Fiat Vox

When Thalia Zepatos joined the Freedom to Marry campaign in 2010, she had a big job ahead of her: she had to craft a totally new message about same-sex marriage that would convince Americans that supporting the issue was the right thing to do. "It was looking for that statement that a lot of people could nod their heads to," said Zepatos. "It wasn’t about who was participating in the marriage, it was about what it really stands for. And we were trying to elevate that conversation."Five years later on June 26, 2015, same-sex marriage was made legal in the U.S.Martin Meeker, the director of the Bancroft Library's Oral History Center at UC Berkeley, interviewed Zepatos and nearly a dozen others about the Freedom to Marry campaign for the center's Freedom to Marry Oral History Project. Listen to Meeker talk about how a single message can help change a nation's opinion.Read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Billy Curtis, the director of the Gender Equity Resource Center at UC Berkeley, has spent the past two decades working to build a more inclusive campus for the LGBTQ community. This year, he was named a grand marshal of the San Francisco Pride Parade and Celebration, an honor given to people and organizations for their work and advocacy in helping strengthen LGBTQ communities in the Bay Area. “I see this as an opportunity for us as a university to highlight our past, present and continued support of the LGBTQ community,” he said. “We’re getting honored, but let’s recommit to serving the LGBTQ+ community and any emerging un-yet-named marginalized sexualities and genders.”Read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Inside of Joshua Ahazie’s mind live hundreds of songs. Since he was a kid, he would hear a melody and then he would hear all the parts — the vocals, how to play it on the piano. How it all went together. "I really thought I was going crazy." But he soon realized it was a gift. It's this gift of seeing how different pieces can go together to create a whole, he says, that has helped his succeed as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business — he's graduating Monday, May 14 at the Hearst Greek Theatre — and has given him the vision to launch his social enterprise, Atide.See photos and read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Marcy Whitebook worked as a childcare teacher in the 1970s, she made less than $2 an hour. She was amazed at how little she made for the hard and important work she did with infants and toddlers. So Whitebook, with a group of teacher-activists, launched a national campaign in 1992 called Worthy Wage Day. The day of action, held every year on May 1, aims to raise awareness of the low wages earned by early childhood educators and draw attention to the chronic underfunding of public education. In this podcast episode, Whitebook, now the director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley, talks about how she and her team used faxes and mimeographs to get Worthy Wage Day to go viral.Read the story and see photos on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There are more than 5 million species of fungi, and each one likes a particular food. Some like sawdust. Others like plastic. Some can even digest heavy metals. After the fungi eat their meal, what was once waste turns into a new, natural and compostable material that can just be left to decompose or be used in all sorts of practical ways, from cleaning up oil spills to fashioning faux leather handbags to building houses. Sonia Travaglini, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, tells us all about it.Read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Derrika Hunt was in third grade, she didn't stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. She remembers telling her mom, "This doesn't feel right to me. Why am I saying this pledge and then going home every day to my community, seeing people suffering, seeing people marginalized?" Now, a Ph.D. candidate in education at UC Berkeley, Derrika takes teenage girls of color around the world through her nonprofit, Dreamers4Change Foundation. It's a way for them, all of whom are from economically disadvantaged communities, to see that another world exists and realize that change is possible.Read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"People know about Rosa Parks. People know about Martin Luther King Jr. And they know that it's the Montgomery bus boycott that ignited a certain kind of Southern civil rights movement," says Ula Taylor, the chair of the Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley. What people often don't know, she says, is that the boycott was started by the Women's Political Council, a group made up of more than 200 black women led by Jo Ann Robinson in Montgomery, Alabama.In the last of a four-part series that highlights a different African American leader on campus for our podcast, Fiat Vox, Taylor talks about the women activists that brought Martin Luther King Jr. to prominence and how she encourages her students to harness the leader within themselves to create the world they want to live in.Read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Like a lot of leaders, Sidalia Reel started young. In fifth grade, she ran her household, making sure her four younger siblings didn't get into too much trouble. Now, she's the director of staff diversity initiatives in the Office of Equity and Inclusion at UC Berkeley, making sure more than 9,000 staff feel like a valued part of campus. To some, it might seem daunting. But for Reel, it's a natural fit. This is part of a series for Black History Month highlighting the work of African American