Kansas Reflector Podcast

Rural, urban housing advocates are hopeful the 2022 Kansas Legislature's $62 million investment will make a difference for people and communities.

Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas, and Sara Hart Weir, executive director of the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, talk about the state's history with Medicaid-funded disability support services. The two have both spent years advocating for increased support and funding for Kansans with disabilities, but have seen little government action on th...

Gov. Laura Kelly has conducted a whistlestop tour of the state to examine the advantages of Medicaid expansion. She talks about what she learned on the road, and how her tour might serve to jumpstart debate at the Statehouse during the 2024 legislative session.

Washburn University professor Bob Beatty shares what he learned by following GOP presidential candidates taking part in Iowa's Jan. 15 caucus.

Kansas Rural Center policy analyst Paul Johnson and Kansas Farmers Union executive director Nick Levendofsky want 2024 debate on the federal farm bill to emphasize crop subsidies, food nutrition and environmental conservation.

Gov. Laura Kelly hired Vijay Ramasamy as a special adviser on water to assist with the Ogallala Aquifer and other issues. Ramasamy says his job "is to make water central to a lot of our conversations."

Fort Hays State University, North Central Kansas Technical College and Northwest Kansas Technical College have decided to face the challenges of declining rural population and businesses struggling to find workers — all at the same time. The regional university and two tech colleges have joined forces with a strategic affiliation initiative that aims to not only strengthen the institutions, but re...

It's been nearly three months since the law enforcement raid on the Marion County Record newspaper. Since then, the town's police chief has resigned, and reporters have kept digging into the situation. Kansas Reflector opinion editor Clay Wirestone leads a conversation with Marion County Record editor and publisher Eric Meyer, and Kansas Reflector editor in chief Sherman Smith.

Kansas Reflector opinion editor Clay Wirestone joins senior reporter Tim Carpenter in talking about Fort Hays State University's annual Kansas Speaks poll. The new results show how Kansans are feeling about Medicaid expansion, marijuana, abortion, climate change and guns, among other issues.

In the upcoming legislative session, Kansas child advocates want lawmakers to pass a new option for youths who are about to age out of the system. Under the SOUL initiative, youths could choose their own community of supporting adults.

Outgoing state Rep. Fred Patton spent years serving at the Statehouse and on a school board. Years juggling complex issues of deep public interest left him a changed person. Not the kind of overwhelming personal transformation associated with huge egos and bright lights of the nation's political epicenter in Washington, D.C. No, Patton's realm was the Seaman school district north of Topeka and the...

Over the past few years, moderate Republicans have seen their numbers dwindle at the Kansas statehouse, as increasingly ideological lawmakers took charge. A new organization, with former Senate President Steve Morris as a founding board member, hopes to change that equation.

GOP strategist and ad maker Rick Wilson was one of the first prominent Republican voices to oppose Donald Trump, all the way back in 2015. He's now part of the Lincoln Project, a right-leaning pro-democracy group. Wilson is raising the alarm about the stakes of the 2024 presidential election, when Trump and current President Joe Biden will likely be on the ballot once again.

Bruce Chladny, executive director of the Kansas Association of Counties, and Miami County Commissioner Rob Roberts say the Local Ad Valorem Tax Reduction Fund would reduce residential property tax bills. But the Legislature hasn't funded the program since 2003, and Republican leaders have no interest in reviving it now.

Shannon Little, the chapter co-lead for Kansas Moms Demand Action, and organization volunteer Ann Williamson outline their ideas for more gun safety measures.

During a Kansas Reflector podcast, Mark McCormick, deputy executive director of strategic initiatives at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, discussed racism in the state as seen through the lens of his recent report on Quindaro, “Same Water Comin’ Round: Quindaro as a Vision for Kansas.”

Jade Piros de Carvalho, director of the Kansas Office of Broadband Development, discusses the state's five-year action plan to expand internet services in rural areas.

Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, says providing reproductive health care in the state has been complicated by the loss of federal abortion rights and decades-old state restrictions. Her organization has been flooded with an influx of out-of-state visitors seeking care denied to them in their own states.

Judith Deedy, from Game On for Kansas Schools, and Lauren Tice Miller, a Shawnee Heights school board member, discuss this year's election cycle for public school board races. The two say they are concerned about a wave of misinformation being promoted by outsider groups, such as Moms for Liberty.

Eli Woody, a former educator and political newcomer, is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner for a shot at the 2nd District seat. Woody, a Democrat, discussed his campaign goals of focusing on education, reproduction rights and gun reform with Kansas Reflector senior reporter Tim Carpenter.

The Democratic governor talks about her Middle of the Road political action committee, the youth vote, economic development, new agency leadership, attacks on LGBTQ equality and Medicaid unwinding.

Kerrice Mapes, owner and founder of 785 Magazine, talks about independent journalism, a worsening crisis with Topeka's unsheltered population, and the mysterious unraveling of Stephen Wade's reign as city manager.

Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Shawnee Democrat, discusses model legislation, including anti-LGBTQ bills, passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature.

Marty Hillard — an advocate against police brutality, a musician, and director of community engagement at Kansas Children's Discovery Center — is "resolute in finding joy, in as many experiences as possible for all of the years that I was sort of lost in my indignation."

Todd Thornburg, deputy chief counsel for the Kansas Department of Labor, has Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy. As a five-time finalist for a judicial seat in Shawnee County, he says he will never give up on his dream of becoming a judge. But as his peers continue to make him a finalist, the governor keeps picking other candidates.