It’s something many of us take for granted: access to clean drinking water. But for many Americans it’s not something they can rely on. From chemical spills in West Virginia to ecoli in the water on the Texas-Mexico border, to contamination from farming in California. On this edition, we hear what happens when there’s not a drop to drink.

• Angela Walker, Charleston resident
• Neena Satija, environment reporter Texas Tribune
• Daisy Gonzalez and Vicente Lara, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
• Horacio Amezquita, resident San Jerado

Los Angeles’ garment district is notorious for sweatshop conditions, abuse, and the outright theft of earned wages. Yet the name-brand clothes that some of us are wearing right now, may have been produced in factories like these. On this edition of Making Contact we’ll take you on a trip through LA’s garment district.

In 2012, fast food workers in NYC kicked off a movement that has exceeded all expectations, and changed the conversation about the minimum wage.

On this edition, low paid workers tell the story of the fight for 15, the exploding nationwide movement for fair wages.

Featuring:

• Alvin Major, KFC employee and original NYC striker
• Richard Wilson, Walmart employee
• Bernardo Monteo, Chanda Roberts, Jayla Mosley; fast food workers
• Mary Kay Henry, SEIU President
• Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education
• Thomas Geoghegan, author of “Only One Thing Can Save Us: Why America Needs A New Kind of Labor Movement“

From Norco, Louisiana to Flint, Michigan to Los Angeles, California – environmental racism is real. On this edition of Making Contact, we look at polluting industries in Northeast and South L.A.

We begin with a story by Making Contact’s Community Storytelling Fellow Ivan Rodriguez, followed by an interview with journalist Aura Bogado and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis.

Women Rising Radio #30 profiles women fighting slavery, trafficking and forced labor globally.

• Ima Matul, with CAST LA, was trafficked to Los Angeles, was rescued by the Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking in Los Angeles, and now heads CAST’s leadership program.
• Joanna Ewart-James is the executive director of WALK FREE, an online and on-the-ground network battling trafficking, forced labor, and servitude worldwide. WALK FREE is based in London.
• Elena Uraleva is an independent human rights monitor in her home country of Uzbekistan. She works with WALK FREE to document forced labor and human rights abuses there.
• Supriya Awasthi works on children’s rights and on freeing bonded slaves in India. She is a staff member of FREE THE SLAVES.

January 2016 marked the end of China’s one child policy—a regime of family planning policies and enforcement that scarred generations of parents and children. On this edition of Making Contact, China correspondent Gady Epstein speaks with Mei Fong, author of One Child:The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment, and Barbara Demick, journalist and former Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times.

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.

Featuring:

• Stanley Nelson, Director of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
• Eric Arnold, journalist

Among the effects of climate change are more extreme weather events, such as Typhoon Haiyan, Superstorm Sandy, and a severe drought stretching across much of the Western United States. On this edition of Making Contact we’ll take a deeper look at the social and psychological impacts of climate change, and the weight of inaction.

• Niki Stanley and Derice Klass, Far Rockaway residents
• Zardos V. Abela, firefighter for the Bureau of Fire Protection in Tacloban, Philippines
• Abigail Gewirtz, psychologist at the University of Minnesota
• Stephan Wasik, Valley Fire survivor
• Jeff Keenan, Valley Fire survivor
• Erica Petersen, Valley Fire survivor
• Manuel Orozco, Behavioral Health Fiscal Manager, Lake County Behavioral Health.

Rapper and grassroots organizer Boots Riley’s recent book is titled “Tell Homeland Security: We Are the Bomb”. Riley appeared at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington DC, where he was interviewed by author and Edge of Sports blogger Dave Zirin.

Special thanks to Politics and Prose Bookstore & Coffeehouse

Featuring:

• Boots Riley, “Tell Homeland Security: We Are the Bomb” author
• Dave Zirin, “Edge of Sports” blogger

This show takes a look at issues within the foster care system in the U.S. from the high rate of teen pregnancy to the alarming use of psychiatric medications in California’s foster care system.

Featuring:

• Nicole Rocke, former foster youth
• Kyle Lafferty, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
• Linda Bryant, Clinical Professor at New York University’s School of Social Work
• Benita Miller, Deputy Commissioner of Family Permanency Services at the Administration of Children’s Services
• Lorraine Jacobs, caseworker
• Yolanda Vasquez, former foster youth
• Adriane Fugh-Berman, Pharmacology Professor at Georgetown University’s Medical Center
• Bill Grimm, Attorney at National Center for Youth Law
• Susan Bullard
• David Arrendondo, Child psychiatrist
• Dr. Edmund Levin, at the Lincoln Child Center
• Nancy Forster, Therapist at the Lincoln Child Center
• April Rene Sanders, former foster youth and recipient of AB12
• Kyle Sporleader, Statewide Legislative Coordinator for California Youth Connection (CYC)