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Letters & Politics seeks to explore the history behind today’s major global and national news stories. Hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
J. Wells Dixon is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he specializes in challenging unlawful detentions at the Guantánamo prison. Wells represents clients in federal court, before the military commissions at Guantánamo, and in various international proceedings. Among his clients are former Baltimore-area resident Majid Khan, who was imprisoned and … Continued
John Waters is an American film director, screenwriter, author, actor, stand-up comedian, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films including Hairspray and Pink Flamingos. His most recent book Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America, just came out in paperback. And Christian Hageseth, the … Continued
Sven Beckert, Professor of History at Harvard University and author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History. About the book: The epic story of the rise and fall of the empire of cotton, its centrality to the world economy, and its making and remaking of global capitalism. Cotton is so ubiquitous as to be almost … Continued
Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw teaches Civil Rights and other courses in critical race studies and constitutional law at UCLA School of Law and Columbia School of Law. Her primary scholarly interests center around race and the law, and she was a founder and has been a leader in the intellectual movement called Critical Race Theory. Crenshaw … Continued
With Chris Woods, investigative journalist and author of the book Sudden Justice: America’s Secret Drone Wars. About the book: Less than a month after the September 11th attacks, a tiny, CIA-controlled Predator drone flew over Kandahar, searching out the home of the Taliban supreme commander Mullah Mohammed Omar. A lack of understanding of the drone’s … Continued
Eugene Rogan, Director of the Middle East at Oxford University and author of the book The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. And Richard Martin, journalist, energy analyst, and author of Coal Wars The Future of Energy and the Fate of the Planet. About the books: The Fall of the … Continued
With Dr. Edmund Ghareeb, Adjunct Professor of Middle East history and politics in the School of International Service at American University, internationally recognized expert on the Kurds, Iraq, and media issues, and co-author of the Historical Dictionary of Iraq. About the book: Few countries boast as long and often proud a history as Iraq. It … Continued
With Mark Blyth, Scottish political scientist, professor of international political economy at Brown University, and author of several books including his most recent Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. About the Book: Politicians today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the … Continued
We’re joined live by Ralph Nader political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney. Nader is a five-time candidate for President of the United States, having run as a write-in candidate in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic primary, as the Green Party nominee in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008. His … Continued
We’re on live with Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, activist, author, Presbyterian minister, and the best-selling author of several books including War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002)—a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction—Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009), Death of the … Continued
