Making Contact
"Making Contact" By National Radio Project
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Media that helps build a movement: Making Contact is an award-winning, 29-minute weekly magazine/documentary-style public affairs program heard on 150 radio stations.
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4 days ago
But Next Time Part 1: California Wildfires and Protecting Our Farmworkers (Encore)
As fires ravaged California's world-famous wine country in 2017, a community radio station, emergency dispatcher, and tenant organizers helped the most vulnerable in their community survive and recover.
Community organizers and hosts of the podcast But Next Time Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta bring us the first of four stories of hard-won lessons learned from people on the frontlines of California’s wildfires and Texas’ storms as they work to answer the question, how can next time be different?
In this first episode we discuss hardship faced by farm and service workers during this time, especially non-English speakers. These workers are the heart of wine country, from the planters to the harvesters, to the line cooks, hotel staff and dishwashers. Our systems failed them, how do we do better next time?
To listen to all of the But Next Time episodes and access video versions with Spanish subtitles visit www.butnexttime.com. You can also learn more about the organizations featured in the podcast and access resources like a listening and discussion guide.
Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org.
Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000!
Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.
This episode includes interviews from Mariano Alvarez, California Rural Legal Assistance; Alicia Sanchez, President of Board of Directors of KBBF; Alma Bowen, Founder / Executive Director of Nuestra Comunidad; Edgar Avila, Director of Programming KBBF; and Beatrice Camacho, ERAP Manager of North Bay Organizing Project
BUT NEXT TIME: This episode is hosted by Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta, and produced by Leah Mahan.
MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani and produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.
MUSIC: All original compositions by Fernando Arruda including “But Next Time,” “Next Blues,” “Full Bodied Disparity,” “Per Pound,” “A Feeling About It,” and “Going Back.”
Learn More:
But Next Time Podcast: https://butnexttime.com
Rise Home Stories: https://risehomestories.com/
Working Films: https://www.workingfilms.org/
California Rural Legal Assistance: https://crla.org/
KBBF: https://kbbf.org/
Nuestra Comunidad: https://nc707.org/
North Bay Organizing Project: http://www.northbayop.org/
Undocufund: https://undocufund.org/
But Next Time was created as part of Rise-Home Stories, a project in which multimedia storytellers and housing, land, and racial justice advocates came together to reimagine the past, present, and future of our communities by transforming the stories we tell about them. The Rise-Home Stories Project includes five pieces of media (a video game, children’s book, animated short, and online storytelling site, and the But Next Time Podcast) that help us rethink our relationships to land and home. For more info visit www.risehomestories.com
Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.
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Nov 29, 2023
Gaza, Solidarity, and the Movement for Palestinian Liberation
For weeks the world has been witness to Israel's deadly assault on Gaza. Today, we uncover the military corporations profiting from the war, and highlight the activism in every corner of the world in support of Palestine. We'll get insight on the conditions on the ground in Gaza before zooming out to look at Israel's military industrial complex and how the United States is enabling genocide, through policymaking and the defense industry. But activists are taking aim and taking action. We close with a discussion on the Palestinian liberation movement from an abolitionist perspective.
Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org.
Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000!
Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.
This episode includes interviews from Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Rami Almeghari, Gaza-based journalist, and Nora Barrows-Friedman, associate editor of The Electronic Intifada.
This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang, and produced by Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang. Our executive director is Jina Chung. Music by "Minimal Documentary Ambient" by ComaStudio from Pixabay. Engineering by Jeff Emtman.
Learn More:
Making Contact homepage: www.radioproject.org
Arab Resource and Organizing Center: www.araborganizing.org
The Electronic Intifada www.electronicintifada.net
Panel discussion: Abolition Means No More War: Free Palestine Now! www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9GjTMP9qZs
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Nov 22, 2023
How Ollas Populares fed Buenos Aires through a pandemic (Encore)
We travel to Buenos Aires with reporter Rosina Castillo who immerses us in the culture of a local community arts organization who saw a need in their community and took action during the height of the pandemic. La Casona de Humahuaca transformed their operations to host “ollas populares” or community kitchens to help support their community and make it through the toughest parts of COVID together, all the while learning more about their organization and purpose in the community. We follow that with a conversation with Belen Desmaison, an architect and urbanist who discusses the building of an innovative communal living space with modular food preparation areas in Lima, Peru.
Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org.
Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000!
Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.
EPISODE FEATURES: This episode includes interviews from La Casona de Humahuaca, a community arts organization in Buenos Aires, Guillermo Castañeda, a teacher and volunteer, Mariela Jungberg, social psychologist and cultural worker, and Belén Desmaison, urbanist and architect.
MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum, produced by Rosina Castillo, and engineered by Jeff Emtman. Our executive director is Jina Chung.
MUSIC: Ergo Phizmiz - Gretchen's Tango, Blue Dot Sessions
Learn More:
Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org.
Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000!
Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.
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Nov 15, 2023
Powerlands (Encore)
On this week's Making Contact, we bring you a special encore of an episode that first aired in June. We'll hear an extended interview with Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a queer Diné filmmaker and director of the award-winning documentary Powerlands,
Powerlands traces how multinational energy corporations extract resources and profits while displacing and harming Indigenous communities around the world. The film follows Indigenous activists in Navajo Nation, Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines who are fighting back against corporations like Peabody Energy, Glencore and BHP.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, an award-winning queer Diné filmmaker and director of Powerlands
Making Contact Team:
* Host: Lucy Kang
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
* Executive Director: Jina Chung
* Engineer: Jeff Emtman
This episode includes excerpts from the documentary film Powerlands.
Music:
Documentary by Music_Unlimited
Learn More:
* Making Contact homepage
* Powerlands
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Nov 8, 2023
Not Just Speed Traps: Alabama Community Fights Back Against For-profit Policing (Encore)
Just 20 minutes north of Birmingham on Interstate 22, Brookside, Alabama is a working-class town with less than 1,300 residents. From 2018 to 2020, income from traffic fines and forfeitures increased 640%, making up 49% of the town’s revenue. In 2019, Brookside saw its first lawsuit that included allegations of racism and police misconduct. It caught national attention for being a predatory speed trap in 2022 and now facing a class-action federal lawsuit. Thank you to our podcast partner, 70 Million, for the story “Highway Robbery: How a Small-Town Traffic Trap Became A Legal Black Hole.”
Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org.
Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000!
Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news.
FEATURING: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Archibald, Brookside residents Sandra Harris and Ashley, Leah Nelson, Alabama Appleseed’s research director, Birmingham Criminal and civil rights lawyer Bill Dawson, Adam Danneman, head of the Jefferson County Public Defender's Office and Joanna Weiss, Fines and Fees Justice Center’s co-director.
70 MILLION EPISODE CREDITS: Episode reporter Rhana Natour, editor Monica Lopez and Juleyka Lantigua, host Mitzi Miller, sound designer Erica Huang, photo editor Michelle Baker, staff writer and designer Kori Doran, lead fact checker Haylee Millikan, lead producer Pamela Kirkland, episode photographer Amarr Croskey, creator/executive producer Juleyka Lantigua
MAKING CONTACT: Host Anita Johnson, producers Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang, executive director Jina Chung.
MUSIC: Blue Dot Session - Curiously, Curiously Quiet Orchestra - My Friends
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Nov 1, 2023
The Promise and Peril of Geoengineering
As we head into an ever warming world, some experts and politicians are embracing a possible solution to climate change called geoengineering. Theoretically geoengineering could slow down climate change, stop it, and maybe even remove carbon from the air. It sounds like the perfect answer in for a global political system that just can't stop burning fossil fuels even if it kills us all. However, it might not be the easy fix we're hoping for.
We talk to scientists and activists about what geoengineering is and why it could actually be a dangerous way to tackle climate change. We also dive into the moral and ethical questions of testing geoengineering technology on indigenous lands.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Basav Sen; Climate Justice Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies
* Dr. Steven Zornetzer; Vice-Chair, Governing Board of Arctic Ice Project
* Panganga Pungowiyi; organizer for the nonprofit Indigenous Environmental Network in Alaska
Making Contact Team:
* Host: Salima Hamirani and Jessica Partnow
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
* Executive Director: Jina Chung
* Engineer: Jeff Emtman
* Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong
Music Credits:
* Chris Zabriskie - Air Hockey Salon
* Bio Unit - Industrial Zone
* Chris Zabriskie - Take Off and Shoot a Zero
* Doctor Turtle - Leap Second
* Monplaisir - Ridiculous
* Monplaisir - Juan Garcia Madero
Learn More:
* Indigenous Environmental Network
* Artic Ice Project
* Institute for Policy Studies
Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.
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Oct 25, 2023
Modern Parenting...the Latino Way
How do you decide what kind of parent you want to be? Our friends at Pulso Podcast Maribel Quezada Smith and Liz Alarcón discuss ways they maintain their children’s cultural identity as Latinos while living in the U.S. They also touch on what they have changed from how their immigrant parents raised them. And, Liz sits down with Latinx parenting coach Leslie Priscilla to talk about her work using an antiracist, anticolonial and child-centered lens.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring
* Liz Alarcón: mom and Executive Director of Pulso Podcast https://www.lizalarcon.com/aboutme
* Maribel Quezada- Smith: mom and founder of the media production company, Diferente Creative https://www.maribelqs.com/
* Leslie Priscilla: founder of Latinx Parenting https://latinxparenting.org/
Making Contact Staff
* Host: Amy Gastelum
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
* Executive Director: Jina Chung
* Engineer: Jeff Emtman
* Digital Marketing Manager: Taylor Rapalyea
* Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong
Music composed by Julian Blackmore
Learn More
Pulso Podcast - https://projectpulso.org/podcast/
Latinx Parenting - https://latinxparenting.org/
Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.
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Oct 18, 2023
Whose Point Reyes?
Dive into the history of Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California with us. It's one of the most iconic national parks in the region, known for rugged sweeping beaches and the famous tule elk. We'll recount the waves of colonization that violently upended the lives of the Coast Miwok peoples who lived there – and one Indigenous woman's struggle to preserve her family history. The story of Point Reyes is a story about how the forces of colonialism continue to shape the fate of public lands in the United States.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
Theresa Harlan, (Kewa Pueblo/Jemez Pueblo), adopted daughter of Elizabeth Campigli Harlan (Coast Miwok), founder and executive director of The Alliance for Felix Cove
Making Contact Staff:
* Host: Lucy Kang
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
* Executive Director: Jina Chung
* Engineer: Jeff Emtman
* Digital Marketing Manager: Taylor Rapalyea
"Whose Point Reyes?: A Battle for the Future of Public Lands" Parts 1 and 2 Credits:
* Reporter and producer: Sam Anderson
* Editor: Lucy Kang
First aired on KPFA
Music Credits:
* "Chill Ambient" by Yrii Semchyshyn (Coma-Media) via Pixabay
* "Cinematic Documentary" by Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music) via Pixabay
Learn More:
Making Contact homepage: www.radioproject.org
Listen to Parts 1 and 2 of "Whose Point Reyes: A Battle for the Future of Public Lands" on KPFA: https://kpfa.org/featured-episode/whose-point-reyes
Alliance for Felix Cove: www.alliance4felixcove.org
Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin: www.coastmiwokofmarin.org
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Oct 11, 2023
Saltwater Soundwalk (Encore)
In this special encore edition of Making Contact we present “Saltwater Soundwalk”: Indigenous Audio Tour of the Seattle Coast. Produced by Jenny Asarnow and Rachel Lam, this rhythmic, watery audio experience, streams of stories that ebb and flow, intermixing English with Coast Salish languages. Indigenous Coast Salish peoples continue to steward this land and preserve its language, despite settler colonialism, industrialization and gentrification. Part story, part sound collage, this piece is scored entirely with the sounds of the waters and animals who live in and around the Salish Sea.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
Voices in order of appearance: Water at Don Armeni Boat Ramp Randi Purser Smith (Suquamish) Archie Cantrell (Puyallup) Southern Resident Orcas Plainfin Midshipman Fish Ken Workman (Duwamish) Michelle Myles (Tulalip) LaDean Johnson (Skokomish) Owen Oliver (Quinault/Isleta Pueblo) RYAN! Feddersen (Colville) Warren King George (Muckleshoot) Lydia Sigo (Suquamish) Water at Gas Works Park, Lake Union Water at Kayak Point Regional County Park Birds and Water at Puyallup River Eric Autry Birds and Water at Erlands Point Water in Pacific Ocean, La Push Birds and water at Potlatch State Park, Hood Canal Jeanne Hyde Joseph Sisnero
Produced by: Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow
Special Thanks: Commissioned with SPU 1% for Art Funds. Administered by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. City of Seattle, Bruce Harrell, Mayor.
This episode of Making Contact was supported in part by a Moral Courage grant from the Satterberg Foundation.
Credits:
Local artists and producers, Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow produced this work as part of FLOW: Art Along the Ship Canal, a commission from Seattle Public Utilities in partnership with the Office of Arts & Culture.
Making Contact Staff:
Jina Chung, Executive Director; Interim Senior Producer, Jessica Partnow. Producers: Anita Johnson; Amy Gastelum; Lucy Kang; and Salima Hamirani. Web Updates: Sabine Blazin.
Music:
Last Kiss - Magnus Moone
Audiobinger - Enchanted Forest
Learn More:
Seattle Times - https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/how-you-can-explore-seattles-waterways-with-saltwater-soundwalk/
Art Beat Blog - https://artbeat.seattle.gov/2022/08/25/new-podcast-saltwater-soundwalk-highlights-the-people-land-and-water-of-seattle/
Saltwater Soundwalk - https://saltwater-soundwalk.simplecast.com/
Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.
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Oct 4, 2023
The Rest of the Story: Indigenous Resistance
In this episode, we revisit two stories we've covered in the past concerning indigenous rights. In the first half, Rebecca Nagle joins us to discuss the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act and why the legitimacy of the law is so important to tribal sovereignty. We also talk about the right's legal strategy in the last few decades and what that means for decisions at the Supreme Court.
