNA repair, epigenomics, and genome evolution in plants, with applications in crop improvement and protection. Lab website: https://monroelab.org/ Email: gmonroe@ucdavis.edu Matthew Davis is a fifth year PhD candidate in the Plant Biology Graduate Group co-advised by Grey Monroe and Pat J. Brown. His research focuses on somatic mutation in orchard crops, an understudied genetic process that directly affects one of California's largest agricultural industries. Bluesky: @davismw.bsky.social Email: mtdavis@ucdavis.edu Research Links and Resources Peer-Reviewed Paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2530182123 Shorter general audience article: https://www.ucdavis.edu/blog/not-all-clones-are-created-equal Slightly longer general audience article: https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/news/davis-monroe-somatic-mutations Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today we talk with two accomplished people at different stages of life about their experiences of Davis: Ken Wagstaff, a former mayor who moved here in the 1960s, and Adithi Sumitran, who just graduated from UC Davis and heads to law school at UC Berkeley this fall. The subjects include Davis, the recent defeat of the Measure V housing measure, and what they think the community needs more of, and less of. Davis has a “big issue of safety, and the feeling of safety in Davis, that maybe we don't talk about enough,” Adithi says. She cites the sense of menace created by the fatal stabbings (article might be paywalled) during her freshman year, and more recent incidents like the indecent exposures along Olive Drive, where she lived. Davis needs to improve street lighting, improve late-hours transit, and add policing in areas, she says. Ken says Davis' dark skies ordinance is a point of pride, but supports adjusting it when needed for safety. We also talk about what drew each to Davis (“it's a lovely place to live,” she says), what Adithi will miss about the community, and Ken's concluding appreciation for “people like [her], who comes here and sees the benefits and sees the things we've created, and we sort of take it for granted. So I hope you come back, Adithi, I hope we'll have places for you and your friends to enjoy.” She says yes. (The photo shows the tracks at the Davis train station near sunrise this spring.)

Once a month I teach a tafseer class at UWA, and tonight we finished Surah al-Fatihah. We started back in April, paused in May while I was at Hajj, and picked it up again this week.This is the most important surah in our lives. We recite it at least seventeen times a day — and there has to be a reason Allah asks that of us. The whole reason we sit with it is to see how seven short verses, recited so many times that they almost slip past us, are actually a map for how to live.We began by going back over the verses we'd already covered, because the later ones don't land without them.Grounded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bismillah — In the name of AllahThe first thing to notice is that Bismillah isn't a complete sentence. “In the name of Allah” — and then what? In Arabic this is a shibh jumla, a fragment. The sentence is left open on purpose, and you complete it with your action.That's why the Prophet ﷺ said that anything important begun without Bismillah is cut off from blessing. When you say it, you're invoking Allah's help before you've even started.From that one word, three things follow.First, it's a filter. When you put Allah's name on something, the wrong things become hard to do. I mentioned the Indonesian sheikh who was asked whether smoking is makruh or haram. He refused to give a fiqhi answer. He simply asked the man: can you say Bismillah before you smoke? The man said no, of course not, it wouldn't be appropriate. Then you already know the answer. Put a Bismillah in front of a thing, and you find out very quickly what it's worth.Second, it's a mindset. When you do something in the name of someone great, you raise your game. A footballer plays differently for his country than for his local club — the colours change how seriously he takes it. So when a Muslim acts in the name of Allah, he doesn't do things half-heartedly. The Prophet ﷺ told us Allah loves itqan — excellence, doing a thing to the best of your ability. You see it in the smallest acts, like taking wudu carefully without wasting water, and you see it across the whole of Muslim civilisation. Walk through the old mosques of Andalusia and look at the detail in the calligraphy, the care in every surface. That care begins at Bismillah. Allah is beautiful, and He loves beauty.Third, it's our source of barakah. Because we're invoking Allah's help, we stay humble when we succeed — we know it was His work through us, not our own greatness — and we stay calm when we fail, knowing there may be something better in it. We're not euphoric in success or crushed in failure. We did it Bismillah, and we leave the outcome to Him.Grounded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Alhamdulillah — All praise is for AllahThen comes gratitude — and gratitude, it turns out, is the real engine of human happiness.There's a study I keep coming back to, out of UC Berkeley and UC Davis. They took people struggling with depression and split them into groups. One group received nothing. One received medication. One was given gratitude work — every day, write down the things you're thankful for. After a month, the group that did nothing got worse, the medicated group improved, and the gratitude group improved just as much as the medicated one.But the follow-up study found something sharper. Gratitude has pillars. To be grateful you need three things: the beneficiary (you, the one receiving), the benefit (the thing itself), and the benefactor (the one who gave it).When a friend buys you a kebab, all three are obvious — you know exactly who to thank. But who do you thank for good rain on a morning you love? For the parents you didn't choose? For children born healthy? You had no hand in any of it. The Bureau of Meteorology reports the weather; it doesn't send it.This is why, for those who removed God, the gratitude eventually collapses — the mind quietly asks, who am I actually thanking? It's no accident that the self-help shelves are filling with crystals and auras and the old paganism is creeping back. People are reaching for a power to thank and finding nothing there.We already have the answer. Alhamdulillah. And the fact that Allah even taught us who to thank is itself a thing to be grateful for — which is why it becomes an endless loop. Alhamdulillah for the Alhamdulillah.Rabb al-'alamin — Lord of all worldsSo who is this we're thanking? Allah is Rabb — and Rabb doesn't just mean Lord. It carries the meaning of nurturing. Not a creator who set the universe running by its own laws and stepped back, but One who creates, sustains, and nurtures every moment. And al-'alamin — everything that exists besides Him.Then immediately: ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim.Why mercy again, so soon after Bismillah? Because it isn't repetition. Imam al-Tabari disliked calling anything in the Qur'an repetition — we repeat ourselves only when we've run out of better things to say, and Allah never has. The mercy here is placed deliberately. The word Rabb — Lord, Master — can stir fear; this is a power that can do anything to us and we can do nothing back. So the instant that fear rises, Allah answers it with love. He is not a Lord laying traps so you'll trip and fall into the fire. Every law He sets is for our benefit, not His — if all eight billion of us turned away tomorrow, it would take nothing from His majesty, and only harm ourselves.This is the balance the scholars call khawf and raja', fear and hope. Lean only on hope and you grow careless; lean only on fear and you despair. Rabb al-'alamin and ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, side by side, hold you upright.Maliki yawm id-din — Master of the Day of JudgmentThis verse is read two ways — Malik (King) and Maalik (Owner) — and here is something worth understanding about our recensions. The different readings of the Qur'an don't contradict each other the way variant manuscripts elsewhere might. They complete each other.A king and an owner aren't the same. I own this iPad — I don't call myself its king. As owner I can use it, lend it, smash it, and no one can question me; I control every detail. But you don't own a country, you reign over it — a king sets the laws that govern the whole. The owner handles the detail, the king handles the big picture. Allah is both. On that Day He sets every rule — who speaks, who goes where, when it begins — and He holds every single soul down to the smallest detail.And notice the word din. Allah could have said yawm al-qiyamah. He chose din, which in Arabic is one vowel from dayn — debt. Religion and debt are bound together, because the reason we worship at all is a debt of gratitude we owe Him.The Prophet ﷺ embodied this. He prayed through the night until his feet swelled, and when Aisha asked why — when Allah had already forgiven him entirely — he answered: should I not be a grateful servant?That's the summit. People worship for different reasons. Some out of fear of the Fire — valid. Some to bargain, O Allah, I have an exam — also valid, also sincere. Al-Ghazali called these levels: the slave who obeys out of fear of beating, the merchant who trades. But the highest is the one who worships out of sheer gratitude, moved by love.An easy way to check where you sit — I use it on myself. Look at how you set your alarm for Fajr. If sunrise is 7:15 and I set it for 7:00, just enough to make the prayer before it's lost, I'm moving out of fear of missing it. The one moved by gratitude sets it for 5:00 — time for tahajjud, some Qur'an, then Fajr. Same prayer. Very different relationship.And this debt isn't only with Allah. The Day of Judgment is the day all debts are settled — including the ones we owe each other. The Prophet ﷺ told us of the true bankrupt: a man who arrives with a mountain of good deeds, sees his scale, thinks he's bound for Paradise — and then the people he wronged come forward. He cheated me. He hit me. He slandered me. His good deeds are handed out one by one until they run dry, and when they're gone, their sins are loaded onto him instead. He started rich and ended in ruin.So al-Fatihah reminds us, seventeen times a day, that everything we do is being counted. This is why the Qur'an says prayer restrains us from indecency — at Fajr you're reminded twice, at Dhuhr four times, before the day can pull you off course. Maliki yawm id-din. Settle your debts before they're settled for you.The turnUp to here, every verse has been about Allah — describing Him, praising Him from a kind of distance. Then the whole surah pivots.Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'in — You alone we worship, You alone we askIn Arabic you'd normally begin with the verb. Allah front-loads iyyaka — “You” — and that inversion is where the word only comes from. It isn't written in the verse; it's created by the word order. Only You we worship. Only You we ask. And He says it twice, to drive it home.Then look at na'budu. We translate it “worship,” and we shrink that to rituals — prayer, fasting, dhikr. But its root means slave. A slave has handed over his freedom; he doesn't get to say no, not this one. So this is far bigger than the window of prayer. Every part of life — how we work, how we rest, how we treat people, how we entertain ourselves — belongs to Allah.People hear “slave” and recoil. Translators reach for “servant” instead, and even that's going out of fashion. But enslaving yourself to Allah is the one freedom that's real — because we are never as free as we imagine.Ask a child almost anywhere in the world to recognise the golden arches and they can, often before they can read. They link it to happiness — the happy meal did its work. But be honest: is that the best burger you've ever had? Is that the best playground in your city? The parks in Perth are better. We didn't choose to want it; a marketing machine chose for us.Or take diamonds. You “need” one to propose — except diamonds are neither rare nor precious. They're abundant; the scarcity is manufactured. The entire idea was a De Beers campaign from the 1920s, and it reshaped what a whole civilisation believes love requires.Even right and wrong get sold to us. Things shift from forbidden to acceptable not because the science changed but because someone with deep pockets lobbied hard enough. A hundred years ago, women in Perth dressed almost like Muslim women — high collars, long sleeves, covered ankles. A century later they're barely clothed, and it's called freedom. Yet the bikini was designed by a man. How is that liberation?So iyyaka na'budu hands us a fixed point. Our right and wrong, our values, our whole standard comes from Allah alone — and that's exactly what makes us stable when everything else is being marketed at us. We reaffirm it seventeen times a day.And iyyaka nasta'in — only You we ask for help. Of course we ask people for help too. But a believer knows that if someone helps me, the help still came through Allah. When I drink to quench my thirst, it isn't the water doing it — it's Allah, using the water as His means. Even so, the Prophet ﷺ told us that whoever doesn't thank people hasn't truly thanked Allah. So this isn't an excuse to skip past gratitude to the person in front of you. Thanking them is part of thanking Him.Ihdina as-sirat al-mustaqim — Guide us the straight pathNow, finally, we ask for something. And of everything a person could ask the Lord of all worlds for — wealth, relief, rescue — the prayer lands on guidance.And there's no “to.” If Allah meant guide us toward the path, the Arabic would include ila. He leaves it out. Professor Quraish Shihab puts it well: if you ask me the way to the musalla, I can point — out the door, left, right, right again. That's directions, and goodbye. But ihdina sirat al-mustaqim, with no ila, is the other kind — come, let's go, I'll walk you there myself. So we're not asking Allah to show us the path from a distance. We're asking Him to walk it with us — every step, every decision, sometimes hour by hour.Then the word sirat itself. Arabic has several words for path — sabil, tariq — but sirat is a wide one. Its root means to swallow something whole; a sirat is broad enough to swallow crowds. This matters. The straight path isn't a narrow ledge for our group alone. It's vast. Whoever prays as we pray, faces our qiblah, eats our slaughter — the Prophet ﷺ called that person a Muslim. We can disagree sharply on creed and method and still not expel one another from the path.And within that one wide road there are subul — lanes. Allah says of those who strive, We will guide them to Our ways — plural. Some people reach Allah most easily through prayer; sunnah prayers come light to them. For others it's fasting beyond Ramadan, or teaching, or feeding the poor, or caring for orphans and single mothers. Different gifts, different lanes, same road.Which means I have no business looking down on anyone. I might memorise more Qur'an than the next person and assume I'm above him — when he may be carrying half his community on his back while I spend my time reciting. Allah handed out different talents on purpose. Use yours as your lane to Him, and leave the contempt behind.The path of those blessed — and the two who lost itAllah doesn't leave the path abstract. He names who's already on it: the path of those You have blessed. Elsewhere He tells us who they are — the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, the righteous. So this road isn't some untrodden wilderness we have to hack through. People have walked it ahead of us. Find your heroes among them.We're built to follow heroes — it's why influencers now out-earn the executives of the platforms they post on. So Allah meets that instinct and points it somewhere worthy. We should know our prophets. We should know the siddiqin — Abu Bakr, the certified truthful. The martyrs — Umar and Uthman. The righteous companions, each one.If our children can name all eleven players on a football team but not the ten companions promised Paradise, something has gone wrong in the home. I'm not against knowing the players — some people can tell you the exact weight of the racquet Federer uses, custom-made, not the commercial one. Fine. But then let's also know the length and weight of our Prophet's sword. The more we know our heroes, the more we love them, and the more we want to become like them.Then the final turn: not the path of those who earned anger, nor of those who went astray. The classical scholars sometimes named specific groups, but I prefer the reading that looks at character — and it ties the whole surah together.Look back at the seven verses. The opening ones — Bismillah, Alhamdulillah, ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Maliki yawm id-din — are verses of knowledge. They tell us things. The later ones — only You we worship, guide us — are verses of action. We do something with them.So the two who lose the path are:* The one who has knowledge and refuses to act on it — that's the one who earned anger. He knew and chose not to.* The one who acts without knowledge — that's the one astray. All effort, no guidance, lost despite his sincerity.There's a hadith — discussed by the scholars, used by al-Mundhiri to spur us — where the angels come first for those who knew the Qur'an and didn't live it, before the idol-worshippers, and when those people protest, the answer comes: are the one who knew and the one who didn't know the same? Disobedience out of knowledge is heavier than disobedience out of ignorance.The complete surah is both together: knowledge and action. You know, and you act on what you know.Seven verses. And the Prophet ﷺ told us this is a conversation — every time we recite it, Allah answers, line by line:When you say Alhamdulillahi rabbil 'alamin, Allah says: My servant has praised Me. When you say ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, He says: My servant has glorified Me. And when you say ihdina sirat al-mustaqim, He says: This is for My servant — and for him is what he asked.That's the conversation we have with our Lord at least seventeen times a day. Tonight we finally heard the whole of it.One more thingAt the end of tonight's class, I opened something I've been building for a while.It's called Grounded — a way to actually learn the Qur'an you recite, instead of reading a translation once and forgetting it. It follows the same shape as the class itself: you learn an ayah, you recall it, and then you ground it in a daily habit. One ayah a day. About fifteen minutes.We start, of course, with al-Fatihah — the same surah we've just finished.It's been in private beta with my own students at Qaswa, who've been on it for a while now — competitive enough that some of them stay up at night trying to climb the leaderboard, only to wake up and find they've been overtaken. Tonight I opened it to the UWA cohort as the next group in.If you're a paid subscriber to this Substack, you're next in line. I'll be sending invitations before long, and you'll be among the first outside these classes to join.Stay tuned. Next month, a new surah.Here's the fuller version. Every point gets room to build the way it did in the room, and the app section now places UWA correctly — Qaswa students were already on it, UWA is the second cohort. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.grounded.day/subscribe

