Making Contact

The female body as medium, and as message. How can a woman determine how she is perceived by the world, and even by herself? On this edition, we hear stories of women who are using their bodies for political protest, and as tools of self-empowerment…forcing everyone to reevaluate their perspectives on the female form. Featuring:   Neda Topaloski & Xenia Chernyshova, Femen members Galia Ackerman, author of the book “Femen” Catherine King, Executive Producer, Global Fund for Women Yolando Y'Netta Harbin-Venson, Big Ol Pretty Girls owner Jenny “Diva” Davis, clothing designer Diva’s Exquisite Designs.

When journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates set out to write about police killings he went to visit Mable Jones. Back in 2000, Jones son, a friend of Coates from their time at Howard University, was shot and killed by police in Virginia. He was twenty five years old. Written in the form of a letter to his own teenage son, Coates' book "Between the World and Me" puts police shootings in a wider context. Ta-Nehisi Coates spoke as part of the Lannan Foundation's Pursuit of Cultural Freedom Series. 

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.

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)

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, the challenges that come with ordering a pizza with a speech generating device, and and how voice contributes to trans women's sense of safety and of self. Featuring: Mya Byrne, singer-songwriter Kathe Perez, creator of EVA app Samuel Sennott, assistant professor of special education at Portland University Bob Segalman, author “Against the Current, My Life with Cerebral Palsy” April Bryant, UC Berkeley student Hannah Simpson, Nika Jewell, Tela Love, 13th Philadelphia Transgender Health Conference, attendees. This show features Lateef McLeod, our 1st Community Storytelling Fellow. Donate now to help this year’s class of fellows tell their stories.  

We go back to the night in June 1969 at the New York City Stonewall Inn that sparked the LGBT rights movement. On today’s show we’ll hear about the day that galvanized a generation and the continued fight for LGBT civil rights. The first Pride parades took place in June 1970 marking the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Michael Schirker and David Isay bring us an oral history Remembering Stonewall: The Birth of a Movement. Editor at large of the Huffington Posts’ Gay Voices Michelangelo Signorile says while there have been a series of recent wins for the LGBT rights movement, bigotry remains a daily reality for many. At a  New America NYC forum Signorile spoke with June Thomas, Culture Critic and Editor of Outward, Slate’s LGBTQ Section about what he calls “victory blindness”. It’s a central theme in his new book, “It’s Not Over, Getting to Beyond Tolerance Defeating Homophobia and Winning True Equality.”

We bring you to Alaska s Tongass Forest, where the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act turned tribes into corporations and sparked a lengthy logging frenzy. In this radio adaptation of the documentary film, Walking in Two Worlds, we meet a Tlingit brother and sister, who are trying to heal both the forest and their native community.  Special thanks to Specialty Studios. Featuring: Wanda Culp & Bob Loescher, Tlinget brother & Sister Peter Coyote, narrator Mike Jackson, Tlingit tribal historian Ernestine Hanlon-Abel, Weaver & Activist Byron Mallott, Former Seaalaska CEO Israel Shotridge, Tlingit carver Tom Thorton, anthropologist Lydia George, Tlingit Clan Mother Joe Sebastian, Alaska Fisherman & guide Deny Bschor, former US Forest Service Regional Forester John Rowan, Tlingit carver Richard Nixon, President of the United States Rick Harris, Former Seaalaska Executive VP Rosita Worl, Seaalaska Board member

What is it like to be a student who has fought in a war? Producers at The Stanford Storytelling Project’s podcast, State of the Human asked six Stanford students and recent alumni, all veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to tell their stories about “Returning Home.” Featuring: Dustin Barfield, Chris Clark, Josh Francis, Annie Hsieh, Russ Toll, and William Treseder, military veterans Heidi Toll, wife of veterana More Information Returning Home from the Stanford Storytelling Project (full episode) Veterans for Peace Student Veterans of America Complexity of Student Vets Ten Things You Should Know About Today's Student Veteran

On this week's show we’re exploring how some women have been dehumanized to the point of indifference. We’ll learn how one community is undoing the silence around the violence women of color face. We’ll also hear about how serial killers were able to hunt down mostly Black women for three decades in South Los Angeles. Then we’ll take you to the Yucatan where pregnant indigenous women struggle under a health care system failing to provide proper medical care.

Black Lives Matter. This simple phrase has become the motto of a growing movement calling for true justice and equality for black people. Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, first typed out those three words back in 2013. In March of 2015, Alicia Garza visited the University of Southern Maine to tell the story of how Black Lives Matter came to be, and express her hopes for where it’s headed. We hear her speech.   Special thanks to E.B.Leonard with Maine X Change.   Featuring:      Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter co-founder Cephus Johnson, uncle of Oscar Grant Grace Anderson, protestor

Imprisonment, oppressive laws, and harassment of journalists - these are just a few means of censorship around the world. The use of these repressive tactics threaten freedom of expression and the public’s right to information. On this edition, we hear from journalists in Ecuador and Mexico, and learn about the most censored countries from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Featuring: William Morocho, Page Designer with Diario HOY Jaime Mantilla, Director of Diario HOY newspaper Carlos Ochoa Hernandez, head of Supercom Rosental Alves, Director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas in Austin Romel Jurado, Consultant for Supercom Gustavo Ruiz, Independent Photographer Edwin Canché Pech, Journalist Adrián López Ortiz, director of Northwestern newspaper Marcela Zendejas, Associate Officer on Alternative Media and Gender Issues at Article 19 MEXICO Courtney Radsch, Advocacy Director with the Committee to Protect Journalists

Making Contact partnered with the 2014 National Poetry Slam in Oakland, CA to produce this special open mic highlighting the power of thoughtful, truth telling, community focused poetry. Featuring Poets:   Chris Cuadrado Lindsay Stone Jared Paul Caitlin Clark Queen T

Five years after the deepwater horizon oil spill in the gulf of mexico, not everyone is “back to normal”. On this edition, we follow BP’s trail from the Bayous of Louisiana to the fine art galleries of London.   Featuring:    Antonia Juhasz, investigative Journalist Monique Verdin & Beau Verdin, Houma tribe members David Gauthe, community organizer Thomas DarDar, United Houma Nation Chief Mark Miller, Southern Utah University History professor Mel Evans, author of Artwash: Big Oil and the Arts

Climate change is here affecting weather conditions and sea levels. In India it's also having a more surprising influence on the country's tigers. On this edition of Making Contact, reporter Daniel Grossman takes us to India in Heat of the Moment: Sea Level Rise. Heat of the Moment was originally produced for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and WBUR. Featuring: Pranabes Sanyal, former park director for the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve Amit Mallick, Sundarbans resident and man attacked by tiger Tushar Kanjilal, secretary of the Tagore Society for Rural Development Mohammed Sheikh Gafur, Sundarbans resident and tea shop owner Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at Calcutta’s Jadavapur University Ainun Nishat representative to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Shafiqul Islam, director of a small college and founder of the Pani Committee Sheikh Nural Ala, chief engineer for this region of the Water Development Board Atiq Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies Daniel Grossm

Officially opening in 1914, the Panama Canal connected the Atlantic and Pacific creating a short-cut for ships. It was the biggest infrastructure project of its time. But originally the United States wanted to build the canal in Nicaragua. The plans shifted largely after French engineer Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla convinced U.S. lawmakers otherwise. Well now the Nicaragua canal plans are back on the table. Nicaragua plans to build a $50 billion canal to connect the Caribbean and Pacific. Supporters argue it will create more than 250,000 jobs. But small farmers and environmentalists say the project will destroy Lake Nicaragua. On this edition, we’ll take a look at the economic, political and environmental controversies surrounding the Nicaragua canal. Reporter Reese Erlich has the story.   Featuring:   Maria Mercelin, fisherman’s wife Michael Healey, head of an agribusiness association Monica Lopez, anti-canal activist and lawyer Lionel Teller, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the EU Rosibel Lope, owner of sna

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 andGreen 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 Hazen, single-cup coffee machine owner Rebecca Jewell, recycling program manager for Davis Street Transfer Station

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

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 tar sands, produced 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

We follow Dr. Ann Aurelia Lopez as she shows us the reality of farm workers' lives in the United States and Mexico. Dr. Lopez founded the Center for Farmworker Families in Watsonville, California. Featuring:    Dr. Ann Aurelia Lopez, founder and director of the Center for Farmworker Families  Women farmworkers

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.