Zócalo Public Square

Should we just adapt to climate change? The question raises the hackles of environmentalists and global warming deniers alike—yet it’s one we should be asking sooner rather than later. That was the consensus of New York Times environmental reporter Andrew Revkin, UCLA climate scientist Alex Hall, and UCLA environmental historian Jon Christensen during a panel discussion at The Actors’ Gang, an event put on in partnership with the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and with Environmental Humanities at UCLA.

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

Rebuilding After a Bubblicious Bust

Hot, Sometimes Bothered

In three decades of covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse wrote about 2,700 cases. Greenhouse—now the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence at Yale Law School—spoke with fellow legal journalist turned scholar Henry Weinstein, a professor of law and literary journalism at UC Irvine, about some of the court’s landmark cases throughout history and its role in American life today.

Was Human Life Inevitable?

Name That Tune: Da-Da-Da-DUM

Why Is Cancer Killing More African-Americans?

Will Gaming Change the Way We Learn?

Citizen Who

Does Bakersfield Need More Doctors?

Since the January 2010 earthquake, Hollywood celebrities, like so many Americans, have given their money and loaned their faces and voices to Haiti. But are they helping the country? In conjunction with the Fowler Museum at UCLA exhibition “In Extremis: Death and Life in 21st-Century Haiti,” this question was posed by journalist Amy Wilentz to a panel of people who have worked in Haiti and philanthropy: Generosity Water CEO Jordan Wagner, UCSB black studies scholar Claudine Michel, and Giving Back Fund president Marc Pollick.

It’s an exciting time to be studying, thinking, and dreaming about space, with the NASA Curiosity rover’s exploration of Mars and the rise of private companies like SpaceX. But as we tighten our belts here on Earth, there have also been questions about whether space exploration is worth an annual investment of billions of dollars. At an event sponsored by the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation at the Petersen Automotive Museum, NASA Mars Curiosity rover flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, Planetary Society co-founder Louis Friedman, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne vice president John Vilja talked about what we lose if we don’t go to space - and what we gain by going there.

Critic Camille Paglia, author of Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art From Egypt to Star Wars, believes that art in America is in crisis. Paglia, who has taught in art schools (she is currently a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia) for 40 years, is concerned about most of her students’ lack of exposure to art. But she's also been alarmed to hear the conservative denigration of artists and contemporary art on conservative talk radio. She believes Americans need to move toward a recognition of the spirituality of art.

Mickey Edwards, a former Oklahoma Republican congressman and author of The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans, visited Zócalo to talk about how America's two political parties are hurting the nation--and what can be done to fix our ailing system.

How much are elections costing America? Zócalo's Joe Mathews talked with political scientist Samuel L. Popkin and campaign finance expert Richard L. Hasen about America's election dysfunction--and election reform--campaign finance, fundraising, and how candidates talk about money.

Studies show that happier, more optimistic people live longer, perform better in work and school, and lead healthier lives than their unhappy, pessimistic counterparts. But what can we do in our everyday lives to make ourselves both happier and healthier? "The Happiness Psychiatrist" Sheenie Ambardar and life coach Cynthia Loy Darst talked with Southern California Public Radio healthcare reporter Stephanie O’Neill about why it’s good to be happy, and how happiness can be achieved.

Time magazine's Michael Grunwald, author of The New New Deal, explains why, contrary to popular opinion, President Obama's 2009 stimulus has been a tremendous force for change in America. It created millions of jobs and lifted the nation's economy out of a free fall. But it is also transforming healthcare, energy, education, and the country's infrastructure.

Novelist Lisa Zeidner, memoirist Jeanne Darst, critic Heather Havrilesky, and Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum discussed how humor differs between the sexes in its creation and reception. They agreed that the debate about whether women are as funny as men are is tired, but there are still a number of obstacles that face women who are creating comedy.

The directors of three Los Angeles art museums--Ann Philbin of the Hammer, Michael Govan of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Timothy Potts, the new director of the Getty--discussed with Los Angeles Times arts reporter Jori Finkel the state of the city's museums and their hopes for the future. It's an exciting time for the L.A. art world, but although the museums have a great deal of potential they also face obstacles in cultivating a larger donor base, bringing in diverse audiences, and satisfying their many different constituencies.