KPFA - Letters and Politics

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.

KPFA Special – The Epic of Gilgamesh

Guest: Kent H. Dixon is a translator, a writer, and Emeritus Professor of English at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. Translated into English and presented as a graphic novel, this version of The EPIC OF GILGAMESH is a father/son project by scholar and translator Kent H. Dixon and his son, the comix artist Kevin H. Dixon, who bring a fresh take on this great work. The post KPFA Special – The Epic of Gilgamesh appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special -A Deep History of the Earliest States

Guest: James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science and co-director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University.  He is the author of the book Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States.   Photo credit: Bluemoose – CC BY-SA 3.0, on Wikimedia commons The post KPFA Special -A Deep History of the Earliest States appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA Special- Dave Zirin: The Kaepernick Effect

Guest: Dave Zirin is the sports editor at the Nation and author of the book THE KAEPERNICK EFFECT: Taking a Knee, Changing the World. The post KPFA Special- Dave Zirin: The Kaepernick Effect appeared first on KPFA.

How Occupy Wall St. Shaped a Generation

  Occupy Wall Street’s 10th Anniversary Guest: Arun Gupta is a founding editor of the Indypendent magazine and was a founding editor of the Occupy Wall Street Journal. He wrote the piece Occupy Wall Street Trained a Generation in Class War.  He is also a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York and author of the upcoming “Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction: A Junk Food-Loving Chef’s Inquiry Into Taste” by The New Press.   Photo credit Occupy.com The post How Occupy Wall St. ...

Adam Tooze on How Covid has Shook the Worlds Economy

Guest:  Adam Tooze is a professor of economic history at Columbia University and the author of Crashed, winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize, The Wages of Destruction, and his latest, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy.   The post Adam Tooze on How Covid has Shook the Worlds Economy appeared first on KPFA.

CA Recall Election and the Future of Democratic Control & The Rise and Fall of Soul City

Part I. The Politics of the California Recall Guest: Tim Redmond is a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years now. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian.  He is the founder and editor of the independent news and culture website 48hills.   Part II. The Rise and Fall of Soul City Guest: Thomas Healy is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He is the author of The Great Dissent, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.  His l...

Matt Taibbi on Drug Dealing, The Media, and the Politics of Division

Guest: Matt Taibbi is an award-winning author and investigative reporter.  His writings can be found on Substack.   He is the author of such book as I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street, about the infamous killing of Eric Garner by the New York City police; the New York Times bestsellers Insane Clown President, The Divide, Griftopia, The Great Derangement, and his latest, The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing: An Almost True Account. The post Matt Taibbi on Drug Dealing, The Media, and th...

A History of Settler Colonialism

Guest: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma in a tenant farming family. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than 4 decades and is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. Dunbar-Ortiz is the winner of the 2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize, she is the author or editor of many books, including An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States and her latest NOT “A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS” Settler Colonial...

A History of Settler Colonialism

Guest: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma in a tenant farming family. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than 4 decades and is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. Dunbar-Ortiz is the winner of the 2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize, she is the author or editor of many books, including An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States and her latest NOT “A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS” Settler Colonial...

Deepa Kumar on Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire

Guest: Deepa Kumar is an award-winning scholar and activist, and Professor of Media Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire: 20 years after 9/11 The post Deepa Kumar on Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire appeared first on KPFA.

Death Threats Were Daily: Human Rights Attorney Arsalan Iftikhar Reflects On 9/11

Guest: Arsalan Iftikhar was a young human rights lawyer in the days following the 9/11 attacks. It would change his life. He joins us for a conversation on how the attacks and the US response to them effected and continues to effect Muslim Americans. Arslan Iftikhar is the founder of TheMuslimGuy.com & author of “FEAR OF A MUSLIM PLANET: Global Islamophobia in the New World Order.” The post Death Threats Were Daily: Human Rights Attorney Arsalan Iftikhar Reflects On 9/11 appeared first on KP...

