KPFA - Against the Grain

Ancient Greece and Rome are venerated throughout our society — including on the far right. Is this a misappropriation and misuse of the ideals of Greco-Roman antiquity? Classical scholar Curtis Dozier argues that when white nationalists appeal to ancient thinkers to justify their reactionary ideas, there is surprisingly much to draw from. Curtis Dozier, The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate Yale University Press, 2026 The post Antiquity and the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

The struggle for labor across the color line has often been credited to white activists. However, as sociologist Cedric de Leon argues, the black labor movement, independently organized outside of the official union movement, propelled such efforts. He discusses the black labor movement’s divisions, including in the face of the state’s attempt to destroy it. Cedric de Leon, Freedom Train: Black Politics and the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity UC Press, 2025 The post The Black Labor Movement appeared first on KPFA.

The U.S. Constitution is an object of great political veneration in this country. Legal scholar Aziz Rana examines the contradictions within it, which have allowed for the authoritarianism of the Trump administration. (Encore presentation.) Aziz Rana, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them University of Chicago Press, 2024 The post Depending on the Constitution appeared first on KPFA.

As Congress considers a war powers vote, economist Mark Weisbrot places the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela in the context of a longstanding bipartisan campaign to undermine left-leaning governments across Latin America. He discusses the differing visions Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio have for the region, one focused on oil and the other on regime change, including in Cuba. Image credit: IbaKa Vector The post Venezuela, U.S. Power, and the Latin American Left appeared first on KPFA.

Modern art has always been a battleground — and the highly influential Museum of Modern Art has been partisan since its inception. Architectural historian Patricio Del Real discusses two differing political visions of modernism and modern architecture: one rooted in the left, and associated with figures such as Communist muralist Diego Rivera, and the other on the right, represented by the architect and fascist sympathizer Philip Johnson. He weighs in on the role of MoMa in promoting a view of modernism in Latin America, stripped of its radical politics and racial fusions, and radiating American power and hegemony. (Encore presentation.) Patricio del Real, Constructing Latin America: Architecture, Politics, and Race at the Museum of Modern Art Yale University Press, 2022 The post MoMa and Cultural Imperialism in Latin America appeared first on KPFA.

Extreme inequality defines our age. The world’s wealthiest 0.001%, a mere 60,000 people, own three times more wealth that half of the world’s population combined. And such inequality is increasing with time. Economist Rob Larson discusses the cloistered world of the very rich, their power and wealth, and their influence over all our lives. (Full-length presentation.) Rob Larson, Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do with Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More Haymarket Books, 2024 The post The Rule of the Billionaires appeared first on KPFA.

As influenza cases reach a twenty-five year high, a look at the complicated history of long lasting post-viral conditions. Medical anthropologist Emily Mendenhall considers how the medical establishment has frequently ignored chronic but often invisible illnesses like long Covid and long flu, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Lyme disease. Emily Mendenhall, Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long COVID UC Press, 2025 Photo by Helenn Melo on Unsplash The post The Afterlives of Viral Infection appeared first on KPFA.

As the United States seizes control of Venezuela, what lessons can be drawn from the movement against the US occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq? Historian Jeremy Varon reflects on how the anti-war movement grew into the millions in the face of jingoism and media complicity with the US state. Jeremy Varon, Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War: The Movement to Stop the War on Terror University of Chicago Press, 2025 The post Protesting Endless Wars appeared first on KPFA.

The United States spends over a $100 billion dollars more a year on the military than it did at the height of the Cold War. What does it get year upon year for that money? Since 2001, America’s overseas war have led to nearly a million deaths. Ben Freeman discusses the intersection of interests that drive America’s military spending, including the private contractors who receive half of the US military budget and the universities, Hollywood movies, and media funded by the Pentagon or its arms manufacturers. William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman, The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home Bold Type Books, 2025 Think Tank Funding Tracker The post The Trillion Dollar War Machine appeared first on KPFA.

Film brings to us — with unparalleled rawness — what feels like the intimate experience of war. But how true is that visceral feeling? And how do the tension and excitement of war on screen ultimately affect our sympathy toward each other and our humanity? David Thomson, one of the greatest film historians of our time, argues that movies — even those with antiwar intentions — perpetuate war. (Encore presentation.) Resources: David Thomson, The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film Harper, 2023 The post War and Film appeared first on KPFA.

