Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

Don’t sell your car just yet -- but be prepared to get to where you’re going in a lot of different ways. This was the conclusion of a discussion about car culture co-presented by Metro. Petersen Automotive Museum executive director Terry Karges, DUB Magazine founder Myles Kovacs, Drexel University Center for Mobilities Research and Policy director Mimi Sheller, and architect Deborah Murphy, founder of Los Angeles Walks, talked about everything from how cars bring us together and whether mopeds are cool to why millennials are more car-averse than previous generations and how technology is changing transportation.

Cartoonists are propagandists and satirists, artists and writers. They make us laugh -- in recognition and shame -- and enrage and offend. At an "Open Art" event co-presented by the Getty in conjunction with the Getty Research Institute exhibition "World War I: War of Images, Images of War," the many roles cartoonists play and have played over the past century were discussed and dissected by cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, USC's Marty Kaplan, Getty curator Nancy Perloff, and Chris Lamb, author of Drawn to Extremes: The Use and

Abuse of Editorial Cartoons.

Where did the Cuban Revolution succeed, and where did it fail? How will Cuba change as the country enters a new era of rapprochement with the United States? What is Cuba today -- and what will it look like in 10 years? Will an open Cuba model itself after Poland and the Czech Republic, Russia, or China and Vietnam? At a "Thinking L.A." event co-presented with UCLA, Cuban economist Rafael Betancourt, UCLA Latin America and Caribbean literature scholar Jorge Marturano, and Ann Louise Bardach, author of Without Fidel and Cuba Confidential answered these questions posed by Associated Press Latin American and Caribbean editor Marjorie Miller.

Necessity Is the Source of Eddie Van Halen’s Inventions

If there’s anything bigger than oil in Bakersfield, it might be music. It’s hard to think of the town without the sounds of Buck, Merle, Korn, and The Lighthouse Boys. But is Bakersfield still creating new musical traditions that reflect a changing Kern County? At an event co-presented by the James Irvine Foundation,legendary music engineer Jim Shaw of the Buckaroos, singer and economic development official Jennifer Keel Faughn, and local musician and entertainment writer Matt Munoz talked with Bakersfield Californian executive editor Robert Price about what Bakersfield sounds like now.

Over 30 million people rely on the Colorado River for water—for purposes ranging from drinking to agriculture to power plants. But scientists predict that the river isn’t going to produce the amount of water it did in the past—or does today. At an ASU/Zócalo event at ASU Colleges at Lake Havasu City, Lake Havasu City water resources coordinator Doyle Wilson, Arizona Municipal Water Users Association executive director Kathleen Ferris, and Nature Conservancy Colorado River program director Taylor Hawes talked with the Arizona Republic's Shaun McKinnon about what steps must be taken to ensure that the Colorado River survives.

The Women of the West

What is the historic "California dream" -- the one people still talk about today? How does California’s 21st-century reality differ from that dream? And what is the California dream of today and the future? Zócalo's Joe Mathews, author of the weekly Connecting California column, talked about what our places and people have in common, and why, if we want to keep them together and help them flourish once again, we need to start forging a new California story.

After a screening of their new movie Big Eyes, writer-producers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski discuss their greater hope for the biopic--knowing the story and artist can shed light on the genuinity of Margaret Keane’s work.

L.A. has all the elements of a global city–except one: a fully developed, advanced, and integrated transportation system. CicLAvia’s bike festivals lets Angelenos escape the tranny of the car. Founder Aaron Paley discusses what CicLAvia means to the Los Angeles community and where he hopes it’ll go—from city to county… to country.