uc merced

This interview was originally broadcast during the January 15, 2021 episode of Science Friday. You can find the original piece here.

People tend to listen more when someone uses powerful, authoritative language regardless of whether the person talking is a man or a woman. At least that’s according to one new study, co-authored by UC Merced Assistant Professor of Economics, Ketki Sheth. Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with her about the research, and what the implications are for women in the workforce. 

When wildfires burn in our national parks, we naturally worry about the forest. But what about the photographs, maps and documents that tell the stories of our parks? How do we keep those important archives safe?

FM89’s Alice Daniel spoke with Emily Lin, librarian and head of digital curation at the University of California Merced about moving records from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to the university during last September's intense wildfires.

Images captured by photographer Ernest Lowe tell the story of Central Valley farmworkers and the activists who fought for improved conditions in the 1960s. Last year UC Merced hosted an exhibition of some of those photographs, and now has acquired the complete collection - which the university has made available free to the public online.

A 2019 documentary that was directed and produced by UC Merced global arts professor Yehuda Sharim will be screened internationally over the next few weeks. The film, titled “Songs That Never End,” explores the displacement and struggle of new refugees through the eyes of two young siblings who immigrated to Houston from Iran with their family. Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke to Sharim about the project and the family featured in the film.  

This week, The Guardian published the first in a series of reports on why COVID-19 cases have surged in the Central Valley. Valley Public Radio Host Kathleen Schock spoke with reporter Vivian Ho about her investigation into how the virus spread among agricultural workers. Also joining the conversation is UC Merced Associate Professor of Sociology Edward Flores, who recently co-published a study on the connection between low-wage employment and the coronavirus.

Before the pandemic hit, 59-year-old Maria had steady work cleaning houses in Merced and Winston. But COVID-19 changed everything.

“When the governor told everyone to shelter in place, the homeowners called me and told me not to go to their houses until this is all over,” she said.  

That meant a huge loss in income. Maria made pretty good money, about a thousand dollars a week. But she says her clients were all older people who feared contracting the virus.

The UC Board of Regents announced last week that Juan Sánchez Muñoz will become UC Merced's fourth chancellor. As a UC alum and first-generation student, he has a lot in common with the university's student body. He currently serves as president of the University of Houston-Downtown, and was still in Texas when Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with him about assuming leadership during a pandemic. 

The San Joaquin Valley is accustomed to dealing with drought, but when those conditions last for decades, scientists call it a megadrought. According to a study recently published in the journal Science, the Southwest is currently experiencing a nearly two-decade megadrought that is fueled in part by global warming and is among the worst in human history. Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with John Abatzoglou, a co-author of the study and climatologist who will join the faculty at UC Merced this summer.

One of the most important tools to fight a pandemic is a well-informed public, but much of the information online is questionable or outright false. FM89's Kathleen Schock discussed how to separate fact from fiction with Donald Barclay, a UC Merced librarian and the author of Fake News, Propaganda and Plain Old Lies. 

With the arrival of travel-related cases of COVID-19 to the San Joaquin Valley, FM89's Kathleen Schock looks into how the disease is affecting the local healthcare system, higher education and the economy. She speaks with Dr. Rais Vohra with the Fresno County Department of Public Health, Dr. Terrance McGovern with Madera Community Hospital, Charles Nies, vice chancellor of student affairs at UC Merced and Nyakundi Michieka, assistant professor of economics at CSU Bakersfield.

On this week's Valley Edition: There's only one proposition on the ballot this year, Proposition 13. Some say it will deepen state debt, while others think it’s the fix for California’s aging schools.

Plus: We’ll speak to a California native who served in two presidential cabinets. Secretary Norman Mineta was pivotal in convincing the U.S. government to formally apologize to Japanese Americans after their internment during World War II. 

Researchers have been trying to understand valley fever for decades, but the playing field remained small until recently. 

“When I started in valley fever research just six or seven years ago, the field was largely full of professors and senior clinicians and really didn’t have many of the junior faculty and students as part of the group,” said Katrina Hoyer, an assistant professor at the University of California, Merced. “I think they really wanted people, there just wasn’t much funding.”

Many students struggle to transition from high school to college, but that challenge is intensified for students coming out of the foster care system. At UC Merced, the Guardian Scholars program provides resources for these students that allow them to reach graduation at rates approaching the general student body. FM89's Kathleen Schock spoke with Guardian Scholars Program Coordinator Edith Ramirez, as well as two UC Merced students who have benefited from the program’s support – Michael Grey and Alyssa Garcia.

On this week’s Valley Edition: It’s hard enough being a kid in the foster system. But imagine making it through college without family support. One university program is helping students beat the odds and graduate

Plus: We live in the food basket of the world, but community-supported agriculture programs tend to have a short shelf life here in the Valley. In the wake of a popular Fresno CSA shutting down, we find out why they're so hard to run.

RadioBio is a podcast that educates and informs listeners about science. It's produced by a team of graduate students at UC Merced. Kinsey Brock, Cristie Donham and Sonia Vargas were recently in our studio to tell us why they’re using creative means to improve science literacy.

RadioBio will host a live campus event, ValleyBio, on October 18 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Vault Works on Main Street in Merced.

The U.S. Forest Service estimates 147 million trees in California died following the state’s prolonged drought. New research out of UC Merced suggests a culprit: Extremely dry soil.

Preschoolers played with a robot in the hallway outside of their classroom at the Huggins Early Education Center at Fresno State. They chased it and laughed as it rolled down the long corridor.

Most of the parents of these kids are students at Fresno State. Brittney Randolph, program director for the Huggins Center, said 70 percent of the slots are set aside for students, and having the center on campus can be really beneficial.