Emily Woodbury

There are roughly 2.8 million people living in greater St. Louis, many of whom would be surprised to know that they share the space with a good variety of wildlife.

The St. Louis Wildlife Project now has four seasons of data that they hope will give insight into how wildlife occupy and utilize the region’s urban spaces. For the past year, they’ve collected images from 34 motion-activated cameras planted in parks and green spaces across St. Louis. They’ve spotted foxes, turkeys, river otters and even a couple bobcats. 

Mark Twain, the author born Samuel Clemens in 1835 Missouri, was ahead of his time in many important ways. That’s one reason his brilliant novels endure, and why they’re just as funny as they were when they were published more than 140 years ago.

A few weeks ago on St. Louis on the Air, we learned about a brand-new medical device that allows users to measure nutritional ketosis with a breathalyzer. Nutritionists say they’ve witnessed the reemergence of the keto diet as a means for weight loss in the past few years.

Both during and after that segment aired, we received a lot of questions about the keto diet, as well as some concern that this may be an unhealthy choice for some people. So, we looked into it on Thursday’s show with people who follow the latest research on the topic.

Thousands of Missouri residents have received certification cards for medical marijuana, and dispensaries are gearing up to begin sales of the product later this year, likely in the spring. 

Physicians have the ability to prescribe medical marijuana to patients via the state’s certification form, although they are not obligated to do so.

On Friday's St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske spoke with two physicians, who are also sisters, to get a sense of why they react differently when patients request their signatures on medical marijuana certification forms.

Thursday on St. Louis on the Air, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden defended his crime-fighting strategy in the north St. Louis area known as “Hayden’s Rectangle.”

In a series of 10 plays, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson chronicled the black experience in 20th-century America. The plays are collectively known as the "Century Cycle,” with each play set in a different decade — nine of them in the same Pittsburgh neighborhood in which Wilson grew up.

As St. Louis’ premier black theater company since 1976, the Black Rep has a long history of performing Wilson’s plays. In fact, it was only the third company in the U.S. to complete the cycle.

The biggest party in town on New Year’s Day may well have been outside Illinois Supply & Provisions. Metro area residents stood in line for hours outside the Collinsville shop with the goal of purchasing legal marijuana products. Illinois just became the 11th state to legalize cannabis for recreational use. 

St. Louis Public Radio reporter Eric Schmid was at the shop on New Year's Day, and on Friday’s St. Louis on the Air, he joined host Sarah Fenske to discuss what people should know about buying and consuming Illinois’ recreational marijuana in 2020 and beyond.

Last month, the St. Louis County Council voted 4-3 for Councilwoman Lisa Clancy’s bill to establish a trust fund aimed at creating more affordable housing. 

“We’ve got 400,000 households in St. Louis County,” said Clancy on Thursday’s St. Louis on the Air. “Over 100,000 of those households — that’s over 25% — are considered cost burdened when it comes to housing. … Cost burdened technically means you are spending over 30% of your income on housing.”

This month, the third season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” was released by Amazon Studios. Set in 1950s New York, Miriam "Midge" Maisel pursues a career in stand-up comedy after her husband leaves her. As depicted in the show, she often finds herself working harder than her male colleagues for less, experiencing sexism and double standards along the way.

Wednesday on St. Louis on the Air, local comedian Tina Dybal said that while the comedy scene is much more inclusive and welcoming than it was six decades ago, women comics still face double standards.

The tech company Readout Health was founded in San Francisco, but it recently moved to St. Louis. Last week, the startup launched its first medical device, Biosense.

The device is manufactured in St. Louis, and according to the company, it’s “the first highly accurate and IP-protected nutritional ketosis device,” meant to help people manage their health “through simple breath samples multiple times a day.”

Many people honor the sacrifices and achievements of combat veterans. But the horrors they experience can get overlooked, especially as many former service members don’t talk about their experiences. 

