The Why: Philly Explained

By WHYY

What's The Why: Philly Explained about?

There’s more to every story, if you take the time to tell it. Get to the “why” behind the issues that matter in the Greater Philadelphia region with hosts Annette John-Hall and Shai Ben-Yaacov. Each episode, they’ll pluck one local story from your feed and break it down.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Why: Philly Explained episodes:

12.14.2020
400 stories: What The Why taught us about Philly
Shai Ben-Yaacov and Annette John-Hall, the hosts of The Why, have spent the past two years asking the questions many people have in their minds after reading the news: Why is this happening? Why is this person doing this or...
12.10.2020
Will Philly’s new police oversight commission be any better?
Philadelphia has had a Police Advisory Commission for decades. In theory, it was responsible for handling complaints from citizens about police misconduct. In practice, the commission wielded little power, and the process for a single complaint to be fully adjudicated...
12.08.2020
A decade after lawsuit, Philly is still stopping and frisking
We look back on the 10th anniversary of the Philadelphia lawsuit that released decade’s worth of data showing the racial disparities of stop-and-frisk. What have we learned from this lawsuit? And why is it important that we keep tracking this...
12.07.2020
A camera, a mask and 2020’s most enduring image
Since March, Philadelphia area photographer Kyle Cassidy has taken pictures of essential workers as a part of a series called “Between Us and Catastrophe:” healthcare workers, Instacart shoppers, members of city government, sanitation workers, and more. Cassidy interviewed these workers as...
12.03.2020
$1 billion in relief sat around while Pa. businesses struggled
Last spring, small business owners in industries like food service and entertainment say they were able to limp through COVID-19 restrictions thanks to help from the CARES Act, which provided relief from the federal government. Then a second wave of COVID...
12.01.2020
The struggle is real for working women during the pandemic
In January, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a milestone: For only the second time in history, and the first during a non-recession, women held the majority of jobs in the country. It was a sign of the future and...
11.30.2020
Philly’s Wanamaker Organ has survived 2 pandemics
For many in the Philadelphia area, the holidays mean taking a trip to Macy’s in Center City to see its famous light show and listen to the symphonic sounds of the Wanamaker Organ. This year, because of the pandemic, Macy’s is...
11.24.2020
Penn’s $100 million pledge has a backstory
Christmas came early this year for the Philadelphia School District. The University of Pennsylvania pledged $100 million to go toward fixing unsafe school buildings. Over the next decade, the Ivy League institution will send $10 million to city schools each...
11.23.2020
Delaware’s new class of LGBTQ representatives
Delaware has never sworn an openly gay person into its General Assembly. That will change this January, when three members of the LGBTQ community join the legislature, making history for the state. WHYY reporter Zoë Read spoke to queer people across...
11.19.2020
Not all remote learning is created equal
As more schools decide to stay remote during the pandemic, education advocates worry about the effects of virtual learning, especially on socialization and early literacy. Keystone Crossroads reporters Miles Bryan and Emily Rizzo have been spending time with families across...
11.17.2020
Why Trump’s lawyers keep targeting Pa.
A full two weeks after the election, the Trump campaign is still challenging the Pennsylvania vote. Today, a federal judge will listen to the campaign’s arguments at a hearing in Western Pennsylvania. But legal experts say Trump’s barrage of lawsuits doesn’t...
11.16.2020
Inside Philly’s new COVID-19 restrictions
As COVID cases soar, Philadelphia is unrolling a new round of restrictions: no more indoor dining at restaurants, and gyms and movie theaters must close. City officials initially tried to avoid taking these measures, and even increased indoor capacity at...
11.12.2020
What worked for Biden in Delaware might not in D.C.
Delaware politicians are known for their civility and a spirit of compromise. It traces back to one of the state’s oldest traditions: Return Day, an 18th-century ritual that includes a carriage ride, a town crier, and a hatchet that literally...
11.10.2020
NJ voters legalized recreational marijuana — but the fight isn’t over
Last week, New Jersey voted overwhelmingly on a constitutional amendment to make recreational marijuana legal, a law that has been 10 years in the making. Philadelphia Inquirer cannabis reporter Sam Wood walks us through the Garden State’s path to legalization, which...
11.09.2020
The trauma caused by viral videos of police killing Black men
A cell phone video of the killing of West Philadelphia resident Walter Wallace Jr. was viewed more than a 1 million times. Then, on Nov. 4th, the Philadelphia Police Department released the official body camera footage of the shooting, which was...
11.05.2020
Van Drew race speaks to U.S. political divide
