Legal scholar Annabel Brett explores the idea of “moral possibility”—the boundary between what laws demand and what people can realistically or ethically be expected to do. Drawing from early modern thinkers like Aquinas, Suarez, and Hobbes, Brett shows how moral impossibility has long shaped debates about legal obligation, resistance, and political agency. Commentators Melissa Lane and David Dyzenhaus join the discussion, examining how this concept applies to everything from climate action and ...
Aug 05, 2025•1 hr 43 min
Political theorist Annabel Brett of Cambridge University explores how the concept of “moral possibility” shapes law, politics, and public obligation. She explains that laws must be realistic for people to follow—what is morally possible varies by individual, culture, time, and circumstance. Drawing on early modern Catholic legal theory, Brett discusses how extreme demands (like enduring war or plague) may justify higher expectations, but only temporarily. She examines how colonial Spanish offici...
Aug 02, 2025•1 hr 58 min
It's time for a new narrative for the ocean, one that reflects current scientific knowledge and acknowledges innovative new partnerships and solutions that center the ocean in our future. In this program, Jane Lubchenco, Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University and with expertise in the ocean, climate change, and interactions between the environment and human well-being, talks about the two current dominant narratives for the ocean are anchored in the past. The older one considers ...
Jul 15, 2025•1 hr
Three major global challenges – climate change, loss of biodiversity and its benefits, and inequality and inequity among people – are typically tackled within three separate silos. However, scientific knowledge tells us that the three are inextricably linked. If the problems are not considered together, solutions to one may undermine solutions to the others. Moreover, more holistic, integrated solutions can deliver multiple co-benefits. Success requires integrated solutions. Jane Lubchenco, Prof...
Jul 09, 2025•1 hr 10 min
There's a powerful idea in the history of European legal and political thought: that laws must be possible for people to follow. Annabel Brett, professor of Political Thought and History at Cambridge University, describes how from ancient times through the Renaissance, thinkers believed that demanding the impossible—whether physically or psychologically—was a hallmark of tyranny. A classic example is Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus, who ordered the Israelites to make bricks without straw. Brett an...
Jul 05, 2025•1 hr 43 min
The "energy transition" is actually a shift from relying on fossil fuels (like coal, oil, and gas) to using metals to generate energy. However, extracting metals has always been a significant environmental and political issue, especially for cities. This problem has been around for centuries, even ancient Roman writers wrote about it. In this program, Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University, talks about the historic use of fossil fuels and its economic, social and ...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 20 min
Historian and political commentator Heather Cox Richardson joins UC Berkeley professor of law and history Dylan Penningroth in a timely conversation about the reshaping of the United States’ two major political parties. A professor of 19th century American history at Boston College, Richardson provides an incisive perspective on current politics to the more than three million readers of her nightly newsletter, Letters from an American. She has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times,...
Apr 07, 2025•1 hr 30 min
We are at a critical moment in our society. While we advance efforts to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis, across the globe, millions are experiencing issues of energy affordability, reliability and equitable access to modern energy technologies. In this program, Tony Reames, Professor of Environmental Justice at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, explores the intricate intersection of energy, class, race and place, shedding light on inequities in access...
Feb 17, 2025•52 min
Does giving cash up front improve the health and wellbeing of people in poor communities? In this program, Edward (Ted) Miguel, professor of economics and co-director of the Center for Effective Global Action at UC Berkeley, talks about his work in Kenya on the impact of cash transfers on infant mortality, leveraging a unique large-scale census of local households’ birth histories. The findings provide novel evidence on the broader impacts of cash transfers on wellbeing of a poor rural populatio...
Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 12 min
This program explores the decolonizing potential of Indian aesthetic-social philosophy by challenging two entrenched colonial prejudices: the supposed radical dissimilarity and inferiority of pre-modern Indian traditions compared to modern social theory. Through an analysis of the Upanishads and Vaisnava theology and poetry, Sudipta Kaviraj, professor of Indian Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, examines conceptions of paradise as a life without suffering, arguing that div...
Dec 02, 2024•1 hr 14 min
What defines a person’s character, and how does it shape who they are? In this lecture, Susan Wolf, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, challenges traditional ideas about character. She argues that character is more than just a set of traits or values an individual endorses—it can include aspects of ourselves we may not even recognize or approve of. Wolf explores how a deeper understanding of character, rooted in active intelligence and thoughtful reflection, ca...
Nov 23, 2024•1 hr 14 min
Oil and gas are the most traded commodities on the planet; they are also the chief causes of the most grievous harm our species has yet faced, the burgeoning climate crisis. Bill McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He examines how the export of hydrocarbons, in particular, has become an enormous threat to efforts to rein in greenhouse gasses. It explores t...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 28 min
In this program, Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA, examines how police in the neoliberal era–in tandem with other state and corporate entities—have become engines of capital accumulation, government revenue, gentrification, the municipal bond market, the tech and private security industry—in a phrase, the profits of death. Kelley argues the police don’t just take lives; they make life and living less viable for the communities the...
Jul 05, 2024•1 hr 35 min
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:...
Jun 08, 2024•9 min
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 g...
May 11, 2024•17 min
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, offers new perspectives on what should be “beyond the reach of majorities” – and what should not – making the case for a fuller democracy as antidote to the ...
