The technical world of insurance is a critical lens through which to understand the escalating crises in climate change and housing. As climate risks intensify, both public and private homeowner insurance markets face unprecedented pressure, revealing the interconnections between housing affordability, wealth inequality, and the broader financialization of our communities. This panel brings together experts from diverse disciplines — including Stephen Collier, Desiree Fields, and Dave Jones — to explore the intersection of insurance, housing, and climate.
Matrix Teach-In
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Promise & Precarity: Exploring Oakland Through Community-Engaged Scholarship
Join us on Monday, November 17 at 12pm for a Matrix Teach-In, part of a new event series featuring talks by UC Berkeley lecturers and professors who earn praise from students for their teaching. This event will feature Seth Lunine, Lecturer in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, who will present a talk reflecting on his experiences with collaborative scholarship between UC Berkeley undergraduates and community-based organizations in Oakland’s Fruitvale District.
CRELS
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Maximilian Kasy: “The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits)”
Join us on December 2, 2025 at 4:00pm for a talk by Maximilian Kasy, Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, presenting his book "The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits)." In this book, Kasy shows that artificial intelligence, far from being an unstoppable force, is irrevocably shaped by human decisions—choices made to date by the ownership class that steers its development and deployment. He explains the fundamental principles on which AI works, and, in doing so, reveals that the real conflict isn’t between humans and machines, but between those who control the machines and the rest of us.
Matrix Lecture
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Alexis Madrigal: “To Know a Place”
In this Matrix Distinguished Lecture, journalist Alexis Madrigal — host of KQED's Forum and a contributing writer at The Atlantic — turns his attention to the question of how we come to know a place. Drawing on his background as a reporter, writer, and thinker of cities, landscapes, and histories, he will explore different ways of writing about and understanding place, revealing how perspective, memory, and narrative inform the stories we tell about the world around us.