Geraldine’s Story: How Public Schools Are Failing Black Students with Dyslexia
Making Contact · Geraldine’s Story: How Public Schools Are Failing Black Students with Dyslexia Black students with dyslexia all too often carry a heavy burden in our public schools. This documentary centers around a grandmother who fought for years to get her grandkids — particularly her grandson — properly assessed for dyslexia. Like too many African American boys, Geraldine Robinson’s grandson had been erroneously labeled...
Fighting for the Ballot: Race and Voter Suppression in the 2020 Election
Making Contact · Fighting for the Ballot: Race and Voter Suppression in the 2020 November’s upcoming election has already become one of the most contested elections in US history, with the president questioning the validity of mail-in ballots, “unofficial” ballot drop off boxes popping up in California, and the threat of armed militias patrolling the polls. But, voter suppression and its target’s aren’t new phenomena. People of...
Self Care as Selfless Act: Mental Health at the Root of Activism (Encore)
Making Contact · Self Care as Selfless Act: Mental Health at the Root of Activism Activists in the Latinx immigrant community of Los Angeles share what they do to take care of their mental health. The issues these activists work on often impact their personal lives, and people who work in the service of others are particularly at risk of burnout and compassion fatigue. Self-care becomes a “selfless act” when it allows activists...
Unblock the Vote 2020
Making Contact · Unblock the Vote 2020 This week we’ll explore felon disenfranchisement and the political battle to restore the voting rights of over 6 million people not eligible to vote because of laws that restrict people convicted of felonies from voting. We’ll meet criminal justice activists in California pushing to restore the rights of 50,000 individuals on parole, through the advocacy of a ballot measure in...
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:...
Beyond Recognition: The Ohlone
Beyond Recognition: The Ohlone Our radio adaptation and update of the film Beyond Recognition by Underexposed films: “After decades struggling to protect her ancestors’ burial places, a Native woman from a non-federally recognized Ohlone tribe and her allies occupy a sacred site to prevent its desecration. They then vow to follow a new path- to establish the first women-led urban Indigenous land trust.”...
Guns and Restraining Orders
Guns and Restraining Orders Despite the recent increase in mass shootings in the United States, the majority of gun injuries and deaths are in fact a result of suicides, homicides, accidental shootings, and intimate partner violence. In this documentary by Making Contact’s Monica Lopez, you’ll hear the story of one woman’s experience of domestic violence, learn about gun violence restraining orders,...
70 Million: Undocumented Immigrants Are Tethered to ICE, and Private Companies
ICE A handful of companies are making millions off of ankle monitors strapped to undocumented immigrants in ICE custody. The makers pitch the monitors as an alternative to being jailed, but are they simply another form of bondage? Reporter Ryan Katz looks at what life is life while wearing one of these monitors. He untangles the complicated web of ICE, immigration bail agent companies, and the attorneys fighting them. 70 Million is...
The Port Chicago Sailors: Separate and Unequal
California’s Port Chicago 75 years ago during World War II a deadly disaster hit when sailors, most of them African-Americans, were loading ammunition onto ships at California’s Port Chicago. 320 men were killed and while the White officers were given leave time and commended for heroic efforts, 328 of the surviving Black enlistees were sent to load ammunition on another ship. When they refused, fifty men were charged and...
The Response: Uneven Burns
Undocumented Amidst Fire Disasters On this episode, we look at the 2017 Tubbs Fire in California, and how it impacted the undocumented community. In the face of ICE raids, labor violations, a housing crisis, and wildfires, the broader community is standing in solidarity with those who are forced into the shadows. California’s drought has led to an unprecedented number of wildfires that burn hotter, faster, and ever more acreage....
