The year 2020 marks a lot of developments related to the habit of lighting up. The federal sales age for purchasing tobacco and nicotine products is now 21 and older. Recreational marijuana is now sold in cities across Illinois. Missouri dispensaries are selling medical marijuana. And, teenagers are continuing to vape at rates that concern public health officials. In this interview, Sarah Fenske talks about the impact of these developments with Dr. Laura Bierut, a psychiatry professor and founding director of the Health & Behavior Research Center at the Washington University School of Medicine.
Chef Rob Connoley’s acclaimed St. Louis restaurant, Bulrush, isn’t just a delicious night out. It’s also a deep dive into the culinary history of the region. The Grand Center eatery takes its inspiration from cuisine in the Ozarks region prior to 1870, before railroads allowed for easy transport of foodstuffs. And, in recent months, the restaurant has doubled down on that exploration. Aided by college interns, Connoley has begun researching the food of marginalized populations in the area at that time. That includes both indigenous people, enslaved people and freed slaves. In this segment, we talk with Connoley and St. Louis University student Gabriel Shoemaker, and with Dr. Andrea Hunter, director/tribal historic preservation officer for the Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office. She discusses what the Osage ate prior to their first encounters with Europeans in 1673, and how that changed in the centuries that followed.
Middle school students from across Missouri are designing cities of the future with an emphasis on how they use water. The winner of the state competition in Rolla is receiving an all-expenses-paid trip to the nationals in Washington, D.C. The goal is to bring awareness to water issues and increase interest in STEM fields.
In St. Louis County, it’s illegal to be a "vagrant." Host Sarah Fenske talks with attorney Bevis Schock — who is challenging the ordinance — and learns about what his client has endured.
Kaldi’s Coffee is a St. Louis company. Other than a few outlets in the Atlanta area, Kaldi’s lacks a physical presence outside Missouri. But in the past year, Kaldi’s co-owner Tricia Zimmer Ferguson has been spending time far from the Midwest — in Rwanda. Ferguson is also working with the nation’s only women’s college, Akilah Institute. A group from Kaldi’s is committed to teaching its students about the coffee and tea industries, opening career opportunities for them.
Zimmer Ferguson and Karen Sherman, president of Akilah Institute, join host Sarah Fenske to discuss the collaboration.
The director of the St. Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine, Dr. Sharon Deem, wants people to understand just how much human health is dependent on the health of other animals and the environment. The interconnection between people, animals, plants and their shared environment is the main focus of the CDC’s “One Health” movement, in which the St. Louis Zoo is a leader. In this interview, Deem talks about emerging public health issues, everyday solutions to global threats and the St. Louis Zoo’s role within the One Health movement.
St. Louis County Councilman Mark Harder is the latest guest on Politically Speaking. St. Louis Public Radio’s Julie O’Donoghue and Jason Rosenbaum talked with the Ballwin Republican about a multitude of issues, including the ongoing saga of the Loop Trolley.
Harder represents the council’s 7th District, which takes in most of western St. Louis County. He is the council’s longest serving member after Hazel Erby resigned to take a post in St. Louis County Executive Sam Page’s administration.
Since he’s not up for election this year, Harder could run in a special election for St. Louis County executive as a Republican and not give up his council seat. He said he hasn’t made a decision on whether he will run.
As Republicans in the state legislature look to repeal Clean Missouri over its redistricting plan we ask what really constitutes fair redistricting? What would that look like and how might it affect political power in the state?
Growing up in north St. Louis County, where she was leading choirs by the time she was 12 years old, Maria Ellis remembers thinking about St. Louis Children’s Choirs as “the ultimate vocal group.” But as her alma mater, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, notes in a recent UMSL Daily story about Ellis’ journey, Ellis couldn’t afford to join the SLCC program as a child. She did participate in one of the organization’s community honors choirs, and now she’s come full circle, having landed a position as SLCC’s community engagement manager several years ago. But shortly after starting that job, she realized the north St. Louis County honors choir she’d so enjoyed as a child was no more. Now, in 2020, it’s coming back thanks to Ellis.
On the heels of Bi-State Development's meeting where committee members declined to move forward a proposal that the regional transit agency take over trolley operations, St. Louis Public Radio's Kae Petrin joins host Sarah Fenske in studio to talk about it.
In the popular imagination, Cahokia seems to represent a cautionary tale. What today remains only as a series of mounds outside Collinsville, Illinois, used to be a thriving city — bigger than London in the mid-13th century. There may have been as many as 40,000 people living there. Yet in the years that followed, the population faced rapid decline. By 1400, what was a city had become a wasteland. Yet a new paper suggests that narrative is at best incomplete. Published yesterday in “American Antiquity,” the study uses fecal deposits to show that the exodus from the site was short-lived. A fresh wave of native people settled in Cahokia and repopulated the area from 1500 to 1700. In this segment, A.J. White discusses the paper and how the longer timeline of his study destroys “the myth of Cahokia’s Native American lost civilization.” A doctoral student in anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, White is the study’s lead author.
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is suing the St. Louis Police, a former undergrad is suing Washington University, and across the country, there are thousands of lawsuits against Bayer-Monsanto. Locally, a trial kicks off in St. Louis this week involving Bayer-Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup, as well as one in Cape Girardeau involving Dicamba. In this episode, a panel of legal analysts joins host Sarah Fenske to discuss these cases and more.
The Fly North Music theater company is presenting the musical, Madam at .Zack. It is based on the life of St. Louisan Eliza Haycraft. She was a 19th brothel manager and one of the richest women in the city. The writer of the musical describes how Haycraft ran her business during the passage of the social evil act which legalized prostitution in St. Louis.
On the latest edition of Politically Speaking, St. Louis Public Radio’s Julie O’Donoghue and Jason Rosenbaum take a look at some of the local, state and national stories that made news this week.
That includes the unsuccessful proposal from the head of the Bi-State Development Agency to revive the Loop Trolley, which shut down after a string of financial difficulties.
Here's what else is touched on during the show:
- O’Donoghue and Rosenbaum talked about how the St. Louis County Council is trying to retool its vagrancy laws.
- The Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry returns to the program to talk about how Missouri Sens. Josh Hawley and Roy Blunt are maneuvering through President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
- And for the final segment, Rosenbaum and O’Donoghue discuss legislation spurred on by Drag Queen Story Hours at libraries throughout the state.
George Herbert Walker III, better known as Bert, was a St. Louis businessman, philanthropist and former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. He died Saturday at the age of 88. In this remembrance, we listen back to when Walker came on the show in March 2007.
Host Sarah Fenske learns more about Downtown STL’s process of upgrading the street lights throughout downtown's 360 square blocks. Once completed, St. Louis will become one of the largest smart cities in the U.S., second only to San Diego. Joining the discussion is Downtown STL CEO Missy Kelley and the father-and-son team that helped develop the smart technology: Ted Stegeman, CEO of Labyrinth Technologies, and his 23-year-old son John, the company’s chief technology officer.
In an age of crumbling infrastructure across the U.S., sidewalks have been no exception to the pattern of decay. The city of St. Louis alone is home to roughly 2,000 miles worth of sidewalks, and both the physical condition and suitability of those streetside pathways vary widely. David Newburger, St. Louis' commissioner on the disabled, is constantly working with colleagues to update sidewalks and maintain ADA compliance, and they’re also thinking about sidewalks within the context of streets as a whole. Meanwhile, local municipalities including both St. Louis and Kirkwood are participating in the National Complete Streets Coalition, which is focused on making roads better for all types of users rather than prioritizing drivers. U.S. Department of Transportation statistics on pedestrian deaths show there’s still much work to be done. For Kirkwood City Councilwoman Kara Wurtz, the fact that Missouri ranks among the more dangerous states for pedestrians is a problem. She’s made addressing it within her municipality’s borders a focus. In this episode of the talk show, Wurtz and Newburger join host Sarah Fenske for a discussion about the state of the region’s sidewalks and what needs to happen to improve pedestrian comfort and safety. Also participating in the conversation is Cindy Mense, CEO of Trailnet. The discussion also includes listeners during the show who call in and post messages on social media with their thoughts on sidewalks.
Bread and Roses Missouri is presenting an original compilation of sketches and songs that address issues faced by workers. The participants are not professional performers, and most are members of a trade union. Topics include the importance of participating in the upcoming census and the intricacies of applying for Medicaid.
When news breaks about a dangerous situation, it’s natural to wonder what one might have done in a similar scenario: Tried to help? Been courageous? Perhaps made things worse? Running into burning buildings and shielding others from active shooters may be the sort of dramatic situations that come to mind. But far subtler opportunities to intervene on behalf of fellow humans come up more regularly than one may recognize — right in the grocery checkout aisle, for example, when witnessing a tense parent-child interaction. That’s the sort of scene Nancy Weaver and her colleagues at St. Louis University’s College of Public Health and Social Justice have been helping others around the region visualize and then learn to respond to in positive, practical ways.
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