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A Look at Labor Organizing, and Worker and Immigrant Rights
Our latest radio release looks at workers organizing, inside and outside of labor unions. You’ll meet members of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of LA and hear from Day Laborers in Pasadena who are creating their own phone app and collective bargaining system by sharing info about employers. Plus an interview with Jane McAlevey, union member and union critic. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here to support our non-profit journalism and be sure to join our newsletter. Thanks! Featuring: Cal Soto, National Day...
read moreSpies of Mississippi
Spies of Mississippi is a journey into the world of informants, infiltrators, and agent provocateurs in the heart of Dixie. The film tells the story of a secret spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi to preserve segregation and maintain “the Mississippi way of life,” white supremacy, during the 1950s and ‘60s. The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (MSSC) evolved from a predominantly public relations agency to a full-fledged spy operation, spying on over 87,000 Americans over the course of a decade. The Commission employed a...
read moreBeyond Choice: Organizing for Reproductive Justice
At the end of March, Congress passed a bill allowing states to deny funding to family planning groups that offer abortion services – groups like Planned Parenthood. Now, Pennsylvania and Michigan have introduced legislation to join over a dozen states in doing just that. As we fight off right wing attacks on abortion rights, Loretta Ross asks us to consider what it would take to have real choices about our bodies. On this week’s Making Contact, Loretta Ross, co-founder of SisterSong breaks down the reproductive justice framework;...
read moreNot Throw Away Women: Black and Indigenous Women Disrupt Violence ENCORE
In the United States April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). The goal of SAAM is to raise public awareness about sexual violence and to educate communities on how to prevent it. On today’s show we’re exploring how some women have been dehumanized to the point of indifference. We’ll learn how one community is undoing the silence around the violence women of color face. We’ll also hear about how serial killers were able to hunt down mostly Black women for three decades in South Los Angeles. Then we’ll take you to the Yucatan where...
read moreConscience and Dissent: Values in Media
Independent journalism offers incisive analysis and perspectives typically passed over by the corporate-owned media. The phrase “Speaking truth to power” is a central tenet to independent journalism and community produced media. A network of those media outlets gathered at The Media Consortium conference in Washington DC to discuss the role independent media plays in today’s contentious media landscape. Special thanks to the panelists, The Media Consortium, Jo Ellen Kaiser, Manolia Charlotin, and Paul Stewart. Like this...
read moreThe Cost of War: A Reflection on the United States and Iraq Conflict
Given Trump’s massive military budget proposal and the 14th Anniversary of the United States war in Iraq, we bring you this program from our archives with the voices of U.S. Soldiers and Iraqis reflecting on the costs of war. Special thanks to KALW News in San Francisco. Photo Credit: Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War present at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, GA. Photo by flickr user Brooke Anderson. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: George W. Bush,...
read moreDeadline 3/22/17: Community Storytelling Fellowship, Indigenous Solutions and Climate Crisis
Thank you to everyone who applied for our Community Storytelling Fellowship, Indigenous Solutions and Climate Crisis. We would love to work with each of you in any way possible in the future. Currently we are welcoming Isabella Zizi as our next fellow!
read moreReclaiming Public Schools: Education in the Trump Era
Outside of the home, children learn about the world, where they fit in amongst their peers, and who they want to be in school. Access to a quality education means different things to different people. Some families are willing and able to pay top dollar for a private school, other children are homeschooled, while many rely on public schools for their education. And some students are calling for a more thorough and inclusive curriculum in the legislature and in the classroom. In this edition of Making Contact, we look at two major changes to...
read moreWomen Rising Radio 33: With Healers At Standing Rock
Dr. Rupa Marya is a physician on the faculty of UCSF, and an activist who formed the Do No Harm Coalition at UCSF. Dr. Maria Michael is a Lakota Dine spiritual elder and healer with a Ph.d in psychology. Dr. Revery Barnes is a physician working on HIV/AIDS at Harbor UCLA in Los Angeles. All three women went to Standing Rock, to stand with the great Sioux nation in its struggle for sovereignty over its ancestral lands and water. The Sioux water supply comes from the Oahe tributary of the Missouri river, where a fossil fuel giant, Energy...
read moreParis: Responses to Terror, and the Experiment in Mixité
For this episode, we jump across the Atlantic to Paris, France–a city whose identity is a long held archetype of beauty and romance. Conversely, Paris has also long been the site of historical protest and legacies of colonialism whose spectres are still coming to fore. Jessica Myers and Adelie Pojzman-Pontay with the Here There Be Dragons podcast feature Paris and explore Parisian sentiment–both native and immigrant–about the post-terrorists attacks at the Bataclan and Charlie Hebdo. We learn how the state has responded, but...
