Saint Louis Speaks Podcast

Umar Lee discusses Closings the Workhouse, Income Inequality, and Minimum Standards

The St Louis Speaks Podcast has featured several St Louis elected officials. We are non-partisan abd encourage an open discussion. We are interviewing Sen. Nasheed to discuss her background and life in St Louis, finding Islam, her history as an activist and protester, the current state of affairs in Missouri politics, and the president of the Board of Alderman race.

Umar Lee discusses #CaneloGGG, #STL name change, Botham Jean, Julia Salazar in New York, liars, authenticity, and the recent protest of Deray McKesson during a presentation of his new book at Left Bank Books.

Umar Lee describes what has taken him away from St Louis at various stages of his life and trials and tribulations in New York City, DC, Florida, Texas, and more. Always seeing the world as a St Louisan.

Host Umar Lee sits down with City Museum director Rick Erwin for a conversation about everything Saint Louis.

Host Umar Lee sits down with staff historian at the Scott Joplin House, Brian Cather. Cather and Lee discuss a range of topics from life in Texas to adjusting to life in St. Louis as well as, of course, the legacy of Scott Joplin.

Umar Lee walked through the Cherokee neighborhood with Riverfront Times reporter Danny Wicentwoski and talked everything from Ferguson to coverage of the Eric Greitens scandals that rocked Missouri in spring of 2018.

Umar Lee sits down with a panel of guests for a lively discussion of race and space in St. Louis. This week's discussion centers on the eruption of protests at an area Gas Mart following a viral video showing two employees kicking and taunting a black woman. Guests include: President of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Abed Ayoub, local African-American Muslims Anthony Merrill and Marilyn Aleem and activist Rev. Darryl Gray and local Palestinian Wahaeb.

For this special episode of the podcast, host Umar Lee sat down with scholar Ezelle Sanford III, a William G. Bowen Fellow in History at Princeton who is working on his doctoral dissertation on Homer G. Phillips Hospital. Joining him for the discussion is friend of the podcast, former comptroller and alderman, Virvus Jones. Ezelle provides an excellent historical vignette for the famed hospital located in the Ville neighborhood, talking about why it was important not just for St. Louis but the broader field of black medicine during the era of segregation in America. Virvus lends an excellent window into the politics and personalities behind the controversial and at times tense debate over the closure of the hospital, drawing on his experience both as a politician and activist during the era. Together, Ezelle and VIrvus weave a fascinating story about one of the city's most well known landmarks on the north side.