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The 21st Show

The U.S. and Iran say they've reached a deal to end nearly four months of war — a war the president said was meant to end Iran's nuclear program, gut its missiles, cut off its proxies, and topple its government.

"None of those have been achieved,” says Rachel Bronson, who closely follows the region from her base at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

“I think we’re in a much worse situation, and now we’re just trying to figure out how to stanch that bleeding and to figure out what this next stage looks like.”

The 21st Show

Ever wondered about Illinois' bat population? Or perhaps you recently dealt with trying to get a bat out of your home?

The 21st Show took the opportunity to catch up on the state of bat populations across the 21st state, and how you can safely get rid of one that might find comfort in your home and when to respond to health-related concerns following exposure to bats. 

The 21st Show

For most of American history, when a Justice Department lawyer stood up in court and told a judge something, the judge took it as true. There's even a name for this — it’s called "presumption of regularity," the idea that government officials are doing their jobs honestly and in good faith.

That assumption is now under strain. A growing number of federal judges — appointed by presidents of both parties — have indicated they are no longer willing to give the benefit of the doubt to lawyers from the Trump administration. And one of the clearest examples of this is coming out of Illinois.

It's the case of the so-called “Broadview Six” — immigration protesters arrested outside a suburban Chicago ICE facility last fall. A rare federal felony case against them collapsed this spring after a judge found what she described as serious misconduct in front of a grand jury.

We spoke with Jason Meisner, who covers federal courts for the Chicago Tribune, to walk us through what's happened. 

The 21st Show

The 2026 Warrior Games are currently underway in San Antonio, Texas. First started in 2010, the Warrior Games are designed to bring together wounded, ill or injured service members from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, and Special Operations Command.

This year, there are nearly 200 people competing in 12 adaptive sports. Among them are Navy Aviation Structural Mechanic 1st Class Thomas Trosper, a native of Georgetown, Illinois; and retired Navy Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class James Shoemaker of Effingham, Illinois.

Trosper will be competing in archery, cycling, field, swimming and wheelchair basketball. Shoemaker is competing in archery, sitting volleyball, swimming and track.
 

The 21st Show

In Illinois, when someone is convicted of a crime they didn't commit and later cleared, the state makes it official with what's called a certificate of innocence. It allows people to seek monetary compensation from state government, and can help them wipe the case from their record.

Lately, however, that system has been moving in two directions: a state appeals court has ruled some exonerated people should get these certificates automatically, and lawmakers in Springfield just voted to substantially raise the money that comes with them.

But at the same time, the Cook County state's attorney has been fighting many of petitions for certificates of innocence in court.

Dan Hinkel has been reporting on all of this for the nonprofit newsroom Injustice Watch.

The 21st Show

Last week, three teenagers from Collinsville, Illinois were on their way to a job. That’s when they were stopped by local police in Christian County. Before long, all three of them were in the custody of federal immigration agents. The family says local police circumvented the TRUST Act — the Illinois law meant to stop that from happening. We'll talk about it with Brian Munoz of St. Louis Public Radio.
 

Weather Realness

It’s summer time and that means warmer temperatures. Learn how to stay safe during extreme heat.

Weather Realness

Garden Hills has experienced chronic flooding for decades. We discuss how flooding affects communities and the engineering behind the Garden Hills Neighborhood drainage project.

The 21st Show

Author Ken Liu was born in China in 1976, and his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was 11. 

He has published multiple collections of short stories and an epic series of novels. Several of his works have been made into films , including “Good Hunting,” which was part of the Netflix animated anthology series Love, Death and Robots. He's also known for translating the Chinese sci-fi series known as The Three Body Problem.

Based in the Boston suburbs, Liu visited Central Illinois back in 2024 for a talk at the Champaign Public Library on art and artificial intelligence. That's when we first aired this conversation, in which he talks about trading a traditional job for writing full time, what's unique about Chinese science fiction, and why he's excited for the possibilities of artificial intelligence.

The 21st Show

The Onion's news satire has become a staple of American culture. It’s come a long way from humble beginnings in the Midwest in 1988, when Christine Wenc was part of the original. Her book, Funny Because It’s True: How the Onion Created Modern American News Satire explores history of the publication and how it's still relevant today.