Making Contact

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 fun

Composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Pinderhughes tells us about The Healing Project. The Healing Project, a fundamentally abolitionist project, explores the structures of systemic racism and the prison industrial complex. This story first aired February 2023. Pinderhughes and The Healing Project takes action towards abolition with forms such as musical songs, films, an exhibitio

The vast majority of care recipients are exclusively receiving unpaid care from a family member, friend, or neighbor. The rest receive a combination of family care and paid assistance, or exclusively paid formal care. Whether you’re a paid home care provider, or rely on personal assistance to meet your daily needs, or a family member caring for a loved one, the nature of the work

Inflammatory diseases are on the rise around the world, and when left unaddressed can turn chronic. Now, doctors are finally starting to pay more attention. But why & when does a beneficial part of our immune system turn against us? Raj Patel & Rupa Marya think it has a lot to do with the world we live in. They talk about climate change, ecological devastation, & the collapse of ou

Kids are coming out as LGBTQ+ younger than ever before, making their identities more politicized than ever before. Hateful political rhetoric and discriminatory laws are likely contributing to the poor mental health documented among LGBTQ+ kids. In an effort to combat these struggles, researchers are studying what works to keep kids healthy, happy, and alive. In this episode, we di

In 2023, Kirin Clawson’s endocrinologist placed a puberty-blocking implant in her arm, a medical intervention that is associated with improved mental health for many trans kids with gender dysphoria. In February, Indiana joined several other conservative states banning this treatment for minors. In the first of a 2-part series, we hear from the Clawsons how the ban has impacted t

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

As graduation approached this year, students around the country began protests after calls for divestment from Israel were initially ignored by university leadership. The campus encampments were met with physical violence and the mainstream press dismissed the students' demands as naive and immature. But, it turns out that there's a lot we should be asking about college endowments.

What are borders, and why do we have them? And how is violent border enforcement at the US-Mexico border connected to Israel's brutal assault on Gaza? And what happens when borders cross living land and communities? We'll dig into these questions in this week's episode with the help of Heba Gowayed, sociology professor at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center. And then we'll hear

This week on Making Contact we take a look at one of the most prolific Mexican artists, Frida Kahlo, and how she inspired the Latina artist collective, “The Phoenix Fridas.” “In Confianza, with Pulso” producer Anthony Wallace brings us the story of Thania Betancourt Alcazar. A member of “The Phoenix Fridas,” Alcazar discovered a lifeline in the art of Frida Kahlo and he