Letters and Politics – December 7, 2020
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: Maureen Ferran is Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and viral researcher at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State. Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash
Guest: John Fabian Witt is the Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law and History at Yale, where he serves as Head of Davenport College. He is author of the Bancroft Prize–winning Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History, his latest book is American Contagions: Epidemics and the Law from Smallpox to COVID-19.
Part 1 – Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy and National Security Picks Guest: Jonathan Guyer is Managing Editor at The American Prospect. He has written for the New Yorker, NYT, and Paris Review, and reported from the Middle East for six years. His latest piece is The Lucrative Afterlife of a Trump Official: Trump’s former appointees … Continued
Part 1: Covid-19 and the Growing Inequality of Wealth Guest: David Dayen, Executive Editor of The American Prospect where he’s been writing the column Unsanitized: The COVID-19 Daily Report. He is the author of the book, Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud. Part II: Former Labor Secretary on … Continued
Guest: David Carballo, specialist in Mesoamerican archaeology, focusing particularly on the prehispanic civilizations of central Mexico at Boston University and author of Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain
Guest: David Treuer is Ojibwe from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California. And is author of several novels and non-fiction books including his latest, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present.
Guest: Sonia Shah is a science journalist and prizewinning author. She is the author of The Fever that was long-listed for the Royal Society’s Winton Prize for Science Books, Pandemic was named a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Her latest is The Next … Continued
Guest: Emily L. Quint Freeman, author of Failure to Appear: Resistance, Identity and Loss. In 1969 in Chicago Emily L Quint Freemen broke into a military draft board office and destroyed 40 thousand draft records–potentially saving the lives of many men who would may have otherwise been drafted to serve in Vietnam. The act forced her an underground life as a fugitive … Continued
Part 1: The Economic Challenges for the Biden Presidency Guest: Robert Pollin, Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is the co-author of the book Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal. Part II: The Suppression of Speech in WWI … Continued
Guest: Andrew Bacevich, retired Armey Colonel, Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University, and President of The Quincy Institute. He is the author of many books and his latest is The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory.