Illinois Public Media News

Educators discussed lingering mental health struggles among students with special needs and their parents.

The Born Again Labor Museum in Carbondale features art focused on worker’s rights, and it’s also a community event space for local labor rights organizations. To tell us more about the history of labor organizing in Southern Illinois and about the Born Again Labor Museum, we were joined by the museum's co-founders. 

Because of the "felony murder rule," hundreds of people in Illinois prisons are thought to be serving life sentences for murder even though they didn’t kill anyone, according to a recent analysis from the nonprofit news outlet Injustice Watch. The 21st was joined by someone affected by the rule, as well as two reporters following the story and the co-director of the Center for Wrongful Convictions.

The 21st was joined by a south side native better known as "Chicago’s Neighborhood historian" who wanted to share all of Chicago’s riches and history with his 81,000 followers on TikTok.

Around the country, books about race, gender, and sexuality are facing challenges, so to what’s behind it, and how it impacts which lived experiences get shared in classrooms, we were joined by the editor of an independent editorial book site, as well as professors of library science and comparative literature.