Jenny Odell on Saving Time

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. 

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: Basav Sen, Climate Justice Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies; Dr. Steven Zornetzer; Vice-Chair, Governing Board of Arctic Ice Project; and Panganga Pungowiyi, organizer for the nonprofit Indigenous Environmental Network in Alaska.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani and Jessica Partnow. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC:  “Air Hockey Salon” and “Take Off and Shoot a Zero” by Chris Zabriskie; “Industrial Zone” by Bio Unit; “Leap Second” by Doctor Turtle; and “Ridiculous” and “Juan Garcia Madero” by Monplaisir.

Learn More: 

• Indigenous Environmental Network
• Arctic Ice Project
• Institute for Policy Studies

In 1965 Margaret Crane was a young designer creating packaging for a pharmaceutical company. Looking at the rows of pregnancy tests she thought, “Well, women could do that at home!” and so she made it a reality for potentially pregnant people to be able to know about and take control of their own lives and bodies.

 
But while the design of the prototype was simple, Crane faced the issues we continue to fight when it comes to reproductive rights and the health and autonomy of people who give birth: an uphill battle to convince the pharmaceutical companies, the medical community and conservative social leaders that at-home pregnancy testing was safe and necessary. After all this, Crane is only now receiving credit for her contributions to the industry.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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. 

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Margaret Crane, graphic designer and inventor of the first home pregnancy test; Wendy Kline, Dema G. Seelye Chair in the History of Medicine, History Faculty Purdue University; Jesse Olszynko-Gryn, Head of the Laboratory for Oral History and Experimental Media at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science; Arthur Kover, Emeritus Professor of Marketing, Fordham University; and Alexandra Lord, Chair, Division of Medicine and Science at the National Museum of American History. 

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes “Podington Bear,” by Rhythm and Strings. 

Learn More: 

National Museum of American History
A Woman's Right to Know, Pregnancy Testing in 20th Century Britain
"Predictor" by Jennifer Blackmer

On this week's episode, we take a critical look at productivity culture and the idea that time is money by speaking with Jenny Odell, acclaimed author of Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock and How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.

We dig into the ideas behind Saving Time, which gives a panoramic overview of how the ways we think about time actually shapes our lives. Then we begin to disentangle our daily concept of time from its capitalistic and colonialist roots in order to liberate and expand our relationship to it.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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. 

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Jenny Odell, artist and author of Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock and How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. 

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.  

Learn More: 

Jenny Odell: https://jennyodell.com/

Today, we continue celebrating Black history and heritage with a special encore episode honoring an often forgotten civil rights leader. We take a look at the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, a central figure in and the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was a trusted advisor to labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Rustin’s methodology for challenging racial inequality and imperialism centered on his intersectional perspective on race, class, gender, and sexuality. This episode combines film excerpts, insightful interviews and speeches from this important figure of the civil rights movement who envisioned and organized for the best future.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

Special Thank You to Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer the producers/directors of Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin and Sam Pollard, the executive director.  And to the Pacifica Radio Archives for use of the Bayard Rustin archival materials.

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. 

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Bayard Rustin, the architect of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; Ashon Crawley, University of Virginia Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African-American and African Studies; Nancy Kates, filmmaker and producer of Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin; Bill Sutherland, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Reverend A.J. Muste, pacifist and mentor of Rustin; George Houser, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Louis John, nephew of Bayard Rustin; Devi Prasad, pacifist.  

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes "Medieval Tension" by Cory Gray; "This Way Joyous" by Ketsa; "Rally," "Rayling," and "3rd Chair" by  Blue Dot Sessions; "Hold On" and "Go Down Moses" by Dee Yan-Key; and "Our Young Guts" by Andy G. Cohen. 

Learn More: 

Bayard Rustin Fund
Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen
Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers
PBS
History
AFL-CIO
Washington Post
NYTimes

2021 marked the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre - a horrific attack white people waged against Greenwood, a once prosperous Black neighborhood in north Tulsa, Oklahoma. Also in 2021, state legislators passed a law that limits how race is discussed in classrooms.

 
Tulsa activists say HB 1775 prevents descendants of those who built Greenwood from being able to acknowledge the attack, and also Greenwood’s success. In response, activist Kristi Williams rallied her community to start Black History Saturdays, where 120 Black Tulsans are using an intergenerational model to learn their history.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.

EPISODE FEATURES: This episode features Kristi Williams, a Tulsa activist and Founder of Black History Saturdays, Bracken Klar, Co-Executive Producer of Focus: Black Oklahoma, Vice-President of Tulsa's Tri-City Collective, and Carlos Moreno, a member of Tulsa's Tri-City Collective, journalist and author of The Victory of Greenwood and A Kid's Book About the Tulsa Race Massacre. 

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes music from Blue Dot Sessions, including “Krotoa Haze,” “Cheldana Outpost,” and “Helion Fleet.” 

Learn More: 

Black History Saturdays
EduRec Youth and Family Fun Center
2892 Miles to Go
Black Emergency Response Team Vs. O'Conner

Black Wall Street, or the historically Black neighborhood Greenwood, Oklahoma is the site of once a prosperous, thriving, Black community. It is also the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a violent attack waged by white supremacists, killing hundreds of residents and leveling homes and businesses.

 
In the second episode of our three part Black History Month series, we talk about how the community built back. In fact, Greenwood’s economic heyday came 20 years later, in the 1940s. Then came the 1950s-60s, when Urban Renewal projects gave the city of Tulsa federal funds to buy out Black land owners. This loss of ownership undercut Greenwood’s very existence. Now Greenwood Okies, pulling from their history, are building Tulsa’s future, despite continued discrimination.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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. 

