Webcast Archives

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal." As look at the history of American democracy, we begin with the nation's founding contradiction: the dispossession of Natives, the enslavement of Africans and the exclusion of women in a new nation dedicated to the radical concept of universal human equality.

Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner and U.S. Representative Barbara Lee speak from the heart about how the Black Church has helped to build African American electoral power.

Jesse Rothstein and Evan White of California Policy Lab share their enthusiasm for partnering with UCLA, and the state and local governments, to address CA's most urgent problems through data-driven insights.

Drawing on her own experience growing up in the caste system in India, Sudha Shetty channels her compassion for others into research and advocacy for victims of domestic violence and child abduction. 

Economist Robert Reich, the Clinton-era Labor Secretary and prominent Democratic pundit, gives a rousing talk on how the intersection of politics and economics led to the rise of Donald Trump and describes the concerns he shares with Republicans who fear that Trump's way of governing is harming American institutions. 

Sabhanaz Diya (MPP '17) describes how her education is helping her efforts to empower women and young people in Bangladesh through her social enterprise, One Degree Initiative Foundation. 

Carbon Brief spoke to Daniel Kammen, one of the contributors to the report of the ODI's beyond coal report, about the findings. The original publication, Beyond Coal - Scaling up Clean Energy to Fight Global Poverty by Kammen et al. can be found here.

Retiring UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy Professor David L. Kirp gives an impassioned talk urging school administrators to give teachers the time and flexibility to figure out what works for their students, rather than imposing new standards every few years. He is joined by Janelle Scott of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education, former UC President Mark Yudof and Anthony Bryk, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

As the contentious 2016 election season heads into its final weeks, California Live! speakers from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley delve into the impact of race, gender and income inequality on the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. 

Professor Hilary Hoynes convened a conference at Brookings in DC to commemorate the 20th anniversary of welfare reform. This panel focusses on work and poverty.

David Gray, appointed chief of staff to the mayor of Richmond, Calif, when he was 27, talks about the creative approaches he and his colleagues are taking to address the challenges facing this diverse, middle-income East Bay city. Gray, an alumnus of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, tells Jonathan Stein that he was especially proud of Richmond's police chief for holding a sign supporting Black Lives Matter in a peaceful protest against police shootings.

Professors Hilary Hoynes and Rucker Johnson dispel myths about the ineffectiveness of investment into Head Start, public schools, food assistance, and other social programs in this conversation with Henry E. Brady, Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

On Wednesday, January 27, the White House hosted a Conversation on Child Hunger in America. Building on the Administration’s ongoing commitment to expanding access to opportunity and reducing food insecurity, the event brought together families, academics, practitioners, advocates, religious leaders, and federal, state, and local officials to discuss the persistence and effects of hunger in America and what must be done to ensure all American families have access to an adequate, nutritious diet.

Hilary Hoynes, Haas Distinguished Chair in Economic Disparities at UC Berkeley, visited Stanford University on January 21, 2016 to speak about "The Role of SNAP in the U.S. Social Safety Net: Assessing effects on poverty, food insecurity and health." Professor Hoynes' lecture was part of the Food and Nutrition Policy Symposium Series sponsored by Stanford University's Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE). FSE director Rosamond Naylor interviewed Professor Hoynes prior to her public lecture.

Dr. Rucker Johnson will present his work entitled, The Grandchildren of Brown: The Long Legacy of School Desegregation, on November 12, 2015 at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Center City. His presentation will detail the long-run impacts of school desegregation on educational quality and adult attainments, the long-run effects of Head Start, desegregated schools as a vehicle to intergenerational mobility, educational consequences of the end of court-ordered desegregation, and much more. The community will have the opportunity to discuss these and other topics as they relate to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the design of a new pupil assignment plan in 2016.

Entrenched poverty, of the sort described in Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, defies simple developmental solutions. Yet, this does not necessarily mean that the billions of dollars aid agencies and other actors have directed toward “development” initiatives are all for naught. In this panel, we bring together Boo and academics with active research agendas in India, Kenya, Brazil, and elsewhere to discuss current efforts to reduce poverty; what has, and hasn’t, worked in the past; and their ideas for what we as students, teachers, and practitioners should be doing in the future.

Mark Bittman talks with a leader of the food labor movement, Saru Jayaraman, about how far the movement has come, and where it still has to go.

Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City, in conversation with Robert Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, about inequality and the future of progressivism in America.

Professor Robert M. Stern addresses questions about poverty reduction and economic management network in the Africa region of the World Bank.

Professor Rucker Johnson addressed Desegregation and (Un)equal Opportunity at TEDx Miami.

Professor Robert Reich delivered the Mario Savio Memorial Lecture, “Class Warfare in America,” to the crowd of more than 5000 gathered on Sproul Plaza as part of the Occupy Cal demonstrations.