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Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State
The cost of living in a city has skyrocketed. While wages have flatlined for most working-class people, rents have reached new highs, leaving most people struggling. And this, despite the economic costs of the pandemic. A one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is over $3,200 a month. But it’s not just in the US. The rising cost of living is affected the entire world. But why does the cost of housing continue to spiral upward? Samuel Stein’s new book, Capital City and the Real Estate State highlights the growing influence of investment...
read moreGeneration Putin, Ten Years Later
This week Jessica Partnow offers a look at the state of youth activism in Russia from 2012 to today. She revisits her reporting from Ukraine and Russia and speaks with the people in those stories against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. First, she shares the story of re-connecting with her childhood pen pal Sasha, a Ukrainian boy who witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union and is now fighting to protect his country from the Russian invasion, through the eyes of his sister Anna who now lives in the US and is desperately trying to stay...
read moreJuristac and the Amah Mutsun: Indigenous Resistance and Regeneration
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 moreMedical Apartheid and the COVID-19 vaccines (ENCORE)
The world is struggling to contain COVID-19, as variants continue to emerge in countries where the virus is spreading unchecked, killing thousands. Not only could widespread vaccination campaigns help slow the emergence of new variants, they would save countless lives. So why can’t countries in the global south access the novel COVID-19 vaccines? We take a deep dive into the WTO and international patents and we talk about the similarity between the current battle and the prior fight for access to antiretrovirals during the HIV pandemic. We...
read moreShe’s Beautiful When She’s Angry
In this week’s show we’re presenting excerpts from the documentary “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” a reflection on the rise of the women’s liberation movement in the United States, which explores the emergence of political thought that challenged systems of patriarchy. SHE’S BEAUTIFUL does not try to romanticize the early movement, but dramatizes it in its exhilarating, quarrelsome, sometimes heart-wrenching glory. The film does not shy away from the controversies over race, sexual preference and leadership that arose in the...
read moreRe:Work Soul Force, Part 1
On Dec. 11, 2021, the UCLA Labor Center’s historic MacArthur Park building was officially named the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, in honor of a civil and worker rights icon who has been teaching at UCLA for the last 2 decades. In this episode of Re:Work, 93-year-old Rev. Lawson shares stories from his youth, and how he came to discover soul force and the path of nonviolence. This episode contains material from Rev. Lawson’s UCLA Labor Studies course, Nonviolence and Social Movements, which he teaches with UCLA Labor Center...
read moreIt’s Magic: Birth Justice and Black Maternal Health (Encore)
Black women are three times as likely as White women to die from pregnancy-related complications. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable when people seek treatment after recognizing the warning signs. Care from doulas and midwives has also been shown to greatly improve women’s health and well-being during pregnancy and childbirth. Through the work and birth stories of midwife, Allegra Hill, the producers of Re:Work Radio explain how Black midwives in Los...
read more70 Million: Taking Mental Health Crises Out of Police Hands
Making Contact · 70 Million: Taking Mental Health Crises Out of Police Hands Police encounters during a mental health crisis have a greater chance of turning deadly if you’re Black. New response mechanisms bypass law enforcement and result in helpful interventions. Reporter Jenee Darden looks at how folks in Northern California are trying to reimagine crisis response services. Image Caption and Credit: Asantewaa Boykin, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, program director for MH First Sacramento, and an ER nurse, poses...
read morePitch us your stories!
Making Contact is once again accepting pitches on an ongoing basis! In 2020, the producers of Making Contact took a hiatus from accepting freelance pitches. That hiatus is over. Do you have a story pitch that: Links grassroots issues and human realities to national or international trends? Gives listeners a historical, political, or social context of major national and international events? Sheds light on social and economic inequities? What’s the race, class, gender, ability and geographic dynamics? Explores any alternatives or solutions? We...
read moreBlack Women In History (ENCORE)
Making Contact · Black Women In History (Encore) Ever since the first Africans were brought to North America on cargo ships, Black women have helped build America. While Black women have played a critical role in the development of the nation, their stories have been mostly overlooked. In the new book, A Black Women’s History of the United States, historians Daina Ramey Berry PhD and Kali Nicole Gross honor the many significant contributions of Black women who have worked tirelessly to build this country and fight for social justice in the...
read morePart 2 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons (Encore)
Making Contact · Part 2 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid-19 and Prisons In a two-part series, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release inmates in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. For Part 2, we talk about why vaccines aren’t an effective solution to ending COVID in prisons, and we also look at how re-entry has become harder during the pandemic. Then we head to a South Florida jail to learn why activists want to end pre-trial detention....
read morePart 1 of The Pandemic Inside: COVID-19 and Prisons (Encore)
Making Contact · Part 1 of The Pandemic Inside: Covid 19 and Prisons – Encore In this encore episode, we look at how COVID-19 has torn through prisons and how organizers are trying to push state and local governments to release inmates in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. In part one, we focus on California. We take a look at why a prison, like San Quentin, is such a perfect environment for infectious diseases, especially an airborne one like COVID-19, how we might safely release large amounts of inmates across the...
read more70 Million: An Effort to Hold Prosecutors Accountable
Making Contact · 70 Million: An Effort to Hold Prosecutors Accountable Prosecutors hold immense power in the criminal justice system. They decide who to charge with what crime, when to offer deals, what sentences to recommend, and much more. Aside from legal statutes, ethical and constitutional rules govern what prosecutors can and cannot do. But a system that incentivizes bringing criminal cases to trial—and winning them—can motivate prosecutors to bend or break the rules to get a conviction. And all too often, when they cut corners...
read moreRe:Work Radio: Stranded
Making Contact · Re:Work Radio: Stranded In 2020, India suddenly went into a national lockdown without advance planning or adequate government support. This led to a humanitarian crisis in addition to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Millions of jobs disappeared, and hunger was a serious issue. Tens of millions of migrant workers struggled to get home – often on foot – and many died attempting the journey. In this episode, we bring you Gulzar, a migrant worker who left his village as a child and traveled across the country to earn...
read moreFallen Heroes 2021: bell hooks, Nawal El Saadawi, Carrie Dann, Margo St. James, and more
Making Contact · Fallen Heroes, 2021 Thousands of social justice leaders in communities all over the world passed away this year. In our annual Fallen Heroes episode, we share words of inspiration from, and about, some grassroots activists that may not have been very well known outside their particular communities. Special thanks to the following for use of audio: Clandestino Institut Outlaw Poverty, Not Prostitutes produced by Carol Leigh aka Scarlot Harlot Na Maka o ka ‘Aina Berkeley Citizen Like this program? Please click here and...
read moreBest of Making Contact 2021
Making Contact · Making Contact 2021 Spotlight In this special year-end episode, Making Contact producers and staff turn the spotlight on some the best shows they aired in 2021. Image Credit: Creative Commons Like this program? Please click here and support our non-profit listener-supported journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Making Contact Producers: Salima Hamirani, Anita Johnson, and Monica Lopez Interim Executive Director: Jessica Partnow Credits: Contributors Lee Romney Stephanie Welch Producers of the podcast 70 Million The Making...
read moreMedical Apartheid and the COVID-19 vaccines
Making Contact · Medical Apartheid and the COVID-19 vaccines The world is struggling to contain COVID-19, as variants continue to emerge in countries where the virus is spreading unchecked, killing thousands. Not only could widespread vaccination campaigns help slow the emergence of new variants, they would save countless lives. So why can’t countries in the global south access the novel COVID-19 vaccines? We take a deep dive into the WTO and international patents and we talk about the similarity between the current battle and the...
read moreBut Next Time, Episode 4: Higher Ground
Making Contact · But Next Time, Episode 4: Higher Ground When communities face the aftermath of catastrophes, what does it take to ensure that the next time will be different? In Houston, it takes a city council member who bicycles in her neighborhood to hear from constituents about what they need most. It takes 12 moms who organize to take legal action against the landlords that have kept their families in moldy, substandard apartments. And it takes a city official who blows the whistle on corrupt and dangerous practices related to...
read moreBut Next Time, Episode 3: Rising Waters
Making Contact · But Next Time, Episode 3: Rising Waters No matter where we come from, or how much money we make, we all deserve a safe and healthy place to call home. In this episode we meet parents who are fighting to save their families’ homes despite a perfect storm of greedy landlords and hurricane-related flooding. Jaime, a mom who lives in subsidized housing in Houston Texas, joins with other moms to stand up to landlords and local officials whose policies and practices have kept working-class Black and Brown families trapped...
read moreA special message from the Making Contact Board of Directors
Making Contact · MakingCon 211130 NewsMatch Pod We’re popping into your feed today with a quick announcement for fans of Making Contact. We know you love the show, and right now we’ve got an extra special opportunity for your support to go twice as far. Every donation you send to Making Contact through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch! And if you sign up as a new monthly sustainer, your donation will be matched all year long. You can visit our donation page to make your gift right away, or click to listen to this special...
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