Illinois Public Media News

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games are two weeks and a day away, and there are several olympians from Illinois who will be competing in the games, including ski jumper Kevin Bickner from Wauconda, Illinois.  He joined The 21st to talk about preparing for the games, how he got his start, and more.

Now until July, the Spurlock Museum in Urbana is exhibiting of local AIDS quilt panels made during the midst of the AIDS pandemic. University of Illinois journalism students teamed up with Illinois Public Media to create short videos about the panels and the men they memorialize.

Generation X sometimes known as the "Forgotten Generation," but the Illinois State Musuem is planning to give Gen X their day in the sun with an exhibit that opens this fall. The 21st was joined by the museum's curator of history to talk about growing up in the '70s, '80s and '90s, designing the exhibit, and more.

Though the coronavirus, like many other infectious diseases, will never be truly gone, it could one day be considered endemic like rhinovirus or other upper respiratory infections. Where do we go from here? We invited back two virologists to update us on what scientists now know and help answer more of your COVID-19 questions.

For decades, archeologists have debated when humans first set foot in North America. Now, ancient footprints discovered in New Mexico are offering some clues to when people first inhabited the continent we call home, which could alter the widely accepted timeline for when humans first lived in North America by thousands of years. This segment originally aired September 30, 2021.