California Magazine

17/10/2023

No one from Berkeley won a Nobel this year. But it’s not the only honor or prestige one can win. For one, three MacArthur “geniuses” this year have Berkeley connections.

In 2017, we explored many of the other prizes one can win, from the “Nobel Prize of mathematics” (the Fields Medal) to the Ig Nobel Prize, which honors seemingly stupid scientific achievements like the truth of the “five-second” rule.

On April 13, 1888, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who made millions turning his invention into munitions and selling them to the armies of the world, was aghast to read a story in a Paris newspaper that mistakenly reported his death. It was actually his older brother,....

16/10/2023

You might be surprised to learn that several Berkeley alumni have been on staff at the New Yorker. For example, Adrian Tomine ‘96 has created iconic cover illustrations for the magazine, and Deborah Treisman ‘91 became the youngest person to be named fiction editor there in 2003. We profiled six of them in 2021.

From illustrators to editors and everything in between Adrian Tomine In his cover illustrations for the New Yorker, Adrian Tomine ’96 has created some of the most iconic images of life under quarantine, including “Love Life,” from Dec. 7, 2020, which showed a young woman on a Zoom date, holdin...

13/10/2023

On September 1st, Cal announced it would be leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) along with rival Stanford. The move shocked many fans and observers, not least of all for the obvious absurdity of the name; after all, Cal students can see the Pacific Ocean from campus.

“It doesn’t make geographical sense, I know,” admitted UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, who recently sat down with California magazine to discuss how and why this happened, and what it means for Cal Athletics moving forward.

The Pac-12 fell apart slowly, then all at once.

06/10/2023

Poet Matthew Zapruder’s new book, Story of a Poem, is ostensibly about the slow writing and revising of a single work of verse, but is in fact, an attempt to make sense of the public and private tumult of recent years, from America’s fraying politics and the catastrophic California wildfires to, most poignantly, becoming a parent to a son diagnosed with autism.

“What is the relation between making poems and learning to be the father of this atypical child?” he asks in Story’s dreamy prologue.

Read about his new book, his career, and his hot takes.

Sitting in the coffee shop at Portland’s famous Powell’s Books, his name on the marquee outside, Matthew Zapruder seems surprised when asked how it feels to be an emergent public figure in poetry.

03/10/2023

When 24-year-old Hildegarde Flanner and her mother first noticed the scent of smoke coming down from the eucalyptus groves on the hills above their home in Berkeley on September 17, 1923, they watched it with curiosity, rather than fear. But before long, the city of Berkeley was swept up in a “writhing mass of flame,” Flanner wrote.

The 1923 Berkeley Fire destroyed 500 homes in North Berkeley and left 4,000 people homeless. Now, 100 years later, fire fighting and building safety have improved significantly, and people have largely been able to forget the devastation that wildfire could wreak.

Until recently.

Disasters like Paradise Camp Fire in 2018 and the 2023 fire in Lahaina are stark indicators that fire catastrophes are not a thing of the past. Berkeley has made some improvements to its high fire risk areas, but not a lot, and many experts think it’s just a matter of time before another major fire happens in Berkeley.

When 24-year-old Hildegarde Flanner and her mother first noticed the scent of smoke coming down from the eucalyptus groves on the hills above their home in Berkeley on September 17, 1923, they watched it with curiosity, rather than fear. But less than an hour later, the darkening plume pushed them t...

29/09/2023

Emilie Raguso's The Berkeley Scanner, which keeps Berkeley residents updated on crime, courts, and more, turns one year old today.

A couple of months ago, we learned about how she got here.

When news first broke that a human skeleton was found hidden under a building on Berkeley’s Clark Kerr campus, Emilie Raguso was horrified.

28/09/2023

Wondering what your classmates are up to these days? Our Class Notes section of the magazine has moved online! Here, you can find updates like Cara Houser's '96 new book on burnout recovery called "Burned Out to Lit Up: Ditch the Grind and Reclaim Your Life," or Scott Jenkins '75 retirement from practicing law after 38 successful years.

After graduating with a degree in Political Science, Cara Houser spent 20 years learning how to survive and ultimately thrive in the ultra-male, pressure cooker real estate development business. During that time, her teams produced over 3,000 homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, creating over $1.5B....

27/09/2023

Happy birthday Oski!

Oski debuted on September 27, 1941. Since then, he has undergone a few different iterations. Celebrate Oski and read about his history!

