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On the latest episode of Politically Speaking, St. Louis Public Radio’s Julie O’Donoghue, Jason Rosenbaum and Jaclyn Driscoll break down some of the week’s biggest stories in federal, state and local politics. Of particular interest for many St. Louis area residents is the financial peril surrounding the Loop Trolley.

St. Louis–based LGBTQ advocacy organizations are taking steps to anticipate the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case that could overturn municipal laws protecting transgender and gender-nonconforming employees in Missouri and Illinois. Legal experts say the case outcome could leave LGBTQ workers with just a "patchwork" of protections, opening them up to legal discrimination.

Being born intersex isn’t limited to ambiguous genitalia. There’s a plethora of intersex conditions, about 150. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Dr. Christopher Lewis about the condition and Jordan Braxton, who is intersex herself.

St. Louis Alderwoman Sarah Martin returns to Politically Speaking to talk about some of the big issues percolating in city government. That includes bringing crime under control and an impending debate on having a private operator run St. Louis Lambert Airport.

Forai, an organization based in Maplewood, has helped refugees attain the skills they need to start businesses. Host Sarah Fenske talks to its founder and some of the women who got a leg up through its unique mission.

Missouri has more than 10,000 untested rape kits sitting on shelves in police departments and hospitals, but the state is finally set to have a full inventory of those kits by the end of October. In this segment, host Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Jaclyn Driscoll about her reporting on the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant set aside for this project.

Unlike some Mississippi River-adjacent states that have set limits on nutrient pollution, Missouri has addressed nutrient pollution by providing funds for farmers to use conservation practices that reduce nutrients from the waterways. But environmentalists say that the state needs to vastly improve how it monitors nutrients that enter waterways and set limits in order to make a substantial progress on water quality in Missouri and reducing the dead zone in the Gulf

Host Sarah Fenske discusses the importance of early intervention and how people with dyslexia can thrive in school and in life with Webster’s Paula Witkowski, a professor of literacy and speech-language pathologist in the School of Education, as well as several local parents of dyslexic children.

Host Sarah Fenske talks to Senegalese artist Modou Dieng, who curated a new contemporary art exhibition at the Barrett Barrera Projects center. “Saint Louis to St. Louis: The City on the River meets River City" notes the parallels between the two cities named for St. Louis the King — one in the Midwest and one in the West African country of Senegal.

Missouri has thousands of untested rape kits sitting on shelves in police stations and hospitals — some containing DNA evidence that could put rapists behind bars. The state is getting closer to finishing an inventory of those untested kits, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

Host Sarah Fenske sits down with NPR’s Silicon Valley correspondent Aarti Shahani who discusses her memoir about her family’s journey from pre-partition India to Casablanca to New York. It’s called “Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares.”

A conversation with Arriel Biggs, the Founder and CEO of Young Biz Kidz. Her organization teaches kids and their parents financial literacy and entrepreneurism.

Host Sarah Fenske talks with longtime Girl Scout and St. Louis-area resident Lauren Vanlandingham about being named a 2019 National Gold Award Girl Scout. Also joining the conversation is Aurrice Duke-Rollings, chief marketing and communications officer for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri.

Host Sarah Fenske talks with Suzanne Michelle White of the Choctaw Tribe of Oklahoma, a descendant of Cherokee, Delaware, and Lumbee nation/tribes, about Indigenous People's Day and how people may observe it.

Host Sarah Fenske delves into how municipal boundaries and school district boundaries were drawn to exclude and how local policies and services were weaponized to maintain civic separation. Joining the conversation are: history professor Colin Gordon, author of "Citizen Brown: Race, Democracy, and Inequality in the St. Louis Suburbs," as well as Erica Williams, a North County resident and founder of the nonprofit A Red Circle, and David Dwight, of Forward Through Ferguson.

Gov. Mike Parson pledged not to restart a state program that creates low-income housing unless the legislature made big changes. That didn't happen, and now he's facing pressure to end a nearly two-year freeze of the controversial incentive.

The latest episode looks at how U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt is reacting to the potential impeachment of President Donald Trump. The Politically Speaking team also examines a hearing where lawmakers asked sharp questions about gambling devices that are showing up around Missouri. We also talked with The Kansas City Star's Jason Hancock about his story showcasing how much money that state's spent on defending a lawsuit over self-destructing texts. You can read that story here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article235795407.html

St. Louis resident Sarah Schlafly founded Mighty Cricket, a startup that produces food products including powdered, roasted crickets. She joins host Sarah Fenske to discuss a challenge she made calling on local businesses to offer her product in one of their October menu items.

In order to get St. Louisans more comfortable with the idea of eating insects, Schlafly launched the Mighty Cricket Challenge, calling on local businesses to offer her cricket powder in one of their October menu items. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Schlafly about her work and this month’s campaign.

The St. Louis Cardinals have advanced to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2014. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Missy Kelley, the CEO of Downtown St. Louis, Inc., about the economic boost the Cardinals’ success is providing to the St. Louis metro.