Please support our programs

The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story (Encore)
Jul12

The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story (Encore)

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...

Read More
What the SVB Failure Teaches us About Investment Banking (Encore)
Jul05

What the SVB Failure Teaches us About Investment Banking (Encore)

The Silicon Valley Bank collapse brings with it memories of the wider 2008 economic crisis. Jeet Heer and John Nichols from The Nation join us to discuss the 2018 bank deregulations that set the stage for this moment and the risky investment strategy at the bank itself. They argue that bailout and FDIC’s role in the collapse could set the stage for a dangerous economic future.  Like this program? Please show us the love. Click...

Read More
Revolutionary Mothering (Encore)
Jun28

Revolutionary Mothering (Encore)

In the mid 1990s, the Reproductive Justice movement was formed by Black and indigenous women as a response to the limitations of the “reproductive rights” movement. Movement leaders argue, “rarely do we find ourselves fighting for just one aspect of reproductive justice such as abortion rights” – SisterSong. Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, scholar and writer, joined us to talk about her book Revolutionary...

Read More
Powerlands
Jun21

Powerlands

On this week’s Making Contact, we feature an extended interview with Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a queer Diné filmmaker and director of the award-winning documentary Powerlands. Powerlands traces how multinational energy corporations extract resources and profits while displacing and harming Indigenous communities around the world. The film follows Indigenous activists in Navajo Nation, Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines who...

Read More
A History of Development and Disruption: Hella Town
Jun14

A History of Development and Disruption: Hella Town

This week on Making Contact, we bring you a story of urban planning and how race has shaped American cities.  In his book, Hella Town: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption, Mitchell Schwarzer explores the origins and the lasting impacts of transportation improvements, systemic racism, and regional competition on Oakland’s built environment. Schwarzer, an architectural and urban historian, pulls from his...

Read More
The Fight Over the Indian Child Welfare Act Is Not Just A Custody Battle (ENCORE)
Jun07

The Fight Over the Indian Child Welfare Act Is Not Just A Custody Battle (ENCORE)

It’s a lesser-known case in the docket for the Supreme Court, but if The Indian Child Welfare Act is overturned, it could have massive implications for the laws that govern Indigenous sovereignty in the United States. We talk with author and activist Rebecca Nagle about the case of Baby O and the Librettis and how their story led to Halaand v. Brakeen. But, we also investigate the money and interests behind the lawsuit....

Read More