EPISODE FEATURES: 

-Bracken Klar - Co-Executive Producer of Focus: Black Oklahoma, Vice-President of Tulsa's Tri-City Collective

-Carlos Moreno - member of Tulsa's Tri-City Collective, journalist and author of The Victory of Greenwood and A Kid's Book About the Tulsa Race Massacre

-Trey Thaxton - CEO and Founder of Goldmill Co. and Greenwood Ave. 

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung. 

MUSIC: This episode includes music by Blue Dot Sessions, including “Krotoa Haze,” “Cheldana Outpost,” “Krotoa Hills” and “April in Paris” by Count Basie and His Orchestra. 

Learn More: 

Tri City Collective 
Focus: Black Oklahoma 
Greenwood Ave Magazine 
The Victory of Greenwood 
Greenwood Mapping Project 
Blindspot: Tulsa Burning

In the first of our 3 part series leading up to Black History Month, we turn our focus to how journalists and historians today are covering the Tulsa Race Massacre. We hear from KalaLea, host of the critically acclaimed podcast Blindspot: Tulsa Burning. The series tells the story of the rise of Greenwood, a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street.

The podcast recounts the brutal 1921 massacre, a racist attack on the Black community backed by the local police. KalaLea spoke about the behind-the-scenes process of reporting on a deeply traumatic historical chapter, why healing is important, and the necessity of accountability.

We also hear from Bracken Klar and Carlos Moreno of Tulsa's Tri-City Collective and the radio show Focus: Black Oklahoma, in partnership with KOSU. They discuss current efforts to better understand not just the tragedy of the event, but also the success of the neighborhood before and after the attack.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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.  

EPISODE FEATURES: 

-KalaLea - lead producer and host of Blindspot: Tulsa Burning and producer, reporter and editor with WNYC and The New Yorker Radio Hour

-Bracken Klar - co-executive producer of Focus: Black Oklahoma, vice-president of Tulsa's Tri-City Collective and DEI consultant

-Carlos Moreno - member of Tulsa's Tri-City Collective, journalist and author of The Victory of Greenwood and A Kid's Book About the Tulsa Race Massacre  

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Amy Gastelum. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes “Krotoa Haze,” “Krotoa,” “Cheldana Outpost,” “Krotoa Hills,” and “Helion Fleet” by Blue Dot Sessions. 

Learn More: 

Blindspot: Tulsa Burning: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/blindspot/tulsa-burning
Focus: Black Oklahoma: https://www.kosu.org/podcast/focus-black-oklahoma
Tri-City Collective: https://www.tricitycollective.com/
Mapping Greenwood: https://www.mappinggreenwood.org/home-page/
The Victory of Greenwood: https://thevictoryofgreenwood.com/buy-the-book/?v=7516fd43adaa

Oppenheimer swept the Golden Globes, reigniting public interest in the Manhattan Project, the WWII-era secret program to develop the atomic bomb and the impacts of nuclear power. But what the film leaves out alters our understanding about the real impacts of this advancement.

On today's encore episode, we hear about nuclear colonialism and how it has changed the course of the people and places of New Mexico with Myrriah Gómez, author of “Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos.”

Then we dig into how nuclear testing during the Cold War led to dangerous and lasting contamination in the Marshall Islands and San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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. 

EPISODE FEATURES: Myrriah Gómez, an associate professor in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico and author of “Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos.” 

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Lucy Kang. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC: This episode includes  "Documentary Piano Ambient" by Bohdan Kuzmin and "Sticktop" by Blue Dot Sessions. 

Learn More: 

• Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos
• San Francisco Public Press

The problem in America is, America's been in denial about its problems. And that’s a problem.

America doesn’t have a race problem, in reality there's been catastrophes visited upon Black people. Catastrophes visited on Indigenous brothers and sisters. Catastrophes visited on Latino brothers and sisters. Catastrophes visited on working people. Catastrophes visited on women of all colors. We can go on and on.

This week on Making Contact, we bring you a talk from noted author, scholar, and self-described intellectual freedom fighter, Dr. Cornel West speaking at the Guild Theater in Sacramento, California in 2023. In his discussion, West uses America’s music legacy as a way to explore catastrophic conditions brought on by our denial of the funk, seen through the impacts of racism on the nation’s health.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org. 

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. 

EPISODE FEATURES: Dr. Cornel West, the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects. 

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Anita Johnson. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC:  This episode includes Bedroll by Blue Dot Session, The Garden State by Audiobinger, and My Friends by Quiet Orchestra. 

LEARN MORE: 

http://www.cornelwest.com/
https://aas.princeton.edu/people/cornel-west
https://www.amazon.com/Race-Matters-Cornel-West/dp/0679749861
https://twitter.com/CornelWest

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 everywhere, 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 Chala 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.

Learn more about the story and find the transcript on radioproject.org.

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. 

EPISODE FEATURES: Robert Chlala, an Assistant Professor, CSU Long Beach & Visiting Researcher at UCLA Labor Center and Jessica Czarnecki, Sydney, Sophie, and Kira, all workers at Little Dog Cafe.

MAKING CONTACT: This episode is hosted by Salima Hamirani with reporting by Jules Bradley. It is produced by Anita Johnson, Lucy Kang, Salima Hamirani, and Amy Gastelum. Our executive director is Jina Chung.

MUSIC:  This episode includes “Industrial Zone” by Bio Unit, “Stay Quiet” by Monplaisir, “Bleu” by Komiku, “Leap Second” by Doctor Turtle, and “Which Side Are You On” by Pete Seeger.

Learn More: 

UCLA Labor Center
Little Dog Employees Lawsuit
Brunswick coffee shop strike ends with potential change in ownership