KPFA - Behind the News

Two perspectives on Israel's war on Iran: Mouin Rabbani on the regional/global context and Joel Schalit on Israeli society and politics The post Israel's war on Iran: two perspectives appeared first on KPFA.

Paolo Gerbaudo on the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD's rise (articles here and here) • Andrew Hartman, author of Karl Marx in America, on the bearded one's reception in the US The post BYD—whence it came, where it's going • Marx in America appeared first on KPFA.

Laleh Khalili, author of this review, on the long relationship between the US military and industry • Kyle Chan, author of this article, on how China is surpassing the US The post Weapons and technology, China surpassing the US appeared first on KPFA.

John Cassidy, author of Capitalism and Its Critics, on just that • Sandeep Vaheesan, author of this review, will talk about abundance—neoliberal vs. genuine The post Capitalism and its critics, real abundance vs. bogue abundance appeared first on KPFA.

Meron Rapoport, co-author of this article, on Israel's strategy of destruction in Gaza • Mouin Rabbani on Israeli politics, the fate of the Palestinians, and Trump's scheming The post Fundraising special: two views of Israel–Palestine appeared first on KPFA.

Fundraising special: Barry Eichengreen on why the gyrations in the value of the US dollar matter • Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan, hosts of Always at War, on why the US is always buying more weapons and bombing people The post Fundraising special: wobbly dollar, perpetual wars appeared first on KPFA.

A look at Trumpian ideology: Kristin Du Mez on theology, Quinn Sloboidan on the latest iteration of neoliberalism (both rebroadcasts of interviews from February) The post Fundraising special: Trumpian ideology appeared first on KPFA.

Vijay Prashad, executive director of Tricontinental, on the state of the US empire and the state of the global working class • Becca Rothfeld, author of All Things Are Too Small, speaks up for bigness The post The US empire, the state of the working class, and things need to be bigger appeared first on KPFA.

Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind, on how the system crafted by the US Constitution, led to Donald Trump and has constricted our ability fight him The post How constitutional fetishism gave us Trump appeared first on KPFA.

Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek's Bastards, talks about the IQ- and race-obsessed goldbugs of second generation neoliberalism The post Hayek's bastards: the second, cruder generation of neoliberals appeared first on KPFA.

Charlie Eaton and Alina Gibadulina on the increasing prominence of hedge fund and private equity titans on elite university boards (paper here) • Malcolm Harris, author of What's Left, on a trio of political approaches to the climate crisis The post Financiers and universities, approaches to the climate crisis appeared first on KPFA.

Jason Wade of the UAW explains the union's endorsement of Trump's auto tariffs • Sam Gindin, author of this article and former long-time adviser to what used to be known as the Canadian Autoworkers Union, on what issues the tariff controversy obscures The post Tariff extravaganza: the UAW's view, a critical view appeared first on KPFA.

Samuel Moyn on Trump and the courts • Chris Maisano, author of this article, on class and politics • Evgenia Kovda on hipster nihilism (article here) The post Trump and the courts, class and politics, hipster nihilism appeared first on KPFA.

Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer, editors of Mastery and Drift, on professional class liberalism • a brief reprise of a 2019 interview with Gabriel Winant on the PMC The post Professional class liberalism appeared first on KPFA.

Vanessa Wills, author of Marx's Ethical Vision, on the morality behind Marxian “science” • Mathis Ebbinghaus on the effects of the summer 2020 anti-cop protests on police budgets (paper here) The post Marx's ethics, and what did the BLM protests do to police budgets? appeared first on KPFA.

Ben Tarnoff on tech worker militancy, the bosses' crackdown, and their hard turn to the right • Jodi Dean, author of Capital's Grave, on neofeudalism The post Fundraising special: militancy and repression in the Valley, neofeudalism appeared first on KPFA.

Eric Blanc, author of We Are the Union, on worker-led organizing (Amazon, Starbucks, etc.) The post Fundraising special: worker-led organizing appeared first on KPFA.

Anatol Lieven looks at the global dimensions of Trumpism • Quinn Slobodian muses on whether Trump is a neoliberal, and examines the three major strands of DOGE-ism (NYRB article here) The post Trump, a new/old kind of imperialist? • Is Trump a neoliberal? appeared first on KPFA.

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò picks apart the contradictory strands of the DEI obsession • Sophia Rosenfeld, author of The Age of Choice, explores this history of that concept over the last few centuries The post The truth about DEI, a history of “choice” appeared first on KPFA.

Kristin Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, on Christian nationalism • Jennifer Middlestadt, author of this article, on “sovereigntism,” the foreign policy of Trump et al. The post The theology of MAGA, “sovereigntism” and Trump appeared first on KPFA.

Eoin Higgins, author of Owned, on tech moguls and the journalists, like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, who work for them • Ronnie Grinberg, author of Write Like a Man, on the mostly male, mostly Jewish New York intellectuals The post Moguls and their scribes, the New York intellectuals appeared first on KPFA.

Mouin Rabbani on the Gaza ceasefire and Trump's plans for the Middle East • Angela Jones and Bernadette Barton, co-editors of Sex Work Today, on that topic The post The Gaza ceasefire, and sex work today appeared first on KPFA.

Laura Jedeed, author of this article, talks about San Francisco and tech moguls' plans to “fix” it • Yasha Levine, co-director of Pistachio Wars, on the Resnicks and water in California The post Tech bros' plans for SF, the Resnicks and water in California appeared first on KPFA.

Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything, on culture at the turn of the millennium • Tim Shorrock discusses the political crisis in South Korea The post The Y2K era, the South Korean political crisis appeared first on KPFA.

Three interviews on Israel's many wars: Rashid Khalidi and Pankaj Mishra with a historical perspective, and Annelle Sheline adds a former insider's view. Then, Aziz Rana on the awfulness of the US constitution, Anna Kornbluh with a cultural critique of immediacy, and Brooke Harrington on the offshore money-hiding racket. And a memorial to Jane McAlevey. The post Best of 2024 retrospective appeared first on KPFA.

Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. The post Behind the News – December 26, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

Trita Parsi and Joshua Landis analyze what's been going on in Syria • Tina Gerhardt reviews the annual UN climate conference, COP29, where little happened The post Syria and the failures of COP29 appeared first on KPFA.

Fundraising reprise of two interviews from May: Annelle Sheline, who resigned from the State Department as a protest of the war on Gaza, on what's driving US support for that genocide • Aziz Rana on the awfulness of the US Constitution The post Fundraising special: Gaza, the Constitution appeared first on KPFA.

Political scientist Larry Bartels, author of this article, on how it's politicians, not public opinion, that's driving the right-populist upsurge The post Fundraising special: what's driving the populist right? appeared first on KPFA.

Brooke Harrington, author of Offshore, on how and where the mega-rich stash their cash • Mahendran Thiruvarangan on a new leftish government in Sri Lanka The post Stashing money offshore, a new government in Sri Lanka appeared first on KPFA.

Michael Meeropol, son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, on how the government executed his mother despite knowing her innocence (docs here) • Ruth Whippman, author of BOYMOM: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity, on the challenges of raising boys The post Ethel Rosenberg's innocence, problems of masculinity appeared first on KPFA.

Anatol Lieven tries to divine a Trump foreign policy out of unreliable rhetoric and early appointments • Alex Vitale tries similar on Trump and criminal justice The post Trump prognostications: foreign policy, criminal justice appeared first on KPFA.

DH comments on the Trump victory, especially the role of inflation • Dahlia Scheindlin on Israeli public opinion • James Foley and Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, authors of this article, on the role of Ukraine in the Western political imagination The post Comments on Trump • Israeli public opinion • the role of Ukraine in Western politics appeared first on KPFA.

Laura Jedeed, author of this article, on the right's war on North Idaho College • Mouin Rabbani on what's driving Israel's multiple wars, and on the state of the Axis of Resistance The post The right's war on higher ed • What Israel's wars are all about appeared first on KPFA.

William Hartung, co-author of this paper, on how much aid the US has given to Israel over the last year (plus some wacky stuff on AI weapons) • sociologist Scott Schieman on his surprising research showing that people actually like their jobs The post How much US aid goes to Israel? • people actually like their jobs, a study shows appeared first on KPFA.

Anatol Lieven on the ambitiously aggressive grand design of the Biden/Harris foreign policy • Lily Lynch, author of this article, on the emptying out of the Balkans The post The Biden/Harris vision of the world, the emptying of the Balkans appeared first on KPFA.

