In the late 1990s, psychologist Dr. Joseph Gone, a professor and member of the Aaniiih Gros Ventre tribe, returned home during his doctoral training to the Fort Belknap Reservation in north central Montana. There, he set aside eurocentric concepts of psychology he was learning in school and instead asked tribal members how mental illness is address…

East Orosi hasn’t had safe drinking water in over 20 years. The water is full of nitrates, runoff from industrial agriculture, which is harmful to human health. The community has taken action to find a solution, from lobbying at the state capital to working with neighboring towns. And they may finally have one. New California laws, passed in the la…

Composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Pinderhughes tells us about The Healing Project, a fundamentally abolitionist project, that explores the structures of systemic racism and the prison industrial complex. This story first aired February 2023. The Healing Project takes action towards abolition with forms such as musical songs, films, community g…

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 receive exclusively paid formal care. Whether you are a paid home care provider, or you rely on personal assistance to meet your daily needs, or you are a family m…

Inflammatory diseases are on the rise around the world; when left unaddressed, they can turn chronic. Now, doctors are finally starting to pay more attention. But why and when does a beneficial part of our immune system turn against us? Raj Patel and Rupa Marya think it has a lot to do with the world we live in. They talk about climate change, ecol…

Kids are coming out as LGBTQ+ younger than ever, making their identities more politicized than ever before. Hateful political rhetoric and discriminatory laws are likely contributing to the poor mental health documented among LGBTQ+ kids. In an effort to combat these struggles, researchers are studying what works to keep kids healthy, happy, and al…

In 2023, Kirin Clawson’s endocrinologist placed a puberty-blocking implant in her arm, a medical intervention that is associated with improved mental health for many trans kids with gender dysphoria. In February, Indiana joined several other conservative states banning this treatment for minors. In the first of a two-part series, we hear from the C…

Caste — one of the oldest systems of exclusion in the world — is thriving. Despite the ban on Untouchability 70 years ago, caste impacts 1.9 billion people in the world. Every 15 minutes, a crime is perpetrated against a Dalit person. The average age of death for Dalit women is just 39. And the wreckages of caste are replicated here in the U.S. as …

What does it mean to disclose and divest? We take a look at the demands behind the student encampments for Palestine and talk to Kelly Grotke about endowments. Then, we take a trip back in time with Andrea Pritchett, who was a part of the encampments in the 1980s against South African Apartheid. The post Disclose! Divest!: Behind the Fight Over Col…

What are borders, and why do we have them? How is violent border enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border connected to Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza? What happens when borders cross living land and communities? We dig into these questions with the help of Heba Gowayed, sociology professor at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center. Then we hear a st…

Today’s Making Contact is preempted by special spring fund drive programming. The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.By KPFA

Today’s Making Contact is preempted by the following: C.S. Soong interviews Nate Powell about his graphic adaptation of James W. Loewen’s book Lies My Teacher Told Me. The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Nate Powell on his adaptation of Lies My Teacher Told Me appeared first on KPFA.By KPFA

Today’s Making Contact is preempted by a special fund drive broadcast of Pushing Limits. The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming : Pushing Limits appeared first on KPFA.By KPFA

The pandemic exposed stark inequalities around the world, especially in terms of vaccine access, leading to the deaths of untold thousands in the global south. Amid ongoing challenges, activists and scientists continue to push for broader healthcare equity, navigating patent barriers to ensure fairer access to essential medicines. GUESTS: Fatima Ha…

How does anyone make sense of abortion access these days? On today’s show, we sit down with All Options Pregnancy Resource Center in Bloomington, Indiana to talk about what’s changed since Indiana’s full abortion ban went into effect last August. We learn about ways folks are getting access to abortion pills, what to expect from a self-managed abor…

The history of Point Reyes National Seashore, one of the most iconic national parks in northern California, is a story about how the forces of colonialism changed and now continue to shape the fate of public lands in the United States and the campaigns waged to fight back and protect Indigenous land. On today’s show, we dive into this story, consid…

On this week’s episode, we speak with Dr. Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar about his latest book, America’s Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy. The book chronicles how a center of Black excellence emerged amid virulent expressions of white nationalism, as African Americans pushed back against Confederate ideology…

In this episode, Gaza-based reporter Rami Almeghari talks with Rashid Khalidi, Historian and Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, about his book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. They discuss the very early history of the zionist movement in Palestine and Khalidi’s argument that it was, from the start, a settler-c…

March marks four years since the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health failures and government inaction have forced communities to take matters into their own hands. On today’s show, we look at two groups steeped in the values of community care: the Auntie Sewing Squad and Pandemic Solidarity for the Long Future. GUESTS: Kristina Wong …

Today we share excerpts from “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” a documentary filled with stories that still resonate today as women face new challenges around reproductive rights and sexual violence. The documentary tells the stories of the activists of the Women’s Liberation Movement that gained traction in the late 1960s and led to social and p…

What does equity really mean? That might be an impossible question to answer objectively, but in this encore episode Ruchika Tulshyan, a workplace inclusion expert, and Ijeoma Oluo, a thought leader on race in America, discuss the subtle and overt ways white supremacy and anti-Blackness impact our experiences at work. GUESTS: Ruchika Tulshyan – Inc…

This week’s show is preempted by special fund drive programming. The post Special Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.By KPFA

Today’s episode is preempted by special KPFA Winter Fund Drive programming. The post Special KPFA Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.By KPFA