But as more veterans of World War II reach the end of their lives, many people are trying to preserve their stories and experiences. One of them is Louis Baczewski. In June 2015, Baczewski bicycled more than 700 kilometers, following the path of his grandfather’s armored division, which doggedly fought its way through Europe during the war. 

Since 2014, the photoblog Humans of St. Louis has curated more than 2,400 stories online. Each post includes a photo and short description, giving the world an intimate look into the lives and struggles of the people who live in St. Louis.

The organization has expanded its showcase to St. Louis Lambert International Airport with a new exhibit, “Humans of St. Louis: The People of St. Louis, One Photo & Story at a Time.”

While “the cyclical nature of generational denigration is embedded in our history,” generational labels like “baby boomer” and “millennial” are artificial and wrong, says St. Louis University associate professor Cort Rudolph.

Rudolph recently wrote about the topic in his campus editorial “OK Boomer Not OK, Nor Backed by Research.” Mostly, he is concerned that routinely categorizing people of different ages by generation leads to ageism.

The deadline to enroll in a health care plan via the Affordable Care Act marketplace is Dec. 15. Are plans more or less affordable than in previous years? What should people be aware of while searching for plans outside of the ACA marketplace?

Thursday on St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske put these questions to Timothy McBride of Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to talking about the health and future of the ACA marketplace, McBride, the co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy, discussed what Medicaid expansion could look like in Missouri. Just last week, Gov. Mike Parson said he would expand the program if voters say that’s what they want. 

The Earth’s moon contains ice, but scientists don’t know much about where the water came from. As the moon formed, water could have come from Earth’s volcanoes in the form of gas. It could have been brought there by comets and meteorites. Or, it may have traveled to the lunar surface via solar wind that interacted with minerals on the moon to create water. 

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are teaming up to find some answers. The team has been chosen as one of NASA’s eight new Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institutes. They are part of a five-year cooperative agreement valued at more than $7 million.

University of Missouri-St. Louis researchers connected with students in the Ruhr area of Germany to get a sense of how gentrification manifests in post-industrial cities like St. Louis.

They submitted their final presentation, “Clean Walls = Higher Rents?! Gentrification Debates in Legacy Cities” to the intercultural student project, “Future of My City,” and they recently won first place in the initiative's competition.

On Monday’s St. Louis on the Air, UMSL graduate student Adam Brown and doctoral student Liz Deichmann talked about the findings of their study, including the ways Dortmund, Germany, has implemented practices that mitigate the issues of gentrification, like the displacement of low-income residents by the more affluent.

Since 2005, the Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration has encouraged young people to discover, write and share stories about their family history. 

Monday on St. Louis on the Air, Sarah Fenske talked with Grannie Annie board member Martha Stegmaier, as well as Karissa Hsu, who wrote a story about her grandmother’s journey to America after fleeing conflict in East Asia during WWII. Her father Leo also joined the conversation.

Nov. 24 marks five years since the grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer responsible for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Ferguson received a lot of attention during and after the unrest, but the town of Dellwood also experienced upheaval. 

After the grand jury decision, five of Dellwood’s stores were looted and 13 businesses were set on fire. 

“It was a very traumatic event emotionally to our community, but I’m just glad we have rebounded from that,” said Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones on Monday’s St. Louis on the Air. 

The new artistic director of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Hana Sharif, makes her directorial debut at the Rep this December with an adaption of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.”

On Thursday’s St. Louis on the Air, Sarah Fenske spoke with Sharif about the production and her background.

The International Institute of St. Louis has been a welcoming community for immigrants and refugees to the area for 100 years. Its mission is to foster a more connected community to benefit not only immigrants and their families, but the wider community as well. 

According to IISTL President and CEO Anna Crosslin, most of the organization’s events are “geared toward trying to demystify ‘the other,’ so that people are less fearful.”

“They can find out that there are, in fact, shared values and behaviors among people that go beyond the visible differences,” she said.

