A People's History of Kansas City

KCUR Studios
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A People's History of Kansas City

The podcast about the everyday heroes, renegades and visionaries who shaped Kansas City and the region. If these stories aren't told, they're in danger of fading into the past. Made by Suzanne Hogan and Mackenzie Martin.

  1. Rebuilding Kansas City's relationship with its public schools

    5D AGO

    Rebuilding Kansas City's relationship with its public schools

    Kansas City is asking voters to buy into its public school system for the first time in nearly 60 years. Even after Kansas City Public Schools regained accreditation and turned around student performance, its crumbling buildings offer a persistent reminder of the city’s disinvestment and distrust — a relationship strained by decades of racism, a history-making desegregation case, and plenty of internal turmoil. KCUR’s Jodi Fortino explains how the city and its schools got to this critical point.

    37 min
  2. Why Kansas City’s football team became the Chiefs

    FEB 6

    Why Kansas City’s football team became the Chiefs

    As Kansas City celebrates the Chiefs’ third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, the team name, logo, and some problematic fan customs like the “tomahawk chop” are once again being broadcast worldwide. Suzanne Hogan explores how it all got started, and how the team avoided becoming the Kansas City Texans.

    18 min
  3. How popcorn and movie theaters met

    JAN 16

    How popcorn and movie theaters met

    Popcorn and movie theaters are inseparable today. But a century ago, cinemas actually banned the beloved treat for being cheap and messy. As Mackenzie Martin reports, a Kansas City widow named Julia Braden became one of the first popcorn vendors to talk her way inside the lobby, and built a concession empire in the middle of the Great Depression.

    27 min

  4. 12/16/2024

    Searching for Nora Holt’s stolen music

    Nora Holt was the first Black person in the United States to earn a master’s degree in music. A prolific composer of more than 200 musical pieces and a club-hopping socialite, she once wrote a 42-page work for a 100-piece orchestra. But you’ve probably never heard any of it. Scholars have dreamt of finding her stolen manuscripts for nearly a century, according to Classical KC’s Sam Wisman.

    33 min
  5. Want a hit song? Give Dana Suesse 12 minutes

    11/12/2024

    Want a hit song? Give Dana Suesse 12 minutes

    Kansas City composer Dana Suesse was behind some of the most popular American music of the 1930s. Nicknamed “the girl Gershwin,” Suesse’s songs like “You Oughta Be In Pictures” and “My Silent Love” were performed by stars like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. As Classical KC’s Lilah Manning reports, Suesse blazed a path on Tin Pan Alley in a music scene otherwise dominated by men.

    28 min
  6. How a Kansas City 'shoot-out' created the modern GOP

    10/29/2024

    How a Kansas City 'shoot-out' created the modern GOP

    In 1976, Kansas City, Missouri, was the unlikely host of a drama-filled Republican presidential convention that ended up defining the conservative agenda for decades to come. Incumbent President Gerald Ford found himself in a heated battle with then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan to win over delegates and obtain the party’s nomination. WFAE’s Ben Bradford tells the story of how this “shoot-out” shaped the modern GOP. (This episode comes to us from the podcast Landslide.)

    40 min
  7. Exposing the Veiled Prophet

    10/15/2024

    Exposing the Veiled Prophet

    The Veiled Prophet of St. Louis is an organization shrouded in mystery, an elite white secret society behind lavish parties, business developments and racist practices. As St. Louis Public Radio’s Chad Davis reports, the story of those who worked to unveil the Prophet directly laid the path to the Ferguson Uprising. (This episode comes to us from the podcast We Live Here.)

    50 min
  8. A librarian’s history of the Westside

    09/11/2024

    A librarian’s history of the Westside

    Armed with a tape recorder, Kansas City librarian Irene Ruiz cataloged the evolving history of the Westside and made the library a more welcoming place for the Mexican immigrants and Latinos who lived there. Today, the Westside branch of the Kansas City Public Library — featuring the robust Spanish language collection that Ruiz began — is named in her honor. Mackenzie Martin traces how Ruiz brought her activism and sense of community across all the chapters of her life.

    30 min
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    4.8
    out of 5
    199 Ratings

    About

    The podcast about the everyday heroes, renegades and visionaries who shaped Kansas City and the region. If these stories aren't told, they're in danger of fading into the past. Made by Suzanne Hogan and Mackenzie Martin.

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