We’re in the thick of cold and flu season. To what extent can the foods we eat strengthen our immune system? Reset chats about chicken soup, Vitamin C and more with a clinical assistant professor of nutrition at UIC Shayna Oshita.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
The Trump administration has begun negotiations with Russia about the war in Ukraine – without any representatives from Ukraine involved. Reset checks in with Ukrainian Americans from Chicago Olya Soroka and Dania Hrynewycz to hear their hopes, apprehensions and predictions for the future of diplomatic relations between the United States and Ukraine.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
When Illinois legalized recreational use of marijuana five years ago, it came with a goal to right the wrongs of the war on drugs. “We’re addressing the past harms of discriminatory prosecution of drug laws,” Governor J.B. Pritzker said at the time. Many low level cannabis charges would automatically be expunged and legal aid would be made available.
Last episode, we looked at two areas where the state spent the largest share of its $500 million in marijuana sales tax revenue: the state budget and R3 funding, a program to invest in communities that have been harmed by violence, excessive incarceration and economic disinvestment.
Some of that sales tax revenue also goes toward social programs, like legal aid for cannabis record expungement. Today, we’re looking at how well Illinois’ expungement program is working. Advocates and people getting their records expunged tell us that “automatic” doesn’t apply to everything and the process itself is “too complicated.”
Gov. JB Pritzker took to the Illinois House floor in Springfield on Wednesday to deliver his State of the State address. In it, he presented his budgetary priorities and legislative plans, including regulating prescription drug prices, and he discussed how to address the state’s $3.2 billion deficit. Reset digs into the main takeaways of the governor’s budget address with WBEZ statehouse reporter Mawa Iqbal and Ralph Martire, executive director, Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
Illinois grocers are scrambling to meet egg demand as farmers try to contain an avian flu outbreak, all while dealing with tariffs and end of USAID. Reset hears from Investigate Midwest editor-in-chief Ben Felder, ChiliTrout Farm owner Chad Troutman and Kakadoodle Farms owner Marty Thomas about how they and other farmers are coping.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
The state has made about $500 million in marijuana tax revenue since the state legalized recreational use. Social programs have benefited from those funds, but experts say it won’t last forever.
President Trump directed federal agencies to fire probationary workers on Thursday, Feb. 13. Federal workers are typically on probation for a year or two after being hired. There are roughly 82,000 federal workers based in Illinois according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Reset gets the latest from Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mitch Armentrout and gets reaction from former federal worker Anthony Stanford.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the country. It’s driven by policy decisions over the decades, but it’s also reinforced by personal networks and perception rather than experience. A new book, titled “Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How To Disrupt It,” uses first-person testimonials to explore how racist messaging can perpetuate this dynamic.
Reset sits down with co-authors Tonika Johnson and Maria Krysan to hear how this book came to be, and how it could inform disrupting segregation.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
Is the American Dream achieved at the expense of the American Negro? That’s the question that civil rights icon James Baldwin and conservative leader William F. Buckley debated in the Cambridge Union on February 18, 1965.
A new play at DePaul’s TimeLine Theatre’s is bringing that question to modern audiences, capturing the relevance of the debate 60 years later. Reset sits down with the two lead actors, Teagle F. Bougere and Eric T. Miller, to find out what it’s like to reenact a haunting historical discussion and how the play resonates with the current moment.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.
