Hard Knock Radio – September 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.
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.
Samora Pinderhughes on Craft, Abolition, and the Soundtrack of Now
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
Jelani Cobb’s History Lesson for Right Now
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 … Continued
300,000 Black Women Pushed Out of the U.S. Labor Force
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 – September 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.
Prosthetics for Palestine: Culture as Care, Art as Strategy and Poor News Magazine
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
DC Under Occupation: Netfa Freeman on Policing, Poverty, and Resistance
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
Host Davey D sits down with psychiatrist and author Dr. Terry A. Kupers to dig into the realities—and rising urgency—of ending solitary confinement in 2025. Kupers defines solitary plainly: 22+ hours a day locked alone in a cell, meals through a slot, minimal caged “yard” time, and almost no human contact—“like being locked in your … Continued
Its Not You, Its Capitalism: Malaika Jabali Breaks Down Economic Gaslighting, Black Liberation, and the Illusion of Wealth (ENCORE)
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
The State of Workers’ Rights
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