Science

Culture

Interview

Published May 11, 2023

Do Food Labels Work? A Visual Interview with Nano Barahona

For this “visual interview,” we spoke with Nano Barahona, Assistant Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, who recently examined how a food labeling policy has changed the approaches of both consumers and food producers in Chile.

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Alumni

Interview

Published April 19, 2023

Understanding the Opioid Overdose Crisis: An Interview with David Showalter

How does the opioid overdose crisis reshape rural communities? Through their research on opioid use and opioid-related services in backcountry California, David Showalter argues that an ethnographic sensibility can help us understand how drug use both becomes an ordinary part of people’s lives and what policymakers might do to help prevent overdoses. David Showalter completed […]

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Podcast

Interview

Published February 14, 2023

The Scandal of Access: An Interview with Zahra Hayat

Listen to an episode of the Matrix Podcast featuring Zahra Hayat, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, who obtained her PhD in Anthropology at UC Berkeley. Matrix Content Curator Julia Sizek spoke with Hayat about her research on pharmaceutical access in the global South, particularly in Pakistan, and the regimes of price and property on which such access is contingent.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published February 9, 2023

Dylan Riley, “Microverses: Observations from a Shattered Present”

Watch the video (or listen to the podcast version) of our Authors Meet Critics panel on "Microverses: Observations from a Shattered Present," a book by Dylan Riley, Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley. Professor Riley was joined by Professors Colleen Lye and and Donna Jones from the UC Berkeley Department of English.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published December 1, 2022

Authors Meet Critics: How the Clinic Made Gender

Watch a video (or listen to a podcast) of our recent “Authors Meet Critics” panel on "How the Clinic Made Gender: The Medical History of a Transformative Idea," by Sandra Eder, Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley. Eder was joined in conversation by Laura Nelson, Danya Lagos, and Catherine Ceniza Choy.

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Podcast

Interview

Published August 31, 2022

A Changing Landscape for Farmers in India: An Interview with Aarti Sethi and Tanya Matthan

In this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Julia Sizek spoke with two UC Berkeley scholars – Aarti Sethi and Tanya Matthan – who study agrarian life in India, where farmers have been forced to adapt to the rise of pesticides, genetically modified seeds, and other technologies.

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Article

Interview

Published June 17, 2022

How CRISPR Became Routine

Read a Matrix visual interview with Santiago Molina, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University, who researches how CRISPR, the genetic engineering technology, has become an everyday part of scientific practice.

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Matrix On Point

Recap

Published May 18, 2022

One Million COVID Deaths

Recorded on May 10, 2022, this panel examined the physical, material and psychological toll of the past two years of rampant disease, on-and-off social distancing, and shifting economic ground. The panelists discussed the unequal distribution of the pandemic’s burden across the population and the long-term scarring that may ensue, and contemplated the (possibly more uplifting) lessons to be drawn for the future.

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Matrix Research Team

Recap

Published May 3, 2022

Digital Transformations in Global Land, Housing, and Property

Recorded on April 27, 2022, this panel discussion brought together members of the UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix Research Team on Digital Transformations in Property and Development to discuss how state, corporations, and grassroots actors are employing digital technologies to remake global land, housing, and property.

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Special Event

Recap

Published May 3, 2022

Solving Big Problems: Berkeley Psychology in the 21st Century

As part of an ongoing series of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Psychology Department at UC Berkeley, this video featured talks by three Berkeley Psychology faculty members: Professors Robert Knight, Sheri Johnson, and Jason Okonofua. The presentation was moderated by Serena Chen, Professor and Chair of Berkeley Psychology, and includes remarks by Raka Ray, Dean of the Division of the Social Sciences at UC Berkeley, and Carol Christ, Chancellor of UC Berkeley.

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California Spotlight

Recap

Published April 12, 2022

The Social and Economic Impacts of Wildfires

Recorded on April 4, 2022, this panel focused on the contemporary social and economic impacts of wildfires in California during another record-breaking fire season. How have fires changed during the last five years, and with what impacts on the economy? How might policy-makers and economists respond to the changing fire season? The panel was co-sponsored by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) and presented as part of the Social Science Matrix California Spotlight series.

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Article

Interview

Published March 29, 2022

The Labor Market and the Opioid Epidemic: A Visual Interview with Nathan Seltzer

In this visual interview, Nathan Seltzer, a postdoctoral scholar in the UC Berkeley Department of Demography, discusses his research into the relationship between economic change and population trends. In published and ongoing work, he investigates how the decline of the American manufacturing sector has impacted fertility rates, mortality rates, and economic mobility. 

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