Shows / KPFA - Behind the News
KPFA - Behind the News
Host Doug Henwood covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.
Episodes
- KPFA - Behind the News
Lula’s prospects in Brazil, foundations and food
Alfredo Saad-Filho on Lula’s victory and the challenges facing him in his fourth term • Raj Patel on the malign influence of foundations on the food supply The…
- KPFA - Behind the News
What a socialist economy might look like
Mike Beggs, co-author of The Blueprint, on what a socialist economy might look like The post What a socialist economy might look like appeared first on KPFA.
- KPFA - Behind the News
Brazil and the global right • the life of Eugene V. Debs
Rodrigo Nunes, author of Anatomy of Disintegration, on Bolsonaro, Brazil, and the global far right • Shawn Gude, author of American Socialist, on the life and…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Fundraising Special: Three Views of AI
Excerpts from three interviews on AI broadcast over the last year: • Hagen Blix on how AI captures the alienation and anxieties of life under capitalism •…
- KPFA - Behind the News
fundraising special: the hidden rich, China–US relations
Owen Zidar, co-author of The Everywhere Millionaire, on the hidden rich • Jake Werner on US–China relations The post fundraising special: the hidden rich…
- KPFA - Behind the News
fundraising special: Kristin Du Mez on the world of right-wing evangelical women
Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Live Laugh Love, on the world of right-wing evangelical Christian women The post fundraising special: Kristin Du Mez on the…
- KPFA - Behind the News
School politics, sex worker politics
Jennifer Berkshire talks about the anti-school voucher backlash (articles here and here) • Heather Berg, author of Notes from the Sex Worker Left, on what that…
- KPFA - Behind the News
AI may kill us all, so it must be stopped • the life of historian Howard Zinn
Garrison Lovely, author of Obsolete, on the terrors and possible promise of AI • Dave Zirin on Howard Zinn, the subject of his new biography The post AI may…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Grabbing Venezuela’s oil • a future without cops and jails
Alejandro Velasco on Trump’s oil grab in Venezuela • Alex Vitale on a post-carceral future The post Grabbing Venezuela’s oil • a future without cops and jails…
- KPFA - Behind the News
The political economy of slavery • building postcarbon futures
David McNally, author of Slavery and Capitalism, on the political economy of the institution • Billy Fleming, author of Building Postcarbon Futures, on how to…
- KPFA - Behind the News
How and why is Israel pummeling Lebanon? • nonstandard forms of work
Aurélie Daher on the destruction Israel is visiting upon southern Lebanon • Annie McClanahan, author of Beneath the Wage, on nonstandard forms of work and…
- KPFA - Behind the News
The perils of AI, the horrors of the Russia–Ukraine war
Jodi Dean, who has a new Substack on the issue, on why AI is so terrible • Anatol Lieven on the bloody stalemate that is the Russia–Ukraine war (Sidecar piece…
- KPFA - Behind the News
The Cockroach movement in India • transforming the US economy: a suite of proposals
Aditiya Nigam on the Cockroach movement in India • Gerald Epstein and Juliet Schor on a detailed set of proposals to transform the US economy (papers here) The…
- KPFA - Behind the News
DSA’s platform • why we fear AI
Michaela Brangan, co-chair of the group that wrote DSA’s new platform, on that document • Hagen Blix, co-author of Why We Fear AI, on exactly that The post…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Fundraising special: a look at the right, intellectual side mostly but not all
Laura Field, author of Furious Minds, on the highbrow side of Trumpism—with a brief comment from David Austin Walsh on how similar the highbrows are to the…
- KPFA - Behind the News
American anti-egalitarians, AIPAC’s black front group
Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Country of Lords, on the anti-egalitarian tradition in American politics • Aziz Rana on tensions between the Declaration and the…
- KPFA - Behind the News
The private equity racket
Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class, on the private equity racket—who they are, what they do The post The private equity racket appeared first on KPFA.
- KPFA - Behind the News
Designing the socialist future, taking the measure of muscular Christianity
Aaron Benanav, author of this pamphlet, on what a future socialist society might look like • Amy Laura Hall, author of Erecting the Pulpit, on muscular…
- KPFA - Behind the News
What’s going on with the Iran negotiations?
