|
|
 |
The Best of Zocalo: Critically-acclaimed novelist Francisco Goldman on The Art of Political Murder in Central America
10/26/2008
[ Listen ]
Francisco Goldman discusses the themes of his first nonfiction book, The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? The culmination of nine years of research, the book explores the murder of Guatemala's leading human rights activist Bishop Juan Gerardi. Navigating between stories of killer dogs, mystery cars, and a motley crew of unlikely detectives, the story is as rich in human drama, enigma, and surprise as any novel.
In this riveting talk Goldman sketches out the improbable case from top to bottom.
Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
The Best of Zocalo: Elaine Pagels and Karen King on The Gospel of Judas and The Shaping of Christianity. Interview by Peter Stenshoel.
10/19/2008
[ Listen]
In April 2006 the National Geographic Society announced an astonishing archeological discovery: a gospel ascribed to Judas Iscariot. This extraordinary find raised a number of questions about the context for this and other gospel writings unearthed from the 2nd Century. How do they alter common assumptions about the early Christians and about ancient philosophical debates? How do they affect our understanding of Judeo-Christian cultural antecedents?
Princeton University Professor of Religion, Elaine Pagels, and Harvard Divinity School Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Karen L. King, tell Zócalo Radio producer Peter Stenshoel about their new book, Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, and discuss the revelations their ongoing scholarship has uncovered.
The Best of Zocalo: Alix Ohlin on Why Mysteries Matter: Detectives, Literature, and Life
10/12/2008
[ Listen]
Fiction writer Alix Ohlin (The Missing Person and Babylon and Other Stories) says detective stories reflect the way we judge our own society: who's an insider and who's an outsider, who's corrupt and who's innocent, who's capable of changing the world and who can find the clues to make sense of it. No crime, even a fictional one, takes place out of context. And mysteries, which tap into the darkest shades of that social context, speak to the chaos each of us may suspect is lurking beneath the surface of our days.
Recorded at Los Angeles Central Library before a live audience as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
The Best of Zocalo: Steven Isoardi and Dwight Trible on L.A.'s Neighborhood Jazz Movement. Interviews by Richard Paske and Peter Stenshoel.
10/05/2008
[ Listen]
Jazz historian Steven Isoardi is the author of The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles. In this interview with veteren radio producer Richard Paske, Isoardi speaks about the neighborhood jazz movement in Los Angeles championed by jazz innovator, Horace Tapscott.
Dwight Trible is a gifted vocalist and jazz improviser who serves as vocal director for the Horace Tapscott Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. He tells Zócalo Radio producer Peter Stenshoel about arriving in L.A. at the height of the jazz scene, his involvement with Horace Tapscott, and reflects on his own artistic process.
The Best of Zocalo: Empire, American Style: Niall Ferguson. Moderated by Andres Martinez, New America Foundation.
09/28/2008
[ Listen]
The brilliant historian Niall Ferguson presents his recent thoughts on America at war. Ferguson is a proponent of "counterfactual" history, a controversial method which attempts to answer "what if" questions by imagining alternative outcomes of events as a way of stressing the contingent aspects of history. Ferguson's The Pity of War was a sensation in Britain for its assertion that the country would have been better off staying out of World War I. His latest book is The War of the World. Ferguson's talk on America's shaky global empire was recorded live at the California Institute of Technology as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series and presented in conjunction with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and the Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages.
The Best of Zocalo: Paul Hawken on Blessed Unrest - The Largest Movement in the World / David Roediger on Being White in America. Interviews by Cheryl Devall, Deputy News Editor, Southern California Public Radio.
09/21/2008
[ Listen]
Paul Hawken is a noted environmentalist, businessman, writer, tech entrepreneur, and organizational/cultural theorist. In his new book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, Hawken contends that a multiplicity of small and large non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, working variously for ecological or social justice issues, are evolving -- without even knowing it -- into "the largest movement in the world." The movement is not centralized, has no leader, no hierarchy, not even a name, and yet provides hope for a sustainable future.
David Roediger is professor of history at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on race and class in the United States, including an examination of "whiteness." His books include The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. In this interview, Roediger explains why the struggle over race in America is still not over and why, despite third world immigration, the power of whiteness lives on.
L.A. vs. Seattle: Whose Pacific Rim is it?
09/14/2008
[ Listen]
Shipping is the virtual lifeblood of both Los Angeles and Seattle, and the ports of both cities claim intimate and expanding trade with the Pacific Rim. Does either area enjoy a distinct advantage? How does the "public/private" nature of the ports affect their operation? As environmental regulations become ever more stringent, can either city handle looming competition from Canada, Mexico, and the Panama Canal?
Zócalo gathered together a distinguished panel--University of California San Diego political scientist Steve Erie, David Olson of the University of Washington, and Thomas O'Brien from the Center for International Trade and Transportation at Cal State Long Beach--to discuss and dissect this timely topic.
Presented in conjunction with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West before a live audience at Skirball Cultural Center as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Los Angeles Times Columnist Meghan Daum sits down with writers Leslie Bennetts and Meg Wolitzer to ask: When Did Motherhood Become a Career and Is It a Professional Disaster?
09/07/2008
[ Listen]
Has the idea of leaving work to become a "stay-at-home Mom" been romanticized - even fetishized - at the expense of womens' future economic stability? Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum sits down with two writers who explore this theme: Journalist Leslie Bennetts, in her book The Feminine Mistake, contends that women have been misled by the false choice between being good workers and being good mothers. Meg Wolitzer's novel, The Ten Year Nap, is a story of highly educated friends who put their careers on hold for a decade while they raise their children.
This smart conversation - recorded live at The Hammer Museum as part of the Zócalo Public Square Series - is by turns funny and provocative.
Health Reporter Charles Ornstein asks, Are L.A.'s Hospitals Safe?
08/31/2008
[ Listen]
In frank and sometimes contentious discussion, a panel representing various viewpoints debates the relative safety of Los Angeles hospitals. Recent news reports have revealed high hospital error and infection rates. Health Reporter Charles Ornstein talks with Dr. David Feinberg, chief executive of the UCLA Hospital System, Carole Moss, a proponent of public reporting of hospital infection rates whose 15-year-old son Nile died of a drug-resistant staph infection in 2006, and Patti Harvey, vice president of quality and risk management for Kaiser Permanente's Southern California region. A fully engaged Zó,calo audience caps the hour off with tough questions for the panelists.
The evening is presented with the California HealthCare Foundation and recorded live at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
L.A.-based writer Josh Kun on The Kidnapped Country: Violence, Drugs, and the Crisis of Mexican Culture
08/24/2008
[ Listen]
Los Angeles writer and scholar Josh Kun visits Zócalo to explore the current crisis in Mexico, drawing on the testimonies of victims, local blog accounts, and popular drug ballads. Speaking eloquently about "the pain, the anguish, and the anger" over Mexico's kidnappings and killings, Kun invokes Hannah Arendt, Orson Welles, and the prophet Isaiah in an attempt to grapple with the nature of this terror. Moreover, he implicates the United States as part of Mexico's problem: "This is a trans-national game," he says, "as much Los Angeles as Sinaloa; as much about the Sonoran Desert as the Interstate 5."
Recorded live at The Actors' Gang as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Barry Sanders of the Southern California Olympic Committee on L.A.'s Unsuccessful Bid for the 2016 Games and Part 2 of Zocalo's Special Report from Shanghai
08/17/2008
[ Listen]
Barry Sanders served as Chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games in their unsuccessful bid for Los Angeles to host the 2016 Olympics. Andrés Martinez, Director Of The National Fellows Program At The New America Foundation, caught up with Sanders before the start of the Beijing Olympics to discuss L.A.'s bid and the games now commencing in China.
Also, Zocalo's Special Report from Shanghai continues, as Qingyun Ma, Dean of USC's School of Architecture, sits down with three young Chinese artists for a fascinating talk about art and identity. Sun Xun recently did animation work at The Hammer Museum, and is now back in China. Song Tao is a member of Bird Head, a collective that includes musicians as well as visual artists, and Yue Luping, in addition to being an artist, is Director of the Xi'an Center for Modern Art. Recorded live at Zendai Museum of Modern Art as part of the Zocalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Carl Zimmer on The Oracle in the Gut: E. Coli and the Meaning of Life
08/10/2008
[ Listen]
New York Times science writer Carl Zimmer visits Zócalo to discuss how an ordinary microbe, E. coli, is revealing the deepest secrets of life itself. Drawing upon themes from his book, Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life, Zimmer discusses how E. coli has played a pivotal role in the history of biology. Illustrating his talk with engaging stories from the annals of science, Zimmer explores how this microbe is leading scientists to a new understanding of what it means to be alive.
Recorded live at Skirball Cultural Center as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
L.A. vs. Shanghai: Who Is the Art Capital of the Pacific Rim? Moderated by Qingyun Ma, Dean of the USC School of Architecture
08/03/2008
[ Listen]
Join us for a cross-disciplinary--and cross-continental--discussion about the forces shaping the cultural lives of Shanghai and Los Angeles, two cities that represent polar ends of dealing with time in relation to culture.
David Chan, Director of Shanghai Gallery of Art, Olga Garay, Executive Director of the City of L.A.'s Department of Cultural Affairs, James Elaine, Adjunct Curator at the Hammer Museum, and Zhang Qing, Deputy Director of Shanghai Art Museum, sit down with Qingyun Ma to discuss migration as a major force behind new and surprising art expressed through a variety of media.
Recorded live at Zendai Museum of Modern Art as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Gay L.A. vs. Gay San Francisco. Moderated by J. Edwin Bacon, Jr., Rector at All Saints Church
07/27/2008
[ Listen]
Shortly after the California Supreme Court struck down the ban on same-sex marriage, Zócalo convened a brilliant panel--including historians Nan Boyd and Daniel Hurewitz and demographer Gary Gates--to discuss how gay identity emerged in California. Moderated by J. Edwin Bacon, Jr., Rector at All Saints Church in Pasadena, California, this lively exchange covers early activist organizations like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, the rivalry between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the distinct environment that put California at the forefront of gay rights.
Recorded before a live audience at Arclight Hollywood as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
How Will China Emerge from the Rubble? Moderated by Former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo
07/20/2008
[ Listen]
The earthquake in Sichuan Province and its aftershocks has caused widespread devastation. Millions of buildings have collapsed. Over thirty new lakes have formed, some at risk of bursting. What have we learned from China's response and ongoing efforts at recovery? How is the earthquake likely to change Chinese society and politics?
Andrew Pan, North America representative of the Shenzhen municipal government, Linda Bourque and Virginia Li of UCLA School of Public Health, KAZN Radio talk show host Cat Chao sit down with former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo to address these questions. They also discuss the reaction of L.A.'s Chinese community, the tendency to assign blame for natural disasters, and problems created by self-appointed "disaster cowboys."
Recorded before a live audience at Goethe-Institute Los Angeles/German Cultural Center as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Peter Gosselin, national economics correspondent for the Los Angeles Times: Is the Ownership Society Dead?
07/13/2008
[ Listen]
Peter Gosselin, national economics correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, outlines the themes in his new book, High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families. Beyond today's headlines of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and home foreclosures, Gosselin looks at some long-term warning signs regarding our economic health.
Convinced we can't rely on standard microeconomic statistics, Gosselin developed a set of statistics based on the U.S. government's forty-year Panel Study of Income Dynamics and concludes "families are not financial firms; households are not hedge funds." And "the free market financial story" is just that -- a story.
Recorded before a live audience at NPR West as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Matt Welch, editor in chief of Reason magazine: Deconstructing McCain.
07/06/2008
[ Listen]
Matt Welch, editor in chief of Reason magazine, deconstructs Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Drawing upon the themes in his book, McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, Welch argues that the Arizona Senator is a master at utilizing the press and that--despite its neoconservative implications--his "national greatness agenda" has received no scrutiny from the press. Welch also explores the candidate's deep roots in the United States Navy.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Remember the Taco Truck! Moderated by C. Thi Nguyen, Chow Digest Editor at Chowhound.com
06/29/2008
[ Listen]
Taco trucks are one of the cultural pillars of Los Angeles, but they could soon be a thing of the past. Led by Supervisor Gloria Molina, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors has passed new anti-taco truck regulations. If the trucks don't move every hour, they face $1000 in fines, and/or six months in jail. To weigh in on the issue Zócalo convened a panel of writers, thinkers, and activists: Pulitzer Prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold, Barry Glassner, author of The Gospel of Food, Miriam Torres, co-owner of Hermanas Torres taco truck, and Chris Rutherford, co-founder of saveourtacotrucks.org, along with moderator C. Thi Nguyen. They describe the joys of the taco truck, their place in Los Angeles culture, and the effect of the legislation. Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Theatre Center as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Why are Homes So Unaffordable in Los Angeles? Moderated by Rick Wartzman, Director of The Drucker Institute
06/22/2008
[ Listen]
Home prices are ridiculously out of reach for most Angelenos. Statistics confirm this region as the least affordable housing market in the country. Recently, Zócalo convened a panel of experts to examine the problem. Sean Spear, director of major projects for the Los Angeles Housing Department, John Karevoll, a housing market analyst with DataQuick Information Systems, and Ehud Mouchly, vice president of UniDev, a workforce housing developer, sit down with moderator Rick Wartzman, Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation and Director of The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University.
Besides looking at the facts and figures of home ownership and affordability, they tease out problems specific to "gateway areas" like Los Angeles, renting versus buying, what defines a healthy community, and -- finally -- look at innovative approaches to housing.
Recorded before a live audience at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Brick Lane: A Conversation with Director Sarah Gavron and Actress Tannishtha Chatterjee
06/15/2008
[ Listen]
Monica Ali's critically acclaimed novel tells a story of Bangladeshi immigrants in London, a community never before portrayed in a major British literary work. Sarah Gavron, the film's director, and Tannishtha Chatterjee, its leading actress, sit down with Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum for a warm and lively exploration of Brick Lane's themes of family, alienation, and love's lessons in all facets.
They also flesh out the making of the movie, from listening to the stories of the Bengali women who live and work in Brick Lane to crafting its art design and casting its superb ensemble. The movie "Brick Lane" opens Friday, June 20th, from Sony Pictures Classics.
Recorded before a live audience at Harmony Gold Theater as part of the Zócalo Screening Series.
Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton on the Evolution of the Newspaper
06/08/2008
[ Listen]
Russ Stanton's appointment as Editor of the Los Angeles Times comes at a crucial time for the paper--amidst staff cuts, following the departure of his three predecessors in quick succession, and during the coverage of an historic election. As former innovation editor, Russ Stanton tells David Folkenflik about the difficult process of transforming the Times into a well-integrated Web and print product. Stanton also addresses the well-publicized "rap story disaster," speaks of plans to increase ethnic and age diversity among Times reporters, and his determination to "have a business that lasts another 126 years."
Recorded before a live audience at the Autry National Center as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Is Business Abusing the Ballot?
06/01/2008
[ Listen]
California businesses are increasingly taking their disputes with cities, labor and especially each other to municipal ballots in the form of initiatives and referenda. As a result, voters, not the market, are forced to pick business winners and losers and decide complex development, planning and zoning questions that are supposed to be handled by city governments.
Why are more of these disputes ending up on the ballot? Do these measures slow growth or add to the cost of doing business in California? Are large businesses able to buy policy with expensive ballot campaigns? What other forces may be contributing to these fights?
A panel of political and government leaders who have been involved in such ballot fights -- including political consultants Rob Stutzman and Harvey Englander, former mayor of Beverly Hills Steve Webb, and labor advocate Madeline Janis -- discuss the trend and its costs.
Recorded before a live audience at the Autry National Center as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Detailed Obsession: The Work of Tom Bissell and Martha Grimes
05/25/2008
[ Listen]
Guest host and acclaimed fiction author Alix Ohlin sits down with two writers - each obsessed with detail - and each quite distinct from the other.
In 2003, Tom Bissell took a trip to Vietnam with his father, John Bissell. The elder Bissell was a Marine who was nearly fatally wounded while fighting in the Vietnam War. On this journey, the two of them traced his tour of duty. The resulting book, The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam, is part history, part father-and-son reconciliation, and a fresh examination of the "psychic stamp" of the Vietnam War on the post-Vietnam generation. Bissell readily concedes the impossibility of knowing "the parts of war we never see" unless we reside in its midst and speak the local language. Between the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq he sees "strange and apt comparisons and stark differences." Ohlin and Bissell also take a look at the underpinnings of the child-parent dynamic.
Martha Grimes is a much-beloved mystery writer. Her Richard Jury series, with each book named after British (and American) pubs, brought her initial acclaim. She has also written non-mystery novels, including Biting the Moon and its sequel, Dakota, featuring Andi Oliver, a young woman with amnesia, who simultaneously searches for her memory and fights animal abuse. Grimes talks to Alix Ohlin about working within the "grid-like format" of mysteries, the fun of tweaking her readers' expectations, and walking the fine line between good fiction-writing and "just trumpeting a cause."
Luis Valdez on Zoot Suit's 30th Anniversary
05/18/2008
[ Listen]
Thirty years ago, the Mark Taper Forum presented the world premiere of Zoot Suit, a musical about a dark chapter in 1940s L.A. Written and directed by Luis Valdez of El Teatro Campesino, the groundbreaking production marked the first time a major American theater had explored the Mexican-American experience. To observe the play's 30th anniversary, Valdez sits down with Tu Ciudad Magazine's editor-in-chief Oscar Garza for a generous, life-affirming dialogue.
By turns soulful and humorous, Valdez tells us of his theater company's remarkable beginnings, the history of Zoot Suit, and the defining incident that's left a "hole" in his chest for 62 years - a hole he fills "with stories and plays and poems." The conversation encompasses wide terrain. "I think that ultimately what we're all doing," Valdez remarks, "is research on the nature of the human being, and the nature of life itself, and the nature of life and death."
Recorded before a live audience at Barnsdall Art Park as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Tom Daschle on the Health Care Crisis
05/11/2008
[ Listen]
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle outlines the themes of his book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis. When it comes to fixing our opaque, costly and complicated health care system, Daschle openly wonders whether the forces of change are finally greater than the forces of the status quo.
He passionately calls for all Americans to be insured, and suggests a health board similar to the Federal Reserve that would offer a public framework within which a private health-care system could operate efficiently -- insulated from political pressure yet accountable to elected officials and the American people. Daschle also blasts what he considers popular myths that inhibit the delivery of excellent health care in the United States.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Daniel Weintraub on Arnold Schwarzenegger's Party of One
05/04/2008
[ Listen]
In Daniel Weintraub's new book, Party of One: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of the Independent Voter, the Sacramento Bee columnist takes a close look at the governor as political phenomenon. Arriving from Austria already a champion body builder, the young immigrant had become the definition of a "self-made man" -- ultimately conquering Hollywood. After meeting Maria Shriver and her parents, the influential philanthropists Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger then learned first-hand the needs of the less-fortunate. Weintraub explores Schwarzenegger's striking personal history to understand the California governor's fascinating - if sometimes problematic - legacy.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
A discussion on the future of Broadway, L.A.'s historic thoroughfare
04/27/2008
[ Listen]
Broadway, long the heart of downtown Los Angeles, is not only a blue-collar shopping district, it is also increasingly a place of high-end residential developments, chic bars, and refurbished movie palaces. How does today's Broadway fit with the Broadway of the future? To answer this question Zócalo brought together L.A. City Councilmember Jose Huizar, Orpheum Theatre/Anjac Fashion Buildings owner Steve Needleman, Bus Riders Union lead organizer Manuel Criollo, and Don Spivack, Deputy Chief of Operations for the Community Redevelopment Agency, moderated by Jerry Sullivan, editor and publisher, Los Angeles Garment & Citizen.
Recorded before a live audience at the Orpheum Theatre as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Standard Operating Procedure: A Conversation with Director Errol Morris
04/20/2008
[ Listen]
One year into the Iraq war, photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib appeared on national television and print outlets around the world. The images of leashed, hooded and humiliated captives shocked the world, turning public opinion quickly against the war and launching the country into a roiling debate about morality and American values.
At a time when debating what counts as torture has become a political pastime -- when the gut, we-know-it-when-we-see-it reactions to the photographs have been forgotten -- Errol Morris, director of the Academy Award-winning Fog of War, revisits the photographs in his new film, Standard Operating Procedure (to be released by Sony Pictures Classics on April 25). Morris sits down with Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum to examine why the photographs were taken, what happened outside the frame, and how a small group of soldiers shouldered the blame for their superiors' poor decisions--decisions that still shape the war and U.S. policy on torture.
Recorded before a live audience at Harmony Gold Theater as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series
Composer Michael Giacchino on How to Score Big in Hollywood
04/13/2008
[ Listen]
Now considered one of the hottest -- and most in-demand -- composers in Hollywood, Michael Giacchino had some hurdles to climb in his career path. In this visit to Zócalo, the Grammy-winner tells film music critic Jon Burlingame that, despite his success as a video game composer for Steven Spielberg, nobody would even talk to him about writing scores for film or television.
Nevertheless, from his background as a spunky New Jersey kid who cobbled together movies using his dad's old 8 millimeter camera and eclectic record collection -- to working odd jobs in the Industry -- Giacchino explains how his mettle was tested and how he ultimately prevailed. In tonight's funny and fast-paced interview, the genial tunesmith also gives us sneak peeks of the soon-to-be-released Speed Racer and his upcoming Star Trek project.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Leo S. Bing Theater as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia Explains Why the Arts Matter
04/06/2008
[ Listen]
Dana Gioia discusses -- in dynamic and cogent terms -- why the arts matter. The power of art, he says, is to "open up possibilities of existence that otherwise never touch everyday life." As chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, he says that we live in a society and economy "which does not support the arts at any public level." Gioia contends that artists and intellectuals themselves are partially to blame for not communicating the reasons why art matters to the broader community. He argues we must encourage arts education -- not to produce more artists -- but to help create complete human beings. If the U.S. is to prosper in the 21st Century, Gioia says, it will be through creativity, innovation, and ingenuity -- all nourished by the arts.
Recorded before a live audience at Barnsdall Art Park as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Anne Enright and Colm Toibin discuss the English sentence and the Irish mind
03/30/2008
[ Listen]
Novelist Anne Enright, who won the 2007 Booker Prize, and her friend Colm Tóibín, sit down to discuss the English sentence and the Irish mind. Irish writers both, Enright and Tóibín coax out and commandeer humor, history, anecdote, theory -- and a football song -- to illuminate a culture which treats writers like heroes; a country where cleaning ladies imitate William Butler Yeats, and James Joyce's Ulysses occasions a civic holiday. In quot;that great battle between the image and the word," observes Tóibín, "between Wilde's first play and Beckett's last play, the word remains primary."
Recorded before a live audience at The Center at Cathedral Plaza as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Journalist Silvana Paternostro discusses war and magical realism in Colombia
03/23/2008
[ Listen]
Award-winning journalist Silvana Paternostro speaks in intimate and vexing detail of Colombia, the land she grew up in as a member of the landed elite before moving to the United States in the late seventies. In the years she was away the country of her privileged childhood became the world's biggest producer of cocaine, and the site of the most violent, protracted, and misunderstood civil conflict in Latin America, one in which the U.S. plays a vital role.
Colombia is also the land of celebrated novelist Gabriel García Márquez, whose "magical realism," Paternostro says, "is perfectly suited to a country where the truth is so terrible and unspeakable that it needs to be told as if it were a fantasy."
Recorded before a live audience at The Actors' Gang as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Hollywood industry-watchers and Writers Guild members discuss the recent labor turmoil and what comes next
03/16/2008
[ Listen]
Why were the studios and the writers willing to accept such a long and costly work stoppage? Was the will of the Writers Guild underestimated? Why was the Directors Guild able to reach a deal so quickly? Can writers bypass the studios and go directly to the Internet to ply their trade?
In this postmortem of the long and costly writers' strike Jon Healey of the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board moderates a panel of industry insiders and expert observers -- David Ginsburg, professor of Entertainment and Media Law at UCLA, Aaron Mendelsohn, board member of Writers Guild of America West and co-founder of writer-owned production and distribution company Virtual Artists, Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein, and Charles B. Slocum, assistant executive director for the Writers Guild of America West. The panelists look at past conflicts, the imperfect negotiation process, and how the Internet might eventually reshape entertainment business models.
Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Graphic novelist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi discusses her movie Persepolis, Iran, and life in exile
03/09/2008
[ Listen]
Marjane Satrapi's widely hailed graphic novel-turned-movie Persepolis uses cinematic techniques borrowed from German expressionism and Italian neo-realism in stark black-and-white to capture vast emotional and political landscapes as it follows the author's young self through the Iranian revolution and her emigration abroad. Her Oscar-nominated, Cannes-Jury-Prize winning animated film features the voice of Catherine Deneuve.
Author Reza Aslan sits down with Satrapi to discuss Iran and the seeming absurdities of life in the Islamic Republic. The two also examine what it means to live in exile and, finally, the fine art of portraying the complexity of human life.
Recorded before a live audience at Harmony Gold Theatre as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Walter Russell Mead: Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World
03/02/2008
[ Listen]
Walter Russell Mead, one of the country's leading students of American foreign policy visits Zócalo to outline the themes of his latest book, God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World. In a brilliant -- and funny -- talk Mead contends that what he calls "the Anglo-American Mind" developed Britain's and the United States' global maritime supremacy. He touches on the religious ideas of philosopher Henri Bergson, the economic ideas of Adam Smith, and the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, to point to a particularly future-oriented religious and cultural outlook in the West. Because of this outlook, the global trade fostered by Mead's Anglo-American model promotes "open society, " liberal values and institutions, and welcomes others to participate as long as they are willing to "play by the rules. " Mead demonstrates that the United States -- even with its diversity and trenchant political disagreements -- is still operating under the same geopolitical strategy.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Jill Leovy, L.A.'s Homicide Problem
02/24/2008
[ Listen]
Jill Leovy, a Los Angeles Times homicide reporter and the author of "The Homicide Report," an online catalogue of more than 800 cases in 2007, visits Zócalo to explore why we have a homicide problem, why it matters, and what might be done about it. Black and Latino men die at staggeringly high rates relative to the rest of the population. The reason lies in history, segregation, and the structure of institutions. Leovy says we can no longer ignore what's going on in L.A.'s high homicide enclave.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Do Cities Have Expiration Dates? A conversation with architects Qingyun Ma and Thom Mayne
02/17/2008
[ Listen]
Given the fact that inhabitable spaces on the earth's surface are limited, there is a growing discussion about how cities should be built or transformed to accommodate the needs of future generations. In a lively give-and-take, Qingyun Ma, dean of the University of Southern California's School of Architecture, and Thom Mayne, the winner of the 2005 Pritzker Prize and founder of the Santa Monica-based Morphosis, challenge the conventional wisdom of what passes for urban living in Los Angeles. As Mayne says, people believe that L.A.'s residents are comfortable living in a "fake old new world," rather than "exploring what it means to be alive in the twenty-first century." Ma and Mayne also debate public versus private space, the difference between a city's life-cycle and life-span, and the idea that L.A. is a "laboratory" where we "live by default" more than by design.
Recorded before a live audience at the Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
The Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles, Moderated by Jonathan Gold, L.A. Weekly Restaurant Critic
02/10/2008
[ Listen]
L.A. Weekly's Pulitzer-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold brings to the table some of the best and most innovative chefs in Los Angeles: Gilberto Cetina of the splendid Yucatecan restaurant Chichen Itza, Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu of the groundbreaking cenaduría La Casita Mexicana, and Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Santa Monica's award-winning Border Grill, for a discussion on state-of-the-art Mexican cooking in Los Angeles. The panel of chefs talk about the never-ending search for original spices, cheeses, and vegetables for California restaurants, and the quest to make regional dishes just like their mothers and grandmothers in Mexico did. We also hear about innovative cuisine featuring combinations from many states of Mexico.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen: The Next American Century: Can the U.S. Thrive in a New Era of Big Powers?
02/03/2008
[ Listen]
We are at a rare moment in history in which none of the world's big powers is our adversary. Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen, co-authors of The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive As Other Powers Rise, discuss how the United States should best conduct itself in an age of multiple powers. They argue the U.S. must allow emerging nations to become wealthy, and to welcome them into a vigorous international order to share the burden of solving pressing global problems of peace, climate, health, and growth. Nina Hachigian is a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress. Mona Sutphen is a Managing Director at Stonebridge International, a Washington-based international business strategy firm.
Recorded before a live audience at NPR West as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Shannon Brownlee: Is Too Much Medicine Making Us Sick?
01/27/2008
[ Listen]
Shannon Brownlee, a nationally-known health and health care writer talks about the themes in her book, "Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer." Brownlee contends that health care in the United States is so expensive because it wastes about seven-hundred billion dollars a year on care that patients don't need and would likely avoid if they knew how useless and dangerous it is. With thirty thousand patients a year dying through medical error, Brownlee maintains, "when it comes to medicine, sometimes less is more."
Recorded before a live audience at The California Endowment as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Regular Guest Host Meghan Daum sits down with novelist Junot Diaz and identical twins Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein
01/20/2008
[ Listen]
On the next Zócalo Radio: Regular Guest Host Meghan Daum catches up with novelist Junot Díaz to talk about his critically-acclaimed book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Díaz maintains that a narrator is only consistent and strong if the writer is aware of --- and anchors ---the "point of telling."
Next, Meghan sits down with Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein, identical twins separated at birth whose adoption agency was participating in a secret study on twins. They talk about identity, family, "nature vs. nurture, " and the overwhelming surprise of their discovery.
Dirty Business: Should the Porn Industry Be Saved? Moderated by Mariel Garza of the Los Angeles Daily News
01/13/2008
[ Listen]
It's been estimated that the Los Angeles Porn industry brings in twelve billion dollars a year. The industry went through a period of explosive growth over the last two decades, but it's now facing many of the same challenges as other media companies -- changing demographics, new technologies, and the availability of content through new channels.
Beyond the economic considerations, what about health concerns and social costs? A panel --- including porn producers and former actors Nina Hartley and Ira Levine, economist Jack Kyser, and Sharon Mitchell of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation --- weigh these factors in a lively discussion moderated by Mariel Garza of the Los Angeles Daily News.
Recorded before a live audience at the Hammer Museum, as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Can We Solve L.A.'s Gang Problem? A Conversation with Gang Czar Jeff Carr, moderated by Los Angeles Times crime reporter Jill Leovy
01/06/2008
[ Listen]
Jeff Carr, a Nazarene Minister, spent 16 years working with youth from the streets of Los Angeles prior to his appointment as Director of Gang Reduction and Youth Development. He is charged with implementing Mayor Villaraigosa's Anti-Gang Strategy. Will it work? How does his evangelical faith influence his approach to battling gangs? Are there systems in place that prevent kids from getting on the right track? Jeff Carr sits down with Los Angeles Times crime reporter Jill Leovy for a frank discussion on how to determine the problem and proceed with its solution.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Girls Gone Mild: Have Roles for Women in Hollywood Gone Soft? A Conversation with Los Angeles Times film critic Carina Chocano and Op-Ed columnist Meghan Daum
12/30/2007
[ Listen]
Meghan Daum is back -- and she's brought along Los Angeles Times film reviewer Carina Chocano. Chocano, a brilliant young critic who has also written for Salon and Entertainment Weekly, recently wrote an essay about the lack of substantial roles for comedic actresses. "The idea that a girl might play anything other than 'the girl' in a studio comedy, " wrote Chocano, "is so far out of the mainstream that it's considered an experimental concept, not to mention a major financial risk. "
Recorded before a live audience at NPR West in Culver City as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, Chocano and Daum discuss movies like "Knocked Up" and "The Heartbreak Kid, " to delve into the subject of women, Hollywood, and whether or not there's any truth to the notion that diminishing female roles are a result of diminishing female audiences.
Critically-acclaimed novelist Francisco Goldman on The Art of Political Murder in Central America
12/23/2007
[ Listen]
Francisco Goldman discusses the themes of his first nonfiction book, The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? The culmination of nine years of research, the book explores the murder of Guatemala's leading human rights activist Bishop Juan Gerardi. Navigating between stories of killer dogs, mystery cars, and a motley crew of unlikely detectives, the story is as rich in human drama, enigma, and surprise as any novel. In this riveting talk Goldman sketches out the improbable case from top to bottom.
Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Regular Guest Host Andres Martinez catches up with legendary Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, and Guest Host Nick Goldberg, Los Angeles Times Op-Ed Editor, sits down with New York Times political reporter Matt Bai
12/16/2007
[ Listen]
Regular Guest Host Andrés Martinez catches up with the Carlos Fuentes to chat about the politics of Latin America, the effect of Mexican migration on U.S. and Mexico, and Fuentes' love of Charles Dickens and London.
New York Times political reporter Matt Bai sits down with Nick Goldberg to talk about his new book, The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, which chronicles the fascinating shift of political power from "inside the beltway" to a decentralized on-line movement.
Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson on Why We Need Heroic Conservatism
12/09/2007
[ Listen]
Michael J. Gerson, the speechwriter who penned many of George W. Bush's most influential speeches, is considered by many Democrats and Republicans to be the most influential White House speechwriter since the Kennedy administration's Ted Sorenson. He also served as a trusted policy adviser. He argues that if Republicans have nothing to say about challenging issues of race and poverty, they have little to say at all. He also maintains that liberals and Democrats must rediscover the essential role of religion in our common life, and, finally, that America has the ability to do great good, indeed that we have a national security interest for doing good in the world.
Recorded before a live audience at The Center at Cathedral Plaza adjacent to Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles, as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Regular Guest Host Alix Ohlin sits down with essayist George Saunders and novelist Richard Russo
12/02/2007
[ Listen]
Regular Guest Host Alix Ohlin sits down with essayist and "genius grant" recipient George Saunders to chat about his recent book, The Braindead Megaphone. Saunders takes his Chicago roots and "inarticulate speech" and makes poetic, funny, and ultimately humane observations about everything from civilian border patrols, the crazy construction boom in Dubai, to the decline of language in contemporary media.
Richard Russo is one of America's most compelling and compassionate storytellers. As he tells Alix Ohlin, while writing his bestseller, Empire Falls, some of his "deepest thoughts and convictions about class in America" began to come into focus. The result is his new novel, the sprawling epic, Bridge of Sighs. Alix Ohlin and Russo clearly relish this conversation, which includes an examination of a novelist's pitfalls and pure joys.
Regular Guest Host Andres Martinez sits down with Jorge Castaneda, former foreign minister of Mexico, and with Fred Reid, CEO of Virgin America
11/18/2007
[ Listen]
Jorge Castaneda, named one of the Mexico's "most insightful" intellectuals by The New York Review of Books, served as Mexican foreign minister in the Vicente Fox administration. He is the author of the recently published Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants. In this cogent interview with Regular Guest Host Andrés Martinez, Castaneda presents a picture of immigration laws untethered from economic reality, and an ambivalent populace that "wants it both ways" when it comes to this hot-button issue.
Fred Reid has held executive roles with four of the world's largest airlines. As Chief Executive Officer of San Francisco-based Virgin America, he has launched a spirited attempt to make flying "fun" again. In this one-on-one with Andrés Martinez, Reid candidly assesses the risks of the task, outlines what the Department of Transportation required for the company's launch, and identifies those who tried to ground the venture before it got airborne.
The Flat Universe: Caltech Astrophysicist Chuck Steidel with Guest Host K.C. Cole
11/11/2007
[ Listen]
Caltech astrophysicist Chuck Steidel has found dozens of infant galaxies. For him, collecting new data from the telescope is like "a crossword fanatic getting a fresh pile of puzzles." In this lucid, jargon-free science chat, he tells K.C. Cole how two opposing views of the universe were both correct, and the term "dark matter" was coined to explain it all. Observable matter, he says, "is painted on to the skeleton" of the cosmos by dark matter. Through his work at the Keck Observatory, Steidel explores the nature of the painting process in action.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Jim Newton, Editor of the Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages
11/04/2007
[ Listen]
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa entered office two years ago with great fanfare, landing the cover of Newsweek and receiving recognition as the city's first Latino mayor in over a century. In this exclusive interview, recorded at BP Hall in Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, the Mayor answers questions on the state of the city's schools, public safety, the housing crisis, traffic congestion, immigration policy and the question of character. Villaraigosa admits to understanding his constituents' "disillusionment" with events of last summer, but points to the successes of his administration, including a greatly increased number of after-school programs, a well-financed housing trust fund, and a Los Angeles "safer today than any time since 1956 on a per-capita basis. "
Regular Guest Host Andres Martinez talks with journalist Matt Welch about John McCain and Zocalo Radio Producer Peter Stenshoel chats with German Public Radio's Kerstin Zilm about her dream job covering California
10/28/2007
[ Listen]
Matt Welch's book, McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, contends that Republican Senator and presidential candidate John McCain is not the unpredictable cipher that much of the media have labeled him. Welch, Assistant Editor of the Los Angeles Times Editorial Page, tells regular guest host Andrés Martinez about McCain's consistent set of values, from a more robust interventionist military posture than any president since Theodore Roosevelt to the campaign finance reform initiatives that enraged fellow conservatives, and how the Arizona Senator plans to use the Federal Government to eradicate cynicism and restore faith and confidence in The United States.
Kerstin Zilm has what she calls a reporter's "dream job:" covering all of California, Alaska and Hawaii. In her work for the German Public Radio network ARD, she reports on everything from immigration reform to celebrity mania. In a chat with Zócalo Radio's Peter Stenshoel, Zilm explains what Germans don't "get" about L.A., and remembers the excitement of traveling into East Germany as an intern reporter covering the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Regular Guest Host Meghan Daum Sits Down with Ann Patchett and Lionel Shriver
10/21/2007
[ Listen]
Ann Patchett, award-winning author of Bel Canto, Truth and Beauty, and Run, likes to "move beneath the radar." The Nashville resident eschews glamorous literary parties for a simpler life. In a candid chat with regular guest host and Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum, Patchett talks of politics as a vehicle for "profound good," gets to the root of her narrative voice, and spills her secret to becoming a self-supporting writer.
Lionel Shriver's controversial novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, won the prestigious Orange Prize in 2005. Her new book, The Post-Birthday World, uses a parallel universe to examine the question of "whom we choose to love," and how the rest of our lives unfolds from that choice. In this engaging back-and-forth, Meghan Daum probes the motivation behind both books, and Shriver explains her theory of "full-circle feminism."
An Evening with Michael Govan. Moderated by Ann Philbin, Director of the Hammer Museum
10/14/2007
[ Listen]
43-year-old Michael Govan recently completed his first year as director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Arriving to the west coast after landmark work at the Dia Art Foundation at The National Gallery of Art and New York City's Guggenheim Museum, Govan visits Zócalo to chat about the role of the artist in the world, the exciting and unusual future of LACMA's campus, and why Los Angeles figures so prominently in the future of international art.
The evening is moderated by Ann Philbin, Director of the Hammer Museum, and recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Will Grand Avenue Live Up to the Hype?
10/07/2007
[ Listen]
The remarkably ambitious Grand Avenue Project has been hailed as a key to the urban rejuvenation of downtown Los Angeles. Combining architectural, streetscape, and park-planning elements, with huge amounts of new retail and residential space, the project's sheer reach recalls much earlier eras of urban design and scope. Zócalo assembled a panel to examine the pros and cons of the project.
Recorded before a live audience on September 25th at the Museum of Contemporary Art, our panel -- Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, Bill Witte, president of The Related Companies of California, Dana Cuff, professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, and Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry -- consider the future of Bunker Hill and beyond.
James Ellroy L.A.: Come on Vacation, Go Home on Probation
09/30/2007
[ Listen]
James Ellroy, known as "the Demon Dog of American Crime Literature," is one of the world's best-selling crime writers, and author of many books including the L.A. Quartet: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. In this lecture, recorded as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, Ellroy dazzles a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library. In a poetic and profane eulogy, he praises Los Angeles, where he was able to take what he calls his informal L.A. education: "streets walked, jails inhabited, tragedy suffered, and books read, and turn it into something substantive, and utterly compelling, and great." He speaks of two L.A.s: the placid 1950s version, and the other version -- "a secret, smog-shrouded netherworld."
A Conversation with Director/Screenwriter Robin Swicord and Actors Kathy Baker and Hugh Dancy. Moderated by Patt Morrison, L.A. Times columnist and KPCC host
09/23/2007
[ Listen]
Screenwriter of such films as Memories of a Geisha and Little Women, and now first-time director, Robin Swicord, who just released The Jane Austen Book Club, talks to L.A. Times Columnist and KPCC host, Patt Morrison, about how her film, based on Karen Joy Fowler's best-selling novel, depicts our fractured society in search of a "semblance of community," about her first Austen adaptation (with paper dolls!) and how most of us settle for tiny bits of life instead of the "full meal." Swicord and Morrison are joined by two cast members from The Jane Austen Book Club: Kathy Baker, whose film credits include The Cider House Rules and Cold Mountain; and Hugh Dancy, whose film credits include Blackhawk Down and King Arthur.
Recorded before a live audience at Harmony Gold Theatre as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Alma Guillermoprieto on Mexicanness and Urban Critic Norman Klein on L.A.'s Strange History and Even Stranger Future
09/16/2007
[ Listen]
The brilliant writer (The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books) and MacArthur "Genius Award" recipient Alma Guillermoprieto visits Zócalo to explore evolving notions of Mexican national identity. Reflecting on her life as a writer, after a dance career in the "cosmopolitan world of art," Guillermoprieto tells of her homecoming to Mexico after many years in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Paris and Brazil. She candidly speaks of her ambivalence toward her home country and how she came to write about the garbage dumps of Mexico City and Mariachi music. Recorded live as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series at B.P Hall in Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Urban Critic Norman Klein, one of L.A.'s foremost interpreters, tells guest host Adolfo Guzman Lopez why he prefers "the accidents of organic mistakes and the curiosities of ruins and rebuilt things" to the architecture of artifice and "cultural tourism" such as the Grand Avenue Project. He also talks of his home in Highland Park with "strange steps that go up in corners," and how "traffic problems are splitting the city into three parts."
Regular Guest Host Andres Martinez Catches Up With Fabian Nunez and Bob Hertzberg
09/09/2007
[ Listen]
Fabian Núñez was 37-years-old when he became Speaker of the California State Assembly. Three years on, the Democrat known for several bipartisan achievements as well as his affable nature, tells Andrés Martinez about working with Governor Schwarzenegger to end the health care crisis, his thoughts on redistricting, the trouble with term limits, and his passion for soccer.
Bob Hertzberg, the former Speaker of the California State Assembly, now runs a green energy company that takes him all over the globe, but that doesn't mean that he's no longer a big player in the public debate. Andrés Martinez catches up with Hertzberg in a fast-paced, dynamic exchange about what the one time mayoral candidate would have done as mayor of L.A., what he thinks of Antonio Villaraigosa's job performance, his advice for Hillary Clinton, and how traveling the world has changed his outlook on life.
Should Congress Pass the Korea Free Trade Agreement? U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, South Korean Ambassador Lee Tae-Sik, Jessie Swanhuyser, and Brian Peck.
09/02/2007
[ Listen]
The recently negotiated Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Korea is the most ambitious trade deal the U.S. has contemplated since NAFTA. Congress has yet to vote on it. For Los Angeles, with the largest population of Koreans outside of Korea, the economic consequences of the agreement's passage could be huge. Recently, Zócalo invited U.S. Representative Diane Watson, South Korean Ambassador Lee Tae-Sik, Jesse Swanhuyser of the California Fair Trade Coalition, and former U.S. trade representative Brian Peck to the table to lay out the pros and cons of this agreement. The debate includes discussion of the historic ties and strategic interests shared by Korea and the U.S., worker safety concerns, and whether completion of the agreement was rushed in order to beat the expiration of "fast-track" authority enjoyed by the U.S. President in trade negotiations. The hope for reunification between the two Koreas rounds out the evening. Moderated by Andrés Martinez, Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation.
This event, part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, was recorded August 23rd before a live audience at the Southwestern Law School, in the historic Bullock's Wilshire building in Koreatown.
Gustavo Arellano with Sam Quinones and Anat Rubin with Peter Irons
08/26/2007
[ Listen]
Sam Quinones considers himself a storyteller. A native of Claremont, he learned Spanish and spent ten years in Mexico writing about migrants on their way north. He has collected those stories in two highly regarded prose collections (True Tales of Another Mexico and Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream). Now with the L.A. Times, Quinones speaks to OC Weekly columnist Gustavo Arellano about the murdered balladeer of Norwalk, migrants in small-town Kansas, and his life with "the last Trotskyites in Cuernavaca."
Peter Irons, constitutional scholar and bestselling author (May It Please the Court), is decidedly supportive of separation of church and state, but wanted to understand those holding the opposing viewpoint. The result, God On Trial: Dispatches from America's Religious Battlegrounds, takes a close look at a handful of cases and the colorful characters on both sides of the courtroom aisle. Irons tells Daily Journal reporter Anat Rubin about a the politician who displayed the Ten Commandments and got sued by his own cousin, the small town Texas high school football pre-game prayer which sparked a controversy all the way to the Supreme Court, and starkly divided worldviews about majority and minority rights. He concludes that despite the divides, we are a people who respect laws.
An Evening with Larry Wilmore. Moderated by Oscar Garza, Editor-in-Chief, Ciudad Magazine
08/19/2007
[ Listen]
The Daily Show's "Senior Black Correspondent," Larry Wilmore, visited Zócalo to discuss his thirty-year career in television with Oscar Garza, Editor-in-Chief of Ciudad Magazine. Wilmore, a Southern California native, delivers shrewd and hilarious observations while recounting his early days as a stand-up comedian, and his subsequent work variously as writer, producer, or actor, for In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The PJs, The Bernie Mac Show, The Office, and, of course, The Daily Show.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of Zócalo's Public Square Lecture Series
What's Up, REDCAT? Mark Murphy, REDCAT's Executive Director. Also, Ilona Katzew, LACMA's Curator of Latin American Art.
08/12/2007
[ Listen]
REDCAT, the CalArts venue housed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A., is increasingly recognized for its creative programming. Its mandate is "to provide a Los Angeles home for new, cutting-edge performance and art; a laboratory where artists can push boundaries, experiment with forms, and blend disciplines, cultures and ideas." Mark Murphy, REDCAT's executive director, visits Zócalo for a talk with Jennifer Berry. Berry asks Murphy about the motives behind the decision-making process, and the challenge of maintaining a high profile venue.
Ilona Katzew is a specialist on Mexican Art during the colonial period. She has just mounted the massive "Arts in Latin America 1492 to 1820," at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in collaboration with her counterparts in Philadelphia and Mexico City. In this conversation with Southern California Public Radio's Adolfo Guzman Lopez, Katzew brings to life this little known history of art in the Americas.
Can the Ports Clean the Air Without Choking the Economy? Moderated by Rick Wartzman, Director of The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University
08/05/2007
[ Listen]
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach -- which together make up the nation's busiest harbor complex and one of the key engines of the Southern California economy -- are poised for an 18-Wheel Revolution. In April, they unveiled a plan to slash diesel pollution from the 16,000 trucks that haul goods to nearby rail yards and warehouses by 80%. And that's only the beginning. The plan -- which still needs final approval -- also seeks to upgrade conditions for truck drivers, who some say work in virtual "sweatshops on wheels." But is the plan practical? Will it undermine the ports competitiveness' and drive trade elsewhere? Is it just a backdoor way for the Teamsters union to organize drivers?
Key players from both sides of this battle along the waterfront--S. David Freeman, president of the L.A. board of Harbor Commissioners, Patricia Castellanos, co-director of the Clean and Safe Ports Campaign, transportation policy consultant Nancy Pfeffer, and Michael Lightman, president of Great Freight Inc.--visited Zócalo to hash it out. The broadcast includes questions from the audience.