In this episode of Big Crystal Energy, Ashleigh sits down with artist, author, deck creator, teacher, and magical powerhouse Marcella Kroll to talk about her newest deck, The Initiates Oracle.This conversation weaves through Marcella's lifelong relationship with magic, tarot, mediumship, creativity, and the occult — from her early intuitive experiences and discovering tarot as a teenager, to becoming a professional reader, creating multiple oracle decks, and eventually stepping into the next evolution of her work.Marcella shares the story behind The Initiates Oracle, a stunning deck inspired by her pilgrimage to Egypt, her connection with the Egyptian Netjeru, Hermetic magic, ritual, transformation, and her creative collaboration with illustrator Adam Scott Miller. Together, Ashleigh and Marcella explore what makes this deck feel so powerful, why it is more than just an “Egyptian deck,” and how it can be used for reflection, ritual, spellwork, self-study, and initiation.They also discuss Marcella's book Healing the Liminal, her experience speaking at UC Davis about tarot and neurodiversity, the importance of magical community, and what it means to create work that feels deeply alive, symbolic, luxurious, and transformative.This episode is a beautiful conversation about art, devotion, survival, spiritual evolution, and finding the people who remind you that magic is still very much alive.In this episode, we talk about:Marcella's path as an artist, author, oracle, and deck creatorHer early intuitive experiences and lifelong connection to magicCreating the Sacred Symbols Oracle and the evolution of her deck workThe Egypt pilgrimage that inspired The Initiates OracleThe meaning of Hermetic magic and Egyptian symbolismWorking with the Egyptian Netjeru and learning their original namesHow The Initiates Oracle can be used for ritual, spellwork, and self-reflectionThe power of symbolism, color, artwork, and luxurious deck designMarcella's book Healing the LiminalTarot, neurodiversity, and Marcella's experience speaking at UC DavisBuilding magical community and finding your peopleMarcella's upcoming offerings, including Depth Oracle training, Magical Shielding, retreats, and her solo art showConnect with Marcella:Instagram: InstagramWebsite: ABOUT — MARCELLA KROLLThe Initiates Oracle: Initiates Oracle: Occult Hermetic- and Egyptian-Inspired Rituals for Profound Transformation (40 Full-Color Cards and 128-Page Guidebook): Kroll, Marcella, Smith, Adam: 9781578639250: Amazon.com: BooksHealing the Liminal: Healing the Liminal: Lessons & Parables for Finding Your Way: Kroll, Marcella: 9781454948735: Amazon.com: BooksSend me any questions or comments you may have and I will answer them on upcoming podcast episodes!! Looking forward to hearing from you!Please message me with any questions or comments. bigcrystalenergypodcast @gmail.com

Fred Peterson, owner of Peterson Winery, joins Dan Berger and Daedalus Howell on California Wine Country today. This is Fred’s first time on the show, but Peterson wines were a big part of this episode with Darryl Miller, on March 27 this year. Daedalus mentions the birds on the labels of the Peterson wines that Fred has brought. There are other labels with a mountain lion, a bear, a fox and a deer. They find old prints that are in public domain that they can use with no royalties. Fred Peterson calls his winemaking style “zero manipulation” which they have trademarked. He uses the jackalope on the label, but he can’t trademark that mythical animal which is in the public domain. They begin by tasting a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon from Dry Creek Valley. This is what happens when you have the proper fruit, the proper region and the proper technique of making the wine, says Dan. It is a great example of what it can do when it is properly aged. A Cab needs about 12 years to reach its fully mature complexity. This one is 23 years old now and has flavors of dry herbs and bay leaf. This is a mountain cabernet from Bradford Mountain where Fred lives, at about 1100 feet elevation. If a Cabernet is just big, oaky, alcoholic and tannic, it can’t also carry terroir. Mountain Cabs have an edginess that other Cabs just don’t have. -•• • --- -•• ••• •-• •-California Wine Country is brought to you by Deodora Estate Vineyards. Visit Deodora to discover 72 acres in the Petaluma Gap that are producing exceptional Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling. Sip the difference! -•• • --- -•• ••• •-• •- Bitterness is a good thing. Dan reminds us that bitterness is a good thing. We like it in dark chocolate and in coffee. For example, bitters are appropriate in a mixed drink. They are part of the overall complexity and diversity of flavors. This wine is a perfect example. It delivers all its high-altitude character. Fred says, “If we don’t make wines that taste of the vineyard, there’s no reason for a small winery to exist, in my opinion.” He calls his winemaking process “zero manipulation” so that his wines taste like the vineyard. Their current release Cab is the 2022. So, it is young, for a Cabernet. The 2022 is also a very good wine, and Dan thinks that Fred harvested it at the right time. Both Cabs are blends. The 2003 is 83% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot. The 2022 has the same 83% Cab, 11% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc. After time in the Navy, Fred enrolled at UC Santa Cruz. He took time off for a road trip, to bring a motorcycle to a friend’s farm in Iowa. He took an interest in agriculture when he was there. He took some Agriculture classes at the JC then finished at UC Davis. His mom’s side of the family is Sicilian and Calabrese, so he grew up around wine. Dan sees this as a typical pattern for winemakers, to start in another field before settling on winemaking. Gravity Flow Block He calls the vineyard Gravity Flow block. It is an acre and a half of vineyard with over a mile of deer fencing. When he planted this block, he planted about 7% Viogner which he co-ferments with the Syrah. He and his son don’t like very tannic wines and the Viogner helps temper the Syrah. Co-fermentation is also called co-pigmentation.  The grapes ferment together. If you put 5% Viognier you get darker wine, aromatic improvement and a lighter texture. It has a paradoxical flavor. It has personality and maturity, but it feels young. The 2005 just needs ten more years in the bottle. The Syrah from 2018 is “stunning” says Dan, and was just released. It is available at the winery. Peterson Winery has a mailing list that we can all join. His son does blending seminars occasionally and he does vineyard tours. 

Elo Life Systems: https://elolife.com/Super excited to bring on Matt DiLeo of ELO Life Systems on today's episode. Some of you may remember that ELO Life CEO Todd Rands was a part of 412 of this podcast two years ago. I've been fascinated by their work ever since to bring to the market what they call molecular farming. Matt does a great job of explaining the concept and how this shifts the value in some ways from food processors back to the farm by allowing farmers to grow desirable healthy ingredients inside of the commodity crops they already grow. It's kinda mind blowing. Some background on Matt: Dr. Matt DiLeo serves as the vice president of research & development at Elo Life Systems. In his role, Matt applies agricultural OMICs and precision breeding technologies to advance Elo's product pipeline. Prior to joining Elo, Matt held scientific leadership roles at Novozymes and KeyGene USA. Matt received his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from UC Davis and completed a postdoc at the Boyce Thompson Institute, where he studied the impact of silencing regulatory genes on the nutritional composition of the tomato fruit metabolome.Matt seems to have a knack for being on the cutting edge of ag science and technology and has shown this in a variety of areas throughout his career.

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Host Miko Lee checks in with Dr. Robyn Rodriguez and we get to check out her podcast Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks.   SHOW TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   [00:00:34] Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. I'm your host, Miko Lee, and tonight I'm so excited to talk to my lovely colleague, Dr. Robyn Rodriguez. Robyn is such a powerful leader. She's often called the people's professor. She was a professor of Asian studies at UC Davis, and now runs the Reimagination Lab. She has created a farm that is a collective action space, and she is really thinking about new ways to reimagine our world. I'm so excited for you to learn more about Dr. Robyn and you're gonna get to hear from her new podcast, which is called appropriately, Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks. And I just love this, 'cause spitting fire is this term for women that can speak out and share their stories, and Robyn has so much to tell. So I'm gonna interview her, and then you're gonna get to listen to her new podcast, Spitting Fire. Thanks so much for joining us on Apex Express.   [00:01:36] Welcome back Dr. Robyn Rodriguez to Apex Express.   [00:01:41] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Oh, thank you so much for having me.    [00:01:44] Miko Lee: I'm so happy to have you with us once again. And I have asked you this before, but sometimes things change in the amount of years we've spoken to each other. So I'm gonna ask again, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you?   [00:02:00] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah, who are my people? I think about folks of color broadly as my people. Whenever I refer to my people, I really do think about those of us who share intertwined and yet also distinct histories of colonization, empire, War, Violence. I think of all of us who've descend from peoples who've survived, fought back thrived, in spite of all that as my people and the legacy I hope to leave is lessons on continuing to not just dismantle the systems that caused harm on our ancestors and continue to cause harm for us now, but to offer also lessons on liberation and what it can look like and feel like so that we can continue to not just again, dismantle, but also build out the worlds we want.    [00:03:15] Miko Lee: Speaking of lessons, you have a brand new podcast series called Spitting Fire Doc. Robyn Speaks, and I wonder if you can talk to me about how this podcast came to be.   [00:03:27] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : You're gonna laugh. Well, there are a couple of things I think that lead to the podcast. I've always wanted to do a podcast. I did college radio when I was an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara. I had a co-host for a show called WAR Women in the Act of Resistance, and we used to love to always say, we declare war on.   [00:03:53] Miko Lee: I love that.    [00:03:53] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Whatever it is that we, yeah,    [00:03:58] Miko Lee: that's so good.    [00:03:59] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : I, I, yeah. So I, I love doing college radio and have always, you know, people would joke or I don't know if it was a joke, but compliment me on having a kind of good radio voice. I don't know how true that is.   [00:04:16] Miko Lee: Very true, true.   [00:04:16] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : But I've always had a, an interest in, podcasting as a platform. I think in general I prefer the long form platform. I prefer storytelling and, uh, there's something really powerful about podcasts is I think for me, really connected to radio programming. I don't see them, I guess, in very different ways. So I'd always wanted to do podcasts even when I was still teaching at, uc Davis, in Asian American Studies. I always thought podcasts are a really, really powerful way to share the knowledges of ethnic studies beyond the classroom. So I'd actually clipped on a recorder while I was lecturing and had uploaded a bunch of a raw unedited audio to what used to be iTunes University. So in some ways that might have been like the first podcast in a way. And then the funny thing about, uh, Spitting Fire it was kind of launched a little sooner than I was ready to be honest. I basically messed up on what was supposed to be a Zoom video. I don't know exactly what happened, but we only had audio and I thought, you know what? We're slapping that together, editing it and putting it out there, because I thought that the conversation that we had over Zoom was so, just really powerful and informative, and I didn't want to not have it circulate in the world. And so I've sort of tried to proceed in that way. I, I guess I see podcasting alongside YouTube videos and other long form and even just more written essays as the sets of long form digital media that I tend to prefer and also recognize as an educator that people learn in so many different ways. Some people are able to learn better, by listening closing their eyes and listening and are able to kind of absorb knowledge differently in that way. Others respond better to a kind of visual medium. Others like to read. And as an educator too, I feel like each of the mediums can be really effective in terms of conveying and transmitting knowledge. But again, I have a preference if I have to use digital media for the long form. I do worry that the sort of clipped, abbreviated, kind of versions of digital media that is social media, whether it's TikTok or Instagram and other sorts, or just, I don't know that they serve us in the way that, especially as an educator, that I    [00:07:08] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. I'm wondering how you ended up selecting this lovely title. You went from WAR in college to Spitting Fire. Tell me about where this title comes from.   [00:07:19] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : You know, I think it must have been a student, honestly, who had said, oh, look at Dr. Rob Spitting Fire after some talk. And I, I was sort of drawn to that. I think too, honestly, as an Asian American woman I think I was kind of playing a little bit with these stereotypes of Asian American women as kind of dragon ladies. And, but trying to kind of remake that in a way to kind of paint a picture of sort of fierce Asian American woman who is unafraid to speak truth to power. I think I've been feeling as and in my interactions with younger generations of women, I do feel as if younger Asian American women, and again, maybe it has to do with social media maybe the permanency of that. The circulation of media and how rapidly it spreads. Cancel culture. I feel that there is a kind of timidness that I'm encountering with younger Asian American women who are a little bit reluctant to speak up and speak out without really taking a moment to first compose themselves. Edit and then maybe post or share. And I guess I, I had hoped that image of spitting fire might conjure up a different way of being, as a kind of Asian American, woman, and activist, and organizer. And that's even why I think I was really drawn to just not over editing any of the content. You know, if there were was content that I could pull from other conversations I was having, that might have been like originally a Zoom for instance, but might you know, be conveyed better to somebody who Is more of a listener than a a watcher or a viewer that could invite, people or women in particular feeling like it's okay to not be perfect. It's okay to be able to stand by a thought and recognize that are the things that we, we say in a particular moment have history and context and need to be understood in that way. So it plays with that image of, I think the dragon lady, Asian American woman, dragon leader lady. And also, you know, I always talk about my middle name. It's such an important part of who I am and my identity, but my middle name, which I get from my mother. Was my mother's maiden name means to be angry in Filipino, and I've always loved it because it was actually a made up name. It was a name that my great-great-grandfather claimed for himself. Changing his name from De Los Reyes, which means of the kings to Magalit to be angry because he was a revolutionary against the Spanish. And I'm so fiercely proud of this revolutionary lineage that I hold. And I think in a way, Spitting Fire also reflects that lineage of ancestors who've never been afraid to stand up, speak out and again, speak truth to power.   [00:10:54] Miko Lee: Ooh, that was such a lovely answer. I really appreciate reclaiming the dragon Lady is furious and powerful and a revolutionary figure. I think that's so lovely because usually we just think of the dragon lady as this evil villain, but dragons in Asian culture are creatures that are to be revered and are powerful and lucky too.   [00:11:19] So, I so appreciate that. I really, I wonder,    [00:11:21] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : you know, that too.    [00:11:23] Miko Lee: I'm wondering, you, you said that you feel like young women are timid today and I was like deep sigh of that because I feel like still really now with, I don't know, I just, that's that. Um, do you find that in the students that you're working with now, that they're still Asian, young women are still being timid?   [00:11:46] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : I mean, honestly, I don't think that this is a uni. You know, this is certainly not true for all of the young women I encounter. No, that would be unfair, but I also feel as if the boldness that might be out there I feel is often highly curated. A lot of it is expressed through social media. And again, if we understand social media, the reality of Instagram is it's never so instant. There is a much time and effort put into filters, into kind of visualizations aimed to draw a more attention. Really careful framings, and accompanying captions. I mean, I, you know, even for posts, 'cause I think a lot of, I think political conversation and discourse is happening, I would say on Instagram, I've decided to opt out of TikTok. I know that's also a place, but that's all to say that I think that these become a kind of shield or crutch. And then I've found and often been surprised. When I meet people in person, such a disconnect between a persona and, how one actually moves in the world with other people. And, that's where I've seen some surprising timidness and caution. And it does worry me a bit. I mean, I, and 'cause I think that there are maybe competing notions. I think some people in my generation feel this generation to be very brave. And I'm not, you know, I hate to say this, I'm not a hundred percent certain that's true sometimes, at least in sometimes the young people that I've encountered. I think social media has. I guess I'm not convinced that social media is the modality or the mechanism by which change will happen. And we make change in our relationships with actual, kind of, with everyday people. With people. And in relation to the land and kind of the resources of the earth. And yeah, that's where I feel like that kind of boldness and bravery needs, you know, makes more lasting impact than the kind of illusory, fleeting, and very superficial for me trade and visuals and words over social media. So, yeah, I do, I do worry about it. I, I feel like I've seen it too often, a hesitance to speak up.   [00:14:32] Miko Lee: This is so interesting. I just did an interview uh, with NAKASEC about the new study that they released on Asian American men and the Manosphere, and how more and more Asian American men are being persuaded by right wing media in the Manosphere. But I wonder about Asian American women as you bring this up. And I, I think back to that many years ago, that documentary film that. Slaying the dragon. Do you remember that from years past    [00:14:58] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : that? Oh my gosh, yeah. It's a while.    [00:15:00] Miko Lee: Yeah. That was all on the, you know, the on representation of Asian American women and that, and that was maybe 20 years ago. So I wonder how much that's changed    [00:15:10] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : maybe more. Yeah,    [00:15:11] Miko Lee: maybe more. Right? So, but I wonder how that's changed with, because that was pre-social media and if Asian American men are being pulled in the manosphere, what are Asian American women being pulled into?    [00:15:24] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah, I do worry. I worry again, just, I mean, my goodness, you know, the proliferation of just the growth of the beauty industry.    [00:15:35] Miko Lee: Yeah.    [00:15:35] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Um, the casualness, by what I mean, just in terms of cosmetic surgery becoming so even normalized   [00:15:45] Miko Lee: for young people very young people .   [00:15:48] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Absolutely. Absolutely. And our kind of television series through streaming platforms you know, even movies. I mean, it's, it's clear that there are, you know, real investments in cosmetic surgery by many of the women that we hold up, across race. And yeah, this sort of, it's just, it's, I've been shocked by how, how, I mean, just the other day, I, I'm like a very loyal client. Well, when it comes to my hairstylist, I go, I travel two hours to Sacramento from our farm to get my hair cut every six months from one woman. I, I just, I could not believe just the conversations I was hearing women including Asian American women in the seats next to me around injections, fillers, I remember seeing flyers posted all around the salon. For a session being held by a, a cosmetic, I don't even know the terms, but there's now a proliferation of job titles even associated what is it? Medical aesthetician. But yeah, I, I do worry. Right. Trading in the visual. Maybe that's why too, the podcast feels like a way where people can. Especially if I, you know, am in conversation with others or for myself even to just kind of show up without having to worry about you know, what I look like or what others look like. Or there's, you know, people don't have to worry about, the talking heads and kind of can pay attention more to the knowledges or the stories being shared. But I feel like that is a pull, I mean, if there was, if we've always, I think as as Asian American women, our bodies, right? Subject to just, these representations, right? The hypersexualization of Asian American women, which is really at the core of, I can recall of slaying the dragon. I think that has gotten worse. And we're being more actively recruited into our own participation in this kind of hypersexualization on one hand, or being recruited into participating in these what are ultimately white aesthetics and remaking our bodies. To conform to notions of beauty and it's all being cast as if it's empowering and liberating somehow. And I, I've heard that and, and witnessed that, that somehow, no, these are not aesthetic choices that have to do with whiteness. I just wanna look pretty. Without any interrogation around what are the standards of beauty based on and even why, like, what is it about you know, desirability, youthfulness and all of that. That I think is definitely a co a concern I have and why I've pulled away from social media. I don't know that I've looked on Instagram for I don't know how many months. It's been quite a bit of time, so much so that, Instagram is now sending me emails to remind me of all the messages and posts I'm missing. Facebook was doing that as well. But. I get troubled by the things that I am seeing. And I do worry for not just kind of younger generations of Asian American women, I think this is also a worry for all younger women of color.    [00:19:20] Miko Lee: It's interesting they cast it almost as colorblindness in terms of the beauty standards, but it's laced in white supremacy because the whole, the very basic of the standard of beauty is based in whiteness. That's quite powerful and interesting.    [00:19:40] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah. And it's also deeply rooted in kind of capitalist consumption, right? The notion that the only thing that is of value is a thing that is new and novel. Anything else has zero value. And we're seeing that right where women are terrified. Terrified of getting older. I mean, I was in conversation with a few women, you know, in, in my circles, not even 30. Who are being policed by their peers about their frown lines, watching how they express themselves because they're approaching 30 and another woman in her early thirties you know, just commenting too that, well, the procedures now are so good. They've gotten so good at it that you can't even tell. But you know, just this, that it's happening at such a young age and, and you know, women, we already have to deal with all of these demands on our bodies, right? Some that are external, some that we internalize around, reproduction if we're straight or if we desire children, even if we're not, you know, just these pressures around that. And I mean, I feel like what woman is, especially younger women, you know, really, really worried about whether they've met certain milestones at at every age. I mean, I hear it with young women. Oh my god, I'm 25 now. I'm a quarter century. This is huge, right? Oh, I'm 30, three decades in, where am I at? So there are all these other demands around achievement, professional achievement. Scholastic achievement, nevermind, you know, your body, whether it comports to the thing that is di desirable and is doing the thing it needs to do, that it's athletic and that it's light, that it's, it can make babies. So it just it's a lot. And I feel like if we were went through it as, as younger women the intensity is, even greater. and I noticed it myself. It's probably part of the reason why I've, I had to pull away from social media, you know, I'm 53, you know, and feeling like I don't see many representations of myself too in social media. That is, I don't know that it's a space for me either. And you can't help when you're in these spaces. Even the most, kind of radical critical of us you know, can fall prey to, the intrusive thoughts of patriarchy around our bodies and aging and our utility. So yeah, it's worrying, it's really worrying to me.   [00:22:05] Miko Lee: So I wanna flip the switch on that and ask you, as a 53-year-old, what do you feel most powerful about?   [00:22:13] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : I personally have experienced so much personal loss of people, beloved people. I've also witnessed too many people who have not had the opportunity and privilege to reach this age. I think what makes me powerful or what, what makes me feel powerful, or maybe less the term, I don't know if powerful is the term, but just I feel deep gratitude that my body has, allowed me to live in this form, to this age to have the range of experiences that I've been able to experience in this body. Looking at the world through these eyes experiencing it, you know, with this skin. And I just, that is, I guess, a source of power because of the wisdom that it offers. The I think empathy, you know, and compassion that it makes possible. Because you've experienced and witnessed so much. I think that there's a lot that I have also, let go of. I think there were so many kind of insecurities that I think I struggled with as a younger woman that I no longer experience and that feels very empowering. To come to a place. And, and it really comes with life experience, I think. And that you are able to get perspective on things that might've, felt as personal failures in the past, but then you can look at differently as just lessons. Along this journey, in life. And I think I've just also been blessed with elder women in my life who you know, just are so, unapologetic about who they are, what they think, and how they move in the world. And so I have really great models. That make me excited about the prospects of continuing to, to get older and and being able to kind of experience and learn new things along the way. There's a power there.    [00:24:26] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. Yeah. As somebody who's 60 this year, I feel like it's lessons that I've learned, but also I don't care. I don't care as much I don't obsess over the little things. I just, and I say what I feel because why not? We're at a phase in life where, you know, I've done a lot of things. I've experienced hardship, and I'm just gonna say how I feel where I'm at what's going on right now? So there's a freedom to that, that I think is very different from being young. What would you like your podcast audiences to understand?   [00:25:01] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah. You know, I think my podcast audiences need to understand that I am really approaching the podcast from a place of embracing my role as a elder or a young elder. I think it's a role that, I was struggling a bit with and again, I'm not immune to as much as I feel empowered by being older, I also am not immune to all of the, the messages around youthfulness and value that I think we're constantly being barraged. But I do recognize that there is a really special role to be played by women in middle age, which I am. And I think that's what I want audiences to understand, that I am coming into this podcast, doing this podcast from a very specific vantage point. A vantage point that offers insights that on, you know, and of course I'm coming in as me, right? Somebody who still considers herself a scholar, if not necessarily one based at a university. Somebody who's been a really sort of radical thing and shift by becoming a farmer and doing land based work. That, yeah that they're going to be hearing, a perspective, you know, from somebody who has been an organizer, continues to do that work, but is also experimenting and risk taking in different ways. They get the chances to hear from a yelder who's lived a little. Who has a very unique perspective, not just from a particular vantage point in terms of age, but also somebody who's you know, done the work, studied the thing when it comes to kind of the Asian American experience done the thing it, and when it comes to Asian American, organizing. It's continued to grow by stepping away from previous ways of being, uh, by doing this work on our farm. You know, I feel like it's a unique set of perspectives that I'm hoping can offer inspiration or lessons for the moment. But yeah.    [00:27:33] Miko Lee: So last time we talked was a few years ago and you were just getting your farm set up and now you actually have this whole farm. Can you share a little bit more about your connection to the land and what it's like being a farmer now?   [00:27:48] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah, no, thank you. You're right. I recall, I think we had literally just moved in when I was in conversation with you, and now we're at the start of season four. It has been an amazing journey. I'm actually right now and I hope to be able to talk about it on the podcast. I've come, I'm in the process of finishing, a book, reflecting on my experiences over the last four years in this transition from university professor to farmer. there's so much that I've learned. One of the major things I've, learned especially as an organizer, to differently appreciate all of the metaphors we use in organizing. cause we use them a lot, right? How do we describe certain kinds of organizing? We, we describe it as grassroots. How do we talk about the ways we might be building our, you know, struggles of resistance? We think about ourselves as sowing seeds. More and more people talk about, you know, mycchorizal networks. There are all of these metaphors that proliferate when we're thinking about, struggles for justice. And there is something that shifts when you do land-based work and really understand and learn at the knee of mother nature around all the things that are required for cultivating life, which for me, I think is what activism and, organizing really is about. You know, we live in a system that ultimately thrives on death. I mean, war, empire, capitalism, disposability, you know, all of that is, is a system that thrives actually on, on death. And I think that when we're organizing as folks who are activists, social justice activists, ecological and environmental justice activists and organizers, what we're doing is we're in the business, so to speak, of cultivating life. But how best to learn about how to cultivate life, if not at the knee of of Mother Nature. And so I've learned a lot about that. Learned about you know, how long it can take. In fact for, plant sowing a seed a seed can only germinate, you know, and there's the right kinds of conditions and even the right kind of conditions can't be fully predicted. You tend to that ground, that soil anyhow, you know, seeds being so small and nearly invisible to the eye and yet, we know them to be there and we, we support their growth. Seeds when under the right conditions germinate and grow can become these healthy, mature plants. One singular plant can feed so many, I mean, all of those lessons when you understand them in deeply embodied ways, I think allow you to approach organizing and activism differently. I think especially now, there seems to be an urgency to everything. Everything feels urgent. Um. Something needs to be responded to, you know, immediately it feels like all the time. and that not responding somehow is being complacent or enabling. But I think what I've learned as a farmer is that transformation in life takes time and we need to tend to that. And I mean, I feel like I think organizers would benefit a lot from, doing land-based work. Not only because the earth needs us to do this work of regeneration and restoration, but I think we would have better perspective around, what liberation would look like and require, from these systems of domination and power if we, you know, humbled ourselves a bit and learned from. Mother Nature, and the ways that, you know, she's endured through it all and, you know, adapted through it all. I think, I think there are important lessons there, but lessons that I think that really require a work of embodied learning and knowledge.    [00:31:56] Miko Lee: So you speak of your farm as this, as a place that's cultivating growth, and can you talk a little bit more about that, cultivating the mind? Because I know you're also doing work on your farm with organizers, with nonprofits, with students. So can you talk a little bit more about the cultivation of people on your farm?    [00:32:15] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, so much of what we do isn't just about the food that we grow, which we do, and I shouldn't name that, you know, a lot of. our aim with food growing is not just to feed, you know, sort of a community of people who've opted in to get food from us, which, you know, we do have a CSA, a Community sourced agricultural program, but we're also working with native communities here to support in addressing their food needs. So that's. Important, piece of what we do that I wanna name in terms of food and plant production. But yes, in terms of cultivating people, I think a lot of what we do here is about facilitating this reconnection to land. I grew up a very urban, suburban existence. I think it always as an organizer and activist, valued ecological and, environmental justice. But I don't know that I centered it in the way that I do now, in part because I didn't. Have a relationship with the land in the way that we do now. I really think that our work is to help cultivate that relationship. I think we need that relationship to fully appreciate what's at stake when we talk about climate change. It's one thing to kind of know the facts. It's another thing to be in relation to the land, and I think it takes a certain set of conditions to be able to, to be in relation to the land. So yeah, we, we hold space for lots of organizations, educational institutions, nonprofits, community-based organizations, other folks, who also are feeling that there is a need to be in relation to the land. Not only to be in a relationship, but to be in a right relationship with the land. So we, we hold space for a lot of that. And of course that process is also deeply healing. There is something really healing about learning from the land. just understanding there's something really magical like, for example, when you come out of winter and you start to see new growth, I think that cycle of growth offers a kind of hope and reassurance when we're feeling especially despairing, which I think a lot of people feel tremendous despair now. And yet, you know, being bearing witness to that is it can be super just powerful and can kind of keep and sustain the fight.   [00:34:37] Miko Lee: And lastly, can you share more about your school for Liberating education?    [00:34:42] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Sure. So the School for Liberating Education is an online platform through which I share all of the ethnic studies knowledge that I was teaching at the university. Most recently at the University of California Davis, you know, always believed ethnic studies was never intended to be just another academic field like anthropology, sociology, political science. But that, it is a form of knowledge that is meant to raise our consciousness to inspire and to provide us real skillsets and pathways to taking that knowledge and doing the work of changing our world for the better. And so, you know, the School for Liberating Education I set up so that people can have access to that knowledge without having to go through. All of the, the, hoops that are required for, you know, getting into a four year university, even all of the kind of bureaucracy it takes to get even to a community college, which is not as easy as one would think. But also a very unapologetic, form of ethnic studies. I think part of what's happening at colleges and universities now is, these are battlegrounds. The, right wing has taken it upon itself to really attack ethnic studies in various institutions. They've been very successful in gaining, Support. University administrations have also been very easily bent not only kind of grassroots right wing movements because they're really organized at the grasses, but certainly the series of executive orders that Trump passed, you know, within days after inauguration. Effectively illegalizing ethnic studies and of course we know what he's trying to do in terms of, the Department of Education and, its, effective dismantlement. But this is meant as a place to offer the knowledge that our forebearers and fought really hard for the university, but can't really fully thrive there either. And so, I wanted to make sure that there was a place where this knowledge can be accessed, to anybody with the interest and desire.    [00:36:55] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for chatting with us today. I'm wondering if there's anything you would like podcast listeners to prepare themselves for before they bust out Spotify and listen to Spitting Fire.   [00:37:10] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Well, it's just, you know, to, you're gonna get a lot of raw, unedited audio. And so, um, you're gonna kind of get just, you know, as the, the host of the, show me in a very unedited, very unfiltered form, which can be, I hope enjoyable for folks. But, you know, I think people will, will learn a lot, and a lot of the topics are rooted in the things that I care about. Certainly social justice issues certainly even, you know, the work we're doing at the farm. So, you know, I, I mean, it's broadly, uh, the podcast is around social and ecological justice. But very much from the lens of somebody who, again, is a yelder, somebody who's taught ethnic studies, continues to teach, although not at the university. Um, somebody who does the work of kind of social and ecological justice organizing and is doing land-based work. So, you're getting all of the, the things that connect to all of the ways that I, I'm moving in the world right now.    [00:38:15] Miko Lee: Thank you so much Dr. Robyn for joining us today on Apex Express.   [00:38:20] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Thank you so much again for having me.   [00:38:38] Welcome everybody, to Resistance, Defiant Love, and Radical Care. Today we are launching, uh, the pre-registration for my new activism course, my course on Asian American activism, and it will be drawing on my book, co-edited with Diane Fujino, uh, Professor Diane Fujino, entitled Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation.   [00:39:09] I'm really, really excited that the book is coming out, but probably even more excited that I'll be able to launch a mini course that draws from that book, as well as other work on Asian American activism, and that I'll be able to offer a mini course that really looks at Asian American activism in the coming months.   [00:39:30] And I'm very, very, very, very pleased to be joined by Artnelson Concordia. Artnelson and I actually hopped on earlier and we went back to, to just recollect when we met and how long ago, and I'll talk about that in a moment. But, um, oh, I guess I might as well just say, Art and I have known each other for exa- almost exactly half of our lives.   [00:39:54] Um- So we first met when we were only 12. Just kidding. We met when we were 25 years old. We, uh, so that was half of our lives. You do the math. Um, and, uh, it, it's just so wonderful, uh, to, to be able to reconnect, uh, with Artnelson in this way. But we go back, and as we'll talk about later on, we go back, um, 25 years ago, uh, where we, when we first met, uh, through, uh, our work, uh, in, in activist spaces.   [00:40:27] But Artnelson Concordia was born and raised in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The son of working class Filipino immigrants, he earned BAs in political science and history at the University of California in Los Angeles, so UCLA. Artnelson is a longtime educator who got his start in San Francisco and was a founding teacher of the San Francisco Unified School District's Ethnic Studies program that was the focus of a 2014 Stanford University study that highlighted the academic benefits of the district's ninth grade ethnic studies course.   [00:41:02] That's Artnelson. Currently, he coordinates Santa Barbara Unified School District's ethnic studies program. Artnelson is the father of four Brown boys, four beautiful Brown boys, and is in cahoots with his wife to raise them to have deep knowledge and love of self and community, as well as to be active disruptors of the white supremacist, patriarchal, heteronormative, imperialist hegemony.   [00:41:29] Yeah. He and his family have the great privilege to live in the beautiful town of Oxnard, California, which is unceded Chumash territory. And this fall marks the beginning of his 23rd year in education. And as I was saying before, Art and I go way, way back. We met right after we had both graduated from college.   [00:41:52] And yeah, as… Art and I are here to talk story a little bit about our shared activist path, because really, uh, it ma- it seems it's so appropriate to talk about our shared path as activists and educators because this pivot for me to offering, uh, courses through the School for Liberating Education has everything to do with my activism and everything to do with my deep, deep belief that education, uh, and a critical education, uh, can be so vital for, uh, movement building, for building the world that we want.   [00:42:29] So I'm gonna just hand it over to you, Art. And we can just start. But it's so great to see you and have this chance to chat.    [00:42:37] Artnelson Concordia: Right on. What a, what an introduction, uh, hearing that coming from you. Um, and- Reflecting on the time and how quickly that really does fly. And I think it's actually more than 25.   [00:42:50] We've known each other more than 25 years. Um, and I think, yeah, that's more than half of our lives. But I think the moment that we, we met each other, we were already on our journey to, to really committing ourselves to figuring out, you know, what the hell is going on with this world. I mean, beginning with our own lived experiences and what's, what was happening with our communities.   [00:43:18] Um, but yeah, education has always been central, and I think my, my path to really focusing in on that was in, in organizing spaces before I became a teacher. It was so key in bringing people to to support and be a part of whatever issue. Like, it was, well, how do we move people? Well, w- we tell them the truth.   [00:43:47] We, we tell them the… an all-rounded kind of breakdown of how it will impact them and why they should get involved. And the, the, the think, um, really that is, was my introduction to organizing. Um, I think in community college, uh, I got to meet, um, a long time Filipino American, uh, organizer-activist, Royal Morales, was really my first introduction to Filipino American history and identity.   [00:44:23] And from there, it just really took off. Like, so much of the suffering, struggling, and questions I had about my own life was answered. I mean, of course over time, but it kept, it kept, it kept, uh, bringing me along, bringing me along, and I was hooked. I was hooked after that. Um, yeah, the power of education to really transform lives is, has been a theme throughout.   [00:44:53] Uh, and I'm sure for you as well. I, I- Yeah … the, the spaces that we, we shared were always about, like, getting to root problems and how everything is related inside.    [00:45:06] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah. No, absolutely. It's funny, I was just thinking, I don't… You know, I think we might have first encountered each other indirectly around the, the fight against Proposition 209.   [00:45:19] Oh. Uh, you know, right? And maybe even before that, around Proposition 187. 187. Y- yeah. And so for people who don't know, and actually I end up writing… I ended up writing a chapter on, uh, student organizing, specifically around 187 and 209, in this book. So, you know, the book itself, um, so, you know, Professor Fujino, who happened to, happened to be my professor as an undergrad, so she's now my collaborator.   [00:45:47] But, um, Diane, uh, and I kind of pulled a, a whole range of organizers together to contribute to this anthology, but I also ended up contributing a separate chapter to it, and it was a reflection on the '90s, and specifically our campus organizing across the UC system- Mm-hmm … around first 187 and 209. And for people who aren't familiar with it, you know, 187 was this, uh, this terrible, um, voter initiative that ended up being passed by the state of California that would essentially criminalize, um, undocumented Californians.   [00:46:24] And not just that, it was really going to, uh, m- make- teachers and, uh, and social workers and anybody who worked for the state of California stand in as border agents.    [00:46:37] Artnelson Concordia: Right. ‘   [00:46:38] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Cause basically it would be their, their responsibility as employees of the state of California to report on anybody seeking out service or that they're encountering in the space of their jobs, to report them if they were, if, if they suspected that these individuals, if they suspected these individuals- Yeah, yeah [00:46:58] were, um, undocumented. And so, you know, uh, Art and I and so many other UC students, uh, were, you know, going, um, were organizing in, in, in partnership with community organizations to, of course, try to stop Californians from, from, from voting for 187. W- they did, and of course that ended up not becoming law because it got, you know, challenged in, in the courts.   [00:47:24] Right. But nevertheless, we were part of the resistance movement. And then, uh, after 187 was Proposition 209, which essentially eliminated affirmative action programs, um, in, in, uh, the University of California system. And, you know, I know, you know, that was also something that was also meaningful for, for us.    [00:47:45] Artnelson Concordia: Yeah.    [00:47:45] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : You know, uh, as, as, as young people who were also very much recipients of affirmative action programs. Yeah. Um, some of our ethnic studies knowledge was not even necessarily coming through ethnic studies courses, but oftentimes through the counselors and, and other staff who worked in these affirmative action programs.   [00:48:06] And so, you know, that was, that was going to happen. Right. And it did, right? Had such a deep impact on us. Yeah. And we knew that, um, by making affirmative action, um, by eliminating affirmative action, it was going to have a major impact. Which it did, right? Mm-hmm. The Filipino, at least for Filipino Americans, our numbers at the UC system plum- plummeted after that.   [00:48:25] Plummeted. But I think that's when we first met, and then, but it was really afterwards where, where we really connected more, right? When- Hmm … um, I think you and I both, because we, we, uh, found ourselves, uh, with the, the, the, the opportunity to connect with, uh, people who were really active in the anti-martial ma- law, the anti-martial law movement, right?   [00:48:48] Um, for both of us. Yeah,    [00:48:49] Artnelson Concordia: in the Philippines. Yeah.    [00:48:50] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah. They were people who, uh, were already active in, um, the movement against the dictatorship- had come to the United States fleeing the tyranny of the Marcos dictatorship. Mm-hmm. And then were really responsible in, uh, growing the, uh, anti-martial law movement in the US, and I think, you know, at the time we met, of course martial law had ended, but, but the conditions in the Philippines hadn't changed. Still haven't changed.    [00:49:17] Artnelson Concordia: Yeah.    [00:49:17] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : And so our elders saw us, we saw them, right? I think. I mean, I can't even remember how I    [00:49:24] Artnelson Concordia: first met some of them. Looking for each other, I really feel.   [00:49:25] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : I think, you know, we, we end up gravitating to the same- Yeah … spaces, right? And we knew that that was something, you know, we wanted to be part of. T- maybe tell me about your story. How did you kind of find your way into that work and, and how did it resonate with you? But I know that that was really where we built together was- yeah … in the work around the Filipino, um, you know, liberation struggle.   [00:49:47] Artnelson Concordia: Yeah. Our, our paths definitely, um, crossed then, and my, my journey to that point really was through the Black liberation movement- Yeah where I, in undergrad, um, was exposed to the history of the Panthers, and I… And it was immediate, like in terms of the truth they were telling and how they resonated with me. I just swallowed text after text after text. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, To Die for the People, uh, uh, Huey's Revolutionary Suicide, Elaine Brown's, uh, Taste of Power- Mm-hmm   [00:50:25] Bobby Se- Seize the Time. I, I, I was so, um, I don't know, kind of- Absolutely, like, fascinated and inspired and wanting to find, well, what's the equivalent for, for Filipinos? Yes. And that was, that of course leads me from, um, Uncle Roy or Royal Morales, who's really talking about Filipino-American activism in History.   [00:50:55] Mm-hmm. And I got a lot of the really incredible, um, participation and organizing with the farm workers, but it kind of just would stop, and I, and I was curious about, well, what is existing now? And it was my meeting, um, it was a, a brother mentor, Ed- Edwin Ha- Habaquan. Edwin. And he, uh- I went with Edwin at the same time.   [00:51:25] Yeah. He was the, the founder of this Filipino apparel company, right? Tribal Pinoy. Oh my gosh. And I, um, I worked for the Filipino American newspaper for Samahang Pilipino at UCLA, Tan- Tanawin, and I only wrote one, maybe, maybe two articles. But the one article I, I, I very much remember, and I, I, I need to go find that article now, was an interview with Edwin, um, about Filipino-American activism. And he was like, “Look, it didn't just end with the farm workers. It continues today through this national liberation movement in the Philippines.”   [00:52:15] Ayame Keane-Lee: You just listened to a clip from Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks from tonight's guest, Dr. Robyn Rodriguez. This episode is called Resistance, Defiant Love, and Radical Care: Asian American Activism Course Launch with Artnelson Concordia. You can check it out in our show notes. Thank you so much for listening   [00:52:36] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night The post APEX Express – 6.25.26 – Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks appeared first on KPFA.

A lot of digital health pilots do not fail because the idea is bad. They fail because the care model, workflow, staffing, and financial design were never fully built. This episode features a presentation from the ROI-Centered Care Summit, produced by Bright Spots Ventures in partnership with TytoCare and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA). In this episode, Reshma Gupta, MD, Chief of Population Health and Accountable Care at UC Davis Health, shares why so many AI and digital health pilots stall,  and what it takes to redesign them into models that are operationally viable, financially sustainable, and built to scale. Using UC Davis Health's hypertension remote patient monitoring program as a case study, Reshma walks through what broke in the original pilot, including slower ramp-up, unclear vendor role design, returned device logistics, and delayed billing capture. She then explains how her team rebuilt the program into a 6-month model with clearer workflows, stronger local clinical support, and a more sustainable financial structure. You'll hear how UC Davis: Redesigned RPM with a local MA, RN, pharmacist, clinician support, and vendor MA model Built a 6-month patient journey with education, medication review, and monthly nurse and pharmacy visits Improved blood pressure outcomes from 146/81 pre-enrollment to 126/73 at program completion Reframed success around workflow fit, patient engagement, billing discipline, and ROI Key topics include why pilots fail, how to match the model to the right patient population, the importance of role clarity and billing optimization, and what health systems should think through before launching the next digital health program. If you are a health system leader, population health executive, digital health leader, or care transformation strategist trying to move beyond pilots and into sustainable performance, this episode offers a practical blueprint grounded in real-world lessons. Link to Dr. Reshma Gupta's Presentation:  Bio: Dr. Reshma Gupta is a transformative healthcare executive with experience leading large-scale healthcare transformation across complex health systems and national payment reform initiatives– dedicated to innovation in population health, affordable healthcare, and social justice. With expertise in clinical and operational transformation, digital strategy, and policy, she has consistently driven high impact initiatives. Through the University of California Office of the President, she co-develops system-wide population health strategy across multiple campuses, social needs integration, and high-risk patient management initiatives including tech-enabled care and keeping patients healthier at home. As Chief of Population Health and Accountable Care at University of California Davis Health, Dr. Gupta oversees the enterprise-wide population health and accountable care portfolio to operationalize and modernize care pathways across inpatient and outpatient settings, standing up quality and equity improvement systems, and launching digital health and AI platforms. Nationally, she has advised the CMS Innovation Center on primary care transformation and advanced payment models and currently serves as an advisor to state and federal agencies on affordability and health system delivery reform. Connect with Dr. Reshma Gupta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshma-gupta-md-mshpm/ Thank You to Our Episode Partner, TytoCare. TytoCare enables health systems and plans to deliver high-quality remote exams anytime, anywhere. Their FDA-cleared devices and AI-powered diagnostic platform support virtual specialty care, school-based programs, and home health models, reducing unnecessary ED visits and improving patient experience. To learn more, visit tytocare.com. Schedule a Meeting with a Senior Leader at TytoCare: To explore how TytoCare can help your organization expand virtual specialty access and improve care coordination, reach out to jtenzer@brightspotsventures.com  to schedule a meeting. About Bright Spots Ventures: Bright Spots Ventures exists to help healthcare organizations accelerate the adoption of what's actually working.   Healthcare does not suffer from a lack of innovation. It suffers from slow adoption, fragmented learning, and limited trust between stakeholders. For example, one health plan or provider may solve a major operational or clinical challenge while others spend the next 5–10 years rediscovering the same answer.   We close that gap by creating trusted environments where health plans, providers, and innovators can share practical strategies, operational lessons, and scalable models that drive measurable improvement.   Through the Bright Spots in Healthcare podcast, leadership councils, executive roundtables, curated events, and strategic advisory work, we help organizations build credibility, strengthen strategic relationships, and accelerate the spread of proven ideas across healthcare.  

