The Response: The Fight for Justice after the Grenfell Tower Fire
Making Contact · The Response: The Fight for Justice after the Grenfell Tower Fire On June 14, 2017, a fire started in a 24-story public housing apartment in West London called Grenfell Tower. The fire raged all night and reduced the building to a shell. Seventy-two people lost their lives, making the Grenfell Tower fire the United Kingdom’s deadliest disaster since World War II. In this episode, we examine the events that led...
70 Million: Where Housing, Not Jails, Is the Answer to Homelessness
Making Contact · 70Million: Where Housing, Not Jails, Is the Answer to Homelessness The national homelessness crisis has reached unprecedented levels and local jails play a direct role in the problem. 15% of all people detained or incarcerated report having been homeless. And roughly 48,000 people enter shelters every year nearly directly from prisons or jails. In California, so-called “quality of life” laws target panhandling,...
Wolves at the Well: The Corporate Grab of Public Water (Encore)
Making Contact · Wolves at the Well: The Corporate Grab of Public Water (Encore) Water is critical to maintaining the balance of all life on Earth. As humans go, the United Nations estimates that each person needs about 50 to 100 liters a day for drinking and washing. It must be safe, accessible, and affordable. Some corporations claim ownership of fresh water sources to bottle and sell for profit. Others use water as a tool to...
Self Evident: Hate Goes Viral
Making Contact · Self Evident: Hate Goes Viral We take a look at the ongoing rise in hate incidents against Asians in the U.S., a long-running history of anti-Asian racism, and a new push by Asian Americans — especially in underserved communities — to expose and overcome this ugly side of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode (the first of a three-part series by Self Evident), we hear the stories of these two Asian Americans...
One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps
Making Contact · One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps Today we use a lot of euphemisms: re-education camps, internment, work camps, prison camps, camps for internally displaced people. But before World War I, these prisons were known simply as concentration camps and they started in Cuba in the 1890s to control an uprising against the Spanish colonizers. Since then, concentration camps have...
President Biden and America’s Expectation
Making Contact · President Biden and America’s Expectation Today, a divided nation experiences one of the most tumultuous presidential transitions in US history. Leaders from marginalized communities across the nation are watching, with cautious optimism, as Biden and Harris seek to tackle several serious crises amid a raging pandemic. Thank you to freelance journalist Maritza L. Félix for reporting from Arizona. Like...
