Rachel B. Levin

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

Rachel B. Levin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:46:33 +0000

*This article was the recipient of an award for Best News/Feature Writing (1,000+ words) by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE District VII).

WHEN TODD BOYD FIRST ARRIVED AT USC in the fall of 1992, an explosive cultural transformation was underway. The former hip-hop emcee and newly minted professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts had come to the university with the goal of shaping the nascent field of hip-hop studies.

The scars from the civil unrest that had erupted that spring in neighborhoods adjacent to USC following the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King, a Black man, were still fresh.

“You could still see buildings that had been burnt and damaged,” Boyd says.

From those ashes, a formidable force of creativity was rising. Hip-hop artists in surrounding communities were funneling their pain into profound storytelling and shaping a new West Coast sound.

From that critical inflection point, Boyd helped connect USC to the thriving musical movement at its doorstep. He blazed the trail for USC scholars in every corner of the university who, like himself, study hip-hop’s historical underpinnings and cultural impact.

The creativity that burst forth from communities adjacent to USC now reverberates through arts education at the university. Today, USC’s arts schools, including the USC Kaufman School of Dance, the USC Thornton School of Music and the USC School of Cinematic Arts, are prominent incubators for innovation in hip-hop movement, music and visual culture, respectively. Andre Young — better known as Dr. Dre, one of West Coast hip-hop’s foremost artists and producers — became part of the Trojan Family when he and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine launched their school for arts, technology and innovation, the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, in 2013.

Hip-hop, which turned 50 last year, has followed a similar trajectory at USC as it has in American culture: from underdog to tour de force…

Continue reading the full article in USC Trojan Family Magazine

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Cell by Cell: Rebuilding the Body

Rachel B. Levin — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 22:55:06 +0000

Anyone who’s healed from a cut or a scrape has witnessed the incredible regenerative power of stem cells. These cells can create identical copies of themselves, creating new cells and tissues that replace damaged ones.

Stem cells are active in some areas of our body throughout our lives, like the skin and blood. But in many critical organs, including the heart and kidneys, stem cells are absent. When such tissues are damaged due to aging, injury or disease, they don’t regenerate, leading to devastating health consequences.

USC researchers are at the forefront of an emerging field called “clinical regenerative medicine,” which taps stem cells’ restorative powers to tackle some of the hardest-to-treat diseases, ranging from heart failure to blindness.

“We now have the ability through stem cells to generate replacement cells that we can use as therapeutics to rebuild the human body,” says Charles (Chuck) Murry, a renowned expert in regenerative heart medicine. In August, Murry joined Keck School of Medicine of USC as the new head of USC Stem Cell, chair of the department of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, and director of The Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research.

Launched in 2013, USC Stem Cell is a universitywide initiative that connects over 100 research and clinical faculty in multiple disciplines across USC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) with the common goal of translating basic stem cell science into clinical therapies. It has matured over the past decade with support from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation as well as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), a state organization created to accelerate stem cell research.

USC Stem Cell collaborators are employing stem cells to grow organ and tissue replacements, halt or reverse the progression of life-threatening diseases and create living models of human organs in the lab, providing novel platforms to screen for disease-fighting drugs.

“Clinical regenerative medicine is going to have an impact on par with antibiotics or vaccinations,” Murry says. “It’s going to be revolutionary.”

The stem cell projects currently underway across USC will transform treatments from our skull to our knee and many organs in between. As with the classic board game Operation, we’ve broken down a selection of these projects by body part — funny bone not included.

Continue reading the full article in USC Trojan Family Magazine

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Powering Up Lithium Valley

Rachel B. Levin — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 22:42:31 +0000

Near the southwest shore of the Salton Sea, a billboard greets visitors. Its brightly colored banners depict an array of activities: golf, boating, fishing, camping and nature trails. A large red arrow pointed toward the lake suggests these recreational opportunities are available nearby. Yet the billboard is tattered: fading, peeling and tagged with graffiti.

The signage is an emblem of the former resort destination’s decline. In the 1950s and ’60s, vacationers flocked to the Golden State’s largest lake for water sports, outdoor recreation and entertainment by the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Beach Boys.

