This photo shows Arabella Grayson standing next to her private collection of African American paper dolls.

The Power of Play

To make a paper doll you need paper, utensils used for drawing and/or coloring, an imagination, and illustrated clothing for the doll. Now, go back 150 years and make that paper doll black. To the previous list of materials, add a hidden agenda, hatred and cruelty toward a certain people, and a narrow definition of…

Read More >

A Trans-Atlantic Flight Without Fuel: Solar Impulse Leaves New York On Ambitious Trip

The Solar Impulse 2 plane is being flown across the Atlantic Ocean on a four-day trip to Spain. The solar-powered craft took off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport early Monday.

Read More >
Hawaiian poke

Bistro 913 Brings Mom’s Poke Recipe from Hawaii to Kansas City

First-time restaurant owner Steven Nguyen, who opened Bistro 913 in April, says he learned most of what he knows about Hawaiian cuisine and restaurant operations from his mother. Certainly, she’s one to study. Nguyen, son of a Vietnamese mother and French father, was born in Vietnam and grew up in Hawaii, where his mother, Judy…

Read More >
The Founders series opening page for the Prudhomme farm

The Prudhomme Farm

Today their names grace our highways, city districts and restaurants. But before Chouteau was a trafficway, it was the name of an immigrant couple who used their honeymoon to discover new land. Before McCoy’s was a good place to get a beer, it was a family of missionaries whose son would use his business savvy…

Read More >
A Connection to the Earth | Lidia Bastianich Checks In on Boys Grow

Lidia Bastianich Checks In on Boys Grow

From FLOAT to the farm we go this week, as celebrity chef — and apparent fig thrower — Lidia Bastianich visits a non-profit that teaches young urban men to get their hands dirty.

Read More >

It Doesn’t Pay To Be An Early-Childhood Teacher

On average, preschool teachers are paid less than mail-order clerks, tree trimmers and pest control workers. And if they switched to teach kindergarten — in many states, their salaries would double.

Read More >
Barbecue ribs

Fiesta Kansas City & Other Weekend Possibilities

Fiesta Kansas City runs all weekend at Crown Center. The 16th annual event, put on by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City, is a great mashup of music, food and drinks. There’s also a jalapeno-eating contest and tortilla-rolling contest.  It’s free admission before 4 p.m. and $10 per day ($20 for a weekend…

Read More >
A ferris wheel

Sympathetic Vibrations | It Wasn’t Built in a Day

What’s it take to make a festival run as smoothly as beer flowing from a tap? A lot. We talk to organizers and take a time-lapse look of set-up in advance of tomorrow’s Boulevardia kick off.

Read More >
Raw steaks

Dangerous Jobs, Cheap Meat | While New Safety Efforts are Underway, Injuries are Still Part of the Job

The meatpacking plants that enable American consumers to find cheap hamburger and chicken wings in the grocery store are among the most dangerous places to work in the country. Federal regulators and meat companies agree more must be done to make slaughterhouses safer, and while there are signs the industry is stepping up its efforts,…

Read More >
A man leaping

The Hero’s Journey

For this beautiful black-and-white look at the Warrior’s Ascent academy, photographer Chase Castor followed veterans and first responders through the course. It’s part of our ongoing Veterans Coming Home project.

Read More >
Members of Alternative Rock band Soul Asylum

The Weekend Starts Today

It’s Father’s Day weekend in KC. OK, actually it’s Father’s Day weekend everywhere. But we’re celebrating right here in KC. You should too. If you are lucky enough to have a dad, or to be one, make sure to get out and enjoy some of what the city has to offer. Dads and baseball are…

Read More >
cheese slipper

Fervere and Ibis Bakery Merge Daily Bread Menus

Fervere (1702 Summit Street) is about to embark on a new path forward. The bread shop, which opened on the Westside in 2000, will begin offering a regular assortment of pastries tomorrow. It’s a small, but subtle shift, at the bakery that was intentionally built to produce a limited amount of bread because of its…

Read More >
A woman at her desk

Dangerous Jobs, Cheap Meat | Working ‘The Chain,’ Slaughterhouse Workers Face Life-Long Injuries

“Dangerous Jobs, Cheap Meat” is a three-part series from Harvest Public Media that focuses on the risks faced every day by the half-million people working in meatpacking factories to feed America’s desire for cheap meat. Today’s is the second installment; Look for the final installment tomorrow on Flatland. The nights were often worse for Gabriel, even after long…

Read More >
A woman holding a picture

Dangerous Jobs, Cheap Meat | Fines For Meatpackers’ Safety Problems Are ‘Embarrassingly Low’

“Dangerous Jobs, Cheap Meat” is a three-part series from Harvest Public Media that focuses on the risks faced every day by the half-million people working in meatpacking factories to feed America’s desire for cheap meat. Look for Part II tomorrow on Flatland. On the worst day of Greta Horner’s life, she was dressed in a burlap robe,…

Read More >
levee trail

Take 5 For Your Health

Levee Trail In Kansas City, Kansas, Begins To Take Shape Standing at the meeting point of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, you can still get a glimpse of what Lewis and Clark might have seen when they camped here 212 years ago: vast skies, tall trees, wide, shimmering rivers, even the occasional eagle. Rick Behrens,…

Read More >

Local Storytelling. Fact-Based Reporting. Trustworthy Sources.

Help support the nonprofit media landscape in Kansas City and provide a platform for underrepresented voices across the region.