A Four Star Podcast (Chicago, but Better)

Illinois’ $1.5 billion regulated cannabis market is easy to misunderstand. From the outside, it can look like a simple retail story. But behind the counter is a much bigger conversation about business, policy, taxes, compliance, social equity, and the future of a still-evolving industry. Tiffany Ingram, Executive Director of the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, joins us to explain how Il...

When a neighborhood store closes, the argument usually starts fast. Activists blame corporate greed. Retailers point to theft. Residents are left with fewer places to buy groceries, fill prescriptions or pick up the basics. In this episode of FOX Chicago's A Four Star Podcast, we talk with Robert Karr, President and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, about the pressures facing brick...

Why are American cities losing families at greater rates than any other demographic? According to Alicia Pederson, known online as the Courtyard Urbanist, the answer isn't a lack of desire for city living - it’s a catastrophic design failure. In this episode of FOX Chicago's A Four Star Podcast, we sit down with Pederson to dismantle the standard, developer-driven housing templates that dominate m...

When the Mayor of a major American city responds to the flight of its largest taxpayers with a laughing “Bye,” it isn’t just a viral clip. It’s a mission statement. For decades, blue city politics was defined by moderate Democrats and corporate compromise. But in 2026, the "machine" has been rebuilt. In this episode, Grant is joined by Austin Berg, Executive Director of Chicago Policy for the Illi...

Better transit. Safer streets. Smarter Chicago. This is A Four Star Podcast. In the premiere edition of A Four Star Podcast, we dive into the nuts and bolts of urban survival in a city that often feels like it's working against its residents. Our thesis is simple: identifying the specific civic gears that are stuck and finding the practical, sometimes "guerrilla" solutions to grease them. We start...

Why is it so hard to build housing in Chicago? David Lapidus, a member of the pro-housing Chicago Growth Project, joins A Four Star Podcast for a practical, ground-level conversation about the rules, politics and economics that shape what gets built, what doesn’t and why Chicago’s housing debate is no longer just a niche urbanist argument. David is also a member of the pro-housing Abundant Housing...

Riley O’Neil’s death hit Chicago’s safe-streets community especially hard. He was not just a cyclist. He was a CDOT planner who worked on making streets safer before he was killed while biking in Bridgeport. In this episode of A Four Star Podcast, Grant Horne talks with John Greenfield of Streetsblog Chicago about Riley’s life, his work, and what his death says about the way Chicago designs, debat...

Lori Lightfoot stormed into City Hall with a historic mandate, a reformer’s promise, and a landslide victory that seemed to signal a new era in Chicago politics. Four years later, she became the first Chicago mayor in decades to lose reelection. In this special vacation-week episode of A Four Star Podcast, Grant is on break, so we’re sharing his April 2024 interview with Chicago Tribune reporter G...

Chicago ended ShotSpotter. Then came the studies, the headlines, the political victory laps, and a much bigger question: What did the data actually prove? On this episode of FOX Chicago's A Four Star Podcast, Grant Horne is joined by Richard Day, journalist with A City That Works, for a deeper look at Chicago’s ongoing fight over gunshot detection technology, police response times, public safety d...

Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says Chicago needs to stop calling them “teen takeovers.” To him, that language softens what is actually happening: mob actions. Criminal behavior. Disorder that can include shootings, assaults, weapons arrests, property damage, attacks on police, and large crowds taking over public spaces. In this episode of A Four Star Podcast, McCarthy joins F...