Zocalo Public Square » Ideas

Calling the U.S. farm workforce “critical” is an understatement. Agricultural workers’ labor feeds us. Yet their living and working conditions often do not reflect their immense contributio...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/farmwork-is-difficult-but-not-hopeless/

Sometimes I think Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Now I fear he’s already won the 2024 election, too. To be clear, I don’t believe the lie that Trump won at the polls but had the election...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/stuck-trump-america-harris-president/

At the age of 35, I decided to build my first ofrenda, to invite the spirit of my older brother Thomas, whom I lost to suicide, into my home. It was a ceremony I hoped would help me heal from the...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/dia-de-los-muertos-ofrenda-mexican-soul-life/

You know those people who tell us that “democracy is on the ballot”? They are misinformed. The word “democracy” isn’t anywhere on the statewide ballot. Or the ballot in Los Angeles Coun...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/california-ballot-nonsense-pretending-democracy/

Are men biting pit bulls? Are those pigs flying overhead? Has hell frozen over, despite the October heat wave? Fair questions, all. Because politicians in the most populous local jurisdiction of ...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/los-angeles-politicians-measure-g-reduce-power/

Walking needs no publicist. The simplest, most accessible form of exercise has been around since humans first foraged and traveled on the ground. But today, walking seems to have entered its infl...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/america-earliest-sports-stars-professional-walkers-pedestrianism/

From the TV remote to the group text to the ghoulish glow of the tablet I should have stowed before curling into bed: The world’s abiding awfulness is always just a click away. It’s as omnipr...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/world-seems-awful-submerge-in-vastness-of-universe-poetry/

On August 15, 1947, my father George Mayer celebrated India’s freedom from 300 years of British colonial rule by flying kites with his friends off Howrah Bridge, over the Hooghly River in Kolka...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/shared-heritage-kamala-harris-nikki-haley-ro-khanna-politics/

Nǐ hǎo, jiāzhōu! Hello, California! We are the Golden State’s two giant pandas, the first to enter the United States in two decades. And while it’s only been a few months since we departe...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/california-pandas-vote/

Nine years ago, when I spotted blood in my ejaculate, I made an appointment to see my urologist. I quickly found myself to be the only woman in the waiting room. A handful of men surrounded me, a...

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/trans-people-health-care-doctor-visit-dilemma/