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Hunger Strike! How Immigrant Taxi Drivers Took on City Hall
When Augustine Tang’s father passed away, Augustine decided to inherit his taxi medallion – the license that had allowed his father to drive a yellow taxi cab in New York City for decades. But the medallion came with a $530,000 debt trap and years of struggling to escape it. So Tang joined a push by the local taxi drivers’ union, to campaign for debt relief. And eventually, city resistance to worker demands culminated in a 15-day hunger strike to convince City Hall that immigrant taxi drivers deserved a fair deal. The drivers’...
read moreEscape to Cairo from Kerning Cultures
In October 1960, the walls were closing in for Patrice Lumumba. Months earlier, he had been celebrated as the Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister after decades of brutal colonial rule. But now, he had been overthrown in a coup and was being kept under house arrest by his political opponent. With Lumumba’s life at risk, the Egyptian government under Gamal Abdel Nasser proposed a dangerous and unusual plan to have three of Lumumba’s young children smuggled out of the country and away to the safety of Cairo. This week on...
read moreCall for pitches: Call for pitches – Environmental Justice in Washington or California
We are seeking pitches from freelancers on the specific topic of Environmental Justice in either California or Washington state. Please send ideas to pitches@radioproject.org and include links to 2-3 examples of your previous audio work. In the subject of the email write Pitch: Environmental Justice. Pay rate is $1200 for a 13:30 minute segment. More on rates and the types of stories we accept below. Please submit pitches by email to pitches@radioproject.org. +++ Rates For radio freelancers: Level 1. $1,200 plus travel reimbursement up to...
read moreHow to Hold Back the Ocean
As climate change melts the polar ice caps and raises sea levels, how will we adapt? We visit two locations: On Sapelo Island Georgia, the last remaining Gullah Geechee community fights to save their ancestral lands from the flood waters. Instead of leaving their land, or building a giant sea wall, they’ve chosen to use oysters to create what’s called a living shoreline. We take a look at how they’re built and if they’re working. Meanwhile, in New York, the Army Corps wants to construct seagates to protect the...
read more70 Million: When “Bail Reform” Isn’t
This week on Making Contact, we look at Bail Reform in the state of Texas with the help of our podcast partners 70 Million. For conservative lawmakers and bail reform advocates have long debated what bail reform can look like for those who cannot afford to bail themselves out of jail. Image Credit: Photo by Brandon Allen Image Caption: Monique Joseph stands in front of the A. M. “Mac” Stringfellow Unit (previously Ramsey II Unit) a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison. Her husband has been locked away in the...
read moreWelcome Producer Amy Gastelum!
We are so excited to welcome Amy Gastelum to our production team this month. Amy is a radio producer and reporter, public health nurse, audio storytelling instructor and mother. She’s lived and worked in Indianapolis, New York City and Providence. Gastelum earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Indiana University in 2008. She began her nursing career on the antenatal unit at the county hospital in Indianapolis and has continued to work in underserved communities since. She has specialized in mother/baby care, primarily as a public...
read moreJuristac and the Amah Mutsun: Indigenous Resistance and Regeneration (Encore)
In this episode, we take a deep dive into Indigenous resistance against extractivism and the forces behind climate change. We’ll look at an underreported story in California about the Amah Mutsun Ohlone’s fight to save their most sacred site — a place called Juristac. Contributors Robert Raymond and Della Duncan explore the horrific injustices wrought upon California Indians since the time of the Spanish Missions up to the present and focus on how the Amah Mutsun are working to regenerate their culture, language, and land. Special...
read moreWhite Hoax: Racism, Divide-and-Conquer, and Politics
On today’s episode anti-racism activist and author Tim Wise examines the concept of Whiteness and what he describes as the psychological wage of whiteness. Wise provides historical perspective on the current political and social climate. In his talk, “Great White Hoax: Racism, Divide-and-Conquer, and Politics,” Wise explores the ways in which white privilege and fragility have shaped our nation’s narrative around race and given way to the rise in white national hate speech and violence. Like this program? Please show us the...
read moreSeeking Shelter: Building Housing and Community for LGBTQ Elders (Encore)
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors are much more likely than their straight counterparts to be alone and isolated as they age. Housing and support for these elders is a growing need–and the issue is not confined to the United States. In this edition, we’ll visit Jakarta Indonesia, and Los Angeles, California, to hear stories of building housing and community for LGBTQ seniors. Special thanks to FSRN-Free Speech Radio News Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit...
read moreI Am Because I Am: The Expansion of Gender Identity (Encore)
Gender Identity I Am Because I Am, explores the expansion of gender identity and presumed roles in our society. A look beyond the socially constructed ideas of what is male, female, masculine or feminine. Especially considering Trump’s administration attempts to redefine gender to be solely based on a person’s genitalia at birth. Thus potentially threatening Transgender, Intersex and Non-Binary Identity. In this show we’ll ask the questions, what does it mean when individuals challenge specific societal expectations of gender? In the...
