St. Louis’ literary community lost one of its most influential members, Lorin Cuoco, 64, earlier this month. The longtime editor and poet passed away at her University City home Aug. 8 after a long illness, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Cuoco is perhaps best known for her work alongside the late novelist William Gass, a dear friend and collaborator. Together they founded and oversaw Washington University’s International Writers Center (now the Center for the Humanities), and she edited multiple books with Gass. She was also a force for the St. Louis Poetry Center, the River Styx literary organization and other local efforts to raise the profile of St. Louis’ literary scene. On top of all that, she was an accomplished radio professional. In this episode, host Sarah Fenske discusses Cuoco’s life and legacy with two people who observed her influence firsthand: Mary Edwards and Joel Minor. Remembrances from multiple listeners are also included.
Host Sarah Fenske explored how and why people start their own pop-ups, and how patrons can find out about them for the latest Sound Bites segment with Sauce Magazine. Joining the program were Sauce managing editor Heather Hughes – and pop-up owners Chelsie Hellige of Spirit House and Steven Pursley of Ramen x Rui.
A U.S. District Court recently ruled that the Missouri Parole Board has been violating the U.S. and Missouri constitutions in its handling of cases involving juvenile offenders. In this interview, host Sarah Fenske talks with the director of the MacArthur Justice Center, Amy Breihan, about the ways Breihan feels the parole board has failed to comply with state and federal law in its handling of cases involving young people who were originally given mandatory life sentences without parole.
Legal experts Bill Freivogel, Mark Smith and Lisa Hoppenjans discuss topics including the sentence of former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, a licensing dispute concerning a restaurant on The Hill and the case of a man wearing body armor and carrying a rifle who caused panic at a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri.
More than 430 inmates have overdosed in Missouri prisons since May 2017, and at least five of them have died after taking controlled substances such as heroin, fentanyl and synthetic cannabinoids. St. Louis Public Radio’s Shahla Farzan talks with host Sarah Fenske about her recent reporting on the situation.
From its early Lemp Brewery days to the Schlafly era and beyond, St. Louis has earned its reputation as a drinking town. But lately the city is also seeing a nightlife trend that doesn’t involve alcohol at all. Among other beverage and restaurant industry professionals, the people behind WellBeing Brewing, a locally based company that exclusively makes non-alcoholic craft beer, have helped to catalyze the movement. So has the Wellness Council of St. Louis, which is affiliated with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse and oversees Sans Bar STL. The inaugural Sans Bar STL event early this year drew about 300 people to Third Degree Glass Factory for a night of music, glass-blowing, tarot card readings and handcrafted alcohol-free drinks. Host Sarah Fenske discusses St. Louis’ growing sobriety scene with Genevieve Barlow, co-founder of WellBeing Brewing; restaurant industry veteran Tom Halaska; and Nichole Dawsey, executive director of NCADA.
St. Louis Public Schools has lost four children to gun violence over summer break, including the most recent death of Xavier Usanga, an incoming second-grader at Clay Elementary, who was shot and killed on Monday. In this St. Louis on the Air episode, host Sarah Fenske talks with school officials about the ways their districts are helping St. Louis kids cope with a long, violent summer.
The chancellor is the chief academic, administrative, and budgetary officer of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Tom George has held the post for the past 16 years. He is retiring Sept. 1. In this St. Louis on the Air segment, Sarah Fenske talks with George about his tenure, major trends in higher education and what he hopes to see in the university’s future.
"How has the death of Michael Brown Jr. impacted your life?" That's among the questions that the St. Louis Public Radio community and people throughout the region have been pondering in recent days in light of the five-year anniversary of the Ferguson protests. The answers are myriad, but Olajuwon Davis’ certainly stands out in the crowd: He’s spent most of his life since that time in prison. How and why Davis’ life changed so drastically in the wake of Brown’s death is the focus of a newly published report by the Riverfront Times’ Danny Wicentowski. In it, Wicentowski details everything from the moment Davis, then a member of the New Black Panther Party, first became active in Ferguson to his arrest and conviction in an FBI sting for “planning and conspiring to ignite explosive devices” among other charges. Prosecutors would allege he and his alleged co-conspirator Brandon Baldwin sought to blow up the Gateway Arch. Host Sarah Fenske discusses Davis’ prosecution with Wicentowski and with Trevor Aaronson, who is a contributor to The Intercept and the author of “The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism.”
