KNOCK.LA Podcast
232 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 16 ratingsKnock is a journalism and commentary project by Ground Game LA, a community organization that fosters civic empowerment and political engagement.
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Episodes
The Rent Is Too Damn High: The Fight for Prop 10
August 18, 2018 17:00 - 35 minutes - 49.2 MBCosta-Hawkins, the 1995 law that froze rental control in California, is officially on the chopping block, come November voters will decide whether to allow cities and counties to expand rent control. Prop 10 made it to the ballot through the dedicated work of community organizers and neighbors collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures across the state. The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) was at the front of this effort. Rene Moya, the Housing Campaign Organizer...
Defend the People: LA's Public Defenders Unionize
August 11, 2018 17:00 - 30 minutes - 42.4 MBCongratulations to the Los Angeles County Public Defenders Union on becoming an officially recognized bargaining unit. Ace Katana joins me to talk about the efforts to unionize, what spurred it, and what they hope to gain. The Los Angeles County Office of the Public Defender is the largest criminal defense law firm in the world and the oldest public defender office in the US. Hundreds of attorneys handle thousands, if not tens of thousands, of cases a year. They are often the only hope their...
Everything Is On Fire FOREVER: The New "Normal" in California
August 04, 2018 20:00 - 20 minutes - 20.3 MBEverything is on fire. This is the new normal for California and the western states. Currently there are nearly 100 fires burning across the US, some of the most destructive are growing here in California. Global climate change has disrupted the natural cycles that we have grown accustomed to; every year bigger, more destructive fires tear through dry vegetation and raze towns to their foundations. Billions of dollars are required every year to fight, contain, evacuate and rebuild. This is ...
Welcome to the Hellison: Tenants Speak Out
July 28, 2018 17:00 - 54 minutes - 52.1 MBThe Ellison is a more than century old apartment building in Venice that is one of the last affordable buildings in that area. While the Ellison has a rich history of tenants and owners the latest owner is doing everything in his power to force out rent stabilized long term tenants. Lance J. Robbins is a notorious slumlord in Los Angeles, he boasts a long record with the city and was even prosecuted by former Mayor James Hahn. His newest scheme to turn an RSO apartment building into a hotel ...
1984 Redux: NOlympics LA Takes on Eric Garcetti
July 21, 2018 17:20 - 38 minutes - 38.5 MBMayor Eric Garcetti is pinning his Presidential hopes on a successful bid for the 2028 Olympic Games, but a dedicated, and growing, group of Los Angeles organizers is rallying to stop him. The Olympics are sold to cities as essentially free by leveraging corporate sponsors to foot the bill: this is disingenuous. Rachel Reyes (@Rachel_Reyes) joined me at Ground Game HQ to talk about the hidden costs of the Olympics. How will the games drive displacement? How will the unhoused be further crimi...
Somebody Walks in LA: Alissa Walker Chats the Future of LA
July 14, 2018 17:00 - 42 minutes - 40.7 MBAlissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) from Curbed.LA joins us at Ground Game HQ for a wide ranging discussion about the state of the city, the future of transportation, and how to make development more transparent. Curbed is part of a growing movement for more local coverage. As Los Angeles journalism is roiled by buyouts, union busting, and cuts to staff more nimble organizations are establishing themselves as more than niche sources. Curbed has been especially committed to tracking development acro...
Patreon special! KNOCK-LA: Weekly Activism Wrapup with Chris Roth
July 13, 2018 16:55 - 16 minutes - 16 MBEvery Friday morning on the KNOCK-LA Patreon page Chris Roth breaks down the goings on around LA and the country. Want to know what's kicking in activist and organizing circles? Want to hear a better perspective on the week's events? Want to know where to go to get active and involved? We've got you covered every week! This segment is a Patreon exclusive, so if you want to hear more head over to Patreon.com/KNOCK_LA and toss us a dollar or two You can also read more at KNOCK-LA.com
OC Students for City Council: The Kids Are Getting Organized
July 07, 2018 17:00 - 31 minutes - 30.5 MBJackson Hinkle is an 18 year old running for a seat on the San Clemente City Council as part of the group OC Students for City Council. Orange County, California is a notoriously rich, conservative enclave. Some of the most conservative members of Congress hail from these districts and the area's wealth fills the coffers of GOP campaigns across the country. However, the OC also has a young population that is coming into its own. College students are organizing to win local office and bring m...
