Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

Los Angeles and Las Vegas are cities founded on fantasy—narratives of youthful glamour, the languor of palm and pool dotted landscapes, the ease of private automobile transport, the promise of self-invention and easy fame and power. They share city plans designed according to car culture. And they grow toward each other as they expand into the Mojave Desert. But reality has hit both cities: water grows scarce, space is tighter, cars clog roads and pollute the air, and money is disappearing. Zócalo hosts a panel of experts—including William L. Fox, Director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, architect and University of Washington assistant professor Nicole Huber; writer, curator and former director of the Las Vegas Art Museum Libby Lumpkin; and educator, author and architect Ralph Stern—to discuss the two parallel cities.

Tens of thousands of American soldiers have suffered injuries in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, including traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, and mental health problems. Zócalo hosts a panel of medical and military experts -- including Jennifer Sinclair, sister of an Army captain who served in Iraq, Army Major Gen. (Retired) Paul E. Mock, David Webb, chief of environmental and military medicine at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Long Beach, and Los Angeles Timesveterans affairs reporter Jia-Rui Chong -- to discuss how to heal the minds and bodies of returning soldiers.

Will a new model or medium rise to do what newspapers have aimed to do for decades--pursue accuracy and objectivity, doggedly investigate stories, act as a check on power? Or will the demise of newspapers mean a radical shift in what we know and how we know it? Zócalo hosts a panel--including former Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll, Slate founderMichael Kinsley, San Francisco Chronicle executive vice president and editor Phil Bronstein, and National Public Radio media correspondent David Folkenflik--to discuss the decline of print media and the future of journalism.

Though both Iraq wars aimed to reign in Saddam Hussein, and both were run by men named Bush, the two conflicts were drastically different in planning and implementation. The first was a necessary war of limited scope that won broad international support and was well-executed. The second was a war of choice. Its ambitions were broad, its strategy poorly conceived and implemented. Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars, draws on his experience as a senior-level strategist during both Iraq wars to explain the lessons these wars have taught us.

Los Angeles is the homeless capital of the nation, with 73,000 homeless men, women and children living on our streets on any given night.  Though the number of homeless in Los Angeles has declined over the last few years, it has not declined as sharply as populations in other cities, like New York, which has fewer homeless but has devoted more funding to the cause.  What can Los Angeles learn from cities like New York and Washington D.C., which have both reduced homelessness by emphasizing housing first and providing comprehensive care to address root causes? Zócalo hosts a panel of experts -- including United Way of Greater Los Angeles president Elise Buik, Mike Alvidrez, Executive Director for Skid Row Housing Trust, Becky Kanis, Director of Innovations for Common Ground in New York, and Chet Grey, Homeless Services Director of the Washington D.C. Business Improvement District -- on the question of whether homelessness is solveable, and if so, how Los Angeles can get its homeless population off the streets.

Forty years ago, California's higher education system was the envy of the nation. It´s bold strategy welcoming any resident who wanted to learn led to a doubling of enrolled students, and sparked similar efforts across the country. California ranked high among other states for its share of working adults with a bachelor´s degree. But that figure has declined sharply in the decades since. According to new research by the Public Policy Institute of California, by 2025, the state will fall nearly one million college graduates short of serving its economic needs. With dire California budget crunch, vast demographic shifts including the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation and the influx of immigrants, and the ongoing struggle for stronger secondary education, California needs to recall and possibly adapt its long-heralded higher education vision. What prompted California´s fall from higher education excellence, and how can it be reversed? Zócalo and the Public Policy Institute of California host a panel including Los Angeles Times editorial pages editor Jim Newton, Campaign for College Opportunity Executive Director Michele Siqueiros, UCLA professor Gary Orfield, and PPIC Associate Director Hans Johnson on the history and future of higher learning in California.

Is God good or bad? In both the Bible and the Koran, God’s mood seems to swing randomly between belligerence and benevolence. But the scriptures, read carefully, reveal a subtle pattern in these moods, a pattern that is key to understanding the evolution of the great monotheistic faiths. In an era when the perceived divisions between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam spark violent conflict, understanding the deep parallels between the faiths--and the forces that can move them to a higher moral plane--is crucial to building a peaceful world. Robert Wright, a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of The Moral Animal, Nonzero, and the just-published The Evolution of God, visits Zócalo to discuss the birth and growth of the Abrahamic God.

Work is universal. We spend most of our lives at work -- in offices and factories, warehouses and ports, rocket launch pads and power stations -- rarely discussing what exactly we do and why. After exploring the working worlds of occupations both familiar and unfamiliar, Alain de Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Art of Travel, and The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, visited Zócalo to discuss work and what it all means.

From sleek laptops to shiny new cars, objects enthrall us. Objects seem capable of manipulation and seduction, building and sustaining a desire for design, even over performance, function and a fair price. Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum London and author of The Language of Things: Understanding the World of Desirable Objects, visits Zócalo to explore the power of design and what it means for art and commerce.

Swine flu, a contracting economy, rising unemployment, a wild and bloody conflict with drug traffickers, the constant threat of natural disasters and ransom kidnappings—Mexico faces several serious challenges. Since the contested 2006 presidential election there, the country has suffered crisis after crisis, constantly testing the Mexican people’s ability to realign their everyday lives. Some seek economic refuge in the United States, but most remain home, adapting, tuning out, dancing with Death. Daniel Hernandez, a former Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly writer who has spent the past 18 months blogging Mexico City, visits Zócalo to share his insights on that sprawling capital, its youth culture, and the alternately defiant and detached, resigned and resistant approaches of Mexican people to threats always looming.