KPFA - Against the Grain

The rich have not been so powerful and mind-bogglingly wealthy since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. Yet their grip on society has often been shrouded in a veil of adulation, enabled by a media that celebrates them rather than holding them to account. Economist Rob Larson discusses the multimillionaire and billionaire class, how they rule, and how to fight against them. (Full-length presentation.) Resources: World Inequality Database Rob Larson, Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do with Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More Haymarket, 2024 The post Rule of the Billionaires appeared first on KPFA.

Driven by his determination to place workers at the center of U.S. history, David Montgomery emerged as a key architect of what’s called the New Labor History. James R. Barrett describes Montgomery’s investigations into working-class life, his political commitments, and his legacy. Shelton Stromquist and James R. Barrett, eds., A David Montgomery Reader: Essays on Capitalism and Worker Resistance University of Illinois Press, 2024 The post Labor History Pioneer appeared first on KPFA.

Schools are underfunded. Parents often struggle with long working hours and too little social support. But corporations and tech companies, awash in money and power, promise to entertain and teach children with a near infinite array of devices, apps, and products. Psychologist Susan Linn discusses how those who least care for children have so much influence over their lives: marketing to kids through an avalanche of advertisements, collecting data about their private lives, and replacing their teachers in the classroom. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Susan Linn, Who’s Raising the Kids? Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children New Press, 2023 Fairplay The post The Monetization of American Childhood 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 – March 5, 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 – March 4, 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 – March 3, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Noam Chomsky reminds us that the present inequalities of wealth and power were built into the system since the very founding of the U.S. government. The post Fund Drive Special: Democracy or Plutocracy? appeared first on KPFA.

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

The rich have not been so powerful and mind-bogglingly wealthy since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. Yet their grip on society has often been shrouded in a veil of adulation, enabled by a media that celebrates them rather than holding them to account. Economist Rob Larson discusses the multimillionaire and billionaire class, how they rule, and how to fight against them. The post Fund Drive Special: The Rule of the Billionaires appeared first on KPFA.

Norma Wong discusses her book “When No Thing Works: A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse.” The post Against the Grain – February 19, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

History is being made right now, both by the Trump administration, attempting to slash the federal workforce and the public services that it provides, and by federal workers and their supporters resisting those efforts in the offices and the streets. Federal worker Mark Smith discusses a day of action called by the newly formed Federal Unionists Network to save public services. And labor scholar Eric Blanc explains his broad blueprint for what can be done to upend Trump’s attack on workers and public goods. Resources: Save Our Services actions on February 19th The post Organizing for Federal Workers and Public Services appeared first on KPFA.

Every year, more than 80,000 African Americans die prematurely. The medical establishment relies on genetics or dietary patterns to explain such appalling numbers. But sociologist George Lipsitz argues that black people, as well as Native Americans and Latinos, are made sick by where they live — and that the most important cause of health hazards for people of color is residential discrimination. Resources: George Lipsitz, The Danger Zone Is Everywhere: How Housing Discrimination Harms Health and Steals Wealth UC Press, 2024 The post Health and Place appeared first on KPFA.

The prominent sociologist, writer, and U.C. Berkeley professor emeritus Michael Burawoy passed away on February 3. We present excerpts from three interviews with Burawoy about marketization and commodification (from 2016), Pierre Bourdieu and Karl Marx (2019), and W. E. B. Du Bois’s understanding of the period of Reconstruction (2023). In Memoriam: Michael Burawoy Michael Burawoy, Public Sociology Polity, 2021 Full-length interviews with Burawoy about marketization and commodification, Bourdieu and Marx, and Du Bois (Part 1 and Part 2) The post Remembering Michael Burawoy appeared first on KPFA.

The far right has been on the march not only in the United States, but in Italy, Hungary, France and elsewhere, united by racist nationalism, authoritarian populist rhetoric, and a call for law and order. Jordan Camp reflects on the work of Antonio Gramsci, who analyzed the rise of fascism while languishing in Mussolini’s prisons, and considers why his emphasis on understanding the conjuncture is relevant today. Resources: Conjuncture Web Series and Podcast Jordan T. Camp, Incarcerating the Crisis: Freedom Struggles and the Rise of the Neoliberal State University of California Press, 2016 The post Gramsci on Authoritarianism appeared first on KPFA.

Commercial sex and imperialism — army bases and brothels — have often gone hand in hand. But in the early 20th century an emergent U.S. empire defined itself as rooted in sexual purity. Historian Eva Payne describes how a heavy price for this notion of American exceptionalism was paid by women in the United States, who were policed and punished, along with those in U.S. colonies like the Philippines and the Panama Canal Zone. Resources: Eva Payne, Empire of Purity: The History of Americans’ Global War on Prostitution Princeton University Press, 2025 The post U.S. Empire and Sexual Morality appeared first on KPFA.

It’s an open secret that there’s an affinity between members of law enforcement and far right. White supremacist and fascist groups count police in their ranks, and many in law enforcement — from the federal down to the local level — turn a blind eye to the activities of the far right, while targeting anti-fascist and other left activists. Michael German discusses the relationship between the police and the far right. Resources: Michael German, Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within New Press, 2025 The post Police and the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

U.S. imperialism has produced migration, sometimes to places you wouldn’t expect. According to Emily Mitchell-Eaton, the Marshall Islands and Arkansas are both central to the workings of empire. The perceptions of longtime residents of demographically transformed cities like Springdale, Arkansas reflect geographical imaginaries that occlude the fact of U.S. empire. Emily Mitchell-Eaton, New Destinations of Empire: Mobilities, Racial Geographies, and Citizenship in the Transpacific United States University of Georgia Press, 2024 The post Imperial Migration appeared first on KPFA.

Billions of dollars have been spent on Alzheimer’s research over many decades, yet no effective treatment exists. Investigative journalist Charles Piller has revealed one reason for the impasse: pivotal scientific research into Alzheimer’s disease — affirming the hypothesis that it’s caused by sticky amyloid plaques in the brain — was based on manipulated images. Resources: Charles Piller, Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s One Signal, 2025 The post Manipulating Alzheimer’s Research appeared first on KPFA.

Lawrence Grossberg explains what the cultural theorist Stuart Hall meant by a war of positions and a war of maneuvers. We also present portions of a talk Hall gave about the dynamics of media representation. And Yousuf Al-Bulushi examines certain political stances taken by South Africa’s shack dweller movement. Lawrence Grossberg, On the Way to Theory Duke University Press, 2024 Stuart Hall: Representation and the Media Yousuf Al-Bulushi, Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City Palgrave Macmillan, 2024 (Image on main page by SkepticalScience.) The post Terrains of Struggle appeared first on KPFA.

The union movement is suffering from a conundrum. While the U.S public overwhelmingly supports unions, labor lacks the capacity to help workers organize and unionize. Labor scholar and organizer Eric Blanc argues that there is a new and promising way of organizing from the bottom up, which emerged during Trump’s first term and flourished through Covid. He believes that with worker to worker organizing, unions could see explosive growth, even during Trump’s second term. Resources: Eric Blanc, We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big UC Press, 2025 Eric Blanc’s Labor Politics on Substack Photo credit: dblackadder The post Worker Organizing in the Time of Trump appeared first on KPFA.