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.
There’s a conscious attempt afoot to convince progressives to support restrictions on immigration to the U.S. in the name of the environment. But, no, it doesn’t originate from the right — but from liberals or even progressives. John Hultgren discusses the history and contemporary politics of environmentalists and immigration restrictionism. He also weighs in on … Continued
What happened in Cuba after 1959 wasn’t only Fidel Castro’s rise and the political maneuverings of a revolutionary government. There was also a fundamental transformation in culture and cultural production. Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt describes how cultural work was harnessed to the project of building a new society. For more details and higher-quality audio, visit againstthegrain.org.
Around the holidays we hear the entreaty to consider the less fortunate, at least for a moment, including the homeless shivering in the winter months. But what do we miss when we look at the homeless through a moral lens? Craig Willse reflects on whether homelessness is actively produced by neoliberal capitalism. He discusses the … Continued
Some highlights from the past year, including Mitch Monsour on romantic love; Frank Wilderson, III, on Black lives; Maribel Casas-Cortés on precarity; Alex Khasnabish on the middle class; Christopher Newfield on education; and Albena Azmanova on systemic change. For more details and higher-quality audio, visit againstthegrain.org.
Anarchist rabble rouser, maverick woman doctor and abortion provider, political prisoner, and out lesbian at the turn of the 20th century — Marie Equi was a remarkable figure who has only recently been recovered from the amnesia of history. Historian Michael Helquist discusses the turbulent life and times of a pioneering radical..
Democracy today is in a sorry state. Can Walt Whitman help us resuscitate it? John Marsh thinks so; he reveals how the thousands of visits Whitman paid to sick and wounded soldiers in Civil War army hospitals restored the poet’s faith in ordinary people’s ability to fashion a robust democracy. Marsh also shows how Whitman modeled … Continued
The Wire clearly wasn’t your typical police drama. Linda Williams describes the way in which the critically acclaimed television serial about the streets and institutions of Baltimore broke new ground. Among other things, Williams highlights The Wire‘s institutional focus and argues that the show rewrote what she calls the melodrama of black and white. For … Continued
E.P. Thompson was the greatest English socialist historian of the 20th century and his work still resonates today in how we understand class, social struggle, and history. Thompson’s student Cal Winslow reflects on his life, politics, and writings, from his early days in the Communist Party, to his key role in the early New Left, … Continued
Many of the Italians who migrated to the US in large numbers at the turn of the twentieth century were drawn to anarchism. Jennifer Guglielmo has studied Italian immigrant political culture with an emphasis on working-class women who espoused anarchism, labor militancy, and a radical, transnational feminism. For more details and higher-quality audio, visit againstthegrain.org.
Welfare supports were a fundamental feature of the Soviet Union. But then the USSR collapsed, leaving millions of Russians without either good-paying jobs or state assistance. Marianna Pavlovskaya reveals how Russian families resorted to household and other informal economic practices to cope, adapt, and survive in an era of relentless privatization and neoliberalization. For more details … Continued
