In this episode of Saint Louis In Tune, Arnold Stricker introduces Brian Joseph, investigative journalist and author of 'Vegas Concierge: Sex Trafficking, Hip Hop, and Corruption in America.' The discussion delves into the operational intricacies of sex trafficking, the societal challenges faced by survivors, and how communities can support anti-trafficking efforts.

Joseph shares insights from his extensive investigation into a sex trafficking ring, highlighting the interplay between Las Vegas' casino industry and law enforcement's approach to prostitution. The conversation also touches on the influence of hip hop culture on societal norms, investigative journalism, and the emotional toll of reporting on such heavy topics. Resources for those affected by trafficking are provided below, emphasizing the importance of education and support.

[00:00] Introduction and Key Questions

[00:31] Welcome to St. Louis In Tune

[01:11] Return to Civility

[02:19] Introducing Brian Joseph

[03:04] Brian's Background and Book Overview

[04:06] The Vegas Sex Trafficking Investigation

[08:34] Challenges in Investigative Reporting

[16:54] The Intersection of Hip Hop and Sex Trafficking

[20:04] Emotional Impact and Public Reception

[25:09] Future Plans and Final Thoughts

[29:15] Resources and Conclusion

#sextrafficking #humantrafficking #Vegassextrafficking #BrianJoseph #traffickingsurvivors #investigativejournalism #traffickingawareness #humantraffickinghotline #VegasConcierge

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• Vegas Concierge: Sex Trafficking, Hip Hop, and Corruption In America by Brian Joseph – The book by newspaper reporter and investigative journalist Brian Joseph

This is Season 8! Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or on our website where you can find more episodes: stlintune.com

Links referenced in this episode:

• stlintune.com
• jccstl.org
• showpass.com
• help@humantraffickinghotline.org

RESOURCES

National

• National Human Trafficking Hotline; 888.373.7888 available 24/7, SMS: 233733 (Text "HELP" or "INFO")
• Elevate Academy-online school for survivors
• F.R.E.E. (Find, Restore, Embrace, Empower) International: social/legal services
• National Trafficking Sheltered Alliance: network of organizations offering services
• Refuge for Women: continuum of care for female survivors of sex trafficking/exploitation
• Shared Hope International: prevent, restore, bring justice through training, intervention, legislation
• StreetLight USA: residential services for female, at-risk, adolescent victims of child sex trafficking
• Together Freedom: long- and short-term care for girls who have become victims
• United Abolitionists: network of first responders fighting human trafficking

Missouri

• Gateway Alliance Against Human Trafficking: education & training to end human trafficking
• Crisis Aid International: SAFE Initiative-global response to child sexual exploitation & trafficking; Child Anti-Exploitation Partnership (CAP) Program with St. Louis County Police & Missouri ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) Division to reach sexually exploited children BEFORE trafficking begins
• Healing Action: partners with survivors & the community to end commercial sexual exploitation through community awareness, client advocacy, and a comprehensive array of services
• Coalition Against Trafficking and Exploitation (CATE): a united community movement to prevent & respond to human trafficking & exploitation through education/training, events, and resources
• International Institute of St. Louis: resources for refugees and immigrants
• The Covering House: youth residential home, community-based services

I want to ask our listeners some questions. Do you know how sex trafficking operates? Do you know the challenges faced by survivors of sex trafficking?

Do you know what individuals and communities can do to support anti trafficking efforts? You can find out more about that today on St. Louis in Tune. Welcome to St.

Louis Intune and thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Langston who is on assignment. I want to mention folks that if you enjoy the things that you hear on St.

Louis in Tune, you can catch additional shows@stlintune.com and I really encourage you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, your preferred podcast platform, or our website st.lintune.com your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue to grow. We have a very important discussion today with our guest on sex trafficking.

Before we begin that, we're going to read a section on Return to Civility. Greet people with eye contact, a handshake or a hug. Start your conversation off on the right foot and show people that you appreciate and value them.

That is a really important thing.

Now, unless you're very familiar with them, a hug may not be appropriate depending upon the situation of how long you've known them and whether they like hugging or not. But it's a great place to start off a conversation with eye contact and especially with a handshake.

And a lot of times people don't like handshakes either. So you have to be cognizant of what's going on and read the person. But eye contact most definitely is very important.

