Zócalo Public Square

When should medicine fend off death, and when should it help patients prepare for the end? In the Zócalo/UCLA event “Does Medicine Know How to Approach Death?,” John Fairhall, the editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News, moderated a panel discussion about the ethical challenges that accompany advances in medical treatment that allow us extending life longer than ever before. UCLA Ethics Center co-founder Katherine Brown-Saltzman, Dr. Susan Stone of St. Joseph Health & Annadel Medical Group, UCLA-Santa Monica Hospital Palliative Care Chaplain Rev. Lori Koutouratsas, and Bill Monning, CA Senator and co-author of the End of Life Option Act tackled the hard question of who decides when and how we should die.

In 1912, former President Teddy Roosevelt came out of retirement to seek the Republican nomination, and demanded that party bosses refrain from picking a candidate and instead hold the very first presidential primary elections. “Let the people rule,” he thundered. Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, USC professor, and author of the new book Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary, visited Zócalo to examine the past, present, and future of the peculiar way Americans pick our presidents.

In 1912, former President Teddy Roosevelt came out of retirement to seek the Republican nomination, and demanded that party bosses refrain from picking a candidate and instead hold the very first presidential primary elections. “Let the people rule,” he thundered. Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, USC professor, and author of the new book Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary, visited Zócalo to examine the past, present, and future of the peculiar way Americans pick our presidents.

Money alone can’t win an election—but that doesn’t mean it’s not a huge problem in American politics. That was the main message of Zócalo’s first event of 2016, a talk by Richard L. Hasen, the Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections. At Los Angeles’s Grand Central Market, Hasen broke down the nuances and complexities that are often missed in discussions of campaign finance, and what he believes are the key steps to limiting money’s current outsized influence on the political process.

Money alone can’t win an election—but that doesn’t mean it’s not a huge problem in American politics. That was the main message of Zócalo’s first event of 2016, a talk by Richard L. Hasen, the Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections. At Los Angeles’s Grand Central Market, Hasen broke down the nuances and complexities that are often missed in discussions of campaign finance, and what he believes are the key steps to limiting money’s current outsized influence on the political process.

You wouldn’t know it by reading stories about San Bernardino’s bankruptcy and poverty (the Los Angeles Times recently called the Southern California city “a symbol of the nation’s urban woes”), but San Bernardino is seeing an arts revival. A new arts center jus opened. A new public art project, “This Is San Bernardino,” examines people’s experiences of the city. The city’s fine arts commission is pushing the city council for more support. So what roles, if any, might the arts play in a civic revival? Does bringing arts to a distressed place really attract people and investment? In a panel discussion moderated by San Bernadino Sun reporter Michel Nolan, former dean of the School of Education at California State University, San Bernardino, Ernie Garcia, former executive director of the San Bernardino Symphony Valerie Peister, and poet and “This Is San Bernardino” co-creator Juan Delgado examine what the arts can and can’t do for a recovering city.

You wouldn’t know it by reading stories about San Bernardino’s bankruptcy and poverty (the Los Angeles Times recently called the Southern California city “a symbol of the nation’s urban woes”), but San Bernardino is seeing an arts revival. A new arts center jus opened. A new public art project, “This Is San Bernardino,” examines people’s experiences of the city. The city’s fine arts commission is pushing the city council for more support. So what roles, if any, might the arts play in a civic revival? Does bringing arts to a distressed place really attract people and investment? In a panel discussion moderated by San Bernadino Sun reporter Michel Nolan, former dean of the School of Education at California State University, San Bernardino, Ernie Garcia, former executive director of the San Bernardino Symphony Valerie Peister, and poet and “This Is San Bernardino” co-creator Juan Delgado examine what the arts can and can’t do for a recovering city.

From the light bulb to the iPhone, America has a long history of revolutionary inventions. So what does this ingenuity spring from? What are the conditions that allow for our innovative spirit? At a Smithsonian/Zócalo “What It Means to Be American” event, Zócalo Public Square publisher Gregory Rodriguez moderated a discussion about the nature of creativity and the cultural forces that influence it. The evening featured four panelists, all recipients of this year’s Smithsonian magazine Ingenuity Awards: Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto; Zoe Crosher, co-curator of The Manifest Destiny Billboard Project; Harvard Alzheimer’s researcher Doo Yeon Kim; and Françoise Mouly, art editor at The New Yorker.

From the light bulb to the iPhone, America has a long history of revolutionary inventions. So what does this ingenuity spring from? What are the conditions that allow for our innovative spirit? At a Smithsonian/Zócalo “What It Means to Be American” event, Zócalo Public Square publisher Gregory Rodriguez moderated a discussion about the nature of creativity and the cultural forces that influence it. The evening featured four panelists, all recipients of this year’s Smithsonian magazine Ingenuity Awards: Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto; Zoe Crosher, co-curator of The Manifest Destiny Billboard Project; Harvard Alzheimer’s researcher Doo Yeon Kim; and Françoise Mouly, art editor at The New Yorker.

We’re familiar with the dangers of gluttony—from obesity to gout—but is there a downside to our current obsession with healthiness and moderation? What role does feasting play in modern society? What social and psychological outlets do food and drink offer us all? At a Zócalo/Getty "Open Art" Event moderated by Zócalo's founder and publisher Gregory Rodriguez, author of Gluttony Francine Prose, UCLA medieval historian Teo Ruiz, and chef, owner of three Los Angeles restaurants, and former contestant on Food Network’s “The Next Iron Chef” Eric Greenspan discuss when too much is a good thing.