National Center for the Preservation of Democracy

A Zócalo/Arizona State University Event Moderated by Goldie Blumenstyk, Senior Writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education and Author of American Higher Education in Crisis? What Everyone Needs to Know American higher education reinforces inequality. Can interactive technologies, applied to learning, change that? Unlimited information is now accessible almost anywhere, and the finest university courses in the country can be taken by rural kids too poor to afford college. Unemployed Detroit auto workers have the opportunity to experience immersive education, personalized to their…

A Zócalo/The California Wellness Foundation Event Moderated by Jennifer Medina, National Correspondent, The New York Times Donald Trump has said that many immigrants are criminals and security risks, and that in response he is pursuing an “America First” agenda of deporting and banning those migrants whom he claims could pose threats to public safety. What does that mean for Los Angeles County, where more than one-third of residents were born in another country? How has life changed for L.A. immigrants—from the…

Moderated by Christina Bellantoni, Los Angeles Times Assistant Managing Editor, Politics The Republican Party should be the dominant force in American politics. GOP politicians now control the White House, 33 governorships, and hold majorities in the U.S. House, Senate, and 32 state legislatures. But in spite of its electoral success, the rise of Donald Trump has raised difficult questions about the party’s long-term future. Does Trump’s flirtation with white nationalism threaten to taint the party of Lincoln and permanently alienate younger and more diverse generations of Americans?…

America’s college campuses have become crucial testing grounds—and, at times, battlegrounds—as the country grapples with rapidly changing modes and mores of sexual behavior and expression. Fraternities are being scrutinized for promoting a culture of alcohol-fueled male privilege and presumption. Lecture halls and quads ring out with passionate debates about how to set the ground rules for sexual consent. Academic officials are being called to act as judges and arbiters over some of the most intimate aspects of students’ lives. Millennials…

Housing has never been more expensive in California than it is today. Rents are at record highs, and the average Golden-State home is worth nearly a half-million dollars, more than two-and-a-half times the national average. Home values have helped millions of California homeowners to build the wealth they need to pay for their children’s education and their own retirement. But what are the hidden costs of soaring rents and home prices—to California, its economy, and the aspirations of longtime residents…

A Zócalo/UCLA Anderson Event Moderated by Julie Makinen, former Beijing Bureau Chief, Los Angeles Times As America retreats from global leadership—blowing up trade agreements, questioning longstanding security alliances, dropping out of the Paris climate accord—China is stepping into the void. In purchasing-power terms, the Chinese economy already is larger than its U.S. counterpart. And Xi Jinping’s regime is building China-led global institutions, expanding his nation’s infrastructure investments deep into the developing world, and defending trade agreements and globalization in the face of…

A Zócalo/KCRW "Critical Thinking with Warren Olney" Event 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…

Moderated by Anna Gorman, Senior Correspondent, Kaiser Health News 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,…

Moderated by Carol S. Larson, President and CEO, David and Lucile Packard Foundation Where do we find answers to the world’s growing plagues of chronic illnesses—from diabetes to depression? In childhood. Surveys and research show a connection between ill health in adults and adversity in childhood—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…

Moderated by Gregory Rodriguez, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Zócalo Public Square American mass shooters. Islamic terrorists. Vengeful nationalists. Racist presidents. Social media misogynists. In today’s world, paranoid hatred—and the wrath of the people who spread it—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…