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.
Four men who would have a profound impact on U.S. culture converged at Harvard in the early 1960s. In The Harvard Psychedelic Club, Don Lattin tells the story of what Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, and Huston Smith did, how they interacted, and how they influenced the psychedelic and countercultural and spiritual and holistic-health … Continued
Texas Woman’s University professor AnaLouise Keating’s new book is Transformation Now! Toward a Post-Oppositional Politics of Change. For more details and higher-quality audio, visit againstthegrain.org.
If this nation’s involvement in Vietnam was disastrous, if the US lost what it calls the Vietnam War, then what happened such that foreign military intervention again became acceptable, and even popular? Walter Hixson discusses the cultural recasting of the Vietnamese conflict over the years, with momentous effects. For more details and higher-quality audio, visit … Continued
What’s happened to our privacy and our civil liberties over the past twelve months? In what ways are our Fourth Amendment and other rights under attack? Natasha Minsker identifies and evaluates a range of developments in the areas of domestic surveillance, marriage, immigration, reproductive justice, and criminal sentencing. For more details and higher-quality audio, visit … Continued
Maybe you think the push for racial reparations is mainly, or solely, about money. What if it weren’t? What if the demands of reparations advocates were taken seriously, in all their variety and complexity? Charles Henry recounts several key reparations struggles and suggests ways of achieving reparative justice. For more details and higher-quality audio, visit … Continued
Which thinkers and what ideas influenced Richard Wolff‘s development as a radical economist, teacher, and author? Wolff found the writings of the Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci compelling; Joseph Buttigieg is one of the leading scholars of Gramsci in the US.
For nearly six decades, writers from near and far have come to read their work and, in many cases, expound on social issues at events sponsored by the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University. Steve Dickison, the center’s director, selected for this program audio highlights of James Baldwin, Robert Duncan, Jessica Hagedorn, Langston Hughes, … Continued
Incarceration is commonly understood as detention in prisons and jails. Liat Ben-Moshe argues that the term’s meaning should be broadened to include confinement in places like psychiatric hospitals, mental institutions, and even nursing homes. She also points to the existence of what she calls the institution-industrial complex.
Adam Hochshild talks about the Spanish Civil War and about “Homage to Catalonia,” George Orwell’s account of his experiences and observations of the conflict.
Asylum seekers and migrants without papers are often taken to detention facilities purposely sited far from population centers — and sometimes on remote islands. Alison Mountz discusses US, Australian, and other national policies to disperse and isolate detainees, often hiding their location from family members and potential advocates. She also describes efforts to find and … Continued
