Making Contact

Women Rising Radio 28 profiles global community organizers - whose work is based in their compassion and common sense, and whose organizing is making a worldwide impact.  

It’s one of the most dangerous jobs in America: taxi driving. In this special joint episode from ReWork and Making Contact, we’ll hear a radio adaptation of TeAda Productions’ play “Global Taxi Driver,” and we’ll take a ride to meet the cab drivers at one of the country’s busiest airports. Featuring: Abate Teferi and Daniel Kassa , taxi drivers at LAX and organizers with National Taxi Workers Alli...

A radio adaptation of the documentary Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle. This documentary examines the life and mysterious death of pioneering Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar. At the heart of the story is his transformation from a mainstream, establishment Los Angeles Times reporter to a supporter and primary chronicler of the radical Chicano movement of the late 1960s until he was killed...

Black Lives Matter. This simple phrase has become the motto of a growing movement calling for true justice and equalty for black people. Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, first typed out those three words back in 2013. In March of 2015, Alicia Garza visited the University of Southern Maine to tell the story of how Black Lives Matter came to be, and express her hopes for where it’s he...

On this week's show we’re exploring how some women have been dehumanized to the point of indifference. We’ll learn how one community is undoing the silence around the violence women of color face. We’ll also hear about how serial killers were able to hunt down mostly Black women for three decades in South Los Angeles. Then we’ll take you to the Yucatan where pregnant indigenous women struggle unde...

Ross McKenzie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but after 15 years on Lithium, he wasn’t getting any better. He decided to take matters into his own hands, get off the drug, and find out why so many people are being told they have mental illnesses. This week on Making Contact, we bring you an abridged version of the film Bipolarized; Rethinking Mental Illness, chronicling McKenzie’s journey.

Nationally, American prisons release more than 650,000 people into society every year. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Memphis or Boston.  On this edition, producer Aaron Mendelson followed ex-prisoner Kevin Tindall on his journey out of prison. Special thanks to Claire Schoen  and the University of California Berkeley, School of Journalism. Featuring:    Gordon Brown , ex-prisoner M...

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Southern Gulf Coast. Drawn by reconstruction work, the number of Latino immigrants has nearly doubled. Reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina drew thousands of people from India, Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, and other Latin American countries.  Workers were charged with pulling dead bodies from abandoned homes and rebuilding New Orleans. But the...

It’s something many of us take for granted: access to clean drinking water. But for many Americans it’s not something they can rely on.  From chemical spills in  West Virginia to ecoli in the water on the Texas-Mexico border, to contamination from farming in California. On this edition, we hear what happens when there’s not a drop to drink. Featuring:   Angela Walker,  Charleston resident Neena Sa...

It’s election season! But since the 2013 Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act, many states have pushed changes to voter laws that raise disturbing connections to the past. On this week’s show, we’ll hear about hard fought battles for voting rights and the implications of new laws. Featuring: Reverend Tyrone Edwards,  civil rights historian in Plaquemines Parish Louisiana Tyrone Brooks , G...

During the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 millions of people lost their jobs and hustled to survive. Since then, the economy has regained more than 8 million jobs. Still wage growth remains low and many simply can’t find a full time work. On this edition of Making Contact we’ll hear from a panel of labor experts on the state of labor market especially for part-time and low-wage workers. The Pan...

This is a special encore edition. Renowned biologist Sandra Steingraber has made fighting environmentally induced cancers her lifes work.  Steingraber’s book, Living Downstream, has been turned into a movie chronicling a year in her life trying to create a world free of cancer causing toxics.  On this edition, we hear excerpts of the documentary film, Living Downstream.   Special thanks to The Peo...

From unpaid bills to entire governments facing bankruptcy, debt is never far from our minds or the news. It’s deeply embedded in our lives: our language, culture, even major religions. It’s also at the heart of many of our most pressing political debates. But have you ever thought about where debt comes from?   On this edition of Making Contact we hear from Anthropologist David Graeber, author of...

The female body as medium, and as message. How can a woman determine how she is perceived by the world, and even by herself? On this edition, we hear stories of women who are using their bodies for political protest, and as tools of  self-empowerment…f orcing everyone to reevaluate their perspectives on the female form. Featuring:   Neda Topaloski &  Xenia Chernyshova , Femen members Galia Ackerma...

When journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates set out to write about police killings he went to visit Mable Jones. Back in 2000, Jones son, a friend of Coates from their time at Howard University, was shot and killed by police in Virginia. He was twenty five years old. Written in the form of a letter to his own teenage son, Coates' book "Between the World and Me" puts police shootings in a wider context. Ta-Ne...

Over 6,000 migrant deaths were recorded on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico between 1998 and 2013. The true number of deaths is likely higher, and thousands of families never hear from their loved ones again. This documentary travels to the desert ranch lands of Brooks County and the border town of Reynosa, Tamaulipas to introduce us to the human cost of “prevention through deterrence,” a b...

This show takes a look at issues within the foster care system in the U.S. from the high rate of teen pregnancy to the alarming use of psychiatric medications in California’s foster care system.   Featuring: Nicole Rocke , former foster youth Kyle Lafferty , the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy Linda Bryant ,   Clinical Professor at New York University’s School of Social W...

What do our voices say about us? On this edition we explore voice and identity. We'll hear from someone who nearly lost their voice, the challenges that come with ordering a pizza with a speech generating device, and and how voice contributes to trans women's sense of safety and of self. Featuring: Mya Byrne,  singer-songwriter Kathe Perez , creator of EVA app Samuel Sennott , assistant professor...

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...

We bring you to Alaska s Tongass Forest, where the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act turned tribes into corporations and sparked a lengthy logging frenzy. In this radio adaptation of the documentary film, Walking in Two Worlds, we meet a Tlingit brother and sister, who are trying to heal both the forest and their native community.  Special thanks to Specialty Studios. Featuring: Wanda Culp & Bob...

What is it like to be a student who has fought in a war? Producers at The Stanford Storytelling Project’s podcast, State of the Human asked six Stanford students and recent alumni, all veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to tell their stories about “Returning Home.” Featuring: Dustin Barfield, Chris Clark, Josh Francis, Annie Hsieh, Russ Toll, and William Treseder , military veterans Hei...

On this week's show we’re exploring how some women have been dehumanized to the point of indifference. We’ll learn how one community is undoing the silence around the violence women of color face. We’ll also hear about how serial killers were able to hunt down mostly Black women for three decades in South Los Angeles. Then we’ll take you to the Yucatan where pregnant indigenous women struggle unde...

Black Lives Matter. This simple phrase has become the motto of a growing movement calling for true justice and equality for black people. Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, first typed out those three words back in 2013. In March of 2015, Alicia Garza visited the University of Southern Maine to tell the story of how Black Lives Matter came to be, and express her hopes for where it’s h...

Imprisonment, oppressive laws, and harassment of journalists - these are just a few means of censorship around the world. The use of these repressive tactics threaten freedom of expression and the public’s right to information. On this edition, we hear from journalists in Ecuador and Mexico, and learn about the most censored countries from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Featuring: William M...

Making Contact partnered with the 2014 National Poetry Slam in Oakland, CA to produce this special open mic highlighting the power of thoughtful, truth telling, community focused poetry. Featuring Poets:   Chris Cuadrado Lindsay Stone Jared Paul Caitlin Clark Queen T