[OUR HOST]
Karen Hunter

KKaren Hunter is a Pulitzer Prize-Winning journalist, professor, publisher and “change agent,” according to Essence magazine, which named her one of the “Woke100” of 2018. She was also selected to the 2020 Ebony magazine’s Power 100 List. As a writer, Karen has co-authored eight New York Times bestsellers. As CEO of Karen Hunter Publishing (www.karenhunterpublishing.com), she published more than 35 books, including No. 1 NYT bestseller True You by pop icon Janet Jackson, as well as bestsellers with Kris Jenner and E. Lynn Harris. Karen has been named one of the 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in America by industry bible Talkers Magazine every year since 2015. A New Jersey native, a Drew University graduate, Karen has been a full-time professor and Distinguished Lecturer in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College in New York City since 2004.
In 2020, during the pandemic, Karen launched Knarrative.com, which is home to the largest Africana Studies classroom in the world. Knarrative has given birth to #Knubia, the largest community committed to the liberation of Black people. Karen is also the founder of thehub.news and The Global Majority (www.theglobalmajority.com), an apparel company with a purpose.
The Karen Hunter Show launched in 2014 on the heels of the killing of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, turning Karen into a social justice warrior. She used her airwaves to not only highlight stories, but also focus on solutions. In 2015, following the racial killing of nine members of Mother Emanual in Charleston, SC, Karen wrote a petition that garnered 577,000 signatures in three days calling for the removal of the Confederate flag. She brought those signatures to the desk of then-Gov. Nikki Haley, who had vowed never to remove the flag. After Karen’s audience applied pressure to the South Carolina state legislature, that flag came down.
In 2018, she led an HBCU-campus voter registration drive (#10for2018), calling on her audience to help register 10 new voters. From Morehouse to Morgan, Jackson State to Florida A&AM, Karen sat with local leaders and engaged with college students and the efforts of Urban View Vote saw a million new voters added to the roles that year.
In 2024, she launched, Urban View Gives, which highlights nonprofit organizations that work in the community but get little attention or resources. She encouraged her audience to “tithe” collectively each month and that initiative is making a difference.
In 2020, Karen created a retreat (Healthy, Wealthy, Wise) that brought thousands together in some of the most amazing places to have the experience of a lifetime. She also hosted a sold-out comedy tour in 2022, (Foolishness Friday Live).
In addition to hosting The Karen Hunter Show, Karen is also the program consultant for SiriusXM, bringing the following shows to the airwaves:
The Clay Cane Show, The Lurie Daniel Favors Show, Urban View Mornings, The Reecie Colbert Show, For Your Soul with Dr. DeForest Soaries, Sunday Civics with L. Joy Williams,, The Omi Show with Omi Bell, The Dr. Robin Show and The Qasim Rashid Show. She also gave Laura Coates her start in radio on Urban View.
“I love being on the radio, but what I love more is being able to give other people an opportunity to deliver goodness to this audience,” said Karen. “Lighting torches and passing batons is the only way we all win to get to our destination—freedom!
“We have created something special on Urban View and I’m proud to have contributed to it.”