LISTEN online HERE— iTunes podcast HERE
LA and NYC: two new progressive mayors; two cities with a shrinking middle class and a vast low-wage service sector, and with an effective labor-liberal political alliance. So why are the agendas of the two cities’ mayors, Bill de Blasio and Eric Garcetti, shaping up so differently?  Analysis from HAROLD MEYERSON – he writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page; he’s editor-at-large of The American Prospect, and he wrote about LA and NYC for the LA Times op-ed page.

Also: We’re still thinking about PETE SEEGER, who died last week.  We’ll talk about Pete with PETER DREIER – he says (in The Nation), “Every day, every minute, someone in the world is singing a Pete Seeger song.”  Peter’s new book is The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century—of course Pete is one of them.

We’ll listen to my 1981 interview with Pete Seeger about the day he led half a million people singing “Give Peace a Chance” at the Vietnam Moratorium in 1969–Plus: “The Ballad of Pete Seeger”–the 2-hour Pacifica special, featuring Tim Robbins with Pete.  We’ll speak with the writer/producer MARK TORRES.  “The Ballad of Pete Seeger” is our featured thank-you gift in the KPFK fund drive: please call and pledge during the show: 818-985-5735.

LISTEN online HERE— iTunes podcast HERE
Art, revolution, and motorcycles—and a girl called “Reno”: they’re all in RACHEL KUSHNER’s glorious novel The Flamethrowers.  It was a finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times bestseller, and it’s out now in paperback.

Plus: Edward Snowden: hero, or traitor?  DAVID COLE says “Consider what we have learned from Snowden’s leaks and the further government disclosures that they prompted.”  David wrote about Edward Snowden—and Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange – for the New York Review.

Also: JOHN NICHOLS on Obama’s State of the Union—right on wages, wrong on trade—and on our hero Pete Seeger, who died Monday.  John is Washington Correspondent for The Nation.

LISTEN online HERE— iTunes podcast HERE
President Obama has proposed “reforms” of the NSA, suggesting we need a plan to come up with a plan about bulk metadata gathering on civilians.  RICK PERLSTEIN compares Obama’s proposals with the Church Committee’s final report from 1976 on spying on Americans.  Short version: the Nixon administration was better.

Also: the My Lai massacre was not an isolated incident; millions of innocent Vietnamese civilians were killed and wounded by American forces—“a My Lai a month” is what award-winning reporter NICK TURSE calls it.  His decade of research in secret Pentagon archives and interviews with vets and Vietnamese are the basis of his important book, KILL ANYTHING THAT MOVES: The Real American War in  Vietnam–it’s out now in paperback.

Plus: Slavery, freedom, and Islamophobia: GREG GRANDIN uncovered the true story of a rebellion on a slave ship in 1805–by African Muslims– that inspired Herman Melville to rethink slavery and freedom 50 years later.  It’s a story with  echoes in our own time as Tea Party activists charge that Obama is a secret Muslim from Africa.   Greg teaches history at NYU; his magnificent new book is The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World.  It is featured on the cover of The Nation this week.

LISTEN online HERE— iTunes podcast HERE
Women’s rights,  last year, and this year: KATHA POLLITT on where we stand now.  It’s been rough—but isn’t it always?  Katha—poet, essayist and columnist–wrote recently for The Nation about “The Year in Feminism.”   Support the National Network of Abortion Funds HERE.

Plus: Beatles versus Stones: which side were you on?  JOHN McMILLIAN constrasts media myths with musical styles and political and cultural realities.  John teaches history at Georgia Tech; his new book is Beatles v. Stones.  PLAYLIST: Beatles’, Stones’ versions of “I Wanna Be Your Man”; “Revolution” vs. “Street Fighting Man.”

Also: the most effective political operation the American left has seen in decades: the  Working Families Party of New York. HAROLD MEYERSON explains – he wrote about it for The American Prospect and also writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page.