Zócalo Public Square

The Atlantic senior editor Ronald Brownstein, author of the new book Rock Me on the Water: 1974- The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics, visits Zócalo to examine the complicated relationship between pop and politics. Tonight’s online event is moderated by Sandy Banks, columnist at the Los Angeles Times.

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For live captioning, please turn on the video’s caption feature.

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Every year scientists who have made great inventions receive Nobel Prizes recognizing their “benefit to humankind.” Yet for all the profound ways scientific progress has impacted our lives, many inventions have affected the world in ways that their creators did not imagine. Some innovations, created for peaceful purposes, have been used in war; others have had unintended environmental or health effects. More recently, the seemingly beneficial blue LED light has been found to interrupt sleep patterns and make roadways unsafe for senior drivers. What is it like to be an inventor? Are inventors responsible for the societal ramifications of their creations? And how could a more holistic approach to innovation lead future scientists to create change with fewer unintended consequences?

Ainissa Ramirez, a scientist who did research at Bell Labs before writing “The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another,” and Issues in Science and Technology senior editor Lisa Margonelli visited Zócalo to discuss why great breakthroughs demand greater understanding. This Zócalo/Issues in Science and Technology event was originally streamed on April 13, 2021.

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Zócalo and the University of Toronto present The World We Want, an event series exploring our current societal, political, and economic challenges and how we might emerge from the current moment. The series includes “How Do Our Cities Prepare for the Post-Apocalypse?”

It’s too late to prevent the apocalypse. Because it’s already here. A virus spreads globally, creating a pandemic, as yet uncontrolled. Climate change accelerates, and hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, and floods grow deadlier. Nuclear weapons and disruptive technologies proliferate, and economic dislocation and record mass migrations destabilize cities. Is it reasonable to expect urban centers, which are particularly threatened by many of these global phenomena, to do much more than mitigate the damage? And if world-altering disasters—from climate change to mass social breakdown—are inevitable, what can we do now to give our densest and most vulnerable communities a better chance of recovering from these apocalypses, and perhaps even thriving again in the centuries to follow?

University of Toronto professor and urbanist Richard Florida, Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Forensic Architecture Senior Researcher Samaneh Moafi, and Serge Dedina, Mayor of Imperial Beach, CA and Executive Director of WILDCOAST, visit Zócalo to discuss how cities around the world might prepare for the post-apocalypse. This Zócalo/University of Toronto online event was moderated by Somini Sengupta, international climate reporter at the New York Times.

Zócalo and the University of Toronto thank the Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles for supporting The World We Want.

Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA

For a full report on the live discussion, check out the Takeaway: https://zps.la/2PJAeUD

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A new, bold generation of women leaders is ascending in America. They haven’t entirely ditched the pantsuit, but they have embraced eye-catching colors, up-and-coming designers, and statement-making clothes and accessories. Which means these women have also opened themselves up to the risks—and rewards—inherent in such choices. This past election cycle had no shortage of iconic fashion moments, from Vice President Kamala Harris accepting victory in suffragist white to Michelle Obama's "VOTE" necklace (by Los Angeles designer BYCHARI) going viral. Meanwhile, the fashion industry itself is being called on to take stronger political stances and right wrongs, past and present, particularly when it comes to issues of race, labor, and gender. Are we entering a new era of intertwined fashion and politics—and if so, what does it mean for these industries and institutions, and for the rest of us? What can the history of women and fashion in the political arena teach us about the perils and potential of statement-making—and sometimes barrier-breaking—style?

Studio One Eighty Nine co-founder and president Abrima Erwiah, fashion designer Bibhu Mohapatra, and fashion historian and author Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell visited Zócalo to discuss the past and present of women’s fashion in American government, and what’s next. This Zócalo/Natural History Museum of Los Angeles panel discussion was moderated by Vanessa Friedman, fashion director and chief fashion critic at the New York Times.

Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA

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Global security depends on everyone having enough food. Scientist Molly Jahn started her career inventing squashes and melons. But that work led her to wonder and worry about the security of our global food supply in the face of changing climate, growing population, and new forms of war. What does “food security” really mean in the 21st century? Why hasn’t food security been a bigger part of national security debate and planning? And what would you do if you realized, as Jahn did, that the long-term food security of the nation was not assured and that no one at the highest level of government was working on the problem? Jahn, who is now at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and Issues in Science and Technology editor-in-chief Daniel Sarewitz visited Zócalo to discuss the possible paths to a future where food enough for all is assured.

For a full report of the program, check out the Takeaway: http://zps.la/3ePH70M

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Over the last 500 years, 755 animal species and 123 plant species have gone extinct. One species can take primary responsibility for this mass annihilation: homo sapiens. From hunting and fishing to factories and farming, humans (with the assistance of diseases and other natural disasters) have managed to decimate large swaths of the planet. But beginning in the late 18th century, one group of people has managed to slow, and in some cases even reverse, the disappearance of many endangered species. From William T. Hornaday—the first director of the Bronx Zoo—to Rachel Carson—who helped launch the environmental movement—conservationists have fought an uphill battle to protect animals and habitats around the world. What drives humans to save species—some majestic (bison and bald eagles) but others decidedly less charismatic (desert tortoises and perch)? What lessons can we learn from conservationists, past and present, as we confront the growing threat of climate change to all species?

