Zócalo Public Square

As much as social scientists have learned about what drives people’s decision-making, we still haven’t found a silver bullet for changing people’s behavior. Yet at a panel co-presented by UCLA at MOCA Grand Avenue and moderated by The Atlantic contributing editor David H. Freedman, L.A. County Director of Public Health Jonathan Fielding, University of Minnesota social psychologist Traci Mann, and UCLA health economist Frederick J. Zimmerman agreed that it is possible to get people to make better health choices—if you give them time, and you engage them on several fronts.

Former Intel CEO and president Craig R. Barrett and Arizona State University president Michael M. Crow discussed what comes after the computer chip, the past 50 years of technological change, and what the United States needs to do to stay at the cutting edge of technology innovation.

Former Intel CEO and president Craig R. Barrett and Arizona State University president Michael M. Crow discussed what comes after the computer chip, the past 50 years of technological change, and what the United States needs to do to stay at the cutting edge of technology innovation.

Stanford University economist Anat Admati, author of The Bankers' New Clothes, argues that the roots of the 2008 financial crisis lie in the excessive debt the banking industry takes on. But the reforms that have been put in place over the past few years are woefully inadequate. If we can regulate the amount of money banks borrow, we might be able to prevent the next crisis.

Stanford University economist Anat Admati, author of The Bankers' New Clothes, argues that the roots of the 2008 financial crisis lie in the excessive debt the banking industry takes on. But the reforms that have been put in place over the past few years are woefully inadequate. If we can regulate the amount of money banks borrow, we might be able to prevent the next crisis.

How Will L.A. Face Its Post-Immigrant Future?

How Will L.A. Face Its Post-Immigrant Future?

Television and the Internet are pushing entertainment and journalism closer together than ever. Should journalists fight the trend of news as entertainment, or can responsible reporters find ways to embrace it? New York Times Hollywood correspondent Michael Cieply, former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, TMZ co-executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere, and Zócalo California editor Joe Mathews discussed how best to strike the balance between political journalism and entertainment.

Even a century after Richard Nixon’s birth, his life and political career are still almost always considered in light of his demons and dark side. But former New Yorker editor Jeffrey Frank, author of Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage, chose to dissect Nixon in an entirely different context—that of his relationship to his boss and eventual in-law, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, for whom Nixon was a two-term vice president. In a conversation with former Nixon Presidential Library director Tim Naftali, he explained how this relationship may have influenced the rest of Nixon's life and career.

Rebuilding After a Bubblicious Bust