And the last part about that is appreciate and value them. Many people are not valued in our society today and that's unfortunate.

Our guest talks about how individuals in our society have been devalued and how many times we don't know that these victims, we think the perpetrators aren't the victims, but some of these so called perpetrators are the victims. On the line is Brian Joseph. He's the author of Vegas Sex Trafficking, Hip Hop and Corruption in America.

He's worked as a newspaper reporter and investigative journalist for about 20 years, writing for the Las Vegas Review Journal, the Orange County Register, and the Sacramento Bee, among other publications.

Folks, you need to check that out. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, daughter and their talkative orange tabby, Nemo. Brian, welcome to St. Louis in Tune.

Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

I guess the first thing I should ask you is do you still love Nebraska football?

I do. I'm a, I'm a huge Nebraska football fan. I did attend the University of Missouri, but I grew up in Nebraska. Much of my family still lives there.

And look, I grew up watching my beloved grandparents live and die with every play of the Huckers and you can't just get that out of your blood. I spent Missouri. I love my time there, but I'm going to be a Huck until the day I die.

There you go. So you have black and gold that reverses into red and white, right? No, I appreciate the book and it's the title drew me in, but it not confused me.

It sent my mind a different direction. When I saw Vegas Concierge, Sex trafficking, hip hop and corruption in America.

I thought you were going to be writing that you had talked to concierges at various hotels in Las Vegas and got the real scoop. But that's. You went a totally different direction. So tell us a little bit about the title and then tell us why you wrote the book.

So the title refer to Vegas Concierge refers to of an escort service that it sort of is at the center of the book. The book focuses on a, on a years long investigation into a sex trafficking ring involving a court service.

And it uses the story of that sex trafficking investigation as a narrative for how American society fails the victims and survivors of sex trafficking.

Now this was something that I know as I've read the book and you've gone on, you were working as an investigative reporter looking into sex trafficking and you hadn't really gotten the break that you needed and ended up having to put that on the shelf, so to speak.

But then you got another break to really, that really opened up the door for the book and that was with one of the former police officers in Metro, which I guess is what they call the Las Vegas Police Department.

But that justice system and Metro and the casino owners and the politicians and the feds, there's not really a lot of cooperation, but there's like a collaborative collusion, if I would put it that way.

As you talked in the book, you said, hey, no, we're not going to check these johns out here, we're not going to disturb the prostitutes here because it's going to upset the casino owners. Go into that a little bit about the ups and the downs of all of those areas.

Law enforcement, justice, the politicians, feds, and the casino owners, certainly.

So as the name of the book implies, it is focused primarily on Vegas, although it does, in the end, cover the entire country. But the primary focus of the book is Vegas. And Vegas is a company town, and the company being the casino industry.

And there's a large incentive for everybody in Las Vegas to protect the golden goose, so to speak, that is the casino industry. And I don't think it any comes as any surprise.

The casino industry is intimately aware in Las Vegas of the pep prostitute subculture that exists in the city and how strong and widespread it is. That said, tourists come to Vegas. They often are coming to Vegas for the, quote, Sin City experience.

They want to engage in a number of activities that are, shall we say, on the margins of what's considered acceptable American society. And they also may be confused about what the laws are in Las Vegas and Nevada.

It's important to understand that there are parts of Nevada not law, but rural parts of Nevada where prostitution under certain conditions involving brothels is legal. The casinos, however, have no incentive to educate their. Their clients, the people staying at their hotels, what the law really is.

Because the casinos were to say to a patron, no, sex isn't legal here. You need to drive an hour out of Vegas.

That patron might leave the casino floor, leave the property, and then in fact, drive an hour outside to partake in a. In legal prostitution at a. At a bad brothel. The casinos don't want to do that.

Casinos want to keep their patrons on the site for as long as they possibly can because that's how they make money. And so as a result, there's all these different incentives not come down particularly hard on the issue of prostitution in Las Vegas.

And that then spread to every other corner of the. Of civil society in Las Vegas. That can rub off in formal ways at the highest levels of the police department.

It can potentially affect other institutions, the media, the judicial system, all of those things. And so it really comes back to the fact that in many ways, Las Vegas and Nevada as a whole depends on the. On the Strip itself as a money maker.

