Stress can affect childhood development. Hear from an expert whether the pandemic may delay kids speech and language. You can "BEE" a fan of plucky pollinators with a visit to Wild Harvest Honey festival in Heyworth. Karen Zangerle masterminded a 2-1-1 hotline to provide access to help in McLean and 48 other Illinois Counties. Zangerle is retiring from the agency after 36 years. Plus, who among homeowners in the Midwest has not experienced the tyranny of the turf?

A Bloomington Normal doctor says physicians are seeing cancer and pre cancer in younger and younger patients. That colonoscopy you really don't want at age fifty? Yeah, an influential panel recommends you start at 45 instead. A tall building is a lot like a car. You drive it a while the parts wear out and you either do an expensive rebuild or you get a new one. Hear how to assess Bloomington Normal buildings in the wake of the Miami condo collapse. Plus LGBTQ students get a safe space and living community. ISU designates a part of Watterson Towers as the Rainbow floor. The head of ISU Pride tells you why it's necessary.

Connect Transit's new general manager says he wants to explore new technologies to build on the sustainability of public transportation. David Braun says he welcomes the addition of electric buses though the technology is not quite mature. The Electrification Coalition is siding with Rivian in a battle whether you can sell cars directly and not through dealers. The Coalition says cars ought to be like I-phones, available everywhere. That has sales tax implications for cities. Congressman Darin LaHood says he's still optimistic about an infrastructure bill.

Nursing homes suffered financially during the pandemic as families avoided putting residents there. Perhaps a quarter of long term care facilities won't make it through the next year. The McLean County Nursing Home might have taken less of a hit than most. Bloomington Normal landlords say a lot of tenants haven't paid rent in a long time. They say they don't want to evict anyone, but will do what they have to. And the Mayor of Normal sayeth the state legislature giveth and the state legislature taketh away. A transfer of firefighters and police from tier two to tier one pension plans wipes out previous efficiencies.

A Bloomington attorney and Lincoln scholar has given a letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to a Peoria Attorney, to the Lincoln Library and Presidential Museum in Springfield. It's a window into the mind of Lincoln as a politician and person in transition. Hear a reckoning of the costs of COVID in the things you can't do: lost health and lost opportunity from the pandemic in McLean County. Gardening is good for the body, mind and soul. Sarah Davis sure thought so. The WGLT Datebook takes you on the Glorious Garden Walk at the David Davis Mansion. Hear about the delicious and the dangerous poke sallet. It's tasty but sometimes toxic.

Connect Transit gave more than a million rides during the pandemic. The head of the board for Bloomington Normal's bus system says that alone makes the case transit is a community must have as ridership rises again. Plus, progress to rework the Pantagraph building into a transfer center.Racial violence. Family trauma. The price of security. It's pretty heady stuff for a comic book movie. Scott Jordan is one-half of WGLT's Psych Geeks team -- dissecting the release of Marvel's "Black Widow" and its place in the always changing popular culture. Blues Traveler plays the Corn Crib. Jon Norton has the interview about the group's early dreams and new realities.

On today's episode, the owner of a McLean County farm tallies up the damage after last month's historic rain. A pro-EV group makes the case of battery-powered buses and semis. And a new installment of our McHistory series.

On today's episode of Sound Ideas, you'll hear about Heartland Community College's first electric vehicle training program. A leading cybersecurity expert in Illinois talks about what resources will be necessary to protect the country's information infrastructure. Plus, a new installment of Beyond Sports.

Some authors published decades ago in a ground breaking ISU based journal of Black Literature are still working today. Hear about Obsidian Literature & Arts. So, you spend a lot of time and effort making your garden look faaaan-tast-ic and get nothing else out of it. Now, you can do that AND grow something you can eat. The pandemic brought fear, uncertainty, stress, boredom, and, it turns out, artistic fuel for a new twin cities exhibit by Susan Emmerson and Lisa Walcott. Finally, hear a hip hop song collaboration between Bloomington and Chicago grassroots art schools.

ISU's new President says student athletes should not have to go to the food bank. She supports a supreme court ruling allowing athletes to earn from their status. On her first day on the job, WGLT devotes all of Sound Ideas to an interview with ISU's 20th President and first female top executive, Terri Goss Kinzy. The issues we cover include: how ISU can resist the nationwide trend of declining enrollment caused by drops in the number of high school graduates, state funding or the lack thereof, whether society views higher education as a public good any longer, and whether to mandate student Coronavirus vaccinations.