KPFA - Letters and Politics

Guest: Stephen Greenblatt is the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University.  His numerous books include The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, which won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. His latest is Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud co authored with Adam Phillips.  He is also the general editor of The Norton Shakespeare. The post Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare and Freud appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Writer, historian, and activist, Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including Orwell's Roses, and most lately No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain. She cofounded the organization Not Too Late and coauthored the book Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility with Thelma Young Lutunatabua.  She also launched Meditations in an Emergency, an independent publication. The post Rebecca Solnit on No Straight Road Takes You There appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: D.D. Guttenplan is editor of The Nation magazine.  He is the author of several books including American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone,  The Nation: A Biography, and The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority. The post D.D. Guttenplan on the History of the Nation Magazine and the Politics of Today appeared first on KPFA.

I. Viet Thanh Nguyen on the Roots of Trump's Imperial Ambitions Guest: Viet Thanh Nguyen is a professor of English, American studies and ethnicity, and comparative literature at the University of Southern California. He is the author of the novel The Sympathizer which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His article Greater America: Exporting Disunion was featured in the July/August 2025 of the Nation Magazine.   II. The US Bombing of Iran Guest: Phyllis Bennis is co-director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).  She is the author of several books including Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer and her latest, Understanding Palestine & Israel.  The post Viet Thanh Nguyen on the Roots of Trump's Imperial Ambitions; Then, US Bombing of Iran appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: W. Caleb McDaniel is associate professor of history at Rice University in Houston. He won the Pulitzer price in History in 2020 for his book, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America. Photo: Henrietta Wood was enslaved at Brandon Hall in Mississippi on Wikipedia. The post Henrietta Wood: A Legacy of Slavery and Reparations in America appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Jason De León is an anthropologist who spent nearly seven years following and interviewing human smugglers in Mexico. He is a professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies and director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also executive director of the Undocumented Migration Project and the author of the book Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling. The post The Lives of Smugglers (Coyotes) appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Stephen Zunes is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies.  He is the author of “Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism”, and the co-author of  “Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution.” The post The Israel-Iran Conflict and Trump's Mega-Bomb appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Andrew Hartman is professor of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School, and his latest, Karl Marx in America.   The post Karl Marx's Influence in the US appeared first on KPFA.

Host Mitch Jeserich recounts the story of a protest known as the “Bath Riots.” The riots are known to have been started by Carmelita Torres and lasted from January 28 to January 30 and were sparked by new immigration policies at the El Paso–Juárez Immigration and Naturalization Service office, requiring Mexicans crossing the border to take de-lousing baths.  Carmelita Torres who crossed the border daily from Juarez to clean houses in El Paso.  She refused to take a toxic disinfectant bath. Press accounts estimated that, by noon, she was joined by several thousand demonstrators at the border bridge. When others saw their resistance they joined in by protesting as well. Within an hour, there were more than 200 women blocking the entrance to El Paso. By the end of the demonstration, there were several thousand protesters. Once the officers tried to break up the crowd, the demonstrators threw rocks at them. They laid in front of trains and vehicles. When police aimed their guns into the crowd, they responded by yelling louder. The police were unable to break them up and she was arrested. After her arrest, she went missing. Until this day, it is not known what happened to her (Wikipedia).   Photo: El Paso disinfection station and Mexicans waiting to be de-loused at the international bridge at the US immigration station on Wikipedia The post The Bath Riots of 1917 & the People's Response to Racist Immigration Policies appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Caroline Fraser is the author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, which won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Heartland Prize, and the Plutarch Award for best biography of the year.  She is also the author of God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, and her latest Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers. The post Serial Killers & Toxins: The Correlation appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: David Bacon is a photojournalist, author, political activist, and union organizer. His work focuses on labor issues, particularly those related to immigrant labor. He has written several books and numerous articles on the subject. He is the author of The Children of NAFTA, Communities Without Borders, Illegal People, The Right to Stay Home, and In the Fields of the North. Photo by David Bacon. At a protest against immigration detentions in Santa Maria, CA, a young woman holds a sign honoring the work her parents have done as farmworkers, June 2025. The post The Military Response to Sanctuary Cities & Immigrant's Right to Work appeared first on KPFA.

