KPFA - Letters and Politics

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 1, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Gray Brechin has worked as a journalist and television producer and is coauthor of Farewell, Promised Land: Waking from the California Dream; and Imperial San Francisco, With a New Preface: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin. The post The Creation of Cities: Wealth, Inequality and Environmental Destruction appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Asaf Elia-Shalev is an Israeli American journalist. He is a staff writer for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the author of the book, Israel’s Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation’s Founding Myth. The post The Mizrahi: From the Black Panthers to Likud appeared first on KPFA.

Guests: Michael Isikoff is an award-winning Washington investigative journalist and the author of three New York Times bestsellers: Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story; Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War (with David Corn); and Russian Roulette (also with David Corn). His latest coauthored with Daniel Klaidman is Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election Daniel Klaidman is an award-winning journalist and author. He is the author of Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency. He is the co-author with Michael Isikoff of Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election. The post An Investigative Look Behind Trump’s Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Steve Coll is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Dean Emeritus of the Columbia Journalism School. Previously he was president of the public policy institute New America, in Washington, DC. He is an editor at The Economist in London and the author of several books, including The Bin Ladens, Private Empire, Directorate S, and his latest, The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq. The post The U.S. & Iraq Before The Wars appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Hamilton Nolan is a veteran journalist who writes about labor and politics. He is the author of the book The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor. His work can be found at HamiltonNolan.com. The post The Past, Present, and Future of the Labor Movement in America appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Dr Frank Tallis is a clinical psychologist and a writer. He is the author of several books including his latest, Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind. The post The Life & Times of Sigmund Freud appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Angela C. Sutton is an Assistant research professor at Vanderbilt University, where she has taught Seapower in History, the Golden Age of Piracy, and Comparative Slavery. She is the author of Pirates of the Slave Trade: The Battle of Cape Lopez and the Birth of an American Institution. The post The Pirates That Halted The Slave Trade appeared first on KPFA.

Part I. Understanding Secretary Mayorkas’ Impeachment Guest: Frank O. Bowman III is a law professor, legal historian, and former federal and state prosecutor. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri, currently he is a Visiting Scholar at Colorado College. His most recent book is High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump. His latest article is Immigration Is Not an “Invasion” under the Constitution. Part II. The Dangerous Dynamic Between Israel and Iran 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.” He is currently serving as 2024 Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Research Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The post Understanding Secretary Mayorkas’ Impeachment. Then, The Dangerous Dynamic Between Israel and Iran appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change; The Sixth Extinction, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize, and Under the White Sky: The Nature of the Future; and her latest, H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z. The post Climate Change From A to Z with Elizabeth Kolbert appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Philip Maldari is a host and producer at KPFA Radio, currently he is the host of the Sunday Morning show. The post Special – KPFA’s 75th Anniversary appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Jason De León 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 the executive director of the Undocumented Migration Project, a research, arts, and education collective that seeks to raise awareness about migration issues globally while also assisting families of missing migrants to reunite with their loved ones. He is the author of the award-winning book The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail, and his latest, Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling. The post The Lives of Smugglers (Coyotes) appeared first on KPFA.

Part I. Inflation and the Economy 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. Richard Wolff is the founder of Democracy at Work and host of the weekly national television and radio program Economic Update that airs on KPFA. Part II. Haiti’s Disaster Capitalism Guest: Jake Johnston is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the author of Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti. Photo by Engin Akyurt on Unsplash The post Inflation and the Economy with Richard Wolff. Then, Haiti’s Disaster Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), her work focuses on the Middle East, U.S. militarism, and UN issues. She serves on the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace. She is the author of several books including “Before & After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the War on Terror,” “Challenging Empire,” and her latest, “Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.” The post U.S. Unconditional Support to Israel and the Imminent Assault on Rafah appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: John Nichols is the national affairs correspondent for The Nation Magazine. He is the author of several books including his latest co-written with Senator Bernie Sanders “It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.” His Latest piece in the Nation is: More Than Half a Million Democratic Voters Have Told Biden: Save Gaza! The campaign to use “uncommitted” primary votes to send a message to Biden has won two dozen delegates, and it keeps growing. Photo (C): Matt Hrkac on Wikimedia Commons The post Congress, the Military Budget, and the Uncommitted Vote Campaign to Demand Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Alexander Stille is the San Paolo Professor of International Journalism at Columbia University. He is the author of many books including Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism; Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic. His latest, The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune. The post The Sullivanians: Psychoanalysis, Marxism, & A Commune To Break The Traditional Family appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Daniel Ziblatt is a Professor of Government at Harvard University. He is the co-author of How Democracies Die, and most lately, Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point, also co-authored with Steven Levitsky. The post American Democracy and the Tyranny of the Minority appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Amitav Ghosh is the author of several bestselling books including, Ibis Trilogy, composed of Sea of Poppies (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize), River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire. His other novels include The Circle of Reason, which won the Prix Médicis étranger, and The Glass Palace. He is the author of many works of nonfiction, including The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable and The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. Mr. Gosh has received two-lifetime achievement awards and five honorary doctorates. In 2018, Ghosh became the first English-language writer to win the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honor. His latest is Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories. The post How The Opium Trade Fueled Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Jean Pfaelzer is a public historian, commentator, and professor of American studies at the University of Delaware. Her books include Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans; Rebecca Harding Davis: Origins of Social Realism; The Utopian Novel in America; and her latest, California, a Slave State. The post The Story of T’tc-Tsa and California Slavery appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Kelsy Burke is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the author of The Pornography Wars: The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Obscene Obsession. The post The Pornography Wars appeared first on KPFA.