Science journalist Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, visited Zócalo with Cynthia Barnett, author of Rain: A Natural and Cultural History to discuss how the history of conservation might help us change the future. This Zócalo/Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County discussion streamed live on Twitter on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.

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2020 was the year that women emerged indisputably as the world’s most successful leaders, from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s COVID responses to German Chancellor Angela Merkel saving the eurozone and minimizing damage from Brexit. But perhaps more important was the growing success of transnational feminist movements. For more than a decade, networks of women have been sharing resources, media know-how, and strategies across mass movements. Now this transnational work is producing policy breakthroughs and societal shifts, including greater protections for survivors of sexual violence in Guatemala, more reproductive rights and legalized abortion in Chile and Argentina, the decriminalization of homosexuality in India, a crackdown on sexual harassment in South Korea, and the Greta Thunberg-inspired youth movement for stronger climate response everywhere. What is next for these movements, especially in many Middle Eastern and African countries, where progress for women has been incremental? What setbacks have the pandemic and authoritarianism caused for women and social movements?

Pardis Mahdavi, dean of social sciences in Arizona State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, visited Zócalo on International Women’s Day to discuss the most promising opportunities right now for transnational women’s movements to save our world. This Zócalo/ASU Center on the Future of War panel discussion was moderated by Mi-Ai Parrish, managing director of ASU Media Enterprise.

With an introduction from Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America.

Co-sponsored with the ASU Global Human Rights Hub.

Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA

For a full report on the live discussion, check out the Takeaway: https://zps.la/2N91Kd2

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Men have been running the free world since men invented the term “free world.” But from the success of Jacinda Ardern and Angela Merkel at combating the pandemic to the ascension of Kamala Harris to the White House, women are demonstrating their strength as leaders more visibly than ever before. And over the past seven years, Sweden, Canada, France, Luxembourg, and Mexico all have adopted or pledged to implement what they call a “feminist foreign policy.” To that end, these nations have sought to place gender and women’s advancement at the center of every diplomatic decision, from trade agreements to treaty alliances, and from foreign aid to ambassadorial appointments. For these countries, feminist foreign policy also has had costs, including in diminished trade with nations like Saudi Arabia. What can the U.S. learn from countries that have adopted an explicitly feminist foreign policy? How might such a policy change America’s positions and priorities on climate change, migration, and military intervention, and tilt the balance of power around the world?

Scripps College professor of politics Nancy Neiman, Foreign Policy Interrupted CEO and co-founder and New America fellow Elmira Bayrasli, Chief Advisor and Foreign Affairs Coordinator for Mexico City Diana Alarcón González, and Melanne Verveer, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues and Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, visited Zócalo to explore what a feminist foreign policy would look like for America and the world. This Zócalo/Scripps College panel discussion was moderated by Alisha Haridasani Gupta, gender reporter at the New York Times.

Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA

For a full report on the live discussion, check out the Takeaway: http://zps.la/2OlDvIR

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Between 1975 and 2007, incarceration rates in the United States increased nearly fivefold. But over the last decade, California has slowly turned away from mass incarceration, reducing its prison population and changing criminal sentencing and other law enforcement practices to give more people more second chances. What has California done right in this transformation, and where has it fallen short? How are criminal justice system reforms changing our economy, our schools, our housing markets, our health systems, and our politics? And what would a truly just criminal justice system look like?

UC Berkeley public policy professor Steven Raphael visited Zócalo to examine criminal justice reform in California and how ending mass incarceration might change our communities. This Zócalo/California Wellness Foundation online event was moderated by Abbie VanSickle, California reporter at The Marshall Project.

Co-Presented with UC Center Sacramento.

Read more about our panelists here: https://zps.la/3cjL6OA

For a full report on the live discussion, check out the Takeaway: http://zps.la/3sta1Yd

Visit https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ to read our articles and learn about upcoming events.

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Surely, every debate about Abraham Lincoln has been had, and every story told—from his childhood splitting rails and his battle with depression to his cabinet of former rivals and his assassination. Yet over 150 years after Lincoln’s death, new details about Honest Abe still emerge to surprise us—and even stir up some contemporary controversy. A new exploration of a little-known 1864 episode shines a light on Lincoln's authoritarian side and his manipulative relationship with the press. With the Union mired in a bloody war with no end in sight, two New York newspapers published a presidential proclamation declaring an unpopular new draft. Lincoln declared it a forgery and shut down both outlets, threatening and imprisoning telegraph operators, editors, and reporters. But ultimately, there was more truth to the proclamation than Lincoln admitted, and the real culprits were never brought to justice. What lessons can this history teach us about the relationship between politics, media, and national security in today’s America? And to what extent should this story, and other more critical examinations of Lincoln’s behavior, change how our society understands—and honors—its 16th president?

Elizabeth Mitchell, author of "Lincoln’s Lie: A True Civil War Caper Through Fake News, Wall Street, and the White House" visited Zócalo with "Break It Up" author Richard Kreitner to discuss all things Lincoln in honor of Presidents Day 2021. This Zócalo discussion streamed live on Twitter on Wednesday, February 17, 2021.

For a full report of the program, check out the Takeaway: http://zps.la/3dkHSOK

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