KPFA - Letters and Politics

Guest: Francesca Lessa is a lecturer in Latin American studies and development University of Oxford. She is the author of Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay (2013) and The Condor Trials: Transnational Repression and Human Rights in South America (2022). She is the honorary president of the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu (Uruguay).   Foto credit: Entrevista Kissinger-Pinochet. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile, 1976 on Wikimedia. The post Operation Condor: A History of a Dirty War in Latin America appeared first on KPFA.

Part 1. Stephen Hawking and his Theory on the Origin of Time Guest: Thomas Hertog is an internationally renowned cosmologist who was for many years a close collaborator of the late Stephen Hawking. He is  professor of theoretical physics at the University of Leuven, where he studies the quantum nature of the big bang. He is the author of On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory.       Part 2. Raj Patel on The Ants & the Grasshopper Film Guest: Raj Patel Raj Patel is an award-winning author, filmmaker and academic. He is a research professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.  He is the author of Stuffed and Starved, co-author of Inflamed, and co-director of The Ants & The Grasshopper now streaming online. The post Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory. Then, Raj Patel on The Ants & the Grasshopper Film appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Julia Flynn Siler is a New York Times best-selling author and journalist. She is the author of The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Against Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown.   The post A History of Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown and the Abolitionist Movement appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University.  She is the author of One Person, No Vote; and her latest, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. The post The Second Amendment: How Slave Supporting Politicians Got Their Right to Quell Slave Revolts appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of History and African American Studies at Yale University.  He is the author of several books on Slavery and Abolition including, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.   The post The Intellectual Life of Frederick Douglas appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.  He is the author and co-author of several books including his latest, A Legacy of Discrimination: The Essential Constitutionality of Affirmative Action co-authored with Lee C. Bollinger.       photo (c): Anthony Quintano, 2022. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0   The post A History of Discrimination and the Supreme Court Ruling Against Affirmative Action 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: David S. Brown teaches history at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books including The Last American Aristocrat, Paradise Lost: A Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography, and his latest, The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson.   The post The Presidency of Andrew Jackson: The Bank War, Indian Removal, Slavery & the Expansion of Democracy appeared first on KPFA.

Guest:  Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of Rising Up with Sonali, a weekly television and radio program that airs on Free Speech TV and on Pacifica Radio station affiliates around the United States. Winner of numerous awards, including Best TV Anchor and Best National Political Commentary from the LA Press Club, she is currently the Racial Justice editor at Yes! Magazine and a Writing Fellow with the Independent Media Institute and the Co-Director of the Afghan Women’s Mission. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice.     Presented by KPFA and the Berkeley Public Library Sonali Kolhatkar in conversation with Cat Brooks Presented by KPFA and the Berkeley Public Library. WHEN: JUNE 28, 2023 @ 6:30 PM WHERE: NORTH BRANCH OF THE BERKELEY PUBLIC LIBRARY, 1170 THE ALAMEDA, BERKELEY CA 94707 The event is free to the public. No reservations required. The post A Conversation with Sonali Kolhatkar on Media, Race, and Justice appeared first on KPFA.

Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931 – June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers. In January 1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years. Because of governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering (which were committed by the same people who were later involved in the Watergate Scandal), all charges were dismissed against Mr. Ellsberg in May 1973. Mr. Ellsberg was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2006. He was also known for having formulated an important example in decision theory, the Ellsberg paradox; for his extensive studies on nuclear weapons and nuclear policy; and for voicing support for WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Ellsberg was awarded the 2018 Olof Palme Prize for his “profound humanism and exceptional moral courage.”     Photo (C): Wikimedia/ Bern Gross.  Daniel Ellsberg, speaking at a press conference in 1972, New York City by Gotfryd, Bernard. The post Honoring the Legacy and Memory of Daniel Ellsberg appeared first on KPFA.