(soft music) - [Jim] It is one of the more unusual events of the year, a death-themed festival.

- So you kind of put like a very positive spin on it.

- [Jim] This is one way to study the brain, but WashU researchers can now watch the brain in action while a patient is in action, with a cap that can be worn by adults or children.

- To understand how their brain function is changing if they have a diagnosis of something like autism or anxiety.

- [Jim] The Katy is the longest developed rail trail in the country, and these folks set out to pedal it from start to finish.

- Riding the Katy Trail every single day has surpassed my expectations.

It has been an absolutely beautiful trail to ride.

- [Jim] It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Good evening, I'm Anne-Marie Berger.

Tonight, we're going to start at the end, the end of life, that is.

Now don't get uncomfortable, and certainly do not change that channel.

Because over the last several years, a death-positive movement has been normalizing conversations around mortality.

Brooke Butler looks at how a group of people brought the topic of death to life.

(light upbeat music) - It was a beautiful day to talk about death.

Yes, these dozens of people gathered in the spirit of the end of life's journey.

And while it's not unusual to have people come together because of death, this wasn't a funeral, but rather a celebration of mortality.

When I heard there was a festival centered around death and dying in the month of October in a cemetery, I thought, "Probably spooky, creepy."

But actually at the Last Call Festival in Bellefontaine Cemetery, their objective is the exact opposite.

- So the festival came about because I've had the honor and privilege of going to other festivals similar to this on both coasts.

So it's not a new concept to me.

But it's bringing together a large group of people to educate the community on end-of-life options.

Because here in St. Louis, we have so many great options, and not a lot of people know about 'em.

(light bouncy music) - [Brooke] The festival is a day to discuss our inevitable earthly departure so that when the day comes, either for our loved ones or ourselves, we're as prepared as we can be.

But how many aspects of dying could there possibly be?

Turns out death is much more complex than taking that last breath.

- So our death-positive wheel here has 16 different topics on here, and they're all related to death in different cultures and things like that.

So they're all historical things.

Tell me what you got.

- Oh, oh, coffins of Ghana.

- The coffins of Ghana.

Okay, so in Ghana, which is a country in Africa, they make very elaborate, beautiful coffins related to who the person was, what their occupation was, or what their favorite thing was.

- [Brooke] There's, of course, your funeral.

Do you want to be cremated or have a casket, or a natural burial?

And what do you want to happen to your earthly belongings?

Better yet, what do your loved ones want you to do with your earthly belongings?

And what about leading up to your death?

- There's so many options, again, that I feel like people don't think about until they're in that unfortunate situation where they do have a loved one that needs to go on hospice, and then hospice might make them have a negative feeling that they don't even realize.

So they might wait too long for hospice.

Whereas if we talk about that years in advance, we already know what hospice is, we know the benefits of it.

You don't have to be a terminal patient to be talking to or working with an end-of-life planner and an end-of-life doula.

- [Brooke] In addition to hospice, there's palliative care, advanced directives.

Lots of decisions to make.

At the festival, there were representatives from various organizations that presented on options and how to prepare for these inevitable decisions.

There were even conversations around what happens when you're long dead and gone.

- I am a paranormal investigator, so today I will be doing a presentation on understanding life and death through paranormal investigation.

But a lot of what has happened in the world of paranormal investigation came from people trying to understand what comes next, if something comes next.

And if you weren't expecting it, that's scary.

- [Brooke] There is a lot of fear associated with death and dying, mainly because of the uncertainties.

Not just for the people who pass, but for the loved ones they leave behind.

The Last Call organizers say that having these conversations early will help ease some of that fear.

And by early, I mean even as young as my three-year-old daughter here who's enjoying a book about the death of a bird.

Can I ask how old you are?

- I'm 25.

- [Brooke] So 25, you're not necessarily thinking about, "What's gonna happen when I die?

"What kind of funeral do I want?"

Is that like a topic of conversation at all with your peers?

- Yeah, definitely.

I mean, well, we talked about it in school.

We went to Catholic school.

- We planned our funeral in religion class.

- [Brooke] Really?

- Death is like one of the most unifying things about being human.

And I think getting a chance for all of us to like learn about death and learn about how you can celebrate death is a good way to kind of put like a very positive spin on it and not let it be this like impending, doom-and-gloom kind of thing.

- So the thought is that if we reflect on our life and death now today, that that gives us today a better opportunity to do exactly what we wanna do with this day.

So it's important to have those conversations not just with yourself, but with your loved ones and that they know where your head's at on end-of-life options that you would want.

(soft music) - Wouldn't it be nice to know what's going on in people's heads?

