St. Louis on the Air

STLPR’s Greg Munteanu discusses the station’s Give STL Day campaign, which aims to raise money for window decals to stop bird strikes on its building in Grand Center. Ken Buchholz, director of the Audubon Center at Riverlands, shares his perspective on the importance of protecting migratory birds.

The director of Wash U’s Sleep Medicine Center discusses his new study on sleep apnea and driving behavior, takes questions from listeners and explains why it’s important not to let sleep problems go untreated.

The city offered a last-minute “pause” on eviction plans for a homeless encampment on the Mississippi River, but still forced two smaller camps nearby to move on Monday. Producer Danny Wicentowski shares the latest from the scene, including a morning protest.

The red Solo Cup, Gatorade sport bottle, Harry’s Razor and many more common household products were designed in St. Louis. Metaphase Design Group founder and CEO Bryce Rutter’s 30-year-old company has quietly been working with some of the most recognizable companies in the world, and he joined the show to share the stories behind his company’s success.

St. Louis has gone without alleyway recycling for nearly a year, but Mayor Tishaura Jones promises it's coming back this May. Earthday365 Program Director Bob Henkel gives a refresher course on what to toss in your bin — and where it goes after that.

St. Louis has a recent history of heartbreak with its football teams, first losing the NFL’s Rams, then the XFL’s Battlehawks – but this weekend, the St. Louis Slam opens its first home game in what could very well be the latest in a string of championship seasons. Running back Taylor Hay joins the show to talk about the return of this all-women tackle football team.

Missouri teachers rank 50th in the nation in starting pay. They’re begging lawmakers to approve a salary increase but that hasn’t happened since 2006. In this episode, three Missouri teachers educators talk about how the state’s low teaching salaries affect their personal lives, their classrooms and their plans for the future.

St. Louis will see its first plant-based restaurant week May 1-7. Caryn Dugan, a.k.a. “STL Veg Girl,” discusses why she decided to launch the event, and why veganism shouldn’t be anxiety-inducing.

Residents of four St. Louis encampments are now packing up their belongings in anticipation of a May 2 eviction. Residents say they would rather stay in the camps than go to temporary shelters — and question the timing of the city’s notice to vacate. Unhoused STL Founder Ramona Curtis shares her concerns, along with two camp residents.

Acclaimed author Arundhati Roy discusses why she’s always felt a kinship to the Mississippi River, why she was eager to visit Ferguson, what drives her activism and what keeps her from despair. Roy is in St. Louis to receive the 2022 St. Louis Literary Award from St. Louis University.

On this month’s Legal Roundtable, attorneys Booker T. Shaw, Mary Anne Sedey and Bill Freivogel discuss the legal settlements Sen. Steve Roberts Jr. entered with two women who accused him of sexual assault, former Gov. Eric Greitens’ child custody case, race-related strikes on potential jurors and more.

A report by the Center for Policing Equity provides public safety recommendations to St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and the St. Louis police. Co-author Hans Menos discusses t5he state of St. Louis policing — and where the city can go from here.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones hopes to devote 60% of the city’s remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds into a historic north city investment. She discusses her deep ties to north St. Louis, the opposition she faces from some members of the Board of Aldermen and her plans for the city’s troubled Justice Center.

Residents of the former town of Centreville, Illinois, (now Cahokia Heights) have for decades dealt with flooding and sewage overflows. A scientist, a lawyer and a resident working to address the longstanding problems describe where things are at — and what it will take to bring relief.

Thomas Jefferson’s complex history is now being acknowledged with interpretive panels in front of the Missouri History Museum’s sculpture of the third president. Jody Sowell of the Missouri Historical Museum and history professor Priscilla Dowden-White discuss why the time was right to add context to the 1913 statue — and what we can take from Jefferson’s story.

In this encore episode, Professor Rachel Greenwald Smith discusses her provocative new book of essays “On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of an American Ideal,” how she handles strange bedfellows and how her free-wheeling childhood left her wanting more.

For years, Missouri was known for its problem dog breeders. In this encore episode, advocates explain what changed after legislation cracked down on the industry — and where they still see room for improvement in the Show Me State.

