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.
Sidewalks take us places, but they’re also places of their own, where all sorts of people come together and interact. Shannon Mattern, who has written about the history of the sidewalk, claims that we’re entering a new era of sidewalk planning, use, and politics, driven in large part by advances in communications, surveillance, and smart … Continued
The effects of climate change are here and serious. While it may seem like uncharted waters in the modern era, our ancestors in the 1600s faced a global climate crisis in a century wracked by wars, famines, and social unrest. Historian Geoffrey Parker discusses the lessons of the 17th century, where elites — with the … Continued
How does political ideology work in Cuba? What is ideology anyway? Katherine Gordy argues that socialist ideology in Cuba, far from constituting a static, abstract canon of beliefs, is practiced and produced by people at all levels of Cuban society. She also comments on Fidel Castro’s espousal of Marxism and on the role of nineteenth-century intellectuals … Continued
A hallmark of our age is feeling we’re perpetually struggling with time—not having enough of it to accomplish seemingly endless tasks and obligations, while swimming in a sea of distractions. Can we cope if we learn, following the gurus of time management, to become ever more disciplined and productive? Or does that just feed into … Continued
Renowned mycologist Paul Stamets talks about mushrooms, human health, bee populations, psychoactive fungi, and more. (Image by Alan Rockefeller.)
High school students are assigned massive textbooks overflowing with dates and events in U.S. history. But according to sociologist and educator James Loewen, these massive tomes often omit more than they include. Loewen’s classic work, Lies My Teacher Told Me, explores the whitewashing of Woodrow Wilson’s racism and imperialist ventures, and the exclusion of Helen … Continued
Michael Albert discusses his vision of an equitable, sustainable, and participatory economy. (Image on main page: Wikipedia.)
Over the past half century, the US economy has undergone a profound change: wealth has been concentrated in the hands of a few, inequality has skyrocketed, and insecurity has reigned. And yet it’s a story mainly downplayed by mainstream pundits and the media. Noam Chomsky, arguably the most important public intellectual in the world, says … Continued
Alan Watts on the fundamentals of Buddhism, plus portions of a talk he gave called “Insight and Ecstasy.”
Who were the Jacobins? What did they believe in, what did they accomplish over the course of the French Revolution, and how should they be judged? Micah Alpaugh discusses the Jacobin clubs’ social and political stances, the policies they enacted, and the Jacobins’ turn toward terror. Micah Alpaugh, ed., The French Revolution: A History in Documents Bloomsbury, 2021 … Continued
