Welcome to this special bonus episode of River Town! Our producers traveled to Weston, Missouri for "Hearing Place," an inspiring day in Weston, Missouri, hosted by our partners at The New Territory magazine. We joined a roster of creators, writers and scholars - all gathered to talk about the ways we listen to a place, and how a sense of place inspires us.

A special bonus episode of River Town! Our producers traveled to Marthasville, Missouri to interview hikers, cyclists, conservationists, musicians and all manner of people visiting the Peers Store, a historic landmark along the Katy Trail, on a summer Saturday.

In the final episode of season one, we’re turning things over to River Town Producer Tadeo Ruiz. Tadeo is pretty new to Missouri – via Mexico City - and he’s been surprised to learn about how much people here love the river. But during his reporting for River Town, he started to feel connected with one Missouri River town in particular… Rocheport. Follow him along his journey as he gets to know the river and the people who love it.

Water is life. It gets us places. Connects us to each other. It holds history and tradition. It keeps all these things, and us, alive. History, and modern stories, show us this. For this episode, we explored these connections by documenting modern Indigenous relationships to the Missouri River and other sacred waters, caught a boat ride with historian and author Greg Olson, and observed a water blessing at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

In this episode of River Town, we’re going to meet River Town’s youngest upstanding citizens, learn what people are doing to protect our waterways from pollution, and what’s happening in Missouri water policy right now.

In this episode, we’re having some fun. We’ll meet people who choose to spend their time sweating on the river. Our producers spent this past autumn meeting casual trail users, dry-land athletes and big river paddlers who enjoy actually getting their feet wet.

In the very first episode of River Town, we’re exploring how the Missouri River of today inspires artists -- from folk musicians, to watercolor painters with a penchant for pretzel paddle boating, to writers recounting their childhood “flood monster” memories. We want to know . . . no shame for this pun . . . How does the Missouri River help artists find their flow?