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.
Soyoung Kwon joins us to talk about North Korea’s interests in meeting with President Donald Trump in Singapore and how internal North Korean politics operate. Guest: Dr. Soyoung Kwon, professor of Global Affairs at George Mason University and a fellow at the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies at Yonsei University. Then in the second half of … Continued
The literary character Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s classic To Kill A Mocking Bird, has influenced scores of young people to pursue legal careers. Atticus Finch, who defends a wrongly accused black man of raping a white woman in the deep south, became an iconic symbol for the person with a strong moral compass. So it came … Continued
Mitch Jeserich speaks to John Nichols of the Nation Magazine about last night’s primaries, this year’s midterms and the state of the Republic. Then, marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Mitch Jeserich speaks to journalist and historian Ellen Meacham, author of the book Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi. … Continued
Mitch Jeserich is in conversation with renowned Greek scholar, Paul Cartledge, about the history of democracy in ancient Greece. Its rise, its fall and why still matters today. Professor Cartledge is the author of several books on this topic, his latest is Democracy: A Life. About Democracy: A Life Ancient Greece first coined the concept of … Continued
Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it. Tracing the liquid’s diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics, and economics. Also, host Mitch … Continued
Mitch Jeserich speaks with renown geographer Richard Walker about the immense wealth, politics and contradictions of the San Francisco Bay Area. Richard A. Walker is professor emeritus of geography at U.C. Berkeley and author of the book Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area. … Continued
Virtually no part of the modern United States—the economy, education, constitutional law, religious institutions, sports, literature, economics, even protest movements—can be understood without first understanding the slavery and dispossession that laid its foundation. Historian Gerald Horne digs deeply into Europe’s colonization of Africa and the New World, when, from Columbus’s arrival until the Civil War, … Continued
Fearful of an incoming President Thomas Jefferson, outgoing President John Adams in his last month in office helped create the U.S. federal judicial system, in part, as a check against Jefferson’s power. Arguably the battle between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans in the early days of the nation makes today’s political battle appear tame. We dive … Continued
A look at burning political issues and debates and their historical context within the US and worldwide, hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
Mitch Jeserich speaks to Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life, about Thoreau’s work on Civil Disobedience and his seemingly contradicting support of John Brown’s violent raid on Harper’s Ferry, and witnessing the oncoming Industrial Age. Guest: Laura Dassow Walls, Willliam P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English Graduate Program in … Continued
