St. Louis on the Air

Since late December, five protests have erupted at the Justice Center in downtown St. Louis. This latest came Sunday night, when a group of detainees broke windows on the third floor and threw objects out of the windows. Inmates could be heard chanting, “We need help” and “We want court dates.”

Last week, as Laurie Bowen watched movers transport her cherished upright piano from the front of her home to the trailer hitched to their truck, she grew a bit emotional. She wiped away some tears. But they were happy ones, especially as she thought about what the instrument would mean for its new owner, 11-year-old piano student Amani Dugger, who lives in St. Louis.

KnowInk founder Scott Leiendecker shares how he developed the Poll Pad and how his voter registration company is becoming one of the fastest-growing companies in the region.

In his book “Hemingway’s St. Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy,” Andrew J. Theising argues that many of Ernest Hemingway’s great adventures have roots in St. Louis. He explains how Hemingway's three St. Louis-born wives and their family fortunes helped to launch the novelist.

Federal prosecutors will retry two St. Louis police officers charged with beating an undercover colleague after the jury deadlocked last week. A former federal prosecutor shares his analysis of what went wrong at trial -- and what this means for others making similar claims against St. Louis Police.

In January, shortly after poet Amanda Gorman inspired the nation with her reading at President Joseph Biden’s inauguration, St. Louis' outgoing youth poet laureate, Sarah Abbas, and the city’s next poet laureate, Grace Ruo, shared their hopes for bringing written and spoken words to bear on society.

In this encore episode, we listen back to a conversation with Washington University Sociology Professor David Cunningham, who shares what we can learn about right-wing, white nationalist groups today — and best practices for defeating them — by studying their mobilization during other moments in our nation's history.

Republicans in the Missouri House this week declined to fund the expansion of Medicaid. To their colleagues across the aisle, including state Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, the GOP arguments in recent days against funding the change haven’t made much sense. In this conversation, Merideth, the ranking minority member of the House Budget Committee, offers his sense of recent developments and where this battle may be headed next.

This year's reigning Mrs. Missouri is one of just two Black women ever to hold the title, and at 57, the oldest yet. She shares how pageants prepared her for life in the Marines and discusses why the St. Louis Diaper Bank is close to her heart.

Stéphane Denève and Marie-Hélène Bernard of the St. Louis Symphony discuss the effects of the pandemic, returning to Powell Hall and their vision for the future.

For the past four years, CC Ice has been helping Elizabeth Olsen portray the Marvel superhero Wanda Maximoff, assisting the actress with everything from flying to fight scenes as her stunt double. That work culminated in the January 2021 premiere of “WandaVision," which focuses on Wanda’s corner of the Marvel universe. For Ice, who grew up in Barnhart, Missouri, it’s been a thrill watching fans devour a show starring the character she’s spent years developing.

Last week, the St. Louis County Courts began again allowing eviction proceedings under limited circumstances. On April 5, it will allow a much broader array of evictions to resume — with about 600 cases already in the final phases and ready for service.

The debate between Alderwoman Cara Spencer and Treasurer Tishaura Jones, one week before the mayoral election, featured several pointed exchanges on everything from how they would allocate federal COVID-19 relief funds to their plans to improve police accountability.

A federal jury is weighing the case against three St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers charged with beating a colleague as he worked undercover at a protest. The Legal Roundtable analyzes the case against them and other legal matters, too.

As Missouri lawmakers contemplate laws making it harder to vote without a photo ID, 42 other states are considering more than 250 bills that would raise barriers to voting.

Women of color hold just 4% of C-suite jobs in the U.S. Three St. Louis women who’ve defied the odds share stories of the challenges they faced, and how they rose to the top.

St. Louis Public Radio reporter Shahla Farzan discusses her report, in collaboration with American Public Media, about how the city's decision to relocate homeless residents to temporary shelters across the city may have put residents in even greater jeopardy.

What’s it like growing up in a Black and white city when you don’t fit neatly in either category? A Chinese American and Thai American share their perspective on life in St. Louis — and the deadly attacks in Atlanta that have galvanized Asian American communities across the U.S.

"In the City: Memories of Black Presence" opens March 26 at the Griot Museum of Black History and Culture. It showcases the works of St. Louis artists examining the city as part of a fellowship at Harvard University.

We meet the founder of the local nonprofit Grind + Growth and one of the startups getting a boost from her efforts. Valerie Liddell’s goal is to help Black and other rminority entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.

A $3 million, multi-year effort, TRANSforming Community TRANSforming Care is billed as the first program of its kind in Missouri, expanding access to health care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.

St. Louisan Natasha Bahrami discusses her family’s journey in the restaurant industry, her recent induction into the Gin Hall of Fame and more.

What does your body’s reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine reveal about your immune system? And what’s with reports of a post-vaccine arm rash? In this episode, the director of St. Louis University’s Center for Vaccine Development discusses the latest vaccine news and answers listener questions.

After an active first few months of the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers return to Jefferson City with several priorities on the agenda of the Republican supermajority.

It took Michael Yo months to fully recover from his early and scary case of COVID-19 last year. But now the horizon is looking a lot brighter, and Yo is even traveling to St. Louis for in-person appearances this weekend at the Funny Bone in Maryland Heights. Those will be safe, masked, limited-capacity shows, and they’re expected to sell out.

