Making Contact

School resource officers are often called upon in middle and high schools to help with routine discipline. But for many children, especially those with disabilities, a law enforcement response to their behavior can lead to the school-to-prison pipeline. This week on Making Contact, we hear a story from our podcast partner 70 Million about the relationship between students with special needs and sc...

In this episode we discuss disability, culture and identity from the perspective of disability communities themselves.   Seattle based activist Dorian Taylor talks about the specific challenges disabled people face while accessing public transportation and Professor Sara Acevedo discusses the powerful ways that common language and terminology can shape our perceptions of disability, and why even t...

The vast majority of care recipients are exclusively receiving unpaid care from a family member, friend, or neighbor. The rest receive a combination of family care and paid assistance, or exclusively paid formal care. 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 d...

On this week's episode, we dive into the hidden biases of the digital age with Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble, author of the groundbreaking book, Algorithms of Oppression. Dr. Noble unpacks how search engines, often seen as neutral tools, can reinforce harmful stereotypes and limit access to critical knowledge. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our digital experiences and discuss the urgent need fo...

On this week's show, we explore Latino food and culture in Chicago's historic Pilsen neighborhood and hear about how food can bring communities together. We tag along with the podcast In Confianza with Pulso as they try to answer the question: what does a Latino version of the tv show "The Bear" taste like? We'll head to two restaurants, Cafe Jumping Bean and Pochos, to find out. Featuring: Eleaza...

In this week's episode, we take a look at how over six decades after the Korean War, South Korea processed the most international adoptions in history and how the demand for a "domestic supply of (adoptable) infants" may be playing a role in increasing threats to autonomy over pregnancy in the US. This show first aired in November 2024. Featuring Alex Lewis, independent producer and founder of  Ro...

To celebrate Pride Month, we have a special show featuring stories from the Making Contact archives. We'll revisit the Stonewall Uprising with the 1989 audio documentary Remembering Stonewall , and then head to the gay rodeo with producer Vanessa Rancaño in a story from 2014. Making Contact Credits Episode host and producer: Lucy Kang Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lu...

A year ago, the world said goodbye to Reverend James Lawson Jr. On today's show, we look back at the work and legacy this leading figure in the Civil Rights Movement and advocate of nonviolence, with the help of the podcast Re:Work from the UCLA Labor Center. Reverend James Lawson Jr., nonviolence advocate and civil rights leader Making Contact Episode host and producer: Lucy Kang Producers: Anita...

Last week, we visited a community in California's Central Valley called East Orosi, which has been fighting for clean water for over 20 years. This week we turn our attention to their sewage system, which is also falling apart. Why has it been so difficult for East Orosi to get clean drinking water and fix its sewage problems? To answer that question, we take a look at the community utility distri...

In 2012, the state of California declared water a human right. Yet nearly 400 water systems don't meet the state's drinking water standards. In the Central Valley, the community of East Orosi hasn't had safe tap water in over 20 years. The water is full of harmful nitrates and other runoff from industrial agriculture. We visit East Orosi and talk to Berta Diaz Ochoa and others about what it's like...

Dr. Rebecca Crumpler was the first Black woman to become a physician in the United States. Working in the aftermath of the Civil War, she made immense contributions to public health, despite the racism and sexism she faced. We'll trace the course of her remarkable life and work with in a story brought to us by the podcast Lost Women of Science, hosted by Katie Hafner and producer Dominique Janee....

For AAPI Heritage Month, we bring you an encore of our 2023 episode "Seeing Signs." With help from the Queens Memory Podcast, we'll learn about "Little Manila," a Filipino neighborhood dating back to the 1970s that still struggles to find its political footing. We also hear from Filipino care workers about their experiences battling COVID 19. This episode first aired on Making Contact in May 2023....

Composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Pinderhughes tells us about The Healing Project. The Healing Project, a fundamentally abolitionist project, explores the structures of systemic racism and the prison industrial complex. The Healing Project takes action towards abolition with forms such as musical songs, films, an exhibition, community gatherings, live performances, and a digital library of au...

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we bring you a story at the intersection of therapy, healing and social justice. We'll hear about one therapist's work to bring the lens of radical therapy and community care into her practice. This piece was produced by the podcast Re:Work from the UCLA Labor Center. Featuring: Claudia Morales, therapist at Social Justice Healing Making Contact Team Epis...

For Earth Day, we bring back a special environmental episode from our archives!  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 for a global political system...

For Black Maternal Health Week, we celebrate the important work that Black midwives do in their communities. In this week's show, we'll hear a conversation about how one woman followed her calling to midwifery in a story brought to us by the podcast Re:Work from the UCLA Labor Center. Featuring Kimberly Durdin, licensed midwife and co-founder of Kindred Space LA and the Birthing People Foundation...

What is caste? According to author Thenmozhi Soundararajan, "caste is suffering. That one's worth and fate are determined at the moment of birth. Forced to exist in a caste apartheid of segregated ghettos." On this week's episode, we talk to Thenmozhi Soundararajan the author of The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition. Examining caste from a feminis...

On this week's episode, we speak with Bay Area based comedian Karinda Dobbins about the release of her debut comedy album, Black & Blue. In Black & Blue, Karinda shares personal stories - finding humor in the most ordinary moments of her daily life - including her girlfriend's arbitrary policy on household pests, the changes hipsters have brought to Oakland, and a Black woman's unique packing list...

During his first term, Trump stacked the Supreme Court with hard right judges creating a 6-3 split that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a stunning ruling in which a human right which was previously granted by law was taken away from the public. This time Trump faces even less resistance and could remake the Supreme Court once again.  Ellie Mystal, justice correspondent and columnist for The...

Dr. Flemmie Kittrell was a Black home economist whose research in the field of early childhood education shaped the way we think about child development today. She became the first Black woman to earn a Ph. D. in nutrition and contributed immensely to programs like Head Start – even though her name is often left out of the history. We'll hear more about her life and work in a story from the podcas...

In 1965 Margaret Crane was a young designer creating packaging for a pharmaceutical company. Looking at the rows of pregnancy tests she thought, "Well, women could do that at home!" and so she made it a reality for potentially pregnant people to be able to know about and take control of their own lives and bodies.  But while the design of the prototype was simple, Crane faced the issues we continu...

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 trillio...

This week on Making Contact, we bring you a story of urban planning and how race has shaped American cities.  In his book, Hella Town: Oakland's History of Development and Disruption, 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 historia...

In episode two of "Exposed"  from our friends at the San Francisco Public Press, we explore a little-known chapter in San Francisco's nuclear era: human experiments carried out to assess the health effects of radiation. Scientists from the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, located at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, designed and executed at least 24 experiments that involved gathering data f...

Today we present the first half of a two-part radio documentary from our friends at the San Francisco Public Press, "Exposed," opening a window into the little-known history of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The sprawling abandoned naval base, in San Francisco's southeast waterfront Bayview neighborhood, is currently the site of the city's largest real estate development project. The base playe...