Making Contact

As fires ravaged California's world-famous wine country in 2017, a community radio station, emergency dispatcher, and tenant organizers helped the most vulnerable in their community survive and recover.   Community organizers and hosts of the podcast But Next Time Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta bring us the first of four stories of hard-won lessons learned from people on the frontlines of California’s wildfires and Texas’ storms as they work to answer the question, how can next time be different? In this first episode we discuss hardship faced by farm and service workers during this time, especially non-English speakers. These workers are the heart of wine country, from the planters to the harvesters, to the line cooks, hotel staff and dishwashers. Our systems failed them, how do we do better next time? To listen to all of the But Next Time episodes and access video versions with Spanish subtitles visit www.butnexttime.com. You can also learn more about the organizations featured in the podcast and access resources like a listening and discussion guide.  Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.   This episode includes interviews from Mariano Alvarez, California Rural Legal Assistance; Alicia Sanchez, President of Board of Directors of KBBF; Alma Bowen, Founder / Executive Director of Nuestra Comunidad; Edgar Avila, Director of Programming KBBF; and Beatrice Camacho, ERAP Manager of North Bay Organizing Project   BUT NEXT TIME: This episode is hosted by Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta, and produced by Leah Mahan. MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani and produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. MUSIC: All original compositions by Fernando Arruda including “But Next Time,” “Next Blues,” “Full Bodied Disparity,” “Per Pound,” “A Feeling About It,” and “Going Back.”  Learn More:  But Next Time Podcast: https://butnexttime.com Rise Home Stories: https://risehomestories.com/ Working Films: https://www.workingfilms.org/ California Rural Legal Assistance: https://crla.org/ KBBF: https://kbbf.org/ Nuestra Comunidad: https://nc707.org/ North Bay Organizing Project: http://www.northbayop.org/ Undocufund: https://undocufund.org/  But Next Time was created as part of Rise-Home Stories, a project in which multimedia storytellers and housing, land, and racial justice advocates came together to reimagine the past, present, and future of our communities by transforming the stories we tell about them. The Rise-Home Stories Project includes five pieces of media (a video game, children’s book, animated short, and online storytelling site, and the But Next Time Podcast) that help us rethink our relationships to land and home. For more info visit www.risehomestories.com Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

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 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 and how the United States is enabling genocide, through policymaking and the defense industry. But activists are taking aim and taking action. We close with a discussion on the Palestinian liberation movement from an abolitionist perspective. Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.  This episode includes interviews from Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Rami Almeghari, Gaza-based journalist, and Nora Barrows-Friedman, associate editor of The Electronic Intifada.  This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang, and produced by Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang. Our executive director is Jina Chung. Music by "Minimal Documentary Ambient" by ComaStudio from Pixabay. Engineering by Jeff Emtman.    Learn More:  Making Contact homepage: www.radioproject.org Arab Resource and Organizing Center: www.araborganizing.org The Electronic Intifada www.electronicintifada.net Panel discussion: Abolition Means No More War: Free Palestine Now! www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9GjTMP9qZs

We travel to Buenos Aires with reporter Rosina Castillo who immerses us in the culture of a local community arts organization who saw a need in their community and took action during the height of the pandemic. La Casona de Humahuaca transformed their operations to host “ollas populares” or community kitchens to help support their community and make it through the toughest parts of COVID together, all the while learning more about their organization and purpose in the community. We follow that with a conversation with Belen Desmaison, an architect and urbanist who discusses the building of an innovative communal living space with modular food preparation areas in Lima, Peru. Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.  EPISODE FEATURES: This episode includes interviews from La Casona de Humahuaca, a community arts organization in Buenos Aires, Guillermo Castañeda, a teacher and volunteer, Mariela Jungberg, social psychologist and cultural worker, and Belén Desmaison, urbanist and architect.  MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum, produced by Rosina Castillo, and engineered by Jeff Emtman. Our executive director is Jina Chung. MUSIC: Ergo Phizmiz - Gretchen's Tango, Blue Dot Sessions  Learn More:  Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

On this week's Making Contact, we bring you a special encore of an episode that first aired in June. We'll hear an extended interview with Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a queer Diné filmmaker and director of the award-winning documentary Powerlands, Powerlands traces how multinational energy corporations extract resources and profits while displacing and harming Indigenous communities around the world. The film follows Indigenous activists in Navajo Nation, Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines who are fighting back against corporations like Peabody Energy, Glencore and BHP.  Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring:  Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, an award-winning queer Diné filmmaker and director of Powerlands  Making Contact Team: Host: Lucy Kang Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Engineer: Jeff Emtman This episode includes excerpts from the documentary film Powerlands. Music: Documentary by Music_Unlimited  Learn More:  Making Contact homepage Powerlands

Just 20 minutes north of Birmingham on Interstate 22, Brookside, Alabama is a working-class town with less than 1,300 residents. From 2018 to 2020, income from traffic fines and forfeitures increased 640%, making up 49% of the town’s revenue. In 2019, Brookside saw its first lawsuit that included allegations of racism and police misconduct. It caught national attention for being a predatory speed trap in 2022 and now facing a class-action federal lawsuit. Thank you to our podcast partner, 70 Million, for the story “Highway Robbery: How a Small-Town Traffic Trap Became A Legal Black Hole.”  Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. FEATURING: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Archibald, Brookside residents Sandra Harris and Ashley, Leah Nelson, Alabama Appleseed’s research director, Birmingham Criminal and civil rights lawyer Bill Dawson, Adam Danneman, head of the Jefferson County Public Defender's Office and Joanna Weiss, Fines and Fees Justice Center’s co-director.  70 MILLION EPISODE CREDITS: Episode reporter Rhana Natour, editor Monica Lopez and Juleyka Lantigua, host Mitzi Miller, sound designer Erica Huang, photo editor Michelle Baker, staff writer and designer Kori Doran, lead fact checker Haylee Millikan, lead producer Pamela Kirkland, episode photographer Amarr Croskey, creator/executive producer Juleyka Lantigua MAKING CONTACT: Host Anita Johnson, producers Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang, executive director Jina Chung. MUSIC: Blue Dot Session - Curiously, Curiously Quiet Orchestra - My Friends   

As we head into an 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 fossil fuels even if it kills us all. However, it might not be the easy fix we're hoping for. We talk to scientists and activists about what geoengineering is and why it could actually be a dangerous way to tackle climate change. We also dive into the moral and ethical questions of testing geoengineering technology on indigenous lands.  Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Basav Sen;  Climate Justice Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies Dr. Steven Zornetzer; Vice-Chair, Governing Board of Arctic Ice Project Panganga Pungowiyi; organizer for the nonprofit Indigenous Environmental Network in Alaska  Making Contact Team: Host: Salima Hamirani and Jessica Partnow Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Engineer: Jeff Emtman  Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong Music Credits: Chris Zabriskie - Air Hockey Salon Bio Unit - Industrial Zone Chris Zabriskie - Take Off and Shoot a Zero Doctor Turtle - Leap Second Monplaisir - Ridiculous Monplaisir - Juan Garcia Madero Learn More: Indigenous Environmental Network Artic Ice Project Institute for Policy Studies Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

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. And, Liz sits down with Latinx parenting coach Leslie Priscilla to talk about her work using an antiracist, anticolonial and child-centered lens.  Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring Liz Alarcón: mom and Executive Director of Pulso Podcast   https://www.lizalarcon.com/aboutme  Maribel Quezada- Smith: mom and founder of the media production company, Diferente Creative  https://www.maribelqs.com/  Leslie Priscilla:  founder of Latinx Parenting  https://latinxparenting.org/  Making Contact Staff Host: Amy Gastelum Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Engineer: Jeff Emtman Digital Marketing Manager: Taylor Rapalyea Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong Music composed by Julian Blackmore Learn More Pulso Podcast - https://projectpulso.org/podcast/ Latinx Parenting - https://latinxparenting.org/ Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

Dive into the history of Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California with us. It's one of the most iconic national parks in the region, known for rugged sweeping beaches and the famous tule elk. We'll recount 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 history. The story of Point Reyes is a story about how the forces of colonialism continue to shape the fate of public lands in the United States.  Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring:  Theresa Harlan, (Kewa Pueblo/Jemez Pueblo), adopted daughter of Elizabeth Campigli Harlan (Coast Miwok), founder and executive director of The Alliance for Felix Cove  Making Contact Staff: Host: Lucy Kang Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Engineer: Jeff Emtman Digital Marketing Manager: Taylor Rapalyea "Whose Point Reyes?: A Battle for the Future of Public Lands" Parts 1 and 2 Credits: Reporter and producer: Sam Anderson Editor: Lucy Kang First aired on KPFA Music Credits: "Chill Ambient" by Yrii Semchyshyn (Coma-Media) via Pixabay "Cinematic Documentary" by Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music) via Pixabay  Learn More:  Making Contact homepage: www.radioproject.org Listen to Parts 1 and 2 of "Whose Point Reyes: A Battle for the Future of Public Lands" on KPFA: https://kpfa.org/featured-episode/whose-point-reyes Alliance for Felix Cove: www.alliance4felixcove.org Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin: www.coastmiwokofmarin.org 

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 this land and preserve its language, despite settler colonialism, industrialization and gentrification. Part story, part sound collage, this piece is scored entirely with the sounds of the waters and animals who live in and around the Salish Sea.  Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring:  Voices in order of appearance: Water at Don Armeni Boat Ramp Randi Purser Smith (Suquamish) Archie Cantrell (Puyallup) Southern Resident Orcas Plainfin Midshipman Fish Ken Workman (Duwamish) Michelle Myles (Tulalip) LaDean Johnson (Skokomish) Owen Oliver (Quinault/Isleta Pueblo) RYAN! Feddersen (Colville) Warren King George (Muckleshoot) Lydia Sigo (Suquamish) Water at Gas Works Park, Lake Union Water at Kayak Point Regional County Park Birds and Water at Puyallup River Eric Autry Birds and Water at Erlands Point Water in Pacific Ocean, La Push Birds and water at Potlatch State Park, Hood Canal Jeanne Hyde Joseph Sisnero  Produced by: Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow Special Thanks: Commissioned with SPU 1% for Art Funds. Administered by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. City of Seattle, Bruce Harrell, Mayor. This episode of Making Contact was supported in part by a Moral Courage grant from the Satterberg Foundation. Credits: Local artists and producers, Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow produced this work as part of FLOW: Art Along the Ship Canal, a commission from Seattle Public Utilities in partnership with the Office of Arts & Culture. Making Contact Staff: Jina Chung, Executive Director; Interim Senior Producer, Jessica Partnow. Producers: Anita Johnson; Amy Gastelum; Lucy Kang; and Salima Hamirani. Web Updates: Sabine Blazin. Music: Last Kiss - Magnus Moone Audiobinger - Enchanted Forest  Learn More:  Seattle Times - https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/how-you-can-explore-seattles-waterways-with-saltwater-soundwalk/ Art Beat Blog - https://artbeat.seattle.gov/2022/08/25/new-podcast-saltwater-soundwalk-highlights-the-people-land-and-water-of-seattle/ Saltwater Soundwalk - https://saltwater-soundwalk.simplecast.com/ Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.

In this episode, we revisit two stories we've covered in the past concerning indigenous rights. In the first half, Rebecca Nagle joins us to discuss the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act and why the legitimacy of the law is so important to tribal sovereignty. We also talk about the right's legal strategy in the last few decades and what that means for decisions at the Supreme Court. In the second half we hear from Chairman of the Amah Mutsun tribal band, Valentin Lopez, about the most recent developments in their fight to protect the sacred site Juristac. The site was slated to be developed into a mine, but the tribe has continued to gain support from environmental organizations and activists. We talk about next steps and how you can get involved.   Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring:  Rebecca Nagle: activist, writer and host of the podcast This Land Valentin Lopez: Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band   Making Contact Team: Host: Salima Hamirani Interview Reporter: Robert Raymond Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow Digital Marketing Manager: Taylor Rapalyea Engineer: Jeff Emtman   Learn More:  Rebecca Nagle's This Land podcast Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Amah Mutsun Land Trust The Response podcast Making Contact piece on ICWA Making Contact piece on Juristac