We hear about systems of mutual support; where peers coping with similar struggles like HIV, mental health issues and surviving prison step into the roles typically filled by licensed specialists.

Mutual support can be controversial, especially when it tries to replace professional help. But it can also be immensely rewarding for all parties involved, and can save a ton of money.

This show features a special segment by Making Contact Storytelling Fellow Al Sasser. Find out more about the fellowship here.

In order to reduce prison over-crowding the Justice Department is releasing about 6,000 non-violent inmates early. Darris Young is working to make sure upon release individuals can successfully transition after incarceration.

On this edition of Making Contact we’ll meet more individuals like Darris who also went to prison, came out and dedicated their life to making a positive difference.

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2016 marks 50 years since the founding of the Black Panther Party-a group that’s took the world by the storm, but is still widely misunderstood.   There’s a new documentary film that’s trying to set the record straight. On this edition of Making Contact, journalist Eric Arnold talks with Stanley Nelson, director of The Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution.

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That’s a question being asked in locker rooms the world over. Whether it’s boxing, hockey, or soccer, it seems that head injuries are finally being taken seriously.

In the United States, lawsuits brought by players, as well as a body of scientific evidence, has lead to growing awareness about the impact American football has on players’ brains.

And now a similar debate has kicked off across the Atlantic among players and fans of the sport that American football evolved from: rugby. On this special edition of Making Contact, producer Luke Eldridge brings us to the UK to hear how rugby is dealing with the issue of head injuries.

Millions of people around the world work in jobs that aren’t formally recognized or afforded legal protections typical of wage earning jobs. They’re often not even thought of as legitimate work.

On this edition of Making Contact, we’re going to meet people making work where there is no work for them. From recyclers, to border couriers, to waste pickers, we’re exploring the informal labor sector and what some are doing to gain greater recognition, protections, and rights.

Love em or hate em, they’re an ever present part of American culture.  And they’re not going away anytime soon.  On this edition, recorded before the Oct. 1st mass shooting in Colorado, we talk guns…from the shooting range, to the black panthers, to red state America. The people behind the trigger are probably not who you’d assume.

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Women Rising Radio 28 profiles global community organizers - whose work is based in their compassion and common sense, and whose organizing is making a worldwide impact.

It’s one of the most dangerous jobs in America: taxi driving. In this special joint episode from ReWork and Making Contact, we’ll hear a radio adaptation of TeAda Productions’ play “Global Taxi Driver,” and we’ll take a ride to meet the cab drivers at one of the country’s busiest airports.

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A radio adaptation of the documentary Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle. This documentary examines the life and mysterious death of pioneering Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar.

At the heart of the story is his transformation from a mainstream, establishment Los Angeles Times reporter to a supporter and primary chronicler of the radical Chicano movement of the late 1960s until he was killed by a law enforcement officer in 1970.

Featuring material from recently released files, the program removes Salazar from the glare of myth and martyrdom and offers a clear-eyed look at the man.

Black Lives Matter. This simple phrase has become the motto of a growing movement calling for true justice and equalty for black people. Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, first typed out those three words back in 2013.

In March of 2015, Alicia Garza visited the University of Southern Maine to tell the story of how Black Lives Matter came to be, and express her hopes for where it’s headed. We hear her speech.

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