John Powers on Rachel Maddow: KPFK Wed. 4/11

LISTEN to this show online HERESUBSCRIBE to iTunes podcast HERE
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.