Humans and Wild Ecosystems in a Hot World

The fifth annual Climate Science and Policy Conference, "Humans and Wild Ecosystems in a Hot World” takes place on Wednesday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at the Rio Theatre. Speakers Newton Harrison (UC Santa Cruz) and Scott Wing (Smithsonian Institution) will discuss how humans and wild ecosystems can survive, and even thrive, on a hot planet. The talks will be introduced by Social Sciences Dean Katharyne Mitchell and moderated by Paul Koch, Dean of the Physical and Biological Sciences. Arts Dean Susan Solt will provide concluding remarks.  

Newton Harrison has been exhibiting art widely since the 1960’s. He and his wife, Helen, comprise The Harrison Studio. Their visionary projects have expanded dialogue around previously unexplored environmental issues. The Harrisons are Arts Dean’s Visiting Eminent Professors at UC Santa Cruz, and lead the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure.

Scott Wing is a biologist who explores evolution, ecology, and climate change at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where he is Curator of Fossil Plants. His research is focused on the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic - a period of globally warm climate when flowering plants were emerging as the dominant form of terrestrial life - and is based largely on field work and analysis of fossil plants.

Show time: 7:00 PM
Tickets: FREE
Advance tickets: www.climateconference.ucsc.edu
Event website: www.climateconference.ucsc.edu

Frans Lanting and Chris Eckstrom

Join us for a new presentation by renowned photographer Frans Lanting and his partner, Chris Eckstrom, about the wonders of wild Africa. During journeys over the past 30 years, they have documented the wildlife and natural heritage of some of the most celebrated landscapes on Earth.

INTO AFRICA is based on Frans Lanting's landmark exhibition of the same name, which was produced as a partnership with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the National Geographic Society, with support from the World Wildlife Fund.

Proceeds will benefit the marine science education and conservation programs at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center.

Ocean Sponsor
Jo Lynne and Fred Jones

Coastal Sponsors
Day One Solar
Elizabeth Quinn M.S. D.C.
Karon Properties
Plaza Lane Optometry
Santa Cruz County Bank

Buy tickets to the show you wish to attend. Tickets are not interchangeable between shows. Thank you.

Show times: 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Tickets: $20 Gen, $45 Gold Circle
Advance tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com and and Seymour Marine Discovery Center
Artists website: www.lanting.com
Event website: www.seymourcenter.ucsc.edu

A California native, Harris was valedictorian of his Crown College graduating class at UCSC in 1980. He earned a B.A. in biology, with highest honors, and went straight into journalism, working as a newspaper reporter before joining NPR. Among the many awards Harris has received during his career as a journalist is the Sagan Award for improving the public understanding of science.

There will be books for sale in the lobby and there will be a book signing on stage.

Show time: 7:00 PM
Tickets: FREE
Advance tickets: www.ucsc.edu

8 PM SHOW SOLD OUT -
LATE SHOW ADDED @ 10:30 PM

"Fresh Off The Bloat" tour!

Fresh off the Bloat is my sickest show to date. My grandmother said "You look like bloated as if you've been found dead in a lake after several days of searching." Koreans are the miss savage of all the Asians. My new show is all about being fresh off drugs and drinking and suicide and coming back to life - finally fished out of the river Styx. It's meta. It's magical. It's me.

Show time: 8:00 PM
Tickets: $32 Gen, $47 Gold Circle
Advance tickets: www.pulseproductions.net and Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz
Artists website: www.margaretcho.com

Lecture by Kathryn Sullivan

Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space and the former administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association, will give a talk on Oct. 11—the 33 rd anniversary of her historic spacewalk—as a benefit for the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Dr. Sullivan will speak about exploring on the frontiers of science. She served as a member of three NASA space shuttle missions and travelled to the East Pacific Rise in the deep-sea submersible Alvin, is a geologist and oceanographer who graduated from UC Santa Cruz with honors in 1973. She served as NOAA administrator from March 2014 to January 2017.

