Placing the U.S. in comparative perspective, Daniel Ziblatt, professor of government at Harvard University, discusses uniquely American counter-majoritarian institutions. Ziblatt is also director of the Transformations of Democracy group at Berlin’s WZB Social Science Center. He is the author of four books, including "How Democracies Die," co-authored with Steve Levitsky, a New York Times best-seller. His newest book co-authored with Steven Levitsky is entitled "Tyranny of the Minority." Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 39852]

America’s contemporary democratic predicament is rooted in its historically incomplete democratization. Born in a pre-democratic era, the constitution’s balancing of majority rule and minority rights created still-unresolved dilemmas. Placing the U.S. in comparative perspective, Daniel Ziblatt, professor of government at Harvard University, discusses the relationship between U.S. political institutions and their political majorities. Ziblatt is also director of the Transformations of Democracy group at Berlin’s WZB Social Science Center. He is the author of four books, including "How Democracies Die," co-authored with Steve Levitsky, a New York Times best-seller. His newest book co-authored with Steven Levitsky is entitled "Tyranny of the Minority." Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 39851]

If having a gun really made you safer, then America would be one of the safest countries in the world. It's not. Gary Younge (Manchester University) explains that while Americans consistently favor more gun control, gun laws have generally become more lax. That is partly due to the material resources of the gun lobby. But it is also about the central role of the gun, what it represents in the American narrative, and the inability of gun control advocates to develop a counter-narrative. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 35770]

This lecture by South African writer, playwright and academic Jane Taylor considers Ludwig Wittgenstein’s paper, “On Certainty” in which the philosopher engages with the taken-for-granted in everyday thought. Taylor notes, “In our contemporary context of the precarious, on one hand, and the political vehemence of conviction, on the other, it seems timely to pay attention to the faltering and tentative mode of regard and thought of one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic thinkers.” Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35149]

By virtually any measure, prisons have not worked. They are sites of cruelty, dehumanization, and violence, as well as subordination by race, class, and gender. Prisons traumatize virtually all who come into contact with them. Abolition of prison could be the ultimate reform. Georgetown Law Professor Paul Bulter explores what would replace prisons, how people who cause harm could be dealt with in the absence of incarceration, and why abolition would make everyone safer and our society more just. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 35147]

It is widely held today on grounds of prudence if not realism that in designing public policy and legal systems, we should assume that people are entirely self-interested and amoral. But it is anything but prudent to let "Economic Man" be the behavioral assumption that underpins public policy. Samuel Bowles (Santa Fe Institute) supports his position using evidence from behavioral experiments mechanism design and other sources, and proposes an alternative paradigm for policy making. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34354]

The view that the sciences make progress, while the arts do not, is extremely common. Philip Kitcher, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, challenges it. Scientific progress has social dimensions. A socially embedded notion of scientific progress then allows for a parallel concept of progress applicable to the arts. Kitcher specializes in the areas of pragmatism (especially Dewey), science and social issues, naturalistic ethics, and philosophy in literature. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34353]

Jennifer Granholm, former Governor of Michigan, identifies some of the most interesting policy ideas to address the problems of displaced workers, the skills gap and resulting inequality in an age of robots and artificial intelligence. Granholm teaches Public Policy at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School and is the chair of the American Jobs Project, a multi-state research initiative on creating industrial clusters in clean energy. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Business] [Show ID: 34013]

Myths symbolize ideas, values, history and other issues that are important to a people. They may be true or false, mundane or fantastic; their significance is their meaning, not their narrative content. Science is a way of knowing about the natural world. Its conclusions tentatively may be true or false, but its significance is its explanatory power: one has confidence in the process of science, even though some explanations change over time. Myth and science thus seem very different, but each has been utilized by proponents of both sides of the Christian creationism and evolution controversy. Eugenie Scott, Founding Executive Director, National Center for Science Education Understanding, explores how this role is essential in comprehending (much less mediating) this persistent conflict. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 34011]

Scientists are often puzzled when members of the public reject what we consider to be well-founded explanations. They can’t understand why the presentation of scientific data and theory doesn’t suffice to convince others of the validity of “controversial” topics like evolution and climate change. Eugenie Scott, Founding Executive Director, National Center for Science Education, highlights the importance of ideology in shaping what scientific conclusions are considered reliable and acceptable. This research is quite relevant to the evolution wars and the opposition to climate change, and to other questions of the rejection of empirical evidence. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Science] [Show ID: 34010]

Deborah Tannen discusses how interacting via text messaging services challenges relationships. Tannen is on the faculty of Georgetown Universitys Department of Linguistics. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34069]

Sometimes the soul seems a more precise concept than the body. In this lecture Marilyn Strathern, goes to a place and time where all kinds of beings (including food plants) have souls and where the bodily basis of life is immortalized through cloning. She comments on the way present-day anthropology brings fresh illumination to what we thought we knew. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33308]

The ACLU is committed to civil rights and civil liberties issue. David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU and Georgetown law professor, explores what Trump's first year as president tells us about about constitutional law and the future of civil liberties and civil rights in the United States. David Cole was named Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2016. He oversees approximately 1,400 civil liberties lawsuits, both state and federal. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 33307]

The Trump Presidency is a symptom of the fracturing in American society that goes deeper than economics and politics to the meaning of being an American. George Packer, Staff Writer for the New Yorker, argues that none of the currently available narratives of national identity point a way out of our failure and asks if there is another way to think of ourselves as Americans. George Packer is a contributor for numerous journals and magazines, including The New York Times magazine, Dissent, Mother Jones, and Harper’s. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 33000]

Deborah Tannen draws on her interviews with eighty women, ranging in age from 9 to 97, and on years of research examining how ways of talking affect relationships, to explore the role of talk among friends, with particular focus on women’s friendships, how they compare to men’s, and the consequences of such differences. Tannen is on the faculty of Georgetown University’s Department of Linguistics Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32998]

Deborah Tannen discusses how interacting over social media is changing and challenging relationships, amplifying both the risks and the gifts of voice-to-voice conversations. Tannen is on the faculty of Georgetown University’s Department of Linguistics. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32999]

Arlie Hochschild describes her journey from Berkeley, her own liberal cultural enclave, to Louisiana, a conservative one. She explores her choice of research site, her effort to remove her own political alarm system, and during five years of research, to climb over what she calls an “empathy wall.” She focuses on her concept of the “deep story” – a version of which underlies all political belief, she argues, and will end with the possibilities of finding common ground across the political divide. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 32997]

Large and growing food movements in the United States seek policy changes to promote healthier and more environmentally sound food choices. Marion Nestle reflects on recent progress. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 32980]

Gisela Striker shows how the Stoic philosopher Panaetius, on whose work Cicero based his own treatise, actually presented what might be seen as a complete version of Stoic ethics without the theological and cosmological elements for which Cicero and other Stoics are sometimes criticized. Striker is Professor of Philosophy and of the Classics, Emerita, at Harvard University. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32263]

The paradox of today’s global food system is that food insecurity or obesity threaten the health and welfare of half the world’s population. Underlying these problems is an overabundant and overly competitive food system in which companies are forced to expand market channels to meet corporate growth targets. The contradiction between the goals of public health and food corporations has led to a large and growing food movement in the United States, which seeks policy changes to promote healthier and more environmentally sound food choices. Marion Nestle considers the cultural, economic, and institutional factors that influence food policies and choices, and the balance between individual and societal responsibility for those choices. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 32228]