Upstream: Worker Cooperatives
On today’s show we learn about worker cooperatives: what are they and can they offer an alternative to the dominant capitalist mindset? Our partner podcast Upstream brings us to a bike and skate shop in Richmond, CA that’s providing a much-needed service to its community, while also empowering its own workers. A version of this story was originally aired in 2018. Image Credit: Artwork by Phil Wrigglesworth Like this...
70 Million: Punished and Persecuted for Being Unhoused, Part 2
More than a quarter of the people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. live in California. Nowhere is the unhoused crisis more visible than in the city of Los Angeles, where almost 30,000 people camp out on sidewalks and in parks every night. On today’s episode we continue to follow a community of unhoused people in Echo Park in Los Angeles, that was forcibly evicted by police despite an enormous show of support from...
70 Million: Punished and Persecuted for Being Unhoused, Part 1
On this Making Contact, we hear a story from our podcast partner 70 Million about a community of unhoused people in Echo Park in Los Angeles and how they were forcibly evicted by police despite hundreds of protestors who showed up to support them. We’ll hear from people on the front lines about how people experiencing homelessness are criminalized for simply trying to survive on the street in this edited version of...
Two Revolutions, Many Secrets (ENCORE)
In the midst of our stress and trauma dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s hard to imagine what stories we will ultimately tell our children and grandchildren. This week’s Making Contact episode is about two strong women who survived historic trauma, and the stories they later told their families. During this time of social distancing, these stories remind us of the importance of being in relationship with our loved ones,...
Ollas Populares- Lessons from Lockdowns
Reporter Rosina Castillo takes us to her Buenos Aires neighborhood. There, a community arts organization called La Casona de Humahuaca hosts an olla popular, a community kitchen, to feed hundreds of hungry neighbors during pandemic lockdowns. In turn, La Casona learns more about their own identity and purpose while transforming how they operate. And, we sit down with architect and urbanist, Belen Desmaison. She explains how the...
Generation Putin, Ten Years Later
This week Jessica Partnow offers a look at the state of youth activism in Russia from 2012 to today. She revisits her reporting from Ukraine and Russia and speaks with the people in those stories against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. First, she shares the story of re-connecting with her childhood pen pal Sasha, a Ukrainian boy who witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union and is now fighting to protect his country from the...
