The 2026 Zócalo Book Prize: America, Can We Take Down the Walls Between Us?

The 2026 Zócalo Book and Poetry Prizes are co-presented with The Jar, and generously sponsored by Tim Disney. Americans love building walls, and not just on our international borders. Our houses are bigger and more fortress-like than ever before. We drive cars and trucks designed like mobile suits of armor. We consume media that reflects our point of view back to us, closing off dissenting voices. What are these walls doing to our country, our communities, and our minds? Can we stop building them, or even break them? And what might we put in their place? Johns Hopkins University anthropologist Anand Pandian, winner of the 2026 Zócalo Book Prize for Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down, visits Zócalo to share what he learned from talking to people across the country about what divides us and how we come together. Featuring: Anand Pandian, anthropologist and author of Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down Mike Madrid, political strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project Poetry reading by Deborah Ager, winner of the 2026 Zócalo Poetry Prize Timestamps: 00:00 - Introductions 02:37 - Poetry reading by Deborah Ager 08:23 - Lecture by Anand Pandian 23:57 - Conversation with Anand Pandian and Mike Madrid