KPFA - Letters and Politics

Wildfires and the Decline of Bird Populations

Part I: Climate change, wildfires and the declining bird population in the US Guest: Andrea Jones is the Director of Bird Conservation at the Audobon Society, California. For information about chances of survival bird species in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico by degree of warming scenario in your area go to AudobonSociety.org For analysis on the impact of climate change in the U.S. and Canada’s bird populations click here.   Part II: Big Sur California Condor Sanctuary destruction by the Dolan ...

COVID-19 Economic Fallout & The Emergency Election

Part I: COVID-19 Economic Fallout Guest: Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Visiting Professor at the New School University in New York. His latest books is Understanding Socialism. Richard Wolff is the founder of the non-profit Democracy at Work. He’s also the host of the TV and Radio show Economic Update that airs on KPFA every Friday at 10:00 am. Part II: The Election Emergency Guest: Matt Nelson, Leader of Presente.org, on how to...

Letters and Politics – September 10, 2020

Climate Change and Wildfires & “A Place To Breath”, New Doc Film on Immigration

Climate Change and Wildfires & “A Place To Breathe”, New Doc Film on Immigration

Part 1: Climate Change, Wildfires, and Weather Guest: Tim Brown is Research Professor of Climatology at the  Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada and Director of The Western Regional Climate Center. Part 2: “A Place To Breathe”, New Documentary on Immigration Guest: Michelle Grace Steinberg is a Bay Area filmmaker and Nutritionist at Street Level Health Project in the Fruitvale Area in Oakland.  She directed and co-produced with Robyn Bykofsky “A Place To Breathe.”  Now premiering at the...

Letters and Politics – September 9, 2020

If Trump Refuses to Leave & Remembering the Legacy of Authoritarianism in Guatemala

Part 1: If Trump Refuses to Go Guest: Sasha Abramsky, journalist and author of the cover story in The Nation called Is Trump Planning a Coup d’État.  His latest book is Little Wonder: The Fabulous Story of Lotttie Dod, The World’s First Female Sports Super Stars.    Part II: Remembering Myrna Mack Chang & Guatemalan Authoritarianism   Guest: Helen Mack Chang, the Executive Director of the Myrna Mack Foundation and the 1992 Laureate of Sweden’s Right Livelihood Award, the “alternative” Nobel P...

The Long History of the Black Women’s Rights Movement

History of the Black Women’s Rights Movement

Guest: Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and author of the book VANGUARD: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All. The post History of the Black Women’s Rights Movement appeared first on KPFA.

Letters and Politics – September 7, 2020

David Graeber Remembered: The Consequences of Unnecessary Jobs

David Graeber is well known for his role in jump-starting the 2011 Occupy Wall St. and “the 99% percent” movement.  He died at the age of 59 on September, 2nd.  He was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics, an anarchist activist, and the author of Debt: The First 5000 Years, and The Utopia of Rules.  In 2018 he wrote Bullshit Jobs: A Theory.  Host, Mitch Jeserich, was in conversation with David Graeber about that book two-years ago,  They discussed how the concept of t...

A History of Eco-Socialism

Guest: John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon.  He has written widely on political economy and is an expert on environmental sociology.  He is the author of several books including Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature (2000), The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences (with Fred Magdoff, 2009), The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth (with Brett Clark and Richard York, 2010), and his latest, The Return of Na...

Chronicling the Republican Party from 1976 to 1980

Guest: Historian Rick Perlstein is the author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, Nixoland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, The Invisible Bridge and his latest book is Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980.   The post Chronicling the Republican Party from 1976 to 1980 appeared first on KPFA.

A look Into the Minds of Ardent Trump Supporters

Guest: John R. Hibbing is the Foundation Regents Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of The Securitarian Personality: What Really Motivates Trump’s Base and Why It Matters for the Post-Trump Era. The post A look Into the Minds of Ardent Trump Supporters appeared first on KPFA.

