KPFA - Against the Grain

Scholar Emmaia Gelman reflects on the Anti-Defamation League’s long history of targeting the left in the United States and abroad. She describes the purported civil right group’s involvement in the Red Scare, its surveillance of left organizations, and role in branding as antisemitic those who criticize Israel.
Emmaia Gelman, The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State UC Press, 2026
The post The Anti-Defamation League and the Left appeared first on KPFA.

The Trump administration has exposed the enormous power, as well as astounding wealth, of the billionaire class. And the power of that class partially emanates from their ownership of much of our media system, with significant political consequences. Economist Rob Larson returns to discuss the 1%, AI and the massive build out of data centers, and the decline of press freedom in the U.S. (Full-length broadcast.)
World Inequality Database
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
Photo by Jingming Pan on Unsplash
The post AI, the Media, and the Billionaire Class appeared first on KPFA.

The revelations of widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency after 9/11 brought to light one aspect of how the government has capitalized on digital technology to amass power – and such dangers have only multiplied. Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has been involved in numerous groundbreaking legal battles with the U.S. government over surveillance and privacy, including establishing encryption as protected speech. She discusses the battles over government spying from the rise of the internet to the present.
Cindy Cohn, Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance MIT Press, 2026
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Surveillance Self-Defense
Section 702 Spying
Photo by Chris Yang on Unsplash
The post Fighting Surveillance appeared first on KPFA.

In the 1980s, yuppies were celebrated in the media and reviled by many others. Working in finance or as management consultants or lawyers, they quickly put their stamp on cities around the country, displacing working class people in places like New York, and remaking the Democratic Party. Historian Dylan Gottleib examines whether they were drivers of financialization and growing social inequality — or crucial cogs in the machine.
Dylan Gottlieb, Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York Harvard University Press, 2026
Photo: Charles Hutchins
The post Triumph of the Yuppie appeared first on KPFA.

Are women as strong as men? According to science writer Starre Vartan, in some cases, they are stronger. She argues that scientific research over the last several decades shows that culture shapes strength as much as hormones — and that much of what we presume about sex differences, strength, and athleticism harms all of us.
Starre Vartan, The Stronger Sex: What Science Tells Us about the Power of the Female Body Seal Press, 2025
Photo by Peter Zhan on Unsplash
The post Sex and Strength appeared first on KPFA.