Jason Pohl

New research says framing protests as fights for civil rights 'backfires.' So what might work? - Berkeley News Kim Voss, a UC Berkeley professor of sociology, says appeals rooted in American values may be more effective today than those evoking memories of the Civil Rights Movement.

People say they care deeply about civil rights. But surprisingly, framing modern causes as matters of civil rights actually "backfires," according to a new study. Why? And what does it mean for advocates on all sides of the political spectrum? news.berkeley.edu/2025/06/20/n...

UC Berkeley experts react to U.S. Supreme Court ruling on medical care for trans minors - Berkeley News Scholars across a range of fields assessed a case of enormous significance that could affect not only transgender youth, but possibly also reproductive policy on abortion, contraception and in vitro f...

Incredibly important perspectives and insights here: UC Berkeley experts react to U.S. Supreme Court ruling on medical care for trans minors
news.berkeley.edu/2025/06/18/u...

To understand immigration today, a UC Berkeley sociologist documented 200 personal stories - Berkeley News Stephanie L. Canizales spent years interviewing undocumented young people. She says their accounts matter — especially in today's chaotic world.

“If not leverageable for the sake of agenda-setting or even tone-setting to the public, the population is completely forgotten,” said Stephanie L. Canizales, a UC Berkeley sociologist and leading expert on undocumented youth.

“And that really haunts me.” news.berkeley.edu/2025/04/24/t...

Investigating the psychedelic blue lotus of Egypt, where ancient magic meets modern science - Berkeley News Online, products branded as the blue lotus promise calm moments and psychedelic trips. But they're far different from what ancient Egyptians consumed, a UC Berkeley student researcher says.

Need a break from doomscrolling? Me too.

So here's a story on the intersection of Egyptology, Reddit, chemistry, wellness grifts and the outsized effect a cringey 1990s psychedelics documentary on the famed blue lotus had on one UC Berkeley student's future. news.berkeley.edu/2025/03/11/i...

As Trump upends foreign policy, Berkeley scholar sees irreparable damage to U.S. power and prestige - Berkeley News M. Steven Fish, a professor of political science, explains how the Trump administration is reshaping long-time alliances and what's at stake for the future of U.S. leadership in the world.

"Over the past several weeks, we have seen events of world-historical proportions," a UC Berkeley expert on Russian aggression and the war in Ukraine said. "The United States has switched sides."

A revealing Q&A here on fast-changing foreign policy: news.berkeley.edu/2025/03/07/a...

After life as refugees, these UC Berkeley students strive to tackle global problems - Berkeley News "The only way to beat ignorance is through education," said one of the students in the Robinson International Scholars Program, which supports students from sub-Saharan Africa.

One student escaped civil war by traversing mountains in Ethiopia. Another barely fled fighting in Burundi. Two more spent years in a massive refugee camp in Kenya.

Now they're studying at UC Berkeley.

It was such a privilege to get to know these four students: news.berkeley.edu/2025/02/20/a...

When student stress levels are high, this UC Berkeley program turns to exercise as medicine - Berkeley News Exercise is Medicine On Campus is an increasingly popular health, wellness and research initiative, providing hundreds of students consultations with coaches and mentors each year.

I wrote a palate cleanser to cope with the chaos of the past few weeks. It was a helpful reminder that lots of people are genuinely trying to do meaningful and good things that might seem small but actually have very real effects. news.berkeley.edu/2025/01/28/w...

Opinion | Oil and Gas Companies Should Pay for the Los Angeles Fires (Gift Article) It’s time to require these companies to compensate communities, homeowners, businesses and even insurers for the losses.

"We should require these highly profitable companies to compensate communities, homeowners, businesses and even insurers for the losses," UC Berkeley's Dave Jones says in this sharp opinion piece today. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/o...

What's next for home insurance in California after the Los Angeles fires? - Berkeley News UC Berkeley's Dave Jones, the former insurance commissioner of California, explains the stakes of the current wildfire emergency and what might happen next.

Can California's "insurer of last resort" handle the expected deluge of claims? What is the FAIR Plan anyway? And what the heck does Florida have to do with all of this?

My Q&A with CA's former insurance commissioner, who's now at UC Berkeley: news.berkeley.edu/2025/01/14/w...

Health, housing and the path ahead: UC Berkeley researchers on the Los Angeles fires - Berkeley News As a series of historic fires continue to burn in L.A., scholars offer insight into their causes and fallout.

Toxic air and soil. Fragile housing markets. Insurance chaos. And the role of climate fiction in grappling with the climate crisis.

Tons of interesting insights here, with more to come: news.berkeley.edu/2025/01/10/h...

Trump may be planning a sharp, extended conflict with California, experts say - Berkeley News Donald Trump does not hide his disdain for California and its perceived progressive values. Now UC Berkeley analysts say he may be planning an offensive against the state that extends from public heal...

Was Trump's California bashing this week a glimpse of what's to come? UC Berkeley experts say yes. But how consequential it is on environmental policy, immigration and public health remains a bit — perhaps a lot — more nuanced. news.berkeley.edu/2025/01/10/t...

As someone who grew up in — and was once evacuated from — a mobile home park in the SoCal mountains, this important piece hits hard.

"Catastrophic fire erases what was there before. So does forgetting. Memory is a resource for facing the future ... We cannot know the future, but remembering the past with care and accuracy equips us to navigate it."