Polarized USA

Guest: Max Elbaum has been involved a peace and anti-racist movements since joining Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in Madison, Wisconsin in the 1960s. Through the 1970s and 1980s he participated in campaigns defending affirmative action and opposing U.S. military interventions in the Third World while writing extensively for the radical press and taking part in then-widespread efforts to construct a new U.S. revolutionary political party. Currently he is one of the editors of Organiz...

RNC Day 3, Kenosha Protests, and Hurricane Laura, & The Unrest in Belarus

Part 1. RNC Day 3, Kenosha, and Hurricane Laura Guest: Mitch Jeserich is the host of Pacifica’s Letters and Politics show and former Capitol Hill correspondent. Part 2. The Latest Developments in Belarus Guest: Sasha Razor is from Belarus, she is a scholar of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures at UCLA.  She just wrote the article The Lesson of Belarus available on the LA Review of Books. Image by Homoatrox.  Protest rally against Lukashenko, August 16 2020. Minsk, Bela...

The RNC Day 2 and Its Demonizing Rhetoric & Inside Bannon’s Far-Right Circle

Part 1. The RNC Day 2 Guest: Mitch Jeserich is the host of Pacifica’s Letters and Politics show and former Capitol Hill correspondent. Part 2. Inside Bannon’s Far-Right Circle Guest: Benjamin R. Teitelbaum is an award-winning expert on the radical right and a professor of ethnomusicology and international affairs at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of Lions of the North: Sounds of the New Nordic Radical Nationalism. His latest is War for Eternity: Inside Bannon’s Far-Right...

The RNC: Trump Nominated on Day 1 & Transforming Our Immigration Policy: A 2021 Action Plan

Part 1 On The RNC Day 1 Trump is nominated. What’s next? Guest: Mitch Jeserich is the host of Pacifica’s Letters and Politics show and former Capitol Hill correspondent. Part 2. Transforming Our Immigration Policy: A 2021 Action Plan Guest: Sarnata Reynolds is the Director of Policy for The Immigration Hub.  The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative a...

The RNC Begins Today & Climate Change and California Wildfires

Part 1. A Recap of the DNC and the RNC begins tonight, what to expect… Guest: Mitch Jeserich is the host of Pacifica’s Letters and Politics show and former Capitol Hill correspondent. Part 2. Climate Change and Wildfires in California Guest: Mark Schwartz is Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis. He is also with the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. Image credits: Bjorgialt on wikimedia commons. The post The RNC Begins Today & Climate ...

DNC Day #3 Highlights & The Women’s Suffrage Movement

Host Max Pringle is covering for host Mitch Jeserich today. Part 1. Analysis on Day #3 of the DNC Guest: Mitch Jeserich is the host of Pacifica’s Letters and Politics show and former Capitol Hill correspondent. Part 2. The Women’s Suffrage Movement Guest: Lisa Tetrault is associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the author of The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898. The post DNC Day #3 Highlights & The Women’s Suffrage Movemen...

DNC Day #2 Highlights & Workers and the COVID-19 Recession

Host Max Pringle is covering for host Mitch Jeserich today. Part 1. Analysis on Day 2 DNC Guest: Mitch Jeserich is the host of Pacifica’s Letters and Politics show and former Capitol Hill correspondent. Part 2. Workers and the COVID-19 Recession Guest:  Guest: Sylvia Allegretto is a labor economist and co-chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the co-author with Bryce Liedtke of the new report Workers and the COVID-19 Recession: T...

DNC Day2 Highlights & Workers and the COVID-19 Recession

DNC Day #1: Highlights & A History of Attacks on the Post Office​

Host Max Pringle is covering for host Mitch Jeserich today. Part 1. Analysis on Day 1 DNC Guest: Mitch Jeserich is the host of Pacifica’s Letters and Politics show and former Capitol Hill correspondent. Part 2. History of Attacks on the Post Office Guest: Christopher W. Shaw is an author, historian, and policy analyst. He is the author of the book “Preserving the People’s Post Office.” His most recent, “Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic.”    The p...

DNC Day1: Highlights & A History of Attacks on the Post Office​

The DNC Begins Today & Conspiracy Theories in The Times of Coronavirus

Host Max Pringle covering for Mitch Jeserich. Part 1. The DNC Guest: Mitch Jeserich is the host of Pacifica’s Letters and Politics show and former Capitol Hill correspondent. Part 2. The QAnon Conspiracy Theory in the Times of a Pandemic Guest: Alex Kaplan is a senior researcher at Media Matters   The post The DNC Begins Today & Conspiracy Theories in The Times of Coronavirus appeared first on KPFA.

Continuing Coverage on the Democratic Ticket Biden-Harris

Guests: Rosa Clemente is a grassroots organizer, lecturer, independent journalist, and scholar, and a former vice presidential candidate with the Green Party. Cat Brooks is an activist, playwright, poet, theater artist and journalist. She co-founded the Anti Police-Terror Project. And is the co-host of the weekday morning show UpFront on KPFA. Aaron Glantz is a senior reporter at Reveal and the author of Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and...

Letters and Politics – August 13, 2020

Reactions to Kamala Harris VP Nomination

Part 1: Reactions to Kamala Harris Nomination Barbara Arnwine is the President and Founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition. Ms. Arnwine is President Emeritus of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-Chief of the Wisconsin Examiner and Editor-at-Large for The Progressive Magazine. Her latest piece in the Progressive is How Kamala Harris as VP Can Be a Win for Progressives   Part 2: Sen. Kamala Harris – A Prosecutor in SF Guest: Tim Redmond has been...

A Biography on Stephen Miller

Guest: Jean Guerrero, award winning investigative reporter and author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda. The post A Biography on Stephen Miller appeared first on KPFA.

Previewing the DNC & Trump’s Executive Orders for Economic Relief in the Times of Corona

Part 1. Executive Orders for Economic Relief in the Times of Coronavirus. Guest: Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Visiting Professor at the New School University in New York. He is the author of several books, his latest, Understanding Socialism. Professor Wolff is the founder of the non-profit: Democracy at Work. He is also the host of the TV and Radio show Economic Update that airs on KPFA every Friday at 10:00 am.   Part 2.  Pre...

Letters & Politics – August 7, 2020

Changing the Narrative: John Hersey’s Hiroshima

Guest: Patrick B. Sharp, professor and chair of Liberal Studies at California State University of Los Angeles. Also features clips from Pacifica Radio’s radio production of Hiroshima. (Rebroadcast)   The post Changing the Narrative: John Hersey’s Hiroshima appeared first on KPFA.

When a Mob Stopped the Recount: The Election Crisis of 2000

Guest: Alan Hirsch, Constitutional scholar and instructor in the Humanities and Chair of the Justice and Law Studies program at Williams College.  He is the author of A Short History of Presidential Election Crises: (And How to Prevent the Next One) [City Lights Open Media, February 27, 2020] The post When a Mob Stopped the Recount: The Election Crisis of 2000 appeared first on KPFA.

Fascist Politics During the Corona Pandemic

Guest: Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is an expert on far-right authoritarianism, fascist politics, and philosophy.  Professor Stanley is the author of several books, including How Propaganda Works, and How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. He also serves on the board of the Prison Policy Initiative. The post Fascist Politics During the Corona Pandemic appeared first on KPFA.

The Rise and Fall of Henry Wallace (Part II)

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 his most recent The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics.   The post The Rise...

The Rise and Fall of Henry Wallace (Part I)

Guest: John Nichols, author of The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics. The post The Rise and Fall of Henry Wallace (Part I) appeared first on KPFA.

The Depiction of Disability in Film Through Time

Part 1: Government COVID-19 Aid May Dry Up Guest: Ro Khanna, Democratic Representative who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, located in the Silicon Valley.   Part 2: The Depiction of Disability in Film Through Time. Guest: Lawrence Carter-Long, disability rights activist and film buff.  He is the Director of Communications for the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund based in Berkeley. A lifetime film buff, he appears in the documentary feature Code of the Freaks, cur...

The Life of a Fugitive: Freedom, Tragedy and Conscience

Guest: Emily L. Quint Freeman, author of Failure to Appear: Resistance, Identity and Loss.  In 1969 in Chicago Emily L Quint Freemen broke into a military draft board office and destroyed 40 thousand draft records–potentially saving the lives of many men who would may have otherwise been drafted to serve in Vietnam. The act forced her an underground life as a fugitive for two decades. It’s a remarkable story full of danger, love, freedom and loss. The post The Life of a Fugitive: Freedom, Tra...

The Expansion of DHS in Quelling Protest

Part 1: DHS Moves to Stop Domestic Protests. Guest: Karen J. Greenberg is director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School. She is the author of several books, most recently, Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State. She is a contributor to the Nation Magazine where you can find her latest writings.   Part 2: The Paris Commune Guest: John Marriman, teaches, researches, and teaches French and Modern European history at Yale University and is the author of Massacre: The ...

Letters and Politics – July 21, 2020

Government Aid in the Time of Crisis

Guest: Stephanie Kelton is a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University. She is a leading expert on Modern Monetary Theory and a former Chief Economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.  Author of The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy. The post Government Aid in the Time of Crisis appeared first on KPFA.

John Lewis and the Legacy of the Abolitionist Movement

John Lewis & The Legacy of the Abolitionist Movement

Guest: Manisha Sinha, the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and author of The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition. The post John Lewis & The Legacy of the Abolitionist Movement appeared first on KPFA.

The History of Development and Contagious Disease

Guest: Sonia Shah is a science journalist and contributor to the Nation Magazine.  She  is the author of PANDEMIC: Tracking Contagion from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond, and most recently, The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move. Her latest article in the Nation is It’s Time to Tell the Truth About Coronavirus: Our Lives Depend on It.   Photo images: Soniashah.com The Plague Doctor by Gerhart Altzenbach, 1656, on Wikipedia.org The post The History of Development and...

Harper’s The Letter: The Controversy Over Free Speech and Protest

Part 1: The Letter Published by Harper’s. Guest: Jeet Heer, co-signer of the Letter and national affairs correspondent at the Nation Magazine and author of the article The Left Needs to Reclaim Free Speech. Harper’s Letter on Justice and Open Debate Billy Bragg’s Response Part 2: The Intelligence of Birds (Re-air) Guest: Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Genius of Birds.  Her latest book is The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent & Think. The post Harper’s The Letter: Th...

A History of the People’s Party: The Rise and Fall of Populism

Guest: Thomas Frank, historian, writer and journalist.  Author of many books including What’s the Matter with Kansas and his latest The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism.  For more about Thomas Frank’s work visit his website at tcfrank.com       The post A History of the People’s Party: The Rise and Fall of Populism appeared first on KPFA.

Letters and Politics – July 13, 2020

The Clemency of Roger Stone, COVID-19 in Prisons & Suppressing Protests

Part I: The Clemency of Roger Stone & COVID-19 in Prison. Guest: Hadar Aviram, Thomas Miller Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.  Her latest book is Yesterday’s Monsters: The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole. Part II: Using the Obama Administration’s Playbook for Occupy for BLM Protests Today. Guest: Dave Lindorff: Investigative Reporter and the author the report in the Nation Tear Gas and Clubs in Lafayette Square Were Just the Beginnin...

When the Plague Came to San Francisco

Guest: Marilyn Chase, a journalist and teacher, and the author of The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco. She covers medical science and health care focusing on infectious-disease outbreaks and bioterrorism. She is the author of the book The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco.  Her latest book is Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa. The post When the Plague Came to San Francisco appeared first on KPFA.

The Mythology of Fascism

Guest: Federico Finchelstein is Professor of History at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College and author of Brief History of Fascist Lies. The post The Mythology of Fascism appeared first on KPFA.