#OccupyICELA: At The Intersection
July 02, 2018 03:20 - 56 minutes - 56.7 MBSorry for the delay but I was "occupied" for the last week. On June 23rd Ground Game LA assisted @LAAgainstICE in a direct action targeting the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. We blocked driveways and chanted at employees. We came to take over the driveway on Aliso St, the driveway that is usually used for detainee buses and vans. Since then we have kept a constant vigil and a lively community has grown. I wanted to report on some of my experiences with this. It has b...
Post Primaries Progressivism: The LA Progressive Alliance Aims to Seize Electoral Success
June 16, 2018 18:22 - 43 minutes - 42.5 MBI sat down with Ankur Patel, former AD 45 candidate, and Shawnee Badger, Our Revolution Santa Clarita, to talk about the primaries and the path forward. Every loss is a win, every defeat is a chance to learn, with that in mind Ankur and Shawnee help me sketch out a path forward for progressives in Southern California. What have we been weak on? Where have we been strong? How can we better organize our communities? How do we create electoral success out of those efforts? Inspired by Gayle Mc...
The Forever Campaign: California's 2018 Primary
June 09, 2018 20:53 - 56 minutes - 54.8 MBThe primaries are done and now that the dust has settled I sit down with Chris Roth, Ace Katana, and Richard King to run down the results. From the top of the ticket to the bottom of the ticket we've got you mostly covered. To read more always head over to KNOCK-LA.com
Radical Love As Radical Politics: Rachael Rose Luckey on the Foundation of Her Politics
June 02, 2018 16:23 - 55 minutes - 52.4 MBRachael Rose Luckey from the Rampart Village Neighborhood Council sat down with me for a fantastic conversation about local politics, the power each neighborhood has, and what her political journey has been like. Rachael Rose Luckey is a progressive political activist, with special emphasis on the LGB/Trans Movements, living in Los Angeles. As Secretary of the Rampart Village Neighborhood Council, she is one of only sixteen openly Transgender Government Officials in the nation to currently h...
Tenants Fight Back: Rent Strikes and Resistance on Burlington Avenue
May 26, 2018 17:19 - 32 minutes - 30.9 MBThe biggest rent strike in Los Angeles history is happening now. After years of neglect and a sudden jump in rent Lisa Ehrlich is facing robust opposition from her tenants. Los Angeles Tenants Union has jumped in to support the strikers who are all working families. Maria and Sara sat down with Trinidad Ruiz and me to talk about their fight and how we can support their struggle. To learn more about LA Tenants Union: https://latenantsunion.org/en/ https://latenantsunion.org/es/ To read our c...
KNOCK LA's 2018 California Primary Endorsements
May 19, 2018 15:24 - 24 minutes - 23.5 MBKNOCK LA and Ground Game have some endorsements for the June 5th primary in California. Wondering who to vote for, we have some suggestions. For more visit: http://KNOCK-LA.com And to support KNOCK LA's work: http://patreon.com/knock_la
Save The Press, Boycott The Papers: How Local Journalists Are Fighting To Save Journalism
May 12, 2018 17:44 - 51 minutes - 48.3 MBJeff Weiss sits down to talk about the campaign to boycott the LA Weekly and its new owners, the struggles of doing journalism in LA, the problems with billionaire owners, and why LA's widening inequality is destroying our best civic institutions. The LA Weekly was bought out by a shadowy cabal of wealthy investors from Orange County and they immediately moved to fire almost the entire staff. Recent coverage in the paper has been sparse and poorly focused. Former writers, staffers, activists...
