Letters and Politics – December 7, 2023
A look at burning political issues and debates and their historical context within the US and worldwide, hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
Upcoming Episode
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.
Guest: Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the first woman who translated the ancient Greek epic story, the Odyssey by Homer, into English language. The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, … Continued
Guest: 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 Seneca.
Guest: Ussama Makdisi is Professor of History and Chancellor’s Chair at the University of California Berkeley. Professor Makdisi is the author of several books including, The Culture of Sectarianism, Artillery of Heaven, Faith Misplaced, and his latest, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World.
Guest: Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University. He is the author or the editor of several books including “Was the Red Flag Flying There? Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel 1948-1965;” “The independent left in Israel, 1967-1993: Essays … Continued
Guest: Mitri Raheb is the President of Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem as well as the president of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. He serves as the Senior Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Palestine. In 2015 he was awarded the Olof Palme Prize, … Continued
Guest: Benny Morris is a former journalist and a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Photo (c): Jewish community in the Land of Israel under Mamluk and Ottoman rule, 1895. Wikipedia
Guest: Dr. Sultan Barakat is a Professor of Public Policy at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University and an Honorary Professor at the University of York. Dr. Barakat has written extensively on issues of conflict resolution, humanitarian response, state building and post-conflict recovery and transition. Professor Barakat founded the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies … Continued
Guest: David Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post and a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and was a finalist three other times. Among his bestselling books are biographies of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Roberto Clemente, and Vince Lombardi, Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, They Marched into … Continued
Guest: Jean Pfaelzer is a public historian, commentator, and professor of American studies at the University of Delaware. Her books include Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans; Rebecca Harding Davis: Origins of Social Realism; The Utopian Novel in America; and her latest, California, a Slave State.
Guest: Claudio Saunt is Richard B. Russell Professor in American History and Co-Director of the Center for Virtual History at the University of Georgia. He is the author of such books including, West of the Revolution (2014), Black, White, and Indian (2005), and A New Order of Things (1999). His most recent book, Unworthy Republic (2020), was awarded the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist … Continued