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Audiences are collectively pretty familiar with falling through a rabbit hole to accompany a young girl named Alice on a strange trip involving everything from a queen to a cat to a jury composed of animals. But Metro Theater Company has added even more elements to Lewis Carroll’s classic story – in this case keyboarders, guitar players, bass players, an accordion, trumpet players and a clarinet, among others.

Amy Martin joins host Don Marsh to talk about how her environmental reporting led her to create and produce the Montana Public Radio show and podcast “Threshold,” which delves deep into focused environmental topics and issues.

St. Louis Alderman Terry Kennedy is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where he spoke with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Rachel Lippmann about his 30-year tenure on the Board of Aldermen.

Kennedy represents the 18th Ward, which takes in nine neighborhoods in central and north St. Louis — including the Central West End, Vandeventer and JeffVanderLou neighborhoods. He’s planning to resign in early January to become clerk of the Board of Aldermen.

A second generation alderman, Kennedy joined the board in 1989. He succeeded his father, Sam Kennedy, who served on the board for 21 years. During his time in office, Kennedy helped create the North Sarah development — a state, federal and private partnership that brought about new housing in his ward.

Kennedy was also the key backer of a Civilian Oversight Board for the St. Louis Police Department. That idea languished for years, until aldermen ended up passing legislation after Michael Brown’s shooting death in Ferguson. After the Jason Stockley protests, aldermen ended up giving that board subpoena power.

In their super-service quarter-century, Forest ReLEAF of Missouri has moved over 200,000 native species trees from seedlings to nursery transplants to solid ground in communities around the Show-Me-State.

ReLEAF works with Seniors to Young Friends to community folks. This intrepid non-profit trains and supports volunteer powered efforts to grow, track and maintain healthy Urban Forests. Community Forester Tom Ebeling talks with Earthworms host Jean Ponzi (some of her best friends are Trees) about this work, in a conversation celebrating ReLEAF's 25th anniversary and the many benefits of urban trees. 

If this interview inspires you to check out ReLEAF volunteer opportunities, don't resist! The work will grow on you. 

THANKS to Anna Holland, Earthworms Engineer

Music: Magic 9 performed live at KDHX by Infamous Stringdusters

Related Earthworms Conversations: Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape with Jill Jonnes (October 2016)

Monday, December 10, 2018 marked the five-year anniversary of the merger between St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis Beacon. STLPR general manager Tim Eby and St. Louis Beacon co-founder and former STLPR news editor Margie Freivogel spoke with Don Marsh about the vision five years after its realization.

On Monday's St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh spoke with singer, actor and writer Storm Large ahead of her St. Louis visit. She will be performing her holiday cabaret "Holiday Ordeal" at the Sun Theatre on Dec. 11.

Elizabeth Stroble, president of Webster University, joins host Don Marsh to talk about her first trip to the university’s newest campus, located in the heart of Accra, Ghana. The five-year-old campus is currently the only U.S. college campus in Ghana.

For four seasons now, St. Louis Public Radio’s We Live Here podcast team has been telling community-driven stories for listeners “somewhere on the woke spectrum.” A couple weeks ago, co-producers and hosts Tim Lloyd and Kameel Stanley took that concept one step further and asked a handful of local young people to do the storytelling themselves. The fresh voices that were in the spotlight at We Live Here’s well-attended house party on Nov. 27 are also the focus of this week’s new episode of the podcast.

St. Louis Public Radio reporters Chad Davis and Ryan Delaney talk to Don Marsh about what the Ferguson-Florissant School District's redistricting plan means for Berkeley residents. 

Until a few years ago, Wendell Potter frequently crafted arguments against the idea of the U.S. government becoming more involved in health care. "I wrote a number of speeches for my CEO and delivered some myself that the government should get out of the way and let the free market work its magic in health care," the former Cigna executive says. "I came to realize the free market doesn’t work in health care like it does in other sectors of the economy … and that’s one of the reasons why we saw so many people who were uninsured and now a growing number of people who are underinsured." Potter discusses the status of advocacy efforts toward universal health care as well as the opposition at regional and national levels in this episode of St. Louis on the Air. Patrick Ishmael, director of government accountability for the Show-Me Institute, and Dr. Ed Weisbart, chair of the Missouri chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, also participate in the conversation.

St. Louis Public Radio's science and environment reporter Eli Chen and John Hickey, director of the Missouri chapter of the Sierra Club, join host Don Marsh to talk about how climate change is affecting the state, as well as what is being done to try and prevent its most harmful effects.

Sen.-elect Eric Burlison, the latest guest on Politically Speaking, talked about the upcoming legislative session  — including his bill that would implement “right to work” in Missouri.

The Greene County Republican served for eight years in the Missouri House before hitting term limits. He successfully ran for a state Senate seat this year that includes part of Greene and all of Christian County.

Burlison is a computer programmer who has been active in GOP politics for some time. He first ran for the Missouri House in 2008, winning a seat that took in part of the city of Springfield with about 57 percent of the vote.

During his tenure in the Missouri House, Burlison became chairman of the House Professional Licensing and Registration Committee. While that committee doesn’t attract a lot of attention, it’s arguably one of the most important legislative committees since it places regulations on a host of industries.

Neuroscience experts Anneliese Schaefer, Deanna Bartch, Elizabeth Scott and Susan Appleton join host Don Marsh to discuss how neuroscience can help non-scientists understand the impact of early adversity on developing brain.

On Wednesday's St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh spoke with Andrew Delbaco, author of "The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War."

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jo Mannies joins host Don Marsh to remember the late George H.W. Bush, the 41st U.S. president. Marsh and Mannies reflect on their experiences as reporters during Bush’s time in politics as well as the former president’s legacy, successes and failures. 

On Tuesday's St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh spoke with guests working on research, treatment and advocacy for HIV/AIDS in honor of World AIDS Day.

Want to eat your home landscape? Want to work with Nature in some of the most efficient, effective and - Yes, EASIEST ways? Farmer and Permaculture practitioner Matt Lebon will set up your place to grow a feast for you - and for your bug-bird-nature neighbors.

Matt recently parlayed his five years of deep experience as manager of our town's EarthDance Organic Farm (home of the Farmer Training School) into his innovative enterprise Custom Foodscaping. He can design and plant a custom edible landscaping package for home or business customers, or work with you hands-on to help develop your own Herb Garden, Food Forest or profitable Vegetable Farm.

Matt's enthusiastic skills can produce Edible Schoolyards to Chef's Gardens to Taste-Full Home Gardens. As he says, "Have your landscape and eat it too!" Photos of Foodscape at VICIA Restaurant, Permaculture Orchard at Principia College, Chicken Food Forest at a private home.

         

Learning Opportunity: 2-Day Foodscaping Course - Feb 16-17 2019

THANKS to Anna Holland, Earthworms audio engineer.

Related Earthworms Conversations:

St. Louis Food Policy Coalition Grows Health & Environmental Resources (Dec 2015)

Farming on a Downtown Roof: Urban Harvest STL (June 2015)

Permaculturist Tao Orion Goes Beyond the War on Invasive Species (March 2016)

Urban Flower Farming with Mimo Davis and Miranda Duschack (Feb 2015)

U.S. diplomat and attorney Stuart Eizenstat recently published a 1,024-page book on the one-term presidency of Jimmy Carter, for whom he served as a chief adviser, and he's headed to St. Louis this week to talk about it. But in conversation with host Don Marsh on Monday’s St. Louis on the Air, Eizenstat also offered some thoughts on another one-term presidency he observed closely – that of George H.W. Bush, who passed away just a few days ago.

In the midst of a nationwide opioid epidemic among U.S. adults, one organization in the St. Louis region is seeing some more positive trends among younger people when it comes to substance use.

Veteran Democrat Mike Jones – who has played significant roles in St. Louis and St. Louis County government – joins Politically Speaking to offer his take on how best for Democrats to regroup after their generally poor showing.

Jones also talks policy, particularly in his current role as a member of the state Board of Education.

Jones began his political career more than three decades ago as a St. Louis alderman in the city’s 21st ward. Since then, he’s become a go-to person for state, city and county officials.

Most recently, he’s been tapped as a consultant in the city’s deliberations of whether to privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport.