St. Louis on the Air

The year 2020 changed our world in a multitude of ways — and fueled escalating levels of need in our communities. That the United Way of Greater St. Louis experienced its highest number of 211 calls ever is just one indicator of how many people are struggling.

Major League Baseball announced in December that it would recognize Negro League players as Major Leaguers in the official records. Local baseball historian Ed Wheatley says the move reflects an important declaration from MLB that “Black players matter.”

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has been making headlines — but even some people who supported his ambitions are wildly unhappy with his recent actions. UMSL political science professor Anita Manion delves into why Missouri’s junior senator is objecting to the certification of a Biden victory. What does he hope to accomplish? Does he have any chance of succeeding?

In October, St. Louis Zoo chimpanzee Utamu gave birth to a baby girl. Two months later, the infant — named Raven — is starting to reach exciting milestones, like reaching for objects and trying to mimic chimpanzee vocalizations.

In August 1946, a group of World War II veterans took up arms against their own government — and mounted the only successful armed rebellion on U.S. soil since the American Revolution. Author Chris DeRose shares their story.

The year 2020 has been a bad year for so many people. On this last episode of the year we remember some of the lives we've lost -- from COVID-19 to gun violence, and more.

St. Louis on the Air's legal roundtable discusses a judge's removal of Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner from the prosecution of attorney Mark McCloskey, lawsuits against Missouri's medical marijuana regulations, and more.

Rev. Allison Wible, a hospital chaplain for Mercy Hospital St. Louis, reflects on the quiet, unseen moments she’s been witness to over the past year as she works with COVID-19 patients and their families.

For 15 years, the Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration has encouraged young people to discover, write and share stories about their family history. The St. Louis based non profit’s co-founder, Connie McIntyre, would like people of all ages to seek out their family history this holiday season, whether they do so in person or on a video call.

A joint production of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Kansas City-based StoneLion Puppet Theatre, “The Glowy Snowy Day” adapts Ezra Jack Keats' beloved children's book with giant illuminated puppets and a podcast soundtrack. The Rep's Adena Varner explains its inspiration.

If enjoying thoughtful, heartwarming films is on your holiday to-do list, there’s a brand-new St. Louis-made musical well worth your time. “A New Holiday” tells the story of 10-year-old Thelma as she grapples with the loss of her grandmother and looks toward a different kind of Christmas — themes that resonate especially in 2020. Soul singer Brian Owens directed the 33-minute film, which features an all-Black and almost entirely St. Louis-based cast.

In her four-plus decades working as a nurse, Lila Moersch has seen a lot — including the loss of mobility many older patients experience following hospitalization. Time and again, she’s observed adults who were active and independent prior to a hospital stay struggle to walk and take care of themselves afterward. The common problem is the focus of a dissertation Moersch recently completed as part of her program of study at the University of Missouri-St. Louis' College of Nursing.

Mich Hancock, CEO of the social media marketing firm 100th Monkey, has developed five steps to making the Internet a better place. She explains the mistake too many people are making, and why we have more control over our online experience than we realize.

Linda Mitchell talks about her new book that explores how to help children deal with their feelings, with photos captured by her husband Odell Mitchell Jr., a retired St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer. “How Are You Today? A Celebration of Children’s Emotions" is a photography book geared toward a pre-kindergarten through elementary school audience.

The "63106 Project" chronicles life in the city's most vulnerable ZIP code during the pandemic. Founder Richard Weiss of Before Ferguson Beyond Ferguson discusses the nonprofit journalism project, along with writer Leyla Fern King and story subject Misha Marshall.

Activists and alumni have pushed back on the St. Louis Public Schools' plan to close 10 schools, claiming they were rushed and came with too little public notice. The district's superintendent has paused the plan for a month, but says on air that critics will have to step up to reverse course.

Have you watched The Prom on Netflix yet? If not, you should get cracking — it’s fizzy and funny and almost certain to make you smile. The two St. Louis theater impresarios share how they helped bring it to life on Broadway first.

St. Louis photographers Kelly Pratt and Ian Kreidich talk about their Dancers & Dogs photography project that showcases Saint Louis Ballet dancers with their pet dogs. Their ongoing "Muttcracker" initiative is a partnership with Stray Rescue to promote pet adoption this holiday season.

