Hard Knock Radio – December 12, 2025
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.
Upcoming Episode
Hard Knock Radio
4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME: MONDAYS - FRIDAYS
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting. Hosts Davey D and Anita Johnson give voice to issues ignored by the mainstream while planting seeds for social change.
On Hard Knock Radio, I sat down with Jelani Cobb—dean of Columbia’s Journalism School, longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, and a thinker rooted in Hip Hop’s habit of connecting dots across time. We talked about his new book, Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here (2012–2025). I called it “a book … Continued
Fund Drive Special: Federal Attacks on Nursing and Teaching
The conversation opens with Davey D breaking down a quiet but devastating move by the Trump Education Department that declared key careers like nursing and teaching as “non professional” for federal loans. He frames it as a slick attack on Black and Brown communities, women, and working class folks who rely on those pathways for stable work … Continued
The interview centers on the book Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation and the broader work of the Visualizing Palestine collective. You open by situating the book in a moment of media consolidation, censorship, and classroom bans, framing it as both an archive and a living tool for narrative struggle. Editor Jessica … Continued
Hard Knock Radio – December 8, 2025
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.
Reviving a Case, Erasing the Truth: The Case Against Kevin Epps
Davey D speaks with filmmaker, journalist, and community leader Kevin Epps, known for documentaries like Straight Outta Hunters Point and his work with the SF Bay View. Davey reminds listeners that years ago Epps was involved in a fatal shooting inside his home that was widely understood as self defense. Then–DA George Gascón declined to bring charges … Continued
Silencing Activism Through a Hidden Felony Law: Penal Code 4571
Host Davey D sits down with longtime organizer Minister King X and his attorney Eric Sapp to break down a federal lawsuit that exposes how California is criminalizing dissent and formerly incarcerated people under the label of “Black identity extremism.” The conversation centers on Penal Code 4571, a little-known statute that makes it a felony … Continued
A Horrific Mass Shooting in Stockton, California
Host Davey D opens Hard Knock Radio by situating listeners in the aftermath of a horrific mass shooting in Stockton, where four young people were killed at a birthday party, and connects it to recent shootings in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and across the Bay. He pushes back on simplistic narratives that blame “out-of-control … Continued
Rahim Kuwra Indefensible Spaces
Host Davey D opens Hard Knock Radio by framing housing and policing as intertwined crises, then centers the conversation on Rahim Kurwa’s book Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing. Kurwa begins with the story of Michelle Ross, a Section 8 voucher holder who moved from Los Angeles to Palmdale in 2008. Once there, she … Continued
9th Annual Social Justice Book Fair
Host Davey D opens the conversation by spotlighting the Ninth Annual Social Justice Childrens Book Fair and the larger fight over books, knowledge, and representation. He is joined by organizer and author illustrator Robert Liu Trujillo, along with writers and educators Mona Damluji and Justine Villanueva. Together they walk listeners through how this Bay Area … Continued
No Cop City, No Cop World Lessons from the Movement (Encore)
On this edition ofHard Knock Radio, host Davey D sits down withKamauFranklin”organizer, lawyer, and co-editor ofNo Cop City, No Cop World: Lessons from the Movement”for a deep and revealing conversation about the grassroots struggle in Atlanta and what it means for movements across the country. Franklin lays out the origins of the Stop Cop City … Continued