KPFA - Making Contact

In part one of our series on water in the Central Valley of California, we visited a town called East Orosi, which has been fighting for clean water for over 20 years. This week we turn our attention to their sewage system, which is also falling apart. Why has it been so difficult for East Orosi to get clean drinking water and fix its sewage problems? To answer that question we take a look at the entities that run things like sewage and water in unincorporated towns all across California. They're called Community Utility Districts. Community Utility Districts are often one of the only forms of self governance in unincorporated towns. But they're staffed by volunteers, they're underfunded, and they're trying to share a vital resource, water, which is also slowly disappearing in the San Joaquin Valley. We talk about the problems with Community Utility Districts and ways to save them. GUESTS: Berta Diaz Ochoa – community member of East Orosi Janaki Anagha – Director of Advocacy, Community Water Center Kayla Vander Schuur – Community Development Specialist, Self Help Enterprises Carlos Sanchez – board member of the East Orosi Community Utilities District Maricela Mares-Alatorre – Community Solutions Advocate, Community Water Center   The post Thirsting For Justice (part two): Community Utility Districts and East Orosi's Drinking Water Problems (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

Today's episodes of Making Contact and Pushing Limits are preempted by special programming for KPFA's 2025 Spring Fund Drive. Sasha Lilley speaks with Greg King, an award-winning journalist and activist credited with spearheading the movement to protect Headwaters Forest, in Humboldt County, California. King initiated the “redwood wars” following the notorious 1985 takeover of the venerable Pacific Lumber Company by the Houston energy and real estate conglomerate Maxxam. King has spent decades researching redwood logging and preservation efforts and is the author of the book The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods. To support our mission and receive the book The Ghost Forest as a thank-you gift, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732 (800-HEY-KPFA).   The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Greg King on the California Redwoods appeared first on KPFA.

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 landscapes. His latest book is The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California's Public Lands. To support our mission and receive Josh Jackson's book The Enduring Wild as a thank-you gift, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732 (800-HEY-KPFA).   The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Josh Jackson on California's Incredible Public Wilderness appeared first on KPFA.

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 Heaven. To support our mission and receive Christopher Bache's book as a thank-you gift, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732 (800-HEY-KPFA).   The post Special Spring Fund Drive Programming: Christopher Bache on the Psychedelic Journey appeared first on KPFA.

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 performances, and a digital library of audio interviews. At the center of the project are the intergenerational voices of people across the country, including folks incarcerated in prisons and detention centers. Their stories, experiences, and ideas serve as the foundation for The Healing Project's vision for societal transformation. Featuring: Samora Pinderhughes, composer, pianist/vocalist, and interdisciplinary artist   The post The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

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 Morales, therapist at Social Justice Healing   The post Radical Therapy (from Re:Work) appeared first on KPFA.

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 the dangers of geoengineering and the ethics of the fact that these new technologies are being tested on Indigenous lands. GUESTS: Basav Sen – Climate Justice Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies Dr. Steven Zornetzer – Vice-Chair, Governing Board of Arctic Ice Project Panganga Pungowiyi – Organizer for the nonprofit Indigenous Environmental Network in Alaska   The post The Promise and Peril of Geoengineering (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

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 co-founder of Kindred Space LA and the Birthing People Foundation.   The post The Calling: Black Midwifery appeared first on KPFA.

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 wreckages of caste are replicated here in the US, too — erupting online with rape and death threats, showing up at work, and forcing countless Dalits to live in fear of being outed. Dalit American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan puts forth a call to awaken and act — not just for readers in South Asia, but all around the world. She ties Dalit oppression to fights for liberation among Black, Indigenous, Latinx, femme, and Queer communities, examining caste from a feminist, abolitionist, and Dalit Buddhist perspective and laying bare the grief, trauma, rage, and stolen futures enacted by Brahminical social structures on the caste-oppressed. Incisive and urgent, her book The Trauma of Caste is an activating beacon of healing and liberation, written by one of the world's most needed voices in the fight to end caste apartheid. Thenmozhi Soundararajan is the author of The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition. She is a Dali- American artist, organizer, technologist, and theorist and the Executive Director of Equality Labs.   The post The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

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 brought to Oakland, and a Black woman's unique packing list for hiking.   The post Catching up with Comedy Queen Karinda Dobbins (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

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 remake the Supreme Court once again. Elie Mystal, justice correspondent and columnist for The Nation magazine, joins us to talk about the Supreme Court — not only what the democrats could have done under Biden to fix the third branch of government so that we wouldn't now be in such a politically vulnerable position but also what we can expect in terms of possible new Supreme Court nominations and what they could mean for our remaining rights.   The post The Supreme Court Under Trump appeared first on KPFA.

