ArcanaImperii

Interview with Dr. Bell Burnell Discoverer of Pulsars

Arianna interviews Dr. Bell Burnell to discuss her discovery of pulsars and other astrophysics topics. Dr. Bell Burnell discovered pulsars in 1967, which was later awarded the nobel prize in physics, although it was given to her supervisor, and not her. She was later awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundemental Physics, and donated all 2.3 million pounds of the prize money to the Institute of Physics to help underrepresented people become physics researchers.

Interview with Kyle York on Venture Capital and Startups

Arianna talks to Kyle York about entrepreneurship and venture capital investing. Kyle York is the CEO and co-founder of York IE, a venture capital firm. He also was the Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer of Dyn, a DNS technology company in Manchester, NH, which was aquired by Oracle.

Topics discussed include cloud computing, cybersecurity, venture investing, and career advice for students interested in entrepreneurship.

The political bias of Facebook ads

Arianna speaks with Laura Edelson, a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, who is a team member on The Online Political Transparency Project researching political bias of Facebook ads. Laura Edelson previously worked in software engineering at Palantir. Topics will examine ad strategies, international aspects, and the upcoming 2020 election. More money will be spent on Facebook ads in the 2020 election cycle than any previous year. Laura speaks to why universal data transparency is important and why transparency in political ads is vital to ensuring safe and fair elections. 

Mixed Race in the UK and USA

Arianna Roberts and Gabrielle Roberts talk to Jennifer Patrice Sims, PhD and Chinelo L. Njaka, PhD about their new book, Mixed-Race in the US and UK: Comparing the Past, Present, and Future. Arianna and Gabrielle discuss the similarities and differences in the experiences of mixed race people in the UK and USA.

Topics of discussion include the microaggressions mixed-race people face, history of mixed-race in the UK and the US, details on crafting the book together, etc. 

The Ethics of AI with Professor Mark McKenna

Arcana Imperii's host, Arianna Roberts, will discuss ethics in technology with Professor Mark McKenna. Professor McKenna is a law professor at Notre Dame. He teaches Information Privacy Law and first year Torts class. He is also the the faculty director of Notre Dame's program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law. He is now running the Technology Ethics Lab at Notre Dame.

With the rise of technology and AI, ethics in technology is becoming increasingly important. Arianna will cover topics such as biases in AI, transparent AI/explainable AI, job displacement as a result of technology. etc.

Perspectives On The COVID-19 Epidemic With A Nurse On The Front Lines

Massachusetts has been one of the hardest hit states during the COVID pandemic, with many healthcare workers serving patients tirelessly to combat the spread. There have been almost 100,000 cases and almost 6,000 dead in Massachusetts alone. On today's podcast we interview Olga Pyatnychko, a registered nurse working in Massachusetts directly with COVID-19 patients. Olga brings her experience and advice onto the podcast, and enlightens us on the current situation within hospitals in America.  

Discussing the Covid-19 Pandemic with Congresswoman Lori Trahan

Arcana Imperii begins a series of podcasts on the devastating pandemic of coronavirus. Our first interview is with our local Congresswoman Lori Trahan to focus on the impacts of coronavirus on our region especially regarding education, transportation, and the path forward. In upcoming episodes we'll interview healthcare workers on the front lines fighting to save patients' lives.

Lori Trahan is the Representative of the 3rd District in Massachusetts. She was Chief of Staff for Marty Meehan and a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Business School.

In late March, she voted for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act – a historic stimulus package designed to help families, workers, and small businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, Congresswoman Trahan voted for the Heroes Act, legislation that will provides $3 trillion in immediate relief to front line workers, additional financial assistance to working families, and enhance oversight of nursing home facilities.

Dr. Carolyn Elya on highjacking zombie fungi

Arianna and Gabrielle interview Dr. Carolyn Elya on how microbes hijack insect nervous systems to control them. Dr. Elya studies a fungus that infects fruit flies, invading their nervous system and eating them from the inside out. The fungus controls the fly nervous system to climb to a high point in the forest in order to better spread the fungus spores to infect new flies and insects. We speak to Dr. Elya about the complex relationships of the organisms and the impact of climate change on the forest ecosystems. 

Dr. Elya is a postdoc at Harvard University, a was a researcher at HHMI, she received a Ph.D from the Molecular and Cell Biology department at UC Berkeley in May 2017. 

Interview with Professor Adam Frank on SETI and Sustainability

Gabrielle and Arianna speak with University of Rochester professor Adam Frank about his new book Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth, a book on climate change, sustainability and alien civilizations.

ADAM Frank is a physics professor at the prestigious University of RochesterHis scientific research has focused on computational astrophysics with an emphasis on star formation and late stages of stellar evolution. Currently his work includes studies of exoplanet atmospheres and astrobiology and exo-civilizations. He is the co-founder of National Public Radio’s Cosmos and Culture blog as well as a regular on-air commentator for All Things Considered

He has written a number of books, including The Constant Fire: Beyond the Religion and Science Debate. About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang explores the links between changing conceptions of cosmology and the human experience of time. He also wrote, Astronomy: At Play in the Cosmos. His latest book is , Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth, which explores both climate change and the search for alien life in the universe.

They also discuss the Drake equation for estimating the possibility of alien civilizations (illustration below from SETI.org)

War of the Worlds 80th anniversary radio play

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the original War of the Worlds broadcast, Arcana Imperii invited the Boxborough Out of the Box Thespians to perform a parody of the War of the Worlds updated to modern times. The radio play stars Gabrielle and Arianna Roberts, Molly Burke, Nicole Bell, and Harini Ganapathy and was directed and produced by Arianna and Gabrielle. 

"The War of the Worlds" original broadcast was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on Sunday, October 30, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by famous filmmaker Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds (1898). The program caused a widespread panic when it was broadcast 80 years ago. 

We hope you enjoy our Halloween special. 

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