Matthew Long-Middleton

KCUR is part of StoryCorps' One Small Step initiative to bring together people of differing political opinions for real conversations. This is one we've chosen to highlight.

Mike Parker and Ellen Carmody met for the first time as part of KCUR and StoryCorps' One Small Step project, but they tackled heavy topics. Parker, a veteran with five decades of military and government service, asked Carmody, an assistant school principal, what she thought about mass shootings at schools.

KCUR is part of StoryCorps' One Small Step initiative to bring together people of differing political opinions for real conversations. This is one we've chosen to highlight.

Northeast News publisher Michael Bushnell has to wrestle with politics in his work all the time. 

"I write an opinion column every week, and 9 times out of 10 it falls on the conservative side," Bushnell says. "But it's more common sense than it is anything else, I think."

KCUR is part of StoryCorps' One Small Step initiative to bring together people of differing political opinions for real conversations. This is one we've chosen to highlight.

Kristin Chow and Kurt Wheeler met for the first time as part of StoryCorps' One Small Step. To get a better sense of where Wheeler's ideology stands, Chow asked a big question.

"When you think about the future what are you most scared of?" Chow asked.

"I'm most scared of us losing sight of our core values as a country," Wheeler said. "I'm scared of people feeling entitled to things that are not a right."

KCUR is part of StoryCorps' One Small Step initiative to bring together people of differing political opinions for real conversations. This is one we've chosen to highlight.

Kevin McEvoy, who describes himself as "very conservative," wants to make sure his children grow up without prejudice against people of color. But he's admittedly unsure about how best to guide them.

KCUR is part of StoryCorps' One Small Step initiative to bring together people of differing political opinions for real conversations. This is one we've chosen to highlight.

Ph.D. candidate Erica Stone doesn't talk about politics with her family much anymore. And when she does, it usually turns south fast.

KCUR is part of StoryCorps' One Small Step initiative to bring together people of differing political opinions for real conversations. This is one we've chosen to highlight.

Teacher Brittney Fiedler says being from Kansas carries some baggage when you talk to people in other states.

"They assume you're from a farm, they assume you see tornadoes all the time and they assume you're a pretty conservative person," Fiedler says. "For me, none of those things are true, really."

KCUR is part of StoryCorps' One Small Step initiative to bring together people of differing political opinions for real conversations. This is one we've chosen to highlight.

Joanna Berkebile and Stacey Todd have lived very different lives. Berkebile intentionally set down roots in Kansas City, working as a realtor. She's also active in the city's arts scene and has found a strong sense of community there.

"I'm not super politically active, but I'm active in my community," Berkebile saidto Todd. "[But I'm] not afraid to speak my mind wherever I am. That has ripples and reverberations around me."

It was days after the 2016 election when Joseph Weidknecht, a Trump supporter sporting a sign that read “Proud to Be Deplorable” and a “Make America Great Again” cap showed up at a march protesting the election of Donald Trump in Austin, Texas.

Amina Amdeen, a Muslim student at the University of Texas, was one of the marchers who came to the peaceful rally that day before part of the protest broke into violence.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Matt and Abby Anderson had only been dating a few months when the accident happened. Abby was just 18 when she lost control of her car on the way to school and slammed into a semi.

"When you woke up and gained consciousness, what was your first concern?" Matt asked her.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

When Deany and Corbin Goode got a chance to sit down at the StoryCorps Mobile Tour in Kansas City, Corbin got down to business with his questions — and some of them were tough.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Stephanie Nowotarski is a lot of things at once. She's a postdoctoral scientist working on electron microscopy at the Stowers Institute in Kansas City. She's an artist working in a wide variety of media. 

She also experiences auditory-tactile synesthesia — When she hears some sounds or music, she sometimes also experiences them as touches.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

John Mendoza graduated from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, in 1967, excited to take on a job at NASA as an aerospace engineer. 

"I always wanted to be a figher pilot because of movies and space programs, outer space movies," John told his daughter, Valerie M. Mendoza.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Joseph and Elaine Chow first met as teenagers in the 1950s. In those days, it was rare for any young adult to have a car. So the fact that Joseph had one immediately stood out.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Samantha Ruggles came out as a transgender woman long after her grandparents and parents had passed away.

"If they were still alive, how would that conversation have gone? Your coming out?" her friend Darin Challacombe asked.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Note: This post contains racial slurs and descriptions of violence. 

Rebecca Liberty and Necia Gamby call themselves "sister friends" because their bond is so tight. But the women came from very different environments growing up.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

"What was it like being the only woman in most of your classes?" Michelle Bertuglia-Haley asked her mother, Lynn Bertuglia.

In the 1970s, it was uncommon for engineering programs in U.S. colleges to accept women. But the University of Kansas did, so Bertuglia decided to give it a shot.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Chris and Gina Moore have spent almost five years trying to conceive a child.

"I have so much control in our everyday lives, like how we take care of the house or how we take care of our dog," Gina said. "But everything to do with fertility or trying to conceive I had absolutely no control of."

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

For muralists Phil Shafer, aka Sike Style, and JT Daniels, making bold, colorful murals throughout Kansas City is more than just painting outdoors.

Mariana Hildreth felt like she had done everything right when she decided to come to the United States from Mexico: She had a degree, years of professional experience and worked through legal channels to get a work permit.

She felt privileged.

"'I'm just going to conquer the world, I'm going to move there and I'm going to make it work,'" Hildreth thought before she moved. "But when I came here, nothing that I thought I was mattered."

StoryCorps' MobileBooth came to Kansas City to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Ashley Raines' childhood wasn't easy.

"I wouldn't classify it as entirely ugly or unfortunate or anything, but it was a struggle," Raines told his wife Vanessa Aricco.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth is in Kansas City until September to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Alex Martinez and Miguel Morales may be more than 20 years apart in age, but their experiences in the United States as Latinx children speak to the unique challenges they have faced here.

The StoryCorps MobileBooth came to Kansas City this summer to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Sada K. Jackson's mother, Ileana Watson, passed away in 2016 after battling breast cancer. So when Jackson got a chance to record at the StoryCorps MobileBooth, she chose to sit down with her mother's good friend Angela Morehead-Mugita.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth is in Kansas City until September to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Joel Barrett and David Seymour first met because of a scarf.

"I remember your scarf," Barrett said. "It was a very colorful striped scarf, and I used that as my entry point to have a conversation with you."

Barrett and Seymour came from very different backgrounds, particularly when it came to religion.

StoryCorps' MobileBooth is in Kansas City until September to collect the stories and memories of residents. This is one in a series of stories KCUR has chosen to highlight.

Today, Kansas City's Leeds neighborhood is an industrial area near the Truman Sports Complex. But back in the 1940s and '50s, it was a self-contained black community.

"Leeds was a place where people from the deep south come up to live with their relatives to start a new life," said Earline Bentley, who grew up in Leeds with her sister Cheryl Looney.