Heating Up: The Dilemma of Geoengineering (Encore)
Geoengineering is defined as some emerging technologies that could manipulate the environment and partially offset some of the impacts of climate change. Seems like the perfect solution for a consumerist society that lives on instant gratification and can’t stop polluting even at the risk of our futures, right? Well, let’s slow down. Today we’ll discuss the dangers of geoengineering and the ethics of the fact that these new...
Closing a Chapter, Honoring a Legacy: Sunsetting FoC Media/International Media Project
For 30 years, Frequencies of Change Media — legally known as International Media Project — has been dedicated to broadcasting audio stories that honor the rich wisdom and lived experience of historically oppressed and marginalized communities. We came into existence during a time when conservative talk radio and hosts like Rush Limbaugh were gaining massive popularity, and Making Contact was created to directly challenge the...
Caste Aside: Dalit Oppression, Healing & Liberation
This episode was originally published on June 12, 2024 as “The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation.” .” Caste — one of the oldest systems of exclusion in the world — is thriving. Despite the ban on Untouchability 70 years ago, caste impacts 1.9 billion people in the world. Every 15 minutes, a crime is perpetrated against a Dalit person. The average age of death for Dalit women is just 39. And the wreckages...
Catching up with Comedy Queen Karinda Dobbins
This episode was originally published on August 14, 2024 as “Karinda Dobbins: Black and Blue.” 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...
The Supreme Court Under Trump
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. Elie Mystal, justice correspondent and columnist for The Nation magazine, joins us to talk...
Flemmie Kittrell and the Preschool Experiment from Lost Women of Science
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 podcast “Lost Women of...
Buried History: The Woman Who Created the Home Pregnancy Test
This episode was originally published in 2014, and this episode is a republishing of the Feb 28, 2024 Encore, titled “The Feminist Birth of the Home Pregnancy Test.” 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...
Written in the Stars?: The Longtermist Movement
This episode was originally published Apr 5, 2023 as “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...
City Lines: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption (Encore)
This episode was originally published on Jun 14, 2023 as 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 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...
Exposed Part Two: the Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point from SF Public Press
The military exposed thousands of servicemen to radioactivity when it called them to participate in nuclear weapons tests, including Operation Teapot in 1955. One was Eldridge Jones, who later deployed to exercises in the Bay Area to try to clean up radioactive substances, directed by the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. Source: National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada office. In episode two of “Exposed” from our...
