What accounts for the militarization of the police in the U.S., and how long has it been going on? Julian Go links police militarization with colonial conquest, imperial control, and the racialization of crime and disorder. The domestic effects and implications of the so-called imperial boomerang, Go reveals, have been momentous and longstanding. Julian Go, Policing Empires: Militarization, Race, and the Imperial Boomerang in Britain and the U.S. Oxford University Press, 2023 (Image on main page by Tony Webster.) The post Police Militarization & Empire appeared first on KPFA.

Israel’s military power has been on display following Hamas’s attack and Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza. Israel is one of the world’s most important producers of military hardware and surveillance technology, honed in its occupation of Palestine, and exported around the globe to various brutal regimes. Antony Loewenstein traces the history of Israel’s military tech sector, while Saree Makdisi reflects on the Israeli state’s cultivation of Western liberal support. Resources: Antony Loewenstein, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World Verso, 2023 Saree Makdisi, Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial UC Press, 2022 The post The Technological and Ideological Tools of Occupation appeared first on KPFA.

Much been said and written about the Sixties; what should we make of the ’70s? Revolutionary hopes were dampened and movements repressed, but did something constructive and instructive also take place? Michael Hardt considers radical struggles and conceptual developments that he finds provocative, inspiring, and relevant to our times. Michael Hardt, The Subversive Seventies Oxford University Press, 2023 (Image on main page by Fábio Goveia.) The post Rethinking the ’70s appeared first on KPFA.

What’s the value of a liberal arts education? It’s become commonplace to hear Humanities degrees condemned as a waste of money, purportedly not readying students for the world of work. Author and literary critic Gayle Greene counters that they have never been more necessary — yet are disappearing from higher education. Resources: Gayle Greene, Immeasurable Outcomes: Teaching Shakespeare in the Age of the Algorithm Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023 The post The Value of a (Disappearing) Humanities Education appeared first on KPFA.

Many U.S. military establishment bigwigs are pushing the development of automated and autonomous weapons systems. Roberto González questions whether this robo-fanaticism, as he calls it, is justified. He also describes efforts to address human warfighters’ distrust of machines. (Encore presentation.) Roberto J. González, War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future University of California Press, 2022 The post Automated Warfare appeared first on KPFA.

Universities are one of the most hallowed institutions in our society — but critics argue they’re closer to hedge funds that conduct classes. Higher education is largely tax-exempt, based on the idea that universities benefit the public at large, including the communities where they are located. Yet urbanist and historian Davarian Baldwin argues that cities pay a very high price for universities which, whether public or private, are engines of profit, encroaching on adjacent communities and exploiting low wage labor, while grossly subsidized by their host cities. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Davarian L. Baldwin, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities Bold Type Books, 2021 The post Cities and the Big Business of Higher Education appeared first on KPFA.

The acclaimed physician Gabor Maté believes that capitalist society damages us at an early age and that we carry that trauma through our lives — making us alienated, sick, and often prone to destructive behaviors. Maté draws from his remarkable background and radical commitments to provide us with tremendous insights into the maladies that are the norm in our society. His deeply humanistic work is featured in an award-winning documentary film. The post Fund Drive Special: Gabor Mate on Trauma appeared first on KPFA.

An interview with the meditation pioneer and “Real Happiness” author Sharon Salzberg, including never-before-aired remarks. The post Fund Drive Special: More Sharon Salzberg appeared first on KPFA.

Americans as a population have an usually 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. What is it about US society that makes drug use simultaneously so appealing and reviled? Writer and scholar Benjamin Fong weighs in. The post Fund Drive Special: Drugs and American Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Renowned mycologist Paul Stamets talks about mushrooms, human health, bee populations, psychoactive fungi, and more. The post Fund Drive Special: Paul Stamets on Mushrooms appeared first on KPFA.