KPFA - Against the Grain

While we’re told by politicians that the ideas of Karl Marx are foreign and have no place in this country, history proves otherwise. Andrew Hartman shows that Marx and Marxism have had an a significant influence on the United States, from Marx’s journalistic writings for the New York Daily Tribune, to the mass politics of the Socialist and Communist Parties and the Wobblies, to the most radical edge of the New Deal and the New Left, and finally with the return to Marx’s ideas since the Global Financial Crisis. Andrew Hartman, Karl Marx in America University of Chicago Press, 2025 The post American Marx appeared first on KPFA.

At the height of leftwing activism in the Sixties, conservatives funded tax-deducible rightwing groups on campuses to counter Black Power, demands for ethnic studies, and the New Left. As historian Lauren Shephard illustrates, such groups like Young Americans for Freedom groomed future Republican leaders and influential conservatives, like Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich, where they learned to spin unpopular politics as popular. Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America University of North Carolina Press, 2023 American Campus Podcast The post The Right on Campus appeared first on KPFA.

Lasting contributions to radical political thought were made by Antonio Gramsci, the Italian thinker, writer, and politician who was imprisoned by Mussolini’s fascist regime. Andy Merrifield discusses Gramsci’s insights into political economy, everyday experience, social change, and the role of intellectuals. Andy Merrifield, Roses for Gramsci Monthly Review Press, 2025 (Image on main page by angrodZ.) The post How Gramsci Thought appeared first on KPFA.

The United States has often been celebrated as a nation of immigrants. Yet over the last century, the U.S. government expelled more people than were allowed to stay permanently. Historian Adam Goodman describes the U.S. state’s “deportation machine,” motivated by a shifting combination of bureaucratic self-interest, capitalist gain, and racism, which Trump has now put at the center of his presidency. He also discusses how immigrants and their allies have fought back over this long history of expulsion and terror. Adam Goodman, The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants Princeton University Press, 2020 The post Driving Out Immigrants appeared first on KPFA.

Black parents worry about racism’s impact on their children. Jennifer C. Nash is interested in both the nature of racialized anxiety and the way it’s rendered visible to the general public. Among other things, she looks at how Black mothers have used the epistolary form to convey their concerns, fears, and hopes. Jennifer C. Nash, How We Write Now: Living with Black Feminist Theory Duke University Press, 2024 The post Conveying Black Loss appeared first on KPFA.

No one escapes trauma or avoids stress. But what happens to our ability to imagine and pursue justice when individual and collective trauma goes unaddressed? Hala Khouri lays out a framework for understanding trauma; she also points to the important role that embodied practices can play in processes of healing and self-care. (Encore presentation.) Tessa Hicks Peterson and Hala Khouri, eds., Practicing Liberation: Transformative Strategies for Collective Healing and Systems Change North Atlantic Books, 2024 Hala Khouri, Tessa Hicks Peterson and Keely Nguyễn, Practicing Liberation Workbook: Radical Tools for Grassroots Activists, Community Leaders, Teachers, and Caretakers Working Toward Social Justice North Atlantic Books, 2024 The post Trauma, Healing, and Social Change appeared first on KPFA.

While we’re told by politicians that the ideas of Karl Marx are foreign and have no place in this country, history proves otherwise. Andrew Hartman shows that Marx and Marxism have had an a significant influence on the United States, from Marx’s journalistic writings for the New York Daily Tribune, to the mass politics the Socialist and Communist Parties and the Wobblies, on the most radical edge of the New Deal, and the New Left, and finally with the return to Marx’s ideas since the Global Financial Crisis. The post Fund Drive Special: Marx’s Influence on America appeared first on KPFA.

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. The post Against the Grain – May 20, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

How was it that in less than two centuries the world’s tallest trees, the majestic redwoods, were almost logged off the face of the earth? And this despite the efforts over many generations, starting in the late 19th century, to preserve them. Greg King, writer and forest activist, argues that one of the world’s first greenwashing organizations – the Save the Redwoods League, founded by white supremacists – played a key role. He details the heroic struggle against the odds to defend these unique trees. The post Fund Drive Special: Fighting for the Redwoods appeared first on KPFA.

Mark Matousek discusses his book “Emerson, the Stoics, and Me: Timeless Wisdom for Living an Authentic Life.” The post Against the Grain – May 14, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

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. The post Against the Grain – May 13, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Christopher Bache, a professor emeritus of philosophy and religious studies, discusses the twenty-year psychedelic journey described and interpreted in his book “LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven.” The post Fund Drive Special: Psychedelic Journey appeared first on KPFA.

Wealth inequality is off the charts, with corporations reaping record profits, and billionaires awash in money. Economist Rob Larson returns to make sense of the Trump administration’s relationship to the multimillionaire and billionaire class. The post Fund Drive Special: The Rule of the Billionaires appeared first on KPFA.

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. The post Against the Grain – May 6, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Whether it’s basketball, billiards, or table tennis, sports in the U.S are segregated by sex. And most of the time those divisions are taken to be natural, not the result of social choices. Journalist Laura Pappano asserts that sports play a key role in shaping American politics and argues for breaking down the gender wall in sports. Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano, Playing With The Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal In Sports Oxford University Press, 2007 Photo credit of Manon Rhéaume: Tsunami330 The post Why are Sports Gender Segregated? appeared first on KPFA.

For over half a century, Big Oil and the plastics industry, through their trade associations and front groups, have sold the public the false idea that plastics are recyclable. Recycling became the mantra of good ecological stewardship, promoted by the likes of city governments, school children, and environmental groups. Davis Allen lays out the mass-marketing of a deception. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Center for Climate Integrity, The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the Plastics Industry Deceived the Public for Decades and Caused the Plastic Waste Crisis February, 2024 The post The Plastics Recycling Deception appeared first on KPFA.

Max Haiven considers the relationship between board games and politics, and describes a new game he’s designed called Billionaires & Guillotines. He also talks about an initiative that resulted in a book featuring nine speculative-fiction stories written by current and former Amazon workers. The World After Amazon: Stories from Amazon Workers Billionaires & Guillotines and the Kickstarter campaign Max Haiven, “All Games are Political” Jacobin The post Workers’ Stories, Political Games appeared first on KPFA.

Blockbuster drugs are launched by the pharmaceuticals industry to great fanfare — with promises of treating intractable illness and often with a stratospheric price tag. Yet, despite the hype and cost, many of those drugs turn out to be less than useless. How is it that so many drugs that are vetted by the Food and Drug Administration escape real scrutiny? Jerry Avorn, one of the most cited scientists in medicine, discusses the deeply compromised state of drug production and government regulation, in thrall to a for-profit system. Jerry Avorn, Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power, and the Drugs You Take Simon & Schuster, 2025 Alosa Health The post Medicines: Expensive, Poorly Tested, and Often Useless appeared first on KPFA.

Lawrence Grossberg devotes a section of his book “On the Way to Theory” to the French theorist Michel Foucault’s understanding of power. The post Against the Grain – April 23, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Floods are the most destructive natural disaster and, thanks to a heating climate, the damages caused by floods are expected to worsen significantly. Flood mitigation of the past, such as levies and dams, has proved inadequate and often counterproductive by misallocating precious resources. Tim Palmer argues that it’s time to start relocating our built environment out of the places with a high likelihood of flooding. Tim Palmer, Seek Higher Ground: The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis UC Press, 2024 Photograph credit: Mark Moran The post Mitigating Flooding appeared first on KPFA.