In the second half we hear from Chairman of the Amah Mutsun tribal band, Valentin Lopez, about the most recent developments in their fight to protect the sacred site Juristac. The site was slated to be developed into a mine, but the tribe has continued to gain support from environmental organizations and activists. We talk about next steps and how you can get involved.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Rebecca Nagle: activist, writer and host of the podcast This Land
* Valentin Lopez: Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band
Making Contact Team:
* Host: Salima Hamirani
* Interview Reporter: Robert Raymond
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
* Executive Director: Jina Chung
* Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow
* Digital Marketing Manager: Taylor Rapalyea
* Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Learn More:
Rebecca Nagle's This Land podcast
Amah Mutsun Tribal Band
Amah Mutsun Land Trust
The Response podcast
Making Contact piece on ICWA
Making Contact piece on Juristac
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Sep 27, 2023
Inclusion on Purpose
George Floyd’s murder sparked increased attention toward Black liberation and by extension, racial discrimination generally. Institutions raced to check boxes for workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, but it’s hard to know whether real work has been done. In this episode, two thought leaders around race and belonging, Ruchika Tulshyan and Ijeoma Oluo, discuss the finer points of how to create equity in the workplace. This conversation takes place at Town Hall Seattle and center’s Tulshyan’s book Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
Ruchika Tulshyan - Inclusion strategist, speaker and author of the bestseller Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. Ijeoma Oluo - Speaker and writer, author of the New York Times bestseller, So You W…
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Sep 20, 2023
Bonus audio: Marian Naranjo (Kha Po Owingeh), founder and director of Honor Our Pueblo Existence. Clip from RadioActive.
In this bonus clip, Marian Naranjo (Kha Po Owingeh), founder and director of Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE), speaks about the impact and legacy of the nuclear industry and Los Alamos National Laboratory on the Tewa people. The clip is from the 2021 video RadioActive: Nuclear Boom with Petuuch Gilbert and Marian Naranjo, courtesy of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Sep 20, 2023
The Shadow of Nuclear Colonialism
The film Oppenheimer has reignited public interest in the Manhattan Project, the WWII-era secret program to develop the atomic bomb. But the movie leaves out important parts of the story. On today's show, we hear about the impact of nuclear colonialism and the Manhattan Project on the people and places of New Mexico with Myrriah Gómez, author of Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos. And then we dig into how nuclear testing during the Cold War led to dangerous and lasting contamination in the Marshall Islands and San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
Myrriah Gómez, associate professor in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico and author of Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos
Making Contact T…
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Sep 13, 2023
A History of Traditional Root Healing (Encore)
In some parts of the world, traditional herbal remedies are the norm. When we think of natural remedies we tend to think of older generations living in remote areas, in far away countries, with little access to modern healthcare. We rarely think about the ancient medicinal plants that might exist in our very own cities. On today's episode we look at plant and herb medicines through the lens of Michele Elizabeth. Lee the author of Working The Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African-American Healing.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Michele Elizabeth Lee is a traditional healing practitioner, educator, visual artist and the author of Working The Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing.
* Brandi Mack, a Holistic Health Educator, Therapeutic Massage Therapist, Trauma-Informed Youth developer, Powerful Presenter, and Permaculture Designer.
* Estrella D…
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Sep 6, 2023
Toxic Tracks
On today's show, we'll hear an encore of a show from our archives that first aired in April. We'll be looking at the environmental impact of the rail industry and hear from people in two communities currently impacted by rail-related contamination.
In February, a Suffolk Northern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and residents are still recovering from the disaster over two months later. Residents like Jami Wallace and community organizations are fighting for relief.
In Houston's Fifth Ward, residents have been living with the dire health effects of carcinogenic creosote used to treat railroad ties decades ago. Health officials have found cancer clusters in the neighborhood, where many have been devastated by the loss of friends, neighbors and loved ones. We'll hear a story from Living Downstream about the impacts to this close-knit community, where residents and organizers like Sandra Edwards continue to advocate for accountability and justice.
Like…
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Aug 30, 2023
70 Million - Highway Robbery: How a Small-Town Traffic Trap Became a Legal Black Hole
This week on Making Contact, we bring you a story from our podcast partners, 70 Million titled Highway Robbery: How a Small-Town Traffic Trap Became A Legal Black Hole. About 20 minutes north of Birmingham, Alabama, on Interstate 22, is the working-class town of Brookside. Its almost 1300 residents make it about the size of a large high school. According to the 2020 census, Brookside's population is mostly White and 21% are Black. On paper, it's a lot like other small towns in this part of Alabama. That is, until 2022, when Brookside became infamous for, of all things, a traffic trap.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist - Sandra Harris - Town Hall Speaker 1 - Ashley - Leah Nelson, research director for the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice - Bill Dawson, a criminal, and civil rights lawyer from Birmingham - Adam Danneman, the head of…
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Aug 23, 2023
Mexicans Confronting Racism: Aztec myths to modern stereotypes
There’s an idea in Mexico that racism doesn’t exist, that all Mexicans are “mestizo” - a homogenous blend of Spanish and indigenous. But cultural worker José Antonio Aguilar says racism is lived by Black and brown Mexicans in many ways. He founded Racismo MX, an organization which seeks to dismantle racism, after coming to terms with his own racial reality as a “prieto” - a brown man. We also hear from anthropologist Ismael Rivera and Aztec expert Camilla Townsend as they unravel lies the Spanish colonizers told about ancient Aztecs that still feed racist tropes today.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: José Antonio Aguilar - Racismo MX, Founder and Director, Ismael Rivera - Anthropologist, Historian, Cultural Guide, Dr. Camilla Townsend, P.h.D. - Rutgers University, Professor
Host: Amy Gastelum
Freelance Producer: Anthony Wallace
Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hami…
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Aug 16, 2023
Pandemic and Profit (Encore)
On today's show, we'll revisit the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic by looking at two alternative supply chains for masks during the fallout from the Trump administration's failure to prepare.
We'll be speaking with the ProPublica reporter David McSwane about his book Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick. The book details the shadowy supply chain of brokers looking to profit from the pandemic – to the tune of millions of dollars.
We'll also hear from Mai-Linh Hong, co-editor and co-author of The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice, about a mutual aid organization that created a different supply chain for homemade masks based on community, care and connection over profit.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* J. David McSwane, award-winning ProPublica investigative reporter and author of Pan…
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Aug 9, 2023
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story Part 2 (Encore)
In 2019, a well known romance writer began tweeting about other writers in her community and concerns about racism. It led to a huge reckoning within an organization called the Romance Writers of America, which is still unfolding. And although the online debate seemed to be isolated to a specific community of romance writers and their fans, it was really a microcosm of what's been happening all over the US. We learn all about romance novels and how newer writers are changing the norms of the genre, and giving it a political power it's never had before. And, we talk about what it means for organizations to change as they grapple with questions of race, including organizations such as ours, at Making Contact. This is an encore presentation of part two of a two-part series.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Contance Grady
* Shana McDavis-Conway
* CJ Broderick
* Jayashree Kamb…
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Aug 2, 2023
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story Part 1
In 2019 a well known romance writer began tweeting about other writers in her community and concerns about racism. It led to a huge reckoning within an organization called the Romance Writers of America, which is still unfolding. And although the online debate seemed to be isolated to a specific community of romance writers and their fans, it was really a microcosm of what's been happening all over the US. In this episode we learn all about romance novels and how newer writers are changing the norms of the genre, and giving it a political power it's never had before. And, we talk about what it means for organizations to change as they grapple with questions of race.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring
* Jayashree Kamble; professor of English Literature at La Guardia Community College
* Reagan Jackson; co-executive director, Young Women Empowered, also a romance reader and fan
* C…
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Jul 26, 2023
Criminalized Survival
Journalist Natalie Pattillo and filmmaker Daniel A. Nelson created the documentary film And So I Stayed to raise awareness about criminalized survival. This is the criminal justice system’s long practice of imprisoning survivors of intimate partner violence when they fight back against their abusers. Pattillo, herself a survivor, followed the stories of Kim Dadou Brown, Tanisha Davis and Nikki Addimando, women imprisoned for killing their abusers in a struggle to survive.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Natalie Pattillo, journalist and mother
* Daniel A. Nelson, filmmaker and cinematographer
Making Contact Team:
* Host: Amy Gastelum
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
* Executive Director: Jina Chung
* Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow
* Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Music Credits: via WFMU free music archive
* Poddington…
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Jul 19, 2023
Agitation to a System: Trans Resistance in Louisiana
Hundreds of bills targeting the trans and queer community have been introduced across state legislatures this year – a new record. Louisiana, like many other states, has seen a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ bills this session. But the state is somewhat of an outlier in the South, and activists have been successful in pushing back against these types of bills in the past. Sophie Ziegler joins today's episode to show us what legislative organizing looks like in the state – and what it can teach us about the fight for trans rights.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Sophie Ziegler, oral historian and legislative organizer in Louisiana, founder and director of the Solidarity History Initiative
* Pearl Ricks, reproductive rights organizer and executive director of the Reproductive Justice Action Collective
* Peyton Rose Michelle, executive director of Louisiana Trans Advocates and co-fo…
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Jul 12, 2023
The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story (Encore)
In this week's encore episode we hear from artist Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes about The Healing Project, an abolitionist art exhibition. The work explores the structures of systemic racism, particularly the prison industrial complex in the U.S. and takes multiple forms including music, films, community gatherings, and live performances. A digital library of audio interviews centers the project. The stories, experiences, and ideas from intergenerational individuals across the country, including folks who are incarcerated form the foundation for The Healing Project’s vision for societal transformation.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: Samora Pinderhughes, Keith Lamar, Sam, Cyril, Michelle, Pitt Panther
Making Contact Staff:
* Host: Anita Johnson
* Segment Editors: Jessica Partnow, Lucy Kang, Jacinda Abcarian
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy…
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Jul 5, 2023
What the SVB Failure Teaches us About Investment Banking (Encore)
The Silicon Valley Bank collapse brings with it memories of the wider 2008 economic crisis. Jeet Heer and John Nichols from The Nation join us to discuss the 2018 bank deregulations that set the stage for this moment and the risky investment strategy at the bank itself. They argue that bailout and FDIC's role in the collapse could set the stage for a dangerous economic future.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation; Jeet Heer, national affairs correspondent for The Nation
Host: Salima Hamirani
Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
Executive Director: Jina Chung
Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow
Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Music Credits:
Blue Dot Sessions - Boston Landing
Rocky Marciano - Chamem Me D
Dieter van der Westen - Heading for Bamako
Frequency Decree - Lithosphere
Learn More:…
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Jun 28, 2023
Revolutionary Mothering and Reproductive Justice (Encore)
In the mid 1990s, the Reproductive Justice movement was formed by Black and indigenous women as a response to the limitations of the "reproductive rights" movement. Movement leaders argue, "rarely do we find ourselves fighting for just one aspect of reproductive justice such as abortion rights" - SisterSong.
Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, scholar and writer, joined us to talk about her book Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines, her experience being a teenager during the formation of the Reproductive Justice Movement and what she's reading now to inform this moment.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Making Contact Staff:
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, Lucy Kang
* Host: Amy Gastelum
* Executive Director: Jina Chung
* Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow
* Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Music Credits: Catching Feelings…
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Jun 21, 2023
Powerlands
On this week's Making Contact, we feature an extended interview with Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a queer Diné filmmaker and director of the award-winning documentary Powerlands.
Powerlands traces how multinational energy corporations extract resources and profits while displacing and harming Indigenous communities around the world. The film follows Indigenous activists in Navajo Nation, Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines who are fighting back against corporations like Peabody Energy, Glencore and BHP.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, an award-winning queer Diné filmmaker and director of Powerlands
Host: Lucy Kang
Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
Executive Director: Jina Chung
Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow
Engineer: Jeff Emtman
This episode includes excerpts from the documentary film Powerlands.…
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Jun 14, 2023
A History of Development and Disruption: Hella Town
This week on Making Contact, we bring you a story of urban planning and how race has shaped American cities. In a new book, Hella Town: Oakland's History of Development and Disruption, Author Mitchell Schwarzer explores the origins and the lasting impacts of transportation improvements, systemic racism, and regional competition on Oakland's built environment. Schwarzer, an architectural and urban historian, pulls from his experience as a city planner, and educator to tell the story of a city divided.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: Mitchell Schwarzer is Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture at California College of the Arts. He has written books on architectural theory, visual perception, and the buildings of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Making Contact:
* Host: Anita Johnson
* Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang…
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Jun 7, 2023
The Fight Over the Indian Child Welfare Act Is Not Just A Custody Battle (ENCORE)
Haaland v. Brackeen is a lesser-known case in the docket for the Supreme Court, but it could overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). This would create massive implications for the laws that govern Indigenous sovereignty in the United States. We talk with author and activist Rebecca Nagle about the case of "Baby O" and the Librettis and how their story led to this case. We also investigate the money and interests behind the lawsuit. There's a lot at stake, maybe even the very nature of tribal laws, which were enshrined in the Constitution. The overturning of the ICWA is not just another custody battle.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Rebecca Nagle, Cherokee writer and advocate, reporter at The Nation, host of This Land
Making Contact Team:
* Host: Salima Hamirani
* Staff Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
* Executive Director:…
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May 31, 2023
Well Nourished: How Mutual Aid is Transforming Food Security for Single Moms in Ohio
Federal food programs, like WIC, face big changes coming out of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. Meanwhile, a single moms collective in Ohio holds it down for the single pregnant and parenting people in their community. Motherful's resource pantry serves their 325-strong membership out of a garage three times a week. We talk to members and founders to learn what's it's like to participate, how it all started and where food justice is headed for them now and in their wildest dreams.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Kay Riley, college student and Mom to baby Wisdom, Motherful Member
* Rugi Ngaide, Ohio supreme court translator, Mom, Motherful member
* Lisa Woodrow, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Motherful, Mom
* Heidi Howes - Co-Founder and Co-Director of Motherful, Mom
* Rebecca Piazza: Senior Advisor for Delivery, Food and Nutrition Service, Mo…
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May 24, 2023
Queens Memory Podcast- Seeing Signs
Today's episode debuts our partnership with the Queens Memory Podcast, a project archiving stories from the most diverse community in the U.S., Queens, New York. “Little Manila” is a Filipino neighborhood dating back to the 1970s, but it still struggles to find its political footing. The community's presence is strengthened through grassroots coalitions and community art, like the mural of the greeting "Mabuhay," a word that encompasses feelings of welcome and good wishes and at its most literal "LIVE!" We also hear from Filipino care workers about their experiences battling COVID 19, and the stereotype Filipina women face of being "natural nurturers" which doesn't translate into care for them in return.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: Potri Ranka Manis: Nurse, Activist and Artist; Joey Golja: Community Member; Mary Jane de Leon: Community Member; John Bahia: Community Member;…
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May 17, 2023
The Nakba: 75 Years On
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, or the "catastrophe" in Arabic. It refers both to the events starting in late 1947, when Zionist militias expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, and the ongoing destruction and occupation of their lands. Today, Palestinians continue to commemorate the Nakba by reclaiming their history, resisting the occupation, and calling for their right to return.
