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Missouri health officials say Sunday is the first day since the pandemic started that more than 400 new cases of COVID-19 were reported. Most of the spike is coming from rural counties in the southwest part of the state. Also, the pandemic has prompted courts throughout Missouri to close. We examine the slow process of reopening the state's legal system.

Juneteenth, sometimes called Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, is one of the oldest celebrations practiced in the United States. And it has taken on added significance during periods of the country’s history where the push to end racial inequities has been in the spotlight. Local Juneteenth parade organizer Carla "Coffee" Wright and Calvin Riley Jr, director of the George B. Vashon Museum, join host Sarah Fenske to talk about the holiday's origins and commemoration of it.

In recent weeks, many St. Louis institutions have begun to reopen after months of coronavirus-mandated closures. City Museum General Manager Rick Erwin discussed the difficulties of adapting a free-for-all playland to the age of COVID-19. Reps from the St. Louis Science Center and Magic House also shared their thoughts.

June 19, or Juneteenth, commemorates when some of the last slaves learned they had been freed by the surrender of the Confederate Army. The day has more significance this year amid the racial injustice protests following the death of George Floyd. Also, we explore the renewed efforts to privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Thursday marks 100 years since the inception of St. Louis Lambert International Airport. On June 18, 1920, Major Albert Bond Lambert and the Missouri Aeronautical Society leased 170 acres of farmland in north St. Louis County to serve as an airfield for St. Louis. Today it is the oldest continuously operating commercial airport in the U.S. Daniel Rust is the author of “The Aerial Crossroads of America: St. Louis Lambert Airport and Flying Across America: The Airline Passenger Experience.” He joins host Sarah Fenske to delve deeper into St. Louis Lambert International Airport’s 100 years and its impact in the region.

At 17, St. Louis resident Antigone Chambers Reed is already a writer, actor and human rights activist. And earlier this month, she added yet another role to the mix when she was named the 2020 Jamala Rogers Young Visionary. The award is given annually by the Youth Council for Positive Development, recognizing young adults who are working for social justice and making a difference in their community. The council is associated with the Organization for Black Struggle, which celebrated 40 years of existence earlier this year. Reed’s project, Writing Through Trauma, impressed the selection committee with its vision to provide people in her community with a safe, creative space to process, heal and share lived experiences of violence. Making use of the $2,000 prize that accompanies the award, Reed expects to launch her free virtual workshop later this year. In this conversation she shares her passion for the work she is doing. The segment also includes pre-recorded comments from youth empowerment organizer Janis Mensah. In addition to discussing her plans for her workshop, Reed reads part of her poem "You Ask Me About North Saint Louis."

A former Florissant police officer has been charged with assault and armed criminal action after video emerged of a man being hit by an unmarked SUV. The case has sparked protests at the Florissant police department. Also, many families are feeling anxious about loved ones in prison now that visits have been halted during the pandemic.

The average protester might seem like a young adult, but parents are also bringing out their children with them to demonstrate. Host Sarah Fenske explores that decision with parents about how they navigate the ongoing shift in culture when it comes to conversations about race, and making the decision to bring kids to protests. Joining the discussion are We Stories board members Jenna Voss and Pamela Washington.

After Tower Grove Park removed a statue of Christopher Columbus on June 16, it doesn't look like a new statue will be erected anytime soon due to COVID-19 budget challenges, according to a park official. But that got us wondering who St. Louisans should honor with a statue: Dred Scott, Josephine Baker, someone from the Osage Nation? We got the backstory from Washington University history professor Peter Kastor and architecture historian Chris Naffziger. We also sought listener suggestions.

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page says he wants to make sure streets, parks, and statues reflect county values. His announcement came on the same day crews took down the Christopher Columbus statue in Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. Also, we speak with the incoming, first-ever female president of Eden Theological Seminary.

In between all the news updates about the COVID-19 pandemic and protests against police brutality, a totally different story jumped out from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the other day. “Mass species extinctions are accelerating,” the headline began. That’s the existentially disturbing takeaway from a new study co-authored by Peter Raven, president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Examining the populations of nearly 30,000 vertebrates, and particularly the 515 species that are on the brink of extinction, Raven and his colleagues found that 20% of all species could be gone by the middle of the 21st century. From there, the numbers could grow far worse in the coming decades because of how “extinction breeds extinction.” It’s all part of what Raven describes as an accelerating, human-caused “ongoing sixth mass extinction” — and it’s also a state of affairs about which Raven refuses to despair. In this segment, he joins host Sarah Fenske to dissect the new study’s findings and explore where to go from here in trying to prevent ecological collapse.

