Radio is a medium with extraordinary propagandistic power — seductively transmitting ideas into the quotidian intimacy of one’s home and life. That power and potential was recognized early on by the state following the First World World. It was also appreciated by opponents of war, including the anarchist pacifists who founded KPFA Radio and the … Continued
Twenty years ago, Against the Grain came on the air for the first time, in the midst of turmoil, protest, and impending war. In the second half of a two part retrospective, historian Iain Boal discusses the context out of which Against the Grain emerged, from the media reform, global justice, and antiwar movements at … Continued
KPFA spawned the model of listener-sponsored radio and changed the world. As the station celebrates 72 years, we look back at the origins of KPFA Radio. Historian Iain Boal discusses the anarchist and pacifist politics of KPFA’s founders, many interned as conscientious objectors during WW2 and involved in the left libertarian circle around poet Kenneth … Continued
It’s the only mass broadcast institution the left has — but it may disappear, right when listeners are tuning in and donating in droves during the Trump years. Radio historian Iain Boal and former interim Executive Director of Pacifica and Chair of the Pacifica National Board Sherry Gendelman discuss the crisis that has brought Pacifica … Continued
Historian of technology Iain Boal speaks with Sasha Lilley about why the bicycle is not the green machine we all think it is. He also discusses the importance of the first public radio network in this country and what the anarchist founders of KPFA and Pacifica had in mind for the radio medium.