We start today's show with a story about how the desperation of life in Gaza under the Israeli blockade is forcing Palestinians to leave by sea. Then, we'll learn more about the history of the Nakba and the role that foreign powers like Britain and the United States have played.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: Rami Almeghari, Gaza-based journalist and poet; Marie Choi, former Making Contact producer and host; Rabab Abdulhadi, founding director and Senior Scholar of the A…
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May 10, 2023
70 Million: Grand Juries, The Black Box of Justice Reform?
Grand juries are supposed to safeguard against the government charging people with a crime when it lacks sufficient evidence. But because prosecutors control what happens in grand jury proceedings, they almost always get an indictment. That is, unless the accused is a police officer. This week on Making Contact, we hear a story from our podcast partner 70 Million about a case of police brutality in Dallas that evaporated after going before a grand jury in an edited version of “Grand Juries, The Black Box of Justice Reform?"
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring:
* Parker Nevilles, Jantzen Verastique, Dondi Morse - protestors targeted by police
* Ric Simmons, Professor, The Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law
* Roger Rudloff, police officer
* Unidentified Police Officer
* David Henderson, civil rights attorney
70 Million Team:
* Episode Reporter: Mark Betancourt…
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May 3, 2023
What the SVB Failure Teaches us About Investment Banking
The Silicon Valley Bank collapse brings with it memories of the wider 2008 economic crisis. Jeet Heer and John Nichols from The Nation join us to discuss the 2018 bank deregulations that set the stage for this moment and the risky investment strategy at the bank itself. They argue that bailout and FDIC's role in the collapse could set the stage for a dangerous economic future.
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!
Featuring: John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation; Jeet Heer, national affairs correspondent for The Nation
Host: Salima Hamirani
Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
Executive Director: Jina Chung
Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow
Engineer: Jeff Emtman
Music Credits:
Blue Dot Sessions - Boston Landing
Rocky Marciano - Chamem Me D
Dieter van der Westen - Heading for Bamako
Frequency Decree - Lithosphere
Learn More:…
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Apr 26, 2023
Self Managed Abortion: Medicine of the Future?
Abortion access is piecemeal and complex in the US. And while access to abortion volleys among the court system, the organization PlanCPills.org helps people access pills to manage their own abortions, despite confusing, mercurial laws.
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Apr 19, 2023
Toxic Tracks
On today's show, we'll be looking at the environmental impact of the rail industry and hear from people in two communities currently impacted by rail-related contamination. In February, a Suffolk Northern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and residents are still recovering from the disaster over two months later. In Houston's Fifth Ward, residents have been living with the dire health effects of creosote used to treat railroad ties decades ago.
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Apr 12, 2023
Saltwater Soundwalk: Indigenous Audio Tour of Seattle
On today's show, we'll travel to Seattle to hear indigenous voices and Coast Salish languages, and to reflect on the importance of the Salish Sea and connecting waters, by immersing ourselves in an audio experience called “Saltwater Soundwalk.”
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Apr 5, 2023
Ninety Seconds to Midnight
A new philosophy steeped in the ideas of Artificial Intelligence, space colonization, and the long-term survival of the human species is gaining ground among the wealthy. However, there are reasons to question its goals and its ethics. Longtermists believe that not only could we colonize space and create simulated humans in giant servers around stars, but that we must. Anything short of a trillion-year multi-planetary existence for our species would be a moral failing. They also believe that all of our ethical actions should focus on the countless lives that may exist in that dim future, instead of on the people alive today. Is this the kind of ethics we should all accept, however? Philosopher and historian Emile P Torres joins us to discuss Longtermism and its dangerous pitfalls.
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Mar 29, 2023
Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State
While wages have flatlined for most working class people, rents have reached new highs, leaving most people struggling. But it’s not just in the US. The rising cost of living is affected the entire world. Samuel Stein’s new book, Capital City and the Real Estate State, highlights the growing influence of investment capital into land as the driving force behind gentrification and the power developers have over city and local governments. We talk to Samuel about the rise of the global real estate market and we look at how radical city planning, rent control and socialized land projects can help fight gentrification.
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Mar 22, 2023
Blindspot:Tulsa Burning and Focus: Black Oklahoma
On this episode, we turn our focus to how journalists and historians today are covering the Tulsa Race Massacre. KalaLea, producer and host of the podcast series Blindspot: Tulsa Burning, talks about how she led coverage of the brutal 1921 attack on a prosperous Black Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma known as Black Wall Street. And, we'll hear from members of Tulsa's Tri-City Collective who continue to investigate the history there.
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Mar 15, 2023
Pandemic and Profit
To mark the three year anniversary of the official start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we'll be looking at two alternative supply chains for masks that emerged in the fallout of the Trump administration's failure to prepare.
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Mar 8, 2023
70 Million: Why Policing Our Schools Backfires
On today's show, we hear a story from our podcast partner 70 Million about the relationship between students with special needs and school resource officers and the changes some would like to see in an edited version of “Why Policing Our Schools Backfires."
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Mar 2, 2023
Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice (Encore)
We talk to Raj Patel and Rupa Marya about their book "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice."
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Feb 23, 2023
Behind The Sound with Making Contact
In this episode, long-time producers Anita Johnson and Salima Hamirani introduce the newest members of the Making Contact team, recap highlights from the past year, and preview what to expect from the show in 2023.
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Feb 16, 2023
Angelic Troublemaker: Bayard Rustin ENCORE
On today's show, we bring you a special encore episode from our archives to honor Black history and heritage. We take a look at the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, one of the most central figures in the African American struggle for civil rights and freedom. Rustin was a pacifist, a gay man, and a practitioner of nonviolence who dedicated his life to racial equality, economic justice and ending warfare. This program first aired on Making Contact in 2021.
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Feb 9, 2023
The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story
This week on Making Contact we bring you to "The Healing Project," a multimedia installation that shares stories from incarcerated people about how the trauma of imprisonment has impacted their lives and families.
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Feb 1, 2023
The Fight Over The Indian Child Welfare Act Is Not Just A Custody Battle
On the face of it, the legal arguments at the Supreme Court over the Indian Child Welfare Act seem to be a custody battle over Native children and the right to adopt them by white parents. But, the funding behind the court case hints at something deeper and could dismantle indigenous sovereignty as we know it.
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Jan 26, 2023
The Response: Mutual Aid with Joshua Potash
Joshua Potash, a New York City-based anti-capitalist abolitionist discusses the history and theory behind mutual aid with our partners at The Response Podcast.
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Jan 19, 2023
Upstream: Worker Cooperatives
On today's show we learn about worker cooperatives: what are they and can they offer an alternative to the dominant capitalist mindset? Our partner podcast Upstream brings us to a bike and skate shop in Richmond, CA that's providing a much-needed service to its community, while also empowering its own workers, in this story that first aired in 2018.
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Jan 11, 2023
70 Million: Punished and Persecuted for Being Unhoused, Part 2
This week on Making Contact we continue with our look at a community of unhoused people in Echo Park in Los Angeles, California and how they were forcibly evicted by police despite an enormous show of support from protesters. Thanks to our podcast partners at 70 Million we bring you part two of “Punished and Persecuted for Being Unhoused.”
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Jan 5, 2023
70 Million: Punished and Persecuted for Being Unhoused, Part 1
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Dec 27, 2022
Fallen Heroes 2022
Thousands of social justice leaders in communities all over the world passed away this year.
We're closing out the year, as we usually do, with inspiring words from some of the Fallen Heroes of 2022.
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Dec 21, 2022
Two Revolutions, Many Secrets (Encore)
In the midst of our stress and trauma dealing with the sometimes harsh realities of life, its hard to imagine what stories we will ultimately tell our children and grandchildren. This week's Making Contact is about two strong women who survived historic trauma, and the stories they later told their families.
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Dec 14, 2022
The A Word
This week, we explore an often-overlooked issue in the Arab world; racism towards Black Arabs. In this episode, Kerning Culture reporter Ahmed Twaij looks at racism in his own community, taking us from his Iraqi roots, through to modern day slurs still commonly used in many Arab communities around the world.
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Dec 8, 2022
Web Extra: Interview with Rebecca Piazza, USDA
In this special mini-episode, producer Amy Gastelum sits down with Rebecca Piazza to learn more about WIC, and what the program is doing to try and increase its low participation rates.
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Dec 8, 2022
Well Nourished: How Mutual Aid is Transforming Food Security for Single Moms in Ohio
Federal food programs, like WIC, face big changes coming out of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. Meanwhile, a single moms collective in Ohio holds it down for the single pregnant and parenting people in their community. Motherful's resource pantry serves their 325-strong membership out of a garage three times a week. We talk to members and founders to learn what's it's like to participate, how it all started and where food justice is headed for them now and in their wildest dreams.
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Nov 30, 2022
How To Hold Back The Ocean (Encore)
As climate change melts the polar ice caps and raises sea levels, how will we adapt? We visit two locations: On Sapelo Island Georgia, the last remaining Gullah Geechee community fights to save their ancestral lands from the flood waters. Instead of leaving their land, or building a giant sea wall, they've chosen to use oysters to create what's called a living shoreline. We take a look at how they're built and if they're working. Meanwhile, in New York, the Army Corps wants to construct seagates to protect the city from another Hurricane Sandy. But, the gates could have massive ecological repercussions and, they might not even work. Scientists think there's a better way to work with the local ecology and protect residents.
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Nov 23, 2022
The Way Home (Encore)
What does food mean to identities struggling against colonialism and displacement? First, we visit the Blackfeet Nation in Montana as members of Indigikitchen harvest bison and talk about Native food systems. Then, we head to Bloomington, Indiana where a young archeology professor has brought methods of growing and sharing food from the deeper past to a modern Latino diaspora.
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Nov 17, 2022
Post-Roe Abortion Access from The Response Part 2
Mutual aid efforts to provide pregnancy prevention and medical abortion in post-Roe southern United States.
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Nov 8, 2022
Post-Roe Abortion Access from The Response Part 1
Our friends from the podcast The Response bring us their piece Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice in a Post-Roe Landscape, plus a quick update on how the issue of abortion access impacted the 2022 midterms.
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Nov 1, 2022
Ollas Populares- Lessons from Lockdowns
Groups all over Latin America turn to the age-old practice of communal cooking to feed citizens during pandemic lockdowns. A Buenos Aires arts organization solidifies their community, and a Peruvian architect brings new ways of building to the hillsides of Lima.
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Oct 27, 2022
70 Million: Tribal Land, Banishment, Rehabilitation and Re-Entry
This week on Making Contact - with assistance from our podcast partners, 70 million - we head to the state of Alaska, where rising violent crime and substance abuse have increased incarceration rates among Native Americans. Making use of their legal sovereignty, some Alaskan Native leaders issue “blue tickets,” documents that sentence offenders to legal expulsion. Journalist Emily Schwing looked into these banishment practices and their impacts on those affected by both tribal and state criminal justice systems.
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Oct 20, 2022
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story Part 2 (Encore)
We revisit a major race debate within the Romance Writers of America that began in 2019 and talk about why questions of race in art and in institutions are so relevant in today's America. This is a two part series.
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Oct 12, 2022
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story Part 1 (Encore)
We revisit a major race debate within the Romance Writers of America that began in 2019 and talk about why questions of race in art and in institutions are so relevant in today's America. This is a two part series.
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Oct 5, 2022
Where There’s Smoke: Asthma, Wildfires, and Fossil Fuels (Encore)
One child’s experience in a neighborhood with high asthma rates and other health challenges.
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Sep 29, 2022
Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice
We talk to Raj Patel and Rupa Marya about their new book "Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice."
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Sep 21, 2022
Revolutionary Mothering and Reproductive Justice
In today's episode, Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs tells the birth story of the book she co-edited with China Martens and Mai'a Williams, Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines and gives context to the book with stories of the Reproductive Justice Movement.
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Sep 14, 2022
Viva Brother Nagi from Kerning Cultures
Nagi Daifallah was a young farm worker from Yemen who participated in the 1973 Grape Strike along with the UFW until he was murdered by a Sheriff. We visit his story via our friends at Kerning Cultures.
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Sep 7, 2022
A History of Traditional Root Healing (Encore)
In some parts of the world, traditional herbal remedies are the norm. When we think of natural remedies we tend to think of older generations living in remote areas, in far away countries, with little access to modern healthcare. We rarely think about the ancient medicinal plants that might exist in our very own cities. On today's episode we look at plant and herb medicines through the lens of Michele E. Lee the author of Working The Roots.
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Sep 2, 2022
The Response: Heatwaves and Energy Poverty in the Mediterranean
In today’s episode, we’re going to focus on energy poverty. When temperatures rise to the point where they become dangerous, what happens to people who can’t escape the heat? As temperatures continue to soar and extreme heatwaves become the norm, a lack of resources to stay cool — so, having access to things like air conditioning, for example, — is a huge issue across the world. To find out how people are fighting energy poverty, we visit southern Europe, a region that experienced a series of record-breaking, climate-fueled heatwaves this past summer. Today’s episode comes to us from our friends at The Response podcast.
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Aug 24, 2022
70 Million – Forget Reform, They Want Abolition
Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.
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Aug 18, 2022
The Way Home
What does food mean to identities struggling against colonialism and displacement? First, we visit the Blackfeet Nation in Montana as members of Indigikitchen harvest bison and talk about native food systems. Then, we head to Bloomington, Indiana where a young archeology professor has brought methods of growing and sharing food from the deeper past to a modern Latino diaspora.
playlist_add
Aug 11, 2022
Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State
While wages have flatlined for most working-class people, rents have reached new highs, leaving most people struggling. But it’s not just in the US. The rising cost of living has affected the entire world. Samuel Stein’s new book, Capital City and the Real Estate State, highlights the growing influence of investment capital into land as the driving force behind gentrification and the power developers have over city and local governments. We talk to Samuel about the rise of the global real estate market and we look at how radical city planning, rent control and socialized land projects can help fight gentrification.