Nine of the top 10 books on the New York Times' nonfiction bestseller list are about race, or racism. And local book stores are seeing a similar surge. Jeffrey Blair of Eye See Me African American Children's Bookstore and Danielle King of Left Bank Books joined host Sarah Fenske to describe what they're seeing, and share their picks.

LGBTQ advocates in Missouri say a U.S. Supreme Court decision barring employers from firing workers because they are gay or transgender could be tough to enforce because of state labor laws. Also, we speak with protestors about the new wave of activism.

As part of his research into human origins for a recent book, Dr. Joshua Swamidass, an associate professor of laboratory and genomic medicine, has looked closely at how race has been defined in recent centuries. "If you go back about 150 years ago in science, and 500 years ago in theology, people have been wondering about this idea of polygenesis,” a long-dominant theory of disparate human origins, Swamidass explains. “Many scientists believed that — and that there’s a hierarchy [of races], with Europeans at the top.” Genetic science since the 1960s and ’70s has strongly disproved such ideas, and yet this has led to what Swamidass calls "a hangover of misunderstanding" surrounding terms like "race" and "racism." In this episode, host Sarah Fenske talks with Swamidass about why understanding the ways in which humans thought about race, and were influenced by racism, in the past is perhaps more timely than ever.

Sarah Fenske talks with St. Louis Public Radio political correspondent, Jason Rosenbaum, about a third straight weekend of protests in St. Louis, his recent reporting on the firing of Florissant police detective Joshua Smith (after a video of him hitting a man with an SUV sparked outrage throughout the region), and his recent conversation with outgoing Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III.

What’s in a word? The answer is a whole lot when it comes to words such as “race” and “racism.” And contemporary definitions of these terms can vary widely — both in dictionaries and in hearts and minds. Florissant resident Kennedy Mitchum recently grappled with this in an unusual way, and with striking results. After noticing some of her day-to-day associates citing Merriam-Webster’s definition of racism as a kind of dismissive proof text in conversation with her, the Nerinx Hall High School and Drake University alumna reached out to the dictionary’s editors, asking them to update the entry to better reflect the historical context of systemic oppression. Many emails later, the editors eventually came around, ultimately telling Mitchum that changes to the entries on “racism” as well as related terms are now in the works.

More businesses in St. Louis County can open today after being closed for months during the coronavirus pandemic. Also, this is the last full day in office for Ferguson's mayor. James Knowles III talks about the lessons he's learned after nine years on the job. He also shares some advice for his successor.

James Knowles III was taking down tents with his father at the Ferguson Farmers Market on August 9, 2014, the day one of his city’s police officers shot and killed Michael Brown. He learned about the shooting that would spark months of protests in his town and elsewhere through a phone call from Ferguson’s city manager. “It was one of those things at 12:30 or so on an August, Saturday… if the city manager’s calling me, it’s probably nothing good,” Knowles said. Nearly six years after Brown’s death sparked change and protests in the north St. Louis County city, Knowles is stepping down as mayor tomorrow due to term limits and turning the job over to Ella Jones. On the latest episode of Politically Speaking, Knowles reflected on a consequential tenure in office that changed his town — and his life.

We remember former St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn. He served 38 years with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and served as Chief of Police for Moline Acres. Dorn was shot and killed on June 2nd after responding to an alarm at the pawn shop where he moonlit as a security guard. His death shocked those who knew him here in St. Louis, and those who didn’t across the country. Hundreds of people gathered on June 10th at the St. Louis Friendly Temple on Martin Luther King Drive for David Dorn’s funeral. He is survived by his wife, adult children and grandchildren.

In 2016, Ed Wheatley retired from his job as an engineer at AT&T. But Wheatley has kept busy — to the point that Reedy Press recently published his third book in as many years. Wheatley’s “Baseball in St. Louis: From Little Leagues to Major Leagues” surveys the city’s rich baseball history, from the Major Leaguers who got their start here to the semi-pro and amateur leagues that flourished for decades. In this conversation, Wheatley shares some of the remarkable facts he uncovered about baseball’s 160 years in St. Louis. He recalls the Khoury League, which began here in 1934, the Negro Leagues that provided a home for some gifted players shut out of the big leagues, and the high school and college teams that proved a major source of talent for the St. Louis Cardinals and more.