And there's just really not a lot of financial incentive to truly come down hard on this issue and address it in the way that's most appropriate.

I was reading just astounded at some of the things, and you see some of these things on television, like in shows, but there's nothing like what happens in Real life. And you get into some real nitty gritty in the book, your conversations with some of the prostitutes.

And I don't know if you really were able to have some honest conversation with some of the quote unquote pimps and those who put those women and men out there. What. How hard was it to get their particular trust to be able to get you to write some things down and create some dialogue and get some information?

This was the hardest project I've ever been involved in. The amount of time and effort it took to build trust and relationships with various sources within mend. I can't overstate that enough.

This was a very difficult story to research and to get to the bottom of. And it frankly just took a lot of time to do.

And I think because of the difficulties in it, because of the challenges inherent to this sort of research, I think that's why there's so many misconceptions about this world. That's simply because it's just very difficult to get to the bottom of it. I felt compelled to do, but I also have the ability to.

To do it on my own time.

As an author, if you're working for a news organization with an editor breathing back your neck, you might not be able to have the time necessary to do the kind of research and then to build the kind of relationships that are required to pull off a story like this.

And I would like for you to expand on that a little bit because investigative reporting, distinguish that between regular reporting, investigative reporting, and this is a piggyback question that I think would probably help you. Did this particular book grow or investigative story grow out of kind of the time that you had spent working on the foster care story?

I'll start with that first. Yes, it absolutely grew out of my foster care research in an indirect way.

When I was being recruited to the newspaper in Las Vegas, an editor offhandedly mentioned to me that, you know, if you reported on foster care, maybe you'd be interested in reporting on. On sex trafficking. And that immediately resonated with me. I saw in.

In.

In victims and survivors of sex trafficking a. A similarity to. To foster children. They're both marginalized populations and policymakers don't think a great deal about.

And so I saw those similarities in thought I'd been able to report about how to foster children.

Maybe I'd be able to report about sex trafficking victims and survivors as well, both challenging populations, both challenging projects, challenging in different ways. But. But yes, that's the connection there and the similarity there.

As far as the the distinguishing between investigative reporting and quote, unquote, traditional reporting. I don't know that there, at least as far as I'm concerned, that there's really a difference.

I think there's many journalists, myself included, that use all reporting as investigative reporting. I think the biggest difference is simply the time that you're afforded to work on something.

Obviously, if you're working on a story about something that happened today, you're not going to have nearly the time and resources to deeply probe into the thing you're writing about.

The difference with investigative affording is that you have the opportunity to really start picking at things and really start to start understanding the intricates of how things work. Investigative reporting in many ways is similar to another subset of reporting known as explanatory reporting.

You're really just trying to understand how things work, how the pieces fit together.

I suppose you could argue that investigative reporting has an additional element of accountability, holding certain people accountable for their behavior, as well as potentially being revelatory, that is exposing or showing something that maybe the public doesn't know about. But honestly, I don't. I don't view myself as any different than any other reporter.

I think we're all doing the same thing and we're all doing the best we can in an industry that frankly, is struggling quite a bit right now.

Yeah, and I know, and I had a question related to that because, yeah, the industry and every, every kind of media organization is struggling.

You went to one of the premier journalism schools in the United States and if you would discuss a little bit about the change of journalism over the course of probably the last 20 years and you being involved with it, we've now we're into sensational and clicks versus facts and verifying sources. That's my simplistic viewpoint of that. But speak to a little bit about the change in journalism, because you briefly mentioned that in the book.

Journalism has, I think it's fair to say the bottom has fallen out on it. It doesn't make money in the way that it used to. The advertising model is destroyed.

It is very difficult to force organizations to generate the revenues necessary to do truly deep reporting or the kind of reporting that I think the public really craves.

And as a result, you are seeing in some places a shift in strategy to focus more on clicks, which can potentially be monetized under some circumstances.

Another issue that's happening is people that have been in this business for a time, such as myself, are looking around and seeing that wages have stagnated, that opportunities are decreasing, and they're increasingly getting out of the business.

And because of that, the people who are engaged in journalism tend to be much younger and much more inexperienced, and they were maybe even five years ago. And that is leading to an overall decrease in the insightfulness of the product, in the depth of the product that you're seeing out there.