A Conversation On the Constitution with Leading Legal Scholar Akhil Reed Amar

Guest: Akhil Reed Amar is the Sterling professor of law and political science at Yale University and the author of several books on constitutional law and history, including America’s Constitution: A Biography, America’s Unwritten Constitution, and his latest, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840. The post A Conversation On the Constitution with Leading Legal Scholar Akhil Reed Amar appeared first on KPFA.

Talking Reproductive Rights: The Future, the Present, and the Past

Guest: Michele Goodwin is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and the Founding Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy.  She is the author of Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood, which examines how states have used the tools of legislation to restrict reproductive rights and what to do about it.  Professor Goodwin is the hosts of the podcast On The Issues with Michele Goodwin. The post Talking Reprodu...

Letters and Politics – September 1, 2021

How Much Better is Biden’s Covid Response? & The History of Policing Powers

The Inadequacy of Biden’s Covid Response & The History of Policing Powers

Part I. Biden’s Coronavirus Response  Guest: Greg Gonsalves is Public Health correspondent for The Nation, and an epidemiologist at Yale School of Public Health.  His latest article in the Nation is Sure, Biden’s Better on Covid Than Trump. That’s Not Good Enough.  Part II. The History of Policing Powers Guest: Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.  He is the author of many books including, The Conservative Assault on the Constitution, The Cas...

Biden’s Coronavirus Response & The History of Policing Powers

The Afghanistan Papers & Geniuses at War

Part I. The Afghanistan Papers Guest: Craig Whitlock is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post. He has covered the global war on terrorism for the Post since 2001 as a foreign correspondent, Pentagon reporter, and national security specialist. In 2019, his coverage of the war in Afghanistan won the George Polk Award for Military Reporting, the Scripps Howard Award for Investigative Reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Freedom of Information Award, and the Robert F. Ke...

Letters and Politics – August 31, 2021

The Legacy of the War on Terror

From the War on Terror to Afghanistan to Donald Trump

Guest: Karen J. Greenberg is director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, an international studies fellow at New America, and a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her books include Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days, and her latest, Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump.  Twitter: @KarenGreenberg3 The post From the War on Terror to Afghanist...

The Marquis de Lafayette and His Revolutions

Guest: Mike Duncan is the author of the New York Times–bestselling book, The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic, and his latest, Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution. He is one of the most popular history podcasters in the world, his award-winning series, The History of Rome, remains a legendary landmark in the history of podcasting.  Duncan’s ongoing series, Revolutions, explores the great political revolutions that have d...

Richard Wolff: State of the Economy & America In Decline

Guest: Richard Wolff is professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York City. His latest book is The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself. You can find his writings and materials on his website democracyatwork.info The post Richard Wolff: State of the Economy & America In Decline appeared first...

The Opium Wars, The Gold Rush and the Formation of Global Capitalism

Guest: Mae Ngai is Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and a professor of history at Columbia University. She is the author of the award-winning book Impossible Subjects, The Lucky Ones, and her latest, The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics. The post The Opium Wars, The Gold Rush and the Formation of Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

A Brief History of Reformers & Communists in Afghanistan

Guest: Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research which describes itself as an international, movement-driven institution focused on stimulating intellectual debate that serves people’s aspirations. He is also the author of such books as The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. His latest book is Washington Bullets. His latest article Afghanistan’s long struggle with reforms and...

Afghanistan In History: Then and Now

Guest: Nazif Shahrani, Professor of Anthropology, Central Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Indiana University. He is the author of Revolutions and Rebellions in Afghanistan and Modern Afghanistan: The Impact of 40 Years of War. The post Afghanistan In History: Then and Now appeared first on KPFA.

The Eternal Decline: From Ancient Rome to the United States

Guest: Edward J. Watts is Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair and Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny, The Final Pagan Generation, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher, and his latest, The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea. The post The Eternal Decline: From Ancient Rome to the United States appeared first on KPFA.

Rafia Zakaria: Against White Feminism

Guest: Rafia Zakaria is an American Muslim author, human rights attorney, political philosopher and a journalist.  Her writings appear in several outlets and is a regular columnist for Dawn in Pakistan and the Baffler in the United States.  She is the author of The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan, her latest (out today) is Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption.  Today, her article White Feminists Wanted to Invade: Afghan women never asked for US air strikes can be found ...

