St. Louis on the Air

The community radio station 88.1 KDHX was a lifeline for eclectic, locally curated music in the St. Louis area — until it was torn apart by battles over diversity, accountability and the essence of the station's identity. It went off the air and its broadcast license was sold to the highest bidder in 2025. In Part 2 of our special report “KDHX: How a radio station unravelled,” we examine how KDHX leaders pushed through a controversial sale in the face of widespread community opposition — and what lessons can be learned from the differing public reactions to the station's 2019 and 2023 controversies. We also witness the birth of "a new era for music in St. Louis."

The community radio station 88.1 KDHX was a lifeline for eclectic, locally curated music in the St. Louis area — until it was torn apart by battles over diversity, accountability and the essence of the station's identity. It went off the air and its broadcast license was sold to the highest bidder in 2025. In Part 1 of our special report “KDHX: How a radio station unraveled,” we examine charges of racism and sexual harassment in 2019 and the start of a DJ revolt four years later, after station leaders fired one of their own for bullying and harassment.

Last year, Donna Baringer became St. Louis' first new comptroller in roughly 30 years. And during the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, the citywide official talks about how she's eased into the powerful office that oversees the city's finances – and provides her take on tornado relief efforts and regional consolidation.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway says the state could benefit if the federal government doesn't count certain immigrants in the Census. During an appearance on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, Hanaway talks why she's bringing this case forward – and whether the federal judiciary will be more favorable to excluding certain immigrants than they were earlier in the decade.

For the past year, expanded federal immigration enforcement – and two fatal shootings of protesters by federal agents in Minnesota – have sent ripples of anxiety throughout the country. While the St. Louis area hasn't seen the kind of large-scale enforcement actions that have occurred elsewhere, local community leaders, educators and small-business owners say fear and misinformation are shaping daily life. STLPR journalists Brian Munoz and Hiba Ahmad discuss their reporting on this topic.

Even in tiny amounts, lead can be dangerous. In St. Louis, centuries of plumbing run for miles beneath our feet, delivering water to homes through 113,000 service lines. But even after testing tens of thousands of those lines for lead, city officials say 50,000 remain unidentified. In this episode, we go behind those numbers with Spencer Gould, special assistant to St. Louis City's water commissioner. Gould explains why lead runs through some parts of the city's water infrastructure and how a new rule issued by the EPA 2024 started a 10-year race to identify and replace those pipes.

Nestled inside the whimsy of City Museum, Circus Harmony feels right at home as a space for young people to explore. The acclaimed circus school's dedication to using the arts to teach essential life skills has been at its core since the start. Guests have marveled at the circus world standout for 25 years, and it's not slowing down. This year's full-length production, “Misterioso,” lets the students' creativity and minds truly shine.

The American dream is often presented as the product of someone "pulling up their bootstraps" to a better life. But that's just one way of explaining an idea that economists call "economic mobility.” A new project by St. Louis Magazine, the Economic Mobility Lab, is diving into that idea and the research into what it takes for low-income kids to out-earn their parents. To understand economic mobility in St. Louis, we sit down with St. Louis Magazine senior editor Nick Phillips to talk about his latest story, "How one St. Louisan found something rare: upward economic mobility." We also meet Nehemiah Colyer, whose experience after changing schools to Parkway West High School is an example of what economists call "social capital" and “economic connectedness.”

The new year has provided foodies in the St. Louis region with a lot to celebrate. Hamishe Bahrami is back with her signature Persian dishes at Cafe Natasha on South Grand. East Alton has a new, family-run bakery with from-scratch creations like “The Sloppy Irishman.” A new nonprofit bakery in the Delmar Loop empowers people experiencing homelessness through job training and housing resources. We dig into the menus of the top new spots to visit in February, mourn the local favorites that recently closed, talk date night recommendations and discuss how restaurateurs are responding to immigration enforcement actions across the country.

Awards season is in full swing — and that includes St. Louis theater productions. The St. Louis Theater Circle announced its nominations for their 13th annual awards Tuesday, recognizing productions by 20 theater companies in the St. Louis area in 2025. St. Louis Theater Circle members Rosalind Early and Gerry Kowarsky share some of this year's nominees and an update on the state of local theater productions today.

After last May's tornado put St. Louis' emergency response under scrutiny, the City Emergency Management Agency saw its leadership change. In this episode, we listen to STLPR reporter Rachel Lippmann's conversation with new commissioner Greg Favre about why he returned to city government and how he plans to improve preparedness for future crises.

