St. Louis on the Air

The St. Louis-based band dropped a new single Nov. 13 — the same day the group announced its forthcoming sophomore record, titled “Cattle In The Sky.” Frontman Jordan Slone and bassist/vocalist Jack McCoy join "St. Louis on the Air" to talk about their musical evolution and share some tunes.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson has announced she will not seek reelection and plans to retire in April. Krewson has been mayor for four years. In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Krewson said that after 23 years as an elected official, she had decided to step away.

As a part-time clerk for St. Louis County Library, Maura Lydon felt like she was beginning to fulfill her calling over the past couple years. She had decided on a career in libraries and was eager to experience her next steps. Then, in August, the library system laid her off, along with 121 other part-time employees. The library administration cited reduced services and efforts to be “good stewards” of taxpayer funds as the basis for the staff cuts. But that reasoning doesn’t hold up in the opinions of some current and former employees.

In recent weeks, both Pfizer and Moderna Inc. announced that their COVID-19 vaccines are 95% effective. But does it mean everyone will have a vaccine by New Year’s Eve? Not quite, says Michael Kinch, associate vice chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Storm of Progress: German Art after 1800” is on display at the St. Louis Art Museum. Curators put together the exhibit in short order after the pandemic derailed the museum's already planned upon exhibit schedule.

With coronavirus cases increasing at an alarming rate across the U.S., public health officials advise families to cancel any plans for a big Thanksgiving dinner this year. But what do you do when your family is not on the same page?

Mid-November is arguably a bit early to start putting up holiday decorations. But it’s not at all too soon to make thoughtful plans to safely connect with relatives, particularly those who are more isolated this year, and spread some joy. “Start having those conversations now,” Marjorie Moore, executive director of the nonprofit organization VOYCE, tells St. Louis on the Air. She and Vanessa Woods of Vitality Ballet talk through some ideas with host Sarah Fenske.

LynnMarie Alexander, the director/archivist of the Hill Neighborhood Center, has a new coffee table book about St. Louis' beloved Italian-American neighborhood. She explains the neighborhood's history and shares some highlights.

Amy Hilgemann remembers the job she had in the early 1980s as among the most fulfilling work she ever did. At the time, she directed Crisis Intervention Services, a collaboration with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Officers were empowered to hand off certain situations to a dedicated group of six social workers, including Hilgemann, whom they could call on seven days a week. The program got some rave reviews. But when the initial funding stream ran out, it ended.

Coronavirus diagnoses are soaring across the Midwest, and the St. Louis metro area has seen an average of 2,206 new COVID-19 cases per day over the last week. That's up 43% over the week prior. So far, to date, 2,036 people in the region have died. But leaders can’t get on the same page in their mitigation methods. And that could be dangerous, as St. Louis Public Radio reporter Sarah Fentem explains.

Filmed in Grand Center in October, “Songs for St. Louis: A Concert in the Commons” features three young operatic stars singing some of the most beloved songs of Broadway and opera. Patricia Racette of Opera Theatre of St. Louis explains the concert's origins.

A class-action lawsuit changing how Missouri handles parole hearings has meant new hope for 98 Missouri men sentenced to life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles. Host Sarah Fenske talked to several men who have been released after decades behind bars.

As legal challenges by the Trump campaign mount in the wake of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is deploying his office in an attempt to stop some votes from counting in Pennsylvania. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Washington University's Ronald Levin about whether precedent is on Schmitt's side, and what might happen next.

St. Louis entrepreneur Akeem Shannon, 28, invented Flipstik — a device that allows users to stick their smartphone on any flat surface or use it as a kickstand. He pitched it on ABC's "Shark Tank" and secured a deal with investor Lori Greiner.

Beau Willimon joins St. Louis on the Air to talk about how his documentary "Lights of Baltimore" sheds lights on the development of policing in Baltimore, early redlining practices and the disinvestment in Black communities around the U.S. He also talks about the free screenwriting class he's offering as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival.