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 of the history. We hear more about her life and work in a story from the podcast “Lost Women of Science,” hosted by Carol Sutton Lewis and Danya AbdelHameid. GUESTS: Dolores Caffey-Fleming, Program director of Project STRIDE, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science Allison Horrocks, Public historian Lauren Bauer, fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution   The post Flemmie Kittrell and the Preschool Experiment, from Lost Women of Science appeared first on KPFA.

Today's episodes of Making Contact and Pushing Limits are preempted by special programming for KPFA's 2025 Winter Fund Drive. Paul Reitter and Paul North discuss their translation of Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1, by Karl Marx. To support KPFA's mission, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732.   The post Special Winter Fund Drive Programming: Paul Reitter and Paul North on Capital, by Karl Marx appeared first on KPFA.

Today's episodes of Making Contact and Pushing Limits are preempted by special programming for KPFA's 2025 Winter Fund Drive. To support KPFA's mission, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732.   The post Special Winter Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.

Covering the movements, issues and 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. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2 The post Making Contact – February 21, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

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 to clean up radioactive substances, directed by the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. In episode 2 of “Exposed,” from our friends at San Francisco Public Press, we explore a little-known chapter in San Francisco's nuclear era: human experiments carried out to assess the health effects of radiation. Scientists from the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, located at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, designed and executed at least 24 experiments that involved gathering data from humans — in some cases, injecting test subjects with radioisotopes or having them ingest fluids laced with trace amounts of radioactive materials. Even football players from the San Francisco 49ers were enrolled as test subjects in these so-called tracer studies. We hear from military veterans who were sent on a mysterious mission to spread radioactive substances onto rooftops at an Army base near Pittsburg, California, for an experiment the radiation lab played a role in designing. Some recount experiences of witnessing nuclear bomb blasts in the Nevada desert. We also examine a national pattern of human radiation experiments revealed by Eileen Welsome, the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation, who shined a light on similar practices conducted by government facilities, hospitals, and other institutions. Featuring: Eldridge Jones, served in the military and was part of Operation Stoneman Merle Votaw, Navy veteran who participated in Operation Stoneman II Eileen Welsome, author of “Plutonium Files” Holly Barker, anthropologist and professor at the University of Washington who studied the Marshall Islands.   The post Exposed, part 2: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunter's Point appeared first on KPFA.

This episode comes to us from the podcast at SF Public Press. “Exposed” opens a window into the little-known history of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The sprawling abandoned naval base, in San Francisco's southeast waterfront Bayview neighborhood, is currently the site of the city's largest real estate development project. The base played a key role in the Cold War nuclear era, when it housed a research institution known as the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, which studied the human health effects of radiation. In part one, we trace the radioactive contamination found in the shipyard soil today back to its origins, with nuclear bomb testing in the Marshall Islands. We also hear from environmental justice advocates, including one who led a health biomonitoring survey revealing that nearby residents have toxic elements stored in body tissues that match the hazardous chemicals of concern identified at the shipyard. GUESTS: Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, community advocate and medical doctor Michelle Pierce, Executive director of Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates Leaotis Martin, resident of Bayview Raymond Tompkins, community advocate, chemist, and former member of the Hunters Point Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board Daniel Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap Derek Robinson, Navy representative   The post Exposed, part 1: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunter's Point appeared first on KPFA.