Show time: 7:00 PM
Tickets: $18 Gen, $40 Gold Circle
Advance tickets: www.santacruzmuseum.org and Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History
Event website: www.santacruzmuseum.org

Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer. Marianne has been a popular guest on television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose & Bill Maher. Seven of her twelve published books have been New York Times Best Sellers. Four of these have been #1. The mega best seller A Return to Love is considered a must-read of The New Spirituality. A paragraph from that book, beginning “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers. Marianne’s other books include The Law of Divine Compensation, The Age of Miracles, Everyday Grace, A Woman’s Worth, Illuminata, Healing the Soul of America, A Course in Weight Loss, The Gift of Change, Enchanted Love, A Year of Miracles, and her newest book, Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment.

Show time: 8:00 PM
Tickets: $40 Gen, $54 Gold Circle
Advance tickets: www.red.vendini.com
Artists website: www.marianne.com

The Natural History of Human Decomposition

When the human body is allowed to undergo normal decomposition, then the remains play host to a suite of insects, animals and fungi as well as the bacterial interactions from within and external to the body. In other words, we may die but life continues and transitions. This talk will explore the range of creatures that utilize human bodies after death and how forensic anthropologists and other forensic scientists use these to estimate the time since death. Alison Galloway was born in the United Kingdom but came to California in 1960 and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. She attended UC Berkeley and then the University of Arizona, Tucson, where she completed her doctorate. After teaching for two years at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, she returned to California as an Assistant Professor at UC Santa Cruz where she has been since. Her research interests involve what happens to bone during life, around the time of death and what happens to bodies after people die. She also is a board-certified forensic anthropologist who provides services to counties across California.

Sponsored by Good Times, Allterra Solar, Sentinel Printers, Miller Maxfield Inc, and 2nd Nature.

Show time: 7:00 PM
Tickets: $15 Gen, $30 Gold Circle
Advance tickets: www.santacruzmuseum.org and Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

Einstein, Gravitational Waves and Black Holes

UPDATE - Change of speaker due to family emergency

Speaker : Jess McIver

Jess McIver is a postdoctoral scholar in experimental physics with the LIGO Laboratory at Caltech in Pasadena, California. She first began work on gravitational wave research with the LIGO detectors at Syracuse University where she earned bachelor's degrees in physics and journalism in 2009. She graduated with a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2015. Jess is one of the leaders of the international, award-winning LIGO Scientific Collaboration.

Show time: 7:30
Tickets: Free and open to the public
Event website: www.events.ucsc.edu

Frans Lanting and Chris Eckstrom

A special presentation by renowned photographer Frans Lanting and his partner, Chris Eckstrom, in celebration of the Ends of the Earth. Frans and Chris returned recently from another journey to the Antarctic with fresh impressions about a remote part of the earth few people have seen with their own eyes. They will regale us with their images and stories about the natural and human history of the contested Falkland Islands, the spectacular wildlife gatherings of South Georgia, and the frozen grandeur of the Antarctic continent. They will pay tribute to early explorers like Sir Ernest Shackleton and his heroic Endurance expedition–an epic story of leadership and survival that unfolded in the frozen seas of the Antarctic one hundred years ago.

Proceeds will benefit the marine science education and conservation programs at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at Long Marine Lab.

Ocean Sponsor: Jo Lynne and Fred Jones

Show times: 3:00 PM& 7:00 PM              
Tickets: Seymour Center Member – $19.00 General – $23.00 Gold Circle – $40.00
Advance tickets: www.seymourcenter.brownpapertickets.com  and Seymour Marine Discovery Center                
Artists website: www.lanting.com

A Brief History of Geology and Natural Disasters in Santa Cruz

“The history of the Earth, like the life of a soldier, consists of long periods of boredom separated by short intervals of terror.” ~Derek Ager

Santa Cruz is just an adolescent in geologic time. We are surrounded by a landscape that is constantly changing, whether the coastline, the stream valleys or the hillsides. The region has a long history of natural disasters, whether earthquakes, floods, hillside failures or coastal erosion, although we tend to suffer from collective amnesia and quickly forget the disasters of the past. What does our past tell us about the future and is there any safe place to live in paradise?

