Best Berkeley Rep Podcasts (2025)

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The Kids Behind KOSA 30:38

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6M ago30:38

30:38

This is the story of one young person’s battle to transform tech policy for teens. Because while young people struggle with mental health on social media, big tech companies are profiting off their screen time. In this episode, meet Zamaan Qureshi, who got involved in tech policy as a teenager himself. Host Anjali Nambiar shares Zamaan’s journey fr…

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Treno’s Community Land Trust 23:34

8M ago23:34

23:34

Home. It’s one of those ideas that is core to us. But what if your home was gentrifying — becoming less affordable and recognizable with each day? This episode tells the story of Treno Morton, a young person who has set off to safeguard home not just for himself, but for his historic Black community displaced by systemic racism. Learn how he became…

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There's Something in the Water 26:21

8M ago26:21

26:21

Two recent college grads trying to address contaminated water in an isolated town. But what can two young people really do to help solve a 20-year-old problem embedded deep in the ground — and in local politics? We’re exploring water justice and public policy in California’s Central Valley and roadblocks on the state’s path to achieving the Human R…

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Rose, Rising 21:30

8M ago21:30

21:30

This is the origin story of a teen climate activist who made it to the White House. Host Ava Kargosha shares the journey of former youth climate activist Rose Strauss, who made headlines for confronting a state senator about the oil money lurking behind his climate change denial. Listen in to learn how Rose went from student activist to full-time c…

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Don't be a WebQoof 20:01

9M ago20:01

20:01

This episode takes us to India, where fake news on Whatsapp spreads like wildfire. Is addressing it a hopeless cause? Learn about solutions with Abhishek Anand, a Gen Z journalist who joined a Deli-based fact-checking team. Listen to discover the team’s techniques for battling an endless flow of falsehoods and how their efforts protect someone from…

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Farming Dreams 31:05

9M ago31:05

31:05

A bare plot of land. An innovative farming technique. And seemingly insurmountable challenges. This is the story of a 22-year-old farmer who crosses the country to help a small community facing food insecurity. Shamik Chandrachood moves from Kentucky to California to bring a technique called intercropping to a traditional farming town — and encount…

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Pushing the (Age) Limits 26:29

10M ago26:29

26:29

Emily Nguyen started working in the government as a teenager. Can teenagers get taken seriously in San Francisco City Hall? And why does it matter that youth like Emily participate in civics? Welcome to the first episode of Season 6, a story about the joys, surprises, and struggles of being young in local government. This episode hosted by Avalon B…

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Trailer: Season Six 1:27

10M ago1:27

1:27

A new season of Talk Policy to Me is launching soon. Transcript: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/trailer-season-six

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Professor Robert B. Reich speaks at Goldman School commencement 12:32

2y ago12:32

12:32

Professor Robert B. Reich was voted by the graduating students of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy to be their faculty speaker. Always a beloved teacher, this occasion was especially meaningful because it marked Professor Reich's retirement from teaching. Robert Reich was introduced by Master of Public Policy student speaker Abraham El…

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TN Rep Justin Jones speaks at Goldman School commencement 26:58

2y ago26:58

26:58

Tennessee Representative Justin Jones addressed the graduates at the Goldman School of Public Policy's commencement on May 14, 2023. Representative Jones came into the national spotlight when he was expelled from the Tennessee legislature for taking to the assembly floor to protest gun violence and the refusal of the legislature to take up this iss…

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Episode 512: Talking Agriculture, Drought, and Resilience 32:51

3y ago32:51

32:51

This year, researchers found that the last 22 years were the driest consecutive years in the North American southwest in over a millennium. The pace and scale of climate change is forcing states and counties to adapt rapidly. In California, one of the industries at the forefront of the adaptation predicament is agriculture. In today’s episode, repo…

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Episode 511: Talking the Rise of Anti-LGBTQ Legislation 26:24

3y ago26:24

26:24

The annual number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed has skyrocketed over the past several years, from 41 in 2018 to 240 and counting in the first three months of this year. Half of these bills are targeting transgender people specifically. At the same time, surveys of the general public show over 70% say they support same-sex marriage and laws preventing d…

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Episode 510: Talking Social Equity Cannabis 19:48

3+ y ago19:48

19:48

Show Notes In 2016, California voters legalized recreational cannabis through Prop 64. Now, five years after legalization, city’s are grappling with the difficulty of prioritizing social equity in the cannabis licensing process for Black, brown, and formerly incarcerated small business owners who were negatively impacted by the war on drugs. In thi…

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Episode 509: Talking Race-Class Fusion 25:23

3+ y ago25:23

25:23

The Republican Party and the Democratic Party take different approaches to talking about race and racism. While politicians in the Republican Party have used coded language or “dog whistles” to stoke racial division, politicians in the Democratic Party either avoid talking about race in favor of talking about class issues or talk about race as a ma…

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Episode 508: Talking a Voting Overhaul, Part 2 21:30

3+ y ago21:30

21:30

This is the second episode in a two-part series about changing how we vote in the United States. In today’s episode, Talk Policy To Me reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks with voting systems researchers Sara Wolk and Clay Shentrup about what they think the order of operations should be to get to a place where everyone can vote their conscience and vot…

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Episode 507: Talking a Voting Overhaul, Part 1 26:28

3+ y ago26:28

26:28

In recent months and years, legislation meant to make it more difficult to vote, especially for Black and brown people, has proliferated in some state legislatures. But problems with the way we vote in the United States go deeper than these laws. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Talk Policy To Me reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks to GSPP research…

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Episode 506: Talking Dating in a Digital World 21:39

3+ y ago21:39

21:39

As of 2021, there were 30 million online dating users in the US and 321 million users worldwide. Despite this massive number of users, there's very little policy that regulates how users behave on these platforms. Studies show that a majority of women have experienced sexual harassment online and that rarely is any action taken by law enforcement i…

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Episode 505: Talking Fair Chance Housing 24:36

3+ y ago24:36

24:36

In February 2020, the Oakland City Council passed Oakland's Fair Chance Housing ordinance. The legislation was the first in California — joining cities nationwide like Seattle and Portland — to ensure that people returning home from the criminal justice system can legally live with family members and access, on their own, nearly all other forms of …

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Episode 504: Talking Vaccine Deniers 27:04

3+ y ago27:04

27:04

With 59% of the US population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the increased availability of booster shots, and the rise of a new variant, having a highly vaccinated public is incredibly important to the fight against COVID in the months ahead. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me reporter Noah Cole talks to psychologist and behavioral scientist Ph…

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Episode 503: Talking Oakland A’s—Will they still or will they go? 18:07

3+ y ago18:07

18:07

The A’s proposal for a new waterfront baseball stadium at Oakland’s Howard Terminal is a multi-use development site that would include shops, parks, and housing. As the City of Oakland and Alameda County negotiate with the A’s over how these benefits are paid for, much has been made about the impact that sports stadiums have on communities. In this…

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Episode 502: Talking Trade-offs and the Electric Grid 23:54

3+ y ago23:54

23:54

As Congress struggles to pass a spending bill that includes some of the biggest climate legislation the U.S. has seen, there’s another big hurdle the country needs to clear to make big moves on climate change —the electric grid. In this episode, reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks to energy policy expert Steve Weissman, environmental scientist Grace W…

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Episode 501: Talking "Your Neighbor, the Bounty Hunter" 16:27

3+ y ago16:27

16:27

Today's episode explores the new wave of "rights suppressing laws" with New York Times Op-Ed writers and legal scholars Jon Michaels and David Noll. Reference: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/04/opinion/texas-abortion-law.html See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-501-talking-you…

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Season 5 Trailer 1:07

3+ y ago1:07

1:07

Season 5 of Talk Policy To Me is dropping soon, with new hosts Noah Cole and Amy Benziger. Listen and subscribe! See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/season-5-trailerBy Berkeley Institute for Young Americans and UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy

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Episode 415: Talking with David C. Wilson 29:49

4y ago29:49

29:49

In this final episode of TPTM Season 4, we say goodbye to hosts Reem and Colleen and hello to the incoming Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy, Dr. David C. Wilson. See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-415-talking-with-david-c-wilson…

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Episode 414: Talking Lies Your High School Econ Teacher Told You 42:40

4y ago42:40

42:40

Cash transfers discourage work, price ceilings and floors (like the minimum wage) are economically inefficient, and trade makes everyone better off. If you’ve ever taken a basic economics course in high school or even in college, these were probably the major takeaways. But these are myths --dire oversimplifications at best, and outright inaccuraci…

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Episode 413: Talking Black Police Unions 26:18

