The 21st Show

Harvest season is well underway across Illinois. According to the USDA, 63% of corn and 66% of soybeans had been harvested as of Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. It’s been an expensive year, especially with the high cost of...

Tuesday night was the only scheduled debate in the campaign to be the next U.S. Senator from Illinois. Republican Don Tracy faced off against Democratic Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton. We’ll recap what happened...

Whitfield Harrington Jr., a pastor from Chicago, is running to be the next U.S. Senator from Illinois. He registered as the candidate of the American Center Party, which he also founded as a state party (not to be...

Tony Goldberg has traveled the globe investigating diseases that can move between animals and people. Sometimes that means studying the parasites that attack him along the way, including a tick that hitched a ride from...

With just weeks until the Nov. 3 midterm elections, many people are worried about what could happen — from federal agents at polling places to the president trying to "cancel" the vote. Amanda Carpenter of Protect...

This week in Chicago the two major-party candidates for Illinois governor faced off in their only debate: Democratic incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and his second-time Republican challenger Darren Bailey. We’ll...

NPR’s Daniel Burke and Scott Detrow spent a year researching the backstory of how an altar boy from Illinois became the leader of the global Catholic Church. To do that, they talked with more than a hundred people on...

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is the Democratic nominee for U.S. senator from Illinois, seeking to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin when his term ends in January 2027. In an interview recorded Friday, we talked about the war in...

Illinois native Bill Odenkirk has written for “The Simpsons” and “Futurama.” Now he’s bringing a theatrical production to Champaign — exploring the question of whether we are alone in the universe. It stars (among...

Republican Congressman Mike Bost is running for another term in Illinois’ 12th District, which includes roughly the bottom third of Illinois. We’ll talk with him about gas prices, the war in Iran, cuts to Medicaid, and...

Joshua Johnson was the host NPR’s flagship talk program, 1A. He also had shows on MSNBC and NBC News Now. Today he’s delivering satirical news for The Onion. Beyond that work, Johnson is also thinking through the ways...

James McBride is a man of many talents: musician, screenwriter, and an award-winning author. His latest novel, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” was a huge bestseller. He’s also written the memoir “The Color of...

Among the most famous episodes in the Civil War is General William Sherman’s “March to the Sea.” It split the Confederacy in half and helped bring about the end of the war. Less well known is that the march led to the...

It's been one year since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting began winding down. That came after the Trump administration realized a longtime conservative goal of ending federal funding for public radio and...

It's been one year since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting began winding down. That came after the Trump administration realized a longtime conservative goal of ending federal funding for public radio and...