We Live Here

Sonny Liston, Frankie Freeman, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner, Dick Gregory: That’s just a handful of America’s black luminaries who called “The Ville” home, a one square mile neighborhood in north St. Louis. But decades of population loss and systemic disinvestment have left it a shell of its former self. We team up with our very cool friends at WYPR’s “Out of the Blocks” and tell the neighborhood’s st...

We keep the stories going and keep up our streak of handing the mics over to the community. Listen to the second half of this year’s “I Live Here” live storytelling event. Hear from three St. Louis artists — including a young poet, a country music performer and a singer-songwriter who are all grappling with the ideas of place and home.

It’s story time. Last year’s “I Live Here” storytelling event was so much fun, we decided to do it again this year. This week’s episode is a little different, and features hosts Tim and Kameel handing the mics to the community. In this first half, hear stories about black love, a woman who finds peace in her identity and spirituality and an outspoken politician who once struggled to speak for hers...

There have been near-daily protests in St. Louis following the September 2017 acquittal of a white police officer who killed a black man six years ago. And mounting allegations of excessive use of force by police officers responding to those protests. As all this pressure from the outside builds, we’re coming at the issue of police accountability from a different angle. We bring you the stories of...

In one of the country’s most segregated cities, the division seems nearly permanent: that black people in St. Louis live north, and white people south. It wasn’t always this way. Back when Christine Schmiz was growing up, plenty of white people lived in north St. Louis. But they left in a wave of white flight. Christine’s blue-collar family was part of this wave — a traumatic move for the then-14-...

As we’ve been collecting stories for you guys over the past few months, other people have been prodding us to tell our story. Since we’re about halfway through season 3, we thought why not now? People are curious about the nitty-gritty behind the show, and how we do it together. Plus, we drop some news about an upcoming storytelling event we’re having Nov. 8 in St. Louis, and an upcoming episode a...

Earlier this summer, we got bombarded with messages and emails from people wanting to know if it was true that Missouri has snatched back a wage increase from the lowest-paid workers in St. Louis. Short answer? Yes. But today’s show isn’t about that short answer. It’s about the long one. The story of HOW and WHY the city is locked in this battle. And the growing movement to keep up the fight to ra...

On this episode we explore the idea of a woke spectrum. You longtime listeners probably knew we would end up here eventually. After all, it is our new tagline. We go through responses we’ve collected about the word woke and we spend time with regular people -- many of them white -- trying to figure out, in light of everything going on, where they fit on this spectrum. And as it turns out, our spec...

Today’s show is all about choices. We’ll listen in as Damon Davis and Sabaah Folayan, producers of the critically acclaimed documentary ‘Whose Streets,’ talk about their choice to make the film and how they hope it will become a lasting document. We’ll also hear how a choice a good friend of ours made while covering Ferguson continues to shape the choices he makes now. A note that you won’t be hea...

On the third anniversary of Mike Brown's killing, we share the story of three playwrights who penned monologues about their experiences as black men in America. This is part 1 of two shows we're using to explore to art and activism. Part 2 will drop later in August.

Is there a right and a right and a wrong way to be an ally? Are you doing it right? Do you even know what it is? Maybe you should take our quiz to find out. In this episiode, we give what we call “The Ally Quiz” to two best friends, and have their answers scored by one of St. Louis’ most dynamic race scholars. And then, we reveal a twist. Follow along then go to welivehere.show to take the quiz yo...

Earlier this spring, the nation was transfixed with the fight in New Orleans over the removal of its confederate monuments. That spread to other cities -- including here in St. Louis, which just removed a confederate memorial from its lauded and most famous public park. So what now? We swoop in, and with help from BackStory's Nathan Connolly, try to unearth some conclusions and next steps.

In this episode, we get a seemingly simple question from a regular guy who wants St. Louis to do better around race and economic progress. And then we take that question to woman who wants the same, and just so happens to have recently come into a considerable amount of power.

Hey everyone, we’re official back! On the first episode of season three, a very, very special guest helps Tim and Kameel explore the whitewashing of Jesus. And we meet a local minister who’s trying to help his mostly white congregation rethink what Jesus looked like.

Get pumped - Season 3 of your favorite race and class podcast from St. Louis is back June 13! Subscribe now. Jesus wants you to. We'll explain later :)

We cap our second season by examining the ultimate system, one that can literally make the difference between life and death: the healthcare system. In particular concerns about what changes could be coming to the Affordable Care Act and how one group in Missouri tried to come up with an alternate health insurance system.

Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs. But as a group, they're largely ignored by the investment community. Why is that? And what are people doing to change that? We dive into this disconnect in our latest episode, and we tell you about efforts -- local and national -- to close this gap and make the start-up world more inclusive. Along the way, we bring you several stories of...

How a controversy at a St. Louis museum exposed a long-running conversation in the art world about identity, power and race.

About six months ago, we took an intense look at racial disparities in early-grade school suspensions in Missouri. We revisit the topic in this week's episode and bring you a big update – on the people and policy changes that've happened in since then.

There’s been a lot of chatter in recent years about inclusiveness in the tech world. Companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook have all been called out for their mostly white and male staffs. But what if, instead of an afterthought, diversity was hardwired into the core of a new start-up scene? That’s what this week’s installment of We Live Here is all about. And we’re not taking you to the coa...

The U.S. has a long history of choosing who it will and won’t let participate in the voting system. So as the nation prepares to choose its next leader, with a wave of voter ID laws on the books, and with fears about fraud now a major narrative in the presidential election, we take a look at just who is and who isn't being let into "Club Democracy" — and why.

In the community development world it’s widely understood that bringing any kind of change to a struggling neighborhood can take years. Yet the need for change is urgent. Research suggests blight is associated with serious health problems, not to mention stress associated with poverty. So what happens when you try to make sure being poor doesn’t means a life surrounded by decay? On this episode, w...

ON THIS EPISODE … we tell you what happened after our investigative show earlier this season about school suspensions. And we plant ourselves in Adams Elementary, a neighborhood school in south St. Louis, that is on a serious mission: equitable education and opportunities for all of its 300 students. What does it take to do this? We try to find out.

The relocation of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to north St. Louis has been heralded as a big win for the region. But it also meant relocating some 200 residents. St. Louis Public Radio’s business reporter Maria Altman has been covering the NGA relocation for months. As we resume the second season of We Live Here… Maria joins co-hosts Kameel Stanley and Tim Lloyd to take a closer loo...

Our first live show! We teamed up with two local St. Louis orgs (UrbArts and Second Tuesdays) to bring you a night of live storytelling about race, class, poverty and power. This is just a teaser though. Find more at WeLiveHere.show.