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.

Israel and its boosters argue that it’s an exceptional state in the Middle East and a necessary ally for the West. Its technical prowess is purportedly part of what makes Israel so indispensable, on full display during its assault on Gaza. But security scholar Rhys Machold contends that the idea of Israel as a innovative pioneer obscures it dependency on the West since its inception. And he suggests that such mythologies serve to deflect attention from genocide.

Rhys Machold, “The Myth of Israeli Innovation” Jewish Currents

Rhys Machold, Fabricating Homeland Security: Police Entanglements across India and Palestine/Israel Stanford University Press, 2024

Photo credit: Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash

The post Israel and the Mythologies of Innovation appeared first on KPFA.

Nothing sounds more wholesome than kids and sports. But as legal scholar Dionne Koller illustrates youth sports have become increasingly commercial, unregulated, and competitive with companies, including private equity firms, replacing publicly-subsidized recreational programs. This highly lucrative industry profits from, among other things, clubs, camps, equipment, mega facilities, and youth sports tourism — exacting a high cost from families and even greater physical and mental cost from children.

Dionne Koller, More Than Play: How Law, Policy, and Politics Shape American Youth Sport UC Press, 2025

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash

The post The Commercialization of Youth Sports appeared first on KPFA.

The drive to put prices on everything is a basic feature of capitalism. Political theorist Alyssa Battistoni asks then why capitalism has failed at putting a price on so much of nature, which she believes helps illuminate capitalism’s destruction of the natural world. She also argues that the relationship that capitalism forces us to have with the rest of nature makes us less free as human beings.

Alyssa Battistoni, Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature University of Princeton Press, 2025

The post Capitalism and the Price of Nature appeared first on KPFA.

Since the global financial crisis, and even more over the last five years, capitalism’s popularity has fallen, while the fortunes of the capitalist class have risen steeply. Polls show that a majority of people under forty, of any political affiliation, view democratic socialism positively and capitalism negatively. Even a majority of Republican voters believe that our economic system favors corporations and the wealthy. Journalist John Cassidy discusses capitalism through the eyes of its critics. (Full-length presentation.)

John Cassidy, Capitalism and Its Critics A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025

The post Criticizing Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

As the environmental crisis worsens, not everyone is drawing the same lessons. On the far right, xenophobic and racist ideas are increasingly dressed up as means of protecting nature. And, as scholar Alexander Menrisky posits, contemporary American culture furnishes a wealth of material for the right, from the ubiquity of apocalyptic and misanthropic ideas to concerns with Wellness and bodily purity. (Encore presentation.)

Alexander Menrisky, Everyday Ecofascism: Crisis and Consumption in American Literature University of Minnesota Press, 2025

The post The Fodder of Eco-Fascism appeared first on KPFA.

On the occasion of C. S. stepping down as regular co-host of Against the Grain after a 22-year run, he presents some reflections, reminiscences, and excerpts from cherished interviews.

The post Stepping Down, Looking Back appeared first on KPFA.