And I think the public is responding to that.

I should also mention too, journalism has a second problem as well, in addition to its economic model, and that is that it does have a tendency, in my opinion, strictly in my opinion speaking, but journalism does have a tendency to attract a certain personality type that can be rather self involved, rather toxic. And I think the public is picking up on that.

One of the things that's always been difficult for me in my roughly 20 years in the business is I don't really see myself, personality wise as being similar to many of my colleagues. And that has made me in many ways feel like an outsider in my own business. That can be difficult. And again, I think that can be felt by the public.

And the public was responding to that and is responding to it more now because the quality of the product isn't what it means.

Interesting. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune.

We're talking about the book Vegas Sex Trafficking, Hip Hop and Corruption in America with Brian Joseph, the author. He is going to be speaking Thursday, January 16th at 7pm at the J. This is part of the Jewish Book Festival.

If you want more information on that, you can go to jccstl.org or get tickets@showpass.com and plug in Brian Joseph's name or Vegas Concierge and you will get more information that. That's January 16th, Thursday at 7pm and folks, you don't want to miss that.

Human trafficking is slavery and it happens all over America. Any child, any woman, any man could potentially become a victim of human trafficking. I am a victim of labor trafficking.

I was victim of child sex trafficking, but now I own my body. Human trafficking is any kind of forced labor. It can happen to anybody. I am a mother. I am an author. I am a son. I'm an advocate. I am an educator.

I am a sister. I am a brother. I'm so much more than what happened to me. I am strong. I am brave. I am outspoken. I am compassionate. I am a survivor. I am a survivor.

I am a survivor. I am a survivor. I am a survivor. I am a survivor of human trafficking.

Now I want to mention listeners that if you are not familiar with trafficking at all, you really need to get some information. We are going to present some resources on the podcast page and please review those. And Brian, that's one thing that you did at the end of your book.

You gave some national and statewide and regional resources, which I thought was really good to help educate people on not only sex trafficking, but trafficking in general. So thank you for doing that.

Oh, I appreciate that.

I thought it was important to do more than just tell a compelling story, but to also provide an opportunity for readers if they did find themselves in need, be able to find some help.

Now, how do you tie in? I want to hear this from your vantage point. I mean, you wrote the book. I've read the book.

I look at the title and the title is Vegas Concierge Sex Trafficking, Hip Hop and Corruption in America.

My question relates to the hip hop culture seems to push the edge of societal norms further away from not only self respect but a lot of relational respect. How did that all fit in with what you were investigating, the hip hop culture and all of the sex trafficking?

So there's a direct connection as it relates to the main story that the biggest tells and that is the primary pimp that is the focus of the story is also a hip hop music producer. And so that's the main connect. And then we use that natically to explore some of the lyrics that hip hop that do.

They do talk about pimping and to some degree soft pedal with pimping can really be or maybe don't portray it exactly is what it is. They might portray it.

Rappers may portray pimping as more of loving the ladies or being a super lover than being an actual slave master, which is what a pimp truly is.

I want to be clear though, as we talk about hip hop, nothing in my research has ever suggested that there's anything intrinsic to hip hop culture to the exploitation of vulnerable women. There just simply there is. Hip hop is not to blame for sex trafficking. Hip hop is not synonymous with sex trafficking. I want to make that very clear.

We sometimes see because of head things of the headlines, the Diddy case, stuff like that. Do we think that they're synonymous or that one is to blame for the other? I want to make very clear.

There's nothing to suggest that in my opinion, I don't believe that hip hop is, I think it is.

It is arguably one of the most dominant genres of music in the United States, popular with a wide variety of people and a lot of very good things are happening happen in the world because it's hit on sadly however, hip hop did grow up in our urban communities and poor urban communities are synonymous with in some cases with trafficking and pit prostitutes of culture simply because him to know that those are areas where they can exploit vulnerable people.

And hip hop is very self aware and talks about the things that sees in its own community and sadly are more a disadvantaged community do see trafficking happened there. So sometimes pimping does, does end up in rap.

But again I just want to make very clear that I see nothing to suggest that there is anything like central to hip hop that leads it to be connected with that kind that's simply not hip hop.

