In our second episode of Horizons, Dean Mark Trodden chats with Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and Director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media. The two discuss Mann’s groundbreaking research as a leading climate scientist, his collaborative work at Penn, and why science communication is essential to meeting the urgent challenges posed by a warming planet.

Horizons is a new podcast series from Penn Arts & Sciences, featuring Dean Mark Trodden speaking with faculty experts about the big issues shaping our world and higher education—including their work exploring new ideas, inspiring students, and driving meaningful change.

Horizons is a new podcast series from Penn Arts & Sciences featuring Dean Mark Trodden talking with faculty experts about the big issues shaping our world and higher education—including their work exploring new ideas, inspiring students, and driving meaningful change.

In our first episode, Dean Trodden talks with Guy Grossman, David M. Knott Professor of Global Politics and International Relations and Co-Director of the Penn Development Research Initiative (also known as the PDRI-DevLab). The two discuss Grossman’s research and projects with Penn’s DevLab and why global collaborations and perspectives are important for the School of Arts & Sciences and its students.

Learn more about Horizons, a vision that will help the School of Arts & Sciences navigate a changing world: https://web.sas.upenn.edu/horizons

In the fifth episode our special edition of the Ampersand Podcast, Mark Trodden, Dean of Penn Arts & Sciences and Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Physics & Astronomy, speaks with Bhuvnesh Jain, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences and the Co-Director of the Penn Data Driven Discovery Initiative and the Penn Center for Particle Cosmology. The two discuss how advances in data science and artificial intelligence are transforming cosmology, teaching, and interdisciplinary research at Penn. 

What do street lights, tree cover, and public art all have to do with criminology? According to the data, these small initiatives can move the needle on the prevalence of neighborhood crime. 

In the fourth special edition of the Ampersand Podcast, Mark Trodden, Dean of Penn Arts & Sciences and Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Physics & Astronomy, talks with John MacDonald, Professor of Criminology and Sociology, and Director of the Master of Science in Criminology, about crime prevention through design, big data and technology, and how the Cambridge inspired a new program at Penn.

We all have intuitions about why we are the way we are, says Associate Professor of Psychology Rebecca Waller. The connection between self and subject matter in psychology is especially close, she says. “That’s exciting because you have the potential to think about things you learned and apply them in your own life.”

In the third special edition of the Ampersand Podcast, Mark Trodden, Dean of Penn Arts & Sciences and Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Physics & Astronomy, speaks with Waller about her research on child development, antisocial behavior, and the ways in which scientific tools are transforming psychology and reshaping how we understand parenting, well-being, and education.

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Produced and edited by Alex Schein 
Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18
Illustration and logo Andrew Nealis 

The Arts & Sciences Annual Fund is the most fundamental way to support the School of Arts & Sciences at Penn. Donations mean immediate, unrestricted dollars for the School to use on its top priorities, including the path-breaking faculty and research featured in this podcast. Show your support today: www.sas.upenn.edu/annual-fund

What role does higher education play in a democracy? In the second episode of a special edition of the Ampersand Podcast, Dean Mark Trodden and historian Sophia Rosenfeld discuss the importance the humanities play in preserving culture, how the history of choice can help students think critically about the hidden assumptions that shape their worlds, and how democracies work best when they operate on shared commonalities that define perceptions of truth, law, and solidarity.

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Produced and edited by Alex Schein 
Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18
Illustration and logo Andrew Nealis 

The Arts & Sciences Annual Fund is the most fundamental way to support the School of Arts & Sciences at Penn. Donations mean immediate, unrestricted dollars for the School to use on its top priorities, including the path-breaking faculty and research featured in this podcast. Show your support today: www.sas.upenn.edu/annual-fund

Join us for the launch of a special edition of the Ampersand podcast, featuring Mark Trodden, Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences and Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Physics & Astronomy in conversation with select faculty members across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

In this conversation, Trodden speaks with Peter Struck, Stephen A. Levin Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Vartan Gregorian Professor of the Humanities, about the Roman roots of the liberal arts, how AI is changing the college experience, and charting curriculum for the 21st century.

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Produced and edited by Alex Schein 
Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18
Illustration and logo Andrew Nealis 

The Arts & Sciences Annual Fund is the most fundamental way to support the School of Arts & Sciences at Penn. Donations mean immediate, unrestricted dollars for the School to use on its top priorities, including the path-breaking faculty and research featured in this podcast. Show your support today: www.sas.upenn.edu/annual-fund

Our new podcast series, Ampersand, features faculty from different disciplines discussing a topic they have in common. In our first episode, Sophia Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, and Sudeep Bhatia, Associate Professor of Psychology, explore the ramifications of choice in everyday life and society as a whole.

