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.
We speak with author and culture critic Odie Henderson about his latest book, Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema. Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras is a spirited history of a genre and the movies that he grew up watching, which he loves without irony (but with plenty of self-awareness and humor). … Continued
On Hard Knock Radio, I sat down with Jelani Cobb”dean of Columbias Journalism School, longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, and a thinker rooted in Hip Hops 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 … Continued
Whistleblower and retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar accused a U.S. and Israel-funded nonprofit of “not only implicitly but also explicitly furthering the conduct of genocide in Gaza” KPFA is co-sponsoring Eyewitness Gaza, a community forum featuring retired U.S. Army Green Beret and whistleblower Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar. Aguilar will share firsthand experiences from Gaza and … Continued
Host Davey D talks with writer and geographer Alex Werth about his new book On Loop: Black Sonic Politics in Oakland and how sound, race, and power collide in the towns history. Werth explains that although he was trained by anthropologists, his grounding in geography helps him track how Oakland as a place has been … Continued
On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, guest host Kalonji Changa of Black Power Media sits down with political prisoner and revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, widely known as the “Voice of the Voiceless.” After more than 42 years behind prison walls, Mumia offers a sobering and urgent perspective on the current political climate and the … Continued
On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, Davey D connects with longtime unhoused advocates Needa B and Satya to unpack the ongoing fallout from the delayed opening of the Phoenix Apartments, a 100 unit affordable housing development meant for low income and unhoused residents. Needa explains that multiple residents were approved through the county system, … Continued
On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D checks in with educator, scholar, and author Dave Stovall for an update on what has been unfolding in Chicago and how it connects to a wider national moment shaped by disinformation, militarized policing, and manufactured division. Davey D opens with questions about a high profile … Continued
Davey D’s conversation with longtime union organizer and Oakland Socialist blogger John Reimann begins with a racist meme Donald Trump posted depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. Davey D notes the outrage was immediate, but he brought Reimann on to argue the meme carried a deeper political message beyond overt racism. Reimann frames Trump’s … Continued
On this episode of *Hard Knock Radio*, host Davey D revisits the disturbing death of Yolanda Ramirez, a 72 year old Brentwood resident who died following what should have been a routine police encounter. Davey D opens by reminding listeners that the show first covered the case months earlier, when speculation swirled and authorities suggested … Continued
Today on Hard Knock Radio, we bring you a special edition of Rootwork on KPFK. Guest host Thandisizwe Chimurenga of Black Liberation Media sits down with Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson for a timely and urgent conversation on grassroots survival, resistance, and self-defense in an era of deepening authoritarianism. Part of the ongoing Build and … Continued
