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Making Contact

Making Contact

Frequencies of Change Media

“Making Contact” digs into the story beneath the story—contextualizing the narratives that shape our culture. Produced by Frequencies of Change Media (FoC Media), the award-winning radio show and podcast examines the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground, building a more just world through narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the environment, labor, economics, health, governance, and arts and culture.
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Top 10 Making Contact Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Making Contact episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Making Contact for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Making Contact episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Making Contact - The Origins of Zionism
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04/03/24 • 29 min

For the last 6 months, the world has been witness to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Outsized, and unprecedented attacks on the people of Gaza, and support from western countries for these Israeli attacks have led to a situation where Gaza is being referred to as the world’s largest open-air prison.

In this episode with Gaza-based reporter Rami Almeghari, we talk to Rashid Khalidi about his book "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine" in order to learn more about the very early history of the zionist movement in Palestine and his argument that it was, from the start, a settler-colonial endeavor.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Rami Almeghari, a Palestinian reporter from Gaza, and Rashid Khalidi, an historian and Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani with reporting by Rami Almeghari. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes music from Komiku, “Blue;” Doctor Turtle, “Leap Second;” Chris Zabriskie, “Take Off and Shoot a Zero;” DAM, “Resale in Zenzana;” رسالة من زنزانة - دام, “A Letter From a Prison Cell;” and Montplaisir, “Ridiculous.”

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Making Contact - Karinda Dobbins: Black and Blue
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08/14/24 • 30 min

On this week's episode, we speak with Bay Area based comedian Karinda Dobbins about the release of her debut comedy album, Black & Blue. In Black & Blue, Karinda shares personal stories, finding humor in the most ordinary moments of her daily life, including her girlfriend’s arbitrary policy on household pests, the changes hipsters have brought to Oakland, and a Black woman’s unique packing list for hiking.

Featuring: Karinda Dobbins, standup comedian, writer, and actor

Episode Credits:

  • Host: Anita Johnson
  • Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
  • Executive Director: Jina Chung
  • Engineer: Jeff Emtman
  • Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong
  • Music Credits: Dee Yan-Key "Hold on"; Audiobinger "The Garden State"

Learn More:

  • Karinda Dobbins - https://karindadobbins.com/
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In the late 1990s, psychologist Dr. Joseph Gone, a professor and member of the Aaniiih Gros Ventre tribe, returned home during his doctoral training to the Fort Belknap Reservation in north central Montana. There, he set aside eurocentric concepts of psychology he was learning in school and instead asked tribal members how mental illness is addressed using traditional Indigenous practices. What he learned changed the trajectory of his career. Listen to find out how he helped bring precolonial cultural and spiritual practices into substance use disorder treatment in contemporary Indigenous settings.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

Making Contact digs into the story beneath the story—contextualizing the narratives that shape our culture. 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 features Dr. Joseph Gone, psychologist and interdisciplinary social scientist at Harvard University and member of the Aaniiih-Gros Ventre tribal Nation of Montana.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC:

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Making Contact - The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation
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06/12/24 • 29 min

Caste—one of the oldest systems of exclusion in the world—is thriving. Despite the ban on Untouchability 70 years ago, caste impacts 1.9 billion people in the world. Every 15 minutes, a crime is perpetrated against a Dalit person. The average age of death for Dalit women is just 39. And the wreckages of caste are replicated here in the U.S., too—erupting online with rape and death threats, showing up at work, and forcing countless Dalits to live in fear of being outed.

Dalit American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan puts forth a call to awaken and act, not just for readers in South Asia, but all around the world. She ties Dalit oppression to fights for liberation among Black, Indigenous, Latinx, femme, and Queer communities, examining caste from a feminist, abolitionist, and Dalit Buddhist perspective--and laying bare the grief, trauma, rage, and stolen futures enacted by Brahminical social structures on the caste-oppressed. Incisive and urgent, “The Trauma of Caste” is an activating beacon of healing and liberation, written by one of the world’s most needed voices in the fight to end caste apartheid.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Thenmozhi Soundararajan, the author of “The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition” and a Dalit American artist, organizer, technologist, and theorist. Currently, Thenmozhi is the Executive Director of Equality Labs.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes music from Blue Dot Sessions, including “3rd Chair" and "Paving Stones."