You can have a wonderful hip hop album, a wonderful hip hop artist that has nothing to do with the 10 subculture and you don't need to exploit women in order to be successful in hip hop. That's just not a thing. And we should be pointing a finger at the hip hop community for this.

But rather just becoming more aware of what terms mean and how not being forthright about what those terms are, how that could have a downstream effect on vulnerable people.

Yeah, that's a really good point. Because there's part of hip hop that's like I'm going to use the word an underbelly.

Although it is mostly glamorized and glamorized women and bling and money and sex and guns and unfortunately it becomes a mantra for some people especially in certain parts of cities. And it's because what that is, what their life is, but the whole it is. And I use the word underbelly in a way that there's.

It's something that people who go about their daily business just don't know about the trafficking kind of thing and educating themselves about what that looks like, whether it's domestic trafficking or whether it's sex trafficking or whatever. How did you deal with what you saw?

Because I remember asking a reporter one time about when they break these horrific kinds of stories, you can't be unemotional and go home and just go about your daily life because these are things that are horrible. I interviewed a Nine reporter who reported on 911 and she lost her father in one of the buildings.

And just you don't walk away from stuff like that or any other stories. How did you deal with that?

Well, I think I'm still dealing with it. I think I'm still learning just how much has impacted my own psyche and my own emotions.

This was a very difficult project to report and it affected me deeply. I don't know that went to a specific anecdote and said, oh, it was really hard coming home on this day. Or I felt that.

But I think that the cumulative effect of it is very much something I've experienced. And now that I'm on the downward slope of this project, it's public now we're promoting it.

I'm beginning to have an opportunity to really think about and feel about what I've experienced. And it is quite heavy and it is quite impactful on my life. And so I'm just working it out, making sense of it, working with a provider to help me do.

I don't want to overstate it and make off like I'm some sort of an in the fetal position at home or anything like that. But it is, it is impactful and it is something that I am working through.

So you got to see things and hear things and read about things that people never ever get a chance to have experience in their lifetime. And has talking to people like you're talking to me and talking to other interviewers, has that helped? And going off of that has.

What has been the reception of the book.

Thus far? The reception of the book has been overwhelmingly positive.

People have enjoyed it, or maybe enjoyed the wrong word, have found it useful in understanding our society in a better way. I enjoyed the opportunity to spread the word about it and conversations with folks like yourself about what the book contains.

And I do hope that it catches on and that folks can grab onto it and learn about the conflicting in our society because it is a horrific one and it is one that needs to be a priority for all of us to address.

Now you have two main individuals who I would call in the story. One is who's been a victim of trafficking and one who was working for law enforcement.

Do you stay in touch with them at all and on a semi regular basis or.

Absolutely. Okay, absolutely, yes, yes. And they're, they've been involved in various local efforts to the book. I.

I don't want to speak for them, of course, but my sense is that they're are proud of what we've been able to put together.

They really risk quite a bit talking to you, especially the individual, the woman who, who was involved in the trafficking specifically. What were her risks in talking to you and giving you information?

Oh, there are tremendous risks for the two main subjects of the book. They face reputational risk.

They potentially face physical danger from people who might be unhappy about the things that they were they were willing to reveal. It may affect their ability to receive employment in the future. There's a number of things that they potentially face.

But both of them were very resolute in coming forward and speaking their truth. And candidly, I mean, they're the most courageous, amazing individual that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and being able to call my friend.

Did you fear at all writing the book or when you were doing the research, the investigative reporting for this at the paper or on your own, did you have any sense of, I know you went up to one particular mansion with a security guard, or I should say like a bodyguard, but did you fear when the book came out or any retribution or anything like that? Or was it everybody going to be like, yeah, that is what it is.

I was very deliberate in every decision that I made, very intentional with every decision that I made. I consulted with the main subjects of the book as well as, within a couple of instances, other folks as well.

I felt any opportunity in which I potentially could have been vulnerable, that it was mitigated in the most appropriate way, man, in the most appropriate manner possible. And, and I, I felt comfortable in moving forward.

Of course, there's always nerves with publishing anything, whether it be a product of this nature or just anything else that you write.

Of course I had some nervousness about that, but that's just part and parcel with putting yourself out there when it comes to projects of this nature.

In reading the book, I want to compliment you that you were very conscientious.

