St. Louis on the Air

Tiffany Robertson started Touchy Topics Tuesday after the killings of Michael Brown, Jr. and VonDerrit Myers, Jr. in 2014. The diverse group meets weekly to have difficult conversations about race, politics, and culture. Ten years after those initial weekly meetups, Robertson’s current goals are to help people and organizations “intentionally integrate.” Robertson, along with Touchy Topics Tuesday participant Margaret Weck, reflect on the past 10 years of conversations and how they hope the meetups change hearts and minds.

Indian immigrants are the fastest-growing foreign-born population in the St. Louis region. That momentum is happening at a pivotal time as in American politics. Three Indian Americans with longtime Midwest roots – attorney Arindam Kar, journalist Meera Nagarajan, and higher ed professional Jacob Chacko – share perspectives on what compels Indian Americans to engage with U.S. politics, why there’s no single “Indian American vote,” and how the 2024 election’s candidates and prominent issues have opened broader discourse about the place of Indian Americans in electoral politics.

St. Louis rapper and educator Zeus Rebel Waters discusses the inspiration behind the creation of the Reading with Rappers program, and how he plans to promote literacy to children in the St. Louis area.

Wes Hoffman, lead singer of pop-punk band Wes Hoffman and Friends, talks about his music, St. Louis’ vibrant St. Louis punk scene and his efforts to promote it through his Instagram account 314 Punk.

Producer Miya Norfleet and DJ and rapper Ryan “Big Esco” Brown shed light on St. Louis’ robust and diverse music scene and discuss some of their favorite new songs.

Many of Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center’s 80,000 annual visitors may be surprised to know they are walking amongst Missouri’s most common venomous reptile on the trails: the copperhead snake. The results of a six year study on copperheads in Powder Valley’s oak hickory forest lends new insight on their population size, how they survive the extreme heat and cold, and their movement throughout the year.

Federal law requires school districts to enroll homeless students -- but in some states in the Midwest, including Missouri, school districts report they don’t enroll any homeless students, even though other measures of poverty indicate that’s likely not true. The data, experts, say, suggests a "hidden population" of homeless students who are not getting the support they need. NPR Midwest Newsroom Investigative Reporter Kavahn Mansouri dives into this topic, including the way federal grants put pressure on overwhelmed rural school districts.

Belleville East and Belleville West high schools are in the postseason for the inaugural season of girls flag football in Illinois. STLPR Metro East reporter Will Bauer discusses how the sport arrived in Belleville and where it goes from here. Bauer also discusses his reporting from the regular season finale last Wednesday, when East squeezed out a nail-biting 13-12 overtime win against their crosstown rivals.

Monarchs are migrating through the St. Louis region now, but residents are seeing fewer of them than ever before. Loss of natural habitat along their migration route and increased use of herbicides and pesticides, as well as unpredictable weather caused by climate change, have accounted for an estimated 90% decline in the migrating monarch’s population since the mid-1990s. In this episode, we learn what we can do now to help support monarchs, fireflies and other ecologically important insect species in the coming year.

For years, the city of St. Louis has fought to keep an internal police audit out of public view. The audit has now been unsealed by a court order: its pages accuse the city's police department of making numerous errors while investigating 50 police shootings. St. Louis Post Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger joins the show to discuss a recent piece he’s written about the legal fight over this audit, and why St. Louis fought so hard to keep it secret.