On Track

In March, the Kentucky General Assembly voted to make use of medical marijuana legal, effective 2025. They also passed a law that will allow racetracks to become licensed sports betting facilities.

Experts and journalists joined us to talk through how each of those laws could affect the commonwealth.

Juneteenth can be a complicated holiday.

It’s an official holiday of celebration — rejoicing in enslaved people being freed as part of the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s also a reminder that many enslaved people were not informed about slavery’s end until years later.

On “In Conversation” this week we talk about the origins of the holiday and what Juneteenth means in a modern context, and let you know about upcoming Juneteenth events in Louisville and in Oldham County.

School's out, pools are open, and you might be wondering which novel or biography to grab on your way to the park. We've got you covered!

This week on "In Conversation," guests from the Louisville Free Public Library and Carmichael’s Bookstore helped you make the perfect summer reading list. We got philosophical about what makes a book great for summer. And we asked some young readers what they're excited to page through before school's back in.

This episode was made possible in part by the Jewish Heritage Fund.

It’s our fourth spring living with COVID-19, and pretty much everywhere you go, it looks like it’s over. Fewer people are masking, and you're less likely to be asked for proof of vaccination. But are we actually past the pandemic?

With a downward trend in numbers, the World Health Organization has declared that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency. And national emergency status in the U.S. ends this week thanks to a bipartisan resolution signed by President Joe Biden. That means, for example, your insurance company no longer has to cover diagnostic testing, including at-home testing kits. On this week’s “In Conversation,” we talked with doctors about where we are with a global pandemic that literally changed the world in March, 2020.

On this episode, we look at who’s hot and who’s not in this year's Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby. Ed DeRosa, Vice President of Content at Horse Racing Nation, and Kellie Reilly, who writes for Churchill Downs, Inc. will help us make sense of our racing programs and figure out where the smart money is this weekend.

And we’ll talk with Louisville author and poet Hannah Drake about her poem “Home,” which was commissioned by the non-profit organization Kentucky to the World as a response to the controversial state song “My Old Kentucky Home.”

May is National Foster Care Month. So on this week’s “In Conversation” we'll learned about the state of foster care in Kentucky and what children here need. We also talked about the shortage of foster parents in Kentucky, how it affects kids in the system, and what could encourage more people to give it a try.

In Kentucky, suicide is the second leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults. This week on “In Conversation,” we aimed to understand why, and what we can all do to help bring the numbers down.

Experts helped us untangle this complex health crisis about how to support the young people in your life.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by phone at 988, or online at 988lifeline.org.You can also contact the Trevor Project, which provides free, confidential counselors who specialize in helping LGBTQ youth.

This week on "In Conversation," we talk through the events surrounding a mass shooting in Louisville on Monday morning. Reporters who have been covering the shooting and its aftermath give us context about gun laws and gun violence in our city. And mental health professionals share practical advice on recovering from the trauma and secondary trauma of community violence.

It’s just a few weeks before Derby Day in Louisville, and you know what that means: almost time to start tending to your spring garden.

This week on “In Conversation,” host Rick Howlett talked to gardening experts about what to plant in your soil. From first-timers trying to begin a begonia, to experts who want to make it rain with vegetables, plants, shrubs and trees, no question is too big or small for our troubleshooters.

Senate Bill 150, passed this month by Kentucky state legislators, has been dubbed the worst anti-trans bill in the country. Although Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear vetoed the bill, the majority-Republican legislature voted to override the veto.

And Kentucky’s not the only state grappling with laws like this. Over 120 bills have been introduced across the country this year affecting LGBTQ people—many focused on the rights of transgender children and their parents.

On this week’s “In Conversation,” we discussed legislative measures focused on transgender kids, here in the Commonwealth and across the country.