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.
KPFA turns 71 this week. We commemorate that achievement by presenting some gems from the station’s archives, including commentary by the legendary film critic Pauline Kael, a speech by Coretta Scott King, and programs about labor militancy, genetics, and nuclear radiation.
There are many ways that the crisis brought about by the coronavirus is exceptional. But as Peter Linebaugh reminds us, pandemics throughout history have been met both by attempts by elites to extend their domination and the people’s attempts to resist while surviving. The noted historian weighs in plagues, from antiquity to Covid 19. Resources: … Continued
According to Udi Greenberg, many anti-Communist commentators in the early stages of the Cold War resurrected anti-Catholic tropes that had been deployed in the nineteenth century. Redirecting and adapting those tropes, Greenberg argues, played a crucial role in the effort to portray and vilify the Communist project. Udi Greenberg, The Weimar Century: German Émigrés and … Continued
How can we manage to think about, and move toward, a better world in the bleakest of times? Argentinean critical theorist Ana Cecelia Dinerstein talks about capitalism, the state, and our own collective power. She also discusses the tradition of Open Marxism and why we should be skeptical of a universal basic income, which has … Continued
Harriet Fraad spoke at Left Forum about trends in family, gender, and relationship dynamics under capitalism. And Paul Sweezy gave a talk in the early 1990s about the historical trajectory of the socialist project and the viability of socialism as idea and practice. Capitalism Hits Home, with Harriet Fraad John Bellamy Foster, “The Commitment of … Continued
These are anxious times for all of us, but even more so for those whose labor is deemed essential during a pandemic: delivery drivers, grocery workers, those working in Amazon warehouses, and of course health care workers. Labor Notes writer Chris Brooks discusses the challenge for labor under these unprecedented circumstances — and how we … Continued
Insights into race, history, capitalist dynamics, and U.S. exceptionalism were shared by Kimberly Westcott, Danny Haiphong, Glen Ford, and Dan Kovalik at last year’s Left Forum conference. Resources: Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong, American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News—From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror Skyhorse, 2019 Black … Continued
While entrepreneurship figures into most histories of the US, the centrality of capitalism and class struggle tend to be missing. Hence as a population, we often have no idea about the enormous conflicts that have taken place in this country. Historian Steve Fraser discusses the glaring absences in histories of the US without class struggle. … Continued
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
