National Radio Project

In today’s news cycle it’s challenging keeping up with the latest developments around the world. In 2014 we saw pro-democracy protests spanning 75 days in Hong Kong to the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. Often we just get the stories when they first break, then once the height of a conflict diminishes or really when another issue surfaces to the top of the news cycle, that’s it. After that we don’t hear much more about the issue. Even though we know that the issues remain.

On today’s show we’re going to bring you an update on some of the stories we’ve covered this year. We’ll go to a protest to talk to advocates calling for an end to using Native American imagery and stereotypes in sports. We’ll talk to the Center for Food Safety about the political outlook for supporters of better regulations of GMOs and pesticides. And we’ll get an update on US immigration policy from the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Featuring

• Alice Ollstein, radio producer
• Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee advocate for American Indian rights
• Morning Star Gali, co-chair of Bay Area Coalition to End Racism in Sports
• Jacqueline Keeler, founding member of Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry
• Don Tipping, Seven Seeds Farm owner
• Chris Hardy, Rogue valley farmer
• Sylvia Wu, staff attorney at Center for Food Safety
• Catherine Tactaquin, Executive Director of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Fallen Heroes of 2014

Fossil fuels are a trillion dollar industry but environmentalists say they have a plan to pull the plug on the industry: divestment. The campaign to get institutions to end their investments in oil, gas, and coal companies has won supporters around the US and abroad.

But is the strategy working? We hear from students in Boulder, Colorado who have been campaigning since 2012 and we hear about the close relationship between the oil industry and professional soccer.

Over 6,000 migrant deaths were recorded on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico between 1998 and 2013. The true number of deaths is likely higher, and thousands of families never hear from their loved ones again.

This documentary travels to the desert ranch lands of Brooks County and the border town of Reynosa, Tamaulipas to introduce us to the human cost of “prevention through deterrence,” a border enforcement strategy introduced during the Clinton administration.

Featuring:

• Lori Baker, Professor of Anthropology, Baylor University
• Eduardo Canales, Executive Director, South Texas Human rights Center
• Elias,

Every week since January of 1995, Making Contact has been bringing you voices and perspectives from the grassroots…analysis of the larger structures driving our global economies…and solutions being created by people all over the world.

On this special 20th program’s creation by volunteers, and how this little radio show became part of a new generation of media outlets that continues to both counter the mainstream, and transform our conception of who and what is considered newsworthy.

Featuring:

• Dr. Julianne Malveaux, President Emertia of Bennett College for Women
• Peggy Law & Norman Solomon, Making Contact co-founders
• Paul George, Steve Rock, Shelley Kessler, Pam Law, Bill Creighton, early Making Contact volunteers
• Food Not Bombs volunteers
• Laura Livoti, former Making Contact Managing Director
• Michael Eisenmenger, Community Media Center of Marin Executive Director
• David Cole, Georgetown University constitutional law professor
• Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report founder

In September of 2014, Women Rising radio rode the People’s Climate train coast to coast, with over 200 activists heading to New York City to join the largest climate change march in history.

Victims and perpetrators sitting down face to face…it can help heal their wounds, and our society. Incarcerating our way out of crime clearly hasn’t worked, and it’s costing us billions. Meanwhile, school suspensions are reaching record highs.

Now, Institutions across US are finally starting to consider problem solving methods other than punishment.  Restorative justice is gaining ground–in the schools, and behind bars.

Featuring:   

• Paul Jacobsen, Rosa Parks elementary school principal
• Mekaylah Porter, Marilyn, Rosa Parks elementary students
• Yari Sandel, restorative justice coordinator
• Helen Parker, San Francisco’s restorative practices department coach
• Sonya Shah, Insight Prison Project Justice Program Director
• Nancy Potts, mother of son killed by drunk driver
• Chris Scezech, drunk driver
• Radha Stern, mother of murder victim
• Sam Johnson, San Quentin prison inmate

More than a decade after the start of the second Gulf War, the United States has embarked on a bombing campaign targeting Islamic State forces inside Iraq and Syria. It’s the third U.S. military action inside Iraq in as many decades.

