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.
How are race and ethnicity represented in U.S. news coverage of health and medicine? Charles Briggs argues that whiteness tends to be portrayed as an aspirational state of well-being, while people of color are far too often depicted as deficient, as trapped by culture and thus to be blamed for their own health problems. (Encore … Continued
Pandemics and other public health crises often require exceptional measures — some of them voluntary and some imposed from above. Historical geographer Graham Mooney reflects on the history of measures like isolation and quarantines — as well as elite indifference to the plight of the poor and working classes during infectious disease outbreaks. Resources: Graham … Continued
If a loved one of yours were murdered, the grief might be overwhelming – but what if you also found the police biased and disrespectful, the detectives dismissive, the investigation ineffective, and support services inadequate? Roxanna Altholz has produced a report detailing the lived experiences of mostly African American family members of unsolved homicide victims … Continued
When looking back at pandemics in modern history, the 1918 Spanish influenza stands out. It took the lives of somewhere between 50 and 100 million people — and while it devastated the countries of the Global North, it took its greatest toll in the Global South. Science writer Laura Spinney reflects on the similarities — … Continued
We hear a lot about immigrant farmworkers toiling in the fields, but some of them go on to start their own farms in the U.S. Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern asserts that although many immigrant farmers of color are committed to alternative food practices, they tend to be overlooked in the story of local and alternative food. The … Continued
The struggle for abortion rights has been foundering for decades and, with an anti-abortion majority on the Supreme Court, the future of abortion in the United States looks grim. Organizer Jenny Brown argues that the timidity of the abortion rights movement has patently failed to slow the anti-abortion assault. She argues that a bolder, unapologetic … Continued
Opioid drugs were widely and readily prescribed, and hundreds of thousands of people became addicted and died. What explains the opioid epidemic in the U.S.? What kind of pain were these drugs taken to alleviate – and what is the root of such suffering? Max Haiven draws connections between the opioid crisis and racial politics, … Continued
Since the ebbing of the Sixties, a particular form of protest captured the imaginations of many progressives and radicals: nonviolent direct action designed to disrupt power and prefigure the world to come. Longtime organizer L.A. Kauffman reflects on the complexities and challenges of that tradition. She also considers the politics of our time, in which … Continued
In the eyes of the Marxist thinker Rosa Luxemburg, the mass strike lay at the center of revolutionary strategy. What did Antonio Gramsci, another important radical theorist, think of the mass strike, and of revolution? Daniel Egan argues that Luxemburg’s theory of the mass strike is consistent with Gramsci’s emphasis on protracted struggle. Socialism and … Continued
At a time when national governments are taking little action in the face of the climate emergency, the bicycle seems an ideal, if of course partial, remedy. It allows us to get around our cities and towns without producing greenhouse gases. Often cities that have encouraged biking, by putting in bicycle lanes and other infrastructure, … Continued
