Radio Active Magazine

Mickey Huff, Executive Director of Project Censored and Distinguished Director of the Park Center for Independent Media and Professor of Journalism at Ithaca College, New York, discusses news suppressed for those who control most of the money for the media and why you should care. He is interviewed by Spencer Graves. AND BENEFIT CONCERT APRIL 19 AT Knuckleheads, 4 PM, to raise funds for Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation and Indivisible KC. Tickets available by calling bill at 816-517-4083. More on Huff and Project Censored is available in the Wikiversity article on, "News suppressed for those who control money for the media". Copyright 2026, Mickey Huff and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 international license.

Lois Swimmer, Paul & Louise Freid, and Mike Miles will talk with Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves about their plans for a Catholic Worker Retreat and Resistance event being planned for April 24-27, Friday through Monday.  Swimmer is from the Minnecouji Band within the Blackfoot Tribe, which is part of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She is a member of the Elders Circle at Cherith Brook Catholic Worker House in Kansas City, Missouri. Paul & Louise Freid are with the Lake City Catholic Worker Farm near Lake City, Minnesota. Mike Miles is with Anathoth Catholic Worker Farm a few miles out of Luck, Wisconsin.  Midwest supporters of the Catholic Worker Movement are organizing a retreat and resistance in Kansas City, April 24-27, focusing on the Kansas City National Security Campus, which manufactures 80 percent of non-nuclear components that go into US nuclear weapons. If those weapons are ever detonated in a war, the most likely outcome would include lofting so much smoke to the stratosphere f

Fordham University Professor Emerita of Communications Robin Andersen discusses her research on media and war with Spencer Graves. Andersen earned a PhD from UC-Irvine in 1986 with a dissertation on, "The United States Press Coverage of Conflict in the Third World: The Case of El Salvador". She has expanded that work since with numerous publications including the 2006 book on A Century of Media, A Century of War, which shared the Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award the following year with four others. She also has THE COMPLICIT LENS: US Media Coverage of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza, scheduled to be officially released this coming June 2. More on this is available in the Wikiversity article on "Media and War". Copyright 2026 Robin Andersen and Spencer Graves, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 international license.

Bill Clause, Nancy Mays, and Beverly Harvey discuss the No Kings rallies being organized for March 28 focusing especially on the KC metro area, Johnson County and the Plaza. This discussion will include the issues that seem to be of greatest concern to the public. NoKings.org invites anyone to "Host an event" and list it with them. As this is being written 2026-03-16, eighteen rallies were found at nokings.org in KKFI's listening area between Warrensburg and Saint Joseph, Missouri, and Topeka, Kansas. The biggest may be at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza from noon to 3 PM. More information for that rally is at indivisiblekansascity.org. BootsOnTheGroundMidwest.org is organizing an event from 9:30 to 11:30 AM between 75th and 119th along Metcalf in Overland Park. Other morning event in the KC metro area are being organized in Baldwin City and Gardner, Kansas, and Platte City, Liberty, Independence, Excelsior Springs and Lee's Summit, Missouri. Other events in the KKFI listening area are being planned for Topeka,

Communications professor Bill Yousman discusses media literacy and dispelling myths about crime and justice. He is interviewed by Spencer Graves. Yousman is a professor of communications in the School of Communication, Media & the Arts in Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Two of his research reports have appeared in Project Censored's annuals for 2017 and 2025: "Eleven theses on disinformation (with apologies to Karl Marx)" (2025) "Who's afraid of critical media literacy?" (2017). In a section of a book scheduled to appear later this year, he quotes a 2021 tweet from conservative activist Christopher Rufo that, “We have successfully frozen their brand—‘critical race theory’—into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category. ... The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think 'critical race theory.' We hav

Representatives of Veterans for Peace discuss their up-coming national conference August 6-9, which they are organizing at UMKC. Guests include Bryson Ripley, a former US Marine and president of their Kansas City chapter. They are interviewed by Spencer Graves. Some might claim that (a) everyone would be safer and more prosperous with honest defense of the bottom 99%, and (b) instead we have a publicly funded escort service pressuring foreign governments to prioritize international business interests over those of their citizens.

Communications professor Stephan Russ-Mohl shares concerns about media, especially in Germany. He is interviewed by Spencer Graves. Russ-Mohl is a prolific journalist, researcher and professor emeritus at the University of Lugano in the Italian-speaking portion of Switzerland. He specializing in quality assurance and quality management in mass media focusing primarily but not exclusively on Germany. Between 1985 and 2001 he was primarily based at the Free University of Berlin. Between 2002 and 2018 he served primarily on the faculty at the University of Lugano. He has also had sabbaticals at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and at Stanford in the US and at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He has published primarily in German but some in English, and some of his work has been translated into many other languages. In a 2023 book on "Deep Journalism", Russ-Mohl and co-editor Sebastian Turner described four categories of media based on people's willingness to pay:1 Job-related informat

Bryan Stalder discusses Northeast Kansas City and Northeast News with Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves, and Bill Clause invites y'all to attend a "No Kings 3" rally near you March 28  No Kings 3 March 28: For more information email Diane Bulan <dianebulan@gmail.com> Northeast Kansas City and Northeast News Stadler is an illustrator and designer active with the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Northeast News and former president of the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association. He describes Northeast Kansas City and his vision for that part of the KC metro area. 

