Alumni (L&S)

Technological advancements and ethical debates dominate the media’s coverage of artificial intelligence. AI pioneer and 1966 Cal alum Sarah Douglas asks the sort of big questions — on knowledge, meaning, and consciousness — that are often overlooked by companies and can only be answered in a philosophical context. Unfortunately, the rapid velocity of AI development has outpaced society’s capacity to consider these questions....

Production designer Nina Ruscio and casting director Cathy Sandrich Gelfond dish on designing “triggering” hospital sets, casting for raw authenticity and how their time at Berkeley taught them to watch life closely, turning every detail into material for an immersive narrative.

Ask people what they love most about The Pitt, the HBO Max medical drama that debuted in 2025 and went on to sweep the Emmys, and the answer is almost always the same: It feels so real.

The show’s pace appears just like an emergency room — lively and chaotic, always in motion. Its...

Standing on Asilomar State Beach just west of Monterey, Marius Castro talked with dozens of his fellow UC Berkeley students for hours under the moonlight. The moment felt special to Castro, like he was in a movie. In actuality, he was attending the first annual MPS Scholars retreat.

“Everybody I met had such good vibes,” said Castro, a third-year student double majoring in applied mathematics and computer science. “I...

In this Berkeley Talks episode, Ramzi Fawaz, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and UC Berkeley alum, explores why the humanities and psychedelics might have more in common than you’d think, and how literature, much like psychedelics, can help open one’s mind to the world.

Fawaz, who spoke at Berkeley in September, argues that the humanities classroom functions as a vital space for shared sense-making, where deep engagement with art and literature can rewire the brain much like a psychedelic experience — helping students heal from the rigid...