Inspired by StoryCorps National Day of Listening, the Illinois Humanities Council has partnered with WBEZ-Chicago to present "Ask Me Why", a collection of interviews featuring pairs of individuals who disagree on an issue, taking turns asking each other questions in order to better understand each other and their position.

Once a month, WBEZ's education reporter Linda Lutton breaks down the Chicago Board of Education meetings with Eight Forty-Eight's Alison Cuddy. Check here for analysis and to hear complete audio from the meetings.

For nearly two decades, WBEZ teamed up with its colleagues at WTTW 11, the Chicago Reporter and the Chicago Public Library to produce Chicago Matters, an annual in-depth public information series funded in part by the Chicago Community Trust. In 2007, Chicago Matters: Beyond Borders chronicled the impact of immigrants on the Chicago region, the debate over immigration policy, the role of immigrant labor, and the social and cultural lives of immigrant communities themselves. In the process, the series earned multiple awards.

Most Fridays, Eight Forty-Eight features music throughout the show from a live DJ. DJs hit the decks and provide the soundtrack before joining Alison Cuddy for a conversation about their craft.

Our dueling theater critics, Kelly Kleiman and Jonathan Abarbanel, discuss the latest stage productions and share their choices for the best, and the worst, on the theater scene.

Dr. Greg Scott is a Sociology professor and documentary filmmaker. He has explored the economy of the underground drug market, and reported on the controversial use of the heroin antidote Narcan. The Brickyard is a West Side community that employs and houses Chicago-area addicts. Dr. Scott spent time there, documenting the residents' stories for both film and radio.

For nearly a year, WBEZ explored the real-world forces driving the high dropout rate inside Chicago’s public high schools. Our team of reporters - including Linda Lutton, Julia McEvoy and Natalie Moore – spent much of the school year deeply immersed in the lives of the students, teachers, administrators and parents at Robeson High School in Englewood on Chicago’s South Side. The series earned multiple journalism awards and audience plaudits for its deeply engaging, insightful and rich, narrative approach to education reporting.

Coming this June we'll present stories about the Great Lakes and the communities that rely on them for survival. We’ll unearth new trends affecting industry. We’ll look at the state of the environment and how governments are managing their natural resources. We’ll check in with communities on the shores and see how they're faring in these tough economic times. Through video, slideshows and audio reports we’ll share our investigations and give you an intimate look at the region. Let us know if there’s something you’d like to explore.  

Global Activism features individuals with Chicago ties who want to make the world a better place. Listen live on Thursdays or subscribe to the Global Activism podcast. If you know someone to nominate for the series, fill out this form. And mark your calendars: join us Saturday, April 28, 2012 at UIC Forum for the 5th Annual Global Activism Expo. Click here for details. Chicago Public Media (WBEZ) has not independently investigated any persons or organizations that appear on the Global Activism series and does not endorse any such person or organization.      

Ground Shifters: Stories of Women Changing Unseen Worlds is part of an ongoing collaboration between WBEZ and the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women & Gender in the Arts & Media at Columbia College-Chicago called "Gender, Human Rights, Leadership, and Media." The Institute develops projects with journalists, artists, human rights workers and activists to investigate global issues. Bolivia-based journalist, Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, a Fall 2010 Institute Fellow, presents a five-part series featuring stories of women and girls in Bolivia and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico - Executive Producer, Steve Bynum. Producer/Creative Advisor, Jane Saks.

Hard Working took a look at jobs and joblessness. Using the radio, the internet, and face-to-face conversations, WBEZ started and encouraged conversations about work and unemployment. We followed job seekers through the ins and outs of the job hunt, found out who’s hiring and who’s firing, and talked about what “work” means to you.

Music news, gossip, interviews and the weather from the underground. Hosted by Jessica Hopper and J.R. Nelson bringing their insightful crit-wit to the podcast genre. Produced by the deft hands of Michael Catano. Follow Hit It Or Quit It on Twitter, become friends on Facebook, drop them an email and by all means subscribe in iTunes!

What if prisons redeemed kids instead of warehousing them? That was the mission Illinois took up three and a half years ago, when it separated juvenile prisons from adult ones. And it’s one of the questions at the heart of WBEZ’s series Inside and Out. The series includes personal stories, investigative reports, interviews, analysis, photo essays and community events. We invite you to participate in an ongoing conversation about juvenile justice.

Founded in 2001, the annual "Louder Than A Bomb" teen poetry slam engages schools and community organizations from all over the Chicago area. This friendly competition gathers the best and brightest young writers (age 13-19) from thoughtout the region with the winners going on to represent Chicago at the national level.  Each year since 2005, WBEZ has invited competition Finalists into our studios to record their work. To hear the full-length recordings of many Louder Than a Bomb 2011 events, click here.

After more than 20 years in office, Mayor Richard M. Daley is not seeking re-election. As we gear up for the municipal elections in February, we look back at Daley's legacy in Chicago. From food to housing, media to education, we evaluate how the Mayor has left his mark on the city, and what the new boss of City Hall will face in his or her tenure. 

Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard joins WBEZ's Dan Weissmann the first Thursday of every month at 7pm to take your questions and comments about the state of education in the nation's third largest school district. Our next show is February 2. We invite you to participate! Submit a question or comment in advance by emailing schoolsontheline@wbez.org or leaving a voicemail at 312-948-4886. 

The mission of StoryCorps is to provide a forum for everyone to share their story. When the mobile booth stopped in the Windy City, Chicagoans came out to tell the moving, funny and uniquely Chicago stories of their lives. One of the largest oral history projects of its kind, StoryCorps can be heard on NPR's Morning Edition.

When Rahm Emanuel took the oath of office on May 16, 2011, he wasted little time outlining an ambitious new agenda for the nation's third largest city - and set a 100-day benchmark for many new policy and programmatic initiatives. WBEZ is covering the Emanuel administration's first 100 days through a series of stories, reports, interviews and conversations. They chronicle the early days of the first new mayoral administration in 22 years - and assess the progress toward key goals.

When Barack Obama took office in 2009, he was stepping into the height of a recession, two wars and an increasing unemployment rate. WBEZ is covering the happenings from the Obama administration affect and how those decisions are affecting the president's home state.

Every Friday, a different guest from Chicago shares his or her choices for the upcoming weekend. Tune in for help in planning your weekend!

A single mom turned CEO of a scrap-metal empire. A halal chicken butcher coping with rising prices. Entrepreneurs who want to know, why can’t you farm fish in Chicago? Venture is WBEZ’s weekly jumpstart on the week in business – going beyond the numbers to reveal how the local economy ticks. Each week, we venture into the local business world to find people who can give us insight into the health of the economy, and reveal the shared human experience of making ends meet.