This week on Chicago Stories podcast, Mayor Emanuel sat down with Steve Cochran, host of WGN Radio's "The Steve Cochran Show."

Steve shares his own story of adoption and the importance of family — a topic close to the Mayor’s heart. The Mayor and Steve also talk about the dangers of the labeling all media fake news, the recent “corruption report,” and how to stay optimistic about the future.

“Adoption is unbelievably beautiful. It is an amazing thing,” said Steve.
Steve Cochran was adopted when he was three days old in Upstate New York, and grew to become a successful radio host in 14 radio stations across 10 different cities — first arriving to Chicago in 1993. About a decade later, Steve conducted a radio program about adoption in search of his parents. Little did he know, his biological mother worked only 15 minutes away at Children’s Memorial gift shop and was a fan of his show. (Hear the whole story starting at 11:09.)

The conversation then focused on the influence of comedy on mainstream media, how entertainment played a role in the rise of President Trump, and the label of fake news, which as Steve said, "boiled his blood completely."

“Without a free and substantial, funded, appropriate successful press, nobody’s getting watched and it’s out of control… When you can paint legitimate news gathering organizations as being fiction, it’s unbelievably dangerous.”

In addition, Mayor Emanuel responds to a recent study by UIC ranking Chicago as the most corrupt city in the country when Albany, NY may have a better claim to that title.

Listen and subscribe to Mayor Emanuel's weekly Chicago Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify