KPFA - Against the Grain

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Acclaimed program of ideas, in-depth analysis, and commentary on a variety of matters—political, economic, social, and cultural—important to progressive and radical thinking and activism. Against the Grain is produced and hosted by Sasha Lilley.

HACE 2 DÍAS

The Long Shadow of Criminal Records

Employers regularly check the background of potential workers for criminal records, even though claims that such checks predict their diligence or trustworthiness are dubious. Anthropologist Melissa Burch reflects on how criminal background checks became commonplace — and what vested interests maintain their ubiquity. Afterlives of Conviction Project Melissa Burch, The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America Princeton University Press, 2026 The post The Long Shadow of Criminal Records appeared first on KPFA.

1 h
HACE 3 DÍAS

Darwin and Marx

Did Charles Darwin influence Karl Marx? Joel Wainwright argues that Darwin significantly shaped Marx’s understanding of historical change — with implications for how we meet the ecological crisis today. And he reflects on the potential role of strikes and boycotts in moving beyond capitalism. Joel Wainwright, The End: Marx, Darwin, and the Natural History of the Climate Crisis Verso, 2025 The post Darwin and Marx appeared first on KPFA.

1 h
HACE 4 DÍAS

The Neoliberal Roots of Rightwing Populism

Was the populist far right a reaction to neoliberal free market fundamentalism? Or, as historian Quinn Slobodian argues, did such rightwing currents come out of the ideas of neoliberalism itself? Slobodian reflects on neoliberal thinkers’ preoccupation with racist and misogynistic ideas of human nature and intelligence, borders and gold — all in service to their war on the left. (Encore presentation.) Quinn Slobodian, Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right Zone Books, 2025 The post The Neoliberal Roots of Rightwing Populism appeared first on KPFA.

2 min
4 FEB

Exposing the Far Right

The Trump administration uses antifascism as a term of abuse and has branded Antifa domestic terrorists. Yet antifascism has a long but often little known history in the U.S. Journalist Christopher Mathias describes the efforts of radicals to unmask and dismantle the far right. Christopher Mathias, To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right Atria Books, 2026 The post Exposing the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

1 h
2 FEB

Immigrants Fighting Back

The groundswell of opposition to Trump’s deportation agenda has been astounding. But there has been a long history of immigrants opposing the U.S. state’s efforts to terrorize and deport them. Historian Adam Goodman discusses the struggles mounted by immigrant workers in the 1970s, the 2006 immigrant workers general strike, and the necessity of organizing lasting movements for change. Adam Goodman, The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants Princeton University Press, 2021 Adam Goodman, “Barring the Gates: A History of Political Exclusion and Family Separation in Cold War America,” Labor (2021) 18 (1): 54–66. The post Immigrants Fighting Back appeared first on KPFA.

1 h
28 ENE

Siphoning Revenue from the Poor

At every step of the process in which communities are policed and punished, states, localities and other public entities benefit financially, along with their partners in the private sectors. Scholars Joe Soss and Joshua Page describe the multitude of ways in which the poorest people — not just individuals, but the communities around them — became a cash cow for extracting revenue for the state. Joshua Page and Joe Soss, Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice University of Chicago Press, 2025 The post Siphoning Revenue from the Poor appeared first on KPFA.

1 h
27 ENE

Extraction and Global Capitalism

It’s largely invisible to most of us, but without the industries and workers that drill or mine the world’s raw materials, and the arteries of transport that bring petroleum and other resources across the seas, global capitalism would sputter to a halt. Scholar and writer Laleh Khalili has traveled on the system’s massive container ships and describes in unflinching terms the inner workings of resource extraction. Laleh Khalili, Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy Verso, 2025 Photo credit: NOAA’s National Ocean Service The post Extraction and Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

1 h
26 ENE

Policing the Civil Rights Movement

Conventional wisdom holds that the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and early 60s neglected the question of police violence, only to be remedied by the Black Panther Party and decades later by the Movement for Black Lives. But historian Joshua Clark Davis argues that that assumption is inaccurate. He also discusses the extensive involvement of local police departments, above and beyond the FBI’s COINTELPRO, in disrupting and repressing the Civil Rights movement. Joshua Clark Davis, Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back Princeton University Press, 2025 The post Policing the Civil Rights Movement appeared first on KPFA.

1 h

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Acclaimed program of ideas, in-depth analysis, and commentary on a variety of matters—political, economic, social, and cultural—important to progressive and radical thinking and activism. Against the Grain is produced and hosted by Sasha Lilley.