Today we head back to Indianapolis with the podcast Urban Roots. In the 1950s and 1960s, Ms. Jean Spears was a young mother and burgeoning preservationist. She saved antiques from houses about to be demolished; she bought a home in a white slum and renovated it; later on, she did the same with a historic home in the black neighborhood near Indiana Avenue. In the eighties, she and some neighbors started digging into this black neighborhood's history, uncovering the names of Black doctors, civic leaders, and other professionals who had lived there — many of whom had worked for Madam C.J. Walker. She helped rename the neighborhood to Ransom Place, in honor of Freeman Ransom: Madam Walker's prodigious lawyer. And in 1991, they succeeded in getting the Ransom Place Historic District included in the National Register of Historic Places. Thanks in no small part to the connection to Madam C.J. Walker, Jean Spears was able to save this pocket of Black history, in an area that — as we explained last episode — the city of Indianapolis had almost erased from memory. But black Indy history is about more than Madam Walker; other stories and places in the city need protection, too. In this episode, we'll introduce you to three Black women who are carrying on what Ms. Jean Spears started — safeguarding these little-known stories of the past and guiding Indianapolis toward a brighter future. GUESTS: Claudia Polley, Urban Legacy Lands Initiative Kaila Austin, artist and historian Judith Thomas, Deputy Mayor of Neighborhood Engagement for the City of Indianapolis Paula Brooks, Environmental Justice Program Manager at the Hoosier Environment Council The post Reclaiming Indianapolis's Black History from Urban Roots appeared first on KPFA.

Madam C.J. Walker was a brilliant entrepreneur who built a haircare empire and became the first African-American woman millionaire. You might have heard about her, but not many people know that her headquarters used to be located in Indianapolis, along a once vibrant Black corridor called Indiana Avenue, a place that today is known for parking lots, high-speed traffic, and uninspiring university buildings. Why do so few people know this story? Because, over decades, government planners and private developers slowly and systematically erased Indiana Avenue's history. Luckily, however, some Black Hoosiers are working to uncover, and reclaim, what almost disappeared without a trace. In this episode, we tell their, and the Avenue's, story. GUESTS: A'Lelia Bundles, Journalist and Madam C.J. Walker biographer Susan Hall Dotson, Indiana Historical Society Claudia Polley, Urban Legacy Lands Initiative Wildstyle Paschall, artist and community advocate Devon Ginn, Walker Legacy Center Mr. Thomas Hart Ridley, centenarian and Indiana Avenue author The post Urban Roots: Madam Walker and the Rise & Fall of Indiana Avenue appeared first on KPFA.

On today's show, we look at how art can highlight the struggles of incarcerated women, build solidarity with them across prison walls, and fight against the erasure and censorship inherent to incarceration. First, we'll hear about a dance performance called “If I Give You My Sorrows” that's built around the complex ways incarcerated women relate to their beds. Then, we'll learn about an art exhibition, The Only Door I Can Open, that's curated and created by incarcerated artists, writers, and poets inside Central California Women's Facility. GUESTS: Jo Kreiter, artistic director of Flyaway Productions and creative director of If I Give You My Sorrows Betty McKay, formerly incarcerated advocate and organizer Tomiekia Johnson, incarcerated writer and co-curator of The Only Door I Can Open Chantell-Jeannette Black, incarcerated artist and co-curator of The Only Door I Can Open Rahsaan “New York” Thomas, executive director of Empowerment Avenue   The post Art from the Inside: Why We Need More Art By And About Incarcerated Women (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

What are borders, and why do we have them? And how is violent border enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border connected to Israel's brutal assault on Gaza? And what happens when borders cross living land and communities? We'll dig into these questions in this week's episode with the help of Heba Gowayed, sociology professor at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center. And then we'll hear a story brought to us by In Confianza, with Pulso about one time when the natural boundary between two countries changed,  and what happened to the people caught on the other side. GUESTS: Heba Gowayed, sociology professor at CUNY Hunter College and Graduate Center and author of Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential and the forthcoming The Cost of Border. Charlie Garcia, writer and producer of the story “The Border is Alive!,” from In Confianza, with Pulso.   The post Dividing Lines: What Are Borders and Why Do We Have Them? (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

On this week's episode, 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. We take a critical look at productivity culture and the idea that time is money. Then we hear how to begin to disentangle our daily concept of time from its capitalistic and colonialist roots in order to liberate and expand our relationship to time.   The post Jenny Odell on Saving Time (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