read moreLong Distance Revolutionary
Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal ⌠Documentary : 2Ol2⌡ Unlike any other film, book, or article produced about Mumia Abu-Jamal, “Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary” focuses on his career as a prolific author and broadcaster from Pennsylvania’s Death Row. In fact, the film does not deal with Abu-Jamal’s case, but rather chronicles his life and work as a journalist and revolutionary – both prior and post incarceration. After Abu-Jamal is convicted for the murder of of Philadelphia patrolman...
read moreBuilding Resistance: Japanese Imprisonment and the Fight Against a Muslim Registry
This year is the 75th anniversary of we now call Japanese Internment. And every year since 1942, Japanese Americans have tried to get the rest of us to remember what happened. To notice the scar that mass incarceration left, not just on the Japanese community, but on all of us. We found ourselves at similar crossroads in 2001 when the Bush Administration used the chaos of 9/11 to push through drastic changes, including the creation of a Muslim registry called NSEERS, the National Security Entry Exit Registration System. But, people fought...
read more11 Million Undocumented: A Look at Sanctuary and Immigration Policy in the Trump Era
11 million. That’s the estimated number of people living in the U-S who are undocumented. During his first weeks in office President Donald Trump signed orders to build a border wall, ban travel from countries with largely Muslim populations, and deny federal funds to sanctuary cities and states. In this show we’ll look to previous administrations to see how they treated people who were undocumented, and how immigrant movements of the past responded. Special thanks to the Beacon journalism crowdfunding platform, and all the...
read moreCaring Relationships: Negotiating Meaning and Maintaining Dignity ENCORE
In this disturbing era of Trump, we revisit our encore show on disability rights. During his campaign in November 2016, Trump mocked NY Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who had chronic joint disease that limits his arm movements. On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll explore the dynamic and complex relationship of care receiving, giving, and disability rights. 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...
read moreDr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation”
Is whitelash enough of an explainer for the rise of President Donald Trump? Is it rigorous enough to blame the people who didn’t show up to vote for our impending collective struggle under this administration? On this edition, we hear from Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, assistant professor in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Dr. Taylor most recently wrote, “From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation.” We’ll be sharing a talk with Dr. Taylor’s insights on Black Liberation as framed through this most recent...
read moreA Dream Remembered?: Martin Luther King Jr and the Grassroots Civil Rights Movement
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most famous speeches of all time. But it nearly didn’t happen. On this special edition of Making Contact for MLK Day, Gary Younge, author of “The Speech” talks about Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and the story behind it. Special thanks to The New School for the recording. Featuring: Gary Younge, author of “The Speech: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and the Story Behind It” Credits: Host: George...
read moreMirrors of Privilege
Mirrors of Privilege is a remarkable and engaging film that explores stories from white men and women about their journeys in overcoming issues of unconscious bias and entitlement. From Shakti Butler, director of “Cracking the Codes: The System of Inequity” and “The Way Home: Women Talk About Race in America,” “Mirrors of Privilege” is a must-see for all people who are interested in justice, spiritual growth and community making. This film advances the argument that with transformative learning, a dialogue for learning, changing, healing,...
read moreMen, Women, and Guns: Toxic Masculinity in Mass Shootings
When a mass shooting erupts in our town or city, two common and reasonable responses are to re-examine gun laws and mental health services. But if mass shootings were solely about the shooter’s mental health, why are they primarily committed by men? In this episode of Making Contact we revisit the tragedy in Isla Vista and one survivor who’s using his experience as a way to talk about toxic masculinity, mass shootings, and interpersonal violence. Special thanks to KCSB-FM for permission to use their archives. Like this program?...
read moreFallen Heroes of 2016
Thousands of local social justice organizers passed away this year. People doing crucial work in their communities, whose deaths didn’t make the headlines. On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll hear about some of the fallen heroes of 2016. Like this program? Please show us. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Can you recognize the title & Fallen Artist of each song in this show? We’ll list their names and songs in our newsletter. Don’t miss the answers in January — Sign Up Here. Featuring:...
read moreThe Long Ride Home: The Get on the Bus Program and Incarcerated Families
The Get On The Bus program, coordinated by the Center for Restorative Justice Works, offers support and free transportation services to families affected by the criminal justice system. They bring children and their guardians/caregivers, from throughout California, to visit their mothers and fathers in prison. These rides happen over several weekends, from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, hundreds of families are reunited for the holidays. Special Thanks for funding from the Omnia Foundation. Thanks to Center for Restorative Justice Works, and...
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