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.
Can white people truly grasp how deeply racism is embedded in U.S. society, and in people’s psyches? According to David Mura, the stories that white people tell themselves about race make the recognition of Blacks as equals impossible. Also: more from Elisabeth Jay Friedman about intergenerational mobilizing. David Mura, The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial … Continued
Mass shootings and other forms of person-on-person violence dominate the headlines, but what less visible, and perhaps more insidious, kinds of violence exist? Barbara Chasin identifies and describes two types of violence that affect large numbers of people: organizational violence and structural violence. She also connects the dots between violence and economic inequality. (Encore presentation.) Barbara … Continued
Universities are one of the most hallowed institutions in our society — but critics argue they’re closer to hedge funds that conduct classes. Higher education is largely tax-exempt, based on the idea that universities benefit the public at large, including the communities where they are located. In online forums and community discussions, debates rage over … Continued
How does a social movement attract younger participants, who may be turned off by older activists’ approaches, styles, and understandings? Elisabeth Jay Friedman describes how Ni Una Menos, an influential feminist formation in Argentina, managed to build an intergenerational mass movement. Elisabeth Jay Friedman and Ana Laura Rodríguez Gustá, ‘“Welcome to the Revolution’: Promoting Generational … Continued
As the world rushes headlong into the climate emergency, what might a liberatory approach look like, that would avert ecological disaster while making another world possible? Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese have laid out one vision for eco-socialism that takes on the difficult question of how to plan society in a radically different way. (Encore … Continued
To be queer and communist at a time when the Communist Party in the U.S. banned LGBT people was tricky and often perilous. In her new book Bettina Aptheker profiles Lorraine Hansberry (who famously penned the play “A Raisin in the Sun”), Harry Hay (best known for founding the Mattachine Society), and other figures with … Continued
What are the contradictions and uses of environmental conservation and land preservation in a settler colonial state? Like South Africa and the United States, the Israeli government has carved out large swaths of land for ecological protection — and the dispossession of native populations is often hidden from sight. Legal anthropologist Irus Braverman discusses the … Continued
An Asian Pacific Islander history-themed program featuring Jean Pfaelzer on anti-Chinese pogroms; Karen Ishizuka on API organizing; Craig Santos Perez on Guam’s indigenous Chamorro population; and Julie Otsuka about her novel about Japanese American incarceration. Jean Pfaelzer, Driven Out: The Forgotten War against Chinese Americans UC Press Karen Ishizuka, Serve the People: Making Asian America … Continued
North Americans are sick, stressed, and alienated, a state of affairs accentuated in recent years by Covid. The Hungarian-Canadian physician Gabor Maté argues that capitalism engenders illness, while the medical system blindly ignores the lives of its patients. Maté discusses individual and collective change, while reflecting on human nature, alienation and rightwing politics, and the … Continued
In the United States, few things seem as wholesome as camping, letting us temporarily escape the daily grind and commune with nature and each other. But Phoebe Young argues that camping has a complicated history, which tell us a lot about Americans’ notions of nature and the nation. She discusses the various forms that camping … Continued
