In the Loop

Late last month we lost legendary keyboardist Bernie Worrell. His sound served as a funky backbone to music by both Parliament/Funkadelic and the Talking Heads. Worrell’s music blurred the lines between rock and R&B. To celebrate that blur, Reclaimed Soul host Ayana Contreras presents bands that bridged the gap between hard rock and soul.

A story posted online last week talked of a “global climate emergency”after one of the northern hemisphere’s jet streams crossed into the south. Turns out, that’s happened before. And it's not really an emergency. But pretty interesting things are happening in the upper atmosphere these days.

As with all great art, we can’t forget the predecessors that paved the way for great writing, powerful performances and risks on the stage. 25 years ago, that happened with Tony Kushner’s seven-hour masterpiece Angels in America. We talk to Slate’s Dan Kois about the history of the story.

He started in local politics as the ‘nobody nobody sent’ and rose to prominence as a lawmaker, judge and presidential adviser. We talk with David Axelrod from University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, and Sanford Horwitt, a former aide to Mikva.

Bob Abrahamian was an archivist, music historian and obsessive record collector. His radio show, 'Sitting in the Park,' on WHPK in Hyde Park featured Chicago soul artists, sometimes being the only platform for that music. Abrahamian died in 2014, but his radio shows live on through the Web. And it may get a bigger audience now, as record label Numero Group just released a collection of Abrahamian’s shows.

It came down to the wire for Governor Rauner and Democratic leaders to approve a stopgap deal that would fund services for the next six months and ensure public schools open in the fall. But the state has still been without a budget for an entire year, leaving many social service agencies and higher education strapped for the cash to operate or retain staff. WBEZ statehouse reporter Tony Arnold updates us on where we are now, what’s next and we open the phones to ask: How has the budget impasse affected you?

Argonne National Laboratory is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The science and engineering research center has had a prominent place in historical research developments. They’re currently in the process of installing a new supercomputer, Theta.  Katherine Riley, Director of Science for the Leadership Computing Facility, explains what a supercomputer does.

This week we kicked off our summer series “The Movie That Made Me”. Writer, blogger, and comedian Luvvie Ajayi talks about how The Color Purple touched on race, class and gender in ways that changed her perceptions of the world, and herself.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is continuing his campaign to reduce tobacco use. Starting Friday, the legal age to purchase tobacco in Chicago goes from 18 to 21 years old. We check in with Dr. Stanton Glantz from Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education on how attempts to make it hard to buy cigarettes have affected the smoking rates for young people.

Lawmakers are back in Springfield to try and make some headway on the budget impasse. Friday will mark the start of the second year without a state budget. That has resulted in cuts for social service agencies and higher education.  Lawsuits against the state have demanded that some programs remain funded, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re getting the money. John Bouman from the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law details some of the lawsuits that have demanded cash in order to still function, and how the impasse has affected services.