Today, the sea is shrinking, exposing areas of dusty lake bed, or playa, at its edges. The shoreline is crowded not with sunbathers but with thousands of hay bales — part of a strategy to reduce windblown dust from the playa that sickens nearby residents.

Fish bones and barnacle shells crunch underfoot. The sea’s increasing salinity and toxic runoff from the region’s agricultural industry have devastated marine life and made the water unsafe for human recreation. On hot, humid days, when the sea releases hydrogen sulfide gas, a “rotten egg” stink permeates the air.

In towns adjacent to the sea, where a resort “riviera” was once envisioned, run-down mobile home communities are signs of profound economic despair among the predominantly Latino community. Poverty and unemployment rates in the area exceed state averages. Opportunities beyond low-wage, seasonal work at local farms — which supply up to two-thirds of the United States’ winter fruits and vegetables — are few.

Yet approximately a mile below the surface of the Salton Sea’s south shore area lies a resource so sought-after that it has the potential to radically transform the area’s fortunes, the sea’s health — and the country’s electric future…

Continue reading the full article in USC Trojan Family Magazine

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Staying Cool

Rachel B. Levin — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 22:27:35 +0000

Last September, an epic heat dome settled over the western United States, causing the region’s most severe heat wave on record. In many areas, temperatures soared to triple-digit highs for more than a week. Almost a thousand heat records were broken.

The scorcher is just one example of how heat waves are becoming more intense and longer lasting due to global warming. By 2050, nearly half the world may live in areas where the mercury rises to dangerously high levels for at least a month each year, threatening human health and ways of life.

In warm regions, demand for air conditioning is on the rise. The number of A/C units is estimated to reach 5.6 billion globally by 2050, up from around 2 billion units today. But populations without the means to obtain and maintain these costly systems will be left out in the cold — or, rather, heat.

Traditional vapor-compressor air conditioners also have considerable environmental costs. They are energy guzzlers, and if fossil fuels are burned to obtain that energy, more planet-warming emissions are released into the air. The toxic refrigerants many of these systems rely on are also potent greenhouse gases that can leak into the atmosphere.

In its current form, A/C is no panacea for beating the climate-change heat. But how else can we keep cool?

The most promising solutions on the horizon leverage technology — some of it cutting-edge, some of it downright ancient…

Continue reading the full article in USC Dornsife Magazine

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The Body Electric

Rachel B. Levin — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 01:58:07 +0000

An Olympic long jumper stands poised at the edge of the runway, preparing to sprint toward the take-off board. Years of training have prepared her for the moment her feet will push off the ground, sending her airborne and delivering her into the sand with a force up to 12 times her body weight. The athlete’s performance rides on how effectively she will convert the horizontal energy of her sprint into the vertical energy she needs to ascend.

“You have to be able to control these forces strategically,” says Jill McNitt-Gray, a professor of biological sciences and biomedical engineering at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences who studies biomechanics in Olympic and Paralympic track and field athletes. “What happens in those last couple of steps is really important.”

But McNitt-Gray explains that the long jumper’s momentum isn’t the only kind of energy that’s crucial during those fateful footfalls. There’s also the caloric energy received through nutrition. The metabolic energy invested in building up the athlete’s bones and muscles to bear the load of the forces. The mental energy cultivated through a positive mindset. And the motivating energy from the roaring cheers of the crowd.

What the Olympic long jumper illustrates in bold strokes is that our bodies are energy made manifest. Though most of us will never tackle such challenging physical feats, we all utilize energy in this multitude of forms to survive and thrive.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that when we make choices to optimize our energy — from eating healthy foods and staying active to thinking positively and nurturing meaningful connections — our well-being soars…

Continue reading the full article in USC Dornsife Magazine

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What does a solar eclipse symbolize?

Rachel B. Levin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 01:03:34 +0000

For many Americans, the total solar eclipse on April 8 will be an occasion for gathering and revelry. Cities, towns, parks, universities and organizations across the United States are hosting various celebratory events and festivals, some of which will span the weekend preceding the eclipse and the big day.

