Making Contact – May 23, 2025
Upcoming Episode
Making Contact
2:00 PM PACIFIC TIME: Fridays
Covering the movements, the issues, and the people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang.
Today’s episode of Making Contact is preempted by special programming for KPFA’s 2025 Spring Fund Drive. Brian Edwards-Tiekert speaks with photographer and author Josh Jackson, an advocate for public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Through his Forgotten Lands Project, he employs storytelling and visual narratives to inspire engagement with California’s unknown … Continued
Today’s episodes of Making Contact and Pushing Limits are preempted by special programming for KPFA’s 2025 Spring Fund Drive. Christopher Bache, a professor emeritus of philosophy and religious studies, speaks with C.S. Soong about his twenty-year psychedelic journey, which is described and interpreted in his book LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from … Continued
The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story (encore)
Composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Pinderhughes tells us about The Healing Project. The Healing Project, a fundamentally abolitionist project, explores the structures of systemic racism and the prison industrial complex. This story first aired February 2023. The Healing Project takes action towards abolition with forms such as musical songs, films, an exhibition, community gatherings, live … Continued
Radical Therapy (from Re:Work)
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we bring you a story at the intersection of therapy, healing and social justice. We’ll hear about one therapist’s work to bring the lens of radical therapy and community care into her practice. This piece was produced by the podcast Re:Work from the UCLA Labor Center. GUEST: Claudia … Continued
The Promise and Peril of Geoengineering (encore)
Geoengineering is defined as some emerging technologies that could manipulate the environment and partially offset some of the impacts of climate change. Seems like the perfect solution for a consumerist society that lives on instant gratification and can’t stop polluting even at the risk of our futures, right? Well, let’s slow down. Today we’ll discuss … Continued
The Calling: Black Midwifery
For Black Maternal Health Week, we celebrate the important work that Black midwives do in their communities. In this week’s show, we’ll hear a conversation about how one woman followed her calling to midwifery in a story brought to us by the podcast Re:Work from the UCLA Labor Center. GUEST: Kimberly Durdin, licensed midwife and … Continued
The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition (encore)
Caste — one of the oldest systems of exclusion in the world — is thriving. Despite the ban on Untouchability 70 years ago, caste impacts 1.9 billion people in the world. Every 15 minutes, a crime is perpetrated against a Dalit person. The average age of death for Dalit women is just 39. And the … Continued
Catching up with Comedy Queen Karinda Dobbins (encore)
On this week’s episode, we speak with Bay Area based comedian Karinda Dobbins about the release of her debut comedy album, Black & Blue. In Black & Blue, Karinda shares personal stories, finding humor in the most ordinary moments of her daily life, including her girlfriend’s arbitrary policy on household pests, the changes hipsters have … Continued
The Supreme Court Under Trump
During his first term, Trump stacked the Supreme Court with hard right judges, creating a 6-3 split that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a stunning ruling in which a human right which was previously granted by law was taken away from the public. This time Trump faces even less resistance and could … Continued
Flemmie Kittrell and the Preschool Experiment, from Lost Women of Science
Dr. Flemmie Kittrell was a Black home economist whose research in the field of early childhood education shaped the way we think about child development today. She became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in nutrition and contributed immensely to programs like Head Start — even though her name is often left out … Continued