Over the past decade and a half, Seth Hamilton’s love for foreign languages and martial arts has taken him to destinations around the world: Nicaragua, Guatemala, France and north Africa. Now he’s sharing his love of travel with kids in East St. Louis. His nonprofit Go! International offers free language classes to East St. Louis youth, as well as martial arts training and entrepreneurship programs.

We explore the ins and outs of local coronavirus vaccine distribution — and why some healthcare workers are getting left behind in the first round. We also discuss the public health messaging necessary to get everyone on board.

The way Missouri tracked hospital bed capacity was misleading at best and dangerously inaccurate at worst. KCUR health reporter Alex Smith talks about his recent investigation into this issue.

Missouri Department of Conservation furbearer biologist Laura Conlee will join us to talk about the expanding black bear population in Missouri, new hunting guidelines and the Be Bear Aware Campaign.

Arnold resident Carrie Rayfield Cabral participated in Pfizer's vaccine trial this fall. In this interview, she shares why she's convinced the trial spared her from serious illness, and what she hopes others take from her experience.

Tamara Keefe joins us to share how her local creamery is managing to keep delighting ice cream fans near and far this holiday season — and why she wants the general public to be more cognizant of what people in the food industry are going through right now.

Librarians Jennifer Alexander of St. Louis County Library and Jen Ohzourk of St. Louis Public Library share their favorite new books of the past year.

Last Saturday, along south St. Louis’ lively Cherokee Street, it was almost possible to forget about the coronavirus pandemic for a bit. The sun was shining. The businesses along Antique Row were looking festive. Shop owners carefully handed out cookies to passersby. And right near Whisk bakery sat a white van with a bright yellow piano inside it, along with a pianist: Alexandra Sinclair.

Lisa Montgomery is scheduled to die on Jan. 12. She faces the death penalty for one of the most heinous murders in recent Missouri history. Her lawyer explains her tragic life story and makes the case for sparing her life.

Earlier this year, after being approached by the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, Karisa Gilman-Hernandez and her colleagues at Dutchtown South Community Corporation added excessive air pollution to the list of things they're no longer willing to see the community they serve just put up with. She offers her perspective to "St. Louis on the Air," and host Sarah Fenske talks with Great Rivers staff attorneys Bob Menees and Sarah Rubenstein about why the pollution burden in the Dutchtown area caught their eye and how their legal efforts there fit in with other issues in their portfolio.

In his work leading the Missouri Veterans Commission, Tim Noonan serves in a volunteer capacity. But in the year 2020, the job has proved to be a particularly intense one — and in recent weeks it’s been filled with tragedy. The seven long-term care facilities the commission oversees suffered "a prolonged and rapidly escalating outbreak of COVID-19" beginning in September, according to a recent summary of an independent investigation.

Jessica Baran has been awarded an Andy Warhol arts writers grant to subsidize her ongoing “critical engagement with art, artists and exhibitions” in the Midwest. She explains what drives her criticism and how the St. Louis arts scene has changed.

A judge's decision could mean big changes for Missouri residents' abilities to referendum the decisions of the state legislature. ACLU Legal Director Tony Rothert explains why.

In the 20 years that NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has covered the U.S. Department of Justice, she’s learned to expect changes with each administration. “But there have been seismic shifts in this DOJ under President Trump,” she says.

Missouri’s fledgling medical marijuana program has approved nearly 70,000 patient and caregiver applications — so many, there is not yet enough legal cannabis in the state to serve them all. But people working in the industry say patience is necessary. The seeds of the solution to both problems are already in the ground.

St. Louis-based roots-rock band Brothers Lazaroff's 9th annual Hanukkah concert is going virtual, with guests including Tweedy, Ray Benson and Kinky Friedman himself. The brothers behind the band explain the event's unlikely origin story and how they're making it happen this year.

Just before the onslaught of the COVID-19 crisis, Taulby Roach told us that Metro Transit had identified security concerns as a key problem within the regional public transportation system — and was deploying a comprehensive strategy to improve community trust. Now, nine months later, the Bi-State Development CEO and local law enforcement leaders say real progress has been made. St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts and Roach talk with host Sarah Fenske and with callers.

Michael Shreves was a trailblazer for St. Louis’ LGBTQ community. Performing in drag as Michelle McCausland, he won a sexy legs contest aimed solely at women. He also led the charge to overturn St. Louis’ archaic laws banning drag performances — by fighting his own misdemeanor arrest. We’ll remember this remarkable man. He died last month of COVID-19.

We meet University of Missouri-Columbia engineering student Maged Shoman, who dug deep into St. Louis-area bus data. He explains what he learned about bus routes in the pandemic.

St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s new production proves that all the world really is a stage — with actors and dancers bringing a hip-hop version of "A Christmas Carol" to Central West End storefronts. Host Sarah Fenske discusses this unique collaboration and explores some excerpts from the witty musical soundtrack for this reimagined holiday tale.

Eighteen-year-old Shelei Pan discusses how she started an effort to teach other teenagers sewing skills to make free masks for area children. Project Masked has donated more than 2,000 masks to local nonprofits so far, and more than 150 volunteers have lent a helping hand.

Thirty years ago, the late Iben Browning, a self-proclaimed climatologist, predicted that the St. Louis area was in for a major earthquake along the New Madrid Seismic Zone. He forecast that it would happen right around Dec. 3, 1990, sparking a media frenzy in the small town of New Madrid, Missouri, and causing many to stock up on emergency supplies.

It might seem that restaurant owners Joe Jovanovich and Mohammed Qadadeh have enough on their plates just keeping their eateries open. They run the Pat Connolly Tavern and American Falafel, respectively, and are busy finding innovative ways to operate and pay their employees during the challenging year that is 2020. Yet they’ve also stepped up to address food insecurity among their neighbors in the midst of all that — as have many of their peers in St. Louis’ vibrant, and hard hit, restaurant industry.

Commander of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, Dr. Alex Garza, provides clarity on some of the public health assertions made by Missouri Sen. Andrew Koenig on Tuesday when he introduced a proposal to limit the actions of local municipalities as it relates to the pandemic.

Over the weekend, the St. Louis region lost a beloved champion of its cultural institutions. Sarah Bryan Miller, 68, was the longtime classical music critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She died early Saturday morning after a long struggle with cancer, one that lasted about a decade. In this tribute segment, we talk with several of her friends and also share music performed by and for her.

Almost 20 years ago, the St. Louis Zoo and Missouri Department of Conversation set out to shore up critically endangered hellbender populations in Missouri. They explain how they worked to bring these aquatic salamanders back from the bring.

In January, the St. Louis Regional Chamber, AllianceSTL, Civic Progress, Downtown STL, Inc. and Arch to Park will officially become Greater St. Louis Inc. The new organization's new CEO, Jason Hall, explains how organizers pulled off a rare merger in this fractured town — and the changes he hopes will accompany it.

Missouri state Sen. Andrew Koenig of West St. Louis County discusses legislation he's introducing to curtail local governments' ability to enact COVID-19 restrictions. This comes amid some GOP outcry over St. Louis County Executive Sam Page's indoor dining curbs.

A 2020 Great Rivers Biennial Arts Award recipient, Kahlil Robert Irving joins host Sarah Fenske to delve further into his exhibit theme at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis and his career growth as an artist.

Neighborhood parks and other green spaces and trails continue to be among the liveliest places in the region as the COVID-19 crisis continues. Great Rivers Greenway's Emma Klues and Tower Grove Park's Bill Reininger offer their insights on the increased interest in the outdoors, even as we head into winter, and we hear from listeners as well.

Ann Lemons Pollack's new book, “Iconic Restaurants of St. Louis,” tells the story of 41 places that stood the test of time, from long-shuttered standbys to places still going strong after more than a century. The author discusses what she learned, and her own personal journey to becoming an adventurous eater.

St. Louis native Eric von Schrader has penned his first novel. It imagines a St. Louis full of gleaming buildings, international tourists and glowing bricks — yet the city remains grounded in real life with characters living and working in real St. Louis places. This conversation initially aired in September.