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Pandemic and Profit
Mar15

Pandemic and Profit

To mark the three year anniversary of the official start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ll be looking at two alternative supply chains for masks that emerged in the fallout of the Trump administration’s failure to prepare. We’ll be speaking with ProPublica reporter David McSwane about his book Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick. The book details the shadowy supply chain...

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70 Million: Why Policing Our Schools Backfires
Mar08

70 Million: Why Policing Our Schools Backfires

School resource officers are often called upon in middle and high schools to help with routine discipline. But for many children, especially those with disabilities, a law enforcement response to their behavior can lead to the school-to-prison pipeline. This week on Making Contact, we hear a story from our podcast partner 70 Million about the relationship between students with special needs and school resource officers and the changes...

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Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice (ENCORE)
Mar01

Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice (ENCORE)

  Inflammatory diseases are on the rise around the world, and doctors are finally starting to pay more attention to them. But why does a beneficial part of our immune system turn unhealthy? Raj Patel and Rupa Marya think it has a lot to do with the world we’re forced to live in.  They talk about the collapse of our planet and what it has to do with inflammation, and how our bodies are a mirror of a much deeper disease in...

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Behind The Sound with Making Contact
Feb22

Behind The Sound with Making Contact

  This week’s show features a conversation among the entire Making Contact production team. Long-time producers Anita Johnson and Salima Hamirani and interim Senior Producer Jessica Partnow introduce our newest members, Lucy Kang, Amy Gastelum, and Jina Chung. Together, the team reviews highlights from shows aired last year and previews what they are each working on for 2023 and beyond. Along the way, they discuss their...

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Angelic Troublemaker: Bayard Rustin (ENCORE)
Feb15

Angelic Troublemaker: Bayard Rustin (ENCORE)

  On today’s show, we bring you a special encore episode from our archives to honor Black history and heritage. We take a look at the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, one of the most central figures in the African American struggle for civil rights and freedom. He was known as the lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and trusted advisor to labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr....

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The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story
Feb08

The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story

This week on Making Contact we speak with composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes about The Healing Project at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The Healing Project, fundamentally an abolitionist project, explores the structures of systemic racism — particularly the prison industrial complex — in the United States. Pinderhughes uses music, visual arts, film, and language as abolitionist action. The Healing...

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