St. Louis developer Green Street’s $160 million redevelopment of the historic Armory building in Midtown seeks to erase St. Louis Woodworks, which faces eviction in less than a month from its home of 20 years. St. Louis Woodworks owner Steve Rothschild says the developer has gone too far. The developer says only that it will “continue to abide by the rulings of the courts."

Bonnie Bence came to running late in life, but she has made up for lost time. She’s now completed 31 marathons, including her 15th Boston Marathon this week at age 77. She shares what she’s learned in the nearly two decades she’s ran marathons.

Men who have sex with men face restrictions for donating blood, including a three-month celibacy period. One Midwestern blood donation organization is hoping to change the regulations. Pete Vox of ImpactLife explains the historic reasons for the prohibition and what he sees as a common-sense alternative.

STLPR reporter Rachel Lippmann breaks down last night's State of the City address, in which St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones vowed to invest $150 million in federal funds in the city’s north side, promised a 3% raise and $1 million in paid family leave for city employees, and announced that alley pickup for recycling should resume in May.

For nearly 20 years, Greg Johnson has pastored Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. Recently, the PCA attempted to ban clergy like him for identifying as gay. It failed, but another attempt is likely at the 2022 general assembly. Johnson shares his story and why he thinks evangelical churches need to shift their tone towards the LGBTQ community.

Katherine Alexander discusses how she turned to the art of pysanky after leaving her career in music education — and found both a creative outlet and a big following on Tik Tok. She’s now using Ukrainian Easter eggs to raise money for Ukraine.

St. Louis Earth Day Festival is back in Forest Park after a two-year hiatus. Jess Watson, the executive director of earthday365, and Sierra Club partner Leah Clyburn give a preview of the event and discuss what environmental justice looks like for the St. Louis region.

Dream Builders 4 Equity has pioneered a new workforce development model in St. Louis over the last six years. CEO Michael Woods and the nonprofit’s mentees share how the organization runs a successful workforce development model for area youth.

Jamey Stegmaier, co-founder of St. Louis-based Stonemaier Games, discusses the art of designing a hit board game and why tabletop games will never go out of style — even in a digital age. This episode originally aired on Nov. 19, 2021.

In this encore episode, Jean Ponzi of the Missouri Botanical Garden explains how fogging for mosquitoes has grave consequences for our ecosystem — and how we can make ourselves less attractive to these pests without harming the environment.

Citizen scientists are helping biologists monitor our region's bee populations through the Shutterbee initiative. In this encore episode, Nicole Miller-Struttmann talks about how Shutterbee works and the critical roles bees play in our ecosystem.

A new report from the Freedom Community Center found St. Louis Circuit Court judges are increasingly denying bond — even for misdemeanor charges. Founder Mike Milton and policy organizer Hattie Svoboda-Stel discuss what this shift away from cash bail means for people charged with crimes, and the community.

The Tap In Center at St. Louis County Library's Florissant Valley branch gives people a space to address outstanding warrants and other legal matters without risking arrest. Nearly 300 warrants have been recalled since the center launched in the fall of 2020. Grant manager Miranda Gibson explains what led to a second location at the library branch in Moline Acres.

Dana Levin discusses exploring St. Louis after moving from Santa Fe, why she’s not ready to reject T.S. Eliot and the themes in her new book, “Now Do You Know Where You Are.”

Amid a national shortage of 80,000 truckers, companies are struggling to hire and retain the next generation of drivers. A St. Louis trucker tells us what brought him back to the road in 2022, while Tom Crawford of the Missouri Trucking Association shares what companies are doing to keep the industry rolling.

Bold Spoon Creamery started out because founder Rachel Burns couldn’t kill her mint plant. All her excess mint (and plenty of atypical flavors later) led to Bold Spoon launching in 2020. Now, Straub’s and Schnucks carry pints. Burns joined the show to share how not even a pandemic could stop her success.

Principal Brittany Green is a finalist for the 2022 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Leadership for her work transforming Gordon Bush Elementary from a failing school to a “commendable” one. She shares how she changed teacher mindsets and how she fights burnout.