4y ago26:18

26:18

CONTENT WARNING: This episode involves mention of police violence against people of color. Since the 1970s, Black police officers have formed informal unions in response to racism within their departments and in the greater community. In this episode, reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks to an economist, a law professor, and a former president of a Bla…

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Episode 412: Talking Public Spaces 16:39

4y ago16:39

16:39

As vaccine rates rise and health experts give more public activities the stamp of approval, people have begun shifting from private spaces to public ones. Today, we’re talking about what public spaces are and the policies that govern them. We’ll also talk about the unhoused folks for whom the distinction between public and private space is less cle…

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Episode 411: Talking philanthropy—yesterday, today, and tomorrow 42:58

4+ y ago42:58

42:58

On this episode of TPTM, we’re talking philanthropy yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Since the Gilded Age, philanthropists have positioned themselves as gracious, charitable forces in society who are experts in identifying and solving our social ails. But the institution of philanthropy has had its critics from day one. What are the origins of moder…

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Episode 410: Tok Policy To Me—Youth Political Mobilization through TikTok 19:02

4+ y ago19:02

19:02

With over 100 million users and counting in the US, TikTok is beginning to play a major role in the political education and mobilization of its young user base. In this episode, which was written and recorded in the aftermath of the November 2020 election, Talk Policy to Me reporter Noah Cole spoke with Aidan Kohn-Murphy and Toni Akande, two of the…

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 10 - "The Character Actor" by Sarah Ruhl 14:35

4+ y ago14:35

14:35

Directed by Les WatersRead by Charles Shaw RobinsonFrom a perch beyond this life, an actor observes as a group of masked people finally return to the courtyard of Berkeley Rep — to the theatre, the place we made to gather, breathe together, and share the stories that remind us of our humanity.By Berkeley Rep

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Episode 409: Talking Anarchism and Direct Action 46:38

4+ y ago46:38

46:38

Last summer, as a part of the public reckoning with racialized police violence, chants and mantras like “Whose Streets? Our Streets” and “We Keep Us Safe” and “We Are The Change We’ve Been Waiting For” resounded in the streets and all over social media. What would it mean to take these slogans seriously? To actually imbue people and communities -- …

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 9 - "Suicide on Telegraph" by Richard Montoya 21:50

4+ y ago21:50

21:50

It's 1959, and tobacco smoke snakes across the bustling café from its prized corner table, where artists and students debate political treatises, muse on philosophy, and share thrilling new poetry.By Berkeley Rep

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 8 - "night fishing" by Philip Kan Gotanda 12:39

4+ y ago12:39

12:39

Read by Steven Anthony Jones and BD WongOn a chilly autumn night, an old fisherman makes his way to the lake in the dark. He casts a line...and reels in the ghost he's been seeking.By Berkeley Rep

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Episode 408: Talking Black History Month 2021 16:34

4+ y ago16:34

16:34

Black History Month 2021 has been an eventful occasion at the Goldman School of Public Policy. One student organization, Black Students in Public Policy (BiPP) has been responsible for putting together a weekly speaker series on health and wellness, economic policy, politics, and social impact in the Black community. In this episode of Talk Policy …

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 7 - "The Third Sphere" by Kamala Parks, read by Denmo Ibrahim 17:34

4+ y ago17:34

17:34

Straddling the worlds of her divorced parents, Yasmine doesn't feel fully at home in either. Desperate to see her best friend in San Francisco, she embarks on the voyage across the Bay alone, exhilarated at her newfound independence.By Berkeley Rep

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 6 - "West Berkeley West Indian" by Aya de León 13:51

4+ y ago13:51

13:51

How do you find your people in middle school — especially when you don't quite fit the mold? A girl experiments, assimilates, adapts, and journeys towards genuine self-love and community.By Berkeley Rep

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 5 - "The Black Mass Sonata" by Daniel Handler, read by Lance Gardner 13:27

4+ y ago13:27

13:27

Bored, lost, and lonely, a teenager stumbles into a café. While eating a cup of soup, he hears a wondrously inscrutable sonata, and begins to sense that being lost might not be such a lonesome condition after all.By Berkeley Rep

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 4 - "For the Record" by Sean San José 29:28

4+ y ago29:28

29:28

Sometimes music becomes indelibly linked to specific memories, invoking the people with whom we shared them. Songs by Isaac Hayes, Peter Tosh, Stevie Wonder, the Doors, the Knight Brothers, and Patti LaBelle conjure a deep friendship, one that began on a hot night in 1986 outside Leopold's Records.By Berkeley Rep

