Berkeley Voices

Berkeley Voices explores the work and lives of fascinating UC Berkeley faculty, students, staff, and visiting scholars and artists. It aims to educate listeners about Berkeley’s advances in teaching and research, spark curiosity about the deeper layers of American history and to build community across our diverse campus. It's produced and hosted by Anne Brice in the Office of Communications and Public Affairs.

For the 2024-25 academic year on Berkeley Voices, we’re exploring the theme of transformation. In eight episodes, we’re exploring how transformation — of ideas, of research, of perspective — shows up in the work that happens every day at UC Berkeley. New episodes come out on the last Monday of each month, from October through May.

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Episodes

12: One young Republican's pursuit of the 'Freedom to Marry'

Tyler Deaton's story is one of 23 interviews conducted by Bancroft Library’s Oral History Center at UC Berkeley that explore the national campaign that won federal marriage rights for same-sex couples. Read the story on UC Berkeley News : http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/06/23/freedom-to-marry-oral-history-center-tyler-deaton/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Jun 23, 2017•4 min

11: For Sayah Bogor, an arduous road from refugee to health researcher

Sayah Bogor, a UC Berkeley graduate student in public health, will make the short walk across the stage to receive her master’s degree. For Bogor, a native of war-torn Somalia, the event will mark a joyous leap in a long and difficult journey. Read the story on UC Berkeley News : http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/05/09/sayah-bogor-masters-in-public-health/ Photo by Anne Brice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

May 08, 2017•21 min

10: ‘Brooms up!’ Oski, meet Harry Potter

Cal Quidditch got its start on Berkeley's campus about eight years ago. For two consecutive years, the team has played in a national competition. "It wasn't expected from a young, scrappy team out of UC Berkeley," says co-captain Owen Egger. Scrappy or not, the 60-some players on the Cal team have a lot of fun. Story and 360-degree video on UC Berkeley News : http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/04/07/harry-potter-cal-quidditch-podcast/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Apr 07, 2017•5 min

09: From a border wall to a cultural bridge

Imagine a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico not as a barrier, but as a piece of architecture that brings people together. That’s what UC Berkeley architect Ronald Rael does in his new book, 'Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary.' Read the story on UC Berkeley News: http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/04/05/borderwall-as-architecture-ronald-rael-podcast/ Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Apr 05, 2017•4 min

08: The carefully crafted sound of Zellerbach Hall

The acoustics that make the sound of Zellerbach Hall didn’t just happen. The sound has been created with an acoustic system of some 40 microphones and 140 speakers, all intricately placed throughout the hall. It’s called Constellation by Meyer Sound. Constellation allows you to digitally create multiple environments in one space by changing the length of reverberation, strength or loudness. It can even change the perceived height and width of a room. So, if you close your eyes, it can transport ...

Dec 22, 2016•4 min

07: How Moscow’s Tsar Bell found its voice — at Berkeley

We’re at UC Berkeley’s Campanile courtyard listening to sounds of an ancient bell that have never been heard before. It’s the 20-foot-tall, 200-ton Russian “Tsar Bell” — the largest bell in the world — in duet with the campus’s carillon. But the bell isn’t actually here. It’s at the Moscow Kremlin. A UC Berkeley team, along with researchers at Stanford and the University of Michigan, worked together to digitally create the sound they believed the bell would make. Read the story on UC Berkeley Ne...

Apr 21, 2016•3 min

06: Is CDC’s alcohol warning paternalistic? Why some women think so

The CDC released a report recommending that women of childbearing age who aren’t taking birth control should abstain from drinking alcohol. Berkeley Law professor Melissa Murray says the report gives the impression that women are incapable of making responsible choices about their reproductive health. Photo by Frédéric Poirot via Flickr . Story on UC Berkeley News : http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/02/18/is-cdc-alcohol-warning-paternalistic/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informati...

Feb 18, 2016•3 min

05: Like GPS, but for your sex drive

These days so many of our devices are smart. Our phones are smart. Our cars are smart. Our TVs are smart. And now, even vibrators can be smart. It’s called Lioness. It’s a sleek, sophisticated vibrator that works kind of like a running app on your smartphone, but instead of mapping the distance and terrain of a route, it records a person’s sexual arousal states. Liz Klinger is the CEO and co-founder of Lioness. She and her team work out of SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s incubator for startups. She says ...

Feb 11, 2016•5 min

04: Berkeley Law professor Melissa Murray on the darker side of marriage

Marriage — modernly — is seen as sort of unalloyed good, says law professor Melissa Murray. “Everyone would like to get married, or most people would like to get married. Certainly, most people’s mothers want them to get married.” Murray teaches family law at UC Berkeley. She says the marriage equality movement has built up the idea that marriage is this wonderful thing that everyone should want. And there are a lot of benefits to being married in the United States. People who are married have b...

Nov 10, 2015•6 min

03: The ‘Big Idea’ that’s leading the push to make UC carbon-neutral

In 2004, Scott Zimmermann had a big idea. He had just quit the oil and gas industry — he’d been working in it for eight years, trying to reduce the impacts of fossil fuels — and enrolled at UC Berkeley as a dual-degree law student and master’s student in the Energy and Resources Group. He knew he wanted to do something about climate change. But instead of lobbying for the state or the federal government to adopt carbon cap laws, as a lot of environmentalists were doing at the time, he decided to...

Oct 02, 2015•5 min

02: On Berkeley time? He keeps Campanile's clocks ticking

The Campanile clock tower is the campus’s North Star. At 100 years old and 307 feet tall, it’s a landmark everyone knows and trusts. But what happens when the clocks stop? There’s only one person to call: Art Simmons. “Everybody in Berkeley watches those clocks,” says Simmons. “Not just the people on campus. So when the clocks stop, the whole city knows about it and it doesn’t look good.” Read the story on UC Berkeley News : https://news.berkeley.edu/2015/07/29/campanile-clocks/ Hosted on Acast....

Jul 28, 2015•3 min

01: Trudy's bloom raises a stink

We’re at the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley. A long line curves through the gardens, and a small group huddles in a steamy greenhouse, all here to get a whiff of Trudy. Garden director Paul Licht stands at the front, talking to one of the many groups to visit during the latest Trudy mania. “It goes in waves, doesn’t it?” he asks. “None have ever smelled as much the day after it opened.” Trudy is a tropical plant called a Titan Arum, known best for the putrid odor it emits when it blooms. Read t...

Jul 27, 2015•3 min

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