Despite the growing importance of visual effects across the media industries, VFX companies and their employees have been in turmoil for over a decade due to the increasing pressures of globalized production. Long hours, short deadlines, and low profit margins have become characteristic of an industry that was once considered a shining example of the elite knowledge economy. Reflecting on both artistry and activism, this session brings together leading advocates of the VFX community in Southern California to discuss practical strategies for dealing with the challenges they confront.

Students, administrators and academic researchers demonstrate the value of learning music in school as they show improvements in English and Math test scores, class attendance rates, cognitive development, self-esteem and the ability to work with others. Featured are Francisco Escobedo, the superintendent of the Chula Vista Elementary School District; UC San Diego cognitive scientists Terry Jernigan and John Iversen; and young musicians participating in the Community Opus Project, an in-school and after school music program led by Dalouge Smith, the president and CEO of the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory.

Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, delves into design's many directions and into its future. She takes us on a fascinating tour of design to ask some very serious questions.

Yusef Komunyakaa, an internationally renowned poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for "Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems," reads and discusses his work while writer-in-residence at UC Santa Barbara. Recorded on 03/01/2017.

One of the most important composers in jazz history, Charles Mingus documented his lively impressions of Tijuana in "Tijuana Moods," a rarely performed suite. Join grammy-winning jazz author Ashley Kahn; eminent alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, a longstanding member of Charles Mingus' band; Anthony Davis, UC San Diego professor of music and noted composer, pianist and improviser; and Steven Schick, UC San Diego professor of music, percussionist, and conductor, for an exploration of the legacy of African-American composer Charles Mingus and his historic Tijuana Moods album. Recorded on 01/20/2018.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett explores the creation of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto and its multimedia narrative exhibition honoring the lives of those who have passed. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a professor emerita at New York University, is also the chief curator of the Core Exhibition at the POLIN Museum. She is presented here by the Jewish Studies Program and the Library at UC San Diego. Recorded on 04/11/2018.

A panel discussion follows the release of the US postage stamp honoring Sally Ride, America's first woman in space. Three trailblazing women leaders Billie Jean King, tennis legend and champion of social change; Ellen Ochoa, first Hispanic woman in space and director of the Johnson Space Center; and Condoleezza Rice, 66th U.S. Secretary of State join journalist Lynn Sherr in sharing stories of obstacles and triumphs while encouraging more women to assume leadership roles in their fields. Presented by Sally Ride Science@UC San Diego.

UC San Diego's Geisel Library hosts an annual Paper Theater Festival, celebrating an art form with roots in Victorian Era Europe. Paper theaters (also known as toy theaters) were used to promote productions. They were printed on paperboard sheets and sold as kits at the concession stand of an opera house, playhouse, or vaudeville theater. The kits were then assembled at home and plays performed for family members and guests, sometimes with live musical accompaniment. The theaters gradually declined in popularity during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but have enjoyed a resurgence in interest in recent years among many puppeteers, filmmakers, theater historians, and hobbyists. Presently there are numerous international paper theater festivals throughout the Americas and Europe, as well as several museums.

Sometimes the soul seems a more precise concept than the body. In this lecture Marilyn Strathern, goes to a place and time where all kinds of beings (including food plants) have souls and where the bodily basis of life is immortalized through cloning. She comments on the way present-day anthropology brings fresh illumination to what we thought we knew.

High energy, long life, rechargeable batteries are considered an important technological opportunity to reduce production of greenhouse gases. What standards should be set for safety of new energy storage technologies? And who should enforce those standards? Learn about these exciting developments as well as how best to meet potential social and ethical challenges from Ying Shirley Meng, Ph.D., Associate Professor Department of Nano Engineering University of California, San Diego.

Cosmologist and author of "Losing the Nobel Prize" Brian Keating tells the inside story of BICEP2's mesmerizing discovery and the scientific drama that ensued in this interview with science fiction author David Brin. Keating describes a journey of revelation and discovery, bringing to life the highly competitive, take-no-prisoners, publish-or-perish world of modern science. Along the way, he provocatively argues that the Nobel Prize, instead of advancing scientific progress, may actually hamper it, encouraging speed and greed while punishing collaboration and bold innovation. In a thoughtful reappraisal of the wishes of Alfred Nobel, Keating offers practical solutions for reforming the prize, providing a vision of a scientific future in which cosmologists may, finally, be able to see all the way back to the very beginning. Recorded on 04/25/2018.

Considered by some to be Orson Welles' greatest accomplishment in film, Chimes at Midnight incorporates elements of five of Shakespeare's plays to reframe the larger-than-life comedic presence of Falstaff to magnificent effect. Joseph McBride (School of Cinema, San Francisco State University, author of "Orson Welles"), joins moderator Jim Kearney (English, UCSB) to discuss the 1965 film. Recorded on 01/16/2018.

Learn how two breakthrough and culturally relevant campaigns Fresh Empire and San Diego Unified's "IMIN" after-school program engage difficult to reach youth in community and school settings. Hear cutting edge research on how adverse childhood experiences impact youth audiences differently. Explore how to use data to create interventions that reach even the most disconnected youth audiences. Recorded on 04/12/2018.