Guests:  Sonali Kolhatkar is an award winning journalist, broadcaster, writer, and author. She is the founder, host, and executive producer of Rising Up With Sonali that airs at KPFK, KPFA and the Pacifica Radio stations. She is also a Senior Editor at YES! Media, and the author most recently of Talking About Abolition: A Police-Free World is Possible. Ben Camacho is an investigative journalist and documentary photographer. His work focuses on state-sponsored violence and the communities impacted by it.  He is part of The Southlander, a new worker-led outlet in the LA area.  He has been covering the ICE raids in LA. Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, dean of the People's Academy of International Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.  Her articles can be found on Truthout.org. Mohamed Shehk is with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. He talks about Trump's attacks on immigrants and his latest travel ban. AROC is organizing in the Bay Area to prepare, respond and resist these attacks.   Photo credit: Ben Camacho, ICE Raids, Compton, CA, 2025 The post Trump Deployment of the National Guard to LA appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Emily Hauser is a senior lecturer in classics and ancient history at the University of Exeter, UK. She is the author of three novels reimagining the women of Greek myth: For the Most Beautiful, For the Winner, and For the Immortal. She is also the author of How Women Became Poets, and most recently, of Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World through the Women Written Out of It. The post Women in Ancient History appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Mark Blyth is a political economist and professor at Brown University. He is an expert on Global Finance & Banking and the author of several books including Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, and his latest, Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers, coauthored with Nicolò Fraccaroli.     The post The 50 Year War on American Workers appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Mary Annette Pember is a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe. She is currently national correspondent for ICT News, formerly Indian Country Today.  She is the recipient of several awards for her journalism and is the author of Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools. The post A History of Indian Boarding Schools in America appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Clay Risen is a historian and a reporter and editor at The New York Times.  He is the author of several books including The Crowded Hour, a New York Times Notable Book of 2019, and his latest, Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America.   The post The Witch Hunt Against the Left in the 1940s appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Gregory P. Downs is a history professor at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of several books including his latest, in collaboration with Anthony E. Kaye (1962-2017), Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History. Anthony E. Kaye (1962–2017) taught history at Pennsylvania State University and was the vice president of scholarly programs at the National Humanities Center. An influential scholar of Atlantic slavery and American history, he served as an associate editor of The Journal of the Civil War Era. His final book, Nat Turner, Black Prophet, was completed with the assistance of Gregory P. Downs, a professor of history at the University of California, Davis.   Featured image: Discovery of Nat Turner by William Henry Shelton on Wikipedia.     The post A History of Nat Turner's Slave Revolt appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Corinna Barrett Lain is the S. D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law. She is the author of Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection. The post Lethal Injections & The Hidden Torture of Executions appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Michael Albertus is professor of political science at the University of Chicago. The author of four previous books, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and elsewhere. He is the author of Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies. The post Land & Power appeared first on KPFA.

A 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 – May 26, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Host Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts of the Iliad by Homer and translated by Emily Wilson. Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance and early modern scholarship, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. In addition to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca. Support KPFA!! Ancient Tales 3-Pack $250 The post The Iliad: War, Rage, and Sorrow appeared first on KPFA.

Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from the classic writings The Way of Chuang Tzu translated by Thomas Merton. Thomas Merton composed a series of his own versions of the classic sayings of Chuang Tzu, the most spiritual of Chinese philosophers. Chuang Tzu, who wrote in the fourth and third centuries B.C., is the chief authentic historical spokesperson for Taoism and its founder Lao Tzu (a legendary character known largely through Chuang Tzu's writings). Indeed it was because of Chuang Tzu and the other Taoist sages that Indian Buddhism was transformed, in China, into the unique vehicle we now call by its Japanese name―Zen.   Excerpts from THE WAY OF CHUANG TZU by Thomas Merton, copyright ©1965 by The Abbey of Gethsemani. Reproduced by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. The post The Taoist & Christian: The Way of Chuang Tzu appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Laurence Rees is an award-winning English historian and documentary filmmaker. He has authored several books including The Holocaust: A New History, Hitler and Stalin,  Auschwitz: A New History, and his latest, The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History. The post Understanding the Psychology of Nazis appeared first on KPFA.

Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean-American author, born in Argentina. He is a prominent human rights activist who worked as press and cultural advisor to Salvador Allende in the final months before the 1973 military coup, and later spent many years in exile. He is the Walter Hines Page Emeritus Professor of Literature at Duke University and the author of many books including his latest, Allegro: A Novel. The post Ariel Dorfman on the Role of Beauty During Times of Chaos appeared first on KPFA.

Guests: Tiny (Lisa) Gray-Garcia aka “PovertySkola” is a formerly unhoused, incarcerated, revolutionary journalist, lecturer, poet, visionary, teacher and single mama of Tiburcio, daughter of a houseless, disabled mama Dee, and the co-founder of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE/PoorNewsNetwork. Victoria Montaño is a Po-scholar, interdisciplinary artist focussing on Indigenous Solidarity across seas and borders, Queer liberation, the Land Back Movement, and reawakening/reclamation of Ancestral Knowledge. They were born, raised and are  sustained in the Village of Huchiun which is now known as part of Oakland, Ca. Vick  carries lineages from the Yo'eme and Mexikah Nahua peoples.   ​ The post Resisting Occupation Across the Continent appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Paul Cooper is a podcaster, a historian, and the author of Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline.  He writes, produces, and hosts the Fall of Civilizations podcast which explores the collapse of different societies through history. The post Fall Of Civilizations: A Conversation with Paul Cooper appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Natalie Lawrence, author of Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meaning. The post What Monsters Tell Us About Us appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Kelly Lytle Hernández is the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History and the director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.  She is a 2019 MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient and the author of the award-winning books Migra!, City of Inmates, and her latest, Bad Mexicans Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands winner of the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History. The post The Mexican Revolution and The Migrants Who Sparked it appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Adam Shatz is the US editor of the London Review of Books and author of The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon.  He is the host of the podcast Myself with Others. The post The Life & Works of Frantz Fanon appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: William Dalrymple is the author of The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire. The post The Corporate Origins of Colonialism: The East India Company appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: William Dalrymple is a historian, curator, broadcaster and critic. He is the author of The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. The post How Ancient India Changed The World: From Buddhism to Math appeared first on KPFA.