On today's show, we look at how art can highlight the struggles of incarcerated women, build solidarity with them across prison walls, and fight against the erasure and censorship inherent to incarceration. First, we'll hear about a dance performance called “If I Give You My Sorrows” that's built around the complex ways incarcerated women relate to their beds. Then, we'll learn about an art exhibition, The Only Door I Can Open, that's curated and created by incarcerated artists, writers, and poets inside Central California Women's Facility. GUESTS: Jo Kreiter, artistic director of Flyaway Productions and creative director of If I Give You My Sorrows Betty McKay, formerly incarcerated advocate and organizer Tomiekia Johnson, incarcerated writer and co-curator of The Only Door I Can Open Chantell-Jeannette Black, incarcerated artist and co-curator of The Only Door I Can Open Rahsaan “New York” Thomas, executive director of Empowerment Avenue   The post Art from the Inside: Why We Need More Art By And About Incarcerated Women (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

On today's show, we look at how art can highlight the struggles of incarcerated women, build solidarity with them across prison walls, and fight against the erasure and censorship inherent to incarceration. First, we'll hear about a dance performance called “If I Give You My Sorrows” that's built around the complex ways incarcerated women relate to their beds. Then, we'll learn about an art exhibition, The Only Door I Can Open, that's curated and created by incarcerated artists, writers, and poets inside Central California Women's Facility. GUESTS: Jo Kreiter, artistic director of Flyaway Productions and creative director of If I Give You My Sorrows Betty McKay, formerly incarcerated advocate and organizer Tomiekia Johnson, incarcerated writer and co-curator of The Only Door I Can Open Chantell-Jeannette Black, incarcerated artist and co-curator of The Only Door I Can Open Rahsaan “New York” Thomas, executive director of Empowerment Avenue   The post Art from the Inside: Why We Need More Art By And About Incarcerated Women appeared first on KPFA.

Today's episodes of Making Contact and Pushing Limits are preempted by special programming for KPFA's 2024 Holiday Fund Drive. To support our mission, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732.   The post Special Holiday Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.

Covering the movements, issues and 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. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2 The post Making Contact – December 6, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

In today's episode, we look at how, over six decades after the Korean War, South Korea processed the most international adoptions in history and how the demand for a “domestic supply of (adoptable) infants” may be playing a role in increasing threats to autonomy over pregnancy in the U.S. GUESTS: Independent Producer and Founder of Rowhome Productions, Alex Lewis Producer, Schuyler Swenson Registered Midwife, Lydia Doublestein   The post Mothers, Markets, and Migration: How South Korea Became a Major Source for International Adoptions appeared first on KPFA.

On today's show, we dive into stories that underscore the importance of affordable housing. First, we'll examine what the recent Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson means for unhoused people who are living on the streets and how historical disinvestment in affordable and public housing has created our current homelessness wave. Then, we'll hear about the fight to legalize and preserve one important type of affordable housing units in New York City: basement apartments.   The post We need affordable housing now! (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

On today's show, 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 unique sound. His latest EP, _All My Love_, explores themes of love, vulnerability, and human connection, with soulful melodies and reflective lyrics capturing the complexities of relationships. Through music and mentorship, Kev uses his platform to inspire change and elevate consciousness.   The post Kev Choice on Love, Growth, and the Power of Music appeared first on KPFA.

Because of the fall of Roe v. Wade, we're hearing a lot more about adoption as an alternative for women who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. Even before the momentous Supreme Court decision, media portrayals of adoption have always painted it as an easy ethical conclusion to a difficult circumstance. But the real, lived experiences of birth parents who give up their children for adoption have never been part of the conversation. Do birth parents really see adoption as an alternative to abortion? Are they happy with their decision to relinquish their children? It turns out that for the most part, they're not. We talk to Samantha Gonzalez, a birth mother, and Gretchen Sisson, author of the book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. GUESTS: Samantha Gonzalez, a birth mother, and co-founder of Reproductive Justice in Adoption. Gretchen Sisson, author of “Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood.”   The post Birth Parents on Adoption appeared first on KPFA.