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Aug 3, 2022
Hunger Strike! How Immigrant Taxi Drivers Took on City Hall
New York City taxi drivers were drowning in debt because they had to buy their licenses from the city. We join our friends at the podcast Self-Evident to take a look at the hunger strike they used to renegotiate the terms of their debt.
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Jul 27, 2022
Escape to Cairo from Kerning Cultures
This week, we bring you a story from our podcast partner Kerning Cultures about Patrice Lumumba’s children, and their escape to Cairo.
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Jul 21, 2022
How to Hold Back the Ocean
More and more coastal communities want to build sea walls to prevent catastrophic flooding because of rising sea levels. But do they work? We talk about the risks of the planned seagates in New York and we visit Sapelo Island Georgia to learn about how to Gullah Geechee community plans to defend their ancestral lands by using a natural shoreline, built of oysters.
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Jul 14, 2022
70 Million: When "Bail Reform" Isn't
This week on Making Contact, we look at Bail Reform in the state of Texas with the help of our podcast partners 70 Million. For conservative lawmakers and bail reform advocates have long debated what bail reform can look like for those who cannot afford to bail themselves out of jail.
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Jul 6, 2022
Juristac and the Amah Mutsun: Indigenous Resistance and Regeneration (Encore)
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Jun 30, 2022
White Hoax: Racism, Divide-and-Conquer, and Politics
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Jun 22, 2022
Seeking Shelter: Building Housing and Community for LGBTQ Elders (Encore)
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors are much more likely than their straight counterparts to be alone and isolated as they age. Housing and support for these elders is a growing need--and the issue is not confined to the United States. In this edition, we'll visit Jakarta Indonesia, and Los Angeles, California, to hear stories of building housing and community for LGBTQ seniors.
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Jun 15, 2022
I Am Because I Am: The Expansion of Gender Identity (Encore)
Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the Web at www.radioproject.org.
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Jun 9, 2022
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story Part 2
We revisit a major race debate within the Romance Writers of America that began in 2019 and talk about why questions of race in art and in institutions are so relevant in today's America. This is a two part series.
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Jun 1, 2022
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story Part 1
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May 25, 2022
Jerusalem Calling from Kerning Cultures
The Palestine Broadcasting Service started airing in 1936, from a brand new transmitter tower in Ramallah. It was a British station in three languages, aimed at promoting the message of the mandate government throughout the region. But over the following decades, as Palestine saw political upheavals, bloody conflicts and power shifts, the radio station found itself in the middle of it all, and became a unique capsule of the events that lead up to the Nakba. This story originally aired on Kerning Cultures, a podcast telling stories from across the Middle East and North Africa and the spaces in between.
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May 18, 2022
Escaping The Narcissism of The American Dream
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May 10, 2022
22-19 “The Pseudo-Science of Whiteness: Biology as a Social Weapon ENCORE” POD
Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.
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May 3, 2022
Angelic Troublemaker: Bayard Rustin
On today's program we honor Bayard Rustin, one of the most central figures in the African American struggle for Civil Rights and Freedom. Rustin was a pacifist, homosexual and practitioner of nonviolence who dedicated his life to racial equality, economic justice and ending warfare.
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Apr 27, 2022
re:Work - Redemption
This episode explores the story of Billy Taing, a Cambodian refugee who got caught up in the US criminal justice system at a young age.
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Apr 20, 2022
Operation Boulder from Kerning Cultures
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Apr 13, 2022
Unequal Justice: the Criminalization of Black Youth
Nearly two thirds of all children in the U.S. juvenile justice system are kids of color. That’s according to a report by the Children’s Defense Fund. In this episode of Making Contact, we’ll hear from Dr. Kris Henning on the disparities faced by Black youth in the juvenile justice system.
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Apr 6, 2022
70 Million: When a State Treats Drug Addiction Like a Health Issue, Not a Crime
A year ago, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize drug possession. The goal is to reverse some of the negative impacts of the War on Drugs by approaching drug use from a health-centered basis. Reporter Cecilia Brown visits an addiction and recovery center in Portland that’s gearing up for what they hope will be an influx of people seeking treatment.
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Mar 30, 2022
Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State
Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the Web at www.radioproject.org.
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Mar 23, 2022
Generation Putin, Ten Years Later
This week, Making Contact’s Jessica Partnow offers a look at the state of Russian youth activism from 2012 to today. She revisits her reporting from Ukraine and Russia and speaks with the people in those stories against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine today. In the first part of the show she shares the story of re-connecting with her childhood pen pal Sasha, a Ukrainian boy who witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union and is now fighting to protect his country from the Russian invasion, through the eyes of his younger sister Anna who is now living in the US and desperately trying to stay connected with her Ukrainian family and friends under siege. After the break, we meet Vassili, a Muscovite who has always been proud of his country but is now grappling with a grim view of its future.
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Mar 16, 2022
Juristac and the Amah Mutsun: Indigenous Resistance and Regeneration
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Mar 9, 2022
Medical Apartheid and the COVID-19 vaccines (Encore)
Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the Web at www.radioproject.org.
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Mar 8, 2022
Special Mini Episode: Interview with Jeremy Menchik, COVID Moderna trial participant
Jeremy Menchik volunteered for Moderna’s vaccine trials, wanting to help end the COVID pandemic. However, as Moderna continues to hold patent rights and refuses to openly share their vaccine technology, Jeremy began to feel conflicted. He has since publicly quit as a volunteer and urges others to do the same, until everyone can freely access the vaccine. Listen to our interview with Jeremy on this special edition of Making Contact, an extra to our larger show on vaccine equality.
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Mar 2, 2022
She's Beautiful When She's Angry
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Feb 23, 2022
Re:Work Soul Force, Part 1
On Dec. 11, 2021, the UCLA Labor Center’s historic MacArthur Park building was officially named the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, in honor of a civil and worker rights icon who has been teaching at UCLA for the last 2 decades. In this episode of Re:Work, 93-year-old Rev. Lawson shares stories from his youth, and how he came to discover soul force and the path of nonviolence.
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Feb 16, 2022
It’s Magic: Birth Justice and Black Maternal Health (Encore)
Through the work and birth stories of midwife Allegra Hill, the producers of Re:Work Radio explain how Black midwives in Los Angeles are helping women to experience empowered births.
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Feb 2, 2022
Black Women In History (Encore)
While Black women have played a critical role in the development of the nation, their stories have been mostly overlooked. In the new book, A Black Women’s History of the United States, historians Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross honor the many significant contributions of Black women who have worked tirelessly to build this country and fight for social justice in the face of racism and sexism.
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Jan 26, 2022
Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid-19 and Prisons (ENCORE)
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Jan 19, 2022
Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid 19 and Prisons - Encore
In this encore episode, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release inmates in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. In part one, we focus on California. We take a look at why a prison, like San Quentin, is such a perfect environment for infectious diseases, especially an airborne one like COVID-19, how we might safely release large amounts of inmates across the prison system, and what we’ve learned from past release programs like realignment.
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Jan 12, 2022
70 Million: An Effort to Hold Prosecutors Accountable
A legal matrix that incentivizes criminal convictions can motivate unethical prosecutors to bend or break the rules. In New York, a group of law professors is trying to curb that by pushing the system to discipline its own. Reported by Nina Sparling.
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Jan 5, 2022
Re:Work Radio: Stranded
When India went into lockdown in 2020, millions of jobs disappeared and tens of millions of migrant workers struggled to get home, often on foot. Many died attempting the journey. This week, we bring you the story of one man who left his village as a child to earn money to support his family.
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Dec 29, 2021
Fallen Heroes, 2021
In our annual Fallen Heroes episode, we share words of inspiration from, and about some lesser-known grassroots activists who passed away in 2021.
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Dec 22, 2021
Making Contact 2021 Spotlight
In this special year-end episode, Making Contact producers and staff turn the spotlight on some the best shows they aired in 2021.
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Dec 16, 2021
Medical Apartheid and the COVID-19 vaccines
The world is struggling to contain COVID-19, as variants continue to emerge in countries where the virus is spreading unchecked, killing thousands. Not only could widespread vaccination campaigns help slow the virus, they would save countless lives. So why can’t countries in the global south access the novel COVID-19 vaccines? We take a deep dive into the world of international patents and talk about what needs to change in order to create a more just, global, medical system.
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Dec 8, 2021
But Next Time, Episode 4: Higher Ground
When communities face the aftermath of catastrophes, what does it take to ensure that the next time will be different? In Houston, it takes a city council member who bicycles in her neighborhood to hear from constituents about what they need most. It takes 12 moms who organize to take legal action against the landlords that have kept their families in moldy, substandard apartments. In this fourth episode of the podcast But Next Time hosts Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta head back to Houston to meet organizers making a difference.
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Dec 1, 2021
But Next Time, Episode 3: Rising Waters
In cities around the globe community organizers and direct service agencies are often the first line of response when a climate fueled natural disaster strikes. In this third episode of the podcast But Next Time we meet organizers in Houston and Puerto Rico whose shared experiences of hurricane response bind them together in the effort to assure next time things will be different.
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Nov 30, 2021
A special message from the Making Contact Board of Directors
We’re popping into your feed today with a quick announcement for fans of Making Contact. We know you love the show, and right now we’ve got an extra special opportunity for your support to go twice as far.
Every donation you send to Making Contact through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch! And if you sign up as a new monthly sustainer, your donation will be matched all year long.
You can visit our donation page to make your gift right away, or click to listen to this special year-end message from our board of directors.
https://makingcontact.networkforgood.com/projects/39193-making-contact-year-round
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Nov 24, 2021
Beyond Recognition: The Ohlone (Encore)
Our radio adaptation of the film Beyond Recognition by Underexposed films, "After decades struggling to protect her ancestors’ burial places, a Native woman from a non-federally recognized Ohlone tribe and her allies occupy a sacred site to prevent its desecration. They then vow to follow a new path- to establish the first women-led urban Indigenous land trust.
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Nov 17, 2021
70 Million: Where Juvenile Detention Looks More Like Hanging Out
There’s a place in rural St. Johns, Arizona, where teens who have encounters with officers of the law can play pool, make music, and get mentored instead of going to jail. It’s called The Loft, and it’s the brainchild of a judge who wanted to save the county hundreds of millions of dollars and divert young people towards the support many were not getting at home.
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Nov 10, 2021
A History of Traditional Root Healing
In some parts of the world, traditional herbal remedies are the norm. When we think of natural remedies we tend to think of older generations living in remote areas, in far away countries, with little access to modern healthcare. We rarely think about the ancient medicinal plants that might exist in our very own cities. On today's episode we look at plant and herb medicines through the lens of Michele E. Lee the author of Working The Roots.
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Nov 3, 2021
Re:Work Radio: Trafficked, the Journey of Lester Ramos (Encore)
One of the most common forms of trafficking is labor trafficking. In this episode, Re:Work Radio brings you the story of Lester Ramos and his journey from the Philippines. Later in the broadcast, we hear from Filipino migration expert, Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, on the circumstances in the Philippines and the US that drive Filipinos to work abroad.
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Oct 27, 2021
U.S. Anti-Torture History After 9/11
In today’s program, sociology professor Lisa Hajjar traces the rise and fall of torture after 9/11. She examines the ways in which torture and the fight against it have altered the legal terrain on torture in the United States, and potentially on a global scale.
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Oct 20, 2021
70 Million: How Black Women Are Rightfully “Taking Seats at the Table”
Nearly one in two Black women in the US have a loved one who has been impacted by our prison system. Many become de facto civilian experts as a result. Some rise to lead as catalysts for change. And now, scores of Black women are joining the ranks—as officers of the court, police, and judges—to manage and advance a system that has had such an outsized impact on their lives. On today's episode we look at the many ways Black women are leading the conversation around policy and reform within the criminal justice system.
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Oct 12, 2021
But Next Time Part 2: From the Ashes
As fires ravaged California's world-famous wine country in 2017, a community radio station, emergency dispatcher, and tenant organizers helped the most vulnerable in their community survive and recover. Community organizers and hosts of the podcasts But Next Time Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta bring us the first of four stories of hard-won lessons learned from people on the frontlines of California’s wildfires and Texas’ storms as they work to answer the question, how can next time be different?
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Oct 6, 2021
But Next Time Part 1: Toward the Fire
As fires ravaged California's world-famous wine country in 2017,a community radio station, emergency dispatcher, and tenant organizers helped the most vulnerable in their community survive and recover. Community organizers and hosts of the podcasts But Next Time Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta bring us the first of four stories of hard-won lessons learned from people on the frontlines of California’s wildfires and Texas’ storms as they work to answer the question, how can next time be different?
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Sep 29, 2021
A More Perfect Union: Latinos, Minority Majorities, and Redistricting
How will demographic shifts affect redistricting in 2021?
Latinos are the second largest ethnic group in the U.S. In California, the Latinos grew to 39% of the population, surpassing whites as the largest ethnic group. Meanwhile, the white population decreased nationwide for the first time.
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Sep 22, 2021
Black Women In History
While Black women have played a critical role in the development of the nation, their stories have been mostly overlooked. In the new book, A Black Women’s History of the United States, historians Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross honor the many significant contributions of Black women who have worked tirelessly to build this country and fight for social justice in the face of racism and sexism.
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Sep 15, 2021
It’s Magic: Birth Justice and Black Maternal Health
Through the work and birth stories of midwife, Allegra Hill, the producers of Re:Work Radio explain how Black midwives in Los Angeles are helping women to experience empowered births.
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Sep 8, 2021
September 11th 20 Years Later: Surveillance, Policing, and Torture
September 11th, 2021 marks 20 years since the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Today, we turn our attention not to the tragedy of 9/11 itself, but to 9/11 as an inflection point in U.S. culture and policy in two areas: domestic surveillance in the form of fusion centers, and the rise and fall of the use of torture in the War on Terror.
