Zócalo Public Square

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 continued with “What Would a New Cold War Mean for the World?”

Civilization faces existential threats—pandemics, climate change, nuclear proliferation, runaway technologies—that seem to require international collaboration. Meanwhile, China and the United States are engaging in greater conflict with each other, and embracing unilateralism in matters of trade, technology, national security, and the sovereignty of their neighbors. To what extent will nations, businesses, NGOs, and individuals across the globe have to take sides if the U.S.-China contest becomes a new Cold War? What are the perils of the bitter competition between China and the West over 5G networks and artificial intelligence? And is it possible to create a collaborative and resilient international order to solve big problems, or are we headed toward a decoupling of East and West?

University of Toronto historian and author of “War: How Conflict Shaped Us” Margaret MacMillan, FSI Center fellow at Stanford University and American Enterprise Institute defense and foreign policy fellow Oriana Mastro, and UCLA Anderson distinguished professor Christopher S. Tang visited Zócalo to contemplate how the world, and our lives, would change during a new Cold War. This Zócalo/University of Toronto online event was moderated by New York Times associate managing editor Philip P. Pan, author of “Out of Mao’s Shadow.”

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: http://zps.la/3b4KaP0

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

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The inauguration of Kamala Harris was a moment of many firsts—the first woman, the first Black woman, the first woman of color, the first person of South Asian heritage, even the first California Democrat to become vice president. But this moment has been punctuated by an eruption of hatred and violence, and further evidence of America's bitter divisions, making it difficult to celebrate Harris's rise as evidence of national progress. How has the country shifted over the past four years—and over the course of Harris's career—to make her election possible? What does the elevation of a career prosecutor mean at a moment when many Americans want the criminal justice system to be less punitive? And how well is the vice president positioned to help change American attitudes about race, gender, diversity, and representation? The veteran California journalist Dan Morain, author of the new biography “Kamala’s Way,” and Kimberly Peeler-Allen, co-founder of Higher Heights, an organization building the collective political power of Black women, visited Zócalo to discuss how Harris got to the White House, what we might expect her to accomplish there, and what it can tell us about our nation and the current moment. This Zócalo discussion streamed live on Twitter on Thursday, February 4, 2021.

For a full report of the program, check out the Takeaway: http://zps.la/3jrk9NJ

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

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Social media polarizes us. Political propaganda deluges us. And misinformation and disinformation seem to spread as quickly as COVID-19. So where can we go to find stories, analysis, and messengers we can trust? Scholars say that high-quality, fact-based local news organizations—based in our own communities and staffed by diverse and responsible journalists who are also our neighbors—can inoculate us against the toxicity that inundates us via screen, airwave, and print. But such local media are dying; more than a quarter of the country’s newspapers have closed in this century, and thousands of communities no longer have their own news outlets. So how can local, community-based information messengers be made viable again—and how do we know that they are committed to being part of the solution rather than contributing to the problem? What strategies and institutions are already working to restore the trust in information, and in one another, that provides the foundation of a healthy civil society?

American Journalism Project chief executive Sarabeth Berman, Voice Media Ventures founder and “Black Voice News” publisher Paulette Brown-Hinds, and UC Berkeley law professor and former Federal Election Commission chair Ann Ravel visited Zócalo to explore how local media might help bring Americans together. This Zócalo/Center for Social Innovation online event was moderated by Joanne Griffith, managing editor of California Newsroom.

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/2Y58qL4

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

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Robotic trucks are beginning to roll out, carrying cargo and promises of revolutionizing freight hauling, reducing traffic, and lowering pollution. But previous waves of automation have eliminated millions of jobs in the United States. And a transformation in truck driving could come with big costs for the 3.5 million truckers who toil in one of America’s most enduring occupations and play an outsized role in our nation’s economy and road-heavy culture. Will driverless trucks become cramped and lonely “sweatshops on wheels” maintained by poorly paid attendants? What would it take to make this highly visible shift to automation serve society by creating good new jobs, making roads safer, and even helping the planet?

University of Pennsylvania sociologist and former truck driver Steve Viscelli, author of The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream, and Issues in Science and Technology senior editor Lisa Margonelli rolled into Zócalo to consider how automated trucking might transform American life. This Zócalo/Issues in Science and Technology discussion streamed live on Twitter on Tuesday, January 19, 2021.

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

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America’s higher education system faces a crisis of legitimacy. Colleges and universities, while promoting themselves as forces for social mobility, have stacked the deck against their neediest students. Rising college costs, skyrocketing student debt, and increasingly out-of-touch curricula are leading more Americans to question the fairness and value of higher education. What is right, and what misses the mark, in these mounting critiques of our colleges and universities? Can institutions be forced to make sweeping changes to tuition structures, endowment spending, and affirmative action—or are these changes destined to produce more conflict? And what would it take for higher education to transform itself to better serve society?

Arizona State University President Michael Crow, co-author of The Fifth Wave: The Evolution of American Higher Education, Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr, and California State University Chancellor Joseph Castro visited Zócalo for an in-depth discussion of how to make American higher education a stronger force for equity and innovation. This panel discussion was moderated by Jennifer Ruark, deputy managing editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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/39yTg65

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare

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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 began with “What Would Society Look Like Without Police?”

