Making Contact

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."

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.

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.

"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...

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.

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.

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...

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'v...

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. 

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. 

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 abandonme...

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.

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.  

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? 

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.

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...

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.  

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...

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.

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. Pa...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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...