We're in the homestretch to Election Day 2024. On today's show, we dig into election mis- and disinformation and why so much of it is targeting immigrants this year. GUESTS: Amber Boydstun, professor and co-chair of the political science department at University of California, Davis. Jaime Longoria, manager of research and training for the Disinfo Defense League. Shiu-Ming Cheer, deputy director of immigrant and racial justice at the California Immigrant Policy Center.   The post Media, Disinfo, and Lies About Immigrants in the Race to Election Day appeared first on KPFA.

On the eve of a Presidential election being decided by a handful of swing states, we sit down with two women in Indiana to talk about what it takes to make progress in a place that is largely neglected by the national Democratic Party Machine. Dayna Colbert, Executive Director of the Hoosier Democratic Party, talks about their growing foothold, led by women. And, political podcaster Dana Black talks about how to maintain an authentic voice while working alongside the official Democratic Party. GUESTS: Dayna Colbert, Executive Director of Indiana Democratic Party Dana Black, Political podcaster and public speaker   The post Progressive Women Are Shaping Indiana's Political Future appeared first on KPFA.

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 of care. Why is Puerto Rico's health care system collapsing, and why are doctors fleeing the island? We take a look at its deeply dysfunctional private medical system and why attempts to fix it and create a universal health care plan on the island are being hindered by Puerto Rico's status as a U.S. colony. Its massive unpayable debt, held by investors in the U.S., means that it cannot make its own economic decisions, even when it affects the livelihood of poor Puerto Ricans living there. But there might be a fix: getting rid of Puerto Rico's debt and rethinking its colonial relationship to the U.S. GUESTS: Carolina (pseudonym used for privacy). Coral del Mar Murphy Marcos: journalist and author of an article on PR's health care crisis. Paola (pseudonym used for privacy). Alberto Medina: Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora.   The post How the Legacy of Colonialism Keeps Puerto Rico's Healthcare System in Shambles appeared first on KPFA.

On this week's episode, we speak with Dr. Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar about his latest book, America's Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy. The book chronicles how a center of Black excellence emerged amid virulent expressions of white nationalism, as African Americans pushed back against Confederate ideology to create an extraordinary locus of achievement.   The post America's Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

It's been one year since October 7, 2023 and the start of Israel's brutal assault on Gaza. On today's show, we hear from journalist Rami Almeghari and other Palestinians about their experiences living through the war. Then, we dive into a conversation with author Norman Solomon about what mainstream coverage of the war is leaving out. GUESTS: Rami Almeghari: Palestinian journalist in Gaza Norman Solomon: activist and author of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine Tarneem, Ahmad, and Hamza Jaber: Palestinian siblings from Gaza   The post Gaza, one year later appeared first on KPFA.

Please donate online at kpfa.org or by calling 1800-439-5732 The post Special Fund Drive Programming – September 27, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

Today's episode of Making Contact is preempted by fall 2024 special fund drive programming.   The post Special Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.

Today's episode of Making Contact is preempted by a 2024 fall fund drive special.   The post Special Fall Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.

The attacks on Imane Khelif's gender at this year's 2024 Paris Olympics is not new. In fact, the focus on women's appearance and gender expression goes back to the founding of the Olympics, the minute women entered elite sports. We talk to Rose Eveleth, host and producer of the podcast Tested, about the history of sex testing in the Olympics; why it existed in the first place; why there's no easy way to classify the natural, biological variation that exists in human beings; and why we might want to consider new ways of organizing athletes that is less sexist, racist, and more accepting of genders outside of a simple binary.   The post The Problematic History of Gender Testing at the Olympics appeared first on KPFA.

The last few years have seen a wave of labor organizing, as it becomes more and more clear to workers that what they do is not expendable but actually the heart of every business. From walkouts to unionization, workers from Starbucks to Amazon to your local coffee shop have come together to build and exercise their power. In this episode, we explore the issues that led people to organize their workplaces, the ins and outs and ups and downs of the process, and the backlash. On the forefront of the next labor revolution, we visit a coffee shop in Maine called Little Dog, whose staff starts a union. Then we talk to Robert Chlala from the UCLA Labor Center about the rise in unionization efforts among service workers and the social and cultural ethos in a post lockdown country that have led to this new wave of the labor movement. GUESTS: Robert Chlala – Assistant Professor, CSU Long Beach & Visiting Researcher at UCLA Labor Center Jessica Czarnecki, Sydney, Sophie, Kira – Workers at Little Dog Cafe   The post The Rise of the New Labor Movement (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

