Zócalo Public Square

Eadweard Muybridge, who made the first motion pictures, was a murderer. Ezra Pound and T.S. Elliot were both rabid anti-Semites. And Picasso was a brutal misogynist who drove both his wife and his mistress to suicide. Great artists have never been angels. But as we learn more about the crimes and misdemeanors of today’s artists, to what extent can we still separate appreciation of great art from celebrating its compromised creators? Does an artist's bad behavior diminish the quality of their artwork? What does it mean for arts institutions to reject art on moral grounds? Cultural historian and film critic Neal Gabler, USC popular culture scholar Todd Boyd, Notre Dame art historian Ingrid Rowland and moderator Amanda Fortini, a contributing writer to The New Yorker, took part in a May 16 Zócalo/Getty panel discussion titled “Can We Appreciate the Great Art of Bad People?” at The Getty Center to examine how, and whether, we can value the art of rogues and criminals.

The conventional wisdom is that America’s rural communities and small cities are sliding into decline, despair, and disconnection. Anger, frustration, and insularity in such places are widely seen as the fuel behind President Trump’s election and a rise in white nationalism and racism. But a more nuanced look at cities like Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Eastport, Maine; Columbus, Mississippi, and Clarkson, Washington can reveal a very different picture, with local communities often demonstrating robust civic life. Are these places really so desperately disconnected from the 21st-century economy—or do they feel closer to the rest of the world through growing trade and advanced technology? Are they turning their backs on a changing nation, or demonstrating how to live together as the country diversifies? Why doesn’t the media cover more of their stories of innovation and renewal? James Fallows and Deborah Fallows, co-authors of "Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America," visited Zócalo to discus

Ancient peoples and thinkers had sophisticated ideas about living in harmony with nature. From Greek city-states to Maya civilization, people thought that what humans did—how they planted, how they worshipped, how they conducted themselves—could influence both the Earth’s behavior and their own fate. When droughts or volcanic eruptions threatened crops, rulers had to manage panicked citizens while explaining the cosmic reasons for nature’s revolt. Many ancient societies adopted ecological practices emphasizing individual civic responsibility for the benefit of all, and some ancient thinkers developed such ideas as well. What can the ancients teach us about how collective moral values and social habits can connect citizens to the world around us? What were the blind spots in ancient orders that sometimes led to ecological catastrophe? How can understanding ancient mythologies and philosophies about nature help us rethink our own? Princeton political scientist Melissa Lane, author of "Eco-Republic: What the Anc

The United States is moving toward more protectionist policies—abandoning a system of free trade that America itself had built. Nationalists in the White House and labor unions are embracing tariffs to protect older industries, like steel and aluminum, while some economists encourage trade protections for America’s intellectual property and new technologies like artificial intelligence. What does greater protectionism look like in 21st-century America? Are there advantages to raising tariffs? And in what ways will American businesses, workers, and consumers feel the consequences of protectionism and resulting trade wars? UCLA Anderson economist Ed Leamer, Former U.S. Treasury Department senior coordinator for China affairs David Loevinger, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade and Compliance in the Obama Administration Michael Camuñez, Director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center Daniel Sumner, and moderator and reporter for The New York Times Natalie Kitroeff, took part in a Zócalo

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther has done more than flex international box-office muscle while earning critical raves at home and overseas. The superhero blockbuster also has shaken up Hollywood’s long-held myth that big-budget popcorn flicks about black people, with largely black casts, couldn’t pull in crowds in places like Asia, Russia, the African continent—or even white American audiences. Despite the proven crossover appeal of movies like Beverly Hills Cop and The Color Purple, and the global fan base of stars like Will Smith, Angela Bassett, Denzel Washington, and Samuel Jackson, the major studios too often confined black talent to a celluloid ghetto of stereotyped storylines and clichéd characters. But writer-director Ryan Coogler’s film has become not only one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, across all audiences, but also a significant cultural event, inspiring storytellers of many different types and sparking debate among activists and scholars about the politics of its underlying themes an

Democracy can mean very different things—majority rule, self-governance, the way we vote for our favorite contestants on TV dance competitions—to different people and in different places. Our lack of a shared definition of democracy adds to the confusion in times like our own, when we hear warnings of grave and growing threats to democracy. What does “democracy” really mean now in a world where almost every country purports to be democratic? Oxford political scientist Stein Ringen, Brookings Institution/Robert Bosch Foundation fellow and former Clinton Administration foreign policy advisor Ted Piccone, Mélida Jiménez, program officer at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and moderator Warren Olney, host of KCRW’s “To the Point,” took up that question in a panel discussion titled “What Does Democracy Mean in the 21st Century?” a Zócalo/KCRW Berlin Event in partnership with the Daniel K. Inouye Institute and Villa Aurora/Thomas Mann House, held at the CIEE Global Institute in Be

Authoritarian populists have seized power—from Turkey to Poland, and India to the United States—and things may get worse. Trust in democracy is wilting in many societies, to the point that rising numbers of people in Western democracies prefer military to representative rule. Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It, argues that stagnating living standards, corruption, social media, and a backlash against multiethnic governance are driving the public’s disenchantment with democracy. What sort of actions can be taken to restore the public’s commitment to self-government? Mounk, a Harvard lecturer, visited Zócalo Public Square and spoke with Zócalo columinist Joe Mathews about how the people can be convinced to love democracy again.

