Mary Edwards

The new pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is the first-ever Jesuit pope and the first non-European pope of the modern era.  He is the first to adopt the name Francis.

Pope Francis now leads the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

Host Don Marsh spoke with a variety of guests to talk about the meaning behind Pope Francis’ selection and about some of the major controversial issues within the Church, including clergy sexual abuse, the role of women and same sex marriage.

For years, the three R’s of a basic education have been reading, writing and arithmetic.

While there are some indications that American students are faltering in reading and writing, especially worrisome is arithmetic.

Among the world’s industrialized nations, the United States is far down the list on math proficiency and math literacy, well behind such countries as Liechtenstein and Slovakia.

David Sheff is a journalist and New York Times best-selling author. 

In 2008, he wrote a memoir, Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction, about how his family dealt with his son‘s methamphetamine addiction.

In a new book, Sheff argues that addicts suffer from an illness and are not simply victims of their own bad choices.  “We must acknowledge addiction is an illness…and not just bad behavior…because we punish bad behavior…we treat illness,” Sheff writes.

On Friday, April 12th, a dozen acts in the St. Louis Teen Talent Competition will square off in the finals, competing for college scholarships, prizes and public appearance opportunities.

The Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation holds the event to “foster the emerging talent in the St. Louis performing arts community…and to present an adjudicated competition showcasing the splendidly talented teens of the St. Louis Metropolitan area.”

April is national poetry month and as part of the commemoration, the St. Louis Poetry Center holds “The Belle of Blueberry Hill: Emily Dickinson at the Duck Room.”

While the St. Louis Poetry Center features the work of many poets and writers over the course of a year, the influential work of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is on focus at the organization’s upcoming event.

In 1862, Dickinson sent a letter containing four poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who would later write of her, a “wholly new and original poetic genius.”