Central Standard

Chicken isn't the most exciting protein. “It’s like the vodka of the food world,” Food Critic Jenny Vergara told guest host Brian Ellison on KCUR's Central Standard . “It takes on the flavor of whatever you put in it or put with it.” But that’s the beauty of chicken — and why it’s a beloved staple in many cultures. Whether you like it fried, roasted or grilled, in strips or shredded (and, for the kids, in nugget form), you can find chicken at all price points. From the gourmet to something that

Which came first? Well, on this show, it's the egg. An eggs-pert (sorry, had to) tells us why the shell and yolk color can vary — and whether it makes a difference in taste. Plus, a visit to Niecie's Restaurant to find out more about their chicken and waffles, then KCUR's Food Critics search out the best chicken dishes in and around Kansas City. Guests: Darrin Karcher, Assistant Professor of Animal Sciences , Purdue University Denise Hayes Ward, Niecie's Restaurant Charles Ferruzza, The

In the 1990s, fiddler Dennis Stroughmatt was a student at Southwest Missouri State University when a folklore professor made a passing reference to a little-known dialect of French spoken nearby. An encore presentation of his journey to find out if anyone still spoke Missouri French. Then, a KU professor on the connection between blues and funk, and Question Quest has the final installment of the mysterious bird lady statue on the Trolley Trail. Guests: Dennis Stroughmatt, Creole fiddler/singer

Over the past 20 years, Kansas City has invested over $100 million in the East Side, but private development has been slower to follow. What would it take to get more people investing their dollars and their energy in KC's urban core? Guests: Quinton Lucas , KCMO City Council, Third District At-Large Donovan Mouton, development consultant Cat Mahari , movement artist Stephen Samuels, Executive Director of Greater Kansas City LISC Kevin Collison, KCUR contributor

Protests are sweeping the nation. And people are showing up for all kinds of reasons, all across the country, including right here in Kansas City. We revisit some of our local rallies and movements to examine the culture of protest and place our current wave in historical context. Guests: Patty Logan , grassroots organizer, Stand Up Blue Valley Michael Kazin , historian, politics and social movements, Georgetown University , editor, Dissent Magazine Sarah McCammon ​, national desk reporter, NPR

On average, each person in Kansas City throws away seven pounds of garbage every day, and, it turns out, 80% of that garbage is actually recyclable. We check in on Kansas City's recycling program, revisit the easy steps , and hear how our city could be doing better. Guests: Bob Mann , founder, Bridging the Gap Matt Riggs , recycling outreach coordinator, Mid-America Regional Council Marleen Leonce , senior environmental officer, Kansas City's Solid Waste Services Division

One film features a teacher of refugee children in a rural town in the Netherlands. The other film is one man's dive into his brother's death and its effect on their family. A talk with the directors of these two documentaries, which are showing at this weekend's True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri. Plus, is documentary filmmaking all about facts or can there be poetic license? Guests: Stacy Woelfel, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Director, Jonathan B. Murray School for

A rural farm in Kansas. A wealthy family with a dark secret. A missing young woman. That's the basis of a new book by a local author. She shares how a real-life small Kansas town — and her background as a criminal defense attorney — helped inspire her novel. Then, a look at how police department throughout the country (including in KC) are using technology that mines cell phone data. Plus: In anticipation of Central Standard 's storytelling event on March 9 , KCUR's Michael Byars tells a tale

It runs from Baltimore to Provo, Utah, and the 1985 World Series was nicknamed after it . And did you know that they started building the very first stretch of it in Missouri, but the first section to be completed was in Kansas? A look at how Kansas and Missouri have been shaped by I-70. Plus, we hear from a woman who has driven a stretch of I-70 so much that she wrote a song about it. Guests: LuAnn Cadden, author of Driving Across Missouri: A Guide to I-70 Monroe Dodd, KCUR's resident historian

When does information become propaganda? We look back at posters from World War I, currently on display at Kansas City's World War I Museum , and draw connections to the memes of today. Guests: Doran Cart , senior curator, National World War I Museum and Memorial Dan Mahala ​, English professor, UMKC Cody Newill , digital editor, KCUR