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!
A New Way of Life and the New Underground Railroad
After serving time, finding food, a job and a place to live with a criminal record can become an almost impossible task. On this edition, Women building their own support network after being released from prison. We’ll hear “A New Way of Life and the New Underground Railroad” a documentary by Chris Moore-Backman.
read moreWomen Rising 29: Food Sovereignty in indigenous communities
Women Rising radio profiles food sovereignty activists from India, Mexico, and Native American communities. If you are interested in GMOs, TTP, seed saving, herbal medicine, food, trade & activism –then tune in! Featuring: Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya Adelita San Vicente Tello, founder of Semillas de Vida Sage La Pena, Native American, ethno- botanist and food sovereignty activist Kanyon Sayers-Roods, Native American youth educator More information Navdanya fundación semillas de vida The Women’s Herbal Symposium...
read moreCOINTELPRO 101 (Part 2)
This week, we broadcast the second half of the documentary film “COINTELPRO 101,” about the secret FBI program which ran from 1956-1971, and disrupted many movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S.. Today, we hear the second half of the film, produced by the Freedom Archives.
read moreCOINTELPRO 101 (Part 1)
Over the next two weeks, we broadcast the documentary film “COINTELPRO 101,” about the secret FBI program which ran from 1956-1971, and disrupted many movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S.. Today, we hear the first half of the film, produced by the Freedom Archives.
read moreNew Rates! Call for Pitches July 2016
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? Do they have ideas about how to cope, and how to change things? If so, consider pitching to Making Contact! We’re looking for pitches from freelancers on several themes. NewsFlash #1 We’ve increased our freelance rates! See below. NewsFlash #2 With software from Hearken, our Ever Wonder? widgets ask listeners to suggest questions for reporters to...
read moreBipolarized: Rethinking Mental Illness
Ross McKenzie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but after 15 years on Lithium, he wasn’t getting any better. He decided to take matters into his own hands, get off the drug, and find out why so many people are being told they have mental illnesses. This week on Making Contact, we bring you an abridged version of the film Bipolarized; Rethinking Mental Illness, chronicling McKenzie’s journey. Featuring: Ross McKenzie, diagnosed with Bipolar disorder Ross McKenzie’s mother and sister Gwen Olsen, former pharmaceutical rep...
read moreA new call for pitches coming in late July —and new rates!
We’ll have a new call for pitches in late July on Immigrants and Elections, Guns, People in Prison, Climate Change, Occupy+5 and more… NEW RATES We’re trying out new rates for radio freelancers! Level 1. $800 plus travel reimbursement up to $100 “Involve research and original reporting • Require the reporter to have substantial subject matter expertise • Involve time-consuming reporting • Have a sophisticated narrative • Require travel by the reporter • Have sound that does not involve phone tape • Be rich in a variety of sounds...
read moreDocumenting FREDY : Eight Years After the Shooting in Montreal
Fredy Villanueva was playing dice in a park in Montreal North when police officers arrived. In less than a minute, the 18-year-old was fatally shot by police. Eight years later, what happened in those sixty seconds remains unclear. The documentary play Fredy tries to untangle what happened before and after the shooting, as it asks questions about racial profiling, systemic discrimination, and the promise of art for social change. Featuring: Annabel Soutar, Artistic Director, Porte Parole Ricardo Lamour, actor, musician community activist...
read more#SayHerName: Black Love in Action
In cities across the country, black women – many of whom have been on the front lines of the Movement for Black Lives – are lifting up the names of their sisters killed by police. This March, Manolia Charlotin, a multimedia journalist with the The Media Consortium, and Cat Brooks, artist and organizer with Oakland’s Anti Police-Terror Project sat down at a community event in San Francisco to talk about Say Her Name and what it looks like to build a movement that centers black women. Jamison Robinson, Yuvette Henderson’s brother,...
read moreStraddling Borders
Existing in two worlds can complicate your identity and complete it–whether it’s understanding your medicine man grandfather, to deepening the concept of love through a different tongue, these storytellers takes us around the world from Colombia to Papua New Guinea, seeking definition and connections with presumably different cultures. Featuring: Francis Rojas Jeremiah Barber William Guillermo Ortiz, Curandero / Medicine Man Florentina Mocanu-Schendel, Doctor of Theater and Performance Studies, Stanford University Warama Kurupel, Limol...