Violet Moller is a critically acclaimed and award-winning historian and author of Inside the Stargazer's Palace: The Transformation of Science in 16th-Century Europe. The post When Science & Magic Intermingled appeared first on KPFA.

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 & Times of Lucy Parsons appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Robert Ovetz is a lecturer in Political Science and Public Administration at San José State University. He writes about the politics of the labor movement, work, and the crisis of capitalism at the turn of the 20th century. He is the author of the book When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921.  The post When Workers Shot Back appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Peter Fritzsche, professor of history at the University of Illinois and author of the book Hitler's First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich. The post Hitler's First 100 Days appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Greg Grandin is a Professor of History at Yale University and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, author of many books including The End of the Myth; The Empire of Necessity; Fordlandia; and his latest, América, América: A New History of the New World. The post America: What's In A Name? appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Daisy Dunn is an award-winning classicist and the author of The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World.  Her website is www.daisydunn.co.uk. The post Women In The Ancient World appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Natalie Lawrence, author of Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meaning. The post What Monsters Tell Us About Us appeared first on KPFA.

Guest:  Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.  He is the author or co-author of many books on constitutional law, including Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime; A Legacy of Discrimination: The Essential Constitutionality of Affirmative Action; and The Free Speech Century.     The post A Constitutional Look at Trump and the Courts appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Mary Jo McConahay is a journalist who has covered the Church for many years. She is the author of the book Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and The Far Right. Featured photo: Wikimedia The post The Legacy of Pope Francis and the Future of the Catholic Church appeared first on KPFA.

A 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 – April 17, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Elizabeth Minnich is Distinguished Fellow at the American Association of Colleges & Universities. She was Hannah Arendt's Teaching Assistant at The Graduate Faculty of The New School University in New York. She is the author of The Evil of Banality: On The Life and Death Importance of Thinking.     The post The Banality of Evil & the Dangers of Mindless Complicity appeared first on KPFA.

A 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 – April 15, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Yanis Varoufakis, a former finance minister of Greece, is leader of the MERA25 party and Professor of Economics at the University of Athens.  He is the author of several books including his latest, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism.   Photo by Kurt Cotoaga on Unsplash The post Yanis Varoufakis: Trade War is Class War appeared first on KPFA.

Part 1. On Executive Powers and the Courts Guest: Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many books on constitutional law including his latest, No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.  His latest opinion piece in The New York Times is We Should All Be Very, Very Afraid Part 2. Cuts to Medical Research  Guest: Chris Beyrer is Gary Hock Distinguished Professor in Global Health and Professor of Medicine at Duke University.  He is Associate Director of Global HIV at the Duke Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and  Affiliate Faculty at Duke Human Vaccine Institute.  Dr Beyrer is a medical doctor and epidemiologist who has worked extensively on the front lines of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 prevention, treatment, and research.   Photo by Sebastian Pichler on Unsplash The post Erwin Chemerinsky on Executive Powers and the Courts. Then, Cuts to Medical Research appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Cedric de Leon is Professor of Sociology and Labor Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Freedom Train: Black Politics and the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity. The post How Black Labor Created An Interracial Movement appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Jeanne Carstensen is an award-winning journalist. She is the author of A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis. The post A Greek Tragedy: the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Dean Baker is a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.   He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. His blog, Beat the Press, provides commentary on economic reporting.   Photo by lonely blue on Unsplash   The post Dean Baker on Trump's Confusion with Tariffs and Taxes appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Nancy Altman is the President of Social Security Works.org.  She is the author of The Truth About Social Security: The Founders' Words Refute Revisionist History, Zombie Lies, and Common Misunderstandings; The Battle for Social Security: From FDR's Vision to Bush's Gamble; and the coauthor with Eric Kingson of Social Security Works For Everyone!: Protecting and Expanding America's Most Popular Social Program. Her latest article can be found in counterpunch: The Greatest Threat to Social Security in Its 90 Year History.       The post The Greatest Threat to Social Security in Its 90 Year History appeared first on KPFA.

A 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 – April 2, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Host Mitch Jeserich analysis and calls from listeners about the action of Senator Cory Booker in the Senate Floor.   The post Live: Senator Cory Booker Protesting the Trump Administration's Policies on the Senate Floor appeared first on KPFA.