Making Contact

On this edition of Making Contact we look at some of the struggles and victories in the fight for transgender access to gender-specific spaces and programs.

The Black Panther Party combined Black Power’s militancy with socialist ideology, and infused funk music with Franz Fanon’s writings.  Their impact on American culture, from music to style to community organizing, continues to resonate today.   Fifty years after the birth of Black Panther Party, we take a look at the lasting cultural legacy of the Black Panther Party through the eyes of the generations that followed.

The Murder of Fred Hampton began as a film on Hampton and Illinois Black Panthers, but midway through the shoot, Chicago police murdered Hampton. Filmmakers arrived to shoot crime scene footage later used to counter news reports and police testimony.

The actions at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline continue. We share interviews from the Voices of Standing Rock. Vincent Medina is a Chochenyo Ohlone Native working to revitalize the Chochenyo language for future generations.

Given Trump’s winning the election, and the difference between his popular votes and electoral votes, we revisit our show on the Electoral College. It’s history in the era of slavery, and how it works today.

As relations between the United States and Russian governments continue to deteriorate, people are growing concerned that we’re on the brink of another nuclear arms race.  Both the U.S. and Russia are modernizing their nuclear arsenals.  According to Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, “it’s frighteningly easy to imagine how something could go wrong in that situation.”  Women Rising Radio takes us inside the movement for nuclear disarmament, to meet the women on the frontlines of the fight for a future free of nuclear weapons.  From the US to Russia, the UK, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Japan, these dedicated advocates make the case for returning to the Nonproliferation Treaty and fulfilling its mandate.    Featuring:  Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation, Mayors for Peace, and Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons. Abacca Anjain-Maddison, Marshall Islands Senator, member of Marshall Islands delegation arguing the case against 9 nuclear nations at the International Court of Justice. Kate Hudson, General Secretary of Britain’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and National Secretary for the Left Unity party in the UK.  Nadezda Kutepova, born and raised in a secret city, in Ozyorsk,  Russia, survivor of the explosion of the Mayak nuclear weapons plant. Sharon Dolev, Israeli Disarmament Movement. Fujiko Yoshikawa, writer, Rafu Shimpo newspaper in Los Angeles, Japanese language magazine TV Fan.  She and her family lived in a village near Hiroshima in Japan, when the atom bomb fell August 6, 1945.  

Greg Palast, is an investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker. His new film, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: a Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits," unmasks the continuing and unrelenting Jim-Crow attempts by America's "Billionaire Bandits" to prevent minority communities from exercising their constitutional right to vote.  Featuring: Greg Palast, Investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker    

In the US, the right to vote is one of the country’s most cherished and hard-fought rights. But it doesn't mean that everyone has equal access to the polls. In 2013 the Supreme Court struck down a key civil rights provision of the Voting Rights Act. This November will be the first presidential election in 50 years where voters will not have the full protection of the original law. In this second installment of Making Contact’s Immigrants and Elections series, we explore some of the barriers immigrants and other historically disenfranchised voters face in gaining access to the polls.

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. Before the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on August 6th, we revisit the 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 of History at Georgia State University 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.

As relations between the United States and Russian governments continue to deteriorate, people are growing concerned that we’re on the brink of another nuclear arms race.  Both the U.S. and Russia are modernizing their nuclear arsenals.  According to Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, “it’s frighteningly easy to imagine how something could go wrong in that situation.” Women Rising Radio takes us inside the movement for nuclear disarmament, to meet the women on the front lines of the fight for a future free of nuclear weapons.  From the US to Russia, the UK, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Japan, these dedicated advocates make the case for returning to the Nonproliferation Treaty and fulfilling its mandate.