Shows
Up From DustLess lawn, more wildlife! Here’s how to ditch turf for native plants(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)So you’ve been thinking about getting rid of your lawn, or at least having less. You’ll attract birds and bees and you won’t have to mow as much. Nice! But where to start? Master gardener Paula Diaz gives us the scoop on how to kill grass, where to look for the right native plant species to replace it, and how to start laying out your flower beds. Come learn from someone who’s been winning over her neighbors to give native plants a shot.Resources mentioned in this episode:Top 10 l...2025-05-0624 min
The SporkfulHydrox, Oreo, And The Fight For Sandwich Cookie SupremacyHydrox cookies are known as a cheap knock-off of Oreos, to the point that Hydrox has become pop culture shorthand for “second best.” But did you know that Hydrox came first? And that these two cookies have a rivalry that goes back more than 100 years? This week Dan talks with Mackenzie Martin, a host of the KCUR Studios podcast A People’s History of Kansas City. Mackenzie tells Dan about a war that started in Kansas City – the sandwich cookie war, and reveals why Hydrox was banished to obscurity, despite being the original sandwich cookie. Check out Mackenzie...2025-04-2838 minUp From DustThose soil health products may be a waste of money(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)Symbiotic fungi are all the rage right now. Farmers want them in their fields, gardeners want them in veggie patches and flowerbeds. The excitement has given rise to a billion-dollar mycorrhizae market, but many products don’t deliver on their promises. Come visit the world’s biggest collection of these fungi to learn what makes them so great — and why you should think twice before buying them.Resources mentioned in this episode:News article: Soil health is big business, but KU researchers say many fungal products don't work as promisedScientific journal article: A.B. F...2025-04-0126 minUp From DustCan we save millions of migrating birds?(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)In 1978, a young scientist “brazenly trespassed” around a Chicago building in search of dead birds. He unwittingly began a 40-year journey that could help save countless warblers, thrushes and more. Most of America’s 10 riskiest cities for migrating birds lie in the middle of the country. We’ll find out why — and how every resident from Texas to the Canadian border can help reduce the death toll.This episode of Up From Dust was written, reported and mixed by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, with editing by Mackenzie Martin and Stephen Koranda.2025-03-0425 min
A People's History of Kansas CityHow popcorn and movie theaters metPopcorn and movie theaters are inseparable today. But a century ago, cinemas actually banned the beloved treat for being cheap and messy. As Mackenzie Martin reports, a Kansas City widow named Julia Braden became one of the first popcorn vendors to talk her way inside the lobby, and built a concession empire in the middle of the Great Depression.2025-01-1627 minUp From DustThe case of the disappearing lake(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)During times of drought, when the rains fail, man-made lakes come to the rescue of our cities and towns. Except the reservoirs we’ve come to depend on for drinking water are filling up with mud instead. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has an idea to tackle the problem, and they’ll try it for the first time ever — in Kansas.Up From Dust is hosted by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos. This episode was written and reported by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and produced by Mackenzie Martin. Mix by Celia Llopis-Jepsen.2024-10-1441 min
A People's History of Kansas CityA librarian’s history of the WestsideArmed with a tape recorder, Kansas City librarian Irene Ruiz cataloged the evolving history of the Westside and made the library a more welcoming place for the Mexican immigrants and Latinos who lived there. Today, the Westside branch of the Kansas City Public Library — featuring the robust Spanish language collection that Ruiz began — is named in her honor. Mackenzie Martin traces how Ruiz brought her activism and sense of community across all the chapters of her life.2024-09-1129 minUp From DustDry times on the High Plains(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)Ancient waters that lie deep beneath the dry High Plains helped to turn western Kansas into an agricultural powerhouse. But the Ogallala Aquifer’s wells have begun to run dry after decades of tapping it for our corn, wheat and cows. In the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains, we’ll learn how farmers are adjusting as the water disappears and hear how some are prodding state leaders to finally act.Up From Dust is hosted by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos. This episode was reported by David Condos and written by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and p...2024-08-0544 minUp From DustHealing the ground we broke(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)After Europeans colonized America, their descendants plowed their way across the continent, seeking prosperity through farming. But breaking up the soil – that had built up over many thousands of years – made it wash away. So some farmers are retiring their tilling equipment. Amble through Kansas prairies and cornfields as we learn how treasuring the ground beneath our feet can lead to farms that better withstand climate change, use less fertilizer and suck carbon out of the atmosphere.Up From Dust is hosted by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos. This episode was written and reported by Ce...2024-07-0137 minUp From DustFor the love of dung beetles(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)It’s easy to advocate for saving pandas and elephants, but bugs are a harder sell. Look closer, though, and you’ll find tiny superheroes propping up entire ecosystems as pollinators, decomposers, predators and prey. We’ll wander the prairie with bison ranchers, in search of the dung beetles that work quiet miracles in huge piles of poop. And we’ll meet people overcoming their insect fears to help scientists catch and release bees, before they disappear.Up From Dust is hosted and reported by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos. This episode was reported and writt...2024-06-0334 min
A People's History of Kansas CityThe Walker Walkouts70 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in its landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education. But the case may have played out differently if it hadn’t been for a tenacious group of women in Johnson County, Kansas, who led their own integration lawsuit five years earlier. As Mackenzie Martin reports, the case centered around a two-room schoolhouse and included a lengthy boycott, big-shot NAACP lawyers, FBI surveillance — and six very brave children.2024-05-1538 minUp From DustThe Green Glacier(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)A vast ocean of grass and wildflowers once covered one-third of North America. But that diverse prairie biome is collapsing, partly due to greenhouse gases and to our obsession with trees. Humans have unleashed an aggressive canopy that’s swallowing the Great Plains. For ranchers, saving the environment means being a tree killer — not a tree hugger.Up From Dust is hosted and reported by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos. This episode was written by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and produced by Mackenzie Martin with editorial support from Scott Canon and Suzanne Hogan. Mix by Celia Llopi...2024-04-2242 minUp From DustWhen good plants turn bad(Jessica Cornelison / KCUR 89.3)Humans opened a Pandora’s box by moving plants, animals and fungi around the planet where they didn’t live before. Some of those species become so successful in their new surroundings that they crowd out others. Come along on a hunt for rogue Bradford pears, meet the teens turning cityscapes into butterfly havens and learn how to turn invasive plants into delicious food.Up From Dust is hosted by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos. This episode was reported and written by Celia Llopis-Jepsen with help from Blaise Mesa and produced by Mackenzie Martin with...2024-04-1734 min
A People's History of Kansas CityHydrox, the original OreoOreo is the best-selling cookie in the world today. But few people remember the product that Nabisco blatantly ripped off: Hydrox. A creation of Kansas City’s Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, Hydrox was billed as the “aristocrat of cookies,” with a novel combo of chocolate and cream filling. So why, more than a century later, is Hydrox still mistaken as a cheap knockoff? Producer Mackenzie Martin documents the rise and fall of America’s first chocolate sandwich cookie.2024-03-0638 min
A People's History of Kansas CityPHKC live! A podcast party for America's original sandwich cookieDid you know that a certain cream-filled black and white sandwich cookie got its start right here in Kansas City? And no, we're not talking about the Oreo.A People's History of Kansas City is hosting a special live event on March 1, 2024, where host Suzanne Hogan and producer Mackenzie Martin will take you back to the birth of the very first: Hydrox. Hear our next episode before everyone else. Go to KCUR.org/cookies for tickets.2024-02-2101 min
99% InvisibleThe White Castle System of Eating HousesWhite Castle has its own take on fast food hamburgers. For starters, the patties are square, with five holes in each patty. And they’re small, too –- two-and-a-half inch sliders. Just big enough to fit into the palm of your hand. And since they’re steamed on a bed of onions, everything is infused with this very specific onion-esque flavor.Today, White Castles can be hard to find, depending on where you live. But KCUR's Mackenzie Martin, a producer at A People's History of Kansas City, says that it’s time to stop thinking of White Castle a...2024-02-1342 minA People's History of Kansas CityThe strange case of Mr. Swope and Dr. HydeFor more than a century, Kansas City has been haunted by the mysterious death of philanthropist Thomas Swope. Suspect number one is his nephew-in-law, Dr. Bennett Hyde, who stood to inherit a sizable portion of the Swope family fortune. But did Hyde really murder Thomas Swope, or was the physician actually the victim of a longstanding family grudge? This question was at the center of one of the most publicized murder trials of the early 20th century. Producer Mackenzie Martin walks host Suzanne Hogan through the evidence of this still-unsolved mystery.2023-10-2551 min
