Listen

Produced by the University of California, Berkeley’s Social Science Matrix, the Matrix Podcast features interviews with scholars from across the UC Berkeley campus (and beyond). Listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts or Apple Podcasts.

Matrix On Point

Recap

Matrix on Point: The War in Ukraine and Its Consequences

In this Matrix on Point event, recorded on March 15, 2022, a panel of UC Berkeley scholars discussed the Ukraine-Russia War conflict and its implications. Panelists included John Connelly, the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor in the Department of History; Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Quantedge Presidential Professor in the Department of Economics; Gérard Roland, the E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science; and Katerina Linos, the Irving G. and Eleanor D. Tragen Professor of Law. Daniel Sargent Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley, moderated.

Learn More >

Matrix On Point

Recap

Cryptography and the Future of Money

Recorded on March 2, 2022, this "Matrix on Point" panel featured presentations by Markus K. Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor in the Economics Department at Princeton University and Director of Princeton’s Bendheim Center for Finance; Stefan Eich, Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University; and Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair of Finance and Accounting at Berkeley Haas. Moderated by Barry Eichengreen, the George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley.

Learn More >

Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education

Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of our “Author Meets Critics” panel on the book, "Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education," by Charlie Eaton, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced. Recorded on Feb. 3, 2022, the panel included Emmanuel Saez and Jonathan Glater, with Jennifer Johnson-Hanks as moderator.

Learn More >

Podcast

Interview

Individual Trauma, Social Outcomes: A Matrix Podcast Interview with Biz Herman

In this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Julia Sizek interviews Biz Herman, a PhD candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Political Science, a Visiting Scholar at The New School for Social Research’s Trauma and Global Mental Health Lab, and a Predoctoral Research Fellow with the Human Trafficking Vulnerability Lab. The podcast focuses on Herman's research on mental health and social stability at the Za’atri Refugee Camp in Jordan, as well as her broader research on the impacts of individual trauma on community coherence.

Learn More >

Podcast

Interview

Science and Socialism in Cuba

In this episode of the Matrix podcast, Julia Sizek interviews Clare Ibarra, a PhD candidate in history, and Naomi Schoenfeld, a public health nurse practitioner and recent PhD from the joint UC San Francisco/UC Berkeley medical anthropology program. They discuss the history of science and medicine in Cuba and its relationship to the socialist project, as well as how Cuba has developed vaccines during the current pandemic.

Learn More >

Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Shareholder Cities: Land Transformations along Urban Corridors in India

Recorded on November 16, 2021, this video presents an “Authors Meet Critics” panel focused on the book, Shareholder Cities: Land Transformations along Urban Corridors in India (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), by Sai Balakrishnan, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, with a joint appointment with DCRP and Global Metropolitan Studies. Professor Balakrishnan was joined in conversation by Sharad Chari, Associate Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, and Michael Watts, Class of ‘63 and Chancellor’s Professor of Geography Emeritus, and Co-Director of Development Studies at UC Berkeley.

Learn More >

Matrix On Point

Recap

Matrix On Point: Religion in the Age of Information

Religion, as we know it, is being reframed, reshaped, and even replaced. Recorded on November 2, 2021, this online panel discussion focused on how digital technologies are transforming both religious doctrines and practices in contemporary society. Co-organized by the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion and co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for New Media.

Learn More >

Podcast

Interview

Genetic Ancestry Testing and Reconnection: An Interview with Dr. Victoria Massie

In this episode of the Matrix podcast, Julia Sizek, a PhD candidate in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, interviews Dr. Victoria Massie, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and Faculty Affiliate for the Center for African & African American Studies (CAAAS), the Medical Humanities Program and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (CSWGS) at Rice University, in Houston. Sizek interviews Massie about her research tracking diasporic connections between the United States and Cameroon, and the wider world of genetic ancestry testing.

Learn More >

Special Event

Recap

Music, the Diaspora, and the World: A Conversation with Angélique Kidjo

In this conversation, recorded on October 28, 2021, the University of California, Berkeley's Social Science Matrix, together with the Townsend Center for the Humanities, Cal Performances, and the Black Studies Collaboratory, took advantage of the precious artist-in-residency of Angélique Kidjo on the UC Berkeley campus to open a conversation about the global circulation of African musical forms and musicians, its worldwide significance, and its social power.

Learn More >

Matrix On Point

Recap

Matrix on Point: New Directions in Studying Policing

Contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter and the prison abolition movement point to the long histories of police violence and mass incarceration in the United States and elsewhere, demanding new approaches to approaching the history and present of policing. In this Matrix on Point panel, recorded on October 25, 2021, UC Berkeley graduate students were joined by outside experts in discussing the impacts of policing on the lives and health of officers and the communities they serve, as well as how contemporary policing practices are related to an unjust past.

Learn More >

Social Science / Data Science

Recap

Doing Academic Research with Amazon Mechanical Turk

Recorded on October 1, 2021, this panel brought together researchers to share their experience with the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. Moderated by UC Berkeley psychology professor Serena Chen, the panel featured Ali Alkhatib, Interim director of the Center for Applied Data Ethics at the University of San Francisco; Stefano DellaVigna, Daniel Koshland, Sr. Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Business Administration at UC Berkeley; and Gabriel Lenz, Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley.

Learn More >

Podcast

Interview

Politics of Indigeneity in El Salvador

In this episode of the Matrix podcast, Julia Sizek, PhD candidate in anthropology, interviews Hector Callejas, a PhD candidate in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and a 2021-2022 ACLS/Mellon Dissertation Completion fellow. Sizek and Callejas discuss how Indigeneity is understood in El Salvador, as well as contemporary Indigenous movements in El Salvador.

Learn More >