12:00 PM Pacific Time: Mondays to 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 co-produced and co-hosted by Sasha Lilley and C. S. Soong.
Social historian Iain Boal discusses the scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and the role he has played in suppporting the neoliberal transformation of the UK, first under Margaret Thatcher, then Labour’s Tony Blair, and now under David Cameron. With host Sasha Lilley.
Cynthia Enloe and Joni Seager, authors of “The Real State of America Atlas,” talk about U.S. poverty, unemployment, homelessness, sexual violence, and military recruitment, among other topics, seen through a geographic lens.
Bill Deresiewicz describes the crisis in higher education and the immiseration of academic labor; he also evaluates calls for the abolition of tenure and for technology- and market-based reforms.
Lisa Dodson, author of “The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy,” talks about actions taken by individuals, often illegally, to provide health care, sick leave, and other help to those in need. And lawyer Michael Deutsch discusses the case of 23 Palestine and Colombia solidarity activists subpoenaed by a grand jury, all … Continued
Susan Jacoby discusses the history and grand tradition of secularist activism in the US, and Aparajita Nanda talks about her new volume “Black California: A Literary Anthology.”
Anarchist writer Stuart Christie, who was imprisoned for an attempt to assassinate the fascist dictator Francisco Franco, discusses the Spanish Revolution on its 75th anniversary: its daring anti-capitalist reorganization of society, involving millions of workers, as well as its ultimate failure. With host Ramsey Kanaan.
According to Eric Stanley, brutal murders of LGBT people, many of which involve the mutilation or dismemberment of the victim’s body, are not aberrations and should not be dismissed as the products of individual pathology. Instead, Stanley argues, these forms of violence are central to the reproduction of liberal democracy in the US.
The early writings of Walter Benjamin, the brilliant German philosopher-critic known for his insights into technology, art, and modern existence, are the focus of a new volume edited by MIT scholar Howard Eiland.
Jonathon Keats, author of “Virtual Words: Language on the Edge of Science and Technology,” considers the origins, uses, and sociopolitical impact of words like “microbiome,” “copyleft,” and “singularity.”
Ann duCille examines issues of race, gender, and class in Ernest Hemingway’s story “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” (Prior reading of the story is not required.)