You express that in the book about making sure that your sources were verified, that you were getting accurate information, that you weren't what I would call misrepresenting anything that you wanted to make sure that everything was factual that could be backed up from documentation. And I appreciate that as a reader. What, what's future plans for you?

You have something on the burner as it relates to your writing or, or just doing a, a tour about the book. What. What's on the agenda?

That's a wonderful question. Obviously, I feel a responsibility to.

To promote this book environment and I think for quite a long time now, it's become essential for authors to be engaged in the promotion of what they write. And when I began on this journey, I knew that I was going to have to devote some time and effort to promoting the book.

So that's my focus at the moment. Beyond that, the honest question, the honest answer is I don't know what's next for me. I enjoy the work of journalism.

As I mentioned before, I do sometimes feel that I don't necessarily fit in the industry and that is on my mind. I don't know that a newsroom would be the best place for me going forward. Maybe, I don't know. It would have to be the right newsroom.

I would love the idea of perhaps teaching at a university and using my research time to be a freelance journalist. But candidly I'm a I just have a bachelor's degree. I don't know that's going to be enough to get me into a university setting.

So the honest answer is that I don't know. I'm in a personally a personal transition phase and we'll see in the coming months and maybe coming years where it leads me.

It may lead to another book, a sequel of something it may lead to as you've done some really heavy kinds of things like for the foster care story, this sex trafficking. I don't know what other kind of social ill that we have homelessness in our country that you would want to tackle.

But these are mighty emotional kinds of things and I respect you for what you were able to endure through these processes because as I was reading is holy smokes. Most people don't wouldn't even think about this stuff or know about this stuff. So thank you very much for that, Brian.

I appreciate that it's been a been a long and difficult journey.

We've been talking to Brian Joseph. He is going to be speaking at the Jewish Book Festival that is Thursday, January 16th at 7pm and folks, you don't want to miss this.

You can get tickets@jccstl.org that's to find more information there or showpass.com and plug in Brian Joseph, Vegas Concierge, into the search engine. General admission ticket is $25. Brian, thank you for joining us on Saint Lucentun. I greatly appreciate your time, sir.

I really appreciate it. And I also really appreciate the thoughtful question.

This is a difficult topic to talk about and it's it's really important to have someone on the other side talking to me that asks thoughtful questions. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness and the questions you ask today.

They mow our lawns and vacuum our offices, paint our nails and paint our houses. They are in the room next door or the house next door. They're in strip malls where anyone can see them.

We took the broad concepts of sex trafficking and labor trafficking and broke them down into what they really are, criminal operations within 25 distinct businesses. Now we know where to find them. Now we can start to understand how they got there, how traffickers work, how the businesses are run.

Now we know, now we end it.

What an informative time with Brian Joseph in talking about his book Vegas Concierge, Sex Trafficking, Hip Hop and Corruption in America. And I want to mention again folks, you can see him that is at the J at the Jewish Book Festival St. Louis Jewish Book Festival.

It's January 16th, that's Thursday at 7pm for more information you can go to jccstl.org or for tickets go to showpass.com and plug in Brian Joseph, Vegas Concierge in the search engine and you can get information about that. Now if you know someone or see someone, there's a lot of resources out there. I just want to mention some names.

Elevate Academy Free these are national kinds of sources.

National Trafficking Sheltered alliance, the Refuge for Women, Shared Hope International, Streetlight USA Together, Freedom United Abolitionists and here in the St. Louis area, Healing Action, the Magdalene House in St. Louis, the Covering House, also Gateway Human Trafficking and Crisis Aid International.

The Coalition Against Trafficking and Exploitation is part of Healing Action.

They're a statewide coalition that provides education, training and technical assistance to service providers, organizations, law enforcement and individuals throughout Missouri. But the biggest thing I want to give you is the National Human Trafficking Hotline. This is operated by Polaris, an anti human trafficking nonprofit.

It's a 24, 7 toll free hotline.

If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to additional shows@stlintune.com Consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, your preferred podcast platform or our website. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue to grow.

I want to thank Bob Berthisel for our theme music, our guest Brian Joseph and co host Mark Lang who is on assignment. We thank you for being a part of our community of curious minds. St. Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network.

Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy and let your light shine. For St. Louis in tune, I'm Arnold Stricker.