Against the Grain – May 17, 2010
John Muir Laws, a columnist for Bay Nature magazine, has written and illustrated a set of pocket guides to plant and animal species found in the Bay Area.

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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 produced and hosted by Sasha Lilley.
John Muir Laws, a columnist for Bay Nature magazine, has written and illustrated a set of pocket guides to plant and animal species found in the Bay Area.
According to the veteran environmental advocate David Suzuki, the ecological emphasis on the interconnectedness of all things is grounded in the science of air, water, earth, and energy.
Robert McChesney and John Nichols discuss their new book “The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again.”
Journalist Kari Lydersen talks to Sasha Lilley about the lessons of the Chicago Republic Windows and Doors factory occupation. And Chris Spannos discusses the IMF/ European Union bailout of Greece on the eve of a general strike.
Are short sales a good idea? Many homeowners, says Bill Purdy, are being misinformed or misled. Also, Peter Edelman highlights the unavailability and inadequacy of badly-needed welfare assistance.
Sasha Lilley talks to Alissa Katz about how mortgage lenders saw poor, inner city residents as the next frontier in profit-making – and how the idea of owning one’s own house has been actively fostered by a government wanting to abandon public housing.
Race relations, class conflict, the immigrant experience, and many other facets of Australian life are explored in a new novel by Christos Tsiolkas. And in the second of a two-part interview, global justice activist Tadzio Mueller takes up the question, What would it mean to win?
Schizophrenia afflicts people at the same rates across ethnicity and race, yet the medical establishment disproportionately diagnoses African American men with it. Sasha Lilley talks to Jonathan Metzl about how, during the turmoil of the civil rights movement, schizophrenia became a black disease.