Prairie Journal

What better way to celebrate America 250 than with a cross-country road trip?  Dr. Beverly Gage is the author of This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History.  She's joined by Dr. Colleen Shogan, former U.S. archivist and CEO of the online history series In Pursuit.

Movies, music, and more!  It's time for the 2026 Free State Festival,  a week-long celebration of independent films taking place June 22nd-28th.  Festival director Marlo Angell joins us to talk about this year's FSF theme: The Revolution Will Be at the Movies! 

The World Cup is here!  Tim Bascom explores the universal appeal of the game in his book "The Boundless Game: Soccer Stories from Across the Street to Around the World."

In the late 1880s, Kansas voters did something almost no other state was doing: they elected women to local office. This episode of Per Aspera follows three of those elections: how Susanna Salter became the first woman mayor in the United States after being nominated as a joke, as well as wins in Oskaloosa and Baldwin City.  Per Aspera is a Kansas history series produced by Kara Heitz and the Kans...

This week marks the 60th anniversary of an F5 tornado that ripped through Topeka, killing 17 people, injuring hundreds more, and destroying homes, cars, and buildings in the heart of the city.  We look back on June 8, 1966, with Bonar Menninger, author of "And Hell Followed With It: Life and Death in a Kansas Tornado," and with journalist Bill Kurtis, on the air at WIBW the night of the devastatin...

As Bill Kurtis marks his last weekend as scorekeeper for NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," we revisit KPR's book launch event for his memoir, "Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News."

Our Kansas 250 Bookshelf series continues with two books for kids and teens: Henry, Like Always by Jenn Bailey and A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asebedo.

KPR's Community Spotlight is on Kansas Trails Inc. this month.  KPR's Kaye McIntyre visits with Mike Scanlon, executive director.

A father's story of love, grief, and lessons learned from loss.  Bryan Welch of Lawrence is the author of The Gift of a Broken Heart: How Our Grief Can Connect Us.

Scott Simon is the host of NPR's Weekend Edition AND the author of several books, including the hot-off-the-press Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known.  

Historian Ian Shaw takes us back to Coffeyville in 1892, the double bank robbery that brought the Dalton Gang to an end, and the surprising story of the gang's lone survivor.

Kansas lawmakers wrapped up their 2026 session earlier this month.  KPR's Statehouse Bureau Chief Zach Boblitt and Emporia State University's Michael Smith review what legislators did -- and didn't -- get done.

We head outside and celebrate Kansas nature with a little help from the Kansas 250 Bookshelf.  This month's featured books include Kansas Wildflowers and Weeds, Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River, A Kansas Bestiary, and others.

From false teeth to organ transplants, Mary Roach explores how medicine and science are working together to create new body parts in her latest book, Replaceable You.

We head outside and celebrate Kansas nature with a little help from the Kansas 250 Bookshelf.  This month's featured books include The Last Wild Places of Kansas by George Frazier, Kansas Trail Guide by Jonathan and Kristin Conard, and Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet by Mandy Kern.

A partisan standoff, competing legislatures meeting under the same roof, armed guards at the Kansas Capitol -- how a disputed election led to the Populist War of 1893.  "The People's House" is the second episode in Per Aspera, a new Kansas history series from the Kansas 250 Commission, produced by Kara Heitz.

We explore the mysterious rock carvings of the Kansas Smoky Hills with Rex Buchanan, director emeritus of the Kansas Geological Survey. It's part of our continuing Kansas 250 Bookshelf series, this month exploring outdoors and nature in Kansas.  Rex Buchanan is one of three co-authors of "Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smoky Hills," along with Burke Griggs and Joshua Svaty.

In his farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against the rising power of the "military-industrial complex," one of the most quoted phrases of his presidency.  We look at Eisenhower's address in the context of the Cold War and how his warning has often been misinterpreted and misunderstood.  

Our Kansas 250 Bookshelf series continues with the second of two programs featuring Kansas poets.  This week we hear from HC Palmer, Al Ortolani, and Catherine Strayhall, all Kansas Notable Book Award winners recognized by the State Library of Kansas.

Our Kansas 250 Bookshelf continues with the first of two programs featuring Kansas poets.  We hear from Kansas Poet Laureate Traci Brimhall, former Kansas Poets Laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and Huascar Medina, and from children's author Carol Murray.

For many sports fans, this month means basketball, the Big 12 Tournament, and March Madness! Chelan David shares stories of his lifelong love affair with the Jayhawks in "Stories from the Phog: Forty Years of Kansas Basketball."

Based on a true story, Jillian Forsberg takes us back to 18th century Europe and the rhinoceros that delighted nobility and common folks alike in "The Rhino Keeper."  This conversation is part of Prairie Journal's Kansas Notable Books series, highlighting books honored by the State Library of Kansas.

We celebrate Women's History Month with a sports trailblazer: Marian Washington. Washington was the first African-American woman to coach basketball at a predominantly white institution, the first women's track and field coach at the University of Kansas, the first director of women's athletics at KU, and many other firsts. She's the author of "Fierce: My Fight for Nothing Less."

Our Kansas 250 Bookshelf series continues with the second of two episodes on this month's theme: Love Your Community! This episode features conversations with artist Dave Loewenstein about Kansas murals, Prisca Barnes about the sit-in at the 1958 Dockum Drug Store, and Patrick O'Connor about the role of blues music in Wichita's African-American community.  

Our Kansas 250 Bookshelf series continues with the first of two episodes on this month's theme: Love Your Community! This episode features conversations about the Walnut Valley Festival, a family's journey from Mexico to Kansas, and the resilience of two Kansas towns' in the face of declining population.