Intersection

Welcome Home is a transitional emergency and service center for veterans. The organization has been operating in Columbia for more than 25 years, and recently expanded. The mission? To reduce veteran homelessness by helping people gain housing, services and skills to form stable lives. Intersection's Sara Shahriari sat down with Timothy Rich, the executive director of Welcome Home, to learn about the organization and its new facilities.

This week on Intersection we are joined by Jim Obergefell , who was the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage. Obergefell visited the University of Missouri earlier this month to present a lecture called “Love Wins” for a symposium on the Science of Love. Timothy Blair also joined the conversation. Blair is an alumnus of the Missouri School of Journalism, and in 2015 he donated $1 million to create the Timothy D. Blair Fund for LGBT Coverage in Journalism.

Early last month, President Donald Trump announced he would end a federal program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA . It's a program created in 2012 when then President Barack Obama signed an executive order. DACA protects nearly 800,000 people around the United States who were brought here as children without documentation, giving them a chance to work or study without the risk of deportation. Missouri has about 3,500 DACA recipients, and nearly half of them are students.

Missouri Task Force One is an urban search and rescue team that responds to disasters around the country. There are just 28 such units nationwide, and the Missouri force is managed by the Boone County Fire Protection District. A Missouri Task Force One team recently returned to Columbia from Texas after helping with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Intersection's Sara Shahriari sat down with two members from the task force, Terry Cassil and Danny Mueller, to hear about their experiences.

Lead has played a pivotal role in the history of Missouri. More than 17 million tons of lead have come out of the ground in the state over the last 300 years, and that's left a lasting impact on the state economically, environmentally and culturally. KBIA is exploring that history —and future—in our special series The Legacy of Lead.

Next week on Intersection, we look at Missouri's legacy of lead. In this preview of our upcoming show, Intersection host Sara Shahriari talks with photographer Benjamin Hoste about his images from Missouri's old lead belt. Hoste's photographs from the old lead belt are on display at the Greg Hardwick Gallery at Columbia College through September 27.

Intersection is marking the new school year with conversations with three MU professors whose work and teaching styles make then stand out. We learn that parts of Missouri were once on the coast of a huge inland sea, how a veterinarian and toxicologist gets to the bottom of mysterious ailments and how students are learning to understand the global market for fabrics.

This week on Intersection we bring you a special on oral health from the new KBIA project, Missouri Health Talks. Health reporter Rebecca Smith spoke with Dr. John Dane, the current State Dental Director, and Gary Harbison, the Executive Director for the Missouri Coalition for Oral Health. They cover the Missouri Oral Health Plan , which runs from 2015 to 2020, advances that have been made in oral health policy and struggles Missourians still face when it comes to accessing quality, affordable

This week on Intersection we bring you a special on oral health from the new KBIA project, Missouri Health Talks. Health reporter Rebecca Smith spoke with Dr. John Dane, the current State Dental Director, and Gary Harbison, the Executive Director for the Missouri Coalition for Oral Health. They cover the Missouri Oral Health Plan , which runs from 2015 to 2020, advances that have been made in oral health policy and struggles Missourians still face when it comes to accessing quality, affordable

Central Missouri is on the path of totality for the upcoming solar eclipse. That means that the sun will completely disappear from view for a few minutes during the middle of the day. Intersection's Sara Shahriari and Harvest Public Media reporter Kris Husted talk with Mizzou Professor and Director of Astronomy Angela Speck about studying animal reactions, citizen data gathering and exactly how the moon and the sun line up to create daytime darkness.