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.

Guest: Charisse Burden-Stelly is associate Professor of African American studies at Wayne state. and a member of the Black Alliance for Peace Research and Political Education Team. She is the c-editor, along with Jodi Dean, of the book ORGANIZE, FIGHT, WIN: Black Communist Women’s Political Writing. The post The Black Women in The Communist Party 1919-1956 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Shireen Al-Adeimi is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and assistant professor of language and literacy at Michigan State University’s College of Education. The post The Houthis & Yemen: A History appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Katherine Corcoran is a former Associated Press bureau chief for Mexico and Central America and is currently co-coordinator of MasterLAB, an investigative editor training program in Mexico City.  She is the author of In The Mouth Of The Wolf: A Murder, A Cover-up, and The True Cost Of Silencing The Press. The post The Murder of Regina Martinez Perez appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate.  He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor at The Atlantic.  His latest book is, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America. The post The Pursuit of Happiness, The Founders, and America Today appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Mohamad Jebara is a scriptural philologist and prominent exegetist.  A semanticist and historian of Semitic cultures, he has served as Chief Imam as well as headmaster of several Qur’anic and Arabic language academies.  He is the author of Muhammad, the World-Changer: An Intimate Portrait, and his latest, The Life of the Qur’an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy. The post The Roots and Legacy of the Qur’an appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Ibrahim Aoude is a Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.  He is the editor of the journal Arab Studies Quarterly (which was founded by Edward Said in 1979).  Professor Aoude is an expert on Hawai‘i Political Economy and Middle East politics. The post The Axis of Resistance: Palestine & West Asia Fight Against Imperialism appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Peter Shambrook is an independent scholar and historical consultant to the Balfour Project, which works to advance equal rights for all in Palestine/Israel. He is the author of French Imperialism in Syria, 1927–1936, and his latest, Policy of Deceit: Britain and Palestine, 1914-1939.   The post The Balfour Declaration: How the British Empire Broke Its promises to the People of Palestine appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Guest: Cat Bohannon is a researcher specialized in the evolution of narrative and cognition. She is the author of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon. The post How The Female Body Drives Evolution appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Tahrir Hamdi is a Professor of Decolonial Studies at Arab Open University, Jordan. She is the author of the book Imagining Palestine: Cultures of Exile and National Identity. She has published widely about resistance literature in several prestigious journals.     The post Palestinian Identity Through Culture and Exile  appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Ruby Lal is a professor at Emory University, and the author of three books and numerous essays, op-eds, and literary pieces. She is the author of Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, and her latest, Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan.   The post Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan. appeared first on KPFA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY_zSUlv0K0 Guest: Omer Bartov is the Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. Bartov is a historian of the Holocaust and is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on genocide.  He is the author of numerous books, including Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine (2007), Israel-Palestine: Lands and Peoples (2011)  Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz (2018), and his latest, Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis. The post Linked Histories: The Holocaust & The Nakba appeared first on KPFA.

Host Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New Version.  Gilgamesh is considered the oldest epic in the world and a masterpiece of literature.  Gilgamesh is the story of a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia and his journey of self-discovery.  Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can bring peace to a whole city and that wisdom can be found only when the quest for it is abandoned. Get the Ancient Tales Library  $550.  Includes: – Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell $100  – The Iliad (new translation by Emily Wilson)  $200 – The Odyssey by Homer: Translated by Emily Wilson $100  – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam translated by Juan Cole $160 – The Way of Chuang Tzu $100 – Letters & Politics Ancient History Collection$100  The post KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part IV) appeared first on KPFA.

Host Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New Version.  Gilgamesh is considered the oldest epic in the world and a masterpiece of literature.  Gilgamesh is the story of a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia and his journey of self-discovery.  Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can bring peace to a whole city and that wisdom can be found only when the quest for it is abandoned. Get the Ancient Tales Library  $550.  Includes: – Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell $100  – The Iliad (new translation by Emily Wilson)  $200 – The Odyssey by Homer: Translated by Emily Wilson $100  – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam translated by Juan Cole $160 – The Way of Chuang Tzu $100  – Letters & Politics Ancient History Collection $100    The post KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part III) appeared first on KPFA.

