For the last two years, the real humans of Kansas City have given us strength. They've helped us realize that when the outlook appears grim, daring to imagine a way forward isn't fanciful or naïve.

A Midwest goodbye

Kansas City has taught me that you don’t love a city by seeing only the parts that make you comfortable. Telling stories about this place for two decades allowed me to understand its quirks, its flaws, its strengths and its heartaches.

I want to tell you about my hometown

Despite long wait times between buses, confusing route changes and other inconveniences, these Kansas Citians use public transit not because they have to, but because they want to. Here's why that matters.

Kansas City vs. the bus

Despite being designed for cars, Kansas City is home to people who rely on the bus every day. We spent a day riding along with Richard Heimer to learn what's working and what's not in our public transit system.

A bus rider in a car city

Kansas Citians stirred by horrific scenes from Ukraine are reaching out to Sofia Khan with offers to help refugees who might move here. But Khan is still trying to meet the needs of immigrants from Afghanistan, who began arriving here by the hundreds in October — without the same outpouring of support.

'We're just your neighbors'

Vi Tran

Even at the height of his professional success as an actor, playwright and venue owner, Vi Tran struggled to pause long enough to enjoy his achievements. Since the pandemic hit, he's grown clearer about what it takes to live well as an artist — and he's started to demand it.

Why Vi Tran stopped trying to prove himself

Are there books that contain ideas so crucial for understanding that it's dangerous not to read them? We reached out to Kansas City's biggest book-readers and change-makers to find out what titles they'd put on such a reading list.

A book list for rebel teens

Annel Alvarez

A year ago, Grupo Folklórico Izcalli consisted of a few friends dancing in a park to lift the haze of new motherhood. After an impressive first season — including a halftime show at Arrowhead Stadium — they vow to keep doing it for fun, but also to keep getting bigger.

Annel Alvarez didn't mean to start a dance troupe

Mick Ranney started selling and repairing Birkenstocks in Lawrence, Kansas, decades ago. The brand's popularity has ebbed and flowed — although its current wave of fashion cred is proving more enduring than any before. Throughout it all, Ranney has stayed a "true believer" in shoes worth fixing.

Church of the Birkenstock

A Midtown "townie" priced off of her bus line. A retiree on fixed income forced out of her home of 17 years. Kansas City renters are facing substantial rent hikes, with serious repercussions.

Kansas City rent is still too damn high

KCUR's Gina Kaufmann brings you personal essays about how we're all adapting to a very different world.

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.

The rogue trash picker-uppers of Kansas City

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.

Ameerah at the mic again

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.

How to walk out of school

Adib Khorram

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.

Adib Khorram deserves better than a book ban

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.”

Where everybody knows you’re vaccinated

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."

A phone rings by the hospital bed

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.

Are we canceling everything again?

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."

Carry Nation was right

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?

How ‘Encanto’ taught me to ditch ambition

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.

The long-lost Christmas tape

Real Humans By Gina Kaufmann

What is this?
1 quote, 3 ideas & 1 question from a carefully curated podcast episode.
Every Monday & Wednesday.

Want a 3rd insight and episode every week? Email me at curation@owltail.com.

OwlTail

OwlTail 1-3-1

The best podcast episodes on Startups. For anyone working in a startup, or anyone interested in the incredible stories behind how people built companies like Instagram, and Facebook. Offering both practical advice and insights, as well as the stories for how many of the biggest startups got to where they are today. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!