First-time presentation of the full-length interview with Brandon Keim about his book Meet the Neighbors, in which he considers the explosion of research into animal intelligence, emotion, and sociality; takes research findings out into everyday landscapes; and examines how wild animals are viewed and treated.
Brandon Keim, Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World W. W. Norton, 2025 (paper)
The post Animal Minds and Life appeared first on KPFA.
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Against the Grain – November 11, 2025
A radio and web media project whose aim is to provide in-depth analysis and commentary on a variety of matters — political, economic, social and cultural — important to progressive and radical thinking and activism.
The post Against the Grain – November 11, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.
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Troops in Cities; Veterans Under Siege
Supporting members of the military to resist deployment has taken on a new urgency as Trump sends troops into American cities. Journalist Steve Early discusses the history of soldier organizing — including as workers — from Vietnam to the present. And Suzanne Gordon reflects on why the broad public should care about the administration’s attack on the 1,400 hospitals and clinics that serve veterans, the largest socialized medical system in the country.
Common Defense
Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute
Suzanne Gordon, Steve Early, and Jasper Craven, Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs Duke University Press, 2022
Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash
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Zionism and U.S. Unions
This autumn Italian workers shut down their country in opposition to the Gaza genocide. In the United States, in contrast, labor activists wanting to take a stand in solidarity with Palestinian workers are frequently chastised for trying to involve their unions in the affairs of other countries. Yet labor historian Jeff Schuhrke illustrates that U.S. unions have long been involved in Palestine — for almost a century supporting Zionism and then the state Israel.
National Labor Network for Ceasefire
Jeff Schuhrke, No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine Haymarket Books, 2025
Photo by Nikolas Gannon on Unsplash
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The Populist-Fascist Hybrid
The global rise of the authoritarian right has confounded classification and led to contentious debates on the left. Do politicians like Modi, Bolsonaro, Orban, and Trump represent an extreme form of right-wing populism? Or are they fascists, as some claim? Historian and scholar of populism and fascism Federico Finchelstein argues that we’re seeing something new — a phenomenon that blurs the lines between the two.
Federico Finchelstein, The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy UC Press, 2024
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Acclaimed program of ideas, in-depth analysis, and commentary on a variety of matters—political, economic, social, and cultural—important to progressive and radical thinking and activism. Against the Grain is co-produced and co-hosted by Sasha Lilley and C. S. Soong.