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.
On today’s show host Mitch Jeserich is in conversation with Stephen P. Hinshaw, professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and of psychiatry at UC San Francisco. Stephen P. Hinshaw is the author of the book Another Kind of Madness; A Journey Through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness, describing his father’s mental illness and the … Continued
Today host Mitch Jeserich interviews Manal Al-Sharif, a Saudi computer security engineer, about her memoir “Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening.” Al-Sharif was a religious radical in her teens but eventually became one of the women to lead the movement to support women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia, a fight that the women ultimately won.
On today’s show host Mitch Jeserich receives Rahma A. Hussein, Legal Fellow on Counter terrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute. We speak with her about the dynamics of the so-called war on terrorism and the report she co-authored: Out of the Shadows, Recommendations to Advance Transparency in the Use … Continued
On today’s show, host Mitch Jeserich interviews Robert Spitzer, Professor of Political Science at SUNY Cortland in NYC, about the history of gun control and the historic interpretation of the Second Amendment. This interview comes in the wake of today’s shooting of Republican congresspeople and staff in Alexandria, Virginia. Mitch also talks to Oakland-based community … Continued
On today’s show host Mitch Jeserich speaks with Republican historian and political commentator Geoffrey Kabaservice about Trump’s apparent wish to fire Robert Mueller, who is investigating foreign interference in the 2016 election. The two also speak about Jeff Sessions’ upcoming hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Then Mitch interviews statistician and journalist Ben Blatt about his … Continued
Today host Mitch Jeserich looks at the rise of the radical right in the U.S. with independent journalist Arun Gupta. Gupta reported on June 11th’s anti-Islamic rally in Seattle, Washington, which was one of 20 or so across the country. Then Jeserich interviews Laleh Khadivi, author of A Good Country, a book about a teenage boy … Continued
Today host Mitch Jeserich interviews Nicholas Guyatt, Professor of History at Cambridge, about his new book Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation. The two discuss how white anti-slavery activists in the United States helped create segregation.
Today Mitch Jeserich speaks with Melvin A. Goodman who served as a senior analyst and Division Chief at the CIA from 1966 to 1990. He then quit because of the corruption inside the Agency. He wrote a book retelling the story Whistleblower at the CIA: An Insider’s Account of the Politics of Intelligence. We address his … Continued
A conversation on the terrorist attacks in London, Manchester and Kabul and the global response with Rafia Zakaria, columnist with Dawn newspaper and The Baffler. She is the author of the book The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan. Rafia Zakaria
On today’s show host Mitch Jeseritch has two guests. With Pankaj Mishra he dives into the history of disillusionment and disenfranchisement, from the philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau to ISIS and Trump voters. Pankaj Mishra is the author of the book The Age of Anger: A History of the Present. Then, he welcomes Jennifer Ackerman to talk of the genius … Continued
