Lectures and talks in the Bay Area

A guided walking tour of UC Santa Cruz's Upper Campus Demonstration Site exploring forest health treatments and wildfire resilience. Participants will learn about the Wildfire Vegetation Management Plan and techniques including thinning, handwork, mechanical treatment, mastication, and chipping designed to lower wildfire risk and support ecosystem recovery. The approximately one-mile walk is led by university experts and supported through a CAL FIRE Forest Health Grant. Comfortable hiking boots recommended; shuttles provided from Barn Theater Parking Lot.

A guided history walk of Lands End's wild northwest corner led by historian and retired National Park Ranger John Martini. Participants will follow the route of the historic Ferries & Cliff House steam train, view the remains of two shipwrecks (weather permitting), and visit the USS San Francisco Memorial to learn about the warship's 1942 Battle of Guadalcanal. The two-hour walk covers uneven terrain; easy grade. Limited to 30 people.

A curator walkthrough of 'Drawn Together,' a group exhibition celebrating human connection through diverse artistic media. Curator Auriel Garza leads visitors through works exploring gatherings of figures—friends, families, teams, dancers—and the expressive power of line work as both structural and emotional force. The exhibition examines how artists depict shared joy, camaraderie, and belonging across varied settings from supermarkets to dance floors to family dining tables, offering a heartfelt tribute to the ties that bring us together.

What does it take to turn research into a company? A panel explores the journey from Stanford lab to startup commercialization, featuring Brian Bartholomeusz, Managing Director of Innovation Transfer at Stanford's TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy; Caraiosa O'Farrell, a Stanford founder; and a representative from StartX's energy vertical. The conversation covers idea validation, early-stage challenges, and how to navigate Stanford's entrepreneurial ecosystem for founders at any stage—from hackathon prototype to company launch.

An eye-opening guide to understanding and appreciating poetry. John Timpane, author of *Poetry for Dummies*, 2nd Edition, explores how to read, analyze, and write poetry for anyone from curious beginners to practicing writers and devoted poetry lovers. Perfect for aspiring poets and anyone interested in deepening their engagement with the form.

Professor Elisa Tamarkin, Chair of UC Berkeley's English Department, speaks to the UC Berkeley Emeriti Association. Tamarkin is a scholar of American literature and cultural history. The specific topic of her remarks will be announced closer to the event date.

A guided walk-through of Shannon Rogers: Myriad, an exhibition of geometric abstraction paintings by Oakland-based artist Shannon Rogers. The show features expansive, intricately constructed works that move between recognizable landscape and abstraction, drawing from archetypal visions of volcanoes, canyons, ruins, and sunsets while geometric structures disrupt coherent perspective. Rogers explores interconnectedness and multiple readings of space, informed by Daoist philosophy. The artist will lead the walk-through.

Explore the Mediterranean diet and regional Italian culinary traditions with Bernadette Festa, MS, RD. Learn the health principles behind this way of eating—its emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients and how food traditions vary across Italy—alongside selections of regional recipes from everyday dishes to traditional favorites. Discover how to bring the Mediterranean approach into your own kitchen.

The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History hosts an annual Día de los Muertos Celebration honoring Latino cultural heritage. The day features musical and dance performances by Senderos, hands-on activities, live music, and community-created altares (ofrendas). Attendees can explore the museum's installations and learn about the holiday's significance from community partners and Senderos leaders, hearing stories of how Día de los Muertos is celebrated locally.

A talk demystifying El Niño and its local impacts, followed by an open community forum on preparedness and resilience. Learn what to expect from this climate pattern and how Oakland residents can prepare.

A walking tour through San Francisco's Civic Center, Mid-Market, and SoMa exploring murals, monuments, and public art shaped by collective action and community collaboration. Led by art historian, writer, and skateboarder Ted Barrow, the tour begins at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch at the Maya Angelou monument by Lava Thomas, traces Market Street to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the exhibition *Dread Scott: The Body Politic*, and highlights works celebrating the people and communities that shape San Francisco. The program considers how public art creates spaces for connection, visibility, and collective expression, and examines art as a platform for protest and social justice.

Filmmakers will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. A screening of Comparsa, a documentary following sisters Lesli and Lupe in Ciudad Peonia, Guatemala, who use art and performance to heal community trauma and confront violence against women after 41 girls are killed in a state-run facility. The film explores how they organize a youth movement featuring exuberant street performances, towering puppets, and fire-breathing stilt walkers to reclaim public space and challenge corruption. Built on a 15-year relationship between filmmakers and subjects, it is a portrait of sisterhood, peacebuilding, and art's transformational power.

An afternoon of civic performance and dialogue exploring the U.S. Constitution's historical role and modern relevance. Artist Christy Chan performs readings from the Constitution in reverse, interrogating whose rights it protects and whose it excludes, followed by a moderated panel discussion titled "Whose Constitution?" featuring cultural historian Jeff Chang (moderator), Michael Schulze-Oechtering (CSU East Bay community organizer), and Nicole Ozer (UC Law SF's Center for Constitutional Democracy and Electronic Frontier Foundation). The panel examines citizens' relationship to the Constitution in the present moment.

A curator-led walkthrough of OBJECTS: USA, the landmark 1969 Smithsonian exhibition of American studio craft, now reimagined at the Museum of Craft and Design. Chief Curator Ariel Zaccheo shares curatorial insights and stories behind select works in clay, fiber, glass, metal, and wood, exploring the materials, techniques, and ideas connecting makers across generations. The exhibition features over 70 historic and contemporary works by leading artists and designers, reflecting the Bay Area's central role in developing American studio craft and challenging postwar art hierarchies.

A conversation about Harold Pinter's play Betrayal with Carey Perloff, artistic director of American Conservatory Theater, and Larry Eilenberg, contemporary theatre expert. The discussion explores the themes and dramatic structure of one of Pinter's most celebrated works.

Learn about the diversity of pollinators in the Bay Area and how native plants and gardening practices can support them. Margaret Flaherty, a California Native Plant Society member and certified California Naturalist, draws on her experience volunteering at Native Here Nursery and leading ecological restoration projects in the Berkeley hills. She brings practical knowledge from her recent Ecological Restoration Field class and her work teaching plant biology to local students.

How can climate data drive real-world solutions? A panel discussion on turning climate insights into actionable opportunities, featuring Giancarlo Savini (Carbon Removal Partners), Kevin Kopczynski (Congruent Ventures), and Ajay Gupta (CLAI Ventures). The discussion explores how investors evaluate climate solutions, what evidence validates promising ideas, and what it takes to move from prototype to adoption. Aimed at hackathon participants seeking to connect technical work to customer needs, commercial viability, and measurable climate impact.

Filmmakers will participate in a post-screening Q&A. A screening of eight short films from the SF Latino Film Festival's Community Voices program, featuring works by local filmmakers including James Hall, Alma Amancay Herrera-Pazmiño, Naomi Garcia Pasmanick, Noemi Ochoa, Xander R. Trejo, and Nicolas Jara. The program includes narratives ranging from cultural documentation and community art to speculative fiction, with runtimes from 4 to 15 minutes.

Post-screening Q&A with director Jack MacInnes and film subject Israa, moderated by Carrie Lozano. A screening of One in a Million, a ten-year documentary following Israa from age 11 as she and her family flee Syria across the Aegean Sea to Germany, navigating adolescence, identity, and belonging in exile. Co-directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, the film chronicles war, displacement, and the tension between new freedoms and Syrian traditions.

Colin Jost, Emmy-winning writer and co-anchor of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update," discusses his career in comedy and media. Jost has been a writer on SNL since 2005 and published the New York Times bestseller "A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir" in 2020. He also hosted "Pop Culture Jeopardy!" on Prime Video in 2024, earning an Emmy nomination. Part of the Silk Speaker Series during CelebrateUSF at the University of San Francisco.

A guided walking tour through San Francisco's Castro neighborhood exploring LGBTQIA+ resistance history, created by Shawn Sprockett, a former senior adjunct professor and practicing designer. The tour traces queer activism from the White Night riots through the AIDS crisis and subsequent police violence, introducing figures including trans doctors, lesbian healthcare workers, and community organizers. Approximately 90 minutes of walking on city sidewalks with one moderate hill, ending at the Lookout bar with a complimentary drink. The tour closes Sprockett's three-part history of queer San Francisco (following North Beach and Tenderloin tours). Runs monthly; ages 21+.

Litquake's closing-night poetry crawl hosted across three simultaneous events at Medicine for Nightmares. 'Grandmas are Griots' (5–6pm, hosted by Allie Jones) honors oral storytelling traditions and matriarchal resistance through readings by Ashia Ajani, Liftawiya, mel, Sara Borjas, and Jones. 'In the Spirit of Kapwa' (6:30–7:30pm, hosted by Tiffani Patton) is presented by Mesa Refuge. 'Pochx Deluxe: An Ode to the California Lengua' (9–10pm, hosted by Lourdes Figueroa) concludes the evening. Each program centers embodied practice, cultural memory, and collective commitment.

A guided multi-course dining experience exploring sustainable food systems from production to plate. Hosted by Stanford Climate Week Executive Director Naomie Chien and JC Arce, Founder & CEO of Tidefield, with participants from the Mercedes-Benz BeVisioneers fellowship, the event pairs curated dishes with conversations about agriculture, climate, science, and technology. Farmers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and chefs discuss environmental challenges across the food value chain and emerging solutions, examining topics from agricultural climate footprint to the role of consumer behavior and culinary innovation in building sustainable food systems.

A panel discussion with three accomplished YA horror writers — Yuvashri Harish, Stephanie Kuehn, and Hannah Jayne — exploring their work in the genre. Held at Copperfield's Books just before Halloween.

A screening of the documentary Steal This Story, Please! with journalist Amy Goodman and director Tia Lessin for a post-screening Q&A. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin examine three decades of Amy Goodman's career as a trailblazing investigative journalist at Democracy Now!, covering global conflicts and stories silenced by commercial media. The film explores how Goodman navigates a news landscape reshaped by corporate consolidation and political assaults on truth, offering both a portrait of resistance and a meditation on democracy when the press surrenders to power.

A screening of *Oceania: Journey to the Center*, an award-winning documentary following Kiribati elder Tekinati Ruka as she explores her nation's history, cultural strength, and response to predicted sea-level rise. The 75-minute film will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Natalie Zimmerman, who spent 10 years developing relationships in Kiribati, and Impact Producer Lindsay Gordon. The film addresses climate realities facing the Pacific Island nation, which scientists predict may become uninhabitable within a decade, and explores pathways to climate resilience.

As solar, wind, and battery storage displace conventional generators, the grid loses the stabilizing inertia that once came free from spinning mass. This interactive session explores how inverter-based resources can help maintain grid stability, what their limits are, and how reactive power support fits into the picture. Stanford IEEE's Power & Energy Society will walk through real-world grid events and their lessons, with live demos and open discussion. No power systems background required; open to all majors.

SpectreVision Radio presents a live Liminal Mic podcast recording exploring Bigfoot encounters and folklore. Real audience members share paranormal experiences with a live panel including Bryce Johnson (Expedition Bigfoot), The 418 Project, and SpectreVision Radio Director Daniel Noah. The event explores the cultural history and contemporary reports of Sasquatch and related cryptids across North America, with particular focus on Northern California sightings. SpectreVision Radio is an independent podcast network founded by filmmaker Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah, exploring the paranormal, esoteric, and unexplained across 62 shows reaching millions of monthly listeners.

Gabriele Vajente, Deputy Head of System Science and Engineering at the LIGO Laboratory (Caltech), explores gravitational waves and what we've learned from a decade of detections. Ten years after LIGO first detected gravitational waves from colliding black holes, the field has become central to modern astronomy. Vajente will discuss how LIGO detects these ripples in space-time, discoveries about black holes and neutron stars, and future directions for gravitational-wave science.

Dr. Becca Robinson, Education Director at the SETI Institute and outreach lead for NASA's Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) mission, discusses solar mysteries and recent discoveries in solar physics. She will share how a serendipitous research moment led to new understanding of the Sun's atmosphere, and explain how MUSE will help observe magnetic explosions, predict space weather events, and improve forecasting of auroral displays and signal disruptions. The talk follows a 7:30pm social hour with snacks.

The final graduating class of California College of the Arts' MFA in Writing program reads from their work at this Litquake event. The emerging writers—working in fiction, memoir, poetry, and hybrid forms—present pieces that move across borders, histories, families, and imagined futures with wit, ambition, and emotional precision. This reading marks both a farewell to a decades-long program and an introduction to the writers who will carry its legacy forward, affirming that literature remains one of our most powerful ways of attending to one another, to history, and to ourselves.

An evening of poetry and prose centered on resistance and radical dreaming, featuring queer, immigrant, and trans writers speaking to justice and imagining alternatives. Curated and hosted by Baruch Porras Hernandez, the program features poets Preeti Vangani and Gio!, with musical guest Mobby Rosas.

Professor Galen Crantz displays her personal tax returns from 1963–2018 in a one-day public installation, inviting visitors to witness the accumulation of bureaucratic effort embedded in decades of filing. Attendees are welcome to bring their own tax documents (older than 7 years) to shred manually onsite or deposit in secure bins for later shredding at Berkeley Shreds. The exhibition critiques the collective time investment required by tax filing and asks what more productive uses of our effort might look like.

A public science talk on sea lion biology, behavior, and global diversity hosted by the Marine Mammal Center, a leading marine research and conservation organization in the Bay Area. Learn about these charismatic marine mammals, their ecological roles, and the challenges they face in ocean ecosystems worldwide.

Join the Asian Art Museum's Kasama Festival celebrating Filipino American History Month. Michelle Sterling, children's book author, discusses *When Lola Visits*, her story of a young girl spending a summer with her grandmother from the Philippines. The book weaves Tagalog songs and mango jam into an evocative tale of familial love spanning oceans and generations.

Nebula and Hugo Award–winning author Charlie Jane Anders celebrates the launch of her new Star Trek comic series, Star Trek Zero Point, set a few years after Star Trek: Picard season 3. Anders will discuss the inspiration behind the series, Trek's message of fighting intolerance in 2026, and why it resonates now. The story follows Captain Raffi Musiker commanding a starship tasked with preventing future disasters, guided by a powerful A.I. wearing the face of a familiar ally. Meet-and-greet and signing follow. Special guests include the USS Golden Gate fan club, formed in 1993, which celebrates Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations across the Bay Area.

A live demonstration of how used cooking oil is transformed into soap through circular economy principles. Attendees will watch the soap-making process in action, learn about the environmental impact of cooking oil waste, explore the science behind the transformation, and discover ways to support sustainable solutions from everyday materials. The session explores both the practical methodology and the broader concept of converting waste into useful products.

Post-screening Q&A with the filmmaker. A screening of Libertad, a documentary about Alejandra, an Indigenous transgender woman from Oaxaca, Mexico who fled violence 30 years ago and now seeks reunion with her elderly mother while advocating for immigrant, LGBTQ+, and indigenous rights in California. The film explores family, identity, and the transnational challenges of survival and solidarity across borders. Part of the 18th annual SF Latino Film Festival at the Roxie Theater.

Introduction by directors Stephens and Sprinkle with Q&A moderated by Madison Young. A screening of Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency, a documentary by Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle about ecological grief, resilience, and transformation in the aftermath of California's wildfires. When lightning forces the longtime lovers to evacuate their Boulder Creek home, they channel loss into ecosexual art and environmental activism, weaving stories from formerly incarcerated firefighters, Indigenous scholars, fire artists, and community members. The film explores fire as destructive, regenerative, and erotic force while centering queer resilience amid climate crisis.

A 30-minute gallery talk with Batul True Heart, a 2Spirit Yaqui-Chicane and Panamanian death and grief worker, herbal medicine maker, and emotional release specialist. Batul will share their personal experience practicing traditional medicine during times of mourning, discussing the path to earth-based ancestral medicine, Indigenous perspectives on emotion, and practical ways to connect with feelings, the earth, and natural elements. As part of OMCA's Día de los Muertos Community Celebration, they will introduce cempoalxóchitl (marigold) and how to work with it during grief. Batul co-creates Floripondio End of Life Planning and Services and produces Maaso Medicina: Flower Medicine for Ancestral, Generational, and Personal Pain.

Examining the rise and fall of the Voting Rights Act from its triumphant passage in 1965 to its recent evisceration by the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais decision, Kevin T. Morris explores the ongoing struggle to protect voting rights in America. Morris contextualizes the landmark 1965 legislation within decades of civil rights history and analyzes the legal and political forces that have systematically dismantled its protections.

A workshop exploring Catholic Social Teaching as a living tradition of shared discernment on justice and human dignity. Fr. William O'Neill, a Jesuit scholar and resident at Santa Clara University's Markkula Center, draws on his work in refugee camps across Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan to address how we embody CST's vision today—encompassing human rights, ecological ethics, immigration policy, and restorative justice. The session includes structured conversation and reflection, open to Christians and non-Christians alike.

A double panel discussion featuring participants from the Jack Mason Museum's ongoing oral history projects. The first panel explores Growing New Food Systems: Innovative Agriculture and Land Conservation in West Marin County; the second, Building Community: Young People Transform West Marin in the 1970s. Panelists include Dennis and Sandy Dierks and other local participants whose lived experience shaped the region's agricultural and social landscape. Hosted by The Dance Palace and moderated by Dewey.

Comedian and Monty Python founder Eric Idle discusses his memoir *Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme*, an equal-parts memoir and travelogue exploring his time in the French countryside. In conversation with author Dave Eggers, Idle reflects on a life of comedy, creativity, and misadventure. Hosted by Book Passage.

A free dinner and fireside chat exploring how advocacy, research, infrastructure, and public policy can advance environmental justice. Speakers include Khalid Osman (Stanford, environmental justice and equitable water infrastructure), Cynthia Leung (WeaveGrid, utility-scale solar and clean energy), Arieann Harrison (Marie Harrison Community Foundation, Bayview environmental advocacy), Gabbie Listana (San Francisco Youth Commission), and Roberto Torres (San Francisco Environment Department). The event addresses meaningful community collaboration, the interplay between different disciplines, and how students in engineering, law, business, policy, and the arts can contribute to a just, sustainable future.

A technical talk on learning dexterous robotic manipulation through simulation and human demonstrations. Joe Dong, co-founder and CTO of Chestnut Robotics, presents two complementary approaches: training in simulation using reinforcement learning with the open-source Aero Hand, and learning from human demonstrations via a matched wearable capture interface. The talk covers hardware design, MuJoCo simulation, sim-to-real transfer, motion capture, contact sensing, and engineering tradeoffs in connecting robot embodiment with training data and simulation environments.

