St. Louis on the Air

In this conversation, St. Louis Public Radio correspondent Jason Rosenbaum talks with Sarah Fenske about how St. Louis County Executive Sam Page and several county council members are calling for an immediate change in police administration following a nearly $20 million verdict against the county in a discrimination lawsuit by a gay officer.

Parents of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities have additional things to consider when preparing for Halloween, particularly for children whose disabilities aren’t visible. To help ensure a successful holiday for children with disabilities, Jeanne Marshall and Melanie Mills of Easterseals Midwest join guest host Jeremy D. Goodwin to discuss what caretakers and neighbors can do...

Only eleven months into its operating life, the Loop Trolley may not be long for this world. The Loop Trolley Company announced Oct. 12 that it needs an influx of $200,000 to continue running the trolley cars through the end of 2019 — and another $500,000 for next year. In this episode, St. Louis Public Radio’s Jeremy D. Goodwin goes behind the headlines with STLPR political correspondent Jason Ro...

Halloween-related celebrations are legion in St. Louis, with wide-ranging revelry options available each year for enthusiasts of every sort. At the Campbell House Museum — located downtown and at the less ghoulish end of the Halloween spectrum — the holiday observance typically involves a lot of history as well as a coffin, leeches and more. This month marks 140 years since the death of the fur tr...

Host Sarah Fenske talks about Missouri's Council on American Islamic Relations' past and future with its new executive director Mojda Sidiqi and her predecessor Faizan Syed.

Host Sarah Fenske talks with Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat, recipient of the 2019 St. Louis Literary Award given by the St. Louis University Library Associates.

Last week was a busy one for David Kvidahl, who covers high school sports for STLhighschoolsports.com and STLtoday.com. On Tuesday he was calling Cardinal Ritter College Prep to let school officials know he planned to publish a story about a football player at the Catholic school taking to the field while ineligible. The next day he was reporting that St. Louis Public Schools had terminated Roosev...

Through a “learn and earn” method, the organization BWorks, helps hundreds of kids each year, having expanded to include instruction in creative writing and computers as well. The organization was recently awarded a Quality of Life award from St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s office.

Drives around the St. Louis area have so far been a little less colorful this fall. That’s mainly due to unusual daytime and nighttime temperatures that are preventing chlorophyll from breaking down. The breakdown in chlorophyll causes leaves to lose their green color.

Continuity’s executive director and co-founder, Dan Parris, joins host Sarah Fenske to talk about the organization’s efforts. They are also joined by YouTuber Letisha Wexstten and continuity graduate Erica Renee Walker

Host Sarah Fenske discusses how research has led some locals of African descent to a better understanding of their complicated American stories

Host Sarah Fenske discusses how research has led some locals of African descent to a better understanding of their complicated American stories

St. Louis on the Air's Sarah Fenske Talks With STLPR's Kae Petrin And Local Attorney Mary Anne Sedey Host Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Kae Petrin and with local attorney and employment law expert Mary Anne Sedey about new efforts to give workplace protections to LGBTQ workers in Missouri. The state civil rights law is silent. But that’s not stopping some gay, lesbian and...

Host Sarah Fenske talks with dean of the University of Missouri St. Louis Andrew Kersten and Associate Professor of History Priscilla Dowden-White about how James Baldwin’s 1974 novel is resonating across campus and the broader St. Louis community, decades after it was written. The conversation will also include the perspectives of several UMSL students and faculty members.

Growing up in Singapore, Washington University undergraduate Luka Cai was closeted, finding little support there for members of the LGBTQ community. But even in their new home of St. Louis, where Cai openly identifies as a pansexual transmasculine queer person, they’ve observed a need for more peer-to-peer support. “When I came to St. Louis I felt very much more affirmed and accepted by the St. Lo...

Month after month, Sauce Magazine joins our program for a monthly Sound Bites segment to showcase the latest food trends and highlight local chefs, farmers, restaurateurs and more. Host Sarah Fenske delves into the history of the food publication itself, which launched in St. Louis in 1999 when the Internet was still in its infancy. Twenty years later, Sauce Magazine is still going strong.

Jane Smiley recently came back to St. Louis for her 50th high school reunion. But unlike many of us, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist wasn’t content simply to explore what had changed around town. Smiley also wrote an essay about the city for the New York Times. In this interview with Sarah Fenske, Smiley discusses her essay, detailing her abiding love for St. Louis, particularly its foliage an...

Being born intersex isn’t limited to ambiguous genitalia. There’s a plethora of intersex conditions, about 150. Host Sarah Fenske talks with Dr. Christopher Lewis about the condition and Jordan Braxton, who is intersex herself.

Forai, an organization based in Maplewood, has helped refugees attain the skills they need to start businesses. Host Sarah Fenske talks to its founder and some of the women who got a leg up through its unique mission.

Missouri has more than 10,000 untested rape kits sitting on shelves in police departments and hospitals, but the state is finally set to have a full inventory of those kits by the end of October. In this segment, host Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Jaclyn Driscoll about her reporting on the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant set aside for this project.

Host Sarah Fenske discusses the importance of early intervention and how people with dyslexia can thrive in school and in life with Webster’s Paula Witkowski, a professor of literacy and speech-language pathologist in the School of Education, as well as several local parents of dyslexic children.

Host Sarah Fenske talks to Senegalese artist Modou Dieng, who curated a new contemporary art exhibition at the Barrett Barrera Projects center. “Saint Louis to St. Louis: The City on the River meets River City" notes the parallels between the two cities named for St. Louis the King — one in the Midwest and one in the West African country of Senegal.

Host Sarah Fenske sits down with NPR’s Silicon Valley correspondent Aarti Shahani who discusses her memoir about her family’s journey from pre-partition India to Casablanca to New York. It’s called “Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares.”

Host Sarah Fenske talks with longtime Girl Scout and St. Louis-area resident Lauren Vanlandingham about being named a 2019 National Gold Award Girl Scout. Also joining the conversation is Aurrice Duke-Rollings, chief marketing and communications officer for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri.

Host Sarah Fenske talks with Suzanne Michelle White of the Choctaw Tribe of Oklahoma, a descendant of Cherokee, Delaware, and Lumbee nation/tribes, about Indigenous People's Day and how people may observe it.