read moreThe Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story Part 2
PART 2….In 2019 a well known romance writer began tweeting about other writers in her community and concerns about racism. It led to a huge reckoning within an organization called the Romance Writers of America, which is still unfolding. And although the online debate seemed to be isolated to a specific community of romance writers and their fans, it was really a microcosm of what’s been happening all over the US. We learn all about romance novels and how newer writers are changing the norms of the genre, and giving it a political...
read moreThe Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story Part 1
In 2019 a well known romance writer began tweeting about other writers in her community and concerns about racism. It led to a huge reckoning within an organization called the Romance Writers of America, which is still unfolding. And although the online debate seemed to be isolated to a specific community of romance writers and their fans, it was really a microcosm of what’s been happening all over the US. In this episode we learn all about romance novels and how newer writers are changing the norms of the genre, and giving it a...
read moreJerusalem Calling from Kerning Cultures
The Palestine Broadcasting Service started airing in 1936, from a brand new transmitter tower in Ramallah. It was a British station in three languages, aimed at promoting the message of the mandate government throughout the region. But over the following decades, as Palestine saw political upheavals, bloody conflicts and power shifts, the radio station found itself in the middle of it all, and became a unique capsule of the events that lead up to the Nakba. This story originally aired on Kerning Cultures, a podcast telling stories from...
read moreEscaping The Narcissism of The American Dream
Next, a conversation with Tiffanie Drayton, author of the new book Black American Refugee: Escaping the Narcissism of The American Dream. Black American Refugee examines in-depth the intersection of Drayton’s personal experiences, the broader culture and the toll of American racism and global white supremacy on Blacks in the US. Image Credit: © Marcus Duncan 2021 Image Caption: Tiffanie Drayton_Photo Like this program? Please click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Tiffanie Drayton, Mother, World...
read moreThe Pseudo-Science of Whiteness: Biology as a Social Weapon ENCORE
This week, filmmaker Stephanie Welch explores the role that racist, unscientific propaganda has played in promoting white supremacy in the U.S. She traces the history of the Pioneer Fund, the primary funding source for research that claims to demonstrate that people of color are genetically and intellectually inferior. The Fund used such research to lobby for eugenic policies like forced sterilization and the restrictive 1924 Immigration Act, and to wage an unprecedented PR campaign to prevent passage of the Civil Rights Act. Image...
read moreAngelic Troublemaker: Bayard Rustin (ENCORE)
On today’s program we honor Bayard Rustin, one of the most central figures in the African American struggle for Civil Rights and Freedom. Rustin was a pacifist, homosexual and practitioner of nonviolence who dedicated his life to racial equality, economic justice and ending warfare. Known as the lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and trusted advisor to labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin’s methodology for challenging racial inequality and imperialism is centered on his ability to...
read morere:Work – Redemption
In today’s political climate, immigration is often discussed within the context of who “deserves” to be here versus who does not. Many politicians have strayed away from addressing immigration as a humanitarian issue altogether. Stereotyping of immigrants isn’t new — it’s a part of a much longer history of criminalizing immigrants and refugees in the United States. This episode explores the experiences of a Cambodian refugee who got caught up in the criminal justice system at a young age. Billy Taing shares his story of fleeing...
read moreOperation Boulder from Kerning Cultures
Since 9/11, US governmental agencies have poured millions of dollars into spying on Arabs, Muslims and Arab Americans. Their surveillance has changed countless lives as ordinary citizens all over the country were interrogated, arrested or had their homes raided. But this didn’t start in 2001. Invasive – and even illegal – surveillance programs against Arabs and Arab Americans have a long history in the US, going all the way back to the 1970s, with a program code-named Operation Boulder. But it wasn’t until a lawyer...
read moreUnequal Justice: the Criminalization of Black Youth
Nearly two thirds of all children in the U.S. juvenile justice system are kids of color. That’s according to a recent report by the Children’s Defense Fund. In this episode of Making Contact, we’ll hear from Dr. Kris Henning on the disparities faced by Black youth in the juvenile justice system. Dr. Henning is the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown University Law Center. And she is the author of The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth. Image Credit: Book Cover...
read more70 Million: When a State Treats Drug Addiction Like a Health Issue, Not a Crime
A year ago, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize drug possession. The goal is to reverse some of the negative impacts of the War on Drugs by approaching drug use from a health-centered basis. Reporter Cecilia Brown visits an addiction and recovery center in Portland that’s gearing up for what they hope will be an influx of people seeking treatment. Image Credit: Miracles Club Like this program? Please click here and support our non-profit listener-supported journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Julia Mines, Miracle Club Executive...
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