Against the Grain – May 14, 2018
More highlights from “Manufacturing Consent,” the award-winning film about Noam Chomsky’s ideas and insights.
Against the Grain
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.
Noam Chomsky’s ideas and critiques are featured in the documentary film “Manufacturing Consent.”
Fund Drive Special: Richard Walker on the Bay Area
Richard Walker discusses his eye-opening book “Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area.”
Few thinkers have shaped the world as much as Karl Marx, although the ways that he changed it may not have been to his liking, as David McNally argues. He discusses the ideas and legacy of Karl Marx, to mark the bicentennial of his birth.
Amid regimes of exploitation and social control, who or what will step forward to save the day? Michael Hardt discusses how people and social movements might come together to achieve fundamental social and political transformation. He believes existing circuits of social cooperation could be harnessed to challenge the efforts of elites to extract and privatize … Continued
By way of celebrating International Workers Day, or May Day, we look back at the legendary union, the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, with historian Kenyon Zimmer. He discusses the lessons to be learned from how the Wobblies fought back and united workers across cultural and racial differences. Resources: Peter Cole, David Struthers, … Continued
Long-discredited notions of race as rooted in biology fueled eugenics policies and the Nazi extermination project. And yet, Osagie Obasogie asserts, biological race as an ideology continues to inform and infect key developments in science and medicine. Obasogie believes that race impact assessments can address some of the dangers posed by the persistence of regressive … Continued
The effects of climate change are here and serious. While it may seem like uncharted waters in the modern era, our ancestors in the 1600s faced a global climate crisis in a century wracked by wars, famines, and social unrest. Historian Geoffrey Parker discusses the lessons of the 17th century, where elites — with the … Continued
What role can rage play in political struggle? Doesn’t rage impede one’s ability to think clearly and respond effectively? William Sokoloff contends that rage is a fundamental component of democratic citizenship. He describes how Frederick Douglass used rage to fuel and sharpen his critiques of slavery. William Sokoloff, Confrontational Citizenship: Reflections on Hatred, Rage, Revolution, … Continued
Zombies are almost the mascots of our dark times. Hard to avoid in popular culture, they have become so ubiquitous that even the Centers for Disease Control put out a tongue in cheek guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse. Sarah Juliet Lauro discusses the origins of the zombie, from enslaved worker to liberated rebel in … Continued