Paul Bame, a volunteer broadcast engineer with the Prometheus Radio Project, discusses Prometheus activities including how underserved communities serve themselves with low-power FM. He is interviewed by Spencer Graves. The Prometheus Radio Project was founded in 1998 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by supporters of the unlicensed "Radio Mutiny" station after the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shut down their station. Their mission statement says, "The Prometheus Radio Project builds participatory radio as a tool for social justice organizing and a voice for community expression. To that end, we demystify media policy and technology, advocate for a more just media system, and help grassroots organizations build communications infrastructure to strengthen their communities and movements." In 2003 they initiated Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC, a series of lawsuits that made it harder for the FCC to relax media outlet ownership regulations. The Prometheus Radio Project has been a leader in helping

Reverend Mindy Fugarino discusses her work with the Independence Boulevard Christian Church, and Lora McDonald invites you to on-line Pro-Democracy training February 11, 5-7 PM and February 20, 9-11 AM, organized in part by MORE2. Reverend Mindy  Reverend Mindy is the Senior Pastor for the Independence Boulevard Christian Church on the corner of Independence and Gladstone Avenues in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. That church is a Disciples of Christ congregation that has worshiped at that location since 1905. Her work includes leading The Micah Ministry, which supports unhoused and poor humans1 in Kansas City. Reverend Mindy is also Executive Director of Intersect KC, which shares the church building with several wonderful projects including Care Beyond the Boulevard, recently featured on this show. And she partners with various social-justice & trauma-informed organizations. This includes co-chairing our region’s Becoming Beloved Community (anti-racism / pro-reconciliation) team and the Missouri Poor

Anthony Nadler talks with Spencer Graves about how he claims that conservative media are different. He is a co-editor of (2020) News on the Right and author of (2016) Making the News Popular. He is also lead author of a 2025 article on, "The Left Needs Media That Competes — and Wins". The basic theme of his work is that conservative media tend to segment media markets more on style and cultural identity with "news" that tends to be less consistent with other media than media more often consumed by liberals / progressives. He says we need media that work harder to connect with working class humans and help their audience understand how policies pushed by so-called conservative politicians are more likely to benefit the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the bottom 99 percent. Nadler is a Communications professor at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, roughly 20 miles / 30 km northwest of Philadelphia. More details and a moderated discussion of issues raised in this interview are supported in the Wik

PeaceWorks members Kristen Scheer and Ann Suellentrop discuss upcoming events and current trends around nuclear weapons and nuclear energy reactors. Feb 2nd at 5:30pm at All Souls UU Church PeaceWorks members will report back on the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability fall meeting in Las Vegas. Midwest Catholic Workers will gather April 24-27 with PeaceWorks members to protest at Kansas City’s nuclear bomb parts plant. Plans are also underway for events around the August 6th and 9th anniversaries of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. PeaceWorks is a long-time Kansas City peace organization affiliated with the national group, Peace Action. Join us to hear about upcoming events and current issues pertaining to Kansas City’s nuclear bomb parts plant and other related social justice issues. The federal government will hold public hearings this spring about their plan to produce new nuclear weapons over the next 50 years. When the dates are announced, this will be a chance for humans to

Professor Tim Franklin and Zach Metzger talk with Spencer Graves about how you can help yourself by helping improve local media. Franklin is the leader of the Local News Initiative and the Metro Media Lab in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. Metzger is Director of their State of Local News subproject of the Local News Initiative. Medill Local News Initiative News deserts are growing, and democracy is under siege. The Local News Initiative is working to document how this is happening and highlight organizations that are bucking this trend. Their work includes six distinct projects: 1. What drives people to pay for local journalism 2. Human-centered design for local news products 3. Local news accelerator 4. Understanding media markets 5. Medill news leaders project 2019 6. The State of Local News Project Key results from each of these six projects can be summarized as follows: 1. What drives people to pay for local jou

Two topic for this episode: First Ira Harritt and Rev. Dr. Vernon Howard discuss local ML King Day events. Then Nurse practitioner Jaynell "KK" Assmann describes Care Beyond the Boulevard (CBB). Martin Luther King Day  Ira Harritt, Secretary of the Interfaith Council of Greater Kansas City, Summarizes an ML King events January 11 (Sunday). A video of that service is available online. Then Rev. Dr. Vernon Howard discusses the origins of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which had ML King as its first president. Dr. Howard also describes events for ML King day next Monday. Dr. Howard is president of the  Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City and pastor of St. Mark's church at 3800 Troost. They have a press conference scheduled there next Monday, January 19, ML King Day, at 5:30 PM, with a mass immediately after at 6 PM. Care Beyond the Boulevard Jaynell founded Care Beyond the Boulevard in 2017 as a volunteer-based mobile medical clinic operating from the back o

Lisa Loving talks with Spencer Graves about media literacy and how you can report for your community. Loving has a wide range of experience as a journalist, including as interim director of the evening news at KBOO, a non-commercial, listener-supported, community radio station in Portland, Oregon. Her experience with KBOO helped inform her 2019 book, Street Journalist. She is working on another book with a tentative title, Watchdog: Investigative Tools for Community Reporters. Highlights Lisa said, "everyday people have the knowledge and skills to report on stuff. You don't have to get a master's degree in journalism ... . [S]ome of the very best newspapers in America today are high school newspapers. In my town, Portland, Oregon, Grant High School's newspaper [is] amazing." Lisa also said that advertising people started newspapers. She described an ad salesman named Ford, who had previously sold used cars but did not drive himself. He made friends with every merchant in a major business district in Portla

Ingrid Burnett discusses her concerns with Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves. Ingrid is a leader in Kansas City's historic Northeast, between downtown KCMO and the river from Columbus Park to Indian Mound. She currently serves on the Board of Northeast News and produces a "Women Speak" podcast for them focusing on women shaping public policy. She also works with the Northeast Chamber of Commerce, St. Anthony Catholic Church and others to improve the quality of life in that neighborhood. Between 2017 and 2025 she represented District 19 in the Missouri state House of Representatives. That district is a rough horseshoe looping from 31st and State Line north to the river then east to I-435 and south to I-70. Earlier she and her husband John raised 3 children in that neighborhood, while she taught at Holy Cross School, becoming Principal, then serving on the KCMO Public Schools Board.  

John Maxwell Hamilton discusses propaganda with Radio Active Magazine regular Spencer Graves. Hamilton is a long-time journalist, author, educator, and public servant. He is the Hopkins P. Breazeale Professor and founding dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, where he has also served as Provost. He has appointments as a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and as a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, both in Washington, DC. His journalistic work has been carried by many major outlets including ABC radio, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many others. He was a long time commentator for Public Radio International. He has had assignments in over 50 countries. As an educator, Hamilton has written extensively on foreign news gathering and has worked to improve it. In the 1980s he created and directed projects for local reporting of foreign news, especially on developing countries, for the Society of Prof

Bess Wallerstein Huff shares her vision for KKFI with Radio Active Magazine regulars Craig Lubow and Spencer Graves. Ms. Wallerstein Huff joined KKFI as Executive Director on August 12, roughly four months ago. She is an experienced executive, creative strategist, and community builder with over 20 years of leadership in the arts, media, and nonprofits. She has guided teams through brand evolutions, organizational change, and multimillion-dollar engagements. She was a founding team member of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. She spent over a decade in that role developing programs, marketing strategies, and partnerships that welcomed broad and diverse audiences into the arts. Her leadership in crisis communications during COVID-19 helped build community trust and organizational resilience. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Marketing & Sales at Starlight, one of the nation’s largest outdoor performing arts venues. That effort saw record-breaking sales growth with new strategic init

Mark Hurst discusses how you can better protect yourself from Big Tech. Among other things, Mark produces Techtonic, a one-hour weekly radio show about technology syndicated for Pacifica and for the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), a non-profit platform for digital distribution and licensing of radio programs, originally designed for National Public Radio (NPR). The show originates with WFMU in East Orange, New Jersey. Topics discussed include Big Tech surveillance, government takeover, other negative features of artificial intelligence (AI) including how the public pays for Big Tech data centers, "Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream",1 protests against smartphones, and alternatives to gmail, WhatsApp, Google search, Google Docs, Instagram, Windows, macOS, iPhone, and Android, among others. Mark holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from MIT. He has published two books: Customers Included (2015), and Bit Literacy (2007). And he created "Good Reports", which recommends alte

University of Denver journalism professor Kareem El Damanhoury compares how the same or similar issues are framed differently in different media outlets. This includes especially comparing how Al Jazeera, the BBC and Fox have covered Gaza. El Damahoury is an Associate Professor of journalism at the University of Denver with numerous publications comparing different media outlets, e.g., on their coverage of Gaza and comparing the media in different counties in Colorado. He was born and raised in Egypt, earned a bachelors' from Cairo University, an MA from Ohio University and a PhD from Georgia State. He is an expert with the International Panel on the Information Environment. Professor El Damanhoury is interviewed by Spencer Graves and Doug Samuelson. More details and a moderated discussion of issues raised in this interview are supported in the Wikiversity article on "Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza" with a video and podcast of excerpts when available. Copyright 2025 Kareem El