Author: UCSD-TV

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, Virtually

Rooted in San Diego for over 60 years, the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus presents concerts of ground-breaking, traditional and contemporary classical music. UCTV has had the privilege of partnering with LJS&C for over twenty-five years.

While we had hoped to record the first concert of the new season at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium with an audience, the revised opening concert gathered as many of the players of the full orchestra as possible, in a safe environment for indoor performance. The result is this virtual concert that transforms the traditional orchestra to feature small ensembles highlighting the core of talented musicians.

This concert is in three sections, representing the various orchestral instrument families – brass, winds, and strings.

La Jolla Symphony Brass:
William Byrd: The Earl of Oxford’s March
Gabrieli: Canzoni in Echo
Tielman Susato: Pavane Bataille

La Jolla Symphony Winds:
Mozart: Serenade for Winds in C-Minor; K388

La Jolla Symphony Strings:
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings

Watch this presentation of Music is Always Subject to Change by the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus.

Global TV

Television has traditionally been understood through national frameworks, corresponding to national networks of television distribution. The Carsey-Wolf Center series “Global TV” explores the way some contemporary television programs and formats have become unmoored from their national contexts of production and distribution. The series spotlights a number of recent shows that showcase this phenomenon, including a French heist caper, a South African vigilante thriller, and a crime drama set at the epicenter of political and social change in twenties Berlin; each of these shows both transcends and is rooted in its national context and culture. The conversations in the series examine how and why a particular program might travel and take hold with an international audience, addresses questions about the role of contemporary streaming services and global flows of creative labor.

Programs include:

The Hollow Crown
Ben Power discusses his adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III for the BBC series, The Hollow Crown. Power discusses various elements of the series, including the challenges of adapting from Shakespeare, the casting choices, and political context.

Shadow
Moderator Wendy Eley Jackson speaks with Gareth Crocker about his South African television show, Shadow. Crocker discusses various elements of the series, and the bandwidth issues faced by some parts of the country.

Babylon Berlin
Scott Frank explores the influence of the German series Babylon Berlin on his own series, The Queen’s Gambit. Scott discusses multiple aspects of Babylon Berlin that contributed to his appreciation of German history and television.

Lupin
UCSB’s Lisa Parks, Jean Beaman, and France Winddance Twine discuss the sociological impacts of Netflix’s Lupin. They dive into the show’s political relevance and nuanced portrayal of Paris, and what makes the show an effective critique of state power.

Explore these programs and more from the Carsey-Wolf Center.

Healthy Aging in the Era of Pandemics

The UC San Diego Center for Healthy aging envisions a world where older adults enjoy the highest level of well-being, through innovative science, inter-professional collaborations, and community partnerships. The center’s research encompasses medicine and healthcare as well as technology, housing, the built environment, and more.

In November 2021, the center hosted a day long symposium focused on healthy aging in the era of pandemics. True to the times, the symposium was held over Zoom allowing researchers from across the country to join and share their latest work. Topics included wisdom and social connections, healthy lifestyle and physical exercise, getting a good night’s sleep, technology for seniors, electronic psychotherapies, and magnetic brain stimulation.

Symposium Highlights:

Loneliness vs. Wisdom in the Era of Pandemics with Dilip V. Jeste
Can wisdom be a safeguard for physical and mental health during difficult times? Dilip V. Jeste, MD explains the biological and cognitive roots of wisdom and how it can be harnessed to combat loneliness.

Electronic Psychotherapies and Cognitive Remediation
How can new technologies be used to help anxiety and depression? Tarek Rajji, MD shares recent findings from trials combining brain stimulation with cognitive remediation. John Torous, MD, MBI takes a deep dive into mental health apps and how to evaluate their effectiveness and utility.

The Role of Exercise and Nutrition in Healthy Aging: From Fall Prevention to Inflammation
Can virtual classes help seniors with fall prevention and staying fit? What are the impacts of diet on inflammation and mental health? Jeanne Nichols, PhD and Mark Rapaport, MD detail their respective work in mental and physical well-being.

