KPFA - Letters and Politics

Guest: D.D. Guttenplan is editor of The Nation magazine.  He is the author of several books including American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone,  The Nation: A Biography, and The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority. The post D.D. Guttenplan on the History of the Nation Magazine and the Politics of Today appeared first on KPFA.

I. Viet Thanh Nguyen on the Roots of Trump’s Imperial Ambitions Guest: Viet Thanh Nguyen is a professor of English, American studies and ethnicity, and comparative literature at the University of Southern California. He is the author of the novel The Sympathizer which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His article Greater America: Exporting Disunion was featured in the July/August 2025 of the Nation Magazine.   II. The US Bombing of Iran Guest: Phyllis Bennis is co-director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).  She is the author of several books including Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer and her latest, Understanding Palestine & Israel.  The post Viet Thanh Nguyen: In War Americans Experience Blowback; Then, US Bombing of Iran appeared first on KPFA.

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. Photo: Henrietta Wood was enslaved at Brandon Hall in Mississippi on Wikipedia. The post Henrietta Wood: A Legacy of Slavery and Reparations in America appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Jason De León is an anthropologist who spent nearly seven years following and interviewing human smugglers in Mexico. He is a professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies and director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also executive director of the Undocumented Migration Project and the author of the book Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling. The post The Lives of Smugglers (Coyotes) appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Stephen Zunes is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies.  He is the author of “Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism”, and the co-author of  “Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution.”   Photo credit: Wikimedia commons. The post The Israel-Iran Conflict and Trump’s Mega-Bomb appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Andrew Hartman is professor of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School, and his latest, Karl Marx in America.   The post Karl Marx’s Influence in the US appeared first on KPFA.

Host Mitch Jeserich recounts the story of a protest known as the “Bath Riots.” The riots are known to have been started by Carmelita Torres and lasted from January 28 to January 30 and were sparked by new immigration policies at the El Paso–Juárez Immigration and Naturalization Service office, requiring Mexicans crossing the border to take de-lousing baths.  Carmelita Torres who crossed the border daily from Juarez to clean houses in El Paso.  She refused to take a toxic disinfectant bath. Press accounts estimated that, by noon, she was joined by several thousand demonstrators at the border bridge. When others saw their resistance they joined in by protesting as well. Within an hour, there were more than 200 women blocking the entrance to El Paso. By the end of the demonstration, there were several thousand protesters. Once the officers tried to break up the crowd, the demonstrators threw rocks at them. They laid in front of trains and vehicles. When police aimed their guns into the crowd, they responded by yelling louder. The police were unable to break them up and she was arrested. After her arrest, she went missing. Until this day, it is not known what happened to her (Wikipedia).   Photo: El Paso disinfection station and Mexicans waiting to be de-loused at the international bridge at the US immigration station on Wikipedia The post The Bath Riots of 1917 & the People’s Response to Racist Immigration Policies appeared first on KPFA.

Caroline Fraser, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author known for her work on Laura Ingalls Wilder, dives into the chilling world of serial killers and their possible links to environmental toxins. She discusses the alarming rise of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and how lead exposure may correlate with violent behavior. Fraser also examines notorious figures like Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez, shedding light on society's obsession with true crime and the broader implications of toxic pollution on community violence.

Guest: David Bacon is a photojournalist, author, political activist, and union organizer. His work focuses on labor issues, particularly those related to immigrant labor. He has written several books and numerous articles on the subject. He is the author of The Children of NAFTA, Communities Without Borders, Illegal People, The Right to Stay Home, and In the Fields of the North. Photo by David Bacon. At a protest against immigration detentions in Santa Maria, CA, a young woman holds a sign honoring the work her parents have done as farmworkers, June 2025. The post The Military Response to Sanctuary Cities & Immigrant’s Right to Work appeared first on KPFA.

Guests:  Sonali Kolhatkar is an award winning journalist, broadcaster, writer, and author. She is the founder, host, and executive producer of Rising Up With Sonali that airs at KPFK, KPFA and the Pacifica Radio stations. She is also a Senior Editor at YES! Media, and the author most recently of Talking About Abolition: A Police-Free World is Possible. Ben Camacho is an investigative journalist and documentary photographer. His work focuses on state-sponsored violence and the communities impacted by it.  He is part of The Southlander, a new worker-led outlet in the LA area.  He has been covering the ICE raids in LA. Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.  Her articles can be found on Truthout.org. Mohamed Shehk is with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. He talks about Trump’s attacks on immigrants and his latest travel ban. AROC is organizing in the Bay Area to prepare, respond and resist these attacks.   Photo credit: Ben Camacho, ICE Raids, Compton, CA, 2025 The post Trump’s Deployment of the National Guard to LA appeared first on KPFA.