leaders on campus.See photos and read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As a kid, Alfred Day would spend hours holed up indoors reading comics. He loved Batman and Superman, but the character who really spoke to him — who taught him that he could be smart and powerful — was Black Panther. Day, the director of student affairs case management at UC Berkeley, is a co-founder of Berkeley HEROES, a staff club that meets once a month to talk about comics and graphic novels on their list. In February for Black History Month, they're reading the first volume of Ta-Nehisi Coates' current Black Panther series.Read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As an undergraduate in Colorado, Kenly Brown was one of only a few African Americans on her campus. She felt isolated in the classroom, often expected to speak on behalf of all black people. Now, as a Ph.D. candidate in African American studies at UC Berkeley, she’s made it her priority to be a mentor to students of color.Read the transcript and see photos on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Before Clothilde Hewlett became the executive director of the Cal Alumni Association in 2016, she had lived many other lives. She spent years of her childhood in tenement housing in Philadelphia's inner city before she and her family were called to San Francisco by a Rice-A-Roni television commercial. She attended UC Berkeley, became a lawyer, climbed the ranks of the government of corporate America, then came back to her alma mater, where it all began.Read the story and see photos of Hewlett on Berkeley News.This is part of a 2018 series for Black History Month, featuring interviews with African American leaders at UC Berkeley. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Underground at UC Berkeley, seismic sensors capture the deep rumbles from Bay Area earthquakes. Here's what a 4.4-magnitude earthquake that shook the Bay Area last year on Jan. 4, 2018 sounded like. Geophysicist Peggy Hellweg from the UC Berkeley Seismological Lab explains what we're hearing when an earthquake happens.Listen and read the transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Most of us know by now that recreational cannabis became legal in California on Jan. 1. But there's still a lot we don't know about the plant, despite its long history of human use, says Eric Siegel, the director of the UC Botanical Garden. So the garden is hosting a lecture series called the "Science of Cannabis," where experts will discuss everything from the environmental impacts of large-scale cannabis cultivation to the neurological effect of cannabis in our brains.Read more about the lecture series on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Christopher Richardson, a sophomore and aspiring triple major at UC Berkeley, has been competing in classical piano since he was 9 years old. Since then, he's competed at least 50 times. It's when he feels most alive, and most connected to himself.Read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Parham Pourdavood, an incoming computer science student at UC Berkeley, grew up in Iran. He says that he, like most people, didn't challenge authorities. He wasn't an activist. He studied hard in high school and didn't draw attention to himself. He'd heard about government oppression, but hadn't seen it with his own eyes. He just knew he couldn’t speak his mind. It's why he's such a strong supporter of free speech today.Story and photos on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"I was amazed at how he walked on, and he just got the attention of everyone right there,” says Kyle Ko, a fourth-year music major. “You could see everyone’s intense focus. You could feel it on the stage.” Ko, along with student Hallie Jo Gist, attended a master class taught by world-class conductor Riccardo Muti. Master classes, put on by Cal Performances and the Department of Music, give members of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra a chance to learn from top musicians.Read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas coast in late August, Americans had a choice: they could share their resources or look the other way. Although as a society, we tend to value individualism, it doesn’t always make us happy, says Emiliana Simon-Thomas, the science director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Instead, sharing what we have often brings us more joy.Read the story on Berkeley News. (Texas National Guard photo by Zachary West via Flickr) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro spoke on UC Berkeley's campus in September 2017. Berkeley News spoke to students and alumni as they waited in line to attend the event, protested peacefully outside — and got some reactions as they left the venue.Read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Roaya and Nissma met as freshman at UC Berkeley last year, they were amazed at how much they had in common. They were both Canadian and Moroccan, and were on the pre-med track. They became fast friends. But the next year, when they were moving into their new apartment, they realized their friendship wasn't a new one. Photos and story on Berkeley News: http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/08/30/roaya-and-nissma-reunited-at-berkeley/Photo by Anne Brice See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Incoming students discuss how the hit musical Hamilton has changed Broadway and inspired students to learn more about the nation's history, as students from campus groups including the UC Women’s Chorale and BareStage, perform a medley of songs from the musical. Read the story on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.