WBHM Reporters Discuss Their Favorite Stories From the Past Year
WBHM’s news team is hard at work each day, bringing you in-depth radio stories you won’t hear anywhere else. In this program, we showcase some of the best work from WBHM over the past year, and each reporter gives WBHM news director Rachel Osier Lindley a behind-the-scenes look into their reporting process.
Sarah Delia discusses her award-winning story “Restoring the Lyric.” As officials work to restore the Lyric Theatre in downtown Birmingham some obstacles could be expected: funding the project, removing lead paint and plumbing issues. But there are tougher, less obvious challenges too. When the Lyric opened in 1914, Birmingham was a city with lines of segregation and the theatre reflects that. So how do you faithfully restore a historic building still physically marked by the city’s racist past?
WBHM education reporter Dan Carsen explores the challenges he faced reporting “Homebound Student Doing Much More Than Surviving,” the story of Joseph Walter. Walter suffers from Pompe disease. It’s a rare and often fatal illness that attacks the heart and skeletal muscles. Many people with the early onset form don’t survive past childhood. But Walter is not only surviving, he’s thriving, and just finished his first year of college. Carsen’s story won two Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards — for Best Use of Sound and Best Feature Reporting.
Andrew Yeager talks about his story “Remembering Bloody Sunday as the Voting Rights Act is Challenged.” The story, which won a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Writing, looks at the 2013 commemoration of Bloody Sunday in Selma. In 1965, civil rights protesters attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery but were quickly met by police billy clubs and tear gas. Bloody Sunday galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act at that time. While the commemoration is an annual event, 2013’s commemoration came just days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge to a portion of the law.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia detained by ICE during Baltimore check-in
The detention, which was expected, happened after Abrego Garcia walked into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Baltimore for a check-in after being released from custody on Friday.
Voters weigh in on Birmingham’s future ahead of city election
Birmingham voters will choose from among nine candidates for mayor in elections Tuesday. When residents around the city were asked to share what is on their minds as they head to the ballot box, two issues rose to the top.
Whatever happened to … the race to cure HIV? There’s promising news
At the International AIDS Society meeting this year, a young woman from South Africa spoke. She is the first Black woman from Africa to be potentially cured of HIV.
These fish may feel pleasure while being groomed by other fish
An experiment with threadfin butterflyfish finds that these fish may experience pleasure while being cleaned by bluestreak cleaner wrasse — suggesting this capacity goes far back in animal evolution.
South Korean President Lee to meet with Trump in Washington on Monday
At a summit meeting in Washington, D.C. on Monday, the U.S. and South Korean presidents will discuss modernizing their 71-year-old alliance and fleshing out a trade deal reached last month.
Confusion, explosive anger, waiting: A ‘quiet’ day in New York immigration court
Dozens of immigration courts across the country have become epicenters of the Trump administration's efforts to increase the rate of immigration arrests.
