Making Contact

Through the work and birth stories of midwife, Allegra Hill, the producers of Re:Work Radio explain how Black midwives in Los Angeles are helping women to experience empowered births.

September 11th, 2021 marks 20 years since the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Today, we turn our attention not to the tragedy of 9/11 itself, but to 9/11 as an inflection point in U.S. culture and policy in two areas: domestic surveillance in the form of fusion centers, and the rise and fall of the use of torture in the War on Terror.

The COVID 19 pandemic has transformed all of our lives in some way. But some are feeling the impacts more than others. Take healthcare workers, for example: As the United States surpasses 38 million COVID-19 cases and 637,000 deaths as of August 28th, 2021, many healthcare workers continue to be overloaded by caring for COVID-19 patients. Globally, COVID-19 has presented unique challenges, leading to increased mental health issues among healthcare workers. Others are feeling the impacts while struggling to find or maintain housing, and balance parenting during the pandemic.

Fifty-one years ago, 30,000 people peacefully protested the disproportionate number of Latinos dying on the frontlines in Vietnam. The August 29th Chicano Moratorium ended with an attack by police, 400 arrests, and the deaths of four people, one of whom was Los Angeles Times journalist Rubén Salazar.

On June 14, 2017, a fire started in a 24-story public housing apartment in West London called Grenfell Tower. The fire raged all night and reduced the building to a shell. Seventy-two people lost their lives, making the Grenfell Tower fire the United Kingdom's deadliest disaster since World War II. In this episode, we examine the events that led up to the Grenfell Tower fire and learn how the community has responded through the voices of survivors, their families, and others who were impacted.

Barbara Bernstein's story of several communities in the Pacific Northwest of the United States who are fighting mammoth fracked gas projects that would turn this green region into a fracked-gas export hub. For years, Bernstein has reported for Making Contact on David versus Goliath battles against oil and gas corporations, and the fight for a clean environment. Today you'll hear part one of Bernstein's project, Holding The Thin Green Line as we bring you, The World's Largest Methanol Refinery.

Regardless of race, gender, or political affiliation, Americans in 2020 bought guns; many, for the first time. In this show, we hear from gun and mental health communities on last year's panic buying, and what they are doing to prevent gun violence and suicides in the wake of surging national gun sales.

As reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate, missing and murdered indigenous women and girls continue to face an unequal system of justice. In this show we'll hear from indigenous women scholars and activists on what justice means for MMIWG2.

Our radio adaptation of the film Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chican@ Movement, offers a reflection on the untold stories of the Chicano Movement with a focus on Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Produced by Freedom Archives, the film delves into issues of cultural identity, student activism; land rights and social justice, in the face of police oppression.

Our radio adaptation of the film Symbols of Resistance: A Tribute to the Martyrs of the Chicano Movement, offers a reflection on the untold stories of the Chicano Movement with a focus on Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Produced by Freedom Archives, the film delves into issues of cultural identity, student activism; land rights and social justice, in the face of police oppression.