Steve Kraske

It's been a quiet winter in Warsaw, Mo., where the Osage River empties into Truman Lake.  The bitter cold had even the hardiest inhabitants staying indoors.  Now this little town on the lake is showing the unmistakable signs that the "season" is about to begin.

The Kansas City-based band, The Elders, with their blend of American roots rock and Celtic folk, have performed together since 1998. This year marks their 12th annual Hoolie, a celebration of Irish culture through music and dance.

On Thursday's Up to Date, some of the band members talked about the March 15 event with host Steve Kraske.

If you're a proud geek, basketball fan or want to feel Irish for a day, we've got just the thing for you. Check out Brian McTavish's Weekend To-Do List for March 14-16, 2014.

Planet Comicon (Pop culture and comic book convention), Noon to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Bartle Hall, 301 W. 13th, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets: $20 Friday, $35 Saturday, $30 Sunday (separate admission to Sunday Trektacular)

Your average animated film today looks a lot different from Snow White or The Jetsons, and it's all due to the computer animation techniques we use today.

On Wednesday's Up to Date, we talk with a Dreamworks animator and a look at the science that makes the silver screen computer animation work.

Guest: 

Don’t discuss religion or politics — that’s what they say about making polite conversation. But a non-profit is trying to change that way of thinking.

On Wednesday's Up to Date, we talk with representatives from the Village Square, a group that encourages civil discussion about often controversial civic issues.

Guests:

Dr. Gary Yarbrough has been a rural family physician for more than 30 years, first in Kentucky then Michigan and, since 1994, in Parsons, Kan.

On this edition of 90-Mile View he talks with Steve Kraske about making house calls in the severe cold this winter plus shares a tale from his latest book, Office Calls: And Other Stories From Thirty Years of Rural Medicine.

If you heard or saw a crime happening, what would you do? The people who heard Kitty Genovese scream as she was murdered didn’t do anything, in a famous case that became known for the bystander effect. 

On Tuesday's Up to Date, we talk about the case that helped drive the development of the 911 emergency call system and what new details about the killing have emerged over the years.

Guest:

From King Kong to a certain accident-prone coyote, the things that inspire Missouri's third poet laureate are different, to say the least. 

On Tuesday's Up to Date, we talk with William Trowbridge about his unusual muses and his tenure as poet laureate.

Guest:

Follow the adventures of a boy as he swaps toys for grown-up pursuits and childhood tales of Lenin for the American Dream. And if you like a little adventure, join a pizza hotline operator as he tries to figure out how to deal with a time traveler.

On Monday's Up to Date, the Book Doctors return to share these tales and more as they tell us about the books that have been keeping them warm this winter.

Guests:

The line-up has been announced for this year’s Middle of the Map music festival.  Running from April 3rd - 5th, the festival takes place at various locations in and around Westport. 

Rev Gusto is one band from the Kansas City area who will be sharing the stage with regional and national artists.  This week we hear the summery garage-band sounds of Rev Gusto in the track “Click-Click” from their self-titled EP.

This morning, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that a lower court will deal with what it called unconstitutional inadequate funding for the state's K-12 schools.

On Friday's Up to Date, we take a look at what the 110-page ruling will mean for school funding, how the lower court might handle the the details and how all this affects this fall's race for the governor's office.

Guests:

The film world is still all aglow with radiance from the recent Academy Awards, and our indie, foreign and documentary film critics are talking about some of the films in the limelight.

On Friday's Up to Date, take a trip into the treacherous Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have fun with veteran actress Elaine Stritch and her brassy personality and be a poetry superfan with Emma Roberts and John Cusack.

Our critics' list:

Want to get rid of the post-Mardi Gras blahs? Check out Brian McTavish's Weekend To-Do List for March 7-9, 2014.

Golden! Girls Gone Wild!!! (Late Night Theatre returns with cross-dressing satire of TV’s “The Golden Girls”), opens at 8 p.m. Friday with performances through March 31 at Missie B’s, 805 W. 39th, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets: $18 (816-235-6222)

Kielbasa, carnitas and pulled pork — are you getting hungry? Some local restaurants are proving that Kansas City isn’t just a barbecue town. 

On Wednesday's Up to Date, we take a look at highlights and hidden gems featured in the Kansas City Star’s Food Issue.

Guest:

• Jill Silva, food editor at The Kansas City Star

Mushrooms can’t run, but if you go hunting for them, it certainly seems like they’re hiding. 

On Wednesday's Up to Date, we speak with a few mushroom hunters about their craft and how they find the best fungus among us. 

Guests:

As the parents of baby boomers move into their twilight years, an elephant enters the room: when should we start to talk about long-term care? 

With 12 million Americans already in need of attention and a further 15 million just around the corner, that question of how to best look after ourselves and loved ones is becoming more important by the day.

The image we have of Abraham Lincoln today as the Great Emancipator, father figure and military genius might not be what it is if not for two men: John Hays and John Nicolay. “The boys,” as the president affectionately called them, were Lincoln’s right-hand men during the course of his presidency.

On Friday's Up to Date, we talk about the men who dutifully reshaped Lincoln’s image in the years following his assassination.

Guest:

Not that long ago, Laila Biali was struggling to make a name for herself in the world of American jazz. She was on the verge of giving up when she got an invitation to audition for Sting. She made the cut, and wound up at Sting’s estate in Tuscany for rehearsal.

On Friday's Up to Date, we talk with Biali about her music as she prepares to open the American Jazz Museum’s Women in Jazz Month. 

Guest:

Drive away that chill this weekend with Brian McTavish's Weekend To-Do List for Feb. 28-March 2, 2014.

Screenland at the Symphony: “The Wizard of Oz” (re-mastered MGM movie classic with live symphonic accompaniment), 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, 1601 Broadway, Kansas City, Mo., Tickets: $27 (Friday sold out)

Many politicians declare the United States to be a Christian nation-- but it’s not, even though the majority of the population is part of some stream of Christianity. The Founding Fathers, while using religion as a basis for some of their decisions, were very clear about making this a country with no official religion.

We’ve been following the story of Patricia Porsche for the past year.  In that time she has made her way from being homeless and unemployed to working for the True Light Family Resource Center in Kansas City, Mo.  As its volunteer coordinator and as mentor to the women living in the center’s transitional home, Trisha has a front-row seat to the challenges facing homeless women in Kansas City.

It’s been nearly a year since Mark Holland became mayor of Kansas City, Kan., and it’s time to see what influence he’s wielded in the city over that time.

On Wednesday's Up to Date, Mayor Holland joins us in the studio to talk about the city’s economic development, public health programs and other issues.

Guest:

• Mark Holland, mayor of the unified government of Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County

Jennifer Holliday, the original "Dreamgirl," has known a lot of good times and some rough ones, too. 

She became a star on Broadway in the production of Dreamgirls, but in the years since, she's depression and faced an ongoing struggle with multiple sclerosis.

On Tuesday's Up to Date, we talk with her about about her music, her life and why they call her “The Queen of Broadway Gospel.”

Guest:

The Episcopal Church’s first female presiding bishop has experienced her share of strong reactions to her progressive views on gay marriage, immigration and more.

In the first part of Tuesday's Up to Date, Katharine Jefferts Schori joins us to talk about her positions on these issues. We also talk about what’s next for the 110 church dioceses she oversees.

Guest: 

Kansas politics have been making national headlines over several controversial bills—and not in a good way. First, there was the one that appeared to make discrimination against same-sex couples legal. Then, there was the one trying to make it legal to spank children hard enough to leave marks.

On Monday's Up to Date, we talk about those bills and how statehouse politics might affect this fall’s gubernatorial race.

Guests:

"Mad Men" might be a fictional television drama, but the kinds of ad men it portrays were real. 

Up to a point, according to George Lois.

In the second part of Monday's Up to Date, Steve Kraske talks with George Lois, perhaps best known for his work on Esquire covers from 1962 to 1972. We talk about his contentious campaigns and allegations of plagiarism.

Guest:

If you want to brave our weird weather this weekend, Brian McTavish has some ideas for you on the Weekend To-Do List for Feb. 21-23, 2014.

Bobby Watson & Horizon (Reunion of Watson and the band he started 30 years ago), 9 p.m. Friday at The Blue Room - 1600 E. 18th St., Kansas City, Mo. Tickets: $30

Living with Alzheimer's (March 28, 2013)

Former Kansas Congressman Dennis Moore was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease just six months after leaving a six-term career in the U.S. House. His wife, Stephene Moore, is the Region 7 director of the federal Health and Human Services Department. She and Dennis joined us to talk about his experiences with the disease. Our other guest was Michelle Niedens, director of programs and public policy for the Alzheimer's Association’s Heart of America chapter.
 

You wouldn’t think mountain climbing would be an activity a paraplegic person could still enjoy. But one group’s efforts to adapt activities like mountain climbing are coming to fruition.

In the first part of Friday's Up to Date, we talk about how they’re making sports more available to people with disabilities and what inspired them to get involved with this project.

Guests:

To call raising kids with with autism or autism spectrum disorder a challenge would probably be underselling it ... by quite a bit.

For many parents of kids with autism, maintaining a sense of humor is an essential component. Those experiences will be illustrated by some Kansas City area parents in An Evening with the Rents where they will deliver stand-up comedy routines centered around living with children on the spectrum.