I Am Not Your Negro: James Baldwin
Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in...
The End of Policing, Alex Vitale
Alex Vitale is Professor of Sociology and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. Vitale’s book The End of Policing, is an accessible study of police history as an imperial tool for social control that continues to exacerbate class and racial tensions. —- Vitale also goes deep into the shortcomings of reform and in contrast, deepens the conversations around meaningful alternatives...
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi – Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Encore Edition)
Some Americans cling to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America – more sophisticated and insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society....
Breaking Protocol: Cryptocurrency and Capital Controls in Greece
Which came first– coin or the ledger? In either case, physical currency or a tally of debts and payments have been the two primary forms of money used throughout history. Today, physical cash is increasingly being replaced with cashless systems including cryptocurrencies. This week, we hear from blockchain researcher Jaya Klara Brekke on the political economy of blockchain and consensus protocols. And we go to Athens where...
Wealth Inequity and Universal Basic Income
When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United states, the wealth gap between rich and poor was already very wide. The top 10% of families — those who had at least $942,000 — held 76% of total wealth. The average amount of wealth in this group was $4 million. And the entire bottom half of the population had just 1% of the total wealth pie, this gap continues to rise and when the statistical scope...
Reclaiming Gotham: The Battle for U.S. Cities
On this episode of Making Contact, journalist Juan González discusses his new book, Reclaiming Gotham. He chronicles the evolution of the growth machine in America’s cities – from redlining and racial covenants in the early 20th century, to land grabs and privatization in the 21st – and the rise of progressive alliances to reclaim them. Special thanks to Pegasus Books for organizing the event and allowing us to broadcast...