Getting a Good Night’s Sleep: How Sleep Affects Our Mental and Physical Health; Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Sleep Deprivation
Sleep is essential to our physical and mental health. Renowned sleep experts share insights into how to get better sleep as well as current sleep therapies. Ellen Lee, MD explains the biological importance of sleep, its impact on health and aging, and how to improve your sleep habits. Atul Malhotra, MD discusses the impacts of sleep deprivation on your daily life and current treatments for obstructive sleep apnea including the use of CPAP technology.

Aging in Marginalized Communities
María Marquine, PhD shares research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults age 50+, noting the differential impact by race/ethnicity in the US. Lauren Brown, PhD discusses the unique stress experience of black older adults.

Technology for Seniors
How are seniors using technology to stay connected and healthy? Ramesh Rao, PhD hosts Tom Kamber and Eric Granholm, PhD for a discussion of technology for seniors including mental health interventions.

Magnetic Brain Stimulation
What is magnetic brain stimulation and how can it be used to improve our health? Dhakshin Ramanathan, MD, PhD and Zafiris “Jeff” Daskalakis, MD, PhD join Jyoti Mishra, PhD to discuss how and why to use therapies such as TMS and MTS to treat depression.

Browse all programs in Healthy Aging in the Era of Pandemics.

How Mass Persuasion Works

The UC San Diego Library presents a fascinating talk by Dr. Joel Dimsdale, distinguished professor emeritus in the UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry.

Dimsdale discusses his latest book “Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media,” which traces the evolution of brainwashing from its beginnings in torture and religious conversion into the age of neuroscience and social media.

When Pavlov introduced scientific approaches, his research was enthusiastically supported by Lenin and Stalin, setting the stage for major breakthroughs in tools for social, political and religious control. Tracing these developments through many of the past century’s major conflagrations, Dimsdale explores the history of different methods of interrogation and how Nobel laureates, university academics, intelligence operatives, criminals and clerics all populate this shattering and dark story—one that hasn’t yet ended.

Joel E. Dimsdale is distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. He consults widely to government agencies and is the author of numerous other works, including “Anatomy of Malice: The Enigma of the Nazi War Criminals.”

Watch Dark Persuasion – The History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media with Joel Dimsdale .

New CARTA Series: From Molecules to Societies

The latest series from CARTA explores the development of several important distinctly human characteristics that range from molecules, to metabolism, anatomy, disease, and behavior.

In Episode One, UC San Diego professor Carol Marchetto discusses how a comparative gene expression analysis of human and non-human primates revealed differences in the regulation of a class of transposable elements LINE1 retrotransposons between species; University of Southern California professor Joseph Hacia discusses studies profiling phytanic acid levels in red blood cells obtained from humans and captive non-human primates all on low phytanic acid diets; and Emory University professor James Rilling discusses the difference of arcuate fasciculus between human and non-human primate brains and how the specialization of speech has helped humans evolve.

In Episode Two, Emory University professor Dietrich Stout discusses an evolutionarily motivated definition of technology that highlights three key features: material production, social collaboration, and cultural reproduction; UC San Diego professor Pascal Gagneux discusses how recent comparative genome studies have revealed that this polymorphic system is ancient and shared between humans and non-human primates, this despite the fact that none of the great ape species carries all four ABO blood types; and University of Utah professor James O’Connell discusses food sharing, evaluates one hypothesis that focuses on males acquiring big game meat and marrow to provide for mates and offspring. The other hypothesis surrounds how certain kinds of savanna plant food set up the forager interdependence which propelled all aspects of life history change.

In Episode Three, Arizona State University and University of Utah professor Polly Wiessner addresses intergroup ties between humans, chimpanzees and bonobos and explores some of the possible evolutionary developments that contributed to the human disposition to form mutually supportive external bonds, and then discusses the impact of social ties on coalitionary action; UC San Diego professor Rafael Nuñez discusses the comparative analysis of “quantity” and “number”, and the implications it has for debates about the origins of other human special capacities such as geometry, music, and art; and UC San Diego School of Medicine professor Nissi Varki discusses the incidence of carcinomas, including the rarity of occurrence of common human carcinomas in captive chimpanzees.

Explore these programs on more, visit CARTA: Comparative Anthropogeny: From Molecules to Societies.