Business
California’s Holiday Gift Guide
By Margie CullenThe holidays are rapidly approaching, and if you’re anything like me, you have no idea what to get your family members. Mom has so many sweaters already, Grandpa has all the cookbooks in the world, and what does a 19-year-old even want? Well, luckily for us, Cal has a wealth of grads who make products perfect for gift giving, be it stocking stuffers or statement presents.
5 Questions
By Dhoha BarecheA conversation with Ann E. Harrison ’82, Dean and Professor, Haas School of Business
Meet Cal’s New Changemaker in Chief
RICH LYONS SPENT TEN YEARS (2008–2018) as dean of Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he himself studied as an undergraduate, before being appointed the University’s first-ever chief innovation and entrepreneurship officer in January 2020. A year later, California Editor in Chief Pat Joseph caught up with Lyons on a video call to talk about […]
Turns Out Nice Folks Don’t Finish Last After All
Turns out nice folks don’t finish last, after all. A UC Berkeley-led study published in August in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science found that “disagreeable individuals,” defined as those with combative, selfish, and manipulative traits, don’t achieve greater career success than their kinder counterparts.
A Cube with No View
Photographer Chauncey Hare trained his lens on the modern corporate hellscape. “Chauncey hardly ever cracked a smile,” said the Bancroft Library’s pictorial curator, Jack von Euw, of photographer Chauncey Hare. And yet, there is humor in his work—albeit dark humor. His photographs of dreary office scenes recall the old joke about a man who goes […]
Wine Is Money: How the Rich Are Changing Napa Valley’s Drink
Stu Smith and his brother, Charlie, put down a $500 option on about 200 acres of land on the slopes of Spring Mountain in 1971, eventually purchasing the property for $70,000. The views of the adjacent Napa Valley were stunning, and Smith, who had developed a passion for wine while completing his undergraduate degree in […]
The Art of Innovation: George Crow’s Path from Cal to Apple
You could forgive George Crow for declining the first time Steve Jobs tried to lure him away from Hewlett-Packard. That was back in early 1981, when Apple was developing the industry-changing Macintosh. Crow, who would eventually be in charge of the power supply and display for the pathbreaking personal computer, didn’t know what the project […]
Fresh Blood: What Theranos Leaves In Its Wake
The big question is why the scam wasn’t detected earlier. Theranos promised the moon—or at least a full battery of blood tests from a minim of blood—but it never came close to delivering. And yet, investors and the press alike gave wunderkind founder Elizabeth Holmes pass after pass, perhaps mesmerized by her inspiring backstory and […]
The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook Celebrates the Unusual and Unknown
When I go to Berkeley Bowl with Laura McLively, I immediately feel like a tourist, too delighted to keep my cool among the rows of citrus and loose leafy greens. Used to produce sold in hard plastic clamshells at my Los Angeles Trader Joe’s, I marvel at the wall of eggplants, not just purple but […]
State AG Bans Employer-ICE Cooperation. Can He Do That?
Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided 77 Northern California businesses, in what’s being called the largest localized ICE sweep since Trump was elected. So far, no one has been arrested. In response to earlier rumors of impending ICE raids, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra held a press conference on January 18 in […]
I Learned What Blockchain Is So You Won’t Have To
Blockchain is all the rage right now, but most people don’t know what it is. Sure, we get that it’s somehow revolutionary, but it’s mostly strange and confusing—much like watching a Lars Von Trier movie or eating a Japanese water cake.
Three Cal Scientists Shift Focus from Biofuels to Prebiotics
These days, it’s all about the gut. Not how it looks in a Speedo or bikini, though. More like, how it feels inside. Increasingly, gut health is correlated with general health; gastrointestinal status is widely thought to affect everything from the immune system to emotional stability. So what does a healthy gut want? Probiotics, apparently […]
