The 21st Show

Hundreds of workers are set to lose their jobs at the troubled Choate Mental Health Center in Southern Illinois. We’ll talk about why and reflect on the history of abuse allegations at the facility.

The race to become the next U.S. Senator from Illinois. We’ll talk with the Republican nominee, former party chairman Don Tracy Note: The video version of this conversation is taking longer than usual to post. It will be added here and on YouTube when available.

At the turn of the 19th century, bicycling was a significant force in American life. And the center of American cycling was arguably in Illinois. An author who has researched bicycling culture in Illinois joins the program. 

Much of the United States recently dealt with another round of smoke from Canadian wildfires. We’ll talk about how we felt that here in Illinois and what might be in store for that kind of weather in the future.  

Illinois recently launched a state Department of Early Childhood. The secretary of the department discusses its role and how it’s navigating ongoing shortages in staffing and availability for childcare across the state.

Illinois has an official state bee: The Black and Golden Bumblebee. What sets this species of bees apart from others and what is the state of pollinators across Illinois? 

Hundreds of Illinoisans have gotten sick this summer from the gastrointestinal disease cyclosporiasis. Two infectious disease specialists discuss what’s happening, who’s at risk, and what the role is of government in food safety. 

Actor Jonathan Butler-Duplessis attended high school and college in Champaign. After more than a decade in regional theater, he made his Broadway debut in Hamilton. He discusses his life, growing up in the C-U area, and his work.

Roughly 1,000 Black men were trained in Tuskegee, Alabama to serve as Army aviators in World War II. Nearly 100 were killed — and of those, 27 went missing. Most were never recovered, leaving a trail of unresolved grief that would haunt their families for decades. Their stories are the subject of a new book called “Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen" by Cheryl Whitlow Thompso...

The author of Growing up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World shares how to manage a generation that operates online all the time.

Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli Maoz Inon have written a new book called “The Future is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land.” They discuss why they choose peace over vengeance and how their personal losses motivate their advocacy.

He's a Normal, Illinois native who went to U. of I. and ended up writing music for Sesame Street. She's the puppeteer behind Abby Cadabby — and she just won an Emmy for it. They also happen to be married. Composer Paul Rudolph and puppeteer Leslie Carrara-Rudolph joined The 21st Show to talk about what makes Abby special, how to write music for Muppets, making instruments from found objects, and h...

It’s the official policy of the U.S. government to work toward putting people on Mars. Debates about that usually focus on cost and national priorities. Less considered is what life on Mars would do to the people who go there. That, however, is the subject of a new book by scientist Scott Solomon. It’s called Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds. Solomon was raise...

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, novelist Shelby Van Pelt now makes her home in Wheaton, Illinois. Her debut novel, "Remarkably Bright Creatures," has been a huge hit, reportedly selling more than two million copies. It's also being made into a movie by Netflix. We'll talk with Van Pelt about her life and work.

Fraud is all around us, from pyramid schemes to spam phone calls. Illinois-based forensic accountant Kelly Richmond Pope writes about why people do it — and how we can better protect ourselves — in her book “Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories and Secrets from the Trillion Dollar Fraud Industry.”

From the BIlly Goat to the Black Sox, the idea that the Cubs and White Sox were cursed is a key part of Illinois baseball lore. Author Addy Baird explores those stories and more in her new book, The Magical Game: The Spirit and History of Baseball's Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses.

There are still people working to partition Illinois into two states — and more voters are being asked to support the idea. We’ll talk with a reporter who’s done a deep dive into the New Illinois movement.

From Amish settlements in the rural Midwest … to the last Shaker community in Maine … Kevin Williams has spent three decades documenting the lives of people dedicated to simple living. He’s collected those experiences in a new book called “Not So Simple.”

Illinois farmers are filing for bankruptcy at a rate that's climbed for three years running — a trend that echoes the 1980s farm crisis, which is part of what led to Farm Aid's founding in Champaign-Urbana.

Jennifer Roscoe spent 34 years at WCIA-TV — all of them at the same central Illinois station — before signing off last month. She joins The 21st Show to talk about her career, which started with a 1992 internship at WCIA and spanned major changes in the industry, and how Americans consume news.

From “da Bears” in Chicago to “Hahvahd Yahd” in Boston, our accents shape how the world hears us — and how it judges us. Linguist Valerie Fridland explores how and why in her new book, "Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents," which traces how American speech patterns took shape over centuries and why they're still shifting today.

To close out the show ahead of the Fourth of July, we're featuring the first three voices in a new Illinois Public Media series, "America at 250: The Questions Before Us.” It asks Illinoisans what they think are the most important questions facing the country at the United States Semiquincentennial.

Two powerful earthquakes struck Caracas, Venezuela's capital, in quick succession last week — a magnitude 7.1 followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5. As of air time, more than 2,200 deaths have been linked to the quakes, with more than 40,000 people still unaccounted for. Alvaro Bello grew up in Venezuela and still has friends and family there. he works with The Immigration Project,...

Illinois drivers between the ages of 79 and 86 are no longer required to take a driving test every year, under a new law that just took effect. The change, part of what's called the Road Safety & Fairness Act, was pushed by AARP Illinois and the Illinois Secretary of State's office. Illinois had been the only state in the country with a rule requiring road tests for drivers in this range based sol...

You may not know his name, but if you've been to a Bulls, Bears, Fire or Fighting Illini game, you know his voice. Champaign's Tim Sinclair has taken his stadium announcing talents to the World Cup, providing English-language PA announcements at games in Mexico. He joins us to talk about learning name pronunciations on the fly, deciding when to announce a goal during lengthy VAR reviews, and what...