But the reasons for the new war keep shifting, from protecting ethnic and religious minorities, to preventing terrorist attacks on the U.S.

As independent producer Reese Erlich reports from Northern Iraq, this latest conflict, and the future of the region is tightly connected to the oil industry and international politics.

In her new book: “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate”, Naomi Klein argues that while it’s too late to stop climate change, we can save our civilization.

But it’s going to take radical steps that will transform the way humans interact with the world. Business as usual is no longer an option. On this edition, Naomi Klein speaks about her new book, and points out signs of hope as the global movement to counter climate change matures.

It’s election season! But 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. On this week’s show, we’ll hear about 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 at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• JT Johnson, civil rights organizer
• Allen Secher, rabbi
• Jerel James, Tamia Adkinson, docents at Civil Rights Museum of St. Augustine
• August Tinson, testified in U.S. vs Fox (1962)
• Gary May, professor of history at the University of Delaware and the author of Bending Towards Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy.

Heroes to many, traitors to some. The internet has put whistleblowers in the public eye, and the government’s crosshairs. With increased access to classified information, and the ability to spread it, the world’s biggest institutions are running scared and cracking down.

On this week’s show, we hear about the whistleblowers we don’t see on the nightly news. They’re not named Manning or Snowden, they’re ordinary people who report wrongdoing at their place of employment, and pay the consequences.

What do our voices say about us? On this edition we explore voice and identity. We’ll hear from someone who nearly lost their voice as well as the challenges that come with ordering a pizza with a speech generating device.

Making Contact partnered with the 2014 National Poetry Slam to produce this special open mic highlighting the power of thoughtful, truth telling, community focused poetry.

[one_half]Featuring Poets:

• Chris Cuadrado
• Lindsay Stone
• Jared Paul
• Caitlin Clark
• Queen T

More information, photos and the full 3 hour open mic at:

Making Contact

One in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime, yet in pop culture accurate portrayals of real people s stories are rare. In this show we hear about representations of abortion and reproductive decision-making in popular culture, and why those stories really matter.

Who's watching you? Nowadays it seems everyone wants to get their hands on our personal data. From the FBI to the welfare department, to some of the country's biggest retailers. On this edition, we take a closer look at the world of surveillance.

Featuring

• Hasan Elahi, artist and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland
• Charles Duhigg, New York Times journalist and author of “The Power of Habit”
• Jodie Berger, public benefits lawyer
• John Gilliom, Professor of Political Science at Ohio University
• Kaaryn Gustafson, welfare lawyer and University of Connecticut teacher

More than 150,000 people sign up for the US military every year. Their reasons for joining vary widely, from those hoping for financial help through college, to others looking to follow in the footsteps of parents or grandparents.

In recent years getting into the military has gotten harder, with criminal records and low academic scores proving the biggest barriers. As hard as getting into the military might be, getting out may be harder still.

On this edition of Making Contact we’ll hear radio adaptations of Michelle Mason’s film, “Breaking Ranks,” produced by Screen Siren Pictures and the National Film Board of Canada and of “Deserter” by Rick Rowley, from Big Noise Films and PM Press.

Featuring: 

• Jeremy Hinzman, Kyle Snyder, Joshua Key, Ryan Johnson, Brandon Hughey, US military personnel who refused to return to Iraq.
• Sergeant Brian Jensen, military recruiter.

They say a smart athlete will use their head. But what if using your head cost you everything?

That’s a question being asked in locker rooms the world over. Whether it’s boxing, hockey, or soccer, it seems that head injuries are finally being taken seriously.

In the United States, lawsuits brought by players, as well as a body of scientific evidence, has lead to growing awareness about the impact American football has on players’ brains.

And now a similar debate has kicked off across the Atlantic among players and fans of the sport that American football evolved from: rugby. On this special edition of Making Contact, producer Luke Eldridge brings us to the UK to hear how rugby is dealing with the issue of head injuries.

