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.
Not one movement but a multiplicity of movements engaging in protest and direct action brought down France’s absolutist regime in 1789. Micah Alpaugh describes popular uprisings and insurrections in Paris and the provinces that operated without central leadership and later inspired anarchists around the globe. Micah Alpaugh, The People’s Revolution of 1789 Cornell University Press, … Continued
Ayn Rand’s novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged have been called gateway drugs to rightwing ideas for so many Americans. And while the works of the writer and philosopher have seen a resurgence since the global economic crisis, her influence has been undeniably huge and sustained since those books were originally published in mid-century. Historian … Continued
What is Mexican philosophy, and what are its guiding principles? According to Carlos Alberto Sánchez, Mexican philosophy is a byproduct of Western philosophy’s role in the colonization of the Americas. He lays out some of its central concepts and considers how they apply to everyday life. Carlos Alberto Sánchez, Blooming in the Ruins: How Mexican … Continued
Public schools have long been a battleground for the right. But since the Covid pandemic, the right has had the wind at its back, enlarging its ranks with parents frustrated by school closings and masking mandates. Education journalist Laura Pappano discusses how the far right has sowed panic over library books, gender neutral bathrooms, and … Continued
What did the abrupt transition from socialism to capitalism in the former Soviet Bloc mean for residents, radicals, and the social order? Helena Sheehan, a Marxist thinker, educator, and activist, devotes a portion of her latest book to the impact and legacy of the momentous events of 1989 and 1990. (Encore presentation.) Helena Sheehan, Until We … Continued
Throughout much of the 20th century and into the 21st, the U.S. state has worked to undermine and destroy leftwing and anti-imperialist labor unions around the world. And much of those efforts were assisted by an entity ostensibly committed to the interests of American workers: the trade union federation the AFL-CIO. Historian Jeff Schuhrke argues … Continued
Award-winning artist/illustrator Nate Powell discusses his graphic adaptation of James Loewen’s classic text “Lies My Teacher Told Me.”
It’s indisputably one of the most important works in history. Karl Marx’s Capital has been perennially embraced by those trying to understand and move beyond the capitalist system — and reviled in equal measure by those defending the established order. Yet, until now, English readers of the first volume of Marx’s magnum opus have not … Continued
We are living through the 6th great extinction of species and governments are almost nothing to curb it. Scientist Douglas Tallamy, however, proposes a blueprint for a grassroots effort to restore habitat in a meaningful way, seeing nature not as something to be preserved in parks and reserves far from us, but all around us … Continued
Peter Cave discusses his book “How to Think Like a Philosopher: Scholars, Dreamers and Sages Who Can Teach Us How to Live.”
