The Low Down

What are we talking about when we talk about food? Or, more specifically, food sustainability. When we talk about food, we are really talking about the complex relationship between food, water, environment, technology, policy, and ethics.

Food impacts us on so many levels: from the personal to the global. Individuals, communities, and national governments have to constantly make choices about which food reaches our tables. And, for a variety of reasons—climate change, energy costs, global economic inequality—these choices are becoming more and more complicated. For this reason, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists around the world are turning their attention to this area.

To shine a light on this development, Columbia Engineering and Columbia Entrepreneurship brought together a panel of Columbia experts, who are contributing to the global dialogue on food, to discuss available solutions to feed a hungry planet.

In this episode, Richard Bulliet, Professor of History and Middle East Studies at Columbia, and Dr. Nina Ansary '89BC, '91GSAS, '09GSAS, '13GSAS, the author of the book, Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran, discuss the women's movement in Iran and how Ansary's book breaks down stereotypical assumptions and the often misunderstood story of women in Iran today.

"Based on her doctoral thesis on the women's movement in Iran, Jewels of Allah shatters stereotypical assumptions and the often misunderstood story of women in Iran today. Challenging the dominant narrative of the demise of women and their downward spiral into passive submission since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Ansary argues that 'despite the current regime's best laid plans to redirect women into the private domain, the female population in Iran is distinguished by an unprecedented surge in female literacy and a flourishing feminist movement against the boundaries of traditional religious prescription.' " 

- Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW)

This talk was brought to you by BCRW and the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.

If you tried to define television today, odds are that your definition would be very different from what it might have been just 10 years ago. Thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, more and more people are using their computers as their TVs. And it's not just serial programming that's moved online. Television news outlets have also made the move, producing content specifically for the web.

In this episode, CNN's Meredith Artley addresses this digital shift head-on, discussing how the old barriers between "digital" and "traditional" journalism are crumbling faster than ever.

This talk was presented as part of the Hearst Digital Media Lecture series at the Columbia Journalism School.

Each year, global leaders convene at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to address topics at the forefront of the world agenda. Among those in attendance are prominent Columbia alumni and faculty.

This year's conference took place on January 20-23.

Hear directly from some of these Columbians, who provide insight on its significance and why you should pay attention.

You might have seen Shakespeare in the news recently. Over 400 years ago, the Bard published three of his most famous tragedies (King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra). Shakespeare's prolific year is the subject of a new book by James Shapiro ’77CC, The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606.

The Columbia University Club of New York and the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) are hosted a special conversation with Shapiro about his new book in November 2015. To listen to an excerpt from his lecture, check out the podcast.

The book received a slew of praise from various publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Sunday Times.

Columbia News also posed five burning Shakespearean questions to Shapiro that you can check out here.

Amidst this publication news, there has been a flurry of Shakespearean controversy and Shapiro has been at the forefront of the debate.