Humanities (Video)

Humanities (Video)

Find an eclectic collection of authors, philosophers, filmmakers and thinkers who explore essential aspects of what makes us human. Visit uctv.tv/humanities

Episodes

June 24, 2025 38 mins
Frank Silva talks with writer and educator Eduardo Corvera about the power of reading, writing, and the humanities. They explore how stories help us understand ourselves and the world around us. Corvera shares insights on teaching, the writing process, and why being honest and curious is essential for young writers. It’s a thoughtful and inspiring conversation about creativity, literature, and finding your own voice. Series: "Educa...
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The essence of Being Human is the practice of Biocultural Reproduction (BCR). BCR is defined as the set of marriage and kinship based rules for extra-maternal cooperation in the production, feeding, and care of offspring. Human evolution theory needs to explain how people successfully combined a vastly extended period of offspring dependency and delayed reproduction with helpless newborns — with large heads and much body fat (even ...
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Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most important challenges of modern medicine worldwide. They are often attributed to maladaptations of our body to our peculiar form of locomotion, upright bipedalism. This lecture will explore the evolutionary origin of major musculoskeletal disorders such as back problems and hip joint osteoarthritis. I will show that these problems represent a relatively recent phenomenon, occurring only ...
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What are the future horizons for indigenous repatriation work? What are best practices in repatriation settings, and how might they inform repair work in other contexts, such as education or land returns? This panel discussion looks at the work of Chumash leaders and broader Indigenous repair work nationally and globally. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 40662]
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Phenotypic variation within the skeleton has biological, behavioral, and biomedical functional implications for individuals and species. Thus, it is critical to understand how genomic, environmental, and mediating regulatory factors combine and interact to drive skeletal trait development and evolution. One way to do this is by studying skeletal diseases that disrupt skeletal function — like osteoarthritis (OA) which is a chronic d...
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The Birch Aquarium celebrates the incredible contributions of women in the rich history of marine plankton research at Scripps. Judit Hersko performs part of her innovative series of visual narratives, "Pages from the Book of the Unknown Explorer," transporting you to Scripps’ early days through a cleverly imagined correspondence between Dr. Easter Cupp, Scripps' first female Ph.D. graduate, and a fictitious female explorer inspire...
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Filmmaker RaMell Ross joins moderator Mireille Miller-Young, UCSB Feminist Studies, for a discussion of Nickel Boys. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 40545]
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The rate of cancer and cancer malignancy differ greatly among mammalian species. The placental – maternal interface is also highly variable between placental mammals. This lecture will discuss recent advances that suggest that there is a causal connection between the evolution of placental biology and the biology and rate of cancer malignancy. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] ...
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Menstruation is the cyclical shedding of the endometrium triggered by falling progesterone levels. Menstruation is a rare trait found in less than 2% of mammals and likely evolved independently at least 4 times. Why do some mammals menstruate while most do not? The leading hypothesis is that menstruation occurs as a nonadaptive consequence of spontaneous decidualization of the endometrium, which evolved to increase biosensoring of ...
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Filmmaker Adamu Chan joins UC Santa Barbara’s Althea Wasow for a powerful conversation about "What These Walls Won’t Hold", a documentary he created while incarcerated at San Quentin during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film, which aired nationally on PBS’s "America ReFramed", captures the resilience and activism of incarcerated people and their communities in the face of crisis. Chan shares how filmmaking became a tool for resistance...
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Pressures of life on Earth experienced by our ancestors – as multicellular beings, as hosts to parasites, and as home to microbes – shaped the evolved structure and function of our immune systems.  Some of the traits favored by natural selection have conferred resistance against infections while opening vulnerabilities to autoimmune diseases.  I will illustrate why analysis of the deep-time origins of mammalian immune systems revea...
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The Carsey-Wolf Center welcomes Jeff Bridges and Amy Brenneman, the award-winning stars of The Old Man, for a conversation with director/writer/producer Brad Silberling. Bridges and Brenneman share their creative perspectives on the series’ treatment of aging and discuss other aspects of their unique collaboration. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 40544]
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The human body has traits that evolved at different times, from 1.5 billion to 2 million years ago, each bringing health benefits and risks. Multicellularity enabled organs and cancer. The immune system defends us but can cause inflammation. Breastfeeding supports infant health but relates to breast cancer risk. Menstruation and invasive placentas improved reproduction but led to pain and cancer risks. Human-specific traits like bi...
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Cancer is normal development spun out of control. It is the great plasticity and power of development, without the overarching controls that guide normal development toward an integrated adult form. Instead, whenever a newly developed kind of tissue acquires the ability to survive, grow, and resist control, there is nothing to stop it. That may be why normal adult cells are often terminally differentiated into a restricted cellular...
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May 24, 2025 37 mins
The Moon and Back is the directorial debut of UCSB Film and Media Studies alumnus Leah Bleich. The Carsey-Wolf Center was proud to welcome Leah back to campus for a discussion of her film with UCSB moderator Ross Melnick. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 40543]
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In collaboration with the Transnational Italian Studies Program, the Carsey-Wolf Center presents a discussion examining the long history of Black African life in Italy with filmmakers Daphne Di Cinto and Medhin Paolos and UCSB moderator Stephanie Malia Hom. They discuss the short films Il Moro and Asmarina. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 40541]
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May 5, 2025 40 mins
Screenwriter and playwright Phyllis Nagy joins moderator Patrice Petro for a discussion of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 classic Strangers on a Train. Adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s debut novel, the film follows tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger), who meets the charming but disturbed Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) during a chance encounter on a train. Bruno proposes they “swap” murders—he’ll kill Guy’s wife, and Guy will kill Br...
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April 30, 2025 45 mins
Nicholas Baer, author of Historical Turns: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism, joins moderator and Carsey-Wolf Center Director Patrice Petro for a discussion of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 40537]
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April 21, 2025 6 mins
Author Joseph Wambaugh's success came from writing about what he knew - police work. He spent 14 years with the Los Angeles Police Department first as a street cop then as a detective. He wrote his first novel, “The New Centurions,” in 1971 while on the job. Wambaugh died on Feb. 28, 2025. It was the same day that the Writer's Symposium by the Sea was celebrating it's 30th anniversary. Host Dean Nelson pays tribute to his frien...
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Thirty years after the film’s release, Fresh Kill has been remastered by the Fales Library & Special Collections of New York University. Fresh Kill director/producer Shu Lea Cheang traveled with filmmakers Jean-Paul Jones and Jazz Franklin on a nationwide roadtrip to screen the remastered 35mm print of the film at independent arthouse cinemas across the country, and to engage local communities on issues of environmental racism and ...
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