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What Alliances Do We Need in Perilous Times?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, ASU Mechanics of Democracy Lab, UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, California Humanities, Los Angeles Local News Initiative, LA2050, KCRW, and Los Angeles Times Moderated by Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times Columnist, and Joe Mathews, Zócalo Columnist and Democracy Local Founder “We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our […]

Would Parliamentary America Have More Fun?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

With the 2024 election season upon us, Americans feel political despair. The president and his leading challenger, a former president, are deeply unpopular. Huge majorities, in both parties, tell pollsters that the two-party system is broken. For many, the prospect of engaging in upcoming political contests evokes downright dread. So, where can we find the […]

“What Is a Good Job Now?” For the Formerly Incarcerated

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

It’s been over 50 years since the era of mass incarceration started in the United States. Over the past decade, and especially in the pandemic, California has made major changes in its criminal justice system to reduce its prison population and sentences. But it has been slower to develop and invest in new systems to […]

What Is the State of Surveillance?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Early this year, an uncrewed Chinese-operated high-altitude balloon floated across U.S. airspace, stoking anxiety and fascination among Americans, who assumed it was spying on them, and ultimately provoking President Biden to order the Pentagon to shoot it down. Just as alarming as foreign espionage, though, is the fear of information-gathering turned inward. American anxieties around […]

2023 Zócalo Book Prize: How Does a Community Save Itself?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

America’s high-poverty cities and counties have suffered for decades, enduring skyrocketing inequality, the opioid epidemic, rising housing costs, and widespread disinvestment. Governments have offered a variety of failed solutions, from luring wealthy outsiders to slashing public services. But four communities are turning inward instead: Stockton, California; rural Josephine County, Oregon; Lawrence, Massachusetts; and Detroit, Michigan. […]

What Does Boxing Owe Its Champions?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Boxing is a sport of contradictions. Known as the “sweet science” because of the technical skills its fighters need to succeed, it is also incredibly brutal. Boxing has provided a creative outlet and a path out of poverty for generations of California strivers, forging cultural and individual identity, promoting dignity, pride, and agency, and delivering […]

Can Decolonization Explain Everything?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

People place blame for inequality, climate change, political polarization, and other current woes on all kinds of bad actors and influences: authoritarians, corporations, globalization, social media. But the decline of Western empires during the 20th century was arguably the catalyst for it all. Decolonization changed millions of people’s lives—primarily for the better—transforming art, culture, global […]

What Is the Value of Art?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Zócalo Public Square and KCRW present, “What Is the Value of Art?,” in partnership with NeueHouse and Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The week before the international art fair Frieze Los Angeles descends upon Southern California, contemporary artist and activist Andrea Bowers; artist, cultural organizer, and co-founder of Meztli Projects Joel Garcia; and director and CEO of […]

What Is the Value of Art?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

The week before the international art fair Frieze Los Angeles descends upon Southern California, contemporary artist and activist Andrea Bowers; artist, cultural organizer, and co-founder of Meztli Projects Joel Garcia; and director and CEO of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Sandra Jackson-Dumont visit Zócalo to consider the value of art beyond a financial investment

How Has Computer Code Shaped Humanity?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

On January 31, Zócalo Public Square and Future Tense present, “How Has Computer Code Shaped Humanity?” It can be easy to forget that software springs from the minds of living, breathing people with the same insights and failings that have driven human history for centuries. Nearly 80 years after engineers programmed the first electronic computers, […]

A Special Zócalo/Da Poetry Lounge Spoken Word Performance: Does Democracy Need Poets?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

On January 17, Zócalo Public Square and Da Poetry Lounge present, “Does Democracy Need Poets?” As long as there have been poems, there have been political poems meant to sway opinion and inspire action. As long as there have been poems, there have been political poems: verses, intended to be heard aloud, meant to sway […]

How Can Women and Girls Win in Iran?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

On December 6, Zócalo Public Square presents “How Can Women and Girls Win in Iran?,” co-presented with the Goldhirsh Foundation. Today, people are pouring into the streets of Iran demanding change. But can a century of feminist resistance combined with a new generation of activists have what it takes to turn the tide on a […]

How Does L.A. Inspire First-Time Novelists?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Zócalo Public Square and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles present, “How Does L.A. Inspire First-Time Novelists?” Debut novelists Fatimah Asghar, Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi, and Ryan Lee Wong visit Zócalo and ALOUD to read from their new books, and to discuss the excitement and challenges of putting out a first novel, what inspires their craft, and why […]

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Do We Even Need a City Council?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Zócalo Public Square and KCRW present, “Do We Even Need a City Council?” A panel moderated by KCRW’s host of All Things Considered, Janaya Williams, will discuss where things went wrong and imagine new futures. Government officials, reformers, and scholars visit Zócalo to discuss where things went wrong, and imagine new futures for L.A.’s city council. […]

How Should We Prepare for Aliens to Arrive on Earth?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

What will contact with a new intelligent lifeform mean for humanity’s future? Can the close encounters Hollywood has imagined help us plot our way forward? And, is it possible that humanity will find unity in how we present ourselves to the new arrivals? A panel including astrobiologist, theoretical physicist, and ASU associate professor Sara Imari Walker, […]

What Can We Laugh About?

ASU California Center 1111 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, United States

What is the relationship between dissent and comedy? Is there civic virtue in laughter? Are there any issues that it is “too soon” to joke about? Should comedians around the world draw inspiration from American humor? And can comedy break through apathy, discontent, and division in a democracy under pressure—serving as release valve, remedy, and […]