Illinois Public Media News

Our two guests today are friends on the frontlines — both pulmonologists who’ve treated some of the most critically ill COVID patients and supported each other along the way. They have a new podcast called "Get Better" in which they talk not only about their experiences during the pandemic, but also where they learn about other topics — ranging from mental health to gender-affirming care.

Today on The 21st, we talked about something we all have: Personality. One of our guests wanted to see if her personality could actually be changed, and she gave herself three months to do it through a series of activities. She joined us, along with one of the experts she consulted, to talk about how her experiment played out and what she learned along the way. 

Years ago, lawmakers created a position in the General Assembly that’s supposed to have the responsibility for investigating allegations of wrongdoing among legislators and staff. It’s called the Legislative Inspector General. The 21st was joined by Illinois' new legislative inspector general to talk about how he plans to serve and what his goals are for his new position.

From studying engineering at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, to a music career that had him touring the U.S., Japan, and Europe to now being a vice president at Microsoft — Ashley Llorens contains multitudes. He joined The 21st to talk about his expertise in AI, as well as the benefits and risks of a future with smarter machines.

When schools shifted to remote learning in March 2020, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made the unprecedented decision to let states cancel standardized testing. Every state, including Illinois, did so, but that allowance did not extend to 2021. With a second round of pandemic-era standardized tests beginning this spring, we considered the current state assessment landscape in Illinois and how it may need to change going forward with an Illinois state senator and leaders from education groups.