Today, we continue celebrating Black history and heritage with a special encore episode honoring an often forgotten civil rights figure, Bayard Rustin. The organizer of the 1963 march on Washington, Rustin was a trusted advisor to labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As a gay man, a pacifist, and a practitioner of non…

When Oklahoma passed a law limiting discussion of race in classrooms, Tulsa activist Kristi Williams rallied the community to create Black History Saturdays. Now, she says entire families are learning who they are by knowing where they come from. GUESTS: Kristi Williams – Tulsa activist and Founder of Black History Saturdays Bracken Klar – Co-Execu…

Black Wall Street, or the historically Black neighborhood Greenwood, Oklahoma is the site of a once prosperous, thriving, Black community. It is also the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a violent attack waged by white supremacists, killing hundreds of residents and leveling homes and businesses. In this, second episode of our three-part Black…

In the first of our three-part series leading up to Black History Month, we discuss how journalists and historians today are covering the Tulsa Race Massacre. We hear from KalaLea, host of the critically acclaimed podcast Blindspot: Tulsa Burning. This series tells the story of the rise of Greenwood, a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklaho…

Oppenheimer swept the Golden Globes, but what did it leave out? We talk with Myrriah Gómez, author of the book Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos, about the impact of nuclear colonialism on New Mexico. Then we dig into how nuclear testing during the Cold War led to dangerous and las…

The problem in America is, America’s been in denial about its problems. And that’s a problem. America doesn’t have a race problem, in reality we’ve had catastrophes visited on Black people. Catastrophes visited on Indigenous brothers and sisters. Catastrophes visited on Latino brothers and sisters. Catastrophes visited on working people. Catastroph…

On the forefront of the next labor revolution, we visit a coffee shop in Maine called Little Dog whose workers are starting to organize a union. Then we talk to Robert Chala from the UCLA Labor Center about the rise in unionization efforts among service workers. The post The Rise of the New Labor Movement appeared first on KPFA.…

In this final episode of four-part series, But Next Time, our guest hosts, Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta take us to Houston to continue the story of the housing-justice organizers fighting for a safer, stronger future. The post But Next Time, part 4: The Road to Rebuilding and Recovering, Better (encore) appeared first on KPFA.…

Today in Houston, Texas, we meet a group of moms who stand up for local housing policies that keep families of color trapped in unsafe homes for years. Then we hear from leaders in Puerto Rico who have been resisting and rebuilding in the wake of ongoing disaster. The post But Next Time, part 3: The Fight for Fair Housing in the Face of Climate Cha…

Today’s show is preempted by a special holiday fund drive broadcast. Making Contact will resume its usual schedule on December 22, 2023. The post Special Holiday Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.By KPFA

Today’s show is preempted by a special holiday fund drive broadcast. Making Contact will resume its usual schedule on December 22, 2023. The post Special Holiday Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.By KPFA

For weeks, the world has been witness to Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza. Today, we uncover the military corporations profiting from the war, and we highlight the activism in every corner of the world in support of Palestine. We’ll get insight on the conditions on the ground in Gaza before zooming out to look at Israel’s military industrial complex…

Today’s show tells the story of how locals in Buenos Aires came together to feed each other through a pandemic with community kitchens and how innovative architecture can facilitate communal living and modular food preparation. We travel to Buenos Aires with reporter Rosina Castillo who immerses us in the culture of a local community arts organizat…

On this week’s Making Contact, we bring you a special encore of an episode that first aired in June: an extended interview with Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a queer Din filmmaker and director of the award-winning documentary Powerlands. Powerlands traces how multinational energy corporations extract resources and profits while displacing and harming…

Brookside is a small town in Alabama where police used a civil war-era state loophole to create a traffic ticketing nightmare for residents and generate piles of cash for the local government. After years of abuse, the people are fighting back. Just 20 minutes north of Birmingham on Interstate 22, Brookside is a working-class town with less than 1,…

As we head into a ever warming world, some experts and politicians are embracing a possible solution to climate change called geoengineering. Theoretically geoengineering could slow down climate change, stop it, and maybe even remove carbon from the air. It sounds like the perfect answer in for a global political system that just can’t stop burning…

How do you decide what kind of parent you want to be? Our friends at Pulso Podcast, Maribel Quezada Smith and Liz Alarcón, discuss ways they maintain their children’s cultural identity as Latinos while living in the U.S. They also touch on what they have changed from how their immigrant parents raised them. In the second half, Liz sits down with La…

Dive into the history of Point Reyes National Seashore with us, an area in northern California known for rugged sweeping beaches and tule elk. We’ll recount the history of this land and the waves of colonization that violently upended the lives of the Coast Miwok peoples who lived there — and one Indigenous woman’s struggle to preserve her family h…

In this special encore edition of Making Contact, we present Saltwater Soundwalk: Indigenous Audio Tour of the Seattle Coast. Produced by Jenny Asarnow and Rachel Lam, this rhythmic, watery audio experience, streams of stories that ebb and flow, intermixing English with Coast Salish languages. Indigenous Coast Salish peoples continue to steward thi…

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2 The post Making Contact – October 6, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.…

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2 The post Special Fund Drive Programming – Making Contact – September 2…

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2 The post Special Fund Drive Programming – Making Contact – September 2…

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2 The post Making Contact – September 15, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.…

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2 The post Making Contact – September 8, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.…

On today’s show, we hear a story from our podcast partner 70 Million about a small town in Alabama, where an eager new police chief, unsuspecting motorists, and a state-mandated loophole converged to create a nightmare for local residents”and generate piles of cash for the local government. Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for som…

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2 The post Making Contact – August 25, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.…