Featuring:

• Lewis Moody, former rugby player
• Dr Michael Grey, motor neuroscience physiologist at the University of Birmingham
• Peter Robinson, father of Ben Robinson
• David Barnes, Rugby Director of the Rugby Players’ Association in England

Is your children’s schoolyard routinely sprayed with pesticides? How safe your children are might depend on where you live. Today we hear about how and why one pesticide has been banned for household use, but affects the health of farmworkers and their children. Children’s health is especially fragile–so why aren’t we protecting them?

Nomi Prins, journalist and a former managing director of Goldman Sachs, discusses her book All the Presidents’ Bankers, the hidden alliances that drive American power. Prins retraces the relationship between American financiers and presidents stretching more than a century. From family friends, trusted confidants to the present day; how the relationship has deteriorated and presidents have lost control of the economy.

Special thanks to Pirate TV for the original recording from June 17, 2014.

Featuring:   

Nomi Prins , journalist and author of All the Presidents’ Bankers, the hidden alliances that drive American power.

The Zapatistas are a group in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico working to bring democracy to their country and their local communities. 20 years after their founding, the group’s influences has spread far beyond Mexico’s border through music and art. On this edition of Making Contact producer Alejandro Rosas explores how Zapatismo has influenced those in the U.S. –including himself.

Special thanks to Claire Schoen and the University of California Berkeley, School of Journalism.

Featuring:

• Hector Flores, Las Cafeteras member
• Margaret Chowning, University of California at Berkeley professor of Mexican history
• Emory Douglas, former Black Panther Party Minister of Culture

The official Day to Commemorate Agent Orange victims is August 10^th and marks the start of the US military’s decade of massive chemical warfare in Vietnam in 1961.

Combat, chemicals, and corporations.  We’ll look at the legacy of Agent Orange,  a toxic defoliant.

Featuring:
Ngo Thanh Nhan, co-coordinator Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign; Fred Wilcox scholar and author: Waiting for An Army To Die and Scorched Earth; Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange featured in the KQED segments

Nationally, American prisons release more than 650,000 people into society every year. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Memphis or Boston. 

On this edition, producer Aaron Mendelson followed ex-prisoner Kevin Tindall on his journey out of prison.

Special thanks to Claire Schoen and the University of California Berkeley, School of Journalism.

Featuring:   

• Gordon Brown, ex-prisoner
• Monta Kevin Tindall, ex-prisoner
• Jerry Elster, ex-prisoner
• Tom Gorham, Program Director Options Recovery Services
• Barry Krisberg, Director of Research and Policy and Lecturer in Residence at Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, UC Berkeley
• Debra Mendoza, former parole officer, consultant

On last week’s show we brought you to Idaho and Montana, where hundreds of trucks were routed to haul gigantic mining equipment to the Tar Sands oil fields of Alberta Canada, but an alliance of citizens and community groups was able to block the transport through environmentally sensitive land.

This week we continue the saga of the megaloads heading to the Tar Sands through the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies. We also follow two more tendrils of the Tar Sands project stretching from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia.

This is the second of a two part special, on the growing resistance to the tar sands, produced by Barbara Bernstein.

Listen the the first part here.

Featuring:

• Kevin Lewis, Idaho Rivers United conservation director
• Linwood Laughy, writer & historian
• Borg Hendrickson, Clearwater Country co-author
• Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent author
• Bob Skinner, Canada School of Energy and the Environment interim director
• Annick Smith, A River Runs Through It co-producer
• Bob Gentry, environmental attorney
• Steven Hawley, Recovering a Lost River author
• David James Duncan, The Heart of the Monster co-author
• Zack Porter, All Against The Haul executive director
• Steve Seninger, University of Montana economist
• Spider McKnight, All Against the Haul communications specialist

The Canadian Tar Sands is the largest industrial project on earth. And the potential environmental consequences have brought together citizens from across borders, to fight its rippling effects.

This is the first of a two part special, on the growing resistance to the tarsands, produces by Barbara Bernstein.

Featuring:

• Kevin Lewis, Idaho Rivers United conservation director
• Linwood Laughy, writer & historian
• Borg Hendrickson, Clearwater Country co-author
• Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent author
• Bob Skinner, Canada School of Energy and the Environment interim director
• Annick Smith, A River Runs Through It co-producer
• Bob Gentry, environmental attorney
• Steven Hawley, Recovering a Lost River author
• David James Duncan, The Heart of the Monster co-author
• Zack Porter, All Against The Haul executive director
• Steve Seninger, University of Montana economist
• Spider McKnight, All Against the Haul communications specialist

Natural healing can take many forms.  These days, the Latin American “curandera” is re-emerging in the US, after generations of going underground.

On this edition, producer Erica Hellerstein takes us on a journey to identity through an ancient medicinal practice.

Featuring:   

• Lauren Villa, UC Berkeley Graduate Student
• Atava Swiecicki Garcia Healer
• Sandra Pacheco, Healer and Professor of Chicana Latina Indigenous Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies
• Patricia Torres, owner of Mystical Collections
• Anna, Psychotherapist and Sol Collective Member
• Lauren Villa’s father

We profile women fighting the expansion of global militarism and violence. Korean sister Stella Soh campaigns to save an UNESCO world heritage site from a planned military base.

US activist Kathy Kelly founded Voices for Creative Nonviolence. And Brazilian Miriam Nobre works with the World March of Women.

Featuring:   

• Sister Stella Soh, Catholic Nun and activist with Save Jeju Island
• Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence co-coordinator
• Miriam Nobre, Coordinator Of The International Secretariat Of The World March Of Women 

Victims and perpetrators sitting down face to face…it can help heal their wounds, and our society. Incarcerating our way out of crime clearly hasn’t worked, and it’s costing us billions. Meanwhile, school suspensions are reaching record highs.

Now, Institutions across US are finally starting to consider problem solving methods other than punishment.  Restorative justice is gaining ground–in the schools, and behind bars.

Featuring:   

• Paul Jacobsen, Rosa Parks elementary school principal
• Mekaylah Porter, Marilyn, Rosa Parks elementary students
• Yari Sandel, restorative justice coordinator
• Helen Parker, San Francisco’s restorative practices department coach
• Sonya Shah, Insight Prison Project Justice Program Director
• Nancy Potts, mother of son killed by drunk driver
• Chris Scezech, drunk driver
• Radha Stern, mother of murder victim
• Sam Johnson, San Quentin prison inmate

Rodeo is a part of life for many Americans. But if you’re an LGBTQ rodeo fan participating in the sport you love can mean hiding part of who you are to fit in. But a tight knit group of queer cowboys has found a way to live the country and Western lifestyle in their own way.  You don’t often hear the words “gay” and “rodeo” together. On this edition Producer Vanessa Rancaño brings us one bull rider’s story.

More than 60 countries either ban or require labeling on GMO foods; the US is not one of them. As GMO regulation moves to a local level, frustrated consumers and farmers are pushing for state or county regulations, but the seed and pesticide companies are fighting back.

Today, we bring you a special episode investigating corporate control of our democracy and our dinner plates. This program is part of What the Fork, a collaboration between Making Contact, Center for Media and Democracy/The Progressive Magazine and Food Democracy Now.

Featuring:   

• Rebecca Wilce, Progressive and ALEC Exposed reporter
• Marcia Ishii-Eieman, Pesticide Action Network senior scientist
• Don Tipping, Seven Seeds Farm owner
• Chris Hardy, Rogue valley farmer
• Elise Higley, Our Family Farms Coalition leader
• Magdeleno Rose-Avila, Yes on 15-119 volunteer
• Barry Bushue, American Farm Bureau vice president
• Klayton Kubo, Kauai citizen
• Gary Hooser, Kauai County Council member
• Dr. Judy Shabert, Harvard Physician
• Chris Broussard, Whinney Hee, James Masey, concerned Kauai residents
• Dean Okimoro, Farm Bureau Association president
• David Louie, Hawaii Attorney General
• Harry Stalford & Willow Coberly, Stalford Seed Farms farmers

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, fathers

Description:

As Brazil prepares to host the 2014 soccer World Cup many are questioning the economic, environmental, and social cost of this sporting mega-event. From soccer ball manufacturing in Pakistan, to forced evictions in Brazil to make way for World Cup infrastructure, who wins, when the World Cup comes to town? On this edition of Making Contact, we take a closer look at the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the “beautiful game.”

