In many states teachers are being attacked by politicians who oppose public education. In many states trans people are being attacked by politicians for, well, who really knows. So imagine you’re a transgender, public school teacher. How hard is that? In this episode we find out from Riley Long, a trans high school teacher in Kansas.…

Chances are whatever you know about trans issues in education came from reporters who cover the issue. The best education reporting starts with students and works its way out to larger issues. Few things have complicated education reporting more than trans issues. The reporting is complicated by state lawmakers and school board members who use it a…

With everything else they must deal with…law enforcement, taxes and economic development…state legislators spend an enormous amount of time on transgender issues in education. Why, is the most important question but also, are we done watching endless debates on trans students in statehouses? On this episode, we hear from Missouri state Sen. Greg Ra…

It’s hard enough being the parent of a middle school student. But now your child comes out as trans and you have to navigate the school district bureaucracy to make sure your child is safe. Add to that, many school board members lean towards anti-trans and that makes parenting even harder. In this episode, we hear from Virginia Franzese from Leawoo…

There are few education topics more heated than transgender students. Should teachers use preferred pronouns? What restroom should trans kids use? And the question that generates the most heat: should kids be allowed to play sports on the teams they identify with? In this episode, we ask two former school district superintendents how we got here. W…

We start this season of Archiver in 1960 on the streets of Russell, Kansas—right there on the plains about half-way between Kansas City and Denver. It was a railroad town and an oil town but, for our purposes, it’s Bob Dole’s town. His first campaign for federal office featured four girls in homemade skirts called the Bob-O-Links, singing on the st…

By 1960 Bob Dole had his sights on a much bigger political stage. After his one term in the Kansas Legislature and five terms as Russell County attorney, there was a shake-up in the western Kansas political landscape starting in 1954. Dole saw his opening. There was a bitter three-way fight for the Republican nomination for Congress from western Ka…

When Bob Dole was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives in 1961 it didn’t take the freshman congressman from western Kansas long to attack the Democrats. He opposed almost everything the new Kennedy Administration wanted. In March 1961, he voted against extending unemployment benefits. Democrats in Kansas immediately labeled him a re…

The 1964 election was a disaster for Republicans. Lyndon Johnson crushed Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater with 61% of the vote. Goldwater only carried six states. It was the biggest landslide since Franklin Roosevelt crushed Kansas Gov. Alf Landon in 1936. But, out in western Kansas, Bob Dole was bucking the trend as he sought another term in the House…

After Bob Dole’s victory in 1966 many political observers believe he started to move toward the middle. Hunger became an issue that Dole got deeply involved in. CBS showed the documentary “Hunger in America” on May 21, 1968 and it helped profoundly change how the U-S government dealt with hunger. It would also help solidify Bob Dole’s moderation. N…

In his first run for Senate in 1968, Bob Dole had no trouble winning. He crushed Gov. William Avery in the Republican primary with 68% of the vote and in the general election he beat Democrat William I. Robinson with 60%. It probably didn’t hurt that Tonight Show regular and Kansas City jazz singer Marilyn Maye sang his campaign jingle, a far cry f…

On August 20th, 1976 the new ticket of Gerald Ford and Bob Dole made their first campaign stop in Dole’s hometown of Russell, Kansas. It was the night before the two were nominated at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City. It was also Bob Dole Day in Russell, 95 degrees with a 20-mile-an-hour wind that can make the plains feel like a co…

After losing as Gerald Ford’s 1976 vice presidential running mate, Dole made another run for the White House in 1988. It was a crowded GOP field that included Ronald Reagan’s vice president, George H.W. Bush. The campaign started well enough with Dole winning in Iowa. But Bush started running ads in New Hampshire saying Dole helped raise taxes, and…

On November 8th, 1996 just three days after Bob Dole got pasted by Bill Clinton for president, he walked on stage at the Late Show with David Letterman to a standing ovation. There has never been a politician just as comfortable and formidable marking up legislation as they are on late night TV. He joked that he was making $200 for the appearance a…