In the decade of the 2010s, more people took to the streets than in any other time in history. And yet those horizontal protests, often spread through social media, were frequently co-opted by the right — and the decade ended with the rise of authoritarianism. Journalist Vincent Bevins spoke to activists around the world about the lessons they drew from the failed mass revolts, and discusses how democratic movements regained power in Brazil from the despotic Jair Bolsonaro. (Encore presentation.) Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution Public Affairs, 2023 Vincent Bevins, “This Land Is Our Land: How Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement Emerged from Right-wing Rule Stronger Than Ever” The Nation, April 8, 2025 The post The Mass Revolts of the 2010s appeared first on KPFA.

At the height of leftwing activism in the Sixties, conservatives funded tax-deducible rightwing groups on campuses to counter Black Power, demands for ethnic studies, and the New Left. As historian Lauren Shepherd illustrates, such groups like Young Americans for Freedom groomed future Republican leaders and influential conservatives, like Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich. There they learned to spin unpopular politics as popular. (Encore presentation.) Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America University of North Carolina Press, 2023 American Campus Podcast The post The Right on Campus appeared first on KPFA.

Should Marxism be rooted in inter-species liberation? Or is it already, unbeknownst to most of us? Leigh Claire La Berge has delved into what she considers an unrecognized trove of evidence for Marxism’s deep engagement with the feline as a way of making sense of class society — and what would be necessary to leap beyond it. She argues that the history of inter-species solidarity between radicals and cats (among other animals) is only now starting to be recuperated. (Encore presentation.) Leigh Claire La Berge, Marx for Cats: A Radical Bestiary Duke University Press, 2023 The post Cats and Marxism appeared first on KPFA.

When we think of potentially dangerous and addictive drugs, most of us think about illegal substances like heroine or cocaine. And yet widely-prescribed drugs like Xanax, Ritalin, Adderall, and Vicodin are also addictive, but legal in the United States. Historian David Herzberg discusses the artificial distinction that has been created between addictive drugs and medicines — with the key difference being the class and race of the consumers who use them and the partial protections that one group receives and the other does not. (Encore presentation.) David Herzberg, White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America University of Chicago Press, 2020 The post Good Patients, Bad Addicts appeared first on KPFA.

“The bosses have two parties,” they said. “We need one of our own.” In 1996, representatives and activists from hundreds of local and international unions came together to launch a workers’ party — long missing from U.S. politics. Labor Party participant and economist Howard Botwinick discusses the organization’s challenges and promise, and the lessons from its rise and fall — including how the failure to build leftwing politics rooted in the working class created a vacuum that was ultimately filled by the right. (Encore presentation.) Labor Party Archive The post Lessons from the U.S. Labor Party appeared first on KPFA.

Entomologist Douglas Tallamy discusses what we can do to stem the extinction crisis — the loss of habitat and plant and animal species — by transforming the places where we live. The post Fund Drive Special: Saving and Restoring Nature in Our Gardens appeared first on KPFA.

Historian Joshua Clark Davis disputes the idea that the Civil Rights movement did not organize against police repression. He discusses the extensive involvement of local police departments in disrupting and repressing the movement. The post Fund Drive Special: Local Police and the Civil Rights Movement appeared first on KPFA.

Economist Rob Larson discusses the cloistered world of the very rich, their power and wealth, and their influence over all our lives. The post Fund Drive Special: The Rule of the Wealthy appeared first on KPFA.

When we go to the supermarket, we’re confronted with a vast array of foods — packaged, unpackaged, natural, organic, nonorganic, foods with claims of being nutritious or sustainably farmed or endorsed by the American Heart Association. In the face of such an onslaught, how should we make sense of it all? Nutritionist and molecular biologist Marion Nestle sheds light on the choices we all must navigate when we enter the grocery store. Photo credit: Bill Hayes The post Fund Drive Special: Marion Nestle on Navigating the Supermarket appeared first on KPFA.

In a world in perpetual crisis, how do we live our lives in a way that is both ethical and fulfilling? How do we keep from being buffeted by fear and other negative emotions? William Irvine and Mark Vernon discuss what ancient philosophy can offer us today. The post Fund Drive Special: Wisdom from Antiquity appeared first on KPFA.