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

Apr 1, 2025 • 19min
Live: Senator Cory Booker Protesting the Trump Administration’s Policies on the Senate Floor
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.

Mar 31, 2025 • 60min
Cesar Chavez & the Farmworkers’ Struggle
Guest: Miriam Pawel is an award-winning reporter and editor who spent twenty-five years working for Newsday and the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography.
The post Cesar Chavez & the Farmworkers’ Struggle appeared first on KPFA.

Mar 27, 2025 • 6min
Gutting the Federal Work Force. Then, Advocating for Gender Diversity in Sports
Part 1. Gutting the Federal Work Force
Guest: Eric Blanc is a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University, Eric Blanc is author of the substack Labor Politics as well as the new book We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. Blanc is an organizer trainer for the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee.
Part 2. Advocating for Gender Diversity in Sports
Harrison Browne is the first transgender athlete in professional hockey. He is the appointed inclusion leader for the NWHL advisory board and special ambassador for the National Hockey League’s Hockey Is for Everyone initiative. He is the author with Rachel Browne of the forthcoming book Let Us Play: Winning the Battle for Gender Diverse Athletes.
Rachel Browne is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary producer whose work appears has several outlets including VICE News, POLITICO, and many others. She is coauthor with Harrison Browne of Let Us Play: Winning the Battle for Gender Diverse Athletes.
The post Gutting the Federal Work Force. Then, Advocating for Gender Diversity in Sports appeared first on KPFA.

Mar 26, 2025 • 60min
A History of Twentieth Century Social Movements
Guest: Linda Gordon is Professor Emerita of History at New York University. She is the winner of two Bancroft Prizes for best book in American history, most lately she is the author of Seven Social Movements That Changed America.
The post A History of Twentieth Century Social Movements appeared first on KPFA.

Mar 25, 2025 • 26min
Ruth Conniff: First 64 Days of the Trump Regime & Nihilism in the Wisconsin Supreme Court
Guest: Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner. She is the author of “Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers” which won the 2022 Studs and Ida Terkel award from The New Press.
Photo: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead on Public domain
The post Ruth Conniff: First 64 Days of the Trump Regime & Nihilism in the Wisconsin Supreme Court appeared first on KPFA.

Mar 24, 2025 • 23min
The German Peasant’s War
Guest: Lyndal Roper is Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford. She is the author of several books including, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet; Witch Craze, and her latest, Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War.
The post The German Peasant’s War appeared first on KPFA.

Mar 20, 2025 • 3min
Deportations and the Abuse of War Time Powers
Guests:
Raquel E. Aldana is Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. Professor Aldana teaches criminal procedure, asylum and refugee law, immigration law and policy, comparative forced displacement, and immigration federalism.
Miguel Tinker Salas is Emeritus professor of History and Latin American studies at Pomona College. He is co-author of Venezuela: Hugo Chavez and the Decline of an Exceptional Democracy and author of Under the Shadow of the Eagles and The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela. His latest book is Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know.
Photo: Soldiers and police officers that staff the CECOT prison in El Salvador on Wikimedia
The post Deportations and the Abuse of War Time Powers appeared first on KPFA.

Mar 19, 2025 • 3min
The Irish Potato Famine and Its Consequences
Guest: Padraic X. Scanlan is an associate professor at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Slave Empire, Freedom’s Debtors, and his latest, Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine.
The post The Irish Potato Famine and Its Consequences appeared first on KPFA.

Mar 18, 2025 • 60min
The Second Red Scare & Political Deportations
Guest: Michelle Chen is a postdoctoral fellow in history at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She teaches labor and working-class history, studies the intersection of work, migration and social movements, and has covered labor issues as a journalist.
She has also been a contributor to The Nation, In These Times, The Progressive, and Dissent, and has produced two podcasts, Belabored and Asia Pacific Forum
The post The Second Red Scare & Political Deportations appeared first on KPFA.

Mar 17, 2025 • 10min
Loretta Ross: Working with Opposition to Affect Change
Guest: Loretta J. Ross is an activist, public intellectual, and a professor of women, gender studies, reproductive rights, white supremacy, and human Rights. She is the author of many books including her latest “Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel.”
Photo: Center for American Progress’s photo (licensed as Attribution-NoDerivs)
The post Loretta Ross: Working with Opposition to Affect Change appeared first on KPFA.
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