St. Louis on the Air

Arnold resident Carrie Rayfield Cabral participated in Pfizer's vaccine trial this fall. In this interview, she shares why she's convinced the trial spared her from serious illness, and what she hopes others take from her experience.

Tamara Keefe joins us to share how her local creamery is managing to keep delighting ice cream fans near and far this holiday season — and why she wants the general public to be more cognizant of what people in the food industry are going through right now.

Librarians Jennifer Alexander of St. Louis County Library and Jen Ohzourk of St. Louis Public Library share their favorite new books of the past year.

Last Saturday, along south St. Louis’ lively Cherokee Street, it was almost possible to forget about the coronavirus pandemic for a bit. The sun was shining. The businesses along Antique Row were looking festive. Shop owners carefully handed out cookies to passersby. And right near Whisk bakery sat a white van with a bright yellow piano inside it, along with a pianist: Alexandra Sinclair.

Lisa Montgomery is scheduled to die on Jan. 12. She faces the death penalty for one of the most heinous murders in recent Missouri history. Her lawyer explains her tragic life story and makes the case for sparing her life.

Earlier this year, after being approached by the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, Karisa Gilman-Hernandez and her colleagues at Dutchtown South Community Corporation added excessive air pollution to the list of things they're no longer willing to see the community they serve just put up with. She offers her perspective to "St. Louis on the Air," and host Sarah Fenske talks with Great Rivers staff attorneys Bob Menees and Sarah Rubenstein about why the pollution burden in the Dutchtown area caught their eye and how their legal efforts there fit in with other issues in their portfolio.

In his work leading the Missouri Veterans Commission, Tim Noonan serves in a volunteer capacity. But in the year 2020, the job has proved to be a particularly intense one — and in recent weeks it’s been filled with tragedy. The seven long-term care facilities the commission oversees suffered "a prolonged and rapidly escalating outbreak of COVID-19" beginning in September, according to a recent summary of an independent investigation.

Jessica Baran has been awarded an Andy Warhol arts writers grant to subsidize her ongoing “critical engagement with art, artists and exhibitions” in the Midwest. She explains what drives her criticism and how the St. Louis arts scene has changed.

A judge's decision could mean big changes for Missouri residents' abilities to referendum the decisions of the state legislature. ACLU Legal Director Tony Rothert explains why.

In the 20 years that NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has covered the U.S. Department of Justice, she’s learned to expect changes with each administration. “But there have been seismic shifts in this DOJ under President Trump,” she says.