On today's episode, we look more closely at two stories that underscore the importance of affordable housing. First, we'll examine what the recent Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson means for unhoused people who are living on the streets and how historical disinvestment in affordable and public housing has created our current homelessness wave. Then, we'll hear about the fight to legalize and preserve one important type of affordable housing units in New York City – basement apartments – and how the escalating impacts of climate change are making that campaign more urgent than ever. GUESTS: Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project Annetta Seecharran, executive director of Chhaya Community Development Corporation   The post We need affordable housing now! appeared first on KPFA.

On today's episode, we speak with Bay-Area-based comedian, writer, and actor 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 brought to Oakland, and a Black woman's unique packing list for hiking.   The post Karinda Dobbins: Black and Blue appeared first on KPFA.

In part 1 of our series on water in the Central Valley of California we visited a town called East Orosi, which has been fighting for clean water for over 20 years. This week we turn our attention to their sewage system, which is also falling apart. Why has it been so difficult for East Orosi to get clean drinking water and fix its sewage problems? To answer that question we take a look at the entities that run things like sewage and water in unincorporated towns all across California. They're called Community Utility Districts. Community Utility Districts are often one of the only forms of self governance in unincorporated towns. But they're staffed by volunteers, they're underfunded, and they're trying to share a vital resource, water, which is also slowly disappearing in the San Joaquin Valley. We talk about the problems with Community Utility Districts and ways to save them. GUESTS: Berta Diaz Ochoa – community member of East Orosi Janaki Anagha – Director of Advocacy, Community Water Center Kayla Vander Schuur – Community Development Specialist, Self Help Enterprises Carlos Sanchez – board member of the East Orosi Community Utilities District Maricela Mares-Alatorre – Community Solutions Advocate, Community Water Center   The post East Orosi's Long Struggle for Water (part 2): The Role of Community Utility Districts appeared first on KPFA.

In the late 1990s, psychologist Dr. Joseph Gone, a professor and member of the Aaniiih Gros Ventre tribe, returned home during his doctoral training to the Fort Belknap Reservation in north central Montana. There, he set aside eurocentric concepts of psychology he was learning in school and instead asked tribal members how mental illness is addressed using traditional Indigenous practices. What he learned changed the trajectory of his career. Listen to find out how he helped bring precolonial cultural and spiritual practices into substance use disorder treatment in contemporary Indigenous settings. GUEST: Dr. Joseph Gone, psychologist and interdisciplinary social scientist at Harvard University and member of the Aaniiih-Gros Ventre tribal Nation of Montana.   The post Culture and Spirituality as Substance Use Treatment in Indigenous Communities appeared first on KPFA.

East Orosi hasn't had safe drinking water in over 20 years. The water is full of nitrates, runoff from industrial agriculture, which is harmful to human health. The community has taken action to find a solution, from lobbying at the state capital to working with neighboring towns. And they may finally have one. New California laws, passed in the last five years, have opened up funding to build water infrastructure in small towns like East Orosi. But even as laws and funding develop, implementation has been challenging. We visit East Orosi and talk to Berta Diaz Ochoa about what it's like living without clean drinking water and the solutions on the horizon. This is part one of a two part series. GUESTS: Susana De Anda – Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Community Water Center; Berta Diaz Ochoa -East Orosi community member and organizer; Cristobal Chavez – member of Community Water Center; Janaki Anagha – Director of Advocacy, Community Water Center; Jessi Synder – Director of Community Development, Self Help Enterprises; Andrew Altevogt – Assistant Deputy Director of the State Water Resources Control Board.   The post East Orosi's Struggle for Clean Drinking Water appeared first on KPFA.

Composer, pianist, and vocalist Samora Pinderhughes tells us about The Healing Project, a fundamentally abolitionist project, that 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, community gatherings, live performances, an exhibition, and a digital library of audio interviews. At the center of the project are the intergenerational voices of people across the country, including folks incarcerated in prisons and detention centers. Their stories, experiences, and ideas serve as the foundation for The Healing Project's vision for societal transformation.   The post The Healing Project: An Abolitionist Story (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

The vast majority of care recipients are exclusively receiving unpaid care from a family member, friend, or neighbor. The rest receive a combination of family care and paid assistance or receive exclusively paid formal care. Whether you are a paid home care provider, or you rely on personal assistance to meet your daily needs, or you are a family member caring for a loved one, the nature of the working relationship depends on mutual respect and dignity. During this week's anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we'll revisit the dynamic and complex relationship of care receiving and giving. GUESTS: Camille Christian, home care provider and SEIU member Brenda Jackson, home care provider and SEIU member Patty Berne, co-founder and director, Sins Invalid Jessica Lehman, executive director, San Francisco Senior and Disability Action Kenzi Robi, president, San Francisco IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) Public Authority Governing Body Rachel Stewart, queer disabled woman passionate about disability and employment issues Alana Theriault, disability benefits counselor in Berkeley, California Ingrid Tischer, director of development, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) Alta Mae Stevens, in-home caregiver   The post Caring Relationships: Negotiating Meaning and Maintaining Dignity (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

Inflammatory diseases are on the rise around the world; when left unaddressed, they can turn chronic. Now, doctors are finally starting to pay more attention. But why and when does a beneficial part of our immune system turn against us? Raj Patel and Rupa Marya think it has a lot to do with the world we live in. They talk about climate change, ecological devastation, the collapse of our planet and what all that has to do with inflammation. Their thesis: our bodies are a mirror of a deeper disease in society and the environment. But there's still hope. They point a way back to health via Deep Medicine, which is the quest to reignite our commitment to the web of life and our place in it. GUESTS: Tré Vasquez, Co-director/collective member at Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project Raj Patel, author, academic, journalist, activist Rupa Marya, author, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a co-founder of the Do No Harm Coalition   The post Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

Kids are coming out as LGBTQ+ younger than ever, making their identities more politicized than ever before. Hateful political rhetoric and discriminatory laws are likely contributing to the poor mental health documented among LGBTQ+ kids. In an effort to combat these struggles, researchers are studying what works to keep kids healthy, happy, and alive. In this episode, we discuss data around what may help prevent suicidality among Black trans youth, and we hear about a program helping parents learn how to support their LGBTQ+ kids by changing their own behavior. GUESTS: Dr. Myeshia Price, Associate Professor at Indiana University in the Human Development program within the Department of Counseling & Educational Psychology and Associate Research Scientist with the Kinsey Institute. Flomichelle Battles, Interim Executive Director of Trans Solutions Research and Resource Center. Dr. Caitlin Ryan, Director of the Family Acceptance Project.   The post Family Matters: What Helps Black Trans Kids Thrive appeared first on KPFA.

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, Indiana joined several other conservative states banning this treatment for minors. In the first of a two-part series, we hear from the Clawson family how the ban has impacted their family. Then we hear from psychologist, Dr. Myeshia Price about how all adults in the lives of children can support gender diverse youth, despite increasing discriminatory anti-trans laws aimed at kids. GUESTS: The Clawson family, including Beth, mother and child health worker; Nathaniel, father and project manager; and their children Kirin, Max, and Izzy. Dr. Myeshia Price is an Associate Professor at Indiana University in the Human Development program within the Department of Counseling & Educational Psychology and Associate Research Scientist with the Kinsey Institute. Bradford Barrett is an Indiana State House Representative.   The post Family Matters: How Communities Support Trans Kids in Conservative States appeared first on KPFA.

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 wreckages of caste are replicated here in the U.S. as well, erupting online with rape and death threats, showing up at work, and forcing countless Dalits to live in fear of being outed. Dalit-American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan puts forth a call to awaken and act, not just for readers in South Asia, but all around the world. She ties Dalit oppression to fights for liberation among Black, Indigenous, Latinx, femme, and Queer communities, examining caste from a feminist, abolitionist, and Dalit Buddhist perspective. Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit American artist, organizer, technologist, and theorist and the author of The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition. Currently, Thenmozhi is the Executive Director of Equality Labs.   The post The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation appeared first on KPFA.