Zócalo Public Square

The United States has had an epic run on the world stage. Two hundred fifty years of independence and imperial aspirations. Eighty years of hosting the U.N. headquarters. But today the country has abdicated many of its leadership roles, from champion of free trade, global health, and climate regulation to defender of democracy and keeper of peace. As the U.S. marks its semiquincentennial, how should Americans understand their country’s place in the world, and calibrate a nation’s aims? Does a less-dominant U.S. offer new opportunities? For whom? What can we learn from past empires? And what do other world powers, like India, have to say about it?

This program features two urgent conversations about the shifts redrawing old maps and forging new ambitions for the U.S., India, and the wider world.

First, a keynote discussion between politician and former diplomat Shashi Tharoor and UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations director Kal Raustiala. Then, a panel moderated by foreign policy columnist Seema Sirohi including Harvard historian and Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire author Caroline Elkins, former U.S. ambassador Nina Hachigian, and Viet Thanh Nguyen, a novelist exploring empire, memory, and American identity.

This program was co-presented by JLF Los Angeles, Zócalo Public Square, UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and produced by Teamwork Arts

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introductions

04:30 - Keynote discussion Kal Raustiala and Shashi Tharoor

29:11 - Panel: Seema Sirohi, Caroline Elkins, Nina Hachigian, Viet Thanh Nguyen

There are 150 food deserts in Los Angeles County, areas where affordable, nutritious food is out of reach. Some frontline efforts to combat the issue have transformed unused spaces like front lawns, schools, and alleyways into sustainable microfarms. There, neighbors are growing their own grains, fruits, and vegetables—feeding friends and family and transforming the cityscape, block by block. In these localized oases, can food build political and social power? Can urban farming protect against crises facing food systems worldwide, such as drought, fire, and inflation? Can gardens reconnect and regenerate community? And why is it more sustainable to grow a squash than a carrot?

Urban farming leader Jamiah Hargins of Crop Swap L.A. and Carola Di Poi, head gardener of The Huntington's Ranch and Kitchen Gardens, come together to engage with questions inspired by THIS LAND IS … and discuss food justice, community empowerment, and urban farming in The Huntington’s Kitchen Garden. Moderated by Bianca Collins, Director of Public Programs, Zócalo Public Square.

This program was co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, The Huntington and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

With the largest population of public school students in the country, and an even larger workforce, California has a lot riding on educating its future workers. Pressed by economic and technological shifts and facing enrollment declines, how will the state think outside the box—employing non-traditional learning approaches to remain competitive? Will this mean reimagining the state’s mission to provide quality public higher education, or devising new ways to leverage “cradle-to-career” data to drive student and worker success? Will AI be student, teacher, or aide in our classrooms? And how will regions like the Inland Empire forge strong career pathways for future workers who want to join booming healthcare, manufacturing, and green technology sectors?

Health workforce manager Vicky Bocanegra, higher education and workforce policy leader Su Jin Jez, and Growing Inland Achievement president and CEO Ashish Vaidya discuss how best to prepare California’s students for the big, bright world ahead. Moderated by Adam Echelman (Higher Education and Workforce Reporter, CalMatters)

Co-presented by Zócalo Public Square and Inland Empire Community Foundation, in partnership with California Humanities, with generous support from The James Irvine Foundation.

This program is part of Zócalo's series “What Connects California?,” marking the 175th anniversary of California’s statehood.

Climate debates are going nowhere. Highly ideological, they end in gridlock more often than solutions. And younger generations, long worried about living on a warming planet, are moving from anxiety to frustration, feeling like they’re left with all the problems but no decision-making power. The world needs a new approach. What new climate narratives, and which media messengers, will bring us together to effect progress across politics, state lines, national borders, and vast oceans?

Featured guests:

Carlos Curbelo (Former Florida U.S. Representative)

Heela Rasool-Ayub (Director, Planetary Politics at New America)

Kate Yoder (Senior Staff Writer, Grist)

Moderated by Uwe Jean Heuser (Journalist and 2026 Thomas Mann Fellow)

This program is co-presented by Thomas Mann House and Zócalo Public Square, in partnership with ASU Global Futures Laboratory and Palisadian-Post.

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs, interviews and essays.

The 2026 Zócalo Book and Poetry Prizes are co-presented with The Jar, and generously sponsored by Tim Disney.

Americans love building walls, and not just on our international borders. Our houses are bigger and more fortress-like than ever before. We drive cars and trucks designed like mobile suits of armor. We consume media that reflects our point of view back to us, closing off dissenting voices. What are these walls doing to our country, our communities, and our minds? Can we stop building them, or even break them? And what might we put in their place?

Johns Hopkins University anthropologist Anand Pandian, winner of the 2026 Zócalo Book Prize for Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down, visits Zócalo to share what he learned from talking to people across the country about what divides us and how we come together.

