KPFA - Against the Grain

Big Tech’s owners see themselves as visionaries — as singularly capable of understanding and shaping the future — in contrast to the rest of us. Adrian Daub explores the worldview of Silicon Valley’s owners.
Adrian Daub, What Tech Calls Governing Stanford University Press, 2026
Photo by Igor Shalyminov on Unsplash
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After a century of drug prohibition, during which the use of many illicit drugs increased, states and countries are moving to decriminalize the usage of certain psychoactive substances. As corporations rush to profit, legal scholar Kojo Koram argues for the legalization of drugs without commercial gain.
Kojo Koram, The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs Verso, 2026
Photo by Freestocks on Unsplash
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Recessions, trade wars, labor unrest — in moments of societal crisis in the United States, Asian-Americans have been perennially targeted, from the destruction of Chinatowns by white mobs, to the mass internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2, to attacks against Asians during Covid. Historian Scott Kurashige reflects on more than 175 years of anti-Asian violence and its connection to U.S. empire abroad and a divided working class at home. (Encore presentation.)
Scott Kurashige, American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism UC Press, 2026
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
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Capitalism has transformed the world like no other force, which historian Sven Beckert calls a fundamental break in human history. Beckert traces the emergence and expansion of capitalism, arguing that we can best understand the present by coming to terms with its past. (Full-length presentation.)
Sven Beckert, Capitalism: A Global History Penguin Press, 2025
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The Trump administration has justified the mass incarceration and deportation of immigrants by asserting that it’s going after the most violent offenders. Scholars of law and punishment, Keramet Reiter and Joshua Page, delve into the designation of the worst of the worse — from Three Strikes laws to longterm solitary confinement to mass detention under inhumane conditions and the transfer of immigrants to foreign prisons like CECOT in El Salvador.
Joshua Page and Keramet Reiter, The Uses and Abuses of the “Worst of the Worst” Dissent July 8, 2026
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