Barry Scott Wimpfheimer specializes in the Talmud and other Rabbinic Literature. His work focuses on the Babylonian Talmud as a work of law and literature. Part scripture and part commentary, it is written in a hybrid of Hebrew and Aramaic and is an unlikely bestseller. The Talmud has remained in print for centuries and is more popular today than ever. Barry Scott Wimpfheimer discusses his book, The Talmud, A Biography, which tells the remarkable story of this ancient book and explains why it ha...
Aug 26, 2020•55 min
Robert Alter discusses his new, complete translation of and commentary on the Hebrew Bible. For the UC Berkeley Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, it represents nearly two and a half decades of work. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35794]
Apr 15, 2020•54 min
Around the world, individuals and families are fleeing their countries of origin because of war, violence, natural disasters, and climate change. As their numbers swell, host countries face calls to exclude them. Two prominent local religious leaders of especially targeted and vulnerable populations Bishop Robert McElroy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego and Imam Taha Hassane of the Islamic Center of San Diego speak about a common path forward for our society, based on the wisdom of the...
Dec 10, 2019•56 min
A discussion of constructive and effective ways to bring youth, community leaders, and organizations together to overcome divisiveness and polarization and build a stronger, more tolerant, and inclusive society. Series: "Global Empowerment Summit" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 35331]
Nov 14, 2019•52 min
The former editor of Poetry Magazine, Christian Wiman is both a poet and an essayist who teaches Literature and Religion at Yale Divinity School. In an interview he discussed what he hopes readers might take from his work: I have no illusions about adding to sophisticated theological thinking. But I think there are a ton of people out there who are what you might call unbelieving believers, people whose consciousness is completely modern and yet who have this strong spiritual hunger in them. I w...
Apr 05, 2019•57 min
The ancient Buddhist sources have a great deal to say about what it means to be a biological man or woman, what it means to be gendered male and female, what kinds of desires and sexual practices are considered normative, and what kinds deviate. But this material is scattered throughout hundreds of different texts and is found in no single source. Drawing on decades of research into the classical Indian and Tibetan Buddhist texts - and on the extensive literature on ancient theories of "queernes...
Mar 05, 2019•1 hr 27 min
A gene drive is a targeted contagion intended to spread within species, forever altering the offspring. Gene drive enthusiasts say they could wipe out malaria, saving more than half a million lives each year. As yet, no CRISPR gene drive has been released in the wild — few have even been built. Laurie Zoloth of the University of Chicago explores the ethical questions about genes designed to spread through populations and alter ecosystems, and their unforeseen consequences. Series: "Burke Lecture...
Dec 11, 2018•54 min
Author, Tova Mirvis reads from her memoir, The Book of Separation, which describes a woman who leaves her Orthodox Jewish faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain of a newly mapless world. She is the author of three novels and her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34065]
Oct 09, 2018•3 min
Father Gregory Boyle, Jesuit priest and bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart, is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. He shares a thought about justice in a world where kinship among all people flourishes. Series: "Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34035]
Sep 11, 2018•2 min
Rabbi Prof. Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is an award-winning editor, author, and biblical scholar. She is the Chief Editor of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, the winner (with Dr. Andrea Weiss) of the 2008 Jewish Book of the Year Award. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33661]
Jun 26, 2018•1 hr
Rev. Traci Blackmon is the Executive Minister of Justice & Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ and Senior Pastor of Christ The King United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO. A featured voice with many regional, national, & international media outlets and contributor to print publications, her communal leadership & healing work in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown, Jr., in Ferguson, MO has gained her both national & international recognition and au...
May 23, 2018•59 min
What is spirituality and spiritual health? How can we effectively assess our own spirituality and identify spiritual distress in ourselves and others? Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and Professor of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, discusses the link between healthy aging and spirituality. Series: "Stein Institute for Research on Aging" [Health and Medicine] [Humanities] [Show ID: 33227]
Apr 12, 2018•57 min
Part of the Humanities as Vocation event at UCSB, features two UCSB alumni talking about their work after their humanities studies. Reza Aslan is a producer and author. He addresses his training, the inspiration behind his creative work and the role the university can play in preparing the next generation of scholars. Tim Kring is a screenwriter and television producer. He tells how his religious studies background influences his productions. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. ...
