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Our minds and bodies are powerful healers, and strong in maintaining well-being for each of us, overall. But do we use these inner tools?

The profession of Therapeutic Horticulture brings together plants and people, to explore and promote well-being in both profound and simple ways. Jeanne Carbone and her colleagues on the TH team at Missouri Botanical Garden offer a new program to help us explore and strengthen well-being, in partnership with Nature.

The setting for this exploration is Seiwa En, the Japanese Garden of Pure, Clear Harmony and Peace, at Missouri Botanical Garden in the City of St. Louis. Pathways and reflection points provide many opportunities to cultivate personal well-being.

This new program, Journey to Well-Being, includes three guided visits to Seiwa-En and prompts to experience and reflect on your own, in a series of weekly walks. Self-guiding options make this journey as convenient as it is powerful, especially in relation to a jewel of nature in the St. Louis region.

Registration is open for the winter session, with additional sessions coming in 2019.

Music: Bitter Root, performed live at KDHX by Matt Flinner

THANKS to Anna Holland, Earthworms engineer

Related Earthworms Conversations: Grow, Create, Inspire with Crystal Stevens (December 2016)

Is the purpose of college to prepare for a career or to pursue learning and knowledge as inherently worthwhile endeavors? That question isn’t a simple one to answer, and its tensions thoroughly inform a new book, co-authored by Washington University Provost Holden Thorp, titled "Our Higher Calling: Rebuilding the Partnership between America and Its Colleges and Universities."

On Tuesday's St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh discussed a new program implemented by Washington University in St. Louis that uses virtual reality to train faculty and staff in assessing and addressing the mental-health status of their students. He was joined by Jordan Worthington, the university’s assistant director of mental-health outreach and programming; Dr. Cheri LeBlanc, executive director of the Habif Health and Wellness Center; and Dr. Glenn Albright, the Co-Founder and Director of Research at Kognito, the health-simulation company responsible for At Risk for College and University Faculty and Staff.

Thirty years ago, Bruce Vantine decided he wanted to take the power of narrative choral music to a new level. "I had seen how effective [these] programs could be, and very often they’ve been focused on Christmas,” Vantine, who was on the University of Missouri-St. Louis music faculty at the time, recalled on Monday's St. Louis on the Air. "But I got the idea of doing a Thanksgiving type of a program with a social-justice message – so that we could touch people’s hearts." So began his St. Louis-based nonprofit organization that continues to spread its message of empathy throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Congresswoman Ann Wagner joins Politically Speaking to talk about her re-election battle against Democrat Cort VanOstran.

The Ballwin Republican represents Missouri's 2nd District, which includes parts of St. Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson Counties.

Many political prognosticators believe that Democrats have a good chance of retaking the House this year. And if they do, the party may gain the most ground in places like Wagner’s 2nd District — which take in a big portion of the St. Louis suburbs. Wagner contends she’s well positioned to fend off a potential "blue wave."

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies delve into the three medical marijuana initiatives.

Missourians will vote on Amendment 2, Amendment 3 and Proposition C. All three initiatives would make it legal to get marijuana for medical use. But they differ greatly in terms of how much marijuana will be taxed, how the regulatory framework would work, and where the money would go toward.

A Dutch historian is in St. Louis this week searching for information about 172 African-American soldiers who are buried or memorialized in the Netherlands American Cemetery.

Host Don Marsh talks with three local Jewish residents participating in the first Jewish arts and culture festival taking place in the city. 

Host Don Marsh discusses the mounting effort to bring a team to St. Louis with Webster University's Jack Croghan and local attorney and soccer enthusiast Brian Howe.

Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, Miriam Ruiz and Colin McLaughlin - plus two very young local artists - explore immigration, labor and identity through a creative lens.

On Thursday's St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh spoke with author and St. Louis native William Knoedelseder about his latest book, "Fins: Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit.”

On Wednesday's St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh was joined by two Sauce Magazine contributors for a conversation about the best new local restaurants in the month of October.

“We’ve got over 1,400 careers that we’ve launched so far in the five years that LaunchCode has been [in St. Louis], but that doesn’t count the people who have taken our training and gotten placed elsewhere,” explains entrepreneur and investor Jim McKelvey.

Ever get the feeling of excessive exhaustion, lack of sleep and motivation from working? Host Don Marsh talks about ways in which people who are invested in emotionally draining work can avoid burnout and practice self-care. 

Musical-theater aficionados likely associate four-time Tony nominee Terrence Mann with the original Rum Tum Tugger of “Cats,” Inspector Javert in “Les Miserables” or perhaps one of the titular characters in “Beauty and the Beast.” Now the acclaimed actor is diving into yet another key role – this one on a St. Louis stage that will take him under the sea as King Triton.

The Hispanic community in the Missouri region has grown significantly over the past few decades and it's made it's impact on small businesses. In light of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 to Oct. 15), host Don Marsh talked to Gabriela Ramirez-Aarellan, business counselor at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in St. Louis and. co-host of DMeToo podcast, photographer Carol Lara and Ness Sandoval, associate professor of sociology at St. Louis University, about the influence of Hispanic businesses on the region. 

On Monday's St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh discussed Christopher Columbus’s complex legacy with Peter Kastor, professor and chair of the Department of History at Washington University. Marsh also spoke to Bill Reininger, the executive director of Tower Grove Park, regarding the status of the commission tasked with determining the future of the park's Columbus statue.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies look at three things playing a big role in Missouri’s 2018 election cycle.

The first is debate over pre-existing conditions between U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and her GOP opponent Josh Hawley. It stems from Hawley’s decision to be a part of a lawsuit seeking to upend the Affordable Care Act.

McCaskill made health care a signature issue of her re-election campaign long before it became a trend among other Democratic candidate running in states where President Donald Trump is reasonably popular.

Mannies and Rosenbaum also discuss the importance of turnout, and Democratic unity, in St. Louis County for candidates like McCaskill. They also reflect on former Secretary of State Jason Kander’s decision to bow out of the Kansas City mayor’s race to seek treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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.