Two views from BtN regulars on the US–Iran negotiations: Anatol Lieven and Mouin Rabbani The post What’s going on with the Iran negotiations? appeared first on…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Cop power, sex and the social
Stuart Schrader, author of Blue Power, on how the political heft of cops allows them to get away with murder • Angela Jones, author of Sex in Public, on how…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Against money, hating theory
J.W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev, authors of Against Money, explain that curious stuff and enumerate its problems • Moira Weigel explains why the right hates…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Two views of the right: the sordid side of “respectable,” and Trump’s court intellectuals
David Austin Walsh, author of Taking America Back, on the relationship between the kooks and respectables on the right • Laura Field, author of Furious Minds…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Latin America’s influence on Pope Leo • the Cultural Marxist conspiracy
Greg Grandin, author of this article, on how his time in Peru shaped Pope Leo • AJA Woods, author of The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy, on how the right sees the…
- KPFA - Behind the News
fundraising special: the Xi–Trump summit, the dark doings of Opus Dei
Jake Werner analyzes the Trump–Xi summit and US–China relations generally • Gareth Gore, author of Opus, talks about Opus Dei, a secretive, cult-like Catholic…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Fundraising special: two views on the Iran war
Two views of the US–Israeli war on Iran: Laleh Khalili and Mouin Rabbani The post Fundraising special: two views on the Iran war appeared first on KPFA.
- KPFA - Behind the News
fundraising special: imperialism and the homeland
Excerpts from an event sponsored by the NYC DSA’s Academy for Socialist Education on the domestic and foreign aspects of Trumpism, featuring historians Nikhil…
- KPFA - Behind the News
A look back at yuppies • Iran: politics and war
Dylan Gottlieb, author of Yuppies, on that often risible but pioneering social formation • Ervand Abrahamian looks at the politics of Iran, a country under…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Muskism: the world of Elon
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, authors of Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, on Elon’s world and what he wants to do to ours The post Muskism: the world of…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Two views of Hungary’s election, a global blow to the authoritarian right
Hungary’s long-serving authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orban was defeated in an April 12 election. Two views of what that means: historian Kyle Shybunko…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Corruption in the capital, crypto in the age of Trump
Andrew Cockburn, author of Washington Is Burning, on “the spectacular greed at the heart of the nation’s political system” • Hadas Thier, author of this…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Venezuela after Maduro • the forgotten radical history of Texas
Gabriel Hetland on what’s been happening in Venezuela since the kidnapping of Maduro (Intercept article here) • David Griscom, author of The Myth of Red Texas…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Iran crisis, Cuba crisis
Mouin Rabbani talks about the Iran war and its many complications • Helen Yaffe talks about Trump’s oil embargo on Cuba—its effects and how Cubans are reacting…
- KPFA - Behind the News
beyond the class/identity dead end • effect of federal layoffs on black women
Nancy Fraser goes beyond the class/identity disputes • Natalie Y. Moore on the effects of federal layoffs on black women (article here) The post beyond the…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Trump’s unified domain of impunity
Historian Nikhil Pal Singh, author of this article, talks about how the Trump regime weaves foreign and domestic policy into a single domain of impunity…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Fundraising special: two views of Iran
Behrooz Ghamari, author of The Long War on Iran, on the politics and culture of the country • Anatol Lieven on the effects of the war on Iran on the region and…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Fundraising special: David Harvey on capital
David Harvey, author of The Story of Capital, looks at the political economy of the present through a Marxist lens The post Fundraising special: David Harvey…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Fundraising special: politics in Bangladesh, local cops and the Trump crackdowns
Naomi Hossain on politics in Bangladesh generally and the recent election specifically • Stuart Schrader on “authoritarianism from below”—the role of local…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Wrecking East New York, financing schools
Stacy Horn, author of The Killing Fields of East New York, on the damage mortgage fraud did to that neighborhood • David Backer, author of As Public as…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Behind the News – February 5, 2026
David Harvey on his new book, The Story of Capital • excerpt from Mark Carney’s Davos speech • Adam Federman on Trump’s Greenland obsession The post Behind the…
KPFA - Behind the NewsTwo views of the right: the sordid side of “respectable,” and Trump’s court intellectuals
David Austin Walsh, author of Taking America Back, on the relationship between the kooks and respectables on the right • Laura Field, author of Furious Minds…
- KPFA - Behind the News
Trump’s war on immigrants, Israel’s war on Lebanon
David Bier of the Cato Institute on what’s behind Trump’s war on immigrants • Aurélie Daher on the state of Hezbollah and why Israel is bombing Lebanon The…