Host Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New Version.  Gilgamesh is considered the oldest epic in the world and a masterpiece of literature.  Gilgamesh is the story of a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, and his journey of self-discovery.  Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can bring peace to a whole city and that wisdom can be found only when the quest for it is abandoned. Get the Ancient Tales Library  $550.  Includes: – Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell $100  – The Iliad (new translation by Emily Wilson)  $200 – The Odyssey by Homer: Translated by Emily Wilson $100  – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam translated by Juan Cole $160 – The Way of Chuang Tzu $100  – Letters & Politics Ancient History Collection $100    The post KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part II) appeared first on KPFA.

Host Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from Stephen Mitchell’s Gilgamesh: A New Version. Gilgamesh is considered the oldest epic in the world and and a masterpieces of literature. It is the story of a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, and his journey of self-discovery.  Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can bring peace to a whole city and that wisdom can be found only when the quest for it is abandoned. Get the Ancient Tales Library  $550.  Includes: – Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell $100  – The Iliad (new translation by Emily Wilson)  $200 – The Odyssey by Homer: Translated by Emily Wilson $100  – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam translated by Juan Cole $160 – The Way of Chuang Tzu $100  – Letters & Politics Ancient History Collection $100    The post KPFA Special: Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh (Part I) appeared first on KPFA.

Guest:  Pat Thomas is a counterculture historian and archival music producer. He is the author of such books as Listen, Whitey!: The Sights & Sounds of Black Power 1965–1975, Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary; and his latest Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg. KPFA Special Combo $450.  Includes: “Allen Ginsberg Material Wealth” (Book and CD) by Pat Thomas Plus “Voices that Change the World” by the Pacifica Radio Archives.              +    + The post KPFA Special – Allen Ginsberg: The Great American Poet of the Twentieth Century appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Emily Wilson who is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania and translator of both The Iliad and The Odyssey. Mitch Jeserich reads from Emily Wilson’s translation of the Iliad.   Book Combo: Epic Verses 3-Pack  $400  Contains: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Translated by Juan Cole. The Iliad by Homer, Translated by Emily Wilson. The Odyssey by Homer, Translated by Emily Wilson. The post KPFA Special – Grief Turns to Rage: A Reading from The Iliad by Mitch Jeserich appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: 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. Epic Verses Pack $320 Contains: The Iliad (new translation by Emily Wilson) and The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian by Juan Cole. – The Iliad (new translation by Emily Wilson) The Iliad is an epic poem that recounts the ten-year Trojan War and explores themes of pride, honor, and the human condition. Wilson’s Iliad gives us a complete Homer for our generation and the first ever English translation by a woman. – The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian by Juan Cole  The Rubaiyat is a manuscript of Persian verses attributed to Omar Khayyam, a 12th-century Persian mathematician and philosopher. The book contains pithy observations on complex subjects such as love, death, and the existence of God and an afterlife. The post KPFA Special – The Odyssey and The Iliad, Why these Epic Verses Still Matter Today appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Juan Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He is the translator of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian. Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1131) was a Persian astronomer and mathematician born in Nishapur in northeastern Iran who lived and worked at the courts of the Seljuk dynasty. Modern scholars agree that there is very little (if any) of the collected work of poetry know as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam that can be certainly attributed to the historical figure. A tradition of attribution grew up in the centuries after Khayyam’s death which culminated in Edward Fitzgerald’s translation in the 19th Century. The post KPFA Special – The History Behind The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam 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 Anti-Colonial Pack $475 Includes: A History of Modern Palestine by Ilan Pappe The Rebel’s Clinic by Adam Shatz The Wretched of the Earth  (60th Anniversary Edition) by Frantz Fanon The Anarchy by William Dalrymple       The post KPFA Special – The Corporate Origins of Colonialism: The East India Company appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Adam Shatz is the US editor of the London Review of Books and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is the author of Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination and The Rebels Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. He is the host of the podcast Myself with Others. To watch the Interview on Youtube click here  Fanon Resistance Pack $220 Includes: The biography of Frantz Fanon by Adam Shatz & Frantz Fanon’s landmark text “The Wretched of the Earth.” Fanon has been described as “the most influential anticolonial thinker of his time”. For decades, the life and works of Fanon have inspired national liberation movements and other freedom and political movements in Palestine, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the United States. The post KPFA Special – The Life & Works of Frantz Fanon appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Ilan Pappe is the Director of the European Center of Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. He has published many books on the Middle East and the Palestine Question including, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Modern Middle East, Ten Myths about Israel, and  A History of Modern Palestine. The post KPFA Special – Ilan Pappé on the History of the Palestinian Resistance appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Dr. Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th century United States with broad  interests in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and  Women’s and Gender Studies. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of  Pittsburgh and the president of the African American Intellectual History Society.  She is the author of the book Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America. On Twitter (@keishablain), and on Instagram (@keishanblain). The post Fannie Lou Hamer: A Life appeared first on KPFA.

