City Cast Pittsburgh

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History has a lot of weird wonders in its collection, but few have plagued management quite like the diorama “Lion Attacking a Dromedary.” It’s got a lot of inaccuracies, from the meshing of several Middle Eastern and North African cultures, to placements that reinforce violence, colonialism and misogyny. Modern curators struggle to even call it art — which was also...

A moment of silence for some of our now-closed East End favorites: Bitter Ends, B52, and Reed & Co. But there’s still a lot to look forward to on the Pittsburgh food scene, including our first non-alcoholic bottle shop and a Pan-Asian food hall set to open this winter. Our very own Morgan Moody and Francesca Dabecco join City Cast contributor Hal B. Klein, who’s covering it all for Pittsburgh Maga...

Pennsylvania’s Senate Finance Committee is set to hear testimony tomorrow in Pittsburgh about potentially raising the Film Tax Credit, which is currently capped at $70 million. While lawmakers consider what to do, we thought we’d tap into what the film scene here is really like. Is the food good? Why is Lawrenceville in every shot? How do you become an extra? Luckily our own Morgan Moody has a few...

In the grand tradition of building throughways through immigrant neighborhoods, Pittsburgh’s once-thriving Chinatown was decimated in the 1910s and ’20s with the downtown construction of the Boulevard of the Allies. It’s been a long time coming—12 years and four separate appeals to the state—but the neighborhood is finally getting the historic landmark it deserves.  Marian Lein, president of the P...

Pregnancy and childbirth should be happy and safe, but for way too many Black and brown women, complications before, during and even months after the birth are stealing that joy — and even some women’s lives. Dr. Sharee Livingston, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at UPMC Lititz, joins City Cast’s Megan Harris for a conversation about Black Maternal Health Week and what Pittsburgh could learn fr...

In this week’s Friday news roundup, the team talks about the latest round of affordable housing evictions in East Liberty; what we know about the loss of outdoor climbing access in Fayette County; and when Pittsburghers should start stocking up on reusable totes for the inevitable plastic bag ban. Check out the wonderful local journalism and residents that made it possible: TribLive’s Julia Felton...

Spirits are high for Opening Day, but Pirates fans should keep their expectations low. We were the worst team in baseball last year, and in the off-season, long-time owner Bob Nutting signed off on a collective bargaining agreement that won’t help small market teams at all. (We spend less money on the whole team than some clubs do for individual player salaries!) Why won’t “Bottom Line Bob” spend...

On March 12, 2020, the drop-in group Tube City Writers met for their final pre-pandemic session. In addition to agreeing that future meetups would need to happen virtually, they also decided a daily blog could be a good way to occupy their time. Mon Valley resident Jim Busch led the charge. For more than a year, he documented life in the shadow of the pandemic, plus one very personal loss — his wi...

Last month, the communications giant Audacity — which already owned KDKA and a slew of radio and television stations across the country — purchased WAMO, an iconic and influential radio station for Pittsburgh’s Black community. Today City Cast Pittsburgh host Morgan Moody talks with Brian Cook, president of the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation, about the history of WAMO, his own experiences with...

Students and professors at Carnegie Mellon University have been leaving their mark on the world for generations. Now they're taking it a bit further by leaving their mark on the moon. Red Whitaker is a roboticist and a professor at CMU who has led robotic missions to space and built self-driving vehicles long before Elon Musk. Now he's helping students land a Rover on the moon in search of water....

On this week's Friday news roundup, the team discusses a massive infusion of cash for schools and mental health programs in Pittsburgh (including a few dollars from philanthropist, writer, and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott); a new plan for recreation along Pittsburgh’s rivers; and plenty of options for what to do this weekend.  As always, the Friday roundup is powered by great Pittsburgh...

A Republican-led proposal in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, House Bill 972, aims to ban trans girls and women from school sports teams aligning with their gender identity. Though it was tabled in the House, it’s almost guaranteed to pop back up in April, when the House session resumes. Today — on Trans Day of Visibility — host Morgan Moody talks with activist Dena Stanley, who founded...

Mila Sanina, until recently the executive director of PublicSource, has family in Russia and Ukraine. To her aunt in Donetsk, the war in Ukraine is one of liberation, and Vladimir Putin is a “man of peace” rather than a tyrant. Mila wrote about her family situation for The Independent, and today she talks with City Cast Pittsburgh host Morgan Moody about how she’s trying to continue relationships...

