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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, July 13, 2025 10:00 am
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1:00:12
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| Guests:
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| Ksenia Kagarlitskaya, Simon Pirani, Ilya Budraitskis
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| Putin's Political Prisoners
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Suzi Weissman moderates a panel from the Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago, July 4, on Putin’s Political Prisoners— critical voices imprisoned for publicly opposing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The panel draws attention to these prisoners of conscience resisting war and authoritarianism—both from inside Russia’s prison system and in exile.
We hear from Ksenia Kagarlitskaya, daughter of imprisoned Marxist Boris Kagarlitsky and founder of the Freedom Zone campaign; we’ll also hear from Boris Kagarlitsky himself, in a recorded message from Penal Colony No. 4; historian Simon Pirani; and exiled scholar Ilya Budraitskis.
The day before this panel—on July 3—eleven political prisoners, including Kagarlitsky, issued an open letter to world leaders. They called for the mass release of Russian political prisoners and Ukrainian civilian hostages—an estimated 10,000 people—as part of any peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.
As pressure builds for an end to the war, their call must become ours: freedom for all political prisoners!
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, June 29, 2025 10:00 am
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1:00:12
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| Guest:
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| Alan Minsky
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| Topics
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| Mamdani’s spectacular NYC Mayoral Primary victory
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Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old New York State Assembly member and democratic socialist, has just pulled off a historic upset—defeating Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.
Despite being outspent 4 to 1, Mamdani’s campaign galvanized record turnout in triple-digit heat, powered by years of grassroots organizing among young progressives, immigrants, and working-class New Yorkers. His inclusive platform – emphasizing affordability – and visionary campaign won the day against the status quo, and set off alarm bells in the ossified Democratic establishment.
Mamdani is the first Muslim and South Asian nominee for mayor of New York, and the first democratic socialist in generations with a real chance to lead America’s largest city. He won support across nearly every constituency—from working-class neighborhoods to communities long pushed to the party’s margins.
Can this victory be replicated across the country? What can we learn from this campaign?
Alan Minsky—just back from New York, where he worked on Mamdani’s campaign, joins us to talk about how Mamdani won, what it means for New York, the left, the future of the Democratic Party, -- and social democratic reforms across the country.
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, June 22, 2025 10:00 am
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1:00:12
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| Guest:
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| Yassamine Mather
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| Israel’s Strike on Iran, Wider War ahead?
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The unthinkable has happened -- after warning Iran it had two weeks to make a deal, Trump went ahead and unleashed the raw military might of at least six 30,000-pound bunker busters, delivered by B2 bombers on Fordo, and submarines fired 30 TLAM cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan. With typical Trumpian bombast, he bragged that Iran's nuclear sites "are totally obliterated." Yet Iranian officials claim that Iran had already moved its nuclear materials out of the three facilities the US struck months ago.
I spoke to Yassamine Mather before Trump bombed to get her analysis of Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” — a unilateral military strike on Iran that marks a dangerous new escalation in an already volatile region.
The attack comes amid Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, accelerating dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank, pager bomb assassinations of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and land grabs in Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime. Netanyahu’s war cabinet is committed to military solutions on all fronts — and now, Iran.
Tehran’s regime is retaliating deep inside Israeli territory. This is a first for Israel, and it is dangerous in every way. Although the US was fully informed of Israel's intentions, Netanyahu disregarded Trump's public opposition to the strike. Trump then switched, and endorsed Netanyahu's attack, warning Iran to make a deal or else. Now we see the 'or else.'
The timing of Israel's attack on Iran raises key questions: Was the strike aimed at derailing renewed nuclear diplomacy? To deflect attention from Israel’s failure to rescue hostages after 20 months of genocidal violence in Gaza? Does it signal a refusal by Netanyahu’s government to accept any peaceful settlement with Iran?
Israel is fast becoming a pariah state, waging war with impunity. It's ironic that Iran, a pariah state for more than 45 years, whose deeply unpopular and repressive regime is now attacked by Israel, whose destruction and starvation of Gazans, political assassinations, and military strikes are turning it into an international outlier. Yassamine Mather helps us make sense of this dangerous turning point in Middle East politics.
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, June 8, 2025 10:00 am
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0:59:06
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| Guest:
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| David Ost
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| Topic
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| Polish Election and the Global Far Right
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David Ost on Poland’s stunning June 1 presidential election.The race was tight, but in the end, Karol Nawrocki, the far-right, hardline nationalist with MAGA-style politics and Trump’s backing, narrowly defeated Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.