Debt Isn't Real: How The Debt Collective Is Building Solidarity By Erasing Debt
May 06, 2018 00:36 - 43 minutes - 60.2 MBThe Debt Collective was born out of Occupy Wall Street and has spent the last decade fighting the banks and collectors to protect consumers. We all carry debt, we're all shackled with interest and loans and obligations, we area all debtors, but we don't see ourselves as part of a collective. Debt atomizes consumers and makes it harder to build a stable financial life, fighting the collectors and banks on your own is an insurmountable task; but if we think of ourselves as a collective of debto...
Everyone In LA: Creating Sustainable Solutions to the Housing Crisis
April 28, 2018 14:00 - 47 minutes - 43 MBEveryone In LA is a campaign to end homelessness and create sustainable solutions to our housing crisis. Tommy Newman is now Public Policy Director for the United Way, previously he helped with the successful Measure H and Measure HHH referendums. Los Angeles County has more than 60,000 unhoused residents and has seen the crisis grow year over year. Voters in LA authorized billions of dollars to be spent on permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, and treatment; however, our city c...
Everyone Bikes in LA: Roadblock on road diets and fighting car culture
April 21, 2018 18:06 - 54 minutes - 51.1 MBLos Angeles has seen a push towards building public transportation and active transportation infrastructure, but there has been a well funded opposition to these changes. Removing driving lanes, lowering driving speeds, and installing bike lanes are proven ways to decrease the number of road fatalities, and dedicated activists have been pushing the city to expand these initiatives. Roadblock, the man behind Wolfpack Hustle and the LA Marathon Crash Race joined me to talk about his work to mak...
Justice in LA: Public Defender Holly Hancock is Running for the Superior Court
April 14, 2018 16:47 - 37 minutes - 33.3 MBLA County Public Defender Holly Hancock is running for the open 60th Office on the LA County Superior Court. She swung by Ground Game HQ to talk about her campaign and the state of LA's criminal justice system. Holly has been a public defender in LA for 12 years working with a variety of clients facing jail sentences and other punishments, while jail realignment and changes to sentencing laws have brought some relief LA is still locking up it's own citizens at an extraordinary rate. Holly wan...
Imagine A Not Evil Bank
April 07, 2018 16:00 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MBTrinity and David from Divest LA and Public Bank LA sat down to talk about the push for a public bank in the city of Los Angeles. After the meltdown in 2008 an incredible amount of malfeasance was uncovered, and almost none of it has been completely stopped. The Wells Fargo scandals, and there were many, spurred the city of Los Angeles to divest millions from Wells Fargo and showed the strength of community movements in pushing for definitive action. Activists driven by the struggle at Standi...
Kendall Talks About Organizing A Campaign
April 01, 2018 00:17 - 22 minutes - 30.6 MBKendall Mayhew continues our discussion about organizing by describing how you go about actually executing a campaign. How do you pick targets? How do you negotiate? What roadblocks will you face?
The Failure of YMIBYism or Why SB827 Won't Save LA
March 31, 2018 14:27 - 48 minutes - 44.5 MBSB827 is currently the hot button issue in Los Angeles, YIMBYs versus NIMBYs, as it were. But perhaps there are better ways to understand and fix the housing crisis in Los Angeles as the cost of houses and apartments has skyrocketed in recent years leading to a surge in people without permanent or stable housing. Researcher and DSA-LA member Jacob Woocher swings by the studio to talk about the housing crisis in LA. We cover how LA developed along incredibly racially and class segregated line...
Angelica Duenas Interview
March 23, 2018 00:00 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBAngelica Duenas is a Green Party candidate running for Congress in California's 29th district. She is a working mother with a strong commitment to affordable housing, healthcare, and strong unions. To learn more visit: Angelica4Congress.com
UC Regents Are Raising Your Tuition, Again
March 10, 2018 17:57 - 36 minutes - 31.6 MBKrista and Henry from Socialist Students at UCLA visited Ground Game HQ to talk about the upcoming UC Regents meeting. We discussed the tuition burden, the Regents' seeming apathy towards students, and how students are organizing to take back their campuses. For more info you can visit SocialistStudents.net or check them out on Facebook. The UC Regents will be meeting March 13th to March 15th on the UCLA campus.