In the month leading up to Election Day, most public opinion polls showed former Vice President Joe Biden leading by a sizable margin, yet his margin was much closer than many pollsters predicted. As Vittert writes in a recent editorial, “How were all the pollsters so wrong, again, even after the soul searching and methodological recalibrating that followed 2016?”

In the 20th century, St. Louis was a hub for candy manufacturing. As 94-year-old candy magnate Menlo Smith puts it, “St. Louis was the best place in the country to manufacture confectionery if you were going to be distributing it nationwide.” Smith is the man behind favorites such as Pixy Stix, SweeTarts and Nerds.

At Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish food pantry in Ferguson, volunteers have seen a 25% client increase in recent months, with Blessed Teresa serving about 1,300 people in October alone. That’s in keeping with what food banks and other partners are observing throughout the area, according to Operation Food Search’s director of strategic services, Lucinda Perry. She’s seen about a 40% increase in food insecurity amid COVID-19 upheaval. The St. Louis community is stepping up to help, including local farms such as EarthDance.

The Refugee Integration Project spent 12 months documenting critical shifts and moments for refugees who resettled in St. Louis. The stories emerging from that research will be presented this week in a new puppet show called “We Came As Refugees: An American Story.” A collaboration with the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the St. Louis Storytelling Project and the University of Missouri Extension, it's all in an effort to help increase awareness about refugees and challenges they face in the United States.

New restaurants and bars continue to open in the St. Louis region — often with extensive safety protocols. And they’re offering new items for local food lovers and ways for patrons to get their favorite dishes. Sauce Magazine features eight new restaurants in its November Hit List, and executive editor Meera Nagarajan joined "St. Louis on the Air" to talk about them.

Members of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said that as hospitals in the St. Louis region near their capacity to treat coronavirus patients, doctors, nurses and other hospital staff are overworked and afraid.

Author Nini Harris' new book “Oldest St. Louis” explores the history of everything from the oldest house in the region (which dates to 1790s Florissant) to the region’s oldest prayer vigil (ongoing since 1928). She explains how she got to the bottom of things and why her findings give her hope.

Among the offerings of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival is “Test Pattern.” It is the first feature film by St. Louis native Shatara Michelle Ford and, which follows a young Black woman as she navigates the medical and justice system after an assault.

Missouri Republicans performed exceptionally well on Tuesday. Jean Evans, the Missouri GOP’s executive director, joins the show to discuss the winning strategy that she said boiled down to three things: great candidates, a strong ground game and the Democratic Party’s failure to resonate with Missouri voters.

St. Louis filmmaker Matthew Rice's "The Ballad of John Henry" is streaming as part of this year's extended St. Louis International Film Festival. The documentary delves into the folk hero John Henry's hardships of living under Virginia’s “Black codes” and the convict-lease program, an unjust legal system developed after the Civil War as a replacement for slavery.

In September, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report supporting the phaseout of subminimum wage for people with disabilities. For St. Louisan Colleen Starkloff, co-founder of the Starkloff Disability Institute, it’s about time. While she’s quick to acknowledge the good intentions of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act exception when it was first created, she’s convinced that phasing it out is critical to human dignity and inclusive employment practices. “There’s a way to do that, and sheltered workshops aren’t it,” she says.

A new program in St. Louis will divert some 911 calls crisis counselors, while some social workers will now respond to calls for service alongside a cop. The city's point person on the project and the contractor handling calls discuss the rollout and the goals behind it.

In conversation with UMSL's Anita Manion and St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum, we dig into some of the biggest local and statewide races and issues voters weighed in on this fall — and what to make of the results. We also talk with Congresswoman-elect Cori Bush and with STLPR reporters Jonathan Ahl and Jaclyn Driscoll.

KaDrea Harrison doesn’t particularly enjoy asking for help. So when she was unable to work because of COVID-19 and fell behind on rent earlier this year, she hesitated telling her leasing office. But now she’s glad she did, because it was quick to direct her to something called the St. Louis Mediation Project. Elad Gross is the outreach coordinator for the partnership.

While most voters head into the voting booth alone, all 50 states allow parents or guardians to bring their kids with them to the polls. Nareissa Smith, an attorney and teacher with the St. Louis-based company, Varsity Tutors, says this is a good practice because it's a learning opportunity and it gets kids excited about civic engagement.

A study in the Journal of Public Economics finds that people who vote, regardless of party affiliation, are more likely to comply with voluntary public health directives during the pandemic. Co-author John Barrios of WashU’s Olin Business School explains what the study tells us about America.

“I really wanted to do something for our audience that would take them away from their computer,” the festival’s executive artistic director, Carrie Houk, explains. Radio seemed the perfect medium, and indeed, she and other organizers, including Brian Hohlfeld, are finding that the playwright's dialogue translates well to it.

This year’s fall foliage looks a bit different than past years. Among the golden, warm-toned hues sprucing up the St. Louis region for autumn is still a noticeable amount of green leaves. Daria McKelvey of the Missouri Botanical Garden explains why.

On November 2, 1920, William E. Woods made St. Louis’ first radio broadcast, announcing election results from his home on De Tonty Street out to the airwaves. Frank Absher of the St. Louis Media History Foundation gives us the details.

Dr. Ravi Johar, chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare of Missouri, explains how health officials are getting a handle on what to expect where this flu season — and how that data is driving their decisions.

How did Missouri celebrate Halloween during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic? A professor shares what she's found in her research — and describes how Halloween has changed in the last century even beyond the need to contain germs.

A new self-guided tour promoted by the visitor's bureau in Quincy highlights 30 of the city’s trove of mid-century modern designs.

A growing body of evidence suggests that our twice-yearly tradition of changing our clocks isn’t just irritating. It’s actually dangerous. Washington University Biology Professor Erik Herzog makes the case for why we'd be better off eliminating Daylight Saving Time.

A panel of experts discusses lawsuits and criminal cases in the news this past month, including a St. Louis restaurant's lawsuit again DoorDash, a former St. Louis County employee's whistleblower claim and a possible copyright claim against a pair of St. Louis lawyers.

Administrators from both public and private schools in St. Louis County explain how they are making in-person learning work amid difficult circumstances.

Journalist Connor Towne O'Neill discusses his new book, “Down Along With That Devil’s Bones," which explores monuments to Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in four Southern cities -- and the people seeking to take them down.

Some Saint Louis University alumni are asking SLU President Fred Pestello to “open a process to rename the Pius XII Memorial Library.” It currently honors a former pope who stands accused of enabling the Nazis.

Bon Appetit Test Kitchen breakout star Claire Saffitz discusses her new book, “Dessert Person: Recipes and Guidance for Baking with Confidence,” how St. Louis played a role in her online stardom and why she left the Test Kitchen.

Ken Kwapis' new book, “But What I Really Want to Do Is Direct: Lessons From a Life Behind the Camera,” provides plenty of useful advice to would-be directors and also details the lessons he learned as a movie lover growing up in suburban St. Louis.

St. Louis native Mike Leahy is the portrayer of Clownvis Presley — a character who combines musical parody and comedy. His live cast "Clownvis To The Rescue" show started after his gigs were cancelled due to the pandemic. It now draws a dedicated crowd every Friday and Saturday night at Yaquis on Cherokee Street.

With more people working from home, dogs and cats suddenly find their owners home most of the time. Veterinary behaviorist Dr. Debra Horwitz says it's normal for pets to develop new habits from the change in routine.

This week, the Missouri Independent launched with big plans for covering Missouri state government. The nonprofit news site promises to provide “relentless investigative journalism that sheds light on how decisions in Jefferson City are made and how those decisions affect Missourians.”

The Cherokee Virtual Silent Auctions Facebook page is a dedicated place where locals can donate items to raise money for the city's artists, bar and industry workers affected by the pandemic. So far, more than $44,000 has been raised.

St. Louis Public Radio education reporter Ryan Delaney is in Germany for one month thanks to the Education Writers Association and the Pulitzer Center. He joins St. Louis the program from Berlin to discuss what he’s learned about the German way of handling education in the pandemic.

Prop R asks city voters to increase property taxes, but some critics worry because the money it raises would go to nonprofits outside the public school system. A Yes on Prop R backer addresses those concerns.