Hard Knock Radio

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.

Hard Knock Radio

Samora Pinderhughes on Craft, Abolition, and the Soundtrack of Now

ListenDownload

By

Host Davey D opens with “Am I Human?” and frames Samora Pinderhughes as a Bay-raised, Juilliard-trained composer/pianist/vocalist who blends jazz, R&B, and movement work. Samora embraces that lineage—crediting his parents’ community praxis—and talks frankly about maintaining integrity in an industry that rewards spectacle and “Black dysfunction.” The antidote, for him, is purpose and craft. On abolition, Samora widens the lens: prisons, … Continued

Hard Knock Radio

300,000 Black Women Pushed Out of the U.S. Labor Force

ListenDownload

By

Host Davey D convenes SEIU 1021 organizer Jennifer Esteen and Women’s Economic Agenda Project director Ethel Long-Scott to unpack a seismic—and largely ignored—economic gut punch: 300,000 Black women cut from the federal workforce in the first half of 2025. Both guests frame the layoffs as part of a broader, deliberate restructuring—legal, political, and technological—that targets … Continued

Hard Knock Radio

Prosthetics for Palestine: Culture as Care, Art as Strategy and Poor News Magazine

ListenDownload

By

Host Davey D checks in with producer Tarik “Eccentric” Kazaleh and singer-organizer Naima Shalhoub about Gaza’s ongoing crisis, the grassroots effort Prosthetics for Palestine, their instrumental collective Shadow Band, and a benefit show this Sunday in Danville. Tarik explains Prosthetics for Palestine began as a family idea and, over the past year, has grown into … Continued

Hard Knock Radio

DC Under Occupation: Netfa Freeman on Policing, Poverty, and Resistance

ListenDownload

By

Davey D taps Netfa Freeman of Pan-African Community Action (PACA) and the Black Alliance for Peace to unpack what’s really happening in Washington, D.C. Freeman says the story isn’t a sudden “DC takeover” but an intensification of long-running policies: federal agents augmenting MPD, a crime narrative used to justify containment, and a local government—under Mayor … Continued

Hard Knock Radio

Its Not You, Its Capitalism: Malaika Jabali Breaks Down Economic Gaslighting, Black Liberation, and the Illusion of Wealth (ENCORE)

ListenDownload

By

On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with lawyer, journalist, and author Malaika Jabali to unpack her new bookIts Not You, Its Capitalism. Drawing on her legal background and years of political reporting,Jabalichallenges the myths surrounding capitalism and reframes our relationship to money, struggle, and systemic inequality. Jabali explains that … Continued

Hard Knock Radio

The State of Workers’ Rights

ListenDownload

By

On today’s show, we look at the state of workers’ rights in 2025 with Jennifer Esteen, a nurse and SEIU labor leader. Esteen reflects on the shifting landscape of labor rights in the U.S. and beyond—from new protections for workers in places like California, to the growing attacks on unions and collective bargaining nationwide. We … Continued