St. Louis on the Air

For 10 years, the the Southeastern Rodeo Association has proudly celebrated the contributions of Black cowboys, including St. Louis cowboy Reggie “Sauce Boss” Smith. St. Louis Public Radio photojournalist Brian Munoz interviewed Smith, and other participants, while experiencing the St. Louis Open Black Rodeo on June 25.

Graphic novel “The Atonement Bell” has a number of direct references to St. Louis. Co-creators Jim Ousley and Tyler B. Ruff took inspiration for both the plot and art of the horror story from their personal experiences in the region. The story has been nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series.

On June 6, Missouri’s State Board of Education suspended the teaching license of a Hazelwood preschool teacher. It’s an action that school districts are increasingly seeking: Under a 2016 law, districts are empowered to file for financial penalties as high as $10,000, and to suspend a teacher’s license, if a teacher decides to break their contract. Mark Jones, the communications director of the Missouri National Education Association, says this policy is bad for both teachers and school districts.

Dive into a good beach read this summer with recommendations from two St. Louis librarians, Tammy Albohaire and Maryann Brickey.

Registered nurses Marchelle Vernell and Hadas Becker are sounding the alarm on what they say is a lack of safe staffing levels at SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital. They say patients are waiting too long for care — and that patient frustration can pose a security risk to staff and other patients.

You’ve likely heard a St. Louisan say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” when jokingly — or apologetically — talking about the high temps in the region during summertime. However, climate change experts take both the heat and moisture very seriously. Freelance environmental reporter Kelly Smits shared her reporting on the constant rising temperatures and why St. Louis’ history of red-lining neighborhoods, inequity in greenspaces and urban design, and how ‘urban heat islands’ impact predominantly Black neighborhoods most.

St. Louis food writer and trained chef Holly Fann talks about what inspired her TEDxStLouis talk about the illusion of “authentic” ethnic food, and how candid conversation about it can make us better, more informed diners.

More than 44,000 marijuana cases, including over 10,000 felony convictions, were expunged in Missouri before a June 8 deadline. However, many remain unresolved. Attorney Dan Viets, Missouri coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and public defender Matt Schmidt discuss where that effort has fallen short.

With St. Louis’ population in decline and property being affordable, neglected land parcels are desirable to developers. Some might see the attention as a positive — addressing blight which would ideally lead to decreased crime and higher property values. West End residents April Walker and Lisa Potts along with their neighbors and support from Invest STL led by executive director Dara Eskridge created a neighborhood plan that was approved by the city of St. Louis.

For lovers of dogs, nature and music, St. Louis musician Mikey Wehling’s forthcoming album, Camp Scout Vol. 2, captures the sounds of summer. Wehling discusses how the album traces his adventures with his dog, Scout, to the Cumberland River in Tennessee and the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri, both of which inspired the instrumental album.

Construction workers have nearly twice the rate of substance abuse as the national average, and the rate of suicide for men working in construction is about four times higher than the general population. A newly formed St. Louis-based peer support system aims to improve outcomes for St. Louis construction workers who struggle with addiction and/or mental health issues.

The status of being publicly queer or trans has become increasingly fraught in Missouri in 2023. Historian Steven Louis Brawely and artist Steve Willits reflect on commemorating Pride month, and LGBTQ history, at a time when events are playing out, as Brawley says, in “real time.”

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen could vote as soon as this week to raise water rates by 40% over the next 2 ½ years. Future increases would be tied to the cost of inflation. Curt Skouby, Director of the City of St. Louis’ Department of Public Utilities and Water Commissioner, explains ongoing issues with rising prices and aging infrastructure, as well as why he supports the rate increase.

It wasn’t a single destination that spurred Jack Snelling to spend 10 days driving more than 4,300 miles around Missouri. His route, inspired by Missouri’s original highway system, led to 115 historic courthouses. Along the way, he learned to appreciate the state’s many communities, as well as the legacy of a now little-known highway system.

Tyler Small, a 27-year-old self-taught photographer and queer Black dad in St. Louis, is commemorating Father’s Day in a special way. He’s taking pictures of fellow Black fathers for a local nonprofit’s event that raises funds for free mental health services and he’s sharing his own story of becoming a father.

In St. Louis’ food scene, the current star of the show is the humble bagel. New shops, and long lines, have led Sauce Magazine’s Meera Nagarajan to declare it a veritable “bagel boom.” Ted Wilson, co-owner of Bagel Union in Webster Groves, describes the years of work to turn his boiled-and-baked dreams into reality, and Jackie Polcyn, the shop’s head baker and production manager, tells us what it takes to make the perfect bagel.

Last October, the Hazelwood School District closed Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Missouri, after a company called Boston Chemical Data Corporation issued a report that said there was radioactive contamination in the school and that it was dangerous. But, the scientific consensus shows that radioactive contamination isn’t present. We listen to STLPR education reporter Kate Grumke’s extended conversation with Roger Lewis, a professor emeritus at St. Louis University, who is critical of the report. In a follow-up conversation, Kate also shares how Boston Chemical is responding to the criticism and what parents are saying.