An Evening with Jonathan Gold. Moderated by Monica Corcoran, Style Editor at Variety
07/29/2007
[ Listen]
Pulitzer Prize-winner Jonathan Gold is the final word on food in Los Angeles. The L.A. Weekly writer has eaten at thousands of restaurants in Los Angeles alone, often scouring foreign-language papers in which he could only understand restaurant addresses, or simply driving around town and pulling over when the mood struck.
In this interview, recorded live at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, host Monica Corcoran, Style Editor at Variety, coaxes surprising answers as Jonathan Gold regales the audience with a rich repast of anecdotes and food adventures.
Two Theatre Ensembles: Jersey Boys and N W C. Interviews by Jennifer Berry
07/22/2007
[ Listen]
Jersey Boys, the Tony Award-winning smash hit at the Ahmanson, is attracting audience members who've never stepped foot in a theater. Find out what makes this history of Frankie Valli's Four Seasons so compelling. Jennifer Berry interviews the principal cast members Erich Bergen, Michael Ingersoll, Christopher Kale Jones, and Deven May.
An ensemble of quite a different nature is N*GGER WETB*CK CH*NK, a comedy creatively examining the complex realities of race in America. Jennifer Berry examines this fresh look at old evils with cast members Miles Ellington Gregley, Allan Axibal, and Rafael Agustin.
Hail to the Chief? A Conversation with Bill Bratton moderated by Jim Newton, Times Editorial Page Editor
07/15/2007
[ Listen]
William J. Bratton, America's widely acclaimed top cop, arrived in Los Angeles in 2002 to head the country's third-largest police department. Since then he's overseen a 27% decline in homicides and a 29% decline in serious crimes over the past five years. He has also been both praised and criticized for his handling of federal reform mandates, for releasing names of major gang members, and for his response to controversial uses of police force, including the death of 13-year-old Devin Brown and the May MacArthur Park May Day Melee. Shortly before his reconfirmation, Chief Bratton sat down with Jim Newton, who covered the LAPD for the Times in the mid-1990s, to talk about crime in the city, controversy in the LAPD, and goals for his second term.
Recorded before a live audience at Barnsdall Art Park as part of the Z´calo Public Square Lecture Series.
Can the LA Times be Saved? Moderated by Los Angeles Magazine Editor-in-Chief Kit Rachlis
07/08/2007
[ Listen]
Like newspapers across the country, the Los Angeles Times has struggled to capture online readership and fight declining circulation. To cut costs and stay relevant, The Times has undergone massive layoffs, well-publicized staff shifts, squabbles and major redesigns. Can The Times remain a prominent and profitable news source for Southern California, the country, and the world? What effect will all these changes have on the paper's quality?
Zócalo invited Times editor Jim O'Shea, managing editor Leo Wolinsky, general manager Dave Murphy, and LATimes.com executive editor Meredith Artley to discuss the fate of one of LA's most valuable civic institutions.
Recorded live at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of Zócalo's Public Square Lecture Series.
How to be a Genius Without Even Trying: A Conversation with Adam Carolla. Moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum
07/01/2007
[ Listen]
Radio personality Adam Carolla visits Zócalo for a conversation with Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum. Their funny, lively repartee touches on the difference between high and low culture, public radio audiences versus commercial radio audiences, and Carolla's obsessions with cars and strip clubs. He speaks of growing up in North Hollywood and the unlikely way he broke into radio to work beyond his impoverished roots to become "literally a millionaire."
Recorded live at the Skirball Cultural Center as part of Zócalo's Public Square Lecture Series.
Art and Place: The Work of Susan Vreeland and Gronk. Michael Schlitt and the Re-emergence of Salons. Interviews by Jennifer Berry and Adolfo Guzman Lopez
06/24/2007
[ Listen]
Acclaimed writer Susan Vreeland takes art masterpieces as the starting point for her novels. Her latest, Luncheon of the Boating Party, is about the painter Auguste Renoir and the fourteen people featured in the painter's eponymously named painting. Zócalo's Jennifer Berry speaks with Vreeland about Renoir's life, 1880's Parisian culture, and the structure of her novel.
Gronk, the self-described "Chicano artist" from East L.A., tells Southern California Public Radio's Adolfo Guzman Lopez why he loves to walk the streets of downtown Los Angeles, details his early pranks as a punk artist, and explains the evolving nature of his multi-disciplinary work.
Michael Schlitt is a founding member of The Actors' Gang. He has since left the well-known theater ensemble and is currently hosting salons: private homes opened for performance and "passionate conversation." He tells Jennifer Berry about the impetus behind, and his unique approach toward, a uniquely Los Angeles salon.
Paul Hawken: Blessed Unrest - The Largest Movement in the World. David Roediger: On Being White in America. Interviews by Cheryl Devall, Deputy News Editor, Southern California Public Radio
06/17/2007
[ Listen]
Paul Hawken is a noted environmentalist, businessman, writer, tech entrepreneur, and organizational/cultural theorist. In his new book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, Hawken contends that a multiplicity of small and large non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, working variously for ecological or social justice issues, are evolving - without even knowing it - into "the largest movement in the world." The movement is not centralized, has no leader, no hierarchy, not even a name, and yet provides hope for a sustainable future.
David Roediger is professor of history at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on race and class in the United States, including an examination of "whiteness." His books include The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. In this interview, Roediger explains why the struggle over race in America is still not over and why, despite third world immigration, the power of whiteness lives on.
James Mann and Dru Gladney: China - Global Power, Global Image. Interviews by Rob Schmitz, LA Bureau Chief of KQED's California Report.
06/10/2007
[ Listen]
James Mann is a distinguished journalist and historian who covered China for the Los Angeles Times. In his second book on the emergent global power, The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression, Mann targets American policymakers who have dispensed the soothing and dangerously misleading notion that China's authoritarianism will inevitably give way to democracy as its growing middle class demands more rights and freedoms. Mann raises an awkward and important question: What if China doesn't democratize and instead becomes a capitalist totalitarian state?
Dru Gladney is President of the Pacific Basin Institute and Professor of Anthropology at Pomona College. He is author of Dislocating China: Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects. Until quite recently, Western scholars have tended to accept the Chinese representation of non-Han groups as marginalized minorities. Gladney challenges this simplistic view, arguing instead that disenfranchised Muslims and other ethnic minorities have played a major role in how the Chinese have defined themselves.
Vanda Vitali: Natural History's New Frontier. Kirsten Vangsness and Scott Wolf: The Geffen Playhouse Production of Fat Pig. Interviews by Adolfo Guzman Lopez of Southern California Public Radio and Playwright Jennifer Berry
06/03/2007
[ Listen]
Vanda Vitali, VP of Public Programs at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, has conceived and produced acclaimed exhibits and an ongoing performing arts series, First Fridays. She's played a pivotal role in the institution's New Museum Project. Adolfo Guzman Lopez gets the scoop on Vitali's re-imagined role for natural history museums.
Neil LaBute's "Fat Pig," now playing at the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse, has people talking about its theme, obesity and love in an appearance-obsessed society, and also for the startling manner in which the tale unfolds. Kirsten Vangsness and Scott Wolf, the drama's principal actors, talk to Zócalo's Jennifer Berry.
Is California Ready for its Close-up? Moderated by David Hiller, Publisher of the Los Angeles Times
05/27/2007
[ Listen]
As California catapults its presidential primary from June to February, how will it impact the race for the White House? Times op-ed columnists Ron Brownstein, Rosa Brooks and Jonah Goldberg join Times editorial writer Robert Greene and Times Editorial Page Editor Jim Newton to discuss how an early California primary is likely to alter the substance and dynamic of the race.
Recorded before a live audience at the California Institute of Technology as part of the As California catapults its presidential primary from June to February, how will it impact the race for the White House? Times op-ed columnists Ron Brownstein, Rosa Brooks and Jonah Goldberg join Times editorial writer Robert Greene and Times Editorial Page Editor Jim Newton to discuss how an early California primary is likely to alter the substance and dynamic of the race.
Recorded before a live audience at the California Institute of Technology as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
John Podesta and Larry Korb: Can Progressives Save Iraq? Moderated by Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles City Council President
05/20/2007
[ Listen]
Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress (CAP), along with military expert and CAP senior fellow Larry Korb visit Zócalo to discuss the pros and cons of the Democrats' Iraq strategy and ask what Progressives can do to make the best of a bad situation. As the U.S. enters its fifth year of war in Iraq, the nation stands at a critical juncture in its foreign policy. With increased U.S. forces entering Iraq, a debate is raging in Washington over the Bush administration's "New Way Forward." Podesta and Korb outline an exit strategy they call "Strategic Redeployment" and discuss how Iraq will continue to shape domestic politics. Korb has recently returned from Iraq and will provide an assessment of the situation on the ground.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Who Really Runs L.A.? Kerman Maddox, Dave Zahniser, Jaime Regalado and Jesse Katz. Moderated by Mariel Garza of the Los Angeles Daily News
05/13/2007
[ Listen]
Who runs Los Angeles? It's not just the mayor. It's not just the City Council. And it's not just a handful of rich white men. Los Angeles is no ordinary city, and its non-traditional cast of power brokers and political players span the socioeconomic and ethnic divides. But who are they? How did they acquire their power? And how do they wield it? Political consultant Kerman Maddox, LA Weekly reporter Dave Zahniser, political scientist Jaime Regalado, and Los Angeles Magazine writer Jesse Katz visited Zócalo to square off in a raucous and informative discussion of L.A.'s municipal politics, warts and all.
Recorded before a live audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Not on Our Watch: Conflict and Response. Interviews by Peter Stenshoel and Jennifer Berry
05/06/2007
[ Listen]
John Prendergast is a leading American human rights activist focused on bringing international attention to the genocide in Sudan and the atrocities by the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. He has just released a book co-written with Hotel Rwanda actor Don Cheadle, called Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond. He speaks frankly with Zócalo Radio's producer Peter Stenshoel about his solutions to the "seemingly intractable" problems of Africa and the secret of his unabashed hope for the world.
Albert Meijer and Emily Rose are performing "Wounded," a play focusing on the problems and frustrations faced by wounded American soldiers once they've returned home from war. The L.A. Weekly and Los Angeles Times each placed the play in the "recommended" category, and one UK reviewer called it "perhaps the best play I have seen in many years." Zócalo Radio's Jennifer Berry hosts this moving interview.
Rafe Esquith and Doug Kaback: Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire. Interviews by Mary Lou Basaraba and Jennifer Berry
04/29/2007
[ Listen]
As Rafe Esquith describes it, he was once a discouraged classroom teacher who considered himself a failure. Not giving up, Esquith developed techniques to help himself and eventually other teachers fuel a passion for learning among students. He has won international recognition and honors for his classroom techniques, including the National Medal of Arts award. His book, Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, offers sage advice and encouragement for classroom teachers. In a conversation with educator Mary Lou Basaraba, Esquith outlines the process from his early failures to the stunning successes of his fifth grade class at the Los Angeles Unified School District's Hobart Elementary School.
Doug Kaback is artistic director at the Teen Age Drama Workshop, a six-week intensive training session for young people who are interested in theater. Celebrating its 50th year, it is the longest running teen-focused workshop in the nation with an impressive list of alumni. Kaback, a playwright, director, actor, and faculty member at California State University Northridge, speaks to Zócalo Radio's Jennifer Berry about his experiences working with gifted young theater artists.
Paul Rusesabagina and E. Randol Schoenberg: Ordinary Men; Extraordinary Lives. Interviews by Los Angeles Times Health Reporter Daniel Costello and radio producer Nate DiMeo
04/22/2007
[ Listen]
Paul Rusesabagina was the first Rwandan manager of the Hotel Milles Collines, a European-owned luxury hotel in Rwanda. During the Rwandan genocide, which started in April of 1994, Rusesabagina used his influence and connections to shelter over 1,260 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from being slaughtered by the Hutu-led militias. His story was featured in the film "Hotel Rwanda," and his autobiography is An Ordinary Man. Paul Rusesabagina tells Daniel Costello, Los Angeles Times Health Reporter, that his method of peace entails talking to our enemies.