Part I. Biden Continues Supporting the War on Gaza Guest: Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University.  He is the author and coauthor of several such books, including The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy; and  The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy co-authored with John J. Mearsheimer. He is also a columnist at Foreign Policy. Part II. Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America Guest: Karen Cook Bell is a Professor of History at Bowie State University.  She is the University System of Maryland Wilson H. Elkins Endowed Professor. Her areas of specialization include slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and women’s history. She is the author of several books including,  Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America. Running From Bondage received the Best Book Award from the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society; the Letitia Woods Brown Honorable Mention Award from the Association of Black Women Historians; and was a finalist for the Pauli Murray Prize for Best Book in African American Intellectual History from the African American Intellectual History Society.   Feature image: IDF soldiers preparing for ground activity in Gaza. Wikimedia   The post Biden’s Continued Support for the War on Gaza appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Gregg Mitman is the Vilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History, Medical History, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. An award-winning author and filmmaker, his recent films and books include The Land Beneath Our Feet;  Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes; and his latest, Empire of Rubber: Firestone’s Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia.   The post Liberia: From the American Colonization Society to Firestone appeared first on KPFA.

Part I. Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti 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. Part II. Poverty and Homelessness at Home  Guests: Tiny Lisa Gray Garcia (@povertyskola) is co-founder of Poor News Magazine. Leroy Moore, po’ poet, founder of Krip Hop Nation.     The post Haiti’s Disaster Capitalism & Poverty and Homelessness at Home appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Héctor Lindo-Fuentes is Professor Emeritus of History at Fordham University. He is the author of several books including Weak Foundations: The Economy of El Salvador in the Nineteenth Century 1821-1898;  Remembering a Massacre in El Salvador: The Insurrection of 1932, Roque Dalton, and the Politics of Historical Memory; and his most recent, co-authored with Erik Ching, Modernizing Minds in El Salvador: Education Reform and the Cold War, 1960-1980.  His latest book in Spanish is El Alborotador de Centroamérica: El Salvador Frente al Imperio.       The post A History of Authoritarianism in El Salvador 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: The Only Way Trump Stays on the Ballot Is if the Supreme Court Rejects the Constitution.    Photo (c): Wikimedia  The post Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Trump’s State Ballot Eligibility appeared first on KPFA.

Part I. Immigration Politics of an Election Year Guest: Todd Miller is an independent journalist, border policy expert, and author of several books including Border Patrol Nation, Storming the Wall, Empire of Borders, and his latest Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders. Part II. A History of the War on Immigrants: The Border in 1990’s Guest: John Carlos Frey is an investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of is the author of the new book Sand and Blood: America’s Stealth War on the Mexico Border.   Photo credit: Wikimedia The post A History of the War on Immigrants & the Immigration Politics of an Election Year appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Roger D Rapport is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and playwright.  He is the author of Searching for Patty Hearst.  You can find more at pattyhearst.com The post The Symbionese Liberation Army & The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Mark A. Graber is the University System of Maryland Regents Professor at Maryland Carey Law. Professor Graber is a leading scholar on constitutional law and politics. He is the author of A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism (2013), Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil (2006); and his latest, Punish Treason, Reward Loyalty: The Forgotten Goals of Constitutional Reform after the Civil War.  The post Section 3 of the 14th Amendment & The Disqualification of a President appeared first on KPFA.