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Produced and edited by Alex Schein 
Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18
Illustration and logo Andrew Nealis 

The Arts & Sciences Annual Fund is the most fundamental way to support the School of Arts & Sciences at Penn. Donations mean immediate, unrestricted dollars for the School to use on its top priorities, including the path-breaking faculty and research featured in this podcast. Show your support today: www.sas.upenn.edu/annual-fund

Our final episode of this Omnia podcast season offers a conversation between Stephanie Perry, Executive Director of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies, and Rogers M. Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Political Science. They discuss the implications of Trump’s second term as president, as well as what the future of democracy may look like in the United States and so much more.

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Produced by Alex Schein and Michele Berger 
Hosted by Stephanie Perry 
Edited by Alex Schein 
Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18
Illustration and logo by Nick Matej

Democracy and Decision 2024 is a production of Penn Arts & Sciences in collaboration with the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES). Visit our website to listen to every episode of the Omnia Podcast: https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/podcast

The Arts & Sciences Annual Fund is the most fundamental way to support the School of Arts & Sciences at Penn. Donations mean immediate, unrestricted dollars for the School to use on its top priorities, including the path-breaking faculty and research featured in this podcast. Show your support today: www.sas.upenn.edu/annual-fund

The results of last week’s presidential election are in and Donald Trump will have a second term after earning 312 Electoral College votes and some 75 million votes overall. Republicans also re-gained a majority in the Senate and are poised to maintain control of the House of Representatives. In the fifth episode of Democracy and Decision 2024, the Omnia podcast that has been dissecting the state of U.S. democracy in the context of the election, PORES Executive Director Stephanie Perry spoke with John Lapinski, Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor of Political Science, PORES Director, and Director of Elections at NBC News. They offered some post-election analysis.

The pair talked about seeing Trump’s advantage early on at the NBC News Decision Desk. “What we started to see at a granular level was that Harris was under-performing in key places,” Lapinski says. They also discussed how the polls measured up to election night results, exit polling results—which showed the economy as the most important factor for many voters—and how polling can continue to improve in future election cycles.

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Produced by Alex Schein and Michele Berger 
Hosted by Stephanie Perry 
Edited by Alex Schein 
Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18
Illustration and logo by Nick Matej

Democracy and Decision 2024 is a production of Penn Arts & Sciences in collaboration with the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES). Visit our website to listen to every episode of the Omnia Podcast: https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/podcast

The Arts & Sciences Annual Fund is the most fundamental way to support the School of Arts & Sciences at Penn. Donations mean immediate, unrestricted dollars for the School to use on its top priorities, including the path-breaking faculty and research featured in this podcast. Show your support today: www.sas.upenn.edu/annual-fund

In this season of Democracy and Decision 2024, we take a close look at the state of U.S. democracy in the context of the 2024 election. 

The fourth episode, “The Gears of Democracy,” features Marc Meredith, Professor of Political Science, in conversation with podcast host Stephanie Perry, Executive Director of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES) and the Fox Leadership Program. Both Meredith and Perry are members of the NBC News Decision Desk Team.

The pair talked before Election Day, though the episode focuses on what will happen today at the polls. Plus they discuss why voting laws are so complicated, what has changed since the last election, voter turnout, mail-in ballots, poll workers, and why some races take longer to call than others. 

Check back after the election for our fifth episode, in which Perry speaks with John Lapinski, Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor of Political Science, PORES Director, and Director of the Elections Unit at NBC News.

***
Produced by Alex Schein and Michele Berger 
Hosted by Stephanie Perry 
Edited by Alex Schein 
Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18
Illustration and logo by Nick Matej

Democracy and Decision 2024 is a production of Penn Arts & Sciences in collaboration with the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES). Visit our website to listen to every episode of the Omnia Podcast: https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/podcast

The Arts & Sciences Annual Fund is the most fundamental way to support the School of Arts & Sciences at Penn. Donations mean immediate, unrestricted dollars for the School to use on its top priorities, including the path-breaking faculty and research featured in this podcast. Show your support today: www.sas.upenn.edu/annual-fund