Carolyn Cox discusses her new nonfiction book, which explores how the FBI was able to end the plague of kidnappings that terrorized St. Louis and the U.S. in the 1930s.

The Sinkhole owner Matt Stuttler and Arch City Audio Visual Services event producer Chris Keith share about how the pandemic impacted their services, and discuss details about their virtual concert series, “I Watched Music On The Internet.”

Though Missouri has been vaccinating seniors for months, nearly half haven't received COVID-19 shots.

The district defender for St. Louis says the way the circuit attorney and judges handle preliminary hearings is a major reason defendants spend months in jail without being convicted of a crime. He explains what needs to change.

In this encore from last October, we talked with director and Belleville native Ken Kwapis. He launched "The Office" and has directed 11 feature films. His recent book is "But What I Really Want to Do Is Direct: Lessons From a Life Behind the Camera."

The entertainer Clownvis is from St. Louis and after cold weather, his shows resume at Yaquis on Cherokee Street this weekend. Here's an encore of our conversation from last October with this zany, talented and thoughtful musician.

Candidates Anne Schweitzer and Shedrick Kelley explain why they're part of a group that hopes to defeat more establishment-minded Democrats to seize progressive control of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. Reporter Rachel Lippmann provides analysis.

Stories of Resistance at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis includes video, photography, drawing, sculpture and painted installations by 19 artists. It also includes the museum’s first podcast, “Radio Resistance.” Among those featured will be Congresswoman Cori Bush, activist and professor emeritus Harry Edwards and Harvard professor and author Walter Johnson.

The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s "Human Resources," presented by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and created by Telephonic Literary Union, is a choose-your-own-adventure story via phone. What initially sounds like a typical customer service hotline invites callers to discover the unexpected.

For the second year in a row, COVID-19 is putting the kibosh on the St. Patrick's Day parade and Irish festival that typically bring crowds of revelers to the vibrant St. Louis neighborhood. But the Dogtown community is still going green this week, finding creative and cautious ways to celebrate Ireland’s patron saint — while also raising funds for what organizers anticipate will be a return to traditional festivities in 2022.

For the second year in a row, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association is highlighting the state’s diverse manufacturing sector with a bracket-style tournament. The Makers Madness contest started with 311 nominees. After nearly 140,000 votes, eight products are now vying to be declared the state’s coolest.

Last month, more than 100 detainees at the St. Louis Justice Center revolted, attacking a guard, smashing windows and setting fires to protest their living conditions. The detainees held a floor of the jail for nearly seven hours. Now a new task force, created to investigate conditions in the jail, has released a report that seeks to explain what went wrong and what it will take to fix it.

The Rev. C.T. Vivian was a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. and a man who played a pivotal role in desegregating lunch counters, buses and beaches. Co-author Steve Fiffer discusses his legacy and his early years in Boonville, Missouri, and Macomb, Illinois.

Washington University sociologist Caitlyn Collins discusses the troubling trend of mothers dropping out of the workforce during the pandemic -- and how the U.S. lags behind other countries in supporting parents.

As coronavirus cases spread and shutdowns got under way a year ago this week, few of us had any idea what to expect in the days and months ahead — nor would we have guessed the crisis would extend well beyond the year 2020.

Edison Agrosciences is the St. Louis based agricultural biotechnology company working to develop alternative rubber crops. It’s found a product that it believes can become a source of homegrown rubber: sunflowers.

A yearlong collaboration between the Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper, Blue2Blue Conservation and researchers at Wichita State University, the effort centers on three litter-collection devices installed at area creeks. In this segment, we travel to Deer Creek in Maplewood for a closer look.

St. Louis singer-songwriter Haley Woolbright planned to record her new song as a wedding surprise for her husband. The pandemic changed those plans -- but taught the couple some things about love.

St. Louis’ historic Sumner High School has dodged closure once more. Tuesday night, the St. Louis Public School board approved a new effort to reinvigorate Sumner's declining enrollment, rather than close the historic school.

Council Chair Rita Heard Days recently beat back a lawsuit to hold the chairwoman's post. She discusses her relationship with the county executive, her priorities and her thoughts on COVID-19 restrictions in St. Louis County.

Last week the Missouri Supreme Court dealt another blow to Lamar Johnson, who's spent 26 years in prison for a murder prosecutors say he didn't commit. His lawyer discusses next steps in the quest for his freedom.

Republican lawmakers in Jefferson City are seeking to update some of the state’s photo ID laws as they pertain to elections. Rep. John Simmons, R-Washington, sponsored the bill — which passed the House on Feb. 24 and is on its way to the Senate for consideration.

Marian Middle School is the city's only all-girls Catholic middle school. School administrators describe it as a “school beyond walls” because its students are equipped with resources that help them, and their families, overcome societal and financial obstacles.

In Missouri’s own bicentennial year, Missouri Folk Arts’ staff are sharing 200 stories over the course of 52 weeks about folk and traditional arts in the Show-Me State.

One of our favorite recent conversation was with H.W. Brands. His recent book, "The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln and the Struggle for American Freedom," explores the run-up to slavery's abolition — and choice to confront its "great evil" via politics or violence — through the lives of two men: John Brown and Abraham Lincoln.