In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons

From COVID-19 to climate change and gun violence, kids have a lot on their minds these days. A new Illinois law will soon let them take off five mental health days a year.

Hurricane Ida’s flooding caused massive death and destruction in the northeast, leaving communities across the country questioning how prepared they are for extreme weather. Reset examines how prepared Chicago is for climate change.

Illinois lawmakers hold a one day session in Springfield where they redraw legislative maps, charge forward with changing energy policy and reject an ethics bill. Reset goes behind the headlines of the week’s news.

In Part Three of our collaboration with The Trace, Reset continues exploring what resources survivors of gun violence in Chicago need, and what recovery looks like without it. In this interview, we turn to experts on the front lines of providing long-term support and wraparound services to survivors. GUESTS: Eddie Bocanegra, senior director of READI Chicago Dr. Tanya Zakrison, trauma surgeon at UC...

In Part Two of our collaboration with The Trace, Reset continues exploring the stories of survivors of gun violence in Chicago — what resources they need, and what recovery looks like without it. In this interview, residents Les Jenkins and Natalie Manning share what their roads to recovery have looked like, and what resources they could have used from the city.

Of every six people shot in Chicago, five survive. But while much of the attention from the media, law enforcement, city leaders and the public is on homicides, there is a hidden crisis across the city: survivors face physical, psychological and emotional recovery with little to know help. In Part One (of three) of our collaboration with the nonprofit newsroom The Trace, Reset learns the stories o...

At Sullivan High School on Chicago’s North Side, more than 40 languages are spoken and students hail from over 50 countries. As world events force residents to leave their home countries and flee to America for safety, the school’s population demographics tend to change. Journalist and author Elly Fishman joins ‘Reset’ to discuss what makes Sullivan High so special as she documents in her new book...

Governor JB Pritzker reinstates the mask mandate indoors while Chicago’s police union pushes back on Mayor Lori Lightfoot requiring COVID vaccines of city employees. Reset goes behind the week’s headlines on the Weekly News Recap.

Education innovator and former Chicagoan Manish Jain calls, “[t]he modern factory-schooling education system…one of the greatest crimes against humanity.” Reset asks Jain, co-founder of Swaraj University in Udaipur, India why he believes we must “hack” our education system.

Stanford political scientist Terry Moe argues that, while urban school systems are in desperate need of innovative reforms, productive change is often blocked by stiff resistance from education’s vested interests — notably, teachers unions and school boards. Moe joins Reset for the latest installment of our series “Re-imagine Chicago.”

A national coalition of teachers (“Rethinking Schools”) is pushing back against white backlash to antiracist school curriculum like Critical Race Theory (CRT). A Seattle-based teacher tells Reset how Black history in schools will help deconstruct systemic racism and break the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

Two veteran education journalists: WBEZ education reporter Sarah Karp; and Lorraine Forte from the 'Chicago Sun-Times' editorial board and 'Catalyst Chicago' discuss the uphill history to improving Chicago area schools. From decades of reporting, they’ve seen and heard it all.

An infectious disease specialist shares the latest public guidance about COVID-19, boosters, mask mandates and more. For more Reset interviews, subscribe to this podcast. And please give us a rating, it helps other listeners find us. For more about Reset, go to wbez.org and follow us on Twitter @WBEZReset

In our final conversation for “Reimagine Chicago: Public Safety,” we talk to the deputy inspector general of Chicago and a civilian within the police department to discuss why some reforms are harder than others to get done. For more Reset interviews, subscribe to this podcast. And please give us a rating, it helps other listeners find us. For more about Reset, go to wbez.org and follow us on Twit...

In the U.S. we’ve been trained to call 911 almost regardless of the circumstances, and who responds to those calls? Police officers. Even when they may not have specialized training for the crisis at hand. But what if it were different? What if police didn’t handle mental health calls? Or property crime? Or paperwork? Could fewer responsibilities lead to better policing? Reset explores those quest...

U.S. police departments kill far more citizens per 10 million people than departments in any other developed nation. Why is that? And what can Chicago and other U.S. cities learn from other cities and countries? Reset brings on Washington Post columnist and author Radley Balko and Rutgers University sociologist Paul Hirschfield for the latest in our series “Re-Imagine Chicago.” For more Reset inte...

Chicago has the second-largest police force in the country, one with a stained history and a complicated relationship with the communities it policies. So what would it take to achieve significant and efficient reform in CPD? For the latest in our series “Reimagine Chicago,” Reset digs into public safety and policing. For more Reset interviews, subscribe to this podcast. And please give us a ratin...

The city mourns a slain officer, relations grow tense between Mayor Lightfoot and CPD, and the Mayor and police worsen, and Illinois is expected to win big in Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Reset goes behind the week’s headlines in the Weekly News Recap.

A former Chicago alderman with some big ideas helps us wrap up our series on how community investment and economic development could work better in Chicago.

How can community investment and economic development work better for all Chicago residents? Reset checks in with two top city officials to hear their ideas and to hear them react to some creative solutions proposed earlier in our Re-imagine Chicago series.

For our series Re-Imagine Chicago, Reset checks in with an expert on public finance and municipal economic development and TIF critics for their creative ideas for re-imagining one of the city’s key economic development tools.

In the second installment of our series Re-imagine Chicago, we explore how community investment works in the city. We learn about how recent Chicago mayors have approached economic development at the neighborhood level. We also hear from people working in two Chicago neighborhoods about what type of investment they need.

Pritzker announces a statewide schools mask mandate, Cubs move closer to a sports betting building and the latest on the cannabis lottery.

After a week of exploring how Chicago’s City Council and mayoral system work, we take stock of what we learned and what we can change. Reset talks to the city's top watchdog, a longtime alderman, and a community leader for what solutions they think are needed.

Toronto and Chicago have a few things in common. But their city council and ward system look pretty different. So what can Chicago learn?