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.
Afro-Latin music is a multimillion-dollar industry, but according to Timothy Brennan, it speaks to a world outside of the relations of the market, and that’s what makes it irresistible. Brennan talks about cultural resistance, the Afro-Cuban roots music known as the son, and the pioneering scholarship of Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier. For more details and … Continued
Vacant structures abound in the bankrupt city of Detroit, and squatters have taken over and occupied many of them. Although squatting is illegal, the practice has achieved a kind of legitimacy and vibrancy as residents yearn for a sense of community among the empty lots and abandoned homes. Claire Herbert has interviewed squatters, long-time residents, … Continued
Wilhelm Reich fused Marx with Freud, had an enormous influence on the New Left and the counterculture, and provided the intellectual underpinnings for the sexual revolution. Yet he’s almost forgotten today. Writer Christopher Turner discusses the complexities of the psychoanalytic pioneer, who invented the infamous orgone accumulator box — used by William Burroughs and Norman … Continued
Not everyone on the Left celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage. A number of radical thinkers and activists, including Dean Spade and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, have decried the focus on marriage equality. On the other hand, Sherry Wolf viewed same-sex marriage as a key reform worth pursuing. For more details and higher-quality audio, … Continued
Socialist humanist ideas were broadly championed by key thinkers in the mid-20th century, like Fanon, Marcuse, and Fromm, but have now disappeared seemingly without a trace. Barbara Epstein and Kevin Anderson explore socialist humanism’s rise and fall. For more details and higher-quality audio, visit againstthegrain.org.
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
Often disparaged, the internet has become both a key tool for social movements and a way for activists to tell their own stories. Inspired by the Zapatistas, media activists blazed a trail, and transformed journalism, with a network-based model of grassroots independent media centers around the world. Todd Wolfson discusses Indymedia’s rise and fall, and … Continued
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
Archie Green may be best known for almost singlehandedly pressuring the government to create the American Folklife Center, but Sean Burns argues he was one of this country’s foremost intellectuals on the left. Burns, who has written the definitive study of the labor historian and folklorist, discusses Green’s political formation on San Francisco’s docks and … Continued
In Part Two of our interview with Keith Feldman, he tells the story of David Graham Du Bois, a journalist and erstwhile editor of the Black Panther Party newspaper. Also, W. E. B. Du Bois, David’s stepfather, spoke in an audio autobiography about student movements and pan-Africanism, and Barbara Seeber interprets Jane Austen from both … Continued
