Against the Grain
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.
Against the Grain – February 3, 2014
The photographer Eadweard Muybridge met Leland Stanford at a time when technological breakthroughs were beginning to alter myriad aspects of everyday life. Muybridge’s innovations paved the way for cinema; Stanford’s obsessions fueled the beginnings of Silicon Valley; and Rebecca Solnit has written a book about the consciousness-changing advent of modern technology. For more details and … Continued
Against the Grain – January 29, 2014
How do we help the billion-plus humans who live in extreme poverty? Is microfinance part of the answer, and how should we evaluate its connection to “bottom billion capitalism,” the effort to integrate desperately poor people into global circulations of finance capital? Ananya Roy looks at how poverty is viewed and addressed.
Against the Grain – January 28, 2014
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
Against the Grain – January 27, 2014
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.
Against the Grain – January 22, 2014
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
Against the Grain – January 21, 2014
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
Against the Grain – January 20, 2014
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
Against the Grain – January 15, 2014
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.
Against the Grain – January 14, 2014
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