Letters and Politics – April 2, 2025
A look at burning political issues and debates and their historical context within the US and worldwide, hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
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Letters and Politics
10:00 AM Pacific Time: Monday - Thursday
Letters & Politics seeks to explore the history behind today’s major global and national news stories. Hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
Host Mitch Jeserich analysis and calls from listeners about the action of Senator Cory Booker in the Senate Floor.
Guest: Miriam Pawel is an award-winning reporter and editor who spent twenty-five years working for Newsday and the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography.
Part 1. Gutting the Federal Work Force Guest: Eric Blanc is a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University, Eric Blanc is author of the substack Labor Politics as well as the new book We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. Blanc is an organizer trainer for the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee. Part … Continued
Guest: Linda Gordon is Professor Emerita of History at New York University. She is the winner of two Bancroft Prizes for best book in American history, most lately she is the author of Seven Social Movements That Changed America.
Guest: Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner. She is the author of “Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers” which won the 2022 Studs and Ida Terkel award from The New Press. Photo: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead on Public domain
Guest: Lyndal Roper is Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford. She is the author of several books including, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet; Witch Craze, and her latest, Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War.
Guests: Raquel E. Aldana is Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. Professor Aldana teaches criminal procedure, asylum and refugee law, immigration law and policy, comparative forced displacement, and immigration federalism. Miguel Tinker Salas is Emeritus professor of History and Latin American studies at Pomona College. He is co-author … Continued
Guest: Padraic X. Scanlan is an associate professor at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Slave Empire, Freedom’s Debtors, and his latest, Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine.
Guest: Michelle Chen is a postdoctoral fellow in history at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She teaches labor and working-class history, studies the intersection of work, migration and social movements, and has covered labor issues as a journalist. She has also been a contributor to The Nation, In These Times, The Progressive, … Continued
Guest: Loretta J. Ross is an activist, public intellectual, and a professor of women, gender studies, reproductive rights, white supremacy, and human Rights. She is the author of many books including her latest “Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel.” Photo: Center for American Progress’s photo (licensed as Attribution-NoDerivs)