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.
A. Philip Randolph famously led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, but he did much more than that. Eric Arnesen traces Randolph’s emergence as a militant socialist at a time when few Blacks were attracted to the Socialist Party and its emphasis on class. Arnesen also discusses Randolph’s relationship with Eugene Debs and W. E. … Continued
For-profit colleges market themselves to veterans and low-income, often African American, students who ultimately find themselves with little to show for their efforts beyond mountains of debt. Contrary to their image, they are massively subsidized by US taxpayers, while turning a handsome profit for their shareholders. Political scientist Suzanne Mettler discusses the federal funding of … Continued
If innovation is the engine that drives capitalist enterprise, what role, if any, should universities play in feeding that engine? The creativity that Christopher Newfield seeks to nurture in students doesn’t match the kind coveted by neoliberal elites. He points to a number of disturbing trends in higher ed, and to differences in capitalist development between … Continued
You may be doing everything by the book, but will you have enough to retire on? If you’re like most Americans, the answer is no. Sociologist James Russell weighs in on how pensions like 401(k)s put all the risk on the individual — and siphon a large part of the rewards off for the financial … Continued
Food justice activists sometimes set up gardens in low-income communities. Margaret Ramírez studied a pair of food organizations in Seattle, including one led by Rev. Robert Jeffrey. Ramírez describes how the racial makeup of the staffers, the legacy of plantation slavery, and the gentrifying momentum created by “white spaces” affected what the two groups were able … Continued
While it may appear an inevitability, how did capitalism come to take hold in the US? Was slave production in the American South actually capitalist or something else? What was the nature of the Civil War and the emergence of sharecropping in the conflict’s wake? Marxist sociologist Charles Post weighs in on these questions, which … Continued
Straight folks, says Jane Ward, engage in a remarkable amount of homosexual sex. In her new book, Ward investigates and interprets same-sex contact between straight white men in a variety of settings, including the military and college fraternities. She also points to a double standard that denies males the sexual fluidity and flexibility routinely assigned … Continued
We rely on automation in all aspects of our lives, from our jobs to our leisure activities. It’s meant to save us time and labor and free us for other pursuits. But does automation make our lives better? Writer Nicholas Carr reflects on the darker side of automation, from mechanized warfare to deskilling on the … Continued
When the US goes to war, its leaders hope and expect Hollywood to make movies that promote war culture and national unity. However, in the wake of 9/11, a number of filmmakers challenged the values and ideology of the US wartime state. Lary May attributes this to the emergence of Hollywood as a global industry catering … Continued
The defeat of the US working class was the requisite condition for the renewal of US empire, which — as much as we keep willing it to decline — maintains its key role as the guardian of global capitalism. So claim Marxist political economists Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch, who in their magnum opus trace … Continued
