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.
Today our host Mitch Jeserich is in conversation with renowned religious scholar and public intellectual Reza Aslan. He is the author of the recently published New York Times best-selling book God: A Human History, which investigates our humanizing impulse in relation to the divine. We have a conversation on the evolution of religion and the changing image of God, … Continued
We begin today’s show by speaking with John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine, about the ongoing political battles in D.C. In conversation with our host Mitch Jeserich, Nichols discusses tax reform, the battle over the directorship of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the threat to net neutrality. We then speak with Blaire Briody, award-winning journalist and author … Continued
Today our host Mitch Jeserich is in conversation with Hatem Baziam, lecturer of Near East Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, about the recent terror attack in which over 300 people were killed at a Sufi mosque in Egypt. We discuss the role of Sunni and Shi’a communitarian tensions in the attack, as well as potential political … Continued
Today our host Mitch Jeserich is in conversation with Stephen Kinzer, author of the new book The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire, which investigates the beginnings of American imperialism overseas. Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent–he served as The New York Times bureau chief in Turkey, Germany, and Nicaragua, … Continued
On today’s show William A. Pelz joins our host Mitch Jeserich to discuss his new book A People’s History of Modern Europe, which combats mainstream views of history and seeks to reveal the forgotten and neglected moments central to the development of modern Europe. We discuss the notorious figure Maximilien Robespierre, the underlying nature of the French Revolution, … Continued
Today our host Mitch Jeserich speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stephen Greenblatt about his new book The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, which delves into the creation stories that are woven into the fabric of our modern lives. He is presently the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Then we speak … Continued
Today our host Mitch Jeserich speaks with Ken Whyte, author of the new biography Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, which details the life and times of Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States. Ken Whyte is a Canadian journalist and Chairman of the Board at Donner Canada Foundation.
Today our host Mitch Jeserich speaks with Nii Akuetteh, the founder of the Democracy and Conflict Research Institute based in Ghana and a current a policy analyst at the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA). We discuss both the history of Zimbabwe and the recent developments taking place in the country regarding the house arrest of … Continued
Today, Mitch Jeserich is in conversation with Toby Craig Jones, associate professor of History at Rutgers University, about the main role of oil and water management in Saudi political system. In his book Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia, he shows how Modern Saudi Arabian authoritarianism has its origins in the control of a … Continued
Today our host Mitch Jeserich speaks with Dr. Jeffery Edleson, the dean of the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. We discuss the relationship between men and violence from spaces of domestic and sexual violence all the way to public mass shootings. Much of masculine violence is part of a larger continuum of coercion … Continued
