KCUR podcast producer and host Mackenzie Martin has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation 2024 Media Award, for the People's History of Kansas City episode "The Golden Arches in Black Kansas City."
The episode focuses on a 1975 protest at a McDonald's in Kansas City — one of the first Black-owned fast food franchises in the country — and how it found itself at the center of the Black community's fight for justice.
The annual James Beard Awards honor outstanding achievements in food media and journalism. The Audio Reporting category recognizes excellence in reporting and narratives about food and/or food issues in radio or podcasts that are issue or deadline-driven, investigative topical, or timely in nature.
This marks Martin's — and PHKC's — second time being nominated for the Audio Reporting award.
Martin says that the idea for "The Golden Arches in Black Kansas City" came when she was researching how Kansas City became one of the first markets to allow Black-owned McDonald’s franchises. She stumbled across old newspaper articles about the so-called “Hamburger Pickets” protest of 1975.
“I didn’t think much would come of it — until I tracked down the men on either side of the picket line and interviewed them,” she says. “Our conversations went beyond McDonald’s to illuminate larger questions about Black capitalism, Kansas City’s struggle for civil rights, and the ripple effects of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.”
Inspired by historian Marcia Chatelain’s book, "Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America," the episode reveals the far-reaching implications of food culture: how historic redlining and profit-driven corporations reshaped neighborhoods, fights over where governments invest their money, what businesses owe to their communities, and the possibilities for local activists to create change.
"The Golden Arches in Black Kansas City" was edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Suzanne Hogan.
A People’s History of Kansas City is an award-winning KCUR Studios podcast about the everyday heroes, renegades and visionaries who shaped Kansas City. It profiles hidden figures, and also explains how the past still shapes our region today.
Martin's food reporting has been picked up by national shows like 99% Invisible, NPR's All Things Considered, and the Gravy podcast.
In addition to her roles as a co-host and producer for A People’s History of Kansas City, Martin also works on the KCUR Studios podcasts Seeking A Scientist, Up From Dust and Overlooked. She and Hogan are instructors at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, teaching a class on podcasting.
This year's other nominees for Audio Reporting are Samia Basille, Emma Morgenstern, and Dan Pashman of The Sporkful podcast, and Gab Chabrán and Brian De Los Santos of the How to LA podcast.
Winners will be announced on Saturday, June 8 at the James Beard Foundation’s Media Awards ceremony in Chicago.
