Before the mouse, long before the Magic Kingdom, the cradle of the Golden Age of Animation was launched in Kansas City. The Laugh-O-grams studio was home to what would become the biggest names in animation. How was it that Kansas City, if only briefly, was the home of the masterminds of cartooning?
The Ozark Mountains are dotted with odd-looking houses built during the Great Depression. When I was a kid, they served as a reminder of our “hillbilly” past and, compared to the new fangled pre-fab homes, they were out of date. It wasn’t until a handful of them came on the chopping block in my hometown that I learned a valuable lesson about these homes and what they told us about those that built them.
Spring thundershowers make for a bad recording environment, but I took that opportunity to record a chat to my listeners. We chat about how the show came to be and where we’re going with it.
There’s a lot of talk about vaccines these days. There was another time in our history the rush to vaccinate the populace was being undertaken – this time against the scourge of polio. The Nationwide effort began in a tiny community in Flyover Country, the aptly named Protection, Kansas.
A childhood interest in how arrowheads were made blossomed into the mastery of the almost lost art of flint knapping for Vyrl Keeter. His pursuit of the craft led to his designation as a Cherokee National Treasure. In this episode, Vyrl discusses all things knapping and gives a little advice along the way.
