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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.
Our lives are filled with innumerable choices, such as for the countless array of products for us to buy, assuming we can afford them. Our politics are often framed as a question of individual, not collective, choice such as the freedom to choose to have an abortion or the act of casting one’s vote in … Continued
Over the course of two decades, publications of the Industrial Workers of the World featured the influential writings of a hobo, transient worker, columnist, poet, and songwriter named T-Bone Slim. Owen Clayton talks about Slim’s focus on workers’ everyday lives under capitalism, his political stances, his use of humor, and his commitment to worker organizing. … Continued
The federal minimum wage languishes at $7.25 an hour and has not been raised since 2009. Given the disproportionate number of workers of color who receive the minimum wage or less, legal scholar Ruben Garcia argues that the fight for racial justice has to include raising the minimum wage. (Encore presentation.) Ruben J. Garcia, Critical … Continued
What role did Irish Catholics play within the U.S. left? Were Irish radicals more interested in freedom from British rule or in anticapitalism? And what effect did religious beliefs have on Irish Americans’ inclinations to break with the mainstream? David Emmons highlights Irish Americans’ contributions to dissidence, progressivism, and radicalism in the United States. (Encore presentation.) … Continued
As the environmental crisis worsens, not everyone is drawing the same lessons. On the far right, xenophobic and racist ideas are increasingly dressed up as means of protecting nature. And, as scholar Alexander Menrisky posits, contemporary American culture furnishes a wealth of material for the right, from the ubiquity of apocalyptic and misanthropic ideas to … Continued
The American diet is awash in junk food. More than half the calories Americans eat come from processed food and drink. Three decades ago, with obesity on the rise, the food industry funded scientists to conclude that exercise was the answer, rather than taxing soda and reining in the marketing of processed food. Anthropologist Susan … Continued
Massive amounts of money are needed to address the multiple social and ecological crises besetting societies around the globe. According to Thomas Marois, the lion’s share of that financing will need to come from public banks. But many public banking institutions, he argues, must be democratized and definancialized. Gregory Albo and Stephen Maher, eds. Socialist … Continued
The authoritarianism of the Trump regime calls out for mass radical organizing, but with some exceptions, much of the left has not mounted a coherent response. Journalist Arun Gupta reflects on lessons from the last quarter century – from the Global Justice Movement to Occupy Wall Street, from the George Floyd protests to the Palestine … Continued
Why are some victims of terror and injustice deemed deserving of care and repair, and others aren’t? David L. Eng looks to the Transpacific, and particularly the atomic bombings of Japan and their aftermath, for answers; he also argues that literature and psychoanalysis can enrich understandings of reparations and human rights. David Eng, Reparations and … Continued
Until the mid-17th century, for the vast majority of Europeans, medical care was administered by women for free in the household and neighborhood, using herbs and other formulas passed down between and among generations. Karen Bloom Gevirtz illustrates how and why only a century later, they were supplanted by men who established the basis of … Continued
