KPFA - Letters and Politics

Letters and Politics – December 9, 2021

KPFA Special: Ariel Dorfman on The Coming Apocalypse

Guest: Ariel Dorfman is a renown Argentinian-Chilean-American writer and a human rights activist. Once a former adviser to Chilean President Salvador Allende in the early 70’s, Ariel Dorfman would go on write countless books, plays and essays. He is the author several books including, How to Read Donald Duck, Homeland Security Ate My Speech (OR Books), and his latest, The Compensation Bureau (also by OR Books) is a sci-fi novel that tackles the complexities of a forthcoming apocalypse. Ariel...

KPFA Special – Ariel Dorfman on The Coming Apocalypse

KPFA Special: The Other Side of George Orwell with Rebecca Solnit

Guest: Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including Recollections of My Nonexistence, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, The Faraway Nearby, A Paradise Built in Hell, River of Shadows, and Wanderlust. She is also the author of Men Explain Things to Me and many essays on feminism, activism and social change, hope, and the climate crisis. Her latest, Orwell’s Roses. The post KPFA Special: The Other Side of George Orwell with Rebecca Solnit appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – The Other Side of George Orwell with Rebecca Solnit

Violence in America

The Structure of Violence in America

Guest: Patrick Blanchfield is a writer and journalist who writes about gun violence, trauma, and masculinity. He is also an associate faculty member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. His new book, Gunpower: The Structure of American Violence, will be released in the new year.   Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash The post The Structure of Violence in America appeared first on KPFA.

The Epic Story of the Woman Behind the Roe v. Wade Decision

The Women Behind Roe: Norma McCorvey and Her Daughter

Guest: Joshua Prager is a journalist and the author of The Echoing Green, 100 Years (with Milton Glaser), and his latest, The Family Roe: An American Story.    The post The Women Behind Roe: Norma McCorvey and Her Daughter appeared first on KPFA.

Letters and Politics – December 1, 2021

Roe v. Wade and the Mississippi Abortion Case

Guests: Linda C. McClain is Robert Kent Professor of Law at Boston University at Boston University School of Law. Maya Manian is Visiting Professor at American University Washington College of Law.   The post Roe v. Wade and the Mississippi Abortion Case appeared first on KPFA.

The Covid Pandemic & the Omicron Variant

The Pandemic & the Omicron Variant

Guest: Dr. Chris Beyrer is Desmond M. Tutu Professor in Public Health and Human Rights. Professor of Epidemiology, Nursing and Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is Senior Scientific Liaison of the COVID Vaccine Prevention Network.   Photo by CDC on Unsplash The post The Pandemic & the Omicron Variant appeared first on KPFA.

A Bloody History of Coal Mining in America

Guest: Mark A. Bradley, author of the book Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America. Mark Bradley currently is the director of the Information Security Oversight Office of the National Archives and Records Administration. He is also a former Justice Department Lawyer and CIA officer. The post A Bloody History of Coal Mining in America appeared first on KPFA.

Letters and Politics – November 25, 2021

Dispossession: The Indian Removal Act of 1830

Guest: Claudio Saunt is Richard B. Russell Professor in American History and Co-Director of the Center for Virtual History at the University of Georgia. He is the author of four books, including West of the Revolution (2014), Black, White, and Indian (2005), and A New Order of Things (1999). His most recent book, Unworthy Republic (2020), was awarded the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has developed several online projects, including the Invasion of America ...

Witness and Resistance to a Brutal Civil War in El Salvador

Guest: Carolyn Forché is a poet, editor, translator, and activist and a professor at Georgetown University.  She is the author of What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance. The post Witness and Resistance to a Brutal Civil War in El Salvador appeared first on KPFA.

The Making of a Haitian Revolutionary: From Toussaint Breda to Toussaint L’Ouverture

  Guest: Sudhir Hazareesingh is a British-Mauritian historian. He is a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy.  He has written extensively about French intellectual and cultural history, among his books are The Legend of Napoleon, In the Shadow of the General and How the French Think. He won the Prix du Mémorial d’Ajaccio and the Prix de la Fondation Napoléon for the first of these, a Prix d’Histoire du Sénat for the second, and the Grand ...

Letters and Politics – November 22, 2021

Oscar Wilde: A Life

Guest: Matthew Sturgis is a historian of the 19th century and the author of acclaimed biographies, his latest, Oscar Wilde: A Life.     The post Oscar Wilde: A Life appeared first on KPFA.

