In Episode 2 of "Exposed" from our friends at San Francisco Public Press, we explore a little-known chapter in San Francisco's nuclear era: human experiments carried out to assess the health effects of radiation. Scientists from the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, located at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, designed and executed at least 24 experiments that involved gathering data from humans — in some cases, injecting test subjects with radioisotopes or having them ingest fluids laced with trace amounts of radioactive materials. Even football players from the San Francisco 49ers were enrolled as test subjects in these so-called tracer studies.

We hear from military veterans who were sent on a mysterious mission to spread radioactive substances onto rooftops at an Army base near Pittsburg, Calif., for an experiment the radiation lab played a role in designing. Some recount experiences of witnessing nuclear bomb blasts in the Nevada desert. We also examine a national pattern of human radiation experiments revealed by Eileen Welsome, the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation, who shined a light on similar practices conducted by government facilities, hospitals and other institutions. This miniseries first aired on Making Contact in February 2025.

Featuring:

Eldridge Jones, served in the military and was part of Operation Stoneman | Merle Votaw, a Navy veteran who participated in Operation Stoneman II | Eileen Welsome, author of "Plutonium Files" | Holly Barker, Anthropologist and professor at the University of Washington who studied the Marshall Islands.

Credits:

San Francisco Public Press:

• Reporting: Chris Roberts and Rebecca Bowe
• Editing: Michael Stoll and Liz Enochs
• Research Editing: Ambika Kandasamy
• Web Design: John Angelico
• Copy Editing: Kurt Aguilar, Michele Anderson and Richard Knee
• Archival Research and Illustration: Stacey Carter
• Audio Editing: Liana Wilcox, Mel Baker and Megan Maurer
• Sound Gathering: Justin Benttinen
• Photography: Sharon Wickham, Yesica Prado and Guillermo Hernandez
• Graphic Design: Reid Brown
• Fact Checking: Dani Solakian and Ali Hanks
• Proofreading: Lila LaHood, Noah Arroyo, Zhe Wu and Sylvie Sturm
• Special thanks to Alastair Gee and Danielle Renwick at The Guardian and Ben Trefny at KALW Public Radio, and to Laura Wenus and Amy Pyle

Making Contact:

• Host: Salima Hamirani
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonorain

Music Credits:

Midday, by the Blue Dot Sessions | Sweet Leilani, by Bing Crosby

Learn More:

[Exposed full investigation | Exposed Part 2

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.

Today we present the first half of a two-part radio documentary from our friends at SF Public Press, "Exposed," opening a window into the little-known history of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The sprawling abandoned naval base, in San Francisco's southeast waterfront Bayview neighborhood, is currently the site of the city's largest real estate development project. The base played a key role in the Cold War nuclear era, when it housed a research institution known as the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, which studied the human health effects of radiation.

In Episode 1 of the podcast, we trace the radioactive contamination found in the shipyard soil today back to its origins, with nuclear bomb testing in the Marshall Islands. We also hear from environmental justice advocates, including one who led a health biomonitoring survey revealing that nearby residents have toxic elements stored in body tissues that match the hazardous chemicals of concern identified at the shipyard. It first aired on Making Contact in February 2025.

Featuring:

**Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, **community advocate and medical doctor | **Michelle Pierce:, **Executive director of [Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates](https://bvhpadvocates.org/) | **Leaotis Martin, **resident of Bayview | **Raymond Tompkins, **community advocate, chemist and former member of the Hunters Point Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board | **Daniel Hirsch, **president of Committee to Bridge the Gap | **Derek Robinson; **Navy representative.

Credits:

**San Francisco Public Press:**

• Reporting: Chris Roberts and Rebecca Bowe
• Editing: Michael Stoll and Liz Enochs
• Research Editing: Ambika Kandasamy
• Web Design: John Angelico
• Copy Editing: Kurt Aguilar, Michele Anderson and Richard Knee
• Archival Research and Illustration: Stacey Carter
• Audio Editing: Liana Wilcox, Mel Baker and Megan Maurer
• Sound Gathering: Justin Benttinen
• Photography: Sharon Wickham, Yesica Prado and Guillermo Hernandez
• Graphic Design: Reid Brown
• Fact Checking: Dani Solakian and Ali Hanks
• Proofreading: Lila LaHood, Noah Arroyo, Zhe Wu and Sylvie Sturm
• Special thanks to Alastair Gee and Danielle Renwick at The Guardian and Ben Trefny at KALW Public Radio, and to Laura Wenus and Amy Pyle

**Making Contact:**

• Host: Salima Hamirani
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong
• Engineer: [Jeff Emtman](https://www.jeffemtman.com/)
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonorain

**Music Credits:**

• Midday, by the Blue Dot Sessions
• Sweet Leilani, by Bing Crosby

Learn More:

Exposed full investigation

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.

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

Making Contact Team

• Episode host: Anita Johnson
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain

Learn More

Kev Choice | on Instagram | interview in West Coast Styles | Oakland Symphony

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.

To mark Indigenous People's Day, we'll hear two stories about communities working with food to revitalize identity and ancestry. First, we speak to Mariah Gladstone and Kenneth Cook in Blackfeet Nation in Montana about their online cooking show Indigikitchen and follow them into the field as they harvest a bison. Then, we talk to Dr. Keitlyn Alcantara about the Tlaxcala, an indigenous tribe living in central Mexico who were able to survive the expansive Aztec empire in the period just before colonization, and visit the Healing Garden at Hilltop in Bloomington, Indiana, where diaspora members connect with familiar plants, the earth and each other. This show first aired in August 2022.

Featuring:

• Kenneth Cook, helps operate Indigikitchen
• Mariah Gladstone, founder of Indigikitchen
• Boyd Evans, rancher on Blackfeet Nation
• Dr Keitlyn Alcantara, assistant professor of archeology at Indiana University
• Margarita Martinez Osorio, PhD student of history at Indiana University
• Andre Bispo de Jesus, gardener at Indiana University

Making Contact Team:

• Guest Reporter: Kathleen Shannon
• Episode hosts: Salima Hamirani and Amy Gastelum
• Staff Producers: Anita Johnson, Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Marketing Manager: Lissa Deonarain

Music Credits:

• Caslo – Freedom
• Jonny Ripper – Opening Credits
• Danny Bale – Grevillia Music

Learn More:

• Indigikitchen
• The Healing Garden

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.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so we are revisiting a show from our archives about criminalized survival, the criminal justice system's long practice of imprisoning survivors of intimate partner violence when they fight back against their abusers. We'll hear from journalist Natalie Pattillo and filmmaker Daniel A. Nelson, who followed the stories of imprisoned women Kim Dadou Brown, Tanisha Davis and Nikki Addimando for their documentary film And So I Stayed. This show first aired in July 2023.

Featuring:

• Natalie Pattillo, journalist, mother and co-director of the film And So I Stayed
• Daniel A. Nelson, filmmaker, cinematographer and co-director of the film And So I Stayed

Credits:

Making Contact Team

• Episode Host: Amy Gastelum
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Marketing Manager: Lissa Deonarain

Music via WFMU free music archive

• Poddington Bear, Alsace
• HoliznaCC0, Whatever

Learn More:

The Survivor's Justice Project | And So I Stayed Film | The National Domestic Violence Hotline

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.

Almost half of Puerto Rico's doctors have fled the island over the past decade, leading to a lack of specialists and treatment and incredibly long wait times. And this isn't just an inconvenience. People are dying from lack of care. Why is Puerto Rico's health care system collapsing, and why are doctors fleeing the island?

We take a look at its deeply dysfunctional private medical system and why attempts to fix it, and create a universal health care plan on the island, are being hindered by Puerto Rico's status as a US colony. Its massive unpayable debt, held by investors in the US, means that it cannot make its own economic decisions, even when it affects the livelihood of poor Puerto Ricans living there. But there might be a fix, getting rid of Puerto Rico's debt and rethinking its colonial relationship to the US. This episode first aired in October 2024.

Credits:

Making Contact Team

• Episode Host: Salima Hamirani
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong
• Engineer: [Jeff Emtman](http://www.jeffemtman.com/)
• Digital Marketing Manager: Lissa Deonarain

Music Credits

• Daniel Birch – Indigo Strokes
• Axletree – Goldfinch- Flight to the North
• Mindseye – Spores
• Soft and Furious – So What

Learn More:

Boricuas Unidos en la Diaspora | The Nation Magazine: Puerto Rico's Unnatural Disaster

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.

We return to Norfolk, Virginia, where flooding and rising sea levels threaten residents, and the climate plan for the city could perpetuate harmful patterns of segregation and environmental racism. With the help of the podcast Wading Between Two Titans, we'll take a look at how urban redevelopment is pushing out low-income and Black residents and what happens when communities are displaced due to climate gentrification.

Featuring:

• Mr. Vernell, resident
• Vincent Hodges, social worker and organizer
• Monét Johnson, lead housing and environmental organizer for New Virginia Majority
• Paul Riddick, former Norfolk City Council member

Credits:

Making Contact Team

• Episode host and producer: Lucy Kang
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain

Music Credit: "A Documentary" by AKTASOK via Pixabay

Wading Between Two Titans Team

• Written, recorded, produced, edited, mixed, mastered and hosted by Adrian Wood
• Show art by Adrian Wood
• Story editing by Kelly Jones
• Consultation and visioning with the Repair Lab 2022 Practitioner-in-Residence, Kim Sudderth
• Music by Sugarlift
• A project featuring original research by the Repair Lab

Learn More:

Making Contact homepage | Wading Between Two Titans

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.

In this episode, we'll head to Norfolk, Virginia, where flooding and rising sea levels are disproportionately threatening Black residents, while the city is also also weathering a housing crisis. We'll hear about how sea-level rise, racism and housing are intertwined in this coastal city in a story from episode one of the podcast Wading Between Two Titans, brought to us by the University of Virginia's Repair Lab and producer Adrian Wood.

Featuring:

Dr. Tommy L. Bogger, professor of history at Norfolk State University | Cassandra Newby-Alexander, endowed professor of Virginia Black History and Culture at Norfolk State University

Credits:

Making Contact Team

• Episode host and producer: Lucy Kang
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain
• Music Credit: "A Documentary" by AKTASOK via Pixabay

Wading Between Two Titans Credits

• Written, recorded, produced, edited, mixed, mastered and hosted by [Adrian Wood](http://adrianwoodstudio.com/)
• Show art by [Adrian Wood](http://adrianwoodstudio.com/)
• Story editing by Kelly Jones
• Visioned by the Repair Lab 2022 Practitioner-in-Residence, [Kim Sudderth](https://www.kimfor92.com/)
• Music by [Sugarlift](http://soundcloud.com/sugarlift)
• A project featuring original research by [the Repair Lab](http://repairlab.virginia.edu/)

Learn More:

Making Contact homepage | Wading Between Two Titans

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.

Today on Making Contact we present "Saltwater Soundwalk," an Indigenous audio tour of Seattle featuring a watery audio experience, with streams of stories that ebb and flow that intermixes English and Coast Salish languages. Indigenous Coast Salish peoples continue to steward this land and preserve its language, despite settler colonialism, industrialization and gentrification. Part story, part sound collage, this piece is scored entirely with the sounds of the waters and animals who live in and around the Salish Sea. This episode first aired in April 2023.

Saltwater Soundwalk Credits

Rachel Lam (Anigiduwagi enrolled Cherokee Nation) and Jenny Asarnow produced this work as part of FLOW: Art Along the Ship Canal, a commission from Seattle Public Utilities in partnership with the Office of Arts & Culture

Special Thanks

Commissioned with SPU 1% for Art Funds. Administered by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. City of Seattle, Bruce Harrell, Mayor. This episode of Making Contact was supported in part by a Moral Courage grant from the Satterberg Foundation.

Making Contact Team

• Episode host: Anita Johnson
• Segment Editor: Jessica Partnow
• Staff Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Lucy Kang, Amy Gastelum
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Audio Engineering: Jeff Emtman
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain

Music Credits

Last Kiss – Magnus Moone | Audiobinger – Enchanted Forest

Learn More

Saltwater Soundwalk | Seattle Times | Art Beat Blog

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 talk about baseball with the help of some Venezuelan players living in Peru. In a story brought to us by the podcast In Confianza, with Pulso, we hear about how their hopes and dreams of making it big can fuel community when they're living far from home. The story featured in this show first aired in July 2024.

Featuring:

Raian Baute, Venezuelan baseball aficionado | Rodrigo Baute, Los Astros player | Manny Padron, Major League Baseball scout for the Miami Marlins | Franklin Lopez, Los Astros coach | Wilmer Flores, baseball player for the San Francisco Giants

Making Contact Team:

• Episode host: Lucy Kang
• Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang
• Executive Director: Jina Chung
• Engineer: [Jeff Emtman](http://www.jeffemtman.com/)
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain

Music credit:

"Drums" by Andrewfai via Pixabay

Guest Episode Credits - In Confianza from Pulso

• Show hosted by Liz Rebecca Alarcón
• Story produced and narrated by Anthony Wallace
• Editing by Mark Pagán and Charlie Garcia
• Audio engineering and scoring by Anthony Wallace
• Additional audio engineering and mixing by Charlie Garcia

Listen to the full episode from In Confianza, with Pulso

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.