Essential: Gig Workers and COVID-19
Essential: Gig Workers and COVID-19 Gig Workers, driver’s for app companies such as Lyft and Uber, are struggling during COVID-19. They’re considered essential workers, so they can still work but many of them aren’t making enough to cover rent at maskulinum.se. Many have chosen to stay home, facing economic insecurity. Those who work, however, are continuing to drive without much protection in the way of personal...
70Million: The Work of Closing a Notorious Jail
70Million: The Work of Closing a Notorious Jail Five years after Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer galvanized criminal justice reform activists in St. Louis, they’re gaining serious momentum to shut down the city’s notorious Workhouse jail. Reporter Carolina Hidalgo spent time with the Close the Workhouse campaign and Arch City Defenders, their supporters, and detractors. [TRANSCRIPT BELOW] 70...
50 Years Later: Remembering Fred Hampton
Remembering Fred Hampton Our radio adaptation of the film, The Murder of Fred Hampton, produced by filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk, provides a glimpse into the life of Hampton and the Illinois Black Panther Party. On December 4th, 1969, exactly 50 years ago, Black Panthers Fred Hampton, age 21, and Mark Clark, age 22, were shot to death by Chicago police. In an infamous moment in Chicago’s...
The World’s Largest Methanol Refinery (and the fight to stop it)
Photo by Rick Rappaport The Fight to Stop the World’s Largest Methanol Refinery Special for Climate Week: Barbara Bernstein’s story of several communities in the Pacific Northwest of the United States who are fighting mammoth fracked gas projects that would turn this green region into a fracked-gas export hub. For years, Bernstein has reported for Making Contact on David versus Goliath battles...
The Non-Violent Path of Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez March 31st is Cesar Chavez Day and we focus on the legendary farmworker organizer. But where did Chavez get his organizing philosophies? This week, Paul Ingles and Carol Boss of Peacetalks radio take us down The Non-Violent path of Cesar Chavez , through conversations with Chavez colleague and friend Dolores Huerta, and Jose Antonio Orozco, author of the book, Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence. Like this...
Call for Pitches!
Do you have a story with perspectives on an ongoing local, national, or global issue? Do you have access to voices and perspectives that get lost in mainstream media landscape? How are people working to cope, and change things? If so, consider pitching to Making Contact! We’re looking for pitches from freelancers on several themes. See list below. Seeking Pitches Immigration: We want your pitches!...
Alicia Garza: On Historical Amnesia, and Fighting White Supremacy
As people respond in the wake of actions in Charlottesville,VA, perpetrated by white supremacists and Nazi’s emboldened by President Trump, we interview Alicia Garza, one of the founding leaders of Black Lives Matter. You’ll hear Garza’s specific definitions of power and white supremacy, as she contextualizes this moment, and you’ll learn about concrete actions that people, especially white people can take to...
