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Stories From Prison, Cakewalker Doc Brown

Missouri inmate Callion Barnes reads a storybook about tigers.
Jacob Fensten
/
KBIA
Missouri inmate Callion Barnes reads a storybook about tigers.

The show for May 20, 2012. Click "Listen" to hear the entire show; see below for individual stories:

Stories From Prison: Roar!

In Missouri state prisons, about 60 percent of inmates have kids. That's 18,000 moms and dads behind bars – and tens of thousands of kids on the other side. To help those parents and kids connect, volunteers make their way through the metal detectors at Missouri state prisons with big tubs of blank tapes and CDs, stamped envelopes, and lots of children's books. 

Mayor Sly James’ New Tax Proposal For Infrastructure

What will it take for Kansas City, Missouri to finally fix its streets and sewer system? Earlier this year, Mayor Sly James announced a bold plan for improving Kansas City's infrastructure that would involve spending $1 billion over the next 10 years. He's scaled back that plan a bit since then, and his most recent proposal goes before the council this week, and if approved, to voters.  Get the details on how the new plan would affect the taxes of Kansas City residents.

New Strategies For Combating Crime In Kansas City

Despite years of various programs to reduce violence in Kansas City, the first five months of 2012 have seen more violent crime than there has been in recent years. A new program focused on the social networks of violent criminals aims to change that. It’s called KC NoVA, short for the No Violence Alliance. UMKC criminal justice professor Dr. Ken Novak discusses the program.

Kansas City’s Champion Cakewalker

Every month, the staff of the Kansas City Museum asks an expert in the community to talk about a piece from the museum's collection.  It's called the Community Curator Program.  This month's talk, coming up on Tuesday, is by Glenn North, the poet-in-residence at the American Jazz Museum.  North will discuss a painting  that made him a little uncomfortable: a depiction of KC's champion cakewalker "Doc Brown." Hear about the link between the dance called "cakewalking", ragtime and Missouri's slave history.

Farmer Of The Future Pt.1 : Blending Of Cultures May Be Blueprint For Growth

While much of the rural Midwest is hollowing out – some small regions are actually growing. That's largely due to immigration populations taking ag-related jobs that otherwise employers cannot fill. Melding cultures is never easy, but in communities like Sioux County, Iowa, members of the Latino community are slowly changing the landscape of the rural Midwest.

KCUR’s New General Manager Nico Leone

For the past quarter century, one person has been a constant at KCUR, General Manager Patty Cahill.  That’s going to change later this summer when she retires.  Her replacement will be Nico Leone.  He’s served for the past 5 years as co-executive director of KDHX, a community radio station in St. Louis.  In that role, he’s been the public face of the station, which is primarily a music station, focusing on fundraising, marketing, programming, and community outreach. 

Sylvia Maria Gross is storytelling editor at KCUR 89.3. Reach her on Twitter @pubradiosly.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Susan admits that her “first love” was radio, being an avid listener since childhood. However, she spent much of her career in mental health, healthcare administration, and sports psychology (Susan holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Bloch School of Business at UMKC.) In the meantime, Wilson satisfied her journalistic cravings by doing public speaking, providing “expert” interviews for local television, and being a guest commentator/contributor to KPRS’s morning drive time show and the teen talk show “Generation Rap.”
As a health care reporter, I aim to empower my audience to take steps to improve health care and make informed decisions as consumers and voters. I tell human stories augmented with research and data to explain how our health care system works and sometimes fails us. Email me at alexs@kcur.org.
Every part of the present has been shaped by actions that took place in the past, but too often that context is left out. As a podcast producer for KCUR Studios and host of the podcast A People’s History of Kansas City, I aim to provide context, clarity, empathy and deeper, nuanced perspectives on how the events and people in the past have shaped our community today. In that role, and as an occasional announcer and reporter, I want to entertain, inform, make you think, expose something new and cultivate a deeper shared human connection about how the passage of time affects us all. Reach me at hogansm@kcur.org.
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