 And once they had moved into the workforce starting in the 70s, not because there were all these wonderful opportunities for women. On Friday, April 28th, within the walls of Wheeler Hall on UC Berkeley's campus, Professor Robert Reich delivered his last ever wealth and poverty lecture. The Berkeley professor, infamously known on campus for his 650-student wealth and poverty course, will be retiring this spring. My name is Mariana Garcia with CalTV News. Today, I'm here with Professor Robert Reich for a very special retirement edition interview. Professor Reich has authored 18 books, starred in two documentaries, and served in three national cabinets, including for Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and as the Secretary of Labor for President Bill Clinton. He is the co-founder of Inequality Media and serves as a chancellors professor here at the Goldman School of Public Policy. You mentioned on your website where you teach also freely the wealth and poverty course that you're retiring from UC Berkeley but you're not retiring from everything else. So what plans do you have for post-retirement? Everything else that I'm doing now, I will continue to do. God willing. I'm going to do a great deal of writing, videos, maybe another movie, working on another book. I will be testifying before Congress, I expect, as I have continued to do. So I don't think there will be any change in my amount of work, but I will be giving up what I love most, which is teaching. And what are you most looking forward to having more time for once you're retired? Apart from all the work I do, I enjoy hiking, I enjoy dancing, I love to go to the beach, love to spend time with my wife, who is an extraordinary artist. That's amazing. What type of dance do you do if you don't mind me asking, is there a specific genre that you're interested in? Salsa, primarily. Wow, have you ever taken any classes? I do take classes. Okay, you do. Most Caribbean and Latin American dances I enjoy. I have not mastered the tango. So what's been the most fulfilling aspect of your tenure here at UC Berkeley? I think the most fulfilling aspect has been teaching undergraduates. I love graduate school teaching. You know, the Goldman School has been a wonderful home. There's something about undergraduates though, in the sense of students who are on average between 18 and 22, where they're open and excited and appreciative and not quite careerist. People don't know quite what they're doing. And also they live in excitement and fear, which is a funny way of saying it, but that's a very magical period of time. And what would you say has been the hardest part of being a professor here at UC Berkeley? Nothing has been hard. I've taught and been a member of the faculty at Harvard and at Brandeis, two wonderful institutions, but Berkeley is my favorite. I've also been in president's cabinet and I've advised presidents and been in many other organizations, but I've never enjoyed an institution more than I enjoy Berkeley. What do you think makes Berkeley unique compared to the other schools you've studied at Yale and Oxford and the schools that you've taught? First of all, the climate, look around you. Can we want anything better? I mean, it was a little rainy, a little windy this year, but it's just gorgeous. But beyond that, there is at Berkeley a clear ethos and ethic of public service, a concern about public issues, a concern about fairness. It doesn't mean everybody here is progressive or everybody here is democratic, capital D or liberal, but it does mean that people start from a place in which fairness matters. And I appreciate that. What advice in general do you have for students pursuing higher education who are finding it really hard here, especially at Berkeley, one of the toughest schools in the country but also one of the best? What advice do you have for all of us and all your students achieving higher education? What I say to my students here at Berkeley is that you are privileged to be at the best public university in the world, in my view. Don't let it intimidate you. It is hard, but you're getting a fabulous education. If you want it, you can probably get through it without doing much work. But what's the point of being here if you don't take it very seriously? I think this is an unbelievable opportunity to launch your life, not in terms of career, but in terms of who you are, what you are, what you believe in. What is something that you wish people knew about you that they don't? I was an art major when I was an undergraduate. Really? Art history. Oh my goodness. Did you continue with art history throughout all of undergrad? That's what you wanted to do? Yes. Well, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I thought maybe I'd be an architect. My senior year at my undergraduate institution, I came out here for the summer and worked as a GSI, then we called the teaching assistant to a professor of architecture here at Berkeley and learned a lot because he believed that architecture was part of sociology. I also learned I didn't want to be an architect. So this semester being your last before retirement, what will you miss most about being here? Being a professor at UC Berkeley? I will miss most walking into a classroom and having that moment of electricity where people are excited, I'm excited, and then those moments where I either say something or do something or help students see something that enables them to break through their walls of resistance or cynicism or whatever you call it. I can't describe how it happens or when it happens, but I can see it. And it is one of the most inspiring, generative things that anybody has a privilege to witness. And my last question for you is, what is your favorite Dolly Parton song? I know you're a big Dolly Parton fan and what words do you have for her if she's watching this? Well, it's obviously nine to five, partly because I was secretary of labor. I care a lot about and have done a lot of research and writing and about work. And that particular song has been my own quiet inspiration. She is on my bucket list. I've got to meet her. She's my height. She and I share many of the same values. I regret that we did not have a chance to become close in my lifetime or her lifetime so far. But who knows? I mean, you know, there's another 30 years, 40 years, anything can happen. Yeah. I hope that dream comes true. I hope so, too. That's amazing. Professor Rice, thank you so much for taking the time, genuinely. Oh, Joe, I'm grateful to you for your time. Thank you so much and congratulations on your retirement. Oh, it's not. Congratulations. I know. You'll miss it.