Making Contact

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 and complex relationship of care receiving and giving. Featuring: Camille Christian, home care provider and SEIU member Brenda Jackson, home care provider and SEIU member Patty Berne, co-founder and director, Sins Invalid Jessica Lehman, executive director, San Francisco Senior and Disability Action Kenzi Robi, president, San Francisco IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) Public Authority Governing Body Rachel Stewart, queer disabled woman passionate about disability and employment issues Alana Theriault, disability bene

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 for Water Horacio Amezquita, resident San Jerado

Los Angeles’ garment district is notorious for sweatshop conditions, abuse, and the outright theft of earned wages.  Yet the name-brand clothes that some of us are wearing right now, may have been produced in factories like these. On this edition of Making Contact we’ll take you on a trip through LA’s garment district.

In 2012, fast food workers in NYC kicked off a movement that has exceeded all expectations, and changed the conversation about the minimum wage. On this edition, low paid workers tell the story of the fight for 15, the exploding nationwide movement for fair wages. Featuring: Alvin Major, KFC employee and original NYC striker Richard Wilson, Walmart employee Bernardo Monteo, Chanda Roberts, Jayla Mosley; fast food workers Mary Kay Henry, SEIU President Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education Thomas Geoghegan, author of “Only One Thing Can Save Us: Why America Needs A New Kind of Labor Movement“

From Norco, Louisiana to Flint, Michigan to Los Angeles, California – environmental racism is real. On this edition of Making Contact, we look at polluting industries in Northeast and South L.A. We begin with a story by Making Contact’s Community Storytelling Fellow Ivan Rodriguez, followed by an interview with journalist Aura Bogado and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis.

Women Rising Radio #30 profiles women fighting slavery, trafficking and forced labor globally. Featuring: Ima Matul, with CAST LA, was trafficked to Los Angeles, was rescued by the Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking in Los Angeles, and now heads CAST’s leadership program. Joanna Ewart-James is the executive director of WALK FREE, an online and on-the-ground network battling trafficking, forced labor, and servitude worldwide. WALK FREE is based in London. Elena Uraleva is an independent human rights monitor in her home country of Uzbekistan.  She works with WALK FREE to document forced labor and human rights abuses there. Supriya Awasthi works on children’s rights and on freeing bonded slaves in India.  She is a staff member of FREE THE SLAVES.

January 2016 marked the end of China’s one child policy—a regime of family planning policies and enforcement that scarred generations of parents and children. On this edition of Making Contact, China correspondent Gady Epstein speaks with Mei Fong, author of One Child:The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment, and Barbara Demick, journalist and former Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times.

2016 marks 50 years since the founding of the Black Panther Party-a group that’s took the world by the storm, but is still widely misunderstood.   There’s a new documentary film that’s trying to set the record straight. On this edition of Making Contact, journalist Eric Arnold talks with Stanley Nelson, director of The Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution. Featuring: Stanley Nelson, Director of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution Eric Arnold, journalist

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 Minnesota Stephan Wasik, Valley Fire survivor Jeff Keenan, Valley Fire survivor Erica Petersen, Valley Fire survivor Manuel Orozco, Behavioral Health Fiscal Manager, Lake County Behavioral Health.

Rapper and grassroots organizer Boots Riley’s recent book is titled “Tell Homeland Security: We Are the Bomb”. Riley appeared at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington DC, where he was interviewed by author and Edge of Sports blogger Dave Zirin. Special thanks to Politics and Prose Bookstore & Coffeehouse Featuring: Boots Riley, “Tell Homeland Security: We Are the Bomb” author Dave Zirin, “Edge of Sports” blogger

This show takes a look at issues within the foster care system in the U.S. from the high rate of teen pregnancy to the alarming use of psychiatric medications in California’s foster care system.   Featuring: Nicole Rocke, former foster youth Kyle Lafferty, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy Linda Bryant, Clinical Professor at New York University’s School of Social Work Benita Miller, Deputy Commissioner of Family Permanency Services at the Administration of Children’s Services Lorraine Jacobs, caseworker Yolanda Vasquez, former foster youth Adriane Fugh-Berman, Pharmacology Professor at Georgetown University’s Medical Center Bill Grimm, Attorney at National Center for Youth Law Susan Bullard David Arrendondo, Child psychiatrist Dr. Edmund Levin, at the Lincoln Child Center Nancy Forster, Therapist at the Lincoln Child Center April Rene Sanders, former foster youth and recipient of AB12 Kyle Sporleader, Statewide Legislative Coordinator for California Youth Connection (CYC)

Tent cities have popped up across the country, from New Jersey to Texas to New Mexico. Many are starting to build more permanent living structures. So what are the benefits of living in a cluster of tents? And is this part of a real solution to homelessness?

Special edition of Making Contact with guest Host, Rose Aguilar discussing reproductive health and abortion rights 43 years after Roe v. Wade. Featuring: Corrine Rivera-Fowler, deputy director of COLOR, the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights Carol Joffe, professor at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco and author of “Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Cost of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us.”

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th 1963, Martin Luther King Jr delivered one of the most famous speeches of all time. But it nearly didn’t happen. On this special edition of Making Contact for MLK Day, Gary Younge, author of “The Speech” talks about Martin Luther King Junior’s “Dream” and the story behind it.

Women Rising radio profiles food sovereignty activists from India, Mexico, and Native American communities. 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

Robert Neuwirth, author of “Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World”, estimates that more than a billion people–thats 1 in 7–are squatters.  This week, we visit squats in Venezuela and the Philippines, and find out why squatters aren’t just tolerated…they are crucial to the growth of major cities and national economies. Featuring: Robert Neuwirth, author of “Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World” Filomena Cinco, Barangay captain of Estero de San Miguel Luz Sudueste, Urban Poor Associates organizer William Gonzalez, Gladys Flores, Jacqueline Calderon and Yolimar Noriega, Toree David residents Andres Antillano, Universidad Central de Venezuela professor & activist for squatters’ rights.

From the Fight for 15 campaign to the Syrian refugee crisis, the past year was full of news headlines that were tough to keep up with. Making Contact is committed to in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On this edition of Making Contact we take a look at shows we produced in 2015, and we ll find out what’s happened since. Featuring: Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter co-founder Cat Brooks, Anti Police Terror Project Antonia Juhasz, Investigative Journalist Thomas DarDar, United Houma Nation Chief Mark Miller, Southern Utah University History professor Sylvia Rivera, Remembering Stonewall oral history project Michael Schirker, Remembering Stonewall oral history project Aesha Rasheed, Southerners on New Ground.

Thousands of local social justice organizers passed away this year. People doing crucial work in their communities, whose deaths didn’t make the headlines.  On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll hear about some of the fallen heroes of 2015. Featured Fallen Heroes Grace Lee Boggs, activist, philosopher and movement builder Danny Schechter, author and media critic John Warshow, anti-nuclear campaigner and hydro power developer Emiliano Amor Mataka, Environmental Justice activist, co-founder Valley Improvement Projects Hashem Al-Azzeh, Palestinian peace activist Juan Evans, trans activist Hank Williams, Platform Summit founder Shannon Williams, Sex Workers Outreach Project board co-chair Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education

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 attacks, the blocking of abortion access is eroding the reproductive rights of women. On this edition, we hear from the New Orleans Abortion Fund and Ibis Reproductive Health, as well as experiences from an abortion provider and a woman that sought abortion access in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Who remembers the local beat cop, who lives in and really knows the community? Increasingly, police don’t live in the neighborhoods, or even the cities they patrol. But is that a problem? On this edition, should police be required to live in the cities they patrol? Law enforcement agencies around the country are struggling for answers to a question that’s about race, class and geography.