Gaza: Reflections on a Year of Reporting
Producer Lucy Kang reported Making Contact’s first story on Israel’s invasion on Gaza last November. One year later, the conflict continues to mercilessly destroy families and lives in Palestine and beyond. It’s been reported that at least 41,909 Palestinian people have been murdered and 97,303 injured since October 7, 2023. We reflect on this solemn anniversary with a collection of stories we’ve produced that provide...
Gaza, One Year Later
It’s been one year since October 7th, 2023 and the start of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza. On today’s show, we hear from journalist Rami Almeghari and other Palestinians about their experiences living through the war. Then, we dive into a conversation with Norman Solomon, author of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine, about what mainstream coverage of the war is leaving out....
Tackling the Intimate Partner Violence to Prison Pipeline
We catch up with journalist and intimate partner violence (IPV) survivor Natalie Pattillo to talk about the folks fighting for justice for criminalized survivors of IPV. Listen to find out the story behind Oklahoma activists that led the state to adopt a new law based on New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, and how you can get involved. And finally, Stanford Criminal Justice Center’s Regilla Project just...
Crosswinds: The Cost of Coal
In this week’s show, we take a look at the health, environmental and financial costs of coal that fall to people living near the mines, rail lines and ports used for its export. With the help of our partner podcast Crosswinds, we meet three impacted communities along a railroad connecting coal mines in West Virginia to ports on the East Coast. And we’ll hear how that rail infrastructure was built on the forced labor of...
The Black Panthers in Algeria
On today’s Making Contact, our friends from the podcast, Kerning Cultures, bring us “Black Panthers in Algeria.” It’s the story of when Elaine Mokhtefi landed in newly independent Algeria in the early 1960s and quickly found herself at the center of a special period in the country’s history, at a time when Algiers welcomed liberation groups from across the world – earning a reputation as the “Mecca of revolution.” In this...
The Problematic History of Gender Testing at the Olympics
The attacks on Imane Khelif’s gender at this year’s 2024 Paris Olympics is not new. In fact, the focus on women’s appearance and gender expression goes back to the founding of the Olympics, the minute women entered elite sports. We talk to Rose Eveleth, host and producer of the podcast Tested about the history of sex testing in the Olympics and why it existed in the first place, why there’s no easy way to...
