Making Contact

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.

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. 

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 littl...

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.

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.

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 chan...

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.

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 witc...

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? 

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...

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...

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.

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....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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 19...

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.    

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.

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 wi...

"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 d...

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 a...

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.