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Human Behavior

Four people conduct burn inspection in a forest Photo by Marcus Hanschen

Managing Wildfire for All It’s Worth

By Coby McDonald

Q&A with Lenya Quinn-Davidson

Odell and Shoptaw sitting at a table in a bookstore Courtesy of John Shoptaw and Jenny Odell

The Poetry of Impurity

By Geoff Koch

A conversation with John Shoptaw and Jenny Odell

Man filming with a camera on top of a van in a desert landscape McLeod films an exposed pile of radioactive uranium tailings in Tuba City, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation. (Photo by Randy Hayes)

Lessons in Humility and Persistence

By Andrea Lampros

Filmmaker Toby McLeod has spent four decades amplifying Indigenous voices—while wrestling with how to tell stories not his own.

Superman stands in the Fortress of Solitude. David Corenswet as Superman in DC Studios. Courtesy of Warner Bros © Warner Bros.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a … Conlang?

By Alexander Rony

David J. Peterson created languages for Superman, Dune, and Game of Thrones. It all started with courses at Berkeley.

Quinn-Davidson using a drip torch to ignite a controlled burn in a forest. Marcus Hanschen

The Burn Boss

By Coby McDonald, M.J. ’17

Lenya Quinn-Davidson is spearheading a UC-backed movement that empowers California citizens to fight fire with fire

Eggs Sipa via AP Images

It’s the Eggs, Stupid

By Katherine Blesie ’21

Turns out, feelings about grocery bills influence votes more than the broader economy.

Rainey stands amid the charred remains of a burned structure Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

First Person: You Can’t Tame Malibu

By James Rainey ’81

“When the Old Topanga Fire blew through Malibu in 1993, our family home of a quarter-century looked like it didn’t stand a chance.”

Statue of Liberty Midjourney

Q&A: Saving Democracy

By Tom Kertscher

Expert Lucan Way says the U.S. has entered a period of “competitive authoritarianism.”

Berkeley Morrison Hall Grant Kerber, UC Berkeley Department of Music

Berkeley’s Music Boom

By Emma Silvers

A curriculum overhaul and a post-pandemic need to reconnect have made music Cal’s fastest-growing major.

Painting: A painter holding a palette stands in a rustic hallway The Son. Photo by Heather Rasmussen. Courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris

5 Questions for Enrique Martínez Celaya, M.S. ’88

By Emily Wilson

The artist reflects on science, exile, and the messiness of life.

Cardinals in red vestments at the Vatican St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Photo by Maria Grazia Picciarella/Alamy Live News.

The Secretive Politics of Electing the Next Pope

By Leah Worthington

Historian Thomas Dandelet on how Pope Francis’s successor will shape the future of the Catholic Church.

Parking lot at Home Depot in North Haven, Connecticut appears less crowded than usual February 28. ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Live News

What If We Stopped Shopping?

By Leah Worthington

A conversation with Lawrence Glickman M.A. ’89, Ph.D. ’92., on economic blackouts and consumer activism