St. Louis Magazine March 2024

HERE'S A FUN FACT: Harry S. Truman at one time owned a haberdashery. Yes, he was also a farmer (and never earned a college degree, a rarity among presidents of the 20th century), a politician (at a time when predicting election outcomes was equally tricky), and a president (who purportedly described J. Robert Oppenheimer as a “crybaby scientist”). For two years, though, he also owned Truman & Jacobson Haberdashery, at 12th and Baltimore in Kansas City. So perhaps it's no wonder that he looks so dapper in his official presidential portrait, painted by artist Greta Kempton. Like Truman, there was far more to the painter than appeared on the surface, as writer Jeannette Cooperman reveals (p. 68). Having grown up in southwest Missouri, less than five minutes from where Truman…

GATEWAY TOPIC A SINCE THE GOLDEN AGE OF science fiction, artificial intelligence has entailed a bit of existential horror, with computer scientists like Claude Shannon warning, “I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans.” But what if, in the near term, AI meant were all able to skip through tiresome meetings or better identify and address inequities? Enter Hello Citizen, a new St. Louis– based AI startup seeking to create a more democratic information landscape. In 2021, John Stamm left his job as chief of stafffor Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and considered his next move. His time in government made him realize that citizens typically only see the end result of the political process. However, if people better understood how governments come to…

MORE TO KNOW Both St. Louis City and County governments post recordings of their various departmental meetings to YouTube. They range from press conferences and committee meetings to legislative reports and liquor application hearings. But it's clear from the public view counts that not many citizens are regularly tuning in to what's happening when local government assembles. City of St. Louis 582 total videos posted in 2023 MOST VIEWED: Board of Aldermen, Jan. 13, 2023 (843 views) LEAST VIEWED: Legislation Committee, Sept. 12, 2023 (9 views) St. Louis County 188 total videos posted in 2023 MOST VIEWED: Collaborative Budget Meeting, Jan. 24, 2023 (116 views) LEAST VIEWED: St Louis County Human Relations Commission Meeting, March 10, 2023 (1 view)…

1. GLOBE This ball was inspired by the parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude that you would expect to see on a globe. It features 125 unique panels and natural materials sourced from every continent. 2. MITRE HISTORY Using slivers of old Mitre brand balls, Wheatley gifted this ball to the Lost Lionesses, the first women's team to represent England. 3. THE 92 It was the first ball made by Wheatley that he actually loved—and the first that will be released in a limited supply through 12 Pentagons. 4. PREDATOR Made from parts of recycled adidas Predator cleats, Wheatley was invited to adidas headquarters in Germany to test the ball with the German National Team. 5. ORANGE PEEL This is what happens when a fondness for citrus fruit and…

Last spring, a few weeks after Diego Gigliani joined St. Louis City SC as the club's new president and general manager, he flew to St. Louis to catch his first game. He picked a good one. Sporting Kansas City was in town for the first meeting between natural rivals. Downtown West crackled with the energy of 20,000 fans pulling for the good guys. The 4–0 St. Louis victory was thrilling enough, but it was the matchday revelry and full-throated support that opened his eyes to CITY's potential. “I felt this recognition that if this is what the team is able to produce in the first year, after just a few months of existence, then the future is super bright for a club like this,” Gigliani says. “I recall walking away…

RHYTHM PRELUDE ST. LOUIS–BORN comedy superstar Kathleen Madigan had a busy 2023. Her Amazon Prime Video special, Hunting Bigfoot, premiered last spring, and she followed it up with two tours: Do You Have Any Ranch? and Boxed Wine & Tiny Banjos (which included a hometown stop at Stifel in November). That was all while recording a weekly podcast, Madigan's Pubcast, from her home in the Ozarks and making time to guest on other projects. After more than 30 years in the comedy biz, Madigan is showing no signs of slowing down. She's currently zig-zagging the country on her coast-to-coast Potluck Party 2024 tour. And this month, Hunting Bigfoot will make its audio debut on SiriusXM. Madigan says that in the months since her special began streaming on Prime, it has had…