KPFA - Letters and Politics

Guest: Dr. Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th century United States with broad  interests in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and  Women’s and Gender Studies. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of  Pittsburgh and the president of the African American Intellectual History Society.  She is the author of the book Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America. On Twitter (@keishablain), and on Instagram (@keishanblain). The post Fannie Lou Hamer: A Life appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Sam Quinones is a journalist and former Los Angeles Times reporter, and author of three books including the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic.  His latest book is called The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.         The post The New Killer Drugs: Fentanyl & Synthetic Meth appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Rich Rubino is a political analyst and author of several books including his latest, The Great American Political Trivia Challenge: Political Trivia on Steroids.  He is a contributor with The Huffington Post.     The post The Trivia Challenge of the Political Landscape appeared first on KPFA.

Part I – An update on the Build Back Better Plan Host Mitch Jeserich analyses the current situation of the Build Back Better legislation in Congress. Part II – Tax the Rich! How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer Guests: Erica Payne is founder and president of the Patriotic Millionaires. She is the author of The Practical Progressive! and the co-author, with Morris Pearl, of Tax the Rich!. Morris Pearl is a former managing director of BlackRock. He is chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and the co-author, with Erica Payne, of Tax the Rich!. The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of hundreds of high-net-worth Americans committed to making all Americans better off by building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation, and ensuring that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay their fair share of taxes.   The post Tax the Rich! & The Build Back Better Plan appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Amitav Ghosh is an award winning novelist and essayist. In 2007 he was awarded India’s highest civilian award the Padma Shri.  He is the author of several books including Ibis Trilogy (Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire), The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, Gun Island, and his latest, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis.  The post The Banda Islands Genocide, Western Imperialism and the Root of Our Ecological Crisis appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and former New York Times bureau chief in the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo, and Shanghai. He is the author of the book Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War The post Africa and the Making of the Modern World appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Tina Gerhardt is an environmental journalist who has covered the annual climate negotiations over a decade.  She is covering the current talks for The Nation and Sierra Magazine. She is also the Barron Professor of Environment at the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University.  Follow her on Twitter at @TinaGerhardtEJ Her latest piece in The Nation is called This Is the Decade to Reduce Emissions The post Previewing the COP 26 Meeting appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Michael Woo is an urban planner and was the first Asian American elected to the Los Angeles City Council.  Mr. Woo represents the third generation of his family involved in L.A.’s Chinese community.  His article After 150 Years, Is L.A. Ready to Remember the Chinese Massacre? can be found here. Mr. Woo is the Narrator of the new film Buried History. “Buried History” is a new 35-minute video documentary about the Chinese massacre of 1871 produced and written by Elaine Woo, directed by Cameron LeeWong, and research and illustrations by John LeeWong. Feature image by John LeeWong for the documentary, Buried History. The post The Chinese Los Angeles Massacre of 1871 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Beth Shapiro is a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where her work has centered on the analysis of ancient DNA.  She is the author of How to Clone a Mammoth, which won the AAAS science writing award, and her latest, Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined—and Redefined—Nature. The post How Humans Shaped the World In 50,000 Years appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Marc David Baer is professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  He is the author of several books, including Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe, which won the Albert Hourani Prize and his latest, The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs.  The post The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs appeared first on KPFA.