St. Louis’ intimate one-ring circus, Circus Flora, is back at the Big Top in Grand Center. Artistic and executive director (and lifelong circus performer) Jack Marsh says acts such as aerialist Laura Lippert, the Globe of Speed, and world class juggler Roberto Carlos will thrill audiences in the circus’ 37th season that runs until June 25.

Seven years ago, singer-songwriter Lizzie Weber was living on an island off the coast of Washington state when she was inspired to write her forthcoming album, “Fidalgo.” The pandemic brought her home to St. Louis, and she is now set to release it June 9. Weber calls the journey a “full-circle moment.”

There are some 600 million cats in the world. Not all of them are pets — between 50 and 100 million in the U.S. — but cats share a fascinating history with humans. Washington University evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos dives into that history in the new book, “The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa.” Losos joins guest host Alex Heuer to talk about all things cats.

Restorative justice programs like Freedom Community Centers are gaining attention as the criminal justice system continues to get criticized for racial and economic biases. Kayla Thompson and her colleagues in the Free Us Group Track Program within FCC facilitate an intensive 12-week program which involves community service and therapy.

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) became part of the official designation of May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in 2022. U.S. Census Bureau numbers from 2022 show less than 1% of folks who live in the Metro St. Louis area home identify as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Edwardsville educator, social worker, and writer Stephanie Malia Krauss, her mother Laurie Nalani Kilstein, and her two boys are among those "onlys." Krauss and Kilstein share what that's like, and talk about ways they maintain and build strong cultural ties to a vital part of their personal, family, and community identity.

You’ve heard “attendance is mandatory,” but, in Missouri schools, attendance is actually a matter of state law. During the 2021-22 school year, two single mothers in Missouri discovered just how powerful that law can be: They found themselves sentenced to jail when their children missed more than two weeks of school. 
 The case is among several burning legal topics taken up by St. Louis on the Air’s Legal Roundtable of attorneys Nicole Gorovksy, Dave Roland and Kalila Jackson

International superstar Tina Turner died Wednesday at the age of 83. Turner moved to St. Louis when she was 16 years old and her ties to the area ran deep. Author Maureen Mahon discusses Turner's time in St. Louis and we hear listener reactions to her death.

The O’Fallon, Missouri, based winter drumline Modulation Z won their division in the Winter Guard International World Championships last month. The group achieved a score of 96.05. That score was two points ahead of the second-place finisher and the second highest score ever achieved in the division. Modulation Z director Ryan Treasure and senior Lukas McGill discuss what it took to become a champion.

Members of Gold Star Families, or families that have lost an immediate family member in active duty, hold Memorial Day in high regards as they honor their loved ones, even those whose true fate remains a mystery. Until recently, the Court of Honor at Soldiers Memorial only listed 214 names of St. Louisans who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War. That changes this weekend with a special observation of 254 newly-identified fallen soldiers.

The Catholic Diocese of Belleville underreported the number of clergy who sexually abused children. That’s one of the findings of a 700-page report released by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. The report also details how the diocese enabled a pattern of abuse. STLPR Metro East reporter Will Bauer explains.

The countdown to Pride Month ends in just eight days. Soon there will be parades and parties to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities and commemorate the long, continuous fight for basic human rights for queer individuals. For Black queer people, creating space for joy in a time of persistent political and societal oppression is an everyday necessity. One example of that is ballroom culture, which was created and championed by Black members of the LGBTQ community across the nation — and right here in St. Louis.

Ninety years ago, on May 24, 1933, a strike led by Black women workers at a St. Louis nut factory made labor history. Devin Thomas O’Shea, who wrote about the strike in a lengthy feature story in Jacobin, discusses the dramatic events leading up to the strike, including how an 18-year-old ringleader led her co-workers to the streets “with a Bible in one hand and a brick in the other.”

For lovers of theater, a St. Louis summer doesn’t truly start until Shakespeare is being performed. That moment comes next week, on May 31, as the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival opens its annual free performances in Forest Park. Tom Ridgley, the festival’s producing artistic director, breaks down this season’s unique take on “Twelfth Night,” set in Miami, and previews the other performances to come, including “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and an original production that combines Shakespeare and soccer.

John Gaal witnessed naloxone’s ability to save lives when he stepped in to administer the overdose reversal medication to a fellow passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight in 2022. He shares why he’s pushing for greater access to the drug, including its inclusion in medical kits on all airline providers.

VibeSzn began as an online business in 2017 and now has a retail location at City Foundry in Midtown St. Louis and has amassed nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram. Co-owner Omar Badran discusses his homegrown business and his family’s journey to St. Louis.

St. Louis is littered with ‘tangled titles.’ The term describes what happens when a person dies without leaving a will or estate plan to define the ownership of their home. St. Louis Magazine senior editor Nick Phillips investigated how tangled titles became common, how they affect Black neighborhoods, block the transfer of intergenerational wealth, and lead to vacancy.

St. Louis singer Neil Salsich gained national fame over the past several months as a participant on "The Voice." Salsich talks about his time on the NBC reality singing show and as a founding member of the St. Louis-based band, the Mighty Pines.

