The Crisis Nursery provides emergency-base child care services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no fees or income eligibility. They also offer a variety of parent education classes and support groups for mothers at risk of depression during pregnancy or after the birth of a child, among other programs.

Recreational cannabis will be legal in Illinois on January 1st. But it won’t be legal to sell everywhere, because some cities have voted to ban marijuana businesses in their communities. Plus, candidates running for federal office are now allowed to spend campaign money on childcare. We’ll look at how the culture around running for office and taking care of kids is changing. And Instagram is testing a feed that hides the number of likes on the posts you see. It’s an idea that Illinois artist Ben Grosser has worked on for years. We’ll speak to him about quality over quantity on social media.

Food industry groups want to change the “sell by” and “use by” dates on products in order to cut down on food waste. Today, how to know when something is really expired, and how we can reduce food waste in our own kitchens. Plus, we’ll continue our weeklong series on summer reading. Today we’ll hear about nonfiction from librarians from across the state. And if you’re trying to learn a new language, you should do it as early as possible. That’s part of the reason more daycares and early childhood centers are teaching kids in more than one language. 

When is it safe to leave your kids home alone? According to state law, the right age is fairly black and white: It’s 14.

On this encore edition of The 21st: How top Democrats helped friends and relatives land jobs at the Illinois Department of Transportation during the administration of former Gov. Pat Quinn. Then, the challenges entrepreneurs face when it comes to balancing careers and kids - and how co-working spaces that provide childcare might offer some more flexibility.