KPFA - Against the Grain

In the United States, few things seem as wholesome as camping, letting us temporarily escape the daily grind and commune with nature and each other. But Phoebe Young argues that camping has a complicated history, which tell us a lot about Americans’ notions of nature and the nation. She discusses the various forms that camping has taken in this country, from recreational camping to the encampments of those without shelter to Occupy Wall Street. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Phoebe S.K. Young, Camping Grounds: Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement Oxford University Press, 2021 The post The Politics of Camping appeared first on KPFA.

Most of us assume that our medical data is protected under U.S. law — but, as sociologist Mary Ebeling illustrates, that’s wrong. Even when we don’t collect it ourselves with fitness trackers and health apps, our most sensitive health information is gathered from across the web, and package and sold as data commodities by brokers like the credit bureaus Equifax and Experian. Ebeling discusses the afterlives of our medical data, as well as the lack of medical data privacy in a post-Roe world. Resources: Mary F.E. Ebeling, Afterlives of Data: Life and Debt under Capitalist Surveillance UC Press, 2022 The post Our Medical Data, Everywhere appeared first on KPFA.

David Graeber, the radical anthropologist and prominent activist, had a lot to say about police and policing, both historically and in contemporary society. Andrew Johnson examines a number of Graeber’s assertions and also articulates his own views on the history of policing, the role of police today, and the value of breaking the spell of police authoritarianism. Andrew Johnson, “Bureaucrats with guns: Or, how we can abolish the police if we just stop believing in them” Anthropological Notebooks (Image on main page by Bartosz Brzezinski.) The post Graeber, Policing, and Abolitionism appeared first on KPFA.

Did Lincoln free the slaves? Or did they just as much free themselves? And what were the ramifications of their seemingly impossible achievement — immediate and uncompensated emancipation — for other oppressed groups? Historian David Roediger discusses that revolutionary period in U.S. history — and the consequences of its failure today. (Encore presentation.) Resources: David R. Roediger, Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All Verso, 2015 The post General Strike of the Enslaved appeared first on KPFA.

They are among the biggest companies in the world: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon have an outsized impact on the global economy and on our daily lives. Rob Larson examines the companies that have become synonymous with the glories and ills of contemporary capitalism. He makes the case for online socialism. Resources: Rob Larson, Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley Haymarket Books, 2020 The post The Unmitigated Power of Big Tech appeared first on KPFA.

Palm oil can be found in a staggering variety of food items and other products we consume every day. Max Haiven traces the history of this ubiquitous commodity’s production and use to reveal capitalism’s logics and imperial states’ depredations. Max Haiven, Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire Pluto Press, 2022 Pluto Press’s Vagabonds series (Image on main page by Lian Pin Koh.) The post Oily Business appeared first on KPFA.

Advancements in science are seen as symbols of human progress, but science has frequently served deadly ends. Historian Clifford Conner discusses how scientific research in the United States is deeply enmeshed with the military, and considers the purpose of trillions of dollars of spending on the military. Resources: Clifford D. Conner, The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman to Trump Haymarket Books, 2022 Science for the People The post U.S. Science and the Military 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. 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.

Too many hours, erratic schedules, not enough hours — and, of course, not enough pay: if you’re a worker in the U.S, time feels like the enemy. Yet, as sociologist Jamie McCallum argues, U.S. workers tend not to see their plight as a collective one and, in a particularly American way, often wear overwork as a badge of honor. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Jamie K McCallum, Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream Basic Books, 2020 photo: Marvin Meyer via Unsplash The post Overworked and Underworked appeared first on KPFA.

Is there such a thing as society? Was the mid-twentieth century an antisocial moment in U.S. history? Theodore Martin describes what happened to the idea of society in the wake of the New Deal and World War II, and argues that sociopolitical changes fueled the emergence of a new kind of antisocial novel, examples of which include Richard Wright’s “The Outsider,” Patricia Highsmith’s “Strangers on a Train,” and Jim Thompson’s “The Getaway.” Kennan Ferguson, ed., The Big No University of Minnesota Press, 2022 Theodore Martin, Contemporary Drift: Genre, Historicism, and the Problem of the Present Columbia University Press, 2017 The post Society, Antisociality, and Postwar America appeared first on KPFA.