Afghanistan and America’s Role in a World Transformed

Guest: Andrew Bacevich is a retired army colonel of the US Army, currently, he is a professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University and founder and president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington think tank dedicated to foreign policy.  He is the author of The Limits of Power, Washington Rules, The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory, and his latest, After the Apocalypse: America’s Role in a World Transformed....

Our Relationships with the Planet’s Wild Animals

The Fate of Wildlife in a Modern World

Guest: Emma Marris is an award-winning journalist. She is the author of several books including Rambunctious Garden, and her latest, Wild Souls: Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World. The post The Fate of Wildlife in a Modern World appeared first on KPFA.

Recreating Nature & Saving the Planet at Home

Guest: Douglas W. Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. His book Bringing Nature Home was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association. He is also the author of two New York Times bestsellers: The Living Landscape and Nature’s Best Hope.  His latest book is The Nature of Oaks. The post Recreating Nature & Saving the Planet at Home appeared first on KPFA.

Slavery in California By Any Other Name: A History of the Indigenous People of California

Guest: William Bauer, professor of history at the University of Nevada Las Vegas where he is the Director of American Indian & Indigenous Studies.  He is also a citizen of the Round Valley Reservation in northern California.  He is the co-author of the book We Are the Land: A History of Native California. Previously he also wrote such books as California Through Native Eyes: Reclaiming History, and We Were All Like Migrant Workers Here: Work, Community and Memory on California’s Round Valley...

The Infrastructure Bill & The Nature of Fires

Part I. Analysis on the infrastructure bill  Guest: John Nichols is the Washington Correspondent for the Nation Magazine.  He is the author of several books including his latest, “The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics”.  His latest pieces can be found in The Nation.com   Part II. The Nature of Fires  Guest: David Carle is President of the California State Park Rangers Association, a retired park ranger, and th...

The Strange and Interesting History of Quarantine

Guest: Geoff Manaugh is a regular contributor for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Wired, and other publications.  He is the coauthor, with Nicola Twilley, of Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine.    Featured photo by Nicola Twilley. In the photo, Geoff Manaugh and Dr. Luigi Bertinato wearing plague gear from different eras:  Manaugh in twenty-first-century personal protective equipment and Dr. Bertinato in the costume of a Black Death-era physic...

Cuomo’s Sexual Harassment Investigation & The Fight for Freedom of Enslaved Women in Revolutionary America

Part I – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Sexual Harassment Investigation Guest: Ross Barkan is a award-winning journalist, a columnist for the Guardian and Jacobin and a contributor for the Nation Magazine.  He is the author the book The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York.   Part II – The Remarkable Fight for Freedom of Enslaved Women and in Revolutionary America. Guest: Karen Cook Bell is Associate Professor of History at Bowie State University. She is the author of C...

The Politics of the Eviction Moratorium and Infrastructure Bill & The Ho Chi Minh Trail

Part I – The Politics of the Eviction Moratorium and Infrastructure Bill Guest: David Dayen is the executive editor of The American Prospect. He is the author of the latest book Monopolized: Life in an Age of Corporate Power and Chain of Title, winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize for a first book in the public interest (both from The New Press).   Part II – The Ho Chi Minh Trail Guest: Sherry Buchanan is a publisher, editor, and author. Before she created Asia Ink, she worked for the Wal...

U.S. History Series – The Legacy of Henry Wallace and the Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party

Guest: John Nichols is the Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine, a contributing writer for the Progressive and In These Times, and the associate editor of Madison, Wisconsin’s Capital Times. He’s the author of several books, including The Death and Life of American Journalism, The Genius of Impeachment and The “S” Word and, The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics SUPPORT KPFA Donate TODAY The post U....

