The 21st Show

From the BIlly Goat to the Black Sox, the idea that the Cubs and White Sox were cursed is a key part of Illinois baseball lore. Author Addy Baird explores those stories and more in her new book, The Magical Game: The Spirit and History of Baseball's Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses.

There are still people working to partition Illinois into two states — and more voters are being asked to support the idea. We’ll talk with a reporter who’s done a deep dive into the New Illinois movement.

From Amish settlements in the rural Midwest … to the last Shaker community in Maine … Kevin Williams has spent three decades documenting the lives of people dedicated to simple living. He’s collected those experiences in a new book called “Not So Simple.”

Illinois farmers are filing for bankruptcy at a rate that's climbed for three years running — a trend that echoes the 1980s farm crisis, which is part of what led to Farm Aid's founding in Champaign-Urbana.

Jennifer Roscoe spent 34 years at WCIA-TV — all of them at the same central Illinois station — before signing off last month. She joins The 21st Show to talk about her career, which started with a 1992 internship at WCIA and spanned major changes in the industry, and how Americans consume news.

From “da Bears” in Chicago to “Hahvahd Yahd” in Boston, our accents shape how the world hears us — and how it judges us. Linguist Valerie Fridland explores how and why in her new book, "Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents," which traces how American speech patterns took shape over centuries and why they're still shifting today.

To close out the show ahead of the Fourth of July, we're featuring the first three voices in a new Illinois Public Media series, "America at 250: The Questions Before Us.” It asks Illinoisans what they think are the most important questions facing the country at the United States Semiquincentennial.

Two powerful earthquakes struck Caracas, Venezuela's capital, in quick succession last week — a magnitude 7.1 followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5. As of air time, more than 2,200 deaths have been linked to the quakes, with more than 40,000 people still unaccounted for. Alvaro Bello grew up in Venezuela and still has friends and family there. he works with The Immigration Project,...

Illinois drivers between the ages of 79 and 86 are no longer required to take a driving test every year, under a new law that just took effect. The change, part of what's called the Road Safety & Fairness Act, was pushed by AARP Illinois and the Illinois Secretary of State's office. Illinois had been the only state in the country with a rule requiring road tests for drivers in this range based sol...

You may not know his name, but if you've been to a Bulls, Bears, Fire or Fighting Illini game, you know his voice. Champaign's Tim Sinclair has taken his stadium announcing talents to the World Cup, providing English-language PA announcements at games in Mexico. He joins us to talk about learning name pronunciations on the fly, deciding when to announce a goal during lengthy VAR reviews, and what...

The U.S. men's national team faces a must-win World Cup round-of-32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina tonight. Alex Calabrese, who covers soccer for Men in Red 97 Media and MLSsoccer.com, joins us to preview the game, catch us up on how Illinois-connected players have fared in the tournament so far, and break down what the Chicago Fire's signing of Robert Lewandowski means for the club.

Fourteen new Illinois laws take effect today, covering everything from to-go cocktails to a new Department of Early Childhood. Capitol News Illinois Statehouse reporter Ben Szalinski joins us to walk through what's changing — including a statewide public defender and new reporting requirements on jail contraband. We'll also check in on where things stand with the hundreds of other bills still awai...

Illinois has strengthened its protections for LGBTQ people in recent years. But just across the border, the picture looks different: Iowa has stripped gender identity from its civil rights law, Missouri's Supreme Court has upheld a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, and Indiana's governor has declared June "Nuclear Family Month." All of it comes as a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows stat...

As the United States marks its 250th birthday, the celebration has split into two: America250, the bipartisan effort Congress created in 2016, and Freedom 250, established by executive order from President Trump. The overlap has caused confusion — and some musicians backed out of the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., saying they weren't told about its ties to the Trump administration....

Gambling in Illinois used to mean a trip to a riverboat, a racetrack, or the lottery counter. Now it's in restaurants and gas stations — and on the phone in your pocket. Illinoisans lost more than $7.7 billion gambling last year, and a third of that money flows to state government. But a recent investigation — "Addicted to gambling in Illinois," a joint project of the Illinois Answers Project and...

Many of us were taught Mary Lincoln was a spendthrift, a little crazy, and a drag on her husband’s greatness. We’ll challenge all that with journalist Lois Romano, who’s written a new biography of Abraham Lincoln's wife. “I think once a narrative is formed, it’s really hard to shake it,” Romano told “The 21st Show.” “And her narrative was written 150 years ago, and it was written by men who just c...

Technology developed by Illinois engineering professor Bill King has been incorporated into the cleats worn by soccer players at this year’s World Cup. We'll talk with him about what it is, how it was developed, and how the same tech has also made its way into colon cancer surgery and automobile tires.

Schools in Illinois discipline Black students at much higher rates than their white peers. Public radio education reporters Emily Hays and Peter Medlin dug into the data for two schools with the most extreme disparities: Kennedy Middle School in Rockford and Lanphier High School in Springfield. We'll talk about what they found, hear some of the stories behind the numbers, and learn about schools t...

Our drinking water has long had fluoride added in order to prevent tooth decay. But some states are banning it, and RFK Jr. is pushing the federal government in that direction. We’ll talk about the consequences of fluoride bans for our dental health.

Illinois aid-in-dying law is set to take effect in September. It’s meant to give terminally ill patients a medical way to end their lives. But opponents call it “assisted suicide,” and they’ve joined with disability advocates trying to block the law in court. We’ll hear from people on both sides of that debate.

It’s been a wild couple weeks for severe weather in Illinois. We’ll talk with reporters who’ve covered the aftermath of storms in Effingham and Charleston. We’ll also hear from an organization that’s been scrambling to place dozens of dogs and cats with foster homes after a tornado tore the roof off an animal shelter in Springfield. Then, the bigger picture with a group of climate scientists. Illi...

Illinois-natives Rafael and Whitney are a husband and wife duo known for their soul and R&B vocals and music. They will be performing at this year's Juneteenth festival at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, Illinois.

As Juneteenth approaches, the debate continues about whether descendants of enslaved Black Americans should receive reparations. In 2022, the city of Evanston, near Chicago, made history as the first U.S. city to implement a publicly funded reparations program for Black Americans. But should the relief go even further... perhaps, statewide?

High school classes can be hard — and so are the first couple years of college. A group of teenagers in southern Illinois did both at the same time —  and simultaneously earned high school diplomas and associate’s degrees.

The U.S. and Iran say they've reached a deal to end nearly four months of war — a war the president said was meant to end Iran's nuclear program, gut its missiles, cut off its proxies, and topple its government. "None of those have been achieved,” says Rachel Bronson, who closely follows the region from her base at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “I think we’re in a much worse situation, an...