Well, researchers at WashU are developing a cap that will make it a lot easier for neuroscientists to read our minds.

Leah Gullet explores the development of wearable brain-imaging technology.

(light pensive music) - [Leah] The way we study the mind is constantly evolving.

We hear a lot about new methods in psychiatry, psychology, and just simple talk therapy.

But there are groundbreaking advancements in neuroscience as well, specifically here in St. Louis at Washington University School of Medicine.

In their radiology department, scientists are developing new neurotechnology that will change the way we analyze the mind.

- So what we're developing is diffuse optical tomography, and we are now working on the wearable version of that.

- [Leah] Diffuse optical tomography, or DOT, for short.

It's the modality they're using to image the brain, and they formed it into a wearable device.

Professor Joe Culver and other colleagues received a grant from the National Institute of Health to create a new brain-imaging cap that uses LED light to read and analyze the mind.

Unlike other methods, such as magnetic resonance imaging and positron-emission tomography, DOT is a more non-invasive way to look inside of the body.

- The ultimate goal is to like image people while they're having like a conversation like this.

But there are sort of way points in between like having people just watch Pixar movies or "Finding Nemo" or whatever.

- [Leah] When using this device, the patient will put on a helmet attached to a large computer and will follow instructions for small tasks.

The helmet will record signals from the brain that will be analyzed and stored later.

It's not completely portable yet, so you can't put on the device and go for a walk in the park, but you can do small tasks or sit and watch a movie, which gives more information on how the brain is operating in realistic life scenarios.

They even have one specially made for children.

One of the developers for this device created it with neurodivergent children in mind.

- So right now, Beatrice is watching a video where there's an actor basically sitting comfortably and then suddenly doing some kind of novel dance routines, moving their arms around.

And Beatrice's job is to basically imitate in real time all of the actions that the actor is doing.

And so what we're doing is we're measuring her brain function while she's performing these imitative motor actions.

We could have a kid or an adult wear a cap, like a swim cap, say, during this conversation or while they're just naturally behaving in a room and exploring a new environment, to understand how their brains are co-varying with their behavior.

And then, importantly, how their brain function is changing if they have a diagnosis of something like autism or anxiety or cerebral palsy or any number of other neurodevelopmental disorders.

The more kids and adults and participants are wearing the technology and will be able to understand how our brains are actually working, the more it'll destigmatize non-neurotypical brain function in childhood development, and it's really important that it will help people get the care and the interventions that they need to kind of maximize their happiness and their health throughout their lifespan.

- When we first were working on this, I remember we had a news story come out about the system being set up in a way that you could image kids.

And we had a mom contact me, and the question was like, "Oh, could we use this on my son?

"I always wanted to know what he's thinking."

So it's like a common thing.

People want to know what two-year-olds are thinking.

They only have words that can say so much.

There are mental-health disorders that are of interest in kids, but there's also just knowing how a healthy brain develops.

Like when and why does language develop where it does?

The reason that this technology will have impact over the next five years, I think are these themes of increasing, if you want to do functional neuroimaging in a person, you want it to be something that they do in a normal, everyday life.

(soft music) - So this is the time of year when TV shows do segments on cooking turkeys and sides and desserts.

Well, that's not us, at least not this time.

But we are using the Thanksgiving, the holiday season, to talk about food, but not necessarily the Horn of Plenty.

Joining us is Kristen Wild, she's CEO of Operation Food Search, which is working to address these issues of hunger and food insecurity.

And, again, this is the time when we think a lot about this.

We see turkey giveaways, we see buffets for the homeless, for the needy, Salvation Army, all sorts of groups.

Is this really a busy time of year or just a time of year when we're thinking about it?

- It's both.

It definitely is, I think, more front of mind for people, but it is a busy time.

Families anticipating kids being home from school, kids who may rely on the free and reduced lunch program who aren't gonna be getting those meals when they're home for Thanksgiving break, when they're home for winter break.

So it definitely causes additional stress for families who rely so heavily on those services.

And it's also a time when you see commercials on TV.

It's a time of family gatherings and celebrations.

- [Jim] So much food out there.

- So much food, so much food.

- [Jim] But you're really dealing with so little food for some people.

- Exactly.

So it's almost this contrast between those who can afford it and those who can access it, and those who either don't have the funding for it or they don't have transportation to go pick it up.

It's really a tale of two cities.

- Before we talk about exactly what you do and how you do it, we say this is in some ways is seasonal, but it's year round.

How serious is the issue, or is it getting worse, is it getting better, in terms of hunger or this thing called food access, food insecurity?

What's the problem here?

- It's a major problem.

It was a problem, it's been a problem for years.

Operation Food Search has been working on this for 42 years.

