As a part of the "Understanding Our New World" series, Paul Simon Public Policy Institute Executive Director John Shaw spoke with former White House Chief of Staff, CIA Director, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

WSIU's Jennifer Fuller talks with The Poynter Institute's MediaWise Editorial Director Kristyn Wellesley about the project, its origins, and where they're taking it in 2020.

WSIU's Jennifer Fuller reports on SIU's Conversation of Understanding, the first in a series of town hall-style events to address racism and other issues across the system.

June marks Pride Month each year. Previously, we published a conversation between a local doctor and his patient on transgender healthcare. One of the topics they discussed was the learning curve doctors face when treating patients in the trans community. Other doctors echo this point, saying they’ve had to do their own research and training to be able to treat the patients who’ve come to them for care. Kurt Martin is an internal medicine doctor with Southern Illinois Healthcare. He’s been

June marks Pride Month each year. Last March, Storycorps came to Carbondale to speak with southern Illinoisans about their lives. Neither Chip Loghry or Matin Nekzard are originally from southern Illinois, though both call it home now. Loghry moved here as a child, and Nekzad and his wife came to the U.S. after fleeing Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion of the 1980s. Nekzad, who works for Shawnee Healthcare, is Loghry’s doctor, and one of the few in the area to treat transgender patients.

WSIU's Brad Palmer reports on a campaign to highlight Illinois agricultural diversity and raises consumer awareness statewide, nationwide, and globally of the foods raised and sold in southern Illinois and throughout the state.

WSIU's Jennifer Fuller talks with SIU President Dan Mahony, as he prepares for a virtual town hall focusing on racism and bias. Mahony also addresses challenges the university faces because of COVID-19, and plans for the coming weeks and months.

Thanks to a ruling by the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the herbicde Dicamba will soon be banned.

WSIU's Jennifer Fuller talks with Paul Simon Public Policy Institute Director John Shaw about a new book list, focusing on Illinois. The list includes recommendations from historians, past and present lawmakers, political experts and more.

In part 2 of our report on former Saluki hammer thrower Gwen Berry's involvement in bringing light to racial inequality and police brutality, WSIU's Brad Palmer reveals Berry's thoughts on the current Black Lives Matter demonstrations and her advice to her teenage son on how to stay safe.