Analysis of the High Profile Murder Trials in Wisconsin and Georgia & The Fight for Freedom of Enslaved Women in Revolutionary America

The High Profile Murder Trials in Wisconsin and Georgia & The Fight for Freedom of Enslaved Women

Part I – Analysis of the High Profiles Murder Trials in Wisconsin and Georgia Guest: John Burris is a civil rights attorney, based in Oakland, California, known for his work in police brutality cases representing plaintiffs. Part II – The Fight for Freedom of Enslaved Women in Revolutionary America Guest: Karen Cook Bell is Associate Professor of History at Bowie State University.  She is the author of Claiming Freedom: Race, Kinship, and Land in Nineteenth-Century Georgia, which won the Geor...

The Supply Chain Before Covid-19 & The Current Inflation

Part I. Supply Chain Guest: Robert Kuttner is a Cofounder and Coeditor of The American Prospect and a Professor at Brandeis’s Heller School. His new book, Going Big: FDR’s Legacy and Biden’s New Deal, will be published in April. Part II. The Science and Spirit of the Ocean Guest: Jonathan White is an active marine conservationist, a sailor, and a surfer.  He is the author of the book Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean.   Photo credit: Maurizio Pesce – Tesla Factory, Fremont (CA, USA) ...

The Ocean in a Warming World

Guest: Naomi Oreskes is Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.  She is a world-renowned geologist, and a leading voice on the role of science in society and the reality of anthropogenic climate change.  She is the author of several books including her latest, Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean.       The post The Ocean in a Warming World appe...

The New Killer Drugs: Fentanyl & Synthetic Meth

Guest: Sam Quinones is a journalist and former Los Angeles Times reporter, and author of three books including the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic.  His latest book is called The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.         The post The New Killer Drugs: Fentanyl & Synthetic Meth appeared first on KPFA.

The Trivia Challenge of the Political Landscape

Guest: Rich Rubino is a political analyst and author of several books including his latest, The Great American Political Trivia Challenge: Political Trivia on Steroids.  He is a contributor with The Huffington Post.     The post The Trivia Challenge of the Political Landscape appeared first on KPFA.

Tax the Rich! & The Build Back Better Plan

Part I – An update on the Build Back Better Plan Host Mitch Jeserich analyses the current situation of the Build Back Better legislation in Congress. Part II – Tax the Rich! How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer Guests: Erica Payne is founder and president of the Patriotic Millionaires. She is the author of The Practical Progressive! and the co-author, with Morris Pearl, of Tax the Rich!. Morris Pearl is a former managing director of BlackRock. He is chair of the Patrio...

The Banda Islands Genocide, Western Imperialism and the Root of Our Ecological Crisis

Guest: Amitav Ghosh is an award winning novelist and essayist. In 2007 he was awarded India’s highest civilian award the Padma Shri.  He is the author of several books including Ibis Trilogy (Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire), The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, Gun Island, and his latest, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis.  The post The Banda Islands Genocide, Western Imperialism and the Root of Our Ecological Crisis appeared first o...

Africa and the Making of the Modern World

Guest: Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and former New York Times bureau chief in the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo, and Shanghai. He is the author of the book Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War The post Africa and the Making of the Modern World appeared first on KPFA.

Previewing the COPS 21 Meeting

Previewing the COP 26 Meeting

Guest: Tina Gerhardt is an environmental journalist who has covered the annual climate negotiations over a decade.  She is covering the current talks for The Nation and Sierra Magazine. She is also the Barron Professor of Environment at the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University.  Follow her on Twitter at @TinaGerhardtEJ Her latest piece in The Nation is called This Is the Decade to Reduce Emissions The post Previewing the COP 26 Meeting appeared first on KPFA.

The Chinese Los Angeles Massacre of 1871

Guest: Michael Woo is an urban planner and was the first Asian American elected to the Los Angeles City Council.  Mr. Woo represents the third generation of his family involved in L.A.’s Chinese community.  His article After 150 Years, Is L.A. Ready to Remember the Chinese Massacre? can be found here. Mr. Woo is the Narrator of the new film Buried History. “Buried History” is a new 35-minute video documentary about the Chinese massacre of 1871 produced and written by Elaine Woo, directed by ...

How Humans Shaped the World In 50,000 Years

Guest: Beth Shapiro is a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where her work has centered on the analysis of ancient DNA.  She is the author of How to Clone a Mammoth, which won the AAAS science writing award, and her latest, Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined—and Redefined—Nature. The post How Humans Shaped the World In 50,000 Years appeared first on KPFA.

The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs

Guest: Marc David Baer is professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  He is the author of several books, including Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe, which won the Albert Hourani Prize and his latest, The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs.  The post The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs appeared first on KPFA.

A History of Democratic Socialism In America with Gary Dorrien

Guest: Gary Dorrien is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. He is the author of The New Abolition, Breaking White Supremacy, Social Democracy in the Making, and his latest, American Democratic Socialism: History, Politics, Religion, and Theory.   The post A History of Democratic Socialism In America with Gary Dorrien appeared first on KPFA.

