On this week’s episode, we dive into the hidden biases of the digital age with Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble, author of the groundbreaking book, Algorithms of Oppression. Dr. Noble unpacks how search engines, often seen as neutral tools, can reinforce harmful stereotypes and limit access to critical knowledge. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our digital experiences and discuss the urgent need for accountability in technology. This show first aired in December 2024.

Featuring:

Dr. Safiya U. Noble, David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair of Social Sciences and professor of gender studies, African American studies and information studies at UCLA

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:

Dr. Safiya Noble | Dr. Noble @ UCLA | Algorithms of Oppression | Purdue CDS Inaugural Lecture | Dr. Noble discusses the themes of her book

On this week's show, we explore Latino food and culture in Chicago’s historic Pilsen neighborhood and hear about how food can bring communities together. We tag along with the podcast In Confianza with Pulso as they try to answer the question: what does a Latino version of the tv show "The Bear" taste like? We'll head to two restaurants, Cafe Jumping Bean and Pochos, to find out.

Featuring:

Eleazar Delgado, owner of Cafe Jumping Bean | Miguel Hernandez and Irene Acosta, owners of Pochos 

Making Contact Credits

• 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: "Drums" by Andrewfai via Pixabay

In Confianza with Pulso: "What does a Latino version of "The Bear" Taste Like?" Credits

• Hosted by Liz Rebecca Alarcón
• Produced and edited by Mark Agan
• Audio engineering scoring and mixing by Charlie Garcia

Learn More

Making Contact homepage | In Confianza with Pulso

In this week’s episode, we take a look at how over six decades after the Korean War, South Korea processed the most international adoptions in history and how the demand for a “domestic supply of (adoptable) infants” may be playing a role in increasing threats to autonomy over pregnancy in the US. This show first aired in November 2024.

Featuring

Alex Lewis, independent producer and founder of Rowhome Productions | Schuyler Swenson, producer | Lydia Doublestein, registered midwife

Making Contact Team

• Episode Host: Amy Gastelum
• 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 Deonarain

Guest Producers

• Producer/Reporter: Anne Noyes Saini
• Producer: Schuyler Swenson

Music Credits

• Andy G. Cohen, “Bumbler” 
• Zé Trigueiros, “Big Road of Burravoe”, “Ponto” 
• Hogan Grip, “Stance Gives You Balance” 

Music was changed only in length and volume levels and can be found here: http://www.freemusicarchive.org/

To celebrate Pride Month, we have a special show featuring stories from the Making Contact archives. We'll revisit the Stonewall Uprising with the 1989 audio documentary Remembering Stonewall, and then head to the gay rodeo with producer Vanessa Rancaño in a story from 2014.

Making Contact Credits

• 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

• "Minimal Documentary" by penguinmusic via Pixabay
• Bleep sound effect by freesound\_community from Pixabay

Remembering Stonewall: The birth of a movement (1989)

• Narrated by Michael Schirker
• Produced by David Isay
• Distributed by Pacifica Radio Archives

All Around Cowboy: Inside the world of queer rodeo" (2014)

• Story producer and host: Vanessa Rancaño
• This show was part of a partnership with the [UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism](http://journalism.berkeley.edu/)
• Special thanks to [Claire Schoen](http://claireschoenmedia.com/)

Learn More: 

Making Contact homepage | Remembering Stonewall on Pacifica Radio Archives | 

Making Contact episode "All Around Cowboy: Inside the world of queer rodeo"

A year ago, the world said goodbye to Reverend James Lawson Jr. On today's show, we look back at the work and legacy this leading figure in the Civil Rights Movement and advocate of nonviolence, with the help of the podcast Re:Work from the UCLA Labor Center.

Reverend James Lawson Jr., nonviolence advocate and civil rights leader

Making Contact

• Episode host and producer: 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:

"For Documentary" by The\_Mountain via Pixabay

"Soul Force 2" from Re:Work by the UCLA Labor Center Credits:

• Produced by Veena Hampapur and Saba Waheed
• Sound design and editing by Veena Hampapur
• Mixing by Aaron Dalton

Learn More: 

Making Contact homepage | Re:Work from the UCLA Labor Center | Show on FoC Media

Last week, we visited a community in California's Central Valley called East Orosi, which has been fighting for clean water for over 20 years. This week we turn our attention to their sewage system, which is also falling apart. Why has it been so difficult for East Orosi to get clean drinking water and fix its sewage problems? To answer that question, we take a look at the community utility districts that run sewage and water in unincorporated towns all across California. We'll discuss their problems as well as ways to save them. This show first aired in August 2024.

Episode Credits

• 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
• Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonarain

Voiceovers

• Ana Portnoy Brimmer
• Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong

Music Credits

• Komiko – Blue
• PC III – Ocean Tapping
• Alpha Hydrae – Friends and Apples
• Hicham Chahidi – Gouttes
• Ben von Wildenhaus – Week Twenty-five 
• Ketsa – No Light Without Darkness
• The Custodian of Records – Thunderstorm

Learn More

Making Contact | Community Water Center | Self-Help Enterprises

In 2012, the state of California declared water a human right. Yet nearly 400 water systems don't meet the state's drinking water standards. In the Central Valley, the community of East Orosi hasn’t had safe tap water in over 20 years. The water is full of harmful nitrates and other runoff from industrial agriculture. We visit East Orosi and talk to Berta Diaz Ochoa and others about what it’s like living without access to clean drinking water and how the community has taken action to find a solution. This episode originally aired in July 2023.

Making Contact Credits

• Episode host and producer: Salima Hamirani
• 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

Voiceovers

• Amy Gastelum
• Bobbi James
• Ana Portnoy Brimmer
• Alex Corey

Music Credits

• Komiku – Blue
• Monet’s Water Lilies
• Dark Rainy Day
• Water Drops, Sad Slow Piano Background
• Mother Womb piano
• Guracha Sonidera Cumbia Loops De Bateria Series II

Learn More: 

Making Contact homepage | Community Water Center | Self Help Enterprises | State Water Resources Control Board

Dr. Rebecca Crumpler was the first Black woman to become a physician in the United States. Working in the aftermath of the Civil War, she made immense contributions to public health, despite the racism and sexism she faced. We'll trace the course of her remarkable life and work with in a story brought to us by the podcast Lost Women of Science, hosted by Katie Hafner and producer Dominique Janee.

Featuring: 

Dr. Melody McCloud, Physician and author of Black Women’s Wellness Dr. Joan Reede, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School  Jim Downs, Historian and author of Sick from Freedom * Victoria Gall, with Hyde Park Historical Society and Friends of the Hyde Park Branch Library

Making Contact Credits

• 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: "The Road From Home" by Sergii Pavkin from Pixabay

Lost Women of Science: "Dr. Rebecca Crumpler, America's First Black Female Public Health Pioneer" Credits

• Producer and host: Dominique Janee 
• Host: Katie Hafner
• Managing senior producer: Barbara Howard 
• Audio engineer and sound designer: Samia Bouzid 

Published in partnership with Scientific American

Learn More: 

Making Contact homepage | Listen to the full episode from Lost Women of Science

For AAPI Heritage Month, we bring you an encore of our 2023 episode "Seeing Signs." With help from the Queens Memory Podcast, we'll learn about “Little Manila,” a Filipino neighborhood dating back to the 1970s that still struggles to find its political footing. We also hear from Filipino care workers about their experiences battling COVID 19. This episode first aired on Making Contact in May 2023.

Featuring:

• Potri Ranka Manis: Nurse, Activist and Artist
• Joey Golja: Community Member
• Mary Jane de Leon: Community Member
• John Bahia: Community Member
• Steven Raga: Assemblymember for District 30, Queens, NY
• Jaclyn Reyes: Artist, Designer, and Cultural Organizer
• Gemma Balagtas: Community Member, Nurse
• Zenaida (Ida) Castillo: Community Member and Owner of PhilAm Food Mart 

Making Contact Team:

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

Queens Memory Podcast Team:

• Producers: Rosalind Tordesillas, Melody Cao, Anna Williams, and Natalie Milbrodt
• Mixing and editing by Cory Choy
• Music composed by Elias Ravin
• Voiceover work by Arianne Arreglado

Learn More: 

Making Contact homepage | Listen to Season 3 of the Queens Memory Podcast: NYC Libraries | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Pinderhughes tells us about The Healing Project. The Healing Project, a fundamentally abolitionist project, explores the structures of systemic racism and the prison industrial complex.

The Healing Project takes action towards abolition with forms such as musical songs, films, an exhibition, community gatherings, live performances, and a digital library of audio interviews. At the center of the project are the intergenerational voices of people across the country, including folks incarcerated in prisons and detention centers. Their stories, experiences, and ideas serve as the foundation for The Healing Project’s vision for societal transformation. This story first aired in February 2023.

Featuring: Samora Pinderhughes, composer, pianist/vocalist, and interdisciplinary artist

Making Contact Credits:

• Episode Host: Anita Johnson
• Segment Editors: Jessica Partnow, Lucy Kang, Jacinda Abcarian
• 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 Deonarain 

Music Credits:

• Borrtex – “Creeping”
• Samora Pinderhughes – “Process”
• Samora Pinderhughes – “Hope”

Learn More: 

Samora Pinderhughes | The Healing Project | Exhibition site | Tiny Desk Concert filmed live inside the exhibition | Exhibition films, “Masculinity” & “Hold that Weight” | Exhibition album