It was a problem before the pandemic.

Interestingly, for some families during the pandemic, there were resources put in place such as pandemic EBT, which was extra SNAP benefits, stimulus payments, things that helped them in addition to just the community, having more opportunities for food to be picked up.

So the problem, actually, since those supports have gone away, is getting worse again, because families are coming off the effects of perhaps unemployment or the inflation that everybody's facing right now.

Increasing healthcare costs, utility bills.

So there are a lot of families that are struggling.

Nationally, the statistic in 2021, it was about 10%.

In 2022, recently the USDA just publicized, it's about 12% nationally, those who are facing food insecurity.

- So let's talk about a couple of words here.

Hunger and food insecurity.

So there are people who are eating, but they're not necessarily getting what they need.

- Exactly.

So hunger is more the physical sensation of not having enough food in your stomach, versus food insecurity is what people face when they don't have adequate access to the food they need to live healthy lives.

So there may be people who are not hungry, they might be accessing food at the local convenience store and they're filling their bellies, but they're not filling their bellies with nutritious food that allows them to be productive kids and adults.

- I just saw a story about a gas station closing, and one of the people in the neighborhood said, "That's where I do my shopping."

- Yes.

- So let's talk about Operation Food Search.

We've seen in your warehouse all of this food.

Now, I've got two questions.

Where do you get all that food?

But I think really the more interesting thing for me is the logistics of getting it to the right place at the right time.

So how do you get the food?

- So we get the food from a variety of food donors, retail stores.

Schnucks is our top donor.

They donated more than $15 million worth of food last fiscal year.

Schnucks, Dierbergs, Straub's.

Event venues like the soccer stadium, Enterprise Center, Busch Stadium, restaurants, local farms.

We have a gleaning program where our staff and volunteers go out to local farms and they pick produce that would otherwise get wasted.

So that gives us a nice addition of fresh produce.

- Where does it go then?

You've got all this stuff coming in, how do you get it out to the right place?

- So we partner with about 170 agencies throughout the region.

We actually work in 40 different counties in Missouri and Illinois, but these pantries, shelters, community centers receive food from us.

They either come to our warehouse and pick it up on a weekly basis.

They get an assigned slot time of day, day of the week when they come pick up the food.

And in some instances, they are assigned to, say, a Schnucks location that is very close to where they're located, and they pick up the food directly from Schnucks.

- So a lot of times we get asked for food, I get bags on my front door, things like that.

Are there things that are really needed, and there are things that are not really needed when you're donating?

- Great question.

And you may have gotten a bag from the Boy Scouts of America in recent days.

They're doing a major food collection.

The items that are most helpful for those non-perishable items, those are ones that are protein-rich, nutrient-filled.

So canned tuna and canned chicken, what we call a meal in a box.

So maybe like a Hamburger Helper meal kit.

Soups that have protein in them.

Spices, canned fruit and fruit juice, vegetables, things that are not in glass containers, preferably.

No ramen noodles.

Ramen noodles really have no nutritional value and kids get burnt.

- So a lot of good things that people might find in their pantries that could be donated and can help a lot of people.

- [Kristen] Absolutely.

- So I want to thank you for joining us.

Thank you for the work you do, and I know it's a busy time of year, so thanks for taking the time out for us.

This is Kristen Wild, she's CEO of Operation Food Search.

Again, thanks for being here.

- Thank you.

- Well, finally, we're gonna end with a big BAM, that's B-A-M, Bike Across Missouri on the Katy Trail.

It's an event that's attracting a lot of people, including our team of Brian Holder and videographer, Aaron Landgraf.

(light guitar music) - [Jim] The Katy Trail follows the former route of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, the Katy, and it's the longest developed rail trail in the country.

- When I came here, I had some good expectations of having a great ride, but riding the Katy Trail every single day has surpassed my expectations.

It has been an absolutely beautiful trail to ride.

(soft guitar music) - BAM started a few years ago to give people a opportunity to have a guided experience along the Katy Trail, its entire length, 237 miles across Missouri.

And it stops in a variety of places and gives people a chance to see what's along the trail, but experience the little towns that they stay in, towns they stop in for lunch and have breaks in.

People from around the country and around the world actually come to it to have the experience.

- The state maintains the park.

And what I've heard from people that have done rail trails all over the country, this one's extremely well maintained.

One of the other things that's really nice about it is every 10 to 12 miles there had to be a stop for the steam locomotives and fuel, coal, or whatever.

And little towns popped up around those stops, those fueling stops.

So most of 'em still exist to some extent.

Old general store, an old grain elevator, and there are some small businesses that are still hanging on.

