Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

At a "Thinking L.A" event co-presented by UCLA and moderated by KCRW's Saul Gonzalez, Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Newton, political organizer and activist Torie Osborn, and UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Dean Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. disagreed on what Mayor Garcetti’s first year in office tells us about what’s next for L.A., and on whether Garcetti is truly a rock star or a bureaucrat.

The man behind the Kogi Korean BBQ phenomenon, Roy Choi, hosted a screening of the movie Chef along with KCRW and Zócalo for a massive crowd at the Million Dollar Theatre. Choi introduced the film, on which he served as a co-producer and technical consultant. Then, after the screening, Choi sat down to to talk with KCRW Good Food host Evan Kleiman--and were joined by a surprise guest, Chef writer, director, and star Jon Favreau. The three discussed the making of the movie, how Choi helped Favreau get the restaurant industry details right, and how the film changed Choi and Favreau's lives.

California's historic drought has forced local communities to find new water supplies. But where? Some coastal cities are looking to the ocean, contemplating desalination projects that once were dismissed as too energy-intensive and expensive. Meanwhile, some counties have looked to the toilet--turning sewage into drinking water in a process called toilet to tap. At an event co-presented by Occidental College, West Basin Municipal Water District public information and conservation manager Ron Wildermuth, Orange County Water District president Shawn Dewane, Water Wise president Sarah Woolf, and Cadiz Inc. president and CEO Scott Slater talked with Bob Sipchen about whether Southern Californians will be drinking ocean water or wastewater in the coming years.

At a panel co-presented by Arizona State University, ASU historian Michael Rubinoff, Slate political reporter Dave Weigel, and Arizona Republic columnist Robert Robb talked with 12 News Sunday Square Off host Brahm Resnik about Barry Goldwater's legacy in Arizona and America today. They tackled postwar libertarianism, Rand Paul, the Tea Party, Arizona history, and what Goldwater would think about contemporary issues like surveillance, drones, Obamacare, and illegal immigration.

Food fads are, in a sense, inevitable: Once we developed the economic means to select from a variety of foods, some tastes became more popular than others. But what determines which foods become trendy when? How do marketers, farmers, scientists, doctors, and even governments create food crazes? At L.A.'s Grand Central Market, journalist David Sax, author of The Tastemakers: Why We’re Crazy For Cupcakes But Fed Up With Fondue, explained why certain dishes take hold of our collective passion, why others lack staying power, and what impact trends like putting bacon on everything and the rise of the food truck have on our economy and our culture.

Washington Post staff writer Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, visited Zócalo to discuss why Americans haven't figured out how to lead balanced lives, and what we can do as individuals and a nation to get some relief from the chaos of modern life.

Ethan Zuckerman, winner of the 2014 Zócalo Book Prize for Rewire: Becoming Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, explained why the Internet has made our understanding of the world more narrow rather than more rich and global—and how we might be able to change that. The 2014 Zócalo Book Prize was sponsored by the California Community Foundation.

My Kid Has Autism. Now What?

At an event co-presented by Metro, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies director Brian Taylor, former California Environment Secretary Linda S. Adams, L.A. Chamber of Commerce president Gary Toebben, and Southern California Association of Governments executive director Hasan Ikhrata talked with NBC4 reporter Conan Nolan about the future of the embattled 710, and what it means for the entire Southern California region.

Has the Affordable Care Act failed in Fresno, and will it be able to succeed? KPCC Southern California Public Radio health reporter Rebecca Plevin posed this question to Deborah Martinez, the deputy director of the Fresno County department of social services, Kevin Hamilton, deputy chief of programs at Clinica Sierra Vista in the Central Valley—the country's second-largest community health center—and Margarita Rocha, the executive director of Clinica la Familia, a Fresno nonprofit at a panel co-presented by The California Wellness Foundation.