STL on the Air 📻

Host Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Corinne Ruff about Denver’s failed effort in airport privatization. Does it present a cautionary tale for St. Louis?

Attorney Javad Khazaeli discusses the many complaints about former officer Eddie Boyd’s behavior over the years ⁠— and the fact he was hired in Ferguson after complaints of misconduct as a St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer. He also reveals that Boyd has recently left the Ferguson Police Department. In addition to the conversation with Khazaeli, this segment includes an interview with Walter Rice, Khazaeli's client, who details for the first time the impact that his arrest, and that of his wife, has had on their family.

Sauce Magazine’s latest issue features local career servers at some of St. Louis’ oldest establishments, like Tony’s and Sidney Street Cafe. Host Sarah Fenske talked with two of them about why they love what they do, how they’ve made a living in a job so dependent on gratuity and why the job is something for others to consider.

Host Sarah Fenske discusses Empower Missouri’s latest SNAP Challenge, which invites state and federal legislators to participate and shop for a three-day supply of food for a family of four using only the amount of money available to families from the program. She talked with Empower Missouri’s executive director, Jeanette Mott Oxford, and Shavanna Spratt, a stay-at-home mother who relies on SNAP benefits, and State Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R-Arnold), who participated in the challenge and documented her experience on Twitter.

In this episode of St. Louis on the Air, Sarah Fenske talks with NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg. They discuss the rate at which the Trump administration has appointed federal appeals court judges and district court judge, the upcoming Supreme Court docket, and the loss of Nina's friend and colleague, Cokie Roberts.

Since 1999, Washington University’s Mini-Medical School has taught students everything from the basics of a checkup to how to repair nerves via microscopic surgery. In this episode of St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske learns more about Mini-Medical School by chatting with its director, Dr. Cynthia Wichelman. One of the courses’ presenters, a physician who studies gastrointestinal diseases, also joins the conversation alongside her patient, who lives with a chronic, inflammatory bowel disease.

Several years ago, restaurant industry veteran Michael “Kup” Kupstas was happily enjoying retirement when the appeal of Lion’s Choice prompted a change of plans. He wound up reentering the workforce in 2017 as the regional fast-food chain’s president and CEO. “It was really the similarity of an experience I had early on [in a previous role] with Panera, to be honest,” Kupstas says in this episode, explaining what impressed him about Lion’s Choice. “I think what makes certain brands stand out is that they are able to differentiate dramatically in a really crowded field.” Kupstas tells host Sarah Fenske that he was also drawn to the “loyal, fanatic fans” and the employees of Lion’s Choice, which Food & Wine magazine recently deemed Missouri’s best fast food.

St. Louis on the Air host Sarah Fenske was joined by Bill Freivogel of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Mark Smith of Washington University, and Mary Anne Sedey of Sedey Harper Westhoff P.C. for September's legal roundtable. This included a federal lawsuit seeking class action status in connection with the so-called “kettle” arrests from 2017, an ongoing case about whether a Missouri representative can block a constituent on Twitter, and recent happenings in the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office.

Yesterday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson came to St. Louis for a packed afternoon of meetings. The topic: crime in St. Louis. His solution? More state troopers assigned to the city, in a variety of roles. And more funding -- $2 million -- for victims of violent crime. In this St. Louis on the Air segment, Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Rachel Lippmann about the governor's priorities.

The Loop Trolley platform just outside the Pageant in the Delmar Loop was packed last Friday evening with people waiting to board. That hasn’t been a common sight in recent months following the launch of the controversial trolley, but on this particular night, something was different. Local comedian Yale Hollander was rolling out the first iteration of Laugh Tracks, a unique comedic combination in which attendees need only pay the $2 trolley fare for about 45 minutes of family-friendly standup while riding the nostalgic vehicle. He talks with host Sarah Fenske and with local developer and trolley booster Joe Edwards about the comedy, the trolley and more.

Forward Through Ferguson has released the second report of their State of St. Louis series, “The State of Police Reform: What has and hasn’t changed in St. Louis policing?” The report concludes that since the Ferguson unrest, there have been more programs implemented than actual changes in policy, and that these programs bring short-term benefits, stopping short of lasting growth. The report says that the St. Louis region is in desperate need of holistic public safety policies that don’t rely on an arrest-and-incarcerate model. Sarah Fenske talks with Karishma Furtado, data and research catalyst for Forward Through Ferguson, in this episode of St. Louis on the Air.

Host Sarah Fenske talks with Western Wear Night ringleaders Ryan Koenig and Lucas Hanner. The segment also takes listeners to the latest iteration of the monthly event at the Whiskey Ring, which in some cases has attracted hundreds of attendees over the course of the evening.

Comptroller Darlene Green joins host Sarah Fenske to explain her outspoken views on airport privatization and a number of other city matters.

For five years, Champale Anderson has been distributing free snack bags to the kids in her neighborhood who would otherwise go hungry. She had been supplying the snacks out of pocket for awhile, and decided recently to start a GoFundMe campaign. She started the campaign with a goal of raising $1,500, and as of September 16, has raised more than $60,000. In this segment, Sarah Fenske talks with Anderson about her hopes for the campaign, which she is calling Champ’s Teardrops.

Before she became a household name for her internationally acclaimed illustration work, Mary Engelbreit was a typical young adult finding a way to make a living in St. Louis. In her late teens and early 20s, she worked at a local art store and an ad agency — and then landed a job as an editorial artist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. But she was let go during her probation period, as she tells host Sarah Fenske in this episode, after she challenged the fact that men were paid much more than women. Leaving the daily newspaper gave her the time to develop greeting cards, and from there, what would become a wildly popular company bearing her name. Throughout her career, her lifelong love for drawing has remained central. She continues to call St. Louis home, and she talks about her journey and her craft ahead of her appearance at this weekend's BookFest in the Central West End.

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.