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Kenyan Journalist Recalls Dangerous Career, Nerd Nite KC On Cryptozoology

Suzanne Hogan
/
KCUR

Kenyan Journalist Recalls Dangerous Career
A free press tends to be something journalists take for granted as a part of American democracy. But around the world, journalism can have life-threatening occupational hazards. Before coming to the U.S., UMKC communication studies major Peter Makori faced down death as he worked as journalist for The Standard, Kenya’s oldest newspaper. After surviving ten years of intimidation, brutal beatings and imprisonment, a Friendly Press fellowship landed him at The Kansas City Star in 2005.

Hindu Community Celebrates Diwali In Shawnee
Take a look inside the local celebration of the Hindu holiday of Diwali.  Hear a repeat piece from 2010 where we traveled to the region’s largest ever Diwali party in Shawnee, KS.   There, nearly 2,000 people gathered to gather to take part in the “festival of lights.”

Area Nerds Unite: Nerd Nite KC Features Cryptozoology
For the past couple months we’ve been bringing you clips of presentations from Nerd Nites, which happen in Kansas City, Lawrence and all around the world. Past featured talks include how to raise silkworms and the character trope of vampire boyfriends as it’s evolved in popular culture.  Nerd Nite KC is hosted at Mini Bar on Broadway Boulevard every month.  This presentation is from John January, the Executive Creative Director at Sullivan Higdon and Sink, an integrated marketing firm in KC.  His nerdy topic: "Beloved Monsters: A crypto zoological view of the world."

Corn Belt Farmland: The Newest Real Estate Bubble
Across the Corn Belt, farmland is selling at record high prices. Just last October an 80-acre tract in Sioux City, Iowa went for nearly $22,000 an acre. That’s five times more than the land sold for only five years earlier. Sales are being driven by high crop prices and good returns on farmland when compared with bonds, gold and even the stock market. Hear a report from Harvest Public Media on how these returns are enticing traditional investors to put their money into nontraditional investments.

Sylvia Maria Gross is storytelling editor at KCUR 89.3. Reach her on Twitter @pubradiosly.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Susan admits that her “first love” was radio, being an avid listener since childhood. However, she spent much of her career in mental health, healthcare administration, and sports psychology (Susan holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Bloch School of Business at UMKC.) In the meantime, Wilson satisfied her journalistic cravings by doing public speaking, providing “expert” interviews for local television, and being a guest commentator/contributor to KPRS’s morning drive time show and the teen talk show “Generation Rap.”
As a health care reporter, I aim to empower my audience to take steps to improve health care and make informed decisions as consumers and voters. I tell human stories augmented with research and data to explain how our health care system works and sometimes fails us. Email me at alexs@kcur.org.
Every part of the present has been shaped by actions that took place in the past, but too often that context is left out. As a podcast producer for KCUR Studios and host of the podcast A People’s History of Kansas City, I aim to provide context, clarity, empathy and deeper, nuanced perspectives on how the events and people in the past have shaped our community today. In that role, and as an occasional announcer and reporter, I want to entertain, inform, make you think, expose something new and cultivate a deeper shared human connection about how the passage of time affects us all. Reach me at hogansm@kcur.org.
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