By Archiver

By Archiver

It's been more than a half century since the start of the Vietnam War. Vietnam changed American politics, changed the US military and most importantly changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans. In this special Archiver series, we meet four Kansans who fall into that category. Four people who fought the war, not with claymore mines and…

It's been more than a half century since the start of the Vietnam War. Vietnam changed American politics, changed the US military and most importantly changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans. In this special Archiver series, we meet four Kansans who fall into that category. Four people who fought the war, not with claymore mines and…

It's been more than a half century since the start of the Vietnam War. Vietnam changed American politics, changed the US military and most importantly changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans. In this special Archiver series, we meet four Kansans who fall into that category. Four people who fought the war, not with claymore mines and…

It's been more than a half century since the start of the Vietnam War. Vietnam changed American politics, changed the US military and most importantly changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans. In this special Archiver series, we meet four Kansans who fall into that category. Four people who fought the war, not with claymore mines and…

Literally from the moment Charles Finley bought The As, he wanted to move them out of Kansas City. He claimed otherwise but it was a lie. In 1967, he made it happen.By Archiver

For most fans, it’s not just the players that conjure up memories of a team. The broadcasters are just as important.By Archiver

You already know about Finley the showman; Charlie O The Mule, the exploding scoreboard, Kelly green and gold uniforms at a time everyone else wore white and gray, his lobbying for orange baseballs. Sounds like a real funster. But not at all. Finley had a mean streak, he was mercurial, dictatorial.By Archiver

There just aren’t many songs about mules. But in the mid 60's (the exact release date is unknown) Charlie O' the Mule by Kansas City song writer and rockabilly performer Gene McKown was released. It’s about a Missouri mule that helped usher in a wild, complicated and, at times, maddening seven years of baseball in Kansas City.…

In the 13 years the A’s were in Kansas City, they were simply terrible. But the A’s didn’t get this dismal without some help. It all goes back to the New York Yankees, and the unholy alliance between Yankee owners Del Webb and Dan Topping and their handpicked A’s owner Arnold Johnson.By Archiver

The A’s were always an awful baseball team. But Municipal Stadium, well that was special to almost anyone who ever went.By Archiver

When you think about black major league baseball players—those who led the way in breaking the color barrier—you think Jackie Robinson of course. They even wrote a swing tune about Jakcie called “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit that Ball” performed by Buddy Johnson and his Orchestra in 1949. It reached number 13 on the charts that year. Jackie spen…

During those years, baseball fan emotions bounced from joyous to tumultuous to downright silly at times, but there’s no doubt the A’s moving to Kansas City from Philadelphia changed the city’s image from a cowtown to a metropolis. “Well, we had a big parade, had a big crowd, drew a big crowd. It was a very exciting time for us to get a major league…

It was one of the greatest conspiracies in sports history. One that would lead to turmoil in Kansas City, a congressional hearing and, eventually, one of the craziest owners in all of professional sports.By Archiver

Archiver fans, get ready for a special season of the podcast. We’re leaving Kansas for now to tell a story that covers some of the most tumultuous years in baseball…but it’s more than just a sports story. This is about power, greed and corruption that went all the way to congress.By Archiver

I want to take you back to August 19th, 1991. It’s 93 degrees and humid. Hundreds of anti-abortion protestors from around the country have gathered in Wichita. There’s nothing spontaneous about it, planning went on for weeks and eventually hundreds would swell to thousands. Most people, including the city’s three abortion clinics, the police and ci…

The Globetrotters have always been innovators. But perhaps the greatest innovation was in 1985 when they signed a woman, the first woman to ever play professionally with men. That woman was from Kansas, and she would not only change the game but become a hero to female athletes, to be sure, and probably many other young women.…

We’re talking horse racing on this Archiver, something not associated much with Kansas. But for an amazing two minutes and four seconds in 1938, a horse from Johnson County was the top three-year-old in the land. Owned by a man who was better known for suits than stallions, and who had an odd connection to Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast.…