- [Jim] There are some pretty rugged and isolated bike trails in the U.S.

This is not one of them.

It's scenic, but relatively flat.

And it has all those places to get on and off.

For outsiders from other parts of the country or even the world, this is a chance to experience, well, the heart of America.

- We've met people here on that front porch from France, from South Korea, from the UK, and many, many people from New York, California, and all points in between.

A lot of people come from around the world, but a lot of people come from around the corner.

- It's a very relaxed pace.

You're stopping at all these little cafes, bike shops, and whatever along the way.

It's great experience.

- Neat being able to come to these small towns like this and ones just passing through that you would never really know about.

And then the hospitality that you get in places.

They come out, they support the riders, and they're really welcoming to everybody coming through.

So that's been a lot of fun too.

- Awesome.

Every step, every town that we've gone to to have breakfast or lunch, everybody's great.

A lot of small business owners, you can tell that they're new entrepreneurs, and they just treat you like gold.

- [Jim] A full trip takes six days, anywhere from 27 to 50 miles in a day.

There were organized stops and trail assistance, restrooms and showers, evening concerts.

The cost?

$450 per person for the full ride if you camped.

A lot more to book rooms.

(upbeat guitar music) - No, we did not tent camp.

We did the hotel option, which I think is fun that they have that available for people like us who like the hot shower and the comfy bed and not getting rained on.

(thunder cracks) - You know, they said, what, three or four days rain?

Originally?

Just one day.

I can do it.

(wheels slosh) - I'd say the rain has definitely enhanced the experience of the Katy.

For sure.

You keep thinking the night before, you're dreading the rain and conditions of the trail, but it's really been perfect, incredible.

- [Jim] Rain or shine, that Katy often makes the list of the country's best bike trails.

And there are those dedicated to this pastime who have put the Katy, all 240 miles of it, on their bucket list.

- Well, there's a group, they do all the popular ones.

It's RAGBRAI, there's Katy Trail, it's Ride the Rockies, there's Bon Ton.

There's maybe a dozen of them that are pretty popular.

- You run into people that you never would've met any other way.

We all have one thing in common.

We like to ride our bicycles.

We share stories about some things.

It's all about the ride and the food and the scenery, all that stuff.

- The people that you meet along the route.

- There's a mother-daughter team out here.

There's a West Point grad pulling her dog.

There's a grandpa and his grandson.

There's old buddies, college buddies that are out doing some time together so you can share stories.

So there's a whole mix of different people out here, all because they love cycling.

- In the evenings, we get to see people outside their bike gear, and everyone is just so willing to discuss the day, the events that happened, special things that happened on the trail.

So that's a big connection at night.

- One of the benefits is it's a smaller number.

We will not have 50,000 riders.

We can't.

And we're doing about 153 this time.

I'd like to see this ride get up to about 300 people.

The cycling clubs and things like that, we really embrace having them come out in force and helping bolster the numbers and experience Missouri.

- Bikers are friendly people.

It's like we're a little fraternity of our own.

- It's not a race.

You don't have to get to one point to the next.

The mileage is doable for the day.

So you just take your time, you see what you wanna see.

I mean, if you wanna go fast, go fast.

If you wanna go slow, go slow.

You wanna stop somewhere, take pictures, you can do that.

- So, for me, riding the Big BAM gave me a taste of what I could do on this trail.

- Yeah, I guess what I tell people is it's not like you're riding 50 miles, it's like you're riding five 10-mile rides.

It's not as difficult as you might think coming into it.

I mean, you gotta spend some time on the bike, and as much as anything, it's getting your bottom accustomed to sitting on a bike seat.

It's not typically a physical limit.

It's more about, "Well, when do I need to go get laundry done?"

(both laugh) - But we'll get together and chat for a while afterwards, and it's just enjoying everybody's company.

The common bond of the bicycle brings us all together.

- [Jim] Organizers have been running two of these a year, one in June and one in September.

- In the future, the Katy Trail's gonna be able to bring the same kind of benefits to these little towns and communities that the railroad did.

They'll bring visitors, they'll bring business, and they'll bring interest to the area.

- That's one of the things that we're bringing with the Big BAM, is we're bringing a record number of people to eat in a restaurant in Pilot Grove or in Green Ridge on a day when they're normally closed.

A lot of my focus now is more of the full week-long-type trips, and so spreading that economic impact across the whole trail.

The hope is that this keeps them going so that they can provide.

It's kind of our charter to provide these services that keep the Katy so attractive to these tourists.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - That's it for "Living St. Louis" tonight.

We love hearing from you.

So follow us on our social channels, or send us an email at livingstlouis@ninepbs.org.

Goodnight.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.