KPFA - Against the Grain

What can our fantasies about space tell us about life on earth? Fred Scharman discusses competing visions for long-term space occupancy over the last century and a half, many of them emanating from Russia and the United States even before the Cold War, and now monopolized by billionaires like Elon Musk. Resources: Fred Scharmen, Space Forces: A Critical History of Life in Outer Space Verso, 2021 The post Conquering Outer Space appeared first on KPFA.

Who gets put into solitary confinement, and why? What roles do race, racism, and mental health diagnoses play? Terry Kupers describes what spending time in solitary does to the human psyche; he also cites recent changes in attitudes toward, and laws regulating, solitary confinement. Bruce Arrigo and Brian Sellers, eds., The Pre-Crime Society: Crime, Culture, and Control in the Ultramodern Age Bristol University Press, 2021 Terry Kupers, Solitary: The Inside Story of Supermax Isolation and How We Can Abolish It University of California Press, 2017 The post Thrown Into Solitary appeared first on KPFA.

The Republican Party is gripped by a hatred of immigrants. But geographer Reece Jones argues it has not always been so. Instead, one man, the late John Tanton, was responsible for making nativism appear a central concern of conservatives, by propagating scores of anti-immigrant organizations, some which eventually helped staff the Trump Administration. And, as Jones points out, Tanton’s nativism originated from an unexpected place: the environmental movements of the Sixties. (Encore presentation.) Resources: Reece Jones, White Borders: The History of Race and Immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall Beacon Press, 2021 photo: Metin Ozer via Unsplash The post Nativism, Immigration, and Environmentalism appeared first on KPFA.

What views did Gandhi hold about education and human development? Was the importance he attached to manual skills-building and vocational training justified? And what role did the Mahatma’s conceptions of nonviolence and truth play in his pedagogy? Purushottama Bilimoria has written extensively about Gandhian thought and practice. Purushottama Bilimoria, ed., History of Indian Philosophy Routledge, 2020 Bilimoria, Prabhu, and Sharma, eds., Indian Ethics: Classical Traditions and Contemporary Challenges, Volume I Routledge, 2017 The post Gandhi on Education appeared first on KPFA.

Could humans ever live together without warring? Did half of us evolve to start wars and dominate the rest of us? Biological anthropologist Agustín Fuentes separates myths from the facts about aggression, genes, human nature, and evolution, in this interview from the collection “Big Picture Ideas: The Best of Against the Grain”. The post Fund Drive Special: Hardwired for War? appeared first on KPFA.

Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, and Timothy Leary are among the featured voices on the audio compilation “Let’s Take a Trip: A Social History of LSD.” The post Fund Drive Special: Leary, Weil, and Ram Dass appeared first on KPFA.

Open any world history book and you’ll read that the Neolithic Revolution was a turning point for humanity, when hunter gatherers gave up roving in small egalitarian groups and settled down to farm. Out of that, civilization was born, with all the benefits and ills connected to it: the rise of cities, the emergence of the state, inequality, and class society. But, according to anthropologist David Graeber, that tale is not based on fact. The post Fund Drive Special: Where We Came From, Where We’re Going appeared first on KPFA.

Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, and Timothy Leary are among the featured voices on the audio compilation “Let’s Take a Trip: A Social History of LSD.” The post Fund Drive Special: Leary, Weil, and Ram Dass appeared first on KPFA.

As Covid tragically illustrated, large numbers of Americans are in poor health and especially vulnerable to viruses and other pathogens. How did we get here? According to physician Robert Lustig, it started with the turn toward processed food, which has led to an ongoing national and global public health crisis, while enriching corporations and the U.S. government. The post Fund Drive Special: Processed Food, Sick Society appeared first on KPFA.

Penn professor Paul Goldin discusses the Chinese philosophical text “Lao-Tzu,” also known as the “Tao Te Ching,” which has inspired and intrigued readers for more than two millennia. The post Fund Drive Special: The Taoist Classic “Tao Te Ching” appeared first on KPFA.