All over the world, law enforcement violence and corruption have reignited anti-racism movements that seek the reform and defunding of police—or even their outright abolition. Advocates of defunding the police say it would open up possibilities for addressing social challenges, from improving mental health and developing more sustainable neighborhoods and economies to repairing the damage from centuries of discrimination and state violence. How would such a transfer of resources play out, especially in communities with a highly visible police presence? Who would replace police in their core work of emergency response, violence prevention, and crime investigation? What would it mean for a 21st-century society to dismantle, or even eliminate, its policing?

University of Toronto Faculty of Social Work Dean Dexter Voisin, Harvard University professor of criminal justice Sandra Susan Smith, and Rachel Harmon, director of the Center for Criminal Justice at University of Virginia Law, visited Zócalo to explore what our communities would look like without traditional cops. This panel discussion was moderated by Jamiles Lartey, staff writer at The Marshall Project.

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/378nHQs

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

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zocalopublicsquare

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square

Since World War II, the United States has famously funded research to advance all fields of science and innovation. The resulting wave of discovery and knowledge has benefited Americans by creating new disease-fighting drugs, increasing economic productivity, and sparking an information revolution through advances like the internet and GPS. Yet not everyone has benefited from innovation equally, and our society remains bedeviled by a host of problems—from healthcare disparities to income inequality and structural racism. Can discovery and invention really fix the entrenched inequities and deep divisions that ail America? What does it take to create society-changing leaps forward in innovation and technology?

Two experts in American innovation—former DARPA director Arati Prabhakar, who is now CEO/founder of the nonprofit Actuate, and Issues in Science and Technology editor-in-chief Daniel Sarewitz—visited Zócalo to consider the promise and pitfalls of innovation as the nation attempts to emerge from one of the most challenging periods in its history. This Zócalo/Issues in Science and Technology discussion streamed live on Twitter on Tuesday, December 8, 2020.

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

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One hundred years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, Zócalo and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County present When Women Vote, a three-event series that concluded with “What Are Today’s L.A. Women Fighting For?”

Women have made Los Angeles one of the nation’s most progressive cities, fighting for their own rights as well as those of children, laborers, immigrants, and other underrepresented groups since well before they gained the right to vote over 100 years ago. The city, which has the lowest gender pay gap of any American metropolis, has been a leader in creating policies designed to create wealth for working-class women in particular, from passing legislation to create the country’s first public bank to raising the minimum wage. But women in Los Angeles—particularly lower-income and Black and brown women—still face a number of challenges, including health disparities, housing struggles, and human trafficking. What battles are the women of Los Angeles fighting today, and what are the plans to win them?

California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo, artist and Social and Public Art Resource Center co-founder Judy Baca, Social Venture Partners Los Angeles executive director Christine Margiotta, and civil rights activist and lawyer Connie Rice, co-director of the Advancement Project, visited Zócalo to discuss what all the women of Los Angeles need to truly thrive. This panel discussion was moderated by Angel Jennings, assistant managing editor of Culture and Talent at the Los Angeles Times.

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/3qosLId

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare

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If you commit murder in the United States, there’s a 40 percent chance you’ll get away with it. That shocking statistic belies other realities; you have better than even odds of getting away with murder if you kill people who are poor, powerless, or non-white, or if you do your murdering in less wealthy and developed places. Why are Americans willing to tolerate such widespread failure to achieve justice for murder victims? To what extent are the nation’s social problems and inequalities reflected in how authorities seek to prevent and investigate homicide? And what are the costs and consequences of this widespread impunity for families, communities, cities, and the country as a whole?

BuzzFeed News West Coast investigations editor Jessica Garrison, author of The Devil’s Harvest: A Ruthless Killer, a Terrorized Community, and the Search for Justice in California’s Central Valley, visited Zócalo to examine the American way of murder through the case of Jose Martinez, who killed three dozen people over three decades. This Zócalo online event was moderated by Judy Campbell, co-host/producer of KQED’s The Leap.

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

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

Follow along on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare

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“What do we do now?” asks Robert Redford at the end of “The Candidate,” the 1972 political satire that ends in an election upset—and existential despair. After a presidential election defined by an international pandemic and rampant misinformation and a post-election period that seems destined to be marked by bitterness and conflict, America must ask itself the same plaintive question. What comes next for the American republic, its discontents, and its enemies? Can the United States rebuild vital government agencies, including in public health, national security, and intelligence, that have been at the center of our angriest political disputes? Is there any hope for reviving our ideal of “E pluribus unum”?

Yale national security law scholar and former FBI counterintelligence agent Asha Rangappa, also a CNN commentator, visited Zócalo to discuss the way forward after one of the most traumatic elections in our nation’s history. This Zócalo online event was moderated by Julian E. Barnes, national security 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: https://zps.la/3eXF4pk

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

Follow along on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepublicsquare

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepublicsquare/

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-calo-public-square