Tavis Smiley
News & Politics Podcasts
"Tavis Smiley" is the flagship program for KBLA, America's newest progressive radio network and LA's first Black-owned talk station. Broadcast live across southern California on 1580AM and around the world on KBLA1580.com and TuneIn, this podcast presents the best of Tavis Smiley's conversations with activists, influencers, thought leaders, and cultural vanguards.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Location:
United States
Genres:
News & Politics Podcasts
Description:
"Tavis Smiley" is the flagship program for KBLA, America's newest progressive radio network and LA's first Black-owned talk station. Broadcast live across southern California on 1580AM and around the world on KBLA1580.com and TuneIn, this podcast presents the best of Tavis Smiley's conversations with activists, influencers, thought leaders, and cultural vanguards. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Twitter:
@kbla1580
Language:
English
Contact:
323-290-4690
Website:
https://kbla1580.com/
Episodes
Leonard Pitts Jr. joins Tavis Smiley
12/9/2025
Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and Director of the Center for Urban Journalism at Morgan State University, Leonard Pitts Jr., gives his analysis on the upcoming Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship, the New York Times lawsuit against the Pentagon, and other trending political news.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:39:57
Dr. Willie James Jennings joins Tavis Smiley
12/9/2025
Dr. Willie James Jennings, author and Yale Divinity School professor, takes us inside Yale Divinity School’s new “eco-theological” residence hall and marks 15 years since the release of his seminal text, “The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race.”
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:40:01
Oliver Chi joins Tavis Smiley
12/9/2025
Oliver Chi, city manager of Santa Monica, California, shares details about the reparations paid to the family of Silas White, the Black entrepreneur whose Ebony Beach Club was seized by the city in the 1950s.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:16:44
Dr. Cornel West joins Tavis Smiley
12/5/2025
Dr. Cornel West, scholar, leading public intellectual, author, and special contributor, shares his thoughts on Trump's mischaracterizations of Black immigrants, why empathy is the new Christian battleground, and more.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:21:37
Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead joins Tavis Smiley
12/5/2025
Award-winning talk show host and Founding Director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace & Social Justice at Loyola University Maryland, Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead discusses the upcoming 160th anniversary of the end of chattel slavery this Saturday and how we can prepare for the 100th anniversary of Black History commemorations.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:17:23
U.S Rep. Lauren Underwood joins Tavis Smiley
12/5/2025
U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) gives an update on the pushback against the ICE detention center in her suburban Chicago district and explains how she flipped a traditionally Republican seat.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:22:28
Marcus Collins joins Tavis Smiley
12/4/2025
University of Michigan professor, award-winning cultural translator, and author Marcus Collins shares his thoughts on America staring down the erasure of Black history and progress this year, the White House’s new media bias tracker, and more.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:39:32
Joshua Clark Davis joins Tavis Smiley
12/4/2025
Joshua Clark Davis, historian at the University of Baltimore and author of “Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back,” explains how newly unveiled photos of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reveal the depth of NYPD surveillance.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:39:13
Briahna Joy Gray joins Tavis Smiley
12/4/2025
Briahna Joy Gray, political strategist and host of the “Bad Faith” podcast, looks ahead to the 2026 midterms as progressive democratic socialists and centrist Blue Dogs prepare to tussle in the primaries.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:39:58
Deji Laray and Thomas Q. Jones join Tavis Smiley
12/2/2025
Deji Laray, creator and executive producer of the ALLBLK TV series "G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised In The South)," along with star and co-executive producer Thomas Q. Jones, is back with an inside look at their latest program.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:19:30
Paul Knepper joins Tavis Smiley
12/2/2025
Basketball writer Paul Knepper talks about his new text, "Moses Malone: The Life of a Basketball Prophet," telling the story of the three-time MVP “anti-superstar” who was shy around the media and humble on the court.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:22:44
Tara Pringle Jefferson joins Tavis Smiley
12/2/2025
Tara Pringle Jefferson, author of the new book "Bloom How You Must: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self-Care and Generational Healing," shares how Civil Rights leaders Coretta Scott King, Betty Shabazz, Myrlie Evers-Williams, and Rosa Parks used self-care to take a break from the stress of the movement.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:38:49
Latosha Brown joins Tavis Smiley
12/2/2025
Award-winning organizer, philanthropic consultant, and co-founder of Black Voters Matter, LaTosha Brown, talks about her economic pressure campaign "We Ain't Buying It" and why she's calling for the boycott of Trump enablers.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:16:41
Michael Goodyear joins Tavis Smiley
12/2/2025
Michael Goodyear, associate professor at New York Law School, looks at how this week’s Supreme Court case, Cox v. Sony, could change how we all access the internet and cut off those who need it the most.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:22:35
Jeffrey Stewart joins Tavis Smiley
12/1/2025
Historian, professor and UC Santa Barbara's Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Jeffrey Stewart, celebrates the 100th anniversary of “The New Negro: An Interpretation”, his new edition of that seminal anthology and his 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning text about “The New Negro” editor Alain Locke.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:40:15
Shawn VanDiver joins Tavis Smiley
12/1/2025
Shawn VanDiver, founder and President of #AfghanEvac, explains why the U.S. needs to keep its promise to our Afghan allies - and not scapegoat them for the November 26 attack.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:16:59
Dr. Cornel West joins Tavis Smiley
12/1/2025
Dr. Cornel West, scholar, leading public intellectual, author, and special contributor, shares his thoughts on Pam Bondi accusing progressives for fueling hatred toward the National Guard, the lessons of the Montgomery Bus Boycott 70 years later and more.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:20:38
Ruben Navarrette joins Tavis Smiley
12/1/2025
Nationally syndicated columnist for The Creators Syndicate, Ruben Navarette, discusses Trump's intensified anti-immigration stance in response to the National Guard shooting and the "deeper implosion" within the Republican party after the resignation of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:18:00
Dr. Julianne Malveaux joins Tavis Smiley
12/1/2025
Economist, professor and founder of the nonprofit Economic Education, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, talks about how Trump's student loan reforms target Black professionalism and other trending political topics.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:22:50
Leslie Jones joins Tavis Smiley
11/27/2025
SNL Alum Leslie Jones talks about her new stand-up special on Peacock ''Leslie Jones: Life - Part 2," her time on “Saturday Night Live" and more.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Duration:00:36:22