Luis Valdez on Zoot Suit’s 30th Anniversary

Sunday May 18th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Tom Daschle on the Health Care Crisis

Sunday May 11th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Daniel Weintraub on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Party of One"

Sunday May 4th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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A discussion on the future of Broadway, L.A.’s historic thoroughfare

Sunday April 27th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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“Standard Operating Procedure": A Conversation with Director Errol Morris

Sunday April 20th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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

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Composer Michael Giacchino on How to Score Big in Hollywood

Sunday April 13th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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

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National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia Explains Why the Arts Matter

Sunday April 6th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Anne Enright and Colm Tóibín discuss the English sentence and the Irish mind

Sunday March 30th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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 “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..

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Journalist Silvana Paternostro discusses war and magical realism in Colombia

Sunday March 23rd, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Hollywood industry-watchers and Writers Guild members discuss the recent labor turmoil and what comes next

Sunday March 16th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Graphic novelist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi discusses her movie Persepolis, Iran, and life in exile

Sunday March 9th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Walter Russell Mead, "Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World"

Sunday March 2nd, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Jill Leovy, “L.A.’s Homicide Problem”

Sunday February 24th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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“Do Cities Have Expiration Dates?” A conversation with architects Qingyun Ma and Thom Mayne

Sunday February 17th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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The Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles

Moderated by Jonathan Gold, L.A. Weekly Restaurant Critic

Sunday February 10th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen: The Next American Century: Can the U.S. Thrive in a New Era of Big Powers?

Sunday February 3rd, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Shannon Brownlee: Is Too Much Medicine Making Us Sick?

Sunday January 27th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Regular Guest Host Meghan Daum sits down with novelist Junot Díaz and identical twins Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein

Sunday January 20th, 2008 at 9pm on 89.3 KPCC FM

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.

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Dirty Business: Should the Porn Industry Be Saved?

Moderated by Mariel Garza of the Los Angeles Daily News

Sunday January 13th, 2007 at 9pm on KPCC 89.3 FM

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.

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Can We Solve L.A.’s Gang Problem? A Conversation with Gang Czar Jeff Carr

Moderated by Los Angeles Times crime reporter Jill Leovy

Sunday January 6th, 2007 at 9pm on KPCC 89.3 FM

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.

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