Join us at St. Louis Public Radio on June 26th for an evening of true, personal stories about going outside to find our inner self. Hosted by Sam Lyons and Peter Michalski. Doors at 6:30pm. Show starts at 7:00pm.
Stories by:
Jane Sueme
Jane has held a variety of jobs, including owning a small publishing business and now a beekeeping supply business - something she developed from a passion/hobby of keeping honey bees. She has earned master-level certification from the University of Montana and Cornell University yet finds the most fulfillment in her chosen profession rooted in some early childhood challenges.
Chris Geden is passionate about serving his community and building access to and appreciation of nature and the outdoors. Whether for work or personal, he loves being on the water, and the beautiful way adventure and peace can combine into one experience.
Katie Houck serves as the Executive Director of Urban Harvest STL, an urban farming non-profit committed to building a community around inclusive and resilient local food systems. While her early years were spent in the cornfields and cow pastures of central Illinois, Urban Harvest STL is Katie’s first real experience with farming. Until 2021, she worked at Tulane University’s Center for Public Service in New Orleans - connecting students, faculty members, and community partners to create sustainable relationships and build resilient communities. She also managed the university’s disaster recovery community outreach programming.
Katie is passionate about improving food access and building sustainable and equitable food systems. In New Orleans, she served on the New Orleans Fruit Tree Project board, an organization focused on gleaning surplus citrus from backyard trees to commercial orchards. Katie also volunteered with the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine’s community health cooking classes and Second Harvest food distribution and feeding programs. She is a passionate cook and an avid (albeit aspirant) gardener.
Urban Harvest STL manages 6 urban farms located in the City of St. Louis. Annually, they grow over 6000 pounds of organic produce, donating at least 80% of the harvest to food assistance programs across the city. Additionally, they provide urban agriculture educational opportunities for beginning farmers and manage a preschool garden program at two early childhood education centers.
Since moving to St. Louis two decades ago, Elizabeth Simons has travelled all over the region to get an up-close and personal look at our interconnected rivers, streams, forests, reconstructed prairies, and wetland habitats as well as the people, plants, and animals who call these places home. She has worked for Great Rivers Greenway for over a decade to help build a regional network of greenways that provides every St. Louisan with an opportunity to enjoy living more of our lives outside. You can often find Elizabeth in local parks walking with her loving partner and poorly behaved dog, running at a not-so-fast speed, eating food that tastes better than it looks, reading books and internet articles with more pictures than words, and sketching plants and animals. She volunteers as an outdoor educator in local parks and schools. Although she nearly failed history class in high school, she now enjoys learning about the events of our region’s past that shape issues in St. Louis today and will influence the landscape of who and what lives and grows here tomorrow.
More storytellers to be announced soon!