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.
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
Civil rights, women’s liberation, the labor movement, battles over the environment: those struggles were fought and won by millions of people, inspired by the ideas of iconoclasts and visionaries. And KPFA and Pacifica Radio were around to capture and record those struggles and the ideas that nurtured them. We’ll feature some highlights from that inspiring … Continued
Alan Watts, the author, lecturer, and interpreter of Eastern thought, gave a talk called “Way Beyond the West.”
The history of the 20th century is the history of empire. But did it have to be? We’ll look at various episodes in U.S. war-making, through the lens of award-winning director Oliver Stone, from World War One to World War Two and the development of the atomic bomb, to Vietnam and the proxy wars of … Continued
Philip Freeman’s translation of Cicero’s classic book on aging has the subtitle “Ancient Wisdom for the Second Half of Life.”
Cheap nature, cheap money, cheap work, cheap care, cheap food, cheap energy, and cheap lives. According to Raj Patel, those seven things are necessary for the survival of capitalism. And, he argues, they are running out. He discusses how the food system illustrates the need for those inputs and why capitalism’s days are numbered.
Young Muslim and Arab Americans are being targeted by FBI surveillance, and this, says Sunaina Maira, colors the way they think and act. Maira describes who and what’s being monitored and why; the range of emotions surveillance generates; and the ways in which Muslim Americans are pushing back against post-9/11 regimes of surveillance and repression. … 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
