Zócalo Public Square

Well before the rise of political evangelicalism, Americans have blurred the church-state divide, whether for spurring major social movements like women’s suffrage or civil rights or for hitting the campaign trail. But how well does democracy mix with God? As Europeans and Americans worry about radical Islam undermining Western-style liberal democratic government. Journalist and scholar Ian Buruma, author of Taming the Gods, visited Zócalo to argue that religion — and particularly the passions it inflames — must be calmed to make democracy work.

Americans celebrated the election of Barack Obama as a “triumph over race.” But in major U.S. cities today, the majority of young black men are locked behind bars or labeled felons for life. Jim Crow laws may have been wiped off the books decades ago, but an astounding number of African Americans today, much like their grandparents before them, are trapped in a permanent second-class status — unable to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits. Is a new Jim Crow system emerging and thriving in the age of Obama? Scholar and activist Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, visited Zócalo to explain what she calls our new racial caste system.

Roads bind our world. The dense patchwork of an urban grid, looping and soaring city highways, long and straight country trails and narrow, curving mountain passes connect people everywhere with goods, knowledge, disease, and each other. Roads define the way we speak — our careers run in the fast lane; our integrity takes us on the high road; our fates follow paths less traveled — and underpin our stories. What tales do roads tell? Ted Conover, author of The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today, visited Zócalo after traveling through Peru, India, China, Africa, and the Middle East to explain how roads shape our cultures and our lives.

Steve Westly is founder and managing partner of The Westly Group. Mr. Westly previously served as the Controller and Chief Fiscal Officer of the state of California, chairing the State Lands Commission and serving on 63 other boards and commissions. During his term, Mr. Westly led an effort to commit more than $1 billion to clean technology investments. Mr. Westly is a former a Senior Vice President at eBay and author of two books on alternative energy and utilities.

California has long led the country on environmental initiatives — the state has pledged to produce a third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Today, California has an estimated 159,000 green jobs, and over the last 13 years, green jobs have grown by 36 percent, while Californian jobs in general have grown by 13 percent. But despite these forward-looking trends, how can policymakers ensure that the green boom doesn’t quickly go bust, or that the boom benefits all Californians, not just those who can buy Priuses? Zócalo and the New America Foundation invite Collaborative Economics' Tracey Grose, Fresno Sustainability Manager Joseph Oldham, Kaiser Permanente's Kathy Gerwig, Spring Ventures Founding Partner Sunil Paul, Michael P. Wilson of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, and Lisa Margonelli of the New America Foundation to consider how best to develop the economy and preserve the environment in the long run.

Violence affects young African American men more than any other group. Homicide is the leading cause of death for black men between the ages of 15 and 34. In every major U.S. city, black men are more likely than others to be shot or stabbed. But what about the psychological wounds of trauma? Like victims of combat violence or sexual assault, victims of urban violence often suffer post traumatic symptoms like nightmares, flashbacks and loss of the ability to feel emotions. How does trauma change the lives of these men and feed the cycle of violence? John A. Rich, a MacArthur Fellow and author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men, visited Zócalo to discuss how to prevent and heal the hidden wounds of violence.

Americans have long been fascinated by Cuba. A mere 90 miles divide the two countries, and their histories have been entangled since the turn of the last century, when the U.S. occupied Cuba after the Spanish-American war. The countries’ relations only grew more complicated from there. Fidel Castro assumed power in 1959, building a one-party Communist state that controlled land, the economy, and the media. He leaned toward the Soviet Union, spurring everything from near-catastrophic confrontations to comical assassination attempts. Several surges of refugees landed on Florida’s shores, building a vocal presence and political opposition to Castro within the United States. And successive American presidents maintained strict economic and travel sanctions and couldn’t budge the stalemated diplomatic process. Barack Obama has made few concrete changes, despite proclaiming the Cuba policy a "failed” one. What do Americans need to know about Cuba, and what’s next for Cuba and the U.S.? Julia Sweig, author of Cuba:

Is it possible to envision the next economic boom while we’re still in a bust? Gregg Easterbrook does exactly that in Sonic Boom, arguing that when we pull out of the current recession, the next period of economic growth will be unlike any we’ve seen before. The trends that have drastically changed our world in the last few decades — the lowering of trade barriers and the expansion of financial markets, the vast technological leaps that speed communication and exchange, the worldwide migration of jobs and job-seekers — are still in their early stages, and have yet to fulfill their transformative power. Gregg Easterbrook visited Zócalo to discuss the next great economic expansion and explain why it will increase interconnectedness and prosperity, while making the world a much less secure place.

In a little over two decades, the Internet has gone from a singular invention to an indispensable part of human life. Its rules — requisite anonymity, the free posting of information, and the power of the hive mind — have rapidly become norms that are rarely questioned. But much of the web’s standard design, functions, and assumptions rely on decades-old programming decisions that may not make the most sense for users today. Why is the Internet the way it is, and should we change it? Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto and a longtime Silicon Valley innovator, argues that the Internet’s design — and the nearly religious commitment some technologists have for it — have made for a web that hurts the middle class, contributes to economic crisis, and denigrates intelligence and individual judgment. Lanier visited Zócalo to discuss the flaws and the future of the Internet.

After 70 years of setting the standard for epicurean living, Gourmet magazine ceased publication in October at the order of its parent, Conde Nast. The magazine cultivated its exalted reputation by a devotion to lush photography, lengthy writing by famed authors, and finely crafted and often complex recipes. The commitment to such quality, and the name of the magazine itself, made it an aspirational and indulgent read for generations of gourmands who understood that food—eating it, cooking it, reading about it—was an art. Despite the subsequent rise of many other food magazines and blogs—often more focused on quick, simple, low-cost recipes than on literary food writing—Gourmet built a strong and diverse brand with books, websites, and television shows, and boasted nearly one million subscribers. Zócalo invites former Gourmet editors Ruth Reichl and Laurie Ochoa, former Gourmet writer Jonathan Gold, and KCRW’s Good Food host Evan Kleiman to look back at the history of Gourmet, the culture it sparked, and the

Keeping our elderly parents healthy, particularly when they have a chronic illness or disability, can be a demanding full-time job. Though 70 percent of all elderly are cared for by family and friends, assisted living and nursing homes fill the gap in care in cases too challenging for even the most devoted families. Long-term care can require close medical attention multiple times a day, combined with assistance performing the basic tasks of daily life, like dressing and bathing, and providing mental health support. Nine million men and women over the age of 65 will need long-term care this year; by 2020, that number will rise to 12 million. The elderly will have a 40 percent chance of entering a nursing home, and about 10 percent of those will stay five years or more. These men and women and their families will face the difficult decision of where to seek and how to manage long-term care. They often have to make these decisions without reliable information about what types of care are available and appropria

It’s easy enough to characterize a Southern writer, whether by origin or style, by a character’s audible twang or a novel’s focus on regional history. There is even, perhaps, a certain voice that is distinctly New York or Midwestern. But what makes a Los Angeles writer — birthplace, genre, theme? As part of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Zócalo invited a panel of writers — Laurie Ochoa, Yxta Maya Murray, DJ Waldie, Gary Phillips, and Jonathan Gold — to explore the city, its writers, and its stories. This event was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Of all the many immigrant communities that have come to the U.S., Mexicans may have the most unusual experience.

The Census Bureau is fundamental to American democracy — its ten-year counts determine representation in Congress and in the Electoral College, and influence federal and state funding for health, education, transportation, and more. Americans of all political leanings have strong preferences for whom and what they want counted, and obstacles often prevent the Census from making full counts, particularly of minority groups. Some, recalling the Census' history of providing information on various groups for national security reasons, regard the count with skepticism and mistrust. With the 2010 Census looming, Zócalo invites a panel of experts -- including UCI's Jennifer Lee, UCLA's Paul Ong, Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles, Arturo Vargas of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and Steve Padilla of the Los Angeles Times -- to consider how the Census works, how it might improve, and why it is relentlessly controversial.

Every president since Harry Truman has struggled with universal healthcare; the last major victory toward it came over 40 years ago, when Lyndon Johnson created Medicare and Medicaid. Since then, presidents’ efforts either made small advances or suffered overwhelming defeat, as Bill Clinton did. This year, as healthcare reform returns as a number-one issue, James A. Morone, co-author of “The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office,” visited Zócalo to explain universal healthcare reform and how to get it.

Luis Alberto Urrea’s fiction and nonfiction works chronicle the Mexican immigrant experience. Urrea, who now teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago, visited Zócalo to explore the experience of moving from south of the border to the Midwest, and the people he meets there.

Zócalo invited a panel — including Tamar Jacoby of ImmigrationWorks USA, Gary Gerstle of the University of Maryland, Associate Director of the National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities Jose Luis Gutierrez, and Duke University's Noah Pickus — to discuss how immigrants come to feel at home in the U.S., and what the native born can do to help.

Zócalo’s panel — including Stanford’s Tomás Jiménez, USC’s Dowell Myers, Peggy Levitt of Wellesley College, and Richard Alba of the State University of New York — explored to what extent immigrants are expected to abandon, or adapt, their native cultures and languages, and what it means to be American.

The landscape that defines Los Angeles also threatens it. For decades, the mountains and hills that encircle the city have trapped pollution in its basins and valleys, leaving low-hanging brown clouds. Teeming with cars, home to the nation’s largest port complex and the world’s seventh largest airport, and trailing behind other cities in annual rainfall, Los Angeles has always been uniquely vulnerable to pollution, and uniquely poised to fight it. Fifty years ago, Angelenos rallied against air pollution, and the city ambitiously began to reduce it. Today, pollution levels are lower than they have been in more than 75 years, but challenges remain as the world begins to confront the specter of climate change. Though Los Angeles has launched an aggressive effort to address global warming, how will the city survive a future of droughts and rising oceans? Zócalo hosts a panel of experts — including CalTech Professor of Environmental Science Tapio Schneider, UCLA Associate Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Scien

Between 1993 and 2001, President Bill Clinton joined his friend of over 30 years Taylor Branch for a series of confidential interviews. Keeping much of his staff in the dark, Clinton recorded 78 sessions, each totaling 90 minutes and taking place at night, in the quiet of the White House Treaty Room. The White House diary project, transcribed, ran several thousand pages and became the basis for The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. Branch’s work is filled with intimate observations from the president on the day-to-day, the nature of the job, and the major events of his tenure — the war in Bosnia, the effort to reform healthcare, Whitewater. Branch visited Zócalo to talk about the chronicling of his friend’s presidency, the Clinton legacy today, and the importance of keeping the public square alive.