Author: WBEZ Chicago

Chicago’s City Council finally passed the 2025 budget. Meanwhile, the Chicago School Board called a special meeting Friday night to discuss the possible firing of schools CEO Pedro Martinez. Reset breaks down those stories and much more with Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief Becky Vevea, Better Government Association president David Greising and Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mitch Armentrout. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

We’ve talked about the Wrigley Building in What’s That Building before, as part of a summer 2023 series on icons of Chicago architecture. Now Dennis Rodkin is back to tell us about an icon of Christmas created in that iconic building.

Bashar al-Assad was Syria’s president for nearly 25 years. He brutally cracked down on a protest movement in 2011, kicking off a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and led to 12 million people being displaced. Earlier this month, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled the al-Assad regime, and he fled to Russia. Reset hears reflections from two members of the Syrian American community in Chicago. Bara Sarraj is a biology professor and former Syrian political prisoner. Samira Alhamwi is an adult education manager for the Syrian Community Network who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 2016. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

There’s nothing quite like a memorable meal, and 2024 had a lot of them. Reset gets an overview of food trends this year and favorites dishes from two WBEZ contributors: food writer Maggie Hennessy and storyteller and writer Ximena Beltran Quan Kiu. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

Monarch butterflies are the most iconic butterfly, with their bright orange and black markings, but their populations are threatened by climate change and habitat loss. To protect them, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that monarch butterflies be added to the Endangered Species list. Reset hears the effects this could have and efforts underway to protect their habitats from Sustainability contributor Karen Weigert and lead conservation ecologist at the Field Museum Aster Hasle. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

A new study from Northwestern shows human beings around the world experience loneliness at similar times in life. The findings show that on average loneliness moves in a U-shaped pattern: highest in young people and older adults and lowest in middle adulthood. Reset discusses loneliness and how we can better address the feeling individually and collectively with study co-author and associate professor Eileen Graham and associate professor at the Family Institute at Northwestern University Michele Kerulis. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

More than 1 in 10 people working in the U.S. are women 55 years or older. Reset talks with two experts about the challenges and triumphs of women working in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. Corinne Kodama is a senior research analyst at Women Employed and Therese Quinn is a professor and director of Museum and Exhibition Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

Whether you’re looking for a great novel or some nonfiction to get you thinking, our panel has some great suggestions for books that they loved in 2024. Reset learns more from owner of Semicolon Bookstore Danielle Moore, poet, author of Brown Girl, Brown Girl Leslé Honoré, and romance writer, author of Free Fall Khushi Saha. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

Cook County commissioned a study earlier this year to take stock of what’s working and what’s not in the county’s complex system for assessing taxes on commercial properties. The resulting report released Dec. 11 shows that many commercial properties in the north and south suburbs have been undervalued, likely leading to a higher tax burden for homeowners. It also makes recommendations for how the overall system can be reformed and stresses the need for better collaboration between the County Assessor’s Office and the County Board of Review, the two bodies involved in tax assessments and appeals. Reset checks in with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle about her major takeaways from the report. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.