Illinois Public Media News

Today marks the biggest holiday of the year for thousands of families in Illinois: the start of the Lunar New Year. We chatted about traditions and celebrations in the Vietnamese and Taiwanese communities.

After a slew of public messages in the early days of the pandemic instructing people to avoid trips to the doctor, many people have skipped routine visits or check-ins with their physicians. To discuss the pandemic’s impact on care beyond COVID, we were joined by an associate professor of clinical pediatrics and internal medicine and a reporter who's been following the story. 

Illinois went two years without a full budget. A new report suggests a correlation between that impasse and a spike in young people being murdered in 2016. We were joined by the study's author and the leader of an anti-violence organization to talk about the research and its implications.

After serving more than two decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer announced that he would retire. We were joined by legal experts from around Illinois to get some reactions to the news and discuss Justice Breyer's legacy on the high court.

What if, actually, in some ways nature isn’t really as good at finding its way as we once thought? An Illinois research project is aiming to make photosynthesis more efficient. To talk about the project and its potential ramifications, we were joined by its director.