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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.
Prisons, jails, immigrant detention centers. We know them as places of unfreedom, but we don’t often think about them as places of work. Yet compulsory labor is a key part of incarceration in this country. Sociologist Erin Hatton discusses the state of coerced work in prisons, the lack of worker protections, and how work has … Continued
Highlights from a five-hour documentary film series called Capitalism, in which thinkers like Noam Chomsky, David Graeber, and Thomas Piketty examine and critique the ideas of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and many others.
Could humans ever live together without warring? Did half of us evolve to start wars and dominate the rest of us? Biological anthropologist Agustín Fuentes separates myths from the facts about aggression, genes, human nature, and evolution, in this interview from the collection “Big Picture Ideas: The Best of Against the Grain”.
Marshall Rosenberg lays out some of the basics of Nonviolent Communication, the method he developed for connecting compassionately with others. (Photo by Noah Buscher via Unsplash)
Great powers rise and fall. But when their power wanes, as Britain’s did in the early 20th century and the U.S. is arguably waning now, who shoulders the costs of their decline? Is it elites or those on the bottom? Sociologist Richard Lachmann discusses what the past can tell us about the future of empires … Continued
A radio and web media project whose aim is to provide in-depth analysis and commentary on a variety of matters — political, economic, social and cultural — important to progressive and radical thinking and activism.
It’s been likened to the Paris Commune, but took place a mere forty-one years ago. In 1980, the people of Gwangju, South Korea, rose up against dictatorship, and for some precious days the liberated city governed itself from below through mass assemblies. George Katsiaficas discusses the history of repression and rebellion in Korea and the … Continued
Two prominent currents within ecosocialism are ecomodernism and degrowth. In this full-length interview, David Ravensbergen describes and assesses the ecomodernist and degrowth positions; he also weighs in on “doomer politics” and the Green New Deal. Robert Latham, A. T. Kingsmith, Julian von Bargen, and Niko Block, eds., Challenging the Right, Augmenting the Left: Recasting Leftist … Continued
The Old Left, we’re told, was narrowly focused on issues of class to the detriment of other struggles, such as those of queer people. But Aaron Lecklider argues that there has long been an affinity between political and sexual dissidents. He suggests that McCarthyism and the Cold War obscured history that was an open secret … Continued
What happens when missionaries try to get indigenous people to read and write English? Sometimes what results is very different than what the missionaries intended. Laura Rademaker describes how members of an aboriginal community in Australia resisted and repurposed English literacies. Tony Ballantine, Lachy Paterson and Angela Wanhalla, eds., Indigenous Textual Cultures: Reading and Writing … Continued
