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.
Do genetics determine the kind of people we turn out to be? Or is it society and our upbringing? Those may be universal questions, but they are much more starkly posed in the case of adoptive parents and children. Sociologist Kay Trimberger reflects on her experience as an adoptive parent and her journey to make … Continued
What are the prospects that a mass movement against capitalism will emerge and develop in the U.S.? Robert Latham considers the power and potential of what he calls the contending masses. And David Ravensbergen evaluates two prominent currents within ecosocialism: ecomodernism and degrowth. Latham, Kingsmith, von Bargen, and Block, Challenging the Right, Augmenting the Left: … Continued
The world around us is increasingly toxic, with 90,000 registered chemicals in the US, most of which have never been tested for their effects on human health. While regulating and banning chemicals and other hazards is ultimately a key political question, physician Aly Cohen argues that there is a fair amount we can do to … Continued
To what extent did Frederick Engels engage with environmental and ecological issues? When Engels wrote about the dialectics of nature, what did he mean by “dialectics”? According to John Bellamy Foster, Engels’s insights into ecology, dialectics, and the environmental conditions of the working class were, and remain, critically important. John Bellamy Foster, The Return of … Continued
The coronavirus has laid bare the divisions and inequalities of our society. It’s also exposed the stark differences in possible approaches to the pandemic. Radical scholar Alexis Shotwell argues that we need to frame our fight as one for collective care, rather than containment and control. She discusses solidarity and the lessons of the HIV/AIDS … Continued
Siamak Vossoughi writes stories about identity, connection, and belonging. Many of his protagonists are, like him, Iranian-American; some of them strive to find an America they feel comfortable inhabiting. Understanding fascism, redefining masculinity, tracing the contours of the immigrant experience: these are some of the issues addressed in Vossoughi’s new book. Siamak Vossoughi, A Sense … Continued
People of color — whether welfare recipients or immigrants — are routinely characterized in the United States as shiftless, even parasitic, and not deserving of the social supports of the state. Ethnic Studies scholar Daniel Martinez HoSang argues that in recent years, as the social safety net has been chopped away, the right has branded … Continued
Most of us have a growing sense that something’s deeply wrong with the way that digital data is used to track and monitor us. But most of us don’t realize that the poorest among us are particularly vulnerable. Virginia Eubanks argues that such data is used to criminalize and turn the poor away from public … Continued
Can an intensely private emotion like shame – for who one is, or what one has done – serve as an impetus for political engagement? Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s writings on Jewish politics, Manu Samnotra ascribes a political role to shame; he argues that shame can motivate people to create political spaces and engage in … Continued
Many who are concerned with the unfolding climate emergency have pinned great hope on the election of Joe Biden and Democratic control of the Senate. But, as sociologist Richard Lachmann observes, progressive expectations of Democrat politicians have been regularly dashed. He argues that a different approach to forcing elites into action is more effective: combining … Continued
