Making Contact

Spies of Mississippi is a journey into the world of informants, infiltrators, and agent provocateurs in the heart of Dixie. Directed and produced by Dawn Porter and executive produced by LOOKS TV and Martina Haubrich. The film tells the story of a secret spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi to preserve segregation and maintain "the Mississippi way of life," white supremacy, during the 1950s and '60s. The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (MSSC) evolved from a predominantly public relations agency to a full-fledged spy operation, spying on over 87,000 Americans over the course of a decade.

What would it take to have real choices about our bodies? Loretta Ross, co-founder of SisterSong breaks down the reproductive justice framework; and Tina Reynolds, co-founder and Chair of Women on the Rise Telling HerStory, shares how a group of formerly incarcerated women came together to fight for the right to give birth to and raise children in healthy and safe environments.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. On today's show we're exploring how some women have been dehumanized to the point of indifference. We'll learn how one community is undoing the silence around the violence women of color face. We'll also hear about how serial killers were able to hunt down mostly Black women for three decades in South Los Angeles. Then we'll take you to the Yucatan where pregnant indigenous women struggle under a health care system failing to provide proper medical care.

Panelists at the Media Consortium conference discuss the role independent media plays in today's contentious media landscape.

Given Trump's massive military budget proposal and the 14th Anniversary of the United States war in Iraq, we bring you this program from our archives with the voices of U.S. Soldiers and Iraqis reflecting on the costs of war.

In this edition of Making Contact, we look at two major changes to statewide curriculum in California, and where schools nationwide may be headed under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Women Rising Radio profiles three healer activists, two M.D.'s and an indigenous healer/psychologist, caregivers for the Water Protectors at Standing Rock, and witnesses to the violence of police, sheriffs and private security forces hired by Energy Transfer Partners - the fossil fuel giant building the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Paris is in flux. How are Parisians-native and immigrant, still dealing with terrorist attacks? If mixite, or social mixing, provides an answer, what does that look like, especially when immigrant, capitalist, and the hip are housed together?

"Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal" a film chronicles the life and revolutionary times of the former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.

As President Trump moves to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., we look at two moments where we found ourselves at a similar crossroads. First, the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans 75 years ago. Then, how people fought to stop the Muslim registry after 9/11.