Fund Drive Special: Alan Watts
Portions of two talks given by Alan Watts, the author, lecturer, and interpreter of Buddhist thought.
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.
Is capitalism bad for your health? Gabor Maté thinks so. The acclaimed Canadian physician and Marxist discusses capitalism, stress, and chronic illness, inimitably combining profound humanism, dark wit, and extensive knowledge of science and social justice. He makes the compelling case that the psycho-social needs to be taken into account by both the medical establishment … Continued
“Polishing the Mirror,” by the influential spiritual seeker and teacher Ram Dass, has been turned into an audiobook.
In “I Am Not Your Negro,” Haitian director Raoul Peck, through the lens of writer James Baldwin, examines why racial oppression is at the heart of the American experience.
Fund Drive Special: Voices That Change the World
Selections from Voices That Change the World, a comprehensive 1300-hour Pacifica Radio Archives audio compilation featuring hundreds of thinkers, critics, activists, writers, and performers.
He was a trailblazing critic of imperialism, but chances are you’ve never heard his name. The radical Japanese journalist Kotoku Shusui, who moved from socialism to anarchism, wrote a seminal critique of imperialism — before Hobson and Lenin — and led the movement against empire in Japan. Robert Tierney discusses Kotoku, his classic work Imperialism, … Continued
Free Universities
As universities become increasingly infiltrated and transformed by capitalist logics, what do free universities add to the educational, social, and political landscape? Fern Thompsett, a Ph.D. student at McGill University, co-founded a free university in Australia; she’s also researched more than two dozen free university projects in North America. Thompsett describes both the free-of-charge and … Continued
It’s been called the greatest political film of all time. The Battle of Algiers, which was released fifty years ago, told the story of the Algerian people’s struggle against French colonialism. It became an instant classic and touchstone for radical movements in the Third World and the international left. And it became a tool for … Continued
Habermas and Adorno on Reason and Rationality
What happens when “reason” is in decline, when the world appears to be moving in the direction of irrationality and political pathology? Martin Jay discusses how two Frankfurt School thinkers, Theodor Adorno and Jürgen Habermas, tried to salvage a critical version of reason. Whereas Adorno looked to art and aesthetics, Habermas appealed to practices of … Continued
Americans are struggling economically and personal finance gurus think that’s our fault. If we could just save money from small indulgences — like lattes — and sock it away in the stock market, we could end up millionaires. So claim the likes of Suze Orman and Robert Kiyosaki. But, according to journalist Helaine Olen, such … Continued