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.
The San Francisco Bay Area is a key site of capital accumulation in the U.S. — and the world — for reasons that are historically and geographically specific. Marxist geographer Richard Walker reflects on what the Bay Area tells us about capitalist development, housing, suburban sprawl, inequality, libertarian ideology, and capitalism itself. He discusses booms … Continued
We’re constantly taking in media representations of things and events. The cultural theorist Stuart Hall investigated the nature of those representations, their impact on us, and the ways in which we can and do respond. He also linked media representations to the way power operates in society. Also: Part Two of the interview with global … Continued
According to Manfred Steger, globalization is destabilizing traditional political ideologies like liberalism, conservatism, and socialism. Steger proposes a framework for understanding and describing the changing ideological landscape, one that places major ideological systems and tendencies into categories like “market globalism,” “religious globalism,” and “justice globalism.” For more details and higher-quality audio, visit againstthegrain.org.
How should we think about nature and our own lives in the ruins created by capitalism? Anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing reflects on how the matsutake mushroom — which thrives in forests degraded by commercial logging — helps us understand the precarity of life under capitalism and the possibilities for life beyond it.
If the problem is religious polarization and inequality, isn’t the solution secular governance? Secularism, after all, promises the equality of citizens regardless of religious affiliation. Saba Mahmood argues that modern secular governance, contrary to its grand claims, has in fact exacerbated religious inequalities. It has also, she says, constrained our political imagination to a significant … Continued
Ellen Meiksins Wood upended the ways that Marxist thinkers look at class society and democracy, past and present. Her work shed new light on political theory, the origins of capitalism, and the politics of the left, among many other key themes. David McNally reflects on the pioneering political theorist and historian, who died two and … Continued
What happens when poor immigrants seek work on urban street corners? What interpersonal and structural forces affect their vulnerability to harm? Paul Apostolidis considers the plight of migrant day laborers in the U.S. in light of their own words, of the dynamics of state violence directed at Palestinians, and of the nature of precarious bodily existence … Continued
Fear dominates our society. Fear of crime, fear of the poor, fear of foreign terrorists, to which we might add fear of our government and fear of our bosses. For some liberal thinkers, fear serves a purpose. It’s supposed to pull us all together so we can find some kind of social solidarity in an … Continued
Boko Haram has wreaked havoc in Nigeria, killing thousands of people and displacing perhaps two million. Michael Watts explains the emergence and trajectory of Boko Haram; he also discusses the origins of MEND, a separate homegrown insurgency that’s taken shape in the oil-rich but poverty-ridden Niger Delta.
What does it take to form a culture of radical struggle from the bottom up? And what does it take to disarm it? The working class in the UK has been the fount of an enormous amount of innovative culture and art over the last half-century, from rock to punk to folk. Acclaimed radical singer-songwriter … Continued
