Better Tomorrow Speaker Series

What types of creatures are we? Are we cruel and competitive or kind and cooperative? Physician and sociologist Nicholas Christakis, Director of Yale’s Human Nature Lab, joins us to discuss the evolutionary origins of human social behavior, our capacity to harm but also our inclination to nurture, educate, and love.

Rebecca Diamond is a Stanford economist who is specializes in housing and inequality. With a wide-ranging research agenda, she has published on gender gaps in the gig economy, the geography of unequal consumption, rent control, affordable housing development, and the effects of foreclosure. She is uniquely positioned to discuss best practices Hawai‘i should adopt to increase housing affordability and mitigate inequality in the post-Covid economy, and in this conversation, she does just that.

Maria Ressa, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and co-founder of Rappler.com, discusses her long career in journalism, from the People Power Revolution that drove Ferdinand Marcos from power to the rise of demagogic populism that brought his son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., back to the presidency. In this searching conversation, Ressa explains the repression of free journalism in the Philippines, the rise of misinformation and fake news, the complicity of massive online platforms like Facebook, and the ghastly toll of Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war. Ressa sat down with the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series for this interview while she was in Honolulu for the East-West Center’s International Media Conference. Interviewer: Robert Perkinson

New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose discusses the dystopian future of artificial intelligence that has already arrived—and what we can do about it. Taking from his new book, Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, Roose outlines practical steps we can take—individually and socially—to ensure that machines work for us rather than the other way around. Interviewed by Robert Perkinson.

“Climate justice is both the acknowledgement that harm was done [and] the provision of tools to rebuild and restore from that harm. And it’s the provision of tools to then chart a course forward.” In this interview with Victoria Keener, Tina discusses what it means to fight in the frontlines in the battle against catastrophic climate change and how she believes we can work together to secure our future.

"Part of the reason we underestimate the loneliness of people is that it's often hidden." Vivek Murthy, who has served as Surgeon General under three presidents, talks about one of the great health crises of our time: lonliness. In conversation with Maya Soetoro.

Oxford economist and best-selling author Kate Raworth, in conversation with UH professor Kamanamaikalani Beamer, discuss how the cult of endless growth in traditional economics has led us astray, undermining human welfare and outstripping planetary limits. In its place, they propose a circular framework for economic thinking, one based on indigenous knowledge and a broader set metrics for sustainability, justice, and human well-being. They look to establish a new economics for the 21st century that would allow all of us to thrive, and that would protect future generations as well.

San Francisco’s embattled district attorney Chesa Boudin talks about his unlikely journey to law enforcement and about using prosecutorial powers to dismantle rather than bolster mass incarceration.

One of the nation’s most decorated climate scientists takes on not just denialism but despair. The crisis is serious, he argues, but there is still plenty of room to act. Along with UH environmental economist Makena Coffman, Mann discusses his new book, The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet.

Is anti-immigrant populism anti-American? Sadly, no, says UH geography professor Reece Jones. In his new book, White Borders: Race and Immigration in America from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall, Jones shows how immigrant exclusion dates to the founding of the republic and has always been entwined with white supremacy. Tune in to discuss his new book and his assessment of US immigration policy from the beginning to the Biden administration.

How do you keep organizing for justice even when racism wears you down? Tune into Alicia Garza, co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter, in conversation with UH Centennial Professor Charles Lawrence. They discuss the future of the Black freedom movement and Alicia’s new book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart. Alicia was the Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Renowned Harvard economist Edward Glaeser explains how cities made civilization rich, how cities can make us sick, and how cities should best be managed for innovation and prosperity.