E. Randol Schoenberg is a Los Angeles-based lawyer, and grandson of composer Arnold Schoenberg. In this Zócalo interview hosted by radio producer Nate DiMeo, Schoenberg unfolds the fascinating story of an eight-year battle against the Austrian government to recover paintings of enormous value by Gustav Klimpt looted by the Nazis during the Second World War.
Elaine Pagels and Karen King: The Gospel of Judas and The Shaping of Christianity. Interview by Peter Stenshoel
04/15/2007
[ Listen]
The archaeological find made public in April 2006 by the National Geographic Society of a gospel ascribed to Judas Iscariot has generated a great deal of public curiosity. What is the context for this and other gospel writings unearthed from the 2nd Century? How do they alter common assumptions about the early Christians, about ancient philosophical debates, even about our society's Judeo-Christian cultural antecedents? Princeton University Professor of Religion Elaine Pagels and Harvard Divinity School Professor of Ecclesiastical History Karen L. King tell Zócalo's radio producer Peter Stenshoel about their new book, Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, and discuss the revelations their ongoing scholarship has uncovered.
Alix Ohlin: Why Mysteries Matter: Detectives, Literature, and Life.
04/08/2007
[ Listen]
Fiction writer Alix Ohlin (The Missing Person and Babylon and Other Stories) says detective stories reflect the way we judge our own society: whoâs an insider and who's an outsider, who's corrupt and whoâs innocent, who's capable of changing the world and who can find the clues to make sense of it. No crime, even a fictional one, takes place out of context. And mysteries, which tap into the darkest shades of that social context, speak to the chaos each of us may suspect is lurking beneath the surface of our days.
Recorded at Los Angeles Central Library before a live audience as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Dowell Myers, Torie Osborn: Populations and Paradigms. Interviews by Robert Greene, Los Angeles Times Editorial Page
04/01/2007
[ Listen]
Dowell Myers is professor of urban planning and demography in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development, at USC. He directs the school's Population Dynamics Research Group. His latest book, Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America, Myers points out that the contentious national debate over immigration is obscuring an even more significant demographic change about to occur as the first wave of the Baby Boom generation retires, slowly draining the workforce and straining the federal budget. In this interview with the Los Angeles Times Editorial Pageâs Robert Greene, Myers discusses the nexus between retiring Baby Boomers and working immigrants.
Torie Osborn is Senior Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the issue of homelessness, an enormous social challenge for the city. L.A. Weekly has named Osborn "L.A.'s best all-round coalition builder." She speaks to Robert Greene about an unprecedented opportunity to seize the "new paradigm" of permanent solutions for the homeless population in L.A.
Eric Alterman: Is Democracy in America Even Possible?
03/25/2007
[ Listen]
Eric Alterman, prolific author, media critic, and columnist for The Nation, explores the emergence of what he calls America's "pseudo-democracy."l Walter Lippmann and John Dewey argued over the character and quality of American democracy in the 1920s with each offering devastating but almost perfectly oppositional critiques. In many ways, they were both correct, but the problems each identified have only metastasized. The media are supposed to be the watchdogs of democracy, but increasingly this has become more and more difficult to sustain if one looks at the cold hard reality of both our media and our political system.
This talk was recorded before a live audience at The National Center for the Preservation of Democracy as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series
Stanley Crouch: Blues for Black America
03/18/2007
[ Listen]
Columnist, novelist, essayist, and critic Stanley Crouch discusses what he says is the "trouble with black popular culture." Calling it a crisis we can no longer ignore, Crouch traces the rise of hoodlums and pimps as role models and the "supposed sanitization" of the "n-word." Calling the phenomenon an "irresponsible rebellion," the ever brilliant, irascible, and controversial Crouch takes the entertainment industry to task and deplores what he sees as the debilitating social effects of low intellectual aspirations and "crass materialist fantasies."
This talk was recorded before a live audience at The California Endowment as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
Dig This! From U2 to African Wells. Interviewed by Nate DiMeo. And from the Archives: Nicolas de Torrente interviewed by Daniel Costello.
03/11/2007
[ Listen]
Julie Cook, a fan of the rock group, U2, was inspired by the group to help bring clean drinking water to the poorest parts of Africa. The work of her U2 fan-based volunteer organization, "The African Well Fund," has directly helped thousands of families and is responsible for at least a dozen new wells. She tells radio journalist Nate DiMeo how she helps people ten thousands miles away while maintaining her day job.
Nicolas de Torrente, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders, speaks with L.A. Times health reporter Daniel Costello about the tough logistics of sending doctors to war-torn areas. This reprise edition includes material never before broadcast.
Norah Vincent: Identity, Deception, and Revelation. Interview by Meghan Daum. And from the Archives: Ron Weiner interviewed by Jennifer Berry
03/04/2007
[ Listen]
Writer Norah Vincent spent a year and a half disguised as a man, entering into such fraternal cloisters as a bowling team, a monastery, and a men's group. She also went on dates. Her book, "Self Made Man," has received praise from, among others, Camille Paglia, Andrew Sullivan and Nat Hentoff. Los Angeles Times writer Meghan Daum plumbs the depths of this experience with Vincent, including the subject of writers using deception versus the insights gleaned.
Television writer Ron Weiner took his experiences about Internet dating, set them to music, and eventually developed a shrewd but hopeful musical about digitally-mediated romance. In this reprise broadcast, Zócalo's Jennifer Berry asks Weiner about deception and identity issues raised by Internet dating.
This is Not a Pipe: Visual Mystery in Paintings and Photographs: Curator Stephanie Barron and Photographer Amy Gayeski. Interviews by Nate DiMeo and Jennifer Berry.
02/25/2007
[ Listen]
Stephanie Barron, Senior Curator of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, speaks to radio journalist Nate DiMeo about the exhibit: "Magritte and Contemporary Art: the Treachery of Images."
The on-line magazine Pop Photo calls Amy Gayeski one of the "10 best young photographers" in America. Gayeski studied engineering and architecture, but soon realized her real love was photography. Zócalo's Jennifer Berry takes a close look at her luminous and startlingly original work.
Tuning in the Broadband Channel: How the Internet Is Remaking the TV Business
02/18/2007
[ Listen]
With more than 80 million Americans connecting to the Web at video-friendly speeds, TV networks have started using the Internet not just to promote their shows, but also to distribute them. The potential audience for online TV is already larger than the number of homes served by DirecTV and DISH combined and will soon be larger than the cable TV universe as well. In short, the Net is becoming a new set of channels--some free, some not. Mitch Singer of Sony Pictures, Ron Berryman of Fox Interactive, Blair Harrison of iFilm, Vivi Zigler of NBC, and Evan Young of TiVo visit Zócalo to discuss how the Internet is changing everything for the TV networks, producers, and service providers.
This talk was recorded live at The Culver Studios as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series and is presented by Zócalo and the Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages
Jim Newton: Earl Warren and the Californiaization of America
02/11/2007
[ Listen]
The work of Earl Warren and the Warren Court is widely known and fiercely debated for its impact on far-flung fields such as racial equality, privacy, police procedure and voting rights. Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times City-County Bureau Chief and author of "Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made" argues that over the 16 years that Warren held his post in Washington, he exported to the nation the values of California Progressivism and the experiences of a Bakersfield boyhood. Warren is remembered, fondly by some, with irritation by others, as perhaps the most consequential chief justice in American history. He may also be regarded as the man who launched the Californiaization of America.
This talk was recorded live at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series.
L.A. vs. New York: Who's Got the Scoop on Hollywood? Patrick Goldstein, Laura Holson, John Horn, and Sharon Waxman. Moderated by Dana Harris, film editor at Variety
02/04/2007
[ Listen]
Four ace Hollywood journalists--Sharon Waxman and Laura Holson of the New York Times and Patrick Goldstein and John Horn of the Los Angeles Times--discuss how the Industry is perceived on opposite coasts. Does L.A.'s hometown paper have the edge in covering the quintessential Los Angeles business? Or does the New York Times bring an outsider's perspective that enlivens that newspaper's coverage of "the Industry"? Join us for a lively discussion of the trends and trendsetters of the film industry from the perspective of four experts. Recorded before a live audience and presented by Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. This event was made possible, in part, by a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation of Los Angeles.
Science and Sound: Michael Shermer and Richard King. Interviews by K.C. Cole and Peter Stenshoel
01/28/2007
[ Listen]
Scientific American columnist Michael Shermer is the Director of the Skeptics Society. He hosts the Skeptics Distinguished Lecture Series at Caltech, and is the author of many books, including "Why People Believe Weird Things," "How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God," and most recently, "Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design." Noted science writer K.C. Cole joins Shermer for an engaging and wide-ranging discussion about popular perceptions and misperceptions of science.
Richard King won an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing on "Master and Commander." Widely celebrated for his superb audio skills, King has designed, edited, and supervised the sound for numerous films, including "War of the Worlds," "Twister," "Magnolia," "Rob Roy," and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." He speaks about his craft to Zócalo Radio's producer, Peter Stenshoel.
The Mystery of Redemption: Novelist Anna Monardo and Playwright Nancy Keystone. Interviews by Meghan Daum and Jennifer Berry
01/21/2007
[ Listen]
Anna Monardo's work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, and The Sun. Her novel, "Falling In Love With Natassia," is an intense and sometimes dark family saga spanning the incongruous worlds of three generations. Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum sits down with Anna Monardo for a lively conversation.
Nancy Keystone is a director, scenic designer, visual artist and playwright. She is the founder and artistic director of Critical Mass Performance Group. She speaks to Zócalo's Jennifer Berry about "Apollo," her play examining the complicated relationship between expatriate German rocket scientists, the segregated South of the Sixties, and the United States Space Program.
The Dark Tree: L.A. and the Neighborhood Jazz Movement. Steven Isoardi and Dwight Trible. Interviews by Richard Paske and Peter Stenshoel
01/14/2007
[ Listen]
Jazz historian Steven Isoardi is the author of "The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles." In this interview with Richard Paske, producer of the web music magazine Notes From the Western Edge, Isoardi speaks about the neighborhood jazz movement in Los Angeles championed by jazz innovator, Horace Tapscott.
Dwight Trible is a gifted vocalist and jazz improviser who serves as vocal director for the Horace Tapscott Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. He tells Zócalo Radio producer Peter Stenshoel about arriving in L.A. at the height of the jazz scene, his involvement with Horace Tapscott, and reflects on his own artistic process.
Max Boot: How Revolutions in Military Affairs have Shaped History
01/07/2007
[ Listen]
Military historian and Los Angeles Times columnist Max Boot discusses how innovations in weaponry and tactics have not only transformed how wars are fought and won but also have guided the course of human events, from the formation of the first modern states 500 years ago, to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the coming of al-Qaeda. The award-winning author of "The Savage Wars of Peace," and the recently published "War Made New," Boot puts forth a new intellectual framework for understanding contemporary geopolitics and examines what America must do to survive and prevail in the Information Age.
This talk was recorded live at The National Center for the Preservation of Democracy as part of Zócalo's Public Square Lecture Series.
Margaret Wertheim: Space versus Spirit: Why the Battle between Science and Religion is Driving us Crazy
12/24/2006
[ Listen]
Science and religion are often viewed as two competing and utterly opposed worldviews--one based on faith, the other on reason. Yet both are systems that attempt to make sense of the world and of humanity's place within a wider cosmological scheme. Religions usually posit that the material realm is just one part of a larger whole that also includes an immaterial spiritual domain, while modern science speaks only of a physical realm. But at the birth of modern science in the seventeenth century no one imagined that science was articulating the whole of reality. In a talk recorded live at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of Zócalo's Public Square Lecture Series, science writer Margaret Wertheim traces the history of how any notion of a spiritual realm was written out of Western science. She examines the social, psychological, and cultural effects of this transformation and urges us to acknowledge the intellectual gifts we derive from both sides of this maddening divide.
