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Mackenzie Martin

Senior Podcast Producer/Reporter

Whether it’s something happening right now or something that happened 100 years ago, some stories don’t fit in the short few minutes of a newscast. As a podcast producer and reporter at KCUR Studios, I help investigate questions and local curiosities in a way that brings listeners along for adventures with plot twists and thought-provoking ideas. Sometimes there isn’t an easy answer in the end – but my hope is that we all leave with a greater understanding of the city we live in.

Presently, I'm the senior producer for A People's History of Kansas City and Up From Dust, and the editor for Seeking A Scientist. I previously produced Overlooked, Hungry For MO and Real Humans. Reach me at mackenzie@kcur.org or find me on Twitter @_macmartin.

  • After watching her cousin get murdered in 1994, Niko Quinn became one of the eye witnesses who sent Lamonte McIntyre to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Quinn says then-Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski pressured her into submitting false testimony, and she’s been trying to “make it right” ever since.
  • Former Kansas City, Kansas, detective Roger Golubski is accused of putting an innocent man in jail, exploiting vulnerable Black women, and terrorizing the community for decades. How did he get away with it for so long, and what does justice look like?
  • Missouri residents may have heard ghoulish tales of “Doc Annie” Smith, a physician who looms large in the state’s mythology for performing illegal abortions in the early 1900s. Today, the truth about her work has largely disappeared.
  • This isn't the first time Missouri has banned abortions. Residents may have heard ghoulish tales of “Doc Annie” Smith, a physician who looms large in Missouri’s mythology for performing illegal abortions in the early 1900s. Today, the truth about her work has largely disappeared.
  • This isn't the first time Missouri has banned abortions. Residents may have heard ghoulish tales of “Doc Annie” Smith, a physician who looms large in Missouri’s mythology for performing illegal abortions in the early 1900s. Today, the truth about her work has largely disappeared.
  • For three decades, Julia Lee reigned over Kansas City jazz clubs singing risqué songs “her mother taught her not to sing.” But beyond the lyrical wordplay of hits like "Snatch and Grab It," Lee was a trailblazer for Black female musicians, and forged a career on her own terms.
  • For three decades, Julia Lee reigned over Kansas City jazz clubs singing raunchy songs “her mother taught her not to sing.” But beyond the lyrical wordplay of hits like "Snatch and Grab It," Lee was a trailblazer for Black female musicians, and forged a career on her own terms.
  • Years before the Stonewall uprising, Drew Shafer started Kansas City's first gay rights organization and published the first LGBTQ magazine in the Midwest. At one point, his Kansas City home was even the “information distribution center” for the entire gay rights movement.
  • Years before the Stonewall uprising, Drew Shafer started Kansas City's first gay rights organization and published the first LGBTQ magazine in the Midwest. At one point, his Kansas City home was even the “information distribution center” for the entire gay rights movement.
  • For the last two years, the real humans of Kansas City have given us strength. They've helped us realize that when the outlook appears grim, daring to imagine a way forward isn't fanciful or naïve.