KPFA - Hard Knock Radio

Today on Hard Knock Radio we present Saltwater Soundwalk, an Indigenous audio tour of Seattle featuring a watery audio experience, with streams of stories that ebb and flow that intermixes English and Coast Salish languages. Indigenous Coast Salish peoples continue to steward this land and preserve its language, despite settler colonialism, industrialization and gentrification. Part story, part so...

Sports have always reflected society, but during this Hard Knock Radio conversation, host Davey D and acclaimed sports journalist Dave Zirin argued that today’s global soccer stage has become a battleground where nationalism, immigration, race, corporate influence, and international politics collide. Drawing from the latest FIFA tournament, Zirin explained that the world’s biggest sporting event c...

Hard Knock Radio host Davey D marked the 50th anniversary of Go-Go music with an in-depth conversation that celebrated one of America’s most influential, yet often overlooked, musical traditions. Joined by Go-Go historian and publisher Kevin “Cato” Hammond of Take Me Out to the Go-Go and music historian JayQuan, the discussion traced the genre’s origins, its deep connection to Hip Hop, and why Go-...

Hard Knock Radio host Davey D marked the 50th anniversary of Go-Go music with an in-depth conversation that celebrated one of America’s most influential, yet often overlooked, musical traditions. Joined by Go-Go historian and publisher Kevin “Cato” Hammond of Take Me Out to the Go-Go and music historian JayQuan, the discussion traced the genre’s origins, its deep connection to Hip Hop, and why Go-...

From Vallejo to Newark: Hard Knock Radio Explores How Community Leaders Are Building a Culture of Peace On this edition of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D welcomed three respected voices committed to ending community violence: Miami Da Most, Vallejo community leader and founder of Honey Buns for the Homeless Ones, Rudy Corpuz, founder and executive director of United Playaz, and Hakim Green, educat...

On a recent broadcast of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D welcomed Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad, scholar, Buddhist practitioner, and founder of the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies, for a wide ranging conversation about her new book, The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. What unfolded over the better part of an hour was less a book promotion than a working seminar on the insepar...

If you’ve been wondering what happened after the TV cameras stopped rolling following the devastating Altadena fires, this Hard Knock Radio conversation is one you need to hear. Host Davey D sat down with veteran journalist James Farr for an eye-opening discussion that went far beyond wildfire headlines, connecting history, housing, race, corporate accountability, and even one of Hip Hop’s most le...

Community Leaders Demand Accountability After Fairfield Police Assault of Teen Maurice Williams (HKR-06-01-26) On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with community advocates George Galvis of CURYJ and Berry Accius of Voices of the Youth about growing outrage over the violent arrest of 16 year old Fairfield High School student Maurice Williams. The conversation examined the incident, broader conc...

Drawing on a wide-ranging conversation sparked by recent Supreme Court rulings, Hard Knock Radio host Davey D sat down with political analyst and Africana Studies scholar Dr. James Taylor for an expansive discussion about the state of American democracy as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary. The conversation moved beyond court decisions to examine race, constitutional history, political o...

On this edition of *Hard Knock Radio*, host Davey D welcomed Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee for a sobering conversation about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing the Trump administration to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitians living in the United States. The discussion explored not only the legal implications of the ruling but also the his...

The conversation on Hard Knock Radio shifted from politics to the economics of music as host Davey D challenged the growing gap between record industry profits and what artists actually earn from streaming. Joined first by activist, educator, and recording artist Ras Ceylon, and later by Living Legends co-founder Sunspot Jonz, the discussion explored what it takes for independent artists to surviv...

Hard Knock Radio host Davey D welcomed longtime Bay Area artist, educator, and organizer Ras Ceylon to discuss his ninth album, Scrolls of Lion Rock, and the role politically conscious music continues to play during a period of growing repression, war, and social upheaval. The conversation began with Davey D asking whether songs like “Free the World” are created with the intention of becoming move...

On a recent edition of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with Bay Area organizer Rachel Jackson and veteran anti-fascist organizer Daryle Lamont Jenkins, founder of the One People’s Project, to unpack what they described as a growing and coordinated assault on civil liberties, political dissent, and independent journalism in the United States. Using the recent Nation magazine article “Rollin...

One of the most thought-provoking conversations I’ve heard this week on Hard Knock Radio wasn’t simply about the passing of music executive Clive Davis—it was about power, ownership, and the lasting impact of Black music on American culture. Host Davey D assembled an impressive panel of scholars and music historians, including author and funk historian Rickey Vincent, Temple University professor D...

Ethnic Studies Under Fire: Educators Sound the Alarm on Hard Knock Radio I recently tuned into a powerful Hard Knock Radio roundtable hosted by Davey D that tackled a subject every parent, student, and community member should be paying attention to: the growing attacks on Ethnic Studies in California and across the nation. Joining the conversation were educator and former San Francisco School Boar...

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with community activist and journalist Jesse Strauss and longtime civil rights attorney Walter Riley to discuss their new book, Civil Rights and Structural Attacks: Conversations with Walter Riley. The conversation explored Rileys decades of movement work, the importance of preserving radical history, and the lessons todays organizers can draw from past f...

On this edition of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D continues an important conversation about media, race, and the power of storytelling. In Part Two of our discussion on Black-Asian relations, Davey D is joined by San Francisco State University professor and activist Russell Jeung and journalist, artist, and community organizer Rocky Rivera. Together, they examine how media narratives, social media...

What happens when media narratives, social media algorithms, and historical trauma collide? That was the focus of a powerful Hard Knock Radio conversation hosted by Davey D featuring San Francisco State University professor and activist Russell Jeung and journalist, artist, and community organizer Rocky Rivera. Together, they unpacked the growing tensions between Black and Asian communities while...

If you think the battle over artificial intelligence only affects tech companies and Silicon Valley insiders, think again. On a recent episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with music industry heavyweight Damion “Damizza” Young to break down how AI is rapidly changing the rules for artists, educators, content creators, and everyday people. Damizza, whose career spans decades working a...

We use Google so much that it’s become a verb. Need information? Google it. Need directions? Google it. Need to settle an argument? Google it. But what happens when Google stops showing us a range of sources and starts giving us a single AI-generated answer? That’s the question explored on Hard Knock Radio as host Davey D spoke with Kit Walsh, Director of AI and Access to Knowledge Legal Projects...

As Juneteenth approaches, the San Francisco Black Film Festival (SFBFF) returns with a powerful lineup of films, community events, and cultural programming designed to celebrate Black life, history, and creativity. On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with SFBFF Executive Director Cree Ray, who discussed the festival’s legacy, this year’s theme, and why preserving Black stories is more importan...

In the first of a new series of conversations on Black-Asian solidarity, Hard Knock Radio host Davey D sat down with Los Angeles-based artist and activist Eileen Lei, veteran community organizer David Monkawa of PANNA, and community leader Danny Park, whose family-owned market in Downtown Los Angeles has become a hub for neighborhood engagement. Together, they examined the fallout from the controv...

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with Ajamu Baraka of the Black Alliance for Peace about the organization’s call to boycott the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted primarily in the United States. The wide-ranging conversation examined the intersection of sports, politics, human rights, and international solidarity. Baraka began by explaining the mission of the Black Alliance for P...

Veteran journalist and KBLA host Dominique DiPrima joined Hard Knock Radio host Davey D for a wide-ranging conversation about the Los Angeles mayoral race, shifting political coalitions, and what California’s political battles may signal for the rest of the country. Drawing on decades of experience covering politics and community issues, DiPrima offered an unfiltered assessment of the forces shapi...

On a recent episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with political strategist, attorney, and author Steve Phillips to discuss his provocative new book, Are White Men Smarter Than Everybody Else? The wide ranging conversation explored race, democracy, corporate power, media influence, and the ongoing backlash against racial justice efforts in the United States. Davey D opened the convers...