Hollywood-born Nina Gregory has always been a storyteller. As a UCLA undergraduate, she worked for the Daily Bruin, the yearbook and the campus radio station. A master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University gave her even more storytelling tools, which she initially put to work on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Now she’s best known for her work as an interviewer and NPR Arts Desk senior editor. Whether she’s speaking Klingon at Comic-Con, talking with filmmaker Ava DuVernay or remarking on the silence in a New York City Ballet dressing room, Gregory’s words and voice transport listeners to her vantage point. This UCLA Optimist, one of the experts exploring the future in the university’s Optimist video series, sees a future where art prevails. “No technology can replace the human experience with art,” she says.