Illinois Public Media News

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Natural Playgrounds & Navigating Risks

A new playground coming to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois — unlike most playgrounds, there won't be swings or monkey bars. To help kids excercise navigating risks, there will instead be boulders, streams and rocks. The 21st spoke with the international team of designers behind it. 

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How To Raise Confident, Self-Sufficient Kids

We talk with two authors about helping children grow into independent, confident, and self-sufficient adults. Lenore Skenazy is the author of Free-Range Kids: How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow, and Christina Hillsberg is the author of License to Parent: How My Career as a Spy Helped Me Raise Resourceful, Self-Sufficient Kids.

Police tape marks off a Chicago street as officers investigate the scene of a fatal shooting in the city's South Side on Tuesday, June 15, 2021.
AP Photo/Teresa Crawford

Surviving Gun Violence

A recent city health report found that the life expectancy of Black Chicagoans was 9 years less than others due to the epidemic of gun violence. We talked with a reporter of The Trace, which started a series examining grief and perserverance in neighborhoods facing violence.

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