Making Contact

It’s election season! But since the 2013 Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act, many states have pushed changes to voter laws that raise disturbing connections to the past. On this week’s show, we’ll hear about hard fought battles for voting rights and the implications of new laws.

Featuring:

• Reverend Tyrone Edwards, civil rights historian in Plaquemines Parish Louisiana
• Tyrone Brooks, Georgia State Representative
• Clifford Kuhn, Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• JT Johnson, civil rights organizer
• Allen Secher, rabbi
• Jerel James, Tamia Adkinson, docents at Civil Rights Museum of St. Augustine
• August Tinson, testified in U.S. vs Fox (1962)
• Gary May, professor of history at the University of Delaware and the author of Bending Towards Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy.

Heroes to many, traitors to some. The internet has put whistleblowers in the public eye, and the government’s crosshairs. With increased access to classified information, and the ability to spread it, the world’s biggest institutions are running scared and cracking down.

On this week’s show, we hear about the whistleblowers we don’t see on the nightly news. They’re not named Manning or Snowden, they’re ordinary people who report wrongdoing at their place of employment, and pay the consequences.

Featuring:

• Eileen Chubb, founder of Compassion in Care and The Whistler
• Felix Smith, former US Department of Fish & Wildlife biologist
• Gary Santolo, wildlife biologist and toxicologist
• Lloyd Carter, former environmental reporter
• Stephen Kohn, National Whistleblowers Center director

What do our voices say about us? On this edition we explore voice and identity. We’ll hear from someone who nearly lost their voice as well as the challenges that come with ordering a pizza with a speech generating device.

Featuring:

• Mya Byrne, singer-songwriter
• Kathe Perez, creator of EVA app
• Samuel Sennott, assistant professor of special education at Portland University
• Bob Segalman, author “Against the Current, My Life with Cerebral Palsy”
• April Bryant, UC Berkeley student
• Hannah Simpson, Nika Jewell, Tela Love, 13th Philadelphia Transgender Health Conference, attendees.

Making Contact partnered with the 2014 National Poetry Slam to produce this special open mic highlighting the power of thoughtful, truth telling, community focused poetry.

[one_half]Featuring Poets:

• Chris Cuadrado
• Lindsay Stone
• Jared Paul
• Caitlin Clark
• Queen T

More information, photos and the full 3 hour open mic at:

Making Contact

One in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime, yet in pop culture accurate portrayals of real people s stories are rare. In this show we hear about representations of abortion and reproductive decision-making in popular culture, and why those stories really matter.

Who's watching you? Nowadays it seems everyone wants to get their hands on our personal data. From the FBI to the welfare department, to some of the country's biggest retailers. On this edition, we take a closer look at the world of surveillance.

Featuring

• Hasan Elahi, artist and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland
• Charles Duhigg, New York Times journalist and author of “The Power of Habit”
• Jodie Berger, public benefits lawyer
• John Gilliom, Professor of Political Science at Ohio University
• Kaaryn Gustafson, welfare lawyer and University of Connecticut teacher

More than 150,000 people sign up for the US military every year. Their reasons for joining vary widely, from those hoping for financial help through college, to others looking to follow in the footsteps of parents or grandparents.

In recent years getting into the military has gotten harder, with criminal records and low academic scores proving the biggest barriers. As hard as getting into the military might be, getting out may be harder still.

On this edition of Making Contact we’ll hear radio adaptations of Michelle Mason’s film, “Breaking Ranks,” produced by Screen Siren Pictures and the National Film Board of Canada and of “Deserter” by Rick Rowley, from Big Noise Films and PM Press.

Featuring:

• Jeremy Hinzman, Kyle Snyder, Joshua Key, Ryan Johnson, Brandon Hughey, US military personnel who refused to return to Iraq.
• Sergeant Brian Jensen, military recruiter.

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.

Featuring:

• Lewis Moody, former rugby player
• Dr Michael Grey, motor neuroscience physiologist at the University of Birmingham
• Peter Robinson, father of Ben Robinson
• David Barnes, Rugby Director of the Rugby Players’ Association in England

Is your children’s schoolyard routinely sprayed with pesticides? How safe your children are might depend on where you live. Today we hear about how and why one pesticide has been banned for household use, but affects the health of farmworkers and their children. Children’s health is especially fragile–so why aren’t we protecting them?

Featuring:

• Kim Harley, Center for Environmental Research in Children’s Health associate director
• Isabel Arrollo, El Quinto Sol de America organizer
• Jennifer Sass, Natural Resources Defense Council senior scientist
• Tracey Brieger, Californians for Pesticide Reform co-director
• Marina Gomez, Brian Jimenez-Gomez, CHAMACOS research participants
• Margaret Reeves, Pesticide Action Network senior scientist
• Valerie Bengal, family physician and UC San Francisco clinical professor
• Brett Knupfer, Ohlone Elementary School principal
• Marcy Mock, Ohlone special education teacher
• Casimira Salazar, Ohlone migrant education teacher
• Cynthia Fernandez, Ohlone 2nd grade teacher
• Brett McFadden, Pajaro Valley Unified School District chief business officer
• Mary Ellen Kustin, Environmental Working Group policy analyst

Nomi Prins, journalist and a former managing director of Goldman Sachs, discusses her book All the Presidents’ Bankers, the hidden alliances that drive American power. Prins retraces the relationship between American financiers and presidents stretching more than a century. From family friends, trusted confidants to the present day; how the relationship has deteriorated and presidents have lost control of the economy.

Special thanks to Pirate TV for the original recording from June 17, 2014.

Featuring:

Nomi Prins , journalist and author of All the Presidents’ Bankers, the hidden alliances that drive American power.