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

Nov 21, 2024 • 60min
Jack Weatherford on Kublai Khan and the Making of China
Guest: Jack Weatherford is an anthropologist and author of the best-selling book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. He has spent over 25 years exploring Mongolia and its history, and his writing on the Mongol Empire has transformed our understanding of its long legacy. Jack Weatherford is the retired DeWitt Wallace Chair of Anthropology at Macalester College in Minnesota, and he is the only foreigner ever inducted into the Order of Chinggis Khaan, Mongolia’s highest national honor. His other books include The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, Genghis Khan and the Quest for God, Indian Givers: How Native Americans Transformed the World, The History of Money, and his latest, Emperor of the Seas: Kublai Khan and the Making of China.
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Nov 20, 2024 • 60min
The Religious Experience & Social Movements
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASFH_O4sDo4
Guest: Gary Dorrien is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. He is the author of more than twenty books and three hundred articles that range across social ethics, philosophy, theology, political economics, social and political theory, religious history, cultural criticism, and intellectual history. He is the recipient of many awards including the Grawemeyer Award in 2017 for his book The New Abolition: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel. His latest book is Over from Union Road My Christian-Left-Intellectual Life.
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Nov 19, 2024 • 60min
How to Dismantle a Republic: The Fall of the Weimar Republic
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 How to Dismantle a Republic: The Fall of the Weimar Republic appeared first on KPFA.

Nov 18, 2024 • 60min
John Nichols on Trump’s Cabinet Picks
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 article in the Nation is John Thune Once Objected to Trump. Does He Have the Courage to Do So Now?
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Nov 14, 2024 • 60min
A History of the Dreamers Movement
Guest: Rafael A. Martínez is an assistant professor in the Southwest Borderlands Initiative at Arizona State University whose work focuses on immigrant rights, mixed-status families, and Latinx cultural and historical productions in the Southwest borderlands. He is the author of Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States and is the founder of the podcast UndocuTalks.
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Nov 13, 2024 • 60min
Arun Gupta on Election Results & What Comes Next
Guest: Arun Gupta is an investigative reporter who has written for The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The Intercept, The Nation, The Guardian, YES Magazine, and other publications. He is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York and the author of the forthcoming “Apocalypse Chow: A Junk-Food-Loving Chef’s Inquiry into Taste” (The New Press). Subscribe on substack to read all of Arun’s reports, essays, and criticism, arunnews.substack.com.
The post Arun Gupta on Election Results & What Comes Next appeared first on KPFA.

Nov 12, 2024 • 60min
Richard Wolff on the Economy After the Election
Guest: Richard Wolff is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Visiting Professor at the New School in New York. He hosts the weekly program Economic Update and is the author of several books, including Understanding Capitalism.
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Nov 11, 2024 • 60min
Martin Niemöller: Then They Came For Me
Guest: Matthew D. Hockenos is the Harriet Johnson Toadvine ’56 Professor in 20th- Century History at Skidmore College. He is the author of A Church Divided: German Protestants Confront the Nazi Past, and his latest, Then They Came For Me: Martin Niemöller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis.
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Nov 7, 2024 • 60min
Mitch Jeserich’s Let’s Talk About the Election RESULTS! Part 2
Host Mitch Jeserich in conversation with listeners about elections 2024 and its implications.
The post Mitch Jeserich’s Let’s Talk About the Election RESULTS! Part 2 appeared first on KPFA.

Nov 6, 2024 • 60min
Mitch Jeserich’s Let’s Talk About the Election RESULTS!
From 11am-1pm PST, Mitch Jeserich hosts a 2-hour live national call-in show. All listeners are invited to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
Call-in numbers: (510)848-4425 or (800)958-9008
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