Zócalo Public Square

Even in a city where people dare to be different, Zev Yaroslavsky stands out. Zev, now director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Department of History, has packed several lives into one lifetime, reshaping himself along with his fast-changing city. The child of immigrants from what is now Ukraine, Zev first drew notice as a UCLA student activist on behalf of Soviet Jews, before earning election to the L.A. City Council. Later, as a longtime member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, he was a leader in making far-reaching changes, involving everything from mass transit to healthcare to the Hollywood Bowl, in a county that he once compared to a “Soviet-style system ... with too many people only sort of in charge and no person sufficiently at the helm to take responsibility.” What lessons has Zev learned about how to get things done in Los Angeles? How can art, culture, and politics shape each other here? And what sort of city is Los Angeles now in the p

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since the current administration took office. Majorities of Americans, across all demographics, say race relations have worsened and reports of hate crimes are soaring. Are these trends the short-term product of an angry era, unregulated digital media, and divisive political leadership? Or will the resurgence of white supremacy lead to a deeper shift in how Americans relate to each other? Harvard University sociologist Lawrence D. Bobo visited Zócalo to examine how the white supremacy of today is forging the America of tomorrow. Moderated by L.A. Times columnist Sandy Banks, this Zócalo event took place at Cross Campus in downtown Los Angeles.

In 2016, Californians voted to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana. But three years later, the very basics of regulating legal weed remain uncertain, and the new markets for marijuana have become another confounding California mess. It’s unclear how much marijuana can be consumed before police can make an arrest for driving under the influence, or whether the state can guarantee that marijuana being sold is safe and effective. Vaping—popular yet controversial—confuses the issue further. How can local and state governments bring more clarity to the new world of legal marijuana? Why is the black market for marijuana surviving, and even thriving, during the transition to legalization? And what regulations will ensure that legal weed delivers on its promises of crime reduction and increased tax revenue? UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative clinical psychiatrist Tim Fong, executive director of the Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation Cat Packer, and UCLA criminal justice and drug policy scholar Brad

Earlier this century, President George W. Bush’s administration sought to celebrate the U.S.-Mexico border as America’s front door. But in the years since, the border has been widely portrayed by politicians as a source of problems. Today most news is about illegal immigration, abuses of migrants by Customs and Border Protection, or President Trump’s family separation policy. This deluge of negative coverage obscures the fact that the border region is not only a place where millions of people live, work, and go to school; it is a region whose residents must negotiate the same challenges—from globalization to climate change to healthcare—that other Americans face. What, if anything, is distinctive about the routine experiences of those who live on the border? And, in a country that seems to be turning inward, do Americans who live on the border grapple differently with the world than those of us who live in the country’s interior? El Paso-based correspondent for the Dallas Morning News Alfredo Corchado, Albuqu

Los Angeles leaders have developed billion-dollar plans to boost services and build housing for the homeless. But such plans are now stuck in political quicksand, with neighborhood activists blocking shelters and new housing. Meanwhile, living in a city with a homelessness emergency is an everyday struggle, and there is no guidebook to dealing with sidewalk squalor or witnessing human suffering on your street. What’s the best way for Angelenos to engage with our homeless neighbors? What can we contribute to make a real difference in their lives? And who, if anyone, should we call when we perceive a threat, or see someone in crisis? UCLA sociologist Randall Kuhn, Social Venture Partners Los Angeles executive director Christine Margiotta, executive director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA Janey Rountree, and Chris Ko, Managing Director of Homelessness and Strategic Initiatives at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, visited Zócalo to discuss how everyday Angelenos can best respond to the challenges of homele

The history of modern Hawai‘i has been defined by immigration, from the Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Puerto Ricans imported to work on 19th-century plantations, to the Filipino, Korean, and Micronesian migrants who make possible today’s growing tourism and hospitality industry. Arrivals from around the world have shaped and reshaped the islands’ economy and culture, and made Hawai‘i a global crossroads. But some arrivals have faced ostracism and discrimination. To what extent does contemporary Hawai‘i embrace its immigrant past and present? Have Hawai‘i residents generally been welcoming to newcomers? And what part will immigration play as the state struggles with inequality in a changing world? Former Hawai‘i attorney general Doug Chin, Yale University historian Gary Okihiro, former Pacific Gateway Center deputy director Terrina Wong, and immigration attorney Clare Hanusz visited Zócalo to discuss the role that immigration has played in the past, present, and future of Hawai‘i. Moderated by Hawai‘i Pub

No sector in the state of California relies more on immigrants than health care. One-quarter of the health workforce—from nurses to pharmacists to home health aides—and nearly one-third of all doctors and surgeons‚ are foreign-born. And, according to some studies, patients of foreign-trained health providers actually do better than patients who rely on native-born Americans. How have immigrants working in health care changed the standards and culture of our hospitals and clinics? Do cardiologists from India handle patients with high blood pressure in different ways? Might a geriatric specialist trained in Latin America approach end-of-life issues with a distinct perspective? And how have immigrant providers shaped the poor and rural California communities where they are more likely to practice? Former director of the Central California Center for Excellence in Nursing Pilar De La Cruz Samoulian, and Michelle Bholat, co-founder and executive director of the UCLA International Medical Graduate Program, visited

Is Politics Really Tearing America Apart?

