jwiener

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RACHEL MADDOW: JOHN POWERS considers the sunny and smart MSNBC host and her excellent new book DRIFT:The Unmooring of American Military Power.  John wrote about Rachel for The American Prospect; he’s critic-at-large for NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, heard by 4.5 million people on 450 stations.

Plus: GUSTAVO ARELLANO asks why Americans love Mexican food so darn much – and what’s so cosmic about a burrito?  Gustavo writes the legendary “Ask a Mexican!” column and edits the OC Weekly; his new book is TACO USA.

Also: TAVIS SMILEY talks about the rich and the rest of us. He was recently named to TIME‘s list of 100 “Most Influential People in the World.”  He hosts that late-night talk show weeknights on PBS, heard locally on KOCE at 11pm. He also is co-host of Smiley and West on KPFK Saturdays at 11am.  He’s also a best-selling author, and now he has a new book out, with Dr. Cornel West: The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. WATCH his Martin Luther King-PBS Special HERE.

LISTEN to streaming audio HERE: Josh Kun on LA 3-28-12
“Trouble in Paradise”: JOSH KUN talks about popular music subcultures in LA, 1945-80. Josh teaches at USC and is curator of the exhibit at the Grammy Museum, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., downtown LA, and he will host “A Night at the Ash Grove” at the Museum on April 5.
PLAYLIST: Johnny Otis, “Harlem Nocturne” 1945; Ritchie Valens, “La Bamba” 1958; Thee Midnighters, “Whittier Blvd” 1965; Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth” 1966; Beach Boys, “Heroes and Villains” 1967.

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For decades nobody thought an individual mandate for medical insurance would be unconstitutional – until two years ago.  Now it looks like the Republicans on the Supreme Court may strike it down. WILLIAM E. FORBATH reviews this week’s arguments before the Supremes – and the politics behind them.  Willy teaches constitutional law at the Univ of Texas law school.

Also: “Trouble in Paradise”: JOSH KUN talks about popular music subcultures in LA, 1945-80. Josh teaches at USC and is curator of the exhibit at the Grammy Museum, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., downtown LA, and he will host “A Night at the Ash Grove” at the Museum on April 5. PLAYLIST: Johnny Otis, “Harlem Nocturne” 1945; Ritchie Valens, “La Bamba” 1958; Thee Midnighters, “Whittier Blvd” 1965; Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth” 1966; Beach Boys, “Heroes and Villains” 1967.

PLUS: FORMER SENATOR RUSS FEINGOLD says the cynical exploitation of the fears generated by 9/11 have undermined our ability to adjust effectively to America’s new place in the world.  His new book is WHILE AMERICA SLEEPS: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era

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LISTEN to this show online HERE — SUBSCRIBE to iTunes podcast HERE
Were conservatives always this crazy? Only 12 percent of Mississippi Republicans believe Barack Obama is a Christian.  And of course there’s Rush Limbaugh.  But RICK PERLSTEIN says this is nothing new;  “they’ve been this crazy for a long time.” Rick is the author of the classic Nixonland and writes a column for RollingStone.com.

Plus: Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary last night; he also says Obama wants higher gas prices and Obama has hurt, rather than helped, the current economic recovery.  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment — he writes a a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: sometimes ordinary people fight injustice; sometimes whistleblowers refuse to sell toxic products.  EYAL PRESS looks at unlikely resisters demonstrating different kinds of moral courage.  His new book is BEAUTIFUL SOULS: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times.

LISTEN to this show online HERE — SUBSCRIBE to iTunes podcast HERE
TOM HAYDEN says “the people of Afghanistan don’t want us there; our troops can’t defend a country that doesn’t like us, and therefore the time has come for us to leave.”  Tom wrote about “The Failure of Gradualism in Afghanistan” today for TheNation.com.

Also:  In the fascinating spectacle of the Republican primaries, Alabama and Missippi voted yesterday—and Mitt Romney faced a devastating defeat, coming in third – far behind Rick Santorum, who won both. JOHN NICHOLS will comment – he blogs for TheNation.com and his new book is Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street.

Plus: Watergate is the terrific new novel by THOMAS MALLON, where he imagines what “our long national nightmare” might have been like for a kaleidoscopic gallery of characters, from ex-CIA man Howard Hunt to White House secretary Rosemary Woods to Pat Nixon—in love with another man.  Mallon’s other novels include Dewey Beats Truman and Fellow Travelers.

The Republican primaries on Super Tuesday left Mitt Romney in the lead, but not by enough–JOHN NICHOLS comments.  Hhe’s Washington editor of The Nation and a frequent guest on MSNBC; his new book is Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street.

Also: the Republicans and women – after Rush Limbaugh called a female law student a slut and a prostitute when she testified before Congress on women’s health issues, after the Republican frontrunners didn’t really challenge Rush – where does the Republican party stand with women voters today?  BETSY REED, executive editor of The Nation, will explain–she is co-editor of the Sarah Palin book Going Rouge.

Plus: ROBERT PROCTOR says “the cigarette is the deadliest artifact in the history of civilization.” He’s Professor of the History of Science at  Stanford University, and author of the monumental new book Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition. Check out the tobacco documents archive online at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/ .

For the record: my shows on 2/29 and 2/22 on KPFK have been preempted for the fund drive.

And we’ll also talk with Tom about The Baffler, the magazine he founded and edited.  “The Journal that Blunts the Cutting Edge.”  The Baffler is back!  coming in March: special issue on the elections, featuring Tom Frank, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Rick Perlstein.

It’s the KPFK spring fund drive, and this hour we will be featuring the TOM FRANK SUPER-PACK (or is it “Super-PAC”?): the DVD of his documentary “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”, his new book Pity the Billionaire; and a one-year subscription to his magazine, The Baffler. Please call and pledge during the show: 818-985-5735.