Commentary | Putting a ‘solid rocket booster’ on my journalism
KCPT Reporter Mike McGraw looks back on the experience of putting his journalism on the stage with StoryWorks KC.
Take 5 For Your Health
Missouri, Kansas Health Centers Get Grants To Combat Opioid Abuse With overdose deaths from painkillers, or opioids, on the rise, the federal government is giving $3.8 million to health centers in Missouri and Kansas to combat the epidemic. The grants are among $94 million the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is awarding to…
Fountain City Frequency |Getting Real About A Complex Diagnosis
Kevin Bryce is a filmmaker from Kansas City, Missouri. His 2012 documentary “We Are Superman” (produced by Re:Dream‘s Christopher Cook) explored the after-effects of hyper-segregation on Troost, and a movement trying to transform it from a dividing line into a gathering place. Bryce’s newest documentary “All These Flowers” investigates bipolar disorder through the stories of six people who been…
Cary Esser: A Ceramist for the 21st Century
At age 19, Cary Esser flew alone from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Kansas City, a place she’d never been. “When I got off the plane,” Esser recalled in a recent interview, “I just walked up to somebody and asked, ‘Can you tell me how to get to the Kansas City Art Institute?’” Esser had…
Betty Rae’s Ice Cream Gets Ready to Scoop
David Friesen wants to serve all the old standbys — chocolate, vanilla, pineapple with Thai basil — when Betty Rae’s Ice Cream opens in Waldo (7140 Wornall Road) on Thursday, March 24. “Ice cream is a heightener,” said Friesen. “The sun is shining and you want to get out and have ice cream. It just makes your day better.”…
How KC is | Big 12 Championship Tournament
We’re asking the question: How “Kansas City” is… for all the good stuff going on in our world. On today? The Big 12 Championship tourney is taking over Power & Light this weekend in Kansas City. But just how well-represented is KC inside the Sprint Center? Check out the video above, and if you know of something that didn’t make the cut send…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Proud to Be An Amexican
Maria and Tess Cuevas are dealing with deep-seated identity issues. Not to worry though, they are extremely well adjusted people and coping in maybe the best way possible — by making music that complements that precarious sense of self. The Cuevas sisters front Maria the Mexican, a Topeka-based band celebrating the release of its sophomore album,…
Combating Cancer with a Vaccine
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common of all sexually transmitted infections, with more than 100 different types. It causes almost all cases of cervical cancer, and to a lesser extent is to blame for several other cancers, including mouth and throat. A three-dose vaccine significantly reduces the chances of contracting an HPV-related cancer, especially…
The Weekend Starts Today
What happened to winter? It barely got cold, we saw almost no snow, and now it seems like spring is almost here. Granted, the lack of a hard winter might mean a particularly nasty allergy season, but it’s nevertheless tough to argue with sunshine and short-sleeve shirts. If you’re ready to get out and enjoy…
Lifting Their Voices
It is not easy being a teenager in Kansas City. As inner-city teens enrolled in the Youth Ambassadors program took turns reading each other’s original poetry, their works gave insight into the sometimes harsh realities and struggles facing our community’s younger demographic. Teen pregnancy, life on the streets, drug addiction, violence towards women, and incarcerated parents…
Take 5 For Your Health
Kansas Nursing Homes Struggle To Cope With Medicaid Processing Backlogs Judy Kregar is not a member of the Rotary Club in nearby Greensburg, but she decided to go when she heard Gov. Sam Brownback would be at the club’s recent meeting. Kregar, the administrator of a small nursing home in nearby Bucklin, wanted to tell…
Recruiting to Fight Social Injustices
Michael Brooks recalls witnessing racism in Kansas City at a young age. Growing up at 37th and Benton Boulevard, a wealthy neighborhood “filled with doctors and lawyers,” the former councilman and senior pastor of Zion Grove Missionary Baptist Church said he started kindergarten in 1967 at then-affluent Sanford B. Ladd Elementary. Then, he said, it…
Fountain City Frequency | Charlie Mylie’s Big Inhale
Kansas City is a lot bigger than we tend to realize. The majority of the population is concentrated into just 58 square miles that make up less than a fifth of the city’s overall size. That leaves a lot of mileage to discover. Here’s a story by Esther Honig, from audio producers Fountain City Frequency, about one Kansas…
The Struggle for Security
In the small, rural city of Liberal, Kansas, a neighborhood of old trailer homes sits just off the main street. The small trailer at the end of the block, with faded yellow paint and creaky front steps, is the place 17-year-old Diego now calls home. Late at night, Diego sits on his bed, thumbing through…
That’s the Spirit
Benay Shannon hops down from a forklift, her bright pink galoshes padding across the concrete floor of the Restless Spirits Distillery. She maneuvers clear plastic tubing to the open hole in the top of a 10-gallon oak barrel. It’s Tuesday afternoon and Kansas City’s only female head distiller is making whiskey. “This is about making…