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Letters & Politics seeks to explore the history behind today’s major global and national news stories. Hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
As the face and character of cities across the nation changes through a wave of gentrification there is one neighborhood that has maintained it’s character and it’s low income residents right in the middle of San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities to live in. It’s called the Tenderloin, and we’ll talk about it … Continued
Before there was Charlton Heston and Ronald Reagan, there was Louis B Mayer, founder of MGM Studios, who used the power of the film industry for conservative political aims. Today we talk about that history with historian Steven Ross, author of the book Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics. About the … Continued
Steve Fraser is a labor historian and author several books including Wall Street and Labor Will Rule, which won the Philip Taft Award for the best book in labor history. He also is the co-editor of The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order. His latest book is The Age of Acquiescence: The Life … Continued
Brian Glyn Williams is professor of Islamic History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He is the author of several books on Afghanistan and the War in Iraq and many articles including The Rise of the ISIS Terrorist Army in Iraq and Syria: How Did we Get Here? And Scott Porch, contributing writer for The … Continued
Roberta Brandes Gratz is an urbanist and author of We’re Still Here Ya Bastards. Previous books include The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. She previously served on the NYC Landmark Preservation Commission and currently sits on the Sustainability Advisory Board for NYC. She splits her time … Continued
With Nathaniel Popper, reporter at the New York Times covering the intersection of Wall Street and Silicon Valley and author of the book Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money. About the book: A New York Times technology and business reporter charts the dramatic rise of … Continued
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