Is Journalism About Social Justice?

More than 17 million adults in America—7 percent of people 18 and older in the U.S.—have at least one major depressive episode annually. An estimated 15 percent of all people on Earth are expected to experience depression during their lifetimes. In 2015, UCLA launched a campus-wide initiative to cut the global burden of depression in half by 2050. Are we suffering more from depression than we used to? What is the balance between genetics and life experience in determining who suffers from this disease? How have the excesses, technologies, and even toxins of 21st-century life contributed to this epidemic? And what 21st-century tools might end it? UCLA Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics director and psychiatrist Nelson Freimer, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Mental Health Shelli Avenevoli, and psychologist and director of UCLA’s Anxiety and Depression Research Center Michelle Craske visited Zócalo to discuss modernity’s role in the global epidemic of depression. Moderated by Amy Ellis Nutt, forme

Did Americans Ever Get Along?

Can Phoenix Become Remotely Green? by Zócalo Public Square

Margaret Wertheim, “Space Versus Spirit: Why the Battle Between Science and Religion Is Driving Us Crazy” Science and religion are often viewed as two competing and utterly opposed worldviews–one based on faith, the other on reason. Yet both are systems that attempt to make sense of the world and of humanity’s place within a wider cosmological scheme. Religions usually posit that the material realm is just one part of a larger whole that also includes an immaterial spiritual domain, while modern science speaks only of a physical realm. But at the birth of modern science in the seventeenth century no one imagined that science was articulating the whole of reality. Los Angeles-based science writer Margaret Wertheim will trace the history of how any notion of a spiritual realm was written out of Western science. She will examine the social, psychological, and cultural effects of this transformation and urge us to acknowledge the intellectual gifts we derive from both sides of this maddening divide.

Last May, Michael Tomasky published an essay in The American Prospect, the respected liberal opinion magazine he edits, that set Washington on its ear. "Party in Search of a Notion" was Tomasky’s call for the Democrats to rise above the politics of interest-group particularism and become the party of the common good. The influential essay got front-page treatment in The New York Times and is one of the most widely quoted magazine essays of the past decade. Tomasky will discuss his ideas, his critics, and the new historical opportunity for progressive politics.

The razor thin margin of its recent presidential election has left Mexico deeply divided and the future of its democracy in question. Mexican political scientist and columnist Denise Dresser visits Zócalo to discuss candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s challenge to the election’s outcome and the credibility gap that a Felipe Calderón presidency would inevitably face. Known for her bold, insightful, and unbiased commentary on Mexican politics, Dresser will share the backstory of this long and winding presidential campaign as well as deliver the definitive analysis on its historic outcome.

The subject of social class may the last taboo. No one likes to talk about it, but we spend a lot of time thinking—and worrying—about where we fit into the culture of conspicuous consumption. But is “class” really a matter of money? What do tastes and values say about our relationship to our own social class? Does anyone really believe America is a “classless society”? Does Los Angeles still subscribe to the theory of “you are your car” or has the cult of real estate become our primary mode of aspiration and personal expression? Join three of LA’s wittiest and most insightful social observers–L.A. Times columnist Meghan Daum, filmmaker Nicole Holofcener (“Friends With Money,” “Lovely & Amazing”) and author/performer Sandra Tsing Loh (“Mother on Fire,” “A Year in Van Nuys,”)– for a frank and provocative discussion about social class in Los Angeles and beyond.

Acclaimed actress, Amy Brenneman, creator and star of CBS’ hit series “Judging Amy,” and Brad Silberling, director, writer and producer whose films include “City of Angels” and “Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events”, visit Zócalo to discuss what role morality plays in the creative process. Husband and wife and occasional coworkers, Brenneman and Silberling will compare notes, assess the state of their industry, and welcome audience input as they explore what kinds of responsibility artists have to both their audience and themselves.

One of America’s most formidable intellectuals, Francis Fukuyama, visits Zócalo to discuss his new book America at the Crossroads and to explain his very public break with neoconservative foreign policy. Always brilliant, incisive, and compelling, Fukuyama will outline his vision of a “Realistic Wilsonianism” that he thinks ought to guide America’s future relations with the outside world.

Are private foundations doing enough to help improve the quality of life in Los Angeles? Robert K. Ross, M.D., President and CEO of The California Endowment, the state’s largest private health foundation, will visit Zócalo to discuss the challenges the philanthropic community faces in LA.

Historian William Deverell, the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, visits Zócalo to deliver a groundbreaking lecture on the role that the American West played in healing the wounds inflicted by the Civil War. After all, it was questions about the future of the West that provoked the war in the first place. Unable to reconcile antagonistic positions regarding the expansion of slavery into western territories, North and South capitulated to four years of catastrophic warfare. Then what? Did the post-war American West become a region in which to heal the wounds of disunion? Deverell explores themes of reunification through stories of the convalescence of individuals and the re-fashioning of what it meant to be an American after the Civil War.