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 Eli Bedoy.  ..read more

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 issue.     ..read more

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, reporter Elena Neale-Sacks speaks with resilience researcher Amélie Gaudin, Sacramento Valley farmer Scott Park, and water policy research fellow Caity Peterson to understand how farmers and growers are, and aren’t, building resilience to drought ..read more

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 discrimination across the LGBTQ community. And Gen Z are proudly and loudly identifying with both gender and sexual fluidity. How do we square these two realities? In this episode, Talk Policy to Me reporter Amy Benziger dives into how the rise in rep ..read more

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 this episode, Talk Policy to Me Reporter Noah Cole talks with Amber Senter, a cannabis advocate and Executive Director of Supernova Women and Chaney Turner, Chair of the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission. This episode was supported by research from ..read more

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 matter of white over nonwhite conflict. Each of these approaches have had difficulty resonating with a broad multiracial coalition of voters needed for electoral success. Berkeley Law Professor Ian Haney López has an alternative approach to messaging a ..read more

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 votes accurately translate into who ends up in power. GSPP researcher and policy analyst Charlotte Hill will be back with her thoughts too. To learn more about STAR voting, which Sara discusses in the episode, go to starvoting.us. For more information o ..read more

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 this episode, Talk Policy to Me Reporter Noah Cole talks with Amber Senter, a cannabis advocate and Executive Director of Supernova Women and Chaney Turner, Chair of the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission. This episode was supported by research from ..read more

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 votes accurately translate into who ends up in power. GSPP researcher and policy analyst Charlotte Hill will be back with her thoughts too. To learn more about STAR voting, which Sara discusses in the episode, go to starvoting.us. For more information o ..read more

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 researcher Charlotte Hill about what it would look like to fundamentally change how we vote in this country. Look out for Part 2 next week. To learn more about proportional representation and what it could look like in the U.S., go to fixourhouse.org ..read more