U.S. History Series – America’s 20-Year Crusade To Deport Labor Leader Harry Bridges

Guest: Peter Afrasiabi is an Intellectual Property and Entertainment lawyer and a Faculty member at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.  He is Director of the Appellate Litigation Clinic at the University of California Irvine, School of Law.  He is the author of the book Burning Bridges: America’s 20-Year Crusade To Deport Labor Leader Harry Bridges. SUPPORT KPFA! Donate TODAY The post U.S. History Series – America’s 20-Year Crusade To Deport Labor Leader Harry Bridges appeared first o...

U.S. History Series – The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

Guest: James Q. Whitman is Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law at Yale Law School. His books include Harsh Justice, The Origins of Reasonable Doubt, The Verdict of Battle, and his latest, Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law.   SUPPORT KPFA! Donate TODAY The post U.S. History Series – The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law appeared first on KPFA.

Evolution of the U.S. Foreign Policy (Part III) – The CIA, Sidney Gottlieb, and the Search for Mind Control

Guest: Stephen Kinzer is former New York Times foreign correspondent, now Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and author of the book Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.   SUPPORT KPFA TODAY!!! The post Evolution of the U.S. Foreign Policy (Part III) – The CIA, Sidney Gottlieb, and the Search for Mind Control appeared first on KPFA.

Evolution of the U.S. Foreign Policy (Part II) – The Dulles Brothers and their Secret World War

Guest: Stephen Kinzer is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and writes a column on world affairs for The Boston Globe. He is an award-winning foreign correspondent who served as The New York Times’s bureau chief in Turkey, Germany, and Nicaragua and as The Boston Globe’s Latin America correspondent.  He s the author of several books including, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allan Dulles and their Secret World War.   SUPPORT KPFA...

Evolution of the U.S. Foreign Policy (Part I) – The Birth of the American Empire

Guest: Stephen Kinzer is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and writes a column on world affairs for The Boston Globe. He is an award-winning foreign correspondent who served as The New York Times’s bureau chief in Turkey, Germany, and Nicaragua and as The Boston Globe’s Latin America correspondent.  He s the author of several books including The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire.   SUPPORT...

A History of the French Revolution

Guest: Jeremy D. Popkin is the William T. Bryan Chair of History at the University of Kentucky, he is the author of a number of books including Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection, and A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution. Featured image credit: Storming of The Bastille, Jean-Pierre Houël on Wikipedia The post A History of the French Revolution appeared first on KPFA.

A History of US Empire & Expansion

Guest: Greg Grandin is professor of history at Yale University. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Non-Fiction in 2020 for his book The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. He has also republished his book from 2006 Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic.  Professor Grandin served on the United Nations Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War.   Photo credit: Wikipedia “Ten Thousand Miles F...

Michio Kaku: The Quest for a Theory of Everything [Re-broadcast]

Guest:  Michio Kaku is a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, co-founder of string field theory, and the author of several widely acclaimed science books, including Beyond Einstein, The Future of Humanity, The Future of the Mind, Hyperspace, Physics of the Future, Physics of the Impossible, and his latest, The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything The post Michio Kaku: The Quest for a Theory of Everything [Re-broadcast] appeared first on KPFA.

The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical

Guest: Jacqueline Jones is the Ellen C. Temple Chair in Women’s History and the Mastin Gentry White Professorship in Southern History at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the winner of the Bancroft Prize for Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow.  Her latest book is Goddess of Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical. The post The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical appeared first on KPFA.

A History of the Ghost Dance Religious Movement

Guest: Louis S. Warren is the W Turrentine Jackson Professor of Western U.S. History at U.C. Davis. He is the author of the book author of Buffalo Bill’s America, American Environmental History, and most recently,  God’s Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America. Featured image: The Ghost Dance of 1889–1891 by the Oglala Lakota at Pine Ridge. Illustration by western artist Frederic Remington, 1890 on Wikipedia. The post A History of the Ghost Dance Religious Movement...

Thomas Jefferson Inspired by Genghis Khan [Re-broadcast]

Guest: Jack Weatherford is a renown scholar on Genghis Khan . He argues in his book, Genghis Khan and the Quest for God, that Genghis Khan inspired Thomas Jefferson for the Freedom of Religion principle. The post Thomas Jefferson Inspired by Genghis Khan [Re-broadcast] appeared first on KPFA.