In the new Netflix documentary "The Game Changers," a former team physician for the St. Louis Rams and Cardinals challenges what he refers to as a “locker-room mythology about meat, protein and strength.”

“The attitude of most athletes for many years was that you had to eat meat to get protein, [that] we need that protein to get big and strong, and again, that meat was the best source. But that’s clearly just not true,” Dr. James Loomis said Friday on St. Louis on the Air.

“There are many, many highly successful athletes, both in the strength world … but also endurance athletes, who really thrive on a plant-based diet.”

The Trump administration’s formal withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change has members of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative concerned. The organization is worried that the withdrawal could lead to U.S. commodities producers being taxed or penalized by countries that signed on to the accord, something that the European Union has signaled it would like to pursue.

In 2009, New York Post reporter Susannah Cahalan suddenly experienced hallucinations, paranoia, seizures and catatonia. She was misdiagnosed for a month before she was finally treated for a rare autoimmune disease that can attack the brain, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis.

Cahalan has little recollection of this time in her life, but she investigated her experience and published the details in her 2012 book, “Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness.”

Most people are knowledgeable about the early accomplishments of Michelangelo, like his work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in his 30s. But the artist and architect worked well into his 80s, at a time when the average life expectancy was about 40 to 45 years. In fact, he was still carving sculptures four days before he died.

Nov. 9 will mark 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall that divided Germany from 1961 to 1989.

A dance production being staged this week by St. Louis’ Modern American Dance Company explores the personal stories behind the politics of that moment in time. The production, “WallSTORIES,” was choreographed by native Berliner Nejla Yatkin and is a collaboration between MADCO and the University of Missouri-St. Louis' German Culture Center. 

At a 2017 funeral service for a student at Yeatman-Liddell Preparatory Middle School in north St. Louis, Nate Oatis noticed a young friend of the victim trying not to cry. 

“I could feel the gentleman’s energy, [this] 13- to 14-year-old trying to process the death of another 13- to 14-year-old due to gun violence. As he tried to bottle that energy, that intense emotion that really needed to spill, I put my arms around him and embraced him, and he absolutely melted,” Oatis said. “It broke my heart to think that a child doesn’t have the ability to vent those types of frustrations.”

Missouri is one of the only states that did not update its tax law after the U.S. Supreme Court case South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. This decision allowed states to charge a sales tax on purchases from out-of-state businesses, even if the businesses don't have a physical presence in the state.

Missouri lawmakers’ inaction on this issue is causing the state to miss out on up to $600 million in sales taxes a year, according to the nonprofit Faith, Justice and Truth Project.

Thursday on St. Louis on the Air, Sarah Fenske talked with state Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, and state Rep. Justin Hill, R-Lake St. Louis, about the recent push for an online sales tax in Missouri and how the issue may be addressed in the upcoming legislative session, which begins Jan. 8.

Better Together was supposed to merge St. Louis and St. Louis County through a statewide initiative, but backers withdrew their proposal last spring after facing a major backlash.

In its place, the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis developed a plan to put together a Board of Freeholders. The Board of Freeholders will have representation from both city and county, and special powers under the state constitution. Members can draft a plan to merge the city and county or drop the idea altogether. 

Growing up in the 1960s, Carolyn Kidd Royal experienced racist incidents that, combined with the way African American history was taught in schools, affected her sense of identity for the worse. 

“In that mid-’60s timeframe ... you weren’t happy that your skin was brown, that your hair was a little different; and overall, we did not have a sense of pride in our race and in our individual selves. At least, I didn’t,” she said.

But, as the civil rights movement gave way to the Black Power movement, shifts in culture made a difference. Specifically, the 1969 James Brown classic “Say It Loud.”

NPR Silicon Valley correspondent Aarti Shahani has written a 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.” 

Shahani said that her father lived the nightmare, but that she lived the dream. 

“Not that it was easy,” she added. “I detail in this book how the justice system derailed my life. I grew up in the shadow of a legal case that was supposed to go away, but never did, and that’s a very common experience in America.