St. Louis on the Air

In this interview, Sarah Fenske talks with historian Connie Sexauer about her new book “From A Park, To A Stadium, To A Little Piece of Heaven."

“Soul Train” was on TV. Groovy teachers were teaching “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” to the high school English classes. David Bowie stopped by Kiel Auditorium to promote a little album called “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” Was there a more idyllic time to be a teenager than Creve Coeur in the early 1970s? For Jonathan, the protagonist of James Brandon’s new young adult novel “Ziggy, Stardust & Me,” it isn’t quite that simple. Sure, the music is incredible. But Jonathan is gay. And in St. Louis in 1973, that means intense and even painful therapy.

Bill McClellan has been entertaining and enlightening the readers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for 39 years, all but three of them as its columnist. In recent months, even as he battles cancer for a second time, he has continued to file regular dispatches that probe the city’s past and its future with insight and good humor. In this episode, McClellan talks about the future of daily newspapers, the columns he’s lived to regret and the reason he continues to write, despite enduring regular chemotherapy treatments.

Since Jessica Ciccone moved back to her hometown of St. Louis in 2012 after years living in Boston, she’s found a niche connecting local professionals with business resources and service activities — and with each other. Those passions all come together in the nonprofit she helped to form a couple years ago, St. Louis Startup Ambassadors, for which she now serves as board vice president. The organization helps transplants find their way in what can be an insular town — although St. Louis natives and “boomerangs” like herself, who’ve moved back after years away, are also welcome. In this episode of the talk show, host Sarah Fenske chats with Ciccone and with Samantha Rudolph, the founder of Babyation, a company Rudolph describes as “unapologetically for moms." The shared their insights on starting businesses based in St. Louis and their experiences as professionals in a place recently named No. 1 among U.S. cities for its number of female entrepreneurs. The conversation also includes comments from Anthony Bartlett, who runs St. Louis Transplants, and Pravina Pindoria, co-founder of Tallyfy, as well as listeners.

Sarah Fenske talks with the new music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), Stéphane Denève, ahead of its 140th season. Marie-Hélène Bernard, president and CEO of the SLSO, also joins the conversation.

The Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation is releasing its 2019 "Places in Peril" list today, which details places threatened by deterioration, lack of maintenance, insufficient funding, imminent demolition and development. Sarah Fenske talked with Missouri Preservation's executive director, Bill Hart, about the places included on this year’s list.

The Municipal League of Metro St. Louis is in the process of submitting petitions to the election boards of the city and county that would begin the Board of Freeholders process. In this segment, Sarah Fenske talks with political correspondent Jason Rosenbaum and Municipal League executive director Pat Kelly who help explain how the Board of Freeholders process will work in the coming weeks and months.

On Thursday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske was joined by Richard Ivey and Bailey Gettemeier, the actor managers of The Darkness and Creepyworld, respectively. They talked about running haunted houses, getting punched in the face on the job, and what it means to work as a scare actor.

Dr. Benjamin Rush is not yet the subject of a Ken Burns miniseries, but he surely ought to be. The Philadelphia physician was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, an anonymous polemicist who helped inspire the Boston Tea Party and the editor of Thomas Paine’s wildly influential “Common Sense.” And, as detailed in a new biography by Stephen Fried, he both treated and became a close friend to several U.S. presidents. He personally brought Thomas Jefferson and John Adams back together after their friendship seemed permanently ended. In this episode, Fried discusses “RUSH: Revolution, Madness, and the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father.” Published last year, the book is just out in paperback.

A lot has been said about music streaming, from its power to shift consumer habits to its role in shaping how artists get paid. For better or worse – it’s completely disrupted the music industry. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Anthony Anderson, founder of GF Music Group, and St. Louis Musician Kayla Thompson (KV The Writer). Also featuring comments from Jay Washington (Qwerty) in conversation with STLPR producer Alexis Moore.

Two high-ranking city officials join host Sarah Fenske to discuss the state of the St. Louis Lambert International Airport privatization process: Paul Payne, the city budget director and chairman of the airport working group, and Linda Martinez, deputy mayor for development.

