Meet Me

Eleven months after a deadly tornado tore through St. Louis the “Meet Me” team organized a community open mic event. Residents were invited to share experiences and reflections about the tornado almost a year later. Their stories in their words.

The father-and-son team behind Dogtown Pizza, a family-owned frozen pizza business in St. Louis, sit down for a candid conversation. They discuss the early challenges of building the company and how, years later, they worked together to dramatically expand it. They also share a heart-to-heart about the son’s plans to step away from the business and pursue his own dreams.

During a surprise press conference on Thursday, March 12, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said the region’s residents should embark on a discussion about combining aspects of St. Louis and St. Louis County government — including the city reentering the county as a municipality.

What happens when a border becomes more than a line on a map? In this episode of “Meet Me,” residents living near the St. Louis city-county line describe what it means to live along a divide that shapes daily life. We also dive into one of the most ambitious attempts to reunite the city and county, the Better Together plan from 2019. Through interviews with civic leaders, elected officials and longtime political voices, host Luis Antonio Perez explores how the plan gained momentum, why it failed and what its collapse reveals about power, trust, race and regional identity in St. Louis.

150-years ago, St. Louis chose to split itself in two. The decision created an enduring divide that still shapes the region today. In this episode of Meet Me host, Luis Antonio Perez, visits a family whose home sits right on the city-county line and explores the origin of the split with historian Andrew Wanko.

In St. Louis, it doesn’t take much to find a divide. There are the invisible lines we draw around politics, high schools — even what toppings belong on a pizza. And then, there are the big divides, like the 150-year-old split between St. Louis city and county. “Meet Me” is all about connecting across divides to find a way forward.