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“There was not a moment that I came into the workplace and thought that I would belong or be treated properly or equally.” Ruchika Tulshyan, a workplace inclusion expert, paraphrases an interview with Ijeoma Oluo, a thought leader on race in America, for Tulshyan’s book, Inclusion on Purpose.

In the conversation featured in this episode, these two women talk about Ruchika’s misassumptions about race and gender in the workplace in her first book, and the intersection of race and gender as it differently and more severely impacts women of color. They discuss the immigrant experience, the subtle and overt ways immigrants and non-Black people of color are encouraged to hold up white supremacy and propagate anti-Blackness, and how we work to dismantle these and build workplaces where women of color feel safe, respected, and supported.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Ruchika Tulshyan, inclusion strategist, speaker and author of the bestseller Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work and Ijeoma Oluo, speaker and writer, author of the New York Times bestseller, So You Want to Talk About Race.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes Joyful Ride via Descript stock music and Trap Future Base, Royalty Free Music.

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Making Contact - East Orosi's Long Struggle for Clean Drinking Water
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07/24/24 • 29 min

East Orosi hasn't had safe drinking water in over 20 years. The water is full of nitrates, runoff from industrial agriculture, which is harmful to human health. The community has taken action to find a solution, from lobbying at the state capital to working with neighboring towns.

And they may finally have one. New California laws, passed in the last five years, have opened up funding to build water infrastructure in small towns like East Orosi. But even as laws and funding develop, implementation has been challenging.

We visit East Orosi and talk to Berta Diaz Ochoa about what it's like living without clean drinking water and the solutions on the horizon. This is part one of a two part series.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

Making Contact digs into the story beneath the story—contextualizing the narratives that shape our culture. 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 features Susana De Anda -Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Community Water Center; Berta Diaz Ochoa -East Orosi community member and organizer; Cristobal Chavez - member of Community Water Center; Janaki Anagha - Director of Advocacy, Community Water Center; Jessi Synder - Director of Community Development, Self Help Enterprises; Andrew Altevogt, Assistant Deputy Director of the State Water Resources Control Board.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes “Blue” by Komiku; Monet's Water Lilies; Dark Rainy Day; Water Drops, Sad Slow Piano Background; Mother Womb piano; Guracha Sonidera Cumbia Loops De Bateria Series II

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Today we share excerpts from “She's Beautiful When She's Angry,” a documentary filled with stories that still resonate today as women face new challenges around reproductive rights and sexual violence.

The documentary tells the stories of the activists of the Women’s Liberation Movement that gained traction in the late 1960s and led to social and policy changes that set women on a path towards equality and reproductive justice. It also addresses the intersections of race and gender and the experiences of the Black women who were integral to this movement.

The film is about activists, those who inspire, organize, and revolutionize the world by changing the standards and broadening what we think is possible.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Alta, Chude Pamela Allen, Judith Arcana, Nona Willis Aronowitz, Fran Beal, Heather Booth, Rita Mae Brown, Susan Brownmiller, Linda Burnham, Jacqui Ceballos, Mary Jean Collins, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Muriel Fox, Jo Freeman, Carol Giardina, Susan Griffin, Karla Jay, Kate Millett, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Denise Oliver-Velez, OBOS, Trina Robbins, Ruth Rosen, Vivian Rothstein, Marlene Sanders, Alix Kates Shulman, Ellen Shumsky, Marilyn Webb, Virginia Whitehill, Ellen Willis, Alice Wolfson.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

DOCUMENTARY CREDITS:

  • Director: Mary Dore
  • Producers: Mary Dore & Nancy Kennedy, Geralyn Dreyfous
  • Executive Producers: Pamela Tanner Boll and Elizabeth Driehaus
  • Films Composer: Mark degli Antoni
  • Melancholy Guitar by Scott Anderson, courtesy of For The Bible Tells Me So Ltd
  • Wake up- Instrumental by Arian Saleh. Courtesy of Audio Socket

MUSIC: This episode includes Grand Caravan by Blue Dot Session & Build a View by Corey Gray.

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Dive into the history of Point Reyes National Seashore, one of the most iconic parks in northern California, with us. 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, and the campaigns waged to fight back and protect Indigenous land.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.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.

EPISODE FEATURES: 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: This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang, reported and produced by Sam Anderson, and was first aired on KPFA. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes music from "Chill Ambient" by Yrii Semchyshyn (Coma-Media) and "Cinematic Documentary" by Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music).

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Making Contact - "We need affordable housing now!"
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08/21/24 • 30 min

We need affordable housing now! On today's episode, we look more closely at two stories that underscore the importance of affordable housing. First, we'll examine what the recent Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson means for unhoused people who are living on the streets and how historical disinvestment in affordable and public housing has created our current homelessness wave. Then, we'll hear about the fight to legalize and preserve one important type of affordable housing units in New York City – basement apartments – and how the escalating impacts of climate change are making that campaign more urgent than ever.

Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project Annetta Seecharran, executive director of Chhaya Community Development Corporation

Making Contact Staff: Episode Host: Lucy Kang Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang Executive Director: Jina Chung Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong Engineer: Jeff Emtman Music credit: Pending (Relaxing Acoustic Ballad Nylon Guitar) by William_King via Pixabay Credits for "Invisible Homeless" by the Queens Memory Podcast Episode produced by Stella Gu in conjunction with Melody Cao, Anna Williams, and Natalie Milbrodt Podcast hosted by J. Faye Yuan Mixing and editing by Cory Choy Music composed by Elias Ravin Voiceover work by Xia Liangjie and Chen Xiaojun

Learn More:

Making Contact homepage: www.focmedia.org Western Regional Advocacy Project: https://wraphome.org/ Queens Memory Podcast: www.queensmemory.org Chhaya CDC: BASE Campaign: https://chhayacdc.org/campaigns/base-campaign/

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Making Contact - Giving Bayard Rustin His Flowers (Encore)
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02/14/24 • 29 min

Today, we continue celebrating Black history and heritage with a special encore episode honoring an often forgotten civil rights leader. We take a look at the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, a central figure in and the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was a trusted advisor to labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rustin’s methodology for challenging racial inequality and imperialism centered on his intersectional perspective on race, class, gender, and sexuality. This episode combines film excerpts, insightful interviews and speeches from this important figure of the civil rights movement who envisioned and organized for the best future.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org. Special Thank You to Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer the producers/directors of Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin and Sam Pollard, the executive director. And to the Pacifica Radio Archives for use of the Bayard Rustin archival materials. 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 features Bayard Rustin, the architect of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; Ashon Crawley, University of Virginia Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African-American and African Studies; Nancy Kates, filmmaker and producer of Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin; Bill Sutherland, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Reverend A.J. Muste, pacifist and mentor of Rustin; George Houser, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Louis John, nephew of Bayard Rustin; Devi Prasad, pacifist.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. MUSIC: This episode includes "Medieval Tension" by Cory Gray; "This Way Joyous" by Ketsa; "Rally," "Rayling," and "3rd Chair" by Blue Dot Sessions; "Hold On" and "Go Down Moses" by Dee Yan-Key; and "Our Young Guts" by Andy G. Cohen.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Making Contact have?

Making Contact currently has 811 episodes available.

What topics does Making Contact cover?

The podcast is about News, Society & Culture, Podcasts and Politics.

What is the most popular episode on Making Contact?

The episode title 'Uncovering the History of the Massacre of Black Wall Street (Encore)' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Making Contact?

The average episode length on Making Contact is 29 minutes.

How often are episodes of Making Contact released?

Episodes of Making Contact are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Making Contact?

The first episode of Making Contact was released on May 6, 2009.

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