LA-based comedian and podcaster Rhea Butcher is well aware that there are some bad things going on in today’s world. But the focus of Butcher’s current “Good Things Comedy Tour” lies elsewhere: with the good stuff. “To only look at the bad would be to give in to the bad, I feel like, in these times,” the Midwest native tells St. Louis Public Radio’s Kae Petrin. “And so to have a good time, or to spend time in goodness and having fun and being kind and being joyous and happy, is not to ignore the bad things. It’s actually a form of self-care and growth and invigoration to take care of each other, I’ve found.” That’s the kind of vibe that eventgoers of all ages can expect at the Ready Room this Sunday.

Danny Wicentowski conducted lots of different interviews for his latest Riverfront Times cover story digging into the status of a proposed $190 million Novus redevelopment near Interstate 170 and Olive Boulevard. The same word — limbo — kept popping up in his conversations with various sources, as he mentions in his piece. The proposed development was publicly unveiled more than a year ago. Yet residents and business owners in the path of the Costco-focused "University Place" are still waiting to find out whether it's definitely moving forward. That's left their future in the neighborhood uncertain. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Wicentowski about his reporting on the saga. The conversation also includes comments from longtime U City homeowner Letha Baptiste, who has thus far declined to accept Novus’ offer of an option contract on her house.

Thirteen-year-old St. Louisan Tarek Husseini spent four weeks in Los Angeles this past summer competing for a $25,000 prize. Now, for the last six weeks, viewers of the Food Network’s “Kids Baking Championship” have watched Husseini and other up-and-coming bakers impress the judges with one kitchen creation after another. The Ladue resident made it through the semifinal episode that premiered on Monday. In this talk show segment, he chats with host Sarah Fenske ahead of next week's final episode.

In this interview, Dr. Jessica Gold, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, talks with Sarah Fenske about the danger of a perceived link between mental illness and gun violence.

A multitude of truncated earthworks — more commonly known as mounds — once dotted the St. Louis landscape. For the ancient Mississippian people who constructed them many centuries ago, these structures were full of meaning and purpose. The mounds also drew the interest of European newcomers to the region long after the mounds were built. But by the late 19th century, most of these sacred Native American places had been destroyed — the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois, being a significant exception. In this conversation, host Sarah Fenske talks with Patricia Cleary, a St. Louis native who is currently working on a book about the mounds that she plans to publish leading up to Missouri’s bicentennial celebration of statehood in 2021.

In April of 1968, Jane Elliott was a third-grade teacher in the small town of Riceville, Iowa. On the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, she felt compelled to shift her lesson plans. She decided to teach her young white students about discrimination by telling the children that brown-eyed people were superior to their blue-eyed peers. She watched as the students turned on each other. Then, the next day, she reversed the script. The exercise highlighted the arbitrary and irrational basis of prejudice, an issue that Americans continue to grapple with more than five decades later. In this episode, host Sarah Fenske explores that topic and others with Elliott ahead of the internationally known lecturer’s address at the Washington University School of Medicine on Monday evening. Also joining the conversation is Rachelle D. Smith, a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leader for the School of Medicine.

In this conversation, we hear from an UMSL researcher who analyzed seven years of arrest data to see whether the so-called “Ferguson effect” caused an increase of crime in St. Louis. The “Ferguson effect” refers to the idea that when police face a high level of scrutiny, law enforcement activities are stifled, and that leads to a spike in violent crime. Lt. Colonel Ronnie Robinson of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department also joins the discussion.

Did the spokesman for a group exploring privatizing St. Louis' airport call into St. Louis on the Air under a fake name? An audio forensics expert who listened to the recording says it's "very likely." In this segment, Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Corinne Ruff, who looked into this story.

Host Sarah Fenske checks in with the team at Sauce Magazine to discuss the latest restaurant additions — as well as upcoming concepts and some closings — within the St. Louis region’s food and beverage community. Joining the discussion are managing editor Catherine Klene and art director Meera Nagarajan.

The Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis is using art to engage history and contextualize the present. chief curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi joined St. Louis on the Air with artists Stephanie Syjuco and Bethany Collins to discuss the CAM’s fall exhibitions.

