KPFA - Against the Grain

KPFA

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Politik
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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.

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America’s Drug Binge

Americans as a population have an unusually large appetite for psychoactive drugs, whether legal or illegal. And American history has been marked by periodic moral panics over drug use and normalization or legalization, as we’re experiencing right now. Why is that? What is it about US society that makes drug use simultaneously so appealing and reviled? Writer and scholar Benjamin Fong weighs in. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Benjamin Yen-Yi Fong, Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge Verso, 2023 The post America’s Drug Binge appeared first on KPFA.

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−6 d

In Search of Shade

Fossil fuel combustion has made dangerous heat waves ever more frequent. The short term answer — for those who have one — is to turn on the air conditioner. But air conditioning makes the the problem even worse. Environmental journalist Sam Bloch discusses the ways that cities used to be designed for shade, and stresses the urgent need for shelter from the sun — especially for the unhoused, farm workers, and others who labor outdoors. Sam Bloch, Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource Random House, 2025 Photo by Ivan Padial on Unsplash The post In Search of Shade appeared first on KPFA.

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6 juli

What the Movies Have Wrought

David Thomson, the great film critic, discusses his increasing disquiet with film — and how movies have helped deliver us to authoritarianism. He describes film’s adulation of power, which has been almost religiously illuminated on the screen. David Thomson, A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies Simon & Schuster, 2026 Book Launch with David Thomson at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley on July 12, 2026 The post What the Movies Have Wrought appeared first on KPFA.

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1 juli

Thinking Beyond Prisons

Prisons won’t be dismantled anytime soon. So what does—or should—prison abolition mean? Anna Terwiel draws from Angela Davis’s writings a host of insights that buttress what Terwiel considers a realist political project. Among other things, she examines Davis’s prison abolitionism in light of her democratic socialist commitments and her understanding of Radical Reconstruction. Anna Terwiel, Prison Abolition for Realists University of Minnesota Press, 2025 The post Thinking Beyond Prisons appeared first on KPFA.

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30 juni

U.S. Empire and Sexual Morality

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. (Encore presentation.) 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.

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29 juni

The Fall and Rise of Urban Wildlife

One of conservation’s greatest achievements happened mostly by accident and is still hiding in plain sight from most of us. When settlers established cities in the United States, they decimated the existing ecosystems. But in recent decades, as environmental historian Peter Alagona illustrates, there has been a remarkable return of wildlife to urban areas across the country. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Peter S. Alagona, The Accidental Ecosystem: People and Wildlife in American Cities UC Press, 2023 Photo by Tj Holowaychuk on Unsplash The post The Fall and Rise of Urban Wildlife appeared first on KPFA.

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24 juni

Weaponizing the Left’s Media Criticism

How did conservatives come to dominate so much of the media in the U.S.? Historian A.J. Bauer looks at the formative period between the advent and repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in which the right borrowed from the left to sharpen its criticism of the media — ultimately giving rise to a rightwing media ecosystem with its own commercial imperatives. A. J. Bauer, Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press Columbia University Pres, 2026 The post Weaponizing the Left’s Media Criticism appeared first on KPFA.

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23 juni

Deferring to Computers

For many decades, the idea has held sway that we humans should leave consequential decisions to a higher power: computers. And that assumption has become more deeply entrenched, the more powerful computers have become. How did our world come to be seen as an imaginary casino, with every decision to be stripped down to costs and benefits, risks and rewards? Computer scientist Benjamin Recht traces the development of mathematical optimization, game theory, statistical testing, and machine learning — the basis of AI — to understand how medicine, the economy, and governance have been outsourced to computing, concentrating enormous power in the hands of the few. Benjamin Recht, The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us Princeton University Press, 2026 Benjamin Recht’s Blog Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash The post Deferring to Computers appeared first on KPFA.

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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.