Mar 07, 2024•1 hr
What does it mean when we use the first-person pronoun ‘I’? And how does it relate to self-consciousness? In this program, Béatrice Longuenesse, professor of philosophy emerita at New York University, compares the analysis of philosophers Elizabeth Anscombe and Jean-Paul Sartre on consciousness, self-consciousness and the use of 'I'. Languenesse's current work spans the history of philosophy, especially Kant and nineteenth century German philosophy; the philosophy of language and mind; and philo...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 53 min
Where did the American Dream of hard work equals upward mobility go? And what will it take to bring it back? In this talk, Raj Chetty, director of Opportunity Insights and professor of public economics at Harvard University, focuses on three policy levers to increase upward mobility: reducing racial and economic segregation through more effective affordable housing programs, investing in place-based policies, and strengthening higher education. Chetty gives specific examples of pilot studies and...
Jan 01, 2024•1 hr 22 min
Children’s chances of earning more than their parents have fallen from 90% to 50% over the past half century in America. How can we restore the American Dream of upward mobility for all children? In this talk, Raj Chetty, director of Opportunity Insights and professor of public economics at Harvard University, shows how big data from varied sources ranging from anonymized tax records to Facebook social network data is helping us uncover the science of economic opportunity. Among other topics, Ch...
Dec 27, 2023•1 hr 28 min
California’s deepest problems — the skyrocketing cost of housing, the lagging development of clean energy, the traffic choking the state — reflect an inability of Democratic governments to build real things in the real world quickly and affordably. The result is liberal governance that routinely fails to achieve liberal outcomes. New York Times opinion columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein talks with Amy E. Lerman, Chair and Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at UC Berkeley, about ...
Dec 08, 2023•1 hr 27 min
Modern slavery, which encompasses 45 million people around the world, is intricately linked to the economy, politics, violence and war, gender and the environment. In this panel discussion, Kevin Bales, professor of contemporary slavery and research director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, talks about the impact of contemporary slavery with three UC Berkeley professors, Arlie Hochschild, professor emerita, Department of Sociology, Enrique Lopezlira, Ph.D., director, Low-Wage W...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 24 min
There are 45 million enslaved people in the world today. The links between slavery, conflict, environmental destruction, economics and consumption began to strengthen and evolve in the 20th century. The availability of people who might be enslaved dramatically increased in line with population growth. According to Kevin Bales, professor of contemporary slavery and research director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, the large and negative environmental impact of modern slavery is...
May 05, 2023•1 hr 27 min
As the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia in 1789, there was no experience, anywhere in the world, of a successful republican executive over an extensive nation — one with sufficient authority and independence to make things work on a national scale, but without the risk of becoming a monarch. This Jefferson Memorial Lecture shows how the delegates, and especially the Committee of Detail, went about constructing such an executive, and what it means for separation...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr 20 min
The world has lived through 2+ years of the COVID-19 pandemic, heightening the awareness of the links between health and other aspects of life including education and the economy. Future pandemics are a real risk but there are a number of other threats to human health and well-being as well. These include climate change, the rise of obesity, inverted population pyramids, inter-state conflict, rising inequalities, antimicrobial resistance. Counterbalancing these threats are the opportunities that...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 27 min
A hallmark of every developed nation is the provision of a social safety net – a collection of public programs that deliver aid to the poor. Because of their higher rates of poverty, children are often a major beneficiary of safety net programs. Compared to other countries, the U.S. spends less on antipoverty programs and, consequently, has higher child poverty rates. Professor Hilary Hoynes discusses the emerging research that examines how the social safety net affects children’s life trajector...
Jan 29, 2023•1 hr 18 min
Disability rights activist Judy Heumann has been fighting for inclusion for over six decades, in ways that transformed legal and societal understandings of equality. Her life-long experience has included co-founding the organization Disabled in Action, working on Capitol Hill to shape landmark disability rights laws, co-organizing the extraordinary protest and advocacy efforts that spurred the implementation of Section 504, and advising presidential administrations and the World Bank on disabili...
Jan 23, 2023•1 hr 29 min
The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) began in 1991 sponsored by the World Bank and the World Health Organization to fill a critical gap in global health information. It has grown steadily to become an active collaboration of more than 8,000 scientists, researchers and policy-makers from 156 countries working together to quantify health at the national and subnational level. In this program, Christopher J.L. Murray, Professor and Chair of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washingto...
Jan 04, 2023•1 hr 15 min
Philosophy almost alone among disciplines appears to lack a distinctive subject matter. The world has chemical, biological and political aspects, but no philosophical aspects. If subject matter does have a role to play here, it’s to do less with the field’s descriptive ambitions than the genealogy of philosophical problems. MIT's professor of philosophy's Stephen Yablo’s interests are wide-ranging, from metaphysics, philosophical logic and epistemology, to the philosophy of language and the phil...
Jul 26, 2022•1 hr 56 min
The International System of Units (the SI), the modern metric system, has recently undergone its most revolutionary change since its origins during the French Revolution. The nature of this revolution is that all of the base units of the SI are now defined by fixing values of natural constants. Our measurement system is now, both philosophically and practically, strongly quantum. Nobel Prize recipient William Phillips, Ph.D., a Distinguished University and College Park Professor of Physics at th...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr 27 min
At the beginning of the 20th century, Einstein changed the way we think about time. Now, early in the 21st century, the measurement of time is being revolutionized by the ability to cool a gas of atoms to temperatures millions of times lower than any naturally occurring temperature in the universe. Nobel Prize recipient William Phillips, Ph.D., a Distinguished University and College Park Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, talks about laser cooling and ultracold atoms and how the...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 29 min
