In the US, the right to vote is one of the country’s most cherished and hard-fought rights. But it doesn't mean that everyone has equal access to the polls. In 2013 the Supreme Court struck down a key civil rights provision of the Voting Rights Act. This November will be the first presidential election in 50 years where voters will not have the full protection of the original law. In this second installment of Making Contact’s Immigrants and Elections series, we explore some of the barriers immi...
Oct 26, 2016•29 min
Since the 2013 Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act, many states have pushed changes to voter laws that raise disturbing connections to the past. Before the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on August 6th, we revisit the hard fought battles for voting rights and the implications of new laws. Featuring: Reverend Tyrone Edwards, civil rights historian in Plaquemines Parish Louisiana Tyrone Brooks, Georgia State Representative Clifford Kuhn, Professor of History at Georgia State Univers...
Oct 19, 2016•29 min
As relations between the United States and Russian governments continue to deteriorate, people are growing concerned that we’re on the brink of another nuclear arms race. Both the U.S. and Russia are modernizing their nuclear arsenals. According to Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, “it’s frighteningly easy to imagine how something could go wrong in that situation.” Women Rising Radio takes us inside the movement for nuclear disarmament, to meet the women ...
Oct 12, 2016•29 min
Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem was founded on a promise to serve all patients with the same, excellent care. This week, against the backdrop of military occupation, we go inside Hadassah’s Mount Scopus maternity ward. There, the separation of Jewish and Arab mothers resulted in conflict between midwives at the hospital.
Oct 05, 2016•29 min
In a world that increasingly seems to strive for uniformity, afro-descendant Creole people on the eastern coast of Nicaragua seek to hold on to their unique culture through their food. Incoming palm plantations are fragmenting traditional Creole farmland and making it difficult for local coconut oil businesses. Overfishing and pesticides from the palm fields are reducing stocks of fish in the lagoons, making it more difficult to access traditional protein sources. In the towns and cities along t...
Sep 28, 2016•29 min
September marks the 5 year anniversary of Occupy. We go to Zuccotti Park, and Oakland to talk to individuals that were part of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland to gain insight and reflection on the movement that swept the nation. Featuring: Samara Ward, Occupy Oakland participant Joyous DeAsis, Young Oakland organizer, Occupy Oakland participant Marisa Holmes, Filmmaker, Occupy Wall Street facilitator Needa Bee, Occupy Oakland participant Krystof Lapour, Occupy Oakland participant Samsarah ...
Sep 21, 2016•1 sec
The US military didn’t shrink much under President Obama, and our perpetual state of war has barely waned since 9-11. Author Rosa Brooks says the consequences of this ‘new normal’ reach deep into our society; far beyond the body count of those killed overseas. On this edition, Rosa Brooks speaks about her new book, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. Special thanks to Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington DC Featuring Rosa Brooks, author of How Everything Became Wa...
Sep 14, 2016•29 min
September 11, 2001 ushered in an era marked by the unending War on Terror, dragnet government surveillance programs, and escalating attacks on people perceived to be Muslim. Just last month, Khalid Jabara, a 37-year old Lebanese American man was shot and killed on his front porch in Tulsa Oklahoma by a neighbor who had harassed his family for years, calling them ‘dirty Arabs’ and ‘Mooslems’. This is just one of the many reported attacks on people perceived as Muslims in the United States. Last y...
Sep 07, 2016•29 min
Millions of people around the world work in jobs that aren’t formally recognized or afforded legal protections typical of wage earning jobs. They’re often not even thought of as legitimate work. On this edition of Making Contact, we’re going to meet people making work where there is no work for them. From recyclers, to border couriers, to waste pickers, we’re exploring the informal labor sector and what some are doing to gain greater recognition, protections, and rights. Featuring Landon Goodwin...
Aug 31, 2016•29 min
It’s the second most-traded commodity in the world after oil but how much do you think about your cup of coffee? From coffee farmers in Colombia to the trash produced by your single-cup coffee machine, Making Contact and Green Grid Radio team up to count the costs of your morning cup o’joe. Featuring: Jairo Martinez, Mariana Cruz, Suzana Angarita,coffee farmers Jeff Goldman, former executive director FairtradeResource Network Jeff Chean, Principal and Chief Coffee GuyGroundworks Roasters John Ha...
Aug 24, 2016•29 min
The alternatives to prison are few and far between. And after serving time, the options for getting back on your feet are even worse. 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. Featuring: Susan Burton, A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project executive d...
Aug 17, 2016•29 min
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...
Aug 10, 2016•29 min
In the midst of police shooting community members and gunmen shooting police, and as the republican and democratic conventions wrap up, we look back at the history of secret surveillance and disruption of organizations dissenting and struggling against all odds. COINTELPRO, the secret FBI project to infiltrate and disrupt domestic organizations thought to be “subversive,” targeted many African-American, Native-American, and other movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S.. B...
Aug 03, 2016•29 min
In the midst of police shooting community members and gunmen shooting police, and as the republican and democratic conventions wrap up, we look back at the history of secret surveillance and disruption of organizations dissenting and struggling against all odds. COINTELPRO, the secret FBI project to infiltrate and disrupt domestic organizations thought to be “subversive,” targeted many African-American, Native-American, and other movements for self-determination by people of color in the U.S.. B...
Jul 27, 2016•29 min
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...
Jul 20, 2016•29 min
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.
Jul 13, 2016•29 min
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 Robi...
Jul 06, 2016•29 min
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, Doctoral Candidate at Stanford University W...
Jun 29, 2016•29 min
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 Meyer, author of Dark Money, the Hidden History of the Billionaires Ja...
Jun 22, 2016•29 min
Parenting has never been easy. Merging your politics with your parenting decisions can be even more challenging. On this edition, 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? Featuring: Tomas Moniz, Rad Dad creator Airial Clark, Sex Positive Parent blogger Janine Macbeth, Oh Oh Baby Boy author Brent Ramos, Danny Gutierrez, Craig Elliot, Jeremy Smith, Jeremy John, Jason Oppy, ...
Jun 15, 2016•29 min
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.
Jun 08, 2016•29 min
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...
Jun 01, 2016•29 min
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 ...
May 25, 2016•29 min
We often hear from the upper middle class, educated youth of Iran complaining about the dictatorship. 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 populist 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...
May 18, 2016•29 min
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 la...
May 11, 2016•29 min
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,...
May 04, 2016•29 min
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 evaluatin...
Apr 27, 2016•29 min
Immigration comes up in every U.S. presidential election cycle. It’s been that way pretty much since the dawning of the country. In keeping with that national tradition, immigrants throughout history have also been the target of racist rhetoric and efforts to exclude them from voting and political influence. And the 2016 elections have proven no different. This edition of Making Contact is Part I of our special series examining how immigrants are responding and participating in elections and pol...
Apr 20, 2016•29 min
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 assistance, or exclusively paid formal care. Whether you’re a paid home care provider, or rely on personal assistance to meet your daily needs, or a family member caring for a loved one, the nature of the working relationship depends on mutual respect and dignity. On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll explore the dynamic a...
Apr 13, 2016•29 min
It’s something many of us take for granted: access to clean drinking water. But for many Americans it’s not something they can rely on. From chemical spills in West Virginia to ecoli in the water on the Texas-Mexico border, to contamination from farming in California. On this edition, we hear what happens when there’s not a drop to drink. Featuring: Angela Walker, Charleston resident Neena Satija, environment reporter Texas Tribune Daisy Gonzalez and Vicente Lara, Environmental Justice Coalition...
Apr 06, 2016•29 min