Kapil Ramachandran of Columbia University's Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease presents recent findings on neuroproteasomes and spatial control of neuronal proteostasis. Hosted by Lennart Mucke, MD, at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease.

John Briscoe, SF poet, lawyer, and restaurateur, discusses the plagiarism of women's writing in the Western canon—examining how female authors have been erased, misattributed, or had their work appropriated within literary history.

UPenn Assistant Professor Daniel Rock examines how AI is reshaping scientific research by shifting computational and labor bottlenecks. Part of a university seminar series on AI's impact on science and research methodology.

Medical anthropologist and author Sherine Hamdy discusses her debut graphic novel Landing in Place (Penguin Random House, 2026), illustrated by Myra El Mir. The coming-of-age story follows Anisa, an Egyptian American college freshman navigating premed expectations, identity, and artistic aspiration as she spends time in Cairo discovering her own voice. Hamdy is a leading scholar of Muslim medical ethics and the political economy of disease in Egypt, and a pioneering advocate for academics sharing research across multiple media forms, including her co-authored graphic novel Lissa: A Story of Friendship, Medical Promise, and Revolution.

How can policy, law, and institutional design advance equity during periods of social and political constraint? This session explores research-informed levers for creating more equitable developmental pathways for children, families, and communities. Speakers include Wendy Ellis, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Community Resilience at George Washington University, and Laura Huerta Migus, Director of Fellowship Alumni Engagement at Ascend at the Aspen Institute, with moderation by Katie Albright, Executive Director of UC Berkeley's Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood program.

Drag Story Time as a Site of Resistance, Queer World-Making and Community Building — a lecture by Danny Castillo (they/them), an emerging queer scholar and multidisciplinary artist specializing in queer anthropology and child development at San Jose State University. Castillo recently co-organized "Rhinestone Skies: A Night of Drag and Poetry," a family-friendly evening at the San Jose Museum of Art, and is a fellow for the Bay Area Artist Census. Part of the Carol Mukhopadhyay Feminist Lecture Series.

Urban planner Jesse M. Keenan, Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning at Tulane University, discusses his book *North: The Future of Post-Climate America*. The talk explores how climate change is reshaping where and how Americans live, documenting population shifts that are transforming cities, electoral politics, and regional geographies of risk and opportunity. Keenan examines how markets and public institutions shape human mobility, analyzing communities' capacity to adapt as climate impacts accelerate and Sun Belt migration patterns shift. The event frames climate adaptation through the lens of everyday people caught between fast-moving markets and slow-moving governments, exploring both climate-driven relocation and emerging zones of opportunity for sustainable living.

Sharon Weill, Professor of International Law and Director of the Justice Lab at American University of Paris, discusses her ethnographic study of terrorism trials in France, published by Cambridge University Press. Based on hundreds of courtroom observation days spanning small cases to landmark trials including the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan proceedings, the book examines how terrorism logics are negotiated within criminal proceedings. Through courtroom immersion, legal performance analysis, and interviews with judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and victims, Weill investigates how justice actually functions in practice and traces three generations of evolving trial approaches. The work offers both empirical insights into French criminal procedure and comparative perspective for Anglophone readers unfamiliar with civil law systems.

Hiroyuki Murase, CEO and Creative Director of suzusan, discusses the textile brand's mission to bring traditional Japanese shibori dyeing into contemporary fashion. Murase reflects on the relationship between tradition and innovation, local identity and global exchange, and design's role in shaping a sustainable future for craftsmanship.

Nori Nakata, Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, presents recent research on reservoir evolution during enhanced geothermal system (EGS) development. Using seismic networks and distributed acoustic sensing data from Cape Station and Utah FORGE, Nakata examines microearthquake stress drops, fracture network imaging, and focal mechanisms to understand subsurface stress changes and fracture activation. The work integrates seismic and aseismic slip observations to connect individual earthquakes to reservoir-scale processes and improve geophysical monitoring of geothermal development.

Judge Thelton Henderson, UC Berkeley Law Class of 1962, shares stories and insights from his career as a civil rights lawyer and federal judge, in conversation with Federal Appeals Court Judge and UC Berkeley Law Professor William Fletcher. Henderson's work spans landmark civil rights cases and his tenure on the federal bench, offering a window into judicial reasoning and social change advocacy.

A workshop on supporting clients impacted by violence and trauma, led by Orchid Pusey, Executive Director of Asian Women's Shelter. Designed for legal professionals engaged in pro bono work, the session draws on clinical and advocacy expertise to equip participants with trauma-informed approaches to client care. Held in connection with Domestic Violence Awareness Month and National Pro Bono Week.

A screening of Young China, a documentary retracing Sun Yat-sen's travels across six American cities through historic sites, archival materials, and interviews with descendants and community members. The film explores Sun Yat-sen's deep connections to the United States and the Chinese American communities who supported his revolutionary work over a century ago. Following the screening, a live panel with descendants, scholars, and community members invites reflection on immigration, identity, community involvement, and trans-Pacific history. Part of a special program marking the 160th anniversary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's birth.

Dr. Archana Raja, Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's Molecular Foundry, discusses how artificial intelligence accelerates the discovery and characterization of quantum materials. She'll present experimental work on topological phase transitions in van der Waals heterostructures, including isotope-controlled switching in HfTe5, then introduce LEAP (Low-Energy, AI-Informed Phase Transitions), a UC AI Science at Scale initiative coordinating theory, experiment, and simulation to target topological materials for energy-efficient electronics. She'll demonstrate Struct-R1, an agentic system that navigates materials structure space through physics-grounded reasoning loops, and LEAP-Bench, a benchmark testing whether AI agents can reason from raw experimental data to scientific conclusions suitable for laboratory deployment.

A panel examining Taiwan's 30-year democratic trajectory since its historic 1996 direct presidential election and the trilateral strategies needed to sustain democratic resilience in an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. Speakers include David Chih-Hsiang Wu, Director-General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco; Thomas B. Gold, Professor of Sociology Emeritus at UC Berkeley; and panelists from Goucher College, Academia Sinica, the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House, and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability.

How did Iraq and Syria navigate independence in the 1940s–50s, balancing constitutional democracy with military intervention and emergency rule? Matthieu Rey, senior researcher at CNRS-EHESS and former director of the Contemporary Studies Department at IFPO Beirut, examines this contradictory political legacy — the flourishing of parliaments, parties, and civil society alongside authoritarian constraints and military interference. Drawing on 15 years of fieldwork across the Middle East and his book *Histoire de la Syrie*, Rey explores the foundational questions both countries faced: who deserved citizenship, how to develop the nation, and how to distribute power between executive and legislature. These tensions, he argues, prefigure struggles that continue today.

Brian Trippe, Assistant Professor of Statistics at Stanford, discusses calibration methods for generative models with applications to protein structure prediction. Generative models often produce realistic samples while underestimating probabilities of important modes—a problem Trippe addresses by framing calibration as constrained optimization. He presents surrogate objectives enabling low-variance gradient estimates for stochastic optimization, demonstrating results across hundreds of simultaneous constraints and models with up to nine billion parameters. The talk includes applications for assimilating thermodynamic measurements into generative models of protein structure Boltzmann ensembles.

Orion Weiner explores the mechanisms of collective cell migration, drawing parallels between swarms and flocks to understand how cells coordinate movement. Part of Stanford's Biology Seminar Series.

A panel discussion on Abiya Ahmed's new book *Being Muslim on Campus: Religion, Inclusion, and Agency at a Secular University* (OUP, 2026), examining the intersection of scholarship and institutional practice. Ahmed, PhD '21, is Director of the Markaz Resource Center and Associate Dean of Students at Stanford. The panel features Anna Bigelow (Associate Professor of Religious Studies), Anthony Antonio (Associate Professor of Education), and Samuel Santos (Senior Associate Vice Provost of Student Affairs), chaired by Shirin Sinnar (William W. and Gertrude H. Saunders Professor of Law) and Alexander Key (Associate Professor of Comparative Literature).

A lecture on aging and eldercare in fin-de-siècle Russian and Yiddish theater, examining how playwrights Anton Chekhov and Jacob Gordin represented old age and care on stage. Gabriella Safran, professor at Stanford University, explores how these two literary traditions approached the theme of aging during this period of cultural and social transformation.

A physics colloquium featuring Alexander Sushkov. This lecture is part of UC Berkeley's regular colloquium series in the Department of Physics, open to the university community and interested public.

A fireside chat on artificial intelligence's dual role in energy systems—driving new demand for power while enabling cleaner, more reliable, and efficient infrastructure. Richard Newell, former CTO of Sustainability Solutions at C3 AI, discusses concrete AI applications in energy, 'physical AI' for grids and infrastructure, AI's reshaping of software deployment, and promising opportunities at the AI-energy intersection, in conversation with John Weyant, Stanford professor and energy systems analyst. The discussion explores lessons from past energy transformations and how students and early-career professionals can contribute to this emerging field.

