Spend time in St. Louis’ wealthy, old neighborhoods and you might notice something unusual. Amid all the splendor of ornate craftsmanship and tree-lined streets you’ll often happen across thick, wrought iron gates. In fact the city helped put gated communities on the map in America. The developers of these early streets also crafted racial restrictive covenants, which would spread to suburbs in St. Louis and beyond. With the help of St. Louis preservationist Michael Allen, Kameel and Tim trace t...
Jun 21, 2018•25 min•Season 4Ep. 5
A lot of people moan and groan about segregation as if it's a plight that magically fell out the sky. But that would be letting a lot of powerful people, policies an institutions of the hook. Because the truth is, America is segregated because it was designed to be, via a series of purposeful policies and government actions implemented in the past several decades. In this episode, hear Richard Rothstein, author of Color of Law, break it all down.
Jun 07, 2018•29 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In a country where fair and affordable housing is becoming harder to hold onto each year, we profile the people who are standing in the gap: the lawyers. And we introduce you to Lee Camp, a young St. Louis attorney who stumbled upon a case that could level the playing field between tenants and landlords in Missouri — and his client Latasha Johnson, whose eviction story sits at the center.
May 24, 2018•34 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Last episode, you heard about serious allegations against officials in Maplewood, Mo. Housing advocates say public nuisance laws in the leafy suburb of St. Louis are being used against the poor, people of color and victims of domestic abuse. But in this episode, town officials push back and say there’s nothing wrong with the way they determine who is and isn’t a nuisance in their town. We also hear more about Rosetta Watson, the woman suing in federal court after she says she was kicked out of M...
May 10, 2018•20 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Maplewood, Missouri. is a cozy little suburb at the border of St. Louis City. It has great schools, a cute downtown and one of the region’s most celebrated breweries. But in the background, some housing advocates say the town’s officials are turning public nuisance laws against people of color, the mentally ill and victims of domestic abuse. In the first of a two-part episode, hosts Tim and Kameel kick of the podcast’s fourth season by digging into these allegations and tell the story of a woman...
Apr 26, 2018•17 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Tim and Kameel give you a preview of what is coming in show’s fourth season, with an extra emphasis on the LIVE HERE part of We Live Here.
Apr 13, 2018•3 min
Tim and Kameel are working hard to make shows for the next season, but don’t worry dear listeners, because it’s bonus episode time! We’re taking you allllll the way back to a little more than a year ago when we brought you an episode called “Black Girl Magic.” Some of you diehards probably remember it, if not, scroll back in our feed and check it out. The episode is all about a big effort among business leaders in St. Louis to diversify the city’s entrepreneurship scene. It turns out one young w...
Mar 23, 2018•28 min
It almost seemed like a too-good-to-be-true Black History Month gift: the unveiling of the super-cool official portrait of former president Barack Obama. This distinct image of Obama, which is unlike any other presidential portrait, immediately caused a cultural and artistic buzz. Even better for us, it happened to be by the mesmerizing Kehinde Wiley, an artist we had on the podcast in 2016 following a controversy at St. Louis’ contemporary art museum. In that episode, titled “Museum Meltdown,” ...
Mar 02, 2018•19 min
We miss you guys! We’re hard at work getting shows ready for our fourth season, but we don’t want to leave you hanging. So, we’re dropping a little bonus content. Last year we collaborated with the very cool producers at Baltimore’s Out of the Blocks podcast and brought you voices from the Ville, a historic black neighborhood in north St. Louis. This is the second show from that podcast mashup with some extra stories at the end.
Feb 15, 2018•44 min
Jesus is back! Our favorite black spiritual adviser returns to judge our third season. Hear highlights from the episodes he liked, and the ones he didn’t.
Dec 26, 2017•24 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Sonny Liston, Frankie Freeman, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner, Dick Gregory: That’s just a handful of America’s black luminaries who called “The Ville” home, a one square mile neighborhood in north St. Louis. But decades of population loss and systemic disinvestment have left it a shell of its former self. We team up with our very cool friends at WYPR’s “Out of the Blocks” and tell the neighborhood’s story through the voices of people who call it home today.
Dec 12, 2017•33 min•Season 3Ep. 9
We keep the stories going and keep up our streak of handing the mics over to the community. Listen to the second half of this year’s “I Live Here” live storytelling event. Hear from three St. Louis artists — including a young poet, a country music performer and a singer-songwriter who are all grappling with the ideas of place and home.
Nov 28, 2017•31 min
It’s story time. Last year’s “I Live Here” storytelling event was so much fun, we decided to do it again this year. This week’s episode is a little different, and features hosts Tim and Kameel handing the mics to the community. In this first half, hear stories about black love, a woman who finds peace in her identity and spirituality and an outspoken politician who once struggled to speak for herself, let alone others.
Nov 14, 2017•39 min
There have been near-daily protests in St. Louis following the September 2017 acquittal of a white police officer who killed a black man six years ago. And mounting allegations of excessive use of force by police officers responding to those protests. As all this pressure from the outside builds, we’re coming at the issue of police accountability from a different angle. We bring you the stories of black cops, past and present, who’ve been trying to change the system from the inside.
Oct 31, 2017•37 min•Season 3Ep. 8
In one of the country’s most segregated cities, the division seems nearly permanent: that black people in St. Louis live north, and white people south. It wasn’t always this way. Back when Christine Schmiz was growing up, plenty of white people lived in north St. Louis. But they left in a wave of white flight. Christine’s blue-collar family was part of this wave — a traumatic move for the then-14-year-old, who said she struggled since then to find a place she truly belonged. Decades later, durin...
Oct 17, 2017•35 min•Season 3Ep. 7
As we’ve been collecting stories for you guys over the past few months, other people have been prodding us to tell our story. Since we’re about halfway through season 3, we thought why not now? People are curious about the nitty-gritty behind the show, and how we do it together. Plus, we drop some news about an upcoming storytelling event we’re having Nov. 8 in St. Louis, and an upcoming episode about we need your help with.
Oct 03, 2017•23 min
Earlier this summer, we got bombarded with messages and emails from people wanting to know if it was true that Missouri has snatched back a wage increase from the lowest-paid workers in St. Louis. Short answer? Yes. But today’s show isn’t about that short answer. It’s about the long one.The story of HOW and WHY the city is locked in this battle. And the growing movement to keep up the fight to raise the standard of living for thousands of low-wage workers in this state — which now centers a lot ...
Sep 19, 2017•26 min•Season 3Ep. 6
On this episode we explore the idea of a woke spectrum. You longtime listeners probably knew we would end up here eventually. After all, it is our new tagline. We go through responses we’ve collected about the word woke and we spend time with regular people -- many of them white -- trying to figure out, in light of everything going on, where they fit on this spectrum. And as it turns out, our spectrum kind of, sort of has some theoretical underpinnings when it comes to racial identity. You’ll ju...
Sep 05, 2017•35 min
Today’s show is all about choices. We’ll listen in as Damon Davis and Sabaah Folayan, producers of the critically acclaimed documentary ‘Whose Streets,’ talk about their choice to make the film and how they hope it will become a lasting document. We’ll also hear how a choice a good friend of ours made while covering Ferguson continues to shape the choices he makes now. A note that you won’t be hearing from us much on this episode. Because on today’s show, our choice is to listen.
Aug 22, 2017•23 min•Season 3Ep. 5
On the third anniversary of Mike Brown's killing, we share the story of three playwrights who penned monologues about their experiences as black men in America. This is part 1 of two shows we're using to explore to art and activism. Part 2 will drop later in August.
Aug 08, 2017•44 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Is there a right and a right and a wrong way to be an ally? Are you doing it right? Do you even know what it is? Maybe you should take our quiz to find out. In this episiode, we give what we call “The Ally Quiz” to two best friends, and have their answers scored by one of St. Louis’ most dynamic race scholars. And then, we reveal a twist. Follow along then go to welivehere.show to take the quiz yourself (or give it to someone). Then share the results with us in a voice memo — emailed to info@wel...
Jul 25, 2017•26 min
Earlier this spring, the nation was transfixed with the fight in New Orleans over the removal of its confederate monuments. That spread to other cities -- including here in St. Louis, which just removed a confederate memorial from its lauded and most famous public park. So what now? We swoop in, and with help from BackStory's Nathan Connolly, try to unearth some conclusions and next steps.
Jul 11, 2017•28 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In this episode, we get a seemingly simple question from a regular guy who wants St. Louis to do better around race and economic progress. And then we take that question to woman who wants the same, and just so happens to have recently come into a considerable amount of power.
Jun 27, 2017•29 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Hey everyone, we’re official back! On the first episode of season three, a very, very special guest helps Tim and Kameel explore the whitewashing of Jesus. And we meet a local minister who’s trying to help his mostly white congregation rethink what Jesus looked like.
Jun 13, 2017•24 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Get pumped - Season 3 of your favorite race and class podcast from St. Louis is back June 13! Subscribe now. Jesus wants you to. We'll explain later :)
Jun 01, 2017•2 min
We cap our second season by examining the ultimate system, one that can literally make the difference between life and death: the healthcare system. In particular concerns about what changes could be coming to the Affordable Care Act and how one group in Missouri tried to come up with an alternate health insurance system.
Jan 23, 2017•31 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs. But as a group, they're largely ignored by the investment community. Why is that? And what are people doing to change that? We dive into this disconnect in our latest episode, and we tell you about efforts -- local and national -- to close this gap and make the start-up world more inclusive. Along the way, we bring you several stories of black women entrepreneurs, from a local St. Louis baker to the founder of Blavity.
Jan 09, 2017•34 min•Season 2Ep. 15
How a controversy at a St. Louis museum exposed a long-running conversation in the art world about identity, power and race.
Dec 12, 2016•27 min•Season 2Ep. 14
About six months ago, we took an intense look at racial disparities in early-grade school suspensions in Missouri. We revisit the topic in this week's episode and bring you a big update – on the people and policy changes that've happened in since then.
Nov 28, 2016•24 min•Season 2Ep. 13
There’s been a lot of chatter in recent years about inclusiveness in the tech world. Companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook have all been called out for their mostly white and male staffs. But what if, instead of an afterthought, diversity was hardwired into the core of a new start-up scene? That’s what this week’s installment of We Live Here is all about. And we’re not taking you to the coasts or San Francisco to look for answers. Instead, the show goes to Kansas City to tell the story of...
Nov 14, 2016•29 min•Season 2Ep. 12
