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Ernest Crim III on Teaching Black History, Resistance, and Empowering the Next Generation
Hosted by Diana Barbadillo, this KYRC Podcast episode features educator Mr. Earnist Crim III, a teacher dedicated to sharing Black history and overlooked stories. He explains the difficulties of teaching honest history within rigid school systems and stresses how historical knowledge helps people challenge oppression. Crim highlights Oakland’s importance as a center of movement building and the lasting impact of the Black Panthers. He shares how learning Black history shaped
4 days ago1 min read


Inside Street Medicine: Dr. Arielle Banks on Systemic Racism, Patient Rights & Healing LA's Unhoused
Street medicine nurse practitioner Dr. Arielle Banks joins host Amir Whitaker to reveal how healthcare is delivered in encampments, riverbeds, and alleys, wound care, blood draws, and portable ultrasound brought directly to unhoused patients. They unpack social determinants of health, showing how a $5 copay or lack of refrigeration for insulin gets mislabeled as "non-compliance" when it's really structural failure. The conversation dives into homelessness, the opioid crisis,
Sep 11 min read


Flock Cameras: The "Crime-Fighting" Surveillance Database Cops Are Using to Stalk Exes
Flock cameras are quietly building a nationwide surveillance database, tracking your car, your face, your daily routine, and even your visits to doctors, churches, and homes. What started as a tool to catch stolen vehicles has ballooned into mass surveillance with zero federal oversight. We dig into officers using Flock to stalk partners and exes, ICE accessing the system to track immigrants without a warrant, and the misidentifications that have landed innocent people in ja
Aug 251 min read


How the Hidden Genius Project Is Preparing Black Youth for Tech, AI, and the Future
On this episode of the KYRC Podcast, host Tat Wza sits down with Emmanuel Wright and Pierre Bazile of the Hidden Genius Project to explore how tech education can change lives. They break down the program’s 15-month immersion in coding, app building, and game design, and why access matters for Black and Brown youth. The conversation tackles AI’s rapid rise, shifting job futures, and the power of human creativity. They also discuss digital safety, data ownership, and preparing
Aug 151 min read


Supporting Immigrant Students Through Education, Care & Cultural Power
Hosts Mariela Regalado and Dr. Sean Tory are joined by educators Esmeralda Alai and José Fernández Brito of non-profit IMM Schools (@immschools) to discuss supporting immigrant students and families through education on this episode of the KYRC Podcast. Esmeralda breaks down the mission of IMM Schools and its work creating safe, welcoming spaces across multiple states. José speaks on the responsibility educators carry in understanding student rights and building belonging. To
Aug 81 min read


Mental Health, Immigration, and Belonging: Diana Diaz Madera on Healing Communities
On this episode of the KYRC Podcast, the focus shifts to healing, care, and belonging as Diana Diaz Madera joins the conversation. A licensed clinical social worker with 17 years of experience, she shares insights from her work supporting asylum seekers, displaced families, and unaccompanied youth through her practice, Corte. Diana speaks on emotional wellness for Black and Brown youth impacted by immigration raids, fear, and instability. She highlights the mental weight plac
Aug 11 min read


Nicole Walters on Building Wealth, Financial Freedom, and Empowering Our Communities
In this episode of the Know Your Rights Camp podcast, hosts Dr. Sean Tory and Amir Whitaker sit down with entrepreneur and financial literacy advocate Nicole Walters. Walters shares her inspiring journey from the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants to becoming a self-made multimillionaire and New York Times bestselling author. She speaks about the real challenges of today’s economy, including inflation and new digital financial trends, and explains why earning money is only part
Jul 251 min read


How Art Becomes Resistance: Claudia Ramos & Bmike Odums on Creativity and Community
On this episode of the KYRC Podcast, host Dr. Sean Tory(@theedrseantory) sits with Claudia Ramos (@claudiaramosdesigns) and Brandan Bmike Odums(@bmike2c) to explore how art becomes a living response to injustice in Los Angeles. Ramos shares her journey from El Salvador, how discrimination shaped her voice, and why her bright, playful visuals confront issues like immigration pressure and racial harm. Odums reflects on the responsibility artists carry to tell real community st
Jul 181 min read


From Silenced Child to Youth Advocate: Cayden Brown's Fight for Kids' Rights
At just 19, Cayden Brown is already reshaping how the world talks about children's rights. In this powerful episode of the Know Your Rights Camp podcast, the youth advocate, author, and executive director of the Trespass Project opens up about being silenced in family court as a six-year-old during his parents' divorce; an experience that inspired his Amazon #1 bestselling children's book, The Kid in a Courtroom. Cayden breaks down how teen court offers a peer-driven alternat
Jul 141 min read


History as Liberation: Dr. Lupe Carrasco Cardona on Storytelling, Identity, and Community
On this episode of the KYRC Podcast, a powerful conversation unfolds with Dr. Lupe Carrasco Cardona, a veteran educator and community organizer with over two decades of experience. She reflects on her parents’ lives as migrant workers, the lessons learned beyond textbooks, and how lived history shapes education. Dr. Cardona breaks down her laa methodology, which weaves personal, community, and historical narratives to reconnect students with their indigenous roots. She also d
Jul 111 min read


Is Press Freedom Dying in America? Journalists on the Front Lines Speak Out
Investigative journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray of LA Taco and Adam Rose of the Freedom of the Press Foundation join us to break down what's really happening to press freedom in the United States today. From covering the George Floyd protests and Dodgers championship celebrations to anti-ICE demonstrations and homeless encampment sweeps, Ray shares firsthand accounts of being targeted, beaten, and arrested by police while doing his job. Rose connects these stories to a troubling n
Jul 61 min read


The Mother of Black Music Month Dyana R. Williams Reveals the Untold History That Changed America Forever
Dyana R. Williams, pioneering journalist, broadcaster, and the "mother of Black Music Month," joins host Amir Whitaker to uncover the powerful origins of Black Music Month, from Kenny Gamble's Black Music Association to President Jimmy Carter's historic 1979 White House recognition. They explore how enslaved Africans used spirituals and coded songs as resistance, expose systemic exploitation in the music industry, and trace Black music's DNA across global genres. From Marvin
Jun 261 min read


2 Black Women Lawyers Break Down How to Protect Your Family, Business & Build Generational Wealth
California attorneys Rosezetta Upshaw and Candace Neal join the Know Your Rights Camp Podcast to share how personal experiences with injustice shaped their careers in law. Rosezetta exposes how poverty and over-policing, not abuse, drive unnecessary family separation in LA's child welfare system, while also helping everyday people protect their businesses. Candace built her practice around protecting families and ensuring people are compensated when harmed. Together, they bre
Jun 161 min read


Police Accountability, Qualified Immunity & ICE: Civil Rights Attorney Lauren Bonds Exposes the System
What does police accountability actually mean and why is it so hard to achieve in America? In this powerful episode of the Know Your Rights Camp Podcast, hosts Diana Barbadillo and Amir Whitaker sit down with civil rights attorney Lauren Bonds, Executive Director of the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP), to break down the legal, political, and structural barriers protecting police, ICE agents, and correctional officers from consequences. Watch the episode here: Li
Jun 21 min read


From Corporate Job to Self-Made Millionaire: Nicole Walters on Surviving Inflation & Rigged Capitalism
On this week's episode of the KYRC podcast, host Amir Whitaker sits down with entrepreneur, bestselling author, and podcaster Nicole Walters for a powerful conversation about surviving and thriving in a rigged economy. Nicole shares her journey from a six-figure corporate job to self-made millionaire, breaks down why the "good corporate job" was never truly secure, and offers practical strategies for Black women and marginalized professionals to become "walking businesses." F
May 261 min read


Is DEI Dead?: Unpacking the Backlash, the History, and What's Really at Stake
The KYRC Podcast crew breaks down the real story behind diversity, equity, and inclusion in America, from the GI Bill and Social Security to today's executive orders gutting DEI programs. Discover how "anticipatory compliance" is reshaping museums, corporations, and federal agencies, why Costco stood firm while Target faced boycotts, and how cuts are pushing Black women out of the workforce. We expose the hidden costs of "colorblind" policies and explain why intentional inclu
May 191 min read


Dr. Terence Keel Describes How Death Records Hide Police Violence
Dr. Terence Keel, UCLA interdisciplinary scholar, joins the Know Your Rights Camp podcast to unpack how race, science, religion, and law intersect to structure power and justify inequality. Keel exposes race as a social construct, critiques how coroners obscure police violence by labeling in-custody deaths "natural," and calls for independent autopsy offices and systemic reform. Drawing from his books The Coroner's Silence and Divine Variations, he traces Christianity's role
May 111 min read


Civil Rights Attorney Oliver Ma Says Police Serve Power, Not the People After Beaten at Protest
Civil rights attorney Oliver Ma joins the Know Your Rights Camp Podcast to break down America's escalating constitutional crisis. From ACLU immigration raids in Kern County to the Los Angeles "No Kings" protest, where demonstrators faced tear gas, rubber bullets, and baton strikes, this episode exposes the collapse of institutional checks on executive power. Guests unpack the profit-driven detention system, the history of anti-Asian exclusion laws, housing injustice, and ho
Apr 301 min read


The Foster Care-to-Prison Pipeline: Civil Rights Attorney Doc Martin Exposes the System
Host: Amir Whitaker (@Drknucklehead_esq) and Diana Barbadillo (@deeeeezzyyy) Guest: Chris Martin ( @doc_martin88) Civil rights attorney and activist Chris "Doc Martin" Martin joins the Know Your Rights Camp podcast to expose how the child welfare system funnels Black children into incarceration. From his roots in South Central LA to co-founding the Reimagine Child Safety Coalition, Doc Martin breaks down the systemic failures connecting foster care and mass incarceration.
Apr 61 min read


They Don't Want You to Vote: How America's Broken System Is Silencing Millions
Your vote is supposed to be sacred, but what if the system is designed to take it away? This episode of the KYRC Podcast tackles voter suppression and the tools utilized to make it happen. Millions of Americans are being silenced through gerrymandering, restrictive voter ID laws, and the dangerous SAVE Act, which could strip citizenship proof requirements from the most vulnerable communities. Chaotic polling stations, gutted voting rights protections, and felon disenfranchis
Mar 301 min read
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