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When David Patterson Silver Wolf refers to the U.S. opioid epidemic as part of a “disease of despair” and “a tough disease to treat,” he’s speaking from experience both professional and personal. The Washington University faculty member experienced substance-use disorder firsthand after growing up in a troubled home that quickly led him toward drugs and alcohol. Now, years later, he finds himself heading up the Brown School’s Community Academic Partnership on Addiction– a new effort aimed at addressing substance-use disorder among those struggling with it today.

February is Heart Health Month, and heart expert Dr. Andrew Kates, professor of medicine and cardiologist with the Washington University Heart Care Institute at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, returns to St. Louis on the Air to help explain various matters of the heart.

St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed is the latest guest on the Politically Speaking podcast. He joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Rachel Lippmann to talk about his re-election bid.

Reed is squaring off against three other Democratic candidates in the March 5 primary, including Sen. Jamilah Nasheed and Alderwoman Megan Green, D-15th Ward. Both Nasheed and Green have recorded Politically Speaking episodes that will air later this month.

A native of Joliet, Illinois, Reed first appeared on the local political scene in the 1990s when he was elected alderman for the 6th Ward, which includes the Midtown and Lafayette Square neighborhoods.

In 2007, he successfully challenged Board of Aldermen President Jim Shrewsbury. As board president, Reed joined the powerful Board of Estimate and Apportionment that makes most of the city’s financial decisions. He also appoints aldermanic committees and presides over meetings.

Ashley Denmark is a family medicine physician with BJC Healthcare. She grew up in Jennings, Missouri and at an early point in her life, her ambition to become a doctor as a black woman from Jennings was very much challenged. The physician talks to host Don Marsh about to her road to success and why she returned to St. Louis in an effort to inspire minority children to follow their dream careers and “normalize success.”

STLPR education reporter Ryan Delaney talks about the just-released school report cards and standardized testing in Missouri.

We go behind the headlines with STLPR politics editor Fred Ehrlich to discuss the week's news involving controversies involving St. Louis police officers.

A few years ago, Steven Webster was working in Washington and frequently giving tours of the U.S. Capitol when one particular tour went rather south, to put it mildly – and also sparked his decision to study political science.

Host Don Marsh talks with local media professionals about how the industry covers African-American communities – what has changed over the years and what's stayed the same.

With a growing sector of America having left traditional religion in recent decades, speculation about the reasons for that exit is common, as are easy conclusions about what it all portends. But it's all a bit more complex. James Croft, outreach director for the Ethical Society of St. Louis, and Leigh Schmidt, the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University, share their insights in this episode.

Kevin McKinney, executive director of SLACO – the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations, and local photojournalist Richard Reilly talk to host Don Marsh about how community organizing has evolved in the St. Louis region over the past 40 years.

STLPR reporter Chad Davis asks more listener questions about Better Together's proposal to representatives of the organization. The report was released on Monday.

Pat Kelly of the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis and Creve Coeur Mayor Barry Glantz outline why they are opposed to Better Together’s approach and suggest an alternative route to a potential shift in regional governance.

Host Don Marsh and St. Louis Public Radio listeners talk with two staff members from Better Together, the organization that earlier this week formally unveiled a much-anticipated proposal for a reunification of St. Louis and St. Louis County.

St. Louis Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where he joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum to talk about his first few weeks on the job.

Butler was elected to the citywide office in November 2018 after defeating longtime incumbent Sharon Carpenter in a Democratic primary. His office is responsible for issuing birth and death certificates, as well as filing real estate deeds.

Before jumping into the recorder of deeds race last year, Butler served for three terms in the Missouri House. He was a member of the House Budget Committee and captured a leadership position as the Democratic Caucus Chairman.

Sunday marked the international community’s commemoration of lives lost and tragedy caused during the Holocaust. Although it took place more than 70 years ago, its lessons continue to resonate today. Dan Reich, curator and director of education at the Holocaust Museum & Learning Center, survivor Rachel Miller join host Don Marsh to discuss how the younger generations will continue to tell the stories of those who experienced the Holocaust as survivors pass away. Miller, who now resides in Chesterfield, Missouri, also shares her own harrowing story of living through the Nazi occupation.

Evy Swoboda and Dakota Williams are both still in their 20s, yet they've already made big strides in the St. Louis restaurant scene. They join host Don Marsh and Sauce magazine's Heather Hughes for a conversation.

Although wintry skies in the St. Louis region didn’t make for ideal viewing conditions Sunday night as the sun, Earth and moon aligned for a total lunar eclipse, the anticipated celestial event still had many people looking skyward. It also sparked renewed interest in human understanding of the moon. In this segment, space journalist Rebecca Boyle, lunar scientist Brad Jolliff and St. Louis Public Radio’s own Eli Chen discuss the latest in moon research.

The St. Louis Theater Circle released its 2019 award nominees on Friday's St. Louis on the Air for locally produced professional theater in 2018. This is the seventh year of the awards. Judith Newmark, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s theater critic, and Mark Bretz, president of the St. Louis Theater Circle, join host Don Marsh to discuss the nominations and the upcoming award ceremony.

St. Louis Public Radio reporter Chad Davis talks with host Don Marsh about his recent coverage of how the partial government shutdown has been affecting a wide variety of St. Louis-area residents.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger talks with Don Marsh about his reporting series on debtors' prisons in rural Missouri – the practice of jailing people for not paying their court fines.