Spoken Word Shorts

Dr. Mary-Claire King, the renowned human geneticist who discovered the genetic mutation responsible for breast cancer, revolutionizing the course of cancer research and transforming the way patients are diagnosed and treated, discusses the genetics of inherited cancers in a free public lecture titled “The Genetics of Inherited Breast and Ovarian Cancer: From Gene Discovery to Precision Medicine and Public Health” at 7:30 pm Thursday, February 6, at UCSB Campbell Hall. The lecture will be followed by a panel of experts discussing genetics, cancer and you, providing resources and answering pertinent questions…

Activist, poet, and inspirational speaker Dr. Yusef Salaam, one of the famed Central Park Five – the Harlem teens who were tried and wrongly convicted of a brutal rape in 1989 in one of the most frenzied cases in New York City’s history – facilitates a discussion of issues of mass incarceration, police brutality and misconduct, false confessions and the disparities in America’s criminal justice system at UCSB MultiCultural Center at 6 pm Tuesday, February 11. As an exonerated African American man, Dr. Salaam has traveled the country to deliver lectures and spark conversations about race and class, the failings of our criminal justice system, legal protections for vulnerable juveniles, and fundamental human rights. He has been honored with many notable achievements, such as a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama (2016)…

Prominent social and political commentator David Brooks explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world in his public lecture “The Quest for a Moral Life” at 7:30 pm Tuesday, February 11, at the Granada Theatre. The prominent New York Times op-ed columnist and regular guest on PBS NewsHour and NPR’s All Things Considered provides insight on how our culture shapes us to be individualistic when it is the community approach to life where joy can be found.