A Theory of Operatic Scene Type. Joy H. Calico, Professor of Musicology at UCLA, presents her theory of operatic scenes as recurring narrative and musical nodes — love duets, diegetic songs, rage arias — that constitute a kind of operatic DNA recognizable across centuries and musical styles. Drawing on examples from twentieth- and twenty-first-century opera, including Kaija Saariaho's L'amour de loin, Calico demonstrates how scene types transcend composer, subgenre, and style to reveal deep structural patterns in how opera makes meaning through music, character, and performance.

A conversation on collective action and resistance in the age of AI, examining how technology reshapes privacy, free expression, and accountability. Meredith Whittaker, Signal President and former AI Now Institute director whose research shaped global AI policy, discusses the surveillance practices and power concentration embedded in modern AI alongside Professor Lowry Pressly, who specializes in the ethical and political dimensions of AI and surveillance. The discussion explores how individuals, corporations, and government can be held accountable for technology's growing influence on society.

Has the Democratic Party lost its soul? Author and former Democratic operative Evan Barker discusses her inside story of departing from the party, arguing it has been hijacked by out-of-touch activists, coastal elitists, and special interests. She explores her political disillusionment in conversation with Sarah McCammon, National Correspondent for NPR.

A book talk on China's prison camps, their Soviet roots, and the threats to journalists investigating them. Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Vice President of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society and former Berkeley Journalism dean, discusses his research with Adam Hochschild, author of *The Unquiet Ghost* and *King Leopold's Ghost* and lecturer at Berkeley Journalism. Welcoming remarks from Sasha Schell, supervising reporter at the Human Rights Center. Hosted by the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law.

A practical guide to eliminating hallucinations, optimizing computational resources, and deploying secure, trustworthy, and compliant AI systems. Rush Shahani discusses concrete steps for building reliable AI in production environments.

Twenty writers pitch their unpublished books in one-minute rounds, judged by publishing professionals Arielle Eckstut and David Sterry. Modeled on American Idol but gentler, Pitchapalooza gives aspiring authors direct feedback on their pitch and a chance to connect with agents, editors, and fellow writers. Open to writers at any stage of development.

Experimental astrophysicist Dr. Julie Rolla explores how NASA's work extends far beyond space exploration. Drawing on her experience in ultra-high energy neutrinos, dark matter, AI-driven detector design, and climate-focused satellite applications, she discusses how space science drives advances in medicine, climate science, technology, and emergency response. From telemedicine tools to Mars missions that reveal planetary evolution, NASA's breakthroughs quietly benefit everyday life while inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Daniel Peña, Pushcart Prize-winning writer and Associate Professor at the University of North Texas, discusses his essay collection How to Look Away, which explores how fringe elements of his Texas childhood—AM radio, conspiracy theories, post-Cold War paranoia—came to dominate American political discourse and enabled tolerance for human rights abuses against Latin American migrants. Through journalism, cultural criticism, and memoir, Peña reflects on American citizenship, belonging, and complicity, asking: what compels us to look away from these abuses, and how do we wake ourselves into action?

Who gets called a witch—and what happens when people believe them? UC Berkeley PhD candidate Ilyssa Forman traces the history of American witch hunts from Salem through the Lavender Scare, exploring how the idea of the witch has been weaponized against those deemed dangerous by society: women who refused to obey, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, sex workers, and other criminalized "others." Through centuries of American fear and difference, Forman asks what makes witch hunts possible, why people become convinced danger hides among them, and what happens when the hunt outlasts the supposed threat. A lecture on power, persecution, and the language of exclusion, followed by Q&A and discussion.

A celebration of Fatimah Asghar's sophomore poetry collection *Daughter of the Mountains*, with writers R.O. Kwon and Ingrid Rojas Contreras. Asghar's collection explores exile, ancestry, spirituality, and belonging through meditative poems that grapple with loss, longing, and love. Kwon is author of the National Book Critics Circle finalist *The Incendiaries* and *Exhibit*. Rojas Contreras is author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist memoir *The Man Who Could Move Clouds* and the novel *Fruit of the Drunken Tree*. Hosted at The Booksmith. Seats available by advance book purchase or $3 sliding-scale donation; general admission on a first-come, first-served basis.

National Book Award finalist Fady Joudah discusses Exhibit G, a collection of poems, essays, and photographs offering a Palestinian representation of Gaza's devastation and resilience. Writing from his perspective as a Palestinian American physician, Joudah explores the paradoxes of witnessing destruction from afar while caring for the sick in the US. The book combines personal reflection with images from Gaza, insisting on Palestinian interiority and the survival of beauty amid genocide. Proceeds benefit Gaza Soup Kitchen.

A talk with Ken Knabb, translator of Guy Debord and the Situationist International and author of The Joy of Revolution. Knabb's masterwork examines modern revolutionary possibilities through a situationist lens, analyzing radical tactics across ordinary and extraordinary conditions, and envisioning postrevolutionary liberated communities. This new edition includes updates, detourned comics, reviews, analyses of Occupy and Trump-era resistance, and reflections on the coronavirus shutdown.

How does the brain construct our conscious visual experience? Michael Silver, Professor of Optometry, Vision Science and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley and director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, explores how vision is an active inference shaped by attention, expectations, goals, and past experience—closer to a controlled hallucination than a camera. He will discuss how psilocybin research is revealing how the brain generates these inferences and illuminating the nature of consciousness itself. Includes Q&A.

​Abstract: ​"Bend is a proof language whose programs run as fast as C on one core, and in parallel on GPUs. Its checker verifies proofs in seconds, so you can write large programs that are proven correct and still fast. I'll show how it works, and how its core relates to Lean." ​Speaker: https://x.com/VictorTaelin Bend: https://bend-lang.com ​The SF Lean meetup: Weekly presentations and discussions about formal methods, software verification, AI, and math. Beginners welcome! ​Website: https://sflean.group/ Join our Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/bXNPhQyjfe Host: Adi Baradwaj More info: https://luma.com/0zs5pdkz

A screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre (1989), followed by discussion with local photographer and film enthusiast Tommy Milutin. This haunting, dreamlike odyssey follows a traumatized circus performer navigating a surreal world shaped by his mother's influence, past violence, and distorted love—blending horror, spirituality, and psychological turmoil into a strikingly unconventional cinematic experience.

Learn how to build an end-to-end agentic geospatial pipeline using satellite and weather data on AWS and Wherobots. This technical talk covers practical approaches to processing geospatial intelligence at scale, combining machine learning with geospatial analysis. Hosted at AWS Builder Loft.

Kathi Zellweger and Mike Chinoy discuss Zellweger's firsthand experiences delivering humanitarian aid in North Korea, focusing on strategies for building trust, navigating institutional barriers, and supporting vulnerable populations in one of the world's most isolated countries. The conversation explores the practical and diplomatic challenges of NGO work in restrictive contexts.

A research seminar on landslide hazard assessment and forecasting across scales—from individual tree root systems to national risk mapping. Ben Mirus, Research Geologist at the USGS Geologic Hazards Science Center, presents recent work on the national landslide susceptibility map, annual frequency estimates, seasonality patterns, and the critical zone continuum linking atmosphere, biosphere, and groundwater to slope stability. Drawing on post-Hurricane Helene response efforts and long-term site monitoring, the talk addresses knowledge gaps in predicting when and where landslides will occur.

Sidra Hamidi, Assistant Professor at Trinity College, presents her book *After Fission: Recognition and Contestation in the Atomic Age* (Cambridge University Press, 2026). Challenging the assumption that nuclear status is merely a technical matter, Hamidi argues that states actively contest how their nuclear capabilities are recognized globally. Drawing on diplomatic history of India, Israel, Iran, and North Korea, she examines the Non-Proliferation Treaty's legal structure, technical ambiguities in nuclear testing, and debates over rights in the global nuclear regime. Her work illuminates how powerful states like the US recognize or reject states' desired nuclear status formulations—with implications for negotiating with countries like Iran and North Korea.

From Reliability to Resilience: Risk-Informed Asset Management for the Energy Transition. Lina Bertling Tjernberg, Visiting Professor at Stanford University and Professor of Power Grid Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, discusses advances in reliability-centered asset management, probabilistic risk assessment, and predictive maintenance for sustainable power grids. Drawing on two decades of research and industry application, including her leadership at Sweden's national transmission system operator, Bertling Tjernberg explores how risk-informed decision-making can support the transition to electrified, resilient energy infrastructure.

Ken Goldberg, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at UC Berkeley, discusses his work as part of the Berkeley Writers at Work series. The event takes place Tuesday, October 27, noon–1:30 pm.

Maisha T. Winn, Excellence in Learning Professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education, discusses her historical ethnography *Futuring Black Lives*, examining Black institution builders of the late 1960s–70s who used publications and literary imagination to shape education for Black children. The book traces how Independent Black Institutions anchored shared Black values while preparing students in identity, purpose, and direction—a model Winn argues remains vital amid current racial disparities in schooling, disproportionate discipline of Black students, and attacks on children's literature through censorship and book bans. She demonstrates how historical archives of Black educational thought can inform contemporary equity and justice work in schools.

A monthly gathering for local women committed to democratic participation and community action. Democracy Hour provides a space for thoughtful conversation, shared learning, and collective organizing around civic issues. The program features inspiring speakers, film screenings, issue spotlights, and action sessions. Bring your lunch; free and open to all.

