KPFA - Letters and Politics

Guest: Dr. Maya Kornberg is a political scientist and fellow in the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law and author of Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process.   The post How Congress Works: Function and Dysfunction appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania.  She is the first woman who translated the ancient Greek epic story, The Odyssey by Homer, into the English language. The post KPFA Special – The Odyssey, Why it Matters Today appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Rachel E. Gross is an award-winning science journalist and the author of the latest book Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage. She writes for BBC Future, the New York Times, and Scientific American. The post The Vagina: A History appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: V (formerly Eve Ensler) is a Tony Award–winning playwright, author, performer, and activist. Her international phenomenon The Vagina Monologues has been published in 48 languages and performed in more than 140 countries.  She is the founder of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, and One Billion Rising, the largest global mass action to end gender-based violence in over 200 countries. She is a co-founder of the City of Joy, a revolutionary center for women survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with Christine Schuler Deschryver and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege. V is the author of several books including, The Apology, I Am an Emotional Creature, In the Body of the World, and her latest, Reckoning. The post V (formerly Eve Ensler) on Writing, Memory, and the Power of an Apology appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Judy Heumann (1947- 2023) was a pioneering disability rights activist and international advisory on disability, on the history of the disability rights movement. Judy was a founding member of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living which was the first grassroots center in the United States and helped to launch the Independent Living Movement both nationally and globally.  In 1983, Judy co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID) with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon, as one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and continually led by people with disabilities that works to fully integrate people with disabilities into the communities around them via research, policy, and consulting efforts. Photo credit: Judith Heumann website, & ACLU. The post KPFA Special – Homage to Judy Heumann; Disability Rights Pioneer appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Margaret Cerullo is a professor of Sociology and Feminist Studies at Hampshire College and a member of the Colectivo Relámpago/Lightning Collective which put together the book  Zapatista Stories for Dreaming An-Other World by Subcomandante Marcos. The post KPFA Special – Zapatista Stories for Dreaming Another World appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Charisse Burden-Stelly is associate Professor of African American studies at Wayne state. and a member of the Black Alliance for Peace Research and Political Education Team. She is the c-editor, along with Jodi Dean, of the book Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women’s Political Writing.   Photo credit: Charisse Burden-Stelly’s website The post KPFA Fund Drive Special – How Black Women Shaped the Communist Party in America appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History at UCLA. He is the author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. The post KPFA Special – Robin D.G. Kelley: A History of Black Radicalism appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning author and foreign correspondent.  He is a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.  He is the author of many books including, Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.  On the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (February 24, 2022), he wrote the piece Putin & Zelensky: Sinners and saints who fit our historic narrative. Think about why the West wants to invoke WWII and the Cold War here, and then ask whether it’s been productive. You can click here to find it.   Photo credit: rawpixel.com / Sergeant Matt Hecht The post KPFA Special – The Media Coverage of the War in Ukraine appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Kim Kelly is an independent journalist, author, and organizer. She has been a regular labor columnist for Teen Vogue since 2018. She is the author of Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor.   The post Fund Drive Special – The Untold History of American Labor appeared first on KPFA.