Margaret Wertheim is the author of Pythagoras' Trousers, a history of the relationship between physics and religion, and The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet. She has written and produced a dozen television science documentaries, including the PBS special "Faith and Reason".
Empire, American Style: Niall Ferguson. Moderated by Andres Martinez, Los Angeles Times Editorial Page Editor
12/17/2006
[ Listen]
Historian and Los Angeles Times columnist Niall Ferguson presents his recent thoughts on America at war. Ferguson is a proponent of "counterfactual" history, a controversial method which attempts to answer "what if" questions by imagining alternative outcomes of events as a way of stressing the contingent aspects of history. Ferguson's "The Pity of War" was a sensation in Britain for its assertion that the country would have been better off staying out of World War I. His latest book is "The War of the World." Ferguson's talk on America's shaky global empire was recorded live at the California Institute of Technology as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series and presented in conjunction with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and the Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages.
Life 2.0: Market and Society on the Virtual Frontier. Interviews by Ethan Lindsey
12/10/2006
[ Listen]
Edward Castronova, online game theorist and author of "Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games," speaks with radio journalist Ethan Lindsey about the online game industry, its implications for both business and culture, and the long-term social consequences of online games for the millions of players who spend more time in the synthetic world than in our own.
Virtual environment producer Cory Ondrejka is Chief Technology Officer for San Francisco-based Linden Labs, creators of the wildly popular virtual environment, "Second Life." In this eye-opening conversation, Ondrejka fleshes out the nature of these new virtual worlds and gives abundant detail on how millions of lives around the globe are affected.
Made in Americas: Latino Impact on American Culture. Josh Kun and Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez. Interviews by Oscar Garza
12/03/2006
[ Listen]
Josh Kun, a leading authority on popular music and culture and author of "Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America," insists that America is not a single chorus of many voices folded into one, but rather various republics of sound that represent multiple stories of racial and ethnic difference. He shares his insights and musical examples with Oscar Garza, editor-in-chief of Tu Ciudad Magazine.
Archivist Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez tells Garza about her fascinating oral history project, "A Legacy Greater Than Words: Stories of U.S. Latinos and Latinas of the World War II Generation," which chronicles the untold stories of this generation through more than five hundred interviews.
Contact Between Cultures: Nathaniel Philbrick on the Mayflower, Eytan Gilboa on Public Diplomacy. Interviews by John Buckley and Yael Swerdlow
11/19/2006
[ Listen]
Nathaniel Philbrick, winner of the National Book Award for "In the Heart of the Sea," speaks with Marketplace Senior Editor John Buckley about the hard life and times of the early immigrants to America, chronicled in his book, "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War."
Eytan Gilboa, a world-known expert on international communication and US Policy in the Middle East, speaks on the application and technique of public diplomacy with Yael Swerdlow from the USC-Annenberg Center on Public Diplomacy.
Two Streams on the Left: Jorge Castaneda on Latin American Politics, Moderated by Andres Martinez, Times Editorial Page Editor
11/05/2006
[ Listen]
In his 1994 book "Utopia Unarmed," Jorge Castañeda examined the failed movements of the Latin American left. The Los Angeles Times Book Review praised the work for its honesty, its lack of dogmatism and its success in "[restoring] direction to the Latin American left." More than ten years later and after serving as Mexican President Vicente Fox's foreign secretary, Castañeda visits Zócalo to reexamine Latin America's left and its latest incarnations, including Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Mexican presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Recorded live at the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, and presented in conjunction with the Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages, Castañeda's speech is followed by a discussion with the Times' Andrés Martinez.
Michael Tomasky: What's Wrong with Liberalism?
10/29/2006
[ Listen]
Last May, Michael Tomasky published an essay in The American Prospect, the respected liberal opinion magazine he edits, that set Washington on its ear. "Party in Search of a Notion" was Tomasky's call for the Democrats to rise above the politics of interest-group particularism and become the party of the common good. The influential essay got front-page treatment in The New York Times and is one of the most widely quoted magazine essays of the past decade. In this lively talk, recorded live at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, Tomasky discusses his ideas, his critics, and the new historical opportunity for progressive politics.
Steal this Music: Intellectual Property vs. Artistic Creativity. Joanna Demers and Jeff Gauthier. Interviews by Richard Paske.
10/22/2006
[ Listen]
University of Southern California assistant professor Joanna Demers discusses the past, present, and future of music copyright law, downloading, and sampling with Richard Paske, producer of the web music magazine, "Notes From the Western Edge." Demers, a forensic musicologist and consultant on copyright law, is author of "Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity." Paske is also joined by Jeff Gauthier, composer, musician, and head of Cryptogramophone Records, who discusses how copyright law and new technologies affect him and other music entrepreneurs.
Denise Dresser: Will Mexico Survive its Presidential Election?
10/15/2006
[ Listen]
The razor thin margin of its recent presidential election has left Mexico deeply divided and the future of its democracy in question. Recorded live as part of Zócalo's Public Square lecture series, Mexican political scientist and columnist Denise Dresser discusses candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador's challenge to the election's outcome and the credibility gap that a Felipe Calderón presidency faces. Known for her bold, insightful, and unbiased commentary on Mexican politics, Dresser shares the backstory of this long and winding presidential campaign and delivers the definitive analysis on its historic outcome.
Structure and Motion: Robert Graham, David Greenberg and Kitty McNamee. Interviews by Adolfo Guzman Lopez, Ming Fung, and Jennifer Berry
10/08/2006
[ Listen]
Robert Graham, prolific sculptor of civic monuments, including the Olympic Gateway at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, speaks with public radio reporter, Adolfo Guzman Lopez, about working with both monumental and very small artworks, and about growing up in Mexico City. Urban Planner David Greenberg joins architect Ming Fung in a discussion about his international treehouse competition chronicled in his book, "Treehouses in Paradise." And Kitty McNamee, artistic director and founder of Hysterica Dance Company, sits down with Zócalo's Jennifer Berry to discuss her humanistic and psychological approach to dance.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels as Civic Space: Kevin Kostelnik, David Tlapek, and Lita Albuquerque
10/01/2006
[ Listen]
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is more than a religious edifice. On the fourth anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral, former LA Times religion writer Larry Stammer speaks with Kevin Kostelnik, pastor of the Cathedral, David Tlapek, producer of a documentary on the Cathedral tapestries, and Lita Albuquerque, designer of "Celestial Disk", the star map, sculpture and waterfall that adorn the main entrance to the Cathedral.
John Dean with Peter Stenshoel. Laurence Kotlikoff with Jennifer Berry
09/24/2006
[ Listen]
Watergate star witness John Dean talks to Zócalo's producer, Peter Stenshoel, about his friendship with the late Senator Barry Goldwater, about the modern Conservative movement, and about his bestselling book, "Conservatives Without Conscience." Then, noted economist Laurence Kotlikoff speaks about his book, "The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know About America's economic Future," with host Jennifer Berry.
Theater on a Grand Scale: Heather Woodbury, Suzan-Lori Parks and caryn desai. Interviews by Meghan Daum and Jennifer Berry.
09/17/2006
[ Listen]
Heather Woodbury speaks to L.A. Times columnist Meghan Daum about "Tale of 2Cities," her epic multi-character play about the Dodgers' 1957 move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and its bi-coastal impact on three generations. Suzan-Lori Parks sits down with Zócalo's Jennifer Berry to discuss her "365 Plays/365 Days" festival, marking the largest collaboration in theater history. Berry also speaks with caryn desai about her 20 year run as general manager of the award-winning International City Theatre in Long Beach.
Rich Friends, Poor Us: Is Status Anxiety the Newest Form of Depression? A Conversation with Nicole Holofcener, Sandra Tsing Loh, and Meghan Daum
09/10/2006
[ Listen]
The subject of social class may be the last taboo. Is "class" really a matter of money? What do tastes and values say about our relationship to our own social class? Does anyone really believe America is a "classless society"? Join three of L.A.'s wittiest and most insightful social observers--L.A. Times columnist Meghan Daum, filmmaker Nicole Holofcener ("Friends With Money," "Lovely & Amazing") and author/performer Sandra Tsing Loh ("Mother on Fire," "A Year in Van Nuys,")-- for a frank and provocative discussion, recorded live as part of the Zócalo Public Square Lecture Series, about social class in Los Angeles and beyond
The Best of Zócalo: Antonio Damasio
09/03/2006
[ Listen]
By popular demand, we reprise world-renowned neuroscientist and best-selling author Antonio Damasio as he takes us on a journey through his research on the mysterious yet inextricable link between the human brain and the human heart. In this talk, recorded live as part of the Zócalo Public Square lecture series, Damasio discusses new breakthroughs in emotion research and explains why it is relevant in our everyday lives. Knowing how the brain processes emotion can help us manage conditions such as depression and drug-addiction. It can also provide the key to understanding day-to-day decision-making, social behavior, and creativity.
The Best of Zócalo Radio: Sonia Nazario and Muhammed Yunus
08/27/2006
[ Listen]
Zócalo Radio reprises two interviews that captured our listeners imaginations. Sonia Nazario discusses her recent book, Enrique's Journey, in which she follows the harrowing attempts made by children in search of their immigrant mothers, women who had to give up their families in order to support them. Nazario speaks of her own risks in writing this book, and draws attention to a little-known tragedy of our times. Oscar Garza, Editor-in-Chief of Tu Ciudad magazine, hosts the discussion.
Then, Muhammed Yunus, visionary founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, discusses how he came to use microlending as a way to help the poor and do good business at the same time. In his discussion with New York Times (and former L.A. Times) financial columnist James Flanigan, Yunus shares his passion and his latest projects in his fight against poverty.
Do Immigrants Really Take Our Jobs? Moderated by Andrés Martinez, LA Times Editorial Page Editor.
08/20/2006
[ Listen]
Immigration may be a national issue, but its economic implications are felt
locally. Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic
Development Corporation, civil rights attorney Connie Rice, Fernando J.
Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles, and L.A. Times
op-ed columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan discuss the economics of immigration and
how they affect local politics and race relations. This discussion was
recorded live at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center as part of the
Zócalo "Public Square" lecture series.
Eric Liu: The Politics of Purpose
08/13/2006
[ Listen]
Eric Liu, former speechwriter and policy adviser to President Clinton and author of "Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life," speaks on the deeper needs, fears and hopes that must inform a renewal of progressive politics. Democrats recently have been working overtime to get reacquainted with the language of faith. But is the salvation of progressive politics truly to be found in the Bible? Liu's talk was recorded live at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy as part of the Zócalo "Public Square" Lecture Series.
Francis Fukuyama: The Neoconservative Legacy and the Future of American Foreign Policy
08/06/2006
[ Listen]
One of America's most formidable intellectuals, Francis Fukuyama, visits Zócalo Radio to explain his very public break with neoconservative foreign policy. In this brilliant, incisive, and compelling talk, recorded live as part of the Zócalo "Public Square" Lecture Series at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, Fukuyama outlines his vision of a "Realistic Wilsonianism" that he thinks ought to guide America's future relations with the outside world.
Amy Brenneman and Brad Silberling: Do Popular Artists Have A Moral Responsibility? Leigh Curran: The Virginia Avenue Project
07/30/2006
[ Listen]
Acclaimed actress Amy Brenneman is the creator and star of the former hit TV series Judging Amy. Her husband, Brad Silberling, has directed a number of films, including Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. In this kitchen table discussion, recorded live at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City as part of the Zócalo "Public Square" Lecture Series, Brenneman and Silberling offer insights on the interplay of morality, creativity, and money in the film industry.
Also, Jennifer Berry talks with Leigh Curran, founder of The Virginia Avenue Project, a free after-school performing arts program providing one-on-one mentoring for kids.
Robert K. Ross, M.D.: What's Wrong with Philanthropy in L.A.?
07/23/2006
[ Listen]
Robert K. Ross, M.D., President and CEO of The California Endowment, discusses the challenges the philanthropic community faces in LA. In a lecture recorded live at Los Angeles Central Library as part of the Zócalo "Public Square" Lecture Series, Dr. Ross shares the crucial lessons he learned on his varied career path, from his early days as an inner city pediatrician, all the way to his current position as head of California's largest private health foundation.
