12:00 PM Pacific Time: Mondays - Wednesdays
Acclaimed program of ideas, in-depth analysis, and commentary on a variety of matters—political, economic, social, and cultural—important to progressive and radical thinking and activism. Against the Grain is produced and hosted by Sasha Lilley.
There’s no question that the internet has transformed our societies in enormous ways — but sorting through how and why is much more contentious. Media expert Robert McChesney discusses the crucial element missing from our discussions of the internet: capitalism.
Beginning in the late 1980s, mass attitudes in the U.S. shifted dramatically toward greater tolerance of LGBTQ people and greater support of gay rights. What accounts for this rapid and sustained shift? Jeremiah Garretson examines a number of factors, including the AIDS crisis, grassroots activism, news coverage, fictional portrayals of gays and lesbians on TV, … Continued
Most of us have a growing sense that something’s deeply wrong with the way that digital data is used to track and monitor us. But most of us don’t realize that the poorest among us are particularly vulnerable. Virginia Eubanks argues that such data is used to criminalize and turn the poor away from public … Continued
A brutal proxy war is being waged in Yemen, with catastrophic humanitarian consequences. Arrayed against the Houthis and their allies is a Saudi-led coalition, of which the U.S. is an active participant. Yemeni activist Shireen Al-Adeimi discusses the war and its impact. Also: the final portion of the interview with Amy Sueyoshi (which went unaired … Continued
It’s easier to remember the histories of defeat, than those of social transformation. But in the three years preceding the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, the country experimented with a form of socialism that was both top down and bottom up. Historian Marian Schlotterbeck discusses how under Salvador Allende’s government, the radical left fueled changes at … Continued
How Chinese and Japanese people were depicted and treated in San Francisco had a lot to do with the creation of the American “Oriental,” argues Amy Sueyoshi in a new book. She links stereotypical portrayals of Asians to the process by which white San Franciscans viewed and addressed changes to their own sexual norms and … Continued
When you think of dictatorship, what comes to mind? Probably a repressive state controlling what we can say and do. But acclaimed political philosopher Elizabeth Anderson argues that the word describes the workplace. She discusses how we give up most of our rights when we take a job. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Elizabeth Anderson, Private Government: … Continued
When, after the U.S. entered World War I, Emma Goldman continued to speak out – this time against the draft – the authorities threw her in prison. The influential anarchist and agitator was deported two years later. Candace Falk, who directs the Emma Goldman Papers Project, is working on the fourth and final volume in … Continued
We’re often told that the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians rises out of a unique historical situation. But the dispossession of the Palestinians, rather than being exceptional, has strong echoes in other historical dispossessions. Gary Fields discusses the enclosure of the lands of the English peasantry, Native Americans, and the inhabitants of historic … Continued
What did anarchism and Marxism look like in the nineteenth century, and in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution? Were Marxists and anarchists always at loggerheads? And how did the Bolshevik Revolution affect the dynamics and development of these two great idea systems? Anthony D’Agostino weighs in on these and other questions. Anthony … Continued
