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 co-produced and co-hosted by Sasha Lilley and C. S. Soong.
What do animals have to do with absolutism? Can animal bodies and representations be used to justify authoritarian rule, or can they model forms of conduct expected of a ruler’s associates? According to Peter Sahlins, animals that lived and were depicted in the royal gardens of Versailles played a key role in Louis XIV’s reign, … Continued
What are the origins of modern conservatism? The failed Goldwater campaign? Or the Cold War era discontent of midwestern small capitalists? Historian Kathryn Olmstead argues that it should be located even earlier, in the intense and massive labor unrest that took place in the fields of California in the 1930s. The response by growers and … Continued
Highlights of some of the best commentary presented on Against the Grain in 2017, featuring Gabriel Rockhill on democracy; David Hollinger on longstanding ethnoracial categories; Fern Thompsett on free universities; Sunaina Maira on the interfaith movement; and Vaughn Rasberry on W. E. B. Du Bois’s take on the Soviet Union.
In relation to the radical political groupings of his time, the British Marxist T.A. Jackson occupied the position of an outsider. So asserts Philip Bounds, who finds Jackson’s inability to conform not only refreshing but of immense value to the revolutionary project. Bounds also discusses Jackson’s understanding of the political views of Dickens and Shakespeare. … Continued
From charter schools to enterprises like Teach for America — profiteering off of public education has surged, supported by both Democrats and Republicans. But Noliwe Rooks argues that the plundering of taxpayer-funded education has a long history, going back to the era after Reconstruction. Rooks discusses that history — and whether we’re now seeing the … 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
Racial politics intrude into a poor woman’s grief when her dead child is African American and he’s fallen prey to urban violence. According to Ina Kelleher, grieving Black mothers often have to perform a kind of emotional labor in order to garner public sympathy and to push back against racist assumptions and tropes. Kelleher discusses … Continued
Why didn’t Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin get along? What accounts for the conflict between the two thinkers that led to the momentous breakup of the First International in 1872? Mark Leier discusses and compares the backgrounds and ideas of Bakunin and Marx; he argues that they were more similar than most believe. He also … Continued
How to organize for social justice under situations of great duress? That’s both a question for our times and for much of the last half century. Trainer and longtime organizer Mike Miller discusses empowering people to change their world, drawing from the Civil Rights movement and other historic struggles. He also talks about the contested … Continued
Exclusion, discrimination, internment, racist violence – Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have gone through a lot in the U.S. Karen Ishizuka has written about the people and groups that pushed the concerns and struggles of Asian Americans to the fore. Among other things, she talks about the shift from “Oriental” to “Asian American”; efforts to … Continued