Like Memorial Stadium, the brand identity of Cal Athletics has recently been renovated. Nothing too radical, mind you; the colors are unchanged and the Cal script remains the chief identifier. The only big change is the new bear logo. Gone is the striding giant of yesteryear, its stately silhouette....

26/09/2023

Three years in, The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics continues to be a leader in psychedelic research: In late August, they announced a new open-access online course on psychedelics.

Last year, we wrote about the history of psychedelics at UC Berkeley (surprisingly, the university sat on the sidelines!). We also explored the center’s goal of using scientific and spiritual expertise to explore psychedelics as tools for probing the brain and consciousness, as well as emotional and spiritual well-being, and in doing so give the field a solid academic footing that it has historically lacked.

On Good Friday, 1962—five years before the hallucinogen-fueled Summer of Love—something remarkable took place in a chapel on the Boston University campus. The Good Friday Experiment, as it would later be known, was designed by a graduate student at Harvard University named Walter Pahnke under th...

21/09/2023

It’s college rankings season and seemingly everyone is in on the game. What was once the sole domain of US News & World Reports has long since proliferated across the media. But what do the rankings really tell us? Not much, say critics.

Gitanjali Poonia wrote this story for California Magazine last year, after Forbes put Berkeley in the top slot for 2021. In 2022, it was no. 2, tied with Stanford. This year it’s no. 5. Does this tell us anything? Has the quality of education at Cal slipped? Are the rankings a helpful guide in choosing which college to attend? Not by any objective standard. As Igor Chirikov, a senior researcher at Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, told the magazine: “All university rankings mislead the public.”

...rankings, in 2019, Berkeley came in at 13. Did things change that much in two years? As it happens, Forbes suspended its college rankings for a year during the pandemic and revamped its...

20/09/2023

“I joined the gun violence prevention movement because of school shootings like Uvalde and Parkland. Shootings that left me terrified to go to school. Shootings that left me worried that I was going to be the next headline,” Oakland 9th grader Alexander Ibarra told senators in the California Senate Governance and Finance Committee. “I am here today pleading for a change.”

He might get the change he’s hoping for: On September 7th, Assembly Bill 28 narrowly passed the state senate. Now, Governor Newsom has until October 14th to sign or veto it. If he signs, the bill will levy an 11 percent tax on retail sales of fi****ms and ammunition, manufacturers, and vendors, the proceeds of which would fund gun violence prevention efforts.

Advocates are hopeful that the bill will finally become law this fall, positioning California as a leader in gun control and setting a new precedent for the state-sponsored fight against fi****ms-related violence.

Ibarra is part of a broad coalition of politicians, activists, and civilians who have come out loudly in support of a new gun violence prevention bill, spearheaded by two Berkeley graduates, that is poised to make California, and national, history.

19/09/2023

When the power in her home flickers on and off during our interview, Rebekah Shirley, M.S.’10, Ph.D. ’15, isn’t fazed. Sadly, she’s used to the blackouts, as the energy system in Nairobi is unreliable. She is trying to change that.

As Deputy Director of World Resources Institute Africa, Shirley is on a mission to accelerate the continent’s clean energy industry and spread awareness about the paltry financing the sector currently attracts.

As Deputy Director of World Resources Institute Africa, Shirley is on a mission to accelerate the continent’s clean energy industry and spread awareness about the paltry financing the sector currently attracts.

17/09/2023

Today is the 100th anniversary of the 1923 Berkeley Fire. At final tally, more than 500 homes were destroyed and 4,000 people were left homeless, including more than 100 University employees and faculty and over 1,000 students.

In 2019, we recounted the history surrounding the fire.

North Berkeley was a showcase for the city’s exceptional architects. As it turned out, it was also a tinderbox. The first signs of trouble were subtle. For some, it was the strange amber hue of the midday light. Others caught the distinctive scent of burning eucalyptus. By two in the afternoon of ...

14/09/2023

Three and a half years after the pandemic started, studies are confirming what many feared: distance learning hurt kids' education.

In 2020, we talked to Janelle Scott, a professor in the Graduate School of Education and African American Studies Department, about the race and class implications of distance learning.

Ever since Bay Area school districts announced they would begin the fall 2020 school year with distance learning due to the still-increasing rate of COVID-19 infection across the region, parents...

06/09/2023

It's National Read A Book Day! Don't know where to start? How about Commitment by Mona Simpson, a book we highlighted in our Mixed Media picks last issue.

