Radio Dispatch

Radio Dispatch is a Mon-Thurs Internet radio show hosted by siblings Molly and John Knefel. Past guests include Amy Goodman, Eliot Spitzer, Michael Hastings, lawyers, activists, journalists, and more Occupy people than we can count.

Radio Dispatch, 4/10/13

New revelations into the origins of the CIA drone program in Pakistan, and a wife and husband each write us about the same possibly sexist thing that happened at a Home Depot.

Radio Dispatch, 4/9/13

Trevor Aaronson joins us to discuss his book, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism. Also, we talk about Molly’s latest article for The New Inquiry about bullying.

Radio Dispatch, 4/8/13

Obama’s sexist screw-up about Kamala Harris, the NYT’s sexist screw-up about Yvonne Brill, and letters from a Guantanamo Bay detainee show his sense of humor.

Radio Dispatch, 4/4/13

“How to get a Black Woman fired,” Lindy West’s great post about the phantom of misandry, and renewed hook-up culture panic. Also, a listener mail about actively combatting rape culture in High School after listening to Radio Dispatch.

RD listener combating rape culture at his high school

Hi everybody! We have an amazing listener mail to share. A few weeks ago a high school listener wrote us to say that he had witnessed several examples of rape culture in his school, including a guy groping his girlfriend in the hall despite her protestations while a teacher stood by ignoring it. We suggested he should go to his guidance counselor and request that the entire administration take steps to raise awareness of rape culture among students, teachers, coaches, and administrators. 

He wrote us a few days ago, with what might be our best listener mail ever. Here it is in full, reprinted with his permission.

Just wanted to update you on rape culture in my high school after talking to my guidance counselor. I was able to convince him to do several things to address rape culture in my high school. He got the principle of our school to do an announcement over the intercom addressing harassment and language used when talking about girls and generally said that they where going to crack down on those kind of things. The next he did was talking with the teachers at our school telling them to watch out for that sexual harassment and other similar behavior. The last thing he did was talk to the coaches at our school telling them to make sure the players have respect for women and that they wont be blameless if they hurt their girlfriend. Overall I was pretty happy with the outcome and though it was not a full on feminist revolution I think I was able to really bring awareness to our faculty about the issue of rape culture in high schools. Thank you for telling me that I should talk to my counselor, I wouldn’t of done this if it wasn’t for you guys.
Amazing! And it should be an antidote to defeatists everywhere — especially men — who throw up their hands in despair and retreat into cynicism as they say nothing can be done to address problems of patriarchy and rape culture. 
If this listener can do this in high school — an environment strictly policed by social and cultural norms, pressures, and expectations — you can do it in your office, improv troupe, friend group, bar scene, etc.

Radio Dispatch 4/3/13

A CIA agent linked to the destruction of torture tapes in the Bush years looks poised for a major promotion, today is autism acceptance/awareness day, and we catch up on some pre-vacation listener mail.

Radio Dispatch 4/2/13

We’re back from vacation with stories of classwar and revolution from Paris. Also, coverage of the Guantanamo Bay hunger strike has intensified, and the problems with all those marriage equality avatars on Facebook.

Radio Dispatch 03/28/13 - RD Book Club Time!

On today’s show, it’s our first Radio Dispatch book club! We spend the hour discussing bell hooks’ Feminism is for Everybody, including lots of listener input. We want book club to be a regular thing, so let us know what you think!

Radio Dispatch, 3/27/13

Chris Faraone on the closing of the alt-weekly The Boston Phoenix, and the paper’s amazing history. Also, the new form of school segregation, and listener mail. And this is our first vacation show to air.