Making Contact

Series produced by Making Contact

Series image

An international radio program that links people, vital ideas, and important information

Making Contact is an award-winning, 29-minute weekly magazine/documentary-style public affairs program, heard on more than 190 radio stations in the USA, Canada and South Africa. Making Contact is committed to in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news.

Showcasing voices and perspectives not often heard in mainstream media, Making Contact focuses on the human realities of politics and the connections between local and global events, emphasizing positive, creative and grassroots ways to solve problems.

Making Contact's first broadcast was in 1995.


660 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Image of Arctic Ice, Credit: Pink floyd88 a via Wikimedia Commons
In an era where climate change is top of mind for all and our futures hang in the balance, scientists think they’ve found a solution: geoengineerin...

Bought by KMUN and RadioFreePalmer


  • Added: Mar 05, 2024
  • Length: 29:59
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Ruchika Tulshyan (left) and Ijeoma Oluo (right).
What does equity really mean? That might be an impossible question to answer objectively, but in this encore episode Ruchika Tulshyan, a workplace ...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer


  • Added: Mar 12, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Margaret Crane, inventor of America's first home pregnancy test, in 1965. , Credit: Anna Kaufman
In 1965 Margaret Crane was a young graphic designer with an idea: Why couldn't women do their own pregnancy tests at home? This is the story of how...

Bought by KETR-FM, RadioStPete Florida, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, WWNO, RadioFreePalmer and more


  • Added: Feb 27, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 7
Caption: Excerpt from the book cover, reading "Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock" superimposed on top of orange and pink geological features., Credit: Penguin Random House
We speak with Jenny Odell, author of "Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock," about how the ways we think about time shapes our lives. A...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, RadioFreePalmer, KMUN, and RadioStPete Florida


  • Added: Feb 20, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Bayard Rustin, half-length portrait, facing front, microphones in foreground, Credit: Library of Congress
Today’s episode from our archives continues to honor Black history and heritage. We take a look at the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, a central ...

Bought by WXDU, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WORT, Oregon Public Broadcasting, RadioFreePalmer and more


  • Added: Feb 13, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Ribbon cutting at Tulsa's EduRec Youth Center for Black History Saturdays. , Credit: Credit: Black History Saturdays
When Oklahoma passed a law limiting discussion of race in classrooms, Tulsa activist Kristi Williams rallied the community to create Black History ...

Bought by KMUN, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, WXDU, and RadioFreePalmer


  • Added: Feb 06, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Jenkin Lloyd Jones Press, All Souls' book publishing imprint, 2021 , Credit: Jenkin Lloyd Jones Press, All Souls' book publishing imprint, 2021
Tulsa Tri-City Collective leaders Carlos Moreno and Bracken Klar talk about the history of Greenwood, a Tulsa neighborhood founded by and for Black...

Bought by WXDU, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, RadioFreePalmer, KMUN, and KALW


  • Added: Jan 30, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: B.C. Franklin (right), I.H. Spears (left) and Effie Thompson (center) filing insurance claims for survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre in a Red Cross tent. , Credit: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from Tulsa Friends and John W. and Karen R. Franklin
In the first of our 3 part series leading up to Black History Month, we focus in on how journalists and historians today are covering the Tulsa Rac...

Bought by KALW, RadioStPete Florida, RadioFreePalmer, and KMUN


  • Added: Jan 23, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Image of the explosion after the Trinity detonation on July 16, 1945, Credit: United States Department of Energy
Oppenheimer swept the Golden Globes, but what did it leave out? We talk about the impact of nuclear colonialism on New Mexico with Myrriah Gómez, a...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer and WORT


  • Added: Jan 16, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Portrait of Dr. Cornel West, Credit: Gage Skidmore (from creative commons)
On today's show, we hear from noted author, scholar, and self-described intellectual freedom fighter, Dr. Cornel West. In his discussions, West use...

Bought by RadioStPete Florida, RadioFreePalmer, and KMUN


  • Added: Jan 09, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption:  Brunswick cafe, Little Dog, where workers organized a union., Credit: Alex Spear, Bowdoin Orient
On the forefront of the next labor revolution, we visit a coffee shop in Maine called Little Dog whose workers start to organize a union and we tal...

Bought by KMUN, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, and RadioFreePalmer


  • Added: Jan 02, 2024
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: But Next Time host Chrishelle Palay talks with Houston community organizer, Ericka Bowman after a bus tour of the city organized by housing justice advocates. , Credit: Leah Mahan
In this final episode of four-part series, But Next Time, our guest hosts, Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta take us to Houston to continue the sto...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, RadioFreePalmer, and KMUN


  • Added: Dec 26, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: 12 Moms Initiative member Jamie describes water and mold damage to her home at the Coppertree Village Apartments to members of the National Low Income Housing Coalition during a bus tour hosted by Houston's housing justice organizers., Credit: Leah Mahan
Today in Houston, Texas we meet a group of moms who stand up for local housing policies that keep families of color trapped in unsafe homes for yea...

Bought by KMUN and C89.5 - KNHC Seattle


  • Added: Dec 19, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: But Next Time hosts Rose and Chrishelle pose for a photo with members of indigenous language radio show, Radio Autóctona Indigenista on KBBF., Credit: Leah Mahan
This week we continue delving into community-rooted disaster relief in California. From building mutual aid networks, to translating emergency mess...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle and RadioFreePalmer


  • Added: Dec 12, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: KBBF board President, Alicia Sanchez prepares a recording for the station., Credit: Amanda Lopez
As fires ravaged California’s wine country in 2017, farm and service workers, especially non-English speakers, were some of the hardest hit. Hear m...

Bought by KMUN and RadioFreePalmer


  • Added: Dec 05, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Demonstrators call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to US military aid to Israel at the Port of Oakland in November 2023., Credit: Brooke Anderson (photo has been cropped from original)
For weeks people around the world have been witness to Israel's deadly assault on Gaza. Today, we uncover the military corporations profiting from ...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer and KMUN


  • Added: Nov 28, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
The story of how locals in Buenos Aires came together to feed each other through a pandemic with community kitchens (ollas populares), and how inno...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, KMUN, and C89.5 - KNHC Seattle


  • Added: Nov 20, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Image of Arctic Ice, Credit: Pink floyd88 a, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
In recent years, scientists have begun testing geoengineering technologies to slow down or even stop global warming. But, is geoengineering safe? A...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, RadioFreePalmer, KMUN, and RadioStPete Florida


  • Added: Oct 30, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 4
Piece image
Maribel Quezada Smith and Liz Alarcón discuss ways they maintain their children’s latinidad while living in the U.S., and what they’ve changed from...

Bought by C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, RadioFreePalmer, RadioStPete Florida, KMUN, and KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Oct 23, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Ruchika Tulshyan left and Ijeoma Oluo.
Thought leaders in our nationwide conversation about race and belonging, Ruchika Tulshyan and Ijeoma Oluo discuss Tulshyan’s book, Inclusion on Pur...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle, RadioStPete Florida, and KMUN


  • Added: Sep 22, 2023
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 4