In January 2018, the Impossible Burger first arrived in the St. Louis market. The meat-free patty was just like the real thing – it even bled. It became an immediate sensation. But it was soon snapped up by Burger King for its “Impossible Whopper.” After a hugely successful rollout right here in St. Louis, its popularity made the Impossible patties too popular for many locals to obtain. But they still had plenty of options. Some have experimented on their own to create tasty meat-free concoctions. Others are turning to more local alternatives. In this episode, Sarah Fenske talks with Todd Boyman, CEO of Hungry Planet, and with Chris Bertke, executive chef of the newly opened vegan-focused restaurant Utah Station. The segment includes comments from other food and restaurant industry professionals as well.

The legacy of George B. Vashon. The history of the St. Louis Browns. The special moments that took place at the Top of the Tower. A handful of local authors and historians revisited all of this and more during last week’s STL Storytelling Live event at the Missouri Athletic Club in downtown St. Louis. This episode features highlights from the evening, with stories running the gamut from the humorous, to the surprising, to the hopeful. The storytellers include Bill Clevlen, Carol Shepley, Amanda Doyle, Ed Wheatley, Calvin Riley and Cameron Collins.

Host Sarah Fenske talks to CommUNITY Arts Festival founder Paige Walden-Johnson and Rain Stippec, the dancer who was shot eight times in the back two years ago. They discussed Stippec’s journey to recovery and how the arts festival has grown to be an asset to the city by addressing gun violence.

All the world’s a stage, Shakespeare instructed us in his beloved romantic comedy “As You Like It.” And in its new production of that very show, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis plans to put that to the test in both the streets of Pagedale, Missouri, and the farmland of Calhoun County, Illinois. Its remix of the classic play, titled “Love at the River’s Edge,” transports audience members across the Mississippi River to examine the urban and rural divide. In this episode, host Sarah Fenske discusses the new production, which kicks off September 13 as part of the Shakespeare in the Streets initiative, with executive producer Tom Ridgely and director Kathryn Bentley.

Host Sarah Fenske explores the religious obligation of Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage, and what it all entails. Joining the program were St. Louisans Shahab Mushtaq and Faiza Mushtaq. The husband and wife duo were among the millions of Muslims who traveled more than 7,000 miles to attend Hajj this year. Also joining the conversation was Faizan Syed, executive director of Missouri’s Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR.)

"We Live Here," the podcast that St. Louis Public Radio launched in the wake of the Ferguson uprising, is entering its fifth season this fall – with new voices at its helm. Co-hosts Ashley Winters and Jia Lian Yang, as well as associate producer Lauren Brown, are preparing to release a series of new episodes in the coming weeks. In this episode of "St. Louis on the Air" they join Sarah Fenske to discuss where "We Live Here" is headed and how they’re hoping to engage with listeners near and far.

In this segment, host Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Sarah Fentem about her reporting into the experience of Medicaid eligible families across the state who say they’ve been arriving at doctors’ appointments to learn their children have been unwittingly dropped from the program.

Lamar Johnson has been in prison for 24 years. A St. Louis jury found him guilty of murder in 1995 – and he’s been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole ever since. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner now says prosecutors in her office engaged in serious misconduct. Saying her Conviction Integrity Unit has found new evidence that Johnson is actually innocent, she sought a new trial. St. Louis Circuit Judge Elizabeth Hogan denied that request. She says Gardner’s motion came “approximately 24 years” past the deadline. Tricia Bushnell, director of the Midwest Innocence Project, isn’t buying it.

Fentanyl has become an international scourge. It’s been blamed for a spike in drug overdose deaths in Missouri as well as around the world. It’s both contaminated many recreational drugs and become a substitute for heroin in many American cities. And yet the Chinese factory responsible for manufacturing most of its precursors has received funding and lucrative tax breaks from the Chinese government. Through years of research, St. Louis journalist Ben Westhoff has become one of the foremost experts into the international fentanyl trade. In this episode, he discusses his new book, “Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic.” Westhoff talks about how his investigation followed the drug from its manufacture in China to the streets of St. Louis – and the terrible impact that synthetic, laboratory-made drugs are having on communities around the world.

