Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

The latest innovations in medicine seem like the stuff of science fiction: edible pills that can sense, monitor, and report on vital signs from within the body; a stick-on heart monitor that communicates wirelessly with patient and doctor; robotic surgical tools that reduce or eliminate invasive procedures. Medical advances past — from the discovery of antibiotics to the development of organ transplant procedures — certainly transformed the practice of medicine, but today’s technologies could revolutionize care, taking it out of hospitals and doctors’ offices. How will new technologies change the way we manage, receive and conceptualize healthcare, and are doctors ready for the change? Zócalo invited a panel including moderator Sarah Varney, Proteus Biomedical’s Greg Moon, USC bioethicist Michael Shapiro, and Leslie Saxon of the USC Center for Body Computing to explore the vanguard of medical technology, and how it will transform our health. This event was made possible by a generous grant from the California HealthCare Foundation.

In the last 20 years, the Internet has transformed the way we live, easing communication, speeding connections, spreading information, and spurring activism. But its power has prompted governments and corporations to seek to control its uses and limit access. If they succeed, it wouldn’t be the first time a new technology has revolutionized the world before being clamped down. From telephones to radio to television, information mediums have long been consolidated and regulated, often in ways that limit how we communicate and connect. Could the Internet be next, and what would it mean for our lives, our jobs, and our economy? Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, visited Zócalo to trace the century-long struggle between flowing information and corporate control, and to ask whether the Internet will stay free.

Many of us turn to Google at the first sign of sickness, and over the past few years, more and more doctors have started to meet us there. Boutique practices promise easy e-mail correspondence with doctors — along with unlimited in-person access — for a flat fee of a few grand. Kaiser guarantees 24-hour response times for any inquiries made to doctors online. And countless websites, from WebMD to ailment-specific chat rooms, offer easy medical advice, sometimes over webcams. But for all the ease of access — and the improved care it could bring to rural or poor patients — most doctors don’t get paid for online consultations, and medical advice sites aren’t clearly regulated. What are the opportunities and dangers of online care? Zócalo invited a panel including Health 2.0 co-founder Indu Subaiya, co-chair of the Society for Participatory Medicine and e-Patients.net blogger Dave de Bronkart, One Medical Group Founder and CEO Thomas Lee, and MedSimple founder Francis Kong to consider how the Internet is changing the way we care for ourselves. This event was made possible by a generous grant from the California HealthCare Foundation.

Only eight days after German tanks rolled into Paris, silent and deserted in the summer of 1940, France accepted defeat and foreign occupation. But even though a swastika flew over the city, cultural life survived and even flourished. Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf sang for French and German audiences. Pablo Picasso painted in his Left Bank apartment, even though his work was officially banned. Over 200 French films were produced, including the classic “Les Enfants du Paradis”, and thousands of books were published by authors as politically divergent as the anti-Semite Céline and the anti-Nazi Jean-Paul Sartre. But as Jews, including artists, fled or were deported to concentration camps, many French intellectuals began to join the resistance and debate the role of artists in war. Were artists saving or betraying their country by continuing to work? Journalist Alan Riding, author of And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris, visited Zócalo to explore the life, work, and moral responsibility of artists in times of war.

American maps of the modern world centrally and prominently locate the global powers of the 20th century, and the arenas of their wars: the U.S. and Western Europe, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. But the 21st century has already begun to see a shift in geopolitical focus to an area generally relegated to the edges of our maps: the Indian Ocean. From the Horn of Africa to the Indonesian archipelago, the Indian Ocean region is home to a striving new middle class, young populations tempted by extremism, weak governments and infrastructures, not to mention nuclear weapons. The struggles for world power, democracy, energy independence, and religious freedom will be won or lost there. Atlantic national correspondent Robert Kaplan, author of Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, visited Zócalo to ask whether the U.S. is ready for the rising challenges of the next century.

When George W. Bush declared the Iraq War finished in May 2003, it was far from over. Over the next several years, terrorism and sectarian conflict continued and American troop levels increased. Now, after Barack Obama’s own speech declaring the combat mission complete, conflict wears on. As the U.S. turns its forces toward Afghanistan, how can America learn to bring conflicts to an end? Driven by ideology or constrained by domestic politics, presidential administrations throughout the 20th century have botched postwar planning, and successive leaders have failed to learn from the past. In an event co-presented with the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs and author of How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle, visits Zócalo to chat with Burkle Center director Kal Raustiala and explain how to conclusively and effectively end our wars.

ver the past 50 years, religion in America has radically transformed. The 1960s saw a drop in religious observance and spurred a conservative reaction that, over the next 20 years, created the Religious Right. In the 1990s, younger generations, put off by the deepening link between faith and conservative politics, began to abandon organized religion altogether. Because it has long inspired volunteerism, philanthropy, and community engagement, the decline of religion threatens to impoverish civic health. But despite these trends, religious tolerance seems to be on the rise: up to one-half of all American marriages are interfaith; even deeply religious Americans believe people of other faiths can go to heaven; and one-third of Americans have switched religions. Where does religion stand today, and what does it mean for our civic health? In an event co-presented with UCLA’s Center for Civil Society, groundbreaking political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone and the forthcoming American Grace, visited Zócalo to chat with UCLA’sBill Parent and ask whether Americans can get past the new religious divide, and what the future holds for religious life in America.

Chefs have always had a knack for fame — from Julia Child to Napoleon’s personal chef, who published lucrative cookbooks and invented the tall white chef’s hat. But today, thanks in part to the Food Network, several seasons of "Top Chef" and "Hell’s Kitchen," and a burgeoning foodie culture, chefs are full-fledged celebrities. Besides running top restaurants across the country, they publish enough books to overwhelm the shelves — and abilities — of most any home cook. They host TV shows that rely on outsized personality as much as inventive recipes. And they lend their names and talents to chain eateries and bottled grocery-store sauces. Are celebrity chefs over exposed and over extended, and how have they transformed food? Pulitzer Prize winning LA Weekly food criticJonathan Gold visited Zócalo with a panel of star chefs — including Nancy Silverton of Mozza, "Top Chef" Season Two winner Ilan Hall, and "Top Chef Masters" stars Ludovic Lefebvre of LudoBites and Susan Feniger of Border Grill and Street — to find out what makes a celebrity, and whether TV helps or hurts chefs and the way we eat.

Salomón Huerta is known for revealing identity by obscuring it. He has painted collections of finely detailed portraits of the backs of heads, florid but unemotional masked lucha libre wrestlers, and unassuming suburban homes stripped of individuality. Huerta, who was born in Tijuana and raised in Boyle Heights, has exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, the Gagosian Gallery, and LACMA, and is beginning to paint new works with no unifying theme. But Huerta remains committed to his unusual creative process — destroying each piece several times with a sander, and then repainting on the same canvas. In an event made possible by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, Huerta visited Zócalo to discuss with art critic David Pagel his method and what it says about art, ego, and creativity.

Hospitals and clinics are not generally considered well-designed places for today’s healthcare needs. Work spaces for doctors and nurses can be crowded, too close to patient treatment areas, and missing new technology that would streamline care. At hospitals, patient rooms often lack windows or privacy. They can be cramped and far from waiting areas and cafeterias, making it more difficult to visit easily with family. But a growing number of hospitals and clinics are taking design and architecture into consideration with an eye toward patient outcomes and quality of care. The shifts have been shown to aid recovery, boost morale, decrease hospital-caused infections that can cost billions of dollars a year, calm patients, and create better communication between doctors, nurses, families, and patients. They have also helped clinics expand their services beyond primary care. Could good design make for good health, and save money in the process? Zócalo invited journalist Dana Dubbs, James Theimer, principal architect and founder of the Redding firm of Trilogy Architecture, Robin Orr, a board member of the Center for Health Design, and Mary Dee Hacker, Vice President of Patient Care Services of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, to explore how medical care environments harm us, and how they could help us.