Presented by:
Gary Griggs
Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Director, Institute of Marine Sciences, UCSC
(Museum Member advance sale ticket price: $10)

Show time: 7:00 PM     
Tickets: $15Gen, $30 Gold Circle     
Advance tickets: www.santacruzmuseum.org and Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, 1305 East Cliff Dr        

While large carnivores have declined throughout the world, they are making a recovery in many parts of North America but are going extinct throughout much of Africa. How can science help? Chris Wilmers will explore this question and others in the context of his research on mountain lions locally and on leopards and lions in Kenya.

Chris Wilmers is a professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at UC Santa Cruz. His research explores the impacts of human development on large predators such as mountain lions, wolves, lions, bears and leopards.

Show time: 7:30 PM        
Tickets: $12 Gen,  $20 Gold Circle  
Advance tickets: www.santacruzmuseum.org and Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, 1305 East Cliff Dr        
More Info: www.santacruzmuseum.org

Lucianne Walkowicz

Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz is an Astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, where she studies stellar magnetic activity and how stars influence a planet's suitability as a host for alien life. She is also an artist and works in a variety of media, from oil paint to sound. www.tangledfields.com

Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz is an Astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, where she studies stellar magnetic activity and how stars influence a planet's suitability as a host for alien life. She is also an artist and works in a variety of media, from oil paint to sound. Dr. Walkowicz holds a B.S. in Physics from Johns Hopkins University, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington.  She was the Kepler Fellow at UC Berkeley, and the Henry Norris Russell Fellow at Princeton University, before joining the Astronomy Department at Adler Planetarium in 2014. She is a 2012 TED Senior Fellow, a 2011 National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow, and has been internationally recognized for    

Show time: 7:00 PM
Tickets: FREE Registration
Advance tickets: www.ecurelb.imodules.com  
More Info: www.ted.com

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now! An acclaimed international journalist, she has won the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the Alternative Nobel Prize; a lifetime achievement award from Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism; the George Polk Award; Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting; and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. Amy is the New York Times bestselling author, with Denis Moynihan, of The Silenced Majority and Breaking the Sound Barrier; and with David Goodman, of Exception to the Rulers, Static, and Standing Up to the Madness. She is a syndicated columnist for King Features.   

Show time: 7:00 pm
Ticket packages: $30
Advance tickets: Bookshop Santa Cruz and www.bookshopsantacruz.com
More Info:www.bookshopsantacruz.com

A Curated Conversation with Robert Reich

Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, will discuss his new book, "Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few" in conversation with Heather Bullock, UC Santa Cruz professor of psychology. Seating is limited. Registration is required.         

Show time: 6:30 PM
Tickets: Free Registration
More Info: www.connect.ucsc.edu

A FREE lecture series from industry experts on Cannabis Science, Research, Politics and Business  
     
Hosted by Pat Malo of the Cannabis Advocates Alliance

Lecture 1: Veterans on Medical Cannabis with Jason Sweatt and Aaron Newsom of Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance.

Lecture 2: State of the Sate with Casey O'Neill, Chair of the California Growers Association.

Lecture 3: Responsibility of an Emerging Industry with Amanda Reiman, Manager of Marijuana Law and Policy at Drug Policy Alliance.

CannTalk is Powered by SC Laboratories and Envirocann

Show time: 6:00 PM
Tickets: FREE
Advance tickets: Jane.Stewart@SCLabs.com
More info: www.sclabs.com
Event Website: www.facebook.com

A Celebration of California's Central Coast

2 SHOWS!  3:00 pm and 7:00 pm

Join us for a special presentation by renowned photographer Frans Lanting in celebration of the Monterey Bay, his home ground for the past 30 years. Frans will share images and stories about the Monterey Bay region--one of the hottest hot spots for biodiversity in North America, according to The Nature Conservancy.  

The Bay's natural richness is due to an unusual combination of microclimates onshore and physical features offshore, and Frans's presentation will tie together terrestrial and marine environments to show the dynamic linkages between them. He portrays the Monterey Bay the way he has profiled exotic ecosystems on other continents, but with a personal perspective embedded in the story.  His images feature a remarkable cast of characters, from mountain lions and condors to sea otters and elephant seals, in a place that represents a unique convergence of land and sea, where endangered endemics mix with cosmopolitan migrants.

