KPFA - Making Contact

We'll hear part one of a documentary called Heavy Weather, produced by freelancer Barbara Bernstein.  She'll explore the connections between the increase in extreme weather and our changing climate and landscapes. 

‘Heavy Weather' was written, narrated and produced by Barbara Bernstein and is a production of the Media Project and Feather & Fin Productions.  Barbara Bernstein and her program, ‘Heavy Weather' were provided funding by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Oregon Council for the Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ralph Smith Foundation

Featuring:

Philip Mote, Oregon state climatologist, with Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at OSU; Mark Cook, Lewis County's former county engineer and public works director in Washington State & runs Cook Engineering, Chehalis, WA; Kathleen Sayce, Shorebank Pacific ecologist and science officer Ilwaco, WA; Emil Pierson, City of Centralia community development director; Eric De Place, Sightline Institute senior researcher, Seattle, WA; Mark Trenholm, Wild Salmon Center in Portland; Mark Labhart, Tillamook County Commissioner, OR; Mark Gervasi, Tillamook city manager, OR; Lisa Phipps, Tillamook Estuaries Partnership director; Mike Burrough, Tillamook RV Repair and Sales owner; Dean Marriott, Portland's Environmental Services director.

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The business model of journalism is collapsing. Tens of thousands of journalists have lost their jobs, newspapers are folding, and major dailies are in bankruptcy. Sources blame the rise of the internet and the economic recession. But some argue the industry’s crisis was accelerated by a decades-old trend – corporate ownership and the rise of the media conglomerate. On this edition, we hear a discussion about government subsidies and new funding models to save the Fourth Estate.

Featuring:

Robert McChesney, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign communications professor and co-author of “The Death and Life of American Journalism”; John Nichols, Washington Correspondent, The Nation Magazine; Laura Flanders,  GRIT TV Host;  David Carr, The New York Times Columnist; Pamela Newkirk, NYU Journalism professor.

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The Internet. It’s the crossroads of virtually everything we do these days. Whether you’re looking for a job, searching for directions, staying in touch with family or making a long-distance call––It’s all happening on the screen in front of you. But what if access to a world of information, activities, ideas and opportunities was suddenly cut off?  It could happen.  Right now, telecommunications companies are pursuing a restrictive pay-for-play business model that many say will only further the digital divide, discriminating between those who have Internet access and those who do not.

On this edition, excerpts from ‘Race, Immigration and the Fight for an Open Internet’… a panel discussion presented by the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism and New American Media.  The topic? Net neutrality. What is it? Who will it impact most? And why should we care?
The ‘Race, Immigration and the Fight for an Open Internet’ panel discussion was sponsored by G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, New America Media, Center for Media Justice, Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Featuring:
Malkia Cyril, Center for Media Justice Executive Director & Founder; James Rucker, ColorOfChange.org Co-founder & Executive Director; Eloise Rose-Lee, Media Alliance Broadband Access Project Director; Eric Arnold, hip-hop journalist; Sandip Roy, New America Media editor and KALW radio host.

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The climate talks at Copenhagen closed in 2009 with no binding agreements or timetables for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Only pledges were made to avoid more than a two degree Celsius temperature increase and avoid dangerous climate change. 

On this edition, we hear from climate justice activists who went to Copenhagen. They say we need a system change, not climate change.

Featuring:
Vandana Shiva, ecology activist, author & Research Foundation of Science, Technology, and Natural Resources Director; President Mohammed Nasheed, Republic of Maldives; Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network Executive Director; Victor Minotti, International Forum on Globalization Director; Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan, Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project.

Special thanks to KPFA radio producer, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, who recorded some of this audio at the climate talks at Copenhagen in 2009.

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It’s a time of economic transition, and systems that may have seemed stable over the past few decades are proving to be far from it.  But how did we get here?  And how can we learn from the past, to build a more fair and just system in the future?  While many politicians and pundits claim that no one saw the current economic collapse coming; in fact, we had plenty of warning, depending on who we listened to.  This week, we hear from 3 people who’ve been sounding the alarm about capitalism’s house of cards for years, and in some cases, decades.

Featuring:
Steve Williams, POWER: People Organized to Win Employment Rights co-director and co-founder; Rick Wolff, University of Massachusetts at Amherst Economics Professor and author; Stanley Aronowitz, City University of NY Graduate Center Sociology & Urban Education Professor and author.

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Aftershocks continue to rock the island nation of Haiti, one-million people are homeless and more than 150,000 are confirmed dead. Mass burials and cremations in the streets have now replaced search and rescue efforts.

On this edition, we take a look at the roots of the devastation of Haiti’s capital – Its history with the US, the militarization of American relief efforts and the economic policies that contributed to its people’s plight.

Featuring:

Daniel Brevil, Haitian-born master drummer and San Francisco Bay-Area resident; Bill Quigley, Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights; Gabe Gonzalez, campaign director, Center for Community Change in Washington, DC; Pat Robertson, televangelist; Pierre Labossierre, Haiti Action Committee; Brian Concannon, Director, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti; Colette Eloi, San Francisco bay-area based folkloric Haitian dance teacher; Guy de Chalus student of traditional Haitian drumming.

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