Sasha-Ann Simons

2 weeks ago | wbez.org | Dennis Rodkin |Sasha-Ann Simons

The three-story brick building where the National Public Housing Museum is opening isn’t only the last of the 32 buildings that once made up the Jane Addams Homes, Chicago’s first public housing development. It’s also a remnant of its time when public housing was meant to be human-scaled and homey. An exhibit at The National Public Housing Museum shows a recreation of a living room.

1 month ago | wbez.org | Sasha-Ann Simons

Until about 100 years ago, death was revered as a natural and sacred part of life. But then the rise of the funeral industry at the turn of the century, coupled with modern society’s longevity obsession, made death foreign and scary. Former hospice nurse Suzanne O’Brien has been at the bedside of thousands of dying patients across the globe. She’s on a mission to remind us that death is not a medical experience, but rather a human one.

1 month ago | wbez.org | Dennis Rodkin |Sasha-Ann Simons

The stately Beaux-Arts looks of the Uptown Station can’t help but grab your eye at Wilson Avenue and Broadway in the Uptown neighborhood. The structure’s doorway is flanked by medallions draped with floral garlands, a clock and lanterns set into the arched top. Uptown Station is a stunning relic of the 1920s, when getting around the city and suburbs by train was the norm and the neighborhood was a stylish place to be. But the building didn’t look this good for its entire 102-year history.

2 months ago | wbez.org | Sasha-Ann Simons

In 1965 in Cambridge, scholar and civil rights icon James Baldwin faced off with conservative leader William F. Buckley, debating the question, “Is the American Dream achieved at the expense of the American Negro?”Sixty years later, the play “Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley” at DePaul University’s TimeLine Theater captures the current relevance of that conversation.

2 months ago | wbez.org | Mary Norkol |Kristen Schorsch |Sasha-Ann Simons |Fran Spielman

BOSTON — Attorneys general from 22 states filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration for slashing funding for medical and public health research at universities nationwide. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston challenges the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health over efforts to reduce funding that goes to so-called indirect costs — including lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs.