Making Contact

As fires ravaged California's world-famous wine country in 2017, a community radio station, emergency dispatcher, and tenant organizers helped the most vulnerable in their community survive and recover. Community organizers and hosts of the podcast But Next Time Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta bring us the first of four stories of hard-won lessons learned from people on the frontlines of California’s wildfires and Texas’ storms as they work to answer the question, how can next time be different? In this first episode we discuss hardship faced by farm and service workers during this time, especially non-English speakers. These workers are the heart of wine country, from the planters to the harvesters, to the line cooks, hotel staff and dishwashers. Our systems failed them, how do we do better next time? To listen to all of the But Next Time episodes and access video versions with Spanish subtitles visit www.butnexttime.com. You can also learn more about the organizations featured in the podcast and access resources like a listening and discussion guide. Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world. This episode includes interviews from Mariano Alvarez, California Rural Legal Assistance; Alicia Sanchez, President of Board of Directors of KBBF; Alma Bowen, Founder / Executive Director of Nuestra Comunidad; Edgar Avila, Director of Programming KBBF; and Beatrice Camacho, ERAP Manager of North Bay Organizing Project BUT NEXT TIME: This episode is hosted by Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta, and produced by Leah Mahan. MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani and produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. MUSIC: All original compositions by Fernando Arruda including “But Next Time,” “Next Blues,” “Full Bodied Disparity,” “Per Pound,” “A Feeling About It,” and “Going Back.” Learn More: But Next Time Podcast: https://butnexttime.com Rise Home Stories: https://risehomestories.com/ Working Films: https://www.workingfilms.org/ California Rural Legal Assistance: https://crla.org/ KBBF: https://kbbf.org/ Nuestra Comunidad: https://nc707.org/ North Bay Organizing Project: http://www.northbayop.org/ Undocufund: https://undocufund.org/ But Next Time was created as part of Rise-Home Stories, a project in which multimedia storytellers and housing, land, and racial justice advocates came together to reimagine the past, present, and future of our communities by transforming the stories we tell about them. The Rise-Home Stories Project includes five pieces of media (a video game, children’s book, animated short, and online storytelling site, and the But Next Time Podcast) that help us rethink our relationships to land and home. For more info visit www.risehomestories.com Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

For weeks the world has been witness to Israel's deadly assault on Gaza. Today, we uncover the military corporations profiting from the war, and highlight the activism in every corner of the world in support of Palestine. We'll get insight on the conditions on the ground in Gaza before zooming out to look at Israel's military industrial complex and how the United States is enabling genocide, through policymaking and the defense industry. But activists are taking aim and taking action. We close with a discussion on the Palestinian liberation movement from an abolitionist perspective. Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world. This episode includes interviews from Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Rami Almeghari, Gaza-based journalist, and Nora Barrows-Friedman, associate editor of The Electronic Intifada. This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang, and produced by Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang. Our executive director is Jina Chung. Music by "Minimal Documentary Ambient" by ComaStudio from Pixabay. Engineering by Jeff Emtman. Learn More: Making Contact homepage: www.radioproject.org Arab Resource and Organizing Center: www.araborganizing.org The Electronic Intifada www.electronicintifada.net Panel discussion: Abolition Means No More War: Free Palestine Now! www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9GjTMP9qZs

We travel to Buenos Aires with reporter Rosina Castillo who immerses us in the culture of a local community arts organization who saw a need in their community and took action during the height of the pandemic. La Casona de Humahuaca transformed their operations to host “ollas populares” or community kitchens to help support their community and make it through the toughest parts of COVID together, all the while learning more about their organization and purpose in the community. We follow that with a conversation with Belen Desmaison, an architect and urbanist who discusses the building of an innovative communal living space with modular food preparation areas in Lima, Peru. Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world. EPISODE FEATURES: This episode includes interviews from La Casona de Humahuaca, a community arts organization in Buenos Aires, Guillermo Castañeda, a teacher and volunteer, Mariela Jungberg, social psychologist and cultural worker, and Belén Desmaison, urbanist and architect. MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum, produced by Rosina Castillo, and engineered by Jeff Emtman. Our executive director is Jina Chung. MUSIC: Ergo Phizmiz - Gretchen's Tango, Blue Dot Sessions Learn More: Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

On this week's Making Contact, we bring you a special encore of an episode that first aired in June. We'll hear 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 are fighting back against corporations like Peabody Energy, Glencore and BHP. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, an award-winning queer Diné filmmaker and director of Powerlands Making Contact Team: Jeff Emtman This episode includes excerpts from the documentary film Powerlands. Music: Documentary by Music_Unlimited Learn More: Making Contact homepagePowerlands

Just 20 minutes north of Birmingham on Interstate 22, Brookside, Alabama is a working-class town with less than 1,300 residents. From 2018 to 2020, income from traffic fines and forfeitures increased 640%, making up 49% of the town’s revenue. In 2019, Brookside saw its first lawsuit that included allegations of racism and police misconduct. It caught national attention for being a predatory speed trap in 2022 and now facing a class-action federal lawsuit. Thank you to our podcast partner, 70 Million, for the story “Highway Robbery: How a Small-Town Traffic Trap Became A Legal Black Hole.” Learn more about the story and find the transcript on makingcontactradio.org. Like this story? Support independent journalism, NewsMatch will double your donation up to $1,000! Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. FEATURING: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Archibald, Brookside residents Sandra Harris and Ashley, Leah Nelson, Alabama Appleseed’s research director, Birmingham Criminal and civil rights lawyer Bill Dawson, Adam Danneman, head of the Jefferson County Public Defender's Office and Joanna Weiss, Fines and Fees Justice Center’s co-director. 70 MILLION EPISODE CREDITS: Episode reporter Rhana Natour, editor Monica Lopez and Juleyka Lantigua, host Mitzi Miller, sound designer Erica Huang, photo editor Michelle Baker, staff writer and designer Kori Doran, lead fact checker Haylee Millikan, lead producer Pamela Kirkland, episode photographer Amarr Croskey, creator/executive producer Juleyka Lantigua MAKING CONTACT: Host Anita Johnson, producers Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang, executive director Jina Chung. MUSIC: Blue Dot Session - Curiously, Curiously Quiet Orchestra - My Friends

As we head into an ever warming world, some experts and politicians are embracing a possible solution to climate change called geoengineering. Theoretically geoengineering could slow down climate change, stop it, and maybe even remove carbon from the air. It sounds like the perfect answer in for a global political system that just can't stop burning fossil fuels even if it kills us all. However, it might not be the easy fix we're hoping for. We talk to scientists and activists about what geoengineering is and why it could actually be a dangerous way to tackle climate change. We also dive into the moral and ethical questions of testing geoengineering technology on indigenous lands. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Making Contact Team: Jeff Emtman Music Credits: Learn More: Indigenous Environmental NetworkArtic Ice ProjectInstitute for Policy Studies Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

How do you decide what kind of parent you want to be? Our friends at Pulso Podcast Maribel Quezada Smith and Liz Alarcón discuss ways they maintain their children’s cultural identity as Latinos while living in the U.S. They also touch on what they have changed from how their immigrant parents raised them. And, Liz sits down with Latinx parenting coach Leslie Priscilla to talk about her work using an antiracist, anticolonial and child-centered lens. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring https://www.lizalarcon.com/aboutmehttps://www.maribelqs.com/ Making Contact Staff Jeff Emtman Music composed by Julian Blackmore Learn More Pulso Podcast - https://projectpulso.org/podcast/ Latinx Parenting - https://latinxparenting.org/ Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

Dive into the history of Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California with us. It's one of the most iconic national parks in the region, known for rugged sweeping beaches and the famous tule elk. We'll recount the waves of colonization that violently upended the lives of the Coast Miwok peoples who lived there – and one Indigenous woman's struggle to preserve her family history. The story of Point Reyes is a story about how the forces of colonialism continue to shape the fate of public lands in the United States. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Theresa Harlan, (Kewa Pueblo/Jemez Pueblo), adopted daughter of Elizabeth Campigli Harlan (Coast Miwok), founder and executive director of The Alliance for Felix Cove Making Contact Staff: "Whose Point Reyes?: A Battle for the Future of Public Lands" Parts 1 and 2 Credits: First aired on KPFA Music Credits: Learn More: Making Contact homepage: www.radioproject.org Listen to Parts 1 and 2 of "Whose Point Reyes: A Battle for the Future of Public Lands" on KPFA: https://kpfa.org/featured-episode/whose-point-reyes Alliance for Felix Cove: www.alliance4felixcove.org Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin: www.coastmiwokofmarin.org

In this special encore edition of Making Contact we present “Saltwater Soundwalk”: Indigenous Audio Tour of the Seattle Coast. Produced by Jenny Asarnow and Rachel Lam, this rhythmic, watery audio experience, streams of stories that ebb and flow, intermixing English with Coast Salish languages. Indigenous Coast Salish peoples continue to steward this land and preserve its language, despite settler colonialism, industrialization and gentrification. Part story, part sound collage, this piece is scored entirely with the sounds of the waters and animals who live in and around the Salish Sea. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Voices in order of appearance: Water at Don Armeni Boat Ramp Randi Purser Smith (Suquamish) Archie Cantrell (Puyallup) Southern Resident Orcas Plainfin Midshipman Fish Ken Workman (Duwamish) Michelle Myles (Tulalip) LaDean Johnson (Skokomish) Owen Oliver (Quinault/Isleta Pueblo) RYAN! Feddersen (Colville) Warren King George (Muckleshoot) Lydia Sigo (Suquamish) Water at Gas Works Park, Lake Union Water at Kayak Point Regional County Park Birds and Water at Puyallup River Eric Autry Birds and Water at Erlands Point Water in Pacific Ocean, La Push Birds and water at Potlatch State Park, Hood Canal Jeanne Hyde Joseph Sisnero Produced by: Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow Special Thanks: Commissioned with SPU 1% for Art Funds. Administered by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. City of Seattle, Bruce Harrell, Mayor. This episode of Making Contact was supported in part by a Moral Courage grant from the Satterberg Foundation. Credits: Local artists and producers, Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow produced this work as part of FLOW: Art Along the Ship Canal, a commission from Seattle Public Utilities in partnership with the Office of Arts & Culture. Making Contact Staff: Jina Chung, Executive Director; Interim Senior Producer, Jessica Partnow. Producers: Anita Johnson; Amy Gastelum; Lucy Kang; and Salima Hamirani. Web Updates: Sabine Blazin. Music: Last Kiss - Magnus Moone Audiobinger - Enchanted Forest Learn More: Seattle Times - https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/how-you-can-explore-seattles-waterways-with-saltwater-soundwalk/ Art Beat Blog - https://artbeat.seattle.gov/2022/08/25/new-podcast-saltwater-soundwalk-highlights-the-people-land-and-water-of-seattle/ Saltwater Soundwalk - https://saltwater-soundwalk.simplecast.com/ Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.

In this episode, we revisit two stories we've covered in the past concerning indigenous rights. In the first half, Rebecca Nagle joins us to discuss the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act and why the legitimacy of the law is so important to tribal sovereignty. We also talk about the right's legal strategy in the last few decades and what that means for decisions at the Supreme Court. In the second half we hear from Chairman of the Amah Mutsun tribal band, Valentin Lopez, about the most recent developments in their fight to protect the sacred site Juristac. The site was slated to be developed into a mine, but the tribe has continued to gain support from environmental organizations and activists. We talk about next steps and how you can get involved. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Making Contact Team: Jeff Emtman Learn More: Rebecca Nagle's This Land podcast Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Amah Mutsun Land Trust The Response podcast Making Contact piece on ICWA Making Contact piece on Juristac

George Floyd’s murder sparked increased attention toward Black liberation and by extension, racial discrimination generally. Institutions raced to check boxes for workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, but it’s hard to know whether real work has been done. In this episode, two thought leaders around race and belonging, Ruchika Tulshyan and Ijeoma Oluo, discuss the finer points of how to create equity in the workplace. This conversation takes place at Town Hall Seattle and center’s Tulshyan’s book Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Ruchika Tulshyan - Inclusion strategist, speaker and author of the bestseller Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. Ijeoma Oluo - Speaker and writer, author of the New York Times bestseller, So You Want to Talk About Race Making Contact Team: Host: Amy Gastelum Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow Engineer: Jeff Emtman Digital Marketing Manager: Taylor Rapalyea Music: Joyful Ride via Descript stock music Trap Future Base, Royalty Free Music, via Pixabay Learn More: Town Hall Seattle https://townhallseattle.org/event/ruchika-tulshyan-with-ijeoma-oluo/ Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262548496/inclusion-on-purpose/ Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.

In this bonus clip, Marian Naranjo (Kha Po Owingeh), founder and director of Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE), speaks about the impact and legacy of the nuclear industry and Los Alamos National Laboratory on the Tewa people. The clip is from the 2021 video RadioActive: Nuclear Boom with Petuuch Gilbert and Marian Naranjo, courtesy of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The film Oppenheimer has reignited public interest in the Manhattan Project, the WWII-era secret program to develop the atomic bomb. But the movie leaves out important parts of the story. On today's show, we hear about the impact of nuclear colonialism and the Manhattan Project on the people and places of New Mexico with Myrriah Gómez, author of Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos. And then we dig into how nuclear testing during the Cold War led to dangerous and lasting contamination in the Marshall Islands and San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Myrriah Gómez, associate professor in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico and author of Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos Making Contact Team: Jeff Emtman Music Credit: "Documentary Piano Ambient" by Bohdan Kuzmin via Pixabay The story from the second half of today’s episode was created and reported by Rebecca Bowe. It was originally commissioned and produced by the nonprofit news organization San Francisco Public Press as part of an upcoming audio and text series called “Exposed,” with editing by Michael Stoll; archival, audio and photographic research by Chris Roberts and Stacey Carter; engineering and sound design by Mel Baker; fact-checking by Ambika Kandasamy and support from the Fund for Environmental Journalism and the California Endowment. Today’s excerpted version, from the “Sandblasted at the Shipyard” audio series, had additional audio engineering and sound design by Jacob Nasim, with support from the Breathe Network for Racial, Environmental and Climate Justice. Learn More: Making Contact homepageNuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on NuevomexicanosSan Francisco Public Press

In some parts of the world, traditional herbal remedies are the norm. When we think of natural remedies we tend to think of older generations living in remote areas, in far away countries, with little access to modern healthcare. We rarely think about the ancient medicinal plants that might exist in our very own cities. On today's episode we look at plant and herb medicines through the lens of Michele Elizabeth. Lee the author of Working The Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African-American Healing. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Making Contact Staff Jeff Emtman Music Credits: Learn More: Working The Roots InstagramWorking The Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American HealingBrandi Mack LA Times: Black Herbalist Black Women Herbalists Black Healers NY Times: Some Lessons from HerbalistsMojo Workin'African American Slave MedicineSticks Stones Roots Bones

On today's show, we'll hear an encore of a show from our archives that first aired in April. We'll be looking at the environmental impact of the rail industry and hear from people in two communities currently impacted by rail-related contamination. In February, a Suffolk Northern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and residents are still recovering from the disaster over two months later. Residents like Jami Wallace and community organizations are fighting for relief. In Houston's Fifth Ward, residents have been living with the dire health effects of carcinogenic creosote used to treat railroad ties decades ago. Health officials have found cancer clusters in the neighborhood, where many have been devastated by the loss of friends, neighbors and loved ones. We'll hear a story from Living Downstream about the impacts to this close-knit community, where residents and organizers like Sandra Edwards continue to advocate for accountability and justice. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Jami Wallace, community organizer and East Palestine resident Sandra Edwards, community organizer, member of Impact Fifth Ward and Impact Justice, and Fifth Ward resident Making Contact Staff: Host: Lucy Kang Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow Engineer: Jeff Emtman Living Downstream Staff: Story: Generations in Houston's 5th Ward Contend With Contamination, Cancer Clusters Story producer: Laura Isensee Story editor: Steve Mencher Living Downstream founding producer: Steve Mencher President and CEO of Northern California Public Media: Darren LaShelle Story music: Minimal Documentary by penguinmusic via Pixabay Documentary by The Mountain via Pixabay Lobo Loco and Nine Inch Nails, under Creative Commons licenses Smithsonian Folkways Recordings for the use of music by the late Texas blues artist, Lightnin’ Hopkins Learn More: Making Contact Homepage: www.radioproject.org Unity Council for EP Train Derailment petition urging President Biden to issue a Major Disaster Declaration for the Norfolk Southern train derailment: https://only.one/act/east-palestine Impact Fifth Ward: https://www.facebook.com/cleanupthecreosote Texas Standard's story and interview with reporter Laura Isensee: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/houstonians-living-in-neighborhoods-with-high-rates-of-cancer-say-rail-yards-cleanup-plans-fall-short/ Spotify link to Living Downstream series, including the story heard on this episode: https://open.spotify.com/show/1tPKsb6vtQkuJjNrn5MEij Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.

This week on Making Contact, we bring you a story from our podcast partners, 70 Million titled Highway Robbery: How a Small-Town Traffic Trap Became A Legal Black Hole. About 20 minutes north of Birmingham, Alabama, on Interstate 22, is the working-class town of Brookside. Its almost 1300 residents make it about the size of a large high school. According to the 2020 census, Brookside's population is mostly White and 21% are Black. On paper, it's a lot like other small towns in this part of Alabama. That is, until 2022, when Brookside became infamous for, of all things, a traffic trap. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist - Sandra Harris - Town Hall Speaker 1 - Ashley - Leah Nelson, research director for the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice - Bill Dawson, a criminal, and civil rights lawyer from Birmingham - Adam Danneman, the head of the Public Defender's office in Jefferson County - Joanna Weiss 70 Million Staff: Episode Reporter: Rhana Natour Editor: Monica Lopez and Juleyka Lantigua Host: Mitzi Miller Sound Designer: Erica Huang Photo Editor: Michelle Baker Staff Writer and Designer: Kori Doran Lead Fact Checker: Haylee Millikan Lead Producer: Pamela Kirkland Episode Photographer: Amarr Croskey Creator/Executive Producer: Juleyka Lantigua Making Contact Staff: Hosts: Anita Johnson Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow Engineer: Jeff Emtman Learn More: 70 Million Sandra Harris - Grandmother accounts unjust arrest AL.com Brookside Police Chief Resigns Target Speed Traps Class Action Complaint

There’s an idea in Mexico that racism doesn’t exist, that all Mexicans are “mestizo” - a homogenous blend of Spanish and indigenous. But cultural worker José Antonio Aguilar says racism is lived by Black and brown Mexicans in many ways. He founded Racismo MX, an organization which seeks to dismantle racism, after coming to terms with his own racial reality as a “prieto” - a brown man. We also hear from anthropologist Ismael Rivera and Aztec expert Camilla Townsend as they unravel lies the Spanish colonizers told about ancient Aztecs that still feed racist tropes today. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: José Antonio Aguilar - Racismo MX, Founder and Director, Ismael Rivera - Anthropologist, Historian, Cultural Guide, Dr. Camilla Townsend, P.h.D. - Rutgers University, Professor Host: Amy Gastelum Freelance Producer: Anthony Wallace Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow Engineer: Jeff Emtman Learn More: Ismael Rivera Tours https://riveratrips.wordpress.com/ Racismo MX https://racismo.mx/ Camilla Townsend https://history.rutgers.edu/people/faculty/details/188-townsend-camilla

On today's show, we'll revisit the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic by looking at two alternative supply chains for masks during the fallout from the Trump administration's failure to prepare. We'll be speaking with the 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 of brokers looking to profit from the pandemic – to the tune of millions of dollars. We'll also hear from Mai-Linh Hong, co-editor and co-author of The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice, about a mutual aid organization that created a different supply chain for homemade masks based on community, care and connection over profit. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Making Contact Staff: Jeff Emtman Music Credit: Blue Dot Session - Order of Entrance Learn More: Making ContactDr. Mai-Linh HongJ. David McSwane Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice

In 2019, a well known romance writer began tweeting about other writers in her community and concerns about racism. It led to a huge reckoning within an organization called the Romance Writers of America, which is still unfolding. And although the online debate seemed to be isolated to a specific community of romance writers and their fans, it was really a microcosm of what's been happening all over the US. We learn all about romance novels and how newer writers are changing the norms of the genre, and giving it a political power it's never had before. And, we talk about what it means for organizations to change as they grapple with questions of race, including organizations such as ours, at Making Contact. This is an encore presentation of part two of a two-part series. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring: Making Contact Team: Jeff Emtman Music: Learn More: Constance Grady's Article for VoxThe Romance Writers of AmericaInternational Association for the Study of Popular RomanceMaking Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction: An EpistemologíaThe Equity ProjectSmart Bitches, Trashy BooksRecommended Reading list

In 2019 a well known romance writer began tweeting about other writers in her community and concerns about racism. It led to a huge reckoning within an organization called the Romance Writers of America, which is still unfolding. And although the online debate seemed to be isolated to a specific community of romance writers and their fans, it was really a microcosm of what's been happening all over the US. In this episode we learn all about romance novels and how newer writers are changing the norms of the genre, and giving it a political power it's never had before. And, we talk about what it means for organizations to change as they grapple with questions of race. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Featuring Making Contact Team Jeff Emtman Music: Learn More: Constance Grady's Article for VoxThe Romance Writers of AmericaInternational Association for the Study of Popular RomanceMaking Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction: An EpistemologíaRecommended Reading list Making Contact is a 29-minute weekly program committed to investigative journalism and in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On the web at www.radioproject.org.