The Gateway Arch Park Foundation has several irons in the fire — and soon, cranes in the sky. After celebrating 60 years since completion of the Gateway Arch last year, the foundation and its partners have begun reimagining the former Millennium Hotel site, studying changes to Interstate 44 near Gateway Arch National Park and exploring an expansion of the park into East St. Louis. Foundation Executive Director Ryan McClure shared updates on those efforts and his hopes for how they could serve the St. Louis community.

Judges and lawmakers are clashing in Missouri, and it all has to do with a unanimous ruling delivered last week by the state Supreme Court. On this episode of the Legal Roundtable, our panel of legal experts unpacks the drama over the court's decision to strike down a law that allowed the secretary of state to rewrite ballot summaries. In response, the law's sponsor called the justices “little kings and queens in their black robes.” In addition to that case, our panel also analyzes major developments in the state's ban on trangender healthcare, a trial over abortion restrictions, a developer suing over lost profits, and more.

150-years ago, St. Louis chose to split itself in two. The decision, now known as the Great Divorce, created an enduring divide that still shapes the region today. In STLPR's new podcast, “Meet Me,” host Luis Antonio Perez visits a family whose home sits right on the city-county line and explores the origin of the split with historian Andrew Wanko. Then, host Elaine Cha talks with Perez about his work on the debut episode and what's to come.

In 1905, Mexican journalist Ricardo Flores Magón escaped the Porfiriato dictatorship and settled in St. Louis, where he launched the newspaper Regeneración. With 20,000 readers throughout Mexico and the U.S., the leftist publication raised awareness of growing wealth inequality, labor exploitation and political corruption in both countries. Historian Francisco Perez shares how Flores Magón connected the struggles of the American working class with that of the Mexican working class, how St. Louis' labor movement shaped Flores Magón's worldview, and why, more than a century later, the activist's politics still resonate.

The number of people incarcerated in Missouri prisons is lower than it has been in decades; yet, recent years have seen record-high deaths among those in custody. The deaths reflect an ongoing crisis behind the walls of the state's correctional institutions, say activist ML Smith, founder of the Missouri Justice Coalition, and Rika White, criminal justice policy manager at Empower Missouri. Smith and White take us inside their role in a notable Jan. 14 Missouri House Corrections Committee hearing that featured pointed questions for Trevor Foley, director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, about the state of healthcare inside the state's 19 prisons.

When Megan Green became St. Louis Board of Aldermen President in 2022, she made reforming development tax incentives a top priority. Critics of using tax increment financing and abatements say the incentives take away tax revenue that could otherwise have gone toward benefiting public schools and other services. In this episode, we hear STLPR economic development reporter Kavahn Mansouri's conversation with Green. Then, Mansouri discusses the bigger picture around development in St. Louis.

A 20-foot-tall concrete spiral was recently completed at the Audubon Center at Riverlands nature reserve near St. Louis. The structure's practical use will be as a bird blind — a temporary home for migratory birds. But there's something else that's fascinating about this structure: A novel method of shaping concrete. To get to the bottom of this spiral (and inside its concrete walls) we talk with Pablo Moyano Fernández, associate professor of architecture at WashU's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Moyano Fernández is the creator of that structure, called "Avis Spiralis."

The American prairie once stretched across Missouri and Illinois, a vast grassland teeming with wildlife and rich biodiversity. Today, less than 1% of that prairie remains — disappearing even faster than the Amazon rainforest. In this encore presentation, environmental journalists Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty discuss how prairies were destroyed, why their loss is one of the world's greatest ecological disasters, and what it will take to bring it back. Hage and Marcotty are authors of the new book, “Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie.”

President Donald Trump made startling demands to take over Greenland this week. And Missouri's U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt have reacted much differently to the prospects of the United States taking over the Danish island. On the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, we talk with Washington University and Arizona State University's Steve Smith about the differing reactions to Trump's Greenland push.

Governor Mike Kehoe's plan to phase out Missouri's income tax over five years — and replace much of the revenue with a sales tax on services — has sparked a heated debate. Supporters say it could boost population growth, while critics warn of higher costs and fiscal risks. One of the main proponents of eliminating the income tax is Sen. Ben Brown, a Republican from Washington, Missouri. Brown discusses the proposal on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air.

House Majority Leader Alex Riley will become Missouri's Speaker of the House next year. But before getting to that powerful post, the Springfield Republican will need to help his caucus get through a difficult 2026 session – especially with uncertainty that major bills will get through the Senate. Riley joins the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air to talk about his legislative vision.

In 2023 Matt Vogel was in London for the coronation of King Charles III. In the royal box, Vogel also had a very special frog with him: Kermit the Frog. Vogel is the puppeteer behind Kermit, Big Bird, Count von Count and more. The Webster University alum joined “St. Louis on the Air” in May 2023 to talk about his remarkable career before he delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater.

In 2025, college graduates faced a job market flooded with many applicants and significantly fewer jobs. Federal funding cuts, rescinded grant opportunities and the rising use of artificial intelligence in the screening process made landing full-time employment challenging. Some graduates say they felt dehumanized and frustrated by the lack of communication from employers. They share their stories in this episode alongside reporter Daniel Wheaton, who recently reported on this topic for the Midwest Newsroom.

Photojournalist Wiley Price captured images of St. Louis' Black community for the St. Louis American, one of the oldest African American weekly papers in the country. After 42 years with the paper, Price retired in December 2025. In this episode, Price talks about his career and experiences behind the camera lens, what he learned while on assignment, and how he came to be as recognizable as the subjects in his photographs.

It's been more than five years since cannabis became legal in Missouri. But rules that govern that multi-billion-dollar industry continue to change, from restrictions on THC content in hemp to protections from predatory contracts in the state's microbusiness program. To navigate these recent updates, we sit down with journalist Rebecca Rivas, who reports on the cannabis industry for the Missouri Independent. She discusses why Missouri lawmakers have struggled for four years running to regulate hemp, and also breaks down the local impact of President Trump's December executive order to reschedule marijuana.

Andrew Weil spent almost 20 years with the Landmarks Association of St. Louis before he resigned as executive director at the end of last year. His long career included projects to protect Sugarloaf Mound and the city's historic water towers. In his first post-resignation interview, Weil reflects on those cases and other examples of how preservationists have tried, and sometimes failed, to save St. Louis' physical heritage over the past two decades. In addition to a discussion of the success and setbacks of preservation, Weil also talked about the long pattern of “catastrophic fires” that pose particular danger to the city's historic churches.

The St. Louis Art Museum's exhibition “Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea” presents visitors with the monumental work of the German-born artist, including six 30-foot-tall paintings. The artist is renowned for using different textures to create vast landscapes. In this encore, museum director Min Jung Kim discusses the installation, Keifer's 60-year career and how Keifer was inspired by St. Louis and the Mississippi River. The exhibit closes Jan. 25.

St. Louis officials announced last week that they plan to use eminent domain on properties near the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in north St. Louis. The majority of those properties are owned by Paul McKee's Northside Regeneration. STLPR economic development reporter Kavahn Mansouri discusses his coverage of this topic — and addresses recent development plans at the Armory which calls for a data center to be built nearby.

Andrew Weil spent almost 20 years with the Landmarks Association of St. Louis before he resigned as executive director at the end of last year. His long career included projects to protect Sugarloaf Mound and the city's historic water towers. In his first post-resignation interview, Weil reflects on those cases and other examples of how preservationists have tried, and sometimes failed, to save St. Louis' physical heritage over the past two decades. In addition to a discussion of the success and setbacks of preservation, Weil also talked about the long pattern of “catastrophic fires” that pose particular danger to the city's historic churches.

Matt Lesch has played the blues for half of his life. At just 14 years old, the multi-instrumentalist caught the ear of a blues great, Big George Brock who became a mentor to him. Since then, the now 28-year-old has been touring the country, joining blues bands and performing his own music as “the Rattlesnake.” He shares how his relationship with blues legends and the emerging generation of blues musicians have inspired him — and his latest album, “Blues Cut Like Glass.”

A new year means a new music round up on St. Louis Public Radio. Jazz musician K Kudda Muzic joins music show originator Miya Norfleet and host Elaine Cha to discuss their favorite jams from local artists. This month's roundup includes music from neo-soul songstress Aida Ade, rapper Mykel Kennedi' a cover from Yannon, and punk band Blight Future. Check out our music playlist! new music roundup playlist.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe's State of the State address on Tuesday wasn't that he wants to eliminate the income tax but that he's putting the plan up for a vote. In an interview with STLPR's Sarah Kellogg and Jason Rosenbaum following the speech, Kehoe discusses his priorities for the year including eliminating the income tax, tornado relief for St. Louis and more.

St. Louis Public Radio's new project, Meet Me, is about connecting across divides to find a way forward in a moment when division seems to dictate so much. There are the invisible lines we draw around politics and even what toppings belong on a pizza. And then, there are the big ones, like the 150-year-old divide between St. Louis city and county. We talk with Meet Me producers Luis Antonio Perez and Paola Rodriguez about the project that includes a newsletter, podcast and more.

Researchers say 2025 was a year of major changes and uncertainty. STLPR senior environment and data reporter Kate Grumke shares how the Trump administration's cuts to federal grant funding and the federal workforce may affect vital research — especially around climate disasters — in the coming years.

Former supporters of an orphanage with deep ties to Missouri are still reacting to the abrupt closure of Niños de México. Operated for decades by a Franklin County-based charity, the orphanage was the subject of an independent investigation by the nonprofit Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment. GRACE Investigators documented numerous cases of child abuse at the orphanage, carried out by multiple perpetrators and covered up by its executive director. Eric Miller and Julie Heifner volunteered and worked at the orphanage for years before attempting to alert Niños leadership to ongoing abuse. Miller and Heifner discuss the details of their journeys — from Niños believers to whistleblowers — and how survivors of abuse at Niños finally had their voices heard.

Forest Park celebrates 150 years this year. Today, it's considered one of the top attractions to St. Louis with 1,300 acres of nature reserve, recreation locations and cultural institutions. However the Forest Park we know today has gone through several changes, many of which reflect the changes faced by the entire region. The Missouri History Museum has opened a new exhibit, “Yours Forever: Forest Park at 150,” to chronicle the evolution of Forest Park through urban design woes, natural disasters and more. Missouri Historical Society public historian Amanda Clark and Forest Park Forever's vice-president of community initiatives Anne Grossman discuss the park's history and how community input will shape the future of Forest Park.

Nearly 600 pigeons of dazzling variety competed this weekend at the annual Spirit of St. Louis Winter Pigeon Show. Held at Purina Farms, the competition showcased a flock of some of the finest pigeons in the country, with competitors representing Missouri, Illinois and at least 15 other states. We get to know several competitors and learn about their fanciest pigeons, from the frillbacks to the show rollers. Producer Danny Wicentowski explores the pigeon show and shares details about the judging process that separates champion pigeons from the rest of the flock.

Lindenwood University senior Juan Beltran knows how to throw a party. That includes coffee raves for people of all ages who want to dance and socialize — minus late hours and alcohol. Beltran talks about co-creating Sunday House Club, a live DJ'ed coffee “rave” series held during Sunday brunch hours at St. Louis area cafés. In addition to describing the series' beginnings and responses so far, Beltran shares how he hopes to establish these coffee parties as a community staple.

Over the course of the last week, more than 93,000 fans made their way to Enterprise Center to see some of the best skaters in the world at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Not only were national champions crowned, an Olympic team was named that will compete at the Winter Games in Milan next month. STLPR's Brian Munoz and Alex Heuer talk about their coverage of the championships — and what they meant to St. Louis.

It's been more than a year since Gov. Mike Kehoe announced that state government veteran Jessica Bax would lead the Missouri Department of Social Services. It's arguably the most challenging state governmental department in Missouri that oversees Medicaid, benefits like SNAP and TANF and the state's Children Division. Bax joined “the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air” to talk about the big changes ahead for the state's Medicaid program – and a plan to help retain investigators looking into allegations of child abuse and neglect.

The Missouri General Assembly is back in session. And it's an open question whether lawmakers can overcome low expectations, especially with Democrats in the Senate still upset by how the GOP cut off debate during the 2025 session. STLPR's Sarah Kellogg previews the big issues ahead on the latest episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air.

Abortion access in Missouri is at a crossroads. Although legalized by a public referendum in 2024, abortion services did not storm back in Missouri in 2025. Now, advocates for reproductive rights are preparing for a major trial starting Monday that could determine the future of abortion in the state. Planned Parenthood Great Rivers CEO Margot Riphagen looks back on the year in abortion access, the status of medication abortions in Missouri, and what she and her organization expect from the trial.

Black mothers are dying due to pregnancy-related causes at a higher rate than their white counterparts. Birthing advocates say that more than training is needed to decrease the disparity. Lora Gulley, Elena Jenkins and LaKisha Redditt discuss the effects of centuries of medical racism, childbirth alternatives like doula services and midwifery, and what work can be done to reduce pregnancy- and birth-related deaths.

Suffering, grief and death are inescapable components of human experience. Confronting such hardship, says poet Vincent Casaregola, can be a way to embrace life and find meaning. His new collection “Vital Signs” explores the trauma that stems from illness, injury and violence. In this episode, Casaregola reflects on lessons from pandemics throughout human history, the need for awareness and empathy to address issues like homelessness and gun violence, and how writing about trauma has helped him navigate his own grief.