KPFA - Letters and Politics
Letters & Politics seeks to explore the history behind today’s major global and national news stories. Hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
Latest episodes

May 8, 2025 • 55min
The Life & Works of Frantz Fanon
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.

May 7, 2025 • 49min
The Corporate Origins of Colonialism: The East India Company
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.

May 6, 2025 • 60min
How Ancient India Changed The World: From Buddhism to Math
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.

May 5, 2025 • 60min
When Science & Magic Intermingled
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.

May 1, 2025 • 60min
The Life & Times of Lucy Parsons
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.

Apr 30, 2025 • 60min
When Workers Shot Back
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.

Apr 29, 2025 • 60min
Hitler’s First 100 Days
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.

Apr 28, 2025 • 13sec
America: What’s In A Name?
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.

Apr 24, 2025 • 60min
Women In The Ancient World
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.

Apr 23, 2025 • 60min
What Monsters Tell Us About Us
Guest: Natalie Lawrence, author of Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meaning.
The post What Monsters Tell Us About Us appeared first on KPFA.
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