COVID-19 and Lessons from the Spanish Flu
COVID-19 and Lessons from the Spanish Flu In 1918, humanity faced a deadly global pandemic– the Spanish Flu. The CDC estimates that the disease killed at least 50 million people and infected a third of the world population. Today, hand-washing and physical distancing are a part of daily life, as are grim tallies of the sick and the dead. Even though science has made tremendous advances since then, our methods for slowing the...
The Response: Reimagining Paradise in an Age of Disruption
The Response: Reimagining Paradise in an Age of Disruption This week on Making Contact, we bring you a story about resilience and rebuilding after a megafire decimated parts of Northern California. This is episode six of The Response: Reimagining Paradise in an Age of Disruption. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Image Credit: Kayne Lynch Featuring Allen Myers:...
Bio Hackers versus Big Pharma: Tackling the Rising Cost of Insulin
Tackling the Rising Cost of Insulin As the cost of insulin continues to skyrocket patients are dying from trying to ration their medication. It’s an extreme example, but not unusual – the cost of insulin mirrors the broader health crisis in the United States. Medicine is too expensive and inaccessible. And as insurance companies continue to raise prices, more and more people are put at risk, especially if...
Lessons of Nagasaki
Commemorating Nagasaki The US dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Three days later, the small fishing city of Nagasaki also fell victim. On this edition, we hear the voices of the most deadly attacks the world had ever seen. We commemorate the anniversary of the bombings with excerpts from two documentaries: “Hiroshima Countdown” and “Nagasaki Journey.” Photo from Hiroshima’s annual...
Bad Math: the Risks of Artificial Intelligence
Like this program? Please support our work. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Artificial Intelligence When we think of Artificial Intelligence we often think of intelligent robots who act and think like humans -the walking, thinking, feeling machines that we see in the movies. The advent of that kind of intelligent robot is so far off in the future, that we often don’t recognize the...
The Aftermath of Ghost Ship and the San Pablo Fires
On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll explore the aftermath of the Ghost Ship fire and the battle to preserve live/work spaces, and then we look at the San Pablo fire in Oakland California that displaced at least a hundred residents…many of whom are now living on the streets in tent encampments. Special Thanks to KALW and Jeremy Dalmas. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit...