In this Berkeley Talks episode, Ramzi Fawaz, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, explores why the humanities and psychedelics might have more in common than you’d think, and how literature, much like psychedelics, can help open one’s mind to the world.

Fawaz, who spoke at UC Berkeley in September, argues that the humanities classroom functions as a vital space for shared sense-making, where deep engagement with art and literature can rewire the brain much like a psychedelic experience — helping students heal from the rigid constraints of competitive individualism.

During the talk, Fawaz recalls reading bestselling author and Berkeley Professor Emeritus Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind.

“I am sort of mind-boggled by the specific chapter where he talks about the neuroscience of psychedelics,” Fawaz tells Ramsey McGlazer, an associate professor in Berkeley’s Department of Comparative Literature, with whom he joined in conversation. “As I was reading it, I was like, ‘He’s just describing humanities education ... except we don’t use drugs, we use art and literature to invoke these transformative effects.’"

Fawaz points out a divide in academia: While scientists look for "magic bullets" to treat mental health — with a specific pill or clinical treatment — humanities scholars often shy away from discussing the intense, emotional ways that art allows us to lose ourselves. He argues that by avoiding these deep sensory experiences, the humanities fail to use their full power to help people heal and grow.

By bridging these fields, he suggests that the study of film and literature can pull us out of our narrow perspectives, enabling us to embrace diversity and multiplicity rather than feel threatened by it.

“This is an extraordinary value of the humanities classroom that we don't talk about,” he says. “It literally has the potential to not only make people critical thinkers, but to actually heal them in a way.”

The event, which took place on Sept. 25, 2025, was organized by the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry and co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics as part of the Psychedelics in Society and Culture programming.

Fawaz is the author of two books — The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics (2016) and Queer Forms (2022) — and is at work on a book titled How to Think Like a Multiverse: Psychedelic Pathways to Embracing a Diverse World. He recently launched his podcast Nerd from the Future, where he engages in conversations with the nation’s leading humanities professors about the state of higher education today.

Listen to the episode and read the transcript on UC Berkeley News (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts/berkeley-talks).

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Photo by Bryce Richter/University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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A broad group of leaders from academia and the private sector — including UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons and neuroscientist Emiliana Simon-Thomas of the Greater Good Science Center — discuss how kindness is a strategic asset rather than a professional weakness, and why the traditional “jerk” model of leadership is scientifically flawed.

This shift toward evidence-based management, the panelists point out, is backed by massive datasets.

“When companies perform very well, we find that prosocial CEOs are more likely to share credit with others,” explains Weili Ge, a professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, drawing on data from a decadelong analysis of 3,500 corporate leaders.

“And when firms don't do well,” she continues, “they're less likely to shift the blame, they're more likely to take responsibility. This is quite different from self-centered CEOs, who are more likely to take credit when things go well and shift the blame when things don't go well."

The panelists include:

• Rich Lyons: 12th chancellor of UC Berkeley
• Emiliana Simon-Thomas: Science director at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center
• Weili Ge: Professor of accounting at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business
• Yamini Rangan: CEO of HubSpot, Berkeley alum
• KeyAnna Schmiedl: Chief human experience officer at Workhuman
• Denis Ring: Former CEO of Ocho Chocolates, creator of the Whole Foods 365 brand
• Kia Afcari (moderator): Director of Greater Good Workplaces at the Greater Good Science Center

The event, which took place on Dec. 1, 2025, was hosted by the Greater Good Science Center in partnership with the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation.

Listen to the episode and read the transcript on UC Berkeley News (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts/berkeley-talks).

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Today we are revisiting a Berkeley Talks episode in which a cross-disciplinary panel of UC Berkeley professors, whose expertise ranges from political science to philosophy, discuss how they view decision-making from their respective fields, and how we can use these approaches to make better, more informed choices.

Panelists include:

• Wes Holliday, professor of philosophy. Holliday studies group decision-making, including the best methods of voting, especially in the democratic context.
• Marika Landau-Wells, assistant professor of political science. Landau-Wells studies the effect that threat perception has on national security decision-making, and how some decisions we make to protect ourselves can endanger many others.
• Saul Perlmutter, Franklin W. and Karen Weber Dabby Professor of Physics and 2011 Nobel laureate. Perlmutter co-teaches a Big Ideas course, called Sense and Sensibility and Science, designed to equip students with basic tools to be better thinkers by exploring key aspects of scientific thinking.
• Linda Wilbrecht, professor of neuroscience and psychology. An adolescent scientist, Wilbrecht studies how adolescent learning and decision-making changes from ages 8 to 18, and how it compares to that of adults and children.
• Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, executive dean of the College of Letters and Science (moderator).

The campus event was held on Oct. 9, 2024, as part of the College of Letters and Science’s Salon Series, which brings together faculty and students from a swath of disciplines to interrogate and explore universal questions or ideas from disparate perspectives.

Watch a video of the discussion.

Listen to the episode and read the transcript on UC Berkeley News (news.berkeley.edu/podcasts/berkeley-talks).

Music by HoliznaCC0.

Photo by Vladislav Babienko via Unsplash.

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