Illinois Public Media News

The holiday season is beginning to kick into gear with Thanksgiving on Thursday, and the beginning of Hanukkah starting early next week. We received expert advice on having difficult conversations with family. 

2021 has been the deadliest year on record for transgender and gender-variant people.  This year there have been at least 46 transgender people killed in the United States, and they are disproportionately people of color. 

On Friday, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted on charges stemming from killing two men and wounding another during the unrest that followed the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. The 18-year-old from Antioch, Illinois crossed state lines the night of the shooting.

Lynsey Addario is a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist whose striking images from nearly every theater of war in the 21st century tell the story of the people living in these conflict zones. A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant," Addario was also named one of five most influential photographers of the past 25 years for changing the way we see world conflict by American Photo Magazine. She is also the bestselling author of the memoir "It's What I Do." 

The rich and complicated history of Thanksgiving is just one of a few things to consider when many of us sit down to dinner one week from now. On today’s show, we discussed the history of Thanksgiving foodways, or culinary traditions, and how to host a potential Thanksgiving meal that honors your own family’s heritage with the holiday’s rich history. We also delved into the history of plant-based eating and adapting your favorite recipes to suit varying dietary habits.

Today we spent our show understanding what Critical Race Theory is, why it’s become so weaponized and what examining systemic racism in a classroom setting looks like. To talk about it, we were joined by a professor of information sciences, a professor of education who teaches Critical Race Theory, a professor from NIU's Center for Black Studies, and a public policy reporter.

In 2022, the certified professional midwife profession will become an officially licensed occupation in Illinois. We talked with two women who are glad for the legislative change but say it needs to go further.

The United States is currently one of only six counties without a national paid leave policy. To talk about the current state of paid family leave in Illinois, The 21st was joined by a professor of labor and employment relations and someone who's been working to expand access to paid leave in Illinois.

Ten people were killed, and 300 were injured at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival when a crowd surge occurred near the stage during the performance. The investigation into exactly what caused the deadly crush of people is still ongoing, but experts are weighing in now about what may have gone wrong, and how to prevent these types of tragedies in the future. The 21st was joined by a venue manager and a crowd safety expert.

Since Afghanistan collapsed into Taliban control in August as the world looked on, some 70,000 Afghans were evacuated into the United States.  Almost 850 of those have come here to Illinois, with that number possibly expanding to 3000. According to a recent ProPublica investigative piece, chaos has erupted in the Chicago shelters housing many of the children who came to Illinois. The children are suffering from the traumas of a hasty evacuation, of war, and of separation from their families. We spoke to the reporter behind that story.