This show takes a look at issues within the foster care system in the U.S. from the high rate of teen pregnancy to the alarming use of psychiatric medications in California’s foster care system.

Special thanks to the Bay Area News Group.

Featuring:

Host: Jasmin Lopez

Music:

More information:

The post Failing Our Youth: An Inadequate Foster Care System appeared first on KPFA.

Covering the movements and organizations fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Andrew Stelzer, George Lavender, Laura Flynn, and Jasmín López.

The post Making Contact – June 12, 2015 appeared first on KPFA.

We go back to the night in June 1969 at the New York City Stonewall Inn that sparked the LGBT rights movement. On today’s show we’ll hear about the day that galvanized a generation and the continued fight for LGBT civil rights. The first Pride parades took place in June 1970 marking the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Michael Schirker and David Isay bring us an oral history Remembering Stonewall: The Birth of a Movement. Editor at large of the Huffington Posts’ Gay Voices Michelangelo Signorile says while there have been a series of recent wins for the LGBT rights movement, bigotry remains a daily reality for many. At a  New America NYC forum Signorile spoke with June Thomas, Culture Critic and Editor of Outward, Slate’s LGBTQ Section about what he calls “victory blindness.” It’s a central theme in his new book, titled “It’s Not Over, Getting to Beyond Tolerance Defeating Homophobia and Winning True Equality.”

Special thanks to Pacifica Radio Archives for “Remembering Stonewall: The Birth of a Movement” produced by David Isay for Pacifica Radio http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org

Special thanks to New America NYC for It’s Not Over: Winning True Equality https://www.newamerica.org/nyc/its-not-over-2/

Featuring: President Barack Obama, Geane Harwood, Bruce Merrow, Sylvia Rivera, Deputy Inspector Seymor Pine, Red Mahoney; Joan Nestle, founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archive; Randy Wicker; Jim Fouratt, yippie leader and helped found the Gay Liberation Front; Howard Smith, reporter for the Village Voice; Martin Boyce aka Miss Martin, Rudy; Mama Jean; Michelangelo Signorile host of the Michelangelo Signorile Sirius XM, editor at large of the Huffington Posts’ Gay Voices, and author of It’s Not Over, Getting Beyond Tolerance Defeating Homphobia and Winning True Equality; and June Thomas, Culture Critic and Editor of Outward, Slate’s LGBTQ section.

More information:

Remembering Stonewall: a radio documentary on the birth of a movement / narrated by Michael Schirker and produced by David Isay.

Soundportraits: Remembering Stonewall full transcripts

Brain Pickings: After Stonewall: The First-Ever Pride Parades in Vintage Photos

Columbia: Stonewall and Beyond: Lesbian and Gay Culture

The Pacifica Radio/UC Berkeley Social Activism Sound Recording Project: Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transsexual History

New America NYC: It’s Not Over: Winning True Equality

Huffington Post, Gay Voices: Michelangelo Signorile On ‘It’s Not Over’ And The Future Of The LGBT Movement

Think Progress: 9 States With Anti-Gay Laws That Aren’t That Different From Russia’s

Time: How Gay Rights Won in Indiana

The Leadership Conference: LGBT Civil Rights

HuffPost, Gay Voices: As the Wedge Turns: Is a Federal LGBT Civil Rights Act Actually Feasible in the Near Future?

The post Beyond Stonewall: The Push for LGBT Civil Rights appeared first on KPFA.

We bring you to Alaska’s Tongass Forest, where the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act turned tribes into corporations and sparked a lengthy logging frenzy. In this radio adaptation of the documentary film, Walking in Two Worlds, we meet a Tlingit brother and sister, who are trying to heal both the forest and their native community. Special thanks to Specialty Studios.

Featuring:

Wanda Culp & Bob Loescher, Tlinget brother & Sister; Peter Coyote, narrator; Mike Jackson, Tlingit tribal historian;Ernestine Hanlon-Abel, Weaver & Activist; Byron Mallott, Former Seaalaska CEO; Israel Shotridge, Tlingit carver; Tom Thorton, anthropologist; Lydia George, Tlingit Clan Mother; Joe Sebastian, Alaska Fisherman & guide; Deny Bschor, former US Forest Service Regional Forester; John Rowan, Tlingit carver, Richard Nixon, President of the United States;Rick Harris, Former Seaalaska Executive VP; Rosita Worl, Seaalaska Board member.

