- Important News
Closing a Chapter, Honoring a Legacy: Sunsetting FoC Media/International Media Project
For 30 years, Frequencies of Change Media — legally known as International Media Project — has been dedicated to broadcasting audio stories that honor the rich wisdom and lived experience of historically oppressed and marginalized...
“Making Contact” is an award-winning radio show and podcast that digs into the story beneath the story. We examine the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground, building a more just world, featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews.
Bayard Rustin: The Gay, Black Civil Rights Activist (Encore)
This episode has also been published as “Angelic Troublemaker: Bayard Rustin” and “Giving Bayard Rustin His Flowers“ On today’s show, we take a look at the life and legacy of a central organizer of the 1963...
A Dream Remembered?: Martin Luther King Jr and the Grassroots Civil Rights Movement (ENCORE)
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th 1963, at the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered one of the most famous speeches of all time. But it nearly didn’t happen. On this special edition of Making Contact,...
Origin Story: Making Contact | 30th Anniversary Capsule
From its birthplace in an Oakland cafe in 1994 to the Battle in Seattle, international reporting projects, and a deep commitment to social justice journalism, Making Contact has been an important part of the media landscape for more than...
The Cost of Deportations | 30th Anniversary Capsule
About two million Guatemalans live in the US. But, half of those here lack legal status, and tens of thousands of Guatemalans are deported back to their country each year. Are the countries these migrants left prepared for an influx of...
In the Shadow of the Wall: From Gaza to Arizona | 30th Anniversary Capsule
In dozens of countries, millions of people live beside militarized border walls, areas which can be quite dangerous. From Palestinian farmers to shootings at the US and Mexico border; living in the shadow of the wall.
Trade Shifts: Reflections on the Seattle WTO Protests | 30th Anniversary Capsule
On November 30th, 1999, tens of thousands of people shook the streets of Seattle, WA, in protest of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO symbolized the corporate takeover of human needs and the environment. On this edition, we...
The Agony and the Ecstasy: Race and the Future of the Love Story | 30th Anniversary Capsule
In 2019 a well known romance writer began tweeting about other writers in her community and concerns about racism. It led to a huge reckoning within an organization called the Romance Writers of America. And although the online debate...
Family Matters: How Communities Support Trans Kids in Conservative States | 30th Anniversary Capsule
In 2023, Kirin Clawson’s endocrinologist placed a puberty-blocking implant in her arm, a medical intervention that is associated with improved mental health for many trans kids with gender dysphoria. In February 2024, Indiana joined...
The Feminist Birth of the Home Pregnancy Test (Encore)
This episode was originally published in 2014, and this episode is a republishing of the Feb 28, 2024 Encore, titled “The Feminist Birth of the Home Pregnancy Test.” In 1965 Margaret Crane was a young designer creating...
Flemmie Kittrell and the Preschool Experiment from Lost Women of Science (Encore)
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...
- Blog
- By Amy Gastelum
- By Anita Johnson
- By Lucy Kang
- By Salima Hamirani
Closing a Chapter, Honoring a Legacy: Sunsetting FoC Media/International Media Project
For 30 years, Frequencies of Change Media — legally known as International Media Project — has been dedicated to broadcasting audio stories that honor the rich wisdom and lived experience of historically oppressed and marginalized...
Gaza: Reflections on a Year of Reporting
Producer Lucy Kang reported Making Contact’s first story on Israel’s invasion on Gaza last November. One year later, the conflict continues to mercilessly destroy families and lives in Palestine and beyond. It’s been reported...
Introducing Frequencies of Change Media (FoC Media)
Hi friends, We’re thrilled to share some exciting news with you: National Radio Project (International Media Project) is evolving into Frequencies of Change Media (FoC Media)! Why the change? Well, it’s simple: We’ve outgrown our...
An Interview with Summer Intern Alex Corey
This was an exciting and eventful summer at Making Contact, especially as we had Alex Corey join us as our summer intern! Like the journalists we are, we had to interview him about his time at Making Contact. Be sure to check out his...
Help Us Support Journalism from Gaza
Click here to donate to our Gaza Reporting Fund! Over the next few weeks, we are running a special campaign to fundraise for our Palestinian colleague Rami Almeghari. He is currently in Gaza with his family as Israeli...
Family Matters: How Communities Support Trans Kids in Conservative States | 30th Anniversary Capsule
In 2023, Kirin Clawson’s endocrinologist placed a puberty-blocking implant in her arm, a medical intervention that is associated with improved mental health for many trans kids with gender dysphoria. In February 2024, Indiana joined...
