Mary Edwards

Encore Presentation: This program's original broadcast was on March 19, 2013.

Having existed and endured for nearly 230 years, the U.S. Constitution and the intent of those who created it continues to be a hotly contested topic.

On Monday's St. Louis on the Air during President's Day, host Don Marsh revisited his 2013 discussion with David Robertson, author of the book "The Original Compromise: What the Constitution's Framers Were Really Thinking." Robertson is a Curators' Teaching Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Sidney Keys III, 11, has had quite a month. On December 13, he and his mother, Winnie Caldwell, flew to California where he appeared on “The Steve Harvey Show.” Two days later he was featured on CNN’s “Young Wonders” program in a segment that had been recorded weeks earlier. On December 17, he appeared on a live CNN special in New York City honoring CNN’s Top 10 Heroes of 2017.

On December 28 following a several months long search, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson named John Hayden, a 30 year veteran of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, as the new chief of police. He was selected from a field of six, three internal candidates and for the first time, three who were from outside the department.

Did you know that Missouri was once a mecca for health conscious people, that there is a town in the state named Tightwad or there is still a law on the books that cattle can’t graze on airport runways? These and a plethora of other facts and histories can be found in the new book “Missouri Almanac 2018-2019.” Carolyn Mueller and John Brown, two of the book’s five authors, joined “St. Louis on the Air” host Don Marsh to share highlights and the genesis of the book.

There was a hubbub earlier this week when St. Louis, which recently lost its crown for having the highest STD rates in the country to Alabama, was found out to be on top once again due to an accounting error.

Video artist Zlatko Ćosić has called St. Louis home since 1997, but it was his experiences growing up and eventually fleeing the former Yugoslavia that have most influenced his work. After the war in his homeland started, he was kicked out of the university and his father lost his job just because of their nationality and religion. They were eventually arrested and placed in forced labor for eight months.

Leonard Slatkin spent 27 years with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, 17 of them as music director. When he left that post in 1996 the SLSO gave him the title Conductor Laureate. Since leaving St. Louis in 1996, he has been music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, a post he will give up at the end of the current season.

On Friday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh talked with St. Louis Public Radio afternoon host and talk show contributor Steve Potter.

With St. Louis Public Radio fulltime since 2001, Steve has contributed to the station in many ways. For 11 years he hosted the arts and culture program Cityscape, and the last few years has served as a back-up host and contributed arts and culture segments to St. Louis on the Air.

A year and a half ago, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Springboard to Learning and Webster Arts formed a collaboration to document and celebrate the history of Meacham Park.

On Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh was joined by Marsha Coplon, education director for The Rep, and Jeane Vogel, executive director of Webster Arts, to discuss the Meacham Park Celebration that is the culmination of the collaboration.

Annie Malone, Josephine Baker, King Baggot, Ginger Rogers and Jane Darwell are just a few people with St. Louis and Missouri ties who have made significant contributions to film.

When the Missouri legislature convened on Jan. 4, it was anticipated that with a Republican governor and GOP majorities in both houses, a record number of bills might become law. But as it drew to a close, one Republican senator said the session may be groundbreaking in terms of its lack of productivity.

On Monday’s St. Louis on the Air, we spoke with St. Louis Public Radio reporters Marshall Griffin, Jo Mannies and Jason Rosenbaum about what did and didn’t pass.

"There are a lot of growing pains here," Griffin said. 

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Longtime residents of St. Louis County who  regularly drive down Lindbergh in the southern part of Kirkwood may not even realize that there is a historic community tucked behind the Kirkwood Commons shopping center. Meacham Park was annexed into Kirkwood in 1991, but its history dates back to 1892 when Elzey Meacham came to town and bought 150 acres of farmland in the area now bounded by Big Bend, Kirkwood Road and I-44. He divided the area into small parcels and sold them at an affordable price to people of modest means, many of them African American.

The Saint Louis Chamber Chorus continues its 2016-17 season February 12 with a concert at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.  The centerpiece of the program is  composer-in-residence Melissa Dunphy's “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?” which was inspired by the testimony in favor of the Marriage Equality Bill by 86-year-old World War II veteran Phillip Spooner.

Although musicians John McDaniel and Lennie Watts both grew up in St. Louis at about the same time, they didn’t meet until Watts made a brief guest appearance on the Rose O’Donnell Show when McDaniel was her bandleader. They have stayed in touch off and on over the years as each has pursued a career in New York City, but have been closer the last couple of years working together at the O’Neal Theatre Center’s Cabaret Performance Conference. While there, they started thinking about a project they could do together.

Cellist Bjorn Ranheim’s busy schedule rarely allows time for rest. If he’s not rehearsing or performing with the St. Louis Symphony, then you may find him with his colleagues in The 442s or playing chamber music in any of several ensembles. But one of his favorite roles is that of father to two beautiful little girls.

In a conversation with St. Louis Symphony Vice President of External Affairs Adam Crane, Ranheim talks about this weekend’s concerts highlighted by performances of John Adams’ Violin Concerto featuring Leila Josefowicz.

The curtain rises on Union Avenue Opera’s 22nd Festival Season on July 8 with a new adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic, “The Mikado.” 

On Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air, contributor Steve Potter was joined by mezzo soprano Melissa Parks who sings the role of Katisha in “The Mikado.” Also joining the program were Eric Gibson, who directs the production, and Scott Schoonover, Union Avenue Opera’s artistic director and conductor, to discuss the production and preview the two other productions in the 2016 season.

On Friday’s St. Louis on the Air, Robert Duffy said goodbye to St. Louis Public Radio. In conversation with host Don Marsh, he looked back on his years at the station, his founding of the St. Louis Beacon and his years reporting at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.