KPFA - Against the Grain

Prentis Hemphill discusses their book “What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World.” The post Fund Drive Special: What It Takes to Heal appeared first on KPFA.

Jessica Mitford was a muckracking journalist and memoirist, radical activist and wit. Born to an English aristocratic family, she became a Communist and eloped with Winston Churchill’s nephew to fight in the Spanish Civil war. Two of her sisters were infamous fascists and friends with Hitler. Jessica, known as Decca, moved to the United States, became a civil rights activist in Oakland, and helped transform American journalism from of the depths of the McCarthy era. Peter Sussman, editor of a collection of Mitford’s letters, and the late radical journalist Conn Hallinan discuss Jessica Mitford’s singular life and contributions. The post Fund Drive Special: The Life and Politics of Jessica Mitford appeared first on KPFA.

Mark Matousek discusses his book “Emerson, the Stoics, and Me: Timeless Wisdom for Living an Authentic Life.” The post Fund Drive Special: Emerson and the Stoics appeared first on KPFA.

The right insists — and has tried to legislate — that male and female are hardwired opposites, with no overlap or variation. But as biological anthropologist Agustín Fuentes illustrates, science tells a different story. He shows how sex isn’t either/or and discusses the complicated intersection of biology and culture, which are often termed sex and gender. The post Fund Drive Special: The Biological Inadequacy of the Sex Binary appeared first on KPFA.

Brandon Keim discusses his book “Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World.” The post Fund Drive Special: Animal Minds and Life appeared first on KPFA.

Over the last half century, diseases carried by insects — such as malaria and dengue, Zika and Lyme disease — have greatly increased. Sociologists Brent Kaup and Kelly Austin argue that the surge in vector-borne disease has been fueled by neoliberal capitalism, at times in unexpected ways, such as through loosened financial regulations governing mortgages and health insurance, as well as the gutting of health care. Brent Z. Kaup and Kelly F. Austin, The Pathogens of Finance: How Capitalism Breeds Vector-Borne Disease UC Press, 2025 The post Capitalism and Insect-Borne Diseases appeared first on KPFA.

Facial recognition cameras, tenant screening platforms, digital property management—many landlords use sophisticated technology to monitor and screen tenants. Erin McElroy weighs the impact of so-called proptech on prospective renters, on tenants’ lives and well-being, and on people’s ability to respond to and organize against landlord abuse. McElroy also talks about what they call Silicon Valley imperialism. Neda Atanasoski and Nassim Parvin, editors, Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen Duke University Press, 2025 Erin McElroy, Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times Duke University Press, 2024 (Image on main page by Hugh D’Andrade/EFF.) The post Landlord Tech 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. (Encore presentation.) Jerry Avorn, Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power, and the Drugs You Take Simon & Schuster, 2025 Alosa Health Center for Science in the Public Interest Worst Pills, Best Pills The post Medicines: Expensive, Poorly Tested, and Often Useless appeared first on KPFA.

The anti-abortion movement has deeply shaped our era, and not just because of the repeal of Roe v Wade. As scholar of the right Carol Mason argues, it also helped provide a gateway to the growth of the authoritarian right by normalizing violent rhetoric and political violence, while exporting ideas and tactics to the right abroad. She discusses the evolution of the antiabortion movement to the present. Carol Mason, From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary UC Press, 2025 The post Anti-Abortion: Gateway to the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

The anti-abortion movement has deeply shaped our era, and not just because of the repeal of Roe v Wade. As scholar of the right Carol Mason argues, it also helped provide a gateway to the growth of the authoritarian right by normalizing violent rhetoric and political violence, while exporting ideas and tactics to the right abroad. She discusses the evolution of the antiabortion movement to the present. Carol Mason, From the Clinics to the Capitol: How Opposing Abortion Became Insurrectionary UC Press, 2025 The post Anti-Abortion: Gateway to 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.

