KPFA - Against the Grain

Is capitalism bad for your health? Gabor Maté thinks so. The acclaimed Canadian physician and Marxist discusses capitalism, stress, and chronic illness, inimitably combining profound humanism, dark wit, and extensive knowledge of science and social justice. He makes the compelling case that the psycho-social needs to be taken into account by both the medical establishment — and the left. The post Fund Drive Special: Health and Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Renowned mycologist Paul Stamets talks about mushrooms, human health, bee populations, psychoactive fungi, and more. (Image by Alan Rockefeller.) The post Fund Drive Special: Mushroom Expert Paul Stamets appeared first on KPFA.

Over the last four decades, Americans have been gaining increasing amounts of weight. And they are told that it’s a result of their own personal failings, of not having the will power to control what they consume. But, as a documentary film shows, any serious look at the issue points not to individual self-discipline, but the enormous power of the processed food industry. The post Fund Drive Special: Profiting Off Food appeared first on KPFA.

Michael Albert discusses his vision of an equitable, sustainable, and participatory economy. The post Fund Drive Special: Participatory Economics appeared first on KPFA.

Over the past half century, the US economy has undergone a profound change: wealth has been concentrated in the hands of a few, inequality has skyrocketed, and insecurity has reigned. And yet it’s a story mainly downplayed by mainstream pundits and the media. Noam Chomsky, arguably the most important public intellectual in the world, says that any discussion of democracy is pointless if we don’t recognize the corrosive effects of this class war from above. The post Fund Drive Special: Noam Chomsky on Wealth and Power appeared first on KPFA.

In “Polishing the Mirror,” the influential spiritual seeker and teacher Ram Dass shares his insights into human consciousness and awakening. The post Fund Drive Special: Ram Dass on “Polishing the Mirror” appeared first on KPFA.

The history of slavery in the United States casts a pall over our present. Berkeley-based documentary filmmaker Frances Causey illustrates how and why that is in a compelling and personal work, that traces four centuries of racial oppression in the United States. The post Fund Drive Special: The Living Legacy of Slavery appeared first on KPFA.

Renowned mycologist Paul Stamets talks about mushrooms, human health, bee populations, psychoactive fungi, and more. (Image by Alan Rockefeller.) The post Fund Drive Special: Mushroom Expert Paul Stamets appeared first on KPFA.

As the world rushes headlong into the climate emergency, what might a liberatory approach look like, that would avert ecological disaster while making another world possible? Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese have laid out one vision for eco-socialism that takes on the difficult question of how to plan society in a radically different way. Resources: Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese, Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics Verso, 2022 Half-Earth Socialism: A Planetary Planning Game The post Half-Earth Socialism appeared first on KPFA.

What do neoliberal policies and institutions do to people’s ability to care well for others? According to Sarah Clark Miller, caregivers experience moral precarity and moral injury, brought on by the fact that they can’t care for loved ones in ways that are consistent with their ethical principles. Maurice Hamington and Michael Flower, eds., Care Ethics in the Age of Precarity University of Minnesota Press, 2021 Sarah Clark Miller, The Ethics of Need: Agency, Dignity, and Obligation Routledge, 2014 The post Caregiving in Neoliberal Times appeared first on KPFA.