Episodes

  • The Pumpkin Queen of America

    The Pumpkin Queen of America
    Oct 22 2024
    Sarah Frey was the youngest of 21 children in a blended family, and was the last of her siblings left on the family’s 80-acre farm near Keenes (population ~ 100) in southeastern Illinois. In elementary school, she would help her mother sell homegrown produce to local grocery stores. As a teenager, Sarah expanded the business. […]
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Kevin Bacon crushes on Taylor Swift

    Kevin Bacon crushes on Taylor Swift
    Oct 22 2024
    “He doesn’t even think Taylor likes football,” jokes Sharon Pferschy, co-owner of Garlic Breath Farm in suburban Chicago, about her 14-year-old pet pot-bellied pig Kevin Bacon’s jealousy of Travis Kelce’s relationship with Taylor Swift. What is not a joke, is how hard people work to put on farmers markets each week across the country. In […]
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    Less than 1 minute
  • No nipple allowed. No problem, say the creators of Times Square’s newest attention-getting billboard

    No nipple allowed. No problem, say the creators of Times Square’s newest attention-getting billboard
    Oct 20 2024
    Two of the hot button issues regarding motherhood are being addressed on a 45-foot-tall billboard in Times Square: breastfeeding in public and using formula instead of mother’s milk. It’s a billboard for Bobbie, a formula company started and run by moms. On the billboard is Molly Baz, whose previous huge billboard in the square was […]
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    Less than 1 minute
  • A Black-owned restaurant opens in a space with a racist past

    A Black-owned restaurant opens in a space with a racist past
    Oct 16 2024
    In 1916, a beautiful Mediterranean Revival building was finished at what became the South Shore Country Club. The 65-acre site on Chicago’s Lake Front at 71st Street was created as a social and recreational haven for white Protestants. No Blacks, no Jews, and for many years, no Catholic Italians. Times changed and the country club […]
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Careers, not just jobs, for adults with autism

    Careers, not just jobs, for adults with autism
    Oct 6 2024
    There are many efforts to find work for people who are autistic or deal with other neurodivergent challenges, such as ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and related disabilities. But Stannum Core Solutions, a Chicago-based company, focuses on finding those people careers, not just jobs. In the audio clip below, Stannum Core Solutions founder Ben Schatzel tells […]
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Farmer is run over by his tractor. His rescuer was his mailman

    Farmer is run over by his tractor. His rescuer was his mailman
    Sep 23 2024
    Farmer John Moody marked National Farm Health and Safety Week (September 15-21) by remembering the winter day when he drove his tractor to a pasture to feed the cows on his Crockett, Virginia, farm. It was the day after his 70th birthday. On the front and back of the big tractor were huge, round bales […]
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Unpacking the mystery of Malört — and why it’s the liquor Chicago loves to hate

    Unpacking the mystery of Malört — and why it’s the liquor Chicago loves to hate
    Sep 9 2024
    It is common for immigrants to Chicago to bring with them something from home; a custom, a food, etc. In the mid-1880s, Carl Jeppson emigrated from Ystad, Sweden, to Chicago’s Swedish area at that time near the intersection of Clybourn Avenue and Division Street. What he brought from home was Malört, a liquor with a […]
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    Less than 1 minute
  • The 2023 NIL Deal of the Year is something to squeal about

    The 2023 NIL Deal of the Year is something to squeal about
    Aug 28 2024
    It started with a TV camera catching Iowa State football players Tommy Hamman and Caleb Bacon standing next to each other on the sidelines, the names on their jerseys reading: “Hamman Bacon.” A fan posted it and tagged the Iowa Pork Producers Association asking, “Can we get an NIL deal for these guys?” In the […]
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    Less than 1 minute