A new podcast has entered Indianapolis politics, providing a truly independent alternative to local media that are either owned by or otherwise dependent on the ruling class and their political parties.
“Naptown People’s Radio,” is a new weekly podcast brought to you by PSL Indianapolis, covers pressing issues facing people in our city, spotlights stories that go untold by mainstream outlets, and uplifts the voices of workers, organizers, artists, and all people changing our city on a daily basis.
The first official episode, released July 11, places the current IMPD “Listening Sessions” in recent historical perspective. In addition to discussing the 2023 shooting spree and the current struggles around justice for Adam Sykes, the hosts interview Aubrey Whiteman, a main witness in the 2024 trial against Ryan Mears and his landlord, for selectively locking the doors on grieving community members.
Episode 1: The IMPD’s “listening sessions” in perspective
In the debut episode, co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford discuss their personal histories and how and why they transitioned from being activists to revolutionary organizers.
Speaking from their studio at the Indianapolis Liberation Center, the show’s hosts discuss how they approach the news objectively but from a partisan perspective. “In reality, what ‘objectivity’ means for the handful of conglomerates that own the mainstream media,” co-host Dani Abdullah says, “is a cover for the perspective they take: those of the ruling class, of the banks, cops, bosses, warmakers, sexual abusers, and elite politicians.”
“We admit what the capitalist press can’t admit,” her co-host Derek Ford stated. “We are objective in that we seek out and uncover facts, but those facts have to be placed in an overall narrative to make sense.”
“Instead of presenting the news from the oppressor’s narrative, we tell it from the people’s perspective,” Ford continued, “from those on the receiving ends of pink slips, eviction and foreclosure notices, police killings and handcuffs, and the brutal mass incarceration system in the U.S.”
Ford’s last comment hints at one semi-regular segment on the show: “Dispatches from behind the wire” with New Afrikan Political Prisoner Shaka A. Shakur. Other segments include the “Naptown breakdown,” which analyzes leading news topics, and “Circle City shout-outs,” which recognizing unsung heroes in the city.
Taken together, the two co-hosts have 39 years of organizing experience in a variety of struggles across all levels of society. Listening to the June 11 episode, available for download and streaming on all major platforms, explains what that those working on the new endeavor, including producer Dakota Fronterhouse, mean by the tagline “We’re not just discussing the news, we’re making it happen.”