KPFA - Letters and Politics

Letters & Politics seeks to explore the history behind today’s major global and national news stories. Hosted by Mitch Jeserich.

Episodes

The Iliad: War, Rage, and Sorrow

May 22, 2025 • 12 mins

Host Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts of the Iliad by Homer and translated by Emily Wilson. Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance and early modern scholarship, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. In addition to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Senec...

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The Taoist & Christian: The Way of Chuang Tzu

May 21, 2025 • 8 mins

Mitch Jeserich reads excerpts from the classic writings The Way of Chuang Tzu translated by Thomas Merton. Thomas Merton composed a series of his own versions of the classic sayings of Chuang Tzu, the most spiritual of Chinese philosophers. Chuang Tzu, who wrote in the fourth and third centuries B.C., is the chief authentic historical spokesperson for Taoism and its founder Lao Tzu (a legendary character known largely through Chuan...

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Understanding the Psychology of Nazis

May 20, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: Laurence Rees is an award-winning English historian and documentary filmmaker. He has authored several books including The Holocaust: A New History, Hitler and Stalin, Auschwitz: A New History, and his latest, The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History. The post Understanding the Psychology of Nazis appeared first on KPFA.

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Ariel Dorfman on the Role of Beauty During Times of Chaos

May 19, 2025 • 59 mins

Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean-American author, born in Argentina. He is a prominent human rights activist who worked as press and cultural advisor to Salvador Allende in the final months before the 1973 military coup, and later spent many years in exile. He is the Walter Hines Page Emeritus Professor of Literature at Duke University and the author of many books including his latest, Allegro: A Novel. The post Ariel Dorfman on the Role...

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Resisting Occupation Across the Continent

May 15, 2025 • 59 mins

Guests: Tiny (Lisa) Gray-Garcia aka “PovertySkola” is a formerly unhoused, incarcerated, revolutionary journalist, lecturer, poet, visionary, teacher and single mama of Tiburcio, daughter of a houseless, disabled mama Dee, and the co-founder of POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE/PoorNewsNetwork. Victoria Montaño is a Po-scholar, interdisciplinary artist focussing on Indigenous Solidarity across seas and borders, Queer liberation, the Land ...

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Fall Of Civilizations: A Conversation with Paul Cooper

May 14, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: Paul Cooper is a podcaster, a historian, and the author of Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline. He writes, produces, and hosts the Fall of Civilizations podcast which explores the collapse of different societies through history. The post Fall Of Civilizations: A Conversation with Paul Cooper appeared first on KPFA.

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What Monsters Tell Us About Us

May 13, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: Natalie Lawrence, author of Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meaning. The post What Monsters Tell Us About Us appeared first on KPFA.

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The Mexican Revolution and The Migrants Who Sparked it

May 12, 2025 • 6 mins

Guest: Kelly Lytle Hernández is the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History and the director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. She is a 2019 MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient and the author of the award-winning books Migra!, City of Inmates, and her latest, Bad Mexicans Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands winner of the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History. The post The Mexican Re...

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The Life & Works of Frantz Fanon

May 8, 2025 • 55 mins

Guest: Adam Shatz is the US editor of the London Review of Books and author of The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. He is the host of the podcast Myself with Others. The post The Life & Works of Frantz Fanon appeared first on KPFA.

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The Corporate Origins of Colonialism: The East India Company

May 7, 2025 • 49 mins

Guest: William Dalrymple is the author of The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire. The post The Corporate Origins of Colonialism: The East India Company appeared first on KPFA.

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How Ancient India Changed The World: From Buddhism to Math

May 6, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: William Dalrymple is a historian, curator, broadcaster and critic. He is the author of The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. The post How Ancient India Changed The World: From Buddhism to Math appeared first on KPFA.

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When Science & Magic Intermingled

May 5, 2025 • 59 mins

Violet Moller is a critically acclaimed and award-winning historian and author of Inside the Stargazer’s Palace: The Transformation of Science in 16th-Century Europe. The post When Science & Magic Intermingled appeared first on KPFA.

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The Life & Times of Lucy Parsons

May 1, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: Jacqueline Jones is the Ellen C. Temple Chair in Women’s History and the Mastin Gentry White Professorship in Southern History at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the winner of the Bancroft Prize for Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow. Her latest book is Goddess of Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical. The post The Life & Times of Lucy Parsons appeared first on KPFA.

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When Workers Shot Back

April 30, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: Robert Ovetz is a lecturer in Political Science and Public Administration at San José State University. He writes about the politics of the labor movement, work, and the crisis of capitalism at the turn of the 20th century. He is the author of the book When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921. The post When Workers Shot Back appeared first on KPFA.

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Hitler’s First 100 Days

April 29, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: Peter Fritzsche, professor of history at the University of Illinois and author of the book Hitler’s First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich. The post Hitler’s First 100 Days appeared first on KPFA.

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America: What’s In A Name?

April 28, 2025 • 13 secs

Guest: Greg Grandin is a Professor of History at Yale University and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, author of many books including The End of the Myth; The Empire of Necessity; Fordlandia; and his latest, América, América: A New History of the New World. The post America: What’s In A Name? appeared first on KPFA.

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Women In The Ancient World

April 24, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: Daisy Dunn is an award-winning classicist and the author of The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World. Her website is www.daisydunn.co.uk. The post Women In The Ancient World appeared first on KPFA.

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What Monsters Tell Us About Us

April 23, 2025 • 59 mins

Guest: Natalie Lawrence, author of Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meaning. The post What Monsters Tell Us About Us appeared first on KPFA.

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A Constitutional Look at Trump and the Courts

April 22, 2025 • 1 min

Guest: Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He is the author or co-author of many books on constitutional law, including Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime; A Legacy of Discrimination: The Essential Constitutionality of Affirmative Action; and The Free Speech Century. The post A Constitutional Look at Trump and the Courts appeared first on KPFA.

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The Legacy of Pope Francis and the Future of the Catholic Church

April 21, 2025 • 23 mins

Guest: Mary Jo McConahay is a journalist who has covered the Church for many years. She is the author of the book Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and The Far Right. Featured photo: Wikimedia The post The Legacy of Pope Francis and the Future of the Catholic Church appeared first on KPFA.

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KPFA - Letters and Politics

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Iliad: War, Rage, and Sorrow

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}The Taoist & Christian: The Way of Chuang Tzu

Understanding the Psychology of Nazis

Ariel Dorfman on the Role of Beauty During Times of Chaos

Resisting Occupation Across the Continent

Fall Of Civilizations: A Conversation with Paul Cooper

What Monsters Tell Us About Us

The Mexican Revolution and The Migrants Who Sparked it

The Life & Works of Frantz Fanon

The Corporate Origins of Colonialism: The East India Company

How Ancient India Changed The World: From Buddhism to Math

When Science & Magic Intermingled

The Life & Times of Lucy Parsons

When Workers Shot Back

Hitler’s First 100 Days

America: What’s In A Name?

Women In The Ancient World

What Monsters Tell Us About Us

A Constitutional Look at Trump and the Courts

The Legacy of Pope Francis and the Future of the Catholic Church

Popular Podcasts

The Iliad: War, Rage, and Sorrow

The Taoist & Christian: The Way of Chuang Tzu