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.
Every job, apartment and loan application asks: have you been convicted of a felony? Check the box, and the door can close for life. We trace these laws to the post-Civil War South and hear from people living with a record today.
Description:
A criminal conviction doesn’t end when the sentence does. Across much of the United States, a felony record can cost you your vote, your seat on a jury, and your shot at housing, jobs and professional licenses, sometimes for life. This week on Making Contact, we trace felony disenfranchisement and the “collateral consequences” of a record back to the Black Codes and the post-Civil War state constitutions, and ask why these laws still fall hardest on Black Americans. We hear from Nicole Porter of The Sentencing Project, UC Davis law professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin, and Tamora and Lance Wissinger of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, who describe life after conviction in their own words.
Archival audio: Michelle Alexander, speaking at Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York City, January 12, 2012 (Pacifica Radio Archives).
Content advisory: one segment describes sexual assault by a police officer. An on-air warning precedes it.
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 – Checking the Box appeared first on KPFA.
16 Oct 2026
Making Contact – The Power of Music
Freedom Needs a Soundtrack tells the story of the Tibetan Freedom Concerts: co-founder Erin Potts on how music made her an activist, and former political prisoner Ngawang Sangdrol on the freedom songs nuns sang inside Drapchi Prison.
Notes: Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.
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 – The Power of Music appeared first on KPFA.
2 Oct 2026
Making Contact – October 2, 2026
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 – October 2, 2026 appeared first on KPFA.
Inside a recent episode
Mirrors of Privilege
Published 13 Jan 2017 · Transcript excerpt
[…] But I think what's hard is for those people whose families came from Russia in 1958, or those families who didn't grow up in the South, and people who came from those families who, in fact, were good white liberals, and believed that they were doing good things. That it's very difficult to understand how we benefit every day from our whiteness. David Walman's definition of racism, system of advantage based on race. And my students read to that point, and then they stop because they get mad. Well, I'm not racist. I keep saying that's not what it says. It says that you benefit from a system by being white. […]
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