Zócalo Public Square

Is America a nation of risk-takers or worry warts? At the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, a wide-ranging "What It Means to Be American' discussion covered entrepreneurship and jazz music, parenting and travel -- and whether risk-taking is an essentially American trait. Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character, talked with Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill, documentary filmmaker and Adventure Divas and Globe Trekker host Holly Morris, and Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle, author of The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success, about the risks they've taken in their work and lives, and their thoughts on the place of failure and risk-taking in American culture today.