#AcademicRunPlaylist - 3/24/25

It was pouring out today, but at least I got to chill inside with this guy and listen to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an excellent talk by Sendhil Mullainathan on how to effectively/appropriately use AI in science and beyond at CEPR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4mF4c1ZLvI

Next was a great talk by Sergey Levine on building large models for robotics at the University of Toronto Robotics Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYLdC3a0NHw

Next was an amazing discussion with Julie Kallini on creating better tokenization methods for language models at TWIML. This is one of those areas that flies under the radar but has profound implications for language fairness and learning efficiency/effectiveness, and the methods Kallini introduces here are compelling. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf7XY38raIs

Next was "The Making of Asian America" by Erika Lee. This is an essential book, combining historical views of North American colonization and subsequent development, US governmental policies, and Asian social and political developments to set the table for a deep dive of the Asian American experience within the US's borders. Lee tries to do justice to every subgroup but there's a lot to cover, with a stronger focus on east Asian compared to other groups. Still, as a general introduction to the topic and as a jumping off point, this is an excellent book for anyone interested in US history or immigration. Highly recommend http://www.erikalee.org/the-making-of-asian-america/

Last was "Black on Both Sides" by C. Riley Snorton, who examines US history through the lens of race, gender, and identity, focusing more on individual cases rather than broader trends. This book layers on top of that a heaping dose of philosophical analysis, which depending on your preferences either adds to or detracts from that history. I did appreciate how Snorton straddled the history and gender studies fields well, although I think this book is more useful as historical grounding for racial and/or trans theories than as a history book alone https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517901738/black-on-both-sides/