With the opening of Uncharted: The Berkeley Festival of Ideas coming up soon, the full program for the two-day extravaganza of speakers and experiences has now been unveiled. We’ve also released Friday-only and Saturday-only tickets for those interested in attending one day of Uncharted.
Uncharted opens at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 25 with a session that displays the range of the festival: innovation guru Vivek Wadhwa (very much in the news this week for his comments on sexism and racism in Silicon Valley) will talk with Grist’s Scott Rosenberg about “Everything you know about entrepreneurship is wrong.” This will be swiftly followed by Kalimah Priforce’s “Could an app have saved Trayvon Martin?”; io9 editor-in-chief Annalee Newitz in conversation with Berkeleyside’s Lance Knobel on “Can humans survive mass extinction?”; and UC Berkeley poverty expert Ananya Roy speaking with Reuters’ Felix Salmon on “Solving global poverty.”
Other highlights on Friday include economist Brad DeLong and astronomer/big data entrepreneur Joshua Bloom on “I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords”, winemaker and wit Randall Grahm, Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas and Business Insider’s Josh Barro on the 2014 midterms, Phil Bronstein speaking to UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center director Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton on “Are we born racist?” and two interactive workshops led by Silicon Valley innovation consultants Jump Associates.
Plus there’s Uncharted Unplugged — a chance to chat informally with Uncharted speakers — and what promises to be a fabulous Friday night Uncharted Party at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, with live music, food, wine and beer.
On Saturday, participants will hear UC Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks in conversation on “So what are the humanities, chopped liver?”; Autodesk CEO Carl Bass will explore the frontiers of digital fabrication; author Chrystia Freeland and UC Berkeley political scientist Paul Pierson will discuss will the rise of the plutocrats; and — this couldn’t be timelier — Barro and Stanford’s David Crane puzzling over “Will we ever have a responsible Republican party?” Plus there will be a series of “mind bombs” from remarkable young Thiel Fellows; a chat with inspiring food maven Mollie Katzen; and brilliant young psychologist Paul Piff teasing out how the rich think.
View the full program and the roster of speakers on the Uncharted website.
Berkeleysiders who haven’t bought their tickets to Uncharted yet should use promo code Berkeleyside Friend when they register in order to get a discount.
