A coalition of racial justice groups has released the first of a slew of reports aimed at holding prosecutors in St. Louis and St. Louis County accountable. The group is tackling big questions: What should a prosecutor’s office be doing? What would it mean for those policies to be progressive — not just in name, but in reality? Mike Milton, founder and executive director of the Freedom Community Center in St. Louis, digs into the report and talks about the leadership of former St. Louis Circuit ...
Mar 18, 2024•16 min
For 26 years, musicians of all levels have gathered for the annual St. Louis Tionól — not just to perform traditional Irish music, but to bask in the companionship of fellow performers and attendees. As festival co-founder Mike Mullins puts it, “The heart of Irish music is a social event.”
Mar 15, 2024•9 min
Rolla, Missouri, boasts one of the biggest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the Midwest. In this 2023 conversation, STLPR correspondent Jonathan Ahl and Missouri S&T historian Larry Gragg dig into Rolla St. Patrick’s Day history and the unique traditions that still continue today.
Mar 15, 2024•16 min
While St. Louis doesn’t have as many first-generation Irish immigrants as it used to, there are still strong cultural ties in the city. Eimear Arkins, a St. Louis transplant from County Clare, Ireland, is working to strengthen those ties. In this encore episode, she shares her thoughts on local holiday customs and how Americans can engage with Irish culture in meaningful ways.
Mar 15, 2024•17 min
St. Louis on the Air celebrated 314 Day with recording artist and arts ambassador Muhammad “Mvstermind” Austin, For the Culture STL’s founder Ohun Ashe, and co-owner of Strange Donuts and Up Late Jason Bockman. The trio discussed all things 3-1-4 — from St. Louis’ claim to have the best Chinese food in America to the steps towards progress since the Ferguson uprising nearly 10 years ago.
Mar 14, 2024•41 min
Fontbonne University leaders announced earlier this week that the school would close in 2025. Fontbonne President Nancy Blattner talks about why, and we talk with other guests who discuss the state of colleges and universities throughout St. Louis — and across the country.
Mar 13, 2024•34 min
A new St. Louis Art Museum exhibit (opening March 15) is highlighting the museum’s world-class collection of German Expressionism paintings. It's not just the paintings in focus, but the process of conservation, and the scientific analyses that have uncovered hidden layers, doodles, and even full paintings unknown until now. The exhibit’s two curators Courtney Books, associate paintings conservator, and Melissa Venator, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of Modern Art, discuss the...
Mar 13, 2024•16 min
St. Louis’ vast musical range includes reggae and native son Tevin Rice, aka the Gold Giraffe, is putting the genre’s sun-splashed vibes front and center just in time for 314 Day celebrations by hosting “If St. Louis Had A Beach” on March 15.
Mar 12, 2024•21 min
Peter Sagal is no stranger to St. Louis. The host of NPR’s “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me” has hosted the show here — and he’s also run through the streets of downtown St. Louis in his underwear and feathered wings while holding a bow and arrow. Sagal returns to St. Louis this Friday for a solo show at the Sheldon. In this episode, he discusses his experiences as the longtime host of “Wait Wait,” what his solo show entails and how he’s come to love St. Louis.
Mar 12, 2024•30 min
It's not a sign of a lavish lifestyle to have diapers and period products, but Missouri taxes those necessities at the same rate as jewelry and sports cars. The impact of that tax falls on the poorest families. St. Louis Diaper Bank executive director Muriel Smith discusses legislative efforts to lower the tax rate and how the Diaper Bank works with a coalition of partners across the state to help families and parents in need. We also get an update on efforts to combat period poverty.
Mar 11, 2024•27 min
Results from recent polling suggest that there’s enough political will to end the practice of switching between daylight saving time and standard time every spring and fall. But Americans remain divided on which schedule to stick with. Washington University biologist Erik Herzog believes that permanent standard time is more beneficial to human health. Alongside St. Louis University political scientist Steven Rogers, Herzog discusses the effects of the current system, the history of daylight savi...
Mar 11, 2024•23 min
As Missouri Senate Majority Leader, Cindy O’Laughlin has a front row seat to the factionalism of the General Assembly’s upper chamber. During a wide-ranging interview on The Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, O’Laughlin discusses the brunt of criticism from the Missouri Freedom Caucus, the need to reauthorize the Federal Reimbursement Allowance, initiative petition reform and more. St. Louis Public Radio’s statehouse reporter Sarah Kellogg also discusses what’s ahead in the secon...
Mar 08, 2024•30 min
Last year, St. Louis Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier unveiled legislation known as an Unhoused Bill of Rights. The bill included a lot of different ideas — including the creation of intentional encampments and restrictions on when city officials can break up encampments. But the legislation faced a rash of criticism, including from St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones. Sonnier shelved that legislation, and on The Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air discusses how she’s going back to the drawing...
Mar 08, 2024•22 min
For many years, Washington University has portrayed one of its founders, William Greenleaf Eliot, as an abolitionist. But, in 2021, a group of students and faculty released findings that disproved that notion and even showed Eliot was vehemently opposed to abolitionism. Three years later, the university has now established a Naming Review Board that gives people the opportunity to challenge the names of buildings, professorships, and scholarships that are named after people with problematic lega...
Mar 07, 2024•39 min
Metro East sound engineer Bob Heil built sound systems and equipment that influenced the development of live concert sound in the 1970s and ‘80s, and show up in music produced across genres through today. Heil died on February 28, 2024. We talk with Peter Palermo, executive director of the Sheldon Arts Foundation, about Heil’s legacy.
Mar 07, 2024•12 min
Only 10% of domestic violence victims report their abuser, and of those who do file for orders of protection, only 20-25% are granted the order. Mike Burton knows the real-life implications of these statistics well. As a St. Louis County Circuit Judge, he oversaw countless domestic violence cases — and in doing so, became aware of the many flaws in the system that lead to abusers not being held accountable. Alongside domestic abuse survivor Monique Green, Burton launched St. Louis Survivors Lega...
Mar 06, 2024•23 min
On Feb. 7, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore filed a motion to vacate Chris Dunn’s murder conviction. “The eyewitness recantations alone are enough to show clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence in this case,” Gore said. In an interview from prison, Dunn reflects on what this development means in his decades-long effort to prove his innocence. Also joining the conversation are Dunn's wife, Kira, and Rachel Weston, managing attorney at the Midwest Innocence Project.
Mar 06, 2024•27 min
Since the early 2000s, healthcare systems have used technology originally made for law enforcement to combat misuse of prescription meds — yet the opioid epidemic continues to worsen. SLU Associate Professor Liz Chiarello discusses how prescription drug monitoring programs lead to an increase in overdose rates and how such surveillance systems threaten patient privacy.
Mar 05, 2024•22 min
Colin Murphy, co-founder of Boom Magazine — a queer publication focusing on the bi-state region — has died after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 53 years old. He is remembered for his positivity and mentorship despite the adversity he faced as a gay man with HIV as well as his passion for providing a news platform by and for queer people in the bi-state region.
Mar 05, 2024•28 min
In 2009, revelations of sexual abuse at one of the largest Christian camps in the country rocked the Branson-based Kanakuk camp. Now, a community of survivors and their supporters are building a path to change — including backing a proposed bill to expand the state’s statute of limitations. To discuss the ongoing legacy, and reckoning, around Kanakuk and Missouri law, we talk with journalist Nancy French, who investigated the camp, and attorney Bobby Thrasher, who represents a former camper who ...
Mar 04, 2024•26 min
Moving to a new place comes with a great deal more than an address change. For those who pack up their lives to move to an entirely new country, adjusting to language, systems, and culture that’s very different from what they’ve known can be difficult and lonely. The St. Louis Mosaic Project’s International Mentoring Program pairs immigrants with St. Louisans in order to promote networking opportunities, build friendships and help people new to the U.S. navigate life in the region.
Mar 01, 2024•30 min
Hundreds of entrepreneurs from St. Louis and beyond apply for the Arch Grants Startup Competition each year, in the hopes of securing a $75,000 grant. The stakes are high, but a free mentorship program at the Olin Business School at Washington University is giving founders valuable feedback to help take their application to the next level.
Mar 01, 2024•22 min
A case that began with a Missouri prison guard suing the state for workplace discrimination has “concerned” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The problem: The possibility that religious people who view homosexuality as a sin will be “labeled as bigots and treated as such.” Attorneys Erin Lueker, Connie McFarland-Butler and Bill Freivogel dive into Alito’s concerns, as well as the art of jury selection. The panel also discusses a case of donors suing Webster University, hazing at Eureka Hi...
Feb 29, 2024•50 min
Dr. Travis Threats is a professor and chair of St. Louis University’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. He’s also the grandson of Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter, parents who dared to force Mississippi to recognize the injustice of the state’s “freedom of choice” in 1965 — one year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He shares how his grandparents’ fight inspires his work today including his efforts to diversify the field of speech pathology.
Feb 28, 2024•21 min
STLPR politics editor Fred Ehrlich, in 2022, wrote a memoir about his life with dogs. A few weeks ago, he gifted that book to producer Aaron Doerr, who was grieving the loss of his dog, Tallis. In this episode of “St Louis on the Air,” we talk about the close bonds we have with our pets and the healing that comes with saying goodbye.
Feb 28, 2024•31 min
A Girl Scout troop in St. Louis County made bracelets to raise funds for child war victims in Gaza. Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri told them to stop — or face legal action. The troop’s co-leaders, and one of the scouts, discuss what happened next, why they’ve decided to disband from the organization to create their own group, and their continued efforts to fundraise for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. (Correction: Mariyah Abdelbaset is in fifth grade, not sixth grade, as mentioned in this...
Feb 27, 2024•21 min
John Ulett started as a DJ at KSHE-95 in 1976 when he was just 19 years old. He’s never left, and he’s about to begin his 40th full season as the Cardinals’ PA announcer at Busch Stadium. Ulett reflects on his long career in his hometown in advance of Thursday evening's event at the Sheldon, “Life, Death & Other Scary Things: An Evening with KSHE-95's John Ulett.”
Feb 27, 2024•30 min
With a high violent crime rate and claims of inequitable policing in St. Louis, local leaders are questioning the $100,000 per year Chief Robert Tracy receives from local business owners. “Can the criminals get together and pay the chief?” asked one alderwoman. ProPublica reporter Jeremy Kohler talks about his story on the topic.
Feb 26, 2024•11 min
In the Missouri legislature, 2023 was the year of bills targeting trans people. But there is a bigger picture here: For observers of the national picture, Missouri is a bellwether and a trendsetter. We sit down with two trans journalists to talk about what they’re seeing in Missouri in this movement, and this moment. Joining the discussion is Erin Reed, the author of the newsletter Erin in the Morning; and Evan Urquhart, founder of Assigned Media.
Feb 26, 2024•40 min
Earlier this week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivered his annual budget address that outlined his priorities. Among the priorities in the $52.7 billion state spending plan are more money to address the migrant crisis and education, and tax hikes for businesses and for sports bettors. STLPR Metro East reporter Will Bauer discusses Pritzker’s speech, and we include Pritzker’s address in this episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air.
Feb 24, 2024•59 min
