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Central Standard

Seg. 1: Our Digital City | Seg. 2: A Monument For Unmarked Graves

Segment 1: A KU professor's book explores the sense of place created by our technology.

Where do you live? What is your neighborhood? Is it a physical place — or a digital one? "The Digital City: Media and the Social Production of Place" argues that smartphones are replacing cities. It also looks into how smart cities, like Kansas City, privilege people who already have a lot of resources.

  • Germaine Halegoua, associate professor of film and media studies, University of Kansas

Segment 2, beginning at 31:52: Hundreds of unmarked graves in Weston now have a monument dedicated to them.

Laurel Hill Cemetery in Weston was the first in the state to be desegregated, but many of the black people buried there had unmarked graves. That is until the community raised $9,000 in a month to dedicate a monument to them on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

  • Carla Sutton, monument fundraiser
  • Angela Hagenbach, descendent of someone buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery
  • Jess Larsen, member of the board of trustees, Weston Historical Museum
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.
Melody Rowell is the lead producer for KCUR’s Central Standard. You can find her on Twitter at @MelodyRowell, or by email at melody@kcur.org.