Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

If any single mood characterizes the emotional climate of the 21st century, it’s anger, particularly media rage—indignant cable news pundits, rancorous bloggers and the apoplectic comments they engender. Our society appears to be choking on the bile of its own discontent. Dick Meyer, author of “Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium,” and Time magazine writer Lev Grossman visit Zócalo to discuss the new anger.

Authenticity is a virtue many of us prize in our restaurants. But Los Angeles is also a city where the California roll was born and the best pizza hews to a standard more Californian than Neapolitan. A panel of Los Angeles’ best-known chefs -- includingNancy Silverton of Mozza; Roy Choi of KoGi, Jimmy Shaw of Loteria Grill and Sarintip "Jazz" Singsanong of Jitlada -- visited Zócalo to discuss with moderator and Pulitzer-Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold what it means for food to be authentic, and whether the pursuit of authenticity is worth it.

From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to fearful mistrust of capital markets, powerful psychological forces seem to be endangering the global economy. Are so-called “animal spirits” — the term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom that led to the Great Depression and the psychological shift that pulled us out of it — behind today’s financial crisis? George Akerlof, a Nobel laureate, and Yale University economics professor Robert Shiller visit Zócalo to discuss overconfidence in capitalism, modern snake-oil salesmen, and how to fix the economy to ease the influence of each.

We live in an age of obsession. To be obsessive is to be American; to be obsessive is to be modern. But obsession is not only a phenomenon of modern existence: it is a medical category — a pathology. Its current form, known as OCD, has been cited by the World Health Organization as the fourth most common mental disorder in the world. How did OCD reach epidemic level when a mere 45 years ago it was considered extremely rare? University of Illinois at Chicago professor Lennard Davis, author of Obsession: A History, visits Zócalo to explain obsession’s growth, its treatment, and its complex origin and deep cultural roots.

craigslist.org may be the only site where you can get anything you need for life cheap, or even for free. The free community classifieds service, launched as an email listserv for San Franciscans in 1995, helps over 50 million monthly users find homes, jobs, cars, stuff, spouses, friends and flings. Founder Craig Newmark visited Zócalo to talk about the web and social change, net government transparency, and political causes like supporting veterans and building a stable environment for peace on the West Bank.

craigslist.org may be the only site where you can get anything you need for life cheap, or even for free. The free community classifieds service, launched as an email listserv for San Franciscans in 1995, helps over 50 million monthly users find homes, jobs, cars, stuff, spouses, friends and flings. The site's simple design and old age (in Internet company years) hasn't kept it from being at the pulse of online life. Founder Craig Newmark visited Zócalo to talk with moderator and L.A. Times editorial writer Jon Healey about how craigslist grew, and how internet access and participation can change the way our country runs.

Discovering John Fante is like tasting garlic for the first time. He is a quintessential Los Angeles writer. H.L. Mencken, John Steinbeck, Charles Bukowski, Robert Towne and Francis Ford Coppola number among the many fans who swear by Fante, who might have turned 100 this year. A panel of fans and scholars -- including Fante biographer Stephen Cooper, KCRW’s Frances Anderton, Esotouric co-founder Richard Schave, and Fante’s children Victoria Fante-Cohen and Jim Fante -- visited Zócalo along with moderator David Kipen to celebrate the work of John Fante.

Despite proclamations of a flat world, the utility of soft power, or the start of the post-American era, power still matters. It’s still about carrots and sticks, and the U.S. still has it. Washington has wisely used its power at critical moments over the last 50 years to preserve American and global security, and the U.S. today remains an indispensable leader because it alone can galvanize coalitions to solve major international problems. President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie H. Gelb, also a former New York Times correspondent and author of Power Rules, visits Zócalo to explain how American power works, and how it should be used in a tumultuous world.

The troubles of Africa today are severe and wide-ranging. The continent is more dynamic and its problems more intricate than that, blocked by bottlenecks at the international, national and individual levels. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai—founder of the Green Belt Movement, author of The Challenge for Africa and longtime environmental and democracy advocate—visits Zócalo to discuss her life’s work and her  vision for Africa.

From his first concert piece, written when he was 17, to his expansive, 19-movement, 4,000-measure opus “Epitaph,” Charles Mingus built a remarkable legacy as a jazz bassist, band leader, and composer. Thirty years after his death, Zócalo hosts a panel -- featuring music and culture journalist Oscar Garza, music producer Hal Willner, writer Emory Holmes II, Mingus contemporary and friend William "Buddy" Collette, and the jazz great's son Eric Mingus, also a musician -- to discuss the jazz great.