STL on the Air 📻

St. Louis Public Radio political reporter Jo Mannies and retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jim Craig, director of UMSL’s Veterans Studies program, offer their perspectives on one of the big news stories of the week.

Joneal “Jop” Joplin has lost count of exactly how many roles he’s performed on St. Louis-area stages during his long acting career based in the region. “I know that I’ve done something like 215, 220 shows in St. Louis – 101 at the Rep, 66 at the Muny,” he estimated Friday while talking with host Don Marsh on St. Louis on the Air.

Host Don Marsh talks to local organizers of voter registration drives to see how they will try boost voter participation for the Nov. 6 midterm elections. 

Midterm elections are important. But Sandra Moore, former president of Urban Strategies, told "St. Louis on the Air" host Don Marsh that   “mobilizing folks to register and vote” is what's most important. She helped organize a voter education and registration drive that seeks to energize women in north St. Louis and north St. Louis County for the Nov. 6 election. 

Stephen Sondheim hesitates to settle on a single beginning point from which his now 70-year-long career in musical theater took off. There were the piano lessons he began taking as a young child, something he acknowledges may have “infiltrated” him early on. Then there’s the show he wrote at age 15, a script family friend Oscar Hammerstein gave an unsparing critique. He also credits his enjoyment of films growing up.

UMSL Chancellor Tom George and Provost Kristin Sobolik address the state of the university.

13-year-old Kennedy Holmes took many people by surprise because of her mature voice on the 15th season of NBC's The Voice singing competition. During the blind auditions, all four celebrity judges spun around in approval to ask Holmes to join their team. Host Don Marsh talked to the Florissant teen about her experience on the show and what her life has been like since going viral. 

Over the past 40 years, San Francisco-based Chanticleer has gone to great lengths and unexpected places to refine and expand its vocal repertoire, bringing striking arrangements of popular music into the mix as well as commissioning new choral works by contemporary composers. But centuries-old songs can also be full of surprises – including Antonio de Salazar’s arrangement of “Salve Regina.”

On Tuesday's St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh spoke with author and Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel about the erosion of civil public discourse, political polarization, and the role of truth in American democratic life.

On Monday's St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh talks with Sue McCarthy, the owner of Vault Luxury Resale and author of the new book "Good Better Best: The Rags-to-Riches Story of the Upscale Retail Queen."

East St. Louis native and Olympic gold medalist Dawn Harper Nelson is taking a break from running and spoke to host Don Marsh about her career, being a female athlete, activism and upcoming speaking engagements. 

Longtime journalist Margaret Wolf Freivogel shares her impressions of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings she observed in 1991 and 2018.

The universal concept of friendship will be explored musically in the St. Louis Chamber Chorus's opening concert to its 2018-2019 season, “States of Being." The SLCC's artistic director Philip Barnes and Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds talked to host Don Marsh about their musical collaboration. 

Rosetta Watson was functionally evicted from Maplewood after a former boyfriend attacked her. She recently spoke with St. Louis Public Radio’s "We Live Here" podcast team after winning a settlement against the city.

Host Don Marsh talks to St. Louis Public Radio education reporter Ryan Delaney, who clarified the status of charter schools in the St. Louis area.

Host Don Marsh delves deeper into the “Beyond the Ballot” project with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Ashley Lisenby and Harvest Public Media editor Erica Hunzinger to see what Missouri voters' aspirations are for the November midterm elections. 

 Dr. Sandeep Jauhar spoke about his newest book 'Heart: A History,' which examines the historical, philosophical, and physiological characteristic of the human body's most complex organ, the heart.

St. Louis on the Air's monthly Legal Roundtable reconvened Wednesday to discuss a variety of local and national legal stories, from the Kavanaugh confirmation controversy to the new sex discrimination lawsuit surrounding a retirement community in Sunset Hills.

Store owners Vincent Hromadka, Maddie Earnest and Chris Goodson are each familiar with the challenges – and the joys – of running a smaller grocery operation in the city.

An evening of merriment, fun and flavor doesn’t have to involve alcohol – that’s an oft-repeated and frequently doubted notion. But it’s a growing mantra even among some bartenders and drink-industry enthusiasts, and it needn’t be a buzz kill.