Making Contact

In 2023, Kirin Clawson’s endocrinologist placed a puberty-blocking implant in her arm, a medical intervention that is associated with improved mental health for many trans kids with gender dysphoria. In February, Indiana joined several other conservative states banning this treatment for minors. In the first of a 2-part series, we hear from the Clawsons how the ban has impacted their family.  And, we hear from psychologist, Dr. Myeshia Price about how all adults in the lives of children can support gender diverse youth, despite increasing discriminatory anti-trans laws aimed at kids.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features the Clawson family including Beth, mother and Child Health Worker; Nathaniel, father and Project Manager; and children Kirin, Max, and Izzy Clawson. The episode also features Dr. Myeshia Price, an Associate Professor at Indiana University in the Human Development program within the Department of Counseling & Educational Psychology and Associate Research Scientist with the Kinsey Institute; and Bradford Barrett, Indiana State House Representative.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum with Production Assistant Emily Miles. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC: This episode includes music Jahzzar- Vanlig available via WFMU Free Music Archive.

Learn More:

• Gender Nexus

• Gender Expansive Kids and Company

• Trans Solutions

• Protect Our People

• LGBTQ services and support map from Family Acceptance Project and the Innovations Institute

• Family Acceptance Project

• The Kinsey Institute

Caste—one of the oldest systems of exclusion in the world—is thriving. Despite the ban on Untouchability 70 years ago, caste impacts 1.9 billion people in the world. Every 15 minutes, a crime is perpetrated against a Dalit person. The average age of death for Dalit women is just 39. And the wreckages of caste are replicated here in the U.S., too—erupting online with rape and death threats, showing up at work, and forcing countless Dalits to live in fear of being outed.

 Dalit American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan puts forth a call to awaken and act, not just for readers in South Asia, but all around the world. She ties Dalit oppression to fights for liberation among Black, Indigenous, Latinx, femme, and Queer communities, examining caste from a feminist, abolitionist, and Dalit Buddhist perspective--and laying bare the grief, trauma, rage, and stolen futures enacted by Brahminical social structures on the caste-oppressed. Incisive and urgent, “The Trauma of Caste” is an activating beacon of healing and liberation, written by one of the world’s most needed voices in the fight to end caste apartheid.

 Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Thenmozhi Soundararajan, the author of “The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition” and a Dalit American artist, organizer, technologist, and theorist. Currently, Thenmozhi is the Executive Director of Equality Labs.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC: This episode includes music from Blue Dot Sessions, including “3rd Chair" and "Paving Stones."

Learn More:

• The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition

• Thenmozhi Soundararajan / Dalit Diva

• Google’s plan to talk about caste bias led to ‘division and rancor’

• Hindu Sect Accused of Using Forced Labor

• Dismantling the Caste System

As graduation approached this year, students around the country began protests after calls for divestment from Israel were initially ignored by university leadership. The campus encampments were met with physical violence and the mainstream press dismissed the students' demands as naive and immature. But, it turns out that there's a lot we should be asking about college endowments. 

We take a look at what an endowment is and how they’re invested. Then we learn why transparency around the endowment (and divestment!) might actually benefit the entire college community. 

We talk to Kelly Grotke, a financial researcher from Pattern Recognition, a research collective focused on financialized higher education. And, with Andrea Pritchett, we look at the links between the encampments today, and those from the 80s, when students protested South African Apartheid. 

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Kelly Grotke, co-founder of Pattern Recognition, a research collective and Andrea Pritchett, former student organizer against South African Apartheid. Currently a middle school teacher and co-founder of Berkeley Cop Watch.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC: This episode features “Slinky” by Robert John, “Take Off and Shoot a Zero” by Chris Zabinske, “Leap Second” by Doctor Turtle, and “Blue” by Komiku.

Learn More:

• https://patternrecognitionresearch.substack.com/

• https://www.berkeleycopwatch.org/

What are borders, and why do we have them? And how is violent border enforcement at the US-Mexico border connected to Israel's brutal assault on Gaza? And what happens when borders cross living land and communities?

We'll dig into these questions in this week's episode with the help of Heba Gowayed, sociology professor at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center. And then we'll hear a story brought to us by In Confianza, with Pulso about one time when the natural boundary between two countries changed – and what happened to the people caught on the other side.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on  radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Heba Gowayed, sociology professor at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center and author of Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential and the forthcoming The Cost of Border; Charlie Garcia, writer and producer of the story “The Border is Alive!” from In Confianza, with Pulso.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC: This episode features "Documentary" by AlisiaBeats via Pixabay.

Learn More:

• Heba Gowayed

• In Confianza, with Pulso

• “The Border is Alive!” full episode

This week on Making Contact we take a look at one of the most prolific Mexican artists, Frida Kahlo, and how she inspired the Latina artist collective, “The Phoenix Fridas.” “In Confianza, with Pulso” producer Anthony Wallace brings us the story of Thania Betancourt Alcazar. A member of  “The Phoenix Fridas,” Alcazar discovered a lifeline in the art of Frida Kahlo and her artistic message of resilience and empowerment.

Alcazar shares her experience being a Mexican immigrant, her feeling of being an outcast, and finally feeling seen as she saw herself and her culture reflected in the rising popularity of Frida Kahlo and her art in the U.S.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Anthony Wallace, the host of this episode; Thania Betancourt Alcazar, a member of The Phoenix Fridas and artist; Celia Stahr, an art historian at the University of San Francisco and the author of Frida in America: The Creative Awakening of a Great Artist.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

In Confianza, with Pulso Credits:

• This episode was produced/hosted by Anthony Wallace 

• Editor: Charlie Garcia

• Audio Engineer and Mixing: Anthony Wallace and Charlie Garcia

• Executive Director: Liz Alarcon

MUSIC: This episode features Original Music Composed by Julian Blackmore and Anthony Wallace.

Learn More:

• In Confianza, with Pulso

• Frida in America: The Creative Awakening of a Great Artist

• The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait

• The Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City

Have you ever really considered how we view time as a society? From work to leisure to appointments, we schedule every minute of our days, but how often do we think about why we treat time the way we do, our relationship to it, and why we value productivity over all else?

This week, we talk to Jenny Odell about the ideas behind her book Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock and How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. We talk about how time shapes all our lives, question the idea that time is money, and look to understand the capitalistic and colonialist roots of the way we view time every day. 

 Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Jenny Odell, artist and author of Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock and How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC: This episode features music "Simonero" by Keyframe Audio via Pixabay, "Documentary Ambient Guitar" by William_King via Pixabay, and Clock sound effects by Pixabay and Semen Surin via Pixabay.

Learn More:

• Jenny Odell

This week's Making Contact episode is about two strong women who survived historic trauma, and the stories they later told their families.  We start with the story of Katie Wilson. Born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Kiev, Ukraine, she grew up safe and comfortable - until the Russian Revolution. After holding it close for years to protect the next generation, she tells the story of the family she lost to her granddaughter. 

Then we hear about Helen Zia's experience as a Chinese-American and her mother's story fleeing Mao's Chinese Revolution. After years of silence in response to questions on the subject, Zia's mother finally shares her story and the burden of her trauma with her daughter. 

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Helen Zia, a Chinese-American journalist and activist for Asian American and LGBTQ rights. She is the former Executive Editor of Ms. Magazine, and author of several books. Katie Wilson, a Ukrainian refugee. Chana Wilson, a radio/audio producer and host at Pacifica’s KPFA in Berkeley, CA and the award-winning author of the memoir, Riding Fury Home.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

LEARN MORE:

• Helen Zia

• Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People

• Chana Wilson

• Riding Fury Home: A Memoir

• Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution

At the beginning of the pandemic, we reported on the extreme inequality of the vaccine rollout to low income countries. Their access was hindered because of a Western patent system which was imposed globally through the WTO. At the time, activists tried to pass the TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Waiver, which would have suspended all patents related to COVID. This would have allowed countries all over the world to make vaccines, therapeutics and protective equipment during the pandemic crisis.

The TRIPS Waiver failed to provide access to medicines, and poor countries never received the vaccines they were promised.

But, as the world moved on from COVID, so did the efforts for equity. The TRIPS waiver failed to provide access to medicines, and poor countries never received the vaccines they were promised. Despite this, the Global South continues to fight back. On today's show, we look back at the failures of the early pandemic and at new initiatives led by scientists and activists to circumvent patents and create broader access to medicines.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Fatima Hassan, Human rights lawyer and founder of Health Justice Initiative; Piotr Kolczynski, EU Health Policy & Advocacy Advisor for The People's Vaccine Alliance; Achal Prabhala, Researcher and coordinator of the AccessIBSA project; Petro Terblanche, Managing Director of Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes music from Blue Dot Sessions, "Sweetly;" Deef, "Nostalgia of an Ex Gangsta Rapper;" Doctor Turtle, "Leap Second;" frankum, "Reward MusicTrack - Ambiance guitar;" Monplaisir, "Juan Garcia Madero," "Ridiculous," and "Stay Quiet;" Robert John, "Slinky."

LEARN MORE:

• Access IBSA
• The People's Vaccine Alliance
• Afrigen Biologics Vaccines – An Avacare IDC Health Company
• The Health Justice Initiative
• Pandemic Lessons Compendium
• Difference Between Biologics and Small Molecules

How does anyone make sense of abortion access these days? We sat down with All Options Pregnancy Resource Center in Bloomington, Indiana to talk about what’s changed since Indiana’s full abortion ban went into effect last August. Local abortion funds like All Options do a lot, but they can't talk to clients about self-managed abortion, even though the World Health Organization says it's safe and effective. 

We learn about the ways folks are getting access to abortion pills, what to expect from a self-managed abortion and about the case in the Supreme Court now - whether the pill Mifepristone will still be legal to use for abortions, even in states where abortion care is protected.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org. 

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Dr. Melissa Madera, Founder of Abortion Diary Podcast, Choix Telehealth team member, Researcher on Project SANA team & Special Projects Consultant for Plan C Pills; Jessica Marchbank, State Programs Manager at All Options Pregnancy Resource Center in Bloomington, Indiana.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC: This episode includes music from "Cinematic Documentary" & "Inspiring Cinematic Ambient" by Lexin Music; and "Whatever" & "Something in the Air" by HoliznaCC0.

Learn More:

• Plan C Pills
• All Options Pregnancy Resource Center
• Midwest Action Coalition
• Indiana Task FORCE
• Abortion Finder
• Abortion on Our Own Terms
• ReproLegalHelpline
• International Planned Parenthood Federation Medical Abortion Explainer

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. 

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

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

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang, reported and produced by Sam Anderson, and was first aired on KPFA. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC: This episode includes music from "Chill Ambient" by Yrii Semchyshyn (Coma-Media) and "Cinematic Documentary" by Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music).

Learn More:

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