KPFA - Against the Grain

The rise and fall of unemployment, our dependence on the market for our livelihoods — such things are taken as a given. But economist Clara Mattei suggests we need to recognize them as being fundamentally political phenomena, not the product of natural laws outside of our control. She argues that a reconsideration of our capitalist economy is long overdue.
Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention Simon & Schuster, 2026
Forum for Real Economic Emancipation
Photo by Julio Lopez on Unsplash
The post Rethinking Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

It’s been called a new gold rush, yet not of our external environment, but of our internal environment — of our minds and psyches. Historian of science D. Graham Burnett, one of the Friends of Attention, lays out what’s at stake and how they’re organizing a movement to reclaim our attention.
The Strother School of Radical Attention
The Friends of Attention, Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement Crown, 2026
The post Against the Attention Economy appeared first on KPFA.

The Texas Republican Party has evolved from a corporate libertarian institution to one in which free market capitalism and evangelical Christianity are united in authoritarianism. Political scientist Clyde Barrow warns that Texan Christofascism serves as the rightwing blueprint for the rest of the United States in the coming years.
Gregory Albo and Stephen Maher, eds. Socialist Register 2026: Late-Stage Capitalism? Accumulation in the Ruins Monthly Review Press, 2025
Photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash
The post Texas: Vanguard of the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

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.