The Feminist Birth of the Home Pregnancy Test (Encore)
This episode was originally published in 2014, and this episode is a republishing of the Feb 28, 2024 Encore, titled “The Feminist Birth of the Home Pregnancy Test.” In 1965 Margaret Crane was a young designer creating...
The Way Home (Encore)
We visit two distinct projects working with food to revitalize identity and ancestry: Part one: In many Indigenous communities, there’s a gap in knowledge about growing and cooking traditional foods. On the Blackfeet Nation in rural...
When Survival is Criminalized (Encore)
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so we are revisiting a show from our archives about criminalized survival, the criminal justice system’s long practice of imprisoning survivors of intimate partner violence when...
Indigenous Intervention: Using Culture in Indigenous Substance Abuse Treatment
This episode was originally published as Culture & Spirituality As Substance Use Treatment in Indigenous Communities. In the late 1990s, psychologist Dr. Joseph Gone, a professor and member of the Aaniiih Gros Ventre tribe, returned...
Bayard Rustin: The Gay, Black Civil Rights Activist (Encore)
This episode has also been published as “Angelic Troublemaker: Bayard Rustin” and “Giving Bayard Rustin His Flowers“ On today’s show, we take a look at the life and legacy of a central organizer of the 1963...
Kev Choice: Love, Growth, and the Power of Music (Encore)
We sit down with Kev Choice, a classically trained pianist, rapper, composer, and educator, who has reshaped the Bay Area music scene. Raised in Oakland with San Francisco roots, Kev blends hip-hop, jazz, soul, and classical music into a...
Saltwater Soundwalk: Indigenous Audio Tour of Seattle (Encore)
In this special encore episode of Making Contact, we present “Saltwater Soundwalk”: Indigenous Audio Tour of Seattle. Produced by Jenny Asarnow and Rachel Lam, this rhythmic, watery audio experience, streams of stories that ebb and...
The Black Panthers in Algeria (Encore)
This story is brought to us by the podcast Kerning Cultures. “Black Panthers in Algeria” tells the story of Elaine Mokhtefi as she landed in newly independent Algeria in the early 1960s and found herself at the center of a...
How Public Schools Are Failing Black Students with Dyslexia (Encore)
Featuring: Geraldine Robinson, Oakland matriarch raising her grandkids Cheryl Theis, Education Advocate, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund Megan Potente, Educational Therapist and Co-State Director, Decoding Dyslexia...
The City Displaced
We return to Norfolk, Virginia, where flooding and rising sea levels threaten residents, and the climate plan for the city could perpetuate harmful patterns of segregation and environmental racism. With the help of the podcast Wading...
Port City, from Generation to Generation
In this episode, we’ll head to Norfolk, Virginia, where flooding and rising sea levels are disproportionately threatening Black residents, while the city is also also weathering a housing crisis. We’ll hear about how sea-level...
El Béisbol Is Where We Shine
On this week’s Making Contact, we talk about baseball with the help of some Venezuelan players living in Peru. In a story brought to us by the podcast In Confianza, with Pulso, we hear about how their hopes and dreams of making it...
Beyond the Glass Wall: Immigrant Rights Post-9/11
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was created in the aftermath of 9/11. To contextualize what’s happening with immigration today under Trump 2.0, we bring you one...
Crosswinds: Change
On this week’s show, we’ll continue with the podcast mini-series Crosswinds from the University of Virginia’s Repair Lab and producer Adrian Wood. The show looks at the impact of coal dust pollution on Black neighborhoods in...
Flemmie Kittrell and the Preschool Experiment from Lost Women of Science (Encore)
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...
Exposed Part Two: the Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point from SF Public Press
The military exposed thousands of servicemen to radioactivity when it called them to participate in nuclear weapons tests, including Operation Teapot in 1955. One was Eldridge Jones, who later deployed to exercises in the Bay Area to try...
Exposed Part One: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunter’s Point from SF Public Press
Today we present the first half of a two-part radio documentary from our friends at the San Francisco Public Press, “Exposed,” opening a window into the little-known history of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The sprawling abandoned...
The Way Home (Encore)
We visit two distinct projects working with food to revitalize identity and ancestry: Part one: In many Indigenous communities, there’s a gap in knowledge about growing and cooking traditional foods. On the Blackfeet Nation in rural...
How the Legacy of Colonialism Keeps Puerto Rico’s Healthcare System in Shambles (Encore)
Almost half of Puerto Rico’s doctors have fled the island over the past decade, leading to a lack of specialists and treatment and incredibly long wait times. And this isn’t just an inconvenience. People are dying from lack...
