217 Today: Drag star Alaska talks Pygmalion, drag bans

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Drag queen Alaska placed second on RuPaul's Drag RaceSeason 5 and won RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 2, but she's also released albums such as "Red 4 Filth" and "Poundcake."
  • Photo: Credit from left: Magnus Hastings, Albert Sanchez, Magnus Hastings

September 15, 2023

Today’s headlines:

  • The Fighting Illini football team plays their first Big Ten Conference game of the season Saturday against the Penn State Nittany Lions.
  • The Danville Symphony Orchestra is getting ready for its first season since the retirement of longtime music director Jeremy Swerling.
  • Parents and students from Chicago Catholic schools are calling on state lawmakers to save a controversial private school scholarship program.
  • Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton is back from Japan, where she pitched Illinois as ripe for clean energy investment.

In today’s deep dive, we’ll listen to a conversation with RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Alaska about her upcoming performance at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

217 Today is produced by Stephanie Mosqueda. Reporting today contributed by Colin Hislope, Jim Meadows, Nereida Moreno, Mawa Iqbal and Owen Henderson.

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Stephanie Mosqueda

Stephanie Mosqueda is a senior majoring in journalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with minors in Spanish and public relations. She is the 217 Today producer and a reporter for the Illinois Student Newsroom.