All across the United States, election officials are counting votes — not just for the presidential race, but for Congressional races, too. In New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew leads challenger Amy Kennedy. But it’s a tight...
11.03.2020
Why Pa. didn’t have results on Election Day
Over the weekend, President Trump said he wanted to see election results by the end of Election Day and suggested that Democrats may try to steal the election if the votes weren’t counted by then. But with record numbers of mail-in...
11.02.2020
Pa. voters speak
Tomorrow is Election Day. More than 2.4 million early ballots have already been collected in Pennsylvania. Millions more people are expected to head to the polls in person on Tuesday, masks on. WHYY and Keystone Crossroads have been talking to voters...
10.29.2020
911 program could have helped spare Walter Wallace’s life
Walter Wallace Jr.’s family says they called for an ambulance on Monday afternoon because the 27-year-old was in the midst of a mental health crisis. Police arrived instead, and Wallace was shot and killed by two officers. Only three weeks...
10.27.2020
Philly could ban using tear gas, rubber bullets on protesters
On Thursday, Philadelphia City Council is expected to pass a ban police officers’ use of tear gas, rubber bullets and other “less lethal munitions” against protesters. The city’s police department already put a moratorium on these tactics after police clashed...
10.26.2020
The chances of flipping the Pa. legislature blue
Republicans have dominated state politics in Harrisburg for decades. For Democrats, gaining control of the General Assembly has been something of a holy grail — elusive, but they’re inching closer. And this year, there’s a chance both chambers could be up for...
10.22.2020
Philly’s new legal strategy to bypass the state and enact gun laws
Philadelphia is suing state of Pennsylvania so it can enact stronger gun control laws, as at least 391 people have been murdered in the city so far this year. Philly has tried this before — in 2007, the city sued the...
10.20.2020
A historic deal on affordable housing in Philly
It was a movement born out of the George Floyd protests for racial justice: Hundreds of people who had experienced homelessness camped out on the Ben Franklin Parkway, on Ridge Avenue and squatted in empty houses across Philadelphia to demand...
10.19.2020
New push to boost LGBTQ protections in Pa.
Violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people has been on the rise for years. Here in Philly, three Black trans women have been attacked in the last six months — two of them were murdered. Michaela Winberg with WHYY’s Billy...
10.15.2020
Philly Orchestra’s first Black player’s final curtain call
When the Philadelphia Orchestra paused live performances in March, violinist Booker Rowe didn’t expect it would be his final curtain call. Rowe, the first African American to play with the orchestra, retired in August after more than 50 years. He...
10.13.2020
Toomey, Trump and the future of Pa.’s Republicans
When Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jonathan Tamari got a tip that Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey would be leaving politics after his current term, he was surprised. If he didn’t run for reelection to the Senate, Toomey was widely expected to...
10.12.2020
Rooting out Philly’s gun violence epidemic
With nearly three months left to go, more people have been murdered in Philadelphia this year than in all of 2019 and 1,655 people have been shot. The violence is tearing families and communities apart — but many Philadelphians are...
10.08.2020
Voting anxiety? Here’s what you need to know
Less than a month away from Election Day, there’s a lot of anxiety hanging over voters’ heads: an unprecedented number of people voting by mail, the coronavirus pandemic and President Trump sowing seeds of doubt over the integrity of the...
10.06.2020
SEPTA’s rampant overtime spending
The pandemic has thrown SEPTA into a budget crisis. Ridership and revenue are both way down and the agency is considering service cuts. But that didn’t stop them from spending what experts say is an unusually large amount of money...
10.05.2020
Enrolling in COVID-19 vaccine trial as a Black doctor
While surveys have found many Americans — particularly Black Americans — are wary of getting a COVID-19 vaccine if one were to become available soon, New Jersey public health doctor Chris Pernell has jumped in feet first, signing up as a...
10.01.2020
How Pennsylvania fumbled COVID-19 death counts
During the deadliest months of the pandemic so far, Pennsylvania’s new electronic death reporting system was not ready for prime time. The state still relied on faxes — yes, faxes — from funeral directors, doctors and medical examiners to create...
09.29.2020
The new COVID-19 app: the promises and the tradeoffs
As we wait for scientists to produce a COVID-19 vaccine, contract tracing is one of the most reliable ways to stop the spread. Now, Pennsylvania and Delaware have also released a new “exposure notification app” to let users know if...
09.28.2020
Why the Biden-Harris ticket needs Black Philadelphians
