Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

In three decades of covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse wrote about 2,700 cases. Greenhouse—now the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence at Yale Law School—spoke with fellow legal journalist turned scholar Henry Weinstein, a professor of law and literary journalism at UC Irvine, about some of the court’s landmark cases throughout history and its role in American life today.

Was Human Life Inevitable?

Name That Tune: Da-Da-Da-DUM

Why Is Cancer Killing More African-Americans?

Will Gaming Change the Way We Learn?

Citizen Who

Does Bakersfield Need More Doctors?

Since the January 2010 earthquake, Hollywood celebrities, like so many Americans, have given their money and loaned their faces and voices to Haiti. But are they helping the country? In conjunction with the Fowler Museum at UCLA exhibition “In Extremis: Death and Life in 21st-Century Haiti,” this question was posed by journalist Amy Wilentz to a panel of people who have worked in Haiti and philanthropy: Generosity Water CEO Jordan Wagner, UCSB black studies scholar Claudine Michel, and Giving Back Fund president Marc Pollick.

It’s an exciting time to be studying, thinking, and dreaming about space, with the NASA Curiosity rover’s exploration of Mars and the rise of private companies like SpaceX. But as we tighten our belts here on Earth, there have also been questions about whether space exploration is worth an annual investment of billions of dollars. At an event sponsored by the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation at the Petersen Automotive Museum, NASA Mars Curiosity rover flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, Planetary Society co-founder Louis Friedman, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne vice president John Vilja talked about what we lose if we don’t go to space - and what we gain by going there.

Critic Camille Paglia, author of Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art From Egypt to Star Wars, believes that art in America is in crisis. Paglia, who has taught in art schools (she is currently a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia) for 40 years, is concerned about most of her students’ lack of exposure to art. But she's also been alarmed to hear the conservative denigration of artists and contemporary art on conservative talk radio. She believes Americans need to move toward a recognition of the spirituality of art.