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St. Louis native and comedian Nikki Glaser explains how her living situation, which involved a move back home to live with her parents, is actually fueling her creativity.

The Muny's artistic director and executive producer shares highlights for this summer's virtual variety hours — a star-studded mix of never-before-aired clips from past Muny shows, cast reunion sing-alongs, and song and dance performances by Muny artists.

For Jaylon Muchison, speech has paid off in a big way. The recent Belleville West High School graduate recently netted $22,500 from Optimist International’s 2020 Oratorical World Championship — winning his regional and state rounds before claiming the international title. That money will make a huge difference as the 18-year-old heads to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this fall. He plans to pursue a double major in acting and communications.

An increase of COVID-19 cases in the region has caused the St. Louis Sports Medicine COVID-19 Task Force, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health and the City of St. Louis Department of Health to initiate a hold on all youth sport games and scrimmages. The move has some pediatricians frustrated that the focus has been on youth sports, rather than congregations in bars and restaurants.

Aircraft hijackings have been rare in recent years. But a half century ago, they were a frequent occurrence. Between 1967 and 1972, 130 commercial airplanes were hijacked in the U.S. alone. That’s according to a newly launched podcast that dives deep into a hijacking in which St. Louis Lambert International Airport plays a starring role. The 10-part series, “American Skyjacker: The Final Flight of Martin McNally," is hosted and co-produced by St. Louis-based journalist Danny Wicentowski. In this segment, host Sarah Fenske talks with Wicentowski about the drama that took place that day, and what went into turning the saga into a podcast series.

On her good days, 51-year-old Sharon Morrow is out the door pretty early, helping to get food and water to homeless St. Louisans. And for Morrow, who is disabled and also a breast cancer survivor, April 14, 2019, started out as one of those days where she felt healthy enough to do the work. But as St. Louis police officers began arresting a man outside City Hall that afternoon, she started filming. Soon, Morrow herself would be arrested — and in a lawsuit filed last Friday, the ACLU of Missouri alleges it was retaliation for her First Amendment activities.

Last month, St. Louis University launched its interdisciplinary WATER Institute. Director Amanda Cox and Administrative Director Rachel Rimmerman join host Sarah Fenske to explain what it's focused on and describe some important water-related research already underway.

A new local literacy-based children's show dubbed as “the modern, hip-hop Mr. Rogers experience” aims to highlight Black authors and Black protagonists. Four pilot episodes of the Believe Project include appearances by local authors, literacy vignettes of children reciting their favorite books or poems, and creative learning activities for children associated with the featured books.

The four Democratic candidates running for St. Louis County Executive face off in an hour-long debate. Nine Network, 5 On Your Side and St. Louis Public Radio partnered to host the hour-long St. Louis County Executive Democratic Primary Debate between incumbent Sam Page and his challengers: Jake Zimmerman, Mark Mantovani and Jamie Tolliver. The candidates took questions from Casey Nolen, Jason Rosenbaum and Ruth Ezell. Topics included challenges presented by the coronavirus, gun violence, mass transit and economic development. Republican candidates Paul Berry III and Ed Golterman are vying for their party’s nomination.

Author A.J. Baime joins host Sarah Fenske to discuss his new book, "Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America’s Soul." The book explores how Truman shocked the media, the political polling experts and his opponents by winning election to the seat he'd inherited three years before with the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis has added a new component to its exhibition of the work of Derek Fordjour: a "microprogram" called After Shelter. The museum is asking patrons to share their oral reflections on Fordjour's art and the pandemic, with the audio to be archived with the national nonprofit StoryCorps. Chief Curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi joined host Sarah Fenske to explain the idea behind the audio project and how it fits with the themes in Fordjour's work. We also played some of the museum patrons' reflections.

Aloni Benson found himself on the frontlines in Ferguson in 2014, calling for change after a police officer killed Michael Brown Jr. But protesting wasn't enough. Two years later, Benson became an officer with the St. Louis County Police Department. St. Louis Public Radio’s Marissanne Lewis-Thompson talks with him and his wife Khalia about his decision to become a cop, raising a black son, and what it’s like being a police officer assigned to protests.