Apr 09, 2018•56 min
Father Gregory Boyle, Jesuit priest and bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart, is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. He shares what three decades of working with gang members has taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of kinship. Series: "Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 32868]
Jan 09, 2018•56 min
Author, Tova Mirvis, discusses her book, The Book of Separation, which describes a woman who leaves her Orthodox Jewish faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain of a newly mapless world. She is the author of three novels and her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33053]
Dec 11, 2017•39 min
Renowned Tibetan Buddhist scholar and Columbia University Professor Robert A.F. Thurman is joined in conversation by his colleague Isa Gucciardi and UCSF's Eve Ekman and David Bullard. They explore Buddhist understandings about consciousness and death. Series: "Wellbeing " [Health and Medicine] [Humanities] [Show ID: 32673]
Dec 11, 2017•1 hr 24 min
David Murphy is Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) San Diego office. In this lecture Murphy shares his insights into the moral and logistical challenges posed by the current world-wide refugee crisis, based on his extensive experience working with the IRC in Africa and Afghanistan. Series: "Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 32144]
Jun 05, 2017•58 min
For 15 years, Edina Lekovic has served as a leading voice on American Muslims and an inter-community builder between diverse faith traditions. She explores the negative portrayal of American Muslims in the Media. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 32401]
May 15, 2017•3 min
For 15 years, Edina Lekovic has served as a leading voice on American Muslims and an inter-community builder between diverse faith traditions. She explores the way in which the treatment of American Muslims under the Trump administration could serve as an advanced warning of danger to our very democracy. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 32099]
May 08, 2017•45 min
Bernard-Henri Levy visited the UCSB campus to discuss his new book The Genius of Judaism. In this provocative book he demonstrates that anti-Semitism, constitutes the greatest danger to Jews and non-Jews alike, and to liberal democracies. And, at the same time he offers a challenging argument that the nature or essence of Judaism is located in Talmud and its interpreters, not as an on-going discourse about norms of behavior and structures of belief, but of critical engagement, on-going inquiry, ...
Apr 10, 2017•1 hr 27 min
How did Zionist immigrants to early 20th century Palestine conceive of their new Arab neighbors, and how did the Arab natives make sense of the Jews arriving on Palestine’s shores? Drawing on his book Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter, Jonathan Marc Gribetz argues that this fateful encounter was initially imagined very differently from the way it ultimately developed. The Late Ottoman period in Palestine was no utopia, but exploring this moment reveals that...
Feb 20, 2017•1 hr 20 min
Robert Jones, Director of the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington, D.C., is a well-known commentator on religion and politics. He discusses the upcoming presidential election. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 31622]
Jan 13, 2017•1 hr
Author Zohreh Ghahremani talks with Babak Rahimi, associate professor of Communication, Culture and Religion at UC San Diego about the novel, "Sky of Red Poppies," the 2012 selection for One Book, One San Diego. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 31539]
Dec 19, 2016•49 min
The multimedia Journey of the Universe project explores some of mankind's most persistent existential questions: What is our purpose? How have the universe, our planet and humanity evolved? Mary Evelyn Tucker proposes that cosmology is the necessary basis for an in-depth examination of the human condition and that useful tools may be found at the intersection of science, art, and humanities, where recent scientific discoveries are leavened and informed with wisdom gleaned through the ages. Serie...
Dec 06, 2016•56 min
Bashar Matti Warda, a Chaldean Catholic cleric and the current Archbishop of Erbil, speaks on the role that the Christians of northern Iraq are playing in removing ISIS and fostering peace and forgiveness in this long-troubled region. Archbishop Warda is presented by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. Series: "Peace exChange -- Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 31463]
Nov 28, 2016•57 min
One of the few constants throughout Jewish history is that Jewish identity has never been simple, and the answer to the question of “Who is a Jew?” – far from clear-cut. Rabbi Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel, says that at key moments over the last 3,000 years, Jews have reinvented or reimagined themselves in the context of their unique reality. Due to the cultural, historical, and psychological transformations that have taken place in the 20th and 21st centur...
Oct 17, 2016•56 min
Back in 2005, Thomas J. Reese -- who is both a distinguished journalist and a Roman Catholic priest -- lost his job as the editor-in-chief of a leading Jesuit magazine after the Vatican concluded that under his leadership the publication was too often running afoul of official Church doctrine. But that, of course, was before Pope Francis came along who over the last three years has inspired a whole new generation of reform-minded Catholics. In this edition of "Up Next," Reese ponders both the fu...
Oct 14, 2016•29 min
Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israeli Religious Action Center, was a founding member of Women of the Wall as well as a Board member of the Israel Women’s Network, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and many other Israeli organizations for social change. This talk touches on several issues that pertain to the struggle between narrow-minded Judaism and pluralistic Judaism and to the contribution of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) to advance a pluralistic living environ...
Jun 13, 2016•57 min
Islam is a great religious tradition, the second largest and fastest growing of the World’s Religions, embracing some 57 Muslim countries and is the second or third largest religion in Europe and America. Despite the global achievements of Islam as a faith and civilization, since the Iranian Revolution, Islam has been viewed through the lens violence and the actions of militant terrorists. John Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown, addres...
Jun 07, 2016•1 hr
Award-winning actor Michael Douglas and Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky explore the role that faith, religious pluralism and human rights have played in their personal journeys. They discuss their relationship with Judaism to an audience at UC Santa Barbara. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 30807]
Jun 06, 2016•1 hr 26 min