L.A.: From Skidrow to the Front Row; Jan Perry and Michael Ritchie; Interviews by Dan Costello
07/16/2006
[ Listen]
Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry speaks to Los Angeles Times Editorial Board member Dan Costello about homelessness in L.A. She discusses the uneven progress the city is making and the even more daunting challenges that lie ahead.
Costello then chats with Michael Ritchie, the artistic director of Center Theatre Group. Ritchie talks about his dramatic debut in the City of Angels and shares his ambitious vision for theater in Los Angeles.
War, Diplomacy, and Video Games: Quang X. Pham, Asi Burak, Eric Brown and Tim Sweeney. Interviews by Alvin Shuster and Yael Swerdlow.
07/09/2006
[ Listen]
Quang X. Pham, author of "A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey," discusses the Vietnam War, its legacy, and today's war in Iraq with former L.A. Times correspondent and foreign editor Alvin Shuster.
Asi Burak, Eric Brown, and Tim Sweeney are three members of the team that created Peacemaker, a cross-cultural political video game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that teaches peacemaking skills to young adults and promotes a peaceful resolution. Game scriptwriter Yael Swerdlow interviews the team about their efforts to reinvent diplomacy through gaming.
Women In Business And The New Battle Of The Sexes: Jamie McCourt, Mary Sue Millikan, Susan Feniger and Rebecca Traister. Interviews by Meghan Daum and Jennifer Berry.
07/02/2006
[ Listen]
Meghan Daum speaks with Dodgers vice-chairman and president Jamie McCourt about her highly visible role as "the most powerful woman in major league Baseball."
Jennifer Berry brings chefs Mary Sue Millikan and Susan Feniger to the table. The famous restaurateurs share stories from their work in the unsavory business of restaurants.
And Meghan Daum returns to talk about the war of the sexes with outspoken Salon.com writer Rebecca Traister.
William Deverell: The Redemptive West
06/25/2006
[ Listen]
Historian William Deverell, the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, delivers a groundbreaking lecture on the role that the American West played in healing the wounds inflicted by the Civil War. In this talk recorded live as part of the Zócalo "Public Square" lecture series, Deverell explores themes of reunification through stories of the convalescence of individuals and the re-fashioning of what it meant to be an American after the Civil War.
Theater Innovators: Ken Roht, Adriana Sevan and Ron Weiner interviewed by Jennifer Berry
06/18/2006
[ Listen]
Jennifer Berry introduces listeners to three young theater artists who are working to renew the medium. Ken Roht took song and dance to new limits under the tutelage of the late "shock theater" director, Reza Abdoh, before writing and directing his own works. He speaks of his critically acclaimed work, Echo's Hammer, as well as his new role as an opera director.
Actress Adriana Sevan was personally affected by the 9/11 tragedy, and through a painful process developed a transcendent theater piece about the true meaning of friendship.
Television writer Ron Weiner took his experiences about Internet dating, set them to music, and eventually developed a shrewd but hopeful musical about digitally-mediated romance.
Christians and Civic Engagement: Malcolm Boyd and Anne Lamotte interviewed by Melissa Milios
06/11/2006
[ Listen]
In the 2nd of Zócalo's two part series on faith, Los Angeles writer Melissa Milios interviews the Reverend Canon Malcolm Boyd, and "writer's writer" Anne Lamotte. Boyd, author of the newly-republished "Are You Running with Me, Jesus?," recounts his colorful experiences as a civil rights activist, media star, antiwar protestor, and pioneering gay spiritual leader. Anne Lamotte's influential book of essays, "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith," has generated a great deal of interest and discussion. In this interview, the committed Christian speaks of her family, faith and the presidency, and how she grapples with the process of writing.
A Meeting of Faiths: At the Intersection of Religion and Media. A Discussion moderated by Rob Eshman
06/04/2006
[ Listen]
Rob Eshman, Editor-in-chief of the The Jewish Journal, moderates a discussion on the co-existence of world faiths in modern society and the representation of religion in the media. The panel features Ani Zonneveld, Director, Progressive Muslim Union; Glen Harold Stassen, Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary; David Suissa, founder and publisher of Olam Magazine; and Diane Winston, Knight Chair in Media and Religion, USC Annenberg School.
Is This the End of Crime as We Know it? Criminologists George Kelling and Mark A. R. Kleiman In Discussion with the Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages
05/28/2006
[ Listen]
Since the late 1970s, urban police departments have watched crime rates fall drastically. But not everyone agrees on why it happened or whether our gauging is accurate. The L.A. Times Editorial Board presents George Kelling, one of the country's foremost experts on crime policy and the co-author of the "broken windows" theory, and Mark A.R. Kleiman, professor of public policy at UCLA. Moderated by Andrés Martinez, LA Times Editorial Page Editor, the panel includes Times op-ed columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan and editorial writer Robert Greene.
Business in the Interest of Good: Muhammad Yunus and Nicolas de Torrenté
05/21/2006
[ Listen]
New York Times business columnist James Flanigan interviews Professor
Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. In a lively dialog, Professor Yunus explains how "microcredit" lending can reduce poverty.
Daniel Costello, L.A. Times Editorial Board member, speaks with Nicolas de Torrenté, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders/Mèdecins Sans
Frontiëres (MSF). Torrente details the delicate business of running an
organization that places doctors in the world's most conflicted regions.
Science and Humanity: Joyce Chaplin and Walter Goldschmidt
05/14/2006
[ Listen]
Public radio producer, Nate DiMeo, discusses the science career of Benjamin Franklin with Harvard historian and author, Joyce Elizabeth Chaplin. Her biography, "The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius," examines Franklin's love of science, an important-yet often overlooked--aspect of the founding father's career.
Zócalo Radio producer Peter Stenshoel interviews cultural anthropologist Walter Goldschmidt, author of "The Bridge to Humanity: How Affect Hunger Trumps the Selfish Gene." Exploring the relationship between biology and culture, Goldschmidt explains how biological mechanisms that have evolved from our distant past influence the way we live today.
Oscar Garza: Dan Guerrero and Anthony Franco
05/07/2006
[ Listen]
Oscar Garza, editor of Tu Ciudad magazine, interviews producer/actor Dan Guerrero and fashion designer Anthony Franco.
Guerrero has enjoyed a successful career as a musical and cabaret performer, a Broadway talent agent and TV producer. A self-described "born-again" Latino, Guerrero, now starring in a new one-man show, "Gaytino," discusses his life as a gay Latino performer and his relationship with his father, the legendary Chicano musician Lalo Guerrero.
Los Angeles-based designer Anthony Franco is quickly making a name for himself in fashion circles. He has exhibited his clothing designs at major fashion shows, and works as a costume designer for television and film.
Antonio Damasio: Understanding Emotions and the Brain
04/30/2006
[ Listen]
World-renowned neuroscientist and best-selling author Antonio Damasio takes us on a journey through his latest research on the mysterious yet inextricable link between the human brain and the human heart. In this talk recorded live as part of the Zócalo "Public Square" lecture series, Damasio discusses new breakthroughs in emotion research and explains why it is relevant in medicine and in society. Knowing how the brain processes emotion can help us manage conditions such as depression and drug-addiction. It can also provide the key to understanding day-to-day decision-making, social behavior, and creativity.
Changing Lives through Theater: Luis Alfaro and Mariette Hartley
04/23/2006
[ Listen]
Playwright Jennifer Berry spotlights two theater artists whose work explores emotional vulnerabilities.
Luis Alfaro, recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and co-founder of three non-profit arts organizations, discusses his approach to theater, poetry, and performance as an opportunity to reach troubled young people.
An Emmy Award-winning screen actress, Mariette Hartley is the author of the bestselling book, Breaking the Silence. A survivor of bi-polar disorder and a co-founder of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Hartley discusses the history of suicide in her family and how her one-woman show addresses the shame surrounding an issue that affects thousands of American families.
The Return of Social Criticism: Stephen Elliott, Caitlin Flanagan, and Emmanuelle Richard
04/16/2006
[ Listen]
Meghan Daum: Novelist Stephen Elliott and writer Caitlin Flanagan
Kevin Roderick: French journalist Emmanuelle Richard
Sunday April 16, 2006, at 9pm on KPCC 89.3 FM
Is social criticism making a comeback? L.A. Times Editorial Page Columnist Meghan Daum talks with two writers with divergent viewpoints. Novelist Stephen Elliott, editor of Stumbling and Raging, and author of several books (Happy Baby, A Life Without Consequences), relates how his life as a ward of the state resulted in his heightened political consciousness.
Caitlin Flanagan, contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly and author of To Hell with All That, employs her liberal background to develop conservative critiques of modern society.
Kevin Roderick, editor of L.A. Observed.com, the self-described blog of "LA media, news and sense of place," interviews LA-based French journalist and blogger, Emmanuelle Richard.
Dan Glickman: The Film Industry at a Pivotal Moment
04/09/2006
[ Listen]
Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is interviewed by Jon Healey of the LA Times Editorial Board. Former Secretary of Agriculture in the Clinton Administration, Glickman succeeded Jack Valenti as Hollywood's chief lobbyist. In this wide-ranging discussion - recorded live as part of the Zócalo "Public Square" lecture series - Glickman and Healey discuss the film industry's role in politics, the future of movie theaters in the age of home theater systems, the rise of DVDs and the threat posed by piracy.
Jennifer Berry: New Theater, New Art
04/02/2006
[ Listen]
Playwright Jennifer Berry gets up close and personal with three LA artists. Actor Richard Brooks takes up the challenge of reviving the "gospel play," a form made famous by playwright Langston Hughes, in his new work, "Hope Runs Eternal."
Lee Wochner, co-founder of Moving Arts Theatre, offers up humorous personal anecdotes that mix his love of absurdism with the difficult business of art.
Sculptor Alisa Gabrielle continues to paint and sculpt despite being legally blind. She discusses the transformational nature of her work.
Patty Stonesifer: All Kids College Ready: What Will It Take To Insure That Our Public Education System Prepares All Children?
03/19/2006
[ Listen]
Patty Stonesifer is the co-chair and president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this broadcast she zeros in on the tough, essential job of reforming not just schools -- and school systems -- but the entire structure of education. Brilliant, witty, and down-to-earth, Stonesifer has also been named one of the world's most powerful women by Forbes Magazine. Stonesifer's aim is to engender a community-wide conversation on the future of education.
Interviews by Oscar Garza, Editor-in-Chief, Ciudad Magazine
03/12/2006
[ Listen]
Sonia Nazario discusses her recent book, "Enrique's Journey." She follows the harrowing attempts made by children in search of their immigrant mothers, women who had to give up their families in order to support them. Nazario speaks of her own risks in writing this book, and draws attention to a little-known tragedy of our times.
Garza's second guest is the celebrated playwright and screenwriter Jose Rivera, nominated a year ago for an Academy Award for his adapted screenplay of "The Motorcycle Diaries." Rivera speaks of his upbringing, the role that hooked him on theater, and balancing his current success between Hollywood and the Stage.
Steve Wasserman: Do Books Have a Future in the Digital Age?
03/05/2006
[ Listen]
The former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review argues that books will survive as long as the human species is defined by its opposable thumb and its obsessive need to tell each other stories.
Greg Critser: Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies
02/26/2006
[ Listen]
The Los Angeles-based author delivers a lecture based on his new book exploring the overmedication of America.
Can Hollywood Survive the Internet? A Discussion with the Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages
02/19/2006
[ Listen]
Yair Landau, president of Sony Pictures Digital, and Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, join Los Angeles Times editorial writers Jon Healey and Michael Newman to discuss the challenge the Internet poses to the entertainment industry.
An Evening with Culture Clash: Confused and Still Full of Rage. Moderated by Oscar Garza, Editor-in-Chief, Tu Ciudad Magazine.
02/12/2006
[ Listen]
The Chicano performance trio discusses their two upcoming world premiers, Hollywood's relationship with Latinos, and the ever widening gap between art and politics. As irreverent, satirical, and edgy as ever, Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Siguenza will share their deepest, darkest secrets.
|
|
|
|