Text the Show⭐️ Affiliate items main page: https://a.co/d/0deUfRd7If governments and militaries have researched technologies that can influence human perception, communication, or cognition, where is the line between legitimate research, weaponization, and abuse?Jesse Beltran is a TSCM-Certified investigator, Certified Master Hypnotist, and one of the nation's leading specialists in anomalous frequency analysis and Havana Syndrome–related phenomena for over 20 years. As President and co-founder of Mind Nexus, he oversees all technical operations, national scanning initiatives, and evidence-based investigations into directed energy exposure and advanced covert technologies.Jesse's work blends decades of frontline experience with advanced technical training. Before entering this field, he served as a Firefighter Paramedic for the Sacramento Fire Department, where he helped establish their paramedic emergency transport program. His commitment to public safety later continued through his leadership as President of the International Center Against the Abuse of Covert Technologies, advocating for individuals experiencing anomalous neurological and environmental symptoms long before “Havana Syndrome” became a recognized term.Academically, Jesse has been part of the Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Association at UC Davis and holds certifications in bloodborne and airborne pathogen safety from Sacramento State University. His technical background also includes co-founding one of California's largest early Internet Service Providers, where he contributed to pioneering work in microwave-based high-speed data transmission.Today, Jesse is recognized as one of the foremost independent investigators documenting anomalous emissions, environmental frequency exposure, and silicon-based anomalies using TSCM-grade equipment. His findings have reached legal teams, advocacy groups, medical researchers, and international audiences through major interviews and public presentations.Through Mind Nexus, he continues to combine technical precision, investigative rigor, and deep compassion for those experiencing these emerging technologies, helping people move from speculation to documented evidence and supported next steps. Mind Nexus website: http://www.cosmicclarityconnections.org/SUPPORTBuy Me A Coffee http://buymeacoffee.com/DangerousinfopodcastSubscribeStar http://bit.ly/42Y0qM8Super Chat Tip https://bit.ly/42W7iZHBuzzsprout https://bit.ly/3m50hFTPaypal http://bit.ly/3Gv3ZjpPatreon http://bit.ly/3G3SMART is the acronym that was created by technocrats that have setup the "internet of things" that will eventually enslave humanity to their needs. Support the showLeave Voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/DangerousInfoWebsite https://www.dangerousinfopodcast.com/Discord chatroom: https://discord.gg/8feGHQQmwgEmail the show dangerousinfopodcast@protonmail.comJoin mailing list http://bit.ly/3Kku5YtWatch LiveYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DANGEROUSINFOPODCASTRumble https://bit.ly/4q1Mg7Z Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/dangerousinfopodcastPilled.net https://pilled.net/profile/144176  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DangerousInfoPodcast/SocialsInstagram https://www.instagram.com/dangerousinfo/TwitterX https://twitter.com/jaymz_jesseYouTube https://bit.ly/436VExnFacebook https://bit.ly/4gZbjVa

Breathe deep and think: What do you smell right now? The sweetness of the spring air? The smoky smells of the highway? Our noses give us key clues about the environment and provide a critical daily link to some of our most cherished memories. But smell, and its control over culture and politics, is often undervalued and misunderstood. Today, we take a nose dive into the olfactory, exploring how humanity has used smell to communicate and control. Guests: Ally Louks: Supervisor at the University of Cambridge and author of "Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose" Alexandra Segal: Wesleyan University anthropology graduate and winner of the school's "GLASS Prize in Queer Studies" for her 2025 paper, "On the Nose: What to Learn from Funk and Fragheads" Brittany Koziara: Owner of Forêline Parfumerie Hsuan Hsu: Professor of English at UC Davis, and author of "The Smell of Risk" and "Olfactory Worldmaking" Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us Fan MailDr. Clair Thunes, PhD is an equine nutritionist and the founder of Clarity Equine Nutrition®, bringing over 35 years of hands-on experience as a horse owner to her practice. She earned her BSc (Hons) in Animal Science from Edinburgh University, her MS in Animal Science from the University of California, Davis, and her PhD in Nutrition from UC Davis in 2005. Through her consultancy, Dr. Thunes develops individualized feeding programs for a diverse range of horses — from high-performance athletes and lactating mares to seniors and horses managing complex conditions such as insulin resistance, PPID, and muscle myopathies — while also collaborating with veterinary practices and advising international feed and supplement companies. A dynamic public speaker and educator, she draws on her upbringing in England riding disciplines ranging from eventing and dressage to polo and fox hunting, making her as relatable in the saddle as she is authoritative in the lab. Her guiding philosophy — that nutrition is the foundation of a horse's overall well-being — informs every aspect of her work with individual owners, breeding farms, and Olympic-level competitors alike.Listen to the Scoop & Scale Podcast here:  https://scoopandscale.com/Dr. Clair Thunes nutrition consulting: https://clarityequine.com Sonja Ochadlik — Show Jumper & Equestrian EntrepreneurSonja Ochadlik is a show jumping rider originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who is now based in Ireland. Her transatlantic journey — from the American Southwest to the heart of Irish equestrian country — gives her a distinctive perspective that bridges two very different horse sport cultures. She runs Stonehall Sporthorses, a business specializing in producing young horses and sourcing and selling top-quality horses and ponies. She operates the business alongside her husband Johnathon, with a focus on equine welfare and longevity in sport. Beyond riding and trading, Sonja has become a vocal voice in the broader conversation about the future of show jumping. She is passionate about the training and welfare of horses and working towards making the sport of show jumping more inclusive. She has written for The Plaid Horse magazine on topics such as innovations in American show jumping, including updates to U.S. Pony Jumpers and proposed changes to Young Jumpers, with an emphasis on correct, safe, and welfare-driven development of both young riders and young horses. Her experience competing in Ireland is reflected in her competition record — she has been listed in Showjumping Ireland results riding horses from Stonehall's string — and she has become a regular commentator and contributor to American equestrian media, appearing multiple times on The Plaidcast with Piper Klemm. Her conversations have covered topics ranging from the differences between horse sport in Europe versus the US to equine education, pony jumpers, and horse auctions. Sonja represents a growing cohort of American riders who have relocated to Europe to immerse themselves in the deeper pipeline of quality horses and a more established competition structure, while maintaining strong ties to the U.S. market and community.theplaidhorse.comThank you so much for joining us today on the Plaidcast. This podcast is a labor of love, and every single episode exists because of this incredible community of riders, trainers, barn managers, parents, and horse lovers who show up in the barn, in the ring, and right here with us.At The Plaid Horse, our commitment goes far beyond the show ring. We believe deeply in the power of literacy and education and that every rider, at every level, deserves access to knowledge, stories, and ideas that make them a better horseperson and a better human being. Reading matters. Learning matters. And the stories we tell each other in this sport matter more than we sometimes realize.Whether you are a junior rider picking up your first copy of The Plaid Horse  Magazine, a professional trainer looking for inspiration, or someone who simply loves horses and everything this world stands for then this community is for you. You belong here.We build this together. Every article, every episode, every conversation is an opportunity to learn something new, to feel less alone in the challenges of this sport, and to be reminded of why we fell in love with horses in the first place.Until next time, keep reading, keep learning, keep riding, and remember that the horse world is better when we build it together. I will see you at the ring!

New World Screwworm Grand Challenge supports California-led detection research as U.S. cases continue to mount.

Dr. Ellyn Hilliard-McLeod dedicated her life to helping others find healing and wholeness through a holistic approach to health. She earned her PhD in Holistic Nutrition from Clayton College of Natural Health, where her dissertation focused on the effectiveness of Gerson Therapy, and also holds a BA in Communications from UC Davis. With additional training as a Gerson Certified Therapist in vegan nutrition and a Diet Counselor Certificate from Bauman College in Cotati, California, Ellyn brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her work. She has owned and directed two wellness centers—Twelve Ways Healing Center in Boulder, Colorado, and The Healing Center in Fair Oaks, California—creating spaces where people could explore healing on every level. Her counseling work is also deeply rooted in the principles of A Course in Miracles, where she draws on the principles of Attitudinal Healing to guide others toward peace and self-discovery. In episode 684 of the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, we find out the the new habits college student should be developing now, what the title of her book "It Takes More Than Carrot Juice" actually means, what common patterns have you seen in people who experienced transformation in their lives, how chronic stress impacts the body physically over time, what are some simple nutrition changes college students could realistically make that would dramatically improve their energy and mental clarity, what are the risks with Ozempic and similar GLP-1 drugs to lose weight, how students can tell the difference between a healthy wellness plan and wellness misinformation online, how unresolved resentment or toxic relationships can impact someone physically and mentally, and why fatigue and burnout have become so common among young adults. Enjoy!

Dr. Paul Eastwick is a Professor at UC Davis where he runs the Attraction and Relationships Research Laboratory. Dr. Eastwick's research investigates how people initiate romantic relationships and the psychological mechanisms that help romantic partners to remain committed and attached. He is one of the hosts of the Love Factually podcast. Today we discuss his 2026 book Bonded by Evolution - to explore the science of romantic attraction, dating, compatibility and long-term relationships.We discuss why the idea of “mate value” can be misleading, how dating apps encourage us to judge people too quickly, why looks and status matter less than many online dating gurus suggest, and why real attraction often develops slowly through repeated interaction, shared experience and emotional connection.The Love Factually Podcast: https://www.lovefactuallypod.com/Interviewed by Dr. Alex Curmi. Dr. Alex is a consultant psychiatrist and a UKCP registered psychotherapist.Check out The Thinking Mind Blog on Substack: https://thinkingmindblog.substack.com/If you would like to invite Alex to speak at your organisation please email alexcurmitherapy@gmail.com with "Speaking Enquiry" in the subject line.Alex is not currently taking on new psychotherapy clients, if you are interested in working with Alex for focused behaviour change coaching , you can email - alexcurmitherapy@gmail.com with "Coaching" in the subject line.Give feedback here - thinkingmindpodcast@gmail.com Follow us here: Twitter @thinkingmindpod Instagram @thinkingmindpodcastGive feedback here - thinkingmindpodcast@gmail.com Follow us here: Twitter @thinkingmindpod Instagram @thinkingmindpodcast

Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club (buy 2 get 1 free):https://freshpressolive.com/3SsENmd  Pre-order Keto Flex Revised and get free bonuses at: https://bit.ly/4wKG1sM    You're Taking Olive Oil WRONG: The Five Mistakes That Keep You Insulin Resistant With Ben Azadi Researchers have found that some olive oils contain up to 250 times more of the compounds that improve insulin sensitivity than others. Two people could take a tablespoon every day. One gets the documented benefits. The other gets almost nothing. In this episode, Ben breaks down the five mistakes that keep people from getting any real benefit from olive oil, including the one most commonly overlooked: inconsistent dosing. He also walks through the science behind a 22% reduction in diabetes risk, a 40% lower rate of developing diabetes from the PREDIMED trial, and why the throat sting you feel from a quality olive oil is working on the same anti-inflammatory pathway as ibuprofen. The bottom line is this: stubborn belly fat is not a calorie problem. It's a signaling problem. And the right olive oil, used the right way, every day, is one of the simplest places to start fixing the signal. Key Takeaways: Two people can take olive oil daily and get completely different results because polyphenol content varies by up to 250x Olive oil's benefits don't come from the fat itself, they come from polyphenol compounds that behave more like a supplement than a cooking oil The PREDIMED trial found a 30% lower rate of heart attacks and up to a 40% lower rate of diabetes from daily extra virgin olive oil use 69% of imported extra virgin olive oil tested in a UC Davis study failed to meet international quality standards The peppery throat sting in high-quality olive oil is oleocanthal, which blocks the same inflammatory enzymes as ibuprofen Olive oil does not break a fast because it does not raise glucose or insulin The five-step protocol: 1 to 2 tablespoons daily, raw, with food, stored correctly, checked for sting Find All The Ben Azadi Show Sponsorship Deals ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.ketokamp.com/sponsorship-deals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

✨ "They come in with a cane and feeling disabled, and then they say, 'Here, take the cane, honey. I'm gonna walk this horse.' We've seen this so many times we can't even number it." – Nancy Schier AnzelmoDescription Paula Hertel and Nancy Schier Anzelmo are the co-founders of Connected Horse, a California-based program that brings equine-assisted experiences to older adults living with dementia or memory loss — alongside their care partners. Backed by research conducted with Stanford University and UC Davis, Connected Horse is one of the first programs in the country to specifically serve this population in this way. Kansas Carradine, HeartMath-certified trainer and returning EAW guest, joins to explore the science of heart coherence, entrainment, and why horses may be uniquely suited to reach people that other approaches cannot.Connected Horse's work challenges the assumption that equine-assisted services are only for children or younger adults. Their Stanford and UC Davis pilot studies recorded statistically significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and caregiver burden — with 100% participant return rates at a six-month booster session. Participants regularly go from fearful and withdrawn to walking horses, speaking in full sentences, and feeling activated to change their lives. The program is designed to be failure-free: for the person with the diagnosis, for the care partner, and for the horses.In this episode, Rupert, Paula, Nancy, and Kansas explore the physiology behind what happens when a person leans their heart against a horse's neck, why dementia and autism require similar practitioner responses around pacing and unconditional presence, what ritual and ceremony have to do with cortisol regulation, and how social prescribing may bring programs like Connected Horse into mainstream healthcare. If you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHomeIf you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome

Museum lobbies have a huge influence on visitor experience. But what makes a good lobby?What is a “liminal space” in a museum? How does research actually work? What does “peer-reviewed research” actually mean? What do researchers hope their outcomes will be? Which department of a museum is even responsible for the lobby, and all the other “spaces in between”?Dan Clevenger (Principal), Monika Smith (Principal), and Helen Ho (Senior Associate, Senior Design Researcher) from DLR Group discuss “Liminal Space Research” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).Along the way: wonder, awe, gaps in the literature, and all the spaghetti you can throw at a cupboard.Talking Points:1. DLR Group and the research team2. What is a “liminal space”?3. How research works4. The peer review process5. What the outcome will be6. Sneak peek: things learned so farHow to Listen:Listen on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311  Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G  Listen at Making the Museum, the Website:https://www.makingthemuseum.com/podcast  Links to Every Podcast Service, via Transistor:https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/  Guest Bios:Dan Clevenger, AIA, LEED BD+C, Principal, Global Cultural + Performing Arts Leader, DLR Group. Dan Clevenger is an award-winning arts and cultural programmer, designer, and leader with more than two decades of experience across all phases of design and project development. His portfolio spans art museums, science centers, history museums, and natural history institutions, including the Heard Museum, Arizona Science Center, Chandler History Museum, C.N. Gorman Museum at UC Davis, the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the University of Arizona Arts Master Plan. His work reflects a consistent commitment to institutions that strengthen their communities with purpose and longevity. Dan serves as a board member of the Western Museum Association and the Arizona State University Art Museum Creative Impact Board. Monika Smith, AIA, Principal, Cultural+Performing Arts Design Leader, DLR Group. Monika Smith brings a rigorous design craft to some of the most complex museum environments in the country. A senior designer with 28 years of experience in cultural facilities and historic preservation, she is known for technically demanding work across new construction, adaptive reuse, and landmark renovation. Her portfolio includes the Albany Museum of Art, Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, Library of Congress Conservation Lab, and the Smithsonian Institution. Monika is a juror for the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums Buildy Awards.Helen Ho, PhD, EDAC, Senior Associate, Senior Design Researcher, DLR Group. Helen Ho helps cultural institutions make informed, community-centered design decisions. With more than a decade of mixed-methods research experience, she connects stakeholder engagement, post-occupancy evaluation, and evidence-based frameworks to outcomes that matter: visitor wellbeing, spatial equity, and long-term institutional impact. She translates complex community needs into clear design metrics and research-informed strategies that support meaningful, people-centered spaces. Helen holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Michigan. She is an EDAC professional and an AIA Associate Member.About Making the Museum:Making the Museum is a newsletter and podcast on exhibitions, written and hosted by Jonathan Alger. MtM is a project of C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio.Learn more about the creative work of C&G Partners:https://www.cgpartnersllc.com/  Links for This Episode:Dan Clevenger: dclevenger@dlrgroup.com  Monika Smith: msmith@dlrgroup.com  Helen Ho: hho@dlrgroup.com  The Cultural+Performing Arts / Museums Practice at DLR Group   Strategic Research Partnerships Yield Museum Design Insights, at DLR Group  Heard Museum by DLR Group  Albany Museum of Art Adaptive Reuse by DLR Group  Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery by DLR Group  Links for Making the Museum, the Podcast:Contact Making the Museum:https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contact  Host Jonathan Alger, Managing Partner of C&G Partners, on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalger  Email Jonathan Alger:alger@cgpartnersllc.com  C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio:https://www.cgpartnersllc.com/  Making the Museum, the Newsletter:Like the show? You might enjoy the newsletter. Making the Museum is also a free weekly email about exhibitions for museum leaders and teams. (And newsletter subscribers are the first to hear about new episodes of this podcast.)Join hundreds of your peers with a one-minute read, three times a week. Invest in your career with a diverse, regular feed of planning and design insights, practical tips, and tested strategies — including thought-provoking approaches to technology, experience design, audience, budgeting, content, and project management.Subscribe to the newsletter:https://www.makingthemuseum.com/ 

In her new essay collection, “Freedom,” novelist and UC Davis creative writing director Zinzi Clemmons examines what freedom means in “a world buckling from the consequences of centuries of interlocking injustices.” She grapples with the complicated legacies of Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and the #MeToo Movement — and explains why she's no longer an Afropessimist. Clemmons joins us to talk about what it means to consider freedom today for Black Americans, women and oppressed people around the world. Guests: Zinzi Clemmons, director of creative writing, UC Davis; author of the novel “What We Lose” and the new essay collection “Freedom" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  The podcast begins with hosts Marcy Gordon and Beth Costa introducing the episode and thank their sponsor, Ron Rubin and River Road Family Vineyards for supporting the show (0:10-0:48). They welcome guest Bret Munsell of Munsell Vineyards, a family friend with deep ties to the Alexander Valley wine community (0:49-1:15). Bret shares his family's 150-year farming legacy in Alexander Valley, starting with his great-great-grandfathers in the 1870s and 1880s, who initially focused on vineyards and wineries before diversifying into crops like prunes, hops, and dairy. By 1972, the family transitioned entirely to wine grapes (1:15-2:57). Bret discusses his journey, including studying business at UC Davis and working in agricultural finance before joining the family business. He credits his banking experience with giving him valuable insights into production and finances, which he applies to their vineyard operations (3:03-4:27). Bret reflects on the importance of instilling a love for the land in his children, emphasizing the value of community and stewardship (4:36-5:14). He shares how his family celebrated their 150th anniversary with a community-focused event, highlighting the joy of bringing people together (7:12-8:03). The conversation shifts to the growth of their business, which now includes managing 400 acres of their own vineyards and an additional 400 acres for clients. Bret credits his wife for pushing the family to start making wine in 2006, beginning with Chardonnay and Cabernet. They later expanded to Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé, and Petit Verdot, with their Zinfandel earning double gold awards in competitions (9:11-14:34). Bret explains their unique approach to wine sales, focusing on private tastings in the vineyards rather than a traditional tasting room, allowing guests to connect with the land (15:01-16:09). Bret recounts his early experiences working in the vineyards as a child, learning the value of hard work and responsibility. He shares how his daughters and nieces have also participated in vineyard work, gaining an appreciation for the effort involved (17:12-18:06, 32:11-33:10). He reflects on his passion for farming and the wine grape industry, describing it as the perfect blend of hard work and beauty, with Sonoma County offering unparalleled diversity and vistas (21:14-23:00). As the current chair of the Sonoma County Wine Growers Commission, Bret discusses the organization's role in marketing Sonoma County wine grapes and supporting vineyard workers through programs like the Leadership Academy (23:46-25:06). He highlights the importance of balancing work, family, and community involvement, sharing his family's participation in 4-H and FFA activities (25:48-26:26). Bret also talks about his hobbies, including gardening, hunting, and spending time at a family cabin, which provide a welcome escape from his busy schedule (34:39-36:00). The episode concludes with Bret reflecting on the enduring legacy of wine grapes in Alexander Valley, the challenges and changes in the industry, and his deep connection to the land. He encourages listeners to visit Munsell Vineyards for a unique tasting experience and to watch a heartfelt video celebrating their 150th anniversary, which captures the spirit of their family and agricultural heritage (37:22-41:08).   We're excited to share this video of the Munsell Family legacy.  What an honor.  150 Year Celebration

Today we're excited to be joined by Dr. Paul Eastwick to talk about humor and the part it plays in attraction. Paul Eastwick is a Professor of Psychology at UC Davis and the author of the book "Bonded by Evolution" that offers an exciting new look at the science of attraction and compatibility. Along with Eli Finkel, he hosts the podcast Love Factually where they analyze rom-coms and romantic dramas from the perspective of relationship science. Join our amazing community of listeners at multiamory.supercast.com. We offer sliding scale subscriptions so everyone can also get access to ad-free episodes, group video discussions, and our amazing Discord community.Download Feeld on the App Store or Google Play!,Get 10% off sexual health supplements at vb.health with promo code MULTI.Whatever you want to learn, MasterClass has something for you, taught by experts in their fields. Support the show and get an exclusive 15% offer at multiamory.link/masterclass.Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes for creators. Everything from graphic design and video editing to photography, writing, and business. Get a free month of Skilllshare at multiamory.link/skillshare.Multiamory was created by Dedeker Winston, Jase Lindgren, and Emily Matlack.Our theme music is Forms I Know I Did by Josh and Anand.Follow us on Instagram @Multiamory_Podcast and visit our website Multiamory.com. We are a proud member of the Pleasure Podcasts network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on The Gist, we analyze the Maine U.S. Senate race as Democrat Graham Plattner navigates a growing scandal while facing incumbent Susan Collins in a contest that tests party loyalties. Then, UC Davis law professor Aaron Tang discusses his PBS series, Breaking the Deadlock. Tang explains how his program uses high-stakes, fictionalized scenarios to force experts beyond their rehearsed talking points and toward genuine, civil discourse. Produced by Corey Wara Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig Do you have questions or comments, or just want to say hello? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com For full Pesca content and updates, check out our website at https://www.mikepesca.com/⁠ For ad-free content or to become a Pesca Plus subscriber, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ For Mike's daily takes on Substack, subscribe to The Gist List https://mikepesca.substack.com/ Follow us on Social Media:⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pescagist/ X https://x.com/pescami TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@pescagist To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠sales@amplitudemediapartners.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Will the Supreme Court restrict access to abortion pills nationwide? On this week's Insider podcast, UC Davis law professor and reproductive rights expert Mary Ziegler joins Preet Bharara and Joyce Vance to break down the case challenging telehealth access to Mifepristone, and what it means for the future of abortion care in the United States. In the full episode, Preet and Joyce discuss the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' recent ruling preventing ICE from detaining undocumented immigrants without bond hearings. This segment is available for free to listeners of Stay Tuned. To hear the full episode, become a member at cafe.com/insider or staytuned.substack.com/subscribe. You'll also get access to other exclusive content. CAFE Insiders click HERE to listen to the full analysis.  Join Preet Bharara and Barb McQuade live at the 92NY on May 31st: cafe.com/barb Subscribe to our YouTube channel. This podcast is brought to you by CAFE and Vox Media Podcast Network.  Executive Producer: Tamara Sepper; Supervising Producer: Jake Kaplan; Associate Producer: Claudia Hernández; Senior Audio Producer: Matthew Billy; CAFE Team: Celine Rohr, Nat Weiner, Jennifer Indig, and Liana Greenway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices