2018

On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll examine how young people, particularly queer POC youth, are using spoken word as a mechanism for social change. The show also will explore how Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam has challenged mainstream culture and created spaces that welcome and encourage marginalized communities to speak up about their life experiences – all through poetry.

We Got Next: Youth Poets Changing the World

On this episode of Making Contact, journalist Juan González discusses his new book, Reclaiming Gotham.  He chronicles the evolution of the growth machine in America’s cities - from redlining and racial covenants in the early 20th century, to land grabs and privatization in the 21st - and the rise of progressive alliances to reclaim them.

Special thanks to Pegasus Books for organizing the event and allowing us to broadcast excerpts of Juan González’s discussion of Reclaiming Gotham. The event took place in Berkeley, CA in October 2017.

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Reclaiming Gotham: The Battle for U.S. Cities

When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United states, the wealth gap between rich and poor was already very wide. The top 10% of families -- those who had at least $942,000 -- held 76% of total wealth. The average amount of wealth in this group was $4 million. And the entire bottom half of the population had just 1% of the total wealth pie, this gap continues to rise and when the statistical scope accounts for race, the disparity worsens.

Special thanks to Upstream Podcast: Upstreampodcast.org.

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Wealth Inequity and Universal Basic Income

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Cash is increasingly being replaced with cashless systems including cryptocurrencies. This week, we hear about the political economy of blockchain. And we hear from Greeks who've been using cryptocurrencies since the capital controls of 2015.

Breaking Protocol: Blockchain and Capital Controls in Greece

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Some Americans cling desperately to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first Black president spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America - more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.

In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Stamped from the Beginning uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists. From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois to legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis, Kendi shows how and why some of our leading proslavery and pro-civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America.

Special Thanks to KPFA Radio for use of the audio.

Making Contact

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

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Activists in Houston were galvanized by events in Ferguson in 2014 following the death of Michael Brown. First, they took to the streets in protest. Then they started organizing. Not long after, they found a kindred spirit in the most unlikely person: a candidate for the DA office. 70 Million reporter, Ruxandra Guidi, chronicles how activists and reformers are succeeding in cutting the jail population, diverting drug arrests, and increasing accountability for local police.

70 Million - Reform Activists and a New DA Find Common Ground

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.