Berkeley’s best entertainment offerings

05/09/2023

Kevin Sawyer is a man of many parts. He's a certified commercial and residential electrician. A trained paralegal. He holds a BA in mass communication and broadcasting and worked for 14 years in telecommunications. Perhaps most impressively, he's a journalist with an acknowledged expertise in criminal law and several hundred publications to his credit. He was recently accepted to UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

He's also an inmate at San Quentin State Prison serving an indeterminate life sentence for burglary and sexual assault. He has spent over 26 years behind bars. He turns 60 this year.

Sawyer was up for parole last year but was denied, scotching any hope he had of matriculating at Cal's J-School this fall.

Kevin Sawyer is a man of many parts. He's a certified commercial and residential electrician. A trained paralegal. A skilled guitarist and pianist. He's also an inmate at San Quentin State Prison serving an indeterminate life sentence for burglary and sexual assault.

04/09/2023

In September, migrating birds concentrate in the Marin Headlands as they head down south for winter. For a long time, peregrine falcons were disappearing from their ranks. Fewer than five nesting pairs existed in California.

But after DDT was banned in 1972, the birds began a remarkable comeback. Now, there are over 25 pairs nesting in the Bay Area alone - including our very own Cal Falcons.

If you look up at the Campanile these days, you may just spot one of Berkeley’s celebrated peregrine falcons diving from its heights.

01/09/2023

Cal to the ACC.

Move Helps Ensure Long-Term Stability And Success For Cal Athletics Competing At Highest Collegiate Level

01/09/2023

The Golden Bears kick off their football season tomorrow, almost five months after alum Joe Kapp ‘59 passed away. He was the greatest bad quarterback there ever was—a larger-than-life character who left his mark as a player, coach, and activist.

We remember his life and legacy.

Joe Kapp ’59 was the greatest bad quarterback there ever was—a larger-than-life character who left his mark as a player, coach, and activist.

31/08/2023

LP Giobbi, née Leah Chisholm ’08, played in the Cal Marching Band and studied jazz piano performance at UC Berkeley, while also performing regular piano gigs in San Francisco. One night, she landed an opportunity to move into electronic music production and she’s never looked back.

Now, with the release of her debut album, Light Places, Giobbi is quickly gaining notoriety and respect within the dance music scene for her catchy, melodic piano house tracks.

We talked to her about joining the Dead’s final hurrah, bridging her jam band and jazz piano influences, and creating space within the “dudes’ club” of electronic music.

Around 11 p.m., a curly-haired woman, twinkling in a black, sequined pantsuit, took to the stage to roaring applause. A tie-dye Dead shirt peeked out underneath her jacket as she fit headphones over her ears and hit play.

29/08/2023

Last chance to get your tickets to meet California magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph and astrophysicist and educator Alex Filippenko while they discuss Life, the Universe and Everything on Thursday, September 7.

Come early and enjoy First Free Thursday gallery access and BAMPFA. Check-in will begin at 6 pm. A wine reception with Alex Filippenko will follow after the event.

California Live! Is brought to you by the Cal Alumni Association in partnership with Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive with support from Association Member Benefits Advisors (A.M.B.A) and Angels & Cowboys.

Tickets are selling fast! Get yours today:

Join California magazine's Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph in conversation with astrophysicist and educator extraordinaire Alex Filippenko.

22/08/2023

Ten days before Earth Day, on April 12, the Biden administration announced plans to significantly curtail vehicular emissions through unprecedented regulations.

Together, these regulations are expected to prevent nearly 10 billion tons of CO2—or more than double the United States’ total 2022 emissions—from being released into the atmosphere over the next 30 years.

Ten days before Earth Day, on April 12, the Biden administration announced plans to significantly curtail vehicular emissions.

21/08/2023

When Aleta George found the diaries of Yoshimatsu Nakata at the Bancroft, she was excited to learn about Jack London's little-known valet. But she hit a snag: not only were the diaries in Japanese, which she didn’t speak, but even her Japanese friends couldn’t read the obsolete cursive the entries were written in.

Eventually, she found a few professors in Japan that were able to help, and began to unravel the mystery of Nakata’s life.

The reference librarian slid the archival container across the counter. “This looks like a fun box to look through,” he said. I smiled behind my face mask.

17/08/2023

Have you heard of a “thrutopia?” No, it’s not “utopia” or “dystopia.”

“It’s a thrutopia where people fight through the obstacles to get to the future that we want,” says author and activist Aya de León. She wants to rewrite the climate narrative through pop fiction.

Author and activist Aya de León talks about rewriting the climate narrative through pop fiction

15/08/2023

Don’t miss this exciting event with California magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Pat Joseph and astrophysicist and educator Alex Filippenko in a conversation about Life, the Universe and Everything on Thursday, September 7 at BAMPFA!

Come early and enjoy First Free Thursday gallery access and BAMPFA. We will begin check-in at 6 pm. A wine reception with Alex Filippenko will follow after the event.

California Live! Is brought to you by the Cal Alumni Association in partnership with Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive with support from Association Member Benefits Advisors (A.M.B.A) and Angels & Cowboys.

Get your tickets today: https://ow.ly/Xhgg50Pz0cI

14/08/2023

In this era of climate crisis there’s plenty of doom and gloom going around. The prevailing metaphor is that we’re inching toward a precipice—or maybe barreling toward it. That is, if we haven’t already plunged over the edge. Doomerism, as it’s known among climate activists, abounds.

But hope—for our planet, for the future, for humanity—has a champion in Rebecca Solnit.

Her new essay collection, Not Too Late, is a call to action featuring essays from climate scientists, activists, and other messengers of hope. “It’s not too late. We have the solutions,” she says.

Hope—for our planet, for the future, for humanity—has a champion in Rebecca Solnit. For decades, the prolific author and activist has been making the case for hopefulness.

11/08/2023

In case you missed the headlines, the Pac-12, Cal’s athletic conference, blew up over the weekend. Why? What happened? Scott Ball explores all the possible reasons for the conference’s demise, and what could happen next.

In case you missed the headlines, the Pac-12, Cal’s athletic conference, blew up over the weekend, leaving observers slack-jawed. Writing for the Associated Press, John Marshall said the news “hit like a supernova: A Power Five conference dying in real time.”

10/08/2023

Writer James Terry, ’92, loved Berkeley and the culture that surrounded it—all the funky moviehouses, legendary bookstores, and iconic cafes, most of which have disappeared with the times.

In his forthcoming novella, The Return, Terry revisits UC Berkeley through the eyes of protagonist Bernard Aoust, a film professor nearing retirement who finds himself increasingly at odds with modern life. The book explores what we lose when long-established art forms and means of communication—like watching movies together in a cinema—die out and are replaced by new ones.

Writer James Terry, ’92, loved Berkeley and the culture that surrounded it—all the funky moviehouses, legendary bookstores, and iconic cafes, most of which have disappeared with the times.

08/08/2023

“Oppenheimer has flown away into mythology. We can have a discussion about whether the detail accuracy of the story matters. Or is it the image of Oppenheimer now lodged in the global imagination that matters?”

Read our full discussion with Jon Else, a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley and director of The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb, a documentary about the enigmatic scientist made over 40 years ago.

In late May of 2022, UC Berkeley entered a time machine. A 1941 Ford was parked outside Wheeler Hall, shrubs grew where bike racks once stood, and vintage lamp posts decorated walkways.

07/08/2023

Between 2012 and 2020, the number of humanities diplomas nationwide fell by 16 percent. This might be a global trend as well: Of 35 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 27 reported shrinking humanities enrollment in recent years. As New Yorker journalist Nathan Heller noted recently in his article “The End of the English Major,” the result could be “a college generation with less education in the human past than any that has come before.”

One of the few outliers in Heller’s article? UC Berkeley.

In the years since the pandemic began, the university has seen a resurgence in first-year students declaring arts and humanities majors.

03/08/2023

At the Greater Good Science Center, researchers are untangling the science of a meaningful life. They’ve published thousands of articles exploring the latest research on the science of sleep, the chemistry of love, and how to talk about race.

“This is, to me, what Berkeley is about, which is to use scholarship and cutting-edge thinking and science, and to get it out into the world and make the world a little bit better,” says Greater Good founding director and psychology professor Dacher Keltner.

At the Greater Good Science Center, researchers are untangling the science of a meaningful life.

01/08/2023

A skeleton hidden under UC Berkeley. A two alarm house fire in the Berkeley hills. A shooting on Telegraph. No one quite knows the dark underbelly of Berkeley like Emilie Raguso, founder and editor in chief of The Berkeley Scanner, a new website that covers crime and public safety in Berkeley.

