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Central Standard

Halloween Special

Segment 1: Kansas City storytellers try to scare us.

Scary stories take many forms. We got some of the best storytellers in town to share their favorite haunting tales. 

  • Nathan Louis Jackson, playwright
  • Kaite Stover, librarian
  • Jose Faus, poet

Segment 2: Why are there so many ghost towns, and why are they so haunting?

Ghost towns everywhere. There are 141 in the state of Kansas alone. This conversation includes travelers who love abandoned places, the history of how they got that way, and the saga of one nearby ghost town that's determined to come back from the dead.

  • Gary Speck, author, Ghost Towns Yesterday and Today and Dust in the Wind: A Guide to American Ghost Towns
  • Deborah Bryan, physician and leading advocate for the revitalization of White Cloud
  • Caitlin Morton, contributing editor, Conde Nast Traveler
Central Standard
People don't make cameos in news stories; the human story is the story, with characters affected by news events, not defined by them. As a columnist and podcaster, I want to acknowledge what it feels like to live through this time in Kansas City, one vantage point at a time. Together, these weekly vignettes form a collage of daily life in Kansas City as it changes in some ways, and stubbornly resists change in others. You can follow me on Twitter @GinaKCUR or email me at gina@kcur.org.
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 at KCUR, 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. Reach me at mackenzie@kcur.org.
Stephen Steigman is director of Classical KC. You can email him at Stephen.Steigman@classicalkc.org.