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Sep 2, 2021
Life During Covid
The COVID 19 pandemic has transformed all of our lives in some way. But some are feeling the impacts more than others. Take healthcare workers, for example: As the United States surpasses 38 million COVID-19 cases and 637,000 deaths as of August 28th, 2021, many healthcare workers continue to be overloaded by caring for COVID-19 patients. Globally, COVID-19 has presented unique challenges, leading to increased mental health issues among healthcare workers.
Others are feeling the impacts while struggling to find or maintain housing, and balance parenting during the pandemic.
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Aug 25, 2021
Frontline East LA: The Chicano Moratorium 50 Years Later (Encore)
Fifty-one years ago, 30,000 people peacefully protested the disproportionate number of Latinos dying on the frontlines in Vietnam. The August 29th Chicano Moratorium ended with an attack by police, 400 arrests, and the deaths of four people, one of whom was Los Angeles Times journalist Rubén Salazar.
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Aug 18, 2021
The Response: The Fight for Justice after the Grenfell Tower Fire
On June 14, 2017, a fire started in a 24-story public housing apartment in West London called Grenfell Tower. The fire raged all night and reduced the building to a shell. Seventy-two people lost their lives, making the Grenfell Tower fire the United Kingdom’s deadliest disaster since World War II. In this episode, we examine the events that led up to the Grenfell Tower fire and learn how the community has responded through the voices of survivors, their families, and others who were impacted.
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Aug 4, 2021
The World’s Largest Methanol Refinery (and the fight to stop it) - Encore
Barbara Bernstein’s story of several communities in the Pacific Northwest of the United States who are fighting mammoth fracked gas projects that would turn this green region into a fracked-gas export hub. For years, Bernstein has reported for Making Contact on David versus Goliath battles against oil and gas corporations, and the fight for a clean environment. Today you’ll hear part one of Bernstein’s project, Holding The Thin Green Line as we bring you, The World’s Largest Methanol Refinery.
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Jul 28, 2021
Locked Down and Loaded: The 2020 Gun Surge and Violence Prevention (Encore)
Regardless of race, gender, or political affiliation, Americans in 2020 bought guns; many, for the first time. In this show, we hear from gun and mental health communities on last year’s panic buying, and what they are doing to prevent gun violence and suicides in the wake of surging national gun sales.
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Jul 21, 2021
The Many Faces of Justice: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls of North America (Encore)
As reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate, missing and murdered indigenous women and girls continue to face an unequal system of justice. In this show we’ll hear from indigenous women scholars and activists on what justice means for MMIWG2.
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Jul 14, 2021
Symbols of Resistance Part Two: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement (Encore)
Our radio adaptation of the film Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement, offers a reflection on the untold stories of the Chicano Movement with a focus on Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Produced by Freedom Archives, the film delves into issues of cultural identity, student activism; land rights and social justice, in the face of police oppression.
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Jul 7, 2021
Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chicano Movement, Part One - Encore
Our radio adaptation of the film Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chicano Movement, offers a reflection on the untold stories of the Chicano Movement with a focus on Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Produced by Freedom Archives, the film delves into issues of cultural identity, student activism; land rights and social justice, in the face of police oppression.
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Jul 1, 2021
George Floyd Anniversary & Reimagining Public Safety: Special YES!/PNS Report
Minneapolis, MN - May 25 marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Floyd's death - captured on video that showed Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes - sparked a global uprising in defense of Black lives and against police brutality. But amid the coverage of protests in the wake of Floyd's death, media attention rarely focused on the ways communities impacted by police violence were organizing to keep each other safe, in Minneapolis and beyond.
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Jun 23, 2021
Grace Lee Boggs: Sister Revolutionary (Updated Encore)
On today's program we honor the life and legacy of civil rights activist Grace Lee Boggs through the lens of the documentary film, American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. Produced and directed by Grace Lee.
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Jun 16, 2021
Where There’s Smoke: Asthma, Wildfires, and Fossil Fuels
We bring you one little girl’s experience in a neighborhood with high asthma rates and other health challenges. We also look at one part of Southern California that is bombarded with pollutants from oil refineries, a trucking thoroughfare, and one of the world’s largest ocean ports.
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Jun 10, 2021
Angelic Troublemaker: Bayard Rustin
On today's program we honor Bayard Rustin, one of the most central figures in the African American struggle for Civil Rights and Freedom. Rustin was a pacifist, homosexual and practitioner of nonviolence who dedicated his life to racial equality, economic justice and ending warfare.
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Jun 2, 2021
Lessons From Defund the Police
It's been a year since the call to "Defund the Police" rang out through the George Floyd Protests. The idea isn't new - redistributing police funds into community projects that better support healthy communities -but, it's never been as popular and forceful. We take a look at some of the gains organizers have made over the past year and, we talk about the challenges
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May 26, 2021
Locked Down and Loaded
2020 and the first few months of 2021 are shaping up to be some of the biggest periods ever for U.S. firearms sales. In California, however, gun sales last year decreased slightly. In this episode we hear from members of the gun and mental health communities on what they are doing to help prevent gun violence in the wake of surging national gun sales.
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May 19, 2021
Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm (Encore)
Three years after Hurricane Maria hit, Puerto Ricans are still reeling from its effects and aftereffects. We bring you a Haymarket Books talk by Marisol LeBrón, Yarimar Bonilla, and Molly Crabapple, on a collection of essays called “Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm” which discusses the legacy of Maria, and also community organizing in the face of government abandonment. This piece includes clips from the Short Film : "Aftershocks of Disaster," directed by Juan C. Dávila, and produced by Yarimar Bonilla.
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May 6, 2021
Domestic Violence in Lockdown: COVID-19and the UK’s Domestic Abuse Bill
Domestic abuse affects everyone it touches—intimate partners, children, and elders. COVID-19 created new problems for victims of domestic violence and made some worse. This show looks at the challenges to survivors and their advocates posed by the pandemic and examines a landmark piece of legislation in the UK that could change the way countries there handle domestic abuse cases.
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Apr 29, 2021
70Million: Where Housing, Not Jails, Is the Answer to Homelessness
This week on Making Contact, we look at so-called quality of life laws that criminalize unhoused individuals and entangles them in a cycle of poverty and incarceration—and how advocacy groups are breaking the cycle.
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Apr 20, 2021
Wolves at the Well: The Corporate Grab of Public Water (Encore)
Water is critical to maintaining the balance of life. Some corporations claim ownership of fresh water sources to bottle and sell for profit. Others use water as a tool to extract oil and gas. In this encore edition, we'll hear from communities fighting to keep water bottling companies out of rural Oregon, and to protect water from oil and gas contamination in New Mexico.
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Apr 14, 2021
Movement Building and Transnational Freedom Struggles
Amid national outrage over the police killing of George Floyd in May of 2020, and other police-shootings of Black people, the movement to "defund the police" became a rallying cry to reimagine our approach to public safety. In this show, we'll hear from scholars about how we can build a global movement for abolition.
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Apr 7, 2021
Self Evident: Hate Goes Viral
We take a look at the ongoing rise in hate incidents against Asians in the U.S., a long-running history of anti-Asian racism, and a new push by Asian Americans — especially in underserved communities — to expose and overcome this ugly side of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode (the first of a three-part series by Self Evident), we hear the stories of these two Asian Americans on the frontlines of anti-Asian hate. Then, with a little help from researcher and activist Melissa Borja, we unpack the impact of these hate incidents and how Asian Americans are responding to them across the country.
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Mar 31, 2021
The Many Faces of Justice: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls of North America
As reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate, missing and murdered indigenous women and girls continue to face an unequal system of justice. In this show we’ll hear from indigenous women scholars and activists on what justice means for MMIWG2.
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Mar 24, 2021
Women Rising Radio: Election Protection and Democracy Part Two
Women Rising Radio re-visits the 2020 election year, to assess the outcomes and talk with those who made those outcomes happen, the grassroots election protection and GOTV activists. This is Part 2 of Women Rising Radio’s two part programming on “Election Protection Advocates”. (Part Two - #39 is Part One)
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Mar 17, 2021
Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid-19 and Prisons
In a two-part series, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release inmates in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. For Part 2, we talk about why vaccines aren’t an effective solution to ending COVID in prisons, and we also look at how re-entry has become harder during the pandemic. Then we head to a South Florida jail to learn why activists want to end pre-trial detention.
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Mar 10, 2021
Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid 19 and Prisons
In a two-part series, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release inmates in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. In part one, we focus on California. We take a look at why a prison, like San Quentin, is such a perfect environment for infectious diseases, especially an airborne one like COVID-19, how we might safely release large amounts of inmates across the prison system, and what we’ve learned from past release programs like realignment. This story has been supported by the Omnia Foundation and the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems.
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Mar 3, 2021
Activism and The Fight for Black Trans Lives (Encore)
This week we look at transgender activism and the call for inclusion in the movement for Black lives. We'll also meet Trans activists in Louisiana who have been organizing against a state law that has been used to target trans women.
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Feb 24, 2021
The Pseudo-Science of Whiteness: Biology as a Social Weapon
This week, filmmaker Stephanie Welch explores the role that racist, unscientific propaganda has played in promoting white supremacy in the U.S. She traces the history of the Pioneer Fund, the primary funding source for research that claims to demonstrate that people of color are genetically and intellectually inferior.
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Feb 18, 2021
Geraldine's Story: How Public Schools Are Failing Black Students with Dyslexia
Black students with dyslexia carry a heavy burden in public schools. This program centers around a grandmother who fought for years to get her grandkids properly assessed for dyslexia. Like too many African American boys, Geraldine Robinson’s grandson was erroneously labeled with an “intellectual disability.”
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Feb 11, 2021
Canada's Slavery Secret
This week we take a look at Canada and its history of Black enslavement. Canada, our northern neighbor, is rarely mentioned when we talk about the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In fact, we often equate Canada with being the safe space where Blacks escaped US slavery - the final stop on the underground railroad, so to speak.
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Feb 3, 2021
Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible
Today on Making Contact, we present the film Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible. The film takes us on the transformational journey of white men and women who overcome issues of unconscious bias and entitlement. Producer, Dr. Shakti Butler explores what is required to move through stages of denial, to awareness, to making a solid commitment to end racial injustice.
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Jan 28, 2021
One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps
"Honorable people can do terrible things" says Andrea Pitzer in her book "One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps." We talk to Andrea Pitzer about her research as she traces the evolution of the camp, from its earliest incarnation in Cuba to its modern day forms in China, Burma and Guantanamo. What is a concentration camp? Why are they so deadly? And most importantly, what do we do to fight them?
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Jan 20, 2021
President Biden and America's Expectation
Today, a divided nation experiences one of the most tumultuous presidential transitions in US history. Leaders from marginalized communities across the nation are watching, with cautious optimism, as Biden and Harris seek to tackle several serious crises amid a raging pandemic.
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Jan 13, 2021
The Fallen of 2020 (Encore)
This year on making contact, instead of our normal end of year show commemorating movement leaders we've lost, and highlighting their work, we remember victims of police murders who didn't receive as much coverage, and activists who succumbed to COVID-19.
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Jan 6, 2021
70 Million: How the Asylum ProcessBecame Another Carceral Matrix
The Trump administration has issued numerous policies to systematically dismantle asylum as a legal right. They're also locking up asylum seekers for months or years, until they either win their case, are returned to their home countries, or self deport. Reporters Valeria Fernández and Jude Joffe-Block follow two asylum seekers as they endure detention, legal cases, and family separation in the US, where they sought refuge.
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Dec 31, 2020
The Fallen of 2020
2020 was a tumultuous year rocked by two twin plagues: police violence which led to the George Floyd protests and continued discussions about police brutality and of course the novel disease COVID-19. Normally here at Making Contact, we look back on movement leaders we've lost over the year in order to pay them tribute and honor their lifetime of work. But this year, we're commemorating those we've lost to police killings who might not have received as much media coverage in part one of our show, and in part two, we remember organizers and activists who died because of COVID.
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Dec 23, 2020
The Pandemic, Loss and Racial Inequity
According to the CDC, Blacks and Latinos are 3 times as likely to die from COVID as their white counterparts. This disproportionate harm has sparked a response from community organizers and researchers alike. Up next on Making Contact we turn our attention to those Americans who are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus fallout.
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Dec 16, 2020
The Deep: Rising Sea Levels and Corporate Control of Water (Encore)
On this episode of Making Contact, we look at the privatization of our earth’s most precious resource – water. People around the world have been organizing against this privatization in the face of climate change and rising sea levels that threaten to contaminate our limited drinking water supplies.
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Dec 9, 2020
Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm
Three years after Hurricane Maria hit, Puerto Ricans are still reeling from its effects and aftereffects. We bring you a Haymarket Books talk by Marisol LeBrón, Yarimar Bonilla, and Molly Crabapple, on a collection of essays called “Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm” which discusses the legacy of Maria, and also community organizing in the face of government abandonment. This piece includes clips from the Short Film : "Aftershocks of Disaster," directed by Juan C. Dávila, and produced by Yarimar Bonilla.
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Dec 3, 2020
On the Brink: Homelessness before and during COVID-19 (Encore)
Most of us have a home to shelter in place during COVID -19. But what about the homeless? We take a look at life on the street before COVID-19, following two women as they undergo several evictions from encampments. And then we talk about the specific challenges the homeless face during COVID-19 and what we can do to fix the housing crisis.
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Nov 24, 2020
Language Is Life, Land Is Sacred (Encore)
Making Contact's Community Storytelling Fellows Vincent Medina and Isabella Zizi share deep and personal stories on Native American organizing and activism on Ohlone lands in the Bay area.
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Nov 18, 2020
#SayHerName: Black Women, Police Violence, and Abolition
Why is that the deaths of Black women at the hands of police don’t seem to generate as much outrage as the deaths of Black men? Is it because Black women are valued less? Is it a combination of reasons? Or is it just a figment of some people’s imagination?
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Nov 11, 2020
The Electoral College’s Dirty History (Encore)
Given the election, and the difference between popular votes and electoral votes, we revisit our show on the Electoral College. It’s history in the era of slavery, and how it works today.
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Nov 4, 2020
Election 2020 Special: More Than a Vote
Voting in one of the most momentous presidential elections in the nation’s history is over. The morning after polls closed nearly 136 million ballots had been counted. But as has been reported for weeks ahead of the election, there is no clear winner, and the tally of absentee ballots continues. In this election special, we go to Arizona, Florida, and Oregon to hear from voters there. And later in the program we’ll hear about election power grabs, and some of the legal fights that have been taking place to protect the rights of voters.
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Oct 28, 2020
Fighting for the Ballot: Race and Voter Suppression in the 2020 Election
Voter suppression and its target’s aren’t new phenomena. People of color and the poor have always been dissuaded from voting. We take a look at how race and voter suppression might play a role in the 2020 election, and we talk to organizers from the South who are fighting it, and ensuring that everyone has the right to vote not just in this election, but in every single election.
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Oct 21, 2020
Self Care as Selfless Act: Mental Health at the Root of Activism (Encore)
Activists in the Latinx immigrant community of Los Angeles share what they do to take care of their mental health. The issues these activists work on often impact their personal lives, and people who work in the service of others are particularly at risk of burnout and compassion fatigue. Self-care becomes a “selfless act” when it allows activists to stay healthy and do their work in a sustainable way.
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Oct 14, 2020
Unblock the Vote 2020
On this episode, we'll explore felon disenfranchisement and the battle to restore the voting rights of people on parole. We will also turn our attention to the Native American vote and examine the ways in which their votes are being suppressed.
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Oct 7, 2020
70 Million: Voting from Jail is a Right, and Now a Reality in Chicago
A year ago, Illinois passed a law requiring all jails to ensure that pre-trial detainees have an opportunity to vote. Chicago’s Cook County Jail was turned into a polling place during the 2019 primaries. Sheriff Tom Dart is an enthusiastic supporter of the program. And advocates like Amani Sawari are working to ensure voters in custody are informed and prepared to vote in the upcoming election. Pamela Kirkland reports.
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Sep 30, 2020
Women Rising Radio: Women Challenge Capitalism
Women are challenging male-dominated power structures, and creating alternatives to the profit-driven economic model of capitalism. Women Rising Radio features Jinwar, a women-led village in Northern Syria. And we meet worker-owners of Up & Go, a cleaning cooperative in New York city. To place this global movement in historical perspective, we speak with feminist scholar Silvia Federici. Her books chronicle centuries of persecution and violence against women, including witch hunts carried out to steal womens lands, knowledge and practicesby capitalist nation-states.
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Sep 23, 2020
Domestic Violence in Lockdown: COVID-19 and the UK’s Domestic Abuse Bill
Domestic abuse affects everyone it touches—intimate partners, children, and elders. COVID-19 created new problems for victims of domestic violence and made some worse. This show looks at the challenges posed by the pandemic and examines a landmark domestic abuse bill in the UK.
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Sep 16, 2020
Women Rising Radio: Election Protection and Democracy (Encore)
Election protection is increasingly seen as a critical issue in the US. From gerrymandering and voter purges, to precinct closures and problems with voting machine technology, Women Rising Radio explores threats to the US electoral process with two election protection activists.
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Sep 9, 2020
Wolves at the Well: The Corporate Grab of Public Water
Water is critical to maintaining the balance of life. Some corporations claim ownership of fresh water sources to bottle and sell for profit. Others use water as a tool to extract oil and gas. We'll hear from communities fighting to keep water bottling companies out of rural Oregon, and to protect water from oil and gas contamination in New Mexico.
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Sep 2, 2020
Essential: Gig Workers and COVID-19 (ENCORE)
Gig Workers, driver's for app companies such as Lyft and Uber, are struggling during COVID-19. They're considered essential workers, so they can still work but many of them aren't making enough to cover rent. Many have chosen to stay home, facing economic insecurity. Those who work, however, are continuing to drive without much protection in the way of personal protective equipment, and very little help from the app companies themselves. We take a look at the future of the gig economy and how to protect "essential workers".
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Aug 26, 2020
Frontline East LA: The Chicano Moratorium 50 Years Later
Fifty years ago, 30,000 people peacefully protested the disproportionate number of Latinos dying on the frontlines in Vietnam. The August 29th Chicano Moratorium ended with an attack by police, 400 arrests, and the deaths of four people, one of whom was Los Angeles Times journalist Rubén Salazar.
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Aug 11, 2020
Re:Work: [No] Child Left Behind, the School to Prison Pipeline
We often see children as innocents who need love, support, and stability. But not all young people are nurtured this way. Too often youth from marginalized communities of color are not seen as needing protection -- they are treated as the ones we need protection from. We see this in this episode, brought to us from Re:Work Radio, with Phal Sok, who was once a kid in Long Beach forced to grow up too soon.
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Aug 5, 2020
Self Care as Selfless Act: Mental Health at the Root of Activism
Activists in the Latinx immigrant community of Los Angeles share what they do to take care of their mental health. Self-care becomes a “selfless act” when it allows activists to stay healthy and do their work in a sustainable way.
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Jul 29, 2020
A Thin Black Line: Press Freedom, Repression, and Surveillance
Journalists have been violently targeted by police and arrested alongside demonstrators at Black Lives Matter protests across the country. In this episode we’ll look at the struggle for press freedoms during a time of repression and surveillance.
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Jul 22, 2020
The Deep: Rising Sea Levels and Corporate Control of Water
On this episode of Making Contact, we will look at the privatization of our earth’s most precious resource – water. We will look at the ways people around the world have been organizing against this privatization in the face of climate change and rising sea levels that threaten to contaminate our limited drinking water supplies.
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Jul 15, 2020
The Bombing of MOVE, 35 Years Later (Updated)
Our radio adaptation of the film, Let the Fire Burn. Directed by Jason Osder, examines the controversial, 1985 clash between police in Philadelphia and MOVE, a radical, non-violent group. On May 13, police dropped a bomb on MOVE's home, killing 11 people and destroying 61 homes.
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Jul 8, 2020
The End of Policing, Alex Vitale (Encore)
Producer Robert Raymond interviews Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing--a critical examination on the history of the police, and the police’s evolution as a tool for social control that exacerbates race and class divisions.
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Jul 1, 2020
The End of Student Debt: Free College and Debt Strikes
44 million Americans hold over 1.6 trillion dollars of student debt and the cost of higher education continues to skyrocket. This unpayable debt causes long term financial damage, especially, for students of color and women. What can we do to fix the debt crisis? We look at two solutions: Free schools like Berea College in Kentucky and the possibility of a student debt strike.
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Jun 24, 2020
Kimberle Crenshaw: Intersectionality
Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw defined the concept of intersectionality 30 years ago. She developed that framework to understand how identities such as race, gender and class intersect in overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination -- resulting in compounded damage.
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Jun 17, 2020
From Juneteenth to Reparations: The Freedom Promise of Unfinished Resolve (ENCORE)
Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. In this show, we'll explore the history of Juneteenth and we’ll expand our conversation of Juneteenth to include a case for reparations.The topic of reparations for African Americans has recently resurfaced with Democratic presidential candidates taking positions on the issue, elevating the discussion to the mainstream.
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Jun 10, 2020
Say Their Names: George Floyd and the Movement to Uplift Black Lives
The movement to uplift Black lives and to defund and dismantle police departments has grown to a point where it cannot be ignored. We’ll hear from activists in Minneapolis, mourners in Houston, and our archives for an interview with the brother of Yuvette Henderson.
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Jun 3, 2020
Mrs. Hamer, Echoes (Encore)
Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, spoke words that are all too relevant today. Today on Making Contact, you’ll hear archival recordings, and excerpts from a powerful new film featuring Fannie Lou Hamer. You’ll hear about the context of her life, and the lives of other sharecroppers in Mississippi.
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May 27, 2020
Data Boom! Rana Forohhar on Surveillance Capitalism
The biggest tech companies generate enormous wealth and power by harvesting information about people. It’s called surveillance capitalism. This episode features journalist Rana Foroohar, author of Don’t Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles—and All of Us.
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May 13, 2020
Essential: Gig Workers and COVID-19
Gig Workers, driver's for app companies such as Lyft and Uber, are struggling during COVID-19. They're considered essential workers, so they can still work but many of them aren't making enough to cover rent. Many have chosen to stay home, facing economic insecurity. Those who work, however, are continuing to drive without much protection in the way of personal protective equipment, and very little help from the app companies themselves. We take a look at the future of the gig economy and how to protect "essential workers."
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May 6, 2020
The Bombing of MOVE, 35 Years Later
Our radio adaptation of the film, Let the Fire Burn. Directed by Jason Osder, examines the controversial, 1985 clash between police in Philadelphia and MOVE, a radical, non-violent group. On May 13, police dropped a bomb on MOVE's home, killing 11 people and destroying 61 homes.
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Apr 29, 2020
Two Revolutions, Many Secrets
In the midst of our dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s hard to imagine what stories we will ultimately tell our children and grandchildren. This week's episode is about two strong women who survived historic trauma, and the stories they later told their families.
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Apr 22, 2020
COVID-19 Pandemic Capitalism and Bonds
The world as we knew it seemingly turned upside down overnight. With stay at home orders in place, we are no longer rushing to work each day, getting stuck in traffic, hustling to get the kids to school, and scrambling for time to take care of chores. This strange and abrupt stop to “business as usual” has shined a light on the capitalist systems that are now crumbling down, and offers us the chance to pause and ask what’s next?
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Apr 15, 2020
On the Brink: Homelessness before and during COVID-19
Most of us have a home to shelter in place during COVID -19. But what about the homeless? We take a look at life on the street before COVID-19, following two women as they undergo several evictions from encampments. And then we talk about the specific challenges the homeless face during COVID-19 and what we can do to fix the housing crisis.
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Apr 8, 2020
Witch Hunts and Enclosures: Bodies, Land and Women
How are witch hunts and Capitalist economies linked? Silvia Federici, wrote the ground breaking book, Caliban and the Witch, in 2004. In the book she argues that the witch hunts of the fifteenth century were a necessary pre-condition for Capitalism to flourish.
Today, witch hunts are still happening, in places like East Timor, India and Cambodia. Federici, who never really left the subject of witch hunts, returns to the topic with her book, Women Witches and Witch Hunts. She looks back to the witch hunts of the middle ages and sees them replaying today, in countries that are newly adopting capitalism as their economic model.
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Apr 1, 2020
COVID-19 and Lessons from the Spanish Flu
In 1918, humanity faced a deadly global pandemic-- the Spanish Flu. How did those who lived a century before us respond to the crisis, and what we can learn from their response and the aftermath?
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Mar 25, 2020
Bio Hackers versus Big Pharma: Tackling the Rising Cost of Insulin
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many Americans are worried about their health insurance. The cost of treating the illness, if a patient ends up in the ICU, can run into the tens of thousands of dollars without coverage. Which most people just can’t afford. Today we bring you a piece we produced last year about a related topic -the rising cost of insulin, and the effectiveness of medicare for all. First, we visit a group of community scientists called the Open Insulin Project, an organization trying to create its own insulin outside the lengthy FDA process and whether it's worth the associated risks. And we talk about the benefits of Medicare for All, a policy which would get rid of private insurance and make all medicine and medical care accessible and affordable.
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Mar 18, 2020
The Great Divide: Racism, Wealth Inequality, and Elections
On this edition of Making Contact, acclaimed author Ian Haney López talks about his new book - Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America. This book explores the links between current day wealth and race inequality, elections, and how coded racism has evolved in the Trump era. The book also looks at ways we can proactively build cross-racial solidarity to diminish barriers between us. Author Ian Haney López holds an endowed chair as the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Mar 11, 2020
Election Protection and Democracy, with Women Rising Radio
Election protection is increasingly seen as a critical issue in the US. From gerrymandering and voter purges, to precinct closures and problems with voting machine technology, Women Rising Radio explores threats to the US electoral process with two election protection activists.
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Mar 4, 2020
Who Bombed Judi Bari?
Our radio adaptation of the film, Who Bombed Judi Bari?, explores Judi Bari’s bold activism to save the Redwood Forest in the face of corporate greed, and the violent measures taken to silence the environmental movement. Produced by Darryl Cherney, Elyse Katz, Sheila Laffey, Bill and Laurie Benenson and directed by Mary Liz Thomson, the film delves into the bombing and her fight against the F.B.I.'s attempted frame-up.
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Feb 26, 2020
Bad Math: the Risks of Artificial Intelligence
We think of Artificial Intelligence as being the stuff of science fiction movies, set far in the future. But it's already having an impact on our lives. We look at a kind of decision made by artificial intelligence called a risk assessment and how it impacts the poor and people of color and we talk about ways to fight back.
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Feb 12, 2020
I Am Not Your Negro: James Baldwin
I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond.
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Feb 5, 2020
70 Million: The Work of Closing a Notorious Jail
Five years after Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer galvanized criminal justice reform activists in St. Louis, they're gaining serious momentum to shut down the city's notorious Workhouse jail. Reporter Carolina Hidalgo spent time with the Close the Workhouse campaign and Arch City Defenders, their supporters, and detractors.
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Jan 29, 2020
The Utopian Dinner Table: How to Feed the World in 100 Years
You'll hear about ongoing food insecurity issues from food scholar Raj Patel, and hopeful solutions from families in the Black Creek community garden in Toronto, Canada.
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Jan 22, 2020
The Big Lift
Meeting family needs in a city of widening wealth gaps is a big lift. Studies show that when parents are engaged in their kids’ education, it has a huge impact. Reporter Lee Romney spent a year following the work of one family liaison at a high-poverty school.
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Jan 15, 2020
Spies of Mississippi: The Campaign to Stop Freedom Summer's Civil Rights Movement of 1964
Spies of Mississippi is a journey into the world of informants, infiltrators, and agent provocateurs in the heart of Dixie. Directed and produced by Dawn Porter and executive produced by LOOKS TV and Martina Haubrich. The film tells the story of a secret spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi to preserve segregation and maintain “the Mississippi way of life,” white supremacy, during the 1950s and ‘60s.
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Jan 8, 2020
John Carlos Frey on America's Stealth War on the Mexico Border
On today's program, John Carlos Frey, author of Sand and Blood: America's Stealth War on the Mexico Border, explores increased militarization at the border, US deterrent strategy, and the profitable business of fear.
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Jan 1, 2020
Best Of Making Contact
We look at our favorite shows from 2019. From Artificial Intelligence, to the stigma around women's periods, from guns and restraining orders to the cost of Insulin, these are the stories that inspired us, taught us something or just made us think differently.
