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 The Empire of Artificial Intelligence appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Lyndal Roper is Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford.  She is the author of several books including, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet; Witch Craze, and her latest, Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War. The post The German Peasants’ Revolt appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Juan Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He is the translator of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian The post The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: H. W. Brands is the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of many books, including American Colossus, The General vs. the President, The First American and Traitor to His Class, and his latest, America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War. The post The America First Committee: A History appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Dr. Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist and author of Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Birth of the Modern Mind. The post The Life & Times of Sigmund Freud 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 – July 31, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Ann Schmiesing is professor of German and Scandinavian studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales and most lately, The Brothers Grimm: A Biography. The post The Story Behind the Grimm Brothers’ Tales appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Emily Hauser is a senior lecturer in classics and ancient history at the University of Exeter, UK. She is the author of three novels reimagining the women of Greek myth: For the Most Beautiful, For the Winner, and For the Immortal. She is also the author of How Women Became Poets, and most recently, of Penelope’s Bones: A New History of Homer’s World through the Women Written Out of It. The post Women in Ancient History: Penelope’s Bones appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Laura Spinney is a science journalist and the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World and most recently, Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. The post The Origins of the Proto-Indo-Europeans appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Laurence Rees is an award-winning English historian and documentary filmmaker. He has authored several books including The Holocaust: A New History, Hitler and Stalin,  Auschwitz: A New History, and his latest, The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History.   The post Understanding the Psychology of Nazis appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Andrew Hartman is professor of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School, and his latest, Karl Marx in America.     The post Karl Marx in America appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Clay Risen is a historian and a reporter and editor at The New York Times.  He is the author of several books including The Crowded Hour, a New York Times Notable Book of 2019, and his latest, Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America. The post Red Scare: The Early Years appeared first on KPFA.