Author: WBEZ Chicago

Thanksgiving is nearly here, and as you get ready for the big meal, we’re telling you all about our favorite new food spots to hit up when you’re hungry. Reset digs into local foodies’ Nick Kindelsperger, food critic for the Chicago Tribune, and Steve Dolinsky, author and the NBC-5 food reporter, about new restaurant picks and we share our own.

Reset digs deeper into efforts to cultivate living landscapes in manmade environments like the roofs of buildings across the city. Molly Meyer, CEO and founder of Omni Ecosystems, and Mike Repkin, director of research and development at Omni Ecosystems, join us to talk about why reconnecting with nature that way is so important.

If your neighborhood has historic disinvestment, few grocery stores and you don’t have a car, you might have to take two buses just to get the food you need. A new initiative in Bronzeville is hoping to bridge this gap with an app that calls an electric rideshare vehicle to your door, bringing green technology to the neighborhood and addressing entrenched problems. Reset talks to Paula Robinson, managing member at Bronzeville Partners LLC, and Billy Davis, general manager at Jitney EV, to talk about this initiative and how intentional workforce development is essential in making sure South Side residents benefit from the transition to a green economy.

Black and Latino residents in Chicago are more likely than their white counterparts to be exposed to industrial pollution. As a result, they have higher rates of asthma and other chronic health conditions. Reset explores why environmental racism exists on the South Side, where the industrial hotspots are today, and how local leaders are working toward environmental justice with Karen Weigert, Reset Sustainability contributor and director of Loyola University Chicago’s Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility, Gina Ramirez, mother living on the Southeast Side and Midwest outreach manager for Natural Resources Defense Council, and Naomi Davis, founder and president of Blacks In Green.

Duckworth plans to push for an assault weapons ban, stronger benefits for U.S. veterans and their families, water protections and more when the next Congress is sworn in in January, and she says there’s a lot of important work to do before that during the lame duck session. Reset talks to newly-reelected U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth about those priorities and why she believes bipartisanship is still a possibility, even with a divided legislative branch.

Whole Foods just checked out of Englewood, and it’s just one of the grocery stores that closed recently on the city’s South and West sides. Will millions in city subsidies deliver healthy solutions for food deserts? Reset talks with Alderman Jason Ervin, 28th Ward, as well as Asiaha Butler, executive director of R.A.G.E Englewood, who is looking to expand food access.

Chicago City Colleges and the non-profit One Million Degrees announced a new partnership to provide students mentorship, coaching and professional development support. Reset talks with Aneesh Sohoni, CEO of One Million Degrees, and Juan Salgado, Chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, to learn more about the partnership and its potential impact.

In 2018, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless proposed an ordinance that would tax home sales over $1 million at a higher rate in an effort to fight homelessness in Chicago. On Monday, Mayor Lightfoot and her allies in City Council blocked a hearing for that ordinance, known as Bring Chicago Home. Reset breaks down what happened and what’s next with Carla Johnson, grassroots leader with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and Ald. Matt Martin, 47th Ward, and Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th Ward, the two sponsors of the ordinance.

As outside temperatures drop, so has new music from a handful of rising Chicago artists. Bundle up to a range of sounds from musicians Human Bloom and Sam Hudgens, DIY R&B songstress ALIAH, and rapper Vicki Street. Plus, singer ASXA returns with powerful vocals. Reset sits down with Vocalo Radio’s Stephen Bekoe to hear his top 5 picks “In Rotation” for November.