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Dec 25, 2019
Pollution Solutions
Megafarms and oil & gas producers in California’s Central Valley are some of the worst polluters of local air, soil, and water. We’ll hear how Central Valley residents are pushing back. Later, author Naomi Klein talks about her book, On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal. But first, we go to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where reporter we learn how six Native American tribes are harnessing wind power to bring economic development to their members.
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Dec 18, 2019
One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps
"Honorable people can do terrible things" says Andrea Pitzer in her book "One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps." We talk to Andrea Pitzer about her research as she traces the evolution of the camp, from its earliest incarnation in Cuba to its modern day forms in China, Burma and Guantanamo. What is a concentration camp? Why are they so deadly? And most importantly, what do we do to fight them?
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Dec 11, 2019
The Response: Fighting Misinformation in the Aftermath of the Mexico City Earthquake
In the aftermath of a disaster, information can mean the difference between life and death. After the earthquake hit in Mexico City, it wasn’t just buildings that collapsed, the normal lines of communication that connect the city did as well. It was in this dangerous state of confusion and chaos that a group of friends using WhatsApp to share information ended up creating what later became known as Verificado19s, a spontaneous, grassroots initiative that consisted of a vast network of volunteers that traveled throughout the city to gather and verify information. Special thanks to the podcast "The Response."
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Dec 4, 2019
50 Years Later: Remembering Fred Hampton
Our radio adaptation of the film, The Murder of Fred Hampton, produced by filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk, provides a glimpse into the life of Hampton and the Illinois Black Panther Party. On December 4th, 1969, exactly 50 years ago, Black Panthers Fred Hampton, age 21, and Mark Clark, age 22, were shot to death by Chicago police.
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Nov 27, 2019
Holding the Thin Green Line II: A View from the Blast Zone
As the fossil fuel industry works to turn the Pacific Northwest into a fossil fuel hub, a Thin Green Line stands in its way. Producer Barbara Bernstein’s latest project, "Holding the Thin Green Line," explores how local communities are fighting the fossil fuel industry's push for massive fracked gas projects in Washington and Oregon. In part 1, we heard about plans to build the world’s largest methanol refineries in Tacoma and Kalama, Washington. This week we hear part 2, "A View from the Blast Zone,” on the struggle to stop a massive LNG facility that is being built at the Port of Tacoma.
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Nov 20, 2019
Reckonings: From Health Insurance Spin Doctor to Truth Teller
What happens when a health insurance PublicRelations executive confronts the consequences of his spin? Dive into one man's odyssey from health insurance spin doctor to activist truth teller.
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Nov 13, 2019
Don't Let Them See You Bleed: PERIOD
This show examines the feminist movement through the lens of period activism. We will look at aspects of women’s health and social justice that are often overlooked - From period stigma to the unfair tax on feminine hygiene products and the fight to regulate and disclose ingredients in tampons and maxi pads.
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Nov 6, 2019
Pollution Solutions
Megafarms and oil & gas producers are some of the worst polluters in California’s Central Valley. We’ll hear how Valley residents are pushing back. But first, we go to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where six Native American tribes are harnessing wind power to bring economic development to their members. And, author Naomi Klein talks about her latest book, On Fire.
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Oct 30, 2019
Symbols of Resistance Part Two: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement
Our radio adaptation of the film Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chicano Movement, offers a reflection on the untold stories of the Chicano Movement with a focus on Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Produced by Freedom Archives, the film delves into issues of cultural identity, student activism; land rights and social justice, in the face of police oppression.
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Oct 23, 2019
Symbols of Resistance Part One: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chicano Movement
Our radio adaptation of the film Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chicano Movement, offers a reflection on the untold stories of the Chicano Movement with a focus on Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Produced by Freedom Archives, the film delves into issues of cultural identity, student activism; land rights and social justice, in the face of police oppression.
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Oct 16, 2019
70 Million: How Bail Shackles Women of Color
Tamiki Banks’ life was turned upside down when her husband was arrested, leaving her the sole breadwinner and caregiver to their twins. More than two years later, she’s still struggling, and he’s still in custody, even though he hasn’t been convicted of any crime. From Atlanta, Pamela Kirkland reports on the heavy burden women of color like Tamiki bear when a loved one is jailed.
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Oct 9, 2019
Beyond Recognition: The Ohlone
Our radio adaptation of the film Beyond Recognition by Underexposed films, "After decades struggling to protect her ancestors’ burial places, a Native woman from a non-federally recognized Ohlone tribe and her allies occupy a sacred site to prevent its desecration. They then vow to follow a new path- to establish the first women-led urban Indigenous land trust.
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Oct 2, 2019
Women Rising. Migrations: Standing in Solidarity With the Desperate
Women Rising Radio chronicles the rise of three different movements to advocate for immigrant rights in the USA, and to support immigrants and refugees over the border in Mexico. These movements are spearheaded by women. Dr. Satsuki Ina co-founded Tsuru for Solidarity; Serena Adlerstein co-created Never Again Action; and Devi Machete co-created the Hecate Society, helping migrants stuck at the Mexican border with the USA.
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Sep 25, 2019
Guns and Restraining Orders
Despite the recent increase in mass shootings, the majority of gun injuries and deaths are in fact a result of suicides, homicides, and domestic violence. This documentary tells the story of one woman’s DV experience, and how some Californians are working to prevent deadly shootings.
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Sep 18, 2019
The World’s Largest Methanol Refinery (and the fight to stop it)
Special for Climate Week: Barbara Bernstein’s story of communities in the Pacific Northwest of the United States who are fighting mammoth fracked gas projects that would turn this green region into a fracked-gas export hub.
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Sep 11, 2019
Bio Hackers versus Big Pharma: Tackling the Rising Cost of Insulin
As the cost of insulin continues to skyrocket patients are dying from trying to ration their medication. It's an extreme example, but not unusual - the cost of insulin mirrors the broader health crisis in the United States. Medicine is too expensive and inaccessible. Today, we look at ways to combat health costs associated with diabetes. First, we visit a group of community scientists called the Open Insulin Project, an organization trying to create its own insulin outside the lengthy FDA process and whether it's worth the associated risks. And we talk about the benefits of Medicare for All, a policy which would get rid of private insurance and make all medicine and medical care accessible and affordable.
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Sep 4, 2019
Decarcerated with Danielle Sered: Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair
Courtesy of the Decarcerated Podcast, host Marlon Peterson hosts a live conversation with Common Justice founder Danielle Sered. Sered’s New Book, Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair explores the difficult transformations we need to make — both as individuals and as a society — before we can displace and replace the prison industrial complex.
The interview took place at The Brooklyn Public Library’s Dweck Center on April 10, 2019.
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Aug 28, 2019
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools is an examination of the experiences of black girls across the country whose intricate lives are misunderstood, highly judged "by teachers, administrators, and the justice system "and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish. In her new book, Morris shows how, despite obstacles, stigmas, stereotypes, and despair, black girls still find ways to breathe remarkable dignity into their lives in classrooms, juvenile facilities, and beyond.
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Aug 21, 2019
The Struggle Inside: The Murder of George Jackson
On this edition of Making Contact we present, The Struggle Inside: The Murder of George Jackson, a program about the modern anti-prison movement. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Black August, first originated in the California prisons to honor fallen Freedom Fighters, George and Jonathan Jackson, Khatari Gaulden, James McClain, and William Christmas.
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Aug 14, 2019
Hawaii: A Voice For Sovereignty
Some call it “Paradise”, but Hawaii isn’t just a tourist getaway. Look beyond the resorts, and you’ll find a history of opposition to US occupation. From sacred sites, to indigenous language, Hawaiians are fighting hard to protect their traditions, and their future. On this edition we hear excerpts from the 2012 film by Catherine Bauknight “Hawaii: A Voice for Sovereignty,” which explores the history of Hawaii - from the beginning of the US occupation up to statehood and the present day.
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Aug 7, 2019
Lessons of Nagasaki
The US dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Three days later, the small fishing city of Nagasaki also fell victim. On this edition, we hear the voices of the most deadly attacks the world had ever seen. We commemorate the anniversary of the bombings with excerpts from two documentaries: “Hiroshima Countdown” and “Nagasaki Journey.”
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Jul 31, 2019
Abortion Beyond Clinics: Call Jane
In this episode, we explore new safe at-home abortion options and the growing movement for "self-managed abortions." Amidst changes to the Supreme Court of the United States, and after decades of restrictions to abortion access across the country, people continue to find ways to make this vital procedure safer, more affordable, and more accessible. Advances in medicine and discoveries made by women themselves have changed the kind of options available outside of clinics.
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Jul 25, 2019
Afrofuturism: Imagination and Humanity, Ytasha Womack (Encore)
According to Ytasha Womack, use of the imagination for self-development and social change is one of the greatest tenets of Afrofuturism. This show features Womack’s presentation at the 2017 Sonic Acts Festival, Afrofuturism: Imagination and Humanity.
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Jul 17, 2019
70 Million: Undocumented Immigrants Are Tethered to ICE, and Private Companies
A handful of companies are making millions off of ankle monitors strapped to undocumented immigrants in ICE custody. The makers pitch the monitors as an alternative to being jailed, but are they simply another form of bondage? Reporter Ryan Katz looks at what life is life while wearing one of these monitors. He untangles the complicated web of ICE, immigration bail agent companies, and the attorneys fighting them.
70 Million is made possible by a grant from the Safety and Justice Challenge at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The 70 Million podcast is a production of Lantigua Williams & Co.
Photo Credit: 70 Million; Caption: Floricel Liborio Ramos in Northern California.
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Jul 10, 2019
A Journalist Reckons with Truth and Objectivity
Lewis Wallace was a reporter at Marketplace. You may have heard his voice on the Marketplace Morning Report with David Brancaccio.
That was until he publicly questioned the role of objectivity in a Medium post. This line of questioning ultimately got him fired from Marketplace. Dive into one journalist's reckoning with truth.
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Jul 3, 2019
The Port Chicago Sailors: Separate and Unequal
Wartime. Disaster. Trauma. Charges of mutiny for 50 Black sailors in a Jim Crow courtroom. Discrimination and a battle for civil rights. Listen to this World War II story via oral histories from five of the Black sailors who survived the Port Chicago explosion, court-marshal and imprisonment.
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Jun 25, 2019
Beyond Stonewall: The Push for LGBT Civil Rights
We go back to the night in June 1969 at the New York City Stonewall Inn that sparked the LGBT rights movement. On today’s show we’ll hear about the day that galvanized a generation and the continued fight for LGBT civil rights.
The first Pride parades took place in June 1970 marking the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Michael Schirker and David Isay bring us an oral history Remembering Stonewall: The Birth of a Movement.
Editor at large of the Huffington Posts’ Gay Voices Michelangelo Signorile says while there have been a series of recent wins for the LGBT rights movement, bigotry remains a daily reality for many.
At a New America NYC forum Signorile spoke with June Thomas, Culture Critic and Editor of Outward, Slate’s LGBTQ Section about what he calls “victory blindness”. It’s a central theme in his new book, “It’s Not Over, Getting to Beyond Tolerance Defeating Homophobia and Winning True Equality.”
Special thanks to Pacifica Radio Archives for “…
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Jun 19, 2019
From Juneteenth to Reparations: The Freedom Promise of Unfinished Resolve
Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
In this show, we'll explore the history of Juneteenth and we’ll expand our conversation of Juneteenth to include a case for reparations.
The topic of reparations for African Americans has recently resurfaced with Democratic presidential candidates taking positions on the issue, elevating the discussion to the mainstream.
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Jun 12, 2019
Dana Frank on the Long Honduran Night
June 2019 marks ten years since then President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted in a military coup.
In this program, Dr. Dana Frank, author of the Long Honduran Night, examines the long term impact of the coup in Honduras, and the evolution of resistance movements in its aftermath.
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Jun 6, 2019
I Am Because I Am: The Expansion of Gender Identity
I Am Because I Am, explores the expansion of gender identity and presumed roles in our society. A look beyond the socially constructed ideas of what is male, female, masculine or feminine. Especially considering Trump’s administration attempts to redefine gender to be solely based on a person’s genitalia at birth. Thus potentially threatening Transgender, Intersex and Non-Binary Identity.
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May 29, 2019
Hidden in Plain Sight: Rebecca Gordon on Torture
We think of enhanced interrogation as being a new invention - a kind of torture in use only since 9/11. But Rebecca Gordon disagrees. In this episode she joins us to talk about the United State's long history of using torture domestically and abroad, and its connection to power and race.
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May 22, 2019
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
In this episode, we honor the life and legacy of civil rights activist Grace Lee Boggs through the lens of the documentary film, AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS. Produced and directed by Grace Lee.
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May 15, 2019
Disability: Our Culture Ourselves
People with disabilities or disabled people?
“Disability: Our Culture Ourselves”— in this episode we discuss disability, culture and identity from the perspective of disability communities themselves.
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May 8, 2019
The End of Time: Aging in America
In this episode we explore racial disparities in end-of-life care: How mistrust keeps many African Americans away from hospice. And later we examine particular challenges and cultural barriers faced by Asians and Latinos at the end of life.
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Apr 24, 2019
Bad Math: the Risks of Artificial Intelligence
We think of Artificial Intelligence as being the stuff of science fiction movies, set far in the future. But it's already having an impact on our lives. We look at a kind of decision made by artificial intelligence called a risk assessment and how it impacts the poor and people of color and we talk about ways to fight back.
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Apr 17, 2019
70 Million: In Miami, Jailing Fewer, Treating More
Jails in Miami-Dade County double as de facto mental health facilities. But Miami-Dade’s Criminal Mental Health Project has become a national model for negotiating the interplay between mental illness and criminal justice.
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Apr 11, 2019
Wealth Inequity and Universal Basic Income
President Donald Trump’s tax plan may exacerbate wealth inequity in the US. Chuck Collins, Director of the Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies addresses the complex history of the wealth gap. Also, producers from the Upstream podcast ask: is it time for Universal Basic Income?
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Apr 3, 2019
Reckonings with Lewis Wallace
Lewis Wallace was a reporter at Marketplace. You may have heard his voice on the Marketplace Morning Report with David Brancaccio.
That was until he publicly questioned the role of objectivity in a Medium post. We need to let go of idea that objectivity is dying. A more useful framework is that objectivity is a mythology that we're urgently debunking to figure out what can stand in its place. That doesn't lessen our pursuit of truth, it just reveals the complexity that was always there, which is that subjectivity that informs that pursuit.
