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Central Standard

Seg. 1: A Coronavirus Diary | Seg. 2: Buy Nothing Groups

Segment 1: A former Kansas City journalist living in China reflects on life under partial lockdown.

As the Coronavirus becomes a bigger threat in the U.S., we hear dispatches from someone who has been in China this whole time. Kendrick Blackwood and his wife, Krista, are now teachers living with their teenage son in a partially quarantined Shenzhen, where their lives have been upended.

Segment 2, beginning at 20:47: The rise of secondhand shopping and Facebook groups that give things away for free.

Facebook groups in the Kansas City area and beyond are encouraging its members to buy nothing and to instead give neighbors what they need — no strings attached. Meanwhile, there's a larger cultural shift toward seeing second-hand goods differently.

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.