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She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry – The Personal Is Political
For this edition of Making Contact, we’ll present the documentary, “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” a reflection on the rise of the women’s liberation movement in the United States, between 1966 and 1971. She’s Beautiful explores the emergence of political thought that challenged systems of patriarchy. This documentary provides important historical insight at a time when our country is experiencing regression around issues of reproductive rights, equity in the workplace, and violence against women. Photo Credit: The Film, She’s...
read moreSpecial for Mother’s Day – Mothering: Love on the Front Lines
For Mother’s Day and everyday: listen to a discussion and poetry by women of color writers and editors of the anthology Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines. They dedicate the book to “all the revolutionary mothers and all the revolutions they’ve created, because mothering is love by any means necessary.” You’ll also hear about a recent investigation into Black maternal and infant mortality. Special thanks to Maureen Mohapatra and The Laura Flanders show, Democracy Now! and PM...
read moreProtecting People and Water in Mexico City
Clean, fresh water is one of our most precious natural resources. This week Making Contact contributor Maria Doerr looks at what is being done to safeguard the watersheds of Mexico City— the natural water systems that provide water to one of the largest metropolises in the world. Image Caption: Water barrels in an indigenous community within the Water Forest. Some residents wait up to two weeks for water trucks to appear. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Jürgen...
read moreSpecters of Attica: Reflections from Inside a Michigan Prison Strike
On September 9, 2016, prisoners across the U.S. went on strike. In Michigan’s low security Kinross prison, workers assigned to kitchen duties refused to report to their shifts. Hundreds gathered to protest in the prison yard. The strike spread like a prairie fire. Nationally, 24,000 prisoners participated, making it the largest prisoner labor strike in U.S. history. In this episode of Making Contact, four men who were imprisoned at Kinross report on the unlivable conditions, the moments in which the strike took shape, and the...
read moreDaze of Justice
Via our adaptation of Michael Siv’s documentary, we hear the intimate story of trailblazing Cambodian-American women who break decades of silence, abandoning the security of their American homes on a journey back into Cambodia’s killing fields, only this time not as victims but as witnesses determined to resurrect the memory of their loved ones before the UN Special Tribunal prosecuting the Khmer Rouge. Only Daze of Justice takes us beyond the killing fields. The women must not only find the courage to remember their past,...
read moreThe Nakba, the Naksa, and the Future of Palestine
In 1948 Zionist militias expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their villages and towns. The event, and the ongoing destruction and occupation of Palestine are referred to as the Nakba, “The Catastrophe.” How did the events of 1948 shape Palestine and its diaspora? And now, 70 years later, how are Palestinians fighting to return home? As news spreads of recent violence against Palestinian demonstrators calling for their right to return, and as millions of our U.S. tax dollars continue to fund the Israeli military, we present this encore...
read moreA Dream Remembered?: Martin Luther King Jr and the Grassroots Civil Rights Movement (ENCORE)
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 50 years ago, and is widely remembered for his speech, ‘I Have a Dream.’ Journalist Gary Younge analyzes the King’s speech, delivered on the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, highlighting the day’s tensions, and the importance of remembering the entirety of King’s message and evolution as a critical activist. Special thanks to the New School for recording. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Gary Younge, author and...
read moreThe Seekers, Pt. 1: Freedom from Violence
The Seekers, is the first in a two-part documentary series that examines the experiences of Central American migrants seeking asylum in the US. El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are among the most dangerous countries in the world for women. Each year, thousands of women flee from these Northern Triangle Countries to escape the brutality that stem from drugs and gangs. Now, many Central American migrants are being returned to their countries of origin with their hopes of finding a lasting refuge from violence dimmed. In this episode of...
read morePatrisse Khan-Cullors, “When They Call You A Terrorist”
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and the author of the new book, WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, a meaningful, empowering account of strength and resilience. In this conversation, hosted by long-time organizer Cat Brooks, we hear Patrisse Cullors’ insights on Black liberation, police terrorism and the criminalization of Black activism in America. WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST takes an intimate look at Cullors’ time growing up in Van Nuys, California, surrounded by a devoted family and...
read moreThe Spirit of Vietnam Is Stronger Than U.S. Bombs
Fifty years ago, the American War in Vietnam was at its height. There, people had fought against Japanese and French colonial rule, and now, the U.S. attempt at domination was once again, turning family members, friends, and neighbors against each other. For the U.S. government, this was just another Cold War battleground, and deaths of 2.1 – 3.8 million Vietnamese people were seen as collateral damage to establishing U.S. rule over the region. But people of color around the world saw the resistance in Vietnam as a source of...
read moreGuardians of the Amazon Rainforest – Women Rising Radio #35
Currently the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest are in a struggle with worldwide multinational corporations that want to take over their lands for oil extraction, commercial palm oil, commercial agriculture, mining, and other massively destructive enterprises. Women leaders have taken center stage in the indigenous activism to guard the Amazon rainforest from those who would use it for profit. These women have faced down criticism, violence, and other tactics from powerful corporate and government adversaries, and they have achieved...
read moreMrs. Hamer Echoes (Encore)
Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, spoke words that are all too relevant today. On this encore edition of Making Contact, you’ll hear archival recordings, and excerpts from a powerful new film featuring Fannie Lou Hamer’s contemporaries– themselves now elders. You’ll hear about the context of her life, and the lives of other sharecroppers in Mississippi from a seldom heard film produced for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism....
read moreI Am Not Your Negro: James Baldwin
Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of...
read moreThe End of Policing, Alex Vitale
Alex Vitale is Professor of Sociology and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. Vitale’s book The End of Policing, is an accessible study of police history as an imperial tool for social control that continues to exacerbate class and racial tensions. —- Vitale also goes deep into the shortcomings of reform and in contrast, deepens the conversations around meaningful alternatives to ultimately ask the people to consider the end of policing. Special thanks to Producers: Della Duncan,...
read moreGhosts of the Korean War: Stop THAAD (Encore)
On this encore addition of Making Contact, we head to Soseongri, a small village nestled in the mountains of Seongju County. There, grandmas and grandpas in the 70s, 80s, and 90s have gone from quietly farming to organizing daily protests and blockades to stop THAAD. THAAD is part of a missile defense system that gives the U.S. the ability to carry out a nuclear first strike. The region has historically been Korea’s conservative stronghold, but with the deployment of THAAD, people are re-evaluating the history they’ve...
read moreDr. Ibram X. Kendi – Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Encore Edition)
Some Americans cling to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America – more sophisticated and insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society. Kendi chronicles the story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American...
read moreCall for Pitches!
Do you have a story with perspectives on an ongoing local, national, or global issue? Do you have access to voices and perspectives that get lost in mainstream media landscape? How are people working to cope, and change things? If so, consider pitching to Making Contact! We’re looking for pitches from freelancers on several themes. See list below. Seeking Pitches Immigration: We want your pitches! We’re looking for character-driven stories that focus on how immigrant communities are organizing. Here are some...
read moreBreaking Protocol: Cryptocurrency and Capital Controls in Greece
Which came first– coin or the ledger? In either case, physical currency or a tally of debts and payments have been the two primary forms of money used throughout history. Today, physical cash is increasingly being replaced with cashless systems including cryptocurrencies. This week, we hear from blockchain researcher Jaya Klara Brekke on the political economy of blockchain and consensus protocols. And we go to Athens where contributors Niki Seth-Smith and Alyssa Moxley look at how some Greeks have been using cryptocurrencies since...
read moreWealth Inequity and Universal Basic Income
When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United states, the wealth gap between rich and poor was already very wide. The top 10% of families — those who had at least $942,000 — held 76% of total wealth. The average amount of wealth in this group was $4 million. And the entire bottom half of the population had just 1% of the total wealth pie, this gap continues to rise and when the statistical scope accounts for race, the disparity worsens. Chuck Collins, Director of the Program On Inequality at the Institute for...
read moreReclaiming Gotham: The Battle for U.S. Cities
On this episode of Making Contact, journalist Juan González discusses his new book, Reclaiming Gotham. He chronicles the evolution of the growth machine in America’s cities – from redlining and racial covenants in the early 20th century, to land grabs and privatization in the 21st – and the rise of progressive alliances to reclaim them. Special thanks to Pegasus Books for organizing the event and allowing us to broadcast excerpts of Juan González’s discussion of Reclaiming Gotham. The event took place in Berkeley, CA in October...
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