To serve in the U.S. military as a non-citizen, you have to be a lawful permanent resident, and many are told that service is a path to citizenship. For thousands, it became a path out of the country instead. Since a 1996 immigration law took away judges' ability to weigh a person's service against a conviction, veterans have been deported under every administration, Democratic and Republican alike. This week, three veterans tell their stories, and two immigration lawyers explain the machinery behind them: what "aggravated felony" actually covers, how a path home opened under the Biden administration, and why it has now closed.

Featuring: James Lynwood Smith II, Marine Corps veteran and documentarian, cofounder and director of Black Deported Veterans of America; David Bariu, Army veteran, deported to Kenya, now a naturalized U.S. citizen; Hector Barajas, Army veteran and founder of the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana; Michael J. Wishnie, William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law at Yale Law School and director of the Veterans Legal Services Clinic; Amanda Shuft, Director of Legal Services at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center

Archival audio: Excerpts from the film American Exile, including Rep. Seth Moulton; excerpts from the documentary Bring Them Home (Excuse My Accent); U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recruitment spot

Credits:

* Host: Stephanie Sharp * Producers: Stephanie Sharp, Dan Pavlish * Executive Producer and Engineer: Ace Estwick * With excerpts from the film American Exile

Music:

* Pixabay

Learn More:

* https://lsa.umich.edu/ftvm/people/faculty/valadez/american-exile-.html * https://www.excusemyaccent.com/aboutbringthemhome * https://www.bdva.us/ * https://www.facebook.com/DeportedVeteransSupportHousePage/ * https://law.yale.edu/clinics/vlsc * https://www.immdef.org/deported-veterans

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.

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.

Featuring: Torbjörn Törnqvist, professor of geology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University; Brianna Castro, assistant professor of urban sustainability, Yale University; Abbey Hotard, assistant professor, School of Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of South Alabama; Robert Eugene Turner, professor emeritus, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University

Archival audio: Jesse Keenan, associate professor, Tulane University, via Here and Now, WBUR; Torbjörn Törnqvist via WVUE Fox 8, New Orleans; John Bel Edwards, former governor of Louisiana

Credits:

* Host and producer: Angela Johnson * Produced by: Vanessa Kolb, Dan Pavlish * Executive producer and audio editor: Ace Estwick

Music:

* Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds, "New Orleans" (OKeh, 1922) * jaap.sijben, "Music Second line parade - brass band" (CC BY 4.0) https://freesound.org/s/177930/ * Additional sound from Pixabay

Learn More:

* https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-026-01820-z * https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/louisianas-shrinking-coast-offers-narrowing-window-managed-retreat

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.

How do you decide what kind of parent you want to be? Liz Rebecca Alarcón 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: Liz Rebecca Alarcón, founder and executive director, Pulso; Maribel Quezada Smith, founder of Diferente Creative and host of Diferente; Leslie Priscilla, founder, Latinx Parenting

Credits:

* Host: Amy Gastelum * Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, Lucy Kang * Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong * Engineer: Jeff Emtman * Announcer: Mark Maxwell

Music:

* Julian Blackmore, original score

Learn More:

* https://projectpulso.org * https://latinxparenting.org * https://diferentecreative.com

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.

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.

Featuring: Kevin Foster, independent journalist who has reported on immigration for Mother Jones Stacy Tolchin, immigration attorney, Pasadena, California Michelle Arkin, founding member, No Camps California Nicole Edry, Democracy Action Network

Archival audio: Thomas Beasley, then Chairman, Corrections Corporation of America — C-SPAN, 1987 Perla Trevizo, ProPublica — C-SPAN "Washington Journal," June 9, 2026 Rob Bonta, California Attorney General — press conference, May 15, 2026 Eduardo Delgado, Migrant Equity Southeast — from Sonali Kolhatkar's "Breaking ICE"

Credits:

* Host and Producer: Mel Buer * Senior Producer: Dan Pavlish * Producer: Vanessa Kolb * Editor: Andrew Stelzer * Executive Producer and Audio Editor: Ace Estwick * Engineer: Mark Maxwell

Music:

* [MUSIC SOURCE]

Thanks:

Archival audio of Thomas Beasley and Perla Trevizo courtesy C-SPAN. Special thanks to Sonali Kolhatkar for permission to air an excerpt from her book "Breaking ICE: Community Defense Against State Terror and MAGA Fascism."

Learn More:

* https://nocampsca.com/ * https://unitedwedream.org/ * https://immigrantjustice.org/ * https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4889-breaking-ice

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.

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.

Featuring: Mike Prysner, Executive Director, Center on Conscience and War Zue Jernstedt, U.S. Army veteran Katie Chorbak, President, 50501 Veterans Sam Corbett, U.S. Marines veteran, U.S.VETS client Shalimar Cabrera, National Director of Executive Leadership, U.S.VETS Charles Gonzales, U.S. Army veteran, U.S.VETS client Thomas "Brother" Woods, U.S. Navy veteran, U.S.VETS volunteer veteran coordinator Jimmy Perez, U.S. Army veteran

Archival audio: "Service to Those Who Served" (1945), U.S. Veterans Administration. Public domain.

Credits:

* Host: Casey J. Adler * Senior Producer: Dan Pavlish * Engineers: Ace Estwick and Mark Maxwell * Editor: Andrew Stelzer

Music:

* Pixabay Content License

Learn More:

* https://www.211.org * https://www.va.gov/health-care/apply * https://usvets.org * https://centeronconscience.org * https://www.veteranscrisisline.net

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.

For over 30 years, Making Contact has been bringing you grassroots voices and context, to better understand the world and the people who are struggling to make it better. As Pacifica radio takes over production of the show, media critic and Making Contact co-founder Norman Solomon joins us this week, to understand the crucial role of independent media, and how we've navigated change—from the Bill Clinton era, to the second term of Donald Trump.

Featuring: Norman Solomon, Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and Making Contact co-founder

Archival audio: Bill Clinton, President of the United States; Deborah Toller, political economy analyst; Naomi Perez, former American Apparel employee; Roberto Surro, professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC; Elie Mystal, Justice Correspondent at The Nation Credits: * Host: Mark Maxwell * Reporters: Andrew Stelzer, Phillip Babich, Julie Light, Reese Erlich, Patrick Burke, Lucy Kang, Rami Almeghari * Executive Director: Ace Estwick * Staff Producer: Dan Pavlish * Engineer: Mark Maxwell * Editor: Jessica Partnow

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.

Featuring:

Kev Choice

Credits:

• Episode host: Anita Johnson
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain

Music:

• Kev Choice "All This Love"
• Kev Choice "Congratulations"
• Kev Choice "Searching for a Feeling
• Kev Choice "Fresh Fade"
• Kev Choice "International Blvd"
• Kev Choice "God"
• Kev Choice "Feel What I Feel"

Learn More:

• https://kevchoice.wordpress.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/kevchoice/?hl=en
• https://westcoaststyles.com/interviews/2024/04/kev-choice-love-liberation/
• https://www.oaklandsymphony.org/artist/kev-choice/

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.

As we head into an ever warming world, some experts and politicians are embracing a possible solution to climate change called geoengineering. Theoretically geoengineering could slow down climate change, stop it, and maybe even remove carbon from the air. It sounds like the perfect answer for a global political system that just can't stop burning fossil fuels even if it kills us all. But it might not be the easy fix we're hoping for.

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.

Featuring:

• Basav Sen, Climate Justice Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies
• Dr. Steven Zornetzer, Vice-Chair, Governing Board of Arctic Ice Project
• Panganga Pungowiyi, organizer for the nonprofit Indigenous Environmental Network in Alaska

Making Contact Team

• Episode hosts: Salima Hamirani and Jessica Partnow
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain

Music Credits

• Chris Zabriskie – Air Hockey Salon
• Bio Unit – Industrial Zone
• Chris Zabriskie – Take Off and Shoot a Zero
• Doctor Turtle – Leap Second
• Monplaisir – Ridiculous
• Monplaisir – Juan Garcia Madero

Learn More:

• Indigenous Environmental Network
• Arctic Ice Project
• Institute for Policy Studies

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.

On this week's Making Contact, we feature an extended interview with Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a queer Diné filmmaker and director of the award-winning documentary Powerlands.

Powerlands traces how multinational energy corporations extract resources and profits while displacing and harming Indigenous communities around the world. The film follows Indigenous activists in Navajo Nation, Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines who are fighting back against corporations like Peabody Energy, Glencore and BHP.

This show first aired in June 2023.

Featuring:

Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, an award-winning queer Diné filmmaker and director of Powerlands

Music:

Documentary by Music\_Unlimited

Credits

• Host: Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain

This episode includes excerpts from the documentary film Powerlands.

Learn More:

Powerlands Documentary website:

www.powerlands.org

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.

Featuring:

Theresa Harlan (Kewa Pueblo/Jemez Pueblo), adopted daughter of Elizabeth Campigli Harlan (Coast Miwok), founder and executive director of The Alliance for Felix Cove

Credits:

• Host: Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain
• "Whose Point Reyes?: A Battle for the Future of Public Lands" Parts 1 and 2 Credits:
• Reporter and producer: Sam Anderson
• Editor: Lucy Kang
• First aired on KPFA

Learn More:

• Whose Point Reyes on Apple Podcasts
• Alliance for Felix Cove
• Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin

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.