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Seg.1: What Missouri Lawmakers Got Done This Session. Seg.2: History, Progress Buoy Small Towns.

Two people stand in front of a small white prop plane. The background is a blue sky.
James and Deborah Fallows
James and Deborah Fallows traveled much of the country in a single-engine prop plane. Their experiences are the subject of a new book.

Segment 1: What Missouri lawmakers passed — and what they didn't — during last week's end-of-session chaos. 

There was certainly lots of news coming out of Jefferson City this year, but much of it didn't have a whole lot to do with legislation. Today, two regular faces around the Missouri Capitol tell us about the bills lawmakers pushed through, and what was lost or ignored this session in the wake of controversies swirling around Gov. Eric Greitens.

Segment 2, beginning at 26:05: Two writers journey into the heartland and find innovation, optimism.

Instead flying over them, writers Deborah and James Fallows have been flying into them. During the past half decade, the writers have been visiting some of the small towns that dot the land between the east and west coasts. They told us about some of the the stories detailed in a new book about the journey.

  • Deborah Fallows, linguist and co-author of "Our Towns: The 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America."
  • James Fallows, national correspondant for The Atlantic and co-author of "Our Towns: The 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America."

Deborah and James Fallows will discuss their book at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 21, at the Central Library's Helzberg Auditorium, 14 W. 10th St., Kansas City, MO 64105. RSVP at KCLibrary.org.

When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.