KPFA - Against the Grain

It’s been called a new gold rush, but not of our external environment, which continues to be plundered, but of our internal environment — of our 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 post Fund Drive Special: Against the Attention Economy appeared first on KPFA.

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.
Scott Kurashige, American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism UC Press, 2026
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
The post U.S. Capitalism, Empire, and Anti-Asian Violence appeared first on KPFA.

Sugar may seem like a natural, almost eternal substance, cultivated over thousands of years. But it was remade by capitalism and turned into a homogenized commodity. Enslaved labor was central to sugar production on vast plantations, which would then be discarded as sugar laid waste to both the lands and human bodies. And, as historian of science David Singerman illustrates, scientific techniques were utilized to standardize sugar, while attempting to replace the knowledge of the workers who labored in its refineries.
David Singerman, Unrefined: How Capitalism Reinvented Sugar University of Chicago Press, 2025
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
The post Sugar and Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Fiction that imagines alternate futures is often associated with the left — with writers like Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin. But the tropes of science fiction are well-suited to the right and, as Jordan Carroll illustrates, far right authors and aficionados have populated the ranks of speculative fiction since its inception, like ardent science fiction fan and neo-Nazi party founder James Madole. Carroll discusses the right’s ongoing fight to claim the future.
Jordan S. Carroll, Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right University of Minnesota Press, 2024
Photo by Robynne O on Unsplash
The post Science Fiction and the Far Right appeared first on KPFA.

The power the police wield on the streets of this country is plain to see. Less visible, but no less formidable, is the immense political power and influence that the police exercise. Historian Stuart Schrader describes how police unions amassed enormous power over the last fifty years.
Stuart Schrader, Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves Basic Books, 2026
The post The Political Power of the Police appeared first on KPFA.