We all know that we need money to survive, but most of us don’t spend much time considering its form and uses. Debt, interest, GDP, and capital just seem to follow almost natural laws. But J.W. Mason argues that we misunderstand money, and its power over our lives, at our peril.

J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev, Against Money University of Chicago Press, 2026

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

The post What’s Money For? appeared first on KPFA.

What can the weird tell us about our world of computer vision and so-called Artificial Intelligence? Artist and geographer Trevor Paglen discusses the function of the image now, when the majority of images are made by computers for other computers, with the goal of manipulating our perceptions.

Trevor Paglen, How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI Verso, 2026

Photo by Goost Eight on Unsplash

The post Images, UFOs, and Artificial Intelligence appeared first on KPFA.

Many in our society are struggling to provide care for their families or communities. Often they don’t have time to do it and can’t afford to pay for it. The right realizes this and has tried to woo women with a glorified vision of domestic life. Economist Nancy Folbre discusses the early fight for the recognition of unpaid care work as real work, while the economics profession has mainly ignored it, despite its crucial importance for capitalism. (Encore presentation.)

Nancy Folbre, Making Care Work: Why Our Economy Should Put People First UC Press, 2026

Photo by Jill Brand on Unsplash

The post Counting Care Work appeared first on KPFA.

Workers want and deserve decent, dignified, and democratic workplaces. But better wages and working conditions can be elusive in the face of management inertia and intransigence. Veteran organizer and Labor Notes board chair Ellen David Friedman talks about how to win workplace demands while building workers’ collective power.

Ellen David Friedman, Keep Going: A Guide to Organizing When It’s Hard (PM Press / Labor Notes)

The post Organizing to Win appeared first on KPFA.

The Trump administration has been unabashed in its intention to criminalize dissent, labeling protestors “domestic terrorists.” A recent verdict against anti-ICE protestors in Texas promises to be consequential in that effort.  Scholar Thomas Zeitzoff reflects on the administration’s widespread attempts to quash opposition, from targeting fundraising by liberal nonprofits, knocking on the doors of former activists, or charging people with conspiracy for communicating on Signal about protests. (Encore presentation.)

Thomas Zeitzoff, No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis Oxford University Press, 2026

The post Criminalizing Dissent appeared first on KPFA.

The ramifications of the US attack on Iran have been a harsh reminder of the centrality of oil to the global economy – and not just for fuel and transport. Political economist Adam Hanieh reflects on the rise of crude oil in the 20th century. He argues that the blockage in the Gulf threatens to set off a more serious global crisis than seen in the 1970s. (Encore presentation.)

Adam Hanieh, Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market Verso, 2025

The post Oil and Global Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Food affects all of us — but while it’s a necessity for our survival, it’s also a vast, sprawling industry spanning the globe, which generates enormous profits as well as significant damage to public health and the environment. Nutritionist and molecular biologist Marion Nestle sheds light on the choices we all must navigate when we enter the grocery store. (Encore presentation.)

Marion Nestle, What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters North Point Press, 2025

The post Marion Nestle on Food Choices and Food Politics appeared first on KPFA.

The powers of the president of the United States have grown since the Cold War, expanding under both Republicans and Democrats. And many of these presidential powers – such as those laid out in the presidential emergency action documents — are unknown to the US public. Journalist Andrew Cockburn reflects on the imperial presidency, the domestic motivations of US foreign policy, and the US-Israeli war on Iran, as well as the role of money in the politics of the Democratic Party. (Encore presentation.)

Andrew Cockburn, Washington Is Burning: Corruption and Lies in the Age of Trump Verso, 2025

Photo by Ana Lanza on Unsplash

The post Trump and the Powers of the U.S. Presidency appeared first on KPFA.

As mega-fires rage around the world, why have so many people given up on the climate fight? Environmental sociologist Diana Stuart examines how fatalism about the climate emergency has been shaped by the erroneous assumption that, if we exceed 1.5C of global heating, we’ve passed the point of no return.

Diana Stuart, Rejecting Climate Doomism University of Michigan Press, 2026

Photo credit: Matt Palmer

The post Against Climate Doomism appeared first on KPFA.

When we think of world makers, we’re unlikely to picture a flower. Yet flowers completely transformed our planet, giving us rain forests, altering coastlines, producing the food we eat, and enticing our pre-human ancestors to climb down from the trees. And they did that partially through reshaping the formerly adversarial relationship between plants and insects into one of mutual aid and cooperation most of the time. Biologist David George Haskell enumerates our debt to flowers.

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

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