KPFA - Letters and Politics
1,116 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 232 ratingsLetters & Politics seeks to explore the history behind today’s major global and national news stories. Hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
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Episodes
Palo Alto: A History of California, Innovation & Exploitation
February 14, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Malcolm Harris is a freelance writer and the author of Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials,Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit: History Since the End of History, and his latest,Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. The post Palo Alto: A History of California, Innovation & Exploitation appeared first on KPFA.
Palo Alto: A History of California, Innovation & Exploitation
February 14, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Malcolm Harris is a freelance writer and the author of Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials,Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit: History Since the End of History, and his latest,Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. The post Palo Alto: A History of California, Innovation & Exploitation appeared first on KPFA.
Northern Syria, Rojava & The Earthquake
February 13, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Nicole Clara, works with The Rojava Information Center in Qamishlo, Syria. She is raising funds for Kobane at: https://fundly.com/direct-earthquake-relief-for-families-with-damaged-homes?fbclid=IwAR00bG78piErZDc4g7ib0rQeuEoMX_PLnW2BQMDk7pH1seRxm9c1CldTPZs The post Northern Syria, Rojava & The Earthquake appeared first on KPFA.
Debriefing Biden’s Second State of the Union Address
February 08, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.7 MBDuring his second State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden talked at length about economic issues and accused Republicans of trying to end Social Security and Medicare. We’re joined by Dave Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect to debrief these economic issues. In the second part of the show we’re joined by Akela Lacy, political reporter with The Intercept to discuss what the ousting of Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Relations Committee means for the workings of...
A History of Policing & The Challenges of Reform
February 07, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.7 MBGuests: Ali Winston and Darwin BondGraham are co-authors of The Riders Come Out At Night. Ali Winston is an independent reporter covering criminal justice, privacy, and surveillance. His work has been rewarded with several awards, including the George Polk Award for local reporting in 2017. Darwin BondGraham is News Editor at The Oaklandside. He was the co-recipient of the George Polk Award for local reporting in 2017 The post A History of Policing & The Challenges of Reform appeared first on...
Mussolini’s Daughter & The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism
February 06, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Caroline Moorehead is a historian and biographer. She is the author of several books including her latest Mussolini’s Daughter: The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe The post Mussolini’s Daughter & The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism appeared first on KPFA.
Finding the Disappeared Children of the War in El Salvador & The History Behind Black History Month
February 02, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPart I. Finding The Disappeared Children of the War in El Salvador Guest: Elizabeth Barnert is a pediatrician and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research, grounded in human rights and social action, examines children affected by violence, family separation, and incarceration. She is the author of the book Reunion: Finding the Disappeared Children of El Salvador. For more information about the DNA Family Reunification Project go to: DNA F...
From King Leopold II To Big Teach: The Plundering of The Congo & The Invention of Modern Day Slavery
February 01, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Siddharth Kara is Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at Nottingham University, and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is the author of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. The post From King Leopold II To Big Teach: The Plundering of The Congo & The Invention of Modern Day Slavery appeared first on KPFA.
From King Leopold II To Big Teach: The Plundering of The Congo & The Invention of Modern Day Slavery
February 01, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Siddharth Kara is Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at Nottingham University, and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is the author of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. The post From King Leopold II To Big Teach: The Plundering of The Congo & The Invention of Modern Day Slavery appeared first on KPFA.
David Harvey on Karl Marx’s Grundrisse
January 31, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: David Harvey is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology & Geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), the Director of Research at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, and the author of numerous books including, Marx, Social Justice and the City, The Condition of Postmodernity, The Limits to Capital, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Spaces of Global Capitalism, A Companion to Marx’s Capital, and his latest, A Companion to Marx’s Grundrisse. ...
German Rearmament & The History of Policing Powers
January 30, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBI. German Rearmament Guest: Stephen Milder is Assistant Professor of European Politics and Society at the University of Groningen and a Research Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich. He is the author of Greening Democracy: The Anti-Nuclear Movement in West Germany and Beyond, 1968-1983. 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, Presumed Guilty: How the ...
Our Wandering Minds: A History of what Early Christian Monks Learned about Distraction
January 26, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Jamie Kreiner is a professor of history at the University of Georgia. She is the author of several books including her latest, The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction. The post Our Wandering Minds: A History of what Early Christian Monks Learned about Distraction appeared first on KPFA.
How The US-Mexican Drug War Inflamed The Violence & Increased Profits
January 25, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.7 MBGuest: Benjamin T. Smith is a professor of Latin American history at the University of Warwick. He specializes in nineteenth and twentieth century politics, land, indigenous groups, Catholicism, journalism, violence and the war on drugs. He is the author of several books including his latest, The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade. The post How The US-Mexican Drug War Inflamed The Violence & Increased Profits appeared first on KPFA.
The Answer to the Debt-Ceiling Standoff & Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
January 24, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPart I. The Answer to The Debt Ceiling Standoff Guest: James K. Galbraith is Professor of Government and Chair in Government/Business Relations at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a former staff economist for the House Banking Committee and a former executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. He is the author of Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know (2016) and Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe (2016). Part II....
George Kennan: The Architect of the Cold War Who Opposed the War
January 23, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Frank Costigliola is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of The Kennan Diaries, Roosevelt’s Lost Alliances, and his latest, Kennan: A Life between Worlds. The post George Kennan: The Architect of the Cold War Who Opposed the War appeared first on KPFA.
A History of Africatown
January 19, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Nick Tabor is a freelance journalist. He is the author of Africatown: America’s Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created. The post A History of Africatown appeared first on KPFA.
How Adam Smith Became A Capitalist Icon
January 18, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Glory Liu is a lecturer in social studies at Harvard University. She is the author of Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism. The post How Adam Smith Became A Capitalist Icon appeared first on KPFA.
Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel
January 16, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: 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 eighteen books that range across the fields of ethics, social theory, theology, philosophy, politics, and history. His most recent book is Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel. The post Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel appeared first on KP...
Hannah Arendt’s and Today’s Relevance of Lying in Politics
January 12, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: David Bromwich is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University. His books include The Intellectual Career of Edmund Burke and American Breakdown: The Trump Years and How They Befell Us. Professor Bromwich wrote an introduction for two landmark essays by the legendary political theorist Hannah Arendt on the greatest threat to democracy. The post Hannah Arendt’s and Today’s Relevance of Lying in Politics appeared first on KPFA.
The Pacifists & The Good War
January 11, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Daniel Akst is the author of War by Other Means: The Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionized Resistance. The post The Pacifists & The Good War appeared first on KPFA.
Censorship and Big Tech & Indigenous Justice in Early America
January 10, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPart I. Mickey Huff is professor of social science and history at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy. He is also the director of Project Censored and the co-editor of the Project’s yearbook, including most recently State of the Free Press 2023: The News That Didn’t Make the News. Part II. Nicole Eustace is professor of history at New Yor...
J. Edgar Hoover: From Progressive Icon To Villain
January 09, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Beverly Gage is professor of history at Yale. She is the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror, and her latest, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. The post J. Edgar Hoover: From Progressive Icon To Villain appeared first on KPFA.
J. Edgar Hoover: From Progressive Icon To Villain
January 09, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Beverly Gage is professor of history at Yale. She is the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror, and her latest, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. The post J. Edgar Hoover: From Progressive Icon To Villain appeared first on KPFA.
Letters and Politics – January 5, 2023
January 05, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBA look at burning political issues and debates and their historical context within the US and worldwide, hosted by Mitch Jeserich. The post Letters and Politics – January 5, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.
The History of The Speaker and Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations
January 04, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPart 1: The History of the Speaker Guest: Steven S. Smith is the Kate M. Gregg Distinguished Professor of Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Washington University. He is the author of such books as Politics over Process: Partisan Conflict and Post-Passage Processes in the U.S. Congress and The Senate Syndrome: The Evolution of Procedural Warfare in the Modern U.S. Senate. Part 2:Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations Guest:Robin Waterfield is a British classical scholar, translator,...
Electing A Speaker
January 03, 2023 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: John Nichols of The Nation The post Electing A Speaker appeared first on KPFA.
Uncovering A Thousand Racially Motivated Murders 1930-1954
December 29, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Margaret Burnham set out in 2007 to travel the country to investigate approximately a thousand unsolved racially motivated murders between 1930 and 1954. She has written a book about it called By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners. She and her assistants have also created an on-line archive dedicated to identifying, classifying, and providing factual information and documentation about anti-Black killings in the mid-century South at www.crrjarchive.org The post Uncovering ...
Heterodoxy: The Secret Club That Sparked The Feminist Movement
December 27, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Joanna Scutts is the author of Hotbed: Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club that Sparked Modern Feminism. The post Heterodoxy: The Secret Club That Sparked The Feminist Movement appeared first on KPFA.
How the Islamic Empires Saved the Classical World
December 26, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: 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 How the Islamic Empires Saved the Classical World appeared first on KPFA.
The Triumph of Christianity
December 22, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Bart D. Ehrman is a Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of several books including Misquoting Jesus, How Jesus Became God, and his latest, The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World. The post The Triumph of Christianity appeared first on KPFA.
January 6th Committee Holds Final Public Meeting Hour #1
December 19, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBTune-in as KPFA presents a national broadcast of the final meeting of the House Jan 6th Committee on Monday, December 19th, 2022 at 10:00 am Pacific Time. Hosted by Mitch Jeserich and produced by Corinne Smith. The post January 6th Committee Holds Final Public Meeting Hour #1 appeared first on KPFA.
KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part 4)
December 15, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBHost Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New Version. Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature. The post KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part 4) appeared first on KPFA.
KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part 3)
December 14, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBHost Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New Version. Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature. The post KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part 3) appeared first on KPFA.
KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part 2)
December 13, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBHost Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New Version. Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature. The post KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part 2) appeared first on KPFA.
KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part 1)
December 12, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBHost Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New Version. Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature. The post KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part 1) appeared first on KPFA.
KPFA Special – Whales: From its Ancient Past to its Uncertain Future
December 08, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Nick Pyenson is a paleontologist, he is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth’s Most Awesome Creatures. The post KPFA Special – Whales: From its Ancient Past to its Uncertain Future appeared first on KPFA.
Zapatista Stories
December 07, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest:Margaret Cerullo is a professor of Sociology and Feminist Studies at Hampshire College and a member of the Lightning Collective which put together the book Zapatista Stories for Dreaming An-Other World by Subcomandante Marcos. The post Zapatista Stories appeared first on KPFA.
KPFA Special – David Henry Thoreau: the Man Who Lived in Season
December 06, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Laura Dassow Walls is the William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life, and her latest, The Daily Henry David Thoreau: A Year of Quotes from the Man Who Lived in Season. Feature image: Benjamin D. Maxham- Thoreau -Restored on Wikipedia The post KPFA Special – David Henry Thoreau: the Man Who Lived in Season appeared first on KPFA.
A Church Occupation by the English Collective of Prostitutes & A History of Railroad Labor Disputes and Government Intervention
December 05, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPart I. Reflecting on the significance of the occupation of the Church of the Holy Cross (1982) in London to protest “police illegality and racism” against sex workers. Guest: Selma James is founder of the International Wages for Housework Campaign and author of Hookers in the House of the Lord and The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community, and Sex, Race, and Class. Selma James was the first spokesperson for the English Collective of Prostitutes. Part II. A History of Railroad L...
Remembering Hale Zukas: Disability Rights Icon. Then, The Abolitionist’s Journal
December 01, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPart 1. Remembering Disability Rights Icon Hale Zukas. Hale Zukas was a member of the Rolling Quads at the University of California, Berkeley, and a founder of the first Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley. He was active in working for accessible streets and public transit, and in the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Guest: Judith E. Heumann is an International Disability Rights Advocate. She is the author of Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disab...
The Rise & Fall of The Wobblies: America’s Most Radical Union
November 30, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Ahmed White teaches labor and criminal law at the University of Colorado Boulder and is author of Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers. The post The Rise & Fall of The Wobblies: America’s Most Radical Union appeared first on KPFA.
Nathan Robinson on The Grotesquery of the American Political System
November 29, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Nathan Robinson is the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs Magazine. He is the author of many books including his latest American Monstrosity. Donald Trump: How We Got Him. How We Stop Him and his upcoming, Responding to the Right: Brief Replies to 25 Conservative Arguments. The post Nathan Robinson on The Grotesquery of the American Political System appeared first on KPFA.
Josephine Baker: Anti-Fascist Spy
November 23, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Damien Lewis is an award-winning writer who spent twenty years reporting from war, disaster, and conflict zones for the BBC and other global news organizations. He is the bestselling author of more than twenty books, many of which are being adapted into films or television series; his latest is Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy. The post Josephine Baker: Anti-Fascist Spy appeared first on KPFA.
Adam Hochschild: WWI, The Red Scare and The Threat to Democracy
November 22, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Adam Hochschild is the author of eleven books, including the contemporary classics King Leopold’s Ghost and To End All Wars (both finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award), Spain in Our Hearts (a New York Times bestseller), and Bury the Chains (a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN USA Literary Award). His latest is AMERICAN MIDNIGHT: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis. The post Adam Hoch...
Nancy Pelosi’s Meteoric Rise from SF Politics & An Homage to KPFA’s Iconic Monologist Jennifer Stone
November 21, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPart I. Nancy Pelosi’s Meteoric Rise from SF Politics Guest: Tim Redmond is long-time San Francisco political and investigative reporter, former executive editor of the SF Bay Guardian and founder of 48hills.org. Part 2. An Homage to KPFA’s Host and Producer Jennifer Stone Guest: Laura Prives is KPFA Fund drive Manager, former Program Director, and Jennifer Stone’s Producer. Jennifer Stone was born in Tucson, Arizona in December, 1933. She received her B.A. in theatre arts from Mills Colleg...
The End of an Era: Nancy Pelosi’s Legacy
November 17, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.7 MBGuest: John Nichols is Washington correspondent for the Nation Magazine. The post The End of an Era: Nancy Pelosi’s Legacy appeared first on KPFA.
From the Tobacco Industry to Climate Climate Change to Social Media: A Modern History of Disinformation. Then, Conversations with Birds
November 16, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.7 MBPart I. A Modern History of Disinformation: From the Tobacco Industry to Climate Climate Change. 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 leading voice on the role of science in society, the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and the role of disinformation in blocking climate action. She is the author of many books including the best-selling, Merchants of Doubt...
Harriet Tubman vs. Andrew Jackson: The History and Future of the Twenty Dollar Bill and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice
November 14, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Dr. Clarence Lusane is an author, activist, scholar, and journalist. He is a Professor and former Chairman of Howard University’s Department of Political Science. He is the author of several books, including The Black History of the White House and his latest, Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and democracy. The post Harriet Tubman vs. Andrew Jackson: The History and Future of the Twenty Dollar Bill and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Jus...
A Civil Rights Warrior of the 1960s: The Legacy of Colia Lafayette Clark
November 10, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBGuest: Colia Lafayette Clark (July 21,1940 – November 4, 2022), was a committed Pan Africanist, she spent a lifetime in activist work in the areas of civil rights, human rights, women’s rights, workers rights and rights for the homeless and youth. She was the Green Party’s candidate for the United States Senate in New York in 2010 and 2012. She was a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and played a key role establishing equal voting rights in Selma, Alabama. She...
How The Midterm Will Effect Congress & Florida Goes Deep Red
November 09, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 68.6 MBPart 1: How The Midterm Will Effect Congress Guest: Matt Laslo, Capitol Hill Correspondent who has been covering the election for Wired and The Raw Story. Part 2: Florida Goes Deep Red Guest: Mitch Perry is the Senior Reporter for the Florida Phoenix where he’s based in the Tampa Bay area. Photo by visuals on Unsplash The post How The Midterm Will Effect Congress & Florida Goes Deep Red appeared first on KPFA.