Pennsylvania is going to be one of the most important states — if not THE most important state — in determining the outcome of this year’s presidential election. President Trump won Pennsylvania by a narrow margin in 2016, thanks in...
09.24.2020
Want answers to Philly gun violence? Ask someone who’s lived it
More than 1,500 people have been shot in Philadelphia this year, many of them children. Over the past 20 years, the city has tried all kinds of approaches to stop gun violence — broken windows policing, and programs with names...
09.22.2020
Philly Latinos are under-tested for COVID-19
Latinos in Philadelphia make up 15% of the city’s population — but only 6% of those who’ve gotten tested for COVID-19. In fact, they’re getting tested at the lowest rate of any racial and ethnic group in the city, despite...
09.21.2020
HIV-era policy still limits gay men from giving blood during COVID
Antibody-rich plasma from people who’ve recovered from COVID-19 is one treatment being researched to help those still battling the virus. But an estimated 360,000 people willing to donate their plasma are not allowed to do so — despite the fact...
09.17.2020
Philly’s changing union labor scene
Union membership is at a historic low in the U.S. while public support for unions is on the rise. And in Philadelphia — long known as a blue-collar “labor town” — the kinds of workers organizing has been changing. The...
09.15.2020
Philly’s looming eviction crisis
Having a safe place to live has never been more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the economic fallout forced millions of people out of work, many of them struggled to pay their rent. Now, the state’s moratorium...
09.14.2020
Incarcerated instead of in treatment
Nationwide, 20% of people in jails have a mental health condition — which means there are a lot of people like Kim, who end up incarcerated instead of in treatment. That’s exactly what happened to a Bucks County woman named...
09.10.2020
COVID forced a reckoning in Philly’s restaurant scene
The pandemic and the George Floyd protests that followed brought to a boil long-simmering issues of inequity in the Philadelphia restaurant industry. Now, as COVID-19 has cut into restaurants’ razor-thin profit margins, workers are demanding change. Alex Tewfik, food editor...
09.08.2020
Racism and deadly traffic on Cobbs Creek Parkway
Avante Reynolds was a new mom with a growing YouTube following when she was killed in a hit and run on Cobbs Creek Parkway in West Philly a few weeks ago. But the driver is not the only one responsible...
09.03.2020
Community fridges a fresh form of a long Philly tradition
Here’s one good thing that’s popped up in Philly during the pandemic: community fridges full of free food to help people who have been struggling to make ends meet. It turns out the fridges are an example of something called “mutual...
09.01.2020
The Underground Railroad stop in Philly’s Fairmount Park
In the final installment of our series Why Didn’t I Go There?, The Why co-host Shai Ben-Yaacov and his 10-year-old son Gil take a virtual tour of Belmont Mansion in Fairmount Park. Our guide is Janice Sykes-Ross, the mansion’s director,...
08.31.2020
The long road back for the longterm unemployed
Pennsylvania has one of the country’s highest unemployment rates during the pandemic. And while things have gotten a little better as some businesses have reopened, people in industries that rely on interacting in person — many of whom have spent...
08.27.2020
Philly battles two public health crises
Philadelphia is hurting. Not only is the city fighting a global pandemic, but it’s also battling an escalating and deadly epidemic of gun violence. The number of people shot in Philadelphia continues to rise to historic levels, and many in...
08.25.2020
COVID-19 ‘long haulers’ face uncertain future
When the pandemic started, most doctors seemed to think that COVID was an illness that typically lasted about two weeks. Now, we know a lot of people are still experiencing sometimes debilitating symptoms weeks and months after they were infected....
08.24.2020
Detective, social worker, telemarketer: Contact tracers wear many hats
Ranem Atia works as a contact tracer and case investigator for the Philadelphia Department of Health, playing a critical role for understanding where and how fast COVID-19 is spreading and ultimately, for saving lives. It’s not an easy job. To...
08.20.2020
How the virtual show went on at Upper Darby Summer Stage
The COVID-19 pandemic threatened to make the Upper Darby Summer Stage go dark. But one of the oldest and most popular theater camps in the region (whose alumni include former Saturday Night Live cast member Tina Fey,) was determined the...
08.18.2020
Enforcing mask-wearing in Pa.? The struggle is real
Pennsylvania requires everyone to wear masks when they leave the house — but the state has left business owners, transit agencies and individuals to enforce the rule, which isn’t always easy. Miles Bryan of WHYY’s Keystone Crossroads explains how hard...
08.17.2020
Kamala Harris could help Dems court Philly’s large Indian American community
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is both the first Black woman and the first Asian American woman in history to join a major party presidential ticket. Murali Balaji is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania whose family comes from the...

