Jonathan Lethem: 3 Generations on the Left: KPFK 9/18

LISTEN online HERE— iTunes podcast HERE
The wonderful novelist JONATHAN LETHEM talks about Communists in Queens in the 1950s, Hippies in the Village the 1960s, and the Occupiers of two years ago – all in his novel Dissident Gardens.
Jonathan will be reading at the Skirball, Tues. Sept. 24, 8pm; admission is free,  reservations  recommended – online  HERE .

Plus: Today Liberal education is under assault as never before—everyone from President Obama to Thomas Friedman are saying American business needs people in science, technology and engineering.  TOM FRANK will comment – he writes for Harper’s and The Baffler – and he has a PhD in history.

Also: The world’s first big all-girl teenage hard rock band was The Runaways, from L.A., featuring Joan Jett –EVELYN MCDONNELL will talk about the real story of The Runaways, and we’ll listen to some of their music from the seventies.  Her new book is Queens of Noise.
Playlist: “Cherry Bomb”;  “Gotta Get Out Tonight”;  “Queens of Noise.”

Politics of a War on Syria: KPFK 9/11

LISTEN online HERE— iTunes podcast HERE
The tremendous popular opposition to an attack on Syria is one of the more remarkable political events of the year: JOHN NICHOLS will comment on the latest news about the Obama adminsitration and the significance of its inability to win support.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and blogs at TheNation.com.

Plus: The AFL-CIO turns toward the community: At their convention in LA this week, everyone was talking coalition building with like-minded organizations to forge real change for workers.   HAROLD MEYERSON was there; he writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page, and he’s editor-at-large of the American Prospect.

Also: The Other 9/11: Chile 40 years after the coup: today is the 40th anniversary of the American-sponsored overthrow of Latin America’s oldest democracy.  HEIDI TINSMAN will comment – she teaches Latin American history at UC Irvine; her new book, Buying into the Regime: Grapes and Consumption in Cold War Chile and the United States, will be published by Duke this winter.  UCLA Conference on “The Other 9/11”: Nov. 8-9 info HERE

A Modest Proposal: Bomb Both Sides in Syria: TheNation.com, 9/5

“Brutality of Syrian Rebels Posing Dilemma in West”—that story in The New York Times on September 5 reported that “many rebels have adopted some of the same brutal and ruthless tactics as the regime they are trying to overthrow.” The dilemma: how can we punish Assad for his violations of international law, when his opponents are also in violation—in this case, killing prisoners?
. . . contuned  at TheNation.com, HERE.

MOOCs for Profit: Inside the Coursera Hype Machine: The Nation, 9/4

The quest continues among venture capitalists to find the next Facebook, the next Google, the next eBay—and the Silicon Valley hype machine is suggesting that it might be Coursera, the “leader of the pack” among companies trying to make money with massive open online courses, or MOOCs.  . . . continued at The Nation, here

Victory for Homeless Vets in LA: The Nation, 8/31

A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled August 29 that the Department of Veterans Affairs has been violating federal law by leasing land on its West LA campus for a hotel laundry, movie set storage, a baseball stadium for UCLA and a dog park. The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU of Southern California . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE.

The Forgotten History of the March on Washington – 50th Anniversary: KPFK 8/28

For the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, we are featuring an hour of special programming: First, the forgotten history of the March on Washington—it aimed to end much more than racial segregation in the South.  For that we turn to WILL JONES, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and author of the new book The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights.

Also: the behind-the-scenes battle over censoring the speech planned by John Lewis, the spokesman for SNCC, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee – today’s he’s a member of congress and the only surviving speaker from that day. Stanford university historian CLAY CARSON will explain–his classic history of SNCC is In Struggle.

Plus: a new perspective on what people DO remember from that day: “The Speech” by Martin Luther King. GARY YOUNGE, the award-wining columnist for the Guardian and The Nation, will comment on the way the speech has been profoundly misunderstood—how King emphasized the need for economic redress for centuries of discrimination.  His new book is The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream.

Elmore Leonard’s Secret: LA Review of Books 8/20

I met ELMORE LEONARD, who died on August 20 at age 87, only a couple of times, interviewing him on his book tours, but he was a memorable guy, totally unpretentious about his massive accomplishments. . .

Q&A with Elmore Leonard, from 2000, at LA Review of Books, HERE  and at Salon.com, HERE.