KPFA - Making Contact

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Making Contact – October 2, 2026 appeared first on KPFA.

A study published in May in the journal Nature Sustainability reports that the shoreline could eventually sit some 30 miles north of New Orleans. The finding does not come from a model. The authors dated a buried ridge north of the city and identified it as a shoreline from the last interglacial period, the last time global temperatures were about where they are now.

Three quarters of Louisiana’s remaining coastal wetlands are projected to be gone or going by around 2070. Two river diversion projects meant to rebuild that land broke ground and were canceled.

This week we ask what preparing actually looks like, and who gets to do it. Our guests describe a slow, generational shift inland rather than a sudden evacuation, and they push back on the idea that the people who stay are refusing to face facts. Insurance pricing, not scientific consensus, is how most people first learn what their home is worth in a warming Gulf. And in one researcher’s surveys, most residents who say they would relocate if flooding worsened also say they want to stay in the same parish.

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Making Contact – Making Contact – Making Contact: Is Southeast Louisiana Doomed? [Encore] appeared first on KPFA.

A study published in May in the journal Nature Sustainability reports that the shoreline could eventually sit some 30 miles north of New Orleans. The finding does not come from a model. The authors dated a buried ridge north of the city and identified it as a shoreline from the last interglacial period, the last time global temperatures were about where they are now.

Three quarters of Louisiana’s remaining coastal wetlands are projected to be gone or going by around 2070. Two river diversion projects meant to rebuild that land broke ground and were canceled.

This week we ask what preparing actually looks like, and who gets to do it. Our guests describe a slow, generational shift inland rather than a sudden evacuation, and they push back on the idea that the people who stay are refusing to face facts. Insurance pricing, not scientific consensus, is how most people first learn what their home is worth in a warming Gulf. And in one researcher’s surveys, most residents who say they would relocate if flooding worsened also say they want to stay in the same parish.

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Making Contact – Making Contact: Is Southeast Louisiana Doomed? appeared first on KPFA.

How do you decide what kind of parent you want to be? Liz Rebecca Alarcn and Maribel Quezada Smith of the Pulso Podcast, now In Confianza with Pulso, talk about raising their kids as Latinas in the US: the language, the food, the village, the both-last-names. They also talk about what they are not passing on, from machismo to la chancla. In the second half, Liz sits down with Latinx parenting coach Leslie Priscilla, whose practice is rooted in children’s rights and decolonization. Priscilla traces punishment and fear in Latino families back five hundred years, and argues that refusing to parent that way is a political act. This episode originally aired in October 2023.

Featuring:

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Making Contact – Modern Parenting…The Latino Way (Encore) appeared first on KPFA.

This week we’re discussing private ownership of immigration detention facilities. The same companies that run private, for-profit prisons are holding detainees for ICE. Our guests consider how a profit motive influences the treatment of people being held, share what they know about the conditions inside, and discuss the ways their communities are coming together to fight for detainees’ rights.

Recorded in part at an ICE vigil in downtown Los Angeles, August 2026.

This episode includes discussion of detention conditions, self-harm and suicide.

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Making Contact – Cruelty for Profit appeared first on KPFA.

Veterans leave the military having earned health care, education benefits, and job training. What almost nobody tells them is that none of it is automatic. You have to show up with your DD-214 and enroll yourself, and if you don’t, no one follows up.

On this episode, six veterans across four decades and four branches of service describe the same gap. A Marine who got out in 1989 and didn’t learn what the VA was until 2019. An Army mechanic who called 211 out of desperation and found housing. A combat veteran who lost her home during COVID and was told she earned too much to qualify for help. Recorded at the U.S.VETS facility in Inglewood, California, with interviews from the Center on Conscience and War and 50501 Veterans.

We requested an interview with the Department of Defense and did not receive a response.

This episode includes discussion of suicide, sexual assault, and addiction.

Featuring:

Archival audio:

Music:

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Making Contact – Nobody Told Them: Veterans and the Broken Handoff appeared first on KPFA.

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Making Contact – August 14, 2026 appeared first on KPFA.

We sit down with Kev Choice, a classically trained pianist, rapper, composer, and educator, who has reshaped the Bay Area music scene. Raised in Oakland with San Francisco roots, Kev blends hip-hop, jazz, soul, and classical music into a unique sound. His latest EP, All My Love, explores themes of love, vulnerability, and human connection, with soulful melodies and reflective lyrics capturing the complexities of relationships. This episode first aired in November 2024.

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Kev Choice: Love, Growth, and the Power of Music (Encore) appeared first on KPFA.

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. This episode first aired in 2023.

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post Making Contact:The Promise and Peril of Geoengineering (Encore) appeared first on KPFA.

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.

Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2

The post The Coast Miwok Peoples, Colonization, and the Preservation of Indigenous History (Encore) appeared first on KPFA.