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 3 - "20 Weeks" by Adam Mansbach 12:13

4+ y ago12:13

12:13

Hope, fear, excitement, and a dizzying array of possibilities unspool across an expectant dad’s imagination, as he and his partner navigate medical uncertainties and rediscover each other as almost-parents.By Berkeley Rep

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 2 - "The Fundamental Kiss, With Overtones" by Eisa Davis 20:28

4+ y ago20:28

20:28

A young oboist kisses a pianist on a street corner. At long last! But the kiss unlocks pressures, expectations, dreams, and fears. Can we learn to live with uncertainty? To ask for what we need?By Berkeley Rep

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Place/Settings: Berkeley: 1 - "The Slide" by Itamar Moses 12:41

4+ y ago12:41

12:41

A neighborhood park — its playground, sloping hillside, and basketball court; its tunnel to a rose garden and many paths — bears witness to a boy, growing up and growing old.By Berkeley Rep

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Episode 407: Talking the U.S. Senate—Is It Still Relevant? 18:02

4+ y ago18:02

18:02

The highly contentious Georgia Senate elections are right around the corner. The results will determine which party holds a Senate majority for the next two years. In this episode, we take a step back and examine the Senate as an institution in the current political context of hyperpolarization. Is it still functional as a mechanism of effective go…

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Episode 406: Talking Urban Agriculture & Food Policy 21:16

4+ y ago21:16

21:16

During the holiday season, food is often central to the celebration. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people are experiencing hunger for the first time, and food insecurity has become a daily reality for many. Today, we’re talking about what some say is a practical solution to rising hunger—urban agriculture and the policies that sha…

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Episode 405: Talking The Future of Community Engagement 31:53

4+ y ago31:53

31:53

When shelter-in-place orders were mandated in cities across the US, city employees sprang into action to facilitate the transition. Day-to-day government happenings were instantly and radically transformed, but one thing that cities still needed to do? Community engagement. In the face of orders for folks to stay home and social distance, cities fa…

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Episode 404: Talking Ballot Access & The Green Party 26:57

4+ y ago26:57

26:57

Nothing in the US Constitution mandates or guarantees a two-party political system. Yet Americans are accustomed to understanding the political landscape as a binary of Democrats and Republicans; third parties are rarely taken seriously, particularly on the national scale. Members and candidates of political third parties, like the Green Party, arg…

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Episode 403: Talking Prop 22, App-Based Drivers, and Labor 21:35

4+ y ago21:35

21:35

On November 3rd, California voters will decide on Proposition 22. The Proposition aims to allow app-based drivers to maintain their status as Independent Contractors by carving out a special exception to Assembly Bill 5. We talk to Goldman Alumna Rebecca Stack-Martinez and the Chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center Ken Jacobs about the implications …

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Episode 402: Talking Election Coverage 19:14

4+ y ago19:14

19:14

Talking: Election coverage—where’s the policy? Hourly breaking news. An endless stream of push notifications. A backlog of political podcasts (but not this one, right?). Today we’re talking about how the news media covers elections, and how voters can find real information within the sea of coverage in the final weeks before the election. See show …

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Episode 401: Talking Election Media Diets 13:05

4+ y ago13:05

13:05

Welcome to Season 4 of Talk Policy to Me! It’s been a whirlwind of policy news and happenings since you last heard from us (to say the least) and there’s a lot to catch up on. While we work hard on new episodes, we thought we’d pop into your feeds for a brief moment to introduce a few new members of the TPTM team and take a moment to ask one anothe…

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Episode 320: Talking Young Voters 34:45

5y ago34:45

34:45

The brutal murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis Police Department officers, and the failure of the justice system to quickly prosecute the police officers involved, has triggered an explosion of activism across the country, and the world, in loud protest of police brutality against Black people. These actions vary dramatically along spectrums…

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Episode 319: Talking Identity, the Census, and How We’re All Counted 27:50

5y ago27:50

27:50

The 2020 Census launched April 1st, 2020. With it comes yet another time where individuals have to distill their identities into check boxes with limited options. In this episode, we’re exploring how the race/ethnicity category options were created and how those available choices impact policy. Host Sarah Edwards talks with Cristina Mora, Associate…