The UC Irvine Podcast

Water was never abundant in California, and the state has gone to great lengths to engineer a landscape where millions of people can live. As climate change grows more severe, it is only going to be more challenging to meet the water needs of city dwellers, farmers and nature. But certain technologies and policy changes offer hope. California can recycle wastewater, capture stormwater and desalina...

The line between a misdemeanor and a felony is thin, and the teenagers who cross it bear a scarlet letter for the rest of their lives — long after they’ve grown into more mature people. Even though the science on emotional and mental development suggests that a 19 year old is fundamentally different from 30 year old, the justice system treats them the same. That’s why Elizabeth Cauffman, a UCI pro...

The financial uncertainty, chaotic scheduling demands and fear of illness and death during the COVID-19 pandemic have all caused stressors to multiply. And the weight of the last year and a half has fallen especially hard on women and people of color, who have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s worst effects. But has the pandemic caused a mental health crisis, with corresponding increases in anxiet...

In Santa Ana, lead contamination in the soil has driven residents to organize and advocate for environmental justice. Researchers from UCI are working with them to assess the severity of the problem and identify solutions. Though lead contamination is frequently blamed on lead-based paint, a UCI historian’s research suggests another factor may be to blame. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Juan...

It sounds too crazy to be true: Corporations and scientists using sounds and smells to influence people’s dreams. But targeted dream incubation is not limited to the realm of science fiction. Scientists use the method to help patients overcome addictions such as smoking, and corporations have launched advertising campaigns that encourage willing participants to participate in having their dreams s...

The cost of commuting drops dramatically when you’re only walking a few feet from the bedroom to the home office. Such savings in time and money have prompted many people to take their work-from-home flexibility and relocate to cheaper, more spacious homes farther away from the city centers where their jobs may have been based in the past. This pandemic-induced movement has, in turn, disrupted hou...

Cultivating core intellectual virtues can help anyone — not just college students — develop habits of mind that enable them to act with empathy in a chaotic world and to decipher the truth in an internet landscape littered with misinformation. At UCI, students can hone these virtues through the Anteater Virtues Project, an online course created by Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Duncan Pritc...

About 39 percent of UCI’s total student population identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander. This episode of the UCI Podcast explores the meaning behind UCI’s federal designation as an Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander Serving Institution, commonly referred to as “AANAPISI.” UCI's ANNAPISI status is fairly unique among the UC campuses and members of the Association of Amer...

Concerned about the safety. Complacent about the risks. Unable to find the time. Different people give different reasons for hesitating to get a vaccine — whether for COVID-19 or another disease. But for the coronavirus pandemic to end and social life to fully resume, a vast majority of people need to roll up their sleeves and get the shot. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Suellen Hopfer, an as...

The past year — with the pandemic, police violence and political unrest — hasn’t been easy for anyone, especially college students. This month is mental health awareness month, and UCI is spotlighting the resources available to assist students with their mental health. The most important thing to know? You’re not alone. In this episode of the UCI Podcast, Dr. Marcelle Hayashida, the associate vice...

The COVID-19 vaccine is now available to everyone in California 16 years of age and older, but actually getting the shot is another matter. Navigating appointment systems and finding time to receive both doses can be challenging. That’s why UCI is assisting students, staff and faculty with scheduling vaccine appointments. Because vaccination is how UCI will be able to have a fall quarter that rese...

Environmental justice advocates in California have fought for years against landfills, refineries and other polluting facilities in their neighborhoods. They insist that a progressive environmental agenda can’t tackle crucial environmental issues such as climate change from a purely global perspective; the local impacts matter, too. They say that regulators and politicians need to craft environmen...

Rain is scarce in much of California, and most of California’s people live in water-starved regions. And yet the state is, by some measures, the fifth largest economy in the world. How? Because during the last century, California has built a complex network of dams, pumps and canals to transport water from where it falls naturally to where people live. But climate change threatens to upend the del...

Tired of talking about COVID-19? We are, so as we approach the one-year anniversary of California’s shutdown, we are taking a break. On this special episode of the UCI Podcast, Infectious Disease Specialist Daniel Parker and Communications Officer Nicole Feldman take you on a tour of Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand. They talk about Parker’s work with diseases that affect millions of people each yea...

Half a million people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. and countless millions have contracted the virus. Doctors have been concerned, first, with preventing death. But another threat is becoming clear: long-term neurological consequences such as brain fog, depression and anxiety. Tom Lane, a Chancellor’s professor of neurobiology and behavior at UCI, has studied how coronaviruses neurologically a...

Many students in California have barely seen the inside of a classroom in person since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly a year ago. In that time, low-income students and families in low-income school districts have suffered the most. With more and more people receiving vaccines, the end of remote learning is in sight. But schools will still need to implement COVID-19 mitigation strategies, accor...

For people who are incarcerated, college can change their life: The likelihood that they will wind up back in prison after they’re released drops dramatically when they earn their degree. This lower recidivism rate benefits both them as individuals and society as a whole. To help people in prison along the college pathway, UCI has launched a new initiative called LIFTED, which stands for Leveragin...

Wind and solar energy, necessary as they are to reversing climate change, won’t be enough for society to completely wean itself from fossil fuels. Something else is needed for particularly energy-intensive sectors such as heavy duty trucking and to replace ubiquitous natural gas appliances. Enter hydrogen. Clean hydrogen fuel will be a crucial part of the renewable energy mix going forward, accord...

It takes gumption to run for political office — especially when you’re just 24 years old. But that’s exactly what UCI PhD student Dylan Green did last year when he registered his candidacy for Irvine City Council and then took on the challenge of campaigning during the pandemic. Green earned his bachelor's degree at UCI and is now studying the origin of the universe in the Department of Physics an...

Few elements of society suffered as much as live music and theater productions when COVID-19 struck. At the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts, a whole season’s worth of scheduled productions went out the window as performers and professors adapted to an online-only reality. But while in-person performances are impossible, the need for the arts is greater than ever to provide a salve for the cri...

Clean air standards, water pollution rules and public lands protections have all been scaled back under the Trump administration, which aggressively attacked the administrative state. Under the Biden administration, environmentalists hope to reverse the tide by reviving regulations. But rolling back the rollbacks won’t be easy. Though the Biden administration may be able to quickly implement execu...

COVID-19’s disastrous impacts are obvious: a quarter million deaths in the U.S., millions of jobs lost and a financial downturn that prompted a $2 trillion economic stimulus. These impacts are front and center in the public consciousness, especially as people mourn lost loved ones and worry about how lost wages threaten their ability to pay rent. But what about two, three or four decades down the...

Burnout and stress have been on the rise among medical students for years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse. Helping their fellow medical students cope inspired UCI's Ajay Nair Sharma and Daniel Azzam to publish Diary of a Med Student, a book that collects stories from 100+ students from over 50 medical schools across the country. Some are heart-wrenching, some uplifting, and s...

Dr. José Mayorga has witnessed firsthand the disparate impacts of COVID-19 on different communities in Orange County. As executive director of the Family Health Center, a federally qualified health center that is part of UCI Health, he serves the low-income and Latinx patients who have been disproportionately exposed to the virus. “These workers are people who are working in food industries, such...

A wave of Democratic victories in Orange County during the 2018 midterm election — including four Congressional seats that flipped from red to blue — convinced many that Republicans’ days here were numbered. But this year, the trend reversed, and Republicans reclaimed two of those seats. Demographic changes in the last few decades have resulted in a political reorienting in Orange County, accordin...