KPFA - Against the Grain

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What can the weird tell us about our world of computer vision and so-called Artificial Intelligence? Artist and geographer Trevor Paglen discusses the function of the image now, when the majority of images are made by computers for other computers, with the goal of manipulating our perceptions. Trevor Paglen, How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI Verso, 2026 Photo by Goost Eight on Unsplash The post Images, UFOs, and Artificial Intelligence appeared first on KPFA.

Many in our society are struggling to provide care for their families or communities. Often they don’t have time to do it and can’t afford to pay for it. The right realizes this and has tried to woo women with a glorified vision of domestic life. Economist Nancy Folbre discusses the early fight for the recognition of unpaid care work as real work, while the economics profession has mainly ignored it, despite its crucial importance for capitalism. (Encore presentation.) Nancy Folbre, Making Care Work: Why Our Economy Should Put People First UC Press, 2026 Photo by Jill Brand on Unsplash The post Counting Care Work appeared first on KPFA.

Workers want and deserve decent, dignified, and democratic workplaces. But better wages and working conditions can be elusive in the face of management inertia and intransigence. Veteran organizer and Labor Notes board chair Ellen David Friedman talks about how to win workplace demands while building workers’ collective power. Ellen David Friedman, Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When It’s Hard (PM Press / Labor Notes) The post Organizing to Win appeared first on KPFA.

The Trump administration has been unabashed in its intention to criminalize dissent, labeling protestors “domestic terrorists.” A recent verdict against anti-ICE protestors in Texas promises to be consequential in that effort.  Scholar Thomas Zeitzoff reflects on the administration’s widespread attempts to quash opposition, from targeting fundraising by liberal nonprofits, knocking on the doors of former activists, or charging people with conspiracy for communicating on Signal about protests. (Encore presentation.) Thomas Zeitzoff, No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis Oxford University Press, 2026 The post Criminalizing Dissent appeared first on KPFA.

The ramifications of the US attack on Iran have been a harsh reminder of the centrality of oil to the global economy – and not just for fuel and transport. Political economist Adam Hanieh reflects on the rise of crude oil in the 20th century. He argues that the blockage in the Gulf threatens to set off a more serious global crisis than seen in the 1970s. (Encore presentation.) Adam Hanieh, Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market Verso, 2025 The post Oil and Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.