Is it possible to eat animal products ethically, as proponents of small-scale animal agriculture advocate? Or, as critical theorist John Sanbonmatsu argues, is consuming animals unjustifiable not just for reasons of disease and the climate emergency, but also because of the emotional complexity and intelligence of non-human animals? Sanbonmatsu makes the case for opposing and abolishing the animal economy in tandem with capitalism. John Sanbonmatsu, The Omnivore’s Deception What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves NYU Press, 2025 John Sanbonmatsu, “With Bird Flu, the Chickens Have Come Home to Roost,” Counterpunch March 28, 2025 The post Capitalism, the Animal Economy, and Meat Eating appeared first on KPFA.

What is political theology, and where is this field of inquiry headed? Vincent Lloyd points to various connections between religion, power, and political discourse; he also considers the impact of feminist, Black, decolonial, and other perspectives on the field’s trajectory. Alex Dubilet and Vincent Lloyd, eds., Political Theology Reimagined Duke University Press, 2025 Center for Political Theology The post Political Theology appeared first on KPFA.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, enslaved people who traveled to freedom on foot did so mainly from Southern states that bordered free states. But those in the deep South didn’t have that option and they often made their journey north by ship from the South’s long coastline, with the help of free blacks, as well as white sailors. Historian Marcus Rediker sets the record straight, illuminating the ways that the culture of port cities and of free black communities helped the formerly enslaved make their way to freedom. Marcus Rediker, Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea Viking, 2025 The post Escaping Over Water 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, on the mass politics of 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. (Encore presentation.) Andrew Hartman, Karl Marx in America University of Chicago Press, 2025 The post American Marx appeared first on KPFA.

Classrooms are places where teaching happens. What if they were also places of healing and justice-seeking? Tessa Hicks Peterson describes educational approaches that foster well-being, empowerment, and critical thinking. She also emphasizes the need for trauma-informed pedagogical practices. Tessa Hicks Peterson, Liberating the Classroom: Healing and Justice in Higher Education Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025 The post Healing Higher Ed appeared first on KPFA.

For decades after World War Two, the defense industry polluted the desert near Tucson’s Southside and poisoned the aquifer from which the largely Mexican American neighborhood got its drinking water. Sunaura Taylor, who was born there, reflects on lessons from the residents’ struggle — and asks what a genuine remedy might look like. She discusses an environmentalism that recognizes that we all are or will become disabled — and fights not just for the able-bodied, but to extend care to all, including the rest of the natural world. (Encore presentation.) Sunaura Taylor, Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert UC Press, 2024 The post Environmentalism of the Injured appeared first on KPFA.

Film in the 20th century conjures up the glamor of the big screen, as well as the intimacy of family snapshots. According to film historian Alice Lovejoy, celluloid and its successors should also bring to mind war. She reflects on the history of film companies like Kodak in the making of the atom bomb, chemical warfare, and the legacy of radioactive fallout. Alice Lovejoy, Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War UC Press, 2025 The post Film Making and War Making appeared first on KPFA.

Jews and the left have been closely associated with each other for well over a century, both in Europe where the Nazis genocidally linked one with the other, and in the United States. Scholar Benjamin Balthaser considers the history of American Jews and the left, including in opposition to Jewish nationalism, arguing that the recent florescence of Jewish anti-Zionism is a return to a much longer tradition. Benjamin Balthaser, Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism and the Cultures of the American Jewish Left Verso, 2025 Photo credit: Bruce Emmerling The post American Jews and the Left appeared first on KPFA.

Many new and emerging smart technologies are characterized as creepy. What’s the basis for these claims, and how should we respond to them? Neda Atanasoski and Nassim Parvin consider creepy technologies and their impact with an eye toward collective ethics, politics, and futures. They contest the notion that asserting privacy rights is the only way to address concerns associated with the proliferation of surveillance technologies. Neda Atanasoski and Nassim Parvin, editors, Technocreep and the Politics of Things Not Seen Duke University Press, 2025 The post Technocreep appeared first on KPFA.