Wallace J. Allen
40 episodes listed below
Community radio with a civic conscience.
Wallace Allen's Empire Talks Back treats civic life as a local responsibility, not a distant spectacle. Its conversations move from voting and public health to fatherhood, domestic violence support, reggae, war, and community mentorship with a steady moral pulse.
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Wallace Allen's Empire Talks Back is a public affairs show with the feel of a community broadcast, an exhortation, and a local interview hour sharing the same microphone. It starts from responsibility. Wallace Allen returns again and again to truth, justice, faith, voting, public health, family care, and the obligation to improve the situation rather than merely complain about it. The show is spacious and plainspoken, often moving through sponsor messages, personal reflection, civic warning, and guest conversation without a hard change in temperature. Its politics are not hidden. Episodes challenge corruption, dark money, Trump, war talk, official accountability, and public responsibility, but the show usually brings those questions back to what ordinary people can do next. Senator Cory Booker appears for a conversation about urgent national issues, faith, family, civic action, stock trading by elected officials, and money in politics. Dr. Vanessa Perez-Trang is part of a discussion about empowerment, equity, opportunity, and the work of change. Local mentorship gets real attention too, including young men speaking about discipline, future plans, law, business, football, and service. Domestic violence support is handled through personal grief and practical encouragement, with Ms. Brindle Sutton discussing her work with victims and the pain behind it. Fatherhood becomes a civic subject through Ryan Berryman and San Bernardino Fatherhood. Music enters as mission rather than entertainment alone, especially in the conversation with Victor Essiet and Russell Gerlach about reggae, peace, Nigeria, Southern California, and the Marley-linked Tuff Gong world. The show can be repetitive. That repetition is part of its character: a phrase is turned over until it becomes a charge to act. Empire Talks Back is best for listeners who want public conversation rooted in Black and Brown community experience, Inland Empire concerns, faith-inflected accountability, and a belief that politics begins with people showing up.
Made for: For listeners who want public affairs grounded in local responsibility, faith, Black and Brown community experience, and practical civic action. It especially suits people drawn to community radio, values-forward interviews, and politics discussed through everyday consequences.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by treating national politics, local service, music, mentorship, and family life as one connected civic field. Its loose, exhortative style gives interviews the feeling of a public square rather than a packaged commentary segment.
"The true power of any empire lies within its people; not the palace walls. The emperor serves at the pleasure of the people, and the voice of the people must be heard"- Wallace AllenEmpire Talks Back is a public affairs and cultural commentary platform examining power, history, media, and the lived experience of Black and Brown communities in America and across the global diaspora.Hosted and produced by Wallace Allen—veteran broadcaster, community leader, and publisher of Westside Story Newspaper—the show brings historical perspective, journalistic integrity, and community accountability to conversations often reduced to headlines and soundbites.Each episo...
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Wallace Allen connects national politics to local responsibility through direct interviews, moral reflection, and practical calls to civic action.
Wallace Allen treats the microphone as a tool for public accountability, moving between national politics and neighborhood-scale action. His conversations repeatedly return to a practical question: what can people do next?
Wallace Allen turns civic accountability into a verb, then asks what you will do with it.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Cory Booker is pressed on stock trading, dark money, and the laws politics keeps dodging.
Empire Talks Back keeps its focus on the machinery of public life, with Senator Cory Booker taking on stock trading by officeholders, dark money, and the case for laws that would bind senators, congresspeople, presidents, and even the Supreme Court.
A plainspoken take on improvement, service, and change, with sponsor breaks briefly interrupting the flow.
Wallace Allen treats improvement as an active verb rather than a passive posture, and that idea lands clearly through Time for Change and the women in San Bernardino and the Inland Empire who say it helped them do better.
A youth-centered rally briefing that turns into a lesson in discipline and future plans.
This Empire Talks Back episode brings Wallace Allen's No Kings Day remarks into a calm, practical frame. The discussion moves through discipline, wisdom, and the habit of thinking ahead, while Jayden, Mr. Jones, and Mr.
Trash, duty, grief, and voting share the same microphone here.
Wallace Allen opens with talk of trash, responsibility, and the earth, then brings in Ms. Brindle Sutton, who shares that she has spent five years working with victims of domestic violence through her purses of joy program.
A grounded conversation about truth, accountability, voting, and the line between opinion and fact.
Empire Talks Back stays focused on truth, justice, accountability, and the idea that opinion only matters when it connects to action. The host keeps returning to public responsibility, linking voting with the basic right to be part of the conversation, while also folding in how…
Caribbean mixes with road-ready Carnival energy.
Global grooves from Pittsburgh outward.
The hour opens with public-service messages.
The hour opens with sponsor messages.
Wallace Allen opens six days before No Kings Day, framing the show around truth, justice, and the need for qualified people in important positions.
The show opens on a moral note.
A reflective monologue encouraging listeners to focus on local awareness, self-sustainability, and questioning public health claims, using RFK Jr.
It opens with sponsor copy.
Wallace Allen interviews Ryan Berryman, CEO of San Bernardino Fatherhood, about his program supporting fathers.
Wallace Allen interviews reggae star Victor Essiet and music manager Russell Gerlach about the power of music to promote peace and love.
The speaker shares a personal anecdote about a friend who talks about avoiding the 'stupid test' as a metaphor for not engaging with foolishness.
Wallace Allen opens Empire Talks with a motivational speech about making history and introduces a guest, Greg Evans, founder of National Cybersecurity, during Black History Month.
Wallace Allen discusses Black History Month, martial law, and other pressing issues on Empire Talks Back.