Letters and Politics – June 5, 2025
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: Mark Blyth is a political economist and professor at Brown University. He is an expert on Global Finance & Banking and the author of several books including Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, and his latest, Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers, coauthored with Nicolò Fraccaroli.
Guest: Mary Annette Pember is a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe. She is currently national correspondent for ICT News, formerly Indian Country Today. She is the recipient of several awards for her journalism and is the author of Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools.
Guest: Clay Risen is a historian and a reporter and editor at The New York Times. He is the author of several books including The Crowded Hour, a New York Times Notable Book of 2019, and his latest, Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America.
Guest: Gregory P. Downs is a history professor at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of several books including his latest, in collaboration with Anthony E. Kaye (1962-2017), Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History. Anthony E. Kaye (1962–2017) taught history at Pennsylvania State University and was the vice president of scholarly programs … Continued
Guest: Corinna Barrett Lain is the S. D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law. She is the author of Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection.
Guest: Michael Albertus is professor of political science at the University of Chicago. The author of four previous books, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and elsewhere. He is the author of Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies.
Letters and Politics – May 26, 2025
A look at burning political issues and debates and their historical context within the US and worldwide, hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
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 … Continued
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 … Continued
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.