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.
What are you looking at? The Spanish artist Juan Munoz called that his first artistic question. Art critic Michael Brenson has been thinking about that question for over a decade; it’s changed the way he looks at, and thinks about, art.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes comments on the culture of fear around death and dying in the US, and puts it into historical and cultural context.
In his book “Beyond Developmentality: Constructing Inclusive Freedom and Sustainability,” Dr. Debal Deb challenges mainstream ideas about economic growth and industrial development, and proposes sustainable alternatives.
In his new book “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future,” Stephen Kinzer points to democratic trajectories in the histories of Iran and Turkey, and argues that these suggest the basis for a future, very productive relationship with the US.
Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg discuss their book “Righteous Dopefiend,” which both records the experiences of homeless heroin injectors in San Francisco and analyzes the structural forces that shape their lives.
Mark Nowak, a poet, social critic and labor activist, talks about his book “Coal Mountain Elementary” and describes the dialogues he’s initiated between exploited workers in the US and South Africa.
Historian of technology Iain Boal speaks with Sasha Lilley about why the bicycle is not the green machine we all think it is. He also discusses the importance of the first public radio network in this country and what the anarchist founders of KPFA and Pacifica had in mind for the radio medium.
The diagnosis of mental illness has always been colored by societal assumptions and biases, but a striking shift occurred during the turmoil of civil rights movement. In this encore broadcast, Sasha Lilley speaks with Jonathan Metzl about how schizophrenia became a supposedly black disease.
Labor journalist Steve Early talks with Sasha Lilley about the challenges facing organized and unorganized labor in a time of crisis for the economy and for unions.
