Zócalo Public Square

There are 15 major arts and music festivals in the Coachella Valley each year, from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to the Desert Lexus Jazz Festival -- and that’s just from January to June. What do these festivals bring to the local community, and why have they all sprung up in this area? These were the questions tackled at a "Living the Arts" event co-presented by the James Irvine Foundation in front of a full house at the Sunnylands Center & Gardens in Rancho Mirage. Desert Sun arts and entertainment reporter Bruce Fessier got answers from Modernism Week's Lisa Vossler Smith, Palm Springs Art Museum's Irene N. Rodriguez, Indio Mayor Lupe Ramos Watson, and music writer and photographer Steve Appleford.

There are 15 major arts and music festivals in the Coachella Valley each year, from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to the Desert Lexus Jazz Festival -- and that’s just from January to June. What do these festivals bring to the local community, and why have they all sprung up in this area? These were the questions tackled at a "Living the Arts" event co-presented by the James Irvine Foundation in front of a full house at the Sunnylands Center & Gardens in Rancho Mirage. Desert Sun arts and entertainment reporter Bruce Fessier got answers from Modernism Week's Lisa Vossler Smith, Palm Springs Art Museum's Irene N. Rodriguez, Indio Mayor Lupe Ramos Watson, and music writer and photographer Steve Appleford.

Why do some adult men and women choose not to have kids? Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum had only seen the topic addressed in a “really glib, flippant way.” But for many, including Daum herself, it’s not a black-and-white decision but a choice that exists in a gray area.To get at the complexity and complications of this decision, Daum decided to assemble and edit an anthology, Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids. At an event at the Downtown Independent, she talked with two of the book’s contributors, M. G. Lord and Kate Christensen, about their lives without kids, the cultural pressures they faced, and why—if not because they’re selfish, shallow, and self-absorbed—they chose not to become parents.

Today, American institutions of higher education are under fire from all fronts, including for the high cost of attending, for the role they play in perpetuating inequality, and for their perceived inability to prepare students for a changing world. Is the contemporary research university in danger of going extinct? And if so, is it even worth saving? Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow, co-author of Designing the New American University, and New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, author of Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania, talk with Chronicle of Higher Education Editor Liz McMillen about who universities should serve and what problems they should be solving.

Today, American institutions of higher education are under fire from all fronts, including for the high cost of attending, for the role they play in perpetuating inequality, and for their perceived inability to prepare students for a changing world. Is the contemporary research university in danger of going extinct? And if so, is it even worth saving? Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow, co-author of Designing the New American University, and New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, author of Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania, talk with Chronicle of Higher Education Editor Liz McMillen about who universities should serve and what problems they should be solving.

Is America a nation of risk-takers or worry warts? At the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, a wide-ranging "What It Means to Be American' discussion covered entrepreneurship and jazz music, parenting and travel -- and whether risk-taking is an essentially American trait. Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character, talked with Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill, documentary filmmaker and Adventure Divas and Globe Trekker host Holly Morris, and Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle, author of The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success, about the risks they've taken in their work and lives, and their thoughts on the place of failure and risk-taking in American culture today.

Is America a nation of risk-takers or worry warts? At the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, a wide-ranging "What It Means to Be American' discussion covered entrepreneurship and jazz music, parenting and travel -- and whether risk-taking is an essentially American trait. Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character, talked with Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill, documentary filmmaker and Adventure Divas and Globe Trekker host Holly Morris, and Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle, author of The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success, about the risks they've taken in their work and lives, and their thoughts on the place of failure and risk-taking in American culture today.

Just as the UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies released its 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report, Black List founder and CEO Franklin Leonard, Black-ish executive producer Brian Dobbins, Bunche Center director Darnell Hunt, and Creative Artists Agency agent Christy Haubegger talked with Hollywood Reporter executive editor Matthew Belloni about why the people Americans see onscreen don't look more like the rest of us. At an event co-presented by UCLA and UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, the panelists agreed that diversity sells, but studio executives are still playing catch-up with the nation's demographics and tastes.

Ever wondered what makes L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti laugh? June Cleaver speaking jive, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar as a pilot, and a bowl of Jell-O on a turbulent plane. When asked to host Zócalo and KCRW’s "My Favorite Movie" series at the Million Dollar Theatre, Garcetti chose the 1980 classic comedy Airplane! After a screening of Airplane! KCRW Press Play host Madeleine Brand interviewed Garcetti, as well as the movie’s writing-directing-producing trio, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker.

Ever wondered what makes L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti laugh? June Cleaver speaking jive, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar as a pilot, and a bowl of Jell-O on a turbulent plane. When asked to host Zócalo and KCRW’s "My Favorite Movie" series at the Million Dollar Theatre, Garcetti chose the 1980 classic comedy Airplane! After a screening of Airplane! KCRW Press Play host Madeleine Brand interviewed Garcetti, as well as the movie’s writing-directing-producing trio, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker.