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

Jul 10, 2025 • 45min
The Power of Agricultural Industry
Guest: Will Potter is an award-winning investigative journalist who focuses on social justice and environmental movements, and attacks on civil liberties post-9/11. He is the author of Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege and his latest, Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, from Farm to Fable.
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Jul 9, 2025 • 60min
The Proto-Indo-Europeans
Guest: Laura Spinney is a science journalist and the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World and most recently, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global.
The post The Proto-Indo-Europeans appeared first on KPFA.

Jul 8, 2025 • 60min
What it Means for Israel To Be a Jewish State
Guest: Yaacov Yadgar is the Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies at the University of Oxford and the author of several books including Israel’s Jewish Identity Crisis: State and Politics in the Middle East, and his latest To Be a Jewish State: Zionism as the New Judaism.
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Jul 7, 2025 • 60min
The Nature of Imperial Power with Mary Beard
Guest: Mary Beard is a renown classist and the author of the best-selling The Fires of Vesuvius, SPQR, and most lately, Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World.
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Jul 3, 2025 • 5min
Analysis: Megabill Final Vote in the House of Representatives & Hakeem Jeffries Marathonic Speech
Host Mitch Jeserich brings live analysis about the voting procedures of the megabill in the House of Representatives while Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delivers a marathonic speech that stalled the final vote for more than 8 hours claiming that allotting only one hour of debate on the content of a 900 pages bill was not enough. He decided to take his “sweet time” to compensate the lack of discussion on the bill.
Photo by Sogand Gh on Unsplash
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Jul 2, 2025 • 13min
Analysis of the Latest Version of Trump’s Megabill
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: Thom Tillis Figured Out How to Tell the Truth in Trump’s GOP Cult: Quit.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
The post Analysis of the Latest Version of Trump’s Megabill appeared first on KPFA.

Jul 1, 2025 • 60min
A Perspective on Zohran Mamdani’s Campaign
I. A Perspective on Zohran Mamdani’s Campaign
Guest: India Walton is former Democratic candidate for mayor in Buffalo who won the Democratic primary 2021 but the party turned against her and helped re-elect the incumbent mayor through a write in campaign. She is now the senior strategist for the national activist group Roots Action in Buffalo.
II. Capitalism’s Critics
Guest: John Cassidy is a journalist at The New Yorker and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. He is the author of Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI.
Photo by Bingjiefu He on Wikimedia
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Jun 30, 2025 • 60min
Erwin Chemerinsky on the Implications of Undoing Universal Injunctions. And, Analysis on the so called “Big Beautiful Bill”
I. The Big Beautiful Bill in the Senate
Host Mitch Jeserich gives his opinion of the so called “Big Beautiful Bill” currently in the Senate
II. Supreme Court’s Undoing Universal Injunctions
Guest: Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many books on constitutional law including his latest, No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.
Photo credit: Ron Cogswell on Wikimedia
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Jun 26, 2025 • 11min
Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare and Freud
Guest: Stephen Greenblatt is the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. His numerous books include The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, which won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. His latest is Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud co authored with Adam Phillips. He is also the general editor of The Norton Shakespeare.
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Jun 25, 2025 • 18min
Rebecca Solnit on No Straight Road Takes You There
Guest: Writer, historian, and activist, Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books, including Orwell’s Roses, and most lately No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain.
She cofounded the organization Not Too Late and coauthored the book Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility with Thelma Young Lutunatabua. She also launched Meditations in an Emergency, an independent publication.
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