KPFA - Against the Grain
KPFA
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 co-produced and co-hosted by Sasha Lilley and C. S. Soong.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 20, 2025 • 60min
American Jews and the Left
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
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Aug 19, 2025 • 11min
Technocreep
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
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Aug 18, 2025 • 60min
The Making of an Antiracist and Anticapitalist
White working class people are frequently dismissed by liberals as intractably racist — the purported bedrock of reaction in this country. While the support of working class whites has never been sufficient to explain the rise of Donald Trump, it’s still worth asking what does it take to shift the politics of white workers brought up conservative and racist. Historian David Roediger’s life has been spent grappling with such questions; yet his life itself has also answered them, given his own trajectory from racist small-town working class life to one of the founders of critical whiteness studies.
David Roediger, An Ordinary White: My Antiracist Education Fordham University Press, 2025
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Aug 13, 2025 • 23min
Making Services Public
The Left has decried the privatization of services like water and electricity. Is it enough to return them to public ownership and control? According to David A. McDonald, the goal should be more equitable, democratic, and non-marketized forms of public services. He considers the role that so-called remunicipalization can play in environmental and social justice efforts.
Gregory Albo and Stephen Maher, eds. Socialist Register 2025: Openings and Closures: Socialist Strategy at a Crossroads
Municipal Services Project
(Image on main page courtesy of the Municipal Services Project.)
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Aug 12, 2025 • 45sec
Manipulating Alzheimer’s Research
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. (Encore presentation.)
Resources:
Charles Piller, Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s One Signal, 2025
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Aug 11, 2025 • 32sec
Preparing for Climate Emergencies
The climate crisis no longer looms in the future, but has arrived in the form of deadly heat waves, enormous floods and wildfires, hurricanes, and droughts. It’s clear that, along with fighting to slow climate change, we also need to protect ourselves and the most vulnerable around us from the devastating effects of global warming — especially as the Trump administration slashes existing safeguards. Science writer and broadcaster David Pogue discusses what we can do in an increasingly precarious world. (Full-length presentation.)
David Pogue, How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide for Surviving the Chaos Simon and Schuster, 2021
Image credit: Chris Gallagher
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Aug 6, 2025 • 54min
Phosphorus: Reaping the Harvest
It’s both a precious resource and a dangerous pollutant, exponentially increasing crop yields, while fouling our waterways with blue-green algae. The element phosphorus has played a crucial role in agriculture and war, while its reserves are unevenly distributed, with much of the world’s supply located in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. Writer Dan Egan discusses the double-edged nature of an element that is increasingly depleted and overused. (Encore presentation.)
Resources:
Dan Egan, The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance Norton, 2023
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Aug 5, 2025 • 8min
Radical Satisfaction
When the system is stacked against you, when mainstream society sidelines you (or worse), where do you look for liberatory possibilities? Eve Dunbar describes how Ann Petry, author of the 1946 novel “The Street” as well as YA novels about Harriet Tubman and Tituba, insisted on satisfaction and not merely survival. Dunbar also talks about the value of what she calls monstrous work.
Eve Dunbar, Monstrous Work and Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing under Segregation University of Minnesota Press, 2024
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Aug 4, 2025 • 2min
Getting Homelessness Wrong
Many assume the majority of people living on the streets struggle with mental illness or just need jobs — and that homelessness is unfortunate, but intractable. Longtime advocate for the unhoused, Mary Brosnahan, argues that these are myths, and that much of what we assume about homelessness is wrong. She posits that at its root is the capitalist commodification of housing, illustrated in the past by Bronx landlords getting rid of low income tenants by burning their buildings to the ground to the systemic shortage of affordable housing today. (Encore presentation.)
Resources:
Mary Brosnahan, “They Just Need to Get a Job” 15 Myths on Homelessness Beacon Press, 2024
Invisible People Finland
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Jul 30, 2025 • 8min
Fund Drive Special: What It Takes to Heal
Prentis Hemphill discusses their book “What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World.”
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