Progressive Jon Pelzer is here to shake up California's 30th District
March 10, 2018 16:42 - 28 minutes - 25.3 MBJon Pelzer is a progressive Congressional candidate running to replace Brad Sherman in California's 30th district. He is a small business owner who brings a strong commitment to universal healthcare, affordable housing, and economic justice. He joined me at Ground Game HQ to chat about the race and his hopes for a progressive wave election. The primary vote will be held on June 5th, 2018. To learn more, make a contribution or get involved with his campaign please visit PelzerforCongress.com
Jessica Salans takes on City Hall
February 28, 2018 17:03 - 19 minutes - 27.1 MBFormer City Council candidate Jessica Salans sits down to talk about running an insurgent campaign in Los Angeles. We chat about what it's like to run for such a powerful local position, how she took on more well financed opponents, and how she organized her campaign staff to drive up voter turnout.
Ace talks the LAX protests and Impeachment March and Rally
February 17, 2018 17:12 - 35 minutes - 49 MBAce Katano sits down for the last of our conversations where we discuss the planning and logistics of large protests. Ground Game LA was part of both the LAX travel ban protests and the Impeachment March and Rally. We discuss how to get together a reliable team, how to keep everyone safe, how to deal with the police, and what you can expect to accomplish. Large protests are a powerful tool in our arsenal, but they present unique challenges. The best solution is to draw on the expertise in you...
Ace on Counter Protest
February 10, 2018 15:10 - 29 minutes - 40.5 MBAce Katano from the LA County Public Defenders Office sits down with us to discuss counter protest. What is a counter protest? What rights do you have? What are the risks? How do you deal with the police? How do you keep yourself and your comrades safe? Counter protest is one of the best tools that we have to counter hateful, racist, and xenophobic speech, but it is risky and you need to know how to keep yourself and your comrades safe from violence and arrest.
Kendall Mayhew tells us about Ana Cruz
February 03, 2018 17:10 - 34 minutes - 47.6 MBKendall Mayhew sits down to walk us through the story of Ana Cruz. Ana is a resident of public housing here in Los Angeles who is fighting eviction after her abusive husband left. This is an expansive walk through one case and the issues of housing, policing, bureaucratic incompetence and political intransigence.
Kendall Talks Organizing
January 06, 2018 17:11 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MBKendall Mayhew of POWER (People Organized for Westside Renewal) sits down to discuss the very basics of organizing. What is organizing? Who can do it? Why do we it? What can we achieve? This is part 1 of a 3 part conversation and the inaugural episode of Ground Game Workshops. Ground Game Workshops is a project of Ground Game Los Angeles.
Ankur Patel is a Strong New Progressive Voice in CA's 45th Assembly District
December 10, 2017 01:29 - 47 minutes - 43.1 MBAnkur Patel joined us in the Ground Game LA offices to talk about his candidacy for the California Assembly seat for District 45. Ankur is an experienced progressive with experience working in LAUSD. We chat about 2018 as a progressive wave election and get into the weeds on education policy and funding. To learn more about Ankur and his campaign head over to his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ankur.mayur.patel
Weekly News Update for April 11. 2020
November 11, 2011 00:00 - 1 hour - 123 MBToday we're talking about Coronavirus and what it has been doing to the whole fucking world. An update on Bernie’s campaign, and a quick update on The Young Turks Union drive. Get Involved: https://mutualaidla.org Donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/covid19-mutual-aid-network Outro Music by Tay Zonday featuring Lindsey Stirling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37eqoYbj1QM Sources LATimes Covid-19 Tracker: https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-coronavirus-cases-tracking-outbreak TYT:...