Naptown People’s Radio

Bryce Gustafson, an organizer with Citizens Action Coalition since 2009, joins this week's show to explain the proliferation of AI data center proposals in the city and state and update us on the struggles to defeat them.

First, for the Naptown Breakdown co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford address Gov. Braun's Nov. 19 order to deploy 300 Indiana National Guardsmen to Washington D.C. in December. While they train at Camp Atterbury...

This week, Pastor Denell Howard and Ms. Faye Johnson join the show to discuss the struggle against Metrobloks' proposed data center and who the real criminals are in U.S. prisons.

Our Naptown Breakdown starts with the recent admission by local energy monopoly AES that they imposed outrageous "deposit fees" on customers who already had trouble paying the prices they set. Tyler Fenwick of Mirror Indy reports that one woman was charge...

This Thursday is the Trans Day of Remembrance when, at the Indianapolis Liberation Center, the community will gather to remember our fallen trans comrades and recommit ourselves to the liberation of all people. To explain the origins and significance of the annual commemoration, local activist Brooke joins the show.

This week’s Naptown Breakdown covers a wide range of topics, from Todd Rokita’s lawsuit against the Indianapolis Publ...

November 11 marks 129 years since revolutionary artist, organizer, theorist, and teacher Shirley Graham Du Bois was born right here in Indianapolis. Stephen Lane of the Indiana Black Librarians Network joins the show to discuss her life and legacy, which is unfortunately overshadowed by her second husband, the great W.E.B. Du Bois.

Tupac Shakur said it best in an interview during the early 1990s: "They got money for wars but can't...

As Trump considers using the "Insurrection Act" to justify his deployment of National Guardsmen, many of whom are surrounding our state pending Court proceedings, veterans and active-duty servicemen in Indiana are already organizing to refuse any illegal and unconstitutional orders to participate in the reign of terror against immigrant, working-class, and oppressed communities. Lucas Lee, an anti-war veteran organizer with About F...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called for a General Strike. General Strikes are routinely called for, but what do they entail? There’s a lot of work to be prepare for one but, as Dani Abdullah reminds us by recounting the historic 1919 Seattle General Strike, our ancestors made sure we aren't starting over from scratch.

Our Naptown Breakdown starts with the new battleground over ICE, with Todd Rokita inviting "Border Czar" Tom Homan...

The Black Panther Party, formally founded on October 15, 1966, is often romanticized, subjected to disproportionate scrutiny, or viewed only as an activist organization. In this week's episode, we hear a speech Dakota Fronterhouse—the producer of Naptown People's Radio—delivered on 59th anniversary of the Party's founding.

Fronterhouse provides the historical and material context that birthed the organization, defined its context, ...

Jada Trainor and her husband, Jonathan, join the show this week to discuss their October 1 trial where they defeated trumped-up felony charges of attempting to disarm a police officer and battery against a cop.

Last week's Naptown Breakdown mentioned how Joe Hogsett's Indiana Economic Development Corporation was serving corporate interests and actively opposing the people's. This week, Co-Hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford discuss ...

After discussing how Indianapolis Development Inc., a creation of Joe Hogsett, was actively lobbying elected representatives on behalf of Google while the people united to keep their data center out of Franklin Township, this week's Naptown Breakdown focuses on a stunning silence in local mainstream media. Not one single local news outlet published an article or story about the passing of Black communist Assata Shakur.

Co-hosts Dan...

Dr. Akili Shakur, an organizer, retired professor, and wife of Shaka A. Shakur joins the show to discuss the expansive impacts of mass incarceration.

This week's Naptown Breakdown begins with a glimpse of our ability to transform our city-when we're organized. On September 22, after months of struggle, our power was on full display we forced Google to withdraw their plans for a new data center. As we celebrate this victory, we stay...

New Afrikan Revolutionary and political prisoner Shaka A. Shakur joins the show this week to break down the ongoing fight for the liberation of the Black/New Afrikan nation within the U.S.

Introduced by producer Dakota Fronterhouse, this episode features a longer segment of “Dispatches from Behind the Wire” is part of our build-up to the release of the new documentary, “Soul in Exile: Shaka Shakur,” produced by the Shaka Shakur Fre...

Kristopher Nelson, aka FTF KD, joins this week's show to share the reality of life in a city with a data center. Nelson is from West Memphis, Arkansas and speaks not only about the negative impacts it had on his community but about what we can do to Indianapolis to stop Google's data center before September 22.

In the Naptown Breakdown, our co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford get beyond the headlines of Gov. Braun's confirmation ...

Stuart Mora, a longtime-organizer currently involved in the immigration justice movement, joins the show this week and helps highlight the joy of building together and resisting in community.

Our Naptown Breakdown begins with Trump's recent cuts to the National Institutes of Health, which are projected to result in the loss of $128 million and 554 jobs in Indiana by 2026. Unfortunately, Mayor Hogsett's proposed $1.7 billion budget ...

Nino Brown of Jericho Chicago joins the show for the last episode of Black August to discuss the prison movement and his recent essay, "The Case for Proletarian Multinational Unity," published recently in From the Academy to the Streets by Iskra Books.

The Naptown Breakdown spotlights how the rich might use charter schools as an avenue to steal more of our public resources before delving into the battle over DEI (Diversity, Equity,...

The people take the fight against ICE to the military-industrial complex and Citizens Action Coalition leads the struggle to prioritize energy for the people and planet, not for profit.

Our hosts start this week by breaking down the successful struggle that culminated in the first Pride event in Decatur, Indiana. Despite a month of opposition and threats, the organizers stood tall and around 1,000 people came out over the weekend. ...

The struggles for socialism and national liberation cannot be separated. There is no possibility of organizing a socialist revolution in the U.S.—the modern-day prison house of nations—without organizing for the independence, autonomy, and self-determination of all oppressed peoples within and beyond its borders. Black August is a time to double-down on our collective commitment to freeing political prisoners and all Black/New Afri...

Every Black August, we re-dedicate ourselves to the struggle to free political prisoners, prisoners of war, and to finish the struggle for Black/New Afrikan liberation. In our first episode, co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford touch on contemporary struggles against prison and police repression in Indiana, as well as the role that the production of food plays in the movement for Black Freedom.

Adrian Jamal Shelman of Bodi Buzz jo...

It turns out the local Democratic Party's strategy of systematically abusing women, rallying around their abusers, and trying to bury the truth in dark is not paying off. How could the "best and the brightest" think that following a playbook written 75 years ago could possibly breed success in 2025? In this episode, we'll get to some of the apparent "thinking" behind their strategy.

Jesse Brown, our City-County Councilor representi...