In the Loop

At Morton College in Cicero Thursday, you can visit a “human library.” No, we’re not kidding. It’s a library where you can “check out” a person — like you would a book — to listen to their life story. Each “reader” can ask questions that you might avoid in polite conversation.

Reset spoke with Prairie Markussen, organizer of a “human library” event at Morton College, and Alejandro Joleanis, a human “book” participating in the library.

Lawmakers in City Council have until the end of the calendar year to approve the budget. Reset talks with WBEZ’s Mariah Woelfel and Tessa Weinberg about the process as well as steps the administration is taking to house migrants ahead of the cold winter months to come.

Producer: Landon Jones

Editor: Meha Ahmad, Dan Tucker

Last year, 60 people died from opioid-related overdoses on the CTA, according to an analysis by the Chicago Reader. Reset talked with impacted Chicagoans and the reporter who broke down those numbers.

A Palestinian American boy and his mother were stabbed by their landlord, in their home on Saturday, October 14. The boy died and the mother is in critical condition. The accused killer yelled anti-Muslim epithets and stabbed the child 26 times. Reset hears how media and political rhetoric of the Israel-Hamas war may have played into this attack. Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago office of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also explains what he hopes U.S. politicians and Chicagoans will learn from the tragic story.

Actor Brought a Vice is a new record from Chicago band Young Man in a Hurry. Frontman Matthew Baron joins Reset to talk about the new release.

Check out more interviews like this one at wbez.org/reset.

Producer: Meha Ahmad, Lynnea Domienik

Editor: Meha Ahmad, Dan Tucker

Producer: Andrea Guthmann

Editor: Meha Ahmad, Dan Tucker

Mayor Brandon Johnson called housing an “essential focus” of his administration’s focus. The question is, will he be able to put the money where his mouth is? Reset sits down with stakeholders to hear what they want to see from the administration and what housing investment could look like under the mayor’s proposed budget plan.

To hear more conversations like this one, check out our full archive at wbez.org/reset.

After three open heart surgeries, Donnie Seals Sr. knew he had to change his life, so he took up cycling. His son joined him in the pursuit, eventually proposing an epic bike ride from St. Louis to Chicago to celebrate his dad’s health — and they caught it all on film. Reset talks with the father-son duo about what this journey meant to them, and how it takes on health disparities in the Black community.

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