California has exited a long period of high immigration, during which it struggled with whether and how to welcome newcomers. But other parts of the United States are still in the midst of reckoning with immigration and the questions it poses. What did California get right—and what did California do wrong—during its immigration wave? How many of the Golden State’s successes in integrating immigrants were a result of government and policy, and what is the product of our open culture and laissez-faire attitude about so many things? UC Immigrant Legal Services Center executive director Maria Blanco, Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly, California state director of Immigrant Integration Daniel Torres, and moderator Foon Rhee, a columnist and associate editor for The Sacramento Bee, discussed these issues in a Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation event titled “What Can California Teach America About Immigrant Integration?” at Sacramento’s Capital Center.

American mass shooters. Islamic terrorists. Vengeful nationalists. Racist presidents. Social media misogynists. In today’s world, paranoid hatreds—and the wrath of the people who spread them—is inescapable. Where does all the rage come from? Pankaj Mishra, author of "Age of Anger: A History of the Present," locates the answer, paradoxically, in modernity’s successes. As the world has become more closely linked via mass politics and technology and the pursuit of wealth, those unable to enjoy the fruits of progress have been cast adrift, uprooted from older traditions. Many have responded by lashing out. Mishra visited Zócalo to explore the paradoxical perils of freedom, stability, and prosperity, in a conversation titled “Why Is the Modern World So Angry?” moderated by Gregory Rodriguez, founder and editor-in-chief, Zócalo Public Square, at the National Center for the Preservation for Democracy, in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles.

Where do we find answers to the world’s growing plagues of chronic illnesses—from diabetes to high blood pressure and from cancer to depression? In childhood. Surveys and research show a connection between ill health in adults and adversity in childhood—including divorce, substance abuse, neglect, and various other forms of emotional and physical abuse. And research shows that high stress levels during childhood change our neural systems in ways that can last a lifetime. What is the nature of the connections between childhood stress and health? How can we better assist unhealthy adults whose problems are rooted in childhood trauma? And how can we make children more resilient? Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, pediatrician, and founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco, and author of The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, and Carol S. Larson, president and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, took part in a Zócalo Public Square event titled “Does Child

Is the Trump Administration restoring American greatness, as its fans claim? Or is it a threat to American democracy, as its critics fear? E.J. Dionne, a leading American political journalist and Washington Post columnist, suggests a third option: that the Trump administration, by trampling so many norms and so thoroughly shaking up the system, could inspire a wave of participation, activism, and national soul-searching that leads to a democratic renewal. Dionne took part in a Zócalo/Daniel K. Inouye Institute “Pau Hana” panel discussion titled “Will the Trump Administration Renew American Democracy?” at Artistry Honolulu in downtown Honolulu. He was joined by Colleen Wakako Hanabusa, the Democratic U.S. representative for Hawaii’s 1st congressional district, and a candidate for governor of the Aloha State, and moderator Bill Dorman, news director of Hawai’i Public Radio.

The “Mexicanism” of Los Angeles, wrote Mexican poet and onetime L.A. resident Octavio Paz, “floats, never quite existing, never quite vanishing.” L.A.’s historical connections to Mexico and the rest of Latin America are well known, and its human connections—in a city of immigrants and their progeny—are obvious. Mexicans and Central Americans in particular have shaped Angeleno identity for generations. But how Latin American is L.A. really? Comedian and art collector Cheech Marin, Univision anchor León Krauze, and The New York Times national correspondent Jennifer Medina, and moderator Gregory Rodriguez, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Zócalo Public Square, joined in a Zócalo/Getty “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA” panel discussion, “Is L.A. Really Part of Latin America?” to examine the bridges and walls between Los Angeles and the world to its south.

Depression is the world’s greatest health problem and leading source of human misery. One in four women and one in six men suffer from depression, which has a devastating economic impact since those afflicted often can’t work. Depression is also the strongest risk factor for the world’s 1 million annual suicides—a total that outnumbers deaths from war, natural disasters, and murder. And while new research is identifying the various biological, cognitive, and environmental factors associated with depression and thus offering the promise of progress, the prevalence of the disease grows and it remains hard to treat. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, National Alliance on Mental Illness policy director Darcy Gruttadaro, and UCLA behavioral geneticist Jonathan Flint, came together at a Zócalo/UCLA panel discussion to examine “How Can We Reverse the Depression Epidemic?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles.