This line of questioning ultimately got him fired from Marketplace. Dive into one journalist's reckoning with truth.
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Mar 27, 2019
The Non-Violent Path of Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez has made it to the big screen. Millions of people are now learning about the legendary farmworker organizer. But where did Chavez get his organizing philosophies?
This week, Paul Ingles and Carol Boss of Peacetalks radio take us down The Non-Violent path of Cesar Chavez , through conversations with Chavez colleague and friend Dolores Huerta, and Jose Antonio Orozco, author of the book, Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence.
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Mar 20, 2019
Choice, Church and State: Poland, Ireland, the USA : Women Rising 37
Abortion and reproductive rights for women are being fought over across the globe. Women Rising Radio visits with key organizers of the Polish Women’s Strike and the Irish Together for Yes campaign, both successful efforts to give women more control over our bodies, our health and our family planning. Women Rising Radio also profiles Catholics for Choice and the Latina Institute for Reproductive Health in the USA.
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Mar 13, 2019
Protecting People and Water in Mexico City
Fresh water is one of our most precious natural resources. This week contributor Maria Doerr looks at what's being done to protect the watersheds of Mexico City-- natural water systems that provide water to one of the largest metropolises in the world.
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Mar 6, 2019
Legacy of Mistreatment
African American students across the country are much more likely than any other student group to be placed in special education. This week, we hear what is and isn’t working for black students with special needs today.
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Feb 27, 2019
70 Million: How New Orleans Could Set a New Course for Bail Reform
New Orleans could become the battleground for bail reform. The city has one of the highest per capita incarceration rates in the world. And most people are there because they can’t pay their bail. The current arrangement with the local bail industry gives the impression that judges there could have a financial conflict of interest when setting bail. In this episode, Sonia Paul digs into how an ongoing lawsuit, pretrial consequences of bail, and poverty, bias, and algorithms come into play.
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Feb 20, 2019
I Am Not Your Negro (ENCORE)
Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.
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Feb 13, 2019
Afrofuturism: Imagination and Humanity, Ytasha Womack
According to Ytasha Womack, use of the imagination for self-development and social change is one of the greatest tenets of Afrofuturism. This show features Womack’s presentation at the 2017 Sonic Acts Festival, Afrofuturism: Imagination and Humanity.
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Feb 6, 2019
Spare the Kids, Dr. Stacey Patton
We speak with author Dr. Stacey Patton about her book, Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Won't Save Black America. The book examines the unique cultural and historical specificity of corporal punishment in Black communities. Given the prevalence and acceptance of spanking in American culture, the discussions will be useful to a wide and diverse audience.
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Jan 30, 2019
The Future of Abolition: Marc Lamont Hill, Michelle Alexander and Vonya Quarles
Michelle Alexander, Mark Lamont Hill and Vonya Quarles discuss the modern prison abolition movement, what's changed in the past ten years, and the rise of the 'open air prison.'
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Jan 23, 2019
The Far Right and Antifa (Encore)
This episode explores the past and present of the far right and anti-fascism. We begin with the murder investigation of anti-fascist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas. In the second half, author Mark Bray describes antifa responses to Hitler and Mussolini.
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Jan 16, 2019
Abortion Beyond Clinics Pt. 1: Call Jane
In a special 2 part program by Making Contact we explore new safe at-home abortion options and the growing movement for "self-managed abortions.”
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Jan 9, 2019
70 Million: Undocumented Immigrants are Tethered to ICE & Private Companies
A handful of companies are making millions off of ankle monitors strapped to undocumented immigrants in ICE custody. The makers pitch the monitors as an alternative to being jailed, but are they simply another form of bondage?
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Jan 2, 2019
Uprooting Racism ENCORE
On this edition of Making Contact, we speak with author Paul Kivel about his book, Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. This book offers a framework for understanding institutional racism. It provides practical suggestions, tools, examples, and advice on how white people can intervene in interpersonal and organizational situations to work as allies for racial justice.
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Dec 21, 2018
Fallen Heroes of 2018
There were thousands of organizers, activists and local social justice leaders around the world who died in 2018. As we do every December, we bring you some of the voices and stories of our Fallen Heroes.
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Dec 18, 2018
In the Shadow of the Volcano: Guatemala’s Unequal Disaster
Thousands of Guatemalans are recovering from the eruption of a volcano called Fuego - Spanish for "fire" - which took place in the summer of 2018. In this report, our correspondent Maria Martin looks back at the disaster - which some people are calling the worst natural disaster to ever strike Guatemala.
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Dec 11, 2018
Michael Eric Dyson on Trump Truth and Race
America’s unwillingness to assess the ugly truth about systemic inequality has created a perpetual sinkhole of denial. A reality that existed long before Trump’s presidency. It’s AMERICA’s Legacy.
On this edition, we hear from Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. Dr. Dyson recently penned, “What Truth Sounds Like: RFK, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America.” Today’s conversation with Professor Dyson explores race and truth in the age of Trump.
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Dec 5, 2018
70 Million - Reform Activists and a New DA Find Common Ground
70 Million reporter, Ruxandra Guidi, chronicles how activists and reformers are succeeding in cutting the jail population, diverting drug arrests, and increasing accountability for local police in Harris County, Texas.
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Nov 28, 2018
I Am Because I Am: The Expansion of Gender Identity
I Am Because I Am, explores the expansion of gender identity and presumed roles in our society. A look beyond the socially constructed ideas of what is male, female, masculine or feminine. Especially considering Trump’s administration attempts to redefine gender to be solely based on a person’s genitalia at birth. Thus potentially threatening Transgender, Intersex and Non-Binary Identity.
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Nov 20, 2018
The Response: Uneven Burns
On this episode, we look at the 2017 Tubbs Fire in California, and how it impacted the undocumented community. In the face of ICE raids, labor violations, a housing crisis, and wildfires, the broader community is standing in solidarity with those who are forced into the shadows.
California’s drought has led to an unprecedented number of wildfires that burn hotter, faster, and ever more acreage. Governor Jerry Brown says, “Since civilization emerged 10,000 years ago, we haven’t had this kind of heat condition, and it’s going to continue getting worse.”
What does the growing threat of climate-fueled disasters mean for the most vulnerable among us?
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Nov 14, 2018
Climate Uprising: Indigenous Women at the Global Climate Action Summit
Indigenous Women made their voices heard during California Governor Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit. They rejected Brown’s support for market driven schemes and shared their vision for climate solutions at protests and at a special Women’s Assembly, organized by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network.
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Nov 7, 2018
The Response: Restoring Power in Puerto Rico
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, we'll hear how one community kitchen grew into an island-wide network of mutual aid centers with the aim of restoring power — electric and civic — to the Puerto Rican people.
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Oct 30, 2018
The X Factor in the Midterms
While some Americans are mentally focused on the 2020 presidential election, all eyes seem to be on the rapidly approaching midterm election. With both Democrats and Republicans vying for control of the House and Senate, the majority party will have the advantage to pass their legislative agendas – producing outcomes that could hugely impact the future of Trump’s presidency.
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Oct 24, 2018
Fossil Refusal: Local Models not Global Markets
Despite the difficult picture painted by the news, there is hope for our planet. We cover several fights against refineries and market based solutions to global warming. And, we look at one promising solution – the combination of community owned energy and microgrids.
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Oct 17, 2018
Your Home, Your Right… or My Business?
The stage is set for a battle between two worldviews. Is housing a human right, or a commodity? And where on that continuum is California’s common ground? This week, we look at the fight over rent control, and police policies that affect the homeless.
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Oct 10, 2018
Reproductive Justice from El Salvador to the U.S.
This week, we hear from a woman who went to prison under El Salvador’s current abortion laws— some of the strictest in the world. And, one reproductive justice organization considers the future of reproductive health access under the US Supreme Court.
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Oct 3, 2018
The Response: Occupy Sandy
This week, we explore the remarkable communities that arise in the aftermath of natural disasters; namely, Hurricane Sandy, and its impact on the Rockaway Peninsula.
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Sep 26, 2018
10 Years After the Crash: Recovery Not for All
This month is the ten year anniversary of the stock market crash of 2018. Nomi Prins talks about her new book, “Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World.” And, Julianne Malveaux explains how the crash has continued to devastate people of color, especially black people.
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Sep 19, 2018
Climate Change & Sacrifice Zones (Encore)
On this encore edition of Making Contact, we present the first in a two-part series on the pressure to transform a region of iconic landscapes and environmental stewardship into a global center for shipping fossil fuels.
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Sep 12, 2018
70 Million: Locals Divided Between Diversion and Border Security
Criminal justice reform can be complicated. Formerly incarcerated people and officials in Pima County are teaming up to send fewer people to jail. Meanwhile a federal program at the border is sending people to jail over traffic violations and minor drug offenses.
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Sep 5, 2018
About Last Night: How HBCU Students are Addressing Sexual Assault on Campus
#DishonorRoll
Students at several prominent historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), have demanded that school administrators address sexual assault more vigorously. Last year, student protests at Morehouse College, Spelman College, Hampton University, and Howard University focused on inadequacies in the way sexual assault and rape cases are handled.
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Aug 28, 2018
No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America
Darnell Moore the author of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America. A story of beauty and hope-and an honest reckoning with family, with place and with what is it means to be free. His talk focuses on his memoir, No Ashes in the Fire.
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Aug 16, 2018
The Struggle Inside: The Murder of George Jackson
On this edition of Making Contact we present, The Struggle Inside: The Murder of George Jackson, a program about the modern anti-prison movement.
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Aug 9, 2018
Parenting From Prison, Inside Out
When one or both parents are incarcerated the family is also incarcerated and are adversely affected in profound ways that exacerbate existing structural inequalities and struggles. Programs for inmates and families like FamilyWorks and the Storybook Program, encourage rebuilding and maintaining relationships despite being separated by prison.
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Aug 1, 2018
Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice
On this edition of Making Contact, we speak with author Paul Kivel about his book, Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. This book offers a framework for understanding institutional racism. It provides practical suggestions, tools, examples, and advice on how white people can intervene in interpersonal and organizational situations to work as allies for racial justice.
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Jul 25, 2018
Caring Relationships: Negotiating Meaning and Maintaining Dignity (Encore)
Whether you’re a paid home care provider, or rely on personal assistance to meet your daily needs, or a family member caring for a loved one, the nature of the working relationship depends on mutual respect and dignity. During this week’s anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we’ll revisit the dynamic and complex relationship of care receiving and giving.
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Jul 18, 2018
The Arrival: Trump's Travel and Refugee Ban
On this edition of Making Contact, after the US Supreme Court's ruling on Trump’s travel ban, we’ll discuss how the new order impacts people from affected, Muslim-majority countries. We also talk about what's different about the new ban and how to fight it. We begin with the story of a woman who was in flight to the US when President Trump signed his first travel ban.
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Jul 12, 2018
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, “When They Call You A Terrorist” (Encore)
This week is the five year anniversary of Black lives matter. Patrisse Khan-Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter shares her reflections on humanity, the end of policing and her new book, WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.
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Jul 5, 2018
Afrofuturism: 3 Women You Need to Know
Afrofuturism is a growing genre-movement that spans literature, art, music, and film. It provides radical alternatives to dominant Western narratives by drawing on traditions from Africa and the diaspora.
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Jun 28, 2018
Beyond Stonewall: The Push for LGBT Civil Rights
We go back to the night in June 1969 at the New York City Stonewall Inn that sparked the LGBTQ rights movement. On this episode, we’ll hear about the day that galvanized a generation and the continued fight for LGBTQ civil rights.
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Jun 20, 2018
Your Home, Your Right… or My Business?
The stage is set for a battle between two world-views. Is housing a human right, or a commodity? And where on that continuum is California’s common ground? This week, we look at the fight over rent control, and police policies that affect the homeless.
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Jun 13, 2018
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools is an examination of the experiences of black girls across the country whose intricate lives are misunderstood, highly judged "by teachers, administrators, and the justice system" and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish.
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Jun 6, 2018
The Cost of Deportations
This week, Making Contact looks at The Cost of Deportations through the lens of one Central American nation that sends migrants north— Guatemala. Will Guatemala and the other countries these migrants left be prepared for an influx of returnees?
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May 30, 2018
Finding Home: Displacement and Homelessness from Cape Town to California (Encore)
On this edition of Making Contact we go from Cape Town, South Africa to Los Angeles and Oakland, California— three cities grappling with evictions, displacement, and homelessness.
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May 23, 2018
Korea: The Ghosts of the Gwangju Uprising (ENCORE)
On May 18, 1980, the people of Gwangju, South Korea rose up for reunification and an end to U.S.-backed military dictatorships.Their actions changed the course of Korean history.
We hear from survivors of the Gwangju Uprising about how they took on the tasks of history and the lesson they carry.
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May 16, 2018
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry – The Personal Is Political
For this edition of Making Contact, we’ll present the documentary, “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” a reflection on the rise of the women’s liberation movement in the United States, between 1966 and 1971. She’s Beautiful explores the emergence of political thought that challenged systems of patriarchy.
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May 9, 2018
SPECIAL FOR MOTHER’S DAY-Mothering: Love on the Front Lines
For Mother's Day: we bring you a discussion by women of color writers and poets who contributed to the anthology, Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines. You'll also hear about a recent investigation into Black maternal and infant mortality.
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May 2, 2018
Protecting People and Water in Mexico City
Fresh water is one of our most precious natural resources. This week contributor Maria Doerr looks at what's being done to protect the watersheds of Mexico City-- natural water systems that provide water to one of the largest metropolises in the world.
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Apr 25, 2018
Specters of Attica: Reflections from Inside a Michigan Prison Strike
On the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, hundreds imprisoned inside Michigan’s Kinross Correctional Facility refused to report to work or lock down in their barracks. Instead, they joined the largest prisoner labor strike in U.S. history.
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Apr 18, 2018
Daze of Justice
Daze of Justice is the story of trailblazing Cambodian-American women who break decades of silence, abandoning the security of their American homes on a journey back into Cambodia's killing fields, as witnesses determined to resurrect the memory of their loved ones before the UN Special Tribunal prosecuting the Khmer Rouge.
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