As the school year draws near, rallies for and against school masking are happening across northern Illinois.

While he's not a household name like Edison or Bell, Highland Park's Elisha Gray cranked out some of the 19th Century's most creative inventions, including the first electronic synthesizer and—some argue—the first telephone.

Hip hop turns 48 soon — Joseph Flynn tells us how this musical genre went from fad to phenomenon, then gives us his top 20.

Host Gillian King-Cargile talks to Dr. Andy Norman, author of Mental Immunity, about how bad ideas spread like viruses and how we can inoculate our minds against them.

Our panel features host Sean Crawford, NPR Illinois Statehouse Editor Hannah Meisel, UIC Professor Chris Mooney and WNIJ Education Reporter Peter Medlin.

“Logan’s Bath” was first published in Poetry Breakfast, 11/18/2017.

Amy Nystrom never had dreams of becoming an author.

This week, we hear from a woman who questioned the need to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Then, she got sick. What she says now. We'll also talk with some contact tracers about the difficulty in doing that job over the past year.

The Illinois Supreme Court has again overruled the appeals court in Alan Beaman’s attempt to sue the Town of Normal and three police officers for malicious prosecution. In a 4-2 ruling, the justices have sent the case back to McLean County Circuit Court for trial, seven years after it was first filed in 2014.

Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday signed a measure aimed at increasing affordable housing investment in Illinois, as well as a measure expanding the state’s low-income energy assistance program.