Street Fight Radio, or Street Fight was an American politics and humor radio show and podcast founded in June 2011 and hosted by Bryan Quinby and Brett Payne. The show produced three distinct episodes per week. In addition to producing the radio show and podcasts, through its Patreon, Street Fight Radio also published a monthly zine and additional video content.
Along with other podcasts such as Chapo Trap House, and publications like The Baffler and Current Affairs, Street Fight Radio has been cited as an example of the dirtbag left, a group of left-wing media figures described as mixing humor with "a take-no-prisoners style of American socialism."
Content
Street Fight billed itself as an "anarcho-comedy" radio show, where the hosts and fans of the show have sympathies to left-wing politics. Common topics and discussions on the show include the shape of the earth, labor unions, the merits of footwear, getting your hair cut at the post office, socialism, failures of capitalism and the gig economy, Nu metal, and anarchism.
Street Fight Radio produced three episodes per week. The first was a live call-in show broadcast Sundays weekly on the community radio station WCRS in Columbus, Ohio. A second episode with just the hosts (termed "the basement show") was released as a free podcast on Wednesdays. A final weekly "bonus" episode was released only to Patreon subscribers of $1 or more.
The format of the call-in shows (which can stretch to over three hours each week) was the first portion of the show features Brett and Bryan riffing on topics such as drugs, current events, news articles, or their families, with the remainder of the show answering calls from fans. Fans typically call in with anecdotes from their jobs, political organizing that the caller may be participating in, or just call in to talk about anything that's on the top of their mind. The second show each week, the "basement show", is a sixty to ninety minute show that is similar in format to the first part of the call in shows. The third show features either Brett or Bryan interviewing a guest of their choice. Past guests on the Interview Show have included the hosts of sister podcasts like Chapo Trap House, Struggle Session, and Delete Your Account, writers for various websites or other publications, and users associated with weird Twitter.
History
Both hosts are natives of Columbus, Ohio and its immediate suburbs. Quinby began making podcasts with a friend in 2007. That same year, Payne had also co-hosted a different short-lived podcast Relatively Unknown. In 2008, Payne & Quinby met while making a new podcast, Murder Rebel Radio, which they created with several mutual friends. The two bonded over their shared experiences of financial hardship.
During this period, both hosts gained experience in stand-up comedy by attending open mics, but they quickly became frustrated with the open mic scene, and decided to focus on podcasts. In 2010, they began producing shows under the name "Brett & Bryan Recording Themselves" as part of the Murder Rebel Radio stream. Deciding to go "all in," Quinby & Payne left Murder Rebel Radio to focus on their new solo work shortly thereafter.
Street Fight Radio began in June 2011. Previously identifying as apolitical, the hosts underwent a radicalization process during 2012. Through their discussions with each other, they gradually became to identify as anarchists. In addition to recording the weekly podcast, they began to do live shows. Street Fight Patreon was launched on October 13, 2014, but the show remained free.
A February 2016 episode of Street Fight served as the launching point for Chapo Trap House, when the latter show's future hosts met while reviewing the film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. Chapo's immediate success provided Street Fight with a boost as well. This allowed the hosts to turn the show in to their full-time jobs in 2016 The show went from 1100 to 5000 weekly listeners by 2017. In order to differentiate themselves from the many left-wing podcasts appearing, Street Fight adopted a narrow focus on real-life & working-class experiences. Seeing Chapo's success with the Patreon bonus show format led to Street Fight adopting the paywalled third show for $1.
Around August of 2022, the hosts parted ways and continue to create podcasts independent of each other.