Featuring:

Anand Pandian, anthropologist and author of Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down

Mike Madrid, political strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project

Poetry reading by Deborah Ager, winner of the 2026 Zócalo Poetry Prize

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introductions

02:37 - Poetry reading by Deborah Ager

08:23 - Lecture by Anand Pandian

23:57 - Conversation with Anand Pandian and Mike Madrid

As an economic powerhouse, California charges forward. The benefits, though, are distributed and felt unequally, especially in places like the Central Valley. Here, thousands of farmworkers feed the nation while facing food insecurity themselves, rural communities struggle to access adequate health care, the housing market is in an affordability crisis, and neighborhood inequality persists. But the region is changing: with steady population growth, reformed labor union legislation, the promise of California High-Speed Rail, and burgeoning arts and culture scenes. And it’s shifting California power dynamics with it, away from the coastal cities and into the Valley’s major cities like Fresno, Bakersfield, Merced, and Stockton.

How are leaders in Fresno harnessing these changes to transform their region for the better? And what does it mean for the Central Valley and for California?

Featured guests:
Danielle Bergstrom (Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Fresnoland)
Betsy McGovern-Garcia (Vice President, Self-Help Enterprises)
Joe Prado (Director, Fresno County Department of Public Health)
Gurdeep Shergill (Radio Host, “Shaan Punjab Di” and City of Fresno Planning Commissioner)

This program is co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, Fresnoland, and Arte Américas, with generous support from The James B. McClatchy Foundation, Central Valley Community Foundation, and The James Irvine Foundation, with media partner KVPR.

This program is part of Zócalo's series “What Connects California?,” marking the 175th anniversary of California’s statehood.

Amid great technological, political, and cultural shifts, who choreographs the great dance of America? Which tales have we inherited, which will we pass down, and what will future generations do with them? And, as this series aims to answer: What can become of us? A panel moderated by IAJS faculty director Tomás Jiménez, and featuring author, poet, and social entrepreneur Ahmed Badr; writer, filmmaker, and powwow dancer Julian Brave NoiseCat; and population geneticist and science journalist Janina Jeff Ringo explores how the stories we tell shape our perspectives on movement and migration, and the legacy of America.

This program is inspired by "Durga’s Daughters," an original performance created and directed by Indian American Bharatanatyam choreographer and dancer Mythili Prakash. Visit Zócalo's Youtube channel to watch the performance of "Durga's Daughters": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m000c1FCDdY

This is the fourth and final program in “What Can Become of Us?”, a collaboration between the Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies (IAJS) and Zócalo Public Square, envisioning new perspectives on migration, America’s diverse communities, and how people come together across differences.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intros

03:00 - Panel: Tomás Jiménez, Ahmed Badr, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Janina Jeff Ringo

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs and essays in the series.

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Museums tell America’s story. Exhibit by exhibit, they acquire, study, preserve, and interpret art and artifacts for the public, offering proof to bolster thoughtful interpretations of our national truths. But they haven’t always done so freely. What can museums do when the state imposes revisionist history on them? Can curation be a form of self-censorship? Is censorship ever good? And what have museums done to protect their freedom of expression and the separation between art and state?

Featured guests:

Devon Akmon (Director, Michigan State University Museum and Chair of the Board, American Alliance of Museums)

Ann Burroughs (President and CEO, Japanese American National Museum)

Hamza Walker (Director, The Brick and Co-Curator, MONUMENTS)

Moderated by Elizabeth Larison (Director, Arts and Culture Advocacy Program, National Coalition Against Censorship)

This program is co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, Japanese American National Museum (JANM), and The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs, interviews and essays.

With the national midterm elections alongside high-profile contests such as the Los Angeles mayoral and California gubernatorial races, voters, election officials, and policymakers alike are being forced to confront AI’s growing role in democratic life. Can AI be responsibly integrated into election systems without compromising transparency or fairness? Who bears responsibility for governing its use—technology companies, election officials, lawmakers, or voters themselves? And what safeguards, norms, or reforms are needed to ensure that innovation serves democracy rather than undermines it?

Featured guests:

Kristen Muller (Executive Editor, The LA Local)

Darwin Mastin, Ph.D. (Founder & CEO, Synaptic Spike Venture Studio & TwinWise AI)

Michael Moore (Chief Information Security Officer, Arizona Secretary of State’s Office)

Gowri Ramachandran (Director of Elections and Security on the Elections & Government team, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU)

This program is co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, LA Local, and the ASU Mechanics of Democracy Lab.

Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs, interviews and essays.

Deportation has impacted communities across California and the country, and has become the face of U.S. immigration policy today. At the culmination of a year marked by violent ICE raids, it’s crucial to understand how we got to this point, and what may lie ahead.

Part origin story, part forecast, this conversation between historian and MacArthur Fellow Kelly Lytle Hernández and filmmaker and MacArthur Fellow Alex Rivera illuminates the history of deportation. The pair discuss the first man to be deported under the 19th-century Chinese Exclusion Act, reach further back in time to consider that law’s predecessors, and, finally, return to the present day to pose questions about the future of U.S. banishment.

Is deportation an anomaly of our modern era, or does it reflect the very heart of this country’s history? Who is targeted for deportation in America, and why? And where should we look for reform or respite—resistance groups, the courts, political leaders?

This program is co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, the MacArthur Foundation, Times of San Diego, and Bread & Salt, as part of Zócalo’s series “What Connects California?,” marking the 175th anniversary of California’s statehood.