Lithuanian composer Justė Janulytė watches and listens intently to the mysterious wonders of our reality. Born in Vilnius in 1982, Janulytė’s pieces explore time and space through the large-scale texturing of sound, moving between minimalism, spectralism, and electroacoustic music. Because of this, listeners have often compared listening to her music to being bathed in an overflow of sumptuous harmonies. Janulytė has also taken inspiration from the visual elements of the natural world, such as shifting clouds and the way blood circulates through the body.

Joseph Stalin famously said, "Music's a good thing. It calms the beast in the man." For Stalin though, not all music produced peace and serenity. In his eyes, certain types of music could just as easily act as the beast itself; ready to attack and tear apart the society around it. Perhaps the form of music that generated the most concern during the Stalinist era was jazz. According to historian Martin Lüke, jazz in the USSR between 1920 and 1953 was in constant flux; shifting between sponsorship, censorship, and prohibition.

When asked what interested her about the jazz art form, Nina Simone responded, "I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about. But jazz is dedicated to freedom, and that is far more important."Typically, what drives an artist's ambition, is the desire to hold mastery over their medium. Whether for their own gratification, or to attract the attention of others, the artist wants to bend the established rules of their chosen discipline to their will. This is also present in jazz. Jazz embraces the moment-to-moment uncertainty of improvisation.

Earl Hines once said, "I always thought jazz was like the trunk of a tree. After the tree has grown, many branches have spread out. They're all with different leaves and they all look beautiful. But at the end of the season, they fold back up and it's still the tree trunk."For the citizens of Lithuania, the relationship between trees and music has been an integral part of the culture. Throughout its pagan years, ancient Lithuania's polytheistic beliefs utilized music not so much for entertainment, but for ritual purposes.

Of the many hardships indigenous women around the world face, violence, especially sexual violence, remains a primary concern. According to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, indigenous women face disproportional levels of violence and sexual harassment. This systemic discrimination is often rooted in persistent racism towards indigenous communities, as well as the past and present effects of colonialism. Here, discrimination takes the form of indigenous communities being forcefully relocated.

Since time immemorial humans have enjoyed watching and participating in combat sports. Besides traditional styles of wrestling which exist in most cultures, boxing contests date back to ancient Sumer in the 3rd millennium BCE. The ancient Olympic Games as well included several combat-related sports.

There are many reasons for human burial. As death occurs and a person’s body begins to decay, traditional thinking suggests that burial is a requirement for maintaining public health. But according to the World Health Organization, only corpses carrying an infectious disease must adhere to the burial requirement. With this in mind, it seems that intentional burial, from its earliest instances to the present, is more of a manifestation of humanity’s desire to honor the dead rather than merely a a practice of stopping the spread of disease.

According to a 2009 survey, victims of violence reported that memorialization was ranked the second most valuable form of state reparation following monetary compensation. In recent times, the world has seen an upsurge in the production of memory through the construction of memorial sites commemorating mass violence and atrocity. From genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia; to wars of liberation in Bangladesh and Palestine; to nuclear disaster in Chernobyl; and terrorism in New York. These memorials often elicit complicated emotions.

Author Ernest Hemingway once said, “I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?” Of course, a good night’s sleep has powerful benefits for one’s well-being. Besides restoring the mind and body, research suggests that it may help boost learning, memory, and creative problem solving. Although sleep has become a universal component of the human experience, it also remains one of its most mysterious.

The goal of proving one’s value to both others and themselves within a conservative society, is at the heart of Romas Zabarauskas’ new film Advokatas (The Lawyer). Advokatas is the first Lithuanian feature film to focus on a male same-sex romantic relationship and one of the very few fiction films about the LGBTQ+ refugee experience in Europe. In recent times, concerns about equity and inclusion within Lithuanian society when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights has been growing. Despite these struggles, the LGBTQ+ community has remained hopeful.

Genevan philosopher, writer and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, “Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?” The lengths an individual will go to preserve their livelihood and freedom, and the unexpected consequences that result from such pursuits, are explored in Giedre Žickyte’s enthralling documentary The Jump.

American actress and acting teacher Stella Adler once said, “The word theater comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation. The theater is a spiritual and social x-ray of its time.” When it comes to the process of experiencing art, the viewer approaches the work not only to be entertained, but to obtain some kind of insight or education from the encounter. This is compellingly examined in Marta Pulk’s documentary A Year Full of Drama.

Although it has been more than 75 years after the end of World War II, Lithuania is still trying to come to terms with its history as it relates to the Holocaust. It is estimated that 95% of Lithuania’s Jews, which accounts for more than 200,000 people, were murdered when the Nazi regime took control of the country. In fact, this genocide is one of the highest proportions of any country affected by the Holocaust. Despite this, the narrative promoted by state officials is one of resistance.

The December 2011 issue of the journal Neurological Sciences contains an article entitled, “My sister’s hand is in my bed: a case of somatoparaphrenia.” Somatoparaphrenia is a type of delusion where one denies ownership of a limb or an entire side of one’s body. Often times, even after provided undeniable proof that the limb belongs to and is attached to their own body, the individual will produce complex reasons about whose limb it really is, or how the limb became attached to their body.

On June 22, Chris Allen transitioned from his role as executive administrator for financial planning and decision support at Keck Medicine of USC to serve as the health system’s interim chief financial officer. A graduate of the University of Georgia, Allen brings more than 20 years of finance leadership experience to the position. Allen first joined Keck Medicine in 2016.

On August 1, after a long career as a chaplain for USC’s health care system, including as spiritual director for Keck Medical Center of USC, Chaplain Phil Manly has retired. During his long career, Chaplain Manly spent 40 years as chaplain for Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center as well. Born in Los Angeles in 1941, Chaplain Manly grew up within a few miles of Los Angeles County Hospital.

In 1961, Canadian-American psychologist Albert Bandura set out to determine how a person forms their identity. To accomplish this, he constructed what would become one of the most famous studies in the area of social learning: the Bobo doll experiment. Bandura took 36 boys and 36 girls, ages 3 to 5 ½, and one-by-one placed them in a room with an adult and a large Bobo doll, an inflatable, round-bottomed toy. Now initially the interactions were pleasant; the two playing comfortably together.

For the Toraja people of Indonesia, death is not the end of life. In fact, it is often only the beginning. Here, in the remote highland forests of Sulawesi island, family is everything. When a member of the community dies, it is not just the immediate family who mourns the loss. Instead, a notice goes out to every relative living on the island and abroad. A family member has died, and it is time to escort them to the afterlife.

For women of ancient Rome, crocodile dung was essential. In his book The Art of Beauty, the Roman poet Ovid describes how Roman women should be, “Pale of face, rosy of cheeks and free of unnatural scents.” To achieve this ivory tone, Ovid provided a helpful face powder recipe for female citizens. The ingredients included chalk powder, white lead and crocodile dung. Concepts of beauty are about as diverse as the human population itself.

The 1936 graduating class of The School of Medicine in Paris contained 24 men and one woman. In a photograph commemorating the ceremony, the woman sits calmly at the center of the group, her white dress and hat standing out amongst the black and gray suits surrounding her. The student is Tewhida Ben Sheikh, and she would become not only Tunisia's first female doctor, but also in North Africa. Throughout her long career, Ben Sheikh was a pioneer of women’s medicine and had a tremendous impact.