© 2025 Interlochen
CLASSICAL IPR | 88.7 FM Interlochen | 94.7 FM Traverse City | 88.5 FM Mackinaw City IPR NEWS | 91.5 FM Traverse City | 90.1 FM Harbor Springs/Petoskey | 89.7 FM Manistee/Ludington
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our engineer is working to address signal trouble on IPR News Radio's transmitter serving Manistee and Ludington. Learn more.

Illinois

  • Kankakee Mallow flowers, one of the rarest plants on the continent, blooming on Langham Island in Illinois, just an hour south of Chicago. (credit: Claire Keenan-Kurgan / Points North)
    The Pink Prairie Mascot
    Claire Keenan-Kurgan
    In 2014, a group of botanists discovered that a very rare plant native to the Kankakee River in Illinois, had vanished from its only known native habitat in the world. That set off a quest to bring back the missing Midwestern flower.
  • A Petri dish with Physarum polycephalum, or slime mold. Computer science researcher Jasmine Lu used the slime mold as a “living wire” in a smartwatch at the University of Chicago. (credit: Jasmine Lu)
    My Little Slime
    Ellie Katz
    What would happen if our devices were alive? Would it change the way we treat them? One researcher in Chicago wanted to find out. So she made a smartwatch that has to be fed and watered to work.
  • Bluegill is the state fish of Illinois. In 1960, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley presented Prince Akihito of Japan with a gift of 18 bluegill. Later, those fish would change the underwater ecosystem of Japan forever.
    The Prince Fish
    In October 1960, Prince Akihito of Japan visited Chicago for 21 hours. Chicago’s mayor presented the prince with a diplomatic gift: 18 bluegill. What happened next would change the underwater world of Japan forever.
  • Bluegill is the state fish of Illinois. In 1960, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley presented Prince Akihito of Japan with a gift of 18 bluegill. Later, those fish would change the underwater ecosystem of Japan forever.
    The Prince Fish
    Ellie Katz
    In October 1960, Prince Akihito of Japan visited Chicago for 21 hours. Chicago’s mayor presented the prince with a diplomatic gift: 18 bluegill. What happened next would change the underwater world of Japan forever.