Latest Episodes
We are proud to offer over 500 radio programs free of charge. We offer our program to radio stations and online listeners free of charge, so that these voices and stories of social justice can reach the broadest audience possible.
We depend on support from individuals like you to be able to produce our programs. If you listen regularly and like what you hear, please consider making a donation. Thank you!
Symbols of Resistance Part Two: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement
Symbols of Resistance: Part Two Our radio adaptation of the film Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement, offers a reflection on the untold stories of the Chican@ Movement with a focus on Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Produced by Freedom Archives, the film delves into issues of cultural identity, student activism; land rights and social justice, in the face of police oppression. The film represents an important component of the Chican@ struggle that is often not well understood—that the movement was not...
read moreSymbols of Resistance Part One: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement
A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement Our radio adaptation of the film Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement, offers a reflection on the untold stories of the Chican@ Movement with a focus on Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Produced by Freedom Archives, the film delves into issues of cultural identity, student activism; land rights and social justice, in the face of police oppression. The film represents an important component of the Chican@ struggle that is often not well understood—that the...
read more70 Million: How Bail Shackles Women of Color
How Bail Shackles Women of Color Tamiki Banks’ life was turned upside down when her husband was arrested, leaving her the sole breadwinner and caregiver to their twins. More than two years later, she’s still struggling, and he’s still in custody, even though he hasn’t been convicted of any crime. From Atlanta, Pamela Kirkland reports on the heavy burden women of color like Tamiki bear when a loved one is jailed. Photo of Tamiki Jackson Banks by Pamela Kirkland. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and...
read moreListen to Making Contact as a Podcast
Making Contact is accessible wherever and whenever you want to listen as a podcast! Why listen as a podcast? The perk of podcasting is that you can stream our episodes with Wifi or download them on your phone, iPad, or laptop for listening later on! Where to listen? Our episodes are now available to stream and download on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and more! How do I listen? If you’re new to podcasting – we’re here to help! But don’t worry – we’re still available online and as a radio...
read moreBeyond Recognition: The Ohlone
Beyond Recognition: The Ohlone Our radio adaptation and update of the film Beyond Recognition by Underexposed films: “After decades struggling to protect her ancestors’ burial places, a Native woman from a non-federally recognized Ohlone tribe and her allies occupy a sacred site to prevent its desecration. They then vow to follow a new path- to establish the first women-led urban Indigenous land trust.” Thanks to the Christensen Fund for supporting Making Contact’s Community Storytelling Fellows and our...
read moreWomen Rising. Migrations: Standing in Solidarity With the Desperate
Migrations: Standing in Solidarity With the Desperate: The USA and many nations in Europe, have slammed the gates shut against desperate immigrants and refugees, criminalizing and brutalizing them. Three activist women co-founded groups to challenge the policies of detention, deportation, discrimination and denigration of migrants. They are organizing to transform the current immigration policy of the USA, and to uphold immigrants’ human rights internationally. Dr. Satsuki Ina co-founded Tsuru for Solidarity; Serena Adlerstein co-created...
read moreGuns and Restraining Orders
Guns and Restraining Orders Despite the recent increase in mass shootings in the United States, the majority of gun injuries and deaths are in fact a result of suicides, homicides, accidental shootings, and intimate partner violence. In this documentary by Making Contact’s Monica Lopez, you’ll hear the story of one woman’s experience of domestic violence, learn about gun violence restraining orders, and how some Californians are working to prevent shootings. This program was produced as a project for the...
read moreThe World’s Largest Methanol Refinery (and the fight to stop it)
Photo by Rick Rappaport The Fight to Stop the World’s Largest Methanol Refinery Special for Climate Week: Barbara Bernstein’s story of several communities in the Pacific Northwest of the United States who are fighting mammoth fracked gas projects that would turn this green region into a fracked-gas export hub. For years, Bernstein has reported for Making Contact on David versus Goliath battles against oil and gas corporations, and the fight for a clean environment. Today you’ll hear part one of...
read moreBio Hackers versus Big Pharma: Tackling the Rising Cost of Insulin
Tackling the Rising Cost of Insulin As the cost of insulin continues to skyrocket patients are dying from trying to ration their medication. It’s an extreme example, but not unusual – the cost of insulin mirrors the broader health crisis in the United States. Medicine is too expensive and inaccessible. And as insurance companies continue to raise prices, more and more people are put at risk, especially if they’re uninsured, or under-insured. Today, we look at ways to combat the health costs associated with...
read moreDecarcerated with Danielle Sered: Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair
Decarcerated with Danielle Sered Courtesy of the Decarcerated Podcast, host Marlon Peterson hosts a live conversation with Common Justice founder Danielle Sered. Sered’s New Book, Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair explores the difficult transformations we need to make — both as individuals and as a society — before we can displace and replace the prison industrial complex. Danielle tackles the difficult question of violent crime, instead of lower level drug offenses, and he argues that real healing takes...
read moreWe Want Your Stories: A Call for Pitches Fall 2019
Making Contact produces media that analyses critical issues and showcases grassroots solutions in order to inform and inspire audiences to action. We are accepting pitches for 7-10 minute segments or 29-minute documentaries for upcoming shows in our Fall schedule. We’re looking for both new radio pieces, or potential audio material that has previously aired non-exclusively (radio features, video docs, sound-rich podcasts etc.) Although we’re always looking for stories on a variety of topics (so send those over, too), we’re particularly...
read morePushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools is an examination of the experiences of black girls across the country whose intricate lives are misunderstood, highly judged “by teachers, administrators, and the justice system “and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish. In her new book, Morris shows how, despite obstacles, stigmas, stereotypes, and despair, black girls still find ways to breathe remarkable dignity into their lives in classrooms,...
read moreThe Struggle Inside: The Murder of George Jackson
The Struggle Inside: The Murder of George Jackson On this edition of Making Contact we present, The Struggle Inside: The Murder of George Jackson, a program about the modern anti-prison movement. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Black August, first originated in the California prisons to honor fallen Freedom Fighters, George and Jonathan Jackson, Khatari Gaulden, James McClain, and William Christmas. Jonathan Jackson was gunned down outside the Marin County courthouse on August 7, 1970 as he attempted to take hostages in a plan to...
read moreHawaii: A Voice For Sovereignty
A Voice For Sovereignty Some call it “Paradise”, but Hawaii isn’t just a tourist getaway. Look beyond the resorts, and you’ll find a history of opposition to US occupation. From sacred sites, to indigenous language, Hawaiians are fighting hard to protect their traditions, and their future. On this edition we hear excerpts from the 2012 film by Catherine Bauknight “Hawaii: A Voice for Sovereignty,” which explores the history of Hawaii – from the beginning of the US...
read moreLessons of Nagasaki
Commemorating Nagasaki The US dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Three days later, the small fishing city of Nagasaki also fell victim. On this edition, we hear the voices of the most deadly attacks the world had ever seen. We commemorate the anniversary of the bombings with excerpts from two documentaries: “Hiroshima Countdown” and “Nagasaki Journey.” Photo from Hiroshima’s annual Lantern Floating Ceremony in the Motoyasu River that runs below the Atomic Bomb Dome, by Freedom II Andres via...
read moreAbortion Beyond Clinics: Call Jane
Abortion Beyond Clinics In this episode, we explore new safe at-home abortion options and the growing movement for “self-managed abortions.” Amidst changes to the Supreme Court of the United States, and after decades of restrictions to abortion access across the country, people continue to find ways to make this vital procedure safer, more affordable, and more accessible. Advances in medicine and discoveries made by women themselves have changed the kind of options available outside of clinics. Image: McAllen Texas 1/21/2017...
read moreAfrofuturism: Imagination and Humanity, Ytasha Womack
Afrofuturism According to Ytasha Womack, use of the imagination for self-development and social change is one of the greatest tenets of Afrofuturism. This show features Womack’s presentation at the 2017 Sonic Acts Festival, Afrofuturism: Imagination and Humanity. She explores resilience encouraged through the championing of the imagination, tensions that arise from embracing hope, the separation of humanity from itself through the creation of the technology called race, and the power of storytelling. Womack is author of the award winning...
read more70 Million: Undocumented Immigrants Are Tethered to ICE, and Private Companies
ICE A handful of companies are making millions off of ankle monitors strapped to undocumented immigrants in ICE custody. The makers pitch the monitors as an alternative to being jailed, but are they simply another form of bondage? Reporter Ryan Katz looks at what life is life while wearing one of these monitors. He untangles the complicated web of ICE, immigration bail agent companies, and the attorneys fighting them. 70 Million is made possible by a grant from the Safety and Justice Challenge at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur...
read moreA Journalist Reckons with Truth and Objectivity
Lewis Wallace Lewis Wallace was a reporter at Marketplace. You may have heard his voice on the Marketplace Morning Report with David Brancaccio. That was until he publicly questioned the role of objectivity in a Medium post. “We need to let go of idea that objectivity is dying. A more useful framework is that objectivity is a mythology that we’re urgently debunking to figure out what can stand in its place. That doesn’t lessen our pursuit of truth – it just reveals the complexity that was always there, which is that subjectivity informs that...
read moreDon’t wait for a Call for Pitches. We invite your pitches on rolling basis.
Send us your pitches ANYTIME to pitches@radioproject.org after you’ve looked at Submission Guidelines Submission...
read more