In the Loop

In the latest installment of Reclaimed Soul, Ayana Contreras spins some Muhammad Ali-themed records. Reclaimed Soul airs every Thursday night from 8 to 10 p.m. on our sister station Vocalo. Each Wednesday, she joins Morning Shift for a preview.

The non-profit Pride Action Tank has partnered with 10 agencies to help LGBTQ youth with placement in foster homes, while at the same time encouraging LGBTQ adults to become foster or adoptive parents. Morning Shift talks with Tracy Baim, founder of Pride Action Tank and Renee Lehocky of the Chicago group home Lawrence Hall about the ongoing efforts.

Mayor Emanuel’s handpicked City Colleges Chancellor, Cheryl Hyman is expected to step down at the end of the month when her contract is up. Her brash leadership style irked many faculty members, who said she was driving the institutions away from their core mission of giving minorities and immigrants an entryway to higher education. Faculty gave her a symbolic vote of no confidence in February.  Morning Shift talks to WBEZ’s Odette Yousef, who covered that vote and other developments in Hyman’s tenure as chancellor to take stock of how she transformed the City Colleges.

A third of the way through the season, the Cubs still have the best record in the majors. But beyond all the highlights this team is filled with real characters with good stories. Pitcher Kyle Hendricks went to an Ivy League university, something that’s fairly rare in the world of baseball. His father moved here to watch him play, and when there’s no action on the diamond, he drives a limo for a living. Hendricks talks about that and more when he went one-on-one with WBEZ’s sports contributor Cheryl Raye-Stout.

Density is a characteristic praised in many urban planning circles. The future of cities relies on it, many say. But in his new book, The Human City: Urbanism For the Rest of Us, geographer Joel Kotkin argues that densely packed cities have their downsides and may not lead to truly sustainable urban environments.  Morning Shift talks to Kotkin about his book and pros and cons of the version of city living here in Chicago. ​

After four years as Chicago’s legislative inspector general, attorney Faisal Khan is now the CEO of a new political watchdog group in Chicago called Project Six.Khan’s office was dismantled in November by the City Council, the very body that he was supposed to oversee and investigate. Morning Shift talks to Khan about his tenure as the City Council’s inspector general and what his plans are for Project Six.

In the latest installment in our series the Working Shift, we talk with someone who has worked on several food trucks in the City of Chicago and Milwaukee about the challenges and benefits of running a restaurant on wheels. Morning Shift talks with Ashley Gleason, General Manager of The Roost Carolina Kitchen, which serves up fried chicken, biscuits and sweet tea at two brick-and-mortar locations and a food truck.

WBEZ sports contributor Cheryl Raye Stout sits down with Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist for a wide-ranging interview that gets beyond the typical locker room confab. Zobrist opens up about his faith, his family and growing up in a small town in downstate Illinois. Oh, and baseball of course!

We wanted to hear from listeners about some of the positives of being a redhead. Here are a few messages we got on our hotline.

Michel Martin, weekend host of All Things Considered on NPR, has been hitting the road in a series of live events across the country. It’s called “Going There,” and the goal is to take a deeper dive into the issue animating Americans right now and to get beyond the headlines and the breaking news. Morning Shift host Tony Sarabia talks to Martin about the series, which has an event here in Chicago on June 14 called “The Chicago Freedom Movement: Then and Now.”