Join us for a fascinating afternoon or evening of discoveries and insights about the remarkable region many of us call home. 

Proceeds from this presentation will benefit the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at Long Marine Laboratory. Located in Santa Cruz on the bluffs overlooking Monterey Bay, the Seymour Center provides exciting and engaging ocean education programs for the visiting public and for students of all ages. It is dedicated to educating youth, families, and the general public about the role science plays in the understanding and conservation of the world's oceans. The Seymour Center is open six days a week, year-round, and serves more than 65,000 people each year.         

Show times: 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm
Tickets: $23.00
Advance Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com and Seymour Marine Discovery Center         
More Info: seymourcenter.ucsc.edu  
Artists website: www.lanting.com

Legendary writer, performer, and visual artist Patti Smith, National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids, will discuss her new memoir, M Train, an unforgettable odyssey into her astonishing mind, told through the prism of cafes and haunts she has visited and worked in around the world. 

Show time: 7:00 pm

This event has SOLD OUT

This event is presented by Book Shop Santa Cruz and information for this event is available at 831-423-0900 and www.bookshopsantacruz.com
More Info: www.bookshopsantacruz.com

It all started for Ralphie May when he won a contest to open for his idol, comedian Sam Kinison, at age 17. Things snowballed from there, leading up to a second-place win on the first season of Last Comic Standing in 2003. That led to appearances on The Wayne Brady Show, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live and more, not to mention platinum-selling DVDs and podcasts. Audiences love his no-nonsense point of view and his ability to connect with a diverse audience by pointing out society's hypocrisies. He's big, he's bold, and coming to Santa Cruz!

Show time: 8:00 PM         
Tickets: 25 general, 40 gold circle
Advance tickets: www.pulseproductions.net  Streetlight records and Tomboy beginning of September  
Artist website: www.ralphiemay.com

The CannTalk Lecture Series, established in the Fall of 2015 by SC Laboratories, is a free lecture offered to the public by eminent speakers in the cannabis science, business, art, and law fields. Each lecture series will deliver powerful message to patients, consumers, regulators, and the general public about current and innovative cannabis topics.

Show time: 5pm
Tickets: free
More Info: www.sclabs.com

Robert P. Kirshner is Clowes Professor of Science at Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard College in 1970 and received a Ph.D. in Astronomy at Caltech. He was a postdoc at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, and was on the faculty at the University of Michigan for 9 years. In 1986, he moved to the Harvard Astronomy Department. He served as Chairman of the Department from 1990-1997 and as Director of the Optical and Infrared Division of the Center for Astrophysics from 1997-2003. He was Master of Quincy House, one of Harvard's undergraduate residences from 2001-2007.

Professor Kirshner is an author of over 300 research papers dealing with supernovae and observational cosmology. His work with the "High-Z Supernova Team" on the acceleration of the Universe helped lead to the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics which was awarded jointly to his students Adam Riess and Brian Schmidt and to Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Kirshner and the High-Z Team shared in the Gruber Prize for Cosmology in 2007, and the Fundamental Physics Breakthrough Prize in 2014. A member of the Amercian Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and the American Philosophical Society in 2004. He served as President of the American Astronomical Society from 2003-2005. Kirshner was given the Distinguished Alumni Award by Caltech in 2004 and received an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Chicago in 2010. Kirshner won the Dannie Heineman Prize in Astrophysics in 2011, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2012, and in 2015 was named Physics Laureate by the Wolf Foundation jointly with B.J. Bjorken of Stanford.

Kirshner is a frequent public lecturer on science. He recently spoke at the Genoa Science Festival and the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin. He is also the teacher of a General Education course for Harvard undergraduates entitled "The Energetic Universe." His popular-level book "The Extravagant Universe: exploding stars, dark energy, and the accelerating cosmos" was published by Princeton University Press. It won the AAP Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Physics and Astronomy. The Extravagant Universe is available in paperback and has been translated into Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Czech.

Tickets: This event is free, and there is not a pre-registration for tickets ; This is a first-come , first serve style event.
Showtime: 7:15, Doors 6:30