For almost two years, a group of neighbors out in Churchill have been fighting a Goliath. The retail giant Amazon has been lobbying to bulldoze the old Westinghouse Research & Technology Park to build a new distribution facility, bringing jobs but also trucking traffic to the largely residential borough. Officials now say that’s over — that Amazon will look elsewhere — but residents and developers...

Marijuana is an approved medical treatment for opioid addiction in Pennsylvania. But Ed Mahon of SpotlightPA discovered that researchers don’t recommend cannabis as a primary treatment for opioid abuse — and that questionable claims by cannabis certification companies could put people’s lives in danger. Lead Producer Matt Stroud talks with Mahon today about his reporting, and whether anyone can st...

Today on City Cast Pittsburgh’s Friday roundup, Megan, Francesca, and Morgan sit down to discuss how structural racism impacts dementia; why food stamp enrollment numbers are on the rise, and whether you’ll ever be able to walk around with open alcohol containers in Pennsylvania.  As always, the Friday roundup is powered by local journalism. Check out: Jesse Bunch in the Post-Gazette: https://www....

Writer, astronomer, and Carnegie Mellon University researcher Diane Turnshek has been encouraging cities to address light pollution for decades — and Pittsburgh finally caught on. Today, she talks about the new city ordinance she helped create, what it’ll take to replace 40,000 streetlights in Pittsburgh, and how much humans have in common with birds, bats, and the springtime flora we love most. A...

As Pennsylvania adopts the CDC’s new, lower threshold for children exposed to “high lead levels,” more Pittsburgh families are becoming eligible for home lead testing and remediation. City Cast Pittsburghers Morgan Moody and Megan Harris talk about what this means for families — and how it might help folks still affected by Pittsburgh’s lingering water crisis.  Read the Post-Gazette’s latest repor...

Sometimes it can be a real pain to get around Pittsburgh. Especially lately, with Port Authority’s service disruptions causing delays and missed routes. Senior producer Megan Harris and newsletter editor Francesca Dabecco catch up with Bonnie Fan and Paul O’Hanlon from the advocacy group Pittsburghers for Public Transit to talk about what it would take to create a more equitable transit system for...

When Pittsburgh Author Damon Young released his memoir, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker,” it earned him international praise, a spot on NPR’s “Best Book of the Year” list, and took the VerySmartBros founder and former Wilkinsburg high school teacher from Pittsburgh to the world. Tomorrow, his new podcast, "Stuck with Damon Young,” drops, in partnership with Crooked Media and Spotify. Toda...

The team is back for the Friday roundup. This week, we’re discussing understaffing at the Allegheny County Health Department, municipal police departments bringing in social workers, and a full-scale pirate ship — with water cannons! — soon to set sail on the three rivers.  As always, the Friday roundup is powered by incredible local journalism. This week, check out: Charlie Wolfson for PublicSour...

It’s pretty convenient to leave your recycling at the curb, but it can be a lot more convenient for facilities to process those materials when they’re pre-sorted. Two of 10 new glass drop-off facilities just opened in Allegheny County, and officials are hopeful it’ll mean a lot more of our waste gets back on the shelf. (According to the EPA, about 5% of the waste stream is glass.) The Allegheny Fr...

In a press conference yesterday, the Venango County District Attorney ruled the fatal shooting of Pittsburgh resident Peter Bernardo Spencer as a “justifiable act of self defense,” and cited Pennsylvania's "Use of force in self-protection" — also known as stand your ground — law. A 29-year-old Black man and Jamaican immigrant, Spencer was shot nine times at a cabin in Rockland Township four months...

Recent protests at Sewickley Academy have revolved around the school’s approach to — and avoidance of — teaching anything that could be considered “critical race theory.” But what is CRT? And how should we think about it — both as adults, and as adults explaining it to kids? PublicSource’s TyLisa Johnson explains how to have these conversations — and why they’re so important. Is your child asking...

No one wants to end up behind bars, but if you are arrested, it's a reasonable expectation that you’ll survive to get your day in court. New reporting out today from the Pittsburgh Institute of Nonprofit Journalism shows deaths inside Allegheny County Jail are happening at higher rates than they have in years. Investigative reporter Brittany Hailer explains who’s dying and what needs to be done. F...