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 co-produced and co-hosted by Sasha Lilley and C. S. Soong.
A conversation about the French philosopher Michel Foucault’s little-known support of the Islamic clerics in the Iranian Revolution – and its significance today. With Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson, authors of Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, and host Sasha Lilley.
A look at utopian thought and how utopias came to be dismissed as leading to genocide, with Russell Jacoby, author of Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age. Sasha Lilley hosts.
Are people trained to be racist, and if so, can people be untrained? Robert Horton and Swan Keyes are part of an initiative called The UNtraining; they discuss the conditioning white people in this country experience and how it affects their lives, their relationships with people of color, and prospects for social justice.
The hurricane catastrophe in Louisiana highlights the lack of political clout on the part of the local and state government that has been shaped, according to Christopher Morris, by the legacy of post-Civil War reconstruction. And Dr. Rene Morrissey gives an update on the medical situation in southern Louisiana.
A hundred years ago the IWW was formed to create “one big union” – a radical umbrella that would encompass workers of all races, trades and levels of skill, ready to take on capitalism as a system. Paul Buhle talks about how the Wobblies became a powerful force in mines, factories and fields across the … Continued
What are the human and economic costs of the occupation – for the Iraqi and US people and for the world? A new report released today by the Institute for Policy Studies, titled "The Iraq Quagmire," assesses precisely this question. IPS’s Erik Leaver lays out the manifold costs of war.
Culture, contends Susan Willis, is much more than it seems. In Portents of the Real, Willis interprets a number of post-9/11 phenomena (such as the DC snipers and the Abu Ghraib torture photos) and comments on consumer capitalism, US-style fundamentalism, the war at home, and modern-day fear and anxiety.
What happens when your old TV, computer, or VCR becomes obsolete and you chuck it? Most of us don’t realize the toxic mix contained in electronics and the public health hazards posed when they are "recycled" — whether by child labor in China or India or disassembled by prisoners in the US. Sheila Davis of … Continued
In the process of telling a truly amazing — and true — story about a fantastically rare tree in British Columbia and the eccentric man who cut it down, John Vaillant recounts in lush detail much of the natural history of the Pacific Northwest, the people who live there, and the impact of human activity … Continued
How should we interpret what’s happening locally, and globally? How do we go about building sustainable and effective movements? Left Turn magazine editors Rayan El-Amine and Max Uhlenbeck discuss the status of movements for justice and address developments in Gaza and the US.
