Author: WBEZ Chicago

Imagine making a mid-career pivot and going on to raise $76 million to support climate-technology startups. That’s what Amy Francetic did when she helped found the women-led Chicago venture fund Buoyant Ventures. Reset meets Francetic and learns about how Buoyant is working to fight climate change by investing in young companies with big ideas. We’re also joined by Karen Weigert, Reset Sustainability contributor and director of Loyola University Chicago’s Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility.

Chicagoan Kevin Pang is a James-Beard award winning food writer. He and his dad have a cooking channel called the Hunger Pangs, where they cook traditional Cantonese recipes and Chinese-American classics, which they adapted into the New York Times 2023 Best Cookbooks List. A Very Chinese Cookbook. Reset hears from Kevin on the significance of Lunar New Year foods and the power of cooking with family to preserve memory.

Whether you’re a long time resident or new to the area, we have the latest on what you need to know to vote early in Illinois’ Primary election. Reset hears from Max Bever, Director of Public Information at the Chicago Board of Elections, on how to make the best out of your early voting experience.

Chicago folk singer Naomi Ashley’s new album Love Bug explores the different stages of love, from infatuation to obsession to heartbreak and beyond. Reset sits down with the artist for more on what it takes to turn heartbreak into a love song.

Residents on the South and West sides claim their 911 calls were ignored, as data shows the rapid response teams made traffic stops instead. Parts of Lurie Children’s Hospital’s system have been restored after a cyberattack forced it to shut down. And a Yelp list ranks a Chicago restaurant’s pizza as number one in the country. Reset hears more about those stories and more with Chicago Tribune state government reporter Dan Petrella, WBEZ criminal justice reporter Patrick Smith, and WBEZ city government and politics reporter Mariah Woelfel.

Chicago became the largest U.S. city to outlaw a lower minimum wage for tipped workers last year. Now, Democratic lawmakers in Springfield have introduced legislation that would get rid of the lower minimum wage for the state’s tipped workers, something advocates for higher pay call the “subminimum wage.” Reset hears two perspectives on the proposed legislation: Audra Wilson, president and CEO of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and Mario Ponce, owner of Takito Brands restaurants.

More than half of U.S. tenants can’t afford their rent. Here in Chicago, thousands — tens of thousands by one measure — are experiencing homelessness. To complicate matters, the city continues to struggle to find shelter for the more than 35,000 migrants who have arrived in Chicago since August 2022. Reset goes behind the scenes of Evicted, a new exhibition at the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago with its Executive Director, Lisa Yun Lee, to shine a light on national housing policies and tenants’ rights.

Chicago is severing ties with Shot Spotter – rebranded just last year as Sound Thinking – at the end of the summer. Supporters of the gunshot detection technology say this will slow response times to gunshot victims, but studies by the city and county officials find the tech system rarely produces documented evidence of a gun crime. Reset learns more from WBEZ criminal justice reporter Chip Mitchell.