Hungry For MOAnnie Fisher’s beaten biscuit empire(Crysta Henthorne, KCUR 89.3 / Images courtesy of Stuart Spivack and Missouri State Historical Society)This episode of A People's History of Kansas City is a collaboration with Gravy podcast, from the Southern Foodways Alliance. It was reported, produced, and mixed by Mackenzie Martin, with editing by Sara Camp Milam, Olivia Terenzio, Suzanne Hogan and Luke X. Martin.2023-08-3024 min
GravyAnnie Fisher’s Beaten Biscuits Meant BusinessIn “Annie Fisher’s Beaten Biscuits Meant Business,” Gravy producer Mackenzie Martin digs into beaten biscuits, the tender, flaky hardtack rolls that date back to the 1800s, when they were often served with ham and particularly popular in the South. Historically speaking, beaten biscuits were incredibly laborious to make—so they were viewed as a culinary delicacy.And at the turn of the 20th century, no beaten biscuits were as famous in Columbia, Missouri, as those made by Annie Fisher. Serving her beaten biscuits at a party or dinner was a major hostess flex. A prominent surgeon wrote th...2023-08-3027 minHungry For MOWhat even is Ozark cuisine?Hungry For MO is a production of KCUR Studios, with support from the Missouri Humanities Council. It’s hosted by Natasha Bailey and Jenny Vergara. This episode was written and produced by Suzanne Hogan with editing from Gabe Rosenberg and Mackenzie Martin. Sound design and mix by Suzanne Hogan with help from Paris Norvell. Music this episode from Blue Dot Sessions.Special thanks this episode to Brian Munoz of St. Louis Public Radio for reporting and photos from Bulrush, and to the Quapaw Nation and Ozark Chinquapin Foundation.2022-12-2234 minHungry For MOThe salad days of Wish-Bone dressingRead more about the Wishbone restaurant and the rise of Wish-Bone Italian dressing, from KCUR's Mackenzie Martin and Jenny Vergara.Hungry For MO is a production of KCUR Studios, with support from the Missouri Humanities Council. It’s hosted by Natasha Bailey and Jenny Vergara. This episode was written and produced by Mackenzie Martin with editing from Gabe Rosenberg and Suzanne Hogan. Sound design and mix by Mackenzie Martin with help from intern Zacchary Rodgers. Music this episode from Blue Dot Sessions.2022-12-1432 minHungry For MOBlack walnut magicRead more about the black walnut and how it shaped Missouri cuisine from KCUR's Natasha Bailey and Suzanne Hogan.Hungry For MO is a production of KCUR Studios, with support from the Missouri Humanities Council. It’s hosted by Natasha Bailey and Jenny Vergara. This episode was written and produced by Suzanne Hogan with editing from Gabe Rosenberg and Mackenzie Martin. Sound design and mix by Suzanne Hogan and intern Zacchary Rodgers. Music this episode from Blue Dot Sessions. Special thanks this episode to reporter Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga for additional reporting from Stockton, Missouri.2022-12-0727 minHungry For MONo apologies for St. Louis pizzaRead more about how St. Louis pizza is the style everyone loves to hate from KCUR's Jenny Vergara and Mackenzie Martin.Hungry For MO is a production of KCUR Studios, with support from the Missouri Humanities Council. It’s hosted by Natasha Bailey and Jenny Vergara. This episode was written and produced by Mackenzie Martin with editing from Gabe Rosenberg and Suzanne Hogan. Sound design and mix by Mackenzie Martin and intern Zacchary Rodgers. Music this episode from Blue Dot Sessions. Special thanks this episode to St. Louis Public Radio’s Brian Munoz, who gathered sounds and inte...2022-11-3029 minA People's History of Kansas CityPHKC live! Go behind the scenes with Suzanne Hogan and Mackenzie MartinJoin the KCUR podcast team that makes "A People's History of Kansas City" live at the Gem Theater on Thursday, Sept. 1 for a behind-the-scenes look at their award-winning episode, "Kansas City's Barbecue King." There will be BBQ trivia, a special guest and some never-before-heard information about Henry Perry. Tickets available at kcur.org/events.2022-08-2601 minGravyHenry Perry, Kansas City's Barbecue KingIn “Henry Perry, Kansas City’s 'Barbecue King,'” Gravy producer Mackenzie Martin tells the story of Henry Perry, the first person to really make a living selling barbecue in Kansas City. He even coined the local style. But, until recently, most people in KC didn’t know his name. Perry was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, and started learning how to barbecue when he was just seven. By fifteen, he was cooking professionally on a steamboat that traveled up and down the Mississippi River—taking him to Chicago, Minneapolis, and, finally, Kansas City. With a thriving meatpacking...2022-08-1726 minHungry For MOCrock-Pots for the people(Crysta Henthorne / KCUR 89.3)Read more about the Kansas City women who taught America how to use the Crock-Pot from KCUR's Mackenzie Martin.2021-09-0733 minHungry For MOChinese food, Missouri-style Springfield cashew chicken and the St. Paul sandwich are both dishes created by immigrants in Missouri – and now help define the state's cuisine.(Crysta Henthorne / KCUR 89.3)Read more about how Missouri's immigrants created the St. Paul sandwich 80 years ago or how David Leong turned Springfield cashew chicken into a uniquely Missouri phenomenon from KCUR's Mackenzie Martin.2021-08-2430 minHungry For MOWho gets to define Missouri barbecue?(Crysta Henthorne / KCUR 89.3)Learn more about how Missouri's barbecue has evolved over the last 200 years — and recent efforts to redefine it — from KCUR's Mackenzie Martin.KCUR's Jenny Vergara also has a list of the best barbecue in the state of Missouri.2021-08-1029 min