After recent electoral defeats for Trumpist candidates in Canada, Australia, and Romania, it seemed an international anti-Trump bump was underway. But Polish voters, just two years after electing liberal leader Donald Tusk, have swung back to the right. What does this election reveal about the continuing attraction of the authoritarian-nationalist-populist right to working class voters?
Ost argues Tusk overpromised and underdelivered, dampening turnout—echoing Biden/Harris’s troubles in the U.S. Meanwhile, the liberal left ran against Nawrocki’s negative personal qualities and tough working class background, not his reactionary, xenophobic agenda—feeding class resentment and fueling the far right.
Populism has shown to have staying power, and center left liberal governance has failed to offer a durable counter. Is Poland a warning to left liberals everywhere? And what are the implications for Ukraine, Europe and the globe?
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| Host:
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| Suzi Weismann
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| Guest:
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| Davis Ost
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| Topic
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| Polish Eleftion
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Here's the full hour of the show Beneath the Surface Sundays 10-Due to technical difficulties on Sunday June 8 at 10am, the wrong show played at the start of the show. The correct full hour has been uploaded, please take a listen.
Sunday June 8, 2025 10am PST: David Ost on the Polish Election and the Global Far Right.
Polish expert David Ost joins us to unpack Poland’s stunning June 1 presidential election. The race was tight, but in the end, Karol Nawrocki, the far-right, hardline nationalist with MAGA-style politics and Trump’s backing, narrowly defeated Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.
After recent electoral defeats for Trumpist candidates in Canada, Australia, and Romania, it seemed an international anti-Trump bump was underway. But Polish voters, just two years after electing liberal leader Donald Tusk, have swung back to the right. What does this election reveal about the continuing attraction of the authoritarian-nationalist-populist right to working class voters?
Ost argues that Tusk in power promised a program of radical changes, but delivered too little, dampening enthusiasm and turnout, not unlike what happened to Biden and Harris. He also argues that the liberal left campaigned on Nawrocki’s negative personal qualities, including his tough working class background, rather than his reactionary, xenophobic policies – missteps that fed class resentment and fueled the far right.
Populism has shown to have staying power, and center left liberal governance has failed to offer a durable counter. Is Poland a warning to left liberals everywhere? And what are the implications for Ukraine, Europe and the globe. KPFK 90.7FM, streaming live and archived at www.kpfk.org
Podcast information, audio archives and more at
https://bit.ly/3k3iPCH
We are also on Facebook-- become a fan (hit “like”) BTS to receive updates on shows and more.
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, May 25, 2025 10:00 am
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1:00:12
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| Guest:
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| John Dinges
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| The Americans Disappeared by Pinochet
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Journalist and author John Dinges joins us to discuss his new book "Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup."
Dinges lived in Chile from 1972-78, from the heady days of Allende’s Popular Unity government to the years of terror following the coup of September 11, 1973. His book reopens the case of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi—two young Americans who went to Chile to participate in the democratic socialist process of President Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government. They were disappeared -- went ‘missing,’ and were executed in the days following the military takeover.
Their story inspired the Oscar-winning film "Missing," which depicted Horman as the man who knew too much about U.S. involvement in the coup. But "Chile in Their Hearts" challenges that version as a myth—and uncovers the sham investigation and coverup behind its conclusions.
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Beneath The Surface
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Sunday, May 18, 2025 10:00 am
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1:00:12
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| Guest:
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| Juan Cole
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| Topics
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| A Trump Foreign Policy? Middle East Upheaval
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Juan Cole joins us to break down Donald Trump’s dramatic pivot in the Middle East: sidelining Israel, cozying up to Gulf monarchies, cutting billion-dollar deals, promising to lift sanctions on Syria, and exploring a new nuclear agreement with Iran.
Trump vowed a quick peace in Gaza and Ukraine, but neither materialized. Instead, we’re seeing zigzags between personal enrichment schemes, back channel talks, and diplomatic snubbing. Is this strategic realignment, opportunism, or just more chaos?
We unpack the U.S.-brokered hostage deal with Hamas that bypassed Netanyahu, the collapse of the Assad regime, and the regional powers now vying for influence over Syria’s new government—amid Trump’s promise to lift sanctions. Is a coherent Trump doctrine beginning to emerge? Juan Cole gives us the big-picture view.
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