On average a total solar eclipse occurs once every 400 years in the same location on earth. In 2017 the St. Louis region was within the path of totality for the first time since 1869. This coming April millions of residents in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois will find themselves within a two-hour drive of another total solar eclipse. Author and eclipse chaser David Baron joins the show.

For five years, St. Louis’ Black Tulip Chorale has fused queer history, music and inclusivity. The group celebrates the milestone May 21 with a special show “Shining Through,” that pairs each song with a moment from LGBTQ history. Founding member Dr. Ken Haller explains the group’s origin story, and how its approach to a mixed voice “all-expression, all-gender, ​all-identity” chorus has attracted more than 40 singers to its ranks.

For more than a decade, groups of white St. Louis residents have used Shelly Tochluk's book, “Witnessing Whiteness,” to explore white racial identity and racism's role in individual and community life. We’ll hear from Witnessing Whiteness facilitator and St. Louisan Mary Ferguson; and talk with Tochluk about the place and purpose of her newest book, “Being White Today: A Roadmap to a Positive Antiracist Life.”

In a sudden announcement on Tuesday, Kim Gardner resigned from her elected position as St. Louis circuit attorney — effective immediately. Her resignation came two weeks before she’d initially planned to step down. STLPR reporter Rachel Lippmann explains what happened and what comes next.

A sudden dust storm caused low visibility conditions that led to 72 vehicles colliding on Interstate 55 in Illinois on May 1. Seven people died and 37 others were injured. We look into what happened, how common these types of storms are in the Midwest and what drivers can do to better their chances of survival in similar situations.

St. Louis native and yoga instructor Nico Marie McNeese knows all too well about the burden that can weigh down on one’s mental well-being. Social distancing measures meant she could no longer teach in person, so McNeese went to social media to reach her students. She later started a YouTube channel — Black Yogi Nico Marie — to make her yoga videos more accessible. In three years McNeese’s YouTube audience has grown to over 100,000 subscribers from around the world.

On Monday night, students at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in south St. Louis made their first public performance since a deadly school shooting last October. Many of the students said they worked through the trauma of the shooting with their art. STLPR’s senior education reporter Kate Grumke covered the event and discussed the highlights.

Missouri’s 2023 legislative session ended as infighting and contention derailed many of the priorities set by the Republican-controlled Senate and House. Two laws that did pass, targeting transgender people. STLPR statehouse and politics reporter Sarah Kellogg breaks down the biggest takeaways from the session. AJ Hackworth, a trans man and dad living in Springfield, MO, discusses the new laws’ effect on his healthcare, while a father in St. Louis County worries about what the laws mean for his 9-year-old trans son.

By studying an extinct, domesticated subspecies of the buckwheat family, Washington University researcher Natalie Mueller hopes to uncover wisdom from indigenous cultures about growing new crops that are resilient to extreme drought and flooding.

Earlier this month, Matt Vogel was in London for the coronation of King Charles III. In the royal box, Vogel also had a very special frog with him: Kermit the Frog. Vogel is the puppeteer behind Kermit, Big Bird, Count von Count and more. The Webster University alum is in town to deliver the 2023 commencement address and he talks about his remarkable career.

Washington University professor Carl Phillips won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry this week for his most recent book, “Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.” The collection chronicles an era of American culture roiled by crises of politics, identity and the pandemic. We listen back to our 2022 conversation with him.

Soccer fans at St. Louis’s City SC CityPark have been treated to a remarkable concentration of local food excellence. The stadium features more than 20 local restaurants, and Sauce Magazine’s Meera Nagarajan says the result is no accident: Fans are enjoying a diverse selection of food that goes way beyond soggy nachos and peanuts — including farm-made ice cream from Bold Spoon Creamery.

While the practice of declawing cats is currently outlawed in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County, the Missouri legislature is considering a proposal to nullify these ordinances to make the practice available statewide. Dr. Amanda Gruber of the St. Louis Cat Clinic discusses how declawing affects the health and wellbeing of cats — and why she has never performed the procedure.

Nearly half of all children in Missouri ages 5 and under live in child care deserts. And in places with child care centers, providers struggle to adequately staff their facilities. Families and providers report that the current system is not working — and that it often forces them into tough, life-altering decisions.

VineBrook Homes owns thousands of single-family rental properties, located in mostly Black and brown neighborhoods, throughout the Midwest. Over 2,400 of those houses are in the St. Louis region. Reporter Kavahn Mansouri discusses a Midwest Newsroom investigation of VineBrook that includes complaints of unresolved maintenance issues, unfounded evictions, aggressive rent collection tactics, poor customer service and more.

A new study that analyzed 156 cases of children in St. Louis injured by guns found that more than 70% of cases involved victims “shot outdoors by an unknown shooter, the motivation of which was unknown.” The study’s lead author Dr. Mary Beth Bernardin discusses why scientists need to better understand why and how children are shot. Dr. Lindsay Clukies, an emergency medicine physician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, connects the study to what she sees while treating patients.