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10 Books to Read This Summer

Berkeley page-turners to match your every mood or whim

_Midjourney

Q&A: Is This the End of U.S. Democracy?

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

_{UC Regents}

My Old Guy Master’s Piece

“A lot of my people at home have had good retirements, but none of them got to spend it with 25-year-olds.”

Current Issue

2025 Spring/Summer

_{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

_{Vivien Killilea/Stringer}

Keeping the Faith

By Chinaka Hodge

Alum of the Year, Cynt Marshall ’81, went from cheering on the sidelines to leading the front office

_{Illustration by Beatriz Ortiz}

I, Naturalist

By Nathalia Alcantara

How a Berkeley-born app has led to one of the largest biodiversity datasets on Earth

_{Martin do Nascimento/KQED}

Universities in the Crosshairs

By Margie Cullen, M.J. ’22

How the Trump Administration is gunning for higher education everywhere, UC included

Editors' Picks

_{The Son. Photo by Heather Rasmussen. Courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris}

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

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

_{Grant Kerber, UC Berkeley Department of Music}

Berkeley’s Music Boom

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

_{Dancers of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform "Sacred Songs" by Matthew Rushing. ©Paul Kolnik}

Feeling the Dance

Blind patrons experience Alvin Ailey through sound and touch

_{Courtesy of Ambi Robotics}

The Edge Episode 28: Robots with Jeff Mahler

What's easy for humans is hard for robots, and vice versa. The co-founder of Ambi Robotics talks to us about the current state of embodied AI and how soon—if ever—we might see a full robot revolution.

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From the Archives

What’s on Your Berkeley-Inspired Playlist?

While music may not be the first thing most people think of when they think of Berkeley, both the campus and town have been home to an enormously influential and eclectic music scene across the years, one with deep roots in the folk and blues revivals of the mid-20th century.

_{Zona Roberts (Courtesy of the Roberts family)}

Meet Zona Roberts

Nowadays, people look back on the 1950s as the Happy Days, but for the kids who grew up during that time, it was anything but. Hovering over them were the twin terrors of The Bomb and a raging polio epidemic. One victim of the latter was Zona and Verne Roberts’ eldest son, Ed.

_{COURTESY OF HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER}

Working Toward Justice

At Berkeley's Human Rights Center, students patiently verify crimes against humanity.

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