Featuring: 

Dave Zirin; author “Brazil’s Dance With the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy”, Mohammad Idrees and Ghafoor Husain, soccer ball workers; Safdar Sanda, soccer ball factory owner; Sarfraz Bashir, chairman of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce. Santiago Halty, founder Senda Athletics; Nasir Dogar, chief executive Independent Monitoring Association for Child Labor, Djani da Silva,resident of Camarigibe; Ana Ramalho  professor of urban planning and architecture at the Federal University of Pernambuco,

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. On this edition, we’ll visit Jakarta Indonesia, and Los Angeles, California, to hear stories of building housing and community for LGBTQ seniors.

Featuring: Michael Adams, Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders executive director; Alice Herman, Rosie Delmar, Triangle Square residents; Eric Harrison, Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing executive director; Yulianus Rettoblaut, waria activist and community leader; Yoti Maya, Mbok Sri, waria elders. Special thanks to FSRN-Free Speech Radio News.

Americans eat out more than any other people. But the workers who put food on our restaurant tables are struggling to feed themselves and their families. On this edition, Saru Jayaraman, co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and author of “Behind the Kitchen Door” makes the case for bringing justice to restaurants and how ordinary diners can help.

Featuring:

Saru Jayaraman, co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and author of “Behind the Kitchen Door”

From pedestrian plazas to pop-up-parklets…cities are looking to create spaces for people to gather, interact and create.  But are some people being left out of this new urban renaissance? This week:  from Detroit, to Montreal, to Istanbul, people are reclaiming the commons.  How do we create public spaces that are embracing and inclusive?

Featuring:

Susan Silberberg, MIT lecturer in Urban Design and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning;Jane Jacobs, urban planning expert; Shannon Franssen, coordinator at Solidarité St-Henri; Fred Burrill, housing rights advocate; Erik Howard, The Alley Project founder; Freddy Diaz, Mary Luevanos, Detroit artists; Hugo Camarena, Alley Project neighbor; Neil Brenner, Harvard Graduate School of Design Professor of Urban Theory; Roberto Bedoya, Tucson Pima Arts Council executive director 

Pregnant women in America’s prisons are being shackled to their beds and cells. Others are being sterilized, some say, against their will. Correctional institutions claim the policies are for safety’s sake, and that consent is always obtained. But others see a larger pattern at work.

On this edition, from shackling to sterilization, thousands of incarcerated people are struggling to maintain control over their own reproductive health. 

Featuring:

• Courtney Hooks, Justice Now! campaign and communications director
• Tina Reynolds, Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH) co-founder and chair
• Samantha Rogers, California Coalition for Women Prisoners program assistant
• Karen Shain, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children former policy director
• Victoria Law, “Resistance Behind Bars” author
• Kimberly, formerly incarcerated mother
• Joe Higgins, Rappahannock Regional Jail Superintendent
• Carolyn Sulfrin, former prison nurse

Locked up for month, years, or decades.  Poetry is form of self-expression that’s become vital to the incarcerated.  In Prison, Poetry can keep you sane, and help you move towards a better future.  To mark National Poetry Month, we bring you a special production by the Prison Poetry Workshop. We go from California’s San Quentin prison, to a group of Alabama prison poets. And we’ll meet a legendary prison poet of the 1960’s who helped spark a literary movement.

Featuring:  Andrew Gazzeny, San Quentin prisoner poet; Etheridge Knight, formerly incarcerated poet; Janice Knight-Mooney, Etheridge’s sister; James Depp, poet and friend of Etheridge; Melba Boyd, former Broadside Press employee; Ira Smith, Guy Carter, AJ Payne, Sarge Daniels, Calvin Green, Staton Correctional Facility poets; Keyes Stevens, Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project facilitator; Dwayne Betts, formerly incarcerated poet

Who's watching you? Nowadays it seems everyone wants to get their hands on our personal data. From the FBI to the welfare department, to some of the country's biggest retailers. On this edition, we take a closer look at the world of surveillance.

Featuring:   

• Hasan Elahi, artist and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland
• Charles Duhigg, New York Times journalist and author of “The Power of Habit
• Jodie Berger, public benefits lawyer
• John Gilliom, Professor of Political Science at Ohio University
• Kaaryn Gustafson, welfare lawyer and University of Connecticut teacher 

Cesar Chavez has made it to the big screen. Millions of people are now learning about the legendary farmworker organizer. But where did Chavez get his organizing philosophies?

This week, Paul Ingles and Carol Boss of Peacetalks radio take us down ‘The Non Violent path of Cesar Chavez’, through conversations with Chavez’ colleague and friend Delores Huerta, and Jose Antonio Orozco, author of the book, Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence.

Noise pollution is a growing problem. Effecting everything from the lives of people living under airplane flight paths, to marine life. On this edition, we’ll hear from people struggling to be heard over the din of our noisy modern life and ask, is there anywhere left in the world you can get some peace and quiet?

Needle exchange programs began springing up in the 1980’s during the AIDS crisis.

Countless lives have been saved by providing IV drug users with clean needles.

But even now, with hundreds of programs across the US and throughout the world, some states still view distributing needles as illegal.

This week, WABE reporter Jim Burress takes us to ‘The Bluff’, a neighborhood in Atlanta where a needle exchange program—breaking the law every day– has become a vital part of a struggling community.

Our world is generating more and more nuclear waste, but have no permanent place to dispose of it.  But the nation of Finland has a plan. They’re building an underground cave, to hold thousands of tones of nuclear waste, for at least 100 thousand years.  

On this edition, we hear excerpts of the film, “Into Eternity”, which explores the logistical and philosophical quandaries around the construction of something that if it works, might very well outlast the entire human race.

Before it was legal in the United States, some doctors would risk arrest to provide women with access to safe abortions. When that wasn’t possible, some sought abortions from unsafe providers, often with deadly consequences.

The Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, and the numbers of people dying after having an abortion dropped, but are we now seeing a return to the past?

On this edition, what can the time before abortion was legal tell us about the dangers of restricting access to abortion today? We’ll hear a special radio adaption of “Motherhood by Choice not Chance” a documentary produced and narrated by Dorothy Fadiman.

We profile women of Greenpeace, the legendary eco-activist organization. Hettie Geenan is first mate on the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior. Leila Deen leads the campaign against fracking. And Laila Williams connects Greenpeace with indigenous communities, women’s groups and people of color.  Happy International Women’s Day March 8th!

Featuring:   

• Leila Deen, Greepeace Senior Campaigner
• Hettie Geenen, First Mate on the Rainbow Warrior
• Laila Wiiams, Ruckus Society program associate

On this edition of Making Contact we’ll explore how the privatization of public education is playing out across the country and how students and teachers are fighting back. We’ll start in Philadelphia and see how students are faring after 23 schools were shut down and 3,700 teachers, counselors and administrative staff were laid off. We’ll learn about Teach for America and how sending thousands of young, intelligent, idealistic teachers into classrooms may be doing more harm than good. Then we’ll go to California, where community colleges are under threat.

Featuring:   

• Nuwar Ahmed, Philadelphia Student Union member
• Joanne Tien, Teach for America alum
• Su Jin Jez, assistant professor at California State University in Sacramento
• Justin Fong, Teach For America’s Vice President of Internal Communications
• Kerry Kretchmar, Caroll University professor
• Wendy Kaufmyn, teacher at City College of San Francisco and Save CCSF Coalition member
• Leslie Simon, teacher at City College of San Francisco and member of Save CCSF Coalition member
• Itzel Calvo, former student of City College of San Francisco and member of Save CCSF Coalition
• Ron Galatolo, chancellor at San Mateo Community College District

From farm to fork, few things matter more than the food we eat. We all want the freedom and opportunity to choose what ends up on our plate- but when a handful of companies control most of the brands you see at the grocery store- what choices are really left?

