KPFA - Against the Grain

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  Fund Drive Special: Erasing the History of Racism 30.09.2026 59хв

  American education has long been a battleground, but struggles over what students learn has become particularly intense right now, when teaching about racism has been prohibited in multiple states. Sociologist Nikki Khanna reflects on what’s missing, including key episodes from US history – from the United States attempts to starve native people, to the massacre of African Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to the mass deportations of Mexican Americans in the Depression, to the Tuskegee syphilis study, and more. Donate in support of Against the Grain and KPFA The post Fund Drive Special: Erasing the History of Racism appeared first on KPFA.
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  Fund Drive Special: Gabor Mate on Capitalism and Health 29.09.2026 59хв

  Canadian physician Gabor Mate discusses the maladies that are the norm in our society — how stress and trauma, accentuated by the divisions of class, gender, and race, damage our lives and bodies. Donate in support of Against the Grain and KPFA The post Fund Drive Special: Gabor Mate on Capitalism and Health appeared first on KPFA.
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  Fund Drive Special: Howard Zinn on His Life and Times 28.09.2026 59хв

  Historian and activist, teacher and playwright — Howard Zinn told a different history of the United States, one of struggle between those on the bottom against those on top. Donate in support of Against the Grain and KPFA The post Fund Drive Special: Howard Zinn on His Life and Times appeared first on KPFA.
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  Fund Drive Special: Sex and Strength 23.09.2026 59хв

  Are women as strong as men? According to science writer Starre Vartan, in some cases, they are stronger. She argues that scientific research over the last several decades shows that culture shapes strength as much as hormones — and that much of what we presume about sex differences, strength, and athleticism harms all of us. Donate in support of Against the Grain and KPFA Photo by Peter Zhan on Unsplash The post Fund Drive Special: Sex and Strength appeared first on KPFA.
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  Fund Drive Special: The Long Struggle Against Equality 22.09.2026 59хв

  Elites, especially in tech, over at least the last decade have espoused repugnant ideas arguing that extreme social inequality is not only inevitable, but desirable. Acclaimed historian Kim Phillips-Fein argues that there is a long US tradition promoting wealth inequality that has once again moved from the shadows into the mainstream. Please donate in support of KPFA and Against the Grain. The post Fund Drive Special: The Long Struggle Against Equality appeared first on KPFA.
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  When 911 Calls Go Wrong 21.09.2026 59хв

  Calling 911 can save lives. But all too often phoning the emergency hotline leads to maiming or death at the hands of the police. Rebecca Neusteter describes the origins of the emergency response system as a means of quashing social unrest, out of the urban uprisings of the 1960s. Rebecca Neusteter, 911, What’s Your Emergency? The Promise and Peril of Crisis Response The New Press, 2026 Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash The post When 911 Calls Go Wrong appeared first on KPFA.
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  New York City and Health Justice 16.09.2026 59хв

  Some of the most important struggles for health justice have taken place in New York City — from the Young Lords to ACT UP, from battles to make school lunches free to the Fight for $15 for low wage workers. Public health scholar Nicholas Freudenberg discusses the lessons he’s gleaned from fifty years of activism, including the need to start with people’s daily living conditions. Nicholas Freudenberg, Fighting for New York: Activism for Health and Social Justice Since the 1960s Columbia University Press, 2026 Photo by CDC on Unsplash The post New York City and Health Justice appeared first on KPFA.
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  All Consuming 15.09.2026 59хв

  We live our lives often through the things we buy — presuming the more we have, the happier we’ll be. Have we always thought this way? Economist Mark Joseph Stelzner examines the need for ever more consumption under capitalism — and reflects on what our lives might be like if we exchanged the quest for goods for more leisure. Mark Joseph Stelzner, Growth Machines: On the Hollow Joys of Consumption in the Desert of Economic Life University of Chicago Press, 2026 Photo by Obi on Unsplash The post All Consuming appeared first on KPFA.
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  When the State Kills by Lethal Injection 14.09.2026 59хв

  Almost 98% of all state executions in the U.S. are conducted by lethal injection, purportedly a quick and painless death. Corinna Barrett Lain states nothing could be further from the truth — but that it’s in the interests of the killing state that we imagine it that way. Corinna Barrett Lain, Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection NYU Press, 2025 Photo by Raghavendra V. Konkathi on Unsplash The post When the State Kills by Lethal Injection appeared first on KPFA.
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  Why Do Rural Poor People Support the GOP? 09.09.2026 59хв

  Why do poor, often sick, rural people vote for Republicans even after they slash funding for Medicaid and close rural hospitals? Michael Shepherd describes how conservative politicians and media have successfully built support for those cuts by claiming programs like Medicaid only help city dwellers, people of color, and immigrants. Michael E. Shepherd, Rural Pain, Republican Gain: How the Republican Party Is Killing Rural America and Why Democrats Are Blamed University of Chicago Press, 2026 Photo by Engin Akyurt on Unsplash The post Why Do Rural Poor People Support the GOP? appeared first on KPFA.
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  Unlikely World Makers 08.09.2026 59хв

