Once, the internet was a utopia, a new intellectual commons. Then it was a goldmine, where new businesses would stake their claim. For the past couple years, we’ve been been covering it as a swamp – a convening ground for trolls and Nazis, a platform for disinformation and and fake news, an impressive tool for … Continued
Last fall, the tech world was a-twitter over a post by Google employee James Damore suggesting the company’s gender diversity problem might have more to do with women’s genetics than the company’s culture, and complaining that the company was too politically correct to engage his arguments. That post—and the fact that he eventually got fired … Continued
Jackie Chung plays a writing professor who reaches out to a troubled student in Julia Cho’s play “Office Hour,” now at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through March 25. She is interviewed by KPFA associate theater critic C.S. Soong.
Since the 2016 presidential election, Facebook’s drawn charges of amplifying fake news, selling political ads to Russia-associated accounts, and failing to enforce its own terms of service when it comes to bots, trolls, and harassers on its platform. Now, it turns out Facebook’s not only been serving as a platform for extremist political movements – … Continued
Peter Mayle (1939-2018) became a best-selling author with his memoir, “A Year in Provence.” He followed that up with several books about the French region, both fiction and non-fiction. Richard Wolinsky interviewed Peter Mayle, on October 18, 1999, while he was on tour for his collection of essays, “Encore Provence,” his third non-fiction book set in that part of France.
In the age of Trump, talk of “globalism” and the devastating impact of free trade deals has been recuperated by the far-Right of the Republican party, who have used such talk as a smokescreen for ramming through a set of pro-billionaire policies of their own. But in the 1990s, it was anarchists and autonomous anti-capitalists … Continued
KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Vietgone” by Qui Nguyen, directed by Jaime Castaneda, at ACT Strand Theater in San Francisco through April 22, 2018.
KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Office Hour,” by Julie Cho, directed by Lisa Peterson, at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theater through March 25, 2018.
Centrists and media pundits have long presented the white nationalist movement as simply the home of backwards and “uneducated” people, while in reality, there is a long, and at times, revolutionary history to the movement that deserves serious analysis and reflection. In this episode, we speak with Leonard Zeskind, a historian, speaker, organizer, and author … Continued
Tim Kreider, cartoonist and author of the essay collection “I Wrote This Book Because I Love You” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. Tim Kreider gained a reputation as a cartoonist in the style of B. Kliban before turning political following the stolen election of 2000 and 9/11. His series, “The Pain — When Will It End?” ran for twelve years in the Baltimore City Paper and other alternative weeklies. Currently he writes for The New York Times and other newspapers and magazines.