A reading and conversation with Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator Fady Joudah, whose newest collection, Exhibit G, comprises poems, essays, and photographs offering a Palestinian perspective on grief, resilience, and survival amid genocide. Joudah is an acclaimed translator of Arabic poetry, including works by Mahmoud Darwish, and has won the Yale Younger Poets Prize, Griffin Poetry Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and American Book Award, among others. He co-founded the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize and practices internal medicine in Houston.

A presentation and discussion of *Depose: Luigi Mangione, the Right to Health, and the Unfinished American Revolution*, written by the December 4 Legal Committee, which created Luigi Mangione's legal defense fund. The book brings the American healthcare debate to fundamental political questions: Who profits from sickness? Who gets access to health? What would a healthcare system serving everyone look like? A spokesperson for the authors will present.

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon discusses combating public corruption, ensuring government accountability and equal treatment under the law, and protecting American democracy in conversation with Laura Faer, Senior Program Manager at UC Berkeley's Edley Center.

An open class session of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts' Intro to IDA course, exploring power, art, and practice through conversation with scholars working across disciplines—theater, performance, visual art, music, and film. Associate Professors Matthew Morrison (African and African American Studies) and Usha Iyer (Art and Art History) lead a facilitated discussion using the Long Table format, inspired by the practice of legendary queer performance duo Split Britches (Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver), examining how artists engage these themes both within and beyond the university.

A series of educational sessions throughout October exploring the history and traditions of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), culminating in the 4th Camino de los Muertos on November 1st. The program examines the meanings behind key elements of the celebration—the ofrenda (altar), calaveras (skulls), catrinas (dapper lady skulls), cempasúchil (marigolds), and more—with particular focus on place, memory, and resistance in altar-making practices. Hosted by Santa Clara University, open to the community.

A practical seminar on generative AI models, tools, platforms, and workflows designed to accelerate scientific research. Vivek Natarajan, AI researcher at Google DeepMind, will discuss new applications and methodologies for AI-guided research. Followed by a networking reception.

How does hydrodynamics emerge from the dynamics of discrete quantum particles? Matthew P.A. Fisher, professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara and member of the National Academy of Sciences, explores this question in open quantum systems of bosons, examining how spontaneous symmetry-breaking transitions separate quantum from classical dynamics. He will discuss observations of these transitions in cold atomic gas experiments and the role of information-theoretic quantities in characterizing dynamical phases.

A panel discussion on how U.S. universities must restructure to address 21st-century threats, particularly the ecological crisis. Convened by the UCSC Earth Futures Institute, a group of world-class visionaries presents findings on what knowledge society needs and how higher education must reorganize to generate it. Designed for UC students, faculty, administrators, and community members concerned about the role of universities in managing existential challenges.

A conversation with past and current leaders of UC Berkeley's Center for the Study of Sexual Culture surveying trans and queer studies scholarship, documenting attacks on LGBT studies, and exploring how the field might move beyond defensive responses. The dialogue will highlight the social movements, artistic interventions, and research reshaping the field. Featuring Mel Y. Chen (Gender & Women's Studies), Michael Lucey (French and Comparative Literature), and Roshanak Kheshti (Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies), moderated by Eric A. Stanley (Gender and Women's Studies).

A workshop on building scalable go-to-market systems for AI-native companies. Participants will learn why speed without a GTM operating system creates fragility, and what it takes to build systems that are fast, repeatable, and built to scale. Led by Lydia Flocchini and Tim Hillison—both 3x CMOs, GTM Partners Certified Partners, and repeat operators with a track record of nine successful builds across startups, scaleups, and Fortune 500 companies. Attendees will leave with a clear GTM operating system framework, a maturity assessment of their current GTM journey, and real examples from data to agentic GTM. A One Way Summit 2026 Official Side Event.

AI-generated code now arrives faster than validation pipelines can process, breaking the balance between code production and quality checks. This meetup brings together engineers rebuilding feedback systems for the agent era. Speakers and panelists will discuss why this gap matters for change success rates and recovery time, how pairing robust delivery pipelines with sub-minute validation improves efficiency, and how running only relevant tests keeps compute costs down. Hosted by Bond AI with a panel discussion, audience Q&A, and peer networking.

Ayesha S. ​Mahmud is an Associate Professor of Demography in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. She is a demographer whose research broadly examines the interplay between population change, environmental factors, and infectious disease dynamics. The event is moderated by Elora Shehabuddin, Professor of Gender Studies at UC Berkeley.

A Halloween-themed interactive investigation into a broken development environment, hosted by AI Valley and Flox. Attendees follow clues through suspicious dependencies and environment issues to diagnose what went wrong—with talks and live demos from Justin Castilla (Flox), Jessica Garson Beauchemin (Runpod), Amin Karbas (Resolve AI), and Dan Gross (FriendliAI). The event combines technical problem-solving with food, drinks, and networking; costumes encouraged.

An evening of AI research and insights featuring Dr. Ed Chi, discussing the future of personalized universal agents. The event includes a reception with opportunity for networking.

A conversation on how engineering teams integrate AI into their workflows beyond code generation. Tanmai Gopal (CEO, PromptQL) discusses how customer context and team knowledge shape AI-assisted work; Iba Masood (Optimal AI) covers AI code review, quality, security, and measurement; Joe Maionchi (co-founder, RocketRide.ai) addresses moving AI prototypes to reliable production, including testing, debugging, and maintenance. Aimed at engineering leaders attending GitHub Universe.

A talk on founder psychology and resilience with Matteo Cassese, founder coach and keynote speaker. How do successful founders—Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Jensen Huang—leverage difficulty and chaos for growth while avoiding burnout? Cassese explores the internal work that shapes external success: transforming conflict into opportunity, the stories founders tell themselves, and unconventional approaches to confidence and mindset drawn from psychology, mythology, and contemplative practice.

Physicist and public intellectual Pervez Hoodbhoy examines recent signs of social and political change in Pakistan, asking whether they represent a genuine retreat from religious fundamentalism or a more limited and uncertain shift. Drawing on decades of activism for science and rationalism in South Asia, Hoodbhoy discusses his latest book *Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future*. Moderated by Munis D. Faruqui, Director of the Institute for South Asia Studies and Sarah Kailath Chair of India Studies at UC Berkeley.

A reading and conversation with Fady Joudah, Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator. Joudah will discuss his newest collection, *Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza*, which combines poetry, essays, and photographs to document Palestinian grief, resilience, and life under genocide. A multiple-award winner—including the Yale Younger Poets Prize, Griffin Poetry Prize, and American Book Award—Joudah has also translated works by Mahmoud Darwish and co-founded the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. *Exhibit G* will be available for purchase and signing.

A talk on how AI is transforming the modern software engineering stack. Hosted by Mobile Monday Silicon Valley at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times columnist, bestselling author, and documentarian, discusses his path from an Oregon farm to leadership on global justice and climate issues. Kristof's journalism and films have brought urgent humanitarian and environmental stories to millions, bridging the gap between reporting and advocacy. This talk explores how journalism can drive change on the world's most pressing challenges.

Cryptocurrency is reshaping illicit finance and international sanctions enforcement. Alexander Browder, founder of the Global Cryptocurrency Laundering Database, analyzes two decades of major cases to explore how digital assets and stablecoins enable sanctions evasion, state-backed activity, and money laundering by Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other actors. He discusses policy responses from governments, financial institutions, and tech companies, and shares how his research prompted UK and EU action—and led to his being sanctioned by Russia in June 2026.

A screening of Saving 4 Seconds, a documentary about Bay Area efforts to implement life-saving suicide-prevention policy on the Golden Gate Bridge. The film features interviews with local families, advocates, and elected officials who championed the policy, along with never-before-seen CCTV footage of bridge employees intervening to save lives. Hosted by SPUR Urban Center, a trusted civic institution.

A screening of The Unbroken Sky, a narrative dramatic film adapted from the memoirs of Francisco Jiménez, chronicling his family's journey as immigrant farmworkers in California—their labor in the fields, struggle to access school, and fear of deportation. The screening is followed by a fireside chat between Francisco Jiménez, Professor Emeritus at Santa Clara University, and Tomás Jiménez, Professor of Sociology at Stanford and Founding Faculty Director of the Institute for Advancing Just Societies. A Q&A with the production team—director Josh Peterson, executive producer Normandie Ramirez, and producer Robin Mortarotti—concludes the evening. Jiménez's four-book memoir series, The Circuit, Breaking Through, Reaching Out, and Taking Hold, is recognized among the American Library Association's 50 Best Young Adult Books of All Time.

Dr. Catie Cuan, founder of ART Lab (AI Robot Technology) and pioneer in choreorobotics, explores what happens when artificial intelligence moves beyond screens into physical robots. Drawing on her background in dance and robotics, she argues that movement is not merely functional but expressive—shaping emotion, trust, and human connection. Through examples including robots trained to improvise, respond to human gestures, and move collectively, Cuan demonstrates how choreography informs the design of intuitive, responsive, and human-centered machines. Part of UC Berkeley's Design Field Notes lecture series.

What happens when humanitarian workers operate in one of the world's most closed and repressive regimes? Kathi Zellwegger shares firsthand insights from her experience providing humanitarian aid on the ground in North Korea, offering rare perspective on daily life, state control, and the possibilities for engagement with the isolated communist state. In conversation with Mike Chinoy, journalist and Korea expert.

An Anti-Debate on the billionaire tax, a structured dialogue format where participants build on each other's insights to explore complexity rather than declare winners. Moderated by systems strategist Jenny Stefanotti, with San Jose State finance professor Annette Nellen and UC Berkeley law professor Brian Galle exploring the tax's merits, challenges, and trade-offs from multiple perspectives.

Frontier AI systems face real-world challenges at scale: GPU failures, cascading outages, and non-deterministic behavior threaten reliability. This session explores operational lessons from 2026's high-impact AI infrastructure incidents, featuring infrastructure leaders, SREs, and MLOps engineers discussing practical architectures for cluster resilience, inference under pressure, and redefining SLOs for probabilistic systems. Topics include mitigating compute failures, designing fallbacks and circuit breakers, measuring reliability in AI systems, and blameless postmortems from major 2026 outages. Hosted by Bond AI and Rootly.

A screening and conversation around Lynn Novick's forthcoming PBS documentary Crime and Punishment in America, executive produced by Ken Burns and Sam Pollard. Novick, an acclaimed filmmaker whose previous work includes documentaries on American history and institutions, will discuss how the United States became the world's leading incarcerator and explore the forces behind mass incarceration. Co-presented by Commonwealth Club World Affairs and KQED Live.

A teach-in and conversation exploring Stanford's legacy of student activism and multiracial solidarity. Student organizers from the Stanford Asian American Action Committee, League of Filipino Students, and Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine reflect on how the 1980s Rainbow Coalition won resources for communities of color, including the establishment of the Asian American Activities Center, and discuss lessons for contemporary organizing.

A reading and conversation celebrating *Best Literary Translations 2026*, an annual anthology edited by National Book Award winner Arthur Sze featuring poetry and prose translated from 62 languages—from French to Xitsonga, Korean to Guaraní. Translators Wendy Call (author and co-founder of the anthology, recent Fulbright Scholar to Colombia), Dmitri Manin (whose translation of Nikolay Zabolotsky's *Columns* was shortlisted for the NCBA and ALTA First Translation Prize), and Ilze Duarte (translator of Marilia Arnaud's *The Book of Affects*) will read from their work, discuss the craft and discovery of translation, and answer questions. The event concludes with a book signing.

Explore how our relationships with cities, parks, and the more-than-human world shape our future in this panel inspired by Susanna Kwan's *Awake in the Floating City*, the 2026 One City One Book selection. Drawing on five years of the Parks as Ancestors series, the conversation expands beyond protected parklands to consider urban spaces as living legacies. Local community leaders working on place-based environmental justice—including moderator Yakuta Poonawalla of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy—reflect on memory, loss, connection, and responsibility across generations and cultures. The panel coincides with Indigenous Peoples' Day, Día de los Muertos, and Diwali, inviting participants to consider what we inherit from places and people who came before us, and what we will leave behind. Attendees may bring a photograph or sentimental object honoring someone they have lost.

Fatimah Asghar discusses her debut poetry collection *Daughter of the Mountains*, which explores exile, displacement, belonging, spirituality, and lineage through meditative, formally inventive verse. The collection grapples with fulfillment, betrayal, love, loss, and longing, using vivid imagery and disruptive form to examine how place and environment inform spiritual practice. Asghar appears in conversation with poet Hieu Minh Nguyen.

A panel exploring film, the internet, and human agency in the digital age. Bara Kolenc, Gregor Moder, and Jure Simoniti (University of Ljubljana, Department of Philosophy) discuss where subjectivity is located when AI shapes cinema and ideology shapes desire online. Topics include Lubitsch's *To Be or Not to Be* as a meditation on theatrical power, and the dialectic between image and narrative in American versus European cinema. Moderated by Pavle Levi, Stanford Department of Art & Art History.

A screening of the 70-minute documentary Remathau: People of the Ocean featuring Dr. Nicole Yamase, the first Micronesian to earn a PhD in Marine Biology and reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The film explores her historic dive alongside themes of identity, culture, and belonging, reconnecting with the resilience of her people and the ocean navigation wisdom of earlier generations. Yamase, Director of Impact at OneReef, leads efforts to advance ocean science, conservation, and community-led stewardship across Micronesia. Hosted by Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability.

A moderated conversation with legendary turntablists DJ Qbert and DJ Shortkut exploring their creative journeys, technical innovation, and impact on turntablism as a respected musical discipline. The discussion covers their Filipino heritage, artistic longevity, and commitment to supporting the next generation through education and workshops. Moderated by Kendo the DJ, founder of Mixsterious. A short live demonstration of their technical skill and performance style may be included.

Julie Orringer, bestselling author of *The Invisible Bridge*, discusses her new novel *Luna, Phoenix, Queen*—a work exploring infidelity, literary provenance, and storytelling's transformative power. Orringer's fiction is known for its intricate narratives spanning continents and eras, weaving together historical and contemporary themes. This is an opportunity to hear directly from the author about her creative process and the ideas animating her latest work.

Learn how to craft a powerful pitch to land an agent, secure a book deal, or succeed at self-publishing. Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, co-authors of *The Essential Pitch*, share strategies for one of publishing's most critical but underestimated tools. Ideal for aspiring and established writers seeking to navigate the publishing landscape.

A screening of When ICE Melts, a feature-length documentary about resistance to Operation Metro Surge and ICE enforcement in Minnesota's Twin Cities, with director Kip Hedges in person for a post-screening Q&A moderated by SFSU Faculty and CFA member Blanca Missé. The film follows organizers, community leaders, and working-class resistance across neighborhoods, workplaces, and unions, including footage of the January 23 mass strike. It examines strategic lessons in building democratic structures and solidarity to confront authoritarianism, designed as a resource for organizers and activists in other cities.

A technical talk on building software factories using coding agents, harnesses, and verification systems. Attendees will learn how AI-driven coding tools are being integrated into production workflows and what engineering practices enable scaling from experimental agents to reliable systems.

A community ballot-review gathering where attendees work through local and statewide measures together, ask questions, share resources, and discuss options before casting votes. The format is collaborative and low-pressure—you vote on what you feel informed about and skip the rest. Hosted at Manny's.

A lecture on Frank Netter's groundbreaking medical illustrations and the intersection of art and science in medical education. Dr. Wen Shen, an endocrine surgeon with a master's degree in the history of medicine, explores Netter's career and his profound influence on how physicians visualize and understand the human body. Part of the Orlo H. Clark Lectureship series.

A fireside chat with Patrice D. Douglass on the philosophical and social dimensions of Black ontology, absence, and what theorists call social death—the historical and ongoing erasure of Black humanity and presence. Douglass brings critical scholarship to bear on how Blackness has been theorized, negated, and reclaimed.

A monthly gathering for graphic novel enthusiasts featuring author talks, participant recommendations, and collaborative drawing and writing sessions. The October 27th meeting features Rina Ayuyang, an Eisner-nominated cartoonist and 25-year veteran of the Bay Area indie comics scene. Ayuyang's latest graphic novel, *The Man in the McIntosh Suit*, was named one of the best books of 2023 by the New York Public Library. Meetings held the fourth Tuesday of each month.

Rabbi Shais Rishon, spiritual leader of Ohel Eidot CHeMDaT"A (the first African American-led and -centered synagogue in Washington, D.C.), discusses his book *The Souls of Black Jewish Folk*, published under his pseudonym MaNishtana. Drawing on a personal legacy of African American Judaism stretching to the 1780s and his upbringing in the Chabad-Lubavitch community, Rishon explores how Jewish tradition, racial identity, and contemporary American life intersect. He will be in conversation with a member of the USF faculty.

What happens if election meddling triggers large-scale civil protests in 2026? Can U.S. troops be lawfully deployed to intervene against civilian demonstrators, and under what circumstances might they use force? Moderator Rear Admiral Michael Baker (U.S. Navy, ret.) explores the legal and constitutional boundaries of military involvement in domestic unrest, set against the backdrop of recent ICE agent shootings and the militarization of federal enforcement.

What if election interference triggers mass civilian protests in November 2026? Can U.S. troops legally intervene with force against demonstrators? Moderator Michael Baker, a retired Rear Admiral and physician, examines the legal and constitutional constraints on military deployment against civilians, alongside escalating ICE violence in Minneapolis, Texas, and beyond. The event explores how militarization of domestic law enforcement raises the stakes for civic dissent.

A panel discussion on community leadership and social change featuring Claudia Leung (Director of Programs, New Breath Foundation), Tash Nguyen (community organizer, Restore Oakland), and Krishna Desai (attorney, Desai Tran), moderated by Kim Tran. Panelists will explore refuting the model minority myth, overcoming learned powerlessness, and building lasting community change. Attendees will gain new models and inspiration for taking active roles in social transformation. Childcare and light refreshments provided.

Veteran journalist Jonathan Weber, founding editor of The San Francisco Standard, discusses his book *City on the Edge* in conversation with Bloomberg Businessweek editor Brad Stone. Drawing on nearly 200 interviews with elected officials, tech leaders, activists, and artists, the book chronicles San Francisco's transformation from cultural hub to global technology center, exploring the conflicts and pivotal decisions that shaped one of the world's most influential cities—and what they reveal about its future.

Thomas Frank discusses his new book *The Creativity Con*, a critique of how 'innovation' and 'creativity' have become ideological cover for policies that entrench class inequality and protect elite interests. Frank charts the construction of America's self-image from Sputnik to Silicon Valley, examining how these concepts have been deployed by business leaders, technologists, and politicians while actual policies reinforce the status quo—tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, offshoring, and urban reorientation. Frank is the bestselling author of *What's the Matter with Kansas?* and *Listen, Liberal*, founding editor of *The Baffler*, and former Wall Street Journal columnist.

How does compassion differ across cultures? Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Associate Professor of Psychology at Santa Clara University, presents research on how people in the United States, Ecuador, Mexico, China, and Germany understand compassionate responses to suffering. Drawing on hypothetical scenarios and real experiences of bereavement, she shows that cultures systematically differ in whether they favor sharing in someone's pain, helping them toward positive emotions, or balancing both. These differences persist in real grief experiences, suggesting people from different backgrounds may need different kinds of support while grieving. The lecture explores what true compassion means across cultural contexts.

A lightning-talk meetup for Bay Area biosecurity professionals covering pandemic prevention technology, AI evaluation for biorisks, and synthetic DNA screening. Featured speakers include Jonas Sandbrink (CEO, BioTrust) on trusted access credentials for frontier biology, and Misha Gurevich (CEO, Aerolamp) on far-UVC technology. Hosted by Tessa Alexanian and Joey Bream in their personal capacities. The evening includes a meet-and-mingle, talks with Q&A, and informal discussion over snacks.

A discussion of Jenn Scott's debut novel *All the Tiny Beauties*, which spans 90 years in Oakland and explores shifting notions of self across generations through interconnected stories: a reclusive man, his estranged daughter, and a young housemate who form an unlikely friendship that defies age and expectation. Scott and facilitator Andrea Gough examine how the novel grapples with the fragility of identity, societal constraints on authentic selfhood, and the question of who we might become under different circumstances. Scott's work has appeared in *Fiction*, *Gettysburg Review*, and *Alaska Quarterly Review*; her debut collection *Her Adult Life* was longlisted for the PEN America/Bingham Award. Gough is an educator specializing in discussion-based curricula and the transformative power of literature to unsettle and expand thinking.

A celebration of San Francisco's stairways featuring authors Mary Burk (Stairway Walks in San Francisco) and Alexandra Kenin (Urban Trails series). Moderator Liz Novoa hosts an SF stairway trivia game while Burk and Kenin share stories of the city's known and hidden stairways, best views, secret gardens, and a detailed map of SF's roughly 1,000 stairways. The grand finale of SF Stairway Month, organized by Glen Park Beautiful as part of the inaugural Walktober celebration.

Prof. Thomas Targett separates fact from fiction in depictions of outer space, examining how Hollywood's portrayals in Star Trek, Star Wars, and other films and television shows compare to actual astronomy. A fun and informative exploration of where science and entertainment intersect.

A book talk and launch celebration for critical theorist and UC Berkeley author Grace Lavery's new work, *Personal Demons*. Lavery discusses her writing with Damon Young.

A regional summit convening 250+ senior women leaders from Bay Area business and civic sectors to discuss pressing issues shaping the region's economic and social future. Keynote from First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Hosted by the Bay Area Council at PG&E Auditorium.

Theatre and Dance Professor Katie Dowse discusses the pedagogy of her course on costume design as world-building, examining how visual design communicates identity, hierarchy, environment, and ideology across theatre, film, and television. The course approaches costume as an interdisciplinary interface between fantasy, technology, contemporary global conditions, and visual storytelling, exploring how costume shapes relationships between body, space, material, and audience.

A talk on early childhood development measurement and monitoring. Susanne Martin Herz, MD, PhD, will discuss the Global Scales for Early Development (GSED), how developmental trajectories can be tracked similarly to physical growth metrics, and how the GSED and D-score inform population-level health monitoring and program design. Part of UCSF's Grand Rounds series exploring global health advances and research.

RNA cleavage is essential for processing and regulating all classes of RNA. Current methods profiling genome-wide RNA cleavage are biased towards cytoplasmic events and ignore compartmentalized differences. We have recently coupled subcellular RNA fractionation with degradome profiling to detect genome-wide nucleoplasm- and cytoplasm-enriched RNA cleavage in Arabidopsis thaliana . Using this enhanced profiling data we are studying RNA processing, including microRNAs, as well as RNA modification-mediated effects of RNA cleavage-mediated post-transcriptional regulation of the plant transcriptome. Our most recent results on miRNA processing and RNA modification-mediated regulation of the plant transcriptome will be presented. Speakers: Brian D. Gregory, Professor (Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania)

Historian David Henkin (UC Berkeley) discusses *Out of the Ballpark* (Oxford, 2026), a reconsideration of baseball's character and meaning that challenges familiar mythologies about the sport. Rather than treating baseball as uniquely American or examining only on-field action, Henkin traces the game's history across borders and centuries, exploring its structures, rituals, and resonances with labor, imperialism, race, media, and modernity. He's joined in conversation by philosopher Alva Noë (UC Berkeley), followed by audience questions.

Economic historian Jan de Vries, Ehrman Professor Emeritus of History at UC Berkeley, presents his newly published book *Life, Death, & Migration in the Early Modern City*, which explores urban demographic dynamics, migration patterns, and social life in a German city around 1700. De Vries is a pioneering scholar of Dutch economic development during the industrial revolution whose work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of early modern European urbanism and economic change.

Two UC Berkeley PhD researchers present work on postcolonial Africa and the archive. Derek Allen (Hispanic Languages and Literatures) discusses postcolonial identity in Luso-Afro-Brazilian literature and film depicting the Luso-African wars for independence and the Mozambican and Angolan civil wars. Chukwudi Isiani (History) explores how architecture functioned as an archive of imperial power in Eastern Nigeria from 1857 to 1960. Part of Berkeley's African Studies lunch seminar series.

A panel examining Isaac Julien's 1991 film Young Soul Rebels, exploring temporality, memory, Black culture, and film theory. Rizvana Bradley (UC Berkeley) discusses the intervallic and phenomenology in Julien's work and Black critical theory. Donna V. Jones (UC San Diego) reflects on how film communicates history through multiple simultaneities, drawing on her experience watching the film in post-Thatcher Britain. Isaac Julien is present. Hosted by the Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz.

A seminar on Europa's dynamic ice shell and its potential to support life. Martin Kihoulou, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at UCSC and recent Ph.D. in Physics of the Earth and Planets, presents evidence for tectonic-like activity on Jupiter's moon—including dilation bands and subduction zones driven by orbital cycles. He explores how vertical transport of chemical compounds across Europa's ice shell might create transient habitable conditions in the subsurface ocean, while addressing inconsistencies between observed surface age and current thermo-orbital models.

A guided observation-based exploration of 'a small ocean swallowed', an exhibition of contemporary art centering water, ecology, and human-environmental relationships. Led by Shelby Hendricks, the museum's group tour and family programs manager, participants will engage in close looking and discussion of work by six intergenerational and international feminist artists—Sholeh Asgary, Patricia Belli, Kiyo Gutiérrez, Jessie Homer French, Erin Jane Nelson, and Sunaura Taylor—whose pieces explore the material, sociopolitical, and cultural histories of specific waterways and grieve lives lost to human intervention while celebrating paths of collective healing and resistance.

A panel discussion on careers in plaintiffs'-side civil law, exploring opportunities to advocate for justice on behalf of individuals and families. Hear from lawyers at Public Justice, Our Children's Trust, and members of the National Plaintiffs' Law Association about their work in environmental, consumer protection, and civil rights litigation. Aimed at students and early-career professionals considering public interest legal work.

A discussion of decolonial approaches to human rights practice, examining the power imbalances between Global North and Global South advocacy organizations. The authors of *Decolonial Human Rights Practice: Tactics, Obstacles, and Futures* explore how domination persists within transnational human rights work and strategies for transforming it.

Chris Baker and Alysia Gonzales read from their work at the Writers Grotto's Words & Stories Reading Series.

A panel discussion on health privacy law strategy across biotech and pharma sectors. Heather B. Deixler (Latham & Watkins), Joanna Kim and Alexis Watson (Abbott) explore how in-house and outside counsel navigate evolving state-level privacy regimes. Moderated by Vincent Joralemon, Director of the Life Sciences Law and Policy Center at Berkeley Law.

A conversation on critical race theory with Osagie K. Obasogie, Haas Distinguished Chair and Professor of Law at UC Berkeley, and Savala Nolan. They will explore CRT's core tenets, its applications and misapplications across law, politics, and culture, and how students can deploy its analytical frameworks for social justice work inside and beyond law school. Obasogie's research spans law, race, and medicine, examining policing, bioethics, and reproductive technologies.

Lesley Currier of Shakespeare for Social Justice discusses the organization's work bringing Shakespeare courses and performing arts programs to fourteen California state prisons and rehabilitation centers since 2003. Participants will explore the crisis of mass incarceration in California and the U.S., and engage in creative exercises demonstrating theater's capacity to build empathy, foster connection, and transform lives. The event combines lecture with interactive workshop components.

A conversation with Professor Emeritus Charles P. Henry about his new memoir exploring his involvement in pivotal social movements—the search for social identity and the fight for civil and human rights. Drawing on personal experiences of place, memory, family, and Black Studies, Henry's narrative expands to broader issues including the Black diaspora, global community, and intersectionality. Henry is Professor Emeritus of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, former chair of Amnesty International U.S.A., and author of eight books on Black politics, public policy, and human rights.