On The Coming Apocalypse with Ariel Dorfman

Guest: Ariel Dorfman is a renown Argentinian-Chilean-American writer and a human rights activist. Once a former adviser to Chilean President Salvador Allende in the early 70’s, Ariel Dorfman would go on write countless books, plays and essays. He is the author several books including, How to Read Donald Duck, Homeland Security Ate My Speech (OR Books), and his latest, The Compensation Bureau (also by OR Books) is a sci-fi novel that tackles the complexities of a forthcoming apocalypse. Ariel...

George Orwell & His Roses

Guest: Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including Recollections of My Nonexistence, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, The Faraway Nearby, A Paradise Built in Hell, River of Shadows, and Wanderlust. She is also the author of Men Explain Things to Me and many essays on feminism, activism and social change, hope, and the climate crisis. Her latest, Orwell’s Roses. The post George Orwell & His Roses appeared first on KPFA.

The Legacy of Colin Powell & A Field Guide to White Supremacy

Part I – The Legacy of Colin Powell Guest: Lawrence J. Korb is a senior fellow at American Progress. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.  Dr. Korb served as assistant secretary of defense from 1981 through 1985.   Part II –  A Field Guide to White Supremacy Guest: Kathleen Belew is Assistant Professor of US History at the University of Chicago University and leading expert on the white power movement, vigilante violence, and political extremism.  She is the author of Bri...

Zachary D Carter on Keynes’ Open Letter to FDR and the Struggle to Pass The Build Back Better Plan

Guest: Zachary D. Carter is a writer in residence at Omidyar Network. He is the author of The Price Of Peace: Money, Democracy, And The Life Of John Maynard Keynes.  His latest Opinion piece can be found here. Photo credit: Wikimedia commons. The post Zachary D Carter on Keynes’ Open Letter to FDR and the Struggle to Pass The Build Back Better Plan appeared first on KPFA.

How Disease Shaped the Modern World

Guest: Kyle Harper is professor of classics and letters at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (Princeton); From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity, and his latest, Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History (Princeton).  The post How Disease Shaped the Modern World appeared first on KPFA.

Former Top DOJ Officials Threatened to Resign En Masse During Last Weeks of Trump Presidency

Guest: John Nichols is the Washington correspondent for the Nation magazine. His latest piece in the Nation is Trump’s Coup Attempt Is Far From Finished can be found here.   Photo credit: Tear Gas outside United States Capitol, January 6, 2021 by Tyler Merbler. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic The post Former Top DOJ Officials Threatened to Resign En Masse During Last Weeks of Trump Presidency appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – A Biographical Life of Socrates

Guest: Armand D’Angour is a British classical scholar and classical musician, Associate Professor of Classics at Oxford University, and is a Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Jesus College, Oxford. He authored several books, including The Greeks and the New: Novelty in Ancient Greek Imagination and Experience as well as his latest book Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher. The post KPFA Special – A Biographical Life of Socrates appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – The Map of Knowledge

Guest: Violet Moller  is a historian and writer who specializes in intellectual history.  She is the author of the book The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found. The post KPFA Special – The Map of Knowledge appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – The Map of Knowledge

Guest: Violet Moller  is a historian and writer who specializes in intellectual history.  She is the author of the book The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found. The post KPFA Special – The Map of Knowledge appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – The Birth of Christianity and the Destruction of the Classical World

Guest: Catherine Nixey is a journalist and a classicist. She is the author of The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World.  She is the winner of a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award. The post KPFA Special – The Birth of Christianity and the Destruction of the Classical World appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – Nature’s Best Hope

Guest: Douglas W. Tallamy is  is the TA Baker Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He is the author of several books including Bringing Nature Home which was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association; the New York Times bestseller, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard and his latest, The Nature of Oaks.   The post KPFA Special – Nature’s ...

KPFA Special – 5,000 Year History of Debt

Guest: David Graeber, renown anthropologist, one of the original Occupy Wall St activists and author of the books Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Feature photo: Wikimedia commons.   The post KPFA Special – 5,000 Year History of Debt appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – The History of Money

Guest: Jack Weatherford is the author of the book The History of Money.  He is also the New York Times bestselling author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, and The History of Money, among other acclaimed books,. The post KPFA Special – The History of Money appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire

Guest: Reza Zarghamee is and environmental lawyer and history author. He is the author of acclaimed book Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World (Iran’s Age of Empire).   Feature image: Cyrus the Great, the founder and first king of the Persian Empire on Wikimedia commons The post KPFA Special – Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special – The Odyssey, Why it Matters Today

Guest: Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania.  She is the first woman who translated the ancient Greek epic story, The Odyssey by Homer, into the English language. The post KPFA Special – The Odyssey, Why it Matters Today appeared first on KPFA.