Host Sarah Fenske explores what the busing experience has been like for students who participated in St. Louis' desegregation program – and if it’s really time to wind it down. Joining the conversation were former VICC students Maalik Shakoor and Hope Rias; and Veronica Johnson, a civil rights attorney in St. Louis who represented the NAACP and helped bring about the busing program by suing the St. Louis schools.
Host Sarah Fenske talks with artist Tonina Saputo, who is among the rising names in the local music scene, and whose reach is far and wide. The St. Louis-raised musician has made the world her stage, performing throughout Europe and singing in both English and Spanish. Former President Barack Obama is a fan himself and placed her song “Historia De un Amor” on his best-of-the-year roundup.
Last week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch unveiled a new online comment system. Declaring its old Facebook-based model broken, the daily newspaper explained that community moderation and a scoring system for commenters would give greater prominence to readers who “consistently drive positive conversation.” The paper's reader engagement editor, Beth O’Malley, joins the show to discuss how the new system is working and the difficulties of keeping online conversation civil in an angry age. Lindsay Toler, digital engagement producer for St. Louis Public Radio, also participates in the discussion.
A few weeks ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released some positive statistics related to the ongoing opioid crisis. While drug overdose deaths in the U.S. had reached record levels in 2017, the nation saw an overall 4.2% decline in 2018. In Missouri, though, the 2018 outcomes were far less hopeful – despite an influx of $65 million in federal funds aimed at addressing the crisis over the past few years. Provisional data for the state indicates a 16% increase in drug overdose deaths over the course of last year. Host Sarah Fenske talks with two local experts about where Missouri should go from here in light of the discouraging statistics.
To describe the St. Lou Fringe Festival as a theater event is something of a misnomer. There are plenty of actors, playwrights and other theater professsionals involved in the annual six-day-long extravaganza that gets underway this Tuesday. But there are also poets, dancers, performance artists, sculptors, burlesque performers and improv acts. This year’s offerings also run the gamut with offerings by established and experienced playwrights as well as emerging artists and previously untested work. That’s by design, according to organizer Matthew Kerns. He and playwright Shannon Geier, whose local headline act “Check In” will help kick off the festival, talk with host Sarah Fenske.
This edition of St. Louis on the Air features highlights from a live storytelling event with speakers whose lives changed drastically after Michael Brown Jr. was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson.
It’s been five years since Michael Brown was killed by a Ferguson police officer, setting off a protest movement that led to big changes here in St. Louis and throughout the world. Remembering those events, the St. Louis Public Radio newsroom interviewed nearly twenty people for its Living Ferguson project. By talking to people who lived the events in Ferguson, or are directly touched by the systemic inequalities exposed in its wake, the reporters seek to illuminate what we remember, how we have changed, and what we hope for. Shula Neuman, executive editor of the St. Louis Public Radio, joins host Sarah Fenske to talk about the project.
Last week, St. Louis attorney Michael Kahn won over a federal jury in a case looking at whether the Katy Perry song "Dark Horse" infringed on the copyright of a 2009 rap song “Joyful Noise” by St. Louis artist Marcus Gray, who is known as Flame. The jury decided that Katy Perry and Capitol Records must pay Gray $2.78 million in damages. In this segment, Sarah Fenske discusses the case with Kahn, as well as copyright expert Micah Zeller of Washington University Libraries.
As the host of The Splendid Table, a cookbook editor and food journalist, Francis Lam has explored cuisines from all around the world. That may be one reason he’s not at all disconcerted by St. Louis’ method of slicing bagels as if they were loaves of bread.
The first few minutes of Tanner Craft’s new short film pair a seemingly everyday scene – a mother and her young son at a doctor’s office – with an unsettling soundtrack. There’s a looming, ongoing hum audible beneath the dialogue as the physician tells the mother that her son has autism spectrum disorder. “It’s a developmental disorder,” the doctor says, the mother appearing overwhelmed. “It impairs his ability to communicate and interact with others.” But “Diagnosis,” which Craft wrote, directed and produced, doesn’t stop there. The film goes on to highlight a mother-son journey from early diagnosis, to learning more about autism and existing resources, to finding new ways to connect with one another and thrive. On Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske talked with both Craft and his mother, Tanya Craft, about the film and about autism’s influence on their lives.
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