We talked to Emilie about the skeleton, her unlikely career in hyperlocal news, and how she makes it work.

When news first broke that a human skeleton was found hidden under a building on Berkeley’s Clark Kerr campus, Emilie Raguso was horrified.

31/07/2023

Want more Oppenheimer? The Day After Trinity, a documentary about Oppenheimer directed by Berkeley professor Jon Else, is streaming for free for a limited time.

Directed by Jon Else • 1981 • United States Starring Paul Frees, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Hans Bethe This essential, Academy Award–nominated documentary offers an urgent warning from history about the dangers of nuclear warfare via the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic physicist and ...

31/07/2023

This drone shot of Rainbow Bridge at Donner Pass was taken on May 1, 2023, and although more snowstorms arrived soon afterward, the melt season was already well underway, according to Alex Schwartz, senior scientist at the University-operated Central Sierra Snow Lab in nearby Soda Springs.

There was a lot to melt. With more than 700 inches of accumulated snow, the lab pegged 2023 as the second snowiest year on record, after 1952. That’s great news for the drought, but concerning in terms of potential flood risk. Alarmist headlines notwithstanding, Schwartz said the melt season had so far been moderate.

Asked if the epic winter can tell us anything about the long-term climate outlook, he said no. “California has always been a land of extreme weather, and a single data point like this isn’t going to give us any indication of what the trend will be long-term.”

28/07/2023

I-House has had its fair share of famous people pass through its famous dining hall. We had the tough job of narrowing them down to just five to include in our Spotlight.

They include disability rights expert Victor Santiago Pineda, former governor of Easter Island Sergio Alejo Rapu Haoa, and Oona King, the second woman of color to be elected to the British Parliament.

Meet five notable alumni who made waves in their fields

26/07/2023

“The challenge of transitioning away from fossil fuels often seems insurmountable,” acknowledges Glen Martin in our cover story of our latest issue. But, he adds, “there’s reason for hope that we’ll make it through the bottleneck yet.”

Canvassing Berkeley experts, Martin explores the technologies that will help us confront the climate crisis, from increasingly cheap solar power to iron-air battery storage to the potential for nuclear fusion. Human innovation and technology can accomplish amazing things. Why couldn’t they beat climate change?

Preventing environmental collapse won’t be easy, but we can still squeeze through the bottleneck.

26/07/2023

Life! The universe! Everything! No topic is too big for our editor-in-chief Pat Joseph and astrophysicist and educator Alex Filippenko. Join them at our first California Live! show at BAMPFA on Thursday, September 7.

Come early and enjoy First Free Thursday gallery access and BAMPFA. Check-in will begin at 6 pm. A wine reception with Alex Filippenko will follow after the event.

California Live! Is brought to you by the Cal Alumni Association in partnership with Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive with support from Association Member Benefits Advisors (A.M.B.A) and Angels & Cowboys.

Get your tickets today: https://ow.ly/XHxB50PleZ3

21/07/2023

Last August, as Californians faced a deepening drought, Pakistan battled devastating floods, and the FBI captivated the world with its dramatic raid of Mar-a-Lago, a landmark piece of legislation snuck its way into federal law.

The Inflation Reduction Act is heralded as a “historic” step toward a greener future.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) marks a historic financial investment in confronting the climate crisis

20/07/2023

When Margaret Fujioka took the oath of office as the first Japanese American woman Superior Court judge in Alameda County, her thoughts turned to two people who weren’t there: her late father, Yoshiro “Babe” Fujioka, and his hero, his big brother Teruo “Ted” Fujioka.

Ted was killed in World War II long before she was born, but instilled in her the values that continue to guide her throughout her career.
https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/online/her-honor-judge-carries-lessons-handed-down-from-heart-mountain/

19/07/2023

If you’re looking for a way to get healthier, Cal alum and Carnegie Mellon psychology professor Michael Scheier has what may be a surprising solution: optimism.

“Not being pessimistic is, I would say, more important for your health than being optimistic,” Scheier says. “Both make a difference, but if you had to choose one, it’s better not to be pessimistic.”

Scheier studied optimism for over 40 years. Now retired, he mostly steers clear of the press but made an exception for his alma mater. Here he speaks with California about some of the lessons gleaned from his decades of research.

For the better part of the last 40-plus years, Cal alum and Carnegie Mellon psychology professor Michael Scheier has been thinking about optimism.