Zócalo Public Square (Audio)

Getty Trust President and CEO James Cuno explains why museums matter today more than ever in a talk at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Cuno shares the museum's 18th-century Enlightenment origins and responds to critics who have called the encyclopedic museum elitist and imperialistic.

Historian Olivier Zunz, author of Philanthropy in America: A History, explains why philanthropy is such a powerful force in American politics, economics, and society by explaining the history of the institution.

Leaders of four major research universities--USC President C.L. Max Nikias, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, ASU President Michael Crow, and Rice University President David Leebron--discuss the role of urban universities in their communities with the Chronicle of Higher Education's Jeffrey Selingo. They agreed that while universities alone cannot save dying cities, but they can contribute a great deal to the cultural, economic, and intellectual lives of their cities.

Why is the U.S. the only western country that can't agree on healthcare? Sociologist Paul Starr, author of Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle Over Health Care Reform, explains our bitter war over healthcare through its history from the early 20th century--when the American Medical Assocation and other groups used xenophobia to defeat the first healthcare bills--up through President Obama's 2010 reforms.

How Los Angeles Invented the World - The Past and Future of L.A.'s Global Image

How Los Angeles Invented the World - How Life Imitated Art

At a panel as part of the Pacific Standard Time art initiative, New York University historian Thomas Crow, UCLA historian Eric Avila, Huntington Library curator Jennifer Watts, and Kirse Granat May, author of Golden State, Golden Youth, discussed the allure of Los Angeles imagery through the decades. In a conversation about Disneyland and dream houses, freeways and film, they moved from the 19th century through the postwar years.

Mexican tycoon Ricardo Salinas speaks with Economist editor Matthew Bishop about the global economy, the relationship between Mexico and America, the microfinance business he has developed with Banco Azteca, philanthropy, and Mexico's future.

Panelists with extensive experience in local, regional, and state government offered arguments for and against splitting California into more than one state in a conversation at the Fresno Art Museum. They agreed that the state is not fulfilling its promises to its citizens, but while some argued for a North-South split (or even a three-state division), others felt that reform, not secession, is needed.

America's public schools are failing--in a large part because the teacher's unions and the bureaucracy don't put students first, according to media mogul Steven Brill, author of Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools. Brill explains his journey through the country's public school system, where he discovered heated wars over charter schools, teachers struggling to succeed without burning out, unions that protect their members at all costs, and a culture that is too often complacent with failure.

Five leaders in e-government--technology consultant April Manatt, senior management analyst for the city of Carlsbad Greg Hermann, executive director of California Common Sense Dakin Sloss, Intellitics, Inc.'s Tim Bonnemann, and executive director of the National Conference on Citizenship David B. Smith--joined Irvine Senior Fellow Joe Mathews of the New America Foundation to discuss whether technology can save California's government. They discussed how local governments are using technology to connect to citizens, and envisioned a future with more information-sharing, transparency, and communication between public officials and their constituents.

Phoenix can have a green future, argues Andrew Ross, author of Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City. The national conversation focuses too often on sustainability in the wealthiest cities that have infrastructure already in place. But America can't afford to focus just on these places. The answers lie in trying to make the entire city of Phoenix sustainable--not just the wealthy parts--and focusing on problems like urban sprawl and water supplies in a desert city.

In a panel moderated by The New York Times' Marc Lacey, former Arizona House Minority Leader Art Hamilton, Arizona State University political scientist Jennifer Steen, and Tom Zoellner, author of A Safeway in Arizona, discuss how the state became the front lines of America's biggest cultural and political battles, from immigration to gun control.

Economist and New York Times columnist Robert Frank, author of The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good, proposed a radical plan to save America's economy--grounded not in conventional economic theory but in the work of Charles Darwin, which turns Adam Smith's invisible hand on its head.

Academy Award-nominated director Gus Van Sant and his good friend, architect Brad Cloepfil, visited Zócalo to explore why they live in Portland, what influences their work, and how they get inspired. They talked about how Portland provides a refuge away from New York and L.A., traced back their careers to the beginning, and discussed where their precise moment of inspiration comes from.