Host Allen Ruff interviews Thomas Bass, Professor of English and Journalism at the State University of New York, in a caller-filled hour of A Public Affair. Bass discusses his recent article in the Mekong Review, “America’s Amnesia,” which raises several objections to the Burns & Novick PBS documentary on the Vietnam War.
Bruce Cumings on the heightening tensions with North Korea
The United States and South Korea are conducting war gains on the peninsula, and tensions between the U.S. and North Korea are heightening. Allen Ruff speaks with historian and professor Bruce Cumings to work through the current conflict. Cumings recently asked in an article in the London Review of Books, how did we get here? […]
Weekly Roundup: The State of our State, Nation, and World
Allen Ruff hosts Matt Rothschild for a weekly roundup discussing the state of our state, nation, and the world. Rothschild is the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. He’s recently traveled around the state writing commentaries and discussing the current political scene the U.S. is witnessing today.
Puerto Rico’s economy and ongoing debt problems
Today Allen Ruff hits a subject barely broached in discussions U.S. policy abroad and its effects on its neighbors: contemporary colonialism and dependency. Lara Merling and Kevin Cashman, two of the authors of the recent critical study from the Center for Economic & Policy Research, “Life After Debt in Puerto Rico: How Many More Lost […]
Thousands Protest Right-Wing Populism in Poland
In July, the political party of Law and Justice attempted to dismantle checks and balances in the Polish political system by appointing its own people to the judiciary. In defiance of that, hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens took to the streets to protest, resulting in a brief halt of the forward movement of the […]
“Democracy in Chains” examines roots of the radical right
Nancy MacLean joins the program to discuss “Democracy in Chains,” the significant new book on the rise and influence of the anti-democratic libertarian right and how it has succeeded in shaping current debates, polices and politics. MacLean is a professor of history at Duke University. Her research is primarily focused on race, gender, labor history, […]