Stray garbage covers the ground in city parks and on boulevards. But because there's nobody tasked with picking up litter, regular Kansas Citians are taking matters into their own hands.

Ameerah Sanders is returning to Kansas City’s standup scene after going through a breakup, political disillusionment and a solo cross-country odyssey. The experience taught her how much more she has to offer — not to others, but to herself.

In January, high school students walked out of their Columbia, Missouri, classrooms to pressure their school board to reinstate a mask mandate. With COVID prevention policies expiring statewide, their experience — and a whole history of student-led walkouts — might prove instructive.

In his novels, Kansas City author Adib Khorram shows aspects of his life that were "erased" from his own high school curricula. His main characters are Iranian, or gay, or both; they sing in boy bands and play soccer. Except now his work is being targeted by book-banning campaigns.

In the absence of citywide mask and vaccine mandates, this cozy West Bottoms restaurant put its own rules in place. For Kansas Citians who don’t want to ignore COVID precautions, The Campground offers a rare chance to take a break from their worries. “It’s not that hard,” the owner says. “It really isn’t.”

With Kansas City hospitals caring for a record number of COVID patients, it's hard right now to address everyone's medical needs, let alone spiritual ones. Chaplains navigate health protocols and technological limitations, while still finding holiness "in places and circumstances most folks don't."

When she first postponed her wedding in 2020, Lauren Hughes focused on the privilege of safety. "It's just a party," she thought. But planning a once-in-a-lifetime event, three times, during global crisis has given her perspective on what matters.

For more than a century, Carry Nation's Prohibition rampages have inspired mockery. What we've missed, though, is the story of a disenfranchised person getting fed up and demanding more from the leaders charged with protecting her. "You wouldn't give me the vote," she said, "so I had to use a rock."

In the two years I've spent talking to Kansas Citians about how the pandemic has changed their lives and beliefs, I've heard a lot about the pressures that people want to let go. Even in 2022, that's proving easier said than done. Can a Disney song put us on the right path?

In the mid-2000s, Kansas City musician Billy Smith was combing thrift stores when he stumbled upon a random tape in an old-school reel-to-reel tape recorder. What came next was a series of magical coincidences that turned strangers into family.