Zócalo Public Square

American mass shooters. Islamic terrorists. Vengeful nationalists. Racist presidents. Social media misogynists. In today’s world, paranoid hatreds—and the wrath of the people who spread them—is inescapable. Where does all the rage come from? Pankaj Mishra, author of "Age of Anger: A History of the Present," locates the answer, paradoxically, in modernity’s successes. As the world has become more closely linked via mass politics and technology and the pursuit of wealth, those unable to enjoy the fruits of progress have been cast adrift, uprooted from older traditions. Many have responded by lashing out. Mishra visited Zócalo to explore the paradoxical perils of freedom, stability, and prosperity, in a conversation titled “Why Is the Modern World So Angry?” moderated by Gregory Rodriguez, founder and editor-in-chief, Zócalo Public Square, at the National Center for the Preservation for Democracy, in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles.

Where do we find answers to the world’s growing plagues of chronic illnesses—from diabetes to high blood pressure and from cancer to depression? In childhood. Surveys and research show a connection between ill health in adults and adversity in childhood—including divorce, substance abuse, neglect, and various other forms of emotional and physical abuse. And research shows that high stress levels during childhood change our neural systems in ways that can last a lifetime. What is the nature of the connections between childhood stress and health? How can we better assist unhealthy adults whose problems are rooted in childhood trauma? And how can we make children more resilient? Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, pediatrician, and founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco, and author of The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, and Carol S. Larson, president and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, took part in a Zócalo Public Square event titled “Does Childhood Trauma Live in the Body Forever?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. They explored the newest thinking on how people can overcome childhood trauma and avoid its long-term ill effects.

Where do we find answers to the world’s growing plagues of chronic illnesses—from diabetes to high blood pressure and from cancer to depression? In childhood. Surveys and research show a connection between ill health in adults and adversity in childhood—including divorce, substance abuse, neglect, and various other forms of emotional and physical abuse. And research shows that high stress levels during childhood change our neural systems in ways that can last a lifetime. What is the nature of the connections between childhood stress and health? How can we better assist unhealthy adults whose problems are rooted in childhood trauma? And how can we make children more resilient? Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, pediatrician, and founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco, and author of The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, and Carol S. Larson, president and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, took part in a Zócalo Public Square event titled “Does Childhood Trauma Live in the Body Forever?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. They explored the newest thinking on how people can overcome childhood trauma and avoid its long-term ill effects.

Is the Trump Administration restoring American greatness, as its fans claim? Or is it a threat to American democracy, as its critics fear? E.J. Dionne, a leading American political journalist and Washington Post columnist, suggests a third option: that the Trump administration, by trampling so many norms and so thoroughly shaking up the system, could inspire a wave of participation, activism, and national soul-searching that leads to a democratic renewal. Dionne took part in a Zócalo/Daniel K. Inouye Institute “Pau Hana” panel discussion titled “Will the Trump Administration Renew American Democracy?” at Artistry Honolulu in downtown Honolulu. He was joined by Colleen Wakako Hanabusa, the Democratic U.S. representative for Hawaii’s 1st congressional district, and a candidate for governor of the Aloha State, and moderator Bill Dorman, news director of Hawai’i Public Radio.

Is the Trump Administration restoring American greatness, as its fans claim? Or is it a threat to American democracy, as its critics fear? E.J. Dionne, a leading American political journalist and Washington Post columnist, suggests a third option: that the Trump administration, by trampling so many norms and so thoroughly shaking up the system, could inspire a wave of participation, activism, and national soul-searching that leads to a democratic renewal. Dionne took part in a Zócalo/Daniel K. Inouye Institute “Pau Hana” panel discussion titled “Will the Trump Administration Renew American Democracy?” at Artistry Honolulu in downtown Honolulu. He was joined by Colleen Wakako Hanabusa, the Democratic U.S. representative for Hawaii’s 1st congressional district, and a candidate for governor of the Aloha State, and moderator Bill Dorman, news director of Hawai’i Public Radio.

The “Mexicanism” of Los Angeles, wrote Mexican poet and onetime L.A. resident Octavio Paz, “floats, never quite existing, never quite vanishing.” L.A.’s historical connections to Mexico and the rest of Latin America are well known, and its human connections—in a city of immigrants and their progeny—are obvious. Mexicans and Central Americans in particular have shaped Angeleno identity for generations. But how Latin American is L.A. really? Comedian and art collector Cheech Marin, Univision anchor León Krauze, and The New York Times national correspondent Jennifer Medina, and moderator Gregory Rodriguez, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Zócalo Public Square, joined in a Zócalo/Getty “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA” panel discussion, “Is L.A. Really Part of Latin America?” to examine the bridges and walls between Los Angeles and the world to its south.

The “Mexicanism” of Los Angeles, wrote Mexican poet and onetime L.A. resident Octavio Paz, “floats, never quite existing, never quite vanishing.” L.A.’s historical connections to Mexico and the rest of Latin America are well known, and its human connections—in a city of immigrants and their progeny—are obvious. Mexicans and Central Americans in particular have shaped Angeleno identity for generations. But how Latin American is L.A. really? Comedian and art collector Cheech Marin, Univision anchor León Krauze, and The New York Times national correspondent Jennifer Medina, and moderator Gregory Rodriguez, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Zócalo Public Square, joined in a Zócalo/Getty “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA” panel discussion, “Is L.A. Really Part of Latin America?” to examine the bridges and walls between Los Angeles and the world to its south.

Depression is the world’s greatest health problem and leading source of human misery. One in four women and one in six men suffer from depression, which has a devastating economic impact since those afflicted often can’t work. Depression is also the strongest risk factor for the world’s 1 million annual suicides—a total that outnumbers deaths from war, natural disasters, and murder. And while new research is identifying the various biological, cognitive, and environmental factors associated with depression and thus offering the promise of progress, the prevalence of the disease grows and it remains hard to treat. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, National Alliance on Mental Illness policy director Darcy Gruttadaro, and UCLA behavioral geneticist Jonathan Flint, came together at a Zócalo/UCLA panel discussion to examine “How Can We Reverse the Depression Epidemic?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles.

Depression is the world’s greatest health problem and leading source of human misery. One in four women and one in six men suffer from depression, which has a devastating economic impact since those afflicted often can’t work. Depression is also the strongest risk factor for the world’s 1 million annual suicides—a total that outnumbers deaths from war, natural disasters, and murder. And while new research is identifying the various biological, cognitive, and environmental factors associated with depression and thus offering the promise of progress, the prevalence of the disease grows and it remains hard to treat. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, National Alliance on Mental Illness policy director Darcy Gruttadaro, and UCLA behavioral geneticist Jonathan Flint, came together at a Zócalo/UCLA panel discussion to examine “How Can We Reverse the Depression Epidemic?” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles.

Barack Obama was president of the United States for eight years, and the broad outlines of his story—his Hawaiian birth, his fatherless childhood, his education at elite institutions, his work as a community organizer and politician in Chicago—are now familiar elements of American history. But even today, Obama retains a remarkable mystique, and can seem unknowable. All leaders must create narratives around themselves, but Obama’s is especially dense and complicated. Who is Barack Obama? How did he construct his own identity—and what did that construction mean for the way he governed America? David J. Garrow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, sat down with Warren Olney at Zócalo to unpack the peculiar origin story of the American president in a Zócalo/KCRW “Critical Thinking with Warren Olney” event titled "How Did Barack Obama Create Himself?" at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles.