Naptown People’s Radio

Activist Lindsey Holtgrave pulled up to this week's show to tell us about several recently-enacted laws attacking the people of Indiana and our most basic democratic rights—and how we can fight back.

This week we're excited to bring you a special episode that 1) analyzes the 250 years of oppression and resistance as we prepare for the "Independence Day"celebrations and 2) discusses how we are and can strategize based on that legacy of resistance. Today we are also celebrating the the halfway point in our first year at our new home: a visible storefront in downtown Indianapolis. With a nod to D...

Comrade Shaka A. Shakur joins the show for an extended segment of Dispatches from Behind the Wire, providing an in depth description of his case, current situation, and future prospects. Shaka has served 25 years of a 60-year plus sentence for an incident in which no one was deprived of life and the “injured” party said he would not oppose any sentence modification or early release. The Shaka Shak...

This week's episode features New Afrikan Political Prisoner Kwame Beans Shakur discussing not only the need to test theory through practice but providing concrete examples of how to do so successfully. "Revolution is based on land," as Malcolm X said, but that's not enough: cutting the umbilical cord with U.S. imperialism requires the knowledge of cultivating the land and, more generally, utilizin...

Abby Morgan, an organizer with Action Neighbors—a subgroup of the Indy Action Coalition — joins the show, which released its first episode one-year ago today, to discuss their new 4th Amendment Campaign to fight against ICE terror. This week's Naptown Breakdown starts with the rise of China and the U.S. war against Iran and quickly moves to Indiana, as co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford discuss...

Rania Hatab of the Lower Hudson Valley DSA and Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow and Jasmine Moody of the Liberation Center tell us first-hand about the battle to dismantle Delaney Hall. Both Hatab and Moody were about an hour away finishing a screening and panel of the new documentary, "Across Enemy Lines: Shaka A. Shakur," when Hatab got word the main organizer inside Delaney Hall was p...

This week, Founding Member of the Hampton Institute and Host of A Different Lens podcast, Devon Bowers, joins the show to discuss the origins, trajectory, and needs of independent left political organizations and media outlets. The Hampton Institute is a proletarian (working-class) think tank founded by Colin Jenkins in 2013 to counter right-wing so-called "think" tanks. Their writers, contributor...

Helping thread together the many struggles facing the people and planet today, FTF KD joins this week's episode. He lets us know about a new podcast, "In the YO!," he's releasing soon (that will also be coming to you from the Indy Liberation Center). China stands tall while Trump walks away with scraps. This week's Naptown Breakdown begins with Trump's recent visit with Chinese President Xi Jinpin...

Our 50th episode features two PSL organizers, one who founded the Indianapolis branch and another who joined two years ago. As we worked out ideas for our 50th episode, we realized we hadn't spoken much about the organization behind the podcast: the Indianapolis branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation . On this week's episode, hear co-host Derek Ford dialogue with Sam James, who co-founde...

This week we hear from Haki Shakur, National Spokesperson for the Provisional Government of the Republic of Afrika, on the state of the struggle for New Afrikan independence. Before we get to the Naptown Breakdown, co-host Dani Abdullah makes plain why we at the Indy Liberation Center always keep the fight for Black Liberation center-stage and work to move it forward. We mean something specific wh...

In our final segment in our May Day series, co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford ask: How and why did May Day (or International Workers' Day), which originated in the U.S. in the late 19th century, only reappear in popular U.S. consciousness 20 years ago? But first, the Naptown Breakdown follows up on several stories we've covered. The first is the IDOC settlement of roughly $1.2 million to 31 in...

As we prepare for May Day 2026, producer Dakota Fronterhouse joins the show to discuss a recent incident in which several of his fundamental rights were defended by his union. First, co-hosts Dani and Derek turn to recent regional labor struggles, and particularly the historic 2011 battle in Madison, Wisconsin. During the early months of that year, workers occupied the Capitol Rotunda and took to...

Kayla Cowels, an organizer in Elkhart, Indiana joins the show this week to discuss the Feb. 8 killing of 17-year-old Bryan Ramirez Gomez, who died after cops Nicholas Ragsdale and Thomas Breneman shot him in a park. Prompted by the April 8 nationwide day of action against the U.S. war on Iran, Dani Abdullah opens up our Naptown Breakdown by asking her co-host Derek Ford why, with all of the issues...

We're honored to have Veronika Williams and Keanda Young, loved ones of Jamar and Lamonte Thomas, join Naptown People's Radio this week to debunk the IMPD's lies and correct the media's narratives about the March 7 shooting downtown. Our Naptown Breakdown covers IMPD Patrol Officer Gary Francis Hadden's assault on Noah Leininger, one of the organizers of the anti-ICE protest over the weekend. Afte...

Director, clinical psychologist, actress, model, paralegal, and activist Dr. Meleeka Clary joins the show this week to discuss her 16-year long battle against her ex-husband and the Indiana courts. Our Naptown Breakdown starts with two encouraging updates. First we hear a message from Shaka A. Shakur that he sent after finally receiving a copy of his book, Manifestations of Thought: When the Drago...

Our third episode celebrating Women's History Month feature includes co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford discuss more of their women revolutionary heroes and an urgent segment of "Dispatches from Behind the Wire" where we hear from an inmate at Miami Correctional Facility about the horrendous and routine medical neglect he and his fellow inmates–including ICE detainees–face on a daily basis. Fir...

In our second episode celebrating Women’s History Month, co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford bring one of the women revolutionaries they study and admire to the table, women who made significant contributions to the anti-imperialist struggle through united fronts, in the theoretical and practical terrains. They didn’t share their choices with each other, so what results is a spontaneous and auth...

Our first episode in celebration of Women's History Month features social worker and Indy Hope Packages coordinator Rissa Wilson. After co-hosts Dani Abudllah and Derek Ford provide a quick history of the socialist origins of Women's History Month, Rissa and Dani provide an overview of Indy Hope Packages before getting into the finer details. They discuss how they took inspiration from the Black P...

On this special episode, co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford provide the broader context necessary for understanding why progressives must take a firm anti-war stance and support Iran's right to self-determination. And after several months Shaka A. Shakur is back for another segment of "Dispatches from Behind the Wire" to remind us to defend oppressed nations in the u.s. and urges us to learn fr...

One year ago on February 25, IMPD cop Grant Snyder shot and killed Adam Sykes, a young father. February 25, 2026 marks one year since IMPD officer Grant Snyder shot and killed Adam Sykes on the Near Eastside of Indy. Anniversaries risk becoming rituals of mourning, but this episode marks it as the first time in recent history that the people organized to take on the IMPD. Stephen Lane, who worked...

This week we have a special episode featuring a discussion between Derek Ford and our comrade Leon Benson—an artist, author, producer, exoneree, and a good friend of the people joins the show ahead of the official launch of "The Solitary Justice Project." Before pivoting to the launch, which will take place at the Shri Thanedar Community Center in Detroit on February 28, they discuss the unfortuna...

This week, Jay Grillo gives a first-hand account of the sustained anti-ICE uprising in Minneapolis. In the first segment, co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford signal the potential danger in a likely alliance between Indiana and ultra right-wing Turning Point USA. Turning Point, founded by Charlie Kirk, is a project dedicated to silencing dissenting research and silencing faculty and teachers who...

Vernon T. Bateman joins the show to discuss the latest developments in his fight for exoneration. This week's Naptown Breakdown highlights a recent  Mirror Indy/Indy Star investigation uncovering that, for more than a decade Mayor Joe Hogsett, used no-bid contracts that benefited his friends and those with ties to the Democratic Party. Hogsett won his first term as Mayor with a proposal called “Di...

In this episode, Lucas Lee joins co-host Dani Abdullah to discuss the upcoming mayoral elections and analyze the unknown history of working-class solidarity and uprisings in the Midwest. The Naptown Breakdown discusses so-called “Voice of Progress” Vop Osili’s announced mayoral candidacy. Although current Indianapolis mayor Joe Hogsett will not seek re-election, Osili and Hogsett maintain close ti...

Wildstyle Paschall joins the show in advance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day to reclaim the real legacy of Dr. King by situating his organizing, leadership, diplomatic moves, and theories in their proper context. The Naptown Breakdown begins with Saturday's emergency demonstration in solidarity with Renee Nicole Good and all those killed by ICE and the State. The Indianapolis demonstration was o...