This talk will focus on the capabilities of modern AI - what led to the capabilities we are seeing, what are some of the big opportunities and challenges in front of us, and how should we think about managing and governing AI in businesses today. The talk will conclude by examining questions about the future of work for humans in the age of AI and offer some recommendations for individuals, business leaders, policy makers and universities in this context.

SPEAKER

Dr. Balaji Padmanabhan
Professor of Decision, Operations & Information Technologies
University of Maryland

This talk explores a range of moral tales put forth to account for the origin and spread of the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. These ecological fables told about a virus reveal contested histories, beliefs, fears, values, politics, and rights that have shaped—and continue to shape—access to the natural resources of the Upper Guinean Forests of West Africa in a world increasingly threatened by deforestation, zoonotic disease, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

SPEAKER

Gregg Mitman
ERC Professor / Emeritus Professor
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig Maximilian University / University of Wisconsin-Madison

This short follow-up episode features the audience Q&A from our last session hosted by the FedEx Institute of Technology. After the main talk wrapped, our guest stayed to answer questions and expand on key ideas from the discussion. It’s a quick listen packed with thoughtful insights and fresh perspectives.

Around the globe, springs, ponds and lakes have attracted veneration from prehistory to the present. In Ireland, sacred watery sites known as holy wells are nodes of Biocultural Diversity where culture and biology are interrelated and even co-evolved; that is, where particular ecosystems influence spiritual beliefs and practices, and these traditions help protect and maintain ecosystems, habitats, and also particular flora and fauna employed for curative purposes. This talk examines the sacred topographies of holy wells, biomedical applications of "well cures," and the value of ethnography and citizen science in monitoring environmental change.

SPEAKER

Dr. Celeste Ray
Professor and Chair, Anthropology and Director of the Environment Arts & Humanities Program
The University of the South Sewanee

Recorded: October 23, 2025