Guest: Haim Bresheeth-Zabner is a Professor of film studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He is the author of An Army Like No Other: How the Israeli Defense Force Made a Nation.

The post IDF: A History of Israel’s Army of Occupation appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Dr Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee is a Post-doctoral Fellow in Ancient History at the University of St. Andrews.  He is the author of Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World (Mage: 2013), and his latest Myth and History in Ancient Persia: The Achaemenids in the Iranian Tradition

The post The Shahnameh & Iran’s Ancient Past appeared first on KPFA.

A look at burning political issues and debates and their historical context within the US and worldwide, hosted by Mitch Jeserich.

The post Letters and Politics – August 21, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Glory Liu is a lecturer in social studies at Harvard University. She is the author of Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism.

The post How Adam Smith Became A Capitalist Icon appeared first on KPFA.

Part 1: THE EARLY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA

Guest: Michael Hiltzik is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author who has covered business, technology, and public policy for the Los Angeles Times for more than 40 years. He currently serves as the Times’s business columnist.  He is the author of The Golden State: The Making of California

Part 2: THE EVERGREEN REVIEW: A HISTORY

Guest: Pat Thomas is a counter-culture historian and author of the book Evergreen Review: Dispatches from the Literary Underground -Covers & Essays 1957-1973.

Pat Thomas is also the author of several other books including Listen, Whitey! The Sights & Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary, and Material Wealth: The Personal Archives of Allen Ginsberg.

The post THE BEGINNING OF CALIFORNIA & THE EVERGREEN REVIEW appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Guest: Lisa Duggan is a journalist, historian, activist and Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. She is a journalist, historian, activist and Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. She is the author of the new book Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed

The post Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed appeared first on KPFA.

Haley Cohen Gilliland is a journalist and the director of the Yale Journalism Initiative. She is the author of the book A Flower Traveled in my Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children.

The post THE GRANDMOTHERS OF THE DISAPPEARED appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and former New York Times bureau chief in the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo, and Shanghai. He is the author of the book Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War.

The post Africa and the Making of the Modern World appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of Journeys to Heaven and Hell: Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition

The post Early Christianity & The Making of Hell appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist covering the impacts of artificial intelligence on society. She writes for publications including The Atlantic and leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series.  She is the author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI.

The post Empire of AI with Karen Hao appeared first on KPFA.