St. Louis on the Air

Nearly one-third of Hazelwood School District students have been assigned to in-person classes where the teacher is virtual, instructing from hundreds or thousands of miles away. A new Riverfront Times story highlights how the arrangement is failing students. Reporter Mike Fitzgerald and Tamar Brown, education advocacy director for A Red Circle, discuss how the national teacher shortage has led to...

During his State of the State address last week, Gov. Mike Parson announced his budgetary vision for Missouri. His plan includes money to widen Interstate 70 in three places and fully fund the state’s K-12 education formula and school transportation, as well as another round of raises for state employees. This episode contains much of STLPR's Sarah Kellogg interview with Parson along with analysis...

Local filmmaker Josh Guffey directed his debut feature-length film in St. Louis and surrounding areas. Starring Tony Todd as drug kingpin Lamont Hughes, “All Gone Wrong” follows a detective trying to clean up a small town in Illinois. The film took Guffey 15 years to create and will start streaming January 27.

In June 2022, minutes after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Missouri led the nation as the first state in the U.S. to enact an abortion ban. A new lawsuit, filed by faith leaders in Missouri, is challenging that ban, arguing that it not only violates the separation of church and state, but also the beliefs of other religions. Discussing the lawsuit, and their religious objections to Missouri's abo...

Dennis Bentley, St. Louis Public Radio systems specialist, has a notable hobby: He finds graves. As a volunteer for FindAGrave, he has submitted over 3,000 pictures of gravestones: the small bejeweled ones, the wealthy towering ones and the just plain ‘ol regular ones. Bentley discusses finding meaning in his many journeys through cemeteries in Jefferson County, and why it’s the broken, mossy and...

Recovery friendly workplaces hire and support employees in recovery from drug addiction as they would an employee with any other health condition. Ann McCauley, the director of Recovery Friendly Workplace Missouri, and John Gaal of the Missouri Works Initiative, say these workplaces uplift workers and employers alike.

The first federal student aid program in the United States, the National Defense Education Act, was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958 — six years before the Civil Rights Act federally ended “Jim Crow'' laws across the nation. The Higher Education Act of 1965, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, followed the Civil Rights Act, and while codified into law, American citizens and lawm...

Katie Rodas-Santizo, a local eighth grader at Marian Middle School, will defend her school’s championship title in this year’s Clavicus Project Jamboree — a yearly robotics competition that challenges the STEM skills of middle school students in St. Louis. Robotics Coach Mark Viox and Marian Middle School Interim Principal Sierhah Price share how they encourage a love of STEM in young girls like R...

Christopher Dunn has spent more than 30 years in prison for a 1990 murder he did not commit in St. Louis. The two witnesses whose testimony led to his conviction have recanted, leading to a dramatic moment in 2020, when a Missouri judge ruled: “This court does not believe that any jury would now convict Christopher Dunn under these facts.” Yet Dunn remains in prison on a life sentence, doomed to d...

A college education is often touted as the means to a successful and comfortable life. For students who take out loans, the burden of debt puts brakes on wealth building for them and their families. Faith Sandler, executive director of Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis has helped students and their families navigate student aid for 34 years. As conversations about debt continue and debt forgiven...

A controversial Missouri bill to ban "unauthorized" sleeping and camping on state-owned land is now now. Advocates for the homeless say it turns peoples’ survival into a crime. But, what does “unauthorized” sleeping mean, and how are homeless people supposed to avoid state-owned land? We talk with St. Louis attorney Stephanie Lummus, who is representing seven homeless clients in a new federal laws...

Alumni and staff cheered outside as students returned to class at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School on Tuesday for the first time since a deadly shooting in October closed the school. STLPR education reporter Kate Grumke talks about the return of students.

A new report claims that most utility companies in the U.S. contaminate groundwater and evade federal regulations, including four energy plants in the St. Louis area. Patricia Schuba, president of the board of Labadie Environmental Organization, talks about why she’s concerned, what St. Louisans can do to protect their home’s water supply and what people can do to change things and hold companies...

In March 2022, community advocates said St. Louis' 211 hotline fails homeless people and leaves volunteers to pick up the slack. Nearly a year later, they report that things are even worse. STL Winter Outreach volunteers sit down with St. Louis Department of Human Services Director Dr. Yusef Scoggin to discuss how the system is working and the city’s role in making sure that vulnerable residents h...

Will Jordan, executive director of the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, and Nate Johnson, the president of the organization’s board of directors, discuss the role realtors play in increasing Black homeownership in St. Louis.

The Catholic community in the St. Louis region is at a crossroads. A sweeping plan from the Archdiocese, known as the All Things New initiative, is considering how to close schools and consolidate parishes. Among those preparing for the change is Fr. Andrew Auer, an associate pastor at St. Clare of Assisi in Ellisville. Fr. Auer discusses the reaction to All Things New, why St. Louis’ Catholic com...

St. Louis animal rights activist Sasha Zemmel made headlines when a recent disruptive protest at a Moolah Shriners meeting ended in her arrest — and her alleging that members of the group physically assaulted her as she tried to exit. Two weeks later, the Moolah Shriners announced they would retire their elephants from their circus. Zemmel discusses the confrontation with the Moolah Shriners and h...

Black Americans are more likely to start menopause early and gain less treatment to manage symptoms — that’s according to a recent review of menopause literature. Dr. Makeba Williams, an associate professor and vice chair of professional development and wellness in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University, encourages more doctors to recognize that the menopause experien...

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, has some 13 million items in its collection. Now, 100 of them are featured in an online gallery of 3D images that can be enlarged, turned upside down or spun around. Museum director Christina Shutt explains the 3D imaging project and talks about the history of some of the artifacts.

The Missouri History Museum's "St. Louis Sound" exhibit was designed like an album, with both the greatest hits of St. Louis music and some deep cuts from more obscure favorites. The museum's Andrew Wanko discusses the region's impact on popular music. The last day to view the exhibit is Sunday, January 22.

Would you talk to a fifth grader about cannabis? Nichole Dawsey is the executive director of Prevent Ed, and she says that, if done appropriately, around age 10 is a great time to start having conversations with children about cannabis use. Now that Missouri has legalized recreational marijuana and advertisements are going up for where to buy cannabis goods, parents and educators are preparing to...

St. Louis chefs like MJ Stewart and Brandon Panosh have embraced the “pop-up” concept, creating smaller-scale offerings focused around a particular dish, cuisine or atmosphere. Stewart discusses her unique take on a dessert-only menu with “DNFT,” while Panosh dishes about his custom dinner series “Table with Dinner at the Loft.” We also check in about the growth of the pop-up trend with Meera Naga...

Aurora Bihler is a union ironworker in St. Louis. She’s working to bring more women and minorities into the skilled labor force as director of the “Building Union Diversity” program, which has graduated some 300 students since its founding in 2014. Bihler discusses her path to the skilled trades, and AFL-CIO Missouri president Jake Hummel provides insight into the ongoing labor shortage.

Statehouse reporter Sarah Kellogg discusses the first week of the 2023 Missouri legislative session and what lawmakers are hoping to focus on in the months ahead.

Just before the start of the new year, the Supreme Court of Illinois halted the implementation of a law that would eliminate the practice of cash bail statewide — hours before the bill was set to take effect. Sarah Staudt of the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and Alexa Van Brunt of the MacArthur Justice Center discuss the future of the law and how the justice-impacted and their families...