More information:

walkingin2worlds.com

Sealaska Corporation

Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska

Specialty Studios

Bo Boudart Productions

Tongass National Forest

The post Making Contact – Walking in Two Worlds – May 29, 2015 appeared first on KPFA.

Imprisonment, oppressive laws, and harassment of journalists – these are just a few means of censorship around the world. The use of these repressive tactics threaten freedom of expression and the public’s right to information. On this edition, we hear from journalists in Ecuador and Mexico, and learn about the most censored countries from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Featuring:

More information:

Videos:

The post States of Censorship: Journalism Under Attack appeared first on KPFA.

Making Contact partnered with the 2014 National Poetry Slam to produce this special open mic highlighting the power of thoughtful, truth telling, community focused poetry.

Featuring:

More information:

The post The Power of Poetry ENCORE appeared first on KPFA.

Five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, not everyone is “back to normal”. On this edition, we follow BP’s trail from the bayous of Louisiana to the fine art galleries of London.

Featuring:

Host: Andrew Stelzer

More information:

The post BP Five Years Later: Deepwater Horizon and the Cost of Oil appeared first on KPFA.

Climate change is here affecting weather conditions and sea levels. In India it’s also having a more surprising influence on the country’s tigers. On this edition of Making Contact, reporter Daniel Grossman takes us to India in Heat of the Moment: Sea Level Rise. Heat of the Moment was originally produced for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and WBUR.

Featuring:

Host: Jasmin Lopez

The post Heat of the Moment: Sea Level Rise appeared first on KPFA.

Officially opening in 1914, the Panama Canal connected the Atlantic and Pacific creating a short-cut for ships. It was the biggest infrastructure project of its time. But originally the United States wanted to build the canal in Nicaragua. The plans shifted largely after French engineer Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla convinced U.S. lawmakers otherwise. Well now the Nicaragua canal plans are back on the table. Nicaragua plans to build a $50 billion canal to connect the Caribbean and Pacific. Supporters argue it will create more than 250,000 jobs. But small farmers and environmentalists say the project will destroy Lake Nicaragua. On this edition, we ll take a look at the economic, political and environmental controversies surrounding the Nicaragua canal. Reporter Reese Erlich has the story.

Featuring: 

Maria Mercelin, fisherman s wife; Michael Healey, head of an agribusiness association; Monica Lopez, anti-canal activist and lawyer; Lionel Teller, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the EU; Rosibel Lope, owner of snack bar on Ometepe Island; Jairo Carrilon, anti-canal coalition leader; David Quintana, spokesperson for Foundation for Nicaraguan Sustainable Development; Benjamin Lanzas, member of the canal s governing body; Juana Juarez, resident of Ometepe Island; Osvaldo Navas, Ometepe Island leader; and Antonio Granados, land owner whose property lies directly along the canal route.

Host: Laura Flynn

Producers: Andrew Stelzer, Laura Flynn, George Lavender, Jasmin Lopez

Contributing Producers: Reese Erlich

Executive Director: Lisa Rudman

Web Editor: Kwan Booth

More information:

Foreign correspondent Reese Erlich is author of five books, most recently, “Inside Syria: the Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect,” foreword by Noam Chomsky.

Twitter: @ReeseErlich

Facebook: Reese Erlich Foreign Correspondent

Home page:  www.reeseerlich.com

MUSIC:

“Simon Mathewson – Spectacled Cobra” (by Simon Mathewson)

“Wash Out” (by Broke For Free)

The post The Controversial Nicaragua Canal appeared first on KPFA.

It’s the second most-traded commodity in the world after oil but how much do you think about your cup of coffee? From coffee farmers in Colombia to the trash produced by your single-cup coffee machine, Making Contact and Green Grid Radio team up to count the costs of your morning cup o’joe.

Featuring:

Host: George Lavender and Mallory Smith

More information:

 Hijacked Organic, Limited Local, Faulty Fair Trade

Groundwork Coffee

Roundup on the Fair Trade USA/FLO Split

FWP’s Statement on Fair Trade USA s Resignation from Fairtrade International (FLO)

 A Schism Over Fair Trade

A Brewing Problem

Your Coffee Pods Dirty Secret

Kill the K-Cup

MUSIC:

The post Coffee: Trouble Brewing? appeared first on KPFA.