Prairie Journal

The story of a deadly bomb plot against Somali immigrants in Garden City and the FBI informant that foiled the plot and helped bring the perpetrators to justice.  Our Kansas 250 Bookshelf series also continues with Justa's Escape by Justina Neufeld of Newton.

The 2026 elections are right around the corner.  We preview the November 3rd elections here in Kansas with Dr. Andrea Vieux of Johnson County Community College and Dr. Michael Smith of Emporia State University.  Also, journalists Kirk Bado (National Journal) and Jacob Rubashkin (Inside Elections) join Dole Fellow Dr. Colleen Shogan to discuss the forces shaping this year’s campaigns.

In an alley in downtown Lawrence sits a cheery cinderblock building with a big mission.  Meg Davis is the manager of the Social Service League's thrift store, in KPR's Community Spotlight.

Meg Davis: an Encounter U martial arts success story

More than 100 years ago, a grisly series of murders took place in an isolated cabin in southeast Kansas.  Susan Jonusas is the author of "Hell's Half Acre:  The Untold Story of the Benders, America's First Serial Killer Family." Our Kansas 250 Bookshelf series continues with "Mad Prairie," a set of unsettling short stories by Kate McIntyre.

We're getting in the mood for Halloween with stories of witches, ghosts, demons... and the true story of a father-daughter team searching for a serial killer, 100 years after the fact. Alex Grecian is the author of Red Rabbit and The Saint of Wolves and Butchers; Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James are the authors of The Man from the Train.

The world lost a much-beloved country superstar last month with the death of Dolly Parton.  We set the stage for the upcoming Dolly Parton Tribute concert with Sarah Smarsh, author of "She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs."

Nearly thirty years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case, a different fight played out in Kansas City, Kansas, one that drew in the Mexican consulate, the Kansas governor, and the U.S. State Department.  It's Episode 6 in the Per Aspera series, a history series produced by Kara Heitz and the Kansas 250 Commission.

Sarah Smarsh, Lucas Bessire, and Kate Benz share stories of the challenges of rural life in this month's Kansas 250 Bookshelf.  They're the authors, respectively, of Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, Running Out: In Search of Water in the High Plains, and Nothing but the Dirt: Stories from an American Farm Town.  

The Kansas Book Festival is an annual celebration of books, readers, and writers.  Director Lara Avery joins us to preview the festival, taking place in Topeka on September 26th.  We also hear from two festival participants, Sonja Czarnecki and Vanessa Eicher, hosts of the popular podcast "In Walks a Woman."