Feature: Celebrating 20 Years of Up To Date with Steve Kraske

For 20 years, KCUR’s award-winning talk show, Up To Date has focused on pressing issues that are local, regional and national, including politics, government, economics, planning and design, health, education and entertainment - topics that have an impact on the lives of the Greater Kansas City region. Steve Kraske has been a fixture of the show since its inception, offering listeners insights into a wide range of stories through conversations with newsmakers, influencers, educators, and more.

“When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities,” says Kraske. “I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers.”

Steve worked for more than 30 years at The Kansas City Star as a columnist and political correspondent, and also serves as a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has covered every president since Gerald Ford, 13 national political conventions, the Iowa caucuses and numerous races for governor, the U.S. Senate and Congress. He was a 1992 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University and a 2016 fellow at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. In 2019, 435 Magazine named him one of the 50 most powerful people in Kansas City. He holds his B.A. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“I got a call out of the blue one day from then-news director Frank Morris who asked if I would be interested in hosting a show. I didn't think I had the time, but thought it over and decided to give it a shot. Now, 20 years later, I'm glad I did.”