Paul North and Paul Reitter on their new translation of Marx's Capital • Nimrod Flaschenberg and Alma Itzhaky, authors of this article, on the political culture of Israel after October 7 The post Translating Marx's Capital, Israeli society after October 7 appeared first on KPFA.

Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years War on Palestine, talks about Israeli settler-colonialism and its imperial patrons • Aurélie Daher looks at Hezbollah and the challenges it faces after the assassination of its leader The post A century of war on Palestinians, a look at Hezbollah after Nasrallah appeared first on KPFA.

Forrest Hylton, author of this article, on wildfires in Brazil and the political impotence of Lula's administration • Edwin Ackerman on politics in Mexico, as AMLO hands over power to Claudia Sheinbaum, having engineered a controversial overhaul of the judiciary (article here) The post Fires in Brazil, successes in Mexico appeared first on KPFA.

Niobe Way, author of Rebels with a Cause, on the emotional and social lives of boys and what they're telling us about our society • Branko Milanovic, author of Visions of Inequality, reviews what economists have had to say about the topic The post The problem with boys and a history of inequality appeared first on KPFA.

Neil Sehgal, co-author of this paper, on the durability of slaveholder wealth, via a look at Congress • Emily Jashinsky with a conservative's view of the election The post Fundraising special: durability of slaveholder wealth, a conservative looks at the election appeared first on KPFA.

Robert Pausch of Die Zeit on the far right's strong showing in German regional elections • Rob Larson, author of Mastering the Universe, looks at the superrich The post German neo-Nazis on the march, a look at the superrich appeared first on KPFA.

Naomi Hossain explains the uprising in Bangladesh that deposed PM Shekih Hasina • Sandipto Dasgupta, author of Legalizing the Revolution, examines the transformation of India from colony to nation through the exercise of constitution-writing The post Bangladesh uprising, writing India's constitution appeared first on KPFA.

Jake Werner on a progressive China policy (paper here) • Gabriel Hetland, author of this article, on the record of Colombian president Gustavo Petro, a leftist trying to govern a deeply conservative country The post A progressive China policy, and Petro's record in Colombia appeared first on KPFA.

Pankaj Mishra, author of this article, on the propaganda-induced debasement of the Holocaust • Nancy Folbre, one of four authors of this report, on assigning a monetary value to care work [vacation rebroadcast of the March 28, 2024 show] The post Behind the News – August 15, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

Arielle Klagsbrun of the All Eyes on Yass Campaign on the insufficiently known right-wing moneybags Jeff Yass • Sohrab Ahmari and Hamilton Nolan debate the existence, real or imagined, of pro-worker Republicans The post Who's Jeff Yass, and more on those allegedly pro-worker Republicans appeared first on KPFA.

Heidi Matthews analyzes the World Court's declaration of Israel's occupations illegal • Molly White on how crypto is spending its money in politics • Nausicaa Renner psychoanalyzes Joe Biden The post World Court v Israel, crypto politics, psychoanalyzing Biden appeared first on KPFA.

Cole Stangler on the monumentally inconclusive French elections • David Palumbo-Liu on the Silicon Valley world that launched JD Vance as a politician • a brief bit from Jane McAlevey on power The post The French elections, Vance's background, Jane McAlevey (very briefly) on power appeared first on KPFA.

Brandon Mancilla of the UAW looks behind the GOP's pro-worker facade • Adam Hilton, author of True Blues, on the bizarre nature of the US political party system The post JD Vance, no friend of the working class • the chaos of the American political party system appeared first on KPFA.

Richard Seymour discusses the British election (Sidecar article here) • Trita Parsi, the Iranian election • remembering Jane McAlevey with a 2017 BtN interview (catalog of interviews here) The post elections in Britain and Iran, in memory of Jane McAlevey appeared first on KPFA.

Robert Pape on how, despite Israel's murderous onslaught on Gaza, Hamas is winning (article here) • Wanda Bertram on how US incarceration rates stack up against the rest of the world (massively), and other news on crime & punishment (report here) The post Israel is killing a lot of people but losing its war, and the latest on the US carceral state appeared first on KPFA.