New data on opioid deaths among Black St. Louisans show fatal overdoses up by more than 500% since 2015. A physician and a researcher with the new CENTER Initiative discuss what they’re doing to reduce those deaths.

City Foundry STL — the popular retail, entertainment and food hub in midtown St. Louis — has 16 food stalls, with another on the way. Sauce Magazine Executive Editor Meera Nagarajan gives her recommendations. She also details a new restaurant to try in West County and one in St. Charles.

O’Fallon, Illinois, junior high school teachers PJ and Jamie Creek built a thriving business creating detail-rich posters about American government. They discuss their first book, “We the People and the Presidency,” and the art of making social studies accessible to students.

Playwright Colin Healy’s “Big Machine” was inspired by the deadly events at a Standard Oil factory in Bayway, New Jersey, in 1924. He and director Nancy Bell discuss the history of lead poisoning — and what it takes to transform tragedy into musical theater.

Five St. Louis-area Starbucks stores have filed for unionization. Two workers discussed what’s driving these efforts, as Wash U’s Jake Rosenfeld gives insight to the wave of unionizations sweeping the nation.

Black entrepreneurs want to see more entrepreneurs from marginalized backgrounds break into the cannabis industry. The executive director of Exit Now, Marne Madison, discusses what it will take to make that vision a reality, while Adrienne Scales-Williams and Jamila Owens-Todd of Luxury Leaf share their story as Black women working in medical marijuana in Missouri.

Decades after lead was banned in residential paint, water pipes and gasoline, thousands of Missouri children continue to suffer from lead poisoning. Reporter Allison Kite discusses her new deep dive into the issue, co-produced by the Missouri Independent and NPR's Midwest Newsroom.

Terrell Robinson has served 12 years in Missouri prisons for a parole violation that he says was never explained to him. Attorneys at the MacArthur Justice Center say his incarceration is part of a pattern that led to a federal judge ruling in 2020 that Missouri’s parole system is unconstitutional. Attorney Amy Breihan and Robinson’s wife Lawanda discuss his case.

Lux Living is one of the largest developers in St. Louis, yet many of their tenants are dissatisfied. Current and former tenants continue to voice complaints, and the company’s business practices also are drawing heat. In this episode, we talk with St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Jacob Barker. He recently reported on the company and the brothers who run it.

Voters in St. Louis County on Tuesday dealt County Executive Sam Page two decisive defeats. In one of them, voters passed Proposition B, which prohibits the county executive from holding another job. Page has worked some hours as anesthesiologist and critics made no secret about the measure targeting him. STLPR Political Correspondent Jason Rosenbuam breaks down the election results as Page faces a Democratic primary challenger in August’s election.

Areas near power lines are often desolate. But wildlife biologists see them as an opportunity to plant pollinator habitats. Staffers at Ameren Illinois and Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever discuss how they’ve transformed 175 acres in Illinois by removing invasive species in favor of native plants.

In its 25 years, St. Louis’ drug treatment court has gone from being perceived as a way to keep drug convictions from marring otherwise clean records to helping the city’s most vulnerable. Commissioners Rochelle Woodiest and Matt Melton discuss their work — as three graduates share how it changed their lives.

Co-owners of Urban Buds, Karen “Mimo” Davis and Miranda Duschack, talk about their path to becoming farmer-florists, how their industry is wasteful and what they’re doing about it. Plus, home gardeners get some tips for planting flowers.

Illinois has become a destination for people seeking abortion, and “practical abortion funds” make cross-country trips a possibility. Midwest Access Coalition director Diana Parker-Kafka explains how logistics are increasingly key to abortion access.

St. Louis’ music video festival involves three crews making 13 music videos on Cherokee Street over a single day. Founder Bill Streeter explains the event’s accidental origins, how it’s changing this year and what he’s learned in a decade of capturing live performances on video.

Brian Jennings’ Bosnian American studies course at Affton High School seeks to engage the district’s large Bosnian population — and tell the story of a community shaped by genocide. He and his students share what they’ve learned in class.