Mackenzie Martin
Senior Podcast Producer/ReporterWhether 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.
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A vast ocean of grass and wildflowers once covered one-third of North America. But that diverse prairie biome is collapsing, partly due to greenhouse gases and to our obsession with trees. Humans have unleashed an aggressive canopy that’s swallowing the Great Plains. For ranchers, saving the environment means being a tree killer — not a tree hugger. -
Humans opened a Pandora’s box by moving plants, animals and fungi around the planet where they didn’t live before. Some of those species become so successful in their new surroundings that they crowd out others. Come along on a hunt for rogue Bradford pears, meet the teens turning cityscapes into butterfly havens and learn how to turn invasive plants into delicious food.
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Trees are swallowing prairies. Bees are starving for food. Farmland is washing away in the rain. Humans broke the environment — but we can heal it, too. Up From Dust is a new podcast about the price of trying to shape the world around our needs, as seen from America’s breadbasket: Kansas. Hosts Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos wander across prairies, farm fields and suburbia to find the folks who are finding less damaging, more sustainable ways to fix our generational mistakes. Coming soon from the Kansas News Service, KCUR Studios, and the NPR Network. -
Oreo is the best-selling cookie in the world today. But few people remember the product that Nabisco blatantly ripped off: Hydrox. A creation of Kansas City’s Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, Hydrox was billed as the “aristocrat of cookies,” with a novel combo of chocolate and cream filling. So why, more than a century later, is Hydrox still mistaken as a cheap knockoff? -
Oreo is the best-selling cookie in the world today. But few people remember the product that Nabisco blatantly ripped off: Hydrox. A creation of Kansas City’s Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, Hydrox was billed as the “aristocrat of cookies,” with a novel combo of chocolate and cream filling. So why, more than a century later, is Hydrox still mistaken as a cheap knockoff? Producer Mackenzie Martin documents the rise and fall of America’s first chocolate sandwich cookie. -
In the early 1900s, the three Conley sisters barricaded themselves in a Wyandot cemetery in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, to save it from destruction. Then Lyda Conley took the battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — the first Indigenous woman to do so. In this episode, which originally aired in 2020, Suzanne Hogan uncovers Conley’s story and reports how the Kansas City arts community is newly celebrating her legacy. -
When hip-hop hit Kansas City streets, the effect was immediate. The new sound took over record stores, local high schools and underground dance parties. As the country celebrates 50 years of the art form, Kansas City honors its own contributions to the culture. -
When hip-hop first hit Kansas City streets, the effect was immediate. The new sound took over record stores, local high schools and underground dance parties. As America celebrates a half century of hip-hop, KCUR’s Lawrence Brooks IV honors Kansas City’s own contributions to the culture. -
In 1948, Phillip Sollomi debuted an Italian vinaigrette at his Kansas City fried chicken restaurant, the Wishbone. An immediate hit, the salad dressing formed the foundation for an empire: For 75 years, Wish-Bone Italian dressing has helped bring people together around the dinner table, but few Kansas Citians know their connection to the iconic bottle. KCUR’s Jenny Vergara and Natasha Bailey track down why. -
After dying suddenly under mysterious circumstances, Kansas City philanthropist Thomas Swope became the focus of one of the most publicized murder trials of the early 20th century. It’s long been suspected that Swope’s nephew-in-law murdered him and other members of his family as part of a plot to steal their fortune — but the events remain unresolved more than 110 years later.