Do you know the 1946 musical “The Harvey Girls?” It stars Judy Garland and in the film she sings one of the most famous show tunes of all times “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.” The movie is about Harvey House restaurants and the young women in their starched, white aprons and cuffs who went out west to feed hungry train travelers. The tr…

This episode is about the Haskell Institute in Lawrence back when it was a boarding school for American Indians. Tens of thousands of school age Indians were forced into these boarding schools all across the country, many times kidnapped by soldiers or police. Kids would, naturally, run away from such semi-imprisonment. How could any of this be goo…

This Archiver starts in 1984. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum is running for reelection. Now with Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, you may not realize the uniqueness of a woman in the United States Senate in 1978. Depending on how you define it, Kassebaum was the first or second woman elected in her own right to the senate. Women in Kansas politics go…

Newspaper endorsements were crucial for political candidates, be it for president or city council. It’s less so now, but they’re still important. Even President Trump when he was a candidate met with the editorial boards of the Washington Post, New York Times and Chicago Tribune.By Archiver

This story starts with a tape that, until recently, was in a box at the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas. Archiver historian Virgil Dean found it.By Archiver

Anyone with a passing knowledge of the civil rights movement knows about the lunch counter sit ins at the Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina. But before Greensboro and Miami there was Dockum Drug Store in Wichita.By Archiver

Archiver fans, get ready for another season of audio gems that tell the most surprising stories from Kansas history.By Archiver

If you look around YouTube, you’ll find no shortage of videos featuring William S. Burroughs, the famous beat writer. One of the best videos shows rock ‘n roll hall of famer Patti Smith playing the acoustic guitar in Burroughs tiny bungalo in old east Lawrence. That’s Lawrence, Kansas. River City. #LFK This episode of the Archiver podcast is just a…

As a kid, Ed Dwight never dreamed he might one day go to the moon, but he did fantasize about escaping life in Kansas. And it was that idea of escape that was so powerful for a young black man in the 50s.By Archiver

John McLendon changed the way basketball is played forever with his "fast break" style, and he broke the color barrier for black athletes in the sport.By Archiver

We start this episode of Archiver in 1918, the end of the first World War, because the way America treated those veterans would forever change the way the country takes care of its soldiers, sailors and marines. Make no mistake, it would take decades plus lots of pain and suffering to do the right thing, but it happened. And wouldn’t you know it, i…

While the Clutter murders are the best known in Kansas history, they aren’t the most infamous and certainly not the most bizarre. The killers were eventually put to death, but the state hasn't always been in favor of the death penalty. In fact, Kansas has struggled with the capital punishment for most of its history.…

For most, 1968 would feel like the United States was coming apart at the seams: The Tet offensive in Vietnam, wild political conventions and assassinations: First King then Senator Robert Kennedy. Both great men would have ties to Kansas in 1968. Kennedy, as we talked about on a previous Archiver, gave his first speech in Kansas after he announced …

Kansas hasn’t produced the number of presidents and presidential candidates as Virginia or New York but Kansans, both famous and obscure, have played an important role. We’ve had a war hero, a millionaire, a prohibitionist and a communist run for president. We’ll talk about all of them, but we will focus on the 1996 Bob Dole campaign against Bill C…

In 1936 the federal government released a film. They called it a documentary, but it was mostly propaganda. Many would argue that its cause was noble rather than sinister. Others, as we’ll see, would vehemently disagree. But to understand why the federal government got into the propaganda film business.…

After the floods of 1951, a small valley in Kansas finds itself "invaded" when the Army Corps of Engineers decides to build a dam.By Archiver

We take it as a matter of fact now that sports are big business. Professional sports are a huge business, but almost all the rest are at at least big. College coaches make millions of dollars for coaching and millions more for shoe endorsements, TV, and camps. But it wasn’t always this way. We were reminded of that by a recently discovered radio br…