  When we think of world makers, we’re unlikely to picture a flower. Yet flowers completely transformed our planet, giving us rain forests, altering coastlines, producing the food we eat, and enticing our pre-human ancestors to climb down from the trees. And they did that partially through reshaping the formerly adversarial relationship between plants and insects into one of mutual aid and cooperation most of the time. Biologist David George Haskell enumerates our debt to flowers. (Full-length presentation.) David George Haskell, How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries Viking, 2026 Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash The post Unlikely World Makers appeared first on KPFA.
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  The Black Labor Movement 07.09.2026 59хв

  The struggle for labor across the color line has often been credited to white activists. However, as sociologist Cedric de Leon argues, the black labor movement, independently organized outside of the official union movement, propelled such efforts. He discusses the black labor movement’s divisions, including in the face of the state’s attempt to destroy it. (Encore presentation.) Cedric de Leon, Freedom Train: Black Politics and the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity UC Press, 2025 The post The Black Labor Movement appeared first on KPFA.
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  Queen of the Muckrakers 02.09.2026 59хв

  Jessica Mitford revived muckraking journalism in the United States, shaping generations of investigative writers who followed her. She also lived a committed life on the left, despite her ultra-reactionary English upper class origins. Carla Kaplan argues that Mitford is woman for our times. Carla Kaplan, Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford Harper, 2025 The post Queen of the Muckrakers appeared first on KPFA.
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  Big Tech’s Worldview 01.09.2026 59хв

  Big Tech’s owners see themselves as visionaries — as singularly capable of understanding and shaping the future — in contrast to the rest of us. Adrian Daub explores the worldview of Silicon Valley’s owners. Adrian Daub, What Tech Calls Governing Stanford University Press, 2026 Photo by Igor Shalyminov on Unsplash The post Big Tech’s Worldview appeared first on KPFA.
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  Profiting from Drug Legalization 31.08.2026 59хв

  After a century of drug prohibition, during which the use of many illicit drugs increased, states and countries are moving to decriminalize the usage of certain psychoactive substances. As corporations rush to profit, legal scholar Kojo Koram argues for the legalization of drugs without commercial gain. Kojo Koram, The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs Verso, 2026 Photo by Freestocks on Unsplash The post Profiting from Drug Legalization appeared first on KPFA.
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  U.S. Capitalism, Empire, and Anti-Asian Violence 26.08.2026 59хв

  Recessions, trade wars, labor unrest — in moments of societal crisis in the United States, Asian-Americans have been perennially targeted, from the destruction of Chinatowns by white mobs, to the mass internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2, to attacks against Asians during Covid. Historian Scott Kurashige reflects on more than 175 years of anti-Asian violence and its connection to U.S. empire abroad and a divided working class at home. (Encore presentation.) Scott Kurashige, American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism UC Press, 2026 Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash The post U.S. Capitalism, Empire, and Anti-Asian Violence appeared first on KPFA.
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  Beckert on Global Capitalism 25.08.2026 59хв

  Capitalism has transformed the world like no other force, which historian Sven Beckert calls a fundamental break in human history. Beckert traces the emergence and expansion of capitalism, arguing that we can best understand the present by coming to terms with its past. (Full-length presentation.) Sven Beckert, Capitalism: A Global History Penguin Press, 2025 The post Beckert on Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.
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  Immigrant Detention and the “Worst of the Worst” 24.08.2026 59хв

  The Trump administration has justified the mass incarceration and deportation of immigrants by asserting that it’s going after the most violent offenders. Scholars of law and punishment, Keramet Reiter and Joshua Page, delve into the designation of the worst of the worse — from Three Strikes laws to longterm solitary confinement to mass detention under inhumane conditions and the transfer of immigrants to foreign prisons like CECOT in El Salvador. Joshua Page and Keramet Reiter, The Uses and Abuses of the “Worst of the Worst” Dissent July 8, 2026 The post Immigrant Detention and the “Worst of the Worst” appeared first on KPFA.
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  Ancient Trees and Fossil Capitalism 19.08.2026 59хв

  For as long as we’ve known, humans have revered ancient trees. We’ve also destroyed them, especially since the advent of colonialism and fossil fuel capitalism. Environmental historian Jared Farmer reflects on what trees illuminate about our past and potential future. And forest activist and writer Greg King discusses the decimation of the California redwoods and the fight to preserve them. Jared Farmer, Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees Basic Books, 2022 Greg King, The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods Public Affairs, 2023 Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash The post Ancient Trees and Fossil Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.
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  What’s Money For? 18.08.2026 59хв

  We all know that we need money to survive, but most of us don’t spend much time considering its form and uses. Debt, interest, GDP, and capital just seem to follow almost natural laws. But J.W. Mason argues that we misunderstand money, and its power over our lives, at our peril. J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev, Against Money University of Chicago Press, 2026 Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash The post What’s Money For? appeared first on KPFA.