As a St. Louis-based designer, burlesque performer, artist and more, Maxi Glamour’s personal and professional brand is a multifaceted one. But one particular title does stand out, and that’s Glamour’s drag performer identity as the “Demon Queen of Polka and Baklava.” That persona comes to life in a new way in the new season of the “Boulet Brothers’ Dragula” reality TV series, which features Glamour. The first episode premiered on Amazon Prime Video on Tuesday, and in this episode of the talk show, host Sarah Fenske talks with Glamour about their experience on “Dragula” as well as other topics. Glamour, who identifies as queer and non-binary, is believed to be the first drag performer from St. Louis to appear on a major televised drag competition. They became a fan of the show long before being cast in it.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup, is manufactured by Monsanto-Bayer. Depending on who you talk to, it’s either a safe, highly effective herbicide, or, it’s a dangerous substance linked to cancer cases from use by farmers and landscapers. In this interview, Sarah Fenske talks with journalist Carey Gillam, who is coming to St. Louis to talk about her investigations into the topic of agrochemical safety and corporate interests.

Despite its ever-present vastness along the Missouri-Illinois border, the Mississippi River is easy for locals to take for granted. And all too often, residents completely avoid the river. It’s one thing to drive above it on a highway or eat a meal at a restaurant overlooking the water; relatively few actually travel its meandering length. But the people behind Big Muddy Adventures are aiming to change that, one canoe trip at a time. Host Sarah Fenske talks with the company’s founder and lead guide, Mike Clark, who is better known as “Muddy Mike," and Roo Yawitz, general manager of Big Muddy Adventures. And, producer Evie Hemphill talks with some enthusiastic recent canoe passengers.

Every city has its nightmare intersections, and many residents could likely cite a personal nemesis or two. In the greater St. Louis area, the crossroads of North Grand Boulevard and Interstate 64 in Grand Center, and Eager and Hanley in Brentwood, may well come to mind among other notoriously tricky traffic spots. Frequently stressful for drivers and non-drivers alike, these sections of public infrastructure can seem like a permanent fixture of civic life, along with the honking, confusion and rage they trigger. But change can sometimes happen. In this episode, host Sarah Fenske takes a closer look at some of the region’s worst intersections – and discusses how planners work to address trouble spots in an age of crumbling infrastructure across the U.S. The conversation also touches on what residents can do to help address problematic roads and contribute to smoother, safer streets for all. Joining the discussion are Scott Ogilvie, who is a transportation policy planner for the City of St. Louis, and Kea Wilson, a St. Louis-based communications manager for Strong Towns.

On July 30, St. Louis gained a new resident — Tobias, the Somali wild ass. His birth is special, since he is part of a subspecies that is both critically endangered in the wild and underrepresented in zoos nationwide. In this segment, Sarah Fenske talks with Tim Thier, the acting curator of antelope at Saint Louis Zoo, about the Somali wild ass and the zoo's conservation efforts in the Horn of Africa.

Host Sarah Fenske talks with a local artist who takes a contemporary look at St. Louis athletes pursuing their dreams as fighters.

Host Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Andrea Henderson about how a group of local residents doing their part to remember the first slaves brought to the English colonies four hundred years ago this month.

Earlier this week, members of the Missouri Botanical Garden horticulture staff returned from a research trip in the Central Asia country of Kyrgyzstan. Host Sarah Fenske talks to Megan Engelhardt, manager of the Botanical Garden's Seed Bank, and horticulturist Dave Gunn, about how the staff went about bringing seeds back to add to the Botanical Garden’s seed bank to propagate.

Host Sarah Fenske talks with renowned St. Louis chef Gerard Craft about his battles with anxiety, and the way rankings and awards wreaked havoc with his well-being.

The XFL is a planned professional U.S. football league with the mission of reimagining America’s favorite sport. The league originally debuted in 2001, and only lasted one season. XFL games are set to begin again in February 2020. The St. Louis BattleHawks were one of the league’s eight teams announced this week. In this interview, Sarah Fenske learns about the XFL resurgence by talking with the BattleHawks team president, Kurt Hunzeker.

Thousands of people in the St. Louis region depend on Metro Transit’s 83 total MetroBus routes and 46 miles of MetroLink tracks to get where they need to go every day. But on Monday, many of those transit users were left waiting at their usual stops for many minutes, some even for hours, as expected public transportation vehicles did not arrive. The transit agency cited a driver shortage early Monday as the cause of the delays, putting out a statement that read, in part, “Due to an unusually high number of MetroBus operators already calling off work and declining to work extra assignments, we anticipate that we will not be in position to deliver the normally high quality service the region has come to expect every day.” In this episode, host Sarah Fenske hears from riders who ran into snafus on Monday – and also talks with Catina Wilson, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 788, and St. Louis Public Radio digital reporter Kae Petrin.

For more than a year, city officials and an army of consultants have been exploring the possibility of leasing St. Louis Lambert International Airport to a private entity. Host Sarah Fenske explores where things stand with leasing the city’s largest public asset alongside St. Louis Public Radio reporter Corinne Ruff and Alderwoman Cara Spencer, D-20th Ward.

In this segment, we mark National Senior Citizens Day by talking with Vanessa Woods, who teaches ballet classes to seniors in assisted living facilities.

Last Friday, local theater veteran Linda Kennedy died after battling cancer. She was 68 years old. In this episode of the show, host Sarah Fenske talks with Ron Himes, founder and producing director of the Black Rep, where Kennedy performed many of her greatest roles.

Host Sarah Fenske delves into the latest news surrounding plans for a Major League Soccer team in St. Louis. Joining the discussion are Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia, whose 6th Ward encompasses the west downtown area where the proposed stadium would sit; “St. Louligan” Stu Hultgren, a south St. Louis resident and avid local soccer fan; and “Mr. Soccer” Bill McDermott, St. Louis University’s longtime men’s soccer game announcer. The conversation also includes questions from listeners and their wide-ranging opinions on what the new team ought to be named.

St. Louis’ literary community lost one of its most influential members, Lorin Cuoco, 64, earlier this month. The longtime editor and poet passed away at her University City home Aug. 8 after a long illness, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Cuoco is perhaps best known for her work alongside the late novelist William Gass, a dear friend and collaborator. Together they founded and oversaw Washington University’s International Writers Center (now the Center for the Humanities), and she edited multiple books with Gass. She was also a force for the St. Louis Poetry Center, the River Styx literary organization and other local efforts to raise the profile of St. Louis’ literary scene. On top of all that, she was an accomplished radio professional. In this episode, host Sarah Fenske discusses Cuoco’s life and legacy with two people who observed her influence firsthand: Mary Edwards and Joel Minor. Remembrances from multiple listeners are also included.

Host Sarah Fenske explored how and why people start their own pop-ups, and how patrons can find out about them for the latest Sound Bites segment with Sauce Magazine. Joining the program were Sauce managing editor Heather Hughes – and pop-up owners Chelsie Hellige of Spirit House and Steven Pursley of Ramen x Rui.

A U.S. District Court recently ruled that the Missouri Parole Board has been violating the U.S. and Missouri constitutions in its handling of cases involving juvenile offenders. In this interview, host Sarah Fenske talks with the director of the MacArthur Justice Center, Amy Breihan, about the ways Breihan feels the parole board has failed to comply with state and federal law in its handling of cases involving young people who were originally given mandatory life sentences without parole.

Legal experts Bill Freivogel, Mark Smith and Lisa Hoppenjans discuss topics including the sentence of former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, a licensing dispute concerning a restaurant on The Hill and the case of a man wearing body armor and carrying a rifle who caused panic at a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri.

More than 430 inmates have overdosed in Missouri prisons since May 2017, and at least five of them have died after taking controlled substances such as heroin, fentanyl and synthetic cannabinoids. St. Louis Public Radio’s Shahla Farzan talks with host Sarah Fenske about her recent reporting on the situation.