Zócalo publishes new poetry every Friday. Read our latest: "Grieving Dolly Parton On My Mother’s Birthday" by Dustin Brookshire. zps.la/4z3fJ5i

17th-century European families were just like ours—cutting off disagreeable in-laws, escaping overbearing relatives overseas, and struggling to make ends meet after the dissolution of a marriage. Historian Katie Barclay on the long history of family estrangement: zps.la/4z4w3CN

Using paper cutouts, collage, and colored pencil, Gigi Martinez captures the texture and character of the natural world. Check out the artwork: zps.la/4rod43H

As AI threatens to wipe out humanity, @californiajoe.bsky.social suggests we drop our crippling anxiety about the future and live for the present. Californians, welcome to the Doomsday Plan. zps.la/4hISNCx

English professor Andrew Black is more excited than ever to teach The Odyssey after Nolan's blockbuster—and get the chance to introduce his students to the more bizarre version that unfolds over hundreds of pages: zps.la/4AziJYD

Ten years since the opening of the "Blacksonian," the museum hasn't changed—but just about everything else has. What is the role of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture today, and moving forward? zps.la/4jiQ5Vs

For her Sketchbook, Gigi Martinez brings us pink cougars, blue quails, and more euphorically-colored L.A. creatures. zps.la/4rod43H

For Zócalo's series marking California's 175th year of statehood, scholar Louis S. Warren writes about the history of the California Dream, a mid-20th-century invention that still resonates today. zps.la/3T83qFG

Historian @kevin-waite.bsky.social takes stock of Biddy Mason's legacy as DTLA's Pershing Square is renamed for the "founding mother of Black Los Angeles." zps.la/4rzWmyt

"A Brittle Flower Sliding Into Cold Water" by Dalton Day is our latest poem, selected by September poetry curator Leslie McIntosh. zps.la/4ysIHLF

Can a politician be too accomplished?

The question isn’t a riddle, or a set up for a joke. It’s the conundrum that California faces as Gavin Newsom departs the governorship.

Read the latest from @californiajoe.bsky.social: zps.la/4yCTAdJ

A magnificent, 250-year-old empire is crumbling. A rising state swoops in, conquers the old empire, and builds a new world order. Where and when does this upheaval take place—and why is it fascinating Chinese internet users? zps.la/4gLVuD0

"Empire needs myths about who belongs, what counts as a civilization, which wars are necessary, and whose suffering can be tolerated," writes Zócalo editor @talibali.bsky.social. "Like empires, books have ideologies; they insist on something." zps.la/4xjhmKO

For our new series "What Is the New World Order?," Zócalo asked Saving Utopia author Joe P. L. Davidson to consider the ways utopian writers can inspire alternative futures. zps.la/4xeoCYw

There may be no greater democratic platform than waste management for boosting community problem-solving, deliberation, civic technology, and engagement between regular people and their governments, writes @californiajoe.bsky.social. zps.la/4gGR0fq

Two students died in a shooting at Brown University last year. Their legacy is a critical reminder of what diversity, in its truest form, can contribute to U.S. university life, argues @danielagerson.bsky.social. zps.la/4ygaSNE

Social media is the youth's digital public square, columnist @californiajoe.bsky.social says, and banning young people from convening online is just another way to silence their voices. zps.la/3UtAXKF

It took nearly 30 years after seeing her first zine for writer Rachel Burstein to realize the handmade pubs could help her express things she needed to say, and build her own "beloved community." zps.la/4xZpZuI

Romance genre historian @stegan.bsky.social writes about the summer of 1994, when, for the first time, Black Romance readers had a choice of books featuring characters who looked like them. zps.la/4g6Ckay