Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

In an event sponsored by the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University's Washington Center in Washington, D.C., Colin Woodard, author of American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, talked with Zócalo editorial director Andrés Martinez about America's divisions. Since the founding of the nation and into the present, 11 regional cultures--as distinct in many ways as different countries--have clashed over politics, economics, and values.

Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, visited Zócalo to answer the question, "Is Energy Security Possible?" He discussed the innovation and technological development that are shaping our future, from shale gas to oil sands to electric cars, how conservation is our single best source of energy, and how California led the way in the development of zero-emissions vehicles.

Patrick French, author of India: A Portrait, answers the question, "Is India rich or poor?" India is both rich and poor, he explained to a large crowd at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. It's such a large country and is changing so rapidly that it is creating its own paradigms about what it means to be rich, and confounding the world's expectations when it comes to global economic development. Telling stories of individuals in contemporary India, reaching back into the history of the country in the 20th century, and debunking the myths and assumptions of the West, he cut through the hype to create a fascinating and surprising narrative of the New India.

With the 100th anniversary of direct democracy upon California, some of the state's keenest political minds gathered to discuss whether the system works, and how it can be improved.

A panel from California with ties in L.A. and the Bay Area debates which half of the state rules--or whether the real power struggle ultimately will be between the east and the west.

Zócalo in San Francisco: How Do We Put the People Back in the Initiative Process?

David Lawrence

Randall Kennedy, Harvard professor of law and author of The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency, shares some of his critiques of the president.

Ever since Americans first likened Cuba to a damsel in distress — two hundred years ago, when the island country was under threat from imperial Spain — we have seen Cuba as less of a country than an idea. The neighboring nation appears alternately innocent and menacing, culturally exotic or repressed by government, an edenic place to escape or a retrograde regime from which refugees flee. With travel restrictions in place since the Cuban revolution, images and impressions have become even more powerful, as the rare legal way to see the land: the poor but vibrant Havana of Walker Evans; the cigars and bars of Ernest Hemingway; contemporary shots of streets brimming with decades-old cars and bordered by centuries-old buildings. As the Getty opens its exhibition, “A Revolutionary Project: Cuba from Walker Evans to Now,” Zócalo invited a panel of photographers and scholars of Cuba — including musician and Cuban music expert Ned Sublette; photographer Virginia Beahan, who has worked extensively in Cuba; and professor of Cuban history Lillian Guerra — to ask how images of the country have shaped and complicated its relationship with Americans.

From the tender age of 20, when he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Julian Bond has been at the forefront of civil rights activism in America. Now, more than 50 years into his civil rights career, he serves as an elder statesman for the movement. In between, he served for two decades in the Georgia State Legislature, chaired the NAACP from 1998 to 2009, worked as the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, taught at several major universities, published four books and dozens of articles and poems, narrated theEyes on the Prize documentary and hosted Saturday Night Live in 1977. Bond visited Zócalo to discuss his life's work and the evolution of the civil rights movement over the past six decades.