On this edition Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch, author of Foodopoly, and one of the nation’s leading healthy food advocates, says it’s time to turn the tables on big agribusiness.

Learn more on the Making Contact website.

How do we talk about race and racism in this country?Not as deeply as we should, according to filmmaker and educator Dr. Shakti Butler.

On this edition, we hear excerpts from Dr. Butler’s film “Cracking the Codes”, and speak with her about using the medium of film to start conversations around the thorny issues of racial inequity.

Featuring:

• Dr. Shakti Butler, World Trust founder and Creative Director
• Humaira Jackson, Hugh Vasquez, Y. Jelal Huyler, Aeeshah B. Clottey, Ise Lyfe, Cracking the Codes interview subjects.

Thank you to production intern Lisa Barfai and to World Trust Educational Services.

They may not have made it to the Superbowl- but the “Washington Football team” has gotten a lot of attention this season- not so much for their performance on the field, but rather their refusal to change the name of their team.From FedEx Field to High School Football teams, pressure is increasing on teams to stop using American Indian names and mascots. The battle is playing out in stadiums, court rooms, and in the media. And some of America’s best known sports brands may be forced to change.

Featuring:   

• Gregg Deal, member of Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, artist, activist
• Suzan ShownHarjo,  Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee advocate for American Indian rights
• Fili Sagapolutele, congressional aide
• David Grosso, DC councilmember
• Sadie Makarechi Jerry Neuwirth, Michael Wright, Washington football fans
• Robert Jordan, President and CEO Justin Siena High School
• Dawson Del Dotto, Paul Brown, Sam Hoff, Lupe Padilla-Aguayo, current and former Justin Siena students
• Scott Gabaldon, Tribal Chair Mishewal Wappo Tribe

Find our more at Making Contact

Drone attacks on American citizens. Black sites around the globe where prisoners are tortured.  And the prison at Guantanamo is still in operation.  As we enter the 6^th year of Barack Obamas presidency, his foreign policy legacy is becoming more clear. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill investigated Obama’s “Dirty Wars” and says the President has put Americans in more danger through actions that fuel hatred and extremism.

This speech was excerpted from a presentation by the Lannan Foundation.

The cost of American democracy is the most expensive in the world. In the 2012 elections billions of dollars were spent on political campaigns. But there’s a growing consensus that big business and wealthy individuals are buying power. Authors John Nichols and Robert McChesney have a name for the state we’re in: Dollarocracy.

Thanks to Pirate TV for use of their recording

What are the roots of the historic mistrust between people of color, especially African Americans, and the police? And how does 911 really work? Is slow response time just perception, or reality?

During the 2nd half of our 2-part special—The Race to An Emergency, we follow the path of a 911 call, and along the way, encounter decades of mistrust that fuel a lack of confidence in the system.

Special thanks to KALW Radio.

When you call 911, who answers the phone? How do they decide who to send to the scene, and how fast will they get there? Many people of color believe the emergency response system is prejudiced. But is that really the case?

We bring you a 2 part special "The Race to An Emergency, produced by KALW radio in San Francisco. We follow the path of a 911 call, and along the way, encounter decades of mistrust that fuel a lack of confidence in the system.

Featuring:

1. Lesley Phillips, Sharena Thomas, Peoples Community Medics co-founders
2. Nikki Anjenique; Sharena Thomas daughter; 
3. Rick Rocha, California Highway Patrol dispatcher; 
4. Olivia Moy, Wolleen Jones, Oakland police Department dispatchers; 
5. Terry Woodard, Oakland Fire Department Communications dispatcher; 
6. Jason Murphy, Paramedics Plus dispatcher; 
7. Tracy Chin, Rob Thrower, Oakland Fire Fighters; 
8. Brian Murphy, Oakland Police Officer; 
9. Regina Harris Gilliard, Johnna Watson Oakland Police Department spokespeople; 
10. Benjamin Bowser, Cal State East Bay Sociology Professor

Special thanks to KALW Radio.