Map showing the number of times a location has burned in SoCal and which kind of fire it was: one burning under Santa Ana winds, or one that was a summer, fuel-driven fire without Santa Ana winds. Malibu area had burned at least 8 times from 1900-2017, and has burned twice now since. Image from Kolden and Abatzoglou (2018): https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/1/2/19

Here's the reality about the #LAFires this week: this isn't the first time ANY of these places have burned. Not even close. In 2018, we mapped CA fire history to look at fire frequency across SoCal. Santa Monica Mtns area burns more than anywhere else -- up to once per decade in a given spot. 🧵

Not everyone is 100% available 100% of the time (obvi). But reach out to me if you need help lining up interviews, etc.

Attn: Reporters covering the Los Angeles fires:

My team built a page of UC Berkeley wildfire experts, contact info and research focuses. There's experts on WUI, urban fires, smoke dangers, air quality, forest management, wildfire modeling, and more! news.berkeley.edu/expert-topic...

If it's helpful, we built a full list of UC Berkeley fire researchers: news.berkeley.edu/expert-topic...

Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis? The questionable statistic at the heart of the “men don’t read fiction” discourse.

So in all the discourse over how men don't read, I've noticed something weird.

All the articles about this issue say that there are multiple studies showing women account for 80% of fiction sales. But none of them link to the studies — just to each other. www.vox.com/culture/3929...

Sociologist examines Appalachian voters' rightward shift, with Trump as their 'shame shield' - Berkeley News UC Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild traveled to eastern Kentucky to study how pride and shame affect people's politics. Then came 'a perfect storm.'

Obama’s book list includes one from UC Berkeley and sociology legend Arlie Russell Hochschild. It really is a great read! I wrote about “Stolen Pride” a few months ago (before the election) and it was/is one of the most memorable interviews of my year. news.berkeley.edu/2024/09/05/s...

that video!!! 🫣

Carnivorous Squirrels Documented in California California ground squirrels hunt, kill and eat voles, reveals a study by UC Davis and UW-Eau Claire, sharing the first evidence of widespread carnivorous behavior among squirrels.

Squirrels in CA seen hunting and eating voles in first evidence of widespread carnivorous behavior among squirrels, finds @ucdavis UW-Eau Claire study. (You’re welcome and happy holidays.) www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news...

70 yrs ago, people began noticing dings in their windshields. Was it...cosmic rays? H-bomb fallout? Something else?
—Police set up roadblocks
—Marines searched
—Seattle's mayor wired Ike for help
Turns out, in most cases: "The pits had been there all along, but no one had noticed them until now."

Further down the rabbit hole, the '70s cattle mutilation/satanic panic part is way less fun but no less relevant! "Once something like this gets rolling, people are reluctant to accept a mundane explanation. Talk about satanic cults and visitors from outer space adds excitement to a drab existence."

Windshield Pitting Epidemic Posts on classifiedhumanity tagged as Windshield Pitting Epidemic

For the newspaper nerds: classifiedhumanity.com/tagged/Winds...

Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April On April 15, 1954, Bellingham, Seattle and other Washington communities are in the grip of a strange phenomenon -- tiny holes, pits, and dings seemingly have appeared in the windshields of cars at an

I've sent this piece about the Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic to, like, a dozen people today. Might as well put it here too! Sure hope the "drones" don't start dropping rocks on our cars... www.historylink.org/File/5136

‘We Cannot Wait Much Longer’: King Tides Foreshadow a Far Wetter Future for SF Shoreline | KQED King tides are once again causing flooding along San Francisco’s bayshore this week. But as rising seas promise to compound the problem, the city is planning for how to protect key infrastructure like...

🌊‘We Cannot Wait Much Longer’: King Tides Foreshadow a Far Wetter Future for SF Shoreline

🚆It’s a reminder that as seas rise, future floodwaters could flood part of the city’s vital infrastructure: commuter rail lines

@kqednews.bsky.social @kqedscience.bsky.social
www.kqed.org/news/1201810...

Do animals get jealous like people? Researchers say it's complicated. - Berkeley News New UC Berkeley research looks at years of studies into whether non-human animals have a similar sense of fairness. The answer is more nuanced than it may seem.

Do monkeys, corvids and other critters feel a sense of jealousy when their peers get what they want? New UC Berkeley research challenges the increasingly popular idea that they do. (Though my cats beg to differ...) news.berkeley.edu/2024/12/12/d...

Bay Area soda taxes don't just affect sales. They help change people's minds. - Berkeley News UC Berkeley researchers found that taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, coupled with media attention, coincided with significant changes in social norms around sugary drinks.

We already knew soda taxes affect soda sales.

Now, new research shows the penny-per-ounce tax in several Bay Area cities may have fundamentally changed social norms around soda and how people *feel* about other sugary drinks. news.berkeley.edu/2024/12/10/b...

Why a massive California tsunami alert was issued — then soon canceled Coastal areas in Northern California began evacuating residents after a 7.0 earthquake off Humboldt County's coast prompted a tsunami warning. Luckily, the worst didn't play out. But emergency procedu...

The explainer we all needed: “There’s only two ways for us to know a tsunami is occurring: We have the deep ocean buoys and coastal observation stations at ports and harbors — that’s it." www.latimes.com/california/s... via @hannahcwiley.bsky.social @latimes.com

“In the higher ed community and among those who support higher ed, there’s a hope that we won’t be facing these kinds of terrible things. Certainly it’s difficult to predict the future, but maybe the higher ed sector is not fully appreciating the threat that we face.”