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Outlets that spur creativity can help draw people out of the mental staleness brought upon by recurring daily routines. Music is Brianna Brown’s saving grace. Her stage name is Be.Be, and the R&B and soul singer wants to spread awareness about music’s impact on mental health.

We re-connect with our friends at Sauce Magazine to hear about what new food and drink establishments to check out in the area. Joining the conversation are Meera Nagarajan and Heather Hughes Huff, art director and managing editor, respectively.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch education reporter Blythe Bernhard put the school re-opening situation in stark terms in a story last week: “No public school in St. Louis city or county will open five days a week to all students this fall,” she wrote. “No private school is likely to open 100% online.” In this interview, Bernhard talks about why some private schools are seeing rising enrollment for the fall semester and why private institutions are offering more in-person learning than their public counterparts.

A year ago, high school student Dakota Warren could often be found in the backyard of biologist Patty Parker, catching birds in an effort to get blood samples. When she wasn’t in Parker’s yard, she was busy in Parker’s lab at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, conducting DNA research with those samples. This summer, Warren planned to return to Parker’s lab, but then the pandemic hit. And like most people with any plans for 2020, Parker and her teenage interns had to rethink theirs.

A rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases has postponed St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's season again. However, that hasn’t stopped the musicians from continuing to serenade community members. SLSO musicians are traveling to different neighborhoods to play music for residents during the pandemic. These aren’t anything like a regular Powell Hall performance — there aren’t any fancy clothes, balcony seats or rehearsals involved. Just musical connection.

Missouri 1st Congressional District nominee Cori Bush has been a protest leader, a single mom, a pastor and a nurse. Now she’s likely headed to Washington D.C. In this episode, Bush joins host Sarah Fenske to talk about her goals for office and what she sees as the biggest challenges ahead.

Both the Crime Bill signed by Missouri Governor Parson in July and the crime-focused special session now underway in Jefferson City could lead to longer sentences for Missouri defendants. Two experts share concerns about the state's "tough on crime" direction.

America's entertainment industry has St. Louis to thank for the creativity fueling some of the most wildly popular shows out there these days. And that includes the Smith sisters: Mariah, Rachel Colleen and Lauren Ashley Smith. On top of other pursuits, the three of them have now combined forces to host their new SiriusXM initiative "Smith Sisters Live,” a six-week pop culture show. They join host Sarah Fenske to talk about how their St. Louis roots have impacted their outlooks on life and career paths.

Tuesday’s primary election in Missouri saw many incumbents hold onto their seats — and one major upset. St. Louis Public Radio correspondent Jason Rosenbaum discusses Cori Bush’s remarkable victory over incumbent U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, as well as the passage of Missouri Amendment 2, which makes Missouri the 38th state to expand Medicaid.

We check in with Tony Simokaitis, scoreboard director for the St. Louis Cardinals. His job is to create that faux-crowd energy in an empty ballpark — if the team ever gets back on the field. Seven Cardinals players and six staff members tested positive for the coronavirus. Sports writer Derrick Goold gives us the latest on that.

Calvin Davis became very ill in late March, and was diagnosed with COVID-19 shortly after. After being admitted to the hospital on April 9, he spent 76 days there and more than 90 days away from home as he battled the coronavirus. For much of that time, he was on a ventilator. In this interview, we hear the incredible story of one family’s battle against the coronavirus and the intensive recovery process that they are still dealing with, weeks later.

Consultants who work closely with conservative billionaire Rex Sinquefield have gathered enough signatures to force a vote on the privatization of St. Louis Lambert International Airport this November. If voters say yes to the plan, the city would basically be required to lease the airport to a private company by next summer. One argument for doing that is that it could help pay down the airport’s half a billion dollar debt. St. Louis Public Radio reporter Corinne Ruff recently dug into that claim.

Author Gloria Shur Bilchik spent 18 months observing the St. Louis County Board of Elections. She discusses “Election Insiders: Behind the Scenes With the People Who Make Your Vote Count” with host Sarah Fenske.

This month marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted U.S. women the right to vote. But the fight for women’s suffrage was a long one, starting many decades prior to that celebratory day in 1920. And St. Louis women were among some of the earliest suffragists around the country. In this segment, host Sarah Fenske talks with local curator Katie Moon and scholar Elizabeth Eikmann.

“Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask" author Jon Pessah discusses Yogi Berra’s remarkable life, including his early years on the Hill, his baseball career and the racial slurs he faced as an Italian in the 1940s.

Missouri’s Aug. 4 primary has snuck up fast during a year when the U.S. presidential election is looming large amid a global pandemic. But plenty of key local races will be decided in the heavily Democratic St. Louis region — and voters throughout the state will determine whether Missouri expands Medicaid coverage, joining the 37 other states that have opted to do so in conjunction with the Affordable Care Act. If passed, Amendment 2 (the Medicaid Expansion Initiative) would effectively expand Medicaid eligibility to include adults between the ages of 19 and 65 whose income is at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. As of 2020, that amounts to $17,608 for an individual and $36,156 for a household of four.

Contemporary citizen journalists can find a lot of common ground with a trailblazer who was active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Ida B. Wells. Motivated by false narratives and the downplaying of abuse of Black Americans of her day, Wells chronicled the stories of those impacted by lynchings and riots. Wells’ quantitative work pioneered the way for data journalism and inspired her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster to dedicate her life to countering false narratives.

In “Ordinarily Extraordinary: Love and Anger, Life and Death, Hope and Inspiration,” Patrick P. Long reflects on the moments of doubt, stress and anxiety that come with a spouse’s cancer battle. In this episode, he talks with host Sarah Fenske about his memoir and how despite a devastating loss, he developed the belief that nothing in life is insurmountable.

All too often, artistic expression proves inaccessible to everyday people, a kind of luxury out of reach for those struggling to make ends meet. Katherine Dunham understood this reality when she first turned her attention to East St. Louis in the 1960s. And so does Leverne Backstrom, one of a handful of dedicated community members still carrying on the world-renowned dancer and choreographer’s legacy there today.

Attorneys Mark Smith, Nicole Gorovsky and Dave Roland dig into the legal matters of the month, including the criminal charges filed against two personal injury attorneys and an allegation of "extortion" St. Louis County has made against a local attorney.