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

Jun 19, 2023 • 60min
Henrietta Wood: A Legacy of Slavery and Reparations in America
Guest: W. Caleb McDaniel is associate professor of history at Rice University in Houston. He won the Pulitzer price in History in 2020 for his book, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America.
The post Henrietta Wood: A Legacy of Slavery and Reparations in America appeared first on KPFA.

Jun 15, 2023 • 60min
Before We Were Trans: A 3,500 Year History
Guest: Kit Heyam is a university lecturer, a queer history activist, and a trans awareness trainer and author of Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender.
The post Before We Were Trans: A 3,500 Year History appeared first on KPFA.

Jun 14, 2023 • 60min
In Conversation with Norman Solomon
Guest: Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.
The post In Conversation with Norman Solomon appeared first on KPFA.

Jun 13, 2023 • 60min
The Rising Oceans & Trump’s Handling of Classified Documents
Part I: Trump’s Handling of Classified Documents
Guest: Mel Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. He was an analyst at the CIA for 24 years.
Part II: The Rising Ocean
Guest: Christina Gerhardt is Associate Professor and Founder of the Environmental Humanities Initiative at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Permanent Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley. She is the author of Sea Change: Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean.
The post The Rising Oceans & Trump’s Handling of Classified Documents appeared first on KPFA.

Jun 12, 2023 • 60min
Trump Federal Indictment & The History of the Espionage Act of 1917
Trump Federal Indictment & The History of the Espionage Act of 1917
Part I: Trump Indictment
Guest: Mitch Perry is the senior political reporter for the Florida Phoenix.
Part II: The History of the Espionage Act (Repeat)
Guest: Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.
The post Trump Federal Indictment & The History of the Espionage Act of 1917 appeared first on KPFA.

Jun 8, 2023 • 60min
A History & The Case for Black Reparations
Guest: William A. Darity Jr. is Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics and founding director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. With A. Kirsten Mullen, he is author of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century. Most recently, he is one of the editors of The Pandemic Divide: How COVID Increased Inequality in America. His latest is The Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice co-authored with Kirsten Mullen.
Guest: A. Kirsten Mullen is an independent scholar, folklorist and the founder of Artefactual, an arts consulting practice, and Carolina Circuit Writers, a literary consortium that brings expressive writers of color to the Carolinas. Her most recent book is From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century and The Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice.
The Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice Edited by William A. Darity Jr., A. Kirsten Mullen, & Lucas Hubbard
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Jun 7, 2023 • 60min
Money, Power, & Murder: The Beginnings of Stanford University
Guest: Richard White is Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Emeritus, at Stanford University. He is the author of Who Killed Jane Stanford?: A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits and the Birth of a University.
The post Money, Power, & Murder: The Beginnings of Stanford University appeared first on KPFA.

Jun 6, 2023 • 60min
Radical By Nature:The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace
Guest: James T. Costa is professor of biology and executive director of the Highlands Biological Station at Western Carolina University. He is the author of Radical by Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace.
The post Radical By Nature:The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace appeared first on KPFA.

Jun 5, 2023 • 60min
A History of Affirmative Action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRIbOoJzPjg
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
The post A History of Affirmative Action appeared first on KPFA.

Jun 1, 2023 • 37min
The Pornography Wars
Guest: Kelsy Burke is an award-winning sociologist of religion, gender, sexuality, and politics in the United States. Her research has examined a wide range of topics, including debates over pornography, religious freedom laws and LGBT rights, evangelical women’s ministries, and the Christian sex advice industry. She is the author of Christians Under Covers: Evangelicals and Sexual Pleasure on the Internet, which won the American Sociological Association Section on Religion 2017 Distinguished Book Award. Her latest book is The Pornography Wars: The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Obscene Obsession. She is an Associate Professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
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