Barack Obama was president of the United States for eight years, and the broad outlines of his story—his Hawaiian birth, his fatherless childhood, his education at elite institutions, his work as a community organizer and politician in Chicago—are now familiar elements of American history. But even today, Obama retains a remarkable mystique, and can seem unknowable. All leaders must create narratives around themselves, but Obama’s is especially dense and complicated. Who is Barack Obama? How did he construct his own identity—and what did that construction mean for the way he governed America? David J. Garrow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, sat down with Warren Olney at Zócalo to unpack the peculiar origin story of the American president in a Zócalo/KCRW “Critical Thinking with Warren Olney” event titled "How Did Barack Obama Create Himself?" at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles.

By many measures of personal happiness, job satisfaction, and pride in their communities and their state, Hawaii residents rank near the top among all Americans. Yet this doesn’t translate into high levels of civic engagement. Hawaii consistently sits near the bottom in participation in national elections, and ranks low in charitable giving and volunteering. Dean of the Pepperdine School of Public Policy Pete Peterson, director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association Randy Perreira, and Barbara Ankersmit, president of research at marketing and communications firm Anthology, joined moderator Gina Mangieri, a KHON2 investigative reporter, in a Zócalo/Daniel K. Inouye Institute “Pau Hana” Event panel discussion titled “If We Love Hawaii So Much, Why Don’t We Vote?” on Nov. 29, 2017 at Artistry Honolulu.

As America retreats from global leadership—blowing up trade agreements, questioning longstanding security alliances, dropping out of the Paris climate accord—China is stepping into the void. Yet for all its advances, China remains a developing country itself, with one of the world’s most repressive governments. UCLA Anderson economist Jerry Nickelsburg, biotech executive Yiwen Li, UCLA Anderson business administration scholar Christopher S. Tang, and UC San Diego political economist Ruixue Jia, along with moderator Julie Makinen, former Beijing Bureau Chief of the Los Angeles Times, on Nov. 16, 2017 took part in a Zócalo/UCLA panel discussion titled “Is China Prepared to Lead the Global Economy?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles.

North Korea test-fires intercontinental missiles that may be able to reach the U.S. West Coast. Kim Jong Un threatens Guam, tangles with China, and conducts a nuclear test of what his country claims is a hydrogen bomb. And in America, a dysfunctional and internationally unpopular White House answers North Korean provocations with threats of “unprecedented fire and fury.” How close is the world to a calamity on the Korean peninsula? UCLA Korea historian John Duncan, senior advisor at the nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation collaborative N Square Paul Carroll, cultural researcher at UCLA film school Suk-Young Kim, CEO of Liberty in North Korea Hannah Song, and moderator Jean H. Lee, former Pyongyang Bureau Chief of the Associated Press, visited Zócalo on Oct. 24, 2017 to discuss the looming threat, and potential aftermath, of a renewed Korean war in a Zócalo/UCLA panel discussion titled “Is War With North Korea Inevitable?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles.

Housing never has been more valuable than it is in today’s California—the average Golden State home is worth nearly a half-million dollars, more than two-and-a-half times the national average. But what are the hidden costs of this over-the-top home equity to California, its economy, and the aspirations of longtime residents as well as newcomers? What kind of pressures do soaring housing costs place on Californians—from young families struggling to buy first homes and achieve financial security, to older working people who want to retire but fear whether they can afford to keep living here? How much of a factor are housing prices in the decisions of Californians to live farther from their jobs or depart the state entirely? These and other questions were discussed by California Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León, AARP housing policy expert Rodney Harrell, executive director of Housing California Lisa Hershey, and dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Gary Segura during a Zócalo / AARP event, titl

America’s college campuses have become crucial testing grounds—and, at times, battlegrounds—as the country grapples with rapidly changing modes and mores of sexual behavior and expression. Fraternities are being scrutinized for promoting a culture of alcohol-fueled male privilege and presumption. Lecture halls and quads ring out with passionate debates about how to set the ground rules for sexual consent. Academic officials are being called to act as judges and arbiters over some of the most intimate aspects of students’ lives. Vanessa Grigoriadis, contributing editor at The New York Times Magazine and author of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus, explored these trends, as well as the written and unwritten rules of sexual engagement, at a Zócalo event, “Are College Campuses Rewriting the Rules of Sex in America?” on October 11, 2017 at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Los Angeles.

From Benedict Arnold’s defection to the McCarthy hearings to the Edward Snowden affair, the American public and the U.S. political system have wrestled with the meaning of treason—legally, morally, and politically. And in our own complex era of digital eavesdropping and online secret-sharing, definitions of treason have become still grayer and more elusive. What does it mean to contemporary Americans to betray one’s country? Who gets to decide and pass judgment on what constitutes treason—juries, politicians, the mass media, social networks? And have traditional ideas about treason kept pace in a world where many people’s sense of their duty to country may conflict with other deeply held allegiances, identities, and ethical convictions? Those and other questions were taken up by UCLA legal scholar Eugene Volokh, UC Davis legal scholar Carlton F.W. Larson, and Yale senior lecturer and former FBI counterintelligence special agent Asha Rangappa at a Zócalo Public Square / KCRW “Critical Thinking With Warren Oln