Part 1: Dismissal of the Palestine v. Biden case in Federal Court  Guest: Marc Van Der Hout is a practicing attorney and the founding member of Van Der Hout, LLP.  He is a Co-Counsel in the case Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden. The court denied the plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion and granted the government’s motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that it lacked jurisdiction over the administration’s conduct of foreign relations. While Dismissing Case on Jurisdictional Grounds, U.S. Judge “Implores” Biden Administration to Stop its “Unflagging Support” for Israel’s Ongoing Siege of the Palestinian People in Gaza (CCRJustice.org) The Case The lawsuit was filed in U.S. federal court against President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin for failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide in Gaza.   Part 2. The Radical Origins of Black History Month Guest: Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History & African American Studies at the University of Houston.  He is the author of more than three dozen books including White Supremacy Confronted: US Imperialism & Anticommunism vs the Liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela, The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, and White Supremacy and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean.  His latest is The Bittersweet Science: racism, racketeering, and the political economy of boxing. The post Case of Genocide Complicity Against Biden Dismissed & Gerald Horne on the Radical Origins of Black History Month appeared first on KPFA.

Jefferson Cowie holds the James G. Stahlman chair in history at Vanderbilt University.  He is the author of several books, including Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, and his latest, Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History, 2023). The post The Meaning of Freedom: A History of White Resistance to Federal Power appeared first on KPFA.

Genocide: Meaning & History   Guest: Barry Trachtenberg is the Michael H. and Deborah K. Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History at Wake Forest University, NC.  He is the author of The Revolutionary Roots of Modern Yiddish, The United States and the Nazi Holocaust: Race, Refuge, and Remembrance (Perspectives on the Holocaust);  and The Holocaust & the Exile of Yiddish A History of the Algemeyne Entsiklopedye. As an expert on Genocide, Professor Trachtenberg testified in support of the plaintiffs of the lawsuit Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden seeking an emergency order to stop US military and diplomatic aid for the Israeli government’s genocidal assault on Gaza. To see the Federal Courts Recording of the Hearing on January 26, 2024 go to: Defense for Children International-Palestine v. Biden Motion for Preliminary Injunctive Relief January 26, 2024 The post Genocide: Meaning & History appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Marc Van Der Hout is Counsel in the case Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden.  Mr. Van Der Hout is a practicing attorney and the founding member of Van Der Hout, LLP. The Case Palestinian human rights organizations, together with Palestinians in Gaza and the U.S., filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court against President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin for the U.S. officials’ failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide against them, their families, and the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza.  The case was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Van Der Hout LLP. The post Unfolding the Genocide: Palestine Takes on Biden appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Adam Shatz is the US editor of the London Review of Books and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is the author of Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination and 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.

Part I. (LIVE) Protest at L3Harris in San Leandro, California. L3Harris is a local manufacturer responsible for developing weapons technology that has targeted medical workers and infrastructure in Gaza. Guest:  Dr. Jess Ghannam is a Professor of Psychiatry and Global Health at the University of California, San Francisco. He has worked in Gaza and the Middle East for over 25 years. Protest at L3Harris https://kpfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/VIDEO-2024-01-24-11-54-48.mp4 jQuery(document).ready(function($) { var media = $('#video-414773-2'); media.on('canplay', function (ev) { this.currentTime = 0; }); }); Part II. Analysis of the Solidarity Movement with the People of Palestine Guest: Lara Kiswani is the Executive Director of the Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC).   The post Solidarity with the People of Palestine: The Global and Local Movement (LIVE at L3Harris) appeared first on KPFA.

Guests: Nicholas F. Jacobs is a professor of government at Colby College. He is co-author of “What Happened to the Vital Center? Presidentialism, Populist Revolt, and the Fracturing of America” and his latest, “The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America” co-authored with Daniel M. Shea. Daniel M. Shea is professor and chair of government at Colby College. He is the author of “Why Vote? Essential Questions About the Future of Elections in America” and “The Rural Voter” with Nicholas F. Jacobs. The post New Hampshire Primary & the Rural Voter appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Shireen Al-Adeimi is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and assistant professor of language and literacy at Michigan State University’s College of Education.   Photo credit: Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on Wikimedia. The Bab-el-Mandeb, meaning “Gate of Tears” in Arabic, is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, Djibouti and Eritrea, north of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, and connecting the Red Sea to the Guardafui Channel and Gulf of Aden. It is sometimes called the Mandab Strait in the English language. The post The Houthis & Yemen: A 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 – January 18, 2024 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 – January 17, 2024 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 – January 16, 2024 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 – January 15, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, holds public hearings on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by South Africa in the case South Africa v. Israel on 11 and 12 January 2024, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court. Guest: Almudena Bernabeu is a renowned international human rights lawyer. She is the co-founder and director of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers.  Ms Bernabeu has been involved in the investigation and prosecution of several cases and human rights violations in Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe, including the historic judgment of former president of Guatemala, Efrain Rios Montt, who in May 2013 was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity against the Ixil Maya people. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison. The post Public Hearings in the Case South Africa v. Israel – Oral argument of South Africa appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, is the author of several books including his latest, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation From the Persian. The post The US Politics in the Middle East & The South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Ryan Grim is DC bureau chief for The Intercept, co-host of the show Counter Points and Deconstructed, and author of the books “We’ve Got People,” “This Is Your Country On Drugs,” and his latest, “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.”         The post Th Israeli Lobby and the Squad 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: Kevin McCarthy’s Final Act of Retribution Totally Screws Over the House GOP.  With his exit from the House, the embittered former speaker leaves his caucus with a collapsed majority that may not be able to govern.   Photo (c): Wikimedia commons. The post The Supreme Court & Trump’s Eligibility for Colorado Primary Ballot appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: James M. Scott is the author of several books including Rampage, Target Tokyo, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and his latest is Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb. The post The Firebombing of Tokyo and the Road to the Atomic Bomb appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Farah Karim-Cooper is a professor of Shakespeare studies at King’s College London and Director of Education at Shakespeare’s Globe. She is the author of The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race. The post Shakespeare & Race appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Ussama Makdisi is Professor of History and Chancellor’s Chair at the University of California Berkeley. He is the author of the Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World. The post An Age of Coexistence in Palestine appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Greg King is an award-winning journalist and activist credited with spearheading the movement to protect Headwaters Forest, in Humboldt County, California. He is the author of The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods The post The California Redwoods: A History of Plunder & Resistance appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Yunte Huang is a Guggenheim Fellow and a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History. The post The Life & Times of Anna May Wong appeared first on KPFA.

Mae Ngai is the author of The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics. The post The Opium Wars, The Gold Rush and the Formation of Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Bart D. Ehrman is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity.  He is a Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End. The post The Biblical Apocalypse & Its Real World Consequences appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a renown scholar of indigenous and radical history and author of the award winning book An Indigenous People’s History of the United States. Her latest book is called Not A Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion. The post A History of Settler Colonialism appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Phyllis Bennis is an expert on the Middle East, she directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She’s a senior advisor to Jewish Voice for Peace and author of several  books including her latest, Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.  Phyllis Bennis’ latest writings:  Foreign Policy in Focus Some Facts for the Unconvinced: Why we Need a Gaza Ceasefire Now In These Times The Christmas Truce of 1914 and the Demand for a Cease-Fire in Gaza   Photo (c): Wikipedia commons The post On Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism with Phyllis Bennis appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: James Risen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. Throughout his career, Risen’s explosive investigative reporting has triggered a series of political firestorms. Among his best-selling books are State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration; Pay Any Price: Greed, Power and Endless War; and his latest, The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy co-authored with Thomas Risen.   The post The Church Committee: Investigating Assassinations, Coups, and the Drugging of Americans appeared first on KPFA.

Guest:  Ilan Pappe is the Director of European Center of Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. He has published many books on the Middle East and on the Palestine Question, including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Modern Middle East, Ten Myths about Israel, and A History of Modern Palestine.   The post An Update on the Oakland’s Menorah & A History of the Palestinian Resistance with Ilan Pappe appeared first on KPFA.

KPFA’s host Philip Maldari talks to John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation magazine about the latest in Congress and Trump’s conspiracies. John Nichols is also the author of several books including his latest, co-written with Senator Bernie Sanders, is It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism. His writing can be found at the Nation.     Photo (c): Nation 150th in Seattle, 2015 – John Nichols The post Trump’s Conspiracy Theories And an Update on Congress with John Nichols appeared first on KPFA.

Guest:  Dr. Penny Rosenwasser is a white queer Ashkenazi Jewish educator and activist. She is the author most recently of the  award-winning book “Hope into Practice: Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite Our Fears.”  She co-teaches a class on Antisemitism / Anti-Arabism with a Palestinian colleague at City College of San Francisco.  She is a founding board member of Jewish Voice for Peace and helps lead racial justice work at Kehilla Community Synagogue in Oakland.  She is also former KPFA radio host and producer!   The post KPFA Special – Oakland’s Menorah and Xenophobia in America: Antisemitism and Anti-Arabism appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University. He is the author or the editor of several books including Was the Red Flag Flying There? Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel 1948-1965; The independent left in Israel, 1967-1993: Essays in memory of Noam Kaminer; The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry Culture: Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora; and A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa.   Photo (c): Den Haag (The Hague), The Netherlands/Tel Aviv- Diaspora Museum on Wikimedia Commons     The post KPFA Special – A History of the The Jewish Diaspora appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Timothy Brennan is the author of several books, including At Home in the World: Cosmopolitanism Now; Borrowed Light: Vico, Hegel, and the Colonies; and Salman Rushdie and the Third World: Myths of the Nation, and his latest, Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said.  Professor Brennan teaches in the humanities at the University of Minnesota. The post KPFA Special – Edward Said: A Life appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Ilan Pappe is the Director of European Center of Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. He has published many books on the Middle East and on the Palestine Question including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Modern Middle East, Ten Myths about Israel, and  A History of Modern Palestine. The post KPFA Special – A History of Palestinian Resistance with Ilan Pappe appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Max Dashu is the founder of Suppressed Histories Archives. Since 1970 Max Dashu has been researching and documenting women’s history on a global scale.  She is the author of several books including her latest Women in Greek Mythography: Pythias, Melissa, and Titanides.     Ancient Tales Pack $350 (3 books and the L&P Digital Ancient History Collection) Support KPFA!! Get the Ancient Tales Pack: Women in Greek Mythography by Max Dashu, The Iliad & The Odyssey Translated by Emily Wilson, and the Letters & Politics Digital Ancient History Collection   The post KPFA Special – The Untold Story of Women Throughout History appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania.  She is the first woman who translated the ancient Greek epic story, the Odyssey by Homer, into English language. The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. It is about how we find community, how we find who gets to be in a particular community, and what does it mean that some people belong and other people don’t belong. It’s a poem that resonates with current issues we have in our culture   KPFA is offering The Ancient War & Sorrow Pack $250 With The Iliad and The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson Plus the Letters & Politics Ancient History Collection.  Support your Independent, Free-Speech Radio Station!!! The post KPFA Special – The Odyssey, Why It Still Matters Today & The Ancient War & Sorrow Pack appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: 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. The post KPFA Special – The Iliad: War, Rage, and Sorrow appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Ussama Makdisi is Professor of History and Chancellor’s Chair at the University of California Berkeley. Professor Makdisi is the author of several books including, The Culture of Sectarianism, Artillery of Heaven, Faith Misplaced, and his latest, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World.   The post The Age of Coexistence in Palestine appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University.  He is the author or the editor of several books including “Was the Red Flag Flying There? Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel 1948-1965;” “The independent left in Israel, 1967-1993: Essays in memory of Noam Kaminer;” “The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry Culture: Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora;” and “A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa.”   Image credit: Arc_de_Triumph, Wikipedia commons   The post A History of the The Jewish Diaspora appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Mitri Raheb is the President of Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem as well as the president of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. He serves as the Senior Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Palestine. In 2015 he was awarded the Olof Palme Prize, along with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy.  He is the author of many books, including The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire;  Surviving Jewel: The Enduring Story of Christianity in the Middle East; The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire;  I Am a Palestinian Christian: God and Politics in the Holy Land: A Personal Testimony; and his latest, Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible.   The post A History of Zionism and Settler Colonialism (Part II) appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Benny Morris is a former journalist and a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Photo (c): Jewish community in the Land of Israel under Mamluk and Ottoman rule, 1895. Wikipedia The post A History of Zionism and Settler Colonialism (Part I) appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Dr. Sultan Barakat is a Professor of Public Policy at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University and an Honorary Professor at the University of York.   Dr. Barakat has written extensively on issues of conflict resolution, humanitarian response, state building and post-conflict recovery and transition. Professor Barakat founded the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and directed it between 2016 and 2022. Previously, he served as the Director of Research at the Brookings Institutions Doha Center. At the University of York, he founded and led the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit between 1993 and 2019. His book ‘After the Conflict: Reconstruction and Development in the Aftermath of War’, published by IB Tauris, was reprinted twice, in 2005 and 2010. He has also written books on the reconstruction of both Afghanistan and Iraq. His most recent book, ‘Understanding Influence: The Use of State building Research in British Policy’ was published by Ashgate in 2014. The post The Current Israel-Hamas Deal and the Future of the Palestinian People appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: David Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post and a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and was a finalist three other times.  Among his bestselling books are biographies of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Roberto Clemente, and Vince Lombardi, Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, They Marched into Sunlight (winner of the J. Anthony Lucas Prize and Pulitzer Finalist in History), and his latest, Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe. The post Jim Thorpe: From Boarding School to Champion 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: Claudio Saunt is Richard B. Russell Professor in American History and Co-Director of the Center for Virtual History at the University of Georgia. He is the author of such books including, West of the Revolution (2014), Black, White, and Indian (2005), and A New Order of Things (1999). His most recent book, Unworthy Republic (2020), was awarded the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has developed several online projects, including the Invasion of America and, with Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana. The post Dispossession: The Indian Removal Act of 1830 appeared first on KPFA.

Part 1: Aileen Alfandary’s Documentary on Spain’s Memory Law. Photo (c): Aileen Alfandary. In The picture is Emilio Silva, founder of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory.  He’s holding the ring of his grandfather who was executed in 1936 by the forces of former dictator Francisco Franco. Part 2: Nicolas Sanchez-Albornoz escaped Fascism three times in the 20th century. He is Professor Emeritus and former William Kenan Jr. Professor at New York University, Spanish and Latin American History and was the first director of the Cervantes Institute. The post Escaping & Remembering Fascism 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 – November 16, 2023 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 – November 15, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

Our regularly scheduled programming is preempted from 6am to 9pm (PST) today for a special fundraiser. During this one-day event, we air old and new broadcasts that demonstrate the richness of the Pacifica Radio Archives and how important it is that we ensure their preservation and accessibility. We appreciate your understanding and support in contributing to the success of this important initiative.   The post Preempted for Pacifica Radio Archives Fundraiser 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 How Pirates Halted The Slave Trade appeared first on KPFA.