KUCI: Ask A Leader

Public Trauma AND PFAS

Roxane Silver, UCI Professor of Psychological Science, Medicine, and Public Health and Associate Director of the ADVANCE Program, brings the heft of her over 30 years of compelling work on how we experience publicly-shared trauma. Natural and man-made disasters are considered. Then, (minute 33:00) staying in the expansive public health realm, UCI professor Scott Bartell offers a look under the hood about the challenges to understanding the pathways and public health impacts of PFAS chemicals in our environment and in our bodies. It’s very current work, and on the radar of people representing us in local, state, and federal places.

Coping With Sea Level Rise

Dr. Jerry Schubel, CEO and President of the Aquarium of the Pacific, returns to the show in advance of their Sea Level Rise free community event on the evening of 10/7, 7-9 p.m.,co-sponsored with The Nature Conservancy and the ArtCenter College of Design. Reservations are requested and available at: http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/events.

Eyes Over Here; We’re Talking About Gerrymandering AND Coping With Sea Level Rise

Amidst the dizzying developments outta D.C., Ask A Leader puts Gerrymandering in front and center, with a civics lesson on why something so complex, so long established in political history, is so consequential to all of us. Seasoned political scientists Alex Keena (Virginia Commonwealth University) and Michael Latner (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) guide us through the nuances of state of the States mapping/remapping gerrymandered districts. Then (minute 43:18) we bring back Aquarium of the Pacific CEO and President Dr. Jerry Schubel, in advance of their Sea Level Rise free community event on the evening of 10/7, 7-9 p.m., co-sponsored with The Nature Conservancy and the ArtCenter College of Design. Reservations are requested: http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/events.

Port of Esbjerg, Denmark’s Green Economy AND Local National Council of Jewish Women at Work

The green economy is on sharp display with the wind turbine sector – Dennis Pedersen, CEO of the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark, offers how the Esbjerg Harbor is a success story for these times. In the second segment (minute 27:56), Dr. Linda Fox, President of the Long Beach/West Orange County section of the National Council of Jewish Women, takes up how her local council sustains an ambitious charter amidst considerable social needs. They extend the invitation to "everyone with shared values of the beliefs in the dignity of every human being, in education, and the pursuit of social justice, Jewish or not, female or not." The human trafficking hotline is 888-373-7888 or text 233733. Information on upcoming events is available at: https://www.ncjwlongbeach.org/.

Hydrometeorology versus A Little Sharpie AND SCR Reeking of Excellence and Virtuosity

As Director of the Center for Hydrometeorology & Remote Sensing, and Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth System Science Department at UC Irvine, Professor Soroosh Sorooshian offers the finer points behind what we all witnessed as Hurricane Dorian blew toward the East Coast. His Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing website, https://chrs.web.uci.edu/ is one cool place to geek out for a while, for real time and long term weather patterns. In the second segment (minute 35:10), South Coast Repertory’s new artistic director David Ivers, presents the offerings at the beginning of this year’s season, this side of the New Year. Ticket and other information is available at: https://scr.org/ and 714-708-5555.

Reparations #1619

REPARATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. “So You Want to Talk About Race,” “Tears We Cannot Stop; A Sermon To White America,” “Lies My Teacher Told Me; What Your American History Teacher Got Wrong,” “Winners Take All,” The NYTimes “1619 Project,” “The Beautiful Struggle,” “Sweet Taste of Liberty; A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America,” "Shadow Bodies: Black Women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics," and “There Will be No Miracles Here;” provide some background on the juncture at where we have arrived with respect to reparations in the United States. This solemn occasion is handled by Davin Phoenix, UCI Political Science professor, and author of the soon to be released “The Anger Gap: How Race Shapes Emotion in Politics for Action.”

Climate Strikes and Climate Forums as the Climate Changes

We bring back climate science researchers: Kimberly Duong (UCI) and Gianna Lum (Columbia University). Joining them will be the new UCI President of Climatepedia, Patricia Haigh, to herald a huge season of youthful grassroots climate activism, as organizers gather in New York in advance of Greta Thunberg’s much anticipated UN address and the September 20th Global Climate Strike. As their part of these forums, they will host "Irvine Climate Resilience" 9-20, 10 a.m. at Culver Drive-Alton Parkway. Climatepedia continues to post climatememes on Instagram. Find them on: https://strikewithus.org and on their social media.

The Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Act AND UC System Versus Elsevier

We continue to rethink the plastic proposition with Nick Lapis, Director of Advocacy for Californians Against Waste; taking up CA SB 54 and CA AB 1080; The Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Act. As the CA Legislative session winds down, details are available at: https://camustlead.org/ and https://www.cawrecycles.org/. In the second segment (minute 26:17), Dr. Brian Cummings, Professor and Vice-Chair for Research at Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UCI’s School of Medicine; speaks truth to a powerful publishing house, Elsevier, about open access to all that research academics do. In case future developments do not get their due in mainstream media, essential information is available at: http://stemcell.uci.edu/ and https://www.change.org/p/elsevier-boycott-elsevier-and-support-affordable-open-access-scholarly-publishing.