Zócalo Public Square

KCRW's Kim Masters, Homeland and Cold Case writer and producer Meredith Stiehm, the Boston Globe's Joanna Weiss, ex-TV executive James Andrew Miller, and Occidental College historian Thaddeus Russell debate whether we're currently living in the golden age of television--or if more choice means more mediocrity. Their lively conversation encompassed the merits of Cupcake Wars and American Idol, the debt contemporary shows owe to Hill Street Blues, diversity onscreen, and what makes today's critically acclaimed shows great.

Getty Trust President and CEO James Cuno explains why museums matter today more than ever in a talk at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Cuno shares the museum's 18th-century Enlightenment origins and responds to critics who have called the encyclopedic museum elitist and imperialistic.

Historian Olivier Zunz, author of Philanthropy in America: A History, explains why philanthropy is such a powerful force in American politics, economics, and society by explaining the history of the institution.

Leaders of four major research universities--USC President C.L. Max Nikias, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, ASU President Michael Crow, and Rice University President David Leebron--discuss the role of urban universities in their communities with the Chronicle of Higher Education's Jeffrey Selingo. They agreed that while universities alone cannot save dying cities, but they can contribute a great deal to the cultural, economic, and intellectual lives of their cities.

How Life Imitated Art

At a panel as part of the Pacific Standard Time art initiative, New York University historian Thomas Crow, UCLA historian Eric Avila, Huntington Library curator Jennifer Watts, and Kirse Granat May, author of Golden State, Golden Youth, discussed the allure of Los Angeles imagery through the decades. In a conversation about Disneyland and dream houses, freeways and film, they moved from the 19th century through the postwar years.

Why is the U.S. the only western country that can't agree on healthcare? Sociologist Paul Starr, author of Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle Over Health Care Reform, explains our bitter war over healthcare through its history from the early 20th century--when the American Medical Association and other groups used xenophobia to defeat the first healthcare bills--up through President Obama's 2010 reforms.

Panelists with extensive experience in local, regional, and state government offered arguments for and against splitting California into more than one state in a conversation at the Fresno Art Museum. They agreed that the state is not fulfilling its promises to its citizens, but while some argued for a North-South split (or even a three-state division), others felt that reform, not secession, is needed.

An Evening With Ricardo Salinas by Zócalo Public Square

America's public schools are failing--in a large part because the teacher's unions and the bureaucracy don't put students first, according to media mogul Steven Brill, author of Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools. Brill explains his journey through the country's public school system, where he discovered heated wars over charter schools, teachers struggling to succeed without burning out, unions that protect their members at all costs, and a culture that is too often complacent with failure.