Solar costs are going down, while equipment efficiency continues to improve. Even if electric rates are stable where you are, solar provides climate protecting clean, renewable power. Could this be the time you consider going solar?
Lisa Cagle of Grow Solar St. Louis and Chris Krusa of Grow Solar Metro East talk with Earthworms host Jean Ponzi about these program offerings for the St. Louis region, and about the benefits of solar in general. Check the program websites for details, including Power Hour presentations around town.
Supported by program contractor StraightUp Solar, and in partnership with municipalities, Grow Solar is bringing discounted costs and convenient, thorough solar option info to STL region communities in both Missouri and Illinois. Residential installs can combine group-buy cost-cuts with federal, local and utility incentives and rebates. At Power Hour events, solar experts will evaluate individual sites for solar power potential, on the roof or on the ground.
Music: Mister Sun's tune Hunters Permit, performed live at KDHX THANKS to Andy Heaslet, fellow Green Being and audio engineer.
Despite its ever-present vastness along the Missouri-Illinois border, the Mississippi River is easy for locals to take for granted. And all too often, residents completely avoid the river. It’s one thing to drive above it on a highway or eat a meal at a restaurant overlooking the water; relatively few actually travel its meandering length. But the people behind Big Muddy Adventures are aiming to change that, one canoe trip at a time. Host Sarah Fenske talks with the company’s founder and lead guide, Mike Clark, who is better known as “Muddy Mike," and Roo Yawitz, general manager of Big Muddy Adventures. And, producer Evie Hemphill talks with some enthusiastic recent canoe passengers.
Every city has its nightmare intersections, and many residents could likely cite a personal nemesis or two. In the greater St. Louis area, the crossroads of North Grand Boulevard and Interstate 64 in Grand Center, and Eager and Hanley in Brentwood, may well come to mind among other notoriously tricky traffic spots. Frequently stressful for drivers and non-drivers alike, these sections of public infrastructure can seem like a permanent fixture of civic life, along with the honking, confusion and rage they trigger. But change can sometimes happen. In this episode, host Sarah Fenske takes a closer look at some of the region’s worst intersections – and discusses how planners work to address trouble spots in an age of crumbling infrastructure across the U.S. The conversation also touches on what residents can do to help address problematic roads and contribute to smoother, safer streets for all. Joining the discussion are Scott Ogilvie, who is a transportation policy planner for the City of St. Louis, and Kea Wilson, a St. Louis-based communications manager for Strong Towns.
State Rep. Hannah Kelly is the latest guest on the Politically Speaking podcast. The Mountain Grove Republican talked to St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Julie O’Donoghue about some of the important issues for her rural Missouri district.
Kelly represents portions of Wright and Webster Counties. She has served in the Missouri House since 2017.
Children’s mental health is a big concern as the risk of suicide and opioid addiction rates rise among teens. But in rural areas, where mental health providers are scarce, spotting problems falls to teachers. Now a new national research center is looking to help rural schools.
On July 30, St. Louis gained a new resident — Tobias, the Somali wild ass. His birth is special, since he is part of a subspecies that is both critically endangered in the wild and underrepresented in zoos nationwide. In this segment, Sarah Fenske talks with Tim Thier, the acting curator of antelope at Saint Louis Zoo, about the Somali wild ass and the zoo's conservation efforts in the Horn of Africa.
Host Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Andrea Henderson about how a group of local residents doing their part to remember the first slaves brought to the English colonies four hundred years ago this month.
Every September, former residents of Times Beach gather at Route 66 State Park near Eureka to remember their old town. It was once home to several thousand people but was so contaminated by dioxin in the 1970s that the EPA bought it out, tore it down and burned the earth in an incinerator. Former residents say Times Beach is a cautionary environmental lesson that should not be forgotten.
Earlier this week, members of the Missouri Botanical Garden horticulture staff returned from a research trip in the Central Asia country of Kyrgyzstan. Host Sarah Fenske talks to Megan Engelhardt, manager of the Botanical Garden's Seed Bank, and horticulturist Dave Gunn, about how the staff went about bringing seeds back to add to the Botanical Garden’s seed bank to propagate.
Host Sarah Fenske talks with renowned St. Louis chef Gerard Craft about his battles with anxiety, and the way rankings and awards wreaked havoc with his well-being.
The XFL is a planned professional U.S. football league with the mission of reimagining America’s favorite sport. The league originally debuted in 2001, and only lasted one season. XFL games are set to begin again in February 2020. The St. Louis BattleHawks were one of the league’s eight teams announced this week. In this interview, Sarah Fenske learns about the XFL resurgence by talking with the BattleHawks team president, Kurt Hunzeker.
The latest episode of Politically Speaking explores the state of the Missouri Democratic Party — and what some of the party’s leadership feels needs to be done to reverse its decline.
St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum, Jo Mannies, Julie O’Donoghue and Jaclyn Driscoll chart out why Missouri Democrats went from dominating the state’s politics to being nearly completely out of power. Many Democrats believe that state Auditor Nicole Galloway’s 2020 gubernatorial bid is the first big step towards engineering a comeback.
Democrats in Missouri have endured three bruising election cycles in a row, resulting in Republican dominance in the state's politics. The party's stalwarts are looking to state Auditor Nicole Galloway to engineer a comeback.
Thousands of people in the St. Louis region depend on Metro Transit’s 83 total MetroBus routes and 46 miles of MetroLink tracks to get where they need to go every day. But on Monday, many of those transit users were left waiting at their usual stops for many minutes, some even for hours, as expected public transportation vehicles did not arrive. The transit agency cited a driver shortage early Monday as the cause of the delays, putting out a statement that read, in part, “Due to an unusually high number of MetroBus operators already calling off work and declining to work extra assignments, we anticipate that we will not be in position to deliver the normally high quality service the region has come to expect every day.” In this episode, host Sarah Fenske hears from riders who ran into snafus on Monday – and also talks with Catina Wilson, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 788, and St. Louis Public Radio digital reporter Kae Petrin.
For more than a year, city officials and an army of consultants have been exploring the possibility of leasing St. Louis Lambert International Airport to a private entity. Host Sarah Fenske explores where things stand with leasing the city’s largest public asset alongside St. Louis Public Radio reporter Corinne Ruff and Alderwoman Cara Spencer, D-20th Ward.
The first African slaves arrived in Virginia 400 years ago this month. The St. Louis chapter of Remember the 400 is headed there to commemorate the historic event. Part of the group's mission is to bridge the racial divide.
In this segment, we mark National Senior Citizens Day by talking with Vanessa Woods, who teaches ballet classes to seniors in assisted living facilities.
Last Friday, local theater veteran Linda Kennedy died after battling cancer. She was 68 years old. In this episode of the show, host Sarah Fenske talks with Ron Himes, founder and producing director of the Black Rep, where Kennedy performed many of her greatest roles.
Host Sarah Fenske delves into the latest news surrounding plans for a Major League Soccer team in St. Louis. Joining the discussion are Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia, whose 6th Ward encompasses the west downtown area where the proposed stadium would sit; “St. Louligan” Stu Hultgren, a south St. Louis resident and avid local soccer fan; and “Mr. Soccer” Bill McDermott, St. Louis University’s longtime men’s soccer game announcer. The conversation also includes questions from listeners and their wide-ranging opinions on what the new team ought to be named.