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Nobel Laureate Barry Barish and His Imposter Syndrome
How uncommon is it for a successful scientist to encounter imposter syndrome? According to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Barry Barish, it’s a common occurrence, and one he admits to personally facing. “I think anybody, if they actually think about it, has it,” Barish said. “I have a psychoanalyst for a wife, so I can’t avoid the […]
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Lighting the Way Through Literature
Anthony Doerr says his very first book, “Mollusks,” which he wrote when he was kid for a class project, was probably very unsatisfying to his readers. But that didn’t deter him. He went on to write his other ‘first’ novel, “All the Light We Cannot See,” which by all accounts was a blockbuster. It remained […]
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American Literary Legend N. Scott Momaday Talks About the Sacredness of Words
The Kiowa poet and novelist Navarre Scott Momaday was 8 years old when he told his mother he wanted to be a writer. He said she was pleased, possibly because she was a writer herself. That little boy grew up to become a great American writer, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his first […]
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Rex Pickett’s New Book Weaves Together Murder, Mystery and Library Archives
Best known for his Academy Award-winning adapted screenplay “Sideways,” author Rex Pickett is out with a new book. The UC San Diego alumnus, who graduated in 1976, sets his latest work in a fictional Geisel Library. “The Archivist” is a murder mystery that takes a deep dive into the inner workings of the process of […]
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Finding Grace with Author Nadia Bolz-Weber
Conventional is not a word that comes to mind when you meet Nadia Bolz-Weber. The tattooed, ordained Lutheran pastor is an author and founder of House for All Sinners & Saints in Denver. The journey to her calling as a minister was a winding path from youthful rebellion and substance abuse to compassion for those […]
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Civil Rights Activist and Author Cornel West
Enjoy two new programs featuring Cornel West – social justice advocate, best-selling author, renowned university professor, and one of the nation’s most iconic Black intellectuals. He is Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and has written 20 books and edited 13. He’s best known for his classics, “Race Matters and Democracy Matters,” and for […]
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NYT Columnist David Brooks Reveals What Motivates Him
David Brooks is best known for his op-ed columns in The New York Times. But he’s also an accomplished author and observer of social behavior. His books include “Bobos in Paradise,” “The Social Animal,” “The Road to Character,” and his latest book “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life.” In this candid and […]
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Insights into Putin’s Power Grab in Ukraine and What’s Behind Authoritarian Regimes
After weeks of posturing and the imminent threat of invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the decision to roll tens of thousands of troops across the border into the sovereign country of Ukraine in late February. The campaign was preceded by a prolonged Russian military buildup around Ukraine, as well as numerous Russian demands for […]
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What’s Behind Racial Resentment?
“I’m not a racist, but…” This instinct to make judgments about “deservingness” in politics often animates those who believe they are “not racist,” but tend to oppose policies and ideas that advance racial justice, and blame racial-ethnic minorities for their social, political, and economic positions. That is one of the many arguments UC Berkeley Goldman […]
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Oy Vey – The Strange Stories of Yiddishland
Unlike most languages, which are spoken by the residents of a particular area or by members of a particular nationality, Yiddish – at the height of its usage – was spoken by millions of Jews of different nationalities all over the globe. Eddy Portnoy’s book mines century-old Yiddish newspapers to expose the seamy underbelly of […]