A screening of two films centering disability narratives and experiences, part of UC Berkeley's commitment to accessible public programming. The event highlights filmmaking that amplifies disabled voices and perspectives, fostering dialogue around disability representation and social inclusion. Free and open to the public with accessibility accommodations.

How are surveillance technologies and data systems transforming U.S. immigration enforcement, and what are the stakes for civil liberties and democratic oversight? This panel examines the convergence of AI-assisted identification, inter-agency data-sharing, and on-the-ground policing practices. Panelists include David Hausman (UC Berkeley Law, Deportation Data Project), Caitlin Patler (UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy), and Jennifer Urban (UC Berkeley Law, Samuelson Clinic), moderated by Deirdre Mulligan (UC Berkeley School of Information, former Principal Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer). Part of the Matrix On Point discussion series.

How does AI infrastructure concentrate power and extract wealth? Geographers Dillon Mahmoudi (University of Maryland Baltimore County) and Alan Wiig (University of Florida) argue that the AI economy is fundamentally material and geographic—anchored to specific territories by data centers, energy demands, and land availability. They analyze two forms of monopoly rent: control of location and network proximity (extracting value from proximity to data and low latency), and control of computation itself (concentrated in a handful of firms charging tribute for access to scarce training capacity). Drawing on financial filings, industry reports, and fieldwork in Northern Virginia's Data Center Alley, they show how what appears as agglomeration economy is actually rent extraction through strategic fixity of capital in digital infrastructure—and how rising fixed-capital requirements are driving a profitability crisis in the sector.

Dr. Alan Wiig, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Florida, examines how data centers shape cities and urban life. His research explores the intersection of urban geography and infrastructure, investigating the physical form, economic function, and political dimensions of AI data centers as they reshape metropolitan landscapes, labor markets, and resource systems.

How can machine learning transform compiler design to finally fulfill the promise that began with FORTRAN—generating high-performance, architecture-agnostic code across CPUs, GPUs, and specialized accelerators? Saman Amarasinghe, Thomas and Gerd Perkins Professor of EECS at MIT and leader of the Commit Compiler Research Group, traces the history of compiler abstraction, explores how AI is reshaping traditional optimization, and examines whether the next generation of compilers can make hardware disappear once again. Amarasinghe's lab has developed StreamIt, Halide, TACO, Tiramisu, and numerous other influential languages, compilers, and tools.

Learn about indoor air quality, children's environmental health, and practical strategies for creating healthier home environments. Representatives from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 will discuss common indoor air pollutants and asthma triggers—smoke, mold, dust, and pests—and explain how to use the Air Quality Index (AQI) to plan safe daily activities. Space is limited; reservations required.

A conversation on Pakistan's democracy, secularism in the global South, and the political demands of the current moment with Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a distinguished Pakistani physicist, public intellectual, and longtime advocate for science and secular thought. Hoodbhoy taught physics for 47 years at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad and founded The Black Hole, a community space dedicated to science, art, and culture.

A roundtable discussion with Yu Miri, 2022 Berkeley Japan Prize winner, on her work-in-progress play *OBON*, based on oral history interviews with approximately fifty members of the Japanese American community in Chicago. Yu Miri discusses her approach to writing the play, emphasizing how she listens to her interviewees' voices without authorial appropriation. She is joined by Dan O'Neill (EALC), Miryam Sas (Comparative Literature), and Andrew Leong (English) to explore key concepts including postmemory and tojisha. Yu Miri is author of *Tokyo Ueno Station* (winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Translated Literature) and *The End of August*, both translated by Morgan Giles.

A lecture on scientific explorations of neonatal pain and early life adversity. Dr. Kanwaljeet J. S. Anand, professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Child Wellness Lab, will discuss his research journey toward changing the paradigm for neonatal anesthesia and analgesia, and his ongoing work on child wellness and early life adversity. The lecture is followed by a reception.

An exploration of how enterprise AI adoption is reshaping infrastructure, security, and data practices across organizations. The event features presentations and discussions on emerging AI applications and their operational impact.

Paul Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Molecular Metabolism Lab at The Rockefeller University, presents research on how brown fat—the metabolically active tissue that converts energy to heat—affects human health and disease. Using large patient cohorts and novel imaging methods, Cohen's lab investigates the genetics and biology of brown fat to understand its role in metabolic health and its potential to mitigate obesity-linked diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. A systems-based approach to understanding a fundamental lever in human physiology.

Award-winning author Erika Krouse, the 2026 Joyce Carol Oates Prize recipient, reads from her work and discusses writing, storytelling, and the art of paying attention in conversation with Hannah Onstad. Krouse's most recent collection, *Save Me, Stranger*, was longlisted for The Story Prize; her memoir *Tell Me Everything* won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and The Kenyon Review, and her story "Eat My Moose" won the 2025 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. She teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver.

Dan Yamins of Stanford University presents on AI and data-driven methods in science. Part of AI + Data for Science, a weekly Wednesday seminar (4:30–5:30 pm) organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein. Open to Stanford and non-Stanford attendees.

Carina Hong, founder of Axiom Math, discusses AI systems for mathematical reasoning at Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Speaker Series. The series features entrepreneurs and innovators sharing insights on building and scaling ventures.

Llisa Demetrios, Chief Curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity and granddaughter of Ray and Charles Eames, discusses infinite curiosity, design, and possibility. The conversation offers fresh perspective on the Eames legacy—one of design's most enduring influences—and invites makers, thinkers, students, and anyone seeking to create with intention and joy to connect and learn together.

Explore the German-American influence on Bay Area innovation from the Gold Rush through Silicon Valley. Award-winning author Sandra Bonura discusses Claus Spreckels, the German-born 'Sugar King of California' who built an industrial empire. German journalist Arndt Peltner examines German immigrants' broader role in shaping the region. Silicon Valley entrepreneurship specialist Anne Cocquyt traces continuing connections between German innovation and contemporary Bay Area enterprise. Reuters editor Judith Langowski moderates, followed by audience Q&A.

How can decolonization take shape within a former colonial power's political framework? Audrey Célestine (NYU) examines Aimé Césaire's cultural policy as mayor of Fort-de-France through the lens of Léopold Sédar Senghor's 1976 visit to Martinique. Drawing on Césaire's work as both intellectual and elected official, Célestine explores the tensions between local, national, and diasporic political imaginaries—and the central role culture played in defining an emancipatory project pursued within, rather than outside, the French political framework.

A Medical Humanities Research Workshop exploring the intersection of medicine, culture, and human experience. Speaker Bryant Lin, MD, a primary care physician, educator, and researcher at Stanford University, discusses how the humanities inform and transform medical practice and understanding. Part of Stanford School of Medicine's ongoing Medical Humanities Research Workshop Series, supported by the Humanities Center, Division of Literatures, Cultures & Languages, and Department of Anthropology.

A panel exploring redistricting, gerrymandering, and threats to electoral representation ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The discussion will cover the history of redistricting in the US, racial versus partisan gerrymandering, state independent redistricting commissions, California's Prop 50, recent changes to the Voting Rights Act, and Supreme Court actions affecting electoral fairness. Moderated by Melanie Springer (UC Santa Cruz), with panelists Sonal Shaw (The Texas Tribune), Elspeth Wilson (UC Santa Cruz), and Erik J. Engstrom (UC Davis). Part of the 2026-27 Resilient Democracy event series.

A delightfully eerie celebration of Edward Gorey, the iconic artist and 'Godfather of Goth,' featuring short performances, behind-the-scenes stories, film clips, and surprises hosted by author Carol Verburg. Guests are invited to wear Gorey-inspired costumes or bat attire for prizes, though dressing up is optional.

How data infrastructure and database systems are evolving to support autonomous AI agents in production. The talk covers data freshness, parallel request handling, access control, and metadata discovery across the data stack. Speakers include Savannah Whitman (VeloDB) on enterprise AI agents querying databases; Sijie Guo (StreamNative) on agent runtime failures and cost control; Jaz Ku (PuppyGraph) on mapping relationships across thousands of tables; and Adi Wabisabi (Datastrato) on scoping agent access to user permissions. The event concludes with a panel and Q&A.

Cecillia Wang, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU, discusses civil rights, legal defense, and advocacy strategies for protecting fundamental freedoms. Presented by the Asian American Research Center at UC Berkeley.

How does architecture shape society, and what can we learn from the built environment's relationship to political and cultural change? Laura Sánchez Carrasco and Íñigo Cobeta, both associate professors at Madrid's School of Architecture (ETSAM), present research on postwar North American and Spanish architecture and their transatlantic connections. Sánchez Carrasco specializes in architectural history combined with digital analysis; Cobeta's recent work focuses on public schools and the relationship between architecture, territory, and civic space. Both are part of an ongoing research project tracing connections between Spanish and American architecture from 1976–2006.

Mark Applebaum, Edith & Leland Smith Professor of Composition at Stanford University, explores what made the Beatles unique and transformative. Over seven years across thirteen albums, the band evolved dramatically and changed music for decades. Applebaum—a composer, jazz pianist, and TED talk speaker seen by over five million viewers—examines whether their impact came from innate musical ability, creative songwriting, commitment to experimentation, or sheer charm. Leave hearing the Beatles in a new light.

A celebration of *Mark of the Warrior*, the sequel to the New York Times bestseller *Breath of the Dragon*, featuring authors Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee in conversation with Andrea Stewart. The novelists discuss their collaborative fantasy epic.