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Learn something new with Badger Talks Quick Picks! This virtual presentation series showcases exciting happenings, resources and talent from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to the people of Wisconsin and beyond. It’s the Wisconsin Idea in action. UW faculty and staff present topics ranging from new robotics technologies to financial investing strategies to tapping trees for maple syrup, and everything in between.
Scroll down to view the recent archive of Badger Talks presentations, all linking to the Badger Talks You Tube. Videos are also available on our Facebook channel! (To turn on subtitles on YouTube, click the square “CC” button in the bottom right of the video frame.)
2025
- Saving the World’s Most Peaceful Primates with Karen Strier
- On the Trail of the World’s Oldest Dinosaur with David Lovelace
- Innovations and Efficiencies in the Menominee Tribe’s Food Systems with Jen Falck
- Opportunities for Entrepreneurship with Jon Eckhardt
- The Positive Path Through Madison’s Darbo Neighborhood with Will Green and Tonya Mathison
- Does Growing up on the Farm Protect Children from Allergies? with Christine Seroogy
- Love Your Heart: Advances and Strategies for Caring for Your Most Precious Organ! with Adam Gepner
- Building a Culture of Belonging, Flourishing, and Love with Tony Chambers
- French Love with Jan Miernowski
2024
- What’s Happening at Arlington Research Station? with Mike Bertram and Laura Hernandez
- What’s Happening at the Hancock Research Station? with Troy Fishler and Yi Wang
- Just Wait Five Minutes: Measuring the Weather in Wisconsin with Chris Vagasky
- Conservation vs. production in the dairy state with Matt Ruark
- The Wisconsin Idea in Living Color—UW’s Agricultural Research Stations with Mike Peters
- It’s the Main Breaks, Stupid: Basic Services and Democracy with Manny Teodoro
- Seeking Civility During an Era of Polarization with Susan Webb Yackee
- Trade Policy in the 2024 Election with Jon Pevehouse
- Student Athlete Success at UW-Madison with Jackie Davenport
- It’s Never Boring: 35 Years in College Athletics with Justin Doherty
- Badger Sports Camps – Everything you never knew and more with Tracy Chynoweth
- Health in Wisconsin: The Ongoing Opioid Crisis with Christine Durrance
- A fish’s view of 20,000 years of Great Lakes ecology with Titus Seilheimer
- Plastics: Tiny Debris with Great (Lakes) Impact with Anne Moser
- How Will the Great Lakes Respond to Our Changing Winters with Zach Feiner
- Building with Nature with Julia Noordyk
- The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal with Greg Nemet
- From Lake Mud to Global Biodiversity & Climate Change Research with Jack Williams
- Gardening with Native Plants with Susan Carpenter
- Design Components for Butterfly Gardens with Lisa Johnson
- Spring Garden Check-Up: What You Need to Know about Invasive Jumping Worms with Brad Herrick
- The Power to Change Lives: Two Decades of the UW Odyssey Project with Emily Auerbach
- Generations of Impact Through Odyssey with Emily Auerbach, Josephine Lorya, Brian and Lucas Benford, and Marisol Gonzalez Rodriguez
- Odyssey Beyond Bars: A College Jumpstart Course in Wisconsin’s Prisons with Peter Moreno, Kevin Mullen, and Robert Taliaferro
- Empowering Progress: Dr. Fabu Carter on Bridging Research & Accessibility in Alzheimer’s Healthcare with Fabu Carter
- The Best of Both Worlds: Building an authentic and equitable community-academic partnership for research with legal system-impacted individuals with Dr. Karen Reece, Aaron Hicks, Deb Mejchar, Dr. Mike Koenigs, Dr. Dan Grupe, and Dr. Carmen Alonso
- Braiding Esperanza (hope): A sustainable engaged partnership to promote Latine mental health equity with Evelyn Cruz and Alyssa Ramirez Stege
2023
- Music and the Human Spirit with Dan Cavanagh
- Writing Their Way Home: Veterans’ Stories and Survival with Doug Bradley
- Beyond Fake News: Games for Learning with Sarah Gagnon
- Groundbreaking Research: Working with Communities to Advance Wisconsin with Elizabeth Tryon
- The Latest Research Around Creating Inclusive Environments with Markus Brauer
- The UW-Madison Cardiovascular Research Center with Héctor Valdivia