What's The Why: Philly Explained about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Why: Philly Explained episodes:

400 stories: What The Why taught us about Philly

Will Philly’s new police oversight commission be any better?

A decade after lawsuit, Philly is still stopping and frisking

A camera, a mask and 2020’s most enduring image

$1 billion in relief sat around while Pa. businesses struggled

The struggle is real for working women during the pandemic

Philly’s Wanamaker Organ has survived 2 pandemics

Penn’s $100 million pledge has a backstory

Delaware’s new class of LGBTQ representatives

Not all remote learning is created equal

Why Trump’s lawyers keep targeting Pa.

Inside Philly’s new COVID-19 restrictions

What worked for Biden in Delaware might not in D.C.

NJ voters legalized recreational marijuana — but the fight isn’t over

The trauma caused by viral videos of police killing Black men

Van Drew race speaks to U.S. political divide

Why Pa. didn’t have results on Election Day

Pa. voters speak

911 program could have helped spare Walter Wallace’s life

Philly could ban using tear gas, rubber bullets on protesters

The chances of flipping the Pa. legislature blue

Philly’s new legal strategy to bypass the state and enact gun laws

A historic deal on affordable housing in Philly

New push to boost LGBTQ protections in Pa.

Philly Orchestra’s first Black player’s final curtain call

Toomey, Trump and the future of Pa.’s Republicans

Rooting out Philly’s gun violence epidemic

Voting anxiety? Here’s what you need to know

SEPTA’s rampant overtime spending

Enrolling in COVID-19 vaccine trial as a Black doctor

How Pennsylvania fumbled COVID-19 death counts

The new COVID-19 app: the promises and the tradeoffs

Why the Biden-Harris ticket needs Black Philadelphians

Want answers to Philly gun violence? Ask someone who’s lived it

Philly Latinos are under-tested for COVID-19

HIV-era policy still limits gay men from giving blood during COVID

Philly’s changing union labor scene

Philly’s looming eviction crisis

Incarcerated instead of in treatment

COVID forced a reckoning in Philly’s restaurant scene

Racism and deadly traffic on Cobbs Creek Parkway

Community fridges a fresh form of a long Philly tradition

The Underground Railroad stop in Philly’s Fairmount Park

The long road back for the longterm unemployed

Philly battles two public health crises

COVID-19 ‘long haulers’ face uncertain future

Detective, social worker, telemarketer: Contact tracers wear many hats

How the virtual show went on at Upper Darby Summer Stage

Enforcing mask-wearing in Pa.? The struggle is real

Kamala Harris could help Dems court Philly’s large Indian American community