read moreWe’re Hiring an Online Community Manager
Making Contact is Hiring an Online Community Manager Making Contact is a non-profit media organization that produces an award-winning, public radio program heard on over 120 radio stations, and via podcast, SoundCloud, and more. Making Contact produces radio journalism — feature stories that analyze critical issues and showcase grassroots solutions. Our aim: To inform and inspire people to take action and help build a just and sustainable world. This is a full-time position, with generous paid time-off benefits and flexible hours....
read moreJane Mayer on the Hidden Billionaires of the Radical Right
Who is Charles Koch–really? Who are the members of “the Network”?—a semi-secret group assembled by the Koch brothers? How are the superrich’s priorities transforming American society? Journalist Jane Mayer spent several years searching for some of those answers, and her new book is titled Dark Money, the Hidden History of the Billionaires. Mayer is interviewed by Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief James Bennet. Featuring: Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money, the Hidden History of the Billionaires James Bennet, Atlantic Magazine...
read moreRad Dads!!!
Fathers…and mothers…on fatherhood and how it’s changing. Traditional ideas about what a dad is supposed to be are slowly disappearing, but what will take their place?
read moreChoosing Justice Over Fear
Penny Rosenwasser is an activist and author of “Hope Into Practice: Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite our Fears.” On this edition of Making Contact she reflects on her personal journey to embrace her identity as a Jewish woman while fighting for human rights for all. Listen to stories, history and poetry that explore internalized anti-Semitism and racism, victimization and privilege, and Jewish politics around Israel and Palestine. (Photo: Penny’s grandfather Moishe’s (far left) dry goods store in Denmark, SC in the 1930s-40s.)...
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 generations later, how are Palestinians fighting to return home? On this edition of Making Contact we reflect on the Nakba, the Naksa, and the future of Palestine. Featuring: Rami Almeghari, FSRN reporter Ghazi Misleh, author of I Am from There and I Have Memories Rabab...
read moreWaiting for Home: The Refugee and Immigrant Experience
The root causes of migration vary widely. Some people migrate and return to their homes depending on the season. While others migrate and never return. Often, people are forced to leave or flee their homes indefinitely because of poverty, extreme environmental events, armed conflict, social strife, political turmoil, and economic hardships. On this edition of Making Contact, we hear stories from Central American migrants that take on oppressive debts or face challenges in schools in the U.S. We also hear from Cuban migrants stuck in limbo on...
read moreIran Belongs to its Youth
We often hear from the upper middle class, educated youth of Iran. But what about the majority of youth, the working class young people who live in South Tehran and similar neighborhoods? Reese Erlich explores how young people compare President Rouhani’s government with the rule of Ahmadinejad. We’ll also hear about how they are responding to conservative hardliners who are tapping into frustrations with high unemployment, and threatening to cancel the nuclear deal. Thank you to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for granting Reese...
read moreAbortion Access and Eroded Rights
In 1973 the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade established the legal right to abortion in the United States. Since then, state legislative and executive bodies have battled to restrict access to abortions. Federal law banned the use of federal funds for most abortions in 1977, and public funding for abortion remains a contested issue. One recent study in Texas found that more than 200,000 women performed abortions on themselves because they weren’t able to find clinical services. From restrictive laws to a lack of information to violent...
read moreAfter Disaster: Picking up the pieces in an age of climate change
Among the effects of climate change are more extreme weather events, such as Typhoon Haiyan, Superstorm Sandy, and a severe drought stretching across much of the Western United States. On this edition of Making Contact we’ll take a deeper look at the social and psychological impacts of climate change, and the weight of inaction. Featuring: Niki Stanley and Derice Klass, Far Rockaway residents Zardos V. Abela, firefighter for the Bureau of Fire Protection in Tacloban, Philippines Abigail Gewirtz, psychologist at the University of...
read moreMisrepresented: Interrupting Muslim & Arab Stereotypes
Hollywood has had a long history of whitewashing and stereotyping different groups –from brownface to blackface and yellowface. For Arabs and Muslims, persistent clichés throughout Hollywood’s history range from desert scenes with camels and palm trees, and characters cast as barbaric villains, belly dancers, or terrorists among others. On this edition of Making Contact we’ll meet people confronting racist depictions of Muslims and Arabs in pop culture and politics; and two young women evaluating societal expectations placed on them....
read more
