There Is No ‘I’ in the Climate Crisis

Connection and Interdependence Can’t Capture Carbon But Can Get to the Root of the Problem

The environmentalist Paul Hawken says, “The most complex, radical climate technology is the human heart and mind, not a solar panel.” What would it mean to imagine the heart and mind as the most important green technologies, and to invest in them? To broaden our idea of climate action beyond the tunnel vision of international agreements and infrastructural solutions?

These “technologies,” if you will, are not new; they apply ancient wisdom to our current moment and shift our attention toward connection, not (just) reducing emissions, as the medicine for what ails …

The Fight to Save Stockton

In the Once-Bankrupt City, a Stanford Scholar Finds That People Are Poor Because Their Governments Are Poor

If California wants to curb poverty, its local governments must become richer.

That may be the most important lesson of the recent history of Stockton, as recounted by Stanford Law School …

What Sharing the Burden of War Could Look Like | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

What Sharing the Burden of War Could Look Like

A Military Chaplain on How Those Who Fought and Those Who Sent Them Can Hold This Weight Together

This spring, I walked into an old Quaker meeting house on Pocumtuck homeland, now Massachusetts. I had been invited by Ojibwa Elders Strong Oak and Grandmother Nancy to participate in …

Wildfire Size Doesn’t Matter

To Plan Ahead for Future Disasters, We Need to Prioritize Severity, Community Impact, and Environmental Damage

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, maintains a list of the “Top 20 Largest California Wildfires.” Lately, as ever more massive blazes erupt, it’s become …

A cut out of Michelle Wilde Anderson against a yellow-orange background. She wears a black blazer and is smiling, looking slightly to the right. Hovering to her right is a cut out of two copies of her book 'The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America.' Below the books is the Zócalo Book Prize logo.

Michelle Wilde Anderson Wins the 2023 Zócalo Book Prize

The Fight to Save the Town Highlights the Work of Sewing Society Back Together

Michelle Wilde Anderson is the winner of the 2023 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America.

Zócalo awards the $10,000 prize annually to …

Announcing the 2023 Zócalo Book Prize Shortlist | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Announcing the 2023 Zócalo Book Prize Shortlist

Congratulations to Saladin Ambar, Michelle Wilde Anderson, Stephanie Cacioppo, Anand Giridharadas, and Gaia Vince

The books shortlisted for the 2023 Zócalo Book Prize address five of the most urgent issues of our current moment: racial inequality, economic inequality, the struggle for human connection, political …