People & Places
As Kansas City Booms And Sprawls, Trying Not To Forget Those In Between
This summer, NPR reporters are returning to their hometowns to see how they’ve changed. Sarah McCammon grew up in Kansas City – on the Missouri side of the state line. Like a lot of places, Kansas City is experiencing a couple of major trends – suburban sprawl and, more recently, a downtown revitalization. My two…
A Ledger of Names, Mine Among Them, Tell Our Vietnam Stories
All 30 of the boys listed on the Vietnam-era Selective Service ledger were born in the spring of 1948, during America’s most prolific era of mass procreation, the end of World War II. At 18 years old, the thing first and foremost on our minds was to find a way to commit the same act…
Unimagined and Reimagined Lives
During nearly two decades as a refugee in Nepal, Laxmi Ghimire could only dream of the life she now lives in Kansas City, Kansas. She was among the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who sought refuge in eastern Nepal in 1990, after they were exiled for advocating for social and political rights. One of their major demands was…
Into the Clock Tower
You know those doors that say “Authorized Personnel Only”? Well, we’re opening them. Join Flatland as we peel back the curtain, lift the manhole cover, go in the back door, and get unfiltered access to what’s behind the scenes in Kansas City. This month, we head to Parkville, Missouri, for a behind-the-scenes look inside the iconic central…
Home Plate: Play Ball
In the fourth and final episode, rediscover the magic of sandlot baseball during a visit to Sam and Ana Beckett’s neighborhood game, and see how the Urban Youth Academy is helping revive baseball’s future in Parade Park, a place of baseball’s past. Call of The Sandlot takes you back to the time when kids played until…