- How to Mend a Broken Heart: Progress in Cardiac Regenerative Medicine Research with Timothy Kamp
- Heart Disease and Aortic Aneurysms: Wisconsin’s Silent Killers with Bo Liu
- LIVE From Milwaukee for UW’s 175th
- The History of the Washburn Observatory with Jim Lattis
- Little Green…Molecules? What the Chemistry of Space can Tell us About Life in the Universe with Susanna Widicus Weaver
- Devoured Worlds: Lessons From Planet-Ingesting Stars with Melinda Soares-Furtado
- Trading Toxics in North America with Sarah A. Moore
- Human Mobility Analytics Using Location Big Data with Song Gao
- Hot Times in Cold Places: The Thawing of the Arctic Permafrost with Christian Andresen
- Russia’s War in Ukraine with Mikhail Troitskiy
- Buddhism and Tibet with Wisconsin Biographies with Jampa Khedup and Alyssa Tsagong
- Islam and Palestine with Wisconsin Biographies with Janan Najeeb & PBS Education team
- The Impacts of PFAs in Waters of Wisconsin with Christy Remucal
- Roadmap to Smart & Automated Vehicles with Xiaopeng Li
- New Technologies for Recycling of Plastic Waste with George Huber
- Strength and Conditioning in Collegiate Athletics with Kevin Schultz
- Mental Flex: Meditation Training for Performance and Well-Being with Chad McGehee
- NIL and the Opportunities it has Provided for Student Athletes with Brian Mason
- The Arts for Everyone, Everywhere with Chris Walker
- Exploring Wellness and Belonging Through the Arts with Chris Walker and Gabrielle Javier-Cerulli
- The Impact of Interdisciplinary Arts with Shasparay Irvin and Porsha Olayiwola
2022
- Navigating Health Information Online with Catherine Arnott Smith
- The Catapult Program with Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau
- The Creative Destruction Lab with Tom Erickson and Joan Schmit
- The School of Human Ecology Equity & Justice Network with Janean Dilworth Bart
- Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors: Why Diversity in Children’s Books Matters to Us All with Dipesh Navsaria
- Questioning Things: Material Culture Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Sarah Anne Carter
- Breast Cancer Biology and Treatments with Wei Xu
- Learning How Two Viruses Cause One Cancer with Bill Sugden
- The Development and Personalized Treatment Strategies for Colorectal Cancer Patients with Dustin Deming
- Welcome to UW’s Multicultural Student Center! with Claudia Guzman
- Serving Wisconsin with Greg Offerman
- Investment Opportunities of Climate Change with Tom Eggert
- Cats, Dogs, and Cows, Oh My! Climate Change and the Impacts on Pets and Livestock with Jennifer Van Os and Erin Lashnits
- The Latest Research: Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention with Sterling Johnson
- Family Caregiver Burnout and Alzheimer’s Disease with Jody Krainer
- Lo que hay que saber de los problemas de la memoria y como mantener nuestros cerebros saludables with Maria Mora Pinzon
- The World Needs Dance with Kate Corby
- Dancing Through Life with Li Chiao-Ping
- Building a Room of One’s Own with Peggy Choy
- The Future of Business Education in Wisconsin with Vallabh Sambamurthy
- From Idea to Business with Michelle Somes-Booher and Dan Olszewski
- Supply Chain Disruptions During Pandemic Times with Jake Dean and Greg DeCroix
- Covering Wisconsin: An Important Resource for the State with Allison Espeseth
- Who Can You Trust? Understanding Digital Government Imposter Scams with Cliff Robb
- Supporting the Growth of Wisconsin’s Maple Syrup Industry with Jeremy Solin
- Investing 101 with Linda Lepe
- WPR Reporter Bridgit Bowden with Bridgit Bowden
2021
- Gardening with Native Plants with Susan Carpenter
- Waunakee Wisconsin’s Ho-Chunk History Project with Jessie Conaway
- Improving Health Outcomes in Wisconsin through Evidence-Based Decision-Making with Barbara Duerst
- The Engineering Behind Blue-Green Algae Removal from the Fox River with Michael Cheadle
- Insider’s Guide to the 2021 Wisconsin Science Festival with Laura Heisler
- When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: A Wisconsin Book Festival Preview with Steve Nadler and Larry Shapiro
- Drawing the Lines: What’s Happening with Redistricting? with Barry Burden
- The Problems of Invasive Fungi with Anne Pringle
- Backstage Pass: Hamel Music Center with Susan Cook
- The Many Faces of a Life in Music with Dan Grabois
- Elegy for an Undiscovered Species with Johannes Wallmann
- Musical Shapeshifting: New Directions for the Future of Music with Jean Laurenz
- La Follette Focus: Our Genes Tell an Important Story with Phillip Koellinger
- La Follette Focus: Climate Solutions with Greg Nemet and Morgan Edwards
- La Follette Focus: Big Questions in Health Policy with Christine Durrance
- Creativity in Crisis: the Practice of Poetry with Cherene Sherrard-Johnson
- A Day in the Life of a Zoo Vet with Mary Thurber
- A Novel Pastime: The Coyotes of Carthage with Steven Wright
- The Dairyland Initiative The WI Idea in Action! with Courtney Halbach
- The Wisconsin Journey to Becoming America’s Dairyland with John Lucey
- The Center for Dairy Profitability with Mark Stephenson and Jenny Vanderlin
- Meet the Dairy Innovation Hub with Heather White
- Teaching in the Garden with Johanna Oosterwyk
- The Revealing History of Women’s Undergarments with Leslie Bellais
- The New Mysteries of Human Origins with John Hawks
- 80 Years at Upham Woods! with Justin Hougham
- Meet the UW Neighborhood Law Clinic with Mitch
- The UW Humanities Building: An Unfortunate History & Future with Gary Brown and Kip McMahan
- Meet StrongBodies Wisconsin! with Angela Flickinger
- Breeding Root Vegetables for Wisconsin with Irwin Goldman
- What Lies Between Galaxies with Eric Wilcots
- Visual Exploration at the Kohler Art Library with Anna Simon
- The Chemical Origins of Life with Lena Vincent
- Broadband Internet and the Wisconsin Economy with Tessa Conroy
- WPR’s Stephanie Elkins on American composer Florence Price with Stephanie Elkins
- Bucky Goes to Main Street Wisconsin! with Gavin Luter
- The Beatles: “Let me Take You Down” with Brandon Quarles
- Stories in Stone from the UW Geology Museum! with Brooke Norsted
- Music Perspectives: A Look into a Professional Musician’s Life with Lindsay Flowers
- Timeless Approaches to Improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with Tracy Williams-Maclin
2020
- Theatre and the Mastery of Mind, Body and Spirit with Mark Hairston
- Life with the Badger Band with Mike Leckrone
- UW Humanities Responders with Aaron Fai
- Wisconsin’s Connection to Alexander Hamilton: Meet William Hamilton with Simone Munson
- What is the UW Arts Collaboratory? with Yorel Lashley
- The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald with Steve Ackerman
- Climate Change and Ecosystems: Lessons from the Past with Jack Williams
- The Art of Papermaking with Mary Hark
- The Life of William Grant Still with Lori Skelton
- HAMILTON: How a Musical About History is Making Musical History with Sarah Marty
- Introduction to Spooner Agricultural Research Station (SARS) with Kevin Schoessow
- Virtual Painting Happy Hour with Taylor Franklin
- Mills Music Library with Tom Caw
- The Amish in Wisconsin with Mark Louden
- Growing Fruit in Wisconsin with Amaya Atucha
- Building Our Everyday Resiliency Compass with Julia Yates
- Welcome to UW Makerspace! with Lennon Rodgers
- Learn to Weave at Home with Marianne Fairbanks
- Insect “Rockstars” of the Garden with Karen Oberhauser, Susan Carpenter, and Brad Herrick
- Art-making for Self-care with Taylor Franklin
- Urban Canid Project – Red Foxes and Coyotes–Our Path to Co-Existence with David Drake
- Bookmarks with WPR’s Charles Monroe-Kane
- Overview and Behind the Scenes Tour of UW Veterinary Care with Ruthanne Chun
- Gardens Will Save the World with Ben Futa
- Understanding the Importance of Marketplaces in History with Alfonso Morales
- Staying as Safe as You Can: Privacy and Security Online with Dorothea Salo
- The Physics of Plasma with Mike Randall
- Behind the Scenes: Tour & Seed Starting at Leopold Greenhouse with Tom Bryan
- Mindfulness and Meditation to Manage Stress with Bob McGrath
- The Wingra Quintet
- Behind the Scenes Tour at the Chazen! with Katherine Alcauskas
- The Songs and Legacies of the Vietnam War with Doug Bradley
- Cultivate a Healthy Mind in Challenging Times with Pelin Kesebir
- Ballroom Basics for Balance (BB4B) with Susan Frikken
- Science Savvy Explorations in Your Kitchen with Tom Zinnen
- Life on Purpose with Christine Whelan
- Eating to Support Wellness with Beth Olson