jwiener

Frank Rich: How Hillary could lose to Trump:
The Nation podcast 4/21

Listen HERE
A
Clinton vs. Trump campaign in the fall would be a battle of the negatives, Frank Rich says—and Hillary’s are dangerously high.

Plus: Hillary and Haiti—a long relationship, and a revealing one.  Amy Wilentz comments.
Read Chelsea Clinton’s once-secret memo about the Clinton Foundation’s failings in Haiti here.
.

And we speak with Viet Nguyen—his novel The Sympathizer just won the Pulitzer Prize.  It begins in Saigon on the last day of the Vietnam war, and features a Viet Cong spy inside the Saigon army.

Bernie After New York: KPFK 4/20

Listen HERE
Maybe you heard the news: Hillary won big in the New York primary, and Trump’s victory was “huuge”” – HAROLD MEYERSON will talk about where Bernie can go from here, and what might happen in a Hillary vs. Trump campaign.

Also: America can never win its mideast wars—that’s what military historian ANDREW BACEVICH says – his new book is America’s War for the Greater Middle East.

And we’ll talk about genocide in Indonesia in the sixties, and its aftermath today, with documentary filmmaker JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER—his film The Look of Silence received the Ridenhour Documentary Film Award today in Washington.
You can watch now — it’s streaming at Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, and other sites.

Naomi Klein: Climate Justice Needs Bernie’s Boldness: The Nation Podcast 4/14

Listen HERE
Naomi Klein
argues that the problem with Hillary’s climate policy isn’t her corporate cash; it’s her corporate ideology.  The climate justice movement, she says, “requires the kind of boldness Bernie Sanders represents.”

Also: military historian Andrew Bacevich says America can never win its twenty-year war for the Middle East.

Plus: Amy Goodman talks about how she got arrested at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in 2008 — and other highlights from the 20-year history of ‘Democracy Now.’

Amy Goodman: 20 Years of Democracy Now: KPFK 4/13

Listen HERE
Amy Goodman
talks about 20 years of Democracy Now—including how she got arrested in my home town of St. Paul.  She’s coming to town tomorrow/ Thursday, to Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd. at 7pm.

Also: Viet Nguyen talks about “The Sympathizer,” the best political novel I’ve read in a long time.  It opens in Saigon on the last day of the Vietnam war and follows a nameless spy who has infiltrated the South Vietnamese army and then flees with its remnants to America.  It’s out now in paperback.

Plus The Spanish Civil War: it was huge event in the rise of fascism and in the history of the American left. We’ll talk about it with Adam Hochschild – his new book is Spain in Our Hearts: Americans and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.  Adam and I will be in conversation at the LA Public Library ALOUD series tomorrow/Thurs night, 7pm; the library is at 5th & Flower Streets.

Adam Hochschild: Conversation on the Spanish Civil War: LA Public Library ALOUD series

LISTEN to the iTunes podcast HERE
The Abraham Lincoln Brigad
e, American volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War, are legendary heroes in the fight against fascism. 
ADAM HOCHSCHILD
tells their story in his new book Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39.
Adam is an award-winning author and one of the founders of Mother Jones magazine.
LA Public Library ALOUD series, April 4, 2016

LA Times Festival of Books Panel on BookTV

BookFest 2016Watch BookTV video HERE
“Everything Connects: Building Blocks of Daily Life”

my panel this year at the LA Times Festival of Books at USC, Hancock Foundation auditorium, 1:30pm; featuring
–Jonathan Waldman, “Rust: The Longest War”;
–Edward Humes, “Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation”;
–Brian Fagan, “The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History.”
4/10/16

Bernie Sanders has Momentum on his Side:
The Nation Podcast 4/7

Listen HERE
John Nichols
says that, after his big win in the Wisconsin primary, Bernie has momentum on his side.  And the Republicans problems deepen after Cruz’s victory there.

Also: David Cole argues that citizen activists are the real force behind changes in constitutional law – look at how the NRA changed the meaning of the Second Amendment; look at how the gay rights movement changed the meaning of “marriage.”  His new book is Engines of Liberty.
.

Plus: Obama’s legacy: Gary Younge contrasts the symbolic victory with the real defeats for the left., especially in the use of US military power in the Mideast.

Bernie after Wisconsin: KPFK 4/6

Listen HERE
HAROLD MEYERSON
analyzes Bernie’s big win in Wisconsin, and considers the conundrum facing Republicans with the defeat there of Donald Trump.  Harold is executive editor of The American Prospect and writes for the LA Times, the Guardian, and other publications.

Plus:  – politics in 1944!  DAVID REID  talks about the last hurrah of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the glory days of the CIO Political Action Committee – his new book is The Brazen Age: New York City and the  American Empire, Politics, Art and Bohemia.
.

Also: ARI BERMAN reports on the effects of Wisconsin’s new Voter ID law, the Republicans’ effort to reduce Democratic turnout.  Ari was in Wisconsin for the primary; his book is Give Us the Ballot.

What kind of president would Donald Trump Be? The Nation podcast 3/31

Listen HERE
If Donald Trump were president, would he be a familiar kind of New York deal-maker—or a deluded demagogue? Sasha Abramsky considers the possibilities.

Also: Campaign contributions go mostly to TV ads that don’t work, and consultants who are even more useless, Andrew Cockburn reports —what counts is face-to-face canvassing to build voter turnout.

Plus: Obama is a “folk hero” in black America, says Erin Aubrey Kaplan—her new book is “I Heart Obama.”

And, for opening day of major league baseball, our Dave Zirin talks about the game with Noam Chomsky—who recalls growing up with the hapless Philadelphia Athletics, and going to Little League games with his grandson today.

The Battle for Wisconsin: KPFK 3/30

Listen HERE
John Nichols
reports on the latest political battleground: Wisconsin, where the Republican Establishment says they will stop Donald Trump, and where Bernie badly needs to win. John’s new book is People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy.

Plus: Obama’s legacy for black America is mostly symbolic, Gary Younge argues—the wealth gap between black & white has grown over the last 8 years, along with black poverty. Gary writes for The Guardian & The Nation.

Also: We return to the Rosenberg case: now we know that Julius was a spy, but didn’t give the Soviets the secret of the A-bomb; and we know that Ethel was framed.  So it’s time to exonerate Ethel.  Robbie Meeropol will talk about the progress of that campaign, starting with members of the New York City Council issuing a proclamation declaring that the US government “wrongfully executed Ethel Rosenberg.”  Robbie is one of the Rosenbergs’ sons and founder of the Rosenberg Fund for Children.