Vernon Mitchell Jr. was an undergrad at the University of Missouri-Columbia, intent on heading next to medical school, when he enrolled in a course on the Black freedom movement — and soon decided to become a historian instead. “It changed everything for me,” Mitchell recalls about the class, taught by Mizzou’s Carol Anderson. And one moment, and person, stood out to Mitchell as his professor introduced her students to key figures and events within the civil rights movement: the Reverend C.T. Vivian, a Missouri native described by the New York Times as a “field general” for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The footage of Vivian confronting law enforcement in 1965 on the steps of a Selma courthouse has remained seared in Mitchell’s consciousness ever since. Mitchell, who is now a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis, joins host Sarah Fenske to remember the life and legacy of Vivian. He passed away Friday at the age of 95 — mere hours before a fellow civil rights legend, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, 80, also died.

As the St. Louis Cardinals start their 2020 season with a home opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates this Friday, a burst of brightly colored familiarity will return to downtown. But not the tens of thousands of fans that typically fill Busch Stadium. As the Redbirds’ devoted fans gather instead (and hopefully in socially distant ways) around TVs and other devices to take in the abbreviated, 60-game season, conditions inside the stadium will be a whole new ballgame. In this conversation, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold joins host Sarah Fenske to talk about the upcoming season. They discuss some of the biggest changes — and the big remaining questions — associated with this year’s play, as well as the strength of the year’s roster.

When one thinks of “the island life,” sentiments of a tropical ocean breeze, easygoing lifestyle and good food likely come to mind. And that is very much part of the experience. But with the good, comes the bad — and Zahra Spencer and Telie Woods saw the worst of it. They are the owners of Jerk Soul, a Caribbean carryout restaurant on Cherokee Street. Sauce Magazine detailed Spencer’s and Woods’ harrowing story of opening their first restaurant — despite hurricanes, transatlantic moves and barely knowing one another in its July issue. Guest host Jeremy D. Goodwin talks with with Spencer and Woods for our monthly Sound Bites segment alongside Sauce Magazine managing editor Heather Hughes Huff.

Guest host Jeremy D. Goodwin talks with singer-songwriter-actor Tre G about navigating “the new normal” as a performer and finding his place in an ongoing movement towards racial equity. Recently, he organized WerQfest to do just that. The digital festival was geared toward celebrating Black queer art and community.

Hospitals in St. Louis are seeing more children and teens showing up for self-harm during the pandemic, according to emergency medicine pediatrician Dr. Rachel Charney of SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital. In this interview, she talks about what is leading to the increase in these cases, as well as potential warning signs that parents and caregivers can look for.

The St. Louis Art Museum has extended because of the pandemic the stay of “Millet and Modern Art: From Van Gogh to Dalí” through September. The curators say the exhibition acknowledges the contributions of a largely forgotten artist who was instrumental in the birth of modern art: 19th-century French painter Jean-François Millet. Millet’s work features landscapes, nudes and other work that inspired other artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. In an encore of this conversation aired February 20, 2020, host Sarah Fenske talks with Simon Kelly, curator of modern and contemporary art at the St. Louis Art Museum.

In April 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. This is an encore of a conversation we first aired September 9. 2019

We have an encore of discussion from December 6, 2019. The Mississippi River has been integral to life in the St. Louis region for hundreds of years — from Native Americans who occupied areas in and around Cahokia Mounds to the later arrival of Europeans. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Andrew Wanko, public historian for the Missouri Historical Society and author of the new book, “Great River City: How the Mississippi Shaped St. Louis.” David Lobbig, curator of environmental life at the Missouri Historical Society, also joined the conversation. He is the content lead on the Missouri History Museum’s newest exhibit, “Mighty Mississippi,” which is open at the museum until June 2021.