Matthew Long-Middleton

Economic struggles, loyalty to friends and endless hopes of coming out on top in America. Those are the central themes of the play Good People, a 2011 Tony Award nominee for best play.  It recently was presented in St Louis, and now has a debut in Kansas City at the Unicorn Theater. 

  When surveyed, 20 to 25 percent of people admit to having an extramarital affair.  It also is one of the most destructive forces to a  relationship.  Why is this phenomena so common? Our resident psychologist Bruce Liese tackles the common misconceptions about affairs.

There are a number of social land mines that can be tripped in restaurants.  How is the best way to handle a declined credit card, or when do you send something back to the kitchen?  On Central Standard Friday food critics Charles Ferruzza, Mary Bloch, Emily Farris and Gloria Gale tackle this subject and all the new restaurants of KC.

People have been cross-breeding plants for thousands of years, manipulating traits in agricultural crops from generation to generation. When scientists discovered that they could actually modify the genes of these plants in a laboratory, the landscape of agriculture changed dramatically -- and fast.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's traveling exhibit, Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945 opened at the Dean's Gallery at the Miller Nichols Library at UMKC. Stuart Hinds, head of Special Collections for UMKC libraries, joins us to talk about the exhibit and other events the museum is hosting to accompany the exhibit.

As part of Black History Month activities, UMKC is hosting an African-American Read In Feb. 20 and 28. Employees of the UMKC library and the public will read aloud from some of their favorite African-American literature and writing.

Paying bills, making purchases and balancing a checkbook all seem like straight forward actions with money. But a person's behavior toward money and wealth and how they integrate it into their lives is a psychological and sociological issue as well.

  The Federal Bureau of Investigations is our federal police force, “to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats and to enforce the criminal laws of the United States."  However, in that mission the FBI has investigated its own citizens, even it's own presidents.  Pulitzer prize winning author Tim Weiner discusses the complicated history of the FBI.

In the world of music, so many songs center around one common subject: love. But for those who aren't singing the praises of romance, there are plenty of songs about the darker and more cynical side of love. Richard Alwyn joins Central Standard to share his favorite songs for the lonely heart and to talk about his live event, The Love Hangover.

In the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated or scorned by many, but what is love like around the world? William Jankowiak, professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and author of Intimacies: Love and Sex Across Cultures, joins us to talk about love across cultures.

It may be hard to remember, but the 2008 election broke racial and gender norms for politics. With President Obama, Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton among the presidential and vice-presidential candidates in both major parties, the idea of race and gender was a common discussion. But what did that election mean to those who didn’t, and couldn’t vote?