Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

Inland Empire Economic Partnership president and CEO Paul Granillo discusses the challenges to effective public healthcare in the Inland Empire. The region is lacking in doctors, nurses, and hospitals, while percentage of residents in poverty grows.

Almost two-thirds of new teachers report that their training left them underprepared for the realities of the classroom. NewSchools Venture Fund’s Stephanie Wood-Garnett and ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Dean Mari E. Koerner discuss how to shift from competition to collaboration in teaching practice and evaluation.

Western Health Advantage CEO Garry Maisel, Health Access lobbyist Beth Capell, and Bay Area Council policy advisor Micah Weinberg talk with healthcare reporter Emily Bazar about whether the Affordable Care Act is living up to its promises. Does it give consumers more choices? Is it as easy as shopping on Amazon? They discussed the new healthcare landscape at a Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation event in Sacramento.

Los Angeles was built by the railroad, but the city has resisted the allure of train transportation for a century. What is it about rail that captures people's hearts--and why has L.A. remained immune to this almost universally beloved mode of transport? Journalist and Chapman University English scholar Tom Zoellner, author of Train, and UCLA and UC Berkeley legal, business, and environmental scholar Ethan Elkind, author of Railtown, discussed the past and future of trains in Southern California.

How did politicians' private lives become public, and how did politics become fodder for the tabloids? In a discussion with Matt Miller, Yahoo News national political columnist Matt Bai, author of All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid, used the scandal that took down presidential candidate Gary Hart in 1987 to discuss the American media's obsession with sex, and how it's changed our democracy.

The World Economic Forum currently ranks the U.S. 52nd in the world in the quality of its math and science education. ASU science education scholar Dale Baker and Change the Equation CEO Linda Rosen discuss the importance of funding in improving American STEM education.

Can the arts make a city vibrant both economically and culturally? Artists and arts administrators in Visalia, California, think so. At a "Living the Arts" event co-presented by the James Irvine Foundation in front of a full house at Arts Visalia, Arts Consortium director Caroline Koontz, Visalia Opera founder Rosalinda Verde, and artist and College of the Sequoias professor Richard Peterson talked with Visalia Times-Delta senior lifestyle editor James Ward about their community’s thriving performing and visual arts scene and the support they’ve received from local government, businesses, schools, and individuals to make it possible.

This year, GQ called downtown Los Angeles "America’s next great city" and "the cool capital of America"” and The New York Times included downtown on its list of "52 Places to Go in 2014"” Does downtown actually live up to this (admittedly East Coast) hype - and will downtown’s revival is shifting power and influence away from L.A.’s wealthy Westside? Architect Thom Mayne, restaurateur Bill Chait, Los Angeles Times arts & entertainment editor Laurie Ochoa, and UCLA urban planner Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris talk with New York Times national correspondent Jennifer Medina discussed at a Zócalo/UCLA "Thinking L.A”" event at MOCA Grand Avenue.

According to surveys, some 70 percent of Californians under the age of 40 expect they’ll never retire - and that makes sense, since few are saving money for retirement. Why is it so hard to convince young Californians to do essential long-term planning? Can the state’s existing programs be expanded to convince - or coerce - more people to save? City of Los Angeles financial empowerment initiative director Olivia Calderon, SagePoint financial advisor Alexander Cruz, personal finance columnist Liz Weston, and AARP director of financial security and consumer affairs Gerri Madrid-Davis visit Zócalo to ask how young Californians might be saved from elderly poverty - and themselves.

The L.A. Times has said that we’re living in a golden age of public transportation in Los Angeles. But try telling that to the people stuck on the 10 and 405 freeways at rush hour. Are new train and bus lines decreasing the number of cars on Southern California’s roads? Will technology speed up L.A. traffic? And how will Measure R investments in transit - funded by a sales tax increase - change how we get around? Metro Los Angeles CEO Art Leahy, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies director Brian D. Taylor, and Fixing Angelenos Stuck in Traffic Executive director Hilary Norton answered these questions for KCRW traffic reporter Kajon Cermak addressed these questions at an event co-presented by Metro at the Petersen Automotive Museum.