St. Louis on the Air

Donald Bouton started moonlighting as an Uber driver almost five years ago. That’s not so unusual. A lot of St. Louisans took up ride-sharing as a second job — or even a first one — after it debuted in St. Louis in 2015. It’s the project Bouton launched while he was driving that’s unusual. Beginning in April 2016, he began keeping pen and paper in the backseat of his car. He asked his passengers t...

As an actor, Ernest Emmanuel Peeples has portrayed a real range of characters — from Hamlet to the Ghost of Christmas Present. But in recent months, one particular theatrical role stands out from the rest: the opportunity to portray Lu, one of the adolescents at the center of Jason Reynolds’ wildly popular young adult novels, one of which is now also a play. Like Peeples, the character Lu has albi...

Kevin Salwen is the co-author of a book about the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. The book — "The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle" — was, in part, the inspiration for a controversial film about the bombing and the man who was falsely accused for it. In this segment, host Sarah Fenske talks with Salwen ahead of his p...

Earlier this year, Steve's Hot Dogs announced it was calling it quits after an 11-year run. But the outpouring that followed its closure announcement led directly to a new day for the eatery. As Ewing explains in this episode of St. Louis on the Air, the massive crowds in what he’d intended as the restaurant’s final week gave him a change of heart, and investment from Ewing’s longtime friend Danni...

St. Louis County’s jail population has dropped significantly over the past couple years, from an over-capacity total of 1,242 in the summer of 2018 to 930 inmates as of last week. The sustained decrease has been touted as one positive outcome among the justice reform efforts that followed protests in Ferguson. Much work remains — and thanks to five years of research led by University of Missouri-S...

Today’s teachers and school administrators are under increasing pressure on many fronts. There’s the increased focus on standardized testing, large class sizes and funding issues, not to mention the outside-the-classroom challenges complicating their students’ ability to learn. In the midst of all of this comes a refreshing focus — and a new graduate-level course — from two UMSL-connected leaders:...

The town of Alton was a major stop for escaped slaves making their way from St. Louis to Canada. In this interview, Sarah Fenske talks with J. Eric Robinson, assistant professor of history at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and proprietor of J. E. Robinson tours, about the historic places and people involved in the Underground Railroad in St. Louis and in Illinois. Robinson will begin guided tou...

For three decades, Diane Rehm hosted a conversation with America. The Diane Rehm Show grew from a local show at NPR affiliate WAMU to a national juggernaut, with 2.8 million listeners every week. And even after her December 2016 retirement, Rehm has continued the conversation. She hosts a podcast; she also recently published her fourth book, “When My Time Comes.” In partnership with "St. Louis on...

St. Louis’ Municipal Court is hosting a warrant amnesty program Feb. 24-27. It’s an opportunity for people with outstanding bench warrants — excluding DUIs, leaving the scene of an accident and prostitution — to be able to pay their original fines and costs without penalty. In this interview, Emily Woodbury talks with Judge Newton McCoy about the program. Newton is an administrative judge in St. L...

Last week, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced the 12 sites in the state which were added to the National Register of Historic Places during 2019. That’s the official federal list of properties that merit special attention and preservation. Every Illinois county has at least one property or historic district listed in the National Register. Guest host Emily Woodbury learns more...

Often referred to as the most dangerous eight seconds in sports, bull riding is not for the faint of heart. In fact, the medical director for the international organization Professional Bull Riders estimates that about one in 15 rides results in injury. Yet, the sport is gaining popularity. Since PBR was founded in 1992, the sport has grown into a global phenomenon. Over the course of a weeklong c...

Big news out of Cape Girardeau: A federal jury there returned its verdict against agricultural companies Monsanto and BASF. The case involved some Cape Girardeau peach farmers who said they’d been damaged by the weed killer dicamba. And that verdict was staggering. It totaled $15 million in damages — and $250 million in punitive damages. That’s even more than attorneys had asked for. St. Louis Pub...

For the occasional traveler, the term “TSA” likely conjures images of opening laptop bags, taking off shoes, lifting arms overhead and hoping against hope that there’s no spare change hiding in a pocket. But for Transportation Security Administration manager Robert Davis, that scene has about as much to do with customer service as it does airport security — and earlier this month he was honored in...

The St. Louis Art Museum has opened an exhibition that its curators say acknowledges the contributions of a largely forgotten artist who was instrumental in the birth of modern art: 19th-century French painter Jean-François Millet. His work features landscapes, nudes and other work that inspired other artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Simon Kelly, cura...

Jackie Robinson famously integrated Major League Baseball, taking the field for the National League’s Brooklyn Dodgers in April 1947. And the American League followed a few months later, when the Cleveland Indians put Larry Doby into the lineup. But right behind Cleveland were the St. Louis Browns. Just 12 days later, the team played its first black player. And two days after that, the Browns beca...

Host Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Jason Rosenbaum about former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. The Missouri Ethics Commission fined him $178,000 for failing to disclose in-kind donations but the commission also found no evidence that Greitens personally engaged in wrongdoing or that he had any knowledge of the ethics violations. The ex-governor has posted publicly on social...

Washington University’s Clinic for Acceptance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) treats women who become pregnant while dealing with an opioid use disorder. It provides prenatal care, substance abuse treatment and extended postpartum support. In this episode, we talk with the clinic’s medical director, Dr. Jeannie Kelly, who says there is a high demand for these services in the St. Louis region. She...

When you’re out on the town, it can be fun to try a couple different spots. What isn’t fun, though, is driving from one spot to another, or having to seek out parking in one packed neighborhood after another. Fortunately, our friends at Sauce magazine have addressed this problem in their most recent issue. They’ve outlined a three-stop nightlife tour in eight St. Louis-area neighborhoods in their...

David Murphy prides himself on being a “goal-setting” type-of-guy. Every year, he sets out different goals for himself — whether they’re physical, spiritual or work-related. And hitting those targets isn’t necessarily the intention. For Murphy, it’s more about the journey. And so for his 50th birthday last year, he wanted to go on a quest: One that turns a seemingly doable thing (say, going to Mas...

Following months of crowds and fanfare, most of the infrastructure associated with the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair was demolished soon after the festivities ended. That included George Ferris Jr.’s giant wheel, which had first debuted in Chicago in 1893 and boasted 36 observation cars — “each the size of a Bi-State bus,” as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch later described them. But Ferris’ legacy survi...

The 18th Amendment of the United States Constitution established the prohibition of alcohol in the U.S. Enforcement of the new law started on January 17, 1920. In this episode, our panelists dive into St. Louis' rich Prohibition-era history. They describe the time robbers siphoned off 3,000 barrels of whiskey from the Jack Daniels distillery, how Anheuser-Busch survived more than a decade of a nat...

Better Family Life’s 24/7 hotline helps callers facing the possibility of gun violence connect with people trained in de-escalation and mediation techniques. They also offer assistance with seeking counseling and medical supplies. In this episode, host Sarah Fenske talks with several mothers who called the hotline on behalf of their sons, and we learn how the Better Family Life de-escalation team...

Host Sarah Fenske discusses the highlights of St. Louis County Police Department Lieutenant Keith Wildhaber's first interview talking about his $10.25 million settlement case against St. Louis County. The gay police sergeant talked to St Louis Public Radio reporter Julie O’Donoghue, and said going forward, he’s intent on leading the department's newly formed Diversity and Inclusion Unit.

Composer Tobias Picker has five operas to his credit, with commissions from the LA Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, among others, and serious acclaim. But his sixth opera, which makes its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis this June, will have particular personal resonance. The librettist writing the words to go with Picker’s music is his husband, Dr. Aryeh Lev Stollman. And while S...

Increasingly more companies, organizations and governmental entities are establishing formal units focused on diversity and inclusion — the St. Louis County Police Department is one recent example in the bi-state region. But even as awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion grows, it can sometimes seem like something that all too often gets stuck at the level of lip service rather tha...