According to Tok Thompson, professor (teaching) of anthropology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the impulse to treat the eclipse as a special occasion goes beyond its mere rarity. It’s grounded in the profound meaning that humans the world over ascribe to the sun and the moon.

“A lot of cultures around the world pay very, very close attention to lunar cycles as well as solar cycles,” Thompson said.

Since time immemorial, gazing up at these two celestial bodies has been a shared human experience. Ancient civilizations began measuring months and years by tracking the moon and sun, a practice that influences the calendars in use today. These bright beacons overhead were also woven into powerful mythologies…

Continue reading the full article in USC Trojan Family Magazine

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Zooey Deschanel’s Growth Plan

Rachel B. Levin — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 21:14:10 +0000

The actor and singer is reconnecting people with their food—starting by making it simpler for everyone to grow their own produce. It might be her most important work yet.

When Zooey Deschanel was pregnant with her first child, she began thinking more about the food she ate. A lot more.

She wanted her baby (daughter Elsie Otter, who was born in 2015) to be the healthiest she possibly could. So Deschanel started critically examining every meal and morsel.

At the time, “I was pretty healthy,” says Deschanel. “I mean, I thought I was. I just didn’t really know where my food came from. I would just go to a restaurant or I’d go to the store and I’d buy stuff. I had no idea who grew it.”

Her curiosity about the origins of the ingredients on her plate touched off a journey that ultimately led the Los Angeles-based performer—who’s best known for playing Jess in the long-running TV series New Girl, as well as for memorable roles in films like Elf and (500) Days of Summer—to take on a new role: crusader for local, sustainable food production.

Today, through efforts she’s helped spearhead, including The Farm Project and the Lettuce Grow hydroponic planter, the Hollywood star is lighting the way toward a consumer-driven revolution in the way our food is grown and sourced.

“It started from that little seed,” she says…

Continue reading the full article in Alive magazine

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Liz Moody: Tribe Vibes

Rachel B. Levin — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 01:41:33 +0000

Liz Moody wants you to live your best life—and have fun while doing so.

The vivacious wellness influencer is passionate about sharing research-backed tips, tweaks, and tools to help people feel fantastic inside and out. Whether she’s debunking skincare myths in one of her engaging Instagram reels or interviewing a leading gut health expert in one of her wildly popular Healthier Together podcast episodes, Moody’s persona is “big sister meets science.” With warmth and vulnerability, she turns dry data into relatable, actionable advice.

But even as she champions practices that boost individual wellbeing—from taking daily circadian walks to drinking green smoothies—the core of Moody’s wellness philosophy revolves around something implied by the title of her podcast: togetherness…

Continue reading the full article in Alive Magazine

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The Eyes Have It

Rachel B. Levin — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 22:04:14 +0000

From Inuit hunters in their endless snowy landscape who have no concept of what it means to be lost to profound leaps in microscopy that enable scientists to watch an eye as it forms — sight allows us to explore our world, to orient ourselves within it and to find joy in its myriad manifestations of beauty and wonder.

Though there’s no consensus about which of our five senses is the most important, sight has an edge. Philosophers from Aristotle to Galileo have exalted vision above other sensory capacities, tying it to humanity’s noblest pursuits. From a neuroscientific perspective, visual processing is the most dominant sensory function in the brain. And culturally speaking, most Americans believe there could be no health outcome worse than losing their eyesight.

The perceived value of sight is reinforced by the fiercely visual nature of contemporary life. Screens are now constantly at our fingertips. They saturate us with visual information to process, and the remote social interactions they facilitate are devoid of embodied inputs like smell and touch.

Our sense of sight confers power. We use it to investigate and surveil the planet (and beyond) and take pleasure in its splendors. But sight is also a source of vulnerability. The biological processes that allow our visual system to observe the world accurately can also lead us to perceive illusions — and we don’t always know the difference…

Continue reading the full article in USC Dornsife Magazine

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Writing Toward Wellness

Rachel